31 May 2005

Pithy thoughts on "olds"

I rolled back into town last night from nearly a week of camping, and am pleased to see that Anne's held down the fort wonderfully.

Indeed, her radio appearance was so good I might well be out of a regular gig! If you missed it, scroll down the right sidebar and click on the two segments. (Warning: the mp3 files are several megabytes each).

Following are some quick thoughts on stories I missed and am just now catching up on (some of which Anne has already posted about). I'll stick it under the [Read More] button for those who aren't interested in my random thoughts on what is now "olds."

What's your favorite thing to do in Houston?

Sedosi points us to Ken Hoffman's column today about the convention and visitors bureau efforts to promote Houston locally, including a contest:

To enter the convention and visitors bureau contest, go to www.visithoustontexas.com, click on Houston 365 and tell them, "My favorite thing to do in Houston is ... "

Each week, the Web site will feature a "prominent" Houstonian saying what he or she likes most about our city. Mayor Bill White was first up. He "loves to go biking in Memorial Park."

You never get towed on a bicycle.

Hahaha! That's funny!

After the mayor, I'm the next Houstonian on the Web site. It's really a tricky question: What's my favorite thing about Houston?

Go read the column to find out what his favorite thing is.

And let's steal Sedosi's idea:

So, this leads us to the BIG question of the day:

What is your favorite thing to do in Houston?

Mine is to play Danger Train Intersection Bingo.

It might be hard to top that one, but let's give it a try. What's your favorite thing to do in Houston?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/31/05 04:46 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (11)

Metro is bleeding riders AND revenue

Through a Texas Public Information Act request, Tom Bazan received Metro's bus and tram boardings data, along with fare box revenue data, collected for FY2005 to the present.

You are advised to sit down before reading further:

-- Fare box revenue for March 2005 was $2.2 million. Fare box revenue for March 2004 was $4.5 million. (oh my)

-- March 2005 revenue was the highest so far this year. We can speculate that was due to Rodeo light rail usage.

-- Remember when Metro reported one million light rail riders for March? Eh, Metro didn't share that total system ridership in March was a bit over 8 million riders, a decline of 3.3 percent from March 2004 (8.3 million riders, system-wide). March 2005 bus ridership declined more than nine percent, compared to March 2004.

-- Ridership in April 2005 declined three percent (system-wide) compared to April 2004, with bus ridership declining almost 10 percent.

Some points to keep in mind:

-- This weekend Metro instituted further bus route cuts and changes.

-- Metro is spending $250,000 to figure out why its ridership keeps declining.

-- Metro wants to spend $58 million for fifteen new light rail cars.

That's what taxpayers get with an unaccountable, quasi-governmental entity. And we have yet another example of why these agencies should have citizen oversight, citizen-appointed boards, and be required to return to voters periodically for funding.

I wonder what Mayor White thinks of Metro's performance?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/31/05 10:12 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (17)

A fictional op-ed?

In Sunday's Outlook section, the Chronicle ran an op-ed by John Eudy, described as a writer living in Houston:

SIXTY years ago today, a north Houston boy born in Madisonville, Texas, was crawling across the slate roof of the Reichstag building in the heart of Berlin. Nazi snipers tried to pick him off , before he reached his objective. Twenty of his own buddies were laying down enfilading fire that kept them from stopping PrivatePvt. R.C. Woods, Bobby to his friends, from reaching his goal.

A flag can was the symbolize all that can be is good and right about a nation, but in the case of Germany it had become the international sign of all that is evil and bloody about a nation: the Nazi flag.

Bobby Woods wanted that flag, and he wanted if off the towering flag pole as his personal statement that World War II was over. He wanted it as a souvenir that indicated democracy had triumphed over the pure evil of a nation and a people besotted and enthralled by their leader — Adolf Hitler.

Experts from the Antiques Road Show program tell me that this is no ordinary Nazi flag — of which there are hundreds of original examples. No! This was the ultimate symbol of the threat that almost conquered the world. It was a piece of cloth that waved and flapped over the government that spawned the worst regime of propaganda, genocide, mass murder and grandiose plans for a perverted world order ever seen by the modern world.

It didn't take long for the commenters at Lucianne to do their own fact-checking:

Funny I thought hostilities in all of Germany had ended May 8, 1945 and that the Russians had captured berlin alone on May 2, 1945

So how is this American soldier in the russian zone being shot at by nazi snipers on may 28, 1945 when the war was already over and it wasn't an american zone?

It sounds like there was ZERO fact checking done on this article

[snip]

http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/ww2.htm

May 2, 1945 - Soviet forces occupy Berlin.

May 6, 1945 - Adm. Doenitz surrenders Germany to Brits and the Allies.

Can the Chronicle not be connected to the internet? Or is it simply too much trouble to fact-check before publishing a story?

via Florida Cracker who says, "You'll find this article right next to the one on high self-esteem being no substitute for study." And she's right!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/31/05 07:38 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)

Mayor White's success in Austin

Kristen Mack has a wrap-up story of how Harris County and the city of Houston did during the just-ended legislature session:

The city of Houston got off to a rocky start, with Whitmire threatening to kill Mayor Bill White's marquee traffic initiative, the Safe Clear mandatory freeway towing program. But the two brokered a deal to save Safe Clear.

The city fended off several attempts at gutting its plan for using cameras to catch red light violators. Houstonians can expect to see cameras at 50 intersections with the highest accident rates by this fall.

White also wanted to close late-night clubs after 2 a.m. He didn't succeed, but a Moreno bill tightening regulations against after-hours liquor sales was passed in his honor.

"The city started out the session thinking they could roll over us and get whatever they wanted," said Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston. "They realized that wasn't going to work. They became a lot more cooperative as the session went on."

We saw that in action: Mayor White made peace with Sen. Whitmire and voila! We have the new and "improved" SAFEclear and soon we'll have red light cameras. Houstonians can rejoice at how much safer their lives will be. (It's not about revenue, it's not about revenue, it's not about revenue...)

A perennial measure that would remove the Houston mayor's effective control over the Metropolitan Transit Authority by changing the makeup of its board died quietly near the end of the session.

Probably many of you already knew that. I didn't and it took me aback. Does that mean we should hold Mayor White accountable, also, for all the "improvements" made to bus routes? If he chose to speak up, could he convince Metro to quit cutting the only transportation lifeline some area residents have?

Then Mack highlights one Houston victory that we didn't hear about until now:

The city had some quiet but huge victories, according to White.

"We could not advertise what our strategy was on all of our priorities," he said, because lawmakers whose bills the city opposed were trying to find city of Houston legislation they could kill. Among the below-the-radar successes, he said, was legislation to increase the city's authority over tax increment reinvestment zones to make sure they pay their fair share for all services.

Here's the city's explanation page on Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones.

And remember how the mayor was criticized for his lobbying team? He feels vindicated:

White praised the city's lobby team, led by his director of Government Affairs, Ann Travis, even though before the session he said the city's best lobbyists were the mayor and city council members.

"We adopted a set of principles and we accomplished most of it. It wasn't always easy or pretty."

I think it's safe to say the best lobbying done was by the mayor, especially that infamous late-night meeting he had with Sen. Whitmire at the Austin airport which saved SAFEclear. Did the subject of red light cameras come up in that meeting? We shouldn't be surprised if it did, since Whitmire effectively took care of the legislation that would have banned the revenue-generating devices.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/31/05 07:03 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

30 May 2005

Houston funds day labor sites

Yesterday's Chronicle had a story that just boggles the mind:

Yupe, a volunteer at the nearby Our Lady of Guadalupe church, makes it sound simple. But if she and the organizers behind the East End Worker Development Center manage to get their facility off the ground, leaders say, it will be one of the first day-labor sites in the city to actually work.

Despite annual funding from the city of at least $100,000, day-labor centers have had a troubled history in Houston.

[snip]

"We feel very good about what's happening there," said Richard Cantu, head of the mayor's office on citizens services.

The city has pledged $90,000 annually to fund the East End center, in addition to the $100,000 already spent on the Oscar Romero site.

Of course, this relates to priorities:

By year's end, the Houston Police Department will have lost an estimated 740 officers — as many as the city of Orlando employs — to retirement in a two-year period.

For comparison purposes, in 2003 the department lost 138 officers through retirement, resignation, termination or death.

And there may not be enough money available in the next two fiscal years to train replacements for even half the officers the department is losing. Or to hire the 1,000-plus civilians the department is missing.

$100,000 here; $90,000 there. But even if we don't have enough police officers, at least we'll have some city-funded day-labor sites.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/30/05 12:55 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)

Dwight Silverman's Random Radio

Dwight Silverman had an idea called Random Radio and KPFT-90.1 is taking him up on it. The only downside is it will be at 4 a.m.:

Looks like I'll be the first KPFT listener to plug a digital music player into the station's mixing board for Random Radio.

Program Director Ernesto Aguilar is having me and my iPod in for some musical randomness at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning. I've asked him if it's possible to archive the show and if so, I'll link to it.

Dwight adds that you, too, can be a Random Radio personality.

However, I'm not sure what the problem is with commenter Gary. Lighten up, Gar!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/30/05 12:36 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

Move It!, by Rad Sallee

Today we get our first Move It! column by Rad Sallee. He discusses Metro bus drivers who have driven one million miles, accident-free; Trans-Texas Corridor studies; and a recurring pothole in the Montrose area.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/30/05 11:47 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

A breaking news editorial?

Two days ago, the Chronicle reported, very fairly I thought, about the decision of HISD administrator Margaret Stroud to retire after the results of an HISD investigation into her son's employment with the district. She will repay the salary he was paid and the investigation has been forwarded to the DA for any further consideration.

At this point I want to add that it is not uncommon in public education circles for a situation like this to be hushed up, with the offender either being promoted or retired -- with a handsome severance package. That did not happen in this case. Stroud is retiring and will make restitution.

Today a Chronicle editorial blames Dr. Saavedra for being too lenient:

Despite documented wrongdoing, Saavedra allowed Stroud the course of retiring with no penalty other than returning the money her son had been paid. That is a generous response to "critical lapses of judgment" that undermined the district's integrity and directed tax dollars to an unqualified family member. Saavedra noted that HISD's findings will be turned over to the Harris County district attorney's office for review.

I would be curious to know what the Chronicle's editorial board thinks Dr. Saavedra should have done. Stroud's retiring and repaying the money. The investigation's findings are being forwarded to the DA. Dr. Saavedra doesn't have the power to put her in jail, and I doubt seriously he has the power to punish her financially any more than the restitution.

What does the Chronicle think should have happened?

Also, I think the editorial writer makes quite a few assumptions that weren't reported in the story. The editorial is written so that readers think Stroud initiated the contracts, knew about the funding arrangements and approved everything. That's not what was reported in Jason Spencer's story, and in fact, the interpretation I took from Spencer's story is that Stroud's lack of oversight which led to this situation was one of the problems. Is this editorial breaking some news that Spencer didn't report?

And then the very last paragraph made me laugh-out-loud:

Houstonians must hope that Saavedra will soon be able to initiate solutions to festering HISD problems before they become front page headlines.

Actually that should be reworded a bit, because it's the front page headlines that have been known to lead to problems with HISD-initiated solutions.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/30/05 11:36 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

29 May 2005

Harris County late with 300,000 property tax appraisals

The deadline to protest a property tax appraisal is Tuesday, but according to KHOU-11, hundreds of thousands of Harris County homeowners still haven't received an appraisal:

When it comes to notifying homeowners about 2005 appraisals, the Harris County Appraisal District is barely in the game.

With the deadline looming to file tax protests 300,000 homeowners don't even know what their property is worth.

"It shouldn't take that long. They don't want to wait to get their tax money though," says homeowner Cindy Wolters.

11 News has learned that appraisers are looking at every piece of property in Harris County. That is more than a 1.5 million homes and businesses.

"We're working very hard to get it all done. We hope to have the bulk of the noticing done within the next two weeks," says HCAD Chief Deputy Sands Stiefer.

Stiefer says homes in areas that overlap into other counties or with school districts based in other counties, will be among the last to be appraised.

But don't worry about filing a protest after the May 31st deadline.

"Your notice is going to have a new protest deadline. It usually rolls over 30 days from the day we mail it," says Stiefer.

We've learned the Harris County Appraisal District has done enough of the math to determine the average increase this year will be about eight percent.

The average increase is eight percent. That's more than the rate of inflation, and more than most people get in a yearly pay increase. But the government machine must be fed, no matter what.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/29/05 08:41 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

Let ttweak handle the next Super Bowl bid

Ken Hoffman has an interesting observation regarding Houston's loss of the 2009 Super Bowl:

The thing I wonder about is, whenever Houston goes after a major event, we send the same tired group of people to represent us. I've never seen a group less representative of Houston. This is a vibrant, 21st-century, diverse, on-the-move city. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans left town years ago.

If I were an NFL team owner, and the Houston contingent came to my door, I'd put a piece of candy in their bag and send them away.

Chris Baker echoed a similar sentiment last week -- that Houston is still seen as a city filled with rednecks. Maybe the ttweak people should handle the next Houston bid.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/29/05 11:38 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

A look at the intersection of Main and Jefferson

The Chronicle reported a couple of days ago that the man killed recently by a MetroRail train was not legally impaired.

Also, Don Gallagher -- who moderates the Houston-MET Yahoo group -- visited the intersection where the fatal accident occurred and sent out his observations:

The entire time from when a green light starts to turn yellow until the trolley car gets a vertical bar (go signal) is 4.75 seconds. The light is yellow for approximately 3 seconds of that time. The "all red" interval is perhaps 1 second tops if that.

The key point here is that the trolley driver CANNOT see any cars approaching the intersection and the cars CANNOT see any trains traveling South (North ones can be seen easily) due to a one story building built close to Main Street.

In addition, the signal lights are all sychronized on Jefferson (all
turn green together....EXCEPT for the Travis Street light which is
still an old signal unit. Travis is the street prior to Main for those traveling East on Jefferson. This simple mistake creates a potential frustration level for drivers who are used to controlled traffic flow. The Travis light turns green and one suddenly sees Main go yellow.

Forgetting that mistake (which adds to the potential for accidents,
the building blocking views, the fact that there is no signage warning about trains and the over head wires looking simply like electric or telephone lines AND a very short signal timing leads to a deadly situation.

Who is at fault? The designers and those who oversee the construction. Metro has frequently commented that they were changing the signals to a 10 second interval with all directions red. This is not true at MANY of the intersections I passed through.

[snip]

[T]he time for the driver to even see the train is perhaps 1 second or less and so it is impossible to stop. He had ZERO time to make any corrections from the time he would have seen the train, even if he were looking to that direction (his left).

I checked John Gaver's site and he lists two accidents last year at Main and Jefferson (10/22 and 12/15), then the fatality on May 10, and another accident at that intersection on May 13, with four injuries.

RELATED: Metro sees nothing wrong with dangerous intersection (blogHOUSTON),

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/29/05 10:49 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

28 May 2005

HISD official out after investigation into son's employment

An internal HISD investigation, prompted by a Chronicle inquiry, has sent a top HISD official packing:

The Houston school district's chief school administrator agreed Friday to retire and repay the $63,000 her son was paid for consulting work that an HISD investigation has found violated state laws and district policies.

Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said in a written statement that Margaret Stroud "made critical errors in judgment in this case, and she will be held accountable."

All the evidence in the case will be turned over to Harris County prosecutors for possible criminal investigation, he said.

The school district's inquiry into Stroud and the contracts awarded her son, Darren Fulton, began three weeks ago after the Houston Chronicle requested information on the arrangement.

On Friday, Inspector General Robert Moore released his 34-page report that details the efforts to get Fulton on the Houston Independent School District payroll despite his criminal record and policies intended to stop administrators from giving jobs to their relatives.

The findings also are prompting a call from Saavedra for more oversight of outside vendors and the HISD employees who sign off on their checks.

Stroud, 58, had been responsible for running all of HISD's 304 campuses and earned $158,000 annually. She came to the district as a sixth-grade teacher in 1968 and had been mentioned last year as a candidate for superintendent after Kaye Stripling's retirement.

Stroud accepted Saavedra's retirement and restitution offer after seeing the investigation report, he said.

Good for the Chronicle, asking questions about the employment arrangement and good for HISD, responding in a very straightforward and firm way to the investigation's findings.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/28/05 02:47 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Customers should double-check utility meter reading

KHOU-11 decided to check out how accurate utility meter reading is:

Sanford Dow is one of thousands of customers who feel they've been ripped off.

Dow explains that the water bill was outrageously high, as if someone was making it all up. "Yeah, that's what it certainly appeared to me."

What 11 News found was when it comes to you, the residential customer you are on your own. Nobody's independently checking to see if your utility meters work, or if the utility companies are doing an accurate job reading them and billing you.

Patricia Dolese says it's the consumer's responsibility to check.

Dolese used to handle customer complaints for the Texas Public Utility Commission.

The PUC regulates how much electric companies like Reliant charge, but has no systematic way of checking or auditing a company's metering and billing.

Centerpoint Energy says it does have an auditing arm -- its customers:

"We read 3 million meters a month," says James Sheppard of CenterPoint Energy.

CenterPoint Energy says its meter-reading is nearly 100 percent accurate.

"I don't think there's widespread inaccurate billing, no," says Sheppard.

But how do they know?

"I think we have 3 million customers that audit a month," says Sheppard.

So then is it really up to the customer to make sure that the bill seems to reflect accurately what they used?

"Sure, and I'm one of those customers," says Sheppard.

The story also says that big customers, such as HISD for example, hire consultants to check meter readings. HISD says it now saves $1 million per year by checking utility bills.

A staffer in Councilman Michael Berry's office went out and read some meters, compared the readings to previous bills and discovered discrepancies.

As for the gentleman at the beginning of the story with the disputed water bill, he gave up and paid it:

Sanford Dow says he fought with the water department, but finally gave up and paid a $1,300 bill.

"I figured I needed to shower every day and move on with my life," he says.

$1,300! Apparently, you really can't fight city hall.

RELATED: Houston's tricky water billing method (blogHOUSTON)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/28/05 08:02 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

An odd omission in Chron editorial

I have two questions regarding today's Chronicle editorial titled, "BETTER PROBATION: Governor should sign bill to keep dangerous criminals behind bars and help others go straight":

While partisan bickering prevails in Washington, a measure of bipartisanship survives at the Texas Capitol. HB 2193 was written by three Republican representatives and two Democrats, including Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, sponsored the bill in the Senate.

Who are the three Republican representatives who helped write the bill? Why are only the Democrats named?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/28/05 07:42 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

27 May 2005

Saturday morning BizRadio

Since Kevin decided to go away for the long weekend (very long, you poor readers), Saturday morning's BizRadio (1320 AM) show will have to make do with me, along with Charles Kuffner.

I have already made arrangements for my kids to be gone, because it never fails that the minute I get on the phone, all sorts of crises erupt.

Tune in, if you're able, to hear what topics pop up for discussion.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/27/05 08:00 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

Summer reading?

Here's the link to Mayor White's proposed 2006 city budget.

And here's the link to Metro's FY2004 Annual Report, including Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). You have to skip to Page 16 to begin reading the good stuff. What immediately jumps out is the increase in sales tax revenues and the decrease in fare revenues which Metro attributes to declining bus ridership (strange, how did THAT happen?). Also Metro says the higher sales tax revenues are due to Houston's economic recovery, but says the accompanying job growth has not been significant enough to have a positive impact on ridership.

Uh huh. That's because Metro's transit offerings have become so woefully inadequate that people won't even consider the public transportation option.

But Metro has given Houston 7.5 miles of downtown light rail. You just have to get yourself downtown to use it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/27/05 11:15 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

Maybe this is why we need red light camera revenue

The city of Houston is expected to lose $2 million next year due to diminishing telephone landline franchise fees. More and more people are ending traditional phone service and relying only on cellphones, and that is costing the city millions of dollars, according to this KHOU-11 story:

So many cell phone users are simply dropping their landlines that it's causing problems at Houston City Hall. Unlike for landlines, the city does not collect franchise fees on each and every cell phone.

Houston's budget anticipates phone franchise fees to drop about $2 million next fiscal year. But has Houston really lost that many landlines to wireless phones?

"Frankly, I'm very suspicious," said Mayor Bill White. "I haven't been able to get a straight answer from SW, you know, Southwest Bell, SBC, in particular, why they've been paying less and less every year. And I don't think it's right."

SBC responds it "accurately reports access lines totals to the city, as required by law..." and that the fees "…are paid by customers through charges on their bills. SBC simply passes the fees through to the city. SBC does not profit from them."

It's a good thing we'll have red light camera revenue soon, not to mention that newly enacted fine for pocket motorcycles.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/27/05 08:18 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (13)

26 May 2005

Chron adds local music blog

The Chronicle is adding blogs at a fast and furious pace. The newest one, HandStamp, will focus on the local music scene:

Welcome to HandStamp, a new blog dedicated to Houston's local music scene. Writers Sara Cress and Joey Guerra, whose bylines you'll recognize from our local bands page, will use this space to report on the local music scene. Enjoy, and be sure to use the comments area to agree, disagree or just offer random thoughts. They like those.

Okay all you music aficionados, bookmark it and comment away!

KEVIN WHITED (BELATEDLY) ADDS: This is potentially the best blog Chron.com (which I now think of as a slightly different entity from the newspaper proper) has added yet. No offense to the other bloggers and their subjects, but the local music scene was REALLY underrepresented in local blogging. So far as I know, Houston Calling was the only blog devoted to it previously (and those two blogs should really share links and content a bit more, because part of what makes a good blog is the sharing of information and links).

Chron.com's investment in a local music blog leverages talent that is already working that subject for the newspaper AND provides Chron.com content that won't fit in the print version. Houston music fans and Chron.com benefit.

It's amusing that Chron.com has beaten the allegedly "alternative" Houston Press to an online music blog. The Press just looks more tired every day.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/26/05 08:41 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (7)

HISD students beat national average on Stanford 10 test

HISD received some good news with the results of the Stanford 10 test:

More than 165,000 HISD students in grades 1 through 11 took the Stanford 10 test or its Spanish-language equivalent, the Aprenda, and they did better nearly across the board than most students around the country.

[snip]

HISD students not in Special Education at five grade levels-third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, seventh grade, and eleventh grade-beat that national average midrange ranking of 50 in all subject areas tested on the Stanford. In addition, first- and second-graders at HISD beat the national average in all but one of the subjects, and HISD eighth- and tenth-graders beat the national average in most subjects.

On average, HISD grade levels improved or at least held steady in their overall scores on the Stanford test this year compared to last year. For example, in reading, the scores for HISD students across six grade levels improved, while two grades held steady. In math, four grade levels improved their scores, while four grade levels held steady. More HISD grade levels made progress this year on their Stanford scores than declined.

For Spanish-speaking students at HISD, the news is even better: HISD’s scores on the Spanish-language Aprenda soared far above the national average in most cases.

I have said before that HISD is one of the nation's better large urban districts. That's not to say HISD doesn't have challenges; we are all well aware of HISD's shortcomings, but this is an outstanding achievement for HISD teachers, students and parents.

And I sincerely hope Jason Spencer can find the good in this news. It would be nice to end the school year on an upbeat note.

UPDATE: Here's Jason Spencer's story. It's not quite as negative as I was expecting, but he does seek to compare the Stanford results to TAKS results. Whatever.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/26/05 08:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

May sweeps spinning shall begin (updated)

Now that May sweeps has ended, Laurence Simon predicts how our local stations will spin the results.

UPDATE: Laurence points out that the Chronicle's Mike McDaniel has a story in today's paper and notes that there is indeed a fair amount of spinning going on.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/26/05 07:50 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

Wading through Grand Parkway spin

Last night's Grand Parkway meeting was informative, spin-filled and fairly well-attended.

Chron's story on Grand Parkway meeting

I was able to attend the Grand Parkway meeting last night and I'll get a post written up later today. For now, though, here's the Chronicle's story, by Kim Jackson:

State transportation officials assured Spring-area residents Wednesday night that TxDOT, and not the Harris County Toll Road Authority, is overseeing a project that would run through the rapidly developing north Harris County suburb.

[snip]

Residents are concerned that, if the project is turned over to the toll road authority, they would not have an opportunity to make public comments on the environmental and social impacts the chosen route would have on neighborhoods.

"We are looking at (the toll road authority) as a potential funding partner," Trietsch said. "We will select that route with the least amount of impacts. There are no routes available, however, that have zero impacts."

It was great to see this in today's "City & State" section, since I was expecting a story to appear in next week's "This Week" section. It's nice to be wrong!

KTRK-13 has a small blurb on the concerns of residents and KRIV-26 had a camera crew at the meeting. I have no idea if anything ran on KRIV last night since I was still at the meeting.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/26/05 08:32 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (18)

25 May 2005

Take the rest of the day off

Laurence Simon had an eventful end to his lunch today. Just go read it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/25/05 02:46 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)

No Super Bowl for Houston

But, but...we've got light rail. We've got empty downtown hotels. What about our new Central Park? We've worked so hard on our world-classness -- what happened?

Here's the local coverage: the Chronicle, KHOU-11, KTRK-13 and KPRC-2,

Oh, and Sedosi Alhambra is relieved. This made me laugh.

UPDATE: A reader suggests that I left out a couple of Houston amenities that contribute greatly to our world-classness: the George R. Brown Convention Center and our fancy new downtown parking meters that, uh, require babysitters.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/25/05 02:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Grand Parkway meeting tonight

Tonight, Spring/Tomball residents have an opportunity to meet and hear from officials regarding the Grand Parkway:

Please join us for a Town Hall meeting
to address current developments with the Grand Parkway through Spring and the Tomball area (I-45 to FM 249):

Klein Collins High School Auditorium
20811 Ella Blvd., Spring, TX. 77388

May 25, 2005, 7:00 P.M.

And this is from Kim Jackson's Chronicle story last week:

Several Harris County and TxDOT officials said they plan to attend the meeting and address residents' concerns.

"Since there is confusion about the status and future of the proposed Grand Parkway, I agree that a public update is a good idea and will attend ... " said Art Storey, executive director of the Harris County's Public Infrastructure Department, in an e-mail sent to the Spring coalition and the Houston Chronicle.

Storey said he would clarify several points at the meeting, including the fact that the Grand Parkway project is under TxDOT's jurisdiction, and the state, not Harris County, would decide " ... when, whether, where, and by whom that facility will be constructed ... ."

"The current role of the Harris County Toll Road Authority is to evaluate, in response to TxDOT's invitation, whether we would propose to be TxDOT's implementing partner for construction and operation of that highway as a toll road," Storey said.

Storey said Mike Strech, Harris County Toll Road Authority director, or his representative, also would be at the meeting to show residents the particular route or routes the toll road authority is studying and how those routes relate to TxDOT's study.

David Gornet, executive director of the Grand Parkway Association, said his message at the meeting would be that the association continues work on a supplemental environmental study on the F-2 segment.

I am trying to attend the meeting, depending on how child care works itself out.

And a big thank you to Charles Kuffner for also posting on this.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/25/05 09:07 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

Mayor White, Houston savior

Mayor White will be using this in his next campaign:

Mayor Bill White owes his election in a landslide nearly two years ago to his image as a successful corporate executive who could sort out the city's tangled finances. In reaching agreement with firefighter union negotiators on a new employment contract, the mayor has nearly completed a series of arduous challenges that will fulfill his principal campaign promises.

What follows is a glowing laundry list of the mayor's achievements, with nary a negative word to be found.

Mayor White is SWELL!

Uh huh. It's useful to remember that the Chronicle's editorial board endorsed former Mayor Lee P. Brown again and again.

And Sedosi Alhambra says this editorial doesn't pass the smell test.

RELATED: Mayor White's been checking things off his to-do list (blogHOUSTON)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/25/05 08:49 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)

Houston needs to focus on the right quality-of-life issues

Tory Gattis of Houston Strategies highlights Joel Kotkin's new work, " Urban Legends: Cities Aren't Doing As Well As You Think":

Cities must return to a progressive focus on fixing their real problems--that is, the problems of the majority of the people who live there--not serving the interests of artists, hipsters, and their wealthy patrons. Right now school reform is often hostage to the power of teachers' unions. City budgets, which could be applied to improving economic infrastructure, are frequently bloated by, among other things, excessive public sector employment and overgenerous pensions. In the contest for the remaining public funds, the knitted interests of downtown property holders, arts foundations, sports promoters, and nightclub owners often overwhelm those of more conventional small businesses and family-oriented neighborhoods that could serve as havens for the middle class.

And Tory says:

To be honest, I actually think Houston is doing many of the right things he's talking about. Yeah, we have gotten caught up in some of the glitz: stadiums, convention centers, a hip downtown - but we've also been pretty diligent on improving infrastructure and education.

Actually, we are seeing the local teachers union (assisted by activist groups and the local newspaper) throw up every road block imaginable to Dr. Saavedra's reform ideas for HISD. In the case of Gayle Fallon's group, LULAC and the NAACP, it's not about better education, it's about maintaining power.

As for the other interests Kotkin mentions, Houston has only temporarily "solved" its pension mess by moving it to the Houston Hilton-Americas, which isn't doing so hot; the downtown light rail ($320 million +) has been fueled at least partly by downtown property interests, including Metro's interests; and we have three ritzy new stadiums funded by taxpayers, with the Sports Authority yearning for at least one more.

As one of our commenters so ably put it recently, there are three things that will make a community desirable: good schools, low crime, and low taxes. Houston has many great amenities, but those big three are struggling.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/25/05 08:14 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (32)

Multi-agency task force targets MS-13

I was late checking the "This Week" sections and almost missed this story about Houston's growing nightmare -- MS-13:

"Certainly southwest Houston is not the only part of the city where we have seen gangs, but we have seen an increase, an escalation of gang activity in the southwest part of the city."

The speaker, a Houston FBI agent who asked not to be identified for security reasons, wasn't in the conference room at the bureau's Houston headquarters on T.C. Jester recently. He and other members of a multi-agency gang task force were out in the field on an operation to arrest more members of the Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.

The local FBI bureau and other partnering agencies — the Houston Police Department, Harris County Sheriff's Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons — have achieved success in putting MS-13 members behind bars.

In recent months, the Houston task force has arrested about 20 members of MS-13, mostly Salvadoran immigrants who started the gang in Los Angeles during the 1980s.

[snip]

Southwest Houston — particularly the Fondren, Beechnut and Gulfton areas — has particularly seen an increase in gang activities in recent years, the agent said.

On April 12, the Houston community was rocked when a toddler, Aiden Naquin, was shot to death in what police called a drug-related crime, making him one of about nine Houston residents at the time that were believed to have been killed at the hands of MS-13 members. A 19-year-old Salvadoran has been charged with capital murder in that case.

Law enforcement, meanwhile, has stepped up its reliance on the public to provide information about suspicious activity that may signal criminal gangs, such as MS-13 or others, are operating in their neighborhoods.

Kevin and I had a conversation about this just the other day. We cannot figure out why there hasn't been a well-publicized effort to get the public involved in rooting out MS-13. We know HPD has a manpower shortage; and there's that old saying that the best defense is a good offense. The local citizenry should be encouraged to keep eyes and ears open, to help law enforcement. A fearful public is MS-13's best hope.

And can someone PLEASE explain to me why this story is stuck in a "This Week" section? This should be on the front of "City & State" at the very least.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/25/05 07:03 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

24 May 2005

An early jump on the weekend

I'm getting an early jump on the weekend, away from the internet.

Anne Linehan will be posting while I'm away, and will also be doing the BizRadio1320 show this Saturday, so be sure to tune in!

Here's wishing you all a good Memorial Day weekend in advance. See you on the other side!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/24/05 11:24 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (0)

Mayor White orders investigation into HPD's handling of Halliburton protest

Those oh-so-peaceful Halliburton protesters have convinced Mayor White to ask for an investigation into the possibility that police were a bit rough last week:

What started as a noisy protest outside a shareholders meeting quickly erupted into a confrontation.

Police later said they were trying to clear a sidewalk and a driveway blocked by protesters demonstrating against Halliburton. But protesters complained the cops went out of control.

"But there were some mad cowboys and they were there that day," said one of the demonstrators who spoke to the council Tuesday. "I personally am not going to criticize our officers."

And so they came to City Hall, some to show their bruises.

"He looked me in the eye and then struck me across the face, across the mouth and nose. And then, and then I was just kind of reeling and he hit me across the chest," said another protester, Nicole Matthews.

The heart bleeds. I wouldn't be surprised if the Official Halliburton Protest Manual instructs participants to besiege the next City Council meeting with cries of police brutality, while demanding an investigation.

Here is KHOU-11's original story that includes the video feeds of police confronting protesters.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/05 08:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

Chief Hurtt is leaving a trail of red light cameras

Following up on my red light camera post, a reader passed on an interesting tidbit that is easily verified through Google:

Oxnard, CA was one of the first cities in the nation to utilize red light camera technology, in 1997. Guess who was Oxnard's police chief in 1997?

Yep, Harold Hurtt.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/05 05:56 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

Houston company begins sex offender alert service

Houston-based Scan USA has a new service available:

Scan USA Corp. has launched a service that tracks the movement of registered sex offenders in neighborhoods.

The company's new predator alert feature is available in California, Florida and Texas, and will be phased in nationally during the next eight weeks. The alert is provided to both public safety agencies and citizens free of charge through corporate sponsorships.

Scan USA developed the national predator tracking service as a result of public demand for information, according to George Sharp, chairman of Houston-based Sharp Holding Corp, the parent company of Scan USA.

The tracking of sex offenders led to legislation in Florida and is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Congress following incidents by sex offenders.

"This is public information, but many don't know where to look or rarely take the time to go through the volumes of information available in states' online registries," says Russ Krauss, chief operating officer of Scan USA.

You can sign up online for the free service.

So far, there's no word if the tough, smart LiveJournalist approves or disapproves. Maybe being tracked is an invasion of a predator's privacy. Not that most of us care, of course.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/05 05:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Former HISD dropouts get back on track and graduate

Jason Spencer has written a nice story (it's true!) about HISD's success with students who had previously dropped out:

A 21-year-old mother living in one of Houston's poorest neighborhoods, Claudia Betancourt wasn't thinking about school when she heard a knock at the door last August.

Jobless and unsure of her future, Betancourt cracked the door to see Houston Independent School District Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra and about 20 volunteers waiting.

"The next thing you know, I looked up and my whole street was blocked," Betancourt said.

What would it take, they asked, to get her back in school and off HISD's dropout list?

Promises were made, and by day's end Betancourt was in the Furr High School nurse's office getting the immunization she needed to go back to school.

"One of my teachers helped me get a job at Fiesta," she said. Others lined up daytime childcare for her two young children.

This weekend, Betancourt and 47 other former dropouts coaxed back to school through HISD's Reach out to Dropouts program will get their diplomas. Most of the 291 returning students completed the school year that ends Thursday, Saavedra said.

"Some did, indeed, drop out again. But others stayed," he said. "I can't think of a day when I've been more proud to be superintendent."

Spencer's article also mentions the story of Emmanuel Miranda, who was included in the post I ran over the weekend.

It's wonderful to read a story like this. We don't need bad news all the time; good news is good for the soul!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/05 02:47 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Bush Intercontinental has wi-fi

Hobby Airport already has wi-fi and now Bush Intercontinental has it, too:

Today, the Houston Airport System (HAS) and Sprint (NYSE: FON) announced the availability of Sprint PCS wireless fidelity or “Wi-Fi” access at Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH).

[snip]

Customers will need a Wi-Fi card or mobile device embedded with Wi-Fi technology in order to take advantage of the service. Users are greeted by the Bush Intercontinental portal page that provides a host of free information, including real-time flight information.

RELATED: KHOU-11 coverage

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/05 02:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

Metro should "eat its own dog food" (updated!)

Jay Tea at Wizbang blog has an interesting post:

I once read a book about the development of Windows NT (no, I really don't know why). It introduced me to a wonderful concept, inelegantly named "eating your own dog food." It was a stage of development where the programmers were forced to actually install and run Windows NT on their own computers and use that for work, to see how their efforts work for a user.

I think it's a great idea. It forces people to see just how their efforts work for the people on the other side of the fence, to see their perspective. What seems perfectly intuitive and simple to the engineer can be baffling to the end-user.

He goes on to explain that some cities employ a similar idea with residency requirements for employees, and Boston employees are none too happy about it, because of Boston's high cost-of-living.

I mentioned this one time in relation to Metro and I still think it should be a requirement -- that Metro officials and employees should be required to use Metro services. Nothing would fix Metro's pathetic offerings and service faster than Metro Bigs and employees forced to use the mass transit they have inflicted on the greater Houston area.

I will give credit to Lucas Wall (gosh, I miss that guy). He wrote about Metro and used MetroRail, and when Metro failed him, he wrote about that.

And I think it's time to see some Metro Bigs experience what Laurence Simon goes through, and then writes about. Let them deal with uninformed bus drivers and MetroLine phone answerers. Let them try to get to work on time from an outlying area, where one is required to make multiple bus changes and walk blocks to get to another stop. We've seen reports of people who have given up because it would take them 2 or 3 hours to get to work with Metro's service "improvements." Let's see these officials leave their precious cars at a Park and Pillage with no security and hope the car is intact when they return. Let officials deal with the homeless on the train.

It'll never happen, of course, but it's fun to think about.

UPDATE: Laurence details his ride home today -- three buses, one Danger Train and a brief stop at the market = a bit over TWO HOURS!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/05 11:03 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)

23 May 2005

James Howard Gibbons: The tough, smart LiveJournalist!

Chronicle editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons has posted another Editorial LiveJournal entry on his editorial page today.

Sure, he can call it a Sounding Board article, but any column that uses "I" as much as Gibbons' does is an Editorial LiveJournal in our view.

Apparently, the Editorial LiveJournalist wants those silly readers who see the world in black and white and who criticized that offensive editorial on Florida's new child predator law to know that he really does know best. He served on a jury after all, and was TOUGH. Tough and smart, not unlike Jim Adler!

Matt Bramanti gives the Editorial LiveJournal a good Fisking over at Lone Star Times.

UPDATE (05-24-2005): I neglected Sedosi Alhambra's post on the tough, smart LiveJournalist (item #7).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/23/05 11:25 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)

Mayor White unveils budget proposal

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles has filed an early report on Mayor White's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year:

The $1.69 billion preliminary budget — a five percent increase over the current fiscal year that ends June 30 — continues to make public safety a priority, with about 64 percent of all non-debt spending on fire, police and emergency medical services.

[snip]

The mayor emphasized what he called a disciplined, "performance-based" approach to crafting the budget. He said the city should do more with fewer people and less spending thanks to increased efficiency.

"We are always striving to have increased performance," he told reporters at an afternoon news conference. "Everything that we've done we've tried to get more value for the taxpayer dollar."

The Mayor's press office must be pleased with that coverage.

As Miya Shay reports for KTRK-13, raises for firefighters figure prominently in the new budget:

A plan for Houston to spend more than a billion and a half dollars is now on paper. Among the many pages of the latest proposed city budget is good news for Houston firefighters, men and women who have been working without a raise for years.

For the past six years, they battled blazes without a pay raise. That will change dramatically in a new contract, which over four years, will increase Houston firefighters' pay by 34 percent.

KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that Mayor White has also included spending for new police cadet classes:

The budget also calls for two new fire stations and for four new police cadet classes.

Four new classes aren't going to solve HPD's manpower shortage, but at least the problem finally seems to be on the "Public Safety" mayor's radar.

UPDATE (05-24-2005): The updated reporting from Matt Stiles for today's print edition of the Chronicle is much more thorough. Here is an interesting blurb:

The general government sector, which includes citywide costs that can't be attributed to specific departments, would get the largest percentage increase: about 33 percent.

33 percent? That sounds like real money!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/23/05 11:00 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (8)

Barron examines latest sports talk radio ratings

The first Arbitron ratings are out since KBME-790's flip to its current sports talk format, and the station appears to be doing well.

The Chronicle's David Barron examines the numbers:

The broadest audience measurement, persons age 12-plus from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Sunday, doesn't look too good. KILT slipped from 21st place in the fall book to 23rd for winter 2005 (January-March), and KBME came in 31st, or next to last.

KILT, however, is pleased that its morning and afternoon drive numbers combined are in the top 10 among men age 25 through 54 with a 3.7 rating, and KBME is happy that it showed significant growth in that same demographic in its first full ratings period since making the move from music to sports.

For adults 25-54 from 6 a.m. to midnight, KBME went from a rating of .1 to .5, and for men 25-54 it increased from .2 to .9. KILT's numbers went from 1.6 to 1.8 for persons 25-54 and from 2.9 to 3.0 for the men 25-54 demo.

"That shows me we brought new people to the party, which is important for us as we try to grow the format," said Ken Charles of Clear Channel Radio, which owns KBME. "If I just take audience from them, it's not a win for anybody."

In afternoon drive time (3-7 p.m. weekdays), where Marc Vandermeer and Rich Lord on KILT face off against Charlie Pallilo on KBME, KILT's persons 25-54 rating went from 2.2 to 1.9 while KBME went from .1 to .9. For men 25-54, KILT dropped from a 4.1 rating to 3.0, and KBME went from .1 to 1.5.

One suspects Pallilo's numbers will only continue to improve.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/23/05 09:07 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

KPRC-950 drops Newsweek radio program

Ken Charles, regional vice president of programming for Clear Channel Houston, has announced that as of this past Sunday, he has pulled the program Newsweek on the Air from KPRC-950.

Charles says that the program will remain off the air until Newsweek offers an explanation of how the false Koran story could have appeared in the magazine, and what steps will be taken to prevent the poor use of unnamed sources in the future.

Charles passes along that he made this decision in his role as programming director for KPRC.

PREVIOUSLY: Ken Charles knows how to generate buzz (bH)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/23/05 08:55 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

Man arrested in Houston for offer to sell bomb to terrorist group

A Pennsylvania man has been arrested in Houston for attempting to sell a bomb to an al-Qaeda related group:

Ronald Allen Grecula, of Bangor, Pa., was arrested Friday in Houston during a meeting with undercover FBI agents. During that meeting, Grecula indicated willingness to build and sell an explosive device that was to be used against Americans, according to court documents.

[snip]

Grecula negotiated with a confidential source and later undercover officers between April and last Friday to build and sell a bomb to terrorist groups targeting the United States, according to court documents.

The FBI recorded conversations with Grecula, in which he talked about technical knowledge about building an explosive device, his willingness to put on a demonstration, and the need for all involved to "be careful" as they planned the venture, Shelby said.

Was he going to put on his demonstration in Houston? Oh dear.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/23/05 01:35 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

22 May 2005

Student asks city to fight murders, shootings, other crime

We can now add a high-school student troubled about rampant crime in his southwest Houston neighborhood to the blogHOUSTON chorus wondering when Mayor White and his council plan to address the Houston Police Department's manpower issues.

Here's an excerpt from Rick Casey's column today:

IT was not a situation Lee High School student Donald Hanks could easily have imagined.

Standing at a microphone in the school library Thursday night in front of a crowd of 200, he was politely but firmly asking for specific commitments from two City Council members and enough police brass for several school bells.

[snip]

They wanted help cracking down on the crime that has left four students and former students dead and seven more shot, that has drug dealers patrolling the neighborhood, that has prostitution run out of "spas" and rent-by-the-hour motels.

They asked for and received promises of:

•A police storefront office in the area.
•The closing of one particularly bad nightclub and efforts to identify and close other problem clubs.
•A school zone to cut down on speeding traffic on Hillcroft. (High schools are not normally given school zones.)
•An effort to increase the number of 70-member cadet classes from two to four to begin to make up for the loss to retirement of 500 Houston police of all ranks in the past 18 months.
•Monthly meetings with the Lee group to plan and assess crime-fighting efforts.
•A commitment to conduct a study to determine the number and kinds of crimes being committed in the school's area.

Mayor White and his council enacted SAFEclear under the guise of public safety. They plan on installing red-light cameras under the guise of public safety. They have banned smoking under the guise of public safety.

Why won't they address HPD's worsening manpower difficulties, which are directly related to public safety?

UPDATE: KPRC-2 joins the chorus tonight as well, with a story entitled Police Shortage Affects HPD Response Times:

Last year, the Houston Police Department received more than 1.6 million 911 calls. Yet, the department is suffering through a critical manpower shortage. The shortage is now affecting how quickly officers are responding to some of the most urgent cries for help, the Local 2 Troubleshooters reported Sunday.

[snip]

[HPD Chief Harold] Hurtt said he knows his department is struggling to keep up in certain areas, but it's a problem that's not going to get better anytime soon.

"In the time since I've been here we've lost probably 500 officers. We're hiring them 70 at a time, so it's going to be a long time before we can catch up," Hurtt said.

Hans Marticiuc is the president of the Houston Police Officer's Union. He said it is not just the public, he's also hearing from officers who are worried about getting backup quickly.

"It's a concern and it ought to be a concern for the citizens," Marticiuc said. "I'm hoping our elected officials hear this stuff, see this information, and realize staffing over here has got to be the highest priority because it's a public safety issue."

It sounds as if KPRC shamed former HPD officer and current councilmember Adrian Garcia into promising to act on the manpower shortage. We'll have to keep watching to see if he follows through, or if he can interest Mayor White and the rest of council in this problem that this blog and KTRH-740's Chris Baker have been pounding on for a while.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/22/05 09:40 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Hines issues a correction, retreats to France

The Chronicle's Coven-obsessed D.C. columnist issued a correction today for that embarrassing gaffe from last week's column:

My Wednesday column about the "nuclear option" contained the wrong supermajority normally required in the Senate to cut off debate. A three-fifths vote is required. I made an initial error, which was compounded by an editing error.

Neither the D.C. columnist nor his editors know the filibuster rule? That seems less than ideal.

What a great time to send Cragg Hines to France to report on European constitutionalism. Maybe he'll have better luck with it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/22/05 09:18 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

Exposing the "safety" myth of red light cameras

The Chronicle's Janet Elliott told us Saturday that legislation in Austin to ban red light cameras appears to be dead, which is undoubtedly welcome news for MayorWhiteChiefHurtt.

Since it appears Houstonians will now face two different standards for red light offenses (criminal, if written up by a police officer; civil, if caught on camera) let's look back at the City Council minutes from last December when Council debated the issue. What I find especially noteworthy is that in public comments several people suggested lengthening yellow light times, and several councilmembers appeared to be interested in the idea, even asking city officials (Mayor White included) if it had been studied. The disappointing response from one city official follows: (pdf, page 7):

HISD graduates overcome tremendous odds

HISD spokesman Terry Abbott recently sent out a release with some inspiring graduation success stories. I'm a complete pushover for beating-the-odds stories, so I'm going to reprint the entire piece in the extended entry.

Congratulations to the soon-to-be graduates!

An unsatisfied light rail rider

A contributor at HAIF asks a question about MetroRail:

After today's disasterous commute #36 (oh yes, we're counting) with my poor husband, I think Metrorail sucks big toes. Big nasty dirty toes at that. So, I am wondering how many here use the rail every single day and your thoughts on it.

BTW, today's disaster was a phantom wreck and they put all the riders on shuttle buses to get to downtown only to find there was no wreck at all, in fact the minute my husband was seated on the shuttle another train passed them right by... the shuttle driver didn't know which way to go, and we are now working on a 1 hour commute from MD Anderson hospital to right inside downtown at 45 and Main (56 minutes to be exact). I wonder how long it will take him to get home from there? My guess is another hour at least.

Thanks, Metro! You've done a bang-up job, no pun intended.

This was posted last Monday, May 16; I don't remember a Danger Train crash on that day, but a responding comment says:

Local news showed helicoper shots of the wreck, near the McGowen Station.

The last crash that local media has reported (I think) is this one. Hmmmm, was there another unreported wreck?

The comments in the post are interesting, with both supporters and detractors weighing in. Several mention that current service is so concentrated in downtown, it's almost unusable to those who live further out.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/22/05 11:33 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)

21 May 2005

The Casey LiveJournal Monologues, blogged

Some time ago, we noted that Chronicle columnist Rick Casey would be speaking to the Harris County Democratic Party.

Certainly, journalists are welcome to speak to groups -- even political groups -- to promote their news organization and their work, whether it's Rick Casey speaking to Democrats or Dan Feldstein speaking to conservative-activist talk-radio listeners (an appearance scheduled and then canceled).

However, it's extremely useful to news consumers to know what those journalists actually say when out and about. Thus, the Houston Democrats blog has performed a fine service to news consumers and media watchers alike in Houston by recounting Casey's remarks. Here's a sample:

Rick says there is a new nationl religion: God wants you to be rich. If you are not rich, you are not with God. Basically, the right wing would like to do away with CHIP, Medicaid, and the school fund. Instead religion says we should worship markets.

Markets aren't all bad, but Rick cautioned that we should consider how to make markets do what they do well and to tame them so they do. The rich say we do not have to do anything to manage markets. The poor just have to get with God, and that will solve their problems. Rick noted that at one time it was the blacks who were not believed to be with God, now it's the poor.

Essentially, the right wing has stollen the identity of Chritianity and turned it against the "non-believers." Rick asked how is it that God wants us to have a 3-5% revenue cap?

It's certainly provocative and informative reading.

Casey's columns regularly lean to the left, and we have pointed out occasions when he seems willing to flesh out details on issues that are of interest to the editorial board. The fact that he is a columnist on the news pages, but regularly offers editorial opinion in his column, seems not to be a concern to anyone at the Chronicle, although it's not clear to me why his column doesn't run on the editorial page where it belongs.

Of course, if he were moved there, the lack of balance on the editorial page would be even more striking (Cragg Hines, Clay Robison, and Casey as the staff writers on the Left, not to mention James Howard Gibbons, Andrea Georgsson, and Mr. Kathryn Kase representing liberal pet causes in unsigned editorials -- with no identifiable local conservatives writing regularly), and the laughable claim that the editorial position is "not liberal or conservative" would be that much harder to take seriously. One does feel sorry for actual reporters who have to share the news pages with Casey, though.

RELATED: My double-top-secret agenda (Rob Booth, Lone Star Times), Pay no attention to that columnist behind the veil (Sedosi Alhambra, Isolated Desolation).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/21/05 10:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Chronicle reacts to DeLay remarks by Earle

Yesterday, the Chronicle editorial board, which has been unrelenting in its criticism of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R), surprised us with this criticism of recent comments by Travis Country district attorney Ronnie Earle (D) at a Democratic interest-group fundraiser:

Republicans have accused the veteran prosecutor, a Democrat, of conducting a partisan witch hunt. Earle's attendance and remarks attacking DeLay at a Democratic fund-raiser last week in Dallas damaged the credibility of his investigation with a stunning display of prosecutorial impropriety.

The editorial board goes on to question Earle's judgment and temperament.

Tom Kirkendall offers further thoughts on the editorial board's treatment of Earle, and contrasts it with the newspaper's silence on the topic of inflammatory statements against former Enron officials by investigating prosecutors.

PREVIOUSLY: DeLay pursuer invokes DeLay's name to raise political funds (bH).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/21/05 08:26 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)

Millie Bush is the best dog park

This is pretty neat: the Millie Bush Bark Park has been named the best dog park in the U.S.:

Millie Bush Bark Park in far west Houston has been ranked the best in the nation by Dog Fancy magazine.

The 15-acre dog park, with three man-made ponds, walkways and fake fire hydrants, was opened 1 1/2 years ago by Harris County Precinct 3 and was named in honor of the former president's late springer spaniel.

"Never-say-die supporters waged a five-year campaign to open Millie Bush, Houston's first dog park, inside George Bush Park," says the magazine in its June edition.

"And was this Texas-size jewel ever worth the wait."

Susan Chaney, editor of Dog Fancy, said the magazine took nominations from readers and assigned a writer to evaluate the 60 parks that were mentioned the most.

There are about 700 dog parks around the country, she said.

"The reason Millie Bush Park came in on top is that after the writer had interviewed people about the park, her comment was that they had unparalleled amenities, including three man-made ponds — one that was designated just for small dogs. That was pretty impressive to us."

THIS is world-class! Or is it woof-class?

RELATED: Houston Dog Park Association

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/21/05 02:43 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)

A thank you, from blogHOUSTON

We had a terrific time at the Armadillo Palace last night. Thanks to everyone who came out to join us -- it was great putting faces to names and catching up with everyone.

Special thanks to Laurence for getting the ball (er, armadillo?) rolling. =)

We'll have to do it again soon.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Yes, thanks to all! And my personal thanks to those of you who conspired on the birthday card (even though I generally discourage any acknowledgment of my aging process!).

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/21/05 11:31 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

Don't forget about Metro's latest service "improvements"

Metro has posted a press release reminder of some impending service changes, otherwise known as "improvements":

METRO also will launch a new bus route - the 59 Aldine Mail Crosstown - to serve the Aldine community in north Houston. The new route will offer weekday service from 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Buses will run on a 30-minute frequency during morning and afternoon peak hours and a 60-minute frequency during the midday. A portion of this new route replaces the 54 Aldine/Hollyvale route, which will be discontinued May 29. Due to the Memorial Day holiday, the first day of service on the 59 Aldine Mail Crosstown will be Tuesday, May 31.

The 59 Aldine Mail Crosstown offers access to nine schools in the Aldine Independent School District, two public libraries, grocery stores, a health clinic and a Social Security office. The route also offers connections to the 6 Jensen, 56 Airline Ltd, 66 Yale (to be renumbered the 8 Yale, effective May 29), 83 Lee Road Circulator and 102 Bush IAH Express bus routes.

Other service changes slated to go in to effect on Sunday, May 29, include the addition or discontinuation of select trips on several routes as well as schedule modifications. For more information on the May 29 service changes, call METROLine at 713-635-4000.

Well, well. Isn't that interesting? In this release Metro doesn't list most of the service changes or provide a link to the previous announcement that listed the changes. A couple are in the press release, but for further details, riders are instructed to call MetroLine.

Is that the same Metro hotline that Laurence Simon describes here?

And, as always, we wonder how Metro is doing with its promised 50% increase in bus service? Maybe that's a typo on the Metro Solutions recap page. Maybe it should say Metro plans a 50% reduction in bus service.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/21/05 11:15 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

Blogger radio segment today

Charles Kuffner and I will be appearing on the blogger segment on BizRadio1320 again today, from roughly 10:15 - 10:30 am.

Next week, Anne Linehan should be making her first appearance on the show in my place.

Recent archives are posted on the right sidebar, for hardcore fans. :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/21/05 09:46 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

20 May 2005

Armadillo Palace reminder

Don't forget: Armadillo Palace this afternoon/evening, beginning about 5 p.m.

We would love to see you there!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/20/05 12:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

Metro wants an extra $100 million

This certainly takes some nerve:

[Read More]

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/20/05 08:33 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (18)

Feds accuse local developer of bribing former city official

Dan Feldstein has quite an eye-opening story in this morning's Chronicle:

The developer of the Houston Emergency Center gave cash in a bag to a top city official and promised her boyfriend about $250,000 if he was awarded another city deal, federal prosecutors allege.

Documents in Cleveland and Houston courts describe evidence that prosecutors had planned to use against Monique McGilbra, former head of Houston's Building Services Department, who instead pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy charges in both places.

[snip]

It was Keystone Group, then headed by Andrew Schatte, a politically connected Houston dealmaker. Schatte has not been charged with any crimes and denies many of the statements and all of the implications of the documents.

[snip]

U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby of Houston said after McGilbra pleaded guilty this week that related investigations are continuing. McGilbra has agreed to cooperate with authorities to get a reduced sentence.

Schatte has several close friends among state and local elected leaders and has been active setting up leases and investments for the city, Harris County and several local pension boards. The Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund has invested more than $57 million in his recent deals.

Competitors sometimes have complained about his success. But Schatte says he's simply more in tune to local government needs and works hard on his specialty.

[snip]

Prosecutors allege some of Hardeman's [McGilbra's boyfriend] money was supposed to be funneled to McGilbra. They say Keystone also gave her a $1,000 Neiman Marcus gift certificate for her birthday, seven tickets to Texans games, use of a condominium in northern California and $1,000 cash in a bag also containing champagne.

Dang! This will be very interesting to watch unfold, and what great work by Dan Feldstein digging up this story.

RELATED: McGilbra supervised construction of 911 call center (blogHOUSTON)

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: It's also worth checking out the archived Chronicle stories on the sidebar of Feldstein's story today. Those stories were also written by Feldstein, and help tie together some pieces. Feldstein deserves credit for digging deeper into this story.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/20/05 06:57 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)

19 May 2005

DeLay pursuer invokes DeLay's name to raise political funds

The Chronicle's Michael Hedges reports on some ill-advised comments by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle at a Democratic Party fundraiser:

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who denies partisan motives for his investigation of a political group founded by Republican leader Tom DeLay, was the featured speaker last week at a Democratic fund-raiser where he spoke directly about the congressman.

A newly formed Democratic political action committee, Texas Values in Action Coalition, hosted the May 12 event in Dallas to raise campaign money to take control of the state Legislature from the GOP, organizers said.

Earle, an elected Democrat, helped generate $102,000 for the organization.

In his remarks, Earle likened DeLay to a bully and spoke about political corruption and the investigation involving DeLay, the House majority leader from Sugar Land, according to a transcript supplied by Earle.

"This case is not just about Tom DeLay. If it isn't this Tom DeLay, it'll be another one, just like one bully replaces the one before," Earle said.

"This is a structural problem involving the combination of money and power," he added. "Money brings power and power corrupts."

The irony of Mr. Earle's statement, of course, is that he presents himself as an objective district attorney pursuing an investigation against the Republican whose name he is invoking to raise money for a Democratic interest group. A more responsible district attorney would have been concerned enough about the appearance of impropriety to refrain from commenting about someone tied to an ongoing investigation, let alone at a political fundraiser.

Money and politics are and will forever be intertwined. blogHOUSTON advises readers to be wary of politicians, bloggers, pundits, or anyone else who sanctimoniously suggests one political party is somehow more pure than the other on the topic of money and politics.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/19/05 11:20 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)

73% of HISD students pass harder TAKS reading test

There is something missing from this story on HISD:

The percentage of Houston ISD students passing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills dropped for every grade level under this year's tougher standards, the school district announced Wednesday.

Houston's black and Hispanic students struggled the most as the gap separating the passing rates for those students and whites grew larger. While 62 percent of the Houston Independent School District's white 10th-graders passed all four subjects tested on the TAKS, only 17 percent of blacks and 19 percent of Hispanics achieved the minimum standard.

What's missing? Seventy-three percent of HISD students passed the harder TAKS reading test this year. Considering the make-up of HISD (eighty percent low income and thirty percent ESL), that's a number to be proud of. Fifty-eight percent of HISD students passed the harder TAKS math test. Yes, that number can stand some improvement, but a majority of HISD students passed. Why not acknowledge that?

"Lead, follow or get out of the way" comes to mind here, and the usual suspects are the problem -- those who don't want any change. Dr. Saavedra is trying to remake HISD to provide a better education. Some media attention directed at the people and groups who steadfastly stand in his way is long overdue; and the students who worked hard to pass the TAKS tests should be congratulated, instead of being told they are in the worst school district in Texas.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/19/05 08:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Sports blogging, Chronicle style

The Chronicle has quietly added another blog to its lineup, Lopez @ Large from sports columnist John Lopez. We'll have to encourage him to break up those column-like entries into true blog posts in time, but for now, welcome to the Houston blogging community, Mr. Lopez!

On his own blog today, the Chronicle's Richard Justice responds to a reader's question about his latest column on Drayton McLane, and covers some really interesting ground on the process of gathering sports news from sports figures who are well aware of every word written about them:

Last year I wrote some tough stuff about the Astros, and I heard about it. Drayton McLane usually makes a telephone call and is very polite. Sometimes he'll call your boss to complain, but he's always civil.

When Jimy Williams was fired, I wrote critically of three Astros: Jeff Bagwell, Brad Ausmus and Morgan Ensberg.

I'm in the clubhouse the day the column appears -- you should show your face after you write something critically -- and Bagwell and Ausmus called me over and let me know with some humor that they'd read what I wrote. They didn't seem especially mad, but were letting me know they were aware.

The funny thing was that Ensberg hadn't read the paper, but they screamed across the clubhouse: "He got you, too, Morgan!"

I yelled back: "Don't ruin his day."

The whole post is worth a read.

Incidentally, since we called attention to Jose de Jesus Ortiz's fawning over Drayton McLane a few days ago, it's only fair to point to Justice's more critical column that ran Tuesday.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/19/05 04:00 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

18 May 2005

Brazosport News: Lord falls for fake story on air

Back when Clear Channel first acquired the services of sports talker Charlie Pallilo, the Chronicle's David Barron seemed surprised that Clear Channel's Ken Charles wasn't pursuing Pallilo's old partner, Rich Lord. My reaction was just the opposite: why dilute Pallilo's talent?

Banjo Jones reports on an amusing recent on-air moment from Rich Lord that only confirms that Ken Charles made the right call in putting Pallilo on KBME-790 by himself.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/05 11:45 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

What did McGilbra and others do exactly?

We've previously noted the guilty plea of former Brown Administration official Monique McGilbra.

Tom Kirkendall calls our attention to this reaction to the news on the White Collar Crime Prof blog:

Did McGilbra and the others do any work in their spare time?

Some of us (but not the Chronicle editorial board, unfortunately) asked the same thing about many members of the Brown Administration.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/05 11:22 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)

HISD honors teachers of the year

Hang on to your hats -- Jason Spencer has written a positive story about HISD:

A Westside High School math teacher who decorates his doorway with shaved hair and an Anderson Elementary teacher whose proudest moment of 2005 came when a kindergartner with cerebral palsy learned to write her own name were named HISD's teachers of the year Tuesday night.

Westside's Nobuo Cedric French and Anderson's Monica Ramirez each received a $5,000 check and other gifts for being the best of the Houston Independent School District's 13,000 educators.

It's a very nice story, and congratulations to HISD's teachers of the year.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/18/05 06:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Unruly Halliburton protestors arrested downtown

KHOU-11 shows why it's become Houston's top-rated television news source with its coverage of the Halliburton protests and related arrests that took place outside of the Four Seasons hotel downtown earlier today:

Dozens of protesters blocked the entrances to the hotel where Halliburton shareholders were holding a meeting. Police say a few others went inside the hotel and were blocking stairwells.

Fifteen people were arrested after refusing orders to get off the sidewalk and behind police barricades. Seven are charged with criminal trespassing for going inside the hotel, four are charged with assaulting police officers, three are charged with evading arrest and one is charged with assaulting a police horse.

A Houston police officer says she was hit in the face and pushed to the ground by protesters. Three other officers say they were kicked and punched during the standoff. All were treated for minor injuries.

"We respect everyone's right to demonstrate and to express their opinion in a peaceful manner," said HPD Lt. Robert Manzo. "However, one thing we will not tolerate is for anyone to break any laws while in the process of doing that."

One protester was scratched up when he was dragged on the ground while allegedly resisting arrest.

Some protesters shouted "police brutality" as their fellow demonstrators were hauled away in handcuffs.

About 30 HPD mounted patrol officers helped dozens of cops on foot with crowd control. The horses kept their cool even as some of the protesters surrounded them and pressed against them, shouting at the officers.

KHOU was one of the first news organizations in town to get its reporting on the web today, and that reporting includes indispensable video that illustrates that protestors didn't just surround and press against the horses, but appeared to be striking the horses (perhaps in an unsuccessful attempt to strike the officers) and moving the barricades that had been established (in addition to other transgressions noted in various accounts).

The Chronicle coverage includes quotes from the protestors:

Nursing her foot with an ice pack, Cynthia Daly said a mounted officer outside the hotel ran over her foot with his horse.

"They ran over my foot. They did not need to do that," she said.

As the KHOU clips illustrate, order broke down as the "protestors" turned into an unruly mob. The best advice blogHOUSTON can offer to Miss Daly for the future is to refrain from hanging out in extremist mobs that incite horses upon which officers are mounted. Horses are large creatures that can cause injuries if they step on people.

The Chronicle story concludes:

The roughest confrontation came as clusters of the protesters ignored the orders of officers to stay off the streets and behind blockades, swarming some of the police horses.

The horses performed as trained, by circling with their back feet, sometimes knocking protesters out of the way with their haunches.

Some protesters shouted at the officers, "Shame on you!"

Shame on the officers? I don't think so.

Maybe James Howard Gibbons will pen an editorial tomorrow arguing that those engaged in disorderly conduct should not have been arrested.

RELATED COVERAGE: KPRC-2 (with video), KTRK-13/AP.

UPDATE: Chris Baker is running some great clips from protestors on his radio show (KTRH-740).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/05 02:46 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (34)

Coven-obsessed Chron editorialist misstates filibuster rule

The Chronicle's Coven-obsessed D.C. editorialist seems so determined to rant against conservatives that he's been turning out even weaker columns than usual of late.

Last weekend, he penned that editorial on Yalta that was light on fact and heavy on feelings.

Today, as Matt Bramanti points out, he managed to get the filibuster rule wrong:

So, we're about to have what could be some historic fireworks, when Frist seeks approval of President Bush's judicial nominations by a majority vote without getting the four-fifths vote required to end a filibuster.

That would be three-fifths, but why interrupt the ranting and name-calling with facts?

Surely this is not what James Howard Gibbons considers an editorial in an ideal state.

RELATED: Obligatory Jihad reference (Brothers Judd), A weekly serving of Cragg (Isolated Desolation).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/05 01:26 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (11)

Conservative group funds local pro-DeLay ads

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram posted the following Associated Press story to its website yesterday:

An anti-tax group said Tuesday it will run television ads likening the media and their reporting on Majority Leader Tom DeLay to sharks in a feeding frenzy.

The ads will run on select television stations nationally, including in Houston, close to DeLay's hometown in Texas, the group said.

The ads were purchased by Free Enterprise Fund, a nonprofit group that advocates for economic growth through lower taxes and limited government.

The Houston Chronicle, which published a story by reporter Matt Stiles about an anti-DeLay group's purchase of two billboard ads in Houston earlier this month, has not posted the AP story or a story of its own.

In my view, it's of questionable news importance that an individual interest group is advertising for or against a politician, but in the interest of balance, it would seem that advertising by interest groups supportive of a politician is as newsworthy as advertising by interest groups critical of that politician.

The Chronicle did post a story today by Samantha Levine about a Pew Center survey that illustrates Americans aren't that interested in the DeLay story to this point, despite the Democratic and media firestorm that lasted several weeks.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/05 10:24 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (4)

Armadillo Palace -- this Friday!

Laurence Simon and Kevin Whited want to check out the Armadillo Palace, and Laurence thinks this would be a great opportunity to have a get-together. So, here we go!

This Friday, May 20th, beginning around 5 p.m., we will be meeting at the Armadillo Palace.

We'd love for EVERYONE* to join us and I have no doubt much merriment and hilarity will ensue. (With Laurence and Kevin in attendance, how could it not?!)

We hope to see you Friday!

*other Houston-area bloggers, blog readers, blog commenters, friends of blogs (FOB's?), etc, etc, etc. =)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/18/05 08:08 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (11)

17 May 2005

Silverman embraces journalism as conversation

Chronicle tech guru Dwight Silverman's weekly computing column discusses the newspaper's recent adoption of Movable Type software for its blogs, and the bigger picture for journalism.

Here's a teaser:

Last week, Chron.com began using a software program called Movable Type to publish three blogs that had been written using the system that generates our standard news stories. By switching to Movable Type, we now can do two things with our blogs that we could not before: publish comments from our audience and see what other sites are saying about our blog entries.

Those changes may seem incremental on the surface, but they are not.

By adding the ability for folks to comment immediately on what they read, the newsgathering and reporting process becomes two-way — bidirectional, as techies would say. The audience gives feedback, which can be incorporated in updates or future postings to the blog or in-paper stories. In addition, some readers may have more information on a topic to impart, adding to the value of that posting.

And by showing what other sites are linking to a blog entry — a feature known as trackback — readers can get multiple perspectives on a subject by following the links. Suddenly, it's not just about what the Chronicle is saying about an issue — it's potentially what the Web as a whole is saying.

This column should be read in its entirety. I hope members of the Chronicle editorial board read it carefully.

The blogs are a small, good start, but Silverman is really talking about the newspaper of the future -- and our own Chron.com might soon be at the forefront of putting together that (online) newspaper of the future. This is an exciting development that doesn't seem to be generating the interest that one might expect from some of the new-media evangelists in the blogosphere.

Silverman offers more thoughts on his (newly interactive) blog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/17/05 11:06 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)

Chronicle vendor killed in unsafe work environment

Houston-area residents are used to the sight of "street vendors" helping the Chronicle prop up its circulation figures by (dangerously) peddling newspapers at busy intersections all across town.

Today, a death resulted from the practice:

Selling newspapers on a northwest Harris County street corner proved deadly for one man early Tuesday morning.

The 61-year-old man was selling newspapers when he was struck and killed. Harris County sheriff's investigators say the driver who hit him may not even know it.

[snip]

Investigators with Harris County say the man walked between a pickup truck and the trailer it was pulling at the intersection of Veteran's Memorial and the Beltway. The trailer ran over him and the driver kept going. But investigators aren't sure the driver even knows what he's done.

A Chronicle press release stressed that the distributor who employed the deceased was an independent contractor:

The staff of the Houston Chronicle is deeply saddened that an independent Houston Chronicle newspaper vendor was killed early this morning. The seller was hired through an independent distributor of the Chronicle.

"Independent" or not, the fact is that peddling newspapers in the middle of busy intersections is dangerous. Back in October, the Chronicle editorial board misrepresented results of a study to advocate for a smoking ban, allegedly to protect workers in smoking establishments from harm. Since we now have evidence that newspaper vending in busy intersections is hazardous, we are looking forward to the editorial announcing the newspaper is discontinuing the practice because of concerns of workplace safety.

RELATED COVERAGE: Man selling newspapers run over, killed (KPRC-2), Street vendors face constant dangers (Carolyn Campbell, KHOU-11), Vendor selling papers on street run over and killed (Paige Hewitt, Chronicle).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/17/05 10:42 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)

Chief Hurtt enjoys the owner's seats

Chief Hurtt enjoying the Astros
Chief Hurtt (left), enjoying the Astros (videocap via Fox Sports Net)

As I was flipping through the channels a bit ago, I settled on the Astros game for a few minutes, and noticed none other than our very own police chief, Harold Hurtt, sitting right behind home plate in the prime Drayton McLane seats. Mr. McLane was even hamming it up with our police chief early in the game.

Here's hoping that Mr. McLane is a regular blogHOUSTON reader, and took the opportunity to encourage the chief to request more manpower funding and to ditch the red-light-camera nonsense.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/17/05 08:31 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (6)

Did you know the Sports Authority held a public meeting today?

I check the Sports Authority's website every day, just in case something pops up. It's rare that something does, but look what's new today:

TAKE NOTICE that the Board of Directors of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority will meet, open to the public, at First City Tower, 1001 Fannin, 10th Floor Conference Room, Houston, Texas, 77002 at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 17, 2005.* At such meeting, the Board will consider the following matters:

1. Call to order; roll call; invocation. (Burge, Johnson)

2. Report from CEO. (Luck)

3. Report of the Construction Committee Chairman.(Warwick)
1. Report from Jerry Dinkins on the status of the punch list and other final completion matters regarding the Toyota Center.

4. Discussion and possible action on resolution approving an agreement with Harris County for construction manager services in the development of an aquatics center and youth recreational facility and approving other maters related thereto (Friedman)

5. Discussion and possible action on resolution approving an agreement with Hermes Architects to serve as the architect for the new Aquatics Center and approving other matters related thereto (Friedman)

6. Discussion and possible action approving an amendment to the Garage Operations Management Agreement with Central Parking and approving other matters related thereto (Warwick)

7. Discussion and possible action on resolution authorizing participation with bringing incoming sports events to Harris County and delegating authority and approving other matters related thereto (Catuzzi)

8. Presentation and discussion of Quarterly Investment Report and Quarterly Portfolio Compliance Report for the period ending March 31, 2005. (Catuzzi)

9. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Pursuant to provisions of Chapter 551, Texas Government Code, the Board shall deliberate in Executive Session on the following:

1. Real estate matters
2. Consultation with attorneys on potential and actual litigation matters relating to construction issues and Toyota Center.
3. Personnel matters
4. Discussions or deliberations regarding commercial or financial information received from a business prospect or the offer of financial or other incentives to a business prospect.
(Burge)

Reconvene in Public Session

10. Comments by Directors (if any)
11. Comments or Announcements by Chair (if any)
12. Adjournment

I'm guessing numbers 4 and 5 are related to the pool and youth center Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee wants the Sports Authority to build.

I didn't see this agenda posted yesterday, and the meeting was this afternoon. That's one way to keep public input to a minimum!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/17/05 06:55 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

Grand Parkway meeting (Spring/Tomball area)

Several groups that are trying to save Spring from being bulldozed by the Grand Parkway are holding a meeting on May 25 at Klein Collins High School:

Please join us for a Town Hall meeting
to address current developments with the Grand Parkway through Spring and the Tomball area (I-45 to FM 249):

Klein Collins High School Auditorium
20811 Ella Blvd., Spring, TX. 77388

May 25, 2005, 7:00 P.M.

Invited Panel Guests Include:

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels
Harris Cty Pct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole
Harris Cty Toll Road Auth Dir. Mike Strech
TxDOT Houston Dist Engineer Gary Trietsch
USOS President Jerry Thomas
Texas State Rep. Debbie Riddle
Texas State Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale
Texas State Rep. Peggy Hamric
U.S. Congressman Ted Poe
U.S. Congressman Mike McCaul

In our forum, Connie (who reminded me to post this!) says that Art Storey, HCTRA's executive director, and Commissioner Jerry Eversole will attend the meeting. (Strangely, it doesn't appear that state Sen. Jon Lindsay will be attending.)

This is a great opportunity for residents to meet with and hear from Harris County and TxDOT officials.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/17/05 04:35 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

16 May 2005

Northline residents suffer as result of HPD's manpower shortage

KHOU-11's Janice Williamson reports that Northline residents are the latest to feel the effects of HPD's manpower woes:

People in the Northline community, just north of downtown Houston, accuse the department of leaving them to fend for themselves. They said the officers are out and the crime is in.

Some unwelcome changes have the community very concerned.

On Houston's north side, graffiti covers signs and buildings.

Grover Oliver didn't expect to see a spray-painted message on the front door of Bethany Lutheran Church. "That's graffiti to me. We wouldn't have done anything like that. None of our members would have done anything like that," he said.

"I'm just really, really sad. Things aren't very well around here, we have a lot of crime," said Claudia Landin, north side resident.

There is still glass in the church parking lot from a car thief who struck during Sunday services. Even the landscaping can't escape the crime wave, which residents said began last fall.

"We had an article that was written about us in the "Leader" for having a rally here, that we were complaining like a bunch of babies because of police protection," Oliver said. "Where is police protection when this is happening?"

Houston police said they have a manpower shortage.

Mayor White and his council seem unwilling to address the shortage. Northline won't be the only neighborhood to feel the effects.

The mayor must have excluded Northline residents from that unscientific poll that found Houstonians LOVE his leadership.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/16/05 10:19 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (8)

McGilbra pleads guilty to federal charges in Houston

Monique McGilbra pleaded guilty in Cleveland last week to federal extortion and conspiracy charges.

Today, the former Brown Administration official pleaded guilty in Houston to additional charges:

A former Houston official entered a guiity plead Monday on federal bribery charges.

Monique McGilbra was the former director of Houston's Building Services under Mayor Lee Brown.

McGilbra has admitted to accepting meals, champagne, ski vacations and Neiman Marcus gift certificates while dealing with companies competing for contracts with the city.

[snip]

Mayor Brown's Chief of Staff also pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in a separate case.

Authorities say the investigation into corruption at City Hall continues.

RELATED COVERAGE: Chronicle, Associated Press.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/16/05 09:51 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (4)

The effort to make toll road authorities more accountable

Kristen Mack highlights the Citizens Transportation Coalition's efforts to make toll road authorities more accountable to local citizenry:

The coalition wants road-building entities, such as the Harris County Toll Road Authority, to seek approval of their projects from affected residents or municipalities and hold at least three public meetings — day, evening and weekend.

Those changes aren't likely to happen soon, lawmakers say, so the group is taking what it can get.

Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, has passed a bill requiring longer public notice about upcoming hearings. Toll road hearings are conducted as part of regular Harris County Commissioners Court meetings, which are held downtown every other Tuesday morning.

This has been a bone of contention with Grand Parkway opponents in Spring. It is not easy to communicate with Harris County commissioners or HCTRA officials, and having to head downtown on a weekday morning is out of the question for most folks. I suggested that if HCTRA was really interested in hearing public input -- as it likes to say it is-- it should hold regular, evening meetings in Spring, right where state Sen. Jon Lindsay wants the Grand Parkway built.

Of course, it doesn't take much to guess that HCTRA is fighting any proposed changes to how it conducts business. Saying you are open to public input and actually being forced to be open to public input are two entirely different things.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/16/05 05:12 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)

Campbell on Cosby's conversation, part two

James Campbell follows up with part two of his consideration of Bill Cosby and his critics in the Chronicle today. Don't be scared off by the headline, which doesn't precisely reflect the argument (in my view).

Cosby will be speaking tonight at Texas Southern University. More information is available here.

PREVIOUSLY: Campbell on Cosby's conversation (bH).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/16/05 07:42 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)

15 May 2005

Food and drink roundup (05-15-2005 edition)

Better late than never, here are last week's food and drink reviews.

Alison Cook lovingly reviews lunch at Da Marco.

Robb Walsh gives Alfredo's European Grill a try. This time around it's obvious. He liked the food more than the staff.

Dai Huynh gives us some snippets of a conversation about wine moods with wine expert Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible.

Ken Hoffman heads over to IHOP to try out one of their new Sourdough Cheese Grillers: the Ham & Brie Sourdough Cheese Griller. It sounds like enough food for three meals, but he makes it sound yummy.

And finally, Gracie Ochoa gives high energy dance club Glo a look.

World class, all of it. Enjoy!!

Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 05/15/05 10:38 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

Mr. McLane is swell

At what point does a sports columnist cross the line into less-than-objective worship of the people he's supposed to be covering?

I ask that in all honesty. I'm not entirely sure. But this homage to Drayton McLane seems excessive:

But this isn't about McMullen's legacy. This is about McLane's word. He values his fans and his commitment to them.

McLane, one of the best owners in baseball, is the man who made former Astros manager Jimy Williams rewrite the lineup card for the final game of the 2003 season.

More than 30,000 fans had bought tickets in hopes of watching a game with playoff implications. That game was meaningless in the standings, so Williams was going to give some of his stars the day off. To McLane, the game wasn't meaningless because fans had bought tickets. He saw the lineup card and had Williams put the stars back in.

Fans had paid to watch Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman, not September callups. McLane wanted the fans to get some of their money's worth. Only Craig Biggio remained out of the starting lineup that day.

Drayton is swell (or is that Mr. McLane to the admiring scribe?) -- and he probably appreciates that reminder appearing in the city's only newspaper when quite a few fans are beginning to wonder if it might have been more swell if he had locked up a few more hitters, some relievers, a Major League caliber catcher, and a functional first baseman in the offseason.

Normally, I wouldn't pick on a single instance of this sort of cheerleading, but Jose de Jesus Ortiz has been less than a diligent, skeptical journalist before with regard to Drayton McLane. Is it possible that sometimes journalists can get too close to the people they cover regularly? Please feel free to enlighten me in the comments.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/15/05 09:49 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Coven-obsessed D.C. columnist flops on Yalta editorial

One of the more fascinating aspects of the Bush presidency has been the extent to which the President has rejected the Baker/Scowcroft school of "realism" that dominated his father's cabinet, in favor of a much more Reaganite foreign policy.

The rejection of the old Republican realists has been so jarring that it's confounded liberals and conservatives alike. These days, it's not unusual to find liberal internationalists who clearly despise the President taking on the arguments of the realists they despised in years past.

Today, we get just such an example from the Chronicle's Cragg Hines, who embraces realism in defense of the infamous Yalta agreement that President Bush recently criticized so forcefully:

Robison: Perry didn't really show fiscal restraint

Leave it to reliable lefty (on the weekends *wink wink* -- he's an objective news bureau head the rest of the time!) Clay Robison to beat up Chronicle "bad guy" Rick Perry (R), who got a bit of indirect, positive press from the Wall Street Journal this week in a story more directly aimed at Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (R):

THE myth that Texas leaders bridged a $10 billion revenue shortfall two years ago without an assault on taxpayers' pocketbooks continues to be perpetuated, most recently — and on a national scale — by The Wall Street Journal.

An editorial in The Journal last week applauded Gov. Rick Perry for "heroically" closing the gap "without a penny of new taxes."

Nonsense.

The paper overlooked, of course, all the increases in local school taxes that have helped keep the public schools open since then.

No, not nonsense. A bit of hyperbole perhaps, since user fees (and tuition is a user fee) increased on some items, but the Chronicle is certainly guilty of hyperbole on its editorial pages from time to time (not to mention outright distortion and error).

Governor Perry did hold the line on major new taxes at a time when leaders in some states -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- showed no such restraints, and at a time when Texas liberals like Clay Robison were almost giddy with the thought that Texas might finally institute an income tax. No nonsense there, just fact.

Perry never has gotten much mileage out of that act of fiscal restraint -- especially since major editorial boards in the state have blasted away ever since at him for resulting cuts in "services" (otherwise known as wealth redistribution) -- and that's bad news for the Governor, because he will need to use the issue effectively if he faces a serious primary challenge.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/15/05 04:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

Hearsay: An important part of editorials in an ideal state

Give the Chronicle editorial board credit for consistently finding new ways to surprise.

Friday, the editorialists came out strongly against zero-tolerance policies, which they criticized as driving the punishment in the case of a student who was suspended for talking on his cell phone with his mother (a soldier stationed in Iraq), and in the case of a boorish college student who was arrested for disorderly conduct for disrupting a guest speaker at the University of Texas.

The editorial idealists offer up this bit of reasoning in support of their complaint about the arrest:

The student, Ajai Raj, said he asked the police officers why they were arresting him and, according to Raj, the officers said they didn't know.

That's known as hearsay. We were not aware that hearsay was a constituent part of editorials in an ideal state, but since it's not the first time we've pointed out, I suppose we're learning more and more about this ideal state.

We do agree with the editorialists about the absence of common sense in the suspension. However, we are still trying to find the common sense in equating these two instances.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/15/05 04:08 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

Demystifying recent NBA ratings

The Chronicle's David Barron seems honestly mystified about the recent Rockets/Mavericks television ratings:

If you can explain the following facts regarding the Rockets-Mavericks series, feel free to drop me a line.

League-wide, of 35 first-round games broadcast by a cable regional sports network and either TNT or ESPN, 25 local broadcasts had a higher Nielsen rating in the hometown market.

In only five cases when games were simulcast by an over-the-air carrier and ESPN or TNT did the network carrier outrate the local broadcast. Four of them were Games 2, 5, 6 and 7 of Mavs-Rockets.

Incredibly, each of the seven games in the Dallas-Houston series had a higher rating on ESPN or TNT in Houston than on FSN Houston or KNWS (Ch. 51). Local broadcasts had a 4.9 rating in Houston; cable broadcasts averaged 7.7.

Why? TNT may have an edge because of local affections for Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. The local broadcasts featuring Bill Worrell with Van Chancellor or Matt Bullard may have been at a disadvantage because Channel 51 doesn't promote the games, so some viewers may have thought TNT or ESPN was the only alternative.

Also, some Time Warner Cable households get a fuzzy picture on KNWS, which is at dial position 2, because of bleedover from KPRC's signal.

Or, perhaps, fans miss seeing Calvin Murphy alongside Worrell.

Ken Hoffman's explanation still seems pretty good.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/15/05 03:12 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

Revisiting Gilley's and Urban Cowboy -- 25 years later

Rachel Graves takes a look back at Gilley's and Pasadena, on the 25th anniversary of the movie Urban Cowboy:

Twenty-five years ago, the movie Urban Cowboy immortalized Gilley's and left the world with an indelible image of Houston as a rough, redneck boomtown, flooded with farm boys looking to cash in on the oilfield jobs.

People like Bud, John Travolta's character, risked their lives scrambling up and down refinery towers during the day, then donned cowboy boots and hats to two-step, throw punches and ride the mechanical bull.

[snip]

Just like in the movie, the bull's operators made the ride dangerous.

"Those guys were drinking and throwing people," said Jim Adkins, another former Gilley rat who now displays the original Gilley's sign and other memorabilia at his Cowboy Ranch restaurant in Pasadena. "They did that a lot for pure ass meanness."

"I tried to get 'em not to hurt anybody," [former Gilley's co-owner Sherwood] Cryer said in a recent interview. He admitted the bull operators could not resist when "smart asses" rode.

And, as in the movie, there were frequent fights at the club.

Graves includes some fun reminscing about John Travolta:

When Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the story, Cryer lobbied to have it filmed at the club.

[snip]

Paramount called Cryer to say a "boy" was coming out to see Gilley's and asked him to pick him up at the airport. Cryer and his friend Bob Claypool, then a Houston Post music critic, took Cryer's old pickup.

All these "Hollywood folks" got off the plane, Cryer recalled in a recent interview. "Claypool said, 'Holy s---, you know who that fella is?' "

Cryer did not, but it was John Travolta, straight off his Saturday Night Fever celebrity. He had been cast as "Bud," based on the real-life Dew Westbrook.

The stars scrambled to rent a limousine and met Cryer at Gilley's, where Travolta looked around.

"Can you teach me how to dance country?" he asked.

"I don't dance with men," Cryer responded.

Cryer introduced Travolta to [Gilley's regular Gator] Conley, who showed him the moves on the dance floor — and the bull.

"All that boy had to do was watch," Conley recalled. "He was a good dancer. Same thing with riding the bull."

And the story also details the break up between Gilley and Cryer and what happened after the tourists stopped flocking to Gilley's.

It's a very fun Sunday morning-read.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/15/05 08:54 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)

Chron: Dr. Saavedra creates unnecessary controversy

In February, the Chronicle's editorial board sounded approving of Dr. Abe Saavedra's aggressive reform ideas for HISD:

If Abe Saavedra makes good on the initiatives pledged in his State of the Schools speech Tuesday, the next 12 months will usher in dramatic changes in Texas' largest and the nation's seventh-largest school district. The challenge to the new superintendent will be to translate his words into action while correcting deficiencies and maintaining the support of the diverse communities whose children attend school in the Houston Independent School District.

Today the Chronicle scolds Dr. Saavedra for trying to usher in dramatic changes:

By not adequately preparing the community for his school management proposal, Saavedra created unnecessary controversy. The timing of the reconstitution announcement shortly before the end of the school year has had the same impact on teachers and their representatives.

Likewise, the district quickly backed off a proposed change to eliminate math and science requirements for high school juniors and seniors. Saavedra says he will form a committee to consider the issue. It shouldn't take them long to decide that in an increasingly technological world, HISD students need more upper-level math and science courses, not fewer.

Now that the district has decided to use its own managers to fix the low-performing high schools, they should move swiftly to produce results. No one should tolerate public schools that fail to educate their students.

(Picture Anne with her jaw on the floor.)

I'm at a total loss.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The editorial conveniently ignored the extent to which the Chronicle's own coverage of HISD has bordered on journalistic malpractice at times (as Anne Linehan has documented). Indeed, by ignoring it, the editorial itself verges into that very territory. So much for the ideal state.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/15/05 07:55 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

14 May 2005

Houston Strategies op-ed in Sunday's Outlook

Last week we pointed out three excellent posts by Tory Gattis on Houston Strategies that provided ideas to ease Houston's traffic congestion.

Today, Tory writes that those posts formed the basis of an op-ed he submitted to the Chronicle that will be in tomorrow's paper. In fact, he says it's the lead op-ed in Outlook!

Congratulations, Tory! We'll be sure to check it out.

UPDATE (05-15-2005): And here's the link.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/14/05 08:28 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)

The Virtuoso's mustache is restored

Remember the downtown sculpture that was altered against the wishes of its sculptor, David Adickes? El Capitan of Baboon Pirates points out that the problem has been remedied, by none other than Adickes himself.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/14/05 11:44 AM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (0)

Is opinion valued more than news?

Yesterday Rick Casey wrote a column questioning HISD priorities, since Casey discovered that HISD spokesman Terry Abbott makes a nice salary:

[...]Terry Abbott is very aggressive in his efforts to project a positive image of the school district. The board and the few administrators above him (only seven in the huge district earn more) apparently believe he earns his $149,000 annual salary.

Second, when a school district pays its public relations chief a salary nearly 50 percent higher than that of its best-paid high school principal ($103,000), it's reasonable for taxpayers to think that image is valued more than education.

Of course, the Chronicle and Jason Spencer make sure that Abbott earns every penny of his salary.

But let's turn that question around: what is Rick Casey's salary? Does he make more than Chronicle reporters? And if so, does that mean the Chronicle values opinion more than news?

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Perhaps Rick Casey would like to share his salary with us. I realize he's in not in the public sector, but I bring it up because I suspect that the money he makes as Jeff Cohen's featured metro/state assassin of Chron "bad guys" probably dwarfs that of Washington Post reporter Dan Morgan, whose work Casey ripped off without proper attribution once. Does that mean the Chronicle values attacks on "bad buys" more than quality journalism?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/14/05 11:17 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

Art cars to roll this afternoon

One of Houston's quirky events, the art car parade, takes place later today.

The Houston Art Car Klub (HACK) has the details:

An all day event with the largest contingency of Art Cars in the world! Come be part of it all and see just how amazing art can be when given the chance and some gasoline.

Line-up is 10AM - 1PM, the public can come & take pictures & mill around here, too. The actual procession is Saturday from 1PM - 2:30PM, our Grand Marshal is non other than the great philosopher Kinky Friedman!

Be lined up along Allen Parkway; bring lawn chairs, coolers & cameras.

Related festivities are listed here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/14/05 08:37 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

Saturday morning blogger radio

Charles Kuffner and I get a little break from the BizRadio 1320 blogger radio segment Saturday morning (or maybe in my case it's listeners who get a break), but you can catch the Chronicle's Kyrie O'Connor on NPR if you're so inclined.

MORE: In two weeks, you get Anne Linehan instead of me on the radio (*applause*), and Friday, May 20, we hope readers, commenters, and other Houston-area bloggers will come hang out with us at the Armadillo Palace.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/14/05 12:57 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)

13 May 2005

HISD's math and science proposal, in Dr. Saavedra's own words

Here's Dr. Saavedra, explaining why he's proposing a change in the math and science requirements:

Houston's in great shape

Tory Gattis (Houston Strategies) came across a press release for the Houston Airport System's A+ bond rating and discovered some interesting things:

The system's primary market area consists of the eight-county Houston-Galveston-Brazoria consolidated metropolitan area (CMSA). The metropolitan area recorded a 2.2% annual gain in population since 1990 to an estimated 5.2 million residents as of 2003. The regional economy recorded a 6.6% annual growth rate over the past decade as measured by total personal income, outpacing the 5.1% rate for the nation. Per capita income in the metropolitan area equals 118% and 109% of the state and national averages, respectively.

And Gattis adds:

Take those last stats and combine it with the lowest cost of living of any big city in America, and you have a pretty sweet deal. That spread between income and basic cost of living is money that's available for better housing (including renovating older housing), restaurants, charities, arts organizations, theater, museums, festivals, entertainment, vacations, higher education, and entrepreneurship. In other words, it's the raw fuel that drives our vibrancy, and we have more of it per capita and in total than any other major city in America. Kind of puts a different spin on "Energy Capital of the World" doesn't it?...

Yes it does -- Houston IS a great place to live!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/13/05 11:42 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

Houstonians think Mayor White has the greatest ideas!

Kristen Mack writes that Mayor White has commissioned a poll and the results, amazingly, show that Houstonians LOVE his ideas:

With less than 20 days left in the legislative session, Mayor Bill White has released a poll favorable to his positions on some of the key city issues before lawmakers.

The survey wasn't scientific, and the questions seem designed to evoke preferred responses — a technique called "push polling" in political parlance.

[snip]

The results showed overwhelming support for the city's position on regulating wrecker drivers, using cameras to catch red light violators and closing down after-hours clubs.

That's not surprising, given the questions, which were listed under the heading "Protecting our neighborhoods:"

•"Should the state give Houston the power to refuse towing licenses to people based on their criminal and driving records, as we do on highways?"
•"Should the state allow Houston to install cameras in traffic lights to catch people running red lights, so we can use our police to stop other crimes?"
•"Should the state allow our neighborhoods to protect themselves by closing bars in their areas at 2 a.m.?"

Mayor White is very good at the PR game, as we all know. His one big misstep so far was SAFEclear and he managed to turn that into a positive, although he got a little banged up along the way.

The red light question, though, is really something. For the 1,000th time, if the mayor was serious about safety, he would make sure the worst intersections have longer yellow light times AND a period of a couple of seconds where all lights in an intersection are red at the same time.

But adjusting traffic light times won't bring in revenue.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/13/05 10:57 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Roseanne Rosannadanna-Litella

You knew it was coming:

HISD holds off on plan for less math and science:
After hearing critics, Saavedra says a panel will look into proposed change for high schools.

Shall we guess how those critics got started? Plus the headline is wrong. There is no plan for less math or science; a middle school student would have to take a high school-level class in order for the credit to count. HISD can't just willy-nilly change a requirement like that, because the state of Texas sets those requirements.

On a KNTH-1070 newsbreak yesterday afternoon, I heard the announcer say that HISD has proposed lowering math and science requirements to two years, which isn't true! Ack! This is the problem with a lone megaphone in town. Those misleading or incorrect headlines and stories get passed around to other media outlets and then the "facts" become gospel.

Of course, this is the second time that Jason Spencer's reporting has caused HISD to postpone (or entirely change) proposed reforms.

At this point I have to agree with one of our commenters, Bill F:

Am I the only one who has the image of Rosanna Rosannadana stuck in his head every time Jason Spencer works himself into a tizzy in a story with less than half the facts?

I would only add that Spencer appears to be Roseanne Rosannadanna with a bit of Emily Litella thrown in, for good measure.

UPDATE: Just so we get our Gilda Radner characters straight, Bill F thinks (upon further reflection) that maybe it should be more Emily Litella than Roseanne Rosannadanna. We'll let readers decide for themselves. =)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/13/05 10:09 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

Consumer-friendly downtown parking meters?

KHOU-11 adds to last week's Chronicle story about the new downtown parking meters:

City officials are overhauling the entire parking operation downtown, which includes installing new, consumer-friendly parking meters.

[snip]

Manuel Gonzales was perplexed. "I'm trying to figure out how it works," he said. Before him, stood a new fangled parking meter, the likes of which he'd never seen. "I don't even know where my parking space is."

Gonzales was accustomed to the meters, like one around the corner with numbered spaces.

So was Michael Davis. "There's no space number or anything. Oh, you've got to put it on your dashboard," he said.

[snip]

When Tyesha Elam saw no numbers and no spaces, she "thought it was free."

No. They're not that friendly.

Most do accept credit cards and bills and they do the math for you, telling you exactly when your meter expires. But they're not without flaws.

Let's say you come out to check on your meter and you've got 12 minutes left. So you put in 30 minutes. Now you have 42. Apparently, that's something you can't do with the new meters. You can't add time.

Next Monday, the old meters will return briefly, which will make Manuel Gonzales happy.

"It was easier the other way," Gonzales said.

City officials hope to have the new meters installed by this fall.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/13/05 07:51 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

12 May 2005

Bill O'Reilly, Dan Patrick beat up Chronicle

(Bill O'Reilly and Dan Patrick)

On May 10 the Chronicle ran an editorial that we dismissed as more of the usual nonsense.

Bill O'Reilly, however, picked up on the editorial (which was posted on May 10, but apparently has been edited in a non-transparent manner, since the date is now May 12 -- sad, since it still contains one glaring usage error -- See UPDATE 2 below), and blasted away at it on his television program.

Unfortunately, O'Reilly apparently read something else entirely on the air, attributing it to the Chronicle editorial, which prompted editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons to post a rebuttal today.

KSEV-700 substitute host David Benzion provided a fairly good "Fisking" of the thin-skinned editorialist's rebuttal on the air earlier, and focused on the following:

The editorial, citing extensive research on this subject....

The original editorial, as Benzion properly pointed out, provided no citations to research; the version of that editorial now carrying a May 12 date provides no citations to research either. (We'll try to track down a paper copy to see what, if anything, was changed from May 10 to May 12. -- See UPDATE 2 below)

Tonight, Bill O'Reilly invited KSEV's Dan Patrick on his television program to talk about the Chronicle, since the newspaper declined to send a representative to the show. Banjo Jones summed up the appearance as follows:

Bill O'Reilly is a buffoon, as he and his staff proved the other night when it entirely misquoted a Houston Chronicle editorial regarding how Florida is dealing with child killers.

The Houston Chronicle, on the other hand, is wussified, as it proved tonight when it declined to send someone on O'Reilly's Fox News Channel program.

"The Chronicle is afraid," O'Reilly crowed.

Then he introduced Dan Patrick, the Houston-based radio talk show buffoon, who happily lambasted the Houston Chronicle as a liberally biased newspaper that has been hijacked by out-of-state liberals who have been brought in to run the business.

Banjo's full account is pretty funny.

Sadly, the circus is sort of overshadowing the sorts of problems at the newspaper that we document regularly here, which aren't funny at all.

UPDATE (05-13-2005): Another interesting aspect of the editorial board's criticism of the Florida law is that the editorial board has recently been critical of Republicans in a number of instances when, they allege, Republican politicians have been guilty of usurping local control. How amusing, then, that editorialists in Houston want to tell Florida's lawmakers what they are doing wrong!

UPDATE 2 (05-13-2005): Thanks to the readers who sent paper and electronic copy of the original editorial. So far as I can tell, no changes were made in the text. My best guess is that an online editor opened the editorials in the Chron's content management system -- perhaps to keep them from rolling to the archives -- and that "edit" caused the date/time stamp to update.

UPDATE 3 (05-13-2005): A little birdie tells us that Bill O'Reilly is about to be displaced on KSEV.... by Dr. Laura Schlesinger, as soon as Monday. Nobody at KSEV will confirm for us, so I guess we'll just have to listen.

UPDATE (05-16-2005): I just flipped over to to the KSEV stream, and O'Reilly was still there. That just goes to show that you can't believe every rumor you hear.

UPDATE (05-17-2005): A blogHOUSTON reader points out that the KSEV website now shows Dr. Laura in O'Reilly's old slot on the schedule, which was not the case when I checked yesterday. O'Reilly was still on the air today, but it appears that the KSEV web guy is either very erratic or that the change is coming shortly.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 11:30 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)

Mayor White takes HFD negotiations public

Yesterday, KUHF-88.7's Capella Tucker and KHOU-11's Doug Miller separately reported Mayor White's comments that negotiators for the city of Houston and the city's firefighters were bogged down in a disagreement about overtime compensation.

Today, the Chronicle reported further on Mayor White's comments yesterday, which drew criticism from firefighters:

The overtime issue came up when a council member asked the mayor about the status of the contract negotiations.

Saying he wanted the city government to be transparent, White told the council and the audience about what he described as a miscalculation.

Reporters who gathered for his regular briefing after the meeting asked questions about the issue, prompting more comments.

It seems clear that Mayor White intentionally revealed details of ongoing negotiations in order to try to push things along in a manner favorable to the city. The Chronicle's reporting suggests as much:

"We've had a lot of great progress," he said. "But there comes a point — with or without a contract — where we have to have a number in the budget."

The firefighters don't know how to play at this level:

"It does nobody any good to have a 'he said, she said' in the media," [firefighters' representative Rick] Mumey said.

Not true. It did the mayor some good. By calling out the firefighters as asking for more than is required under state law with regard to overtime, Mayor White has painted the firefighters as greedy to the public, and has gained a negotiating advantage. It's hard to believe it happened inadvertently.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 10:44 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)

KPRC-2 breaks out sex offenders by zip code

KPRC-2 has taken time from reporting on the weather dog's diet to break out the number of sex offenders in Houston by zip code.

The story is here.

The Texas Sexual Offender searchable database is located here, for anyone who might be inclined to look up former radio talk-show hosts (or anybody else).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 10:19 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)

HPD reallocates resources to deal with MS 13

KTRK-13 reports that HPD is reallocating resources to deal with the MS 13 gang problem in Houston.

That's welcome news, of course, but this part of the report was revealing:

About a year ago, as a result of retirement and layoffs at HPD, there was a reallocation of manpower that removed officers from full-time gang task force duties, allowing them only to work gang crimes part time. HPD admits there is need for such full-time work.

HPD's manpower shortages have not gone away. While it's good news that HPD has shifted resources to the gang problem, that means resources have been shifted away from other areas. Increased crime is sure to be the result.

Unfortunately, we don't see any elected officials exercising leadership in remedying HPD's ongoing manpower woes.

UPDATE (05-13-2005): Robert Crowe's report for the Chronicle notes that HPD still refuses to talk about the extent of the gang problem with any specificity.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 09:42 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)

HPD crime lab receives accreditation

HPD's crime lab received some good news on Wednesday:

Houston's troubled crime lab took a giant step forward in getting the community's confidence back, but there's more work to be done.

All operations of the lab received national accreditation except the DNA section. It's been closed since 2002 when an audit revealed possible contamination of evidence and poorly trained staff.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt hopes to have the DNA lab accredited and back in operation by the end of the year.

We'll take Chief Hurtt at his word, since he has now delivered on his March promise that the crime lab would be accredited (except for the DNA section) in 90 days.

ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KUHF-88.7, Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 09:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

New Times alternarag doesn't like smoking ban

Way back in March, the city passed a ban on smoking in restaurants.

Today, the Houston Press offered up a feature on said ban (the tone suggests the author doesn't much like it).

That's some timely, cutting-edge "alternative" journalism there, guys -- way to be right on the cutting edge of the debate!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 09:14 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

New nominees for Sports Authority

Mayor White has nominated five directors for the Sports Authority Board. Two are renominations and three are new nominations:

Houston Mayor Bill White today announced five nominees for the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority Board of Directors. Three of the nominees are new to the board and two are being reappointed.

“We’ve got a slate of good, conscientious nominees who take this role seriously and help us fulfill our commitment to the kind of diversity that reflects Houston,” said Mayor White. “We are proud that they are ready, willing and able to serve.”

The appointees, who must be approved by City Council, are:

* Neal S. Manne, a partner with the law firm Susman Godfrey LLP., to Position 1, for a term expiring Aug. 31, 2006.

* Ba Mau Nguyen, an attorney with Vinson & Elkins, reappointed to Position 2 for a term to expire Aug. 31, 2006. He was first appointed to the Authority in August 2003.

* J. Kent Friedman, reappointed to Position 3, for a term expiring Aug. 31, 2006. Friedman is vice chairman of the board and general counsel of MAXXAM, Inc.

* Janie Reyes to Position 5, for a term expiring, Aug. 31, 2005. Reyes is a community activist who has served Harris County as director of personnel, Equal Employment Opportunity officer and several other positions.

* Roland Garcia, to Position 11, for a term expiring Aug. 31, 2005. Garcia was a partner with the law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP., and is now managing partner of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

Are any other Chris Baker listeners laughing as they repeat the mantra, "Diversity is beauty"? Because nothing makes a Sports Authority run more efficiently than diversity.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/12/05 04:54 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (14)

Chron's HISD story is very misleading (updated)

If you read the story in today's Chronicle about HISD reducing high school graduation requirements for math and science, and the story made you mad -- STOP!

First of all, look who wrote the story -- Jason Spencer. That should send up warning flags. I know it did for me. So before I panicked -- after all, how could the superintendent who is aggressively trying to reform HISD take a big step backward? -- I decided to see if there's more to the story.

There is. According to HISD spokesman Terry Abbott, HISD is not lowering the number of credits required to graduate. Here is what Abbott told me:

What we are proposing to do is simply what Spring Branch and Cy Fair and Austin and virtually every other school district is Texas does, and that is give a middle school kid credit if he takes a high-school level course in middle school.

This policy does NOT affect the number of credits needed to graduate. An HISD student still must have three high-school level math credits, for instance, to graduate.

In fact, here's the very LAST paragraph of the story:

Dallas requires three years of science and math in high school. Cy-Fair requires three years of high school math, but allows students to earn science credit in middle school. Austin school officials are thinking of changing their policy that now allows students to graduate with just two years of math and science in high school.

HISD is not lowering requirements. If a middle school student takes a high school level class while in middle school, the course can be counted for high school credit. And, interestingly, it's the same policy that many other Texas school districts have, including Spring Branch, Cy-Fair and Austin.

I await Spencer's story castigating those districts for this policy.

Also, Dr. Saavedra's proposal takes HISD back to the requirements that were in place in 2001. The story says that the current policy was enacted in conjunction with TAKS testing.

And all readers should know by now that if the Chronicle has a story about HISD, they should read it with a grain of salt.

UPDATE: Terry Abbott has forwarded me the letter he sent to the Chronicle, protesting Spencer's story. I will post it in the extended entry.

A world-class city for commerce and careers

Houston may still be short of the elusive "world-class" status that some local municipal leaders, mass-transit enthusiasts, and editorial utopians long for, but it ranks highly in the latest Forbes rankings of Best Places for Business and Careers.

Tom Kirkendall has the details at Houston's Clear Thinkers.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 11:38 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

11 May 2005

More seamy details in home foreclosure story

Lone Star Times did some digging into the suspicious home foreclosure that was in the media a couple of weeks ago, and here's what David Benzion found:

LST has confirmed that as early as 1994, Terry H. Sears, an attorney for the Briarhills Homeowners Association that executed a non-judicial foreclosure last September on a home owned by Pamela Bernhardt, has sold 9 other foreclosed homes to the purchaser of Bernhardt’s property, Nancy M. Groves.

[snip]

Sears denied to LST that he had any sort of financial "relationship" with Groves, noting that the auction at which Bernhardt’s home was sold was "open to the public", conducted by the property’s "trustee", and that Groves had simply been "the highest bidder".

When pressed, Sears acknowledged that he himself had been the trustee for the auction.

Asked by LST how many other bidders had expressed an interest in or attempted to purchase Bernhardt’s home, Sears replied that he "could not recall."

There's much more in this nice example of citizen journalism.

The big question is where are all the local media watchdogs on this story? Where's the Chronicle? Why didn't the KHOU-11 Defenders investigate this? Where is KTRK-13's Action 13 or Undercover 13? And KPRC-2...oh nevermind. Radar's diet is obviously more important. Or maybe the station is testing a new brand of underwear.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/11/05 04:06 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

HISD markets itself -- taxpayers win

Bruce Nichols of the Dallas Morning News has an interesting story about how HISD markets its products and services:

[HISD] dipped its toe into the marketing waters a decade ago and is now selling nine HISD-brand products and services to other districts, including Dallas.

[snip]

At a recent Austin meeting of school business officials, Houston ISD fit right in with the sellers of buses, janitorial supplies and gym equipment. Standing under a large HISD logo, the district's retired chief financial officer, Leonard Sturm, handed out brochures and answered questions about curriculum software, construction services and other wares the district sells inside and outside Texas.

[snip]

But Mr. Sturm – rehired as a consultant to lead the sales push – said the effort is a response to the rising pressures of tighter budgets, topped-out tax revenues, ratcheted-up performance demands and a political environment that favors private-sector solutions.

"Everybody that was coming to look at us was saying you guys need to treat the district more like a business," Mr. Sturm said. "That's really the origin of what we're doing."

He's had some success. Sales totaled $12.5 million in 2003-04, the last complete year for which figures are available. Nearly $1.7 million of that was net gain that could help defray operating costs. It's a drop in the bucket when you look at the district's $1.2 billion budget, but it's a start, he says.

The upside: Taxpayers, theoretically, save every time HISD sells something to another district. HISD recovers some of its operating costs. And customers save through the buying power of the nation's seventh largest district, with more than 200,000 students.

I don't have any problem with this at all. That last paragraph in the excerpt shows the many benefits, and contrary to the image local media gives us, HISD has many successful schools, so the district does have worthwhile products and expertise to market.

The other side says this:

"It's a bad thing because what it does is it creates an organization whose focus is further and further removed from actual teaching and learning of children," said Alex Molnar, director of the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University. He also decries the drift toward turning schools into businesses, the "erosion of the idea of public education as a public good instead of a market-driven commodity."

No, HISD's organization is clearly not focused on marketing; the district pays someone to do it, someone no longer involved in day-to-day education operations.

And any story on HISD wouldn't be complete without a quote from our favorite naysayer:

"It's not like HISD is a shining star for management," chuckled Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

Poor Dr. Saavedra, having to deal with that woman. Gayle Fallon's own management style includes having her attorney son represent some of the HISD teachers currently accused of helping students cheat on TAKS tests.

Fallon is also opposed to the mere thought, hint, or whiff of any school reform idea that involves the words "outsider" or "private." So we can take her opinion of HISD's management abilities with a grain of salt.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/11/05 01:01 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

Redesigned Chron blogs go live, embrace interactivity

Yesterday, Chronicle tech guru Dwight Silverman posted that the Chronicle would soon be moving its blogs to new software that would allow greater interactivity.

Today, Silverman announces that two of those blogs (his and Kyrie O'Connor's) are now live.

The blogs are on a Movable Type platform, and allow moderated comments and trackback.

Silverman's first post on the new software hints at where the Chronicle may be heading:

What you're seeing here is more than just the Chronicle using a different piece of software for blogging. This is the beginning of our taking a very different stance toward our core mission -- finding out what's going on in the community and letting others know.

The conversion of these blogs are baby steps, but our goal is to turn Houston's news into a conversation.

Here at blogHOUSTON, that's our goal as well.

We sincerely hope that Silverman can draw many more of his colleagues at 801 Texas Avenue into the conversation.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/11/05 11:06 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)

Chron editorials: Just read and gasp (updated)

That disturbing Chronicle editorial from yesterday -- saying Florida's sex offender law is too harsh -- received some attention yesterday from none other than Fox News' Bill O'Reilly:

[...]why is "The Houston Chronicle" criticizing Florida's tough new crackdown on child molesters?

We can help with that question: in the Chronicle's world leftovers and criminals are more important than unborn babies and crime victims.

In fact, Sedosi Alhambra sums it up perfectly:

A new standard of Editorial ineptitude.

This is so bad I can't even comment.

Just read and gasp.

Perhaps that could become the new editorial page banner -- "Just read and gasp."

UPDATE (5-12-2005): James Howard Gibbons (opinion page editor) has written a laugh-out-loud editorial journal in today's paper, about Bill O'Reilly's take on this editorial. It's delicious!

He complains about O'Reilly getting his facts wrong (which just never happens in Chron editorials, nosirree), and says this:

O'Reilly claims his show is free of spin. Spin is when someone casts the facts in such a light as to reinforce his argument and weaken his opponent's. What O'Reilly did was to disregard the facts altogether, even going so far as to attribute to the Chronicle words and views it did not print and does not espouse.

Ha ha ha ha!

Before Chronicle readers complain about an editorial, I hope they take the time to read the editorial carefully, rather than relying on someone else's careless characterization of its contents.

Oh Mr. Gibbons, we did read the editorial. And we still think Sedosi Alhambra's reaction is perfect -- just read and gasp.

Maybe Gibbons could ask for a correction from O'Reilly?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/11/05 10:32 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (8)

Light rail train claims first fatality

(image via KPRC-2)

Houston's light rail train claimed its first fatality last night, in its 88th overall documented collision and 16th this year:

The first fatality in a Metro light rail accident happened overnight Tuesday at the intersection of Main and Jefferson in downtown Houston.

A pickup truck and a Metro light rail train collided at the intersection of Jefferson and Main.

Witnesses told police Jesse Villareal was driving his white pickup truck eastbound on Jefferson. They say everyone behind him stopped for a red light, but he went through at the same time a southbound train entered the intersection.

Police say the front car slammed into the driver's side door, pushing the truck 50 feet down the rail and killing Villareal instantly. At full speed the trains go about 40 mph.

The train derailed from the impact of the crash.

At the time, the train carried 12 passengers, and four went to the hospital Tuesday night with minor injuries.

The Chronicle story refers to a nickname that came about over on the personal weblog:

Critics blame the record number of accidents on the system's at-grade rail design, with some nicknaming the $324 million MetroRail "The Danger Train." Questions also have been raised about confusing signage and traffic lights along the rail line. Additionally, MetroRail tracks share the left-turn lanes with motorists in the Texas Medical Center area.

That's a fair synopsis of the criticism.

LOCAL MEDIA COVERAGE: Houston Chronicle, KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRK-13.

WEBLOG COMMENTARY: Safety for Dummies, IFOC, PubliusTX.net.

MORE WEBLOG COMMENTARY: Lone Star Times.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/11/05 08:28 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)

10 May 2005

Dangertrain.blogspot.com

James Taranto points out that the head of the Chicago Transit Authority has started a blog: ctachair.blogspot.com. It's a blogspot blog, so there's not a whole lot of investment in it; but still, isn't that intriguing?

Just imagine if David Wolff or Frank Wilson had a blog...

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/10/05 07:42 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

Sen. Ellis backs off journalist shield law

The proposed journalist shield law has been pulled by its sponsor, state Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston):

A proposed shield law for journalists fizzled Monday in the Senate when the sponsor backed off the measure after it ran into hostility from other lawmakers opposed to special protections for reporters and their sources.

Texas newspapers and broadcasters had joined forces this year to push for a bill to protect reporters from having to testify in court or disclose confidential sources. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have shield law statutes and Congress is considering whether to enact a federal law.

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, sponsored the measure but was resisted by senators unwilling to cross their local district attorneys who are reluctant to close any doors that might help a criminal investigation.

When the bill was amended to weaken the protection for reporters and sources, Ellis decided to end debate and pulled the bill down from consideration.

News executives who pushed for the shield law were upset over its apparent demise this session.

Wanda Cash, president of the Texas Press Association and editor and publisher of The Baytown Sun, said the proposed bill was designed to protect confidential sources who may not be willing to provide critical information if they fear their identity could be exposed.

"Shield bills are really about protecting the free flow of information, but that gets lost in the debate when you have prosecutors saying they won't be able to get the bad guys if reporters are allowed to keep secrets," Cash said.

Broadcasters have long supported a shield law because TV and radio journalists are subpoenaed more often for their videotapes and other recorded materials than print reporters are for their notes.

The Chronicle won't be pleased.

We previously wrote about the shield law here, here, here and here.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/10/05 05:15 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

Confusing rail intersection revenue stream cranked up today

Now that the Park and Pillage robbers have been caught, it's apparently back to generating revenue for METRO's cops.

I drove by the Main/Wheeler goofy rail intersection on my way home about 4:30 pm today, and the METRO cops were again hiding up by the Sears parking lot, apparently poised to wave over motorists confused by the poorly designed intersection so they can contribute to city coffers.

Watch yourself out there. And if any Park and Rides are pillaged today, you'll know where precious METRO police resources were concentrated.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/10/05 05:04 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

09 May 2005

Big media considering measures to boost product?

From the Huffington Post (via Laurence Simon's latest project) comes the news that the New York Times is considering some significant changes aimed at improving the newspaper.

Some of the proposals are not unlike the wish list we compiled for the Chronicle at the beginning of the year.

Who knows, given some of Dwight Silverman's recent travels, maybe some of our suggestions are getting consideration.

UPDATE (05-10-2005): What timing! Dwight Silverman posts that the Chronicle is about to migrate its blogs to more capable software that will allow the interactivity one expects from blogs. Laurence Simon comments on what this could mean for the evolution of mainstream media.

UPDATE (05-11-2005): Apprently, the Chronicle's Jay Lee isn't so hip to that "blog" thing. Sedosi Alhambra explains.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/09/05 10:57 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (13)

Chron: Gonzales is an inconsistent meanie!

The Chronicle gets in a cheap attack on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today:

The Bush administration defines torture as the infliction of severe injury resulting in organ failure or death. That leaves out, without explanation, the infliction of terrible but temporary pain, humiliation and anguish — treatment that certainly does not correspond to American values or law.

In one breath, Gonzales states that torture is against administration policy, but in the next he seems to discount or excuse mistreatment that falls short of death or severe injury. The attorney general said mistreatment of prisoners short of torture could not be prosecuted under the laws barring torture. True, but mistreatment can be punished under other laws. Enlisted soldiers who mistreated Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison are serving or face years in prison. Why can't the attorney general bring himself to speak out strongly against such behavior, whether or not it falls into his narrow definition of torture?

Gonzales has been widely criticized for memos he and his administration colleagues wrote that noted, falsely, that U.S. laws against torture did not apply to enemy combatants who were terrorists.

The Chronicle editorial idealists aren't going to win over large majorities of Texans with complaints that interrogation techniques short of torture are too mean to detained terror suspects.

It's not clear that the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was torture so much as a complete breakdown in military order. The guilty soldiers are being punished, so it's even less clear why the editorial idealists are complaining.

Finally, Gonzales' stance on the Geneva Conventions and their applicability to enemy noncombatants -- while aggressive -- had a logic to it. Reasonable people can debate that logic, but the editorial idealists simply dismiss it.

At least petty and simplistic editorials are an improvement in this area. Sometimes the idealists get so carried away that they create nonexistent treaties.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/09/05 10:41 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

Campbell on Cosby's conversation

Chronicle reader representative James T. Campbell pens a column on Bill Cosby, who will be visiting Houston next week:

Cosby is attempting to fundamentally change the approach that lower income and poor minorities use to overcome their circumstances. No one of his status has endeavored to take on this very critical paradigm shift. But whether you live in River Oaks or the Fifth Ward, helping the city's underclass to overcome its condition ultimately will benefit us all. The conversation with Bill Cosby is but a starting place. Where it will end is anyone's guess.

Cosby will be speaking at Texas Southern University on Monday, May 16. More information is available here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/09/05 09:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

"Texas Viking" Fjetland talks politics, launches blog

Local progressive blogger Charles Kuffner sat down last week with Michael Fjetland, the sometime Republican from Fort Bend County who is again speaking of challenging House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R). Kuffner summarized Fjetland's plans as follows:

In talking about what Pete McCloskey has in mind, the basic deal is this - if Fjetland can raise a decent amount of seed money, about $50K or so, McCloskey's group will pony up $500K to help. They're apparently serious about challenging the DeLay wing of the Republican Party....

As Anne Linehan has pointed out previously, McCloskey is a liberal Republican former member of Congress from California. He certainly seems to have put some interesting ideas in Fjetland's head about the composition of the Republican Party by referring to a "DeLay wing," since presumably that conservative "wing" is better described as the conservative Republican party of Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and yes, Tom DeLay. It may well be that McCloskey longs for those glorious days of the permanent Republican moderate Bob Michel minority in the House -- or it may just be that McCloskey's thought has grown even weaker with age.

The last time we checked in on Mr. Fjetland here at blogHOUSTON, he was busy making a fool of himself. That was a while back, though. Local conservative blogger Chris Elam has written about Fjetland more recently, including today. Indeed, new blogspot blog author Fjetland must be spending a bit of time himself reading blogs, since Elam's blog was added to Fjetland's blogroll within hours of Elam noting the omission.

This could prove to be entertaining.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/09/05 08:48 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)

District C candidates off and running

Friday, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack provided some interesting coverage of the District C council race, which already seems to be heating up:

One of the candidates in the crowded race to succeed Mark Goldberg, who is term-limited in the southwest Houston district, is lawyer George Hittner. His father is U.S. District Judge David Hittner.

Supporting one of George Hittner's opponents, and circulating letters on his behalf, is Houston businessman Jack Weingarten.

His daughter, Lea Fastow, is in federal prison on an Enron-related charge.

Judge David Hittner put her there.

Weingarten has sent a letter to friends and District C residents endorsing candidate Herman Litt, a Houston Community College System trustee.

Typical of such a letter, it touts Litt's achievements, describing him as a talented and qualified leader.

And then the letter takes a turn.

" ... there is one candidate who will probably emerge as a well financed contender. That candidate is George Hittner, son of judge hittner," Weingarten writes, using lower case in a letter that otherwise is grammatically sound.

"I am troubled about visiting the sins of a father on his son, but I am comfortable with the fact that Hermann Litt is especially well qualified, while George Hittner is very inexperienced and unqualified."

This race is liable to get very interesting. The Litt people already seem to be engaged, and Hittner signs are starting to show up around town. Candidate Anne Clutterbuck presumably will put together a good grassroots campaign, having learned those ropes working with John Culberson (R) and Bill Archer (R). Other announced candidates are Brian Cweren, Mark Lee, and Judy Siverson.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/09/05 08:03 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Metro arrests Park and Pillage burglars

The Park and Pillage bandits have been arrested, according to Metro Police:

Fingerprints on a car that had been broken into at the Addicks Park & Ride lot last month helped Metro police capture two men believed responsible for a number of vehicle burglaries in the Houston area, officials said.

Juan Alvarez, 18, and Christian Vargas, 17, are accused of breaking into nearly 70 vehicles in the Houston area, officials said. The pair were charged with felony theft.

I still think Chief Lambert should hire Laurence Simon for his remote cam technology.

Or, Metro could employ this idea.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/09/05 10:28 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

Twin Cities Metro can't get a working "smart card" system from Cubic Corp.

Cubic Corp, which has failed to deliver a working "smart card" system for Metro and is being sued by Metro, has also failed to deliver a functional "smart card" system for the Twin Cities Metro Transit agency:

It's called the Go-To Card and it was supposed to revolutionize the way people paid for bus and light-rail rides in the Twin Cities. Now 20 months overdue, the only thing that has been revolutionized is Metro Transit's prediction of when it will work.

[snip]

The new system that works like a credit card should allow for quicker boarding, convenience for regular riders and better coordination between bus and light-rail fares.

But nearly everything has gone wrong during the testing:

• A central computer that coordinates the monetary transactions so riders can use the Go-To Card failed repeatedly to work or accurately record transactions.

• The football-shaped readers on buses were not reading the card and emitted an annoying beeping sound.

• Ticket vending machines for light rail, which were included with the Go-To Card project, frequently jammed or deducted money from riders' credit cards but didn't provide a ticket.

The company that signed a $16.5 million contract to develop the system has promised that the glitches will be worked out and the system ready to go by July 1. But Metropolitan Council officials say they've heard it before, and the company is now facing a legal battle with Houston's transit agency for not delivering a similar system.

Houston has terminated its contract with Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego.

"We've had that discussion more often than I like to think about,'' Lamb said of ending the contract. "Of course, yes, there is a point where it is not viable. Are we there yet? I don't think so.

"One of the challenges of this project is we are in the front end of new technology,'' he said. "It's hard to predict the difficulties you might run into.''

Meanwhile, Lamb has been in weekly phone contact with Cubic since November and has written numerous letters — some strongly worded — documenting the schedules and conversations.

It all sounds familiar.

Cubic is also one of the companies testing new downtown parking meters.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/09/05 09:07 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

08 May 2005

Radar goes on a diet

It's bad enough that KPRC-2 has a dog on its weather forecasts.

Now, the dog's diet has become a part of the newscast:

Houston's dubious fattest city title may apply to more than just than human residents. Veterinarians are seeing a rise in dogs and cats packing on the pounds. And Local 2's own Radar the weather dog is one of them.

The last few months Radar has been getting heavier, which was confirmed at his annual checkup in March. So the vet has put Radar on a diet and paired him with another pudgy pooch to help motivate him and bring out his competitive spirit.

Radar is ready for his doggy diet challenge.

[snip]

Radar's diet buddy, Ned, is a Labrador adopted from the pound. Ned tipped the scales at 88 pounds when he went home with his new family.

Why make such an important health matter a News 2 exclusive?

I propose that KPRC-2 contact the Chronicle's Washington-based diet-diarist Cragg Hines about setting the two pooches up with LiveJournals to document their diets.

And why not bring KTRK-13's Ilona Carson in on the action? The blogHOUSTON crew has thus far not seen any stories on her horse Pasquale, but maybe it needs to drop a few pounds as well.

There's expertise to be tapped, and your friendly media/politics bloggers are here to help!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/08/05 10:04 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

Catch the Casey LiveJournal Monologues in person

Today, we get the latest in a series of LiveJournal-style columns from Rick Casey.

It's nice to see the state of the culture as reflected by Casey's prose:

Afterwards he hooked up with and impregnated a woman.

The colloquialism "hooked up with" seems much more appropriate to a LiveJournal than a quality newspaper.

No doubt, more such colloquialisms will be forthcoming at Casey's brown-bag-lunch session with the Harris County Democratic Party next week:

Rick Casey, the Houston Chronicle's political columnist, will speak at the Harris County Democratic Party's Brown Bag Lunch on Tuesday, May 10 at noon.

HCDP's headquarters location is 1445 North Loop West, Suite 110. Visit the HCDP's web site for a map.

As always, bring your lunch and we will provide beverages.

It promises to be a festive gathering of like-minded people.

UPDATE: The Casey LiveJournal Monologues performance has been pushed to May 11.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/08/05 06:54 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

McGilbra pleads guilty to federal charges

Another official from the administration of former mayor Lee Brown has pleaded guilty to wrongdoing while in office:

Former city of Houston administrator Monique McGilbra pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges stemming from a multistate investigation into bribery of public officials.

McGilbra, 41, the former director of Houston's Building Services Department, entered a plea agreement in Cleveland, Ohio, to federal charges of conspiracy and extortion. Under the same agreement, McGilbra will plead guilty next week in federal court in Houston to "a conspiracy to deprive the city of Houston and its citizens of honest services."

The charges against McGilbra involve allegations that she accepted a lavish, $4,500 trip with her then-boyfriend to the 2002 Super Bowl, a $700 Louis Vuitton purse, a $1,000 dinner in Miami Beach, Fla., and other favors in exchange for helping Cleveland businessmen land an energy-services contract with the city of Houston. McGilbra also admitted she accepted a $1,000 weekend of entertainment in Cleveland.

[snip]

Cleveland businessman Gilbert Jackson pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges in January. Another Cleveland businessman, Nate Gray, is scheduled to stand trial on federal charges later this month.

Oliver Spellman, who was a chief of staff to former Houston Mayor Lee Brown, entered a guilty plea to charges of accepting bribes in December. That case involved the contract for shuttle service at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

As part of McGilbra's plea deal, she has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators and prosecutors in the case.

That cooperation could well reveal all sorts of interesting relationships among this city's power brokers and its former political leaders. Stay tuned.

PREVIOUSLY: Who is Nate Gray? (bH), Spellman admits accepting bribe (bH), Lee Brown legacy continues to grow (bH).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/08/05 06:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

MetroRail faces a big repair headache

As Rad Sallee reports, Metro is disclosing it has a problem with the light rail system:

After more than a year of rail operations, Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson revealed recently that 12 of the 16 electrically powered switches designed to move trains from one track to another in case of an accident or blockage were damaged by rainwater shortly after the line opened Jan. 1, 2004.

The switches were installed without adequate drainage, and Metro's effort to get them repaired has been hampered because none of the firms involved in MetroRail construction has claimed responsibility for the problem.

Since January, the switches have been operated not by touching a button but by going to the site, poking a long handle through a slot in the metal plate that covers the mechanism and moving the tracks with muscle power.

Although the switch supplier has agreed to replace the controls, improving drainage at the switch sites to prevent a recurrence may cost millions and take until fall, Metro officials said.

As Sallee notes, Wilson isn't disclosing this just out of the goodness of his heart; no, he's using it to illustrate why Metro needs to use the "design-build" method of construction on the next rail line segments:

Wilson said that if the Main Street line had been constructed with that method, in which a single company is in charge of a major project, responsibility for problems would clearly fall on the prime contractor. Several companies were involved in the construction of the rail line, making accountability difficult.

That's humorous -- Metro worried about accountability. But what's even more humorous (Sallee's story is great!) are Wilson's quotes at the end:

Wilson said the flooding and current problems exemplify "the trouble you get when you build the project in a more traditional manner where somebody designs it, somebody else builds it and (a third) somebody pays for it."

"The designers designed what they thought was correct," he said. "Siemens provided a switch they've probably provided to 10 other places. The builders built what was on the specifications. When you put it all together, it doesn't work.

"Now whose responsibility is that?"

Gee, maybe it's the responsibility of whoever decided on an at-grade level design.

(That was way too easy.)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/08/05 07:53 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

07 May 2005

Hurtt addresses HPD internal affairs issues

The Chronicle's Harvey Rice follows up on his solid reporting earlier this week with an update on the fallout over the $600,000 judgment against HPD in a sexual harassment lawsuit:

Police Chief Harold Hurtt says he plans to insulate his department's internal affairs investigators from possible meddling in response to allegations that high-ranking Houston police officials have interfered in misconduct investigations.

"One thing I intend to do is to make clear instructions to supervisors and managers in the Houston Police Department that, if they have a question about an ongoing investigation, that they will not contact the investigator," Hurtt said.

The chief said this week that he will require command staff members and managers to direct questions about internal investigations to the executive assistant chief in charge of the internal affairs division.

Officials who are not involved in an internal probe should not question investigators or use any other means to get information about the case, he said.

Hurtt's policy change follows a $600,000 verdict against the city in a female officer's federal lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and retaliation. The city is appealing the jury award to Beth Kreuzer, the first woman to serve in HPD's motorcycle unit.

Kreuzer accused command staff members of interfering in her case to shield a well-connected supervisor and punish her and other officers.

Former Sgt. Michael Cox, whose pending lawsuit accuses police officials of retaliating against him for backing the sexual harassment complaint, also accuses HPD brass of manipulating the investigation that led to his firing.

Rice's reporting and the resulting publicity surely helped motivate Chief Hurtt to address this problem that was left to him from former Chief Clarence Bradford.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/07/05 05:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Mobility solutions for Houston

Tory Gattis, who writes the Houston Strategies blog, has three posts on how to solve Houston's traffic woes: a network of express lanes, private transit options, and financial incentives to get employees to stop driving to work.

There are some excellent ideas in the three posts. With respect to the third post (employees driving to work) it's useful to remember that Mayor White also has an idea -- he wants to convene a "Summit on Flexible Work Schedules."

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/07/05 12:20 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

Now 911 dispatchers have a productivity policy (updated)

Here are two sentences from Mayor White's most recent State of the City speech:

As a community we must build consensus to put emergency services on a sound, sustainable financial basis.

Public safety will come first in our City's budget, as it did last year.

So, how does the city "put emergency services on a sound, sustainable financial basis"? Maybe this is one way:

When a person calls 911 and needs the police, you're transferred to an HPD call taker like 16-year veteran Latrella Thomas.

She says a new policy at HEC has made gathering information for police more difficult.

11 news obtained a document which states call takers must process each call in approximately 80 seconds.

Anything over 90 seconds needs improvement say HEC officials, and if the call takes more than 121 seconds, that's unacceptable.

You know, there comes a point when one wonders if any city official has an ounce of common sense. If an HEC dispatcher talks to someone in an emergency situation for 41 seconds too long, that's considered unacceptable?

Ms. Thomas, quoted in the KHOU-11 story, cites one example where she chose not to follow the policy:

She remembers telling a young victim of a home invasion to immediately go upstairs.

"I told her to go in the bathroom and lock the door," says Thomas. "We had to stay on the line with them which HEC wanted us to get off, but I didn't get off because that lady's life was in jeopardy."

Thank goodness!

But hang on, because this next part is going to make you scream:

Joe Laud is with HEC. He says the new rules were put in place to increase productivity.

"Well, it's part of the mayor's new plan for their evaluation, their performance and that is part of their requirements that they will have to follow," says Laud. "But it follows the Department of Justice, their guidelines for all public safety call taking procedures."

Is there some problem with dispatchers goofing off? If so, then where's management? Working the floor or hiding in an office? Or is this because HEC is short of help? Maybe the city should address the issues that keep HEC perpetually understaffed, instead of standing over the staff it does have with a stopwatch. I'd bet -- with everything we know about HEC -- that it's more about staffing problems.

What an interesting look into the mindset of city officials: the city moves forward with planning a "centerpiece park," while implementing a policy that limits the amount of time a 911 call-taker can be on the phone.

RELATED: HPD's "productivity policy" begins (blogHOUSTON), Can the Houston Emergency Center be fixed? (blogHOUSTON)

UPDATE: Laurence Simon offers an apology for the call center's bizarre new policy.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/07/05 11:40 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Here's the new definition of world-class: an $81 million park

Isn't it nice that a New York-based company can come to Houston and tell city officials that if they would just spend $81 million on a 12-acre park, Houston "could" be redefined as a "great city"?

Local officials are hard at work on plans to transform a teacup-shaped, 12-acre plot of asphalt lots and vacant land downtown into a major urban park on par with those in New York, Atlanta and Chicago.

[snip]

Other urban parks, such as Chicago's Millennium Park, include world-class architecture, sculpture and outdoor concert venues.

White, who announced the Houston park in October, has said the $81 million park could spur economic development in that section of downtown and raise property values nearby.

[snip]

A New York-based nonprofit, Project for Public Spaces, is helping with the initial planning. It recently held focus group meetings and will conduct today's workshop.

Today's event is expected to move outside onto what will be the park's grounds, now mostly covered by surface parking lots and a small park, said Fred Kent, president of Project for Public Spaces.

[snip]

"It's a big challenge," Kent said. "This could help redefine Houston as a great city."

Random thoughts:

1. Didn't the light rail make Houston world-class?

2. How many jaywalking tickets, red light camera citations, heavy trash violations, and truck zone parking citations will be required to help fund the $81 million world-class park?

3. Doesn't Houston have some money problems? For example, didn't the city shift its pension problem by transferring the debt to the underperforming Hilton-Americas?

4. Why does Houston feel inferior to New York, Atlanta and Chicago? Seriously. Houston is a wonderful place to live and I'd rather live here than those three cities, any day.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/07/05 08:48 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)

blogHOUSTON on the radio

It's Saturday morning, which means Kevin will be on BizRadio 1320 with Charles Kuffner at about 10:15 or so. Tune in!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/07/05 07:22 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

06 May 2005

MeMo documents downtown tow truck/HPD revenue stream

The Chronicle's Kyrie O'Connor verges dangerously close to blogHOUSTON territory today:

Almost every day between 4 and 5 I glance down onto the street and note the tow-truck activity outside my spacious but ill-appointed office on the 5th floor of the Chronicle building in downtown Houston. The trucks and cops at that hour are removing illegal parkers. I've got to believe they're doing this in anticipation of the impending rush of traffic. But I've got to say, I've never really seen the traffic part. Maybe I just don't notice. I took these notes yesterday at 4:48 p.m.:

There are five tow trucks visible on Milam from my office window. Two have cars hooked up to them. There is one police car with its lights flashing, in the middle of the scrum of trucks and cars.

The traffic I can see on Milam is this: six cars, three taxis, one bus. And this is during a red light.

MayorWhiteChiefHurtt do have to pay for those Tasers and shiny new badges somehow! Oh, and that little matter of the $600,000 lawsuit.

So, limited HPD resources are devoted to managing downtown parking to ensure traffic flow (a burgeoning problem that may soon require a new Parking Authority! *wink wink*), managing downtown speeding, managing poorly designed downtown rail/auto intersections, and keeping those pesky downtown jaywalkers from walking into the train. All in the name of productivity!

It's not like we have problems with gangs, or home invasions, or vandalism that might benefit from more visible police patrols.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/06/05 05:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

Aldine ISD in the running for top urban school district prize

Aldine ISD is one of five finalists to be named the Broad Foundation's top urban school district:

The Broad Foundation announced today the finalists of the 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education, an annual $1 million prize given to the most outstanding urban school districts in the nation.

The five finalists for the 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education are:

Aldine Independent School District near Houston
Boston Public Schools
New York City Department of Education
Norfolk Public Schools
San Francisco Unified School District

The Broad Prize for Urban Education is an annual award that honors the country's urban school districts that are making the greatest improvements in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among ethnic groups and between high- and low-income students. The prize is the largest education award in the country given to a single school district.

The winner of The Broad Prize will receive $500,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors. Each finalist district will receive $125,000 in scholarships. The winner will be announced on Sept. 20 in Washington, D.C.

Congratulations to the teachers, students, administrators and parents of Aldine ISD, and good luck on winning the Broad Prize!

via a comment at Lone Star Times

RELATED: The Broad Foundation

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/06/05 12:46 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Dr. Saavedra surprises HISD Teacher of the Year nominee

HISD superintendent Dr. Abe Saavedra surprised a teacher yesterday by giving him the rest of the day off:

Port Houston Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Jarrett Reid Whitaker was not expecting guests in his after-school science program on Thursday, May 5—but that’s exactly what he got when HISD Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra came for a surprise visit.

The superintendent dropped by Whitaker’s classroom in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, which runs this year from May 1–May 7. Dr. Saavedra thanked Whitaker for his dedication and hard work, then offered the educator a well-deserved break while the superintendent led the after-school program that day.

[snip]

Whitaker was chosen for the surprise visit because he is one of the nominees for HISD’s 2005 Teacher of the Year. In only three years, the 25-year-old teacher has founded a fine arts and science after-school program, built a natural habitat, formed a garden club and coordinated family science nights and field trips to the Children’s Museum Science Workshop twice a month. Whitaker represents HISD’s East Administrative District.

Whitaker sounds like a terrific teacher -- engaging his students in learning while making the learning interesting. And what a fun thing for Dr. Saavedra to do.

That's a type of local story I would like to see more of.

RELATED (on subject of local content): Papers' Love of Government Hurts Circulation (Jon Ham, Carolina Journal)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/06/05 12:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Harris County GOP posts guide to Houston-area elections

On Saturday, May 7, a number of Houston-area municipalities (Deer Park, Hilshire Village, Jersey Village, Morgan's Point, Pasadena, Seabrook, West University Place) will be holding elections.

The Harris County Republican Party has posted its candidate questionnaire, and answers from those candidates who chose to respond. The information is here, for those voters who might find it helpful tomorrow.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/06/05 10:02 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

Tolled overpasses for Grand Parkway scrapped in Fort Bend County

Chris Elam points to this story on Fort Bend County's Grand Parkway that says TxDOT has decided not to build tolled overpasses, due to the negative reaction from Katy residents:

Pressure from Katy-area residents led transportation officials to scrap plans to add tolled overpasses on the Grand Parkway in north Fort Bend County.

The Texas Department of Transportation canceled a public hearing for Wednesday evening, and will be going back to the drawing board to decide on a plan to fund additional lanes to the existing portion of the Grand Parkway.

[snip]

Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers said he prefers a free road, but has supported the idea of tolling new lanes to speed up the construction process.

Meyers said some residents in Cinco Ranch and Katy opposed the plan, equating the tolled lanes to "double taxation."

Later, Commissioner Andy Meyers commented about this on Chris' blog:

About 5 years ago TxDOT began mentioning the Grand Parkway in terms of it being a toll road. I met with Highway Commissioners Johnson and Nichols and they confirmed that any new construction on the Grand Parkway would be tolled, including any overpasses.

Three years ago when I was elected Chairman of H-GAC I formed a Committee to look at the possibility of the seven counties through which the Grand Parkway is to run jointly building the Grand Parkway as a toll road.

Shortly thereafter Harris County proposed that it build the entire Grand Parkway as a toll road.

[snip]

My proposal for Fort Bend County to build the overpasses and segment C was becasue I believed that the county could build the Grand Parkway quicker and for less money. In addition, the county would allow more access to and from the Grand Parkway than would TxDOT to accomodate more commercial development along the Grand Parkway.

The problem here is that toll road authorities CAN build much quicker and no doubt for less money, but they can also run roughshod over local citizens and municipalities, as state Sen. Jon Lindsay and Harris County are trying to do up in Spring.

And Commissioner Meyers says this:

TxDOT did decide not to toll the overpasses and it now appears that new additional construction of the Grand Parkway is stalled because of the lack of funds and resistance to tolling by state officials. Several bills have been introduced in the legislature to prevent TxDOT from tolling "existing" roads with the definition of "existing" being rather broad to include all roads on which some type of work had already begun and that would include much of the Grand Parkway. The bills actually becomming law is still up in the air as the legistature is still in session.

Yeah, well, there is also at least one bill that would allow a state road to be transferred to a toll road authority for completion whereupon it would be transferred back to the state. That is Sen. Lindsay's way of getting the Grand Parkway built through Spring while circumventing the local citizenry's efforts to get it moved. Unfortunately, Sen. Lindsay's bill would have a much greater impact than just on little ol' Spring.

If tolled overpasses are the best idea for the Fort Bend County section of the Grand Parkway, then so be it. But there are plenty of us who are not in favor of legislation or precedents that would make it easier for Fort Bend County to get what it wants, if it would also make it easier for Harris County to do what Sen. Lindsay wants to do in Spring.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/06/05 07:49 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

05 May 2005

Food and drink roundup (05-05-2005 edition)

Once again, it's time for a food and drink roundup. Two weeks of food and drink reviews follow.

Alison Cook traveled south of the city to check out Floyd Landry's newest incarnation, Floyd's Cajun Seafood. Since several blogHOUSTON contributors are big fans of the older, former Floyd's, now called Mardi Gras Cafe, and still home of the best blackened catfish and red beans and rice in town, this review caught our interest. A roadtrip in the near future is definitely in order.

Robb Walsh tried Jim Goode's newest eatery, Goode's Armadillo Palace. I don't think he liked the food as much as he liked his sassy waitress.

Brian McManus pans the Montrose Diner. Surely a journalist at an "alternative" weekly can insert his own WTF.

Ken Hoffman gave Pizza Hut's 3Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza a try last week and warns that it will only be around for a few more weeks.

Regular blogHOUSTON commenter TP posts a review of Kubo's Sushi Bar & Grill and gives his experience four out of five toilet paper rolls.

Interestingly enough, both TP and the Chron's Dai Huynh have sushi and Japanese cuisine primers up this week. Check out both of them.

Finally, Alison Steingold gives The Whiskey at Hotel Icon a look in this week's bar/club review.

Have a great weekend! With all this world class cuisine, it shouldn't be hard.

Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 05/05/05 10:38 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)

Flynn: Happy belated birthday, Houston Press

George Flynn at the Houston Press is celebrating the 15-year anniversary of the weekly publication:

In November 1989, a scrawny, 48-page tabloid took to the streets of the city, looking for a fight.

The new Houston Press was trying to prove that -- despite the many publications that had perished before it -- an alternative newspaper could be a success.

Okay, so this isn't November 2004 and they missed their anniversary by a few months, but good for them.

Surprisingly, he includes this tidbit in the celebration:

Late that year, founding owner Morgan sold the Press to the Phoenix-based New Times chain of alternative newsweeklies, which had purchased the Dallas Observer two years earlier. In 1998, New Times also bought the assets of the venerable, on-again, off-again Public News weekly and closed it.

That was a sign that the business of "alternative" journalism might displace aggressive alternative print journalism. And that's really too bad, as the sometimes psychedelic Public News put out some good writing (just as the Houston Post did before Hearst shut it down).

Still, kudos to the Press, for sticking it out 15 years plus. We'd urge the current editorial leadership to look back over some of those past issues -- especially the ones with material from the sorely missed Tim Fleck -- and maybe try to recapture a bit of the renegade journalism of the past. Houston could definitely use more of it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/05/05 10:03 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

Gibbons: We're behind you Jeff!

James Howard Gibbons and crew are upset today about the NBA's treatment of the Rockets' Jeff Van Gundy.

Gibbons is so upset that he devoted a house editorial to blasting away in defense of the coach and against the evil NBA conspiracy against Van Gundy, the Communist of the Year, and all things Houston.

Because world-class newspapers that don't have an inferiority complex regarding the state's third largest city just do things like that.

More sober -- if less popular -- perspectives on the matter are offered up by one of the best sportswriters in Texas (Randy Galloway), and from various ESPN.com writers (Marc Stein, Adrian Wojnarowski, and Ric Bucher).

Maybe Mr. Gibbons should leave sports opinion to the sports pages.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/05/05 07:25 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

TAKS cheating probe is complete: 12 schools cleared, three are not

Yesterday HISD announced that it had completed its investigation into TAKS cheating; twelve schools were cleared and three were not:

Twelve Houston schools were cleared of any testing improprieties in a sweeping investigation by the HISD Inspector General, but the probe found that teachers at three schools helped students answer questions on the state TAKS test, HISD announced Wednesday.

Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said he is moving to fire four school employees. In addition, one principal and an assistant principal will be demoted. Three other employees, including a principal, will be formally reprimanded. The district will move to fire a teacher at Key Middle, two teachers who were employed at Bowie Elementary School in 2004 but now work elsewhere in the district, and one teacher at Petersen Elementary School as a result of the investigation which found clear and convincing evidence that students were helped to answer questions during the TAKS test in 2004.

[snip]

The massive and thorough investigation by the newly created HISD Inspector General’s Office took four months to complete. The probe involved 12 HISD investigators who conducted interviews with dozens of students and district employees and inspected thousands of pages of testing documents and data in Houston and in Austin.

And here's more from today's Chronicle story:

The Dallas Morning News report focused on schools in HISD's Acres Homes Charter District, which has received national attention for its ability to raise test scores among poor, minority children.

Investigators found no proof of cheating at the Acres Homes schools, although the evidence was inconclusive at Osborne Elementary.

[snip]

HISD teacher Donna Garner first accused Acres Homes teachers and administrators of cheating in 2003, shortly after she left her job at the neighborhood's Wesley Elementary School. She said administrators at Wesley and Osborne elementaries expected teachers to help their students pass the state exam. As a result, she said, the schools' scores quickly went from among the state's worst to the top of the class.

And at the very end of Jason Spencer's story is this:

Attorney James Fallon, who also represents some of the teachers, said investigators erred by failing to offer immunity to teachers who may have been willing to testify against administrators.

It should have been noted that James Fallon is the son of Gayle Fallon who is president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. Transparency is a good thing, I'm sure the Chronicle would agree.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/05/05 03:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

04 May 2005

Chronicle's Rice digs deeper on HPD harassment lawsuit

Yesterday, the Chronicle's Harvey Rice followed up with some excellent reporting on last week's story about the HPD officer awarded $600,000 in a sexual harassment lawsuit:

A female police officer who won a $600,000 verdict in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the city says command officials in the Houston Police Department have interfered with investigations into alleged officer misconduct, ignoring investigative findings.

"You've got assistant chiefs that abuse their powers and influence the outcome of these investigations, and that is corrupt to me," said Beth Kreuzer. "That's not sending a good message."

Her allegations were supported by other officers, who asked that their names not be used for fear of retaliation.

Rice goes on to cite officers who claim HPD brass manipulates internal affairs investigations. The story should be read in its entirety.

Today, Rice continued with a report that a male sergeant who supported Kreuzer is also suing HPD:

After a jury awarded a female police officer $600,000 in a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit last week, the city now faces a lawsuit by a male sergeant claiming police brass retaliated against him because he backed the female officer.

The lawsuit by former police Sgt. Michael Cox accuses police department command staff of manipulating an investigation and firing him when he refused to waive his right to sue.

Cox, 59, a 34-year veteran, accuses command staff in 2003 under then-Chief Clarence Bradford of encouraging a misconduct complaint because Cox and another sergeant supported allegations that officer Beth Kreuzer, 41, was being sexually harassed by her supervisor on the motorcycle unit, known as "Solo."

Again, the story should be read in its entirety. We'd like to see more journalism like this in the metro section, on all aspects of municipal government and operations.

We're guessing if Chief Hurtt can tear himself away from priorities like tasers and red light cameras long enough to consider these criticisms of HPD's internal affairs division, he won't be bringing in the Lee Brown/Clarence Bradford consulting firm to help him sort things out.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/04/05 11:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Chronicle's Huynh wins Beard Foundation award

The Chronicle's Dai Huynh has won a prestigious James Beard Foundation award.

Her November 2004 column "A Mountain of Hope" was the best in the category of newspaper feature writing without recipes.

The Houston Press's Robb Walsh was a finalist for two awards this year, and the Chronicle's Alison Cook won an award last year.

Some of the best writing in town comes from its food writers. It's good to see them get some national recognition for it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/04/05 08:54 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)

Fiddling while Houston burns?

KUHF-88.7's Laurie Johnson reports that city council has postponed a vote on banning "pocket bikes."

Councilmember Ron Green wants the pocket bikes banned within city limits. Councilmember M.J. Kahn wants children to be banned from the bikes. Councilmember Green says age isn't the issue.

Michael Berry perhaps put it best:

Councilmember Michael Berry told his colleagues they shouldn't pass a law that city council doesn't even understand.

That's comedic.

It's good to see some of our elected officials working so hard on the real problems of the city.

RELATED: City council proposal could ban pocket bikes on streets (Deborah Wrigley, KTRK-13)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/04/05 08:26 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

Is a lack of left turn signals contributing to red light running problem?

Here's an interesting letter in today's Chronicle, in relation to red light cameras:

Missing turn signals

Regarding the Chronicle's May 3 article "No boundaries exist for red-light running": I found it interesting that one of the worst intersections for traffic accidents was at Richmond and Dunlavy, since I pass through this intersection at least twice daily. I agree there is a problem with drivers' running red lights but I see the same problem at a number of intersections inside the Loop 610. And I don't believe the issue will be solved through the use of cameras.

Most of the people I see running lights do so when there are no traffic-light signals for left turns. The same problems exist on West Gray, Westheimer, Alabama and other Richmond intersections. When the traffic is heavy, people have no choice but to run the light in order to turn left.

The backup caused by a lack of turn signals also interferes with the through-traffic lanes, too.

If the city would install turn signals at these intersections, the situation would improve.

AMY RORIE Houston

Really? If Ms. Rorie is correct, and some of the intersections the mayor says are facing an "epidemic" of red light runners don't have dedicated left turn signals, then isn't that a transportation design flaw? Mayor White should address this issue before he starts installing revenue-generating red light cameras.

Are any of our readers familiar with the intersections on this list? We'd be curious to know if any of these problem intersections are missing dedicated left turn signals.

RELATED: KTRK-13's list of the most accident-prone intersections.

UPDATE: Charles Kuffner is familiar with another intersection on the list and offers his perspective.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/04/05 11:28 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

The Texas dream: taxing people out of their homes

Like many people, I think Texas' property tax appraisal system is really out of whack. Taxing entities are allowed to raise appraisals up to 10% a year and if a homeowner doesn't agree with that increase, the homeowner must do the work to try to get it lowered. And the appraisal boards can say NO! to any protests and homeowners have little recourse.

I find it strange that a yearly appraisal is based on what money taxing entities need to raise.

Edd Hendee (KSEV-700) has been discussing property taxes on his show and this morning one caller in particular had an alarming story. He is in Fort Bend County and two years ago moved into a home that he had built. He said his loan for the land and the home was a bit over $260,000, and the appraisal he just received in the mail has his home valued at $370,000 -- just two years later!

He said he has three small children and is now at the point where he will probably have to put up a for sale sign. He said he has protested his appraisals before and they have been lowered a bit, but not enough to allow him to afford this year's appraisal.

Legislators in Austin have so far buried their heads in the sand, but one day they are going to have to face this problem, and if they don't get a clue it could be through a voter revolt.

RELATED: CNN/Money -- Houston houses sell an average of 11% under fair market value

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/04/05 09:53 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)

03 May 2005

Chronicle publisher spins circulation decline

Yesterday, the latest newspaper circulation figures were released. The Chronicle suffered a 3.9% decline in daily readership.

Today, the Chronicle put its spin on the decline, in a story in the business section:

"We anticipated some decline of home-based subscriptions because of overdue accounts," said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.

"If a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, they're eliminated from the paid circulation averages. We were hit harder than usual by late payments this last six-month reporting period, so we'll be working on improving our collection procedures."

Liberal group funds local anti-DeLay ads

KTRK-13 picks up an Associated Press story about billboard advertising against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) locally:

"Lobbyists sent Tom DeLay golfing; all you got was this billboard," says a billboard overlooking a freeway that bends around downtown Houston, identical to one erected in Galveston County. They will remain up until the end of May

The ads were purchased by Democracy for America, a liberal group founded by Howard Dean. Whether the voters of Majority Leader DeLay's district will find such advertising from liberal outsiders compelling remains to be seen, but it will surely boost the group's profile and fundraising. Indeed, that may explain the placement of one advertisement near downtown Houston (not in DeLay's district).

We suspect the Chronicle won't object to this sort of issue advertising -- or, as we prefer to call it, political speech.

UPDATE (05-04-2005): Isolation Desolation posts a photo of the huge anti-DeLay rally under one billboard.

UPDATE 2 (05-04-2005): The Chronicle's Matt Stiles covers this story.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/03/05 10:02 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (12)

KIOL adds second (permanent) frequency

Billboard reports that KIOL, which has been broadcasting on the 97.5 FM frequency, has now begun simulcasting on its permanent frequency, 103.7 FM. The 97.5 frequency will flip to its new format, which will complement the rock format and target men 25-54, on May 26, according to owner Cumulus Media.

KIOL hopes to claim a niche created when Clear Channel's KLOL changed to a Latino format late last year. That change seems to be working out for KLOL, which zoomed up the charts in the latest ratings.

UPDATE (05-04-2005): Banjo Jones reports that Outlaw Dave and Wendy Miller join Walton and Johnson as the station's new personalities.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/03/05 09:21 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

International brouhaha in stink-free Houston?

Who knew that addressing the issue of Houston's stinky libraries could cause an international crisis?

Civil rights groups and the French government were outraged today after the Houston City Council voted to pass a law banning offensive odors in all public libraries. French President, Jacques Chirac, threatened to boycott all products exported from Texas unless the law was changed.

"This is all a big misunderstanding," said one City Council representative. "I thought the people who were the target of the complaints about bad odor were homeless. I had no idea they were just French. This wasn't meant as a slight against the French." Another Houston resident wasn't as understanding. "Hey, if you stink, I don't want you funkifying the public library where my children read books," she said. "Deodorant is not a four-letter word, Frenchy."

Houston libraries will begin checking passports as early as next week and deny entry to people holding French passports or to citizens of French Canadian provinces. France is considering adopting a "deodorant-free zone" in its own libraries to discriminate against all non-French citizens as retaliation for the perceived insult.

That's pretty funny.

via ChronWatch

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/03/05 08:30 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

KSEV talker promises to sort out home foreclosure

Earlier, we heard KSEV 700's Dan Patrick take up the story of the woman who lost a property via foreclosure by a homeowners' association, which Anne Linehan posted about here last week, and Owen Courreges posted on for Patrick's Lone Star Times here (with a generous link back).

Apparently, this was news to Patrick, even though top-rated Houston talker Chris Baker also spent considerable time on the topic last week on KTRH-740, and we even touched on it during the blogger segment with Jon Michial-Carter on BizRadio 1320 this weekend.

Patrick has promised his top researcher David Benzion will get right on sorting out this olds. We're looking forward to it, and the homeowner and her attorney may appreciate it also.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/03/05 08:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Life and death in Houston

KHOU-11 checks in on Spiro Nikolouzos, and reports that the man is being moved back to a nursing home with a pro-life orientation. We had previously noted the San Antonio hospital's decision to pull the plug on the Houston man here.

Also, the Chronicle's Todd Ackerman reports on Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D), who has asked a Houston-area hospital not to pull the plug on a terminally ill infant. Laurence Simon offers some thoughts on the Jackson Lee's sudden interest in end-of-life issues.

UPDATE (05-04-2005): The terminally ill infant above has died. Laurence Simon has further, concluding thoughts.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/03/05 07:58 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

Local media helps city officials with red light camera issue (updated)

MayorWhiteChiefHurtt must have sent out a press release to local media outlets, because following up on yesterday's KHOU-11 story about the "epidemic" of red light running, the Chronicle helpfully writes up its own story. One paragraph, though, tells us why there's a new local media focus:

City officials may find these numbers, and more recent statistics that do not specify an accident cause, useful in making their case to the Legislature for the need to use cameras to identify red-light runners.

Isn't it nice that local media can help city officials make their case for red light cameras? If the media were really doing their job, they would provide both sides of the issue and point out that lengthening yellow light times is proven to reduce the problem. And it's something the city could do right now, at the worst intersections.

But, as we all know, that won't bring in any revenue.

UPDATE: A new KHOU-11 story says that Mayor White blames criminal defense attorneys for the problems he's having getting his revenue-generating red light cameras up and generating revenue. Did I mention these cameras are revenue generators?

Interestingly an attorney who opposes the cameras advocates...lengthening yellow light times!

[Attorney Paul] Kubosh says if safety were the city's real motivator, it could do better by re-timing lights and extending the yellow cycle. He's fighting the cameras for one simple reason. "The intersections can be set up to trap motorists. It is just a money grab," he says.

"If people stop running red lights, there won't be revenue. And I'd be the happiest person around," says Mayor White.

Except that some cities have been caught shortening yellow light times to increase revenue, and Washington D.C.'s mayor got himself into some hot water by inadvertently admitting that the cameras' main purpose is to make money for the District.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/03/05 10:57 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

Enron "wunderkind" destroys historic River Oaks home

This story about a historic River Oaks home being demolished is really disappointing:

The grand old house at 2950 Lazy Lane — an updated historic property known as Dogwoods — hardly looked like a teardown. But this week, its new owner, John D. Arnold, the former wunderkind of Enron's energy trading desk, began demolishing it.

Dogwoods, valued with its land at $4.9 million, shares a driveway and a history with Bayou Bend next door, a house museum maintained by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

Preservationists bemoan the destruction of yet another of Houston's ever-rarer historic buildings.

"This house is so significant to Houston, so unique," laments Roxanne Casscells, a member of the Harris County Historic Commission. "But the larger issue is that we are not protecting our history in any way."

(The story includes a great history of the house, and I will excerpt that part of the Chronicle story in the extended entry.)

This is a shame. I am not a huge fan of zoning, except for some -- what I consider -- common sense exceptions. I would include historic preservation as one of those exceptions. (Regular readers probably can guess that tree preservation is another exception I would support.)

Casscells, frustrated that the Harris County Historic Commission can't do much more than hand out plaques, nevertheless monitors buildings she considers endangered. Last week, when she found that Dogwoods' gas had been shut off — a common signal that demolition is about to begin — she began alerting Houston's preservationists.

Maybe it's time to look at that and make some changes -- changes with teeth.

And shame on John Arnold for tearing it down. He should have found some other property, somewhere else, that didn't have a historic house on it, if all he was going to do was destroy it. Hopefully the ghosts of Dogwoods' owners past will haunt Arnold's new mansion.

What a narcissistic goon.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Anne sounds like a Houstonian newbie, huh? Those of us who have been around town a little while (it's about ten years for me now) quickly learn that the proper attitude is, bulldoze and rebuild! I better stop, though, before Anne calls me a name. :)

KEVIN WHITED ADDS MORE (05-04-2005): A reader emails to ask why we didn't name the author of this Chronicle story. The author was Lisa Gray, who I thought did a nice job with it.

02 May 2005

International festival numbers down from 2003

Sedosi Alhambra calls attention to the Chronicle's postmortem of the Houston International Festival, held downtown again this year after a disastrous experience in the parking lots at the Reliant complex. As Alhambra points out, reporter Paige Hewitt basically wrote that it was really swell downtown!

She did provide an attendance figure (while misspelling the festival chairman's name):

Nearly perfect weather all four days and moving iFest back downtown drew an "enthusiastic" crowd of at least 200,000 people, including volunteers, sponsors and children 10 and under, whose admission was free, said Robert Sakowtiz, chairman of the festival.

Unfortunately, Hewitt offered no attendance figures for earlier festivals.

Interestingly, the now-defunct News24 site put 2003 festival attendance (the year before the disastrous move from downtown) at 430,000.

This year's festival visitors may well have been enthusiastic, as Hewitt portrays them, but the attendance appears to be down considerably from the last international festival held downtown.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/02/05 10:55 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)

HBJ writer slights own publication

Last week, Thora Qaddumi wrote about a reunion of sorts for old Houston Post workers (and some competitors).

It's worth reading in its entirety, but this blurb caught my eye:

Another hot topic among the panel audience was the largest corporate bankruptcy in business history.

Inquiring minds wanted to know why Houston was behind the national media in turning over the dirt on Enron Corp. Would the story have broken earlier on the local level if competing reporters at the Post and Chronicle were still putting pressure on each other?

Taking a sort of mea culpa position, Bischoff acknowledged that some signs were evident, but the fact that all of Houston was in love with Enron and nobody was speaking out allowed the story to simmer until the national media "parachuted in."

Some time ago, Matt Welch chided national media critics for ignoring the Houston Business Journal's coverage of Enron:

The HBJ has been publishing scores of stories a year about Enron since at least 1997. Were they probing? Hagiographical? I don't know, but in a five-minute search on their well-archived site I found at least three pieces from 1999 and 2000 that foreshadowed the company's current woes. A media reporter and a media magazine should be ashamed of not even asking how the local Business Journal covered the biggest story in its own back yard.

Easy, Matt. Sometimes, HBJ's own writers even forget about the publication!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/02/05 09:55 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)

KPRC summarizes DeLay poll, declines to post raw data

KPRC-2 news has run a "big story" about a poll it commissioned that found weak support for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) in his district.

Unfortunately, KPRC news, which regularly trails KHOU-11 and KTRK-13 badly in the ratings, declined to post any raw data or the methodology of the poll to its website, making it impossible for any sort of serious judgment about the poll numbers.

Perhaps that sort of omission is why so few serious people turn to KPRC for news relative to the other choices in town.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/02/05 08:54 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)

Chronicle's circulation declines

Editor and Publisher is calling today "Bloody Monday" after circulation declines were announced at many major newspapers.

Banjo Jones has the bad news for the Chronicle -- a decline of 3.9%.

Ouch.

UPDATE: Laurence Simon demonstrates a new marketing angle the Chronicle should consider.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/02/05 05:59 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (8)

How to protest a property tax appraisal

It's that time of year -- property tax appraisals are arriving in mailboxes and many homeowners are facing big increases.

A while back Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt mentioned (on KSEV-700) that the Harris County Tax Office website has tips on how to protest an appraisal.

Here's the link and it's more than just tips. It's a complete step-by-step list describing how to prepare for, and what to expect during, the appraisal protest.

And this morning Edd Hendee was discussing property tax appraisals, too.

Harris County Tax Office link via a comment at Lone Star Times

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/02/05 05:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Will the new parking meters always have babysitters?

Filling in for the now-departed Lucas Wall is Juan Alanis who today tells us how the downtown parking meter try-outs are going:

The jury is still out on which one of the seven vendors will win a contract to install new parking meters near the downtown courthouse complex. But as the five-week trial period comes to an end, the public's verdict appears favorable.

At least that's the consensus of people monitoring the use of the meters.

So, let's check out the public's view:

"I think it's wonderful," he said after having another driver explain to him how the Rhino model parking meter works.

[snip]

Lisa Vincent, one of the meter pollsters for the district, said most of the people who've come across the devices on her shift have been confused. Vincent has spent 16 hours in the last two weeks asking users about the meters.

[snip]

Eddie Kaplan, a downtown courier, is hopeful that the new technology will be easier to use, but he's not counting on it. Struggling with parking devices is an everyday part of his daily routine and one that has him skeptical of the machines.

[snip]

Wilbanks was more hopeful, even after having to resort back to coins. He tried inserting his credit card into the parking meter several times unsuccessfully before going back to his truck to get change.

"I think it's going to be a lot better when the credit card works," he said.

Sounds like everything's going swell. What happens when the helpful "meter pollsters" are gone and folks who are unfamiliar with downtown parking meters have to figure them out on their own?

And there's this gem:

The firm awarded the contract eventually will install 600 meters downtown by the fall and an additional 1,400 in the near future in the rest of the city, said Liliana Rambo, the newly appointed assistant director of the Municipal Courts Parking Management Division. She said determining factors in awarding the contract include cost, how the meter works and ease of repair service.

Before coming to Houston, Rambo negotiated the purchase of 89 meters at $8,000 each for the city of Hollywood, Fla. She hopes that experience will help her purchase the devices here for no more than $7,500 each.

We do too! It's very nice of Hollywood, FL to let Rambo practice her parking meter-negotiation-skills before coming to Houston.

And last, but definitely not least, Alanis' story mentions that Cubic Corp. is one of the companies whose meters are being tested, but doesn't mention that Metro is currently suing Cubic for failing to produce a functioning "smart card" fare system.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/02/05 01:58 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

Slow the red light running "epidemic" by lengthening yellow light times

KHOU-11 shows Mayor White a little love with this story on the "epidemic" of red light running:

Mayor Bill White says drivers who run red lights are "an epidemic".

If you're looking for lawbreakers who don't like to wait for lights, you don't have to wait long to find them in Houston. "The light is red now. One, two, three four. They just keep coming," says HPD officer Cedric Nickerson.

Apparently, too many Houston drivers ignore red lights when it comes to scooting through an intersection.

For now, officers pull over violators when they can. "You slowed down but you didn't stop," Nickerson says to one driver. Mayor White wants to see more of that., which is why he wants a concerted effort at problem intersections

"We've got to have more tickets. For people running red lights. There has to be a consequence to it. And when there is, people will adapt," says White.

[snip]

That's why Mayor White and the city council want to use cameras to catch violators.

But for now it will have to be the old fashioned way and, unfortunately, officer Nickerson could do it all day.

The city's red light camera proposal is currently stalled in the state legislature, where there is an effort to block the city's ability to have them. Mayor White expects that to be rectified one way or the other by the end of the session.

The story includes a list of the most dangerous intersections.

We've addressed this before: if the city was serious about reducing red light runners, it would lengthen yellow light times first, to curb the "epidemic." What's so strange is that KHOU had a story a while back about yellow light times, yet it's never mentioned in today's story.

Also, it's interesting to remember that HPD's manpower situation is not optimal right now, and yet the mayor wants to focus on this "epidemic." Of course, the focus would be a nice revenue stream for the city.

We recommend the city try lengthening yellow light times by a couple of seconds at the worst intersections, if it's truly all about safety.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/02/05 01:10 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Lucas Wall has left the building

Since we haven't seen an actual Lucas Wall-authored story in the Chronicle for a couple of weeks now (his Move It! columns could have been prepared before he left), curiosity got the better of us. So I sent an email question to Lucas and this is the email I received:

Lucas Wall is no longer employed with the Houston Chronicle. You have reached an inactive e-mail account.

If this address is on your mailing list, please REMOVE it promptly. This e-mail account will soon cease to exist.

If you are trying to contact the Chronicle about a transportation issue, you may forward your e-mail to Rad.Sallee@chron.com.

If you are trying to find Lucas Wall, he is now (as of 6-1-05) the transportation reporter for The Boston Globe.

We still can't believe Lucas would rather go to Boston than stay in Houston, where he's left quite an imprint. After all, Houston's light rail should make Houston world-class, right? (I wonder if Rad Sallee is on the transportation beat temporarily or permanently? We'll have to inquire.)

Perhaps Lucas' greatest impact here was in the world of Houston blogs. It was his story on the death of Leroy Sandoval Jr. in Iraq, that led to the creation of Chronically Biased. Chronically Biased inspired blogHOUSTON, in a round-about way, and then Chronically Biased itself transitioned into Lone Star Times.

That's quite a legacy he leaves behind!

His other big impact was in championing Houston's light rail. Metro couldn't have asked for a greater light rail supporter than it had in Lucas. We can only imagine how excited he must be, moving to Boston, where there is a much greater appreciation (and usage) of mass transit. Will Lucas take Boston's subway to work? Probably!

And now, a look back at some of our favorite Lucas moments:

01 May 2005

When will Metro's 2004 CAFR show up on its website?

Tom Bazan has finally gotten his hands on Metro's FY2004 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) and is busy trying to digest what's inside it. He has told us that KPMG signed off on the report in January, but as we all know Metro wouldn't allow it to be delivered until last week.

blogHOUSTON has checked Metro's site, anxious to get a look at the report, but so far it hasn't shown up. How long will it take Metro to make the report available online?

Inquiring minds want to see how things are going at the new Lee P. Brown Administration Building! And we don't want to rely on press release paragraphs like this:

The FTA approval was based on a comprehensive review of METRO's proposed projects and of the agency's financial ability to build and operate the lines without compromising the transportation services it already offers to residents of the eight-county region.

We'd like to do our own comprehensive review of Metro's finances, thank you very much. We already know how well Metro is (not) doing with transportation services other than light rail.

UPDATE: We have received a clarification that even though KPMG signed the report in January, there were probably still at least a couple of weeks worth of work needed before the report was ready to be delivered. But since we also know that Metro had not allowed KPMG to deliver the CAFR in the two months previous to the April 28 delivery, it sounds as though the report was most likely ready for delivery sometime in February.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/01/05 10:04 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

A Sunday edition in a less-than-ideal state

Reading the Chronicle today made us tired. And we're feeling bratty on a Sunday when we'd rather be out catching some sunlight. So the following blurbs are just some quick observations about a Sunday edition that seemed below average even by the usual standards. Or, as they might say in the biz, the following are compiled from staff (that is, Anne, Callie, and Kevin) reports.

Chronicle covers the L.A. mayoral race

In the previous post, Kevin Whited expressed a desire to see more local news (actual NEWS, not local Live Journal offerings), and today's Chronicle has a prime example of the problem on page A1 -- the paper sent a reporter to cover the Los Angeles mayoral race!

And not only is the story on the front page, but it is the main focus of the front page with a big photograph (Los Angeles Times credited -- the Chronicle didn't send a photographer apparently), and some reference graphs with demographics information for Los Angeles and Houston.

Why? Why didn't the Chronicle, if it wanted to cover L.A.'s mayoral race, use Los Angeles Times stories?

Because the story is focused on race and takes the opportunity to call Houston's Hispanic population less politically mature than L.A. Hispanics.

It's a very strange story. Maybe the Chronicle can find something local for Kim Cobb to work on, because goodness knows there are plenty of local and Texas topics that could use some Chronicle sunshine.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Remember that editor Jeff Cohen once said he wants front-page stories that appeal to Houston's ethnic groups. Granted, one wonders if calling Houston-area Latinos less politically mature than their LA counterparts is exactly what the big boss at 801 Texas Avenue had in mind.

The references to "analysts say" and "political experts" are a bit perplexing. For examples, here's one at the beginning:

Can Houston, with similar Hispanic-leaning demographics, be far behind in building a coalition to elect its first Hispanic mayor?

Give it 10 more years, political analysts say.

Later in the story, Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Tatchio Mindiola are "experts" who are cited, but neither expert predicts an Hispanic mayor in Houston in ten years, nor does expert pothole consultant Lee Brown (or anyone else cited in the story).

So, we're left wondering just who these experts are who are saying things that appear nowhere in the story. A good editor might have helped out us mere readers with that.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/01/05 11:22 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

Chron's Peabody wins Stanley Walker award

On Tuesday, I posted some thoughts on what I view as increasingly personal journalism being produced by the Chronicle.

I expected more of a response from professional journalists, but instead I got a sharply critical dissenting note from one professional journalist (whom I invited to respond publicly), and a more supportive blog post from another professional journalist. That's all.

Even the message board discussion was fairly muted. Maybe the good readers here are just too polite to post, "Eh, Whited is off his meds again." But, co-blogger Anne Linehan offered up the thought that such journalism is geared towards producing the newspaper's first Pulitzer.

The Pulitzer may not be in the offing, but such work does seem to attract the attention of award givers:

The Houston Chronicle series "The Search for Eddie Peabody" by Zanto Peabody has been named the year's best work of newspaper journalism by the Texas Institute of Letters.

The seven-part series, published in February 2004, recounted Peabody's search for his father in civil war-torn Liberia. The Stanley Walker Award for Best Work of Newspaper Journalism Appearing in a Newspaper or Sunday Supplement was one of 14 awards presented Saturday at TIL's annual meeting in Austin.

We'll help out the Chronicle by actually linking to Peabody's award-winning series.

Surely such journalism has its place -- I'd never contend otherwise -- but we do wish the harder news generated such excitement, especially harder local news. The Editorial LiveJournals, on the other hand, can just go away.

That's one perspective. Please share yours with us in the forum or via email.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/01/05 10:38 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (8)

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