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02 September 2010

THE CHRON'S CHRIS MORAN reports on the dueling press conferences held last week by Houston Votes, a Democratic-dominated get-out-the-vote nonprofit*, and True the Vote, a voting integrity project of a local Tea Party organization. Bottom line: Nothing all that newsworthy emerged from either press conference.

Indeed, the most damning data points in the story emerged on the day the story originally broke: The documents posted by voter registrar Leo Vasquez in support of his criticism of the Houston Votes registration efforts, and the admission by Sean Caddie (the lead "organizer" of the registration effort) when presented with some of the documents in question that yes, it does look like voter fraud (about 1:20 or so into this video).

The predictable hyperventilating about racism, voter suppression, and partisanship (!) from various Dem partybloggers in town has been more entertaining than the subsequent press conferences. By far!

BLOGVERSATION: Harris County Almanac.

* Readers of John Thornton's Texas Tribune would surely be shocked at that description, given that publication's previous cheerleading for the group and subsequent silence (UPDATE: Moran's story actually made their "brief" today. Still no update of their own on Houston Votes, however).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/10 09:00 AM | Comments (1)

31 August 2010

THE BOND BUYER trade publication has an update on the Sports Authority's debt problems: Texas Sports Agency Flirting With Default.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/31/10 08:20 AM | Comments (1)

30 August 2010

NEARLY TWO WEEKS after the Examiner's Michael Reed reported on METRO's deteriorating financial situation after analyzing June/July 2010 financial information, METRO's PR wing at the Chronicle concedes today that METRO's (and, by extension, the Chron's) previously "sunny outlook" has now been "replaced by warnings of fragile finances."

Last Friday, Paul Knight revisited one aspect of METRO's financial mismanagement under the Bill White era management team: The questionable process by which Frank Wilson consummated a $118 million deal with Spanish rail-car vendor CAF.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/10 07:50 AM | Comments (4)

27 August 2010

FOLLOWING ON THE ALLEGATIONS OF VOTER FRAUD from Harris County officials on Tuesday, two related press conferences are scheduled today.

Houston Votes has finally scheduled a press conference. Preliminary indications suggest the press conference will consist of accusations "of partisanship against Republicans from a group that claims to be 'non-partisan.'" Their presser will take place at 10:30 am at 715 Franklin.

King Street Patriots/True the Vote, the organization that called attention to the irregularities in the applications submitted by Houston Votes, has called a press conference of their own, apparently in response. Their presser will take place at 11:00 am at 220 Main St.

Since we know journos occasionally read the blog, here's your chance to help 'em out: What questions would YOU like them to ask these organizations?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/27/10 07:59 AM | Comments (3)

26 August 2010

TOM KIRKENDALL notes that Moody's has further downgraded the junk-bond debt of the Houston Sports Authority:

“Moody’s believes the liquidity reserves are sufficient to cover the November 2010 payment, but their depletion may result in a payment default from pledged revenues as early as March of 2011,” the report said.

[snip]

J. Kent Friedman, board chairman for the Sports Authority, downplayed the report.

Of course he did.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/10 10:27 PM | Comments (1)

IN HIS LATEST OP-ED, BILL KING asks a question that will be familiar to our readers:

If nearly every other major city has decided not to build their rail systems in the middle of their streets, why are we?

Indeed.

King doesn't have space even to get into the traffic jams that will result from METRO's at-grade tram plans for the Galleria and Downtown, which we also have discussed.

UPDATE: It is worth linking to this presentation King put together on problems with METRO's LRT plans.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/10 08:24 AM | Comments (4)

KTRK-13 UNDERCOVER MAN WAYNE DOLCEFINO is back with another look at Councilmember Jarvis Johnson.

It seems Councilmember Johnson has been soliciting city contractors for donations to a favored charity. Interestingly, as Dolcefino reports, Councilmember Johnson received over $50,000 from that charity for consulting last year.

Councilmember Johnson still isn't talking to the Undercover Man on camera. And for whatever reason, KTRK-13 is making it very difficult to find the Undercover Man's stories on their website/RSS feed of late.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/10 08:16 AM | Comments (3)

THE CHRON EDITORIAL BOARD has finally penned a lede with which we agree completely:

Here in the depths of a Houston August, we sometimes suspect that the heat has melted our brain.

We frequently have that feeling when reading these sorts of editorials and wondering how they ever made it into a major American newspaper.

Since they admit to a brain disorder, there's really no reason the management shouldn't reclaim the column space/resources and redirect them to local news coverage.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/26/10 08:04 AM | Comments (0)

25 August 2010

BH FAV TOM KIRKENDALL frequently comments on the TSA's Security Theater, the agency's intrusive, inconvenient, and sometimes ineffectual rituals designed to make someone (Pols? Largely unskilled screeners? Travelers? It's really not clear) feel better about air travel.

This post from frequent-flyer forum FlyerTalk, in which a traveler was apparently detained and his photographic equipment confiscated by overly zealous TSA and HPD officers at Bush Intercontinental Airport, is yet another data point in the ongoing absurdity that is TSA Security Theater.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/10 10:40 PM | Comments (2)

HAIR BALLS posts about the arrest of Dr. Michael "Hand Center" Brown, who seems to have had some serious issues with spousal abuse over the years.

As Hair Balls notes, however, that's not been a disqualifier for fabulous treatment from Houston society writer Shelby Hodge.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/10 10:11 PM | Comments (7)

TORY GATTIS takes a look at Houston's Wave jitney service, which is flourishing.

It's nice to see the market responding to shortcomings in the area's transit coverage.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/10 10:00 PM | Comments (0)

THE WEST U EXAMINER reports that West U's council is functioning somewhat normally again, after a spat between Mayor Bob Kelly and Councilman George Boehme.

Several weeks ago, Boehme apparently took umbrage at the mayor's criticism of his pursuit of city concessionaire business, pledging not to seek it in the future. Frankly, Boehme should have given it up when he became an elected official, so at least the childish antics eventually led to something positive.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/10 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

24 August 2010

A FEW WEEKS AGO, TEXAS TRIBUNE led the cheers for Houston Votes, which it characterized as a "nonpartisan" voter registration group targeting the Houston area. Of course, our cursory search indicated the board of the "nonpartisan" group was composed exclusively of Progressive/Democratic activists and donors, even though such a review apparently eluded the Texas Tribune reporter and editing staff.

Today, as Texas Watchdog reports, the Harris County Voter Registrar Leo Vasquez accused the group of voter fraud:

“The integrity of the voting rolls in Harris County, Texas, appears to be under an organized and systematic attack by the group operating under the name Houston Votes,” Vasquez said at a 2 p.m. press conference at his office, where he also released copies of applications in some of the most egregious cases.

[snip]

“Evidence shows that the Houston Votes and Texans Together organization are conspiring on a pattern of falsification of government documents, supporting perjury in a deliberate effort to overburden our processing system," he said.

Vasquez compared the group to ACORN, another disgraced progressive organization.

Texas Watchdog has posted supporting documents from Vazquez's office on their website.

UPDATE: Texas Watchdog posts more details here.

UPDATE (08/26/2010): Predictably, some of the lefty partybloggers who were touting Houston Votes have all weighed in with angry outbursts.... mainly about racist Republicans. When you got nothing, cry RACISM RACISM?! That dog has just about stopped hunting.

John Thornton's Texas Tribune still has not provided an update to that embarrassingly bad puff piece they ran a few weeks ago.

RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KUHF-88.7, KIAH-39, Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/10 08:16 PM | Comments (3)

THE EXAMINER'S MICHAEL REED reports that METRO's liquidity ratio -- a key measure of an organization's ability to pay short-term debt -- has dropped to its worst level in five years (0.86 to 1).

The federal government prefers that agencies have at least a 1 to 1 ratio. In typical government-speak, METRO insists its ratio would look better if only the federal government would give it more money!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/10 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

METRO'S DANGER TRAIN apparently had another fender bender today.

We should build more at-grade rail!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/10 07:46 PM | Comments (0)

KUHF-88.7 reports that the City of Houston has certified the anti-red-light-camera petition, and that Council today approved putting the question on the ballot this fall.

It will be nice for voters finally to have a say on the matter (which won't necessarily please some members of Houston's ruling class).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/10 07:42 PM | Comments (8)

23 August 2010

SLAMPO returns from hiatus to comment on Dumb Justice (the kind found on the Chron sports pages) and KTRU.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/10 04:50 PM | Comments (0)

MARK BENNETT posts about some recent backtracking by HPD's police chief.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/10 04:47 PM | Comments (0)

METRO'S EXPENSIVE BLOGGER touted the organization's latest service "adjustments" over the weekend:

This Sunday, METRO is changing some of its bus service to improve reliability and efficiency.

These changes include adjusting trip times, adding service or eliminating trips to match ridership. No entire route will be discontinued.

TRANSLATION: We're broke, can hardly afford the tram we have let alone the additional lines we're trying to build, and so we're cutting bus service where we can to save a few pennies. Have a nice day!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/10 04:40 PM | Comments (1)

THE CHRON broke a nice story over the weekend on state legislators' "double-dipping" when it comes to reimbursements from campaign accounts and the state per diem.

Well, the Chron didn't exactly break it (that's watchdog journalism, after all) -- the Chron reported on a watchdog group that did the work. Several Houston-area legislators got the treatment.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/10 04:36 PM | Comments (0)

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Update on the dueling vote fraud press conferences

METRO is broke (cont'd)

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