30 June 2005
Chron: We professional journalists need special privileges!
Earlier this year, the Chronicle editorial board advocated a state law that would create new privileges for professional journalists. The legislation died.
Undeterred, the Chronicle editorial board today advocates a national law that would create new privileges for professional journalists:
The obvious solution is a federal shield law guaranteeing the confidentiality of journalists' communications with sources. The natural propensity of news reporters to print what they know will prevent abuse of the privilege.
Sure. Because professional journalists always disclose everything they know.
We remain unconvinced by the editorial idealists on this issue.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/05 11:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Bromwich releases damning Phase I report on HPD crime lab
Michael Bromwich, the independent investigator charged with analyzing problems at the HPD crime lab and property room, issued a damning final report (pdf) of Phase I of his investigation today.
The report is highly critical of leadership with regard to the HPD crime lab dating back more than a decade, citing leadership problems within the lab itself as well as HPD.
Having read the seven-page Executive Summary and the 68-page report itself, I have to recommend that interested parties at least read the Executive Summary (but preferably read the entire report at some point). Bromwich and his crew bring impressive credentials to the task, and the written report reflects work that seems to be extremely well-documented, organized, meticulous, and extensive. Because the report is lengthy and complex, I would suggest that media accounts (or blog posts) are no substitute for reading the report itself.
That said, KHOU-11's Doug Miller gives a good, brief summary. KHOU is cited in the report for its previous reporting on the crime lab.
Former Chief Bradford makes a number of appearances that don't exactly reflect well on his leadership, and even former Chief Lee P. Brown makes an appearance (yes, the problems date back that far). The report also documents the extensive efforts of the office of the Harris County District Attorney to analyze all cases where the HPD crime lab's treatment of evidence might have affected cases. Phase II of Bromwich's investigation will also analyze a sampling of such cases.
I plan on updating this post at some point with interesting excerpts from the report, but I don't have an easy way of converting the PDF file to text at the moment, so that will have to wait.
Incidentally, it is worth noting the Houston Chronicle's hit piece on Harris County District Attorney and Chronicle editorial board "bad guy" Chuck Rosenthal today. However much certain people at 801 Texas Avenue seem to dislike the Harris County District Attorney, the fact remains that Bromwich's report is highly critical of HPD and City of Houston leadership with regard to the crime lab, not Rosenthal or the Harris County District Attorney's office. The timing of the hit piece on Rosenthal is curious, since that's what Chronicle readers got to see this morning before Bromwich's highly critical report on the crime lab took over the news cycle later in the day, not-so-subtly connecting Rosenthal to a crime lab fiasco that Bromwich's report clearly identifies as an HPD/City of Houston fiasco.
That's another reason why there is no substitute for reading those reports, and why the technology that makes them available to anyone with an internet connection changes everything about media.
UPDATE (07-01-2005): Selected excerpts from the report follow below. In all instances, the excerpts have come from the main report (not the executive summary). The page(s) are identified above. Some footnotes have been omitted.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/05 10:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Busy HISD board meeting today
HISD had an action-packed board meeting today, with the most surprising development being the reinstating of the Key Middle School principal who had been demoted after an HISD investigation determined TAKS cheating took place at the school.
As expected, the board approved next year's budget which includes a pay raise for teachers and more money for the district's Pre-K program, which had a waiting list last year. Next year, all eligible Pre-K children will be able to attend the district's program.
Also, the board approved Dr. Saavedra's proposed tougher code of conduct for students, cracking down on students who make "hit lists" and organize gang activities.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/30/05 07:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Besides Metro, mayor and developers, who DOES like the new plan?
So let me see if I have this straight: the people who thought they were getting light rail aren't getting it, and they are not happy about it; and the people who weren't getting light rail are now getting it, and they aren't happy about it.
Nothing says government quite like spending billions of taxpayer dollars when none of the taxpayers likes what the billions of dollars will be spent on.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/30/05 10:51 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Major League Soccer in the Astrodome?
How does Mayor White do it? He just got finished dreaming up a new $2 billion expansion plan for Metro and today we learn that he's been busy working on getting a Major League Soccer team in Houston:
The Astrodome might recover some of its faded glory if a Mexican club interested in bringing a professional soccer franchise to Houston has its way.
Club América, the Mexican First Division franchise that hopes to bring a Major League Soccer team to the Bayou City, has told city and county officials it would like its prospective Houston club to play at the former home of the Astros and Oilers. Officials with the Mexico City-based team, which is looking to buy MLS' San Jose Earthquakes from the Anschutz Entertainment Group and relocate it to Houston, met this week with Mayor Bill White and officials with the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority and the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.
[snip]
Club América officials met with White on Monday to discuss a potential move and its impact, city spokesman Frank Michel confirmed.
"The city is optimistic that the talks have been ongoing for some time. We have a lot of details to work out," Michel said. "The market here for sports in general but also for soccer is a potentially huge one, and I think soccer folks recognize that."
Well, yes. If there's one thing Mayor White is filled with (be nice now) it's optimism for Houston. And when city officials are filled with optimism, that generally means BIG tax bills for its citizens. All that optimism doesn't come cheap.
You'll notice that this story fails to mention who will pay for the Astrodome to be made soccer-ready. But don't worry, I have it ALL figured out: Mayor White is planning on taxpayers giving him $2 billion for his new Metro plan, right? Well, who'll notice if a stray $20 million slips through the cracks? These things happen all the time. Besides the Astrodome is at the end of the downtown rail line. I'm sure the mayor can tie it all together and sell it.
This is definitely world-class!
UPDATE: Here's Laurence Simon's take.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/30/05 10:26 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)
29 June 2005
McGuff covers local blogging
KTRK-13's Michael McGuff has posted a good article on local blogging to the station's website.
The article features quotes and such from Charles Kuffner, Anne Linehan, and me.
The Armadillo Palace gathering to which McGuff refers was actually our last blogger gathering. Laurence Simon has organized the next one for the Stag's Head Pub, July 5, 5-9 pm or so. Please drop by if you're free. We had a really good time at the last one.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 10:36 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)
Connelly: METRO's version of Pimp My Ride
Rich Connelly writes the following in the latest issue of the Houston Press:
Metro has famously made some "adjustments" to the $2 billion transportation plan approved by voters in 2003. Basically, areas of town represented by influential Congressmen Tom DeLay and John Culberson, both former rail opponents, will now be getting rail; minority communities promised rail will be getting...buses tricked out to look like trains. It's like the most expensive episode ever of Pimp My Ride. Immediately after the plan was announced, the Houston Chronicle dispatched a staffer to Las Vegas to report that people there really, really love their fake-train buses, so who knows why the minority community here is complaining?
Mayor White's announcement of his new transit plan strongly implied that Reps. DeLay and Culberson had endorsed it, even though DeLay's press office had little to say about the plan and Culberson has since issued two statements denying that he endorsed the plan or helped to design it.
Further, Nancy Sarnoff's reporting suggests that METRO chairman David Wolff may view the new Greenway/Galleria rail component as a boon for commercial development.
For those looking for someone to blame for the departure from the METRO solutions plan approved by voters, they need not look much further than Mayor White and Chairman Wolff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 10:13 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron editorialists discover Brown Administration "rotten dealings"
The Chronicle editorial board weighs in with a shocker today: things were really bad during Lee Brown's administration!
Of course, the Chronicle editorialists did not feel that way during the Brown experience, instead preferring to make excuses for the bumbling mayor as they endorsed him over and over.
Note to editorialists: Your support of the man for six years didn't exactly hold his administration to account, but that's over and done with. You can make amends by focusing attention on the city's current problems, such as: the unfunded municipal employees pension fund liability that Brown bequeathed to Mayor White and that still has not been solved, the HPD manpower shortage that Mayor White and his council haven't done enough to correct, the bait-and-switch tactics of METRO with regard to the METRO Solutions plan, and the growing MS-13 gang problem (for starters).
Readers should feel free to add their own suggestions for the editorial board in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 09:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Sunshine is blogHOUSTON's friend
Chronicle metro/state editorialist Rick Casey brings up an old topic today:
The result is that Andy Taylor may be, legally speaking, absolutely correct. If that turns out to be the case, look for the Legislature to degenerate even further than the sorry body that it now is.
Nearly every incumbent will know that if he or she votes against the interests of the corporations, unlimited secret cash can be used to run attack ads in the weeks leading up to the election.
A group of reformers did offer a bill clearing up the matter last spring.
It would have done what federal law does: outlaw corporate and union spending related to races for a set period immediately before the election.
If Casey's complaint sounds familiar, that's because he and the Chronicle editorial board have previously argued in favor of banning some political speech.
Isn't it nice when alleged press champions of free speech turn out to be phonies who are more than happy to ban the speech of some, even as they advocate for greater privileges for themselves?
"Secret" cash involved in political advertising is undesirable -- not unlike "secret" meetings between the Chronicle editorial board and political figures, or undislosed relationships between members of the pro-METRO Chronicle editorial board and attorneys who deal with that transit agency.
That answer to such problems? Disclosure. Sunshine. Openness.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 09:14 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
AmericaSupportsYou.mil omits Humvee adoption
The Lone Star Times today posted a link to AmericaSupportsYou.mil and declared its support of American troops.
Given the effort by the Lone Star Times, KSEV-700, and at least one prominent weblog to raise money for outfitting of Humvees in Iraq with special armor, it was surprising to find no mention of that effort on the Texas page at AmericaSupportsYou.mil.
Perhaps the Lone Star Times crew will themselves post an update on how many Humvees they've been able to outfit with the nearly $200,000 that had been raised as of the March update. Some Humvee photos might even be a nice touch.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 08:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Biggio hit for 268th time, sets modern record
Tom Kirkendall calls our attention to the news that Astros second basemen Craig Biggio was hit by a pitch for the 268th time today, passing Don Baylor to claim the modern Major League record.
It's not entirely clear if congratulations are in order, but the crew at Plunk Biggio reacted with enthusiasm, and apparently got some attention from ESPN earlier.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 04:57 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Beware tailgate thievery at Park and Pillages
It's very hard to keep up with crime at Metro's Park and Pillages. One day we hear crime has been conquered thanks to Metro's PART F (Park and Ride Task Force) and then another day we hear that thieves are stealing tailgates:
Metro police say several tailgates have been stolen from trucks at its Park and Ride lots.
"They look for parts that are easily removable and have value. The tailgate is one of those parts, as is your CD or DVD player," explained Capt. Michael Raney with Metro police. "They look for something that's easy to remove and they can turn around pretty quickly."
We found seven missing from the Eastex Park and Ride on this day.
Cops say newer Chevrolets and Fords are targeted most.
Charles Kurth became the latest victim Monday night, minutes after he pulled his F-150 into his Alief driveway.
Crooks took the tailgate, but left his expensive tools.
"Of course, that would have required work. These lazy sons of guns, they're not in to working. They're into stealing," said Kurth. "A bunch of low lifes."
In the last couple months, Metro officers investigated 14 stolen tailgates from Park and Rides. Metro has undercover officers staking out Park and Rides to try and nab the thieves.
[snip]
Police say thieves often prefer individual parts instead of the entire vehicle because they're virtually untraceable.
Tailgates can be sold to salvage yards for several hundred dollars -- quick cash for a crime you can commit in seconds.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/29/05 03:51 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
HISD preserves some history at Lantrip Elementary
HISD is renovating part of a historic school, and KUHF-88.7 has the story:
Lantrip [Elementary School] was built in 1914 as Eastwood Elementary, and it's one of the finest examples of Spanish Mission style architecture left in Houston. Project Manager Steve Morton says part of the school will be demolished -- but the old main building with its Alamo style front will stay.
Morton says the old main building will be renovated, and the adjoining new buildings will be in the same Spanish Mission style. The buildings coming down have some striking architectural fixtures, such as high arching wooden entryways, which will be saved and incorporated into the new buildings. Morton says a lot of people were involved in the effort to preserve this old school.
Lantrip's old library building is coming down, but a Spanish style fireplace donated to the school by Miss Ima Hogg in the 1920s will be saved and moved to the new library. Morton says he's been in construction a long time and he's torn down a lot of old buildings, but it's nice to save something once in a while.
The $16 million price tag for this work will be paid out of school bond funds approved by HISD voters several years ago.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/29/05 01:04 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (0)
Energy Institute relocates to UT-Austin (updated)
The Houston Business Journal reports that the University of Houston's Institute for Energy, Law and Enterprise -- frequently referred to simply as the Energy Institute -- has left the energy capital of the world and UH for Austin:
The University of Houston has lost a leading energy expert and her research team to the University of Texas at Austin.
Michelle Michot Foss, who directed the Institute for Energy, Law and Enterprise at UH's Law Center, has joined the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences.
Foss' group will be re-named the Center for Energy Economics.
In 2002, Foss and her research team moved from UH's Bauer College of Business, where the program was initiated in the 1990s, to the Law Center.
Key project areas of the group include research on North American natural gas supply-demand balances, including the expansion of the liquefied natural gas industry and energy restructuring in the U.S. and abroad.
It boggles the mind how the University of Houston and industry affiliates let such a program leave this city, but we wish Dr. Foss and crew well.
RELATED: Center for Energy Economics.
CLARIFICATION: J.B. Bird, Communications Director of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, informs in the comments that Dr. Foss and crew will remain in Houston, but will now be affiliated with UT. The linked Houston Business Journal article now states that the Institute will remain in Sugar Land, but the excerpt from earlier did not include that information (the story appears to have been updated). That's excellent for Houston, excellent for the University of Texas, and a loss for the University of Houston.
UPDATE: Another commenter points out that the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business Administration retains its Global Energy Management Institute, which will no longer have to compete with a similar institute within the same university.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 10:21 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Godspeed, little Edloe
It's a sad day. (Don't miss the comments and trackbacks, but be sure you have a box of Kleenex next to you.)
She was a much beloved kitty and Laurence was very generous in sharing her with us. It was especially fun to watch her on the catcams.
Laurence and Edloe (and the other kitties, of course) achieved national fame by being featured in the New York Times, Time magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle. And last week she hosted the Carnival of the Vanities (be sure to scroll all the way down for some of the funniest pictures and captions you'll ever see).
Our heartfelt condolences to the Simon family. She will be missed, so very, very much.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/29/05 10:08 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)
28 June 2005
From METRO Solutions to Galleria redevelopment?
In her excellent "Trust Us" post earlier, Anne Linehan linked to this story by Nancy Sarnoff.
For those METRO patrons wondering why METRO has cut their bus services and is now giving them buses that resemble trains instead of actual promised rail lines while the Galleria gets a new rail line in the revised $2 billion plan Mayor White won't let them vote on, it's probably worth highlighting these tidbits:
"Traffic is so bad that some people just shy away," said David Wolff, Metro's chairman, who also runs a land development company based in the Galleria area.
Indeed, occupancies in office buildings there have suffered because large businesses are moving to places they say are more accessible, like downtown, or to the suburban areas where their employees and customers live.
The Galleria office market had a 21.9 percent vacancy rate in the first quarter of this year, according to real estate firm Studley.
People who want to blame Rep. Culberson (R) or Rep. DeLay (R) for a "transit" plan that seems more like a Galleria zoning/development plan may want to take a closer look at the mayor who gladly took their votes, cut their bus services, and says they don't need to vote on his and Chairman Wolff's new plan to boost the Galleria.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/05 10:26 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
HISD strengthens code of conduct
HISD Superintendent Dr. Abe Saavedra is asking for a tougher code of conduct for students, specifically dealing with students who make "hit lists," and with students who direct gang activities:
Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra will ask the board this week to make schools even safer by allowing the school district to discipline anyone who makes a “hit list.” The change would allow HISD to automatically remove any student who makes such a list even if it was not legally classified as a terroristic threat. The Texas Legislature has defined a “hit list” as a list of people to be harmed by means of a firearm, a knife, or any other object to be used with the intent to cause bodily harm.
The superintendent will also ask the board to crack down on students who recruit and direct gang members while keeping their distance from the gang activities. Current HISD policy calls for tough punishment of students who engage in gang activities, but there is no provision in the policy for punishment of students who recruit gang members or direct their activities but who don’t actually take part in gang-style conduct.
“What we’ve seen in some cases is that students will recruit other kids into a gang and get those other kids to do their bidding. That allows the student who actually functions as the gang boss to keep his hands clean so he has no record of wrongdoing. We’re going to put a stop to that,” Dr. Saavedra said.
The proposal will be voted on at Thursday's Board meeting.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/28/05 05:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Metro: Trust us
The METRO Solutions transit plan for better mobility calls for the creation and improvement of numerous transportation options over the next 20 years:
72 miles of additional rail service, 50% more bus service, Signature Express bus service, 250 miles of two-way, all day Park & Ride service, nine new Park & Ride lots, nine new Transit Centers, and more!
Laid out in the presentation are pages with maps of transit services that will be eliminated, or modified so that the routes feed into the METRO rail.
"The plan is designed to integrate the rail system with the overall transit system, to make the maximum use of both buses and rail," said METRO spokesperson Ken Connaughton.
Effective Monday, April 4, METRO will discontinue three Local bus routes and the two Downtown Trolley routes due to low performance. These routes were given six months' probation last fall, with the understanding that unless ridership on the routes improved during the probationary period, they would face discontinuation.
The Metro board's decision to curtail the bus, one of several either eliminated outright or on weekdays or weekends, hasn't gone down well with several of the riders who say they depend on the bus to get to work. About 1,000 of them signed a petition asking Metro to reconsider the decision, signatures Peterson received Oct. 20.
The plan White and Metro unveiled includes some elements that go beyond what voters approved in the November 2003 Metro Solutions referendum, but other aspects were scaled back to reduce costs.
Bus rapid transit, which uses buses running on their own guideways, would be substituted for light rail in the initial phases of the North, Southeast and Harrisburg corridors and in a corridor through the Uptown-Galleria area from the Northwest Transit Center to the vicinity of Westpark and S. Rice.
The implementation plan also includes more miles of commuter rail than were in the Referendum plan, as well as 40 miles of Signature Express/Suburban BRT instead of 14.
The net result is 97 miles of rapid transit instead of the 36 envisioned in METRO Solutions.
Metro spokesman George Smalley said the revised plan would provide "equivalent service" to light rail until the changeover. "Everything is the same except for the wheels," he said.
Trust us:
Smalley said the changes are covered by a footnote to the ballot resolution that says: "Final scope, length of rail segments or lines, and other details, together with implementation schedule, will be based upon demand and completion of the project development process including community input."
Voters will be able to hold Metro accountable throughout the process because they will have the opportunity to vote to continue funding based on their experience with Metro Solutions up to that point.
ARTHUR LOUIS SCHECHTER, Chairman, Metropolitan Transit Authority
[Metro CEO Frank Wilson] said the changes will not require another referendum.
As part of its $2 billion initiative, Metro is proposing to run an east-west light rail line between the University of Houston's central campus through Greenway Plaza to the Uptown-Galleria area.
Some say that line could lure more companies to the Galleria and Greenway business districts.
"Traffic is so bad that some people just shy away," said David Wolff, Metro's chairman, who also runs a land development company based in the Galleria area.
The big-ticket item in Wilson's presentation, which has not been scheduled for a vote, is the purchase of 15 more rail cars for about $58 million.
"It's the happy price of success," he said. "It happened a lot sooner than we expected. We're running 18 cars a day now — every car every day."
Fare box revenue for March 2005 was $2.2 million. Fare box revenue for March 2004 was $4.5 million.
[T]otal 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.
There's a "shocking" problem with Metro's Main Street train which officials are trying to keep hush-hush.
Electric current is apparently straying from Metro's overhead power lines and eating away at some nearby material, including metal rail anchors at bridges over Buffalo and Brays Bayous, six track switches and two concrete-paved areas along the rail line.
The report notes Metro performed no "baseline" testing of electric current before it started running passenger rail service because it was in a hurry to get the line started.
[Metro CEO Frank] Wilson replied, "My responsibility is to move the project forward. I can't blame those who came before me."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/28/05 11:00 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
27 June 2005
Jackson Lee cites "progress" at Guantanamo
Following an actual tour of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) and others conceded that it did not live up to its billing by certain interest groups:
"The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few years ago," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.
[snip]
After a classified briefing from base commanders, the House delegation ate lunch with troops — the same meal of chicken with orange sauce, rice and okra that detainees were served. They then toured several of the barbed-wire camps where detainees are housed, viewing small cells, dusty recreation yards and common areas.
[snip]
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is one of many Democrats who have called for an independent commission to investigate abuse allegations and said the facility should close. She stopped short of changing her position after the visit but acknowledged, "What we've seen here is evidence that we've made progress."
Evidence of progress, or evidence that "gulag" claims were wildly overblown in the first place?
Thankfully, Rep. Jackson Lee did not tell any wild tales about her activist escapades as a six-year-old. Or at least the AP writer had the good sense not to print them if she did (unlike the local newspaper).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/05 08:34 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)
Congratulations, Miss Houston/Texas
Houston's own Lauren Lanning is the new Miss Texas USA:
Miss Houston Lauren Lanning was crowned Miss Texas USA 2006 on Sunday.
Lanning, 21, was one of 131 contestants in the pageant.
Miss Harris County Crystle Stewart was first runner-up. Miss Beaumont Kendahl Beal was second runner-up. Miss South Central Texas Cassandra Meyer was third runner-up and Miss North Texas Candace Campfield was selected as fourth runner-up.
Lanning is a student in radio/television communications at the University of Houston Clear Lake. She has volunteered for several organizations and founded "Coins for the Cure," a program to raise awareness and help find a cure for breast cancer. The disease runs in her family.
"I want to carry my platform on creating more awareness about early detection and research," Lanning said in a story in Monday's editions of the Laredo Morning Times.
She will represent Texas in the Miss USA pageant in February.
Lanning said during the interview portion of the pageant that she would like to be either a television journalist or an actress.
"I want to be a leader either in the community as an actress bringing attention to issues or on the TV set in Texas delivering the news," Lanning said.
Congratulations to Miss Lanning. Perhaps we'll see her on the local evening news one of these days.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/05 07:57 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Lanier three-peats!
HISD spokesman Terry Abbott sends word that the Lanier Middle School speech and debate team won its third straight National Junior Forensic League title.
Congratulations!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/27/05 03:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
HPD doesn't appreciate red light camera entrepreneurship
So, a company makes a spray on product that can thwart a red light camera...and HPD is whining:
Houston Police Department Lt. Robert Manzo said the city may want to consider an ordinance or a state law against PhotoBlocker.
"So people are already gearing up to defeat the system, huh?" Manzo asked. "We're not happy to hear this product is available and already being marketed to Houston before the cameras are even installed. This is obviously going to be a concern, and it may be something we have to address with the Legislature."
Well, of COURSE people will try to defeat the system -- it's human nature! And HPD now wants to run to the Legislature (which just refused to ban the cameras) to get a ban on anything that might defeat Houston's money-grab.
Then there's this at the end of the story:
The images then would be wired to the city's vendor for owner identification. The city also is considering giving the vendor a cut of the revenue and setting up decoy cameras as deterrents in some areas.
Giving the vendor a cut of the revenue is a bad idea. Just think of the shenanigans that could ensue. Oh wait:
"It's going to be ugly. There's a lot of money involved," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein, whose wife works as the mayor's agenda director.
"The mayor will be watching carefully to ensure that the contracts are handled properly and that there are no shenanigans."
Mayor White, also known as the Father of Houston, will save Houston from any shenanigans.
RELATED: What's the penalty for not paying a red light camera ticket? (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/27/05 02:33 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (10)
State audit of Metro is available for public review
Thursday, Metro will be holding a public meeting (it must be public meeting week!) to present the state's performance audit:
The state performance audit of METRO will be the subject of a public hearing to be held on Thursday, June 30, 2005, at 12:00 Noon in the METRO Boardroom on the 2nd floor at 1900 Main in Houston, Texas.
The performance audit document and METRO management responses to the audit are available for public review prior to the hearing at METRO headquarters at 1900 Main on the 14th floor by contacting Rose Gonzales at 713-739-4834.
I am going to leave you with a cliffhanger: Tom Bazan went to the Lee P. Brown Administration building to view the performance audit and what he saw in the report was astounding. Metro is NOT a healthy organization.
If you have time this week, call Metro and go take a peek at the report for yourself.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/27/05 11:04 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
KTRH obtains draft report on Metro's "stray current" problem
We posted recently on Metro's "stray current" problem and how Metro is attempting to keep a draft report from the public, specifically from Tom Bazan who filed an open records request.
Well, it appears KTRH-740 has obtained the draft report, or at least a portion of it:
There's a "shocking" problem with Metro's Main Street train which officials are trying to keep hush-hush.
Electric current is apparently straying from Metro's overhead power lines and eating away at some nearby material, including metal rail anchors at bridges over Buffalo and Brays Bayous, six track switches and two concrete-paved areas along the rail line.
A draft report obtained by KTRH warns the stray current also has the potential to damage underground utilities.
At a board meeting last month, Metro CEO Frank Wilson estimated repair costs at nearly $3 million, but Metro Chairman David Wolff says they're not yet sure how big the problem may be.
The report notes Metro performed no "baseline" testing of electric current before it started running passenger rail service because it was in a hurry to get the line started. The authority says repairs to electrical damage at the two bayou bridges are underway, and there is no danger to the traveling public.
Now, why can KTRH get the report, but not Tom Bazan?
And isn't it ironic this story comes out on the same day Mayor White and Metro are trying to sell their $2 billion expansion plan to city council?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/27/05 10:20 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mayor calls special council meeting to present Metro plan
At the end of Kristen Mack's Friday column she said that Mayor White was going to present his full Metro expansion plan to city council today.
And here's the mayor's notice:
I hereby request that you call a Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Houston for 11 a.m., MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005, in the Council Chamber, 2nd Floor, City Hall, 901 Bagby, for the purpose of holding a briefing for Council Members on the Metropolitan Transit Authority Phase II Implementation Plan.
______________________
Mayor Bill White
Thanks to Tom Bazan for the reminder.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/27/05 09:56 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
26 June 2005
Food and drink roundup (06-26-2005 edition)
It's ten o'clock on a Sunday night, and what better time to read about food. That's right, we have a food and drink roundup about to happen.
Alison Cook checks out Vieng Thai and deems what she finds "authentic Thai cookery."
Robb Walsh tries Soul on the Bayeaux. Who knew that little place we pass on the way to U. of H. games might actually be good? My favorite part of his review:
The menu at Soul on the Bayeaux describes the place as a "Cajun Soulfood Restaurant." It also says "We zydeco everyday!" and "N'awlins cooking at its best." No doubt this mixed bag of cultural catchwords is going to get people riled up. They'll write letters explaining that there aren't any Cajuns in New Orleans and I need to take a trip to Opelousas or Mamou or somewhere.I'm used to it. Every time I write about Houston restaurants serving food from Louisiana, somebody sends a letter to the editor calling me an idiot. I don't mind -- really. Because the truth is, people in Louisiana don't agree on this stuff either. And they call each other idiots all the time. It sort of makes me feel like part of the family.
Ok, Robb.
Peggy Grodinsky sits in on a Dorothy Huang cooking class.
Dai Huynh sets out in search of flan.
Ken Hoffman makes me purchase a liter bottle of the new Coke Zero. I don't know. I must still have the old Pepsi One on the brain.
And finally, Joey Guerra likes the new digs for Guava Lamp.
World class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/26/05 10:39 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)
Slanted coverage of ongoing probation debate?
The Chronicle, which has argued editorially in favor of softer probation requirements supported by state Sen. John Whitmire (D), today runs a "news" story by Andrew Tilghman that clearly seems slanted in favor of that position.
Here is the crux of the article:
Roughly one of every seven Harris County probationers was put behind bars last year for failing to comply with court-ordered conditions, the highest revocation rate of any major Texas metropolitan area, state data show.
Once viewed as a respectable sign of a tough criminal justice system, a high revocation rate is increasingly considered a liability that fills costly jail space with low-level offenders and drains tax dollars.
Increasingly considered by whom? No longer viewed as respectable by whom?
That language clearly signals to the reader that one view is superior to the other, but not enough information is provided in the story to back up the assertions. Is that news reporting, editorializing, sloppy editing, or some combination?
Interestingly, Sen. Whitmire makes an appearance:
"The (county) bench is made up of very conservative people, most of them former prosecutors," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. "Elements of the judiciary are applying their own theories and philosophies, contrary to what a lot of experts and advisers would suggest works."
Sen. Whitmire co-authored the legislation that Gov. Perry (R) vetoed. That veto gets a mention near the end of the story:
Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a crime bill June 17 that was designed to reform the probation system by limiting community-service requirements and forcing judges to review probation cases and consider ending supervision early for good behavior.
The reform legislation sounds great, right? It's certainly shaded that way by Tilghman, who neglected to report the governor's stated reasons for the veto:
House Bill No. 2193 would reduce the maximum period of probation for certain third degree felonies from 10 to 5 years. This bill would shorten the probation for those who are convicted of assault on a peace officer and taking a weapon away from a peace officer. I will not sign legislation that reduces penalties for offenses against law enforcement officers.
This bill would also reduce the maximum period of probation for offenses such as kidnapping, injury to a child, repeated spousal abuse, intoxication assualt and habitual felony drunk driving. These are serious crimes and I do not believe Texas should reduce probationary sentences for offenders who endanger the lives of others in such crimes.
House Bill No. 2193 would also add court fines to expand drug courts in Texas; however, there was no appropriation of these new revenues and the intended purpose would not be funded.
Attempt to improve this legislation that would have provided greater public safety were rebuffed, ensuring a flawed piece of legislation that would endanger public safety made it to my desk instead of one that could have made needed improvements to our probation system.
This legislation has raised concerns from many on the front lines of prosecuting these crimes, and I can only conclude their opposition stems from good cause.
That certainly raises some issues that were ignored by Tilghman's reporting.
Regardless of whether the story's shading and omissions were intentional, they give ammunition to people who question whether "the division between the opinion pages and the news pages" is as clear as it should be.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/05 10:09 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Casey disppointed with Hutchison decision
Featured Chronicle metro/state columnist Rick Casey admits today that he is "disappointed" that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) has decided not to challenge Gov. Rick Perry (R):
We like a fight for the simple reason that battles are great stories. Truces are good stories, too, but you can't have them without war.
The healthy newsroom's motto is this: Any storm in a port.
That helps explain why so many of us in the news business were disappointed that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison decided in the end not to take on Gov. Rick Perry.
It would have been a glorious gutfight, and it would have had the added virtue of spawning uncounted other fights as congressmen lined up to run for Hutchison's Senate seat, county officials lined up to run for Congress, city pols lunged after county posts and on down.
The rest of the column rambles on about how "moderates" might have made a difference in the hypothetical race:
Kay Bailey Hutchison had an opportunity to destroy a myth that is crippling Texas.
It is the myth that the only way to win the Republican primary — and therefore to win any statewide office and many regional ones — is to appeal to social conservatives and starve-the-government ideologues.
Hutchison had a chance to show something only a candidate with her profile and credibility, and not least of all her budget, could show: that given a credible choice, a Republican could win a Texas primary by appealing to moderates.
Mr. Casey seems blissfully unaware that he lives in a conservative state, and those social conservatives and limited-government types to which he disdainfully refers are known as the majority. It's good to see the featured columnist on metro/state matters so plugged in to the area he covers.
Thrown in for good measure is this non-sequitur:
Sure, most Texans are against gay marriage. But if you gave them a choice between a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and a tax system that funds schools adequately and fairly, my bet is that the overwhelming majority would choose the latter.
Where did THAT come from?
Actually, maybe asking that question isn't such a bad idea. To figure out where Casey is coming from, it's useful to recall some of his recent remarks at a Harris County Democratic Party event:
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?
Those are "Rick's" own words, quoted by an apparent admirer.
That view of conservatives and Republicans is useful to keep in mind when "Rick" editorializes on Republican primary politics. It's also useful to keep in mind that a weakened Perry emerging victorious after a bloody hypothetical primary fight with Hutchison was one of the best hopes for the Democrats to retake the governor's mansion. One can understand their disappointment over her decision to put her party ahead of selfishness, even if "Rick" declined to share with readers that aspect of his disappointment.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/05 09:25 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Sports Authority finds another project to keep itself busy
The Sports Authority has a notice posted about its next board meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, June 28. Let's see if there's anything interesting on the agenda:
6. Discussion and possible action on resolution approving an agreement with Houston YET Center, Inc. for the development of youth, educational and recreational facilities at Finnigan Park and approving other matters related thereto.
7. Discussion and possible action on resolution approving an agreement with Hermes Architects to serve as the architect for the YET Center and approving other matters related thereto.
Sigh. That would be the NFL's Youth Education Town.
It's time to revisit the Sports Authority's mission statement:
The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, “The Sports Authority” is charged with the responsibility of rejuvenating the infrastructure for our community’s professional sports as well as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
It doesn't say anything about developing youth, educational and recreational facilities, even for the NFL.
RELATED: Billy Burge: THE best reason to shut down the Sports Authority! (bH), Uh oh: Sports Authority still working on Major League Soccer deal (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/26/05 08:47 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Community doesn't want Mayor White to be dad
On the heels of state Rep. Garnet Coleman's scolding of Mayor White, is this excellent op-ed in today's Chronicle by Robert Muhammad:
Let me be clear, it is not just the revised rail plan, but the way the mayor and the Metropolitan Transit Authority communicated the rail plan changes to the community that opens them to criticism. The community's angst is rooted in what appears to be the arrogance of power.
The citizens of Houston elected White to be the mayor — not their father. The title of the popular television show was Father Knows Best — not mayor, congressman or transportation planner knows best. In his op-ed, Mayor White stated, in the future tense, that he and Metro will listen to the community and will explain the transit plan to them. If the listening and explaining would have been in the past tense, the mayor and Metro would not find it necessary now to be defensive about the plan.
Similar to the fallout from the implementation of the Safe Clear program, it appears that the community is a public policy afterthought with White's administration.
He's not alone in thinking that.
Whenever voters are asked for their approval of a policy, the mayor, as a policy implementer, should remember to confer with the voters if the approved policy is substantially changed — as we now see the Metro transit plan has been substantially changed.
In Texas, popular sovereignty means that power lies in the will of the people governed, not with the government itself. The community wants to make this view crystal clear to the mayor, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the congressional delegation and private developers.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/26/05 06:32 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
Steffy: the flawed logic of economic development programs
Don't miss Loren Steffy's column today:
Just hours after the Supreme Court's decision Thursday, Freeport officials began efforts to seize waterfront property from two seafood companies as part of an $8 million marina development, according to a report by Chronicle correspondent Thayer Evans.
The action was accompanied by the usual economic development blather. The marina will lure $60 million worth of hotels, restaurants and shops, create hundreds of jobs and revitalize downtown.
"It's all dependent on the marina," Lee Cameron, the city's economic development director, told the Chronicle. "Without the marina, (the hotels) aren't interested. With the marina, (the hotels) think it's a home run."
Therein lies the flawed logic that too often creeps into economic development programs: Success is assumed. Build the marina and the hotels will be a "home run."
It ignores questions developers don't ask, but cities should. What if they strike out? What if, even with a marina, no one stays at the hotels? How long will the hotels stay in business if occupancy rates trail their forecasts?
Is a shuttered hotel development preferable to a waterfront of small, if aesthetically unappealing, businesses?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/26/05 10:54 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
25 June 2005
Rep. Coleman: Mayor White is overturning an election by fiat
Kristen Mack's column yesterday about Mayor White selling his new $2 billion Metro expansion plan included some criticism from several elected officials:
Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, said Metro still has to "earn back the trust of the area I represent." His district includes the east side of Houston.
"I may not be the majority leader or in the majority party, but I sure can make things hard," Green said.
And:
Other elected officials, including state Rep. Garnet Coleman and Councilman Adrian Garcia, who met with White late last week, still have not signed on to the plan.
"You don't take an election and overturn it by fiat," Coleman said. "What White didn't want was anyone pre-empting their announcement."
Coleman contends that White made a unilateral decision and did not attempt to build consensus. Federal money is important, but the sales taxes local residents pay and the fares riders contribute also should buy them a role in the decision-making, Coleman said.
Garcia still has questions as well."I was never told anything about ridership threshold. I was not told there would be an indefinite time period when we would go from guided transit to rail," he said. "My constituency has been looking for light rail, and I've been fighting to keep it on track for my district."
Rep. Coleman lays it all out, very succinctly.
I foresee some outreach by Mayor White to get Rep. Coleman on board with his plan. It's what Mayor White does when he's faced with dissent.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/25/05 04:48 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
HISD middle school seeks third straight national debate title
Here's a great story from Jason Spencer earlier this week about HISD's Lanier Middle School:
The march of shorts-wearing, briefcase-toting students to and from Lanier Middle School this time each year has become an annual rite of summer.
Inside the Montrose-area school that draws some of Houston's most academically gifted children, 45 students are putting the finishing touches on their speeches and debate arguments in the hopes of winning a third straight National Junior Forensic League title in San Antonio this weekend.
"These guys work so hard in the summer," debate coach Jim Henley said earlier this week in Lanier's auditorium. "They haven't lost since 2002. They've beaten every public and private school team."
[snip]
In the eight years he's led Lanier's speech and debate squad, Henley has turned the team into a powerhouse program that draws some of the best talent in the nation's seventh-largest school district.
"It is an advantage," Henley said. "Lanier is such a sought-after school."
Students will board two San Antonio-bound buses Thursday on their way to compete in debate events such as Lincoln-Douglas, public forum, cross examination and parliamentary debate. Speech competitors will interpret poetry, prose and other forms of literature.
Those are middle school students! That's terrific.
And on HISD's website is a story of debating success for a couple of Scarborough High School students:
Scarborough’s team became the only one from an HISD high school ever to have students ranked in the top four in individual forensic events at both the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) Grand Nationals held May 28 and 29 in Milwaukee and the National Forensic League (NFL) Speech Tournament held June 12–17 in Philadelphia.
Chris Hunter, who will be a senior this fall, competed against more than 200 other students to win fourth place in dramatic interpretation at the NFL Speech Tournament, while classmate (and cousin) Seth Hunter was awarded fourth place in Milwaukee at the NCFL Grand Nationals. Seth also finished in the top 15 in poetry interpretation at the NFL competition.
Congratulations!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/25/05 11:54 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron criticizes eminent domain case
The Chronicle editorialists wrote the following today:
Municipal and county governing bodies frequently miscalculate or wildly overestimate the benefits of tax abatements and other incentives.
Besides that, individual taxpayers don't necessarily benefit from increased government revenues.
Sometimes the increased revenue proves insufficient to cover the cost of providing services to new development. Sometimes increased revenues are wasted on things other than essential services.
So, are they talking about METRO?
The Harris County Sports Authority?
Any number of toll-road authorities?
The Lee Brown Administration?
No. We rarely see the Chronicle make such arguments about local authorities. They are talking about a Supreme Court decision with which they disagree. Here is the crux of their complaint:
A majority on the court was convinced that the possibility of improving the tax base for the benefit of the wider community satisfies the Fifth Amendment's requirement that private property can be taken by eminent domain only for a public purpose.
That's not entirely accurate. The majority showed great deference to municipalities and states in their making the public purpose/public use determination. Personally, I think it's a bad decision, and would urge the Court to be far less deferential. But, some people would characterize my preference to apply Lochner-era reasoning to the matter as radical.
In any case, the Chronicle editorialists get it right in this conclusion:
In Texas, lawmakers would do well to pass restrictions on this distasteful form of eminent domain.
Indeed, that is precisely the remedy recommended by the majority. Let's hope the Texas legislature will take it up in the next regular session.
Further, let's hope the Chronicle's new regard for taxpayers and property owners continues to be reflected in editorials about local issues.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/05 09:12 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Spellman testifies in Cleveland/Houston corruption trial
Chronicle reporter Dan Feldstein checks in from Cleveland, where former Brown Administration officials have been testifying in court:
A chief of staff for former Houston Mayor Lee Brown testified this week that he advised contractors to select minority subcontractors based on their support of the mayor.
As they prepared bids for city work, prime contractors would sometimes call and ask which firms in the city's affirmative action program were "preferred," said Oliver Spellman, testifying against Cleveland entrepreneur Nate Gray.
"Certain minority firms are more supportive of the mayor than others," Spellman explained to the jury.
The testimony came during the federal court trial of Gray and two other men snared in a Cleveland-based bribery investigation that has reached to Houston and other cities.
Brown has not been accused of wrongdoing. He has said that he was unaware of improper efforts to influence contracts listed in charges against Spellman and another former Brown official, building services director Monique McGilbra.
The bad thing is, given how former Mayor Brown was generally oblivious to the city falling down around us on his watch, it's almost believable and certainly plausible that he didn't know the degree of corruption on his staff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/05 07:21 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
BizRadio 1320 blogger segment
Don't forget the BizRadio 1320 blogger segment, about 10:15 Saturday morning.
Anne Linehan and Charles Kuffner will be chatting about the past week's fun blog topics.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/05 12:54 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
24 June 2005
This testimonial won't be seen in a glossy Metro brochure
You know how Metro is spending $250,000 to figure out why its ridership is declining? Perhaps Metro officials should talk to actual riders, such as Laurence Simon:
Know what I think? I think that METRO is issuing the bonds and going into debt for better crackpipes. That's right. Crackpipes. Because there's no other rational explanation for this kind of neglect, ineptness, and chaos than their planners being wacked out on crack.
Somewhere in there is a new slogan for Metro.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/24/05 07:17 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron's reader rep is blogging!
What a wonderful Friday afternooon surprise:
When I recently mentioned to a Chronicle colleague that I soon would be writing a blog titled About:Chron, he joked: "It's about time."
Yes, it is.
But more precisely, it's about the Houston Chronicle.
I've been the Chronicle's readers' representative for three years. During that time, I have received tons of interesting and fascinating questions and ideas from readers. Common questions relate to the weather page, redesign of the newspaper, bias, comics, sports coverage, politics and photos.
We appreciate it, even the complaints. The feedback helps us to understand and better serve you.
About:Chron will be an extension of that communication.
Also there's a new nightlife blog, called "bar tab."
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: At the start of the year, we threw out some suggestions for improving the Chronicle. Here's #2:
The reader rep should have more authority and more impact
One can't help but suspect that the job of reader rep/ombudsman at most newspapers -- and certainly the Chronicle -- is a thankless task, for the person must take all sorts of grief from readers, without possessing any real power to fix any but the most egregious problems/errors.
That's unacceptable. We think Jeff Cohen should boost James T. Campbell's authority considerably at the newspaper, and give him a regular column (or even better, a blog) to address reader concerns and criticisms.
I've had a fair number of email conversations with Campbell about problems this blog has found at the newspaper, and he's been professional and responsive. That said, the newspaper would probably benefit if that process were much more transparent. To that end, Campbell should have a column and blog where he regularly addresses reader complaints, and the Chronicle's responses (because sometimes, reader complaints are not legitimate).
The Chronicle deserves credit for this smart move.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Mr. Campbell!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/24/05 07:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Freeport moves "aggressively" to seize waterfront property
It's just so un-American it makes me want to cry:
With Thursday's Supreme Court decision, Freeport officials instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to seize three pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River from two seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private boat marina.
The court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that cities may bulldoze people's homes or businesses to make way for shopping malls or other private development. The decision gives local governments broad power to seize private property to generate tax revenue.
"This is the last little piece of the puzzle to put the project together," Freeport Mayor Jim Phillips said of the project designed to inject new life in the Brazoria County city's depressed downtown area.
[snip]
Since September 2003, the city has been locked in a legal battle to acquire a 300-by-60-foot tract of land along the Old Brazos River near the Pine Street bridge as well as a 200-foot tract and 100-foot tract along the river through eminent domain from Western Seafood Co. and Trico Seafood Co.
[snip]
The tracts of land would be used for a planned 800- to 900-slip marina to be built by Freeport Marina, a group that that includes Dallas developer Hiram Walker Royall. He would buy the property from the city and receive a $6 million loan from the city to develop the project.
State Rep. Frank Corte Jr. (R-San Antonio) has already said he will propose a state constitutional amendment to limit "local powers of eminent domain, or condemnation."
Faster, please.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/24/05 05:28 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
One more reason to create a Houston Parking Authority?
Here's another handy piece of news that can be used by Mayor White in his quest to get a Houston Parking Authority:
The people who broadcast from the KPFT studios park their cars on Lovett Boulevard. An old house on the street has been KPFT's home for more than 30 years. But the neighborhood is changing.
Across the street from the radio station, in the heart of Montrose, sits a comparatively new townhouse complex. People who live in those townhouses were upset that customers of nearby bars and nightclubs often parked their cars there, tying up all the spaces on the street. So they went to the city government and convinced the planning department to restrict parking there.
Now, if you want to park on the street in the area, you're supposed to have a permit; something the radio station's visitors don't have.
"We have relied on street parking all this time," said Ray Hill, KPFT talk show host. "And those folks don't use the spaces in front of their building at night, because they have plenty of parking inside the compound."
If you think downtown's the only place with parking problems, think again. With so many cars crowding onto Houston streets, parking issues are popping up all over the place.
"Fifteen years ago, when we created a parking ordinance, maybe there were two cars in a household. Today, there could be two, there could be four. We're using up the street capacity," said Bob Litke, Houston Planning Director.
Of course, city council could deal with the issue, but there's probably little chance that will happen. Councilmembers appear to be happy when Mayor White proposes solutions, which they can then approve.
Get ready Houston -- another quasi-governmental agency with eminent domain power could be right around the corner.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/24/05 01:10 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Iran's sham election -- in Houston?
The Washington Times comments on "Iran's sham election -- on U.S. soil," and mentions a Houston blog:
On Friday, a clash occurred at one of the polling places, located at the Commerce Hotel in Los Angeles, between security guards working for the Iranian government and anti-regime activists. Aryo Pirouznia, coordinator for the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran, tells us he was attacked, sprayed with pepper gas and sent to the hospital by the guards. In Tucson, Ariz., freelance journalist Robert Mayer visited a site at a local school for the visually impaired, where voting officials prepared to count the ballots, phone the results in to Tehran and mail the votes to the Pakistani Embassy in Washington. Mr. Mayer interviewed the poll monitor, a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona, who treated him to a bizarre lecture explaining how Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are CIA agents. In Houston, Will Franklin, who blogs on the site WILLisms, posted photos showing how he was nearly arrested by the Houston Police Department when he attempted to write a story and take pictures of the polling place.
Franklin has more details in this post. The post to which the Times editorial refers is here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/24/05 11:35 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Where's LULAC's outrage?
Well, I thought LULAC would be upset about HPD photographing day laborers. Instead it's the ACLU.
Maybe LULAC's taking a little summer vacation.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/24/05 10:55 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
New HEC problems: poor training or "productivity policy" fallout?
Yesterday KHOU-11 reported the story of a woman who called 911, but couldn't get the help she was seeking:
Pamela Gray was headed home in her car at night when she looked in the rear view mirror, saw the problem and made the call for help. " The people behind me were actually pulled out of the car and they were actually beating their heads against the car, and that's when I was rear ended," she says.
Frightened, she called 911, but the emergency operator said help would not be coming unless she stopped. Gray to the 911 operator: "But now they're chasing me, wanting me to stop and I'm scared and I don't want to stop. I'm a single female in the car and it's these guys who were in a fight behind me. I don't know what to do."
911 operator: "Okay, if you want me to send you an officer you're gonna have to pull over and stop."
Today's Chronicle continues the story:
Gray came through that nightmarish June 4 experience unharmed, but was so stunned by the handling of her plea for help that she went to KHOU (Channel 11). Councilman Mark Ellis demanded answers from the Houston Emergency Center, which responded by revising some of its operating procedures.
[snip]
The call-taker will not be disciplined, said HEC spokesman Joe Laud, because an internal investigation concluded that the call was properly handled, based on her belief that Houston Police Department policy forbade dispatching officers to moving complainants.
But Houston police Capt. Dwayne Ready said there is no such policy.
"We have dispatched to moving targets before," he said Thursday. "We even have a call code for road rage, so officers can find you on the road."
Ellis said officers told him that police are dispatched in such cases "all the time."
"I think they probably can't discipline (the call-taker) because there was nothing in their operating procedures addressing it," Ellis said. "I certainly think a little common sense would have gone a long way."
HEC doesn't address road rage incidents in its operating procedures? What else is missing in HEC's operating procedures? Will someone have to be injured or killed before we find out?
[...]the call-taker never told police dispatchers about Gray's call, said Capt. Ready.
Had dispatchers been notified, Ready said, the call probably would have been given to a supervisor who could stay on the line with Gray until a police officer could find her.
"Common sense has to prevail," Ready said. "If someone says, 'I witnessed a crime, and now they're following me,' you don't tell them, 'Call us back after they catch up with you and kill you.' "
Unbelievable.
Also, KTRK-13 has the story of another 911 call that didn't go as it should have:
Houston's 911 dispatch center has disciplined five employees. It's all related to one disturbance in the Clear Lake area that happened three weeks ago. Despite numerous calls, no help arrived for almost an hour. Investigators say the blame falls on the dispatchers.
Is the problem poor training or HEC's "productivity policy"?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/24/05 08:21 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 June 2005
Eckels: "My intention is to stay right here"
The Chronicle's Bill Murphy reports that Harris County Judge Robert Eckels will apparently seek re-election:
As part of the fallout from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's decision not to run for governor, County Judge Robert Eckels said today that he anticipates running for re-election next year.
Eckels had been considering a run for state attorney general or lieutenant governor if either post had opened up when its incumbent sought Hutchison's Senate seat. The popular Republican senator's decision to seek re-election increases the likelihood that most statewide officials will stay put.
Eckels acknowledged that Hutchison's decision narrowed his options. "My intention is to stay right here. This is a great job," Eckels said. "I'm happy right here."
Eckels will be seeking his fourth term. He has previously said he would only serve three terms.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/23/05 10:33 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Bush is a band
The Chronicle editorialists begin a paragraph of a staff rant about "unfettered authoritarian government" as follows:
Bush likes to view the threat of terrorism in black and white, which in many instances is a perfectly defensible stance. But the president should be equally decisive in ensuring that impingements on intellectual freedom, which the current Patriot Act abridges, are carefully crafted.
Bush is a band.
President Bush, on the other hand, is the elected leader of the United States.
Whatever the Chronicle editorial board's views towards the man and his conservative policies, the respectful way to address him throughout an editorial is President Bush.
UPDATE (06-24-2005): It's pointed out in the comments that my real beef is with the AP style guide. That's fair enough. I'd like to see media outlets make an exception on this one, which is probably the political scientist in me speaking.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/23/05 10:01 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Graffiti taggers target bayous
KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that graffiti taggers, whose "work" has been increasingly visible all over town, are now targeting the bayous:
Houston's growing graffiti problem has spread to the city's waterways where taggers are now defacing the bayous.
So far, no government agency is taking responsibility for cleaning up the graffiti.
City landscapers work hard to make Houston look good and that's why they're bothered when somebody goes to a bayou with a can of spray paint to leave their mark.
"Being out here in this heat, we take pride in our work as far as like trimming around the trees and doing what we're asked. So when we see stuff like that it's kinda like disrespectful to our job and our work," said Charles Thomas, a city mower.
But here's a strange problem: When taggers have trashed up highway signs, for example, the highway department has taken care of it. But when nature becomes a vandal's canvas, cleaning it up becomes a bureaucratic mess.
The Harris County Flood Control District cuts the grass and trims the bushes on the bayous, but it does not clean up the graffiti.
In fact, people who've tried to tackle this problem say no government agency has accepted responsibility for getting rid of the graffiti along the Bayou City's bayous.
Looking around town, one could pretty much say that no government agency has accepted responsibility for getting rid of the graffiti anywhere.
Graffiti abatement efforts take money and effort, and Mayor White and his council have had other priorities.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/23/05 06:26 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
Spirit-filled city council approves mayor's budget
City council approved Mayor White's proposed budget yesterday and Matt Stiles provides some details:
The council, with two dissenting votes, approved the general fund — the tax- and fee-supported portion that covers city departments' operating costs — as part of a $3.2 billion overall budget that also includes enterprise funds such as those dedicated to aviation, water and sewer, and convention facilities.
About 64 percent of all nondebt costs in the general fund will go to public safety, which increased about $48 million, or 5.8 percent, in a budget that doesn't require large cuts or spending increases in most departments.
Part of the added public safety costs comes from $19 million set aside in the event that the city's firefighters approve a collective-bargaining deal in the coming weeks.
[snip]
"This is a strong mayor form of government. The mayor is going to always do what the mayor wants to do. There's very little that a council can do unless they are all united against the mayor," said Councilman Mark Goldberg.
Among several other amendments passed by the council was an $878,000 cap on city spending for the Safe Clear mandatory freeway towing program. That figure, which doesn't affect additional contributions to the program from the Metropolitan Transit Authority and tow-truck operators, was the fiscal 2006 Safe Clear expenditure estimated last week by Controller Annise Parker.
The two council members who voted against the budget, Addie Wiseman and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, criticized the decision to issue $71 million in pension revenue bonds to help cover payments to pensions instead of using tax revenue.
"We're relying on $71 million in pension bonds, passing the burden on to future councils," Wiseman said.
The story also included this amusing quote:
"City Hall is operating in a businesslike fashion," White said. "There's a good spirit around the council table that we're working toward some common goals of creating a good quality of life in our neighborhoods, greater mobility and better value for the taxpayer dollar."
Aha. We can look to Councilman Mark Goldberg for the definition of "good spirit":
"This is a strong mayor form of government. The mayor is going to always do what the mayor wants to do. There's very little that a council can do unless they are all united against the mayor," said Councilman Mark Goldberg.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/23/05 11:04 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Feldstein reports on Cleveland corruption trial
The Chronicle's Dan Feldstein reports on the ongoing Cleveland corruption trial that involves former Brown Administration officials Monique McGilbra and Oliver Spellman:
Former city building services director Monique McGilbra has already pleaded guilty in Cleveland to taking bribes from major national firm Honeywell through consultant Nate Gray.
She also pleaded guilty to one count in Houston that included accepting gifts from the Keystone Group, a Houston-based firm that built the city's 911 emergency call center.
On the stand Wednesday as a government witness against Gray, she said she also improperly received gifts from officials of national engineering firm CDM (formerly Camp Dresser & McKee), Atlanta-based construction firm Thacker Operating Companies and Reliant Energy.
All had business with her department. City rules forbid employees from receiving gifts. McGilbra was in charge of enforcement for her department.
Feldstein's full story has more details.
The Houston angle seems to be, as Drudge might say, developing:
As the federal government presented its seventh day of evidence in the corruption trial of two Cleveland men and a New Orleans man, all signals clearly pointed to a continuing investigation in Houston.
"Is it over in Houston?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach asked FBI agent R. Michael Massie one day last week as he introduced dozens of wiretapped calls.
"No," Massie said.
Stay tuned. This could get very interesting.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/23/05 07:35 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
LULAC won't like this
HPD has begun photographing day laborers as a method of identification:
For months, people have complained day laborers trespass on their private property while waiting for work.
This week, Houston police started a new initiative, warning them to stay away.
Since few carry identification, officers are taking pictures of the people they talk to, using snapshots as proof they've been warned. If they're caught trespassing again, they'll go to jail. Businesses say it's about time.
"Well, we've been open for the last two years and we've been having complaints since the day we opened," said Rahul Parikh with Midtown Ace Hardware.
He says customers, mainly women, get harrassed.
Ace Hardware is one of two dozen businesses in this stretch of Durham with similar complaints.
"Some people have been intimidated by individuals because of their behavior," explained Houston Chief Harold Hurtt.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/23/05 07:11 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
A hint of what Mayor White spoke about at the Progressive Forum
It's not much, but it's more than any other local media outlet gave us:
Mayor Bill White basked in his pro-environment credentials June 13 when he appeared with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Hobby Center. The Prius-driving mayor told the crowd that half of the municipal-car fleet will be converted to hybrid technology, air-monitoring activities will be expanded, and polluters will be hunted down, tortured and slowly killed.
Well, not that last part. But White played the green card for all it was worth.
"Nobody has a right to chemically alter in some risky fashion the air or water they do not own," he said.
White doesn't want to go overboard on this whole tree-hugging thing, though. His office is refusing to sign the mayoral equivalent of the Kyoto Protocol against global warming.
More than 130 mayors -- including those from Austin, Denton, Hurst and Laredo -- have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which was begun by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.
"The overriding purpose of this is to encourage more action to reduce global-warming pollution in more cities," says Steve Nicholas, an environmental aide to Nickels.
Mayor White ain't signing. (Somehow he didn't mention that in his Hobby Center speech.)
Why not?
Spokesman Frank Michel says White "stands by his environmental record here in Houston, but he's not particularly interested in signing on to something the mayor of Seattle wants him to."
Richard Connelly doesn't mention what Mayor White said about his new $2 billion Metro expansion plan, but I'm sure the mayor brought it up. After all, if he had "played the green card for all it was worth," his proposal to spend billions of dollars on light rail and (don't say Bus) Rapid Transit probably would have been a hit with the Progressive Forum.
RELATED: Transcript of mayor's speech won't be posted (bH), A missed opportunity for local news coverage (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/23/05 06:51 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)
22 June 2005
Speaking of bombs...
From time to time, we've suggested that the Chronicle editorial board refrain from topics on which they have no special expertise, such as international politics.
Otherwise, unfortunate gaffes can occur, such as the time the editorial board conjured up a nonexistent treaty.
Today, another one got away from the idealists:
After decades of bloody civil war and de facto partitioning of the country by Syrian and Israeli forces, the government of Lebanon has regained sovereignty over its territory, and with it the chance to re-establish a peaceful, multiethnic, multireligion democracy in the Middle East.
Note the implied moral equivalence of the "de facto partitioning of the country by Syrian and Israeli forces."
But the two nations aren't morally equivalent. For years, Lebanon was a client/staging state for Syrian-sponsored terrorism. Lebanon didn't exercise sovereignty because it was a satellite of Syria.
Israel certainly is not opposed to a peaceful, democratic Lebanon. But Lebanon was neither peaceful nor democratic when under Syria's sway. That's pretty much the end of the story.
Maybe we've been wrong in our past criticism of the Chronicle editorial board. Maybe they should do more Editorial LiveJournals, because they sure have trouble with anything more serious.
Laurence Simon wasn't impressed with the editorial either.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/22/05 08:35 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
"It gets him on base"
Laurence Simon points out that Craig Biggio is about to tie Don Baylor in the "ouch" category.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/22/05 03:04 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chief Hurtt conquers downtown lawlessness (updated)
Chief Hurtt has given an update on Operation Generate Revenue...I mean Operation Downtown Mobility...better known here as Operation Jaywalking:
Since the Downtown Mobility initiative began on June 20th, Police Chief Harold Hurtt says there have been 1,750 violations.
Officers on foot and bike patrol have been watching for jaywalkers, red light runners and other traffic violators and there have been plenty of them.
Of the 1,750 infractions, 335 people were given citations.
•5 percent were cyclists
•25 percent were pedestrians ticketed for jay walking
•70 percent were drivers cited for various traffic violationsChief Hurtt also reiterated that by the end of the year the 10 worst intersections in Houston will have red light cameras. He added that some may be decoys.
He says there will be signs saying "You are entering a red light camera zone" at those intersections.
I feel safer already.
UPDATE: The KHOU-11 link above now takes you to a different story on the same topic, with this bit of information added:
Chief Hurtt also says that about 100 more officers will soon be hitting the streets. Those officers currently work in the city jail and the city plans to replace them with civilian workers.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/22/05 01:54 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
Some thoughts on "affordable housing"
I have a couple of problems with a story in today's Chronicle about the city seeking "expert" opinions from community activists such as ACORN in order to fix Houston's "affordable housing" program.
I don't blame the reporter (Mike Snyder) as much as I blame conventional wisdom. Better editorial direction might have helped, but I'm not even sure about that.
Anyway, my first problem is with the term "affordable housing." What is "affordable housing"? Who defines it? What is the price range of it? What income level determines who gets it? How many taxpayer dollars are required to subsidize it?
I have lived in both Northern and Southern California and I can guarantee you that the vast majority of housing in Houston would be considered "affordable housing" in California.
My second problem is with something that is barely touched on in the story -- property taxes. Texas' very onerous property tax system probably does more to hurt lower-income families with home ownership than anything else. Snyder makes a passing mention of property taxes here:
In neighborhoods where redevelopment is driving up property values rapidly, protect residents from displacement through tax relief.
If I am reading that correctly, the suggestion is to shield lower-income families from skyrocketing property taxes. But that only masks the problem. We already give seniors a property tax exemption, and in Galveston County there is a new program that freezes property tax rates for seniors and disabled persons. Now we have a suggestion to provide property tax relief for lower-income homeowners. While I certainly understand the reasons for all these breaks, what it does is place more and more of the state tax burden on a shrinking group of citizens.
Most likely there will come a time when the property tax burden squeezes middle-income and higher-income homeowners to the point that they revolt. (This is a much fairer system of taxation.)
A similar situation had California teetering on the brink of bankruptcy recently. After years and years of narrowing the income tax burden to the wealthiest Californians, two things occurred: many wealthy Californians started fleeing the state thereby taking taxable income away from the state coffers, and California's economy tanked when the tech bubble burst. It's a cautionary tale for governments that continue to narrow the tax base.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/22/05 01:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
21 June 2005
Perry follows Oberg interview with "Mofo" gaffe
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg recounts the end of an interview with Governor Rick Perry (R):
Our questions were not recorded on tape, but in saying goodbye I told the governor, "Try as I may, Governor, I guess I can't win this one."
Eleven seconds after he said goodbye, the camera crew was getting ready for the next interview with another station. That's when Gov. Perry repeated what he thought I'd said, and added a few words of his own with his microphone on and tape still rolling.
"Try as I may, Governor, I'm not going to wait that long," Gov. Perry said. "Adios, Mofo."
Those last words aren't exactly part of the seven dirty words, but it isn't something you want to say to your mother or use in good company. Tuesday morning, Governor Perry called me personally. He apologized and said his comment wasn't directed at us.
He agreed it was just one of those times a politician is caught by an open mike saying something embarrassing. He tells us he was just trying to get a reaction from the camera crew and it wasn't said with any malice or intent.
During the excitement of KTRK-13's recent coverage of the multi-county power outage, it seemed liked an anchor might actually drop the "mofo" bomb on poor Mr. Oberg a couple of times.
UPDATE (06-29-2005): KTRH 740's Chris Baker has posted an mp3 of the "Adios, Mofo" comment here (scroll down).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/21/05 10:11 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
Why can't the "public safety" mayor get an HFD deal done?
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles writes today about the city's ongoing effort to reach agreement with firefighters, who overwhelmingly rejected a labor deal rammed through after Mayor White took the negotiations public.
The story concludes with Mayor White getting the last word, and is once more heavy on quotes and light on details:
Leaders of the Houston firefighters union are seeking answers for two tough questions — why their members soundly rejected a proposed new contract, and what it might take to change their minds.With a looming budget deadline, leaders of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association hope to fashion a compromise with city negotiators that would be acceptable to their members, who voted nearly 2-1 earlier this month against the last negotiated proposal.
Getting there won't be easy.
The union's negotiators must push the agenda of their 3,700 members while staying mindful of city budget constraints. Their city counterparts must keep costs down while trying to sweeten the deal enough to win over a skeptical, frustrated group of firefighters.
"It is an issue of trust that has to be established," said Councilman Adrian Garcia, who's talked with numerous firefighters about perceived slights by city leaders over the years.
"You don't get to trust without good faith. I think the membership needs to be demonstrated that there is good faith coming from the administration."
It has little to do with "trust" and "good faith" and very much to do with real, concrete issues. One firefighter has commented on those issues in our forum. And actually, the Chronicle sidebar does a decent job laying out some of them:
• Overtime: Five extra 24-hour shifts a year, often filling in at unfamiliar stations.
• Pay: Decreased overtime pay, though basic pay would increase 34 percent, compounded over three years.
• Staffing: Concern about "manning" — the number of firefighters serving on each truck. The city contends the number would remain at four.
• Parity: Firefighters still would not make as much as police officers; they have been seeking that parity for years.
Manning is a huge issue. If the city isn't backtracking on that issue, then Mayor White's negotiators should put it in writing, clearly. Keeping four men on trucks is a crucial issue to firefighters and to public safety.
More broadly, if our "public safety" mayor can find the cash for Tasers, new HPD badges, and overtime pay for cops to harass downtown pedestrians, then surely he can find the cash to make a fair labor deal with our firefighters.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/21/05 09:40 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Commissioners got an earful about stealth toll road plan
Here's an initial report on today's Commissioners Court meeting from KHOU-11:
The Harris County Commissioners Court Tuesday heard from residents who are demanding more input on toll road proposal projects.
Commissioners are considering at least five new toll roads over the next five years.
It would cost more than $2 billion dollars and include a Hardy Toll Road extension, segments of the Grand Parkway and a Brazoria County toll road.
But some residents say there should be public meetings before any vote is taken.
Commissioners responded that residents with concerns are welcome at any meeting to voice those concerns.
That is a standard response from commissioners; however, commissioners have a track record of not listening to public input. They just build whatever, whenever.
As for government agencies not providing advance notice online, blogHOUSTON commenter rorschach has posted on his blog an open letter to Texas AG Greg Abbott, asking for some requirement in that direction.
UPDATE: Here's KUHF-88.7's coverage:
County officials say they've given plenty of notice and have gone out of their way to inform the public about meetings and progress regarding toll road corridors. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels says the toll road issue should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. "There was nothing today that has not been available to the public for years and that will not continue to be made public about these specific projects," says Eckels.
Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee says responsibility falls on both sides, and it's likely the county will review its process of notifying the public about issues such as additional toll roads.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/21/05 03:11 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
A missed opportunity for local news coverage
Today was the day I was expecting something from the Chronicle on Mayor White's speech at the Progressive Forum.
Instead, what we have is a Dina Cappiello Q and A with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
While I am sure Cappiello found the interview interesting, I would imagine more Chronicle readers would have appreciated a report on Mayor White's speech -- you know, since he is Houston's mayor.
RFK Jr. coming to Houston isn't as good a story as Mayor White speaking on the same day he announced his new $2 billion Metro expansion plan.
Oh, and I did email the Chronicle this morning and ask if today's RFK Jr. Q and A was the extent of coverage we would be getting on Mayor White's speech. I haven't received a response yet.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/21/05 02:10 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
METRO train operators disregard traffic control signals
KPRC-2 reports again on METRO's problem with train operators who are not heeding traffic control signals:
Operators of METRORail trains are running red lights and putting people's lives in danger, the Local 2 Troubleshooters reported in an exclusive story Monday.
A camera on a train seen running a red light at Main and Pierce streets on Friday captured video of an operator blowing through a red light.
"It was really kind of frightening because I am looking at the light thinking, 'Wait a minute. Wait a minute. (My) light is green.' I was watching it as the train went through and still it was green," witness Dale Higginbotham told Local 2.
After experiencing the near miss, Higginbotham called the Troubleshooters, who obtained a copy of the video taken on board the train.
METRO's Senior Vice President of Operation David Feeley told Local 2 the driver was suspended without pay after reviewing the video.
Feeley said Friday's incident was not an isolated case -- that it was the second time in the same week that the transit system caught a light-rail conductor running a red light.
"I am going to tighten up the work rules and tighten up the discipline," the METRO officials said.
Feeley, who recently joined METRO, said things are changing at the transit system. He said under current rules, light-rail operators are given a warning the first time they are caught running a red light.
"The discipline is going to be a little more swift and a little more aggressive. It's not going to be a warning. It's going to be serious stuff," Feeley said.
Let's all hope that it's more serious than the discipline meted out to municipal workers who fabricated test results in the HPD crime lab.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/21/05 01:06 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
20 June 2005
In harm's way: A response nixed by the Chronicle
The following article, written by Haynes and Boone LLP attorneys James D. Braddock and Michael J. Mazzone, was submitted to the Houston Chronicle in response to the January series "In Harm's Way."
Braddock and Mazzone contacted the Chronicle during the series’ run to indicate their interest in submitting a response, submitting an initial draft for review then making a number of changes as requested by the Chronicle.
Ultimately, however, Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen (rather than editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons or Outlook editor David Langworthy) held publication of the article. Cohen said the attorneys would need to divulge a list of clients who have refinery and other operations in the area on which the series focused attention, in order to show readers that the writers were not objective. Though agreeing that transparency was a laudable goal, the attorneys felt publishing a list of their clients on such an article would be tantamount to saying they spoke for those clients on the matter -– which was not the case.
At a presentation sponsored by the Houston Property Rights Association, Braddock and Mazzone noted that all of the scientific assertions in their op-ed were submitted to two scientists (a toxicologist and an air-monitoring expert, both with long experience in their fields) for review. The professional biographies of the authors are hyperlinked at the end of the op-ed. blogHOUSTON is pleased that Braddock and Mazzone have given permission to post their op-ed here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/20/05 10:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Will the Chronicle hold METRO to the same standard as TXDOT?
The Chronicle editorial board today urges TXDOT to release documents various media outlets have requested under freedom of information laws:
The Houston Chronicle filed a freedom of information request with the Texas Department of Transportation seeking secret provisions of a state contract with a Spanish consortium to build and operate the Trans-Texas Corridor, a web of tolled transitways across the state.
In response, officials from TxDOT and the consortium, Cintra-Zachry, appealed to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow them to withhold the documents from the Chronicle and other newspapers that filed requests. Even after a sweeping rejection of the claims in an opinion from Abbott on May 31, TxDOT officials are considering going to court to prevent the release of the information.
The public has a right to know on what terms a consortium is being given a contract to build and operate toll roads in the state for the next 50 years.
That doesn't seem objectionable.
Locally, our own transit organization (METRO) has been stonewalling Tom Bazan's requests for their documentation on the light-rail's stray-current problems. Will the Chronicle editorial board hold METRO to the same standard, and pressure the organization to release that information to the public (and to elected officials like Rep. Culberson, who must weigh METRO's funding requests)?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/20/05 09:04 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Letters editor joins the Editorial LiveJournal act
We've commented previously (and too frequently) on the Editorial LiveJournal escapades of the Chronicle editorial board's resident Platonist, James Howard Gibbons.
Today, letters editor Judy Minshew gets in on the act with a rambling "Sounding Board" column that we prefer to characterize as an Editorial LiveJournal. Here's a sample of her diary-like post about her grandson, class structure in American life, college degrees, and a half dozen other things:
The last time I was in Fort Worth, I took Mike and some of his friends to a party at a home that was undoubtedly worth $3 million. In a posh, gated community, the house was not only huge but beautiful. After meeting the host parents and coordinating with them on what time I would return, I went out to dinner. Later, after taking the other boys home, I asked Mike if he knew what the family did for a living. He said the father "manages his 'investments.' "
I laughed out loud: No kidding! With a house that size, a pool as big as my back yard and a media room to rival Steven Spielberg's, I'm sure he stays quite busy managing his investments. If Mike thinks he can live that lifestyle, he's going to need several of those advanced degrees!
Of course I don't know what his future will be or if it will be necessary for him to get a degree to be successful — I know others who didn't and are. But with graduation so close, he's going to have to make the academic most of every minute between now and then.
We have nothing against Miss Minshew, aside from the fact that some of her decisions on the letters page are just baffling.
However, this writing really doesn't belong on the editorial page of a serious newspaper. There's a better place for such writing.
CALLIE MARKANTONIS ADDS: What the heck was that about? That's five minutes of my life I'll never get back.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/20/05 08:52 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Quan will not challenge Lampson
Councilmember Gordon Quan has decided not to run against Nick Lampson in the Democratic primary for the right to challenge Republican Tom DeLay in the 22nd Congressional district.
KTRK-13 and KHOU-11 have posted briefs on the event. Fort Bend County blogger Chris Elam was at the announcement, and has much more.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/20/05 08:16 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Harris County's stealth toll road plan -- the vote is tomorrow!
Sneakiness in government aggravates me to no end. For example, releasing a long-term plan on a Friday and voting on the plan less than a week later. Oh, and not posting the plan online (update: see this comment), or encouraging media coverage.
That's exactly what Harris County did and the Citizens Transportation Coalition has the details:
On Fri June 17, Harris County released the new 5-year
Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which identifies the next 5-7 priority toll road corridors. The document is available on paper at the county office downtown but is not available online.Tomorrow, Harris County commissioners are expected to approve the plan at the only scheduled public hearing -- Tues June 21 at 9:00 am. Commissioners are then expected to vote at the 10:00 am Commissioners' Court meeting to authorize $192,295 for traffic and feasibility studies for the new priority toll roads.
This four-day process is remarkably fast and opaque with no public notice and no mention by the press. When and where was the public supposed to learn about the new toll road corridors or participate in the planning process?!?
Check out information from the new plan about the 5-7 new "priority" toll roads for Harris County: http://www.ctchouston.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18
CTC is working to make the press and the public aware of toll road plans that will affect neighborhoods as well as the lack of public accountability in toll road planning.
You can help by doing two things:
1) TODAY, please call both your Harris County Commissioner and the Harris County Judge and let them know that the public deserves notice and a meaningful opportunity to review these plans and weigh in. This 4-day process is way too fast and precludes real public participation.
Precinct 1 Commissioner El Franco Lee (713) 755-6111
Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia (713) 755-6220
Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack (713) 755-6306
Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole (713) 755-6444
County Judge Robert Eckels (713) 755-40002) CTC needs neighborhood leaders to come to the hearing and Court meeting. If you are available to come downtown Tuesday morning from 9:00 - 11:00 am, please let Robin (713) 526-2283 or Polly (713) 524-4578 know ASAP.
To sign up to speak Tuesday, please call (713) 755-5113 and tell them you want to comment on both the Capital Improvement Plan and agenda item 1.c.1.c. (on page 2). If they tell you to just show up, please insist that they take your name and topic.
There is simply no excuse not to have posted this information online, long in advance, so the public could become and informed and comment on it.
And I am really tired of governmental agencies not posting relevant information on their websites in a timely fashion. We (voters and taxpayers) need to demand that this happens. We pay the government's bills; we elect these officials; it's time for them to be more responsive to us.
(Thanks to a blogHOUSTON reader for passing on the information.)
In the extended entry, I will copy the list of projects in the plan:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/20/05 03:42 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
Mayor White's Houston infrastructure plan
KHOU-11 has a story up about Mayor White's five-year plan for Houston's infrastructure:
It is not about the everyday expenses the city pays out, but instead what the city calls its big-ticket items.
It takes about 1,000 pages to explain all of it, so here are a few of the bigger projects:
The mayor wants to add $45 million to clean up neighborhood drains. He said a northeast Houston area near Chatham Elementary is a good example of a big flooding problem. If you were around during Allison you know a lot of the drains couldn't even come close to meeting the challenge of a tropical storm.
[snip]
Another major expenditure will go towards all the abandoned properties the city continues to tear down. The mayor wants to increase the amount of funding going towards developer reimbursement programs by 20 percent. The idea is to encourage builders to create affordable housing in the place of empty eyesores.
A third big chunk of money will go towards public safety.
"People who have been, violated the law can be taken to a facility, which is modern and complies with the Constitution and obtains economies by centralizing the jail responsibilities in agreement with Harris County.
I don't see a press release or a link to the report on the city's website yet, but when it shows up, I'll add an update.
UPDATE: Here's a brief KUHF-88.7 story on the mayor's announcement.
UPDATE (06-21-2005): The plan is now on the city's website.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/20/05 02:24 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
FTA's New Starts program information
In today's Move It! column, Rad Sallee mentions the rating formula used by the Federal Transit Administration to help determine which light rail projects will get federal funding:
Metro said the Federal Transit Administration had rated two of the planned lines, in the North and Southeast study corridors, as "medium low" in cost-effectiveness and had advised Metro that at least a medium rating is usually needed to qualify for funding.
U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, was not alone in his confusion. Green noted that the two lines went through largely low-income Hispanic and black neighborhoods, where many people ride the bus because they have to.
[snip]
FTA spokesman Paul Griffo said the formula the agency uses to judge proposals is complicated.
But in brief, analysts compare the cost of a light rail project to the value of the time that riders would save by taking light rail instead of a bus not running on a fixed guideway.
Griffo said the FTA rated Metro's Southeast plan at $24.31 and its North plan $23.80. The lower the numbers the better, and the dividing line between a "medium" project and a "low medium" one was $22.
Well, I'm one of those who likes to be able to see the original source of information, so with some help from Tom Bazan, here is a direct link with all the FTA New Starts information, including the formula for rating proposed light rail projects.
Happy reading!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/20/05 11:20 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
19 June 2005
Food and drink roundup (06-19-2005 edition)
It's a little late, but here is this week's food and drink roundup.
Robb Walsh tries Arcodoro Ristorante Italiano in the Galleria area and leaves us with a primer on Sardinian cuisine.
Peggy Grodinsky heads way south of town to the George Ranch in Richmond with foodie, author, and historian Betty Fussell to sample some beefsteak from the working ranch.
Nicki Britton reports on the growing trend of BYOB establishments in the Houston area, and lists a few of the restaurants that don't mind if you bring along your own bottle.
Ken Hoffman tries Long John Silver's Clams Coastal Combo, and from his review, I learn that there's such a think as crumblies, and that they have a cult following.
Allison Wollam and Margaret Allen with the Houston Business Journal report that Cafe Express is experiencing financial trouble since being acquired by Wendy's.
And finally, Gracie Ochoa visits huge Latin club Planeta Bar-Rio.
World class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/19/05 11:14 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (3)
Queen Sheila: Boosting Houston light rail at age six
Rad Sallee's Chronicle article on METRO, which Anne Linehan noted earlier, contains this interesting paraphrase of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee:
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she organized the meeting at Texas Southern University with fellow Houston Democrat U.S. Rep. Al Green after Metro announced Monday that it wants to initially substitute train-like buses for light rail on four planned corridors.The news caused an "upheaval" in minority neighborhoods, with "calls from our constituents and phones ringing off the hook," she said.
Lee told Metro officials that she has been hearing promises about a rail system for Houston since she was 6 years old.
Tom Bazan emailed us because he thought that sounded a little odd.
While it's not impossible that a six-year-old was thinking about light rail in Houston, one wonders just how often the topic came up among six-year olds running around the Jamaica area of Queens:
Friends and foes alike agree that Sheila Jackson Lee is unique in Houston's African-American political realm. For starters, she was born in New York City. Unlike Washington, Leland and Jordan -- all previous representatives from the 18th District -- Lee did not grow up in the inner-city wards or pass through the academic halls of Texas Southern University. State representative Sylvester Turner shares Lee's outsider status in the local black power structure, but relative to Lee, he's an insider: He grew up in the north Houston community of Acres Homes and attended the University of Houston before heading to Harvard. Justice of the Peace Al Green, who grew up in New Orleans, is perhaps Houston's only other high-profile black official to hail from outside the city.
Perhaps conscious of Houston's preference for homegrown politicians, Lee plays down the fact that she was born in the Jamaica section of Queens, and that her grandparents on her father's side are Jamaican immigrants. In fact, when she first ran for office, the candidate profile submitted to the Houston Chronicle listed her birthplace as Houston.
Even today, she offers biographical details grudgingly. She describes herself as "a very private person" and refuses to reveal what her parents did for a living or what high school she attended.
According to this biography, she was born in Queens and graduated from Jamaica (NY) High School. She and her husband moved to Houston in the 1970s. She was older than six.
Perhaps Jackson Lee was simply confused. It wouldn't be the first time. One of her most famous instances of confusion is recounted in the biography linked above:
Jackson Lee's penchant for misspeaking (called Sheila-isms in Houston political circles, similar to Bushisms) has also made her the object of ridicule from the political right, especially over a well publicized episode in which she asked NASA scientists if the Mars Pathfinder robot probe had photographed the location of the 1969 Moon Landing.
That's our Queen Sheila.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/19/05 10:33 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (9)
News flash: Mayor White is looking out for Houstonians
In today's Chronicle, Mayor White has an op-ed where he says that if we don't like his new $2 billion Metro expansion plan, don't blame Metro -- blame him.
The column is filled with utopian talk about how rapid/mass (which one is it?) transit will better the lives of Houstonians, but there is an interesting little tidbit that was news to me:
In the last 30 months, no one has talked to more Houstonians in more neighborhoods than I have. In every case, I supported expansion of all forms of mass transit. I supported the use of debt to accelerate expansion of the system before Metro did, and I supported Metro's bond issue that was on the ballot and passed in November 2003. I believed then, and believe now, that the amount of debt authorized in the 2003 election was prudent and reasonable, based on my business and financial experience, even though I publicly shared reservations about Metro's projections.
Did the mayor convince Metro to change from a pay-as-you-go policy?
And is that really a prudent business decision, in light of the fact that Metro subsists largely on tax dollars? I find it disconcerting (to say the least) that Mayor White supports a debt policy for Metro, based on his years of business and financial experience.
Then we get to the nagging problem of representation:
Within a month of taking office, I appointed a new team to the Metro board.
[snip]
[...]to ensure the highest priority for Houston's projects.
[snip]
Houston is ready to move on.
[snip]
If we improve mobility by increasing transportation options, Houston will be the winner.
[snip]
Houston has about 1.5 million people of voting age[...]
[snip]
I was hired by voters to get this city moving[...]
[snip]
I ask all Houstonians to come together[...]
Do you think Metro-taxed, Harris County residents who didn't get to vote in Houston's mayoral election can get a reduction in their sales tax rate? Or, even better, how about an opportunity to vote on the NEW Metro Solutions plan.
And has anyone seen or heard from Judge Eckels?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/19/05 08:02 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Exxon-Mobil scholarships and grants
Jack Williams of KUHF-88.7 reported Friday on money given by Exxon-Mobil for college scholarships and grants:
Exxon-Mobil today is celebrating a new contribution milestone, with a number of local students on the receiving end of money for scholarships and enhanced educational programs.
ExxonMobil is celebrating passing the $1 million mark given to the Tom Joyner Foundation over the past five years. Joyner is a popular radio host who has supported diversity in education and has raised millions of dollars for minority scholarships. Gerald McElvy is the president of the ExxonMobil Foundation. He says most of the employee the company hires have degrees from various universities, and putting money into those schools is an investment in the future.
The ExxonMobil Foundation is also contributing $330,000 over the next year to the University of Houston, money designed to inspire students to pursue careers in math, science and engineering. Joanna Wolf is the executive director of major gifts at UH. She says the money is critical to helping students who have stayed away from higher education in the past.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/19/05 07:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
HISD supports governor's veto
Yesterday, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the Legislature's school financing plan. In light of that, here is HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra's statement supporting the veto:
We welcome any efforts the governor can make to get the Legislature to adopt an appropriate system of funding education in Texas. We applaud his boldness and his courage in approaching this issue, and we urge the Legislature to act swiftly and responsibly to give Texas children the kind of education funding they deserve.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/19/05 05:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Why the city should not be in the loan business
Yes, this is one problem Mayor White inherited, but it still illustrates why Houston should not be in the loan business:
City officials are hoping to work out a new financial agreement with the owners of two downtown hotels that have defaulted on nearly $15 million in city loans.
[snip]
The city lent $5 million to the ownership of the Crowne Plaza, at 1700 Smith, in February 2000. The owners have yet to make a full payment since the first one came due in March 2001.
The city also lent $9.5 million to the owners of the Magnolia, at 1100 Texas, in October 2002. The Magnolia ownership hasn't made a payment since its first one came due in November 2003. Walsh said Wednesday that the Magnolia also is in danger of becoming delinquent on its property taxes to the city and other taxing entities by the end of this month.
The city can't foreclose on the hotels, Walsh said, without the agreement of North Houston Bank, which is the primary lender and first lienholder on both hotels. The Crowne Plaza still owes the bank $14.4 million, and the Magnolia owes it $27.8 million.
Both hotels are current on their payments on the bank loan.
The hotels can keep up with their bank payments, but not city payments. And the city has little ability to force the issue. Nice.
I'm sure Mayor White is trying to get this resolved, but it's a good idea to remember that some of the city's financial problems couldn't have been that big of a surprise to the mayor, since White played a part in the budget process during the Lee Brown administration.
RELATED: Businesses not repaying Houston development loans (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/19/05 11:36 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
Robison: Perry promoting "prejudice and divisiveness"
Weekend partisan lefty ranter and weekday "objective Austin news bureau chief" Clay Robison criticizes Governor Perry today for his support of traditional versus gay marriage in Texas:
For better or worse, Perry has hitched his re-election to the social conservatives who are influential in the Republican primary and who warmly applaud further restrictions against same-sex marriages.There isn't anything wrong, of course, with the governor courting conservatives, but he should be more careful to temper his remarks. Even on the eve of what may be a hotly contested re-election campagn, the governor is supposed to lead, not divide.
The same-sex marriage amendment, however, doesn't invite leadership as much as it promotes prejudice and divisiveness.
Leaving aside the horror of a politician courting conservative voters in a conservative state, one still is left wondering why Clay Robison thinks his own position on gay marriage is preferable to the 60-70% of voters who will vote yes on the gay-marriage amendment he is discussing, voters he's come very close to accusing of being prejudiced.
Robison is no fan of social conservatives in Texas, as he makes clear in this editorial. Fine. We're no fan of Austin bureau chiefs who have such strong antipathy towards social conservatives, and we think there should be more of a firewall between opinion and news. The Chronicle editors obviously feel differently.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/19/05 10:43 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (15)
It's a Metro Sunday!
Today's Chronicle has two stories and three opinion pieces on Mayor White's new and improved Metro expansion plan.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/19/05 10:24 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
18 June 2005
Rep. Jackson Lee holding Metro townhall meeting today
Metro officials are hitting the PR trail, as they attempt to defend Mayor White's new $2 billion expansion proposal, a plan that differs dramatically from the Metro Solutions plan voters approved in 2003.
Today's Chronicle says Metro CEO Frank Wilson will fly to Washington, D.C. next week to apprise local members of congress of the new plan -- a plan that isn't sitting well with some Houstonians.
And a "townhall" meeting is planned for today:
Meanwhile, some of those members [of congress] will have a "town hall" meeting today to gather public comment and seek answers about Metro's proposal to temporarily substitute buses on fixed guideways for light rail in four future transit corridors.
Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Ken Connaughton said the agency will try to have at least two board members and some senior staff at the meeting.
U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green, both Houston Democrats, were organizing the meeting Friday.
"Many local stakeholders feel," a release by Jackson Lee said, "that the plan presented substantially differs from that which was the subject of the referendum" in November 2003 that approved light rail.
If Ken Connaughton is smart, he'll do more than "try" to have Metro representation at Rep. Jackson Lee's meeting.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/18/05 09:50 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Blogger radio on BizRadio 1320
Anne Linehan will be talking about various blogHOUSTON topics from the past week on the BizRadio 1320 blogger segment on Saturday morning at about 10:15.
She'll be joined by Charles Kuffner, and host Jon-Michial Carter.
It's been a busy week for politics and media junkies, so this should be fun.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/05 12:11 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (4)
17 June 2005
Alleged MS-13 member arrested in Houston area
The AP reports that federal officials have arrested two alleged members of the MS-13 gang, one in Harris County:
U.S. immigration authorities arrested two members of a Central America-based gang in Texas this week as part of a nationwide crackdown.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Houston announced Friday that Mario Del Carmen Umanzor, a Salvadoran, was arrested by border patrol agents near the border checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, on Monday. Hary Alberto Duran-Lanza, a Honduran, was arrested Thursday in Harris County, which includes Houston.
Both are members of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang, or MS-13, which is rooted in Central America. More than 300 members have been arrested nationwide since Operation Community Shield was launched in March.
ICE said in a statement that Umanzor was convicted of cocaine possession in 2003 in Virginia and was deported after serving 16 months in prison. He also told authorities he has been arrested multiple times in El Salvador, once for possessing a live grenade.
ICE said Umanzor is charged with illegally re-entering the United States and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Duran-Lanza, who has been arrested on charges including burglary, theft and evading arrest, will be deported, ICE said.
That MS-13 is an extremely dangerous gang that engages in drug trafficking is underscored by Umanzor's rap sheet.
Thankfully, MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have ensured that downtown crosswalks will be safe from deadly gang activities this month. Maybe next month, they can focus on the rest of the city.
RELATED COVERAGE: 2 alleged MS-13 members arrested, 1 from Harris County (KHOU-11), Up close: Life is tough in the 'Gulfton Ghetto' (Dave Fehling, KHOU-11).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/05 11:57 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron editorial board caricatures and the culture of death
The Chronicle editorial board, much like Howard Dean, just couldn't resist making a political point about the Terri Schiavo controversy, notwithstanding their complaints that the issue should not be political.
It's a fairly typical editorial from editorialists who show more concern for leftovers than for those unable to make decisions about their own lives or deaths (i.e. those who are brain-damaged or those who are trapped in a womb and unable to speak for themselves):
Now, with the autopsy, we know who was doing the misrepresentation — not to mention the exploitation of a sad, family-riving tragedy.
There seemed to be a modest sense of remorse on the part of some Republicans in the wake of the medical report. But that may have been because they saw how sharply the public reacted against their meddling. Some Republicans spoke in terms of their public-relations fiasco, not their simple wrongheadedness.
If they unexpectedly have learned a lesson, the methodology is immaterial.
On the topic of "how sharply the public reacted," there has been plenty of discussion on the blogosphere of loaded questions producing predictable results in the Schiavo polling, and even Democratic pollster Pat Caddell made the point that most of the questions in the various Schiavo polls were egregiously loaded. Further, the reaction of the public to a Zogby question that presented a fairly accurate rendering of the Schiavo situation was contrary to the Chronicle editorial board's portrayal. Perhaps the idealists should expand their reading.
As for the idealists' haughty moral condescension, the internet (fortunately!) provides other perspectives that will never be represented on the Chronicle's narrowminded editorial pages. Here are a couple:
Annihilating Terri Schiavo (Paul McHugh, Commentary).
I use the term “life unworthy of life” advisedly. The phrase first appeared a long time ago—as the title of a book published in Germany in 1920, co-authored by a lawyer and a psychiatrist. Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwertes Leben translates as “Lifting Constraint from the Annihilation of Life Unworthy of Life.” Terri Schiavo’s husband and his clinical and legal advisers, believing that hers was now a life unworthy of life, sought, and achieved, its annihilation. Claiming to respect her undocumented wish not to live dependently, they were willing to have her suffer pain and, by specific force of law, to block her caregivers from offering her oral feedings of the kind provided to all terminal patients in a hospice—even to the point of prohibiting mouth-soothing ice chips. Everything else flowed from there.
How could such a thing happen? This, after all, is not Nazi Germany, where the culture of death foreshadowed in the awful title of that book would reach such horrendous public proportions. But we in this country have our own, homegrown culture of death, whose face is legal and moral and benignly individualistic rather than authoritarian and pseudo-scientific. It has many roots, which would require a long historical treatise to unravel, with obligatory chapters considering such factors as the growth of life-sustaining and life-extending technologies and the dilemmas they bring, the increasingly assertive deprecation of medical expertise and understanding in favor of patients’ “autonomous” decision-making, the explosion in rights-related personal law and the associated explosion in medical-malpractice suits, and much else besides.
All this has resulted in a steady diminution in the bonds of implicit trust between patients and their doctors and its replacement, in some cases by suspicion or outright hostility, in many other cases by an almost reflexive unwillingness on the part of doctors to impose their own considered, prudential judgments—including their ethical judgments—on the course of treatment. In the meantime, a new discipline has stepped into the breach; its avowed purpose is to help doctors and patients alike reach decisions in difficult situations, and it is now a mandatory subject of study in medical and nursing schools.
I am speaking of course about bioethics, which came into being roughly contemporaneously with the other developments I have been describing. To the early leaders of this discipline, it was plain that doctors and nurses, hitherto guided by professional codes of conduct and ancient ideals of virtue embedded in the Hippocratic oath or in the career and writings of Florence Nightingale, were in need of better and more up-to-date instruction. But, being theorists rather than medical practitioners, most bioethicists proved to be uninterested in developing the characters of doctors and nurses. Rather, they were preoccupied with identifying perceived conflicts between the “aims” of doctors and the “rights” of patients, and with prescribing remedies for those conflicts.
Unlike in medicine itself, these remedies are untested and untestable.
Although it certainly offers a strong pro-life perspective, this article is one of the more thoughtful commentaries that has been published on the Schiavo affair. The Chronicle idealists could stand to read it and think about it. It might help them to overcome the narrowminded caricature of pro-life conservatives that they've presented in their vile editorials on this topic.
A kinder, gentler killer (Peter Burnet, Brothers Judd Blog)
This week’s release of Terri’s autopsy results is being heralded as a vindication of her former husband and proof she would not have recovered. Few ever held out much hope she would, which is why so many were praying for her. The horror felt by so many was that so many others thought that was the sole issue and could see nothing beyond it. And as Dr. McHugh so eloquently explains, that wasn’t the issue for those dwindling members of the medical profession who believe they are called to save and protect life as they find it, not to destroy it through pseudo-scientific, amoral bafflegab. The thought that we may ever live see the day when when such moral grounding and nobility of vocation is gone with the wind is almost too chilling and depressing to bear.
There were, of course, no mobs trashing the streets and howling for Terri’s death, no political jeremiads against the terminally ill and no sick jokes about omelettes and broken eggs. That isn’t the way the culture of death, which is a logical endpoint of our broader therapeutic culture, operates. Its cold-hearted, selfish rationalism always comes wrapped in ersatz empathy and compassion (certified professionally in courses and workshops) for those it seeks to destroy or marginalize. Its tools are not storm troopers and secret police, but the mis-use of scientific language to confuse the decent, open and scrupulously well-documented bureaucratic process, psychological manipulation through ceaseless counseling and dialogue and, ultimately, judicial fiat. Unlike with the totalitarian horrors, the victims of the culture of death can often take comfort in knowing their executioners will be there holding their hand and weeping at the final moment, assuring them everyone is praying for them and that theirs was indeed a tough and tragic case. But die they must, and die they will.
blogHOUSTON highly recommends a daily dose of the Brothers Judd Blog (among others) to provide thoughtful alternative perspectives to the frequently insipid commentary produced by the Chronicle editorial idealists on national and international affairs -- and, of course, this blog and other local blogs on our blogroll for alternative perspectives on local affairs.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/05 11:23 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Uh oh: Sports Authority still working on Major League Soccer deal
Here's a perfect example of why the Sports Authority should be sunsetted out of existence:
Officials with Mexican soccer league champion Club América hope to continue talks in the next two weeks about prospects for a Major League Soccer franchise in Houston that eventually could play in a new stadium developed in conjunction with the Houston Independent School District.
[snip]
Oliver Luck, CEO of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, who has been working with Club América and other groups interested in bring MLS to Houston, expects a resolution to Club América's plans by the end of next week.
[snip]
Luck said several potential investors have met with the sports authority and with the Houston Independent School District about a proposed 20,000-seat stadium plus a smaller practice field to be built at the site of HISD-owned Delmar Stadium.
The proposed HISD stadium, which would cost an estimated $45 million to $50 million, would be a smaller-scale version of a 117-acre, $80 million project that will open this summer in the Dallas suburb of Frisco. That project, which includes a 20,000-seat stadium and 17 soccer fields, was funded by $15 million from the Frisco school district, $20 million from Collin County, $20 million from city economic development entities and $10 million from Hunt Sports Group, which owns FC Dallas and will manage the complex.
Oliver Luck has been busy, hasn't he? And there's not a hint on the Sports Authority's website that any of this has been going on.
The first thing I did was contact HISD to find out what its part in this proposed deal is. Terry Abbott responded that HISD will not commit any money. He said that HISD was approached about providing a stadium that would be improved with outside money and would be used jointly by HISD and MLS.
The Chron's story is light on funding details, but we hope it would be ALL private funding! And any deal had better not include those little "helps" that the Sports Authority/taxpayers are currently providing, for example, to the Rockets (parking garage) and the Aeros (ice).
[MLS spokesman Simon]Borg said Houston's plans were neither helped nor hindered by the recent collapse of plans to award a franchise to San Antonio. MLS officials this month ended talks with the city and said local officials were not bargaining in good faith. That came after new Mayor Phil Hardberger opposed plans to grant MLS a favorable lease on the city-owned Alamodome.
And what happened in San Antonio? Well, in April the cost of bringing a soccer team to San Antonio skyrocketed from $6 million to more than $20 million. And then this month, talks completely collapsed, apparently due to financial concerns -- including MLS's plan to use the Alamodome rent-free.
RELATED: Billy Burge: THE best reason to shut down the Sports Authority!(bH), Chron soccer columnist backs yet another new stadium (bH), Sports Authority's near-miss with junk-bond status (PubliusTX)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/17/05 03:27 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
HISD employees to receive at least three percent raise
All HISD employees should be seeing a three percent raise, with teachers also being eligible for performance bonuses, thanks to the proposed 2005-06 budget:
Teachers could earn extra money next year if their students show strong academic gains, according to a new $8 million incentive program outlined in the Houston Independent School District's proposed $1.3 billion budget for 2005-06.
The initiative, which would set aside a 1 percent incentive pool for teachers, is being proposed alongside 3 percent pay raises for all HISD employees.
Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said he hopes the pool can be a first step toward a pay system that includes hefty incentives for high-performing teachers.
"It's a start. It's not where we want to be," said Saavedra, who hopes to release the details of how teachers would qualify for the money by September.
The merit-pay push is part of a national move by lawmakers and school districts to attract and reward qualified teachers who improve performance in public schools, especially low-performing ones. This spring, the Texas Legislature considered ordering all school districts to create the type of 1 percent pool that HISD is proposing.
KPRC-2's coverage includes a statement from the Houston Federation of Teachers:
"The Houston Federation of Teachers appreciated the superintendent for honoring his commitment to a 3 percent across-the-board pay raise for teachers and other support personnel. He held the line even though there was pressure from his board to give only teacher bonuses."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/17/05 02:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Elected officials question mayor's new Metro plan
Rad Sallee (with Kristen Mack) has another interesting story on Mayor White's new $2 billion expansion plan, with some elected officials expressing concern:
Two Metro supporters in Congress said Thursday that the agency's decision to put a guided bus system in three corridors where voters had approved light rail could damage public trust in the agency.
"This is not helping Metro's credibility problem," said U.S. Rep. Gene Green, whose district includes the Metropolitan Transit Authority's North, Southeast and Harrisburg corridors.
[snip]
A second Democratic congressman from Houston, Al Green, said he will reserve comment on the plan until he understands it more fully, but he added, "People are concerned that there may be some plan that is going to develop that would not be consistent with what they perceived it to be when they were casting their votes."
[snip]
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said it appears that "the west side of town won out over the right side of town.
"It's disappointing, but it's clear this is not the end of the discussion," he said.
Coleman is scheduled to talk to White, Wilson and Councilwoman Ada Edwards this afternoon, but said he wished that discussion had taken place before the plan was made public.
"I'm disappointed that people don't understand that you have to work a deal with everybody, regardless of the sticks people carry," Coleman said. "I hope that we can get some clarity on what the plan is."
Several area legislators, including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, state Sen. Rodney Ellis, both Houston Democrats, and Commissioner El Franco Lee are all on the same page, according to Coleman.
Woopsie! As we suspected, Mayor White didn't share his plan with those communities before he made his announcement. But with the exception of SAFEclear, the mayor generally gets his way and probably didn't anticipate any problems with the new plan.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/17/05 11:50 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
Rep. Culberson on Edd Hendee's show
Rep. John Culberson (R) was just on with Edd Hendee (KSEV-700) and while most of the conversation dealt with this, Hendee did bring up Mayor White's new Metro plan at the end of the interview.
Rep. Culberson mentioned that he was concerned about Metro's decision to take on debt and issue short-term notes, instead of its previous pay-as-you-go policy. He said he was prepared to question Metro's financial position. He also reiterated that he did not help design or plan Mayor White's new $2 billion expansion plan, and that he doesn't endorse the plan. He said he would continue to seek funding for many transit plans in the Houston area, including Metro's plan, but that he's not exclusively working on Metro's new plan.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/17/05 09:17 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)
More Bob Stein -- this time on SAFEclear
Bloomberg.com is running a fawning SAFEclear story:
Tow trucks are doing what politicians can only hope to achieve with billions of dollars in transportation spending: easing traffic congestion in Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city.
A program to clear disabled vehicles from freeways during peak travel times eliminated 1.8 million hours of delays since starting in January, according to a report last week by the Texas Transportation Institute and Rice University. Accidents dropped by almost 10 percent. Commuters saved $70 million in lost time and collision-related costs, the report said.
``People were 2-to-1 against the program,'' said Bob Stein, a Rice professor who has studied Houston traffic for more than 20 years. ``They are now 2-to-1 for it. They have seen results.''
Bob Stein is EVERYWHERE! Now, Stein doesn't just study Houston traffic (and of course, his wife works for Mayor White); he helped design SAFEClear. And not only did Stein help design the original SAFEclear, but in January he let slip the true purpose behind the plan:
Stein said the biggest factor in determining how much towing companies bid for their segments was not the expected number of tows or miles of freeway, but the average age of vehicles there.
Vehicles on the city's largely industrial east side average about 4 years older than those in the affluent western suburbs, he said.
Stein's conclusion: "Tows were not the driving force in the bidding."
On the west side, he said, "it was the opportunity to make referrals for repairs." On the east side, the tow operator's profits are likely to come from storage lots and reselling impounded vehicles whose owners cannot afford to pay the fees, he said.
None of that is in the Bloomberg story. But this is:
Stein, the Rice professor, said results have won over many of the people who opposed Safe Clear. Traffic congestion is a perennial sore point for people in Houston, which ranks fifth in the U.S. for time wasted in traffic.
No source is given for Stein's repeated pronouncements that "people" have been won over by SAFEclear.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/17/05 08:47 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
How to identify Bob Stein
Chronicle politics columnist Kristen Mack reports today on the companies vying for the city's red-light-camera contract, and the city-hall ties of some of their lobbyists.
The column concludes with a proper identification of Rice University political science professor Bob Stein:
"It's going to be ugly. There's a lot of money involved," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein, whose wife works as the mayor's agenda director."The mayor will be watching carefully to ensure that the contracts are handled properly and that there are no shenanigans."
On that bolded part -- how does Professor Stein, sometime advisor to Mayor White himself, know? Is it because he's an omniscient objective political analyst, or because of his personal ties to the White Administration?
There's no way for readers to know, which is why it is important for journalists to note his association with the White Administration in their reporting. Otherwise, readers simply think he's an outsider doing objective political analysis, which is misleading.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/05 07:08 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
16 June 2005
Beware of a Dwight Silverman media appearance near you
Chronicle tech guru and "Houston Driver" Dwight Silverman is everywhere!
He's blogging. He's writing columns. He's broadcasting. He's random podcasting. He's burning up the Chron servers with new blogs.
And now, he's helping out KHOU-11 with road engineering:
It might be a good idea to hire out-of-towners to put up Houston's signs. That way you wouldn't have somebody who already knows how to get where he's going.Dwight Silverman has another idea. "Let the highway engineers ride around with people who new to the city and see what they get confused about. Essentially beta test the roads," he suggested.
This would make everyone's list: Beltway 8, which, yes, is also Sam Houston Tollway, has special lanes for those with exact change. But the exact amount seems to be a secret. Is it $1? More? Less?
You television guys leave Mr. Silverman alone! The man is busy enough.
NOTE: The posted screen cap isn't very clear, but below the name, Silverman is identified as "Houston Driver."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/16/05 10:29 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (5)
How not to report on an audit
Yesterday, we gave the Chronicle's evolving coverage of the SAFEclear audit a bit of a break, suspecting that the story that appeared in the morning editions of the print version would be significantly different.
Instead, it was mostly the same.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/16/05 09:56 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
A potpourri of blather from the Chronicle DC bureau
Sedosi Alhambra points out something interesting about a Bennett Roth/Samantha Levine story from the Chronicle's underwhelming Washington bureau.
The story comments on House financial disclosures, covering Majority Leader Tom DeLay's disclosures in some detail, while noting the disclosures of several other Texas Republicans and one Democrat (Gene Green).
Conspicuously absent from the list was Sheila Jackson Lee (D), as Alhambra notes.
Other oddities from the story are: 1) The subtle implication that Ron Paul (R) somehow hopes to profit from legislation to return to the gold standard because he has invested in gold and silver; Paul's criticism of fiat currency is well known, so it's hardly surprising he would invest in hard currency, and 2) the two reporters and probably several editors apparently feel that it is news that Michael McCaul (R) has several thousand dollars of debt on a department store credit card.
If the Chronicle's Washington bureau can't produce more balanced, notable journalism than this, Hearst really ought to shutter the place, go with wire coverage, and reallocate the assets to the city desk.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/16/05 09:24 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
HISD students help restore Evergreen Cemetery
Some HISD students have been busy cleaning up a historic Fifth Ward cemetery:
Almost three dozen students from HISD’s Wheatley High School (4900 Market Street) have been honoring their neighborhood’s rich heritage over the past few months by rolling up their sleeves and applying some elbow grease.
The students—many of whom graduated this May—joined forces with representatives from the Houston Geological Society, the Fifth Ward Enrichment Center, Keep Houston Beautiful, and Project Respect to give the old Evergreen Negro Cemetery in Houston’s historic Fifth Ward (located just east of downtown) a facelift.
Over the course of several Saturday-morning sessions, the students have partially erected a wooden fence to prevent drive-by trash dumping, trimmed and manicured overgrown trees and shrubs, and mowed the grass that periodically covers and obscures many of the gravestones—one dating back to the early 1800’s.
“This area has a long history,” explained Fifth Ward Enrichment Project Manager Charles Williams, “and we wanted students to be a part of the clean-up effort and take pride in that. Many of the headstones have chain links carved into them to show which people were slaves when they died, and some students even have relatives buried here.”
[snip]
The Evergreen Negro Cemetery, which is the final resting place of slaves, freedmen, buffalo soldiers, and African-American veterans from virtually every American war, is located on the site of an old cotton plantation. It is bordered by Calles Street to the west, Sakowitz Street to the east, Market Street to the south, and the businesses on the south side of Interstate 10-East to the north. The cemetery is also bisected by Lockwood Street, which runs north-south and divides the graveyard into eastern and western sections near its center. Preliminary research indicates the original 20-acre site may have once extended north of I-10.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 08:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Another disappearing Metro press release? (updated)
For some unknown reason, Metro's press release announcing Mayor White's new expansion plan is no longer listed in the News Releases section. (Update: the press release is listed again in the News Releases section. Hmmmmm.)
You can still access the release by clicking on the above link, but in case that changes, I'll reprint the whole thing:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 06:26 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Transcript of mayor's speech won't be posted
On Monday night Mayor White gave a speech before the Progressive Forum. I emailed Frank Michel and Pat Trahan in the mayor's office asking when a transcript of the mayor's speech would be posted. Today Frank Michel responded, saying that since the speech was "mostly impromptu," there is no "written copy of it."
Oh. Well, how impromptu could it have been if the Chronicle highlighted it at least three days before the speech?
I also emailed the Chronicle's news desk asking if there would be a follow-up story on the mayor's speech. I was told that something was planned for next Tuesday.
I would really like to see a transcript of that speech, since Monday was when the big Metro deal was announced, and according to one person who was at the Hobby Center, Mayor White did talk about Metro's new plan in his speech.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 04:08 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Does Mayor White trust the voters?
We nearly passed out this morning when we saw Rad Sallee's story in today's Chronicle:
Two days after Metro's revised transit plan was announced, criticism was bubbling up in the minority communities whose votes for light rail tipped the scales in a close election.
"It's clearly a slap in the face," the Rev. William Lawson said of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's decision to begin with a guided busway system in his southeast Houston neighborhood and three others. Metro says these will be upgraded to light rail when ridership increases.
[snip]
"The largest percentage of Metro riders are people from the southeast quadrant," Lawson said, "and they needed the votes of those people to get the issue passed."
State Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, and Councilman Adrian Garcia, whose district includes the largely Hispanic Near Northside, said the Uptown-Galleria connection was a surprise.
"I've never seen any language in what I sold to my constituents that had the Galleria in it," Gallegos said.
"When you go to the fine print, they're telling me it's perfectly legal and when we wait a few years we'll get light rail, but that's saying 'trust me.' "
Minister Robert Muhammad, head of Nation of Islam's southwest region, who endorsed the 2003 Metro plan, said the change of plans "may be the straw that broke the camel's back politically. We can't trust anything that they say."
The referendum passed with 52 percent of the vote.
About 74 percent of low-income blacks and 80 percent of middle-income blacks voted for the Metro light rail plan.
So did 57 percent of Hispanics, compared with 45 percent of middle-income whites and 42 percent of upper-income whites.
We have wondered how the minority community feels about Metro's endless cutting of bus routes so it can concentrate on 7.5 miles of downtown light rail. Mayor White no doubt thinks he has salvaged Metro's expansion plans, but my guess is he never consulted anyone from the communities that REALLY rely on Metro for transportation. Heck, since we haven't heard a peep out of Judge Eckels, we wonder if Mayor White consulted with anyone from Harris County about the new plan.
Since the new plan IS dramatically different from the 2003 voter-approved plan, Mayor White should tell Metro to put it to a vote. $1 billion of local tax money is a big commitment and we know from past experience that Metro will require more and more funding. Light rail has an insatiable appetite, just like the Metro Bigs pushing for it. Plus, Houston-area residents are getting smarter -- we don't want to keep hearing the "trust us" refrain. We are tired of trusting and getting squat in return.
If Mayor White and Metro think it is such a good plan, they should have enough confidence to put it to a vote, just like the mayor did with SAFEclear and the smoking ban. Oh that's right...we didn't get to vote on those -- Mayor White made an executive decision, and convinced City Council to agree with him.
Maybe Mayor White doesn't trust the voters.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 10:17 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (18)
Metro's holding board meetings today
I check Metro's "Meetings and Notices" page frequently (just like the Sports Authority) and it has been empty. Well, today a whole slew of board meetings are listed, with some interesting topics. For example, during the 1 p.m. regular board meeting, look at this eye-opener scheduled to be discussed:
6. Rescind current METRO Policy of "pay as you go" and adopt new Board "Debt Policy"
Wow! That one items tells us so much about Metro's current (and future) condition. But there's more:
8. Authority to negotiate a line of credit with JP Morgan Chase for $59 Million with a one-year duration (to provide liquidity to meet current obligation pending receipt of FY2005 Section 5307 Formula grant already appropriated by Congress).
[snip]
10. Authority to establish a Commercial Paper Program
Now, I'm just a mom trying to raise her kids, but I can Google, and when I Google "commerical paper program" I see references to short-term notes, used to raise funds.
And do you think that line of credit with JP Morgan Chase is to cover for money Metro expects to receive in the future? It sounds like it.
Also, a public hearing on a state performance audit of Metro will be held on June 30, 2005 at 12 noon. That sounds intriguing.
UPDATE: A friend of blogHOUSTON emails the Wikipedia entry for "commercial paper":
Commercial paper is a short-term unsecured debt trading as a security issued by large banks and corporations. It is generally used not to finance major projects but rather is used for purchases of inventory or to manage short term cash flow. It is commonly bought by Money market funds (the issuing amounts are often too high for individual investors), and is generally regarded as a very safe investment. As a relatively low risk option returns are not large.
Because commercial paper maturities don't exceed nine months and proceeds typically are used only for current transactions, the notes are exempt from registration as securities with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
UPDATE 2: I am wondering if this is the Section 5307 funding Metro is waiting on (referred to in the agenda above).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 08:55 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
New Chron education reporter quotes Anne Linehan
Anne Linehan is quoted in an education article by new Chronicle columnist reporter Jennifer Radcliffe today:
Anne Linehan, a mother of three in Spring, said she tries hard to make sure they read and study history during the summer. She was surprised to learn about the "summer slide" statistics for math skills.
"I work with my kids a lot," she said. "I didn't think about the math."
Here's hoping Radcliffe will boost the Chronicle's education coverage, which has seen its share of journalistic mishaps courtesy of reporter Jason Spencer. We wish her well.
UPDATE: I got the job right in the title (reporter!) and wrong in the body (not columnist). That's proof I should not be allowed to touch a keyboard until the Starbucks Red Eye has kicked in fully!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/16/05 07:41 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
15 June 2005
McShan reports on HPD manpower shortage
Jeff McShan did some excellent reporting on HPD's manpower woes for KHOU-11 this evening.
The entire report should be read, but here are some excerpts:
For months, Houston police officers have been telling 11 News about what they're calling a severe shortage. They believe the shortage of police officers and detectives hinders their ability to fight crime, and often puts them in dangerous situations.
Union president Hans Marticiuc says he's hearing the cries for help, too.
"We're getting calls all the time," says Marticiuc, "We've got officers working a district by themselves, sometimes roll calls are two or three people for an entire roll call. The numbers just don't add up for the amount of calls that we have to cover."
If you live in Houston, you might be surprised to know that the number of officers working at HPD is actually 258 less than it was 11 years ago.
Since 1994: 893 officers have retired, 596 resigned, 412 were part of phase-downs, 156 were terminated and 60 officers died.
If you live in Houston and read this blog or listen to Chris Baker, you won't be surprised.
When asked how serious the situation is, "I think we're at a critical point. I think we're at a critical point and our council people need to prioritize here," Marticiuc says.
Mayor Bill White says he's working on a solution that includes adding five academy classes this year. There were none a year ago.
He blames the current situation on past administrations and an HPD retirement plan that wasn't fiscally responsible.
"The police contract was designed when I came in. It was designed to provide an incentive for people to see if they made the pay raise and then resign, because you paid on your retirement based on your last two weeks," says Mayor White.
The city has not been adding enough cadet classes. It's been a massive failure of leadership on the part of Mayor White and his council, as they've spent time and money on other priorities. Certainly, the Brown Administration did not leave matters in great shape, but he's gone. Mayor White has been in office long enough to tackle this problem -- or to focus on other issues, like Tasers and new badges for cops and downtown parks and finding overtime pay for some cops to harass downtown pedestrians. This is Mayor White's problem now, not Lee Brown's, and he has dropped the ball thus far.
"We're already at a point where we don't have enough officers on the streets to back each other up," says Marticiuc.
He says additional money for overtime to place officers where they are needed the most could help.
Council member Ada Edwards disagrees. "Over 80 percent of our budget goes to public safety, so for me it's not the dollars, it's the management and I don't know who's to blame, but I think we really need to talk about it."
That may be the first time in her political life Ada Edwards has ever suggested that it's not the dollars. Unfortunately, it IS partly the dollars. Cadet classes take money. Hiring police officers from other cities takes money. Keeping officers from retiring or seeking police jobs elsewhere takes money. It IS about the dollars, dollars that Mayor White and his council have diverted to other priorities.
Chief Hurtt says he knows his men and women in blue are short-handed.
"I think the citizens of Houston should really continue to support them because we all realize several years, we went without having any academy and several people have retired in the last year or so, but the Houston Police Department is up to meeting the challenge," says Hurtt.
We DO support the HPD rank and file. We just wish Mayor White, his council, and his police chief could help them out with some more bodies.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/15/05 10:50 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (8)
SAFEclear costs go up up up! (cont'd)
City Controller Annise Parker's limited audit of the SAFEclear program was released today.
The audit estimates costs for SAFEclear from January 2005 to June 2005, and then for the next fiscal year. The full report is available here in PDF format.
Last week, HPD presented to council an estimate of $1,586,767 for the cost of SAFEclear from January 2005 to June 2005. The controller's estimate of costs over that period is $1,643,917.
For the coming fiscal year, the report notes:
The HPD and the Administration represented to City Council on June 8, 2005 that FY 2006 estimated expenses would total $3,000,000 and the expenses not covered by Metro and freeway segment fees would be $600,000.
We believe the estimated expense not covered by Metro and the freeway segment fees to be $878,000 or $278,000 greater than HPD's estimate, if the Safe Clear Program remains unchanged.
Parker estimates the total cost of SAFEclear for next year will be $3,288,000 -- or nearly ten percent more than HPD/White Administration estimates that were presented to council roughly one week ago.
Interestingly, this ominous paragraph is included in the first page of Parker's report:
HPD estimated $578,300 for towing costs for the five-month period, but only has $567,000 available to pay for free tows for the period. This $567,000 is derived from a contractual monthly cap of $25,000 ($125,000 for the five-month period for free tows; February through June 2005), plus Metro's $442,000 contribution received in May 2005. To date, HPD has forwarded to the Controller's Office $1,143,000 in Supplemental Allocation Letters, which is $576,000 in excess of City Council's authorization of $567,000. Until HPD resolves this matter, the Controller's Office has suspended payments to the Operators. [Emphasis supplied]
News that this critical report was ready for release may have prompted action with the tow companies by the city. Parker's report notes the following:
[I]n the afternoon of June 14, 2005, we were supplied with a new draft contract between the City and its Tow Truck Operators. The effects of these contracts, if any, on this report have not been determined."
We would email Mayor White's staff for that information, but neither Frank Michel nor Pat Trahan have bothered to answer any number of emails that we have sent to them previously requesting various information. Apparently, that's how customer-oriented government works! So, we'll encourage any of the local reporters who read this blog to follow up on that with the White Administration.
RELATED COVERAGE: Doug Miller (KHOU-11), Matt Stiles (Houston Chronicle).
PREVIOUSLY: SAFEclear costs go up up up! (bH).
ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: The genesis of SAFEclear was a trial program on the Katy Freeway. Since that program seemed to go without a hitch, the mayor decided to implement it on ALL of Houston's freeways, all at once. When a hue and cry went up about the highly punitive nature of the original plan, the mayor was forced to scramble up a Plan B. Now we learn that the mayor's Plan B completely overwhelmed HPD:
"We think the program was poorly vetted in the beginning, that it was placed with a police administrative division that was unprepared to handle it. They were overwhelmed," said Annise Parker, Houston City Controller.
Houston police had problems handling an avalanche of paperwork verifying that wrecker drivers had really towed the cars they claimed to have towed.
If there is anything we have learned about Mayor White, it is that when he wants something done, he expects everyone involved to jump. We can imagine that HPD was told to jump, and we can see what the result of that was.
UPDATE (06-16-2005): I didn't comment on the Chronicle story last night, because I assumed it was a work in progress, but that's pretty much the version of the story that ran today. It's really some weak reporting. A separate critique will follow with specifics later.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/15/05 06:41 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
MS-13 has met its match: HPD's Operation Jaywalking
Yesterday the Chronicle had a story on the first day of HPD's jaywalking crackdown:
Bicycle messenger Ken Fairbanks sat down in the shade outside Chase Tower shortly after 3 p.m. Monday, unfolded the ticket he'd been issued minutes earlier on Main Street, and said it came as a surprise.
"I hardly ever get tickets," he said. "There was a person kind of lollygagging along and so I passed him."
Fairbanks said he and other bicycle messengers who work downtown were aware of the Houston Police Department crackdown on all traffic violations � pedestrians, bicycle riders, drivers � but he said he hadn't realized he was breaking any law by passing a car in the same lane.
He was ticketed on the first day of the latest phase of HPD's Downtown Mobility Initiative, a plan city leaders say is intended to deal with the dangers of congested streets and bad walking, biking or driving habits. The first phase focused on educating the public to obey traffic laws.
HPD spokesman John Cannon said the eight police officers assigned to intersections during morning rush hour on Monday stopped 190 people and issued 23 citations, 14 to pedestrians and nine to drivers.
Three people got citations for crossing the street in the middle of the block and 11 for crossing against the light, Cannon said. Four drivers were ticketed for running red lights and five for "other" violations.
That's weird -- I thought HPD required cameras to handle the problem of red light running.
For the proper perspective on Operation Jaywalking you had to listen to Chris Baker (KTRH-740) yesterday. Ken Charles was on air with him and this was their take: MS-13 has finally met its match, as gang members will be so blinded by shiny new police badges and distracted by new police shirts that they will walk right into HPD's jaywalking trap.
It's brilliant.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 05:42 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Rad Sallee's Metro story, con't.
As I mentioned previously, Rad Sallee's Chronicle story presents both sides of Metro's new expansion plan, and is filled with interesting bites including this:
[...]the agency plans to build rail corridors served by specially outfitted buses, a system called bus rapid transit.
"Right now, we're projecting about 8,000 on the busiest one when they open," he said, referring to the North line from near downtown to Northline Mall.
[snip]
Wilson said opening-day ridership on the next planned light rail line, a crosstown route linking the University of Houston's central campus, Greenway Plaza and the Uptown-Galleria area, is likely to be 15,000.
But that will climb quickly, he predicted.
It's no secret how Metro builds rail ridership -- it cancels bus routes.
Sallee also talks about Rep. Culberson's appearance on Edd Hendee's show (KSEV-700) yesterday when Hendee expressed his displeasure with the expansion plan.
And the funniest part is where former Metro head Shirley DeLibero offers her thoughts on the new plan:
Former Metro President and CEO Shirley DeLibero said she is pleased to see a rail line was going near the Galleria.
As for the rest of the revised plan, she said, "As long as this (bus rapid transit) is a stopgap to the ultimate rail system, I'm OK."
What a relief! Shirley's okay with the plan. We can rest easy.
RELATED: White changes mobility plan (Owen Courreges, Lone Star Times), Sucking up all the oxygen... (Sedosi Alhambra)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 12:47 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)
MeMo's tip of the day
MeMo directs us to something that, uh, could come in handy? Not that we're advocating its use, of course...
No, no, no. Absolutely not.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 09:47 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Why do Mayor White and Metro fear a new vote?
Now that Mayor White's new Metro plan is being widely discussed, some interesting things are coming to light.
Tom Bazan emailed the original ballot language from the 2003 referendum, printed in the Chronicle and translated by Lucas Wall. What immediately becomes apparent is how different the new plan is from the voter-approved plan. Here's an example:
3. While 73 miles of rail are included in the Metro Solutions plan, the financing package on the referendum provides only $640 million of bonds to implement the plan's first decade, including construction of 22 light rail miles. The remaining 51 rail miles could be built by 2025 if voters authorize additional bonds in or after 2009. Voters would also have to end Metro road spending after 2014.
That is from the 2003 referendum. Here is what Metro says about the new plan:
The implementation plan also includes more miles of commuter rail than were in the Referendum plan, as well as 40 miles of Signature Express/Suburban BRT instead of 14.
The net result is 97 miles of rapid transit instead of the 36 envisioned in METRO Solutions.
Today's Chronicle story by Rad Sallee (thank goodness he's handling this right now -- his stories are presenting both sides; and we'll go through the whole story in a later post) includes this:
Metro spokesman George Smalley said the revised plan would provide "equivalent service" to light rail until the changeover. "Everything is the same except for the wheels," he said.
But [Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association] said the ballot made no mention of the UH-Galleria route, commuter rail on U.S. 290 or an intermodal facility on the Northside near his home. All are envisioned in the new proposal.
And how does Smalley get around that? Oh, you know, it was in the fine print:
Smalley said the changes are covered by a footnote to the ballot resolution that says: "Final scope, length of rail segments or lines, and other details, together with implementation schedule, will be based upon demand and completion of the project development process including community input."
Yeah, I'll bet that fine print was heavily advertised while Metro was trying to sell its Solutions plan.
And we previously heard about an intermodal center, which is a developer's dream.
The icing on the cake, so to speak, is this letter to the Houston Business Journal from 10-3-2003 by Metro Chairman Arthur Schechter; specifically:
Voters will be able to hold Metro accountable throughout the process because they will have the opportunity to vote to continue funding based on their experience with Metro Solutions up to that point.
Okay then! Give us the opportunity to vote on what is a substantially different plan. We've seen quite a bit of Metro Solutions enacted (or not, as in the case of reduced bus service), so let the voters tell Metro what they think of Metro's stewardship of our tax dollars so far. As Barry Klein said in today's Chronicle story:
"They [Metro officials] make all these quick switches, and they don't think they have to bring it back to a vote," he said. "If they think they have public support, they shouldn't hesitate to put it on the ballot."
One wonders if Metro officials and Mayor White already know it would be tough to get this plan approved.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 07:28 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
14 June 2005
Kinsley: Are editorial boards relevant?
Today, Mr. Kathryn Kase's editorial board put its anti-death penalty spin on a Monday Supreme Court decision. The editorial is typically lackluster, and concludes as follows:
Texas' full-throated resort to the death penalty demands that all procedures pertaining to this maximum punishment be applied with the utmost, unquestioned prosecutorial integrity and that those operations are reviewed by courts that can acknowledge what may be going on.
Courts that can acknowledge what may be going on? What does that even mean? The writing seems less than ideal.
Fortunately, local attorney and blogger William Dyer has dissected the case in a more thoughtful and analytical fashion on his blog. His conclusion is particularly strong. Perhaps even ideal!
This latest instance of a blogger upstaging the high and mighty Chronicle editorial board brings to mind a story in the New York Times about Michael Kinsley's efforts to shake up the LA Times editorial pages in his role as opinion page editor:
"Michael does like to ask questions, such as, 'In today's world, what is the continuing relevance of a newspaper editorial board?' "
Mr. Kinsley, who earned a reputation as an iconoclastic editor at Harpers, The New Republic and Slate, seems determined to answer that question by upending the established notion of the newspaper editorial.
The entire New York Times story is worth reading. Kinsley does seem determined to bring his opinion pages into the internet age.
And one rather suspects that he doesn't inflict stories about riding his bicycle on his readership.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/14/05 10:44 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Mayor and Metro Bigs: no vote needed on new Metro plan
A KTRH-740 newsbreak just had a blurb saying that Mayor White and Metro officials do not see a need for a vote on Metro's new expansion plan, since it differs from the original Metro Solutions plan. Here's what voters approved in 2003:
* 72 miles of additional rail service
* 50% more bus service
* Signature Express bus service
* 250 miles of two-way,
all day Park & Ride service
* Nine new Park & Ride lots
* Nine new Transit Centers
* and more!
And here's what Metro's press release says in announcing the new plan:
The program calls for $1.3 billion in high quality guideway rapid transit. Fifty-five percent (55%), or slightly over $700 million, is committed to rapid transit rail services and the balance of approximately $575 million will be allocated to rapid transit bus systems. This represents 40% more fixed guideway transit than previously planned. All 30 miles will include rail and track structures identical to those currently on the Main St. line. The conversion of Bus Rapid Transit to rail will be quick, easy and affordable. When ridership grows to sufficiently high levels, the conversion will be made.
The implementation plan also includes more miles of commuter rail than were in the Referendum plan, as well as 40 miles of Signature Express/Suburban BRT instead of 14.
And here's the key paragraph from yesterday's Chronicle story:
The plan White and Metro unveiled includes some elements that go beyond what voters approved in the November 2003 Metro Solutions referendum, but other aspects were scaled back to reduce costs.
Rep. John Culberson said this morning on Edd Hendee's show (KSEV-700), that he thought maybe a new vote was needed, yet on the KTRH newsbreak Rep. Culberson said he would leave the need for a vote up to Metro officials and Mayor White. Gee thanks! Let me guess...Metro officials and Mayor White don't think a new vote is needed.
Ding, ding, ding!
Edd Hendee also asked Rep. Culberson why Mayor White got to determine this new plan. Hendee wanted to know why Harris County Judge Robert Eckels wasn't involved in this, especially since Metro's taxing jurisdiction goes far beyond Mayor White's reach. Rep. Culberson didn't have an answer.
All you have to do is take a look at this Chronicle illustration of Metro's new plan to see what Hendee's point is.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/14/05 05:10 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
What's the penalty for not paying a red light camera ticket?
So what happens if you get a red light camera ticket and you don't pay it? HPD says your case could be sent to a collection agency:
It says, in fact, right on the citation that it's a "civil penalty" and won't affect your insurance rates and will not be reported or appear on your driving record.
So if they don't pay?
"We're asking the vendor to go with a collection agency if you will," says HPD Asst. Chief Martha Montalvo.
[snip]
Don't pay your parking tickets and, at least, the city can give you the boot. But with only a camera's eye as testimony of your red light running, there may be nothing the city can do.
Interestingly, one person purposely ran a red light in Garland, TX, so he could challenge red light cameras in court:
"I'm against it enough that I want to file suit against it. I want to block it," says Michael Kubosh who was caught running a red light in Garland, Texas, at 3:23 in the morning.
He did it intentionally, so he could go to court with a legal challenge.
"There's all kinds of legal things they say could happen if I don't pay it," he says.
But it's been a year and nothing's happened.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/14/05 09:46 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (9)
Former mayor's brother implicated in corruption trial
Former Brown Administration officials Oliver Spellman and Monique McGilbra have already admitted to taking bribes while working for the city.
Now, the Chronicle's Dan Feldstein reports that prosecutors have alleged that Nate Gray also tried to bribe former Mayor Lee Brown's brother Earl Brown in exchange for influence at City Hall:
The brother of former Houston Mayor Lee Brown received thousands of dollars during Brown's administration to influence him on behalf of contractors, prosecutors alleged Monday in federal court.
Earl Brown never was a registered lobbyist in Houston, according to city records. Lee Brown previously has said his brother never spoke to him on behalf of clients.
Earl Brown has not been charged with any crime. But on the first day of a major bribery trial here of three other men, prosecutors played a wiretapped cell phone conversation in which Cleveland businessman Nate Gray brags that "the mayor's brother and I are like this."
"I can go into Houston and have more juice than a local guy," Gray told a young attorney who wanted to learn the ropes of Gray's consulting business.
"Greasing palms" was how to get things done, said Gray, who faces 44 counts of bribery-related charges.
As we've noted previously, this investigation and related trials are likely to get very interesting.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/14/05 07:29 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)
13 June 2005
Mayor White revises mobility plan approved by voters (updated!)
Mayor White came out with a big press blitz today regarding METRO that heaped praise on Representatives Tom DeLay (R) and John Culberson (R) among others.
Within hours, Rep. Culberson sent out an email (not posted to any website) heaping praise on Mayor White. (UPDATE: See below for more on that email)
The big celebration (besides themselves)?
Mayor White, his friends at METRO, and those alleged federal opponents of light rail in Congress have decided to substitute their own $2 billion light rail/bus rapid transit plan for the actual plans approved by voters in an earlier referendum:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/13/05 10:12 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)
Crime lab analyst who made up results finally resigns
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg reports that the analyst who remained employed by the HPD crime lab after faking test results has finally resigned:
One analyst resigned instead of being fired. The second analyst was reprimanded in writing, suspended for three days and put back in the lab, where today he is suspended, but still collects a paycheck. His 7,660 cases are being reviewed to see if there are other false results.
"The first thing I'd like to see y'all do is get rid of that person," said Houston city councilmember Ada Edwards.
Councilmember Edwards got her wish late Monday afternoon. The analyst left the department.
"Today, Mr. Patel resigned from the Houston Police Department," said Chief Hurtt Monday. "He was neither asked, nor approached by the department in reaching his decision. What we need to concentrate on is what would be good for the Houston Police Department, the citizens of Houston, and our role in the criminal justice system in the future."
The chief knows this won't be easy to get over in the short term, but he and Bromwich both expressed that they hope it recovers in the long run. All of this was discovered during former Police Chief CO Bradford's administration. On Monday, he wouldn't answer any of our questions about it. As for a criminal fraud prosecution of the analyst, it's too late, says DA Chuck Rosenthal. The statute of limitations has expired.
Patel was neither asked nor approached by the department? Why not?
It's not surprising that former Chief Bradford doesn't want to answer questions about the level of ineptitude that permeated the crime lab while he was chief and Lee P. Brown was mayor. Unfortunately, they weren't held to account by local media -- especially the Chronicle editorial board -- even when they were still public officials.
PREVIOUSLY: Report details more problems with HPD crime lab (bH), Crime lab investigator moves to next phase (bH).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/13/05 08:27 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Mayor White and RFK Jr. speaking at Progressive Forum tonight
Hopefully, a transcript of this speech by Mayor White will be available tomorrow:
In an appearance that should boost his environmental credentials, Mayor Bill White will join activist and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday evening on stage at the Hobby Center.
The event is the first sponsored by The Progressive Forum, a nonprofit group that hopes to host six major speaker events each year in Houston's downtown theater district focusing on Democratic and progressive values.
[snip]
Kennedy will give a speech titled "A Contract with Our Future," which will focus on the connections between a sound environmental policy and a strong economy, a theme the mayor has touched on about the importance of cleaning up Houston's air pollution.
KEVIN WHITED ASKS (EXTREMELY SARCASTICALLY): Wait a minute, Mayor White called himself a "fiscal conservative" earlier. Does that mean Mayor White is the conservative balance to Mr. Kennedy at this Progressive Forum tonight?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/13/05 07:17 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Who's watching us?
In a post about the coming red light cameras, Charles Kuffner also asks:
[...]I've noticed that there are already cameras at various intersections in Houston. Drive on Shepherd between West Gray and US 59 and you'll see what I mean. I'd never paid attention to this before, but I suppose all the talk about this made me start looking. Does anyone know who's operating these cameras, and what they're doing with the images they capture? I'm more than a little curious.
Kevin and I have already thrown in our two cents (although Kevin's comment appears to be worth much more than two cents), so I thought we could ask if our readers have any knowledge of these cameras.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/13/05 12:42 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
Houston's boundaries are unclear for emergency responders
This sounds rather problematic:
So you think you know where Houston's city limits are? Or at least what they are? You may be wrong.
Under a 1999 law, Texas cities may perform voluntary "limited purpose annexations" by contracting to provide specific services to utility districts in return for a share of their property taxes. An unexpected result has been confusion for mapmakers and public safety officials.
A motorist wrote to Move It, saying that after her car broke down on the Katy Freeway, 911 dispatchers debated whether Houston police and Harris County sheriff's deputies should respond. Following up on that, Fred Windisch, chief of Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department in north Harris County, wrote recently to say it could cost a life.
[snip]
Houston Police Capt. Lori Bender, who administers the city's Safe Clear freeway towing program, was surprised to learn that motorists on the Katy Freeway pass through three "city limits" on leaving or entering Houston.
Rad Sallee is writing some nice Move It! columns. And just for fun, here is what appears to be Lucas Wall's first transportation story for the Boston Globe.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/13/05 11:23 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
Jaywalking ticket-writing begins today?
There appears to be a bit of confusion as to whether or not HPD's new crackdown on jaywalking begins in earnest today:
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt announced the plan June 1, allowing two weeks to "increase public safety and awareness" through "education and enforcement."
On Sunday, however, HPD public information officer Joanna Abad said she wasn't aware that officers would begin actually writing citations today — including both warnings and tickets — in a crackdown on jaywalking.
"I wasn't sure it started (Monday) so I can't confirm that," Abad said.
Bob Eury, president of Central Houston, Inc., which was supposed to work with the department on the initiative, said Sunday:
"The last time I discussed it with the police department was about 10 days ago, and I haven't heard anything since."
"Let me say that we've been urging discretion, and that only the most flagrant people are ticketed for jaywalking," Eury said.
"Flagrant" jaywalking includes, "crossing streets at midblock, ignoring "walk/don't walk signals" and walking in the street."
Interestingly a Chronicle letter to the editor two days ago said this:
I HAVE been reading with interest the articles on the push to ticket jaywalkers. My wife and I often travel to the Texas Medical Center by MetroRail and we have observed many violations at the rail stations, mainly due to the nonsynchronized action of traffic lights. After pushing the walk button, we've had to wait through at least two light cycles before being allowed to cross. Perhaps if the city would correct this, the Houston Police Department would not need to ticket citizens who are only trying to cross the street.
For rail to be truly functional and for Houston to become a pedestrian-friendly city, some easily managed changes are needed.
- TOMMY SCOTT, Pearland
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/13/05 08:16 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)
Watch your rear -- red light cameras are coming
Last night KHOU-11's lead 10 p.m. story was about red light cameras coming to Houston -- soon.
And today Matt Stiles has a story in the Chronicle about the revenue-generating, uh...safety cameras:
"They are going up, you bet," said Mayor Bill White, during a recent news conference. "Every time that somebody is killed or seriously injured in an intersectional collision, where somebody was speeding through a red light, I and council members take that as a personal responsibility."
The timetable isn't certain for setting up the cameras, which the City Council approved in December. The goal is to have some working by the end of the year, city officials said.
What will Mayor White say the first time someone is killed in a rear-end collision due to a red light camera? He could have tried lengthening yellow light times, but dismissed that proven option. Councilwoman Addie Wiseman is quoted in the story as saying she wished the city would have studied yellow light times.
KHOU's story last night said the city will begin receiving bids within the next 30 days, to be followed up by test cameras at several intersections.
The citations would be civil documents technically issued against a car's owner rather than its driver, and would carry lower penalties than tickets written by officers who witness infractions.
The camera fine likely would be $50 to $75, compared with the criminal penalty of $215.
It's not hard to predict that city officials will raise those ticket prices down the road -- you know, in the name of safety. And, of course, the mayor will eventually proclaim the cameras a tremendous success (providing little statistical backup, à la SAFEClear), and say that Houston needs cameras at MORE intersections. That's what is going on in Washington, D.C.
The city — which might give the vendor a cut of ticket revenue to save money on the installation — also is exploring the option of setting up decoy cameras in some places to serve as deterrents, officials said.
Even decoy cameras or signs have their drawbacks, as one town in Ohio recently discovered:
A truck spilled gallons of corn syrup yesterday at the intersection of Yankee Road and Verity in Middletown, Ohio after its driver, Todd Hellrigel, panic-braked after seeing a red light camera sign. He wanted to avoid being ticketed.
[snip]
The sudden stop popped open the seal on the top of the trailer causing 4,500 gallons of corn syrup to begin spilling on the road, which had no red light camera -- just the sign. It took most of the day to clear the sticky substance from the intersection. Police did not cite Hellrigel who said that he was not speeding.
RELATED: Getting Rear-Ended by the Law (The Weekly Standard)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/13/05 07:37 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
12 June 2005
Chron runs first of multi-part olds from Casey
Rick Casey uses the recent BP explosion to take a trip down memory lane, recounting a tale of OSHA violations by a Houston company headed by Erik K. Ho in the 1990s.
Casey contends that his storytelling will somehow shed light on how OSHA might react to the BP accident, despite very different facts.
Mostly, the column reads like a regurgitation of old material. Maybe Casey's been saving it from his San Antonio days. Maybe he's not been reading Kuffner's blog lately and didn't have anything else to write about. Even worse, it's a two-parter, as Casey bills next Wednesday's column as the conclusion to what he seems to think is an exciting tale.
At blogHOUSTON, we may not have Rick Casey's research staff, but we do have our friends at Google who can help us out from time to time. And instead of waiting for some noxious dinosaur lefty columnist's spin on a case completely unrelated to the BP explosion, we thought readers might well be more interested in seeing some of the facts of the old OSHA matter itself, as well as two competing perspectives on the matter.
We're still not quite sure that it has much of anything to do with the BP explosion, but it probably won't take me too far into fantasyland to predict that HCDP favorite Rick Casey will find some way to blast OSHA and the Bush Administration in his Wednesday column, and that it still won't have much to do with the BP explosion.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/12/05 08:15 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
SAFEClear and rail touted as congestion-reducing solutions
KTRK-13 is running an AP story about the increasing problem of traffic congestion in Texas. One congestion-reducing idea included in the story is Houston's SAFEClear program:
"The traffic on our freeways tends to move when there are no wrecks or stalled vehicles, but there is almost always a wreck or stalled vehicle," White said. "So how quickly you move the wreck or stalled vehicle out of the flow of traffic or out of the side of the road to prevent rubbernecking is the single most important thing we can do to speed traffic up and to reduce accidents."
Officials in Dallas are now considering a similar program, which White says is "working fantastic" in Houston.
Also featured prominently as a solution is rail transit:
Rail is another helpful alternative, [Tim Lomax, Texas Transportation Institute researcher] said, and one that the Texas Department of Transportation is taking a close look at.
"We think rail is going to become a more important part of traffic management, especially in the metro areas," transportation department spokesman Mark Cross said. "It is not going to be easy. But we think slowly people are starting to get the picture that we will have to look at more than just roadways for transportation in the future."
Actually, when you compare the billions of dollars spent annually on urban transit projects versus how many people actually use urban transit (nationally, less than two percent), you can see that rail contributes very little toward reducing congestion. In fact, in several instances after new urban rail projects were operational, cities saw a decline in passengers. Plus, we have to add in the continually increasing subsidies needed to keep rail systems running (Metro has just asked for an extra $104 million, in addition to running a $90 million + deficit).
A Heritage Foundation research paper has some suggestions on how to relieve taxpayers from the burden of increasingly costly rail projects:
The first step is for local officials to put an end to any plans to expand service by adding more trains and stations. More trains mean higher losses and larger subsidies.
Remember that Metro is trying to buy 15 new light rail cars at a cost of almost $60 million, in addition to planned rail line expansions.
The second step is to put its operations out to competitive bid to cut operating costs.
[snip]
The third step is to raise fares to cover the operating deficit that remains.
Metro doesn't even count paid ridership on light rail!
And then there is the federal money upon which rail systems rely:
Federal policy could be improved to help states and local communities avoid the expensive long-term commitment of commuter and light rail. Of the $8.4 billion that the federal government proposes to spend on transit subsidies in FY 2006, $1.5 billion is dedicated to “new starts,” including a new “small starts” program. Seduced by federal money and visions of new trolley cars, impressionable mayors and county supervisors condemn their communities to paying substantial annual subsidies in perpetuity. Ending the new starts program and redirecting the $1.5 billion to expand road capacity will help communities to avoid this temptation and provide citizens with the transportation choices they are more likely to use.
RELATED: The economic absurdity of light rail systems (Houston's Clear Thinkers), Reviewing the track record of an urban boondoggle (Houston's Clear Thinkers)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/12/05 07:36 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
11 June 2005
Editorial LiveJournal: Mr. Gibbons rides his bike!
Chronicle editorial page editor and Platonic idealist James Howard Gibbons has another of his Editorial LiveJournals in today's newspaper.
Here's a sample:
The summer day had set in with its usual severity when I set out from home on my bicycle. After several blocks I dismounted and walked through the sculpture garden of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, then rode the remaining blocks to the Museum District light-rail station.I wheeled my bike onto the next train, and enjoyed air-conditioned comfort until we reached the northern end of the line. I got off at the University of Houston — Downtown, then rode through the loft district to the McKee Street Bridge.
At the bridge I took the new hike-and-bike trail along Buffalo Bayou to Jensen Drive, where Mayor Bill White and other dignitaries officially opened the path and joined bikers and hikers for the inaugural ride and stroll.
WHO CARES?!
And why would the opinion page editor of a quality newspaper subject poor readers to it? Especially after his friends at blogHOUSTON constructed a much more suitable home for such nonsense!
Sedosi Alhambra has more thoughts.
UPDATE (06-13-2005): As Matt Bramanti notes in the comments, Mr. Gibbons spelled the name of a major Houston street incorrectly (Shepard instead of Shepherd) in his Editorial LiveJournal. THAT would seem to be less than ideal!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/11/05 09:45 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
Northside residents don't want light rail in their neighborhood
Some north Houston residents are not thrilled with the MetroRail's proposed route through their neighborhood:
The route would extend from downtown to Greenspoint Mall and beyond. But people along one section of the proposed line feel new tracks would split their neighborhood.
[snip]
One of Metro's proposals to expand light rail would put elevated tracks along Fulton Street, right in front of Roosevelt Elementary where many families walk to school.
"It's too high up," says homeowner Diana Villalpando. "Put it somewhere else. Find another place for it away from the children. Anywhere, as long as it's away from the children."
Lindale North is a 50-year-old neighborhood that just this year got its first park. Charlotte Douglas supports light rail, but not along Fulton Street.
"We waited and waited and waited for a park and now it's going to be divided from the neighborhood," says Douglas. "I really feel like it will keep people from using that park."
The green line is the proposed route residents of Lindale North are against. They prefer the rail line highlighted in red, which stays on Irvington until it hits Crosstimbers.
Metro has done preliminary engineering work on the northside expansion, but a spokesperson says there's no clear choice yet on which path light rail will take here.
You can watch the video story to see the red and green routes referred to above.
I am curious about how high the elevated tracks would be, and how long a stretch would be elevated.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/11/05 06:39 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
One battle the city isn't interested in fighting
Remember when Mayor White got approval to spend $100,000 of taxpayer dollars to have Proposition 2 declared illegal, even though Prop. 2 was passed with 56 percent of the vote?
Well, the residents of one Houston neighborhood have discovered that Mayor White does have a bit of fiscal restraint in him, after all:
In a neighborhood called Candlelight Estates, garage sales are about the only thing that brings traffic. But what's about to happen on these streets has people around here worried.
"It's going to destroy the fabric of the neighborhood," says neighborhood activist Ray Bush.
It's a neighborhood that has a sort of border -- a big old ditch.
A developer wants to build a subdivision on a piece of vacant land. But first, he wants a bridge built across the ditch connecting his property to the nice houses over in Candlelight Estates. And for years now, the people in Candlelight Estates fought it.
Now Houston's mayor has sent neighborhood residents an e-mail saying in part, "I have been advised that the City of Houston cannot stop the building of the Rosslyn Street Bridge without substantial risk to taxpayers' money in a lawsuit against the City."
And so it appears the developer who owns this land will get his bridge.
So sorry, Candlelight Estates residents.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/11/05 05:41 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Is HISD the only school district with TAKS scores to report?
I see the Chronicle is reporting HISD's results from the second round of fifth-grade TAKS testing:
Results released Friday by HISD show that 81 percent of fifth-graders have passed the math portion of the test after two tries. In April, just 67 percent had passed. About 77 percent of fifth-graders passed the reading portion of the test after two tries, up from 62 percent in April.
"They gained 14 points," spokesman Terry Abbott said. "We're pleased with that."
Even with those improvements, HISD's passing rates in both subjects still lag behind the state averages, which increased 9 percentage points to 88 percent passing math and 11 percentage points to 86 percent passing reading after the second administration in late April.
I have a question: why haven't we seen TAKS scores for any other school district in the Houston-area? Cy-Fair ISD bills itself as "the largest recognized school district in Texas." I would be interested to see its scores as well as other Houston-area districts' scores, such as Aldine, Spring Branch and Alief.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/11/05 05:26 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
10 June 2005
Houston firefighter explains rejection of labor deal
Most media coverage hasn't really gone into much depth why members rejected the deal, and the Chronicle even wrote a nasty editorial yesterday about the HFD members that reads like a Tim Fleck special -- plenty of smear and condescension, but not much fact.
In the interest of providing a little balance, here's a comment left by an apparent Houston firefighter to an earlier post:
Fire fighters voted down the Labor Contract Offer. If we could line item the contract we would have. The reason it was a NO vote is because it impacted Fire Fighter and Public Safety. Minimum Manning means 4 assigned to heavy apparatus at all times, not just when it is convenient. The City wanted Fire Fighters to agreed to lower this standard mandated by City Council in 2001. The key is we had to agree. If we agree then we cannot gripe about it when the COH cuts manpower. Another sticking point is an hours increase. They want to add 5-24 hr shifts to our schedule. Thats equal to 120 addtional hours. In the private sector that is equal to 15 working days is it not? We said no! The City gives us Accrued benefit leave. The problem is we can't take much of it. If we call in sick we must go to a Doctor and get an excuse. No matter what our health issue was, we must go to the Doctor and we must do it five days. If one uses COH medical benefits one must see a Doctor in the Renaissance Group or at Kelsey-Seybold. Do you know how hard it is to get a Dr's appointment in five days. If the paperwork is not turned in on time the employee is docked. Thats the way it is now, without a contract. In this Contract the COH wanted to punish us even more for using these benefits. They want us to agree to termination. Not likely. If any employee in the private sector causes property damage or loss of property belonging to the employer that employee is terminated. Possibly sued. At least they get a day in court. If we signed this contract we would agree to reimburse the COH up to $3000. No mechanism in place to determine who is at fault. We are currently capped at $250 per item.
Would it have been that hard for local media to find a Houston firefighter to explain that perspective as well as our commenter?
Actually, it's not too late for any reporters who'd like to do some good journalism.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/10/05 08:49 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Houston sales tax revenues booming for the month, year
The Houston Business Journal reports that Houston's sales tax revenues for May are up 5.8% from one year ago.
Furthermore, the city has collected $188.85 million in sales tax allocations so far this year, compared to $178.35 million for the same period last year (a 5.9% increase).
Surely those increases mean that Mayor White can ease up on schemes like the Downtown Jaywalking Revenue Stream, and get limited police manpower deployed where there are real crimes taking place.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/10/05 08:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Armed robbers hit Galleria-area pharmacy
Remember that useful report by KPRC-2 that broke down HPD response times by police beat?
Here's a refresher on some key information:
The difference [in response times] comes from HPD having to compensate for a lack of manpower. The bulk of officers are deployed to areas with the highest crime, but that means neighborhoods with traditionally lower crime rates are left with fewer officers. That also means police take longer to respond to calls for help in these areas.
Criminals can figure out how HPD is deploying its resources.
Thus, when supposedly "low-crime" areas are left with fewer resources because of the manpower shortage that Mayor White and his Council continue to disregard, those areas may start to see some pretty brazen crimes:
Police are looking for robbery suspects Friday morning after they hit a pharmacy in southwest Houston.
The masked men were apparently armed with BB guns when they entered a CVS pharmacy on Richmond and Sage in southwest Houston.
The men allegedly made off with about $2,000 in cash,as well as some codeine and Prilosec.
None of the employees inside was hurt.
Richmond and Sage isn't some vague part of southwest Houston. Richmond and Sage is within walking distance of the Galleria (the city's finest shopping), not to mention the office where I work and the gym I use most of the time. It's not a part of town known for incidents of violent crime!
But criminals seem able to figure out when there's not enough of a police presence. Why is it so hard for our Mayor and his Council?
RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/10/05 07:59 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)
Does Gayle Fallon care one whit about the students?
A couple of days ago when Dr. Saavedra proposed offering performance bonuses to teachers at three underachieving HISD high schools, this is how Houston Federation of Teachers president Gayle Fallon responded:
"They backed themselves into a corner on staffing and they don't know how to fix it," said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. She said she doubts Saavedra's offer will lure many good teachers out of their current jobs and into the struggling schools. "I will bet the superintendent lunch, at the restaurant of his choice, that he opens the year with primarily first-year teachers or vacant positions."
One of our commenters, Tom Tyler, wondered if the teachers union was going to tell teachers not to accept positions at those schools.
Well, in today's Chronicle we learn that the school board has approved the bonus plan, and here's what Gayle Fallon had to say:
Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, told trustees the bonus money will not attract better teachers. The union represents about half of HISD's 12,000 teachers.
"Folks, it's not an incentive," Fallon said. "So far, we haven't found a taker. ... We've gotten remarks like, 'You think I'm going to leave Lamar High School for $1,500 a year?' "
Surely HFT isn't discouraging teachers to apply for positions at those three schools. Surely Fallon is doing all she can to encourage good teachers to take up the challenge, for the sake of the children.
HFT's website says, "Twenty-six years ago, a few teachers in Houston joined together. They wanted to be treated with dignity and respect. They wanted the freedom to teach, the independence to make professional decisions, and the opportunity to allow students to soar. They became the Houston Federation of Teachers."
I'd like to see Fallon put a bit more interest in a student's opportunity to soar.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/10/05 01:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Houston Emergency Center is feeling the heat
The Houston Emergency Center has been dealing with a new problem:
An air conditioning problem at the Houston Emergency Center has at least one police officer concerned that dispatch calls could be delayed, Local 2 reported Wednesday.
An officer with the Houston Police Department, who asked not to be identified, told Local 2 the public could be put in danger because the department's computer system is at risk of overheating.
A broken air conditioning unit at the downtown station, which is used to relay information to computers in patrol cars, has the officer concerned that the system could overheat and cause information to not be delivered.
The officer said this issue is only part of a bigger problem.
"If that's the case then that shows how ancient the system is in there -- that you're depending on a certain temperature to keep your equipment up and running. Somebody has to do something, especially in the age of terrorism. You know that we need those systems up," the officer told Local 2.
HPD officials told Local 2 that they are cooling the system with large fans and hope to have the air conditioning unit operating again by Thursday.
We may have a tired and worn out emergency response infrastructure, but cheer up -- soon we'll have a beautiful downtown park and some lovely publicly-funded art work!
RELATED: Old, outdated equipment to blame for 911 call center failures (blogHOUSTON), Public safety priorities (blogHOUSTON)
UPDATE: An emailer clarifies the story a bit. The a/c problem is at an older police station, 61 Riesner, not at HEC. I am assuming (always dangerous!) that a computer system used by HEC is located at the station.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/10/05 12:31 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Food and drink roundup (06-10-2005 edition)
The weekend is upon us, and it's time for a quick and easy (not to mention timely) food and drink roundup.
Alison Cook does tapas at Rioja Spanish Tapas...and does them...and does them.
Robb Walsh tries out Sichuan Cuisine and finds good things to report...while bad things find him. Regardless, the once-banned Sichuan peppercorn sounds intriguing.
Peggy Grodinsky knows it's blueberry time in these parts and relates a local farmer's story. She also includes links to other pick-your-own-blueberry farms.
Ken Hoffman gives KFC's Boneless Blazin' Buffalo Wings a try in this week's Drive-Thru Gourmet.
And Gracie Ochoa likes Midtown's EscoBar.
World class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/10/05 12:06 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Kirby construction
Michael Reed of the West University Examiner reports that the fifty thousand or so drivers who use Kirby Dr. each day are in for a bit of change, come the end of the year:
Sometime before the year-end holidays, though — and for at least the two years that follow — the definition of "average day" will be drastically altered by construction work that will systematically reduce the number of lanes by half, with no such reduction in traffic likely.
"West University is like an innocent bystander in this," said project manager Martin J. Cristofaro of the Houston Stormwater Management Program. "Still, you're looking at major impact in the community. Right around Christmas is when you're really going to see something."
The "something" Cristofaro referred to is the fallout from the Kirby Drive Storm Sewer Relief Project, as its crane and heavy equipment approach Holcombe Boulevard. The Kirby project is the largest of three systems that make up the $72 million Medical Center Drainage Project, which recently began at North Braeswood Boulevard and will move slowly north until at least late 2007.
During this period, each of the more than half-mile long project segments will require the closing of one lane in each direction of the street.
The cost?
The project, which is being built entirely on city of Houston land, will cost that city about $18 million or 25 percent of the total price, with the federal government supplying the rest of the funding. Recently, Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital System each donated $2.5 million toward Houston's costs. If all goes well, paving will be completed in mid-2008.
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/10/05 09:13 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
09 June 2005
Have the idealists hit their heads on the cave entrance?
Far from being in the mythical ideal state, the Chronicle editorial page continues to baffle.
The same editorial page that likes to lecture Republicans for allegedly abandoning the principle of "local control" on some issues thinks that a vote by union members against a contract negotiated by "good guy" Bill White (with some hardball tactics at the end) "undermines their interests." Sorry, idealists, but you don't get a vote unless you start putting out fires and pulling people out of burning buildings. The union exercises what one could call "local control."
This was the best part:
Even with a mayor who is committed to fair wages and work conditions, the firefighters cannot seem to shed their ingrained mistrust of City Hall.
Translation: He's SWELL, you silly firefighters! *screech* Haven't you been reading the Chronicle editorial page?!
Then there's the editorial criticizing the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, who has recently said that PBS tilts too far to the left and that he wants more programs that appeal to conservatives. Yet the title of the editorial includes this phrase: "The solution is to diversify — not censor — its content." So Kenneth Tomlinson and the idealists would seem to concur on the need to diversify PBS's left-leaning content.
Except the idealists think they disagree. Or something. Who can really tell?
It was not an exceptional day for the idealists. That editorial page really is becoming an embarrassment. Our city deserves better.
Sedosi Alhambra has some even harsher comments (here and here).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/09/05 11:43 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
A couple of notes from local blogs
Tory Gattis tells us that Houston Freeways (the book) is now available online:
It's pretty beefy, so printing it or even just skimming through it online is a a nontrivial undertaking, but even if you just look at the pictures and read the captions, it's well worth it. Relative to its size, Houston probably has the most advanced and extensive freeway network of any city on the planet, and this book explains how we got it and the impact it's had on our hometown's growth.
And John Wagner has an early review of Loren Steffy's new blog:
He's taken some tough shots at companies such as BP and Citibank. Deserved, maybe. But tough nonetheless.
Journalists who blog will often be the most interesting, because they spend the time and effort to interview, investigate and research topics.
But as I mentioned here, they're also likely to be much more critical on their blogs than they are in print.
Once journo-bloggers get comfortable with the medium, I predict we'll see even tougher scrutiny of companies and business people.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/09/05 08:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
MetroRail's "stray current" problem
About a month ago, a Chronicle story told us about a potential MetroRail problem:
In a separate problem, Metro engineers say a small amount of "stray current" from the overhead wire that powers the trains is leaking into the ground at each switch location instead of flowing back through a rail a power station.
Metro says there is no danger, but a spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy, which called the problem to Metro's attention, said the current could eventually corrode the company's underground gas and electric conduits.
Current was also detected at "anchors" on each end of the MetroRail bridges over Buffalo Bayou and Brays Bayou. These are crossbars that keep the tracks from moving as the bridges expand and contract with temperature changes.
Then a couple of weeks later we read this paragraph in a story about Metro funding:
Wilson also proposed spending $13 million to fix several flaws, including poor drainage that allowed stormwater to ruin 12 electrically operated track switches, and insulation gaps that allowed "stray current" from the rail power line to enter the ground, endangering buried utilities and other metal objects.
That prompted Tom Bazan to send an open records request to Metro seeking "all photographs, reports, memoranda, and field notes concerning Stray Current relative to the METRORail operation from January 1, 2001 to May 31, 2005."
Well, Metro's general counsel, Paula Alexander, sent Bazan a letter stating that Metro has requested an opinion from Texas AG Greg Abbott regarding Bazan's request. Interesting, huh?
Alexander also sent Bazan a copy of the letter she sent to the attorney general, and what stands out is that Metro appears to be compiling a report on the stray current problem and doesn't want to release it, saying in the letter to Abbott:
[...]there is ongoing internal debate in which alternative actions are under discussion, including discussions with legal counsel, for preparation of final recommendations that will impact contractor compliance and transit expansion. Freedom of discussion will be inhibited by public release of this document during the early stage of METRO's decision making. Furthermore, the report is a "draft" and consists of the drafter's opinions regarding the METRORail "Track-to-Earth Resistance" testing and recommendations to the policymakers at METRO.
The stray current problem could actually become quite an issue for Metro. Perhaps we'll see a local media outlet dig further into this story.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/09/05 03:15 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
HPD: Halliburton protest handled appropriately
HPD has released its report of how it handled the recent Halliburton protest and, shockingly, the groups who protested don't agree with the report:
Houston police deny mistreating protesters at the annual meeting of Halliburton shareholders last month, according to a report by the department released Wednesday amid accusations of officer misconduct.
Members of the groups that gathered May 18 to protest the involvement of the world's largest oil-field contractor in Iraq disagreed with the report and contend that officers acted aggressively toward the protesters.
[snip]
The majority of protesters followed police direction, but several smaller groups grew violent with officers after being blocked from leaving the protest area near the Four Seasons Hotel, where the Halliburton meeting was held, according to the HPD report.
In one incident, a mounted officer was knocked off a horse by a hurled bicycle. One police horse was severely cut, Ready said.
Sixteen protesters were arrested, including three charged with felony assault of a peace officer.
[snip]
Several groups, including Houston Global Awareness, one of the main organizers of the protest, planned to gather written testimonials and videos.
Of course, we can already see quite a bit of video courtesy of KHOU-11. I still can't understand why these "peaceful" protesters injured a police officer and a horse. And I love how at the end of the story Code Pink is innocuously called a "social action group." If Code Pink were a conservative group, you can bet it would be labeled in a much more dramatic fashion.
CALLIE MARKANTONIS ADDS: Last night, the full HPD report referenced above was available under HPD Press Releases on the City of Houston website. Today, the link doesn't work, and a public affairs spokesman told me that it was removed per the "administration."
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: We should have furled that one when it first posted so we would have a copy of our own, but thankfully, the Houston IndyMedia site has a copy of the report up (with a link back to HPD that no longer works).
Why in the world would the administration of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt order the removal of a PUBLIC document from the City of Houston website?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/09/05 09:10 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
08 June 2005
Lee Brown's legacy cont'd: Expensive art for fire stations!
Rich Connelly does some original reporting for the Houston Press:
Few things say "culture" more than government-sponsored art, and Houstonians should prepare themselves for seeing more and more of it.
A 2001 ordinance, just now beginning to be implemented, calls for 1.75 percent of the construction budget for some city buildings to be devoted to public art. One of the first projects under the ordinance is a new fire station in the Denver Harbor neighborhood.The city wants to spend $43,650 on a ceramic-tile mural by Suzanne Sellers, but the expenditure has been held up by councilman Adrian Garcia, whose district includes Denver Harbor.
"When we saw '$43,000 for art' [on the agenda], we just had some questions," says Giovanni Goribay, Garcia's chief of staff.
It turns out other bids had come in at $90,000, so the city got something of a bargain. (Disclosure: Eleven years ago Sellers painted the mural on the building the Houston Press now occupies.) Still, as the new ordinance is implemented, councilmembers are hoping for more information on neighborhood input and what happens to any of the 1.75 percent that isn't spent. (With a politico's appreciation of things artistic, Goribay notes of any excess cash, "The councilman would like it to stay in his district, at least.")
Surely nothing says Houston is a world-class city like spending tens of thousands of dollars on "public" art for a fire station (where most of the public will never see it)!
Now let's try and remember.... Who was mayor when this latest instance of fiscal insanity was apparently conceived?
Yes, that would be one Lee P. Brown!
The legacy (of corruption, potholes, crime-lab mismanagement, pension-plan mismanagement, and general nitwittery) continues to grow. Who knows how many more gifts he's left for us that we'll soon be discovering?!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/08/05 09:55 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (13)
SAFEclear costs go up up up!
In his reporting on city controller Annise Parker's planned audit of the SAFEclear program last week, KHOU-11's Doug Miller noted that the mayor's estimated cost of the program had shot up to $1.5 million, from an earlier $900,000 estimate.
Miller's reporting also included this tidbit:
The mayor said that the controller's decision to conduct an audit was great, but there is clearly some tension. The mayor's staff thinks the controller is implying that Mayor White is somehow withholding information from City Council.
KTRH-740 reported earlier today that an HPD estimate of the cost of SAFEclear for the year had shot up to $2.5 million.
KTRH further reported another estimate put the cost at roughly $2 million, a figure that KPRC-2 is reporting:
The City of Houston expects to spend $2.1 million on the program this year.
So, just since Annise Parker announced an audit of SAFEclear, we have two estimates of the costs of the program that are dramatically higher than what Mayor White has provided (and Mayor White's own estimates just keep getting revised upward). Lest any of the mayor's staff accuse blogHOUSTON of "implying" anything about their boss, we'll just suggest that's an interesting confluence of events.
We'll be looking forward to the controller's numbers.
UPDATE (06-09-2005) According to reporting by Matt Stiles for the Chronicle, Council was told yesterday that the cost of SAFEclear next year will be $3 million!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/08/05 05:43 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (14)
Did Jerry Eversole HAVE to vote for the Grand Parkway?
Rick Casey's column today is enlightening, but probably not in the way he intended. He discussed who has the power within Harris County -- the judge or the commissioners:
The judge may be elected countywide, and his $137,424 salary may be about $7,000 more than the commissioners, whose turf is a quarter of the county, but neither the area of the turf nor the amount of the salary defines power.
Consider this: On countywide issues, such as determining the budget of the hospital district or the sheriff's office, the county judge and the commissioners each have one vote.
But when it comes to building parks or roads or other matters within each of the four commissioner precincts, the commissioner is king.
"I prefer 'czarina,' " says Commissioner Sylvia Garcia.
State Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, who was county judge for 20 years, summed it up: "The commissioners in Harris County are the most powerful politicians in the state other than statewide officials."
And if anyone would know about power, it's Sen. Lindsay.
Here is the really good part:
The power each commissioner exercises over these budgets is as absolute as it can get in a democracy. That's because each commissioner respects the turf of the others and expects his or her turf to be respected in return.
"El Franco Lee knows his precinct better than I do," Radack said. "If he has the money and wants to do something, I'm not going to second-guess him."
Not only do they get to decide what roads will be built and parks enhanced, individual commissioners have considerable power over what engineering and architectural firms will be hired in their precincts.
Now, why did that interest me? Because at that Grand Parkway meeting a couple of weeks ago, Commissioner Jerry Eversole said he HAD to vote for HCTRA's study of the Spring segment because the other commissioners were in favor of the Grand Parkway. He said if he voted against it, he wouldn't have a say in the route, so he was really doing Spring residents a favor by voting for it.
Tsk, tsk. Commissioner Eversole fed us a bodacious bucket of blarney.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 05:30 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (26)
UH gives food service contract to Aramark
UH has changed food service providers, kicking out Chartwells and bringing in Aramark.
I would imagine this memorable moment from a Chartwells' district manager didn't help:
However, Chartwells Resident District Manager Nick Iula said gloves aren't required by the sanitation department and are not encouraged by Taco Bell.
"If an associate has a glove on and picks his hair, it's the same as if he picked his hair without a glove on," Iula said. "Chartwells has never had one confirmed case of food-borne illness."
That's nasty.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 03:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Whiplash editorials
Remember when the Chronicle's editorial board cheered the Supreme Court's decision to limit states rights by abolishing the death penalty for juveniles?
Well, today the board is bemoaning the Supreme Court getting involved in the medical marijuana issue, stating that the matter should be...left to states:
The court majority was wrong to assert federal primacy over a health care matter that is properly within the purview of state government[...]
Really? Well okay then...let's send abortion back to the states!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 02:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Performance bonuses proposed for teachers at struggling high schools
As part of the reform plan for three underperforming HISD high schools, Dr. Saavedra has proposed paying performance bonuses to teachers who agree to work at the schools:
On Thursday, [Dr. Saavedra] will ask the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees to approve his plan to give teachers at those schools yearly bonuses of up to $3,000 if their students do better on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Teachers could earn bonuses based on campuswide improvements and gains posted in their individual classrooms.
"We need to do whatever it takes to get the best teachers into those schools to start working," Saavedra said in a written statement.
San Francisco, of all places, employs a similar idea:
The San Francisco Unified School District already offers modest financial incentives to attract teachers to shortage areas such as mathematics, science and special education, to teach in low-performing schools, and to reward teachers who achieve advanced national certification.
Jason Spencer's story (it's a good one) also describes how Chattanooga and Denver are handling the issue of getting good teachers into lower-performing schools.
In the real world, of course, performance bonuses and merit pay are common. But doing it in public schools scares the bejeebers out of teachers unions, as evidenced by Gayle Fallon's disparaging reaction:
The leader of Houston's largest teachers union called the proposal a desperation move by administrators who didn't realize how difficult replacing the teachers would be.
"They backed themselves into a corner on staffing and they don't know how to fix it," said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. She said she doubts Saavedra's offer will lure many good teachers out of their current jobs and into the struggling schools. "I will bet the superintendent lunch, at the restaurant of his choice, that he opens the year with primarily first-year teachers or vacant positions."
What a little ray of sunshine she is. You can really tell she is interested in a quality education for HISD's students.
Here's Sedosi Alhambra:
Note to Gayle Fallon: Shut up. Stop being part of the problem and contribute to the solution. If you can't do that, then just be quiet, because keeping things "status quo" isn't working.
Good luck to Dr. Saavedra as he attempts to turn around a school district that's been ruined by years of mis-management, a bloated beuaracrecy, and a teacher's union that has forgotten that the word "teach" is in their job description.
Amen.
When Fallon has to buy lunch for Dr. Saavedra, do you think her son will tag along?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 01:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Dwight Silverman is looking for input
It's reader participation time at the TechBlog:
I'm headed to Virginia to speak to an American Press Institute seminar for lifestyle and features editors about blogging. I'll be focusing on the creation & evolution of Kyrie O'Connor's MeMo blog, but also talking about newspapers blogging in general.
[snip]
If you're a regular blog reader, or if you have a blog, what do you think is important for newspaper editors to know about blogging, particularly as it relates to lifestyle topics? Leave comments below and I'll mention the most relevant ones to the group.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 11:37 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (11)
It's not about revenue, it's not about revenue, it's not about revenue...
In Orange County, CA, a grand jury has been studying the use of red light cameras within the county. What is especially noteworthy are the reasons why some cities have chosen NOT to install the cameras:
Grand jurors interviewed traffic engineers, as well as police, in Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, Westminster, and Orange–all cities that do not use RLCs. They were asked why they do not. In general, representatives of these cities said they do not need RLCs because they do not have a red light violation problem that warrants use of the devices, or because they are using other ways to deal with the problem. Some of those methods are:
* Coordinating traffic signals, thereby reducing driver frustration
* Using four-way red signals so that everyone has to stop for a few seconds
* Creating better signage for complicated intersections
* Using greater police presence at problem intersections
* Replacing incandescent bulbs in traffic signals with larger, brighter light emitting diodes (LEDs) that cost less, operate more efficiently, and can be powered by battery for up to four hours in the event of a power failure.
* Creating double left-turn lanes where practical
* Installing LED systems, commonly known as "rat boxes," that can signal a traffic officer when someone has run a red light. This enables an officer to be positioned so he will not have to chase the offending motorist through a busy intersection, creating a potential danger for him and other motorists than the red-light-runner has already created.
But none of those methods will generate any revenue for the city of Houston.
In Maryland, a judge investigated red light cameras after hearing numerous complaints from motorists in Baltimore. His full report is well worth reading, but it's interesting to note that yellow light times figure prominently in the report, including these observations:
There are reports that yellow light time variations occur on the same light. A rough analysis of several citations issued in Baltimore City documented this phenomenon. A light at the intersection of Falls Road and Northern Parkway has a City listed standard of 3.5 seconds. In four citations, the length of the yellow light on the citation was recorded at 3.2, 2.9, 3.2 and 3.0 seconds. When asked about this at a meeting, both DOT and ACS stated that the problem had been noted and was "being looked into." In response to the Court's written inquiry, the DOT described inconsistent yellow light times as being caused by "fluctuations in the voltage supply that cause minor variances in the timing circuits within the devices."[14] However, the DOT's voltage explanation accounts for only a 0.1 second variance and not the 0.3 variance described in the Falls Road and Northern Parkway intersection example described above.[15]
There is also a failure of the yellow light timings to adhere to the city's own set standards. The DOT sent the court a list of its yellow light settings at the intersections where there are RLCES. See Attachment 1. A rough analysis of approximately 181 citations yielded the following statistic. Approximately 39% of the citations had inconsistent yellow lights or a yellow light setting inconsistent with the city standard. Most alarming are instances when the inconsistent yellow light times have been less than the 3 second federal minimum. Nearly 10% of the 181 citations surveyed had a yellow light prior to the red light of 2.9 seconds. This is inconsistent with Federal standards and presents a grave danger to Baltimore City drivers.
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have made it abundantly clear that adjusting yellow light times will not be considered in Houston, even though at least two city councilmembers asked that yellow light times be studied at problem intersections, and even though almost every study and investigation shows that lengthening yellow light times can make a big difference in reducing the number of red light runners.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 10:50 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Houston Zoo increases admission prices
The Houston Zoo is raising admission prices, saying that it will allow the zoo to provide a better experience for guests.
That may be so, but what's missing is exactly what will be done to improve the zoo. The story says the zoo's budget is increasing by more than $2 million for FY2006, but zoo officials don't provide details of what is planned, except to say that "the increase will help the zoo continue to add staff and improve animal exhibits."
That's rather vague. Is the price increase being instituted without a specific plan? What more do zoo guests get in return? Frankly, it gets tiresome to see prices go up without a clear picture of what the increase will buy.
If the zoo raises prices again in a couple of years, will we still be left wondering what the last price increase bought?
RELATED: Laurence Simon has some succinct thoughts.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 10:41 AM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (4)
07 June 2005
Chron: Judge was jaywalking; No he wasn't
Last week, three Chronicle reporters contributed to a story on the city's Renegade Downtown Jaywalking problem that contained the following:
The plan drew its share of wisecracks from jaywalkers Friday, including a jurist.
"It does my heart good to know that the Police Department is focusing so much attention on serious criminals," said Harris County Court at Law Judge Gary Michael Block as he returned from lunch. "Judges now feel safe."
Today, the Chronicle admits the story by its three reporters was mistaken:
Harris County Court at Law Judge Gary Michael Block did not jaywalk before he was interviewed for a story about a crackdown on the offense. A story on Page A1 Saturday mischaracterized the judge's actions that day.
So, at least one reporter was talking to the judge as he was either jaywalking or not, and managed to mischaracterize the action?!
That's some kind of reporting and editing!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/07/05 10:14 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
New Mexican restaurant to open along rail line
The Houston Business Journal reports that downtown is finally seeing some restaurant development along the rail line:
Three entrepreneurs that formed a company last month to open and operate bars and restaurants in the Central Business District have signed their first deal.
Joe Martin, John Zotos and Jeffrey Yarbrough have leased the space at 416 Main Street, formerly home to Saba Blue Water Cafe, and are in the process of renovating the 3,600-square-foot location. It will reopen as a yet-unnamed Mexican restaurant.
This will be the first new restaurant along Main Street since the Downtown Entertainment District opened in October 2003.
Martin, Zotos and Yarbrough are planning to bring at least three new venues to downtown.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/07/05 09:58 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (6)
Akin's Army is disbanding
The Chronicle's Mike McDaniel reports that Emily Akin is leaving KPRC-2.
She was asked to remain on board as a general assignment reporter while the station revamps its consumer reporting, but declined.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/07/05 09:50 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
HISD's dropout prevention specialists fly into action
Following up on yesterday's post about HISD aggressively trying to get 900 seniors to pass one or more TAKS tests to graduate, here are the details on how the first day of the summer program went:
Nearly 500 HISD seniors who still need to pass the state TAKS test to graduate showed up for class Monday and more were on their way today as part of a special summer program designed to help them earn their diplomas.
[snip]
Now, HISD is mobilizing to try to find and coax back into school some of the students who didn’t come to class Monday morning for the special program.
HISD high schools reported that 488 students who still need to pass the TAKS test to graduate ended their short summer vacations and reported to class Monday. Schools reported that more students were arriving Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, teams of HISD dropout prevention specialists and other school officials started making telephone calls and planned door-to-door visits to try to find and persuade more of the approximately 900 high-school seniors who have not yet passed the TAKS to come back to summer school.
HISD's dropout prevention specialists sound like a persistent group of people, which is good for all of us. And I think it would make an interesting story, to see what the job of a dropout prevention specialist entails.
UPDATE (6-8-2005): Terry Abbott emails that another 100 students showed up for Tuesday's classes, making for an almost two-thirds turnout. That's a strong showing.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/07/05 03:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Loren Steffy's blog
I just noticed Chron.com has added a blog by Loren Steffy, called "Full Disclosure":
Welcome to Full Disclosure, my new blog for business-related topics and perhaps a few other things. I hope to use this space to touch on interesting discussions about business, economics and other subjects involving the flow of money.
Excellent!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/07/05 01:47 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Bush Intercontinental's plan for future development
The Houston Airport System has a press release posted detailing a future expansion plan:
The Houston Airport System (HAS) has adopted a preferred alternative for future development at Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The selection of this preferred alternative is a key milestone for the IAH master plan process. The plan prepares IAH to accommodate the projected 70 million annual passengers forecast to pass through its gates by 2025. Members of Houston City Council will be briefed about the plan during the Council Aviation Committee’s meeting on June 16th.
The preferred alternative includes two additional east-west runways within the airport’s existing footprint, significantly reducing costs and neighborhood impacts. One runway would be constructed south of existing Runway 9-27. The other runway would be constructed north of Runway 8R-26L inside the existing airport boundary.
[snip]
“This decision now gives Bush Intercontinental Airport a path to follow for future development,” said Richard Vacar, director of the Houston Airport System. “This path also balances the need for added runway capacity and new terminal areas with the desires of our neighbors.”
RELATED: Cutting the noise around Bush Intercontinental (blogHOUSTON); IAH runways
UPDATE (6-8-2005) via Houston Strategies, I see the Chronicle ran a story on IAH's expansion plan over the weekend.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/07/05 09:50 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Planned Parenthood op-ed
Peter J. Durkin, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas Inc., has an op-ed in today's Chronicle headlined, "A world where every child is loved, cared for, wanted." The column is focused mainly on birth control, but we all know what is Planned Parenthood's favorite "solution" to the problem of unwanted children:
Despite the societal advances made since granting access to birth control, 40 years later we find ourselves still fighting to protect the fundamental right to decide when and if to bear children. We hear of pharmacists who refuse to fill doctors' prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception, health insurance companies that don't cover birth control but do cover drugs such as Viagra, and state legislatures, including our own, that misguidedly focus on the more politically and morally charged debates over abortion rather than striving for common ground on preventing unintended pregnancies.
Yes, well, the one SURE way to prevent an unintended pregnancy is by abstaining from sex, but Planned Parenthood is against abstinence being taught in schools. And some of us don't consider killing babies on-demand, to be a societal advance.
Durkin is the same compassionate person who celebrated the fact that abortion procedures have risen dramatically over the past twenty years:
Abortion procedures: 2,882 vs. 6,876. This growth in clients is thanks to our Fannin and Bryan staff, our medical director and other staff physicians.
That is so offensive.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: It IS offensive that the newspaper that advocates for every leftover to be a wanted leftover can't make the connection that for every child to be a wanted child, it would help if said child weren't "aborted" in the mother's womb.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/07/05 09:21 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
06 June 2005
An alternative perspective on "In Harm's Way"
H. Sterling Burnett has penned an interesting and provocative response to a January 2005 Chronicle story on area air quality that was ominously entitled "In Harm's Way."
Here's an excerpt:
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), however, the air quality in Texas as a whole and Houston in particular has dramatically improved over the past 30 years, as noted in a 2005 report by the agency.
In Houston, under EPA’s one-hour standard, ozone pollution has declined by an average 78 percent since 1975. Under EPA’s eight-hour standard, ozone has declined by 70 percent on average. And toxic air emissions in Texas have declined by more than 63 percent.
[snip]
The Houston area has the most extensive monitoring network of any city in the United States. Stricter federal and state standards are already in the works, and regulated industries face incentives to improve efficiency and reduce waste and thus remain profitable. As a result, the environmental quality in the Houston greater metropolitan area should continue to improve.
However, one would hardly be aware of the Houston area’s rosy environmental future from reading the series “In Harm’s Way” published in January 2005 in the Houston Chronicle.
The entire article is worth reading. Perhaps a link will be added to the Chronicle's list of letters and other responses to the study.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/06/05 09:56 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Banking industry mysteries on the Chron letters page
Anne Linehan commented earlier on the HISD angle to a letter printed in today's Chronicle.
There's another problem with that letter, a problem that's consistent with the newspaper's long-term treatment of Harris County DA and apparent "bad guy" Chuck Rosenthal.
Here's the relevant excerpt:
In the Chronicle's June 3 article ``HISD wrong to probe case itself, DA says,'' Rosenthal said HISD should have requested help from an outside law enforcement agency as soon as its investigation into consulting contracts uncovered potential criminal acts. And this is the same district attorney who refused for months to agree to an independent investigation of the Houston Police crime lab? How many people have been wrongly imprisoned due to the lab's shoddy work?
I see a double standard here.
LEE L. KAPLAN, Houston
This blog forced the Chronicle to issue a correction not that long ago for running a letter that mischaracterized Rosenthal's position on the crime lab, but apparently it is not a standard practice in the banking industry for people like letters editor Judy Minshew to learn from past mistakes. Just to be clear on Rosenthal's position on the crime lab, here is what he told blogHOUSTON back in October:
... I followed up with Rosenthal, who explained that he actually had called for a Blue Ribbon Review panel to review the crime lab (which Judge Robert Eckels supported but then-Mayor Lee Brown opposed), and that he later wrote to then-police chief Joe Brashears urging a review of the entire crime lab. He admits that he has refused to recuse himself "unless there was evidence that any of my staff was involved in wrongdoing" and contends he's just doing the job he was elected to do. He has also opposed a "Cleveland plan" style review, contending that it is not appropriate to Houston's circumstance.
The letter writer certainly is right to ask about double standards, but (like the Chronicle) is too focused on Chuck Rosenthal, whose office is put in a real bind because of the crime lab fiasco.
Here's a better question: Why is the Houston Chronicle not more focused on the roles of former police chief Clarence Bradford and former mayor Lee Brown in said fiasco?
UPDATE: Steve McVicker writes about the latest crime-lab developments on Chron.com. Of course, it wouldn't be a Chronicle story if an earlier version hadn't included an error related to Chuck Rosenthal, but at least the newspaper deserves credit for a transparent correction (would we be nitpicking to suggest the proper spelling of "discrepancies?" Probably).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/06/05 09:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
The future of Houston's METRO?
Both Tom Kirkendall (Houston's Clear Thinkers) and Tory Gattis (Houston Strategies) call attention to the first of a series of Washington Post articles on problems with D.C.'s mass transit agency (Metro), and wonder if Houston's own METRO is due for similar problems.
Here's a sample of the Post story:
Washington's world-class subway system, which for three decades has shaped the metropolitan region and delivered thousands of commuters to work on time, has fallen into a decline -- and mismanagement has been a key factor, records show.
Trains break down 64 percent more often than they did three years ago, and the number of daily delays has nearly doubled since 2000. Although the vast majority of trains are on time, more than 14,400 subway riders a day are inconvenienced by a delay or a mechanical problem that forces them off broken trains.
Metro officials have spent nearly $1 billion in recent years to turn around the nation's second busiest subway system, but internal records show that the projects have created new problems.
To ease chronic crowding, Metro purchased 192 rail cars at a cost of $383 million. But the agency tried to rush the cars through production and often missed mistakes made on the assembly line. And on average, the new cars need major repairs almost as often as the oldest ones in the fleet.
Metro is spending an additional $382 million to rebuild rail cars bought in the 1980s. Officials failed to closely monitor the repair work, didn't catch mistakes and ignored warnings from auditors about the lack of supervision. The refurbished cars are now breaking down far more often than those that haven't been overhauled.
[snip]
The documents portray an insular and often byzantine bureaucracy that operates with little outside oversight, spending tens of millions of dollars on promised fixes that don't turn out as advertised. Even when problems were flagged, the records show, little was done to address them.
Is our own METRO headed down the same path?
Certainly, it misled poor voters when it promised them it would boost bus service by 50% while at the same time operating expensive rail lines. Critics whose safety concerns about at-grade rail were pooh-poohed have turned out to be right. The organization has had to take on "short-term" debt for the first time in its history. It treats federal officials responsible for funding with unbelievable arrogance. And it's recently asked for $104 million to buy (unneeded) new rail cars and fix known design problems.
METRO doesn't seem to be headed in the right direction, in terms of responsiveness to taxpayers or to the city's mass-transit needs. But maybe their latest expensive study will put them back on the right track (bad pun intended).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/06/05 08:59 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Looking dapper
HPD chief Harold Hurtt is looking very dapper in his uniform.
Ever since the chief met the qualifications to wear the uniform of a police officer in the state of Texas, we've been waiting for a staff photo.
Nicely done, Chief, although it will be much harder now for you to observe renegade downtown jaywalkers undercover!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/06/05 08:25 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)
The end of the downtown parking meter tryouts
In today's Move It! column, Rad Sallee reports that the downtown parking meter tryouts are over. City council will decide in July which company gets the contract and the first meters should be in place this fall.
There's no word if the new meters will come with human monitors.
RELATED: City should be wary of Cubic parking meters (blogHOUSTON)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/06/05 05:43 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
Adult supervision required
The Chronicle ran a story last week in which Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal criticized HISD for conducting its own investigation into the Margaret Stroud mess. According to Jason Spencer's story (uh oh), Rosenthal said that HISD should have gotten the DA's office involved as soon as potentially criminal acts were uncovered. The dramatic headline for the story says, "HISD wrong to probe case itself, DA says."
Today the Chronicle is running this letter to the editor:
SO Harris County's District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal thinks that the Houston Independent School District shouldn't have performed its own investigation of charges against Darren Fulton, the son of Chief School Administrator Margaret Stroud?
In the Chronicle's June 3 article ``HISD wrong to probe case itself, DA says,'' Rosenthal said HISD should have requested help from an outside law enforcement agency as soon as its investigation into consulting contracts uncovered potential criminal acts. And this is the same district attorney who refused for months to agree to an independent investigation of the Houston Police crime lab? How many people have been wrongly imprisoned due to the lab's shoddy work?
I see a double standard here.
LEE L. KAPLAN, Houston
No, what we see here is a misleading story.
According to HISD spokesman Terry Abbott, HISD has had a good working relationship with the Harris County DA's office for 20 years, and HISD has its "own investigators with the Office of Inspector General who are certified fraud examiners and who are former police detectives, and we have our own fully certified police department with more than 160 uniformed police officers. In fact, HISD's Police Department was the first school district police department in the country to be certified."
Also, HISD contacted Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal to ask him if the Chronicle's headline from the original story (saying HISD was wrong to conduct its own investigation) was accurate. According to Abbott, Rosenthal indicated that he did NOT say HISD was wrong to have conducted its own investigation, and he said he wanted HISD to continue to bring investigations to his office in the same way they've always been brought to the DA's office.
I emailed Rosenthal for a comment and he responded that there is not a problem between his office and HISD. He said he understands HISD has been in regular contact with the Public Integrity office regarding investigations.
Please allow me to share a personal story: I majored in journalism in college and during my internship with a newspaper (I did sports reporting) I was assigned what was supposed to be a routine interview with a USFL team owner (no wisecracks about how that dates me). During the interview, the owner said something about a player that left the other sports reporters and the sports editor open-mouthed. And it was on-the-record.
Before the editor would allow a story to run with that quote, he had me call the owner back to repeat the quote, and the editor sat alongside me as I transcribed the conversation.
At this point in Jason Spencer's Chronicle career, shouldn't his stories be double-checked BEFORE they run in the paper?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/06/05 10:54 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
HISD goes all out to graduate 915 seniors who still need to pass TAKS
HISD has announced an intensive summer program for the 915 seniors who didn't pass the TAKS test needed to graduate. HISD spokesman Terry Abbott sent out a release with the details:
Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra ordered special summer programs beginning Monday for 915 seniors who have not yet passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exit-level test. HISD is recruiting 104 of the best available teachers for the job, promising higher than normal summer school salaries and performance bonuses for teachers who will work in small classroom settings.
HISD officials who make up what has been dubbed “Task Force 915” in recognition of the 915 students who still need to pass the TAKS say this will be the most intensely focused summer effort the school district has made in recent memory.
From June 6 through July 11, many of the students will work in small groups of as few as 10 students. They will be assigned to teachers with special expertise and a history of success, particularly in the harder math and science courses. The students will be given rigorous instruction in the subjects they have not yet passed on the TAKS graduation exam. Special materials for intensive instruction have been purchased from the Texas Education Agency and will be used in the classrooms.
Schools also will use “lead teachers” to help in the effort. In addition, the district will hire students who graduated in May and were rated as “commended” because of their high performance on the TAKS test to help work with the 915 seniors.
At the end of the rigorous summer program, on July 12, the students will be tested again on the TAKS subject area they have not yet mastered.
This program sounds like a great idea. Every student who graduates from high school immediately stands a much greater chance of becoming a productive member of society, instead of being a drain and a burden.
One more point:
Dr. Saavedra directed his regional superintendents to hire the best available teachers for the special summer program. To attract the best teachers, HISD will pay them their regular hourly wage rate, which is higher than the summer school rate of $25 a day, plus a bonus of $100 for every student who passes a portion of the TAKS test that student had previously failed. For example, a 12-year-veteran teacher earning the average HISD teacher salary and who helps 10 seniors learn what they need to know and pass the TAKS test would make about $4,100 extra in this special summer program.
If Houston Federation of Teachers president Gayle Fallon has one ounce of common sense (not a given), she won't utter a peep about the extra pay the selected teachers will be receiving. The issue should be about students graduating, not about teacher pay.
RELATED: KTRK-13 coverage
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/06/05 08:04 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
05 June 2005
Chron names new deputy managing editors
The Chronicle has announced several editorial promotions:
The Houston Chronicle named two new deputy managing editors and a new sports editor Saturday.
George Haj, 43, will oversee the local news operations, state desk, business, foreign, national and projects staffs. He joined the Chronicle in 2003 as assistant managing editor/business.
Dan Cunningham, 49, will oversee the news and wire desks, the Page A1 team, the Sunday newspaper and the sports section. He was assistant managing editor/sports and had been in charge of the sports department since 1989.
In other appointments, assistant sports editor Fred Faour, 40, was named sports editor; national editor Russ Shaw, 48, was named assistant managing editor/news; and Jacquee Petchel, 46, was hired as assistant managing editor/projects. Petchel previously worked as investigations editor at the Miami Herald.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/05/05 09:35 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Lord of the Rings exhibit opens
The Lord of the Rings exhibition opened at the Houston Museum of Natural Science this weekend.
The stop in Houston is one of only three for the exhibit in the United States. The exhibit will run through August 28.
RELATED COVERAGE: Isolated Desolation, The Lure of the Rings (Louis B. Parks, Chronicle), One true exhibit unites Ring fans (Louis B. Parks, Chronicle),
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/05/05 08:47 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (18)
Mack on the potential scramble to succeed Eckels
If Harris County Judge Robert Eckels (R) upholds a pledge to leave office after three terms, the race to succeed him is likely to be a mad scramble.
Kristen Mack's column from Friday examines the candidates lining up for a potential run at the office.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/05/05 08:16 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
A tip of the hat to the idealists
The Chronicle editorial board never misses a chance to take a shot at "bad guys," but we do have to admire the manner in which they've managed to twist the mess made of the HPD crime lab by the dynamic duo of Lee P. Brown and Clarence Bradford (two Chron "good guys") and the foot dragging on cleaning up the mess by MayorWhiteChiefHurtt (more "good guys") into a way to slam Harris County District Attorney and Chron "bad guy" Chuck Rosenthal for... well, for whatever it was he either did or didn't do or did too much of or not enough of or... yeah, whatever.
Give yourselves a pat on the back, idealists! Sometimes, you can still surprise even your friends at blogHOUSTON!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/05/05 08:04 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Rick Casey lectures on professional ethics (really!)
Today, Chronicle columnist Rick Casey compares the plight of four journalists caught committing the journalistic sin of making up facts with the three-day suspension of an HPD crime lab worker caught fabricating results.
Certainly it's hard to disagree with that assessment.
However, compared to Casey's own treatment by his bosses when he was caught appropriating the work of a Washington Post reporter without proper attribution -- Casey was allowed to "clarify" his journalistic sin in a subsequent column, with no other public consequences -- one could argue that the HPD crime lab worker actually received more punishment than Rick Casey for committing professional sins.
So, perhaps Rick Casey isn't the best Chron columnist to be lecturing HPD or the city on handling personnel matters that revolve around professional ethics. Indeed, it's even more laughable considering his latest yellow journalism that the newspaper printed just this past Wednesday. Professional ethics, indeed.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/05/05 07:44 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
MS 13 tag within sight of Houston public works facility?
Suspected MS 13 tag, Holman and Milam
The photo above is a recent bit of graffiti that I first noticed on a building on Holman and Milam around May 23. It would seem to be from either the MS-13 gang, or a copycat (it's missing the characteristic "13" that is usually included). It's hard for the layman to know, since HPD maintains an official policy of silence on MS-13 activity in the city of Houston.
Ironically, one can see the tag from a Houston public works facility located nearby, on Holman and Travis. Nothing quite says "well maintained city" like possible gang graffiti within sight of public works facilities (including the city's "bandit sign" trucks).
The local blog A Certain Slant of Light has been keeping a watchful eye on MS-13 activities in town, as well as local media coverage. Unfortunately, we'll probably be seeing more MS-13 related blog posts as the problem grows.
Perhaps when MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are done focusing overstretched police resources on the problem of those renegade downtown jaywalkers, they can bring some attention to the city's gang problem.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/05/05 04:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
04 June 2005
Return of the Chron Eye!
Several readers have emailed to make sure we didn't miss today's return of the Chron Eye For The Death Row Killer Guy.
The Chron Eye is the newspaper's recurring effort to portray death-row killers sympathetically. Here's a quick refresher on the Chron Eye formula:
The usual formula is along the lines of pointing out some nice quality of the killer (for example, keeping poetry in prison), some bad quality of his childhood (perceived or real), and the problems at HPD and its crime lab (whether relevant or not to the killer being discussed).
Today's Chron Eye arguably only hits one of the three, unless one wants to count the death row killer guy's tattoos as a "nice quality" (and Chronicle writer Allan Turner does seem strangely enamored):
The blue prison tattoos on Alex Martinez's arms and torso, as intense in imagery as anything on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, tell the story of his life. Somewhere, surely, are references to his wretched childhood, the endless beatings and psychological abuse.
But it's the tombstones, macabre tributes to the women whose throats he slashed, that are most chilling.
"Maria," reads one, referring to Maria Martinez, the stepmother who miraculously survived his brutal attack in August 2001. "To be continued."
The second cuts to the heart of what brought the 28-year-old one-time Houston fast-food worker to death row. Beneath the inscription, "RIP," are a date, a woman's name and the sum, "$300." Seemingly cryptic, the tattoo is a crude ink-and-skin memorial to South Houston prostitute Helen Joyce Oliveros, who, on Aug. 12, 2001, was murdered by Martinez during a squabble over her fee.
Nice guy. Note also the author's assumptions in the lede of a wretched childhood that included abuse, something actually not established (and perhaps contradicted) in the story later:
Martinez's adoptive mother, Velma Griffin, who raised the child from 15 months to nine years, when her marriage ended in divorce, denied all the abuse allegations. Today, she prays for him and hopes his life will be spared. She routinely attempts to visit him on death row, though on each occasion he has rebuffed her, silently returning to his cell when he determines the identity of his visitor.
"I feel very sad," she said. "I cry all the way home. I have to sit in the car five to 10 minutes to compose myself. I just wanted him to know that somebody loves him."
Griffin said Martinez's early years showed promise — as a Boy Scout he was selected to address the Texas Senate. But after the divorce, when she gave up custody of her four children to her ex-husband, "his life just fell apart."
Martinez said the situation hardly improved when his adoptive father remarried. His stepmother, he asserted, intensely disliked him and worked to alienate his father.
"She wouldn't do anything," he said. "She'd wait until my dad came home, and he'd hit me hard."
Martinez's father, stepmother and siblings could not be located for comment.
By the time Martinez dropped out of the ninth grade, he was a steady inhaler of spray paint fumes and similar substances. His adolescence and young adulthood were marked by continual violent skirmishes — only during three years was he free of the criminal-justice system, records show.
"I always looked at it like everybody owed me something," Martinez said. "My mentality was not giving a damn. I couldn't see myself in the world for some reason. I was mad all the time. ... I always thought that I could go right someday. I always thought that things would work out for the best. And all the time I was getting further in the hole."
It sounds like this Death Row Killer Guy seems to be acknowledging his own part in going astray. But that sort of acknowledgment just doesn't fit the Chron Eye "childhood victim" formula, and is buried.
Although the HPD crime lab wasn't involved in this story, there is the obligatory reference to the potential unfairness of it all:
Partly out of fear that he will kill again, partly out of dread of spending his life behind bars, Martinez said in a recent death row interview that he wants to die. To the consternation of his appeals attorney, Houston lawyer Pat McCann, the killer has insisted that all efforts to save his life be halted.
"I think Alexander's life still has value," he said. "I wish he would change his mind."
McCann thinks a key element of the prosecution's case — testimony by his client's Harris County cellmate, Cesar Rios — is faulty.
"This is a case that never should have been a capital case to start with," McCann said. "A lying jailhouse snitch was one of the key elements in making a murder case a capital case. ... If Alexander dies, he'd be dying for a lie. That's not justice."
[snip]
Martinez, in the death row interview, affirmed that he likely would kill again.
It's hard to get that worked up over it. One wonders why so much column space was wasted on this.
We thought Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper had abandoned the Chron Eye series, since it's mainly been running AP coverage of death row killer guys about to meet their end lately. Although the series is kind of fun for us -- sort of like Chris Baker's "Debris Game" -- we'd just as soon see it go away.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/04/05 05:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Blogger radio on BizRadio 1320
It's Saturday morning, and that means it's time for another installment of Blogger Radio on the Carter and Carter show on BizRadio 1320. The blogger segment should start about 10:15 am.
Charles Kuffner will be in, as usual, and I'll be chatting up some of the blogHOUSTON topics this week. A little birdie says that Anne Linehan will be doing more of these segments in the future, so my (two) fans out there better tune in this week before I'm relegated to the bench. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/04/05 09:00 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (2)
03 June 2005
Firefighters reject proposed contract
Houston firefighters have rejected the labor agreement negotiated by their leadership and the city's team by nearly a 2-1 margin.
The overwhelming rejection of the deal represents a setback for Mayor White, whose public comments at a sensitive point in the negotiations may have tipped the deal too far in the city's favor for HFD rank and file to stomach.
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that it would have been the city's first contract with HFD since 1999.
RELATED COVERAGE: KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRK-13.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/05 11:11 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (8)
Chief Hurtt pedals for leukemia
While we don't always agree with Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt's priorities for HPD, it is good to see him working on revenue streams for more worthwhile causes.
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/03/05 11:05 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
METRO announces new downtown jaywalking revenue stream
KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that as of June 13, extra METRO police manpower will be deployed downtown to ticket jaywalkers:
Downtown jaywalkers should be on the lookout in the month of June, because Metro police are planning a concerted effort to warn and ticket violators of pedestrian, bicycle and motor vehicle laws in the downtown area.The object is to ensure that the public complies with the transportation laws to assure their safety and the safety of others who share the downtown roadways and sidewalks.
Officers with the Metro Police Department have produced brochures that will be given to pedestrians as they walk in the downtown area and are working jointly with HPD on this initiative.
"The focus is on public safety and we at Metro want to ensure we do everything we can to inform the public about how to do just that," says Captain Milton O'Gilvie of the Metro Police Department.
Many people who now live, work, and visit downtown are crossing in mid-block or against the traffic signal to get across streets; bicyclists are riding on the sidewalks or against traffic; and motorists are speeding and running red lights.
The emphasis placed on the downtown mobility initiative will begin on June 13 and continue until June 30.
KTRH-740 news has reported that the METRO police department all but concedes there isn't a problem downtown at the moment, but lots of people! (Translation: $uckers who can give the city $$$$)
Let's not forget that this is the same METRO police department that cannot prevent crime at its Park-and-Ride lots because it refuses to deploy manpower to do so. Yet it has the extra manpower and resources to deploy downtown to issue citations to citizens just trying to enjoy the huge investment taxpayers have made in their downtown in recent years? And to print brochures instructing citizens how to cross the street?!
Unbelievable. Absurd. Feel free to add your own adjectives in the comments.
Thanks again, Mayor White and METRO officials, for subjugating the real public safety needs in our city to your need to boost revenues. One can certainly understand why these obnoxious programs are announced on Fridays.
UPDATE: KUHF-88.7's Jack Williams reports on the new Downtown Jaywalking Revenue Stream program:
Downtown jaywalkers beware... The Houston Police Department and Metro will begin a crackdown on pedestrian law violators starting later this month. Officials say the three-week operation is about safety, not revenue.
More than a dozen officers assigned to HPD's Special Operations Division will begin monitoring busy downtown intersections starting June 13th, looking for not only pedestrian violations, but also bicycle and motor vehicle violations. Police captain Mary Lentschke says pedestrians can affect downtown traffic flow.
In a recent survey, police observed more than 7,000 downtown walkers and found about 25 percent of them were breaking various pedestrian ordinances. Most of the violations occured during afternoon rush hour.
Police says they'll hand out tickets if they have to, with fines of up to $200, but increased revenue isn't the goal.
One law of politics is that when public officials say it's not about the money, it's almost always about the money.
UPDATE 2: KTRK-13's coverage of the "public safety initiative" reads like a police press release -- or worse, like police spinning after Doug Miller's story for KHOU. If that's what appeared on the air, KTRK's viewers missed about half the story.
UPDATE (06-04-2005): The Chronicle runs a lengthy story on the city's new Downtown Jaywalking Revenue Stream Program. Unsurprisingly, this latest bit of genius comes from none other than Chief Hurtt:
The idea for the initiative began with Chief Harold Hurtt, said HPD spokesman Alvin Wright.
"The chief noticed a lot of folks jaywalking downtown," and asked for a study of the problem, Wright said.
Now that Chief Hurtt would seem to have that pressing problem of renegade downtown pedestrians under control, if he and Mayor White could turn their attention to REAL problems like HPD's manpower shortage, the growing menace of MS-13 gang activities, graffiti, and 911 response times, that would be much appreciated.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/05 04:44 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
Don't get the wrong idea
According to this story on KTRK-13's web site, the nudists in Jefferson County have been getting pretty bold of late. Here is Jefferson County Sheriff Mitch Woods on the situation:
"I don't want to give anybody the impression that we're looking the other way."
The last paragraph of the article mentions a system utilized by the nudists for alerting others to police presence; it is mercifully lacking in detail.
Posted by Ethan Glading @ 06/03/05 04:43 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Hot doughnuts now
Keeping the theme of free eats going, Krispy Kreme wants us to Celebrate Doughnut Day today. Participating Krispy Kreme retail stores will give away one free doughnut of any variety today.
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/03/05 10:09 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (8)
Freeway closure
The weekend is going to be messy for Southwest Freeway users, not to mention Montrose residents:
Drivers could face major annoyances this weekend, as workers shut down a 2-mile stretch of the Southwest Freeway and all of Spur 527, which connects the freeway to downtown.Montrose Boulevard also will be closed where it crosses the freeway in the Museum District.
[snip]
During this weekend:
•The Southwest Freeway (U.S. 59 South) will be closed to all traffic between Shepherd and Texas 288.
•Incoming traffic on the freeway must exit north or south on reaching the West Loop.
•West Loop traffic may enter the Southwest Freeway inbound lanes but must exit at Greenbriar/Shepherd. Frontage roads from the Loop to Shepherd will stay open.
•Outbound traffic from downtown must exit onto Texas 288 where it splits from the Southwest Freeway.
•Outbound lanes of Spur 527 will be closed. The inbound lanes are closed for the duration of the project.
•Montrose will be closed at the freeway bridge.
UPDATE: KTRK-13's coverage includes details of a North Freeway closure.
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/03/05 08:26 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
Chron gossip columnist follows up with chief justice
Today, featured Chronicle metro/state columnist Rick Casey follows Wednesday's noxious column of innuendo and gossip with what should have appeared in that column in the first place: a response from Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.
People who don't see today's column will, of course, still only have part of the story. And the unsourced gossip and cheap, ultimately unsubstantiated slam against Chuck Rosenthal, are still lowlights from that Wednesday column.
As I alluded to in the previous post, there are good people who do good work at the Chronicle. Unfortunately, Rick Casey is a big public face for the newspaper, so when he engages in the sort of yellow journalism (and even outside political commentary) that is fairly typical for him, it makes the entire newspaper look bad, including the good guys. That's not the lament of a blogger wanting to bring down mainstream media (which I assuredly do NOT want to do), but just the observation of a news consumer who wants a better newspaper.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/05 07:58 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
02 June 2005
Food and drink roundup (06-02-2005 edition)
Once again, it's time for a food and drink roundup. Actually it's way past time for a food and drink roundup, so much linky goodness will ensue.
Last week Alison Cook ventured out 290 to its version of chain-restaurant row to check out Bistro Paradiso and found it promising. This week she gives an almost poetic nod to Lila's. Good Tex Mex served in a double wide trailer in the old part of Pearland? Alison loves it.
Last week barbecue expert Robb Walsh gave Luling City Market the once over. It's a fascinating read. This week Julia's Bistro on the METROrail Line gets his attention.
Last week Dai Huynh looked at Nirvana and threw in an Indian cuisine primer. This week she looks at what local restaurants are doing to add lighter desserts to their menus.
Peggy Grodinsky gives us the results of a Chronicle taste-test of locally-offered rotisserie chickens. I'm not sure I agree with their choice as winner.
Ken Hoffman gave Dairy Queen's Arctic Rush a try last week. This week he gives IHOP's Big Bacon Omelette a try, and awakens my Atkins...until he reveals how IHOP cheats, darn them.
Joey Guerra looks at local gay dance club, Rich's. As Chris Baker would say, diversity is beauty.
World class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 06/02/05 10:54 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Another Chron op-ed proves erroneous
On October 17, 2004, the Chronicle ran an op-ed by Glen Harold Stassen and Gary Krane entitled "Why abortion rate is up in Bush years."
The message was that the Bush Administration's economic policies had produced a surge in abortions. Here's a taste of the article:
Under Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.
For anyone familiar with why most women have abortions, this is no surprise:
Two-thirds of women who have abortions cite "inability to afford a child" as their primary reason (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life). In the Bush presidency, unemployment rates increased half again. Not since Herbert Hoover had there been a net loss of jobs during a presidency until the current administration. Average real incomes decreased, and for seven years the minimum wage has not been raised to match inflation. With less income, many prospective mothers fear another mouth to feed.
[snip]
What does this tell us? Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, insurance, jobs, child care and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need a president who will do something about jobs, health insurance and support for mothers.
The message, no doubt, resonated with what certain pro-abortion, pro-leftover Chron editorialists "knew" to be true.
As it turns out, however, Stassen's methodology was flawed, his assumptions about the universe of data were too broad, and his conclusions were erroneous:
The fact is abortions have continued to decline since Bush took office, the Alan Guttmacher Institute reported May 19. According to its estimates based on a new study, AGI said abortions decreased by about 10,000 from 2000 to 2001 and by about another 10,000 in 2002. The rate declined from 21.3 abortions per 1,000 women in 2000 to 21.1 the next year and 20.9 in 2002.
The AGI report was based on an analysis of information from 43 states, while Stassen’s conclusion was derived from a study of 16 states. AGI acknowledged the rate of decline in abortions has slowed since the early 1990s.
AGI does not provide cover for the pro-life movement, either. AGI began as a division of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and was named after a one-time PPFA president. It became independent in 1977 but remains a special affiliate of PPFA, the country’s leading operator of abortion clinics.
When Stassen made his claim in a column in October, researchers for the National Right to Life Committee described his findings as “mistaken and misleading.” They also pointed out Stassen did not disclose he signed “A Call to Concern,” a 1977 statement that supported the Roe v. Wade opinion legalizing abortion.
Stassen, who characterizes himself as “consistently pro-life,” continued in his May 25 statement to contend Bush’s economic policies have caused the decline in abortions to stall. Those policies have undermined financial support for mothers, increased male unemployment and enlarged the number of Americans without health insurance, Stassen said.
Stassen seems not as consistently pro-life as he has made himself out to be, and seems to have other bones to pick with the Bush Administration. Whatever the case, his editorial that appeared in the Chronicle in 2004 was wrong. The Chronicle editorial board sure has been picking 'em lately.
RELATED: The biography of a bad statistic (FactCheck.org), Hillary And Dean's abortion numbers don't add up (TheFactIs.org), The demise of an abortion canard (No Left Turns).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/05 10:27 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Richard Justice gets blog-serious
The Dallas Morning News posted a story about it on their site (since updated).
Around noon, Chronicle columnist and sports blogger Richard Justice posted that he doesn't think it's going to happen.
Also, Justice and blogger Tom Kirkendall have engaged in a cross-blog conversation on the Astros' run-scoring woes that is well worth reading.
THAT is my idea of the newspaper of the future in action. Newspaper on dead tree just can't keep up and doesn't have the space to be as interesting on such topics.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/05 05:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
City controller announces audit of SAFEclear
City Controller Annise Parker has announced an audit of the SAFEclear program:
“I had planned on waiting to begin our audit until Safe Clear had been in existence for a little longer, but there are just too many questions about the true cost of the program,” said Controller Parker. “I have heard reports of wrecker drivers not getting paid. I have also listened to frustrated council members who have been unsuccessful in obtaining financial information about the program. They want answers.”
Auditors will review revenues and expenses to determine the cost of the program from its inception through May 31, 2005. A complete performance audit is planned for the future.
Initially, Safe Clear was supposed to be revenue neutral or possibly even make a little money for the city. Due to numerous revisions since implementation, it is now unclear how much the program will cost. In April, a mayor's representative placed the annual cost on the high end of a range of $600,000 to $900,000, with about $450,000 of the funding coming from the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Recently there have been estimates that place the cost at a million dollars or more.
Since the city took in roughly a million dollars in fees from tow truck companies for the program, it sounds like it's finally almost revenue neutral (instead of a revenue stream for the city). Still, the more scrutiny the city controller would like to give the program, the better. We're sure Mayor White and his council will agree that transparency in government is a very good thing.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE (06-03-2005): Doug Miller (KHOU-11), Miya Shay (KTRK-13).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/05 03:55 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Bernhardt regains home, cash settlement
According to a KHOU-11 report, Pam Bernhardt, the woman who lost her home in a suspicious "foreclosure" involving a homeowner's association, has gotten her property back:
About a month ago, Pam Bernhardt said she learned that her home, which she had rented to someone else, had been sold during a foreclosure auction. She found out when someone slipped a notice under the door of the house where she lives.
The Briar-Hills Homeowner's Association had foreclosed on the property back in September, saying Bernhardt had not paid $425 in association dues. She says she was never told her dues were late.
Her attorney says the agreement will allow her to keep the $275,000 house on Forest Home at Swallowfield in southwest Houston.
In an interview with KTRH-740's Chris Baker earlier, Bernhardt stated that she had obtained her home and a cash settlement, as apparently the parties who took her home from her wanted to avoid court proceedings. That's a pretty good sign they didn't have a legal leg to stand on, and knew it.
PREVIOUSLY: Homeowners associations make themselves look bad, More seamy details in home foreclosure story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/05 03:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 June 2005
Chron corrects Memorial Day weekend op-ed
The Chronicle has posted a lengthy correction to that erroneous op-ed that ran on Sunday.
I'm reproducing it in its entirety below, so that it won't scroll away behind some firewall at some point.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 11:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Crime lab investigator moves to next phase
KUHF-88.7's Jack Williams reports that yesterday's revelation that the HPD crime lab faked some test results may only be a precursor of more bad news to come later this summer:
The man in charge of investigating the Houston Police Department's Crime Lab says a new phase of his probe later this summer could uncover even more trouble, beyond his early finding that lab workers faked test results.
Independent investigator Michael Bromwich has been on the job for the past eight weeks and says the next phase of his investigation will begin in early July and include more in depth reviews of cases that involved forensic testing.
[snip]
One of the labworkers who was found to have fabricated test results has left the department. The other one still works in the lab under tighter supervision.
Isn't it reassuring to know that a crime-lab worker can fabricate test results that potentially are about life and death, and still remain employed by the City of Houston, no doubt accruing generous pension benefits?
The Brown/Bradford legacy continues to grow.
UPDATE (06-02-2005): The Chronicle runs additional coverage from Steve McVicker.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 11:19 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Beware the bold, bald office burglar
KHOU-11's Jeff McShan warns of a bold, bald burglar who has been hitting downtown and Greenway high-rise offices:
One man has been busy stealing from employees in downtown Houston and Greenway Plaza. Authorities say he goes into offices and takes valuables in purses and wallets. According to Houston's Downtown Business District, 143,318 people work downtown, but the statistics probably don't include one man.
Police say that since at least December, a well-dressed man with a bald head has been walking through the front doors of office buildings, taking the elevators up and burglarizing the desks of employees.
With a calm, cool demeanor he walked into 1111 Bagby Tuesday and also into a building in the 1300 block of Fannin.
Most of the time he leaves with valuables found in purses and wallets left in cubicles, while the workers are away.
In less than a week, he made two appearances at one building.
A surveillance camera caught the bald, well-dressed man as he left the building.
Not only has he been spotted downtown, but also at Greenway Plaza. Last Wednesday he was spotted on one of the upper floors of a building. He walked into a small law firm, told a receptionist he was looking for a lawyer named Ross and allegedly stole someone's wallet.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 11:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Undocumented immigrants?
KTRK-13 reports on an apparent human smuggling/dumping in West University:
Residents in West University witnessed a chaotic and unsettling scene as close to 100 undocumented immigrants were released in their neighborhood.
It happened just after 4:30pm Tuesday. Police say a U-Haul truck pulled up to the intersection of Cason and Wakeforest and unloaded the undocumented immigrants.
When did the term "undocumented immigrants" displace "illegal aliens" in popular writing?
That's not especially a new question, but if anyone can point to exactly when the switch took place, I'd appreciate it.
UPDATE: The Chronicle story refers to "illegal immigrants."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 11:00 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)
Wanted (still): Streamed editorial board meetings
The Chronicle runs two staff editorials today that refer to secret conversations with the editorial board.
There's an overreaching rant about those evil Republicans in Austin that contains this tidbit:
When he visited the Houston Chronicle in April, Gov. Rick Perry told the editorial board that he thought the legislative session was going very well, so smoothly that it was almost boring.
How would we know?
And there's another rant about those evil Republicans in Washington that contains this tidbit:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who served seven years on the ethics committee, told the Chronicle editorial board that Hastings' actions undermine the committee's impartiality and its ability to police the conduct of House members. She says Republicans are still trying to get even for the three ethics citations issued by the committee against DeLay last year.
When? Transcript?
We've seen enough mistakes on the editorial page not to trust everything we see printed (or the agenda of some of the editorialists), and we really don't need the Chron editorialists of all people to filter discussions for us so they can tell us what to think.
These secretive meetings with political leaders are simply archaic. As we suggested at the start of the year, it's time for editorial board meetings with important figures to be recorded and the audio/video to be placed online. Chron partner KHOU-11 ought to be more than willing to assist in such an important public service.
If anyone at the Chronicle would like me to give someone over at KHOU a ring to try to facilitate this, please drop me an email. I know the editorial board stays very busy conjuring up new treaties, LiveJournaling about cabaret singers, and protecting leftovers, so I'd be happy to devote a little time and effort to this particular cause if it would help.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 10:26 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron columnist embraces gossip, innuendo
The latest piece from Chronicle metro/state columnist Rick Casey contains this stellar bit of work:
Unfortunately, I was unable to reach Jefferson on Tuesday, partly because by the time Keel and Ellis told at length their very divergent stories, the Supreme Court switchboard was closed.So I don't know whether Jefferson, who presides over a corps of state appeals and district judges who haven't seen a pay raise in six years, threatened anyone.
Casey doesn't know, but why not print it anyway?
Just in case.
It's sloppy journalism for Rick Casey to call a state office after hours to try and get a quote from the person he's preparing to write about, find that nobody answers, and then print that he was "unable to reach" the person he was trying to call (or worse, that the person didn't return his calls, which he's also done before). It's not like he's a news columnist about to be scooped; he's an opinion columnist, and nobody else in town was going to beat him to this sort of story (replete with a cheap slam on Harris County DA and Chron "bad guy" Chuck Rosenthal). Furthermore, his column runs three times per week. Had he really wanted to do a decent column and get a response before smearing a man with innuendo, he could have done so.
Since it's not the first time Casey has played the "unable to get a quote" card without consequence (even taking another journalist's words without proper attribution took place once without consequence!), one can only presume that Casey either has no editorial supervision or that his noxious approach to journalism is exactly what Jeff Cohen wants. In either case, it really detracts from a metro/state section that has some good reporters, and seems to be improving little by little.
There's additional stellar reporting:
A friend who is the top assistant prosecutor to a district attorney was grumbling on the phone because he can't get a raise for the simple reason that his boss believes she should make more than he does.
His boss, like Keel a conservative Republican, could be heard in the background saying, "Keel? That sorry son of a (bleep) is a (bleep bleep)!"
Gossip, innuendo, and unsourced allegations are the standards set by the featured metro/state columnist of the Chronicle these days?
Every person of integrity who works at the newspaper ought to be embarrassed by it. I'll be embarrassed for some of them, since the practice is apparently endorsed by the Big Bosses at the Chronicle (and I do sympathize with the need to pay the car note and such).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 09:57 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Heading out
Now that Kevin's back, it's my turn to disappear. I am off to Philadelphia and will return in a few days.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/01/05 04:37 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (4)
National Trails Day is this Saturday
This Saturday (June 4) is National Trails Day and there are several events scheduled for the Houston area.
Chris McNeil of REI sent the following information:
The Texas Forest Service and Houston Wilderness are going to be organizing a trail rehabilitation and clean-up in the Jones State Forest in Montgomery County- potential volunteers ought to call the Forest Service at 936/273-2261.
Also, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership will have Gene Green and Bill White cut the ribbon to the new East End trail that morning at 10:30 am, at the bayou off of Jensen, and a community festival will follow.
There will also be a big event out at Terry Hershey Park in the Energy Corridor that I'm helping to organize with REI and the County. We'll be planting 50 trees along the hike and bike trail along the western end of Buffalo Bayou. This is a work project, so volunteers ought to bring work gloves, but we'll provide the tools and the trees. Anyone who wants to learn more should contact me at REI: 713-353-2582.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/01/05 09:08 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Report details more problems with HPD crime lab
The Chronicle's Roma Khanna and Steve McVicker report on the latest damning revelations about the HPD crime lab:
Houston Police Department crime lab analysts fabricated findings in at least four drug cases, an independent investigator reported Tuesday, including one in which a scientist performed no tests before issuing conclusions that supported a police officer's suspicions.
[snip]
The report, released Tuesday, also casts doubt, for the first time, on the laboratory's largest division, controlled substances, which tests substances suspected of being drugs and performs about 75 percent of HPD's forensics work. The latest problems bring to five the number of crime lab disciplines where errors have been exposed — including DNA, toxicology, ballistics and the blood-typing science of serology.
" 'Drylabbing' is the most egregious form of scientific misconduct that can occur in a forensic laboratory," Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department official leading an investigation of the HPD lab, wrote in the report.
"In the crime lab, the instances of drylabbing took the form of controlled substances analysts creating false documentation intended to reflect analytical procedures that were never performed."
Investigators reported finding four instances between 1998 and 2000 in which two analysts, whom they do not name, issued findings for tests they never conducted.
In each case, the analysts' supervisors caught the misrepresentations before the evidence could be introduced in court.
The supervisory structure of the crime lab is criticized in the report:
The report cited the absence of strong leadership and quality-control procedures as major reasons for DNA lab problems. Analysts in the crime lab complained to then-Police Chief C.O. Bradford about the lack of supervision as early as 1999, according to documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle in June 2003.
The legacy of Lee P. Brown and Clarence Bradford just keeps growing.
RELATED COVERAGE: Associated Press.
UPDATE (06-01-2005): KHOU-11 helpfully posts pdf files of the actual report. Additional documentation is located at the official investigator's site.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 06:28 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
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