30 November 2005
SEIU wins over janitors, sets sights on city employees
The city's local media have engaged in a fair amount of cheerleading over the fact that the Service Employee's International Union will be moving into Houston in order to better the lives of janitors citywide through the power of the union.
KHOU-11's Jason Whitely cuts through the proletarian celebration and reports on SEIU's bigger goal:
SEIU said it's already working to recruit thousands of other Houstonians. It has its sights set on the city next. SEIU told KHOU it is looking to recruit the 14,000 municipal employees.
"It's a hope for all workers here that if the janitors can do it other workers can do it as well," Weintraub said.
If you think the city is working well now, just wait until it's an SEIU shop!
In an important column from a couple of weeks ago, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack reported that SEIU has taken a keen interest in the City Council At-Large Position 2 race, heavily (and possibly illegally) backing Sue Lovell, who faces Jay Aiyer in a runoff:
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) contributed $10,000 to Lovell's campaign and sent three mailings on her behalf. Aiyer said the mailings and automated phone calls by SEIU violate a city ordinance prohibiting "coordinated campaign expenditures" — direct work on behalf of a candidate by an organization whose expenditures aren't listed on the candidate's campaign finance reports.
Lovell's campaign didn't send any direct mail and she said it was not expecting SEIU to send mailings on her behalf.
"We were just as surprised as anyone else," she said. [Sure! -editor] "They wrote a check for $10,000 and that was the last communication we had."
SEIU, the nation's second-largest union, is battling the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to organize city workers. Aiyer's campaign says SEIU's effort fits its national pattern of trying to gain a foothold in local government.
"No one entity should be able to influence the outcome of a race like that," Aiyer said. "They effectively were trying to buy a council seat. It allowed her to use her resources in other places."
It is rather surprising that the Chronicle editorial board, which has been highly vocal about money and politics when Republicans are involved, has had so little to say about SEIU's apparent efforts to skirt the city's campaign finance laws and swing a municipal election.
RELATED: ORGANIZED LABOR / Union has sights set on Houston / SEIU pumps resources, efforts into organizing (L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle)
UPDATE: L.M. Sixel notes the coming battle between unions over city employees in an article today:
The janitors need a union, said Richard Shaw, secretary-treasurer of the Harris County AFL-CIO. But he said SEIU, which left the federation in July along with three other unions, is betraying the labor federation in its efforts to recruit city government workers who have long been represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 11:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Law enforcement links MS-13 to organized crime in Houston
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg and KHOU-11's Amy Tortolani seem to have attended the same briefing on shoplifing and MS-13.
Here's an excerpt from Oberg's reporting:
Organized crime is active in Houston and police say the crooks are everywhere. They're ripping off stores, driving up prices and then selling the loot right back to the victims -- with the profits paying the bills for groups like the violent gang MS 13.
It's shoplifting, but on a scale never before seen here. Police say the scheme costs Houston businesses a million dollars every month. It is a problem so widespread that law enforcement is at times helpless to stop it. A million dollars a month in Houston means $30 billion a year nationwide. Chances are it's going on right now and costing you money every time you buy over the counter drugs.
[snip]
We're told the thieves work six days a week. They told cops they take Sundays off for religious reasons. Go figure.
[snip]
Detectives tell us there is little, if any, risk to the public. The crime rings apparently don't tamper with the medications at all. This is a money maker for the crime rings, and tampered products can't be sold.
Here's an excerpt from Tortolani's reporting:
Shoplifting may seem like a relatively small crime, but Houston authorities say the gang of shoplifters they've arrested had links to organized crime and possibly even terrorists.
[snip]
"Nationwide criminal enterprise operates with Houston as hub," said Sgt. Johnnie Jezierski with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
[snip]
Investigators say those captured admit ties to notorious gangs.
"We know because of the interviews with some of these people, pressure put on them by MS13 members to go out and commit these offenses," said Detective Frazee. "And, according to what they told us, part of the money they make is funneled into MS13 area."
[snip]
We contacted the FBI about these crimes and local agents tell us they are aware of the ties to MS13 but can't comment on any ties to terrorism.
HPD doesn't much like to talk about MS-13, and it's not clear from the reporting if HPD was part of this briefing. It does seem clear that other law-enforcement agencies believe MS-13 is operating an organized crime ring in our city, however.
UPDATE (12-01-2005): KPRC-2 covered the apparent briefing also.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 10:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Council tables latest MediaSource vote
KHOU-11's Carolyn Campbell reports that Council today tabled a vote on a new contract for MediaSource, the controversial custodian of the public access cable channel.
The contract apparently will impose (minimal) new screening requirements on the entity:
On Wednesday, the Houston City Council tabled a vote on new regulations for the city’s public access channel.
...Mayor Bill White asked City Council on Wednesday to consider a revamped contract that will require MediaSource staffers to review any potentially obscene or indecent shows before they air.
MediaSource has operated the channel since the mid-1980s, some of its board members have questioned whether pre-screening programs amount to a violation of First Amendment rights.
Under the mayor’s proposed plan, MediaSource staffers could ask a judge to decide if a program meets the often elusive definition of obscenity.
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported on the proposed requirements this morning:
The proposed contract, which city officials released late Tuesday, would require Houston MediaSource staffers to watch potentially obscene or indecent shows before they air....
[snip]
The plan calls for MediaSource staffers to ask a judge to determine whether a questionable program meets the hazy legal definition of obscenity — a method city lawyers don't think violates the rights of those who produce the channel's programs.
Channel officials previously have resisted prescreening of programs and restrictions on those with controversial content for fear of encouraging First Amendment lawsuits.
"The concept of prior constraint is something we're trying to grapple with," said City Attorney Arturo Michel.
As we've suggested previously, the notion that the city cannot set guidelines for programming appearing on a public access channel because of "prior restraint" concerns is really stretching First Amendment theory to its limits.
Still, a better proposal might simply be to require ALL programs to be pre-screened, and to be labeled with ratings and content warnings, not unlike commercial television programs. Require content of certain ratings to be shown only during certain hours, and the problem is solved.
Mayor White and his new MediaSource board should hire us as (expensive) consultants!
Speaking of the MediaSource board, this little snippet from the Chronicle story caught us by surprise:
MediaSource board member Garth Jowett said the proposed plan likely would pass legal muster, but he thinks that a producer might intentionally test the rules out of principle.
He said the contract is a "compromise that will please people who are concerned that Houston MediaSource hasn't had the proper oversight," said Jowett, who resigned as chairman recently after a confrontation with a White appointee on the board.
First, what principle would be served by a producer intentionally violating the minimal rules that are being proposed? The principle of getting the channel shut down for good?
Second, why exactly did Jowett step down, and why wasn't this reported anywhere? That could be juicy enough to require the services of a gossip columnist!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 10:34 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
Mayor comments on HPD's manpower problems
Nothing causes the White Administration to swing into action like negative reporting, and so several media reports on HPD's worsening manpower woes and four hours of criticism from Chris Baker yesterday in response to Chief Hurtt's "solution" to the problem was sure to provoke a rapid response. The mayor's communications team certainly had to be pleased with KPRC-2's coverage:
The Houston mayor's office fought back Wednesday against charges that a staffing shortage at the Houston Police Department has resulted in crime victims waiting hours for help.
The Houston Police Officer's Union said Tuesday that for lower-priority calls in October, some crime victims waited up to 12 hours and 39 minutes for an officer to arrive.
The mayor's office and the union agree that response times are good for Priority 1 calls, which are the highest-level calls for violent crimes in progress.
But they disagree over the response times for the lower-priority calls.
City leaders said they are also concerned over reports of slow police response times.
But Mayor Bill White referred to a report compiled by the FBI that ranked HPD as No. 1 with a response time of less than five minutes for Priority 1 calls.
"I think there's no crisis citywide, although there's some real problems in certain neighborhoods that we're having in crime," White said.
What was that we were saying about gaseous emissions from downtown pols just a few days ago?
Mayor White's proposal doesn't sound bad, at least for something that seemingly was crafted overnight:
The mayor proposed several changes that could put more Houston police on the street, including moving up cadet classes, and reassigning officers who work in low-crime areas to high-crime neighborhoods.
The mayor also proposed recruiting retired officers to help fill in the gaps. But that idea was shot down by the union.
"If it's merely a support position, then that doesn't give me too much heartburn. But I'm going to have to see details," said Hans Marticiuc, with the police union.
Marticiuc said the city should focus on hiring new officers instead of recruiting retirees.
"At some point, the city is going to have to face the fact that in order to provide the necessary public safety that I think everyone wants and needs, it's going to cost a little bit of money," he said.
All solutions need to be on the table, and city leaders should have been thinking about this problem years ago. Still, it's good that the local media and Mayor White are beginning to think about it more seriously now.
RELATED: HPD considers rehiring retirees to ease staff shortage (KHOU-11).
ARCHIVES: HPD's manpower shortage.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/05 09:55 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Rick Casey: telephone-challenged AND school voucher-supporter?
The New York Times has had an ongoing problem with its star columnists either getting their facts wrong or making up facts out of thin air, and then refusing to issue corrections.
The Chronicle's Rick Casey (whom Kevin affectionately calls a "gossip columnist") often seems to be striving for New York Times columnist-status, and continues with today's column. The last paragraph is especially egregious:
Though HISD forwarded its investigative report to the DA's office, I suspect it informally agreed not to press the case in exchange for the resignation and compensation.
Casey is referring to the Margaret Stroud case.
That is a very serious charge Casey is leveling at HISD. Does Casey have ANYTHING to back it up? Did Casey or his research assistant call anyone to check out his suspicion? (Here's the contact information for HISD's press office, in case Casey and his assistant couldn't find it.) If Casey did talk to someone at HISD, did he confirm his suspicion?
Or does Casey just assume the worst about HISD, kinda like the rest of the Chronicle's leadership and staff? Will Casey issue a correction? Not that it matters -- Chronicle corrections are buried so deep an undertaker would have trouble finding them.
HISD has been open and transparent about the Stroud case, and in contrast to how public school scandals are often handled, Dr. Saavedra's actions against Stroud were swift and firm. What Casey does do in this column is echo the Chronicle's editorial board members, who think Dr. Saavedra was too lenient with Stroud.
All this venom toward HISD makes me wonder if the Chronicle folks are secretly in favor of school vouchers. What else can explain the paper's determined campaign always to cast the district in the worst light and turn the parents of HISD students against the district?
RELATED: Rick Casey: Plagiarist, Poor Journalist, Or What? (Kevin Whited, PubliusTX)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/30/05 10:25 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
29 November 2005
When definitions are inconvenient, change them
The Chronicle business section picked up an LA Times story on the sorts of raises workers might expect next year.
The following line made it into the story:
The salary increases reflect a continuing push by corporations to control costs after the reversals many experienced during the 2001 recession, said Charles Peck, a compensation specialist at the Conference Board, a New York business research organization.
For many years, economists commonly defined a recession in terms of two or more consecutive quarters of declining GDP. By that standard, there was no recession in 2001.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 10:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Houston ranks 53rd in "literacy" study
The Houston Business Journal reports that Houston didn't rank very highly in a study designed to measure overall literacy:
A national study has placed Houston 53rd out of a total of 69 cities in a ranking of "America's Most Literate Cities."
The study released by Central Connecticut State University develops a statistical profile of 69 cities with populations of 250,000 or more. This is the third year of the study, and introduces a new factor -- Internet literacy -- to measure the expansion of literacy to online media.
[snip]
Other Texas cities on the list include Austin (16), Dallas-Fort Worth (44), Arlington (57), San Antonio (64) and Corpus Christi (67).
[snip]
The 2005 edition of the study ranks cities based on six key indicators of literacy: Newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
Dallas-Fort Worth isn't really a "city" but I guess we can let that slide. Much like the variables in the "Fattest City" rankings measured something other than fat, the variables in this study may not be the best surrogate measures of "literacy."
Still, we post, you decide.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 09:53 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (6)
Public Works: You citizens should be more insistent we fix things!
KHOU-11's Carolyn Campbell reports on a problem with Houston Public Works:
He warned them. A Houston man said he called the city to tell them about a destructive problem, but believes his words fell on deaf ears.
The pressure was so strong it broke the back windshield of Bothe's Mercedes.
Jason Bothe's car was not in a flood, but it certainly looks like it was.
"Even the windows, you couldn't see anything. It was just a wall of water," he said.
Jason Bothe thought there might be trouble when he spotted a water main leak Monday afternoon. So he called the city.
"They said, "Well it's a minor, it would take up to 72 hours to respond,' is what they said. It went on through the night. No one showed up to do anything. And this morning I woke up to do breakfast and it's Niagara Falls outside," Bothe said.
Houston Public Works seems to be responding about as well as HPD, although at least HPD has the excuse of being undermanned.
Unfortunately, the following attitude is becoming more prevalent in the city government headed by Mayor White:
"We always get the bum rap," a Public Works employee said.
But this time it wasn't the city's fault. A private contractor said it was tapping into the city water line for new townhouses.
However, Public Works spokesperson Wes Johnson said the city is responsible for shutting off the water if there's a problem. But that's not simple either.
"We get anywhere between 50 and 60 water main break calls every single day," Johnson said. "If the response you're getting is not satisfactory, ask for a supervisor."
Here's a novel thought for Mr. Johnson -- perhaps the city needs to be more responsive to citizens, and he needs to take steps to ensure that his department will be more responsive in the future!
Mayor White's department heads -- Johnson and Chief Hurtt -- need to stop trying to pass the buck, and stand up and be accountable (or be replaced). For that matter, Mayor White is always talking about running the city like a business. This doesn't seem very businesslike.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 09:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Continuing the discussion of HPD's woes
Chris Baker (KTRH-740) is asking listeners, "How safe do you feel?," as he discusses the state of HPD and Houston crime. (Here's the link to Kevin's excellent post from last night.)
He also wonders why the city won't do anything about graffiti, another topic that bH has covered, since graffiti is symptomatic of gang activity, and gang activity breeds crime.
Also, Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, is publicly criticizing HPD Chief Hurtt:
Hans Marticiuc, President of the Houston Police Officers' Union, analyzed data from a sampling of police districts and charged that some citizens telephoning in emergency calls for, even the most violent of crimes, had to wait hours before an officer was even dispatched to help.
“And these calls ranged from burglaries, burglaries of motor vehicles, shootings, robberies, robberies with weapons, sexual assaults, assaults, disturbances,” Marticiuc said.
The police union president had harsh words for Chief Harold Hurtt, whom he implies is incapable of leading the city's police force.“If this is the best police chief in the country, then I think the country may be in trouble,” Marticiuc said.
According to Marticiuc, during a heated discussion with the police chief, there was some mention that Chief Hurtt might lose his job over the data.
Marticiuc forwarded his data to Houston City Council members who are expected to raise questions at Tuesday afternoon's City Council meeting.
Marticiuc said the city should immediately increase police presence by instituting and overtime program similar to the plan introduced in the 1990s by former Mayor Bob Lanier.
To date, the most lip service MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have given to HPD's manpower shortage is to say that the city's new red light cameras will free HPD officers from traffic duty.
So, as Chris Baker asks, are Mayor White and Chief Hurtt fufilling the oaths they took?
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I heard an ad on KTRH that KTRK-13 will be running a story on HPD's manpower woes on the 6 pm broadcast.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS MORE: KHOU's Janice Williamson has a story tonight on MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's ridiculous "response" to the murder wave:
In the past three months, half the homicides in Houston took place in apartment complexes.
That has Chief Hurtt calling for change. "You know, you get in and you talk to the residents, you talk to management and you encourage people to get to know their neighbors to get to know who belongs in the area," he said.
Chief Hurtt also wants to force apartments that have too many calls, to hire their own security.
[snip]
Chief Hurtt is to meet with Mayor Bill White Wednesday
An ordinance requiring apartments to have extra security could be on the City Council agenda within the next couple of weeks.
That is absurd. It's bad enough that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are not doing their jobs. Council must stop rolling over for them, and insist they deal with HPD's manpower problem.
KPRC-2 also decided to report on the manpower shortage tonight:
"How many of those murders, before they ended up being a murder, was called in as a disturbance that we didn't show up at?" said Hans Marticiuc, with the Houston Police Officer's Union.
Marticiuc said the department is incapable of providing basic police services.
To back up the claim, the union analyzed police calls for the month of October in three high-crime districts. The analysis found that in over 500 calls for service, victims waited up to 12 hours and 39 minutes before dispatchers sent a patrol car. It took 8 hours and 29 minutes for an officer to be dispatched to a robbery, and a sex assault victim waited 5 hours and 23 minutes for an investigator to arrive.
The union puts the blame on HPD Chief Harold Hurtt.
"That is simply unacceptable," Marticiuc said.
Hurtt has not yet responded.
But the union took its complaints to Houston City Hall and to Mayor Bill White.
"This issue of people holding calls from intake and dispatch -- that's an issue that I think is a serious issue that I haven't quite got the right answer yet about what is going on there," White said.
Hasn't "quite got the right answer?!" MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have done their very best to ignore HPD's manpower shortage, and unfortunately the City Council and the city's media have mostly let them get away with it.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/29/05 03:42 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (5)
Metro's world-class fare collection system
The farebox on the 9 bus this morning (#3331) was broken and covered up with a world-class plastic bag.
I see this at least twice a week. Roughly, that's a 10% failure rate.
I was shocked to see a Barneyfife on the platform at the Downtown Transit Center, but he was doing his best to keep warm, not to check fares.
Since it's the Christmas season, Metro should use festive gift bags to cover the boxes when they aren't working.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/29/05 12:15 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Hatfield to step down as Rice football coach? (updated)
KRIV-26 reported last night that Ken Hatfield would be announcing he is stepping down at Rice.
The Chronicle's Moisekapenda Bower reports that a press conference has been scheduled for 11 am. Beyond that, the column is mostly useless speculation:
According to sources, Hatfield orchestrated the news conference on his own and without input from his superiors, fueling speculation he will not resign despite steering the Owls to their worst season since 1988.
[snip]
Hatfield could return with his staff intact, but that scenario would seem improbable considering the Owls have suffered through seven losing seasons since 1998.
Hatfield, initially viewed as an ideal fit for Rice after leading the Owls to a share of the 1994 Southwest Conference title in his first season, has drawn the ire of alumni and supporters.
Many cite his age (62), antiquated option offense and ineffective defense as reasons why Hatfield should resign or be fired.
Maybe Bower should have called KRIV for a quote?
We'll find out if Mark Berman's sports department scooped everyone again in a half-hour or so.
UPDATE: Berman's station swings...
Rice coach Ken Hatfield said Tuesday he was looking forward to next year's opening game against UCLA, denying a local television report that he would resign as head coach.
"I think we're set to have a good football team. I feel good about the youth," Hatfield told a news conference Tuesday. "We'll see where we go from here."
and misses!
UPDATE 2: Bower posted an update following Hatfield's press conference that sounds a little more certain than the earlier Chronicle reporting:
[S]ources indicated that Hatfield is in negotiations regarding a buyout of the five years remaining on his contract. While Hatfield, 55-78-1 at Rice, gave every indication that he will return, it is highly probable that he will resign sometime this week.
Here are two paragraphs that illustrate the ongoing problems at the Chronicle:
But after stating that nothing would change, not his coaches nor his schemes, Hatfield became belligerent and confrontational when asked by a reporter if maintaining a status quo would benefit Rice football.
"Yes I do," Hatfield snapped. "(I base that on) my experience in coaching for 40 years.
The paragraph that frames the Hatfield quote is nonsensical. Imagine this question, as Bower framed it: "Will maintaining a status quo benefit Rice football?" "Yes I do," Hatfield snapped?!
Somebody really needs to read these things before they go to print. If Bower wrote that, then an editor should have caught it. If an editor changed it, that's worse. In any case, it only illustrates the Chronicle's ongoing problem with basic editing.
UPDATE (11-30-2005): Now Bower reports that Hatfield is definitely stepping down:
Less than 12 hours after defiantly saying he and his staff would return for a 13th season on South Main, Ken Hatfield resigned as Rice football coach Tuesday night.
According to several sources, Hatfield and school officials have only the details of the agreement to complete. Hatfield had five years remaining on his contract, with the buyout for his dismissal worth roughly $1.7 million. An official announcement is pending.
It looks as if Berman's station scooped everyone after all. Never doubt Berman.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/29/05 10:30 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
28 November 2005
Murders skyrocket; HPD Chief says good luck protecting yourselves!
The Chronicle's Mike Glenn reports that the city's homicide rate has exceeded last year's after a deadly Thanksgiving weekend:
Houston had 274 homicides in 2004 and the killings during the four-day holiday weekend brought the figure for this year to 285.
[snip]
Detectives acknowledged that the number of cases they investigated during the four-day period seemed high, but police officials on Sunday could not say whether the figures amount to a dramatic increase from the same period last year.
Why not?
KHOU-11's Amy Tortolani fares a little better:
Houston police said they had 14 homicides to work over the holiday weekend. But is this a true indicator of the city's crime situation?
According to investigators, it was a record number of murders for the city.So far there have been 285 murder victims in Houston this year. That number is 11 greater than the 274 victims in 2004, and there is still one month left in 2005.
Houston police have no explanation for the increase in murders.
Psst... HPD's manpower shortage perhaps? (Mayor White and his Council would prefer the city's journalists not bring up their inadequate response to that ongoing problem).
Chief Hurtt has this useful advice:
"Not only are we going to be doing it from a police department standpoint, I've also been talking to community groups about them becoming more active in crime prevention, protecting their own property as well as looking out for their neighbors," said Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.
Translation: HPD is so short on manpower that it can't provide for the public safety as it has in the past. Good luck everyone!
UPDATE (11-29-2005): In the 10 pm broadcast, KHOU's Jeff McShan addressed HPD's manpower shortage:
Houston just set a record for holiday weekend murders and many want to know why.
Both the police chief and the mayor said they did not think hurricane evacuees factored into the crime numbers
When you call HPD, your calls go to Houston's Emergency Center (HEC).
But before they're dispatched to an actual officer who's working the streets there has to be one available. More often than you may realize, locating someone may take several hours.
This is true especially if you live on the city's west or southwest side.
"Anybody who either lives, shops or works west of the Galleria should really be concerned about this because this side of town is significantly undermanned," said Mike Cummings, Public Safety Director for the Westchase Business District. He is also a former HPD officer.
Now he hires off-duty HPD officers to patrol the 80 businesses in his business district, just to keep them safe.
Cummings spent hours going through public records and putting together a detailed report that shows the lack of police presence citywide.
"I looked at everything throughout the city and basically was able to determine, using several models, that the west side of town is significantly undermanned," Cummings said.
Cummings says to properly patrol the Westside District the department would need 506 officers. Right now they have just 403.
He also looked at numbers when it comes to violent crime.
"Based on the different studies that I did, just using the Westside Patrol area, it is anywhere from 70 to 113 officers down))
His report also shows that the Fondren and Southeast substations are severely short staffed.
A few months ago HPD Union president Hans Marticiuc told 11 News the staffing issue hinders officers' ability to fight crime.
"We're getting calls all the time. We've got officers working in districts by themselves. Sometimes roll calls are just two or three people for the entire roll call," he said.
Mayor White engages in spin at the end of the story, but the fact is that his administration's response to the manpower shortage has been inadequate, and that he's simply had other priorities.
UPDATE 2 (11-29-2005): The Chronicle now says the murder spree wasn't a record:
The weekend slayings, while by far outnumbering those of the past five years, are not the most ever in the city's history. On a single weekend in June 1981, from Friday evening to Sunday night, 21 people were slain in Houston.
Here's Chief Hurtt's proposed solution:
Hurtt said he has talked with Mayor Bill White about adopting an ordinance requiring apartment complexes with high rates of crime to hire security officers.
"We are very much concerned about apartment complexes," Hurtt said. "Anytime you have a large cluster of people living in an area like an apartment complex, there is always the opportunity for conflict, robberies and property crimes."
Frank Michel, the mayor's communication director, confirmed that Hurtt had met with White and discussed the idea of requiring security officers at high-crime complexes.
"The mayor is receptive to that idea," Michel said.
Translation: Good luck protecting yourselves, Houstonians!
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt simply are not serious about HPD's manpower shortage. The problem is not mentioned by the Chronicle. It probably wasn't mentioned in Chief Hurtt's press release or in the conversation with the administration's PR man Frank Michel.
UPDATE 3 (11-29-2005): KTRH-740 posts the following:
Some in the business community say the problem is a police staffing issue. The head of the police union is due at City Hall today to discuss his concern that police academy classes aren't keeping pace with retirements.
Business community? The head of the police union is part of the business community? KHOU (and the bloggers here) are part of the business community? Interesting label.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 10:19 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (6)
Gilley's sign up for grabs on eBay
The Houston Business Journal calls attention to a Pasadena icon that is up for auction on eBay:
The Houston honky-tonk that gained national fame in "Urban Cowboy" is no longer alive and kicking. But the giant sign that drew crowds of kickers to Gilley's is now up for grabs in an online auction.
eBay is taking bids for the Gilley's Club sign, which stands about 30 feet tall and 16 feet wide, and touts the bygone Pasadena night spot's "mixed drinks, beer, wine, Tex-Mex Food, Dining and Dancing."The "Recording Studio" inside Gilley's gets top billing, just below the name of the long-closed and now-demolished establishment that claimed to be the world's largest night club.
Early offers from nostalgic John Travolta and Debra Winger fans who hanker for a memento of Bud and Sissy are circulating faster than line-dancers doing the "Cotton-eyed Joe."
The opening bid was $500 in a 10-day eBay stretch that will end on Nov. 30. And only a day into the bidding, on Nov. 21, the 18th and then-highest offer was $2,750. On Nov. 22 -- with seven days and 22 hours left in the eBay auction -- 30 bids had been made on the Gilley's sign with $6,300 as the one to beat.
The auction ends in a day and a half. As of tonight, the high bid is $10,350.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 10:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Why should City Council legitimize ANY street begging?
Last week, Councilmember Michael Berry solicited input on Houston's street solicitation problem.
Today, KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports further on possible Council action:
At busy intersections, Houston drivers see it all the time -- youngsters raising money for charity.
"Thank you. Have a nice day."
It's a sight so common, sometimes it's scary.
"He's reaching down underneath the car where the money had fallen," said Houston City Councilmember Carol Mims Galloway, who took a photo of a child ducking under a car to grab change.
And then there are incidents like the one in 2004 when a child ended up between the tires of a truck.
"That's when the little boy came up under the truck and he was laying to the ground," said an officer at the scene in southwest Houston.
That child wasn't hurt, but he narrowly escaped death.
Now, Houston is about to change the rules on all of this. If city council approves a proposed ordinance change, nobody under the age of 16 will be allowed to solicit funds on city streets. And anybody between the age of 16 and 18 collecting money on the street would need adequate adult supervision.
Street solicitation ought to be banned outright. Streets are for cars and for driving, not for beggars.
Of course, Council will have to stick with children, since the Houston Chronicle would never stand for a ban on street "vending" -- even though the practice has proven more dangerous to vendors of their product than to children.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 09:49 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
It's always fun when the Chron Editorial LiveJournalists go international
It's always entertaining when the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists offer their thoughts on international politics.
Today's subheadline was particularly fun:
What will Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon do if his new party wins power?
And for good measure, there are these "probing" questions from the Editorial LiveJournalists:
What is Sharon's real purpose? Is it to consolidate other settlements? Or is it to start productive, two-sided peace talks that would include the fate of Israel's settlements on the West Bank?
Talk about completely missing what is going on.
The correct answer is, Sharon is going to do exactly what he's been saying he will do.
Orrin Judd successfully predicted Sharon's gambit back in 2003.
The Telegraph spelled it out clearly yesterday:
Sixty years after the state of Israel was created, Ariel Sharon is effectively drawing its final borders, say his advisers, diplomats, friends … and the cartographers.
They believe that Mr Sharon, who as a general played a leading role in the expansion of Israel's borders in successive wars since 1948, is now - as a politician - determined to set the country's hitherto elastic frontiers in stone.
What is more, judging by his track record and the way public opinion is shifting, there is a real chance that he may succeed.
The Editorial LiveJournalists really need to expand their reading if they are going to continue to write about international politics.
At least they didn't create a new treaty this time.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 08:49 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Attempting to keep the Big Monster at bay
The Woodlands is having to deal with questions of future governance:
Residents were given their first opportunity to comment on options regarding future governance of the master-planned community during four scheduled public meetings.
The options were presented in four main areas: status quo, annexation, incorporation and The Woodlands solution (a possibility that has not been identified). These possibilities were created by the Governance Steering Committee, a group of appointed representatives created to represent The Woodlands stakeholders.
"We primarily want to hear from you," said Peggy Fiandaca, one of the consultants from Partners for Strategic Action Inc., which is working with the GSC.
The four areas were broken down into subsets.
Status quo was broken down to status quo with improvement or special districts, an extension of the agreement with Houston to delay or prohibit annexation, or the current structure with a district-elected community council.
One of the potential negatives of the status quo option is "the state Legislature has tried to limit the power of homeowners associations over the past few sessions and is likely to continue to do so," Fiandaca said.
According to resident surveys, the community is pretty happy with the current structure, she said.
"We're going to have to continue paying the city of Houston off," resident Barry Dean said.
That last quote appears to reference a concern The Woodlands has that the city of Houston will one day try to annex the large, master-planned community. In fact, the Conroe Courier says many Woodlands residents view Houston as the Big Monster, fearing a Houston takeover similar to what happened in Kingwood almost ten years ago.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/28/05 09:05 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (8)
Looking for that elusive balance on Chron's op-ed page
The Chronicle's op-ed page today is sporting this anti-Wal-mart column by a syndicated columnist named Neal Peirce, who appears not to be a fan of Wal-mart.
If the Chronicle really wanted to be "neither liberal nor conservative," it would have also run this pro-Wal-mart column by the Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby:
But let's say we accept Dube's calculation that retail workers take home $4.7 billion less per year because Wal-Mart has busted unions and generally been ruthless. That loss to workers would still be dwarfed by the $50 billion-plus that Wal-Mart consumers save on food, never mind the much larger sums that they save altogether. Indeed, Furman points out that the wage suppression is so small that even its "victims" may be better off. Retail workers may take home less pay, but their purchasing power probably still grows thanks to Wal-Mart's low prices.
[snip]
Wal-Mart's critics also paint the company as a parasite on taxpayers, because 5 percent of its workers are on Medicaid. Actually that's a typical level for large retail firms, and the national average for all firms is 4 percent. Moreover, it's ironic that Wal-Mart's enemies, who are mainly progressives, should even raise this issue. In the 1990s progressives argued loudly for the reform that allowed poor Americans to keep Medicaid benefits even if they had a job. Now that this policy is helping workers at Wal-Mart, progressives shouldn't blame the company. Besides, many progressives favor a national health system. In other words, they attack Wal-Mart for having 5 percent of its workers receive health care courtesy of taxpayers when the policy that they support would increase that share to 100 percent.
Next up, Wal-mart critics will go after JC Penney and Kohl's, and be arguing for NO national healthcare!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/28/05 08:23 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Tow truck takes out cop
KTRK-13 reports that a tow truck took out a police officer earlier:
A Houston police officer on a bicycle is recovering after being hit by a tow truck.
The officer was responding to a call about several pit bulls running loose in the Heights when a wrecker truck backed into her bicycle near 22nd and Durham.
Does Traffic Czar David Saperstein require a special permit (à la SAFEclear) for tow trucks that run over cops, or can any tow truck handle that service?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/28/05 12:35 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 November 2005
Chron pushes death penalty case hard in leadup to Thanksgiving
The anti-death-penalty Chronicle pushed one of its favorite topics hard as Thanksgiving approached.
In a high-profile story, Lise Olsen concluded that an innocent man had been put to death courtesy of the Texas death penalty:
Texas executed its fifth teenage offender at 22 minutes after midnight on Aug. 24, 1993, after his last request for bubble gum had been refused and his final claim of innocence had been forever silenced.
Ruben Cantu, 17 at the time of his crime, had no previous convictions, but a San Antonio prosecutor had branded him a violent thief, gang member and murderer who ruthlessly shot one victim nine times with a rifle before emptying at least nine more rounds into the only eyewitness — a man who barely survived to testify.
Four days after a Bexar County jury delivered its verdict, Cantu wrote this letter to the residents of San Antonio: "My name is Ruben M. Cantu and I am only 18 years old. I got to the 9th grade and I have been framed in a capital murder case."
A dozen years after his execution, a Houston Chronicle investigation suggests that Cantu, a former special-ed student who grew up in a tough neighborhood on the south side of San Antonio, was likely telling the truth.
As Sedosi Alhambra pointed out, the story was decidedly unbalanced:
The story ... is curiously short on the opinions of those with an opposing view. There is, of course, the silly symbolism that the Chron is rapidly becoming known for (Cantu was refused bubble gum, etc.) but very little examination of FACTS in this case.
Most of the reporting is based on opinion and conjecture. You will read a lot of "I think" and "I could see where" etc. It is, of course, inevitable that all of the thinking and seeing leads to opinions that support the notion that Cantu was innocent.
Given the Chronicle's anti-death-penalty perspective and regular instances of the newspaper melding news and opinion, it's difficult to regard such unbalanced, one-sided reporting as definitive. The reporting at best raises questions about the case that should be examined more closely.
Nevertheless, the Chronicle executive editorial leadership apparently does see it as definitive. Here's the conclusion from the anti-death-penalty editorial board several days later:
An investigation of Cantu's conviction by the Chronicle's Lise Olsen provides persuasive evidence that his execution by the state was a mistake.
The reporting doesn't seem that definitive. The Chronicle editorial leadership certainly wants it to be definitive, although the newspaper's perspective on this topic not to mention its melding of news and opinion suggests that study by more objective analysts is merited before final judgment is rendered.
Speaking of the melding of news and opinion, here's the opinion of Rick Casey, the editorialist/gossip columnist who appears on the news pages:
On the rare occasion, and this appears to be one, when very strong new evidence indicates an innocent person may have been executed, an independent court or some other body should determine the outcome.
We agree with Casey in a sense. We don't think of the Chronicle as an especially independent voice on the death penalty. Still, a broken clock is right twice a day. So we'll be awaiting independent confirmation of the perspective presented by Olsen, Casey, and the Chronicle editorial board, and will be happy to revisit the matter if there is such confirmation.
UPDATE: Olsen has some experience elsewhere in death-penalty journalism, and she has also helped out locally with the Chron Eye.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/27/05 11:57 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Thankfully, it's not called a Holiday Tree
Now that we have survived Thanksgiving, it's time to move on:
The Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Celebration
Join Mayor Bill White welcoming the equally honorable Santa Claus to downtown (Where will he park the sleigh?) and the lighting of the official Christmas tree at City Hall.
Traditionally, the plaza is festively decorated and ringed with booths offering refreshments and holiday arts and crafts. Watch our famous skyline come alive with music, lights and fireworks!
City Hall Downtown, December 10th, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
What about Pancho Claus?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/27/05 08:06 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mayor Nagin holds town hall meeting in Houston
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin held a meeting in Houston today with some of his former constituents:
Frustration, doubt and anger greeted New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday as he implored displaced residents from his city to join in the process of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
Nagin, speaking during a town hall meeting at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Houston, asked New Orleans residents to help him in his efforts to bring the city back to life. The meeting was one of several Nagin has had since Katrina hit New Orleans in late August.
"I greet you all in the spirit of unity because if we don't unify, we will never come back to the New Orleans we all want to come back to," he said. "I know there is frustration out there. I can only do so much. I need your help."
Nagin told the more than 600 residents in attendance that 60 percent of New Orleans has electricity, 50 percent has natural gas service, most of the city has safe drinking water, 911 and police services are operational, debris has been removed from most city streets and jobs that pay well above minimum wage are readily available.
But he also told people that the city is broke with no revenues coming in, the public school system is still shut down and there is not enough housing for people to come back and help with the rebuilding process.
[snip]
Ingrid LeBlanc, a New Orleans resident living in north Houston with eight other family members, told Nagin she wants to return to her hometown and rebuild her home. But she has concerns about the levee system and whether officials have decided some neighborhoods, including her own, won't be rebuilt.
"I want to go back. I need to know where I stand," she said.
Nagin reassured LeBlanc, 54, that all of New Orleans is going to be rebuilt.
[snip]
Arthur Brown, 43, a truck driver, said because of New Orleans' uncertain future, he's decided to buy a home in suburban Houston.
"I'm not sure what (New Orleans) is going to do. I can't put my life on hold," he said. "I have a family. I need to move on."
Ultimately, many New Orleans residents will return one day, but there are many, many others who will do what Mr. Brown is doing -- move on with their lives, in someplace other than New Orleans. Mayor Nagin is going to have a tough sell.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/27/05 07:21 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (9)
26 November 2005
Ellis campaign bungles sanctuary policy, begins to circle drain
Matt Stiles reported before Thanksgiving that the State Senate campaign of current city councilmember Mark Ellis committed a big blunder:
Mark Ellis' state Senate campaign has sent an e-mail to supporters calling two of his Republican Houston City Council colleagues "recalcitrant" and "boneheaded" for not supporting his effort to change the police department's illegal immigration policy.
The e-mail, which Ellis said he did not authorize, calls on supporters to "bombard" the offices of council members Shelley Sekula-Gibbs and M.J. Khan with phone calls, faxes and e-mails voicing opposition.Ellis said the two have not yet supported his effort to persuade Mayor Bill White to allow a council vote on a resolution that would rescind a 1992 order stating that police not enforce immigration laws.
The proposed resolution, which White said he would not support, even if Ellis persuaded a majority of council members to sign on, calls on the police to determine the immigration status of all people arrested on Class B and C misdemeanor charges, such as criminal trespass or failure to pay toll-road tolls. It also would require proof of U.S. citizenship for people to receive "taxpayer-provided social services."
Ellis said he had planned next week to publicly pressure Khan and Sekula-Gibbs to support the effort, which he said reflects his belief that the police should help federal authorities crack down on illegal immigrants.
"Immigration reform is probably one of the biggest issues that's facing us locally, statewide and the country," he said. "I don't think it's appropriate for municipalities to be working against the federal government."
Ellis said he didn't authorize the language in the e-mail, calling it his campaign's first faux pas, and that he admonished 21-year-old campaign manager Andy Seré for sending it. Seré said he didn't want the word choice to distract from the immigration debate.
Seré said? Ha ha ha ha ha. Hasn't Seré said quite enough already?
This is probably the most interest that the Ellis campaign is likely to generate before Ellis faces reality and bows out of the senate race (or loses by a large margin). Like Chris Elam, we can't help but wonder why Ellis wouldn't have more seasoned help working his campaign, which clearly doesn't seem ready for prime time.
Sadly, the bungled opportunism (or general ineptitude, if one prefers) of the Ellis campaign does detract from legitimate criticism of HPD's sanctuary policy. Proponents of that policy (Mayor White and local left-of-center bloggers) continue to insist that HPD can simply ignore federal law if it desires. That policy is not only misguided, but dangerous. It is simply unacceptable that HPD as a matter of policy is banned from enforcing some laws.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/26/05 05:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
25 November 2005
Usually, it's just the downtown pols emitting gas
The Chronicle's Monica Guzman reports on a mishap at yesterday's Thanksgiving Day parade:
A woman watching the 56th annual Washington Mutual Thanksgiving Day Parade passed out after inhaling gas that was leaking out of a manhole at the intersection of Texas and Caroline.
She was transported from the scene with no serious medical problems, police said.
About 500 people were gathered at the spot when the gas began seeping into the air around 10:30 a.m.
That does not seem world-class.
Washington Mutual must be pleased to see its name so prominently featured in the news story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/25/05 10:26 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (7)
24 November 2005
A Chron.com page we would have designed
With the redesign, Chron.com is touting this page as its one-stop headline page.
However, it's not a one-stop page. Unfortunately, only a handful of the day's headlines from each section are contained on that page.
So, we used the Chronicle's RSS feeds to put together our own one-stop page of headlines. Our local focus is reflected in our ordering of the sections.
Unfortunately, some of the Chronicle sections still don't have RSS feeds, so we've simply linked to those pages when there isn't an RSS feed that we can use to pull headlines.
The main reason I designed this page is that I like to open stories in Firefox in tabs and read them all at once. My page lets me read Chron.com the way I want to. Maybe our readers will find it useful also.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/24/05 05:16 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Blood-red cranberry sauce: Thanksgiving celebration of genocide
Chronicle editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons apparently just LOVES Robert Jensen.
That doesn't reflect well on the Chronicle or on Gibbons, given Jensen's position WAY out on the fringes even of the far Left.
But it's great blog fodder.
Matt Bramanti is all over Professor Jensen's latest nonsense.
Professor Jensen, incidentally, is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/24/05 04:23 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Councilmember solicits blogger input on panhandling
Councilmember Michael Berry, who reads this blog among others locally, has circulated an email to various bloggers asking for input on panhandling/soliciting on Houston roadways. He'll be sitting in for Chris Baker on KTRH-740 on Friday from 2-6 (that's not a misprint -- even though Baker's usual time is 3-7, Berry's show will be 2-6 on Friday), and plans on discussing how Council should deal with the issue.
In his email, Berry specifically asked for feedback on:
- ANY panhandling, soliciting at intersections ON THE MEDIAN
- same, in the roadway
- same, by minors
- commercial activity either on medians or in the roadway, whether it be by newspapers or flower salesmen
Unlike many traditional MSM reporters, good bloggers never pretend they're the final authority on some topic, and good bloggers also recognize that among their readership, there are always people who are more knowledgeable and/or insightful on any given topic. So, we're going to turn Councilmember Berry's request over to readers.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the forum, and we'll be sure to share the link to it with the Councilmember. If they're good, they might wind up on the blowtorch that is KTRH. And if not, Councilmember Berry might make fun of this little blog.... so be as smart as always, kind readers! :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/24/05 09:21 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (18)
23 November 2005
Eating turkey results in long naps which reduces one's posting
Following Kevin's lead, this is probably it for me posting-wise, for a couple of days or so. Of course, the forum is always open, ready for fun and frivolity. =)
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 10:08 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (2)
Council changes SAFEclear...again...sort of
According to this Matt Stiles story, city council has agreed to change the SAFEclear program so it is in line with a judge's ruling:
The council voted 12-3 to do away with the exclusive freeway segment contracts — which paid for about 30 percent of the $3 million program — and some price regulations for motorists who consented to long-distance tows.
Most of the program, which includes the mandatory tows that White says unclog freeways and increase safety, remains.
But the changes expand the rights of motorists to call their own towing companies — through the American Automobile Association, for example — if those wreckers arrive before one designated for Safe Clear.
Maybe it's too early for me, but I'm confused. In the quote above, Council voted to do away with exclusive freeway segments, but then the story says this:
Suzanne Poole, president of the towing association, which filed the suit along with three excluded operators, said the council's vote left her "disappointed and disgusted."
She had wanted all towing companies to have equal access to the program. Despite the changes, she said, they still would be shut out of freeway tows by the program.
"This has not been opened up enough for us or what we feel like the judge wanted it to be opened up to," she said, suggesting that she and individual members might file new lawsuits challenging the updated ordinance.
[snip]
It was that sentiment that prompted Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who has criticized the program's costs, to try to amend the ordinance to allow all qualified wreckers to participate.
She said her measure would add fairness to the process — and save the city money on legal fees from the current or future lawsuits.
"It would not gut the program. It would just satisfy what the judge has said was causing significant concern and harm to the operators," she said. "It would not, in any way, dismantle the point of improving safety or mobility."
The mayor opposed her amendment, saying city-designated towing companies should continue being assigned specific freeway segments to ensure they can respond to incidents safely and quickly.
The council then defeated Sekula-Gibbs' amendment by a 14-1 vote.
So, was the program opened up to all towing companies or not?
[U.S. District Judge Kenneth] Hoyt ruled that city regulation of those prices was pre-empted by federal law. He also held that the exclusive contracts were driven by economics, not safety.
With the exclusive contracts no longer a part of the program, the city loses about $900,000 in revenue paid by those towing companies for access to the freeways.
I am completely lost -- which makes me wonder if a Chron editor got ahold of this story, or if I need another cup of coffee.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 07:22 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Seven HISD schools earn higher school ratings
Several HISD schools have successfully appealed their TEA-determined school rankings:
The empty hallways at Johnston Elementary say nothing of the pride this school has -- impressive young artists, state acknowledgements for writing and social studies and an award-winning performing arts program. So how could a school that consistently gets acceptable ratings from the TEA, now be unacceptable?
Principal Linda Balkin said, "It was like having a dark cloud over our heads for a while. It was tough on teacher morale."
But on closer examination, it was discovered the TEA had made a mistake. The agency had given Johnston an unacceptable rating, based on false reports of student dropouts.
"We knew that one of those children, for example, had been away from school getting treatment for cancer," Balkin explained.
HISD appealed, and Johnston, along with six other campuses, got improved ratings. Lanier Middle School moved from acceptable to recognized. And T.H. Rogers moved into ''exemplary status." Five others, including Johnston, were removed from the list of unacceptables.
And what does this mean overall for HISD?
The moves mean that now 88 percent of HISD schools made the grade under the Texas accountability system in 2005, earning ratings of Acceptable or better. The successful appeals reduced the number of Unacceptable schools in HISD from 36 to 31.
Congratulations to the staff, students and parents of those schools!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 06:58 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
A close encounter with the Danger Train
Laurence Simon had another Danger Train adventure yesterday.
Someday grownups will be put in charge of Metro. Until then, though...
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/05 06:39 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 November 2005
Slow posting over the next few days
Posting will likely be pretty light from me over the next few days.
Here's wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving (in advance).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/22/05 09:47 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (3)
Figuring out Houston highway names
Rad Sallee's Move It! column yesterday dealt with something that has confounded me: Houston-area highway names:
"Why on earth do you use terms like North Freeway, East Freeway, etc.?" Privette asks. "I've lived here my whole life and still to this day have to stop and think what the heck you are referring to! Why don't you use 59 North — 59 South? ... "
"If I can't figure it out — it certainly would be confusing to anyone not from this area," said Privette, who lives in Shoreacres. If we took a poll, he predicted, three out of four people would agree with him.
Maybe so, but consider this.
While the official designation might be clearer to newcomers and people passing through, many Houstonians find "Katy Freeway" more easily recognizable than "Interstate 10 West" — which at first glance might seem to mean "westbound Interstate 10," maybe somewhere near Baytown. What about "eastbound I-10 West." Doesn't that sound like a contradiction?
Things get more muddled with designations such as "Interstate 610 North," which the Chronicle calls the North Loop. But it would be perfectly reasonable to mistake it for the northbound lanes of either the West Loop or East Loop.
Do you know what the "West Loop North" means? Not the northbound lanes of the West Loop, which certainly would make sense. It actually means that part of Interstate 610 on the west side of Houston and north of Buffalo Bayou, says Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Norm Wigington.
The green overhead freeway signs usually designate highways by number, but city of Houston street signs often use the popular local name, such as Katy Freeway or Gulf Freeway.
The name of the Gulf Freeway, Houston's first, resulted from a contest. Then came the Southwest Freeway, "because we were trying to be the capital of the Southwest," Wigington said.
Muddying the water further: Do you say "I-45 south of downtown" or "the Pierce Elevated?" And what do you call those other segments of freeway that border the downtown area, before they define themselves by taking off toward East Texas, Katy or the Gulf?
Wigington says the dividing point is the crossing of U.S. 59 and I-45 just southeast of the business district. "The North Freeway begins at U.S. 59," he said, "and so does the Gulf Freeway." This means the Pierce Elevated is technically part of the North Freeway, "although nobody calls it that," he said.
Similarly, the Eastex Freeway is that part of U.S. 59 north of I-45, and the Southwest Freeway is the part on the other side.
I give up!
Laurence Simon and Charles Kuffner used to baffle me with their talk of the Pierce Elevated. What is it, I wondered, and why is it so important? Obviously, I finally figured out it was a section of I-45. And have you ever listened to local radio traffic breaks? Phew! "There's a broken-down car blocking the HOV lane on the westbound Katy Freeway at the North Loop. And watch out for an accident on the North Loop eastbound at the 59 Eastex in right hand lane with debris," said so rapid-fire that it's almost impossible to figure out where the heck the traffic slow-down is going to be! Throw in feeder roads and Anne is left saying, "whaaaaaa?"
And Kevin would reply, "Transtar!"
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/22/05 09:36 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
Metro's swift, aggressive discipline isn't so swift or aggressive
A while back Metro promised to crack down on MetroRail drivers who were running stop signals, after a KPRC-2 investigation.
The light-rail train ran a stop signal at a busy intersection near downtown -- a horizontal bar meant stop, but the driver kept going.
METRO said the train was also speeding throughout the route along Main Street and near the Museum District. It was clocked going as fast as 48 mph in a 35 mph speed limit zone.
Records showed the train operator was also driving with his cab door open talking to passengers, which is another major violation.
It all happened during one afternoon's train ride.
[snip]
METRORail supervisors agreed and filed paperwork to fire the train operator, Charles Lightfoot, for his "willing disregard for public safety," and said he should never be rehired.
Earlier this year, METRO leaders promised tough disciplinary action after the Troubleshooters uncovered METRORail operators running stop signals at intersections across town.
"I happen to think when a train runs a signal, it's not a casual event, it's a life-threatening event," said Dave Feeley, senior vice president of METRO operations.
So, what happened to Lightfoot? Houstonians are still paying him to work and he's still carrying METRO passengers across town.
The Troubleshooters spotted Lightfoot eating a sandwich in the driver's seat of his new job -- driving a METRO bus. They followed him on his north Houston route to downtown Houston.
In less than one hour, he ran a red light in Midtown, according to the Troubleshooters' video.
Ah yes. Like any good government agency, Metro rarely fires anyone; Metro just shuffles the players around.
"He was never completely terminated because I put him back to work," Feeley said.
Feely is the METRO vice president who promised tough discipline for rail violators.
"We all make mistakes, as long as they're not repeated over and over and over again," he said.
Oh my. Where to begin? It's not okay for private citizens to run red lights, but as long as a Metro driver doesn't repeat the mistake over, and over, and over, it's okay? How many "overs" are needed before a termination WILL be considered? Will VP Feeley get serious when Lightfoot (what a name!) crashes into someone?
By the way, in the latest MetroRail crash data released to Tom Bazan (through an open records request, of course), an accident on September 8, 2005, at Main and Leeland was caused by (in Metro's own words):
Train proceeded through intersection hit by vehicle - not vertical bar.
There was not a vertical bar. That means the MetroRail driver ignored the stop signal. And it should read, "Train proceeded through intersection and hit vehicle," not "hit by vehicle" since the train ignored the stop signal.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: When I crossed midtown starting my commute to work today (a little before 7 am), the lights were flashing at Elgin and Main. Thankfully, there was no Danger Train in sight. Still, I have to say that the situation was pretty scary, and I hadn't even seen this report yet! I hope METRO gets that light fixed ASAP. And the light-running problems too!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/22/05 07:27 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
21 November 2005
Goodbye Oshman's; Hello Sports Authority
The Houston Business Journal's Allison Wollam reports that a longtime Houston merchant was rebranded over the weekend:
The last trace of Houston retail institution Oshman's Sporting Goods Inc. was erased last weekend as the 86-year-old retailer was taken out of the local retail game.
Englewood, Colo.-based The Sports Authority Inc., which inherited Oshman's through its 2003 merger with Gart Sports Co., has converted all nine Oshman's stores in the Houston area to The Sports Authority.Oshman's was founded in Richmond in 1919 and had grown into a publicly traded company -- which was still run by the Oshman family -- when it was sold to Denver-based Gart for $84 million in 2001.
Gart had maintained the Oshman's name during its ownership period.
Tony Patino, district manager for The Sports Authority, says the company did away with the Oshman's name in order to create a national brand.
[snip]
The product mix will remain the same, although the exercise, team sports and golf departments will be enhanced, according to Patino.
John Horan, publisher of industry newsletter Sporting Goods Intelligence, says the removal of regional brands such as Oshman's is a good strategic move by The Sports Authority, which is the largest sporting goods chain in the country.
"It makes a lot of sense," he says. "From the marketing and promotional standpoint alone, it's certainly an advantage to operate under one brand."
Dick's Sporting Goods has already pushed into the Dallas suburbs, and Houston will likely follow at some point. The Sports Authority surely felt it had to bring Oshman's under its main brand before Dick's moves into town.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 09:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Southwest Freeway/Spur reconstruction ahead of schedule
KTRK-13's Miya Shay reports that the Southwest Freeway expansion and spur reconstruction project is ahead of schedule:
TxDOT engineer Quincy Allen says the entire project is actually ahead of schedule, though you might not see it in the traffic flow.
"We're about six months ahead of schedule," Allen said. "But we've got a lot of things that's got to be done behind the scenes."
[snip]
TxDOT officials say if they remain six months ahead of schedule, most of the lanes should be open to drivers by late next summer.
We wanted to see how long it would take us to get from the downtown spur through the 59 construction zone. It's just before 5pm and traffic is already backed bumper to bumper Driving through what looked like horrible rush hour traffic only took about 10 minutes, and I wasn't the only driver surprised.
There's a much easier way to find out such information. Just click here (normal) or here (for mobile devices, but more useful in some ways).
I have various urls from the mobile site bookmarked on my cell phone, because I make the commute from the Galleria to midtown on 59 about 4pm each day. Thus, when the morons at Transtar are running this sort of information on their road signs, I'm not left totally blind as a result. For anyone else who's making that drive -- always exit at Buffalo Speedway and take Richmond if the travel time from Newcastle to Downtown is 15 minutes or longer on 59. Research from your blogHOUSTON traffic team has found that surface streets will be faster.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 09:25 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
KPRC move: Racist or family-friendly?
Laurence Simon found a post on TVspy that adds a little context to the "controversy" of KPRC-2's demotion of anchor Linda Lorelle.
To quote Laurence: gotta love them archives!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 09:04 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
World Series appearance should boost Astros' value, revenues
The Houston Business Journal's Jim Greer reports that the Astros' successful season should boost the franchise's value:
The afterglow from the best season and first National League baseball championship in the 44-year history of the Houston Astros will likely swing the ballclub further into the black.
"Every revenue stream will be affected and should be affected in a positive way," says Dean Bonham, owner of the Bonham Group, a sports marketing consulting firm based in the Denver area.
Bonham believes that more revenue will flow to the Astros via radio, the Web and television. In addition, sales from sponsorships, merchandising and concessions stand to gain before the 2006 season, or after it starts, according to Bonham.
"It certainly should help the season-ticket sales, and ticket sales next year," says Astros owner Drayton McLane.
The Astros could see their attendance go from 2.8 million in 2005 to 3.1 million next year, with their base of season-ticketholders jumping from approximately 18,000 to 22,000 season-tickets sold, according to Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, an affiliated publication.
Look for the Chronicle's Jose de Jesus Ortiz to write a column that explains that Drayton McLane really lost millions this season, and stands to lose more next season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/05 08:49 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
African-American museum on city council agenda
Look what's coming before Houston City Council on Tuesday:
33. ORDINANCE authorizing the City of Houston to accept $72,168.00 Economic Development Initiative (“EDI”) Special Projects Grant awarded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) in connection with the Redevelopment of Gregory School in the Fourth Ward as an African-American Archival/Cultural Center; authorizing the Mayor to execute and submit grant documents to HUD - DISTRICT I - ALVARADO
Next up for Mayor White -- the Veterans Museum in Texas. Right?
(Thanks to Tom Bazan for trudging through this week's agenda. And every week's agenda.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/21/05 08:10 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)
Red light cameras are here; are speed cameras next?
Matt Stiles has a story in the Chronicle about the red light cameras that started operating today, and Chris Baker is talking about it on his show (KTRH-740).
The city's spin is that it's all about safety...oh, and helping out an understaffed HPD.
Regular readers will know that my spin is that this is all about revenue. It seems as if at least once a week we see a story in the media about someone running a red light and killing someone. Please explain how a red light camera will stop that. If someone doesn't care what color the traffic signal is, how is the threat of a picture and a $75 civil fine going to deter him or her?
In Matt Stiles' story, HPD's Martha Montalvo says:
"This is about increasing safety, making people more alert and using the technology that is out there," said Executive Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo, who is helping oversee the vendor-selection process.
Since the city and HPD didn't lengthen yellow light times -- which has proven to reduce red light running much more than cameras -- we know this is NOT about safety. It's about revenue. If it really was about safety, Mayor White would have followed through on his promise to two councilmembers to check out yellow light times.
And Montalvo is the HPD person who adamantly refused even to consider the idea of lengthening yellow light times last February. She said, "I don't see the logic of lengthening the yellow light." That's scary. Either she hasn't researched the issue and is woefully uninformed (and the issue is very clear and easy to understand), or she's refusing to consider any alternatives. Or...well, never mind.
Chris Baker wonders if speed cameras are next. Well, last February we learned that camera manufacturers were lobbying city council. Councilman Michael Berry assured Chris back then that speed cameras were not being considered. I don't find Berry's assurances comforting, since Council tends to roll over whenever Mayor White gets a new bee in his bonnet. If red light cameras are successful at generating revenue, you can bet speed cameras will be next.
PREVIOUSLY: Do red light cameras reduce accidents or generate revenue? (bH), WaPo discovers that red light cameras increase accidents in D.C. (bH), Real proof that longer yellow-light times reduce red-light running (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/21/05 03:47 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
20 November 2005
Digging deeper on the Texans' woes
This week, Chronicle sports columnists/bloggers John Lopez and Richard Justice have offered some interesting insight into the woes of the Texans.
Lopez's column from earlier in the week examined Dom Capers' management of his coaching staff.
Today, Richard Justice posted these pointed remarks on his blog:
Has there been a lot of negative stuff published and broadcast about Dom Capers in recent weeks?
Wonder if someone inside the organization is doing a number on Capers in the hope of saving his own job? People aren't like that, are they?
Justice then went on to examine the Texans' draft picks.
While watching the game on ESPN tonight, I noticed Casserly eating and talking to owner Bob McNair while on camera, and Dom Capers wandering the sidelines with mouth hanging open in that befuddled manner he has. It's hard to imagine how McNair can keep either Casserly or Capers when this disappointing season finally comes to an end.
RELATED: Examining the train wreck that is the Texans (Tom Kirkendall).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 10:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Advertising exec explains the decline of Safeway-Randalls
Advertising executive Bill Penczak penned a column for the Houston Business Journal last week on the decline of Randalls supermarkets.
The article doesn't necessarily cover ground that bloggers and commenters haven't already, but the argument is succinct:
Last month's announcement of the closure of 15 Randalls stores was the culmination of a slow descent of one of Houston's most cherished brands. (See "Safeway to can 15 area Randalls stores," Oct. 21.)
But the chain's demise wasn't the result of pressure from Wal-Mart (now the market leader among Houston grocery chains), nor H-E-B, nor Kroger. It was the result of mismanagement of the Randalls brand.
Randalls was the undisputed high-end leader in the 1990s. Randalls enjoyed the highest consumer preference scores for the key "perimeter" sections -- meat, produce, bakery -- that defined the customer experience. Grocery chain management teams from all over the country would visit Houston to marvel at Flagship stores that combined a bigger footprint, "wow" departments, and a profitable business model.
When Safeway bought the chain from the Onstead family in 1998 for $1.8 billion, they bought more than buildings, trucks, and aisles of Little Debbies and mandarin oranges. They bought a brand representing remarkable service and products, delivered with a unique brand personality.
In the subsequent seven years, Randalls/Safeway slid from 20 percent to 10.8 percent market share by violating the basic principals of effective marketing and branding. These include:
[snip]
[T]oday's Randalls is undifferentiated -- the death knell of a brand. Their value proposition -- great service consumers would pay more for -- had been eviscerated over time. Today's Randalls is like every other grocery store, and consumers decided the premium price was no longer worth it.
No matter how much you try to dress up and/or camouflage Safeway, it's still Safeway -- no more worth the premium price than it was the last time Safeway flopped in Houston.
PREVIOUSLY: Will Onstead put the Randall back in Randalls, Randalls shuttering 15 Houston stores, Will "lifestyle" remodel reverse decline in market share?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 09:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Houston's most happening political scientist reappears
One of blogHOUSTON's favorite professional political scientists, Professor Bob Stein, made an appearance in Kristen Mack's Friday politics column (notable for its reporting on the Aiyer/Lovell race -- more on that later).
"I was surprised, not that she [Sue Lovell] was in the runoff, but that she ran ahead of Jay [Aiyer]," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein.
Maybe it had something to do with Proposition 2? And maybe Mack should have asked Stein's opinion on that, since this quote didn't really explain much.
Stein also admitted his lack of insight on the Clutterbuck-Hittner runoff:
Anne Clutterbuck and George Hittner, who will meet in a runoff in District C, ran neck-and-neck Nov. 8. She received 20 percent of the vote to his 19.8 in a seven-way race.
[snip]
Clutterbuck, a lawyer and president of Southampton Civic Club, won the endorsement of Mark Lee, who placed third Nov. 8. She could benefit from her grass-roots contacts as a civic club leader, Stein said, but he's not forecasting the result.
"These are impossible races to predict," he said. "They are really street affairs."
Perhaps since Professor Stein has so little no insight on either seriously contested council race, he really wasn't the person to quote extensively in this story.
Incidentally, since it was not mentioned, it is worth noting that Professor Stein is the spouse of mayoral aide Marty Stein, and he is also an occasional mayoral advisor who helped design the illegal predatory exclusive tow-zone contracts that comprised the original SAFEclear program. Professor Stein also likes biking.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 08:12 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Metro financial news
Yesterday, the Chronicle brought us news that Metro has been granted $12 million in federal funding:
Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority will receive $12 million for two future transit corridors, thanks to a Transportation Department spending bill that the House and Senate approved Friday.
The money will help pay for preliminary engineering on Metro's planned North and Southeast lines, which will connect to the present Main Street line. The agency plans to initially use buses running on their own guideways in the two corridors, then convert to light rail after ridership increases.
All three lines are part of the Metro Solutions plan approved by voters in November 2003, which includes light rail and commuter rail projects as well as bus rapid transit. Congress also approved $2 million to improve the bus system.
The Metro Solutions that voters approved in November 2003 hardly resembles the Metro Solutions being touted now. The new, living and breathing Metro Solutions was not approved by voters -- Metro just changed it, and through Mayor White's enabling, Metro is off on a new, not-voter-approved course. It would be nice if the Chronicle did not regurgitate Metro's version of reality.
Also, here's a Houston Business Journal story talking about all the new debt Metro is taking on:
In conjunction with the light rail expansion, Metro will for the first time in history issue debt to cover future projects. During its Oct. 27 board meeting, Metro approved the issuance of up to $400 million worth of commercial paper through DEPFA Bank Plc, a Dublin-based bank specializing in financing government public projects.
"We're not borrowing because we don't have the money," Wilson says. "We're borrowing because we have to put all this infrastructure in the ground in a short period of time."
According to Metro figures, the total cost of implementing the five new Metro rail lines will be $1.23 billion, with an estimated completion date of 2011. Metro is estimating that $616 million of the cost will come from federal grants, while $616 million will stem from bonds.
"We're building a lot of infrastructure in a short period of time so that causes a cash flow gap, but not a funding or financial gap," Wilson says. "Metro is pretty sound financially, so when we go to the market we're going to wind up with good interest rates because we are a good risk."
The decision by Metro to issue debt didn't come as much of a surprise to most agency-watchers.
Late last year, Metro Chairman David Wolff said, "I hate debt. I have no personal debt. I have no mortgages on my houses, no corporate debt. I have no debt. I don't like debt. But sometimes I guess you have to have it."
Ahhh, but it's not Chairman Wolff's personal debt, now is it? It's debt the taxpayers will be stuck with, so it's no biggie.
Metro's Wilson likens the transit agency's decision to issue debt to purchasing a home.
"It's the same as a person's decision to buy a home," he says. "Eventually you will pay off the mortgage, but when do you want to move in? When you're 55 years old or 25 years old? We've got enough fund flow over the years to pay the mortgage, but we'll never be able to build the system if we want to collect all the money (first)."
Collect what money? Metro's fare recovery ratio (15%) is considered low by industry standards! It's a good thing Metro collects sales tax revenue from most of Harris County, so it'll have something to pay for all its inner-loop projects.
As for Metro being financially sound, well, maybe that depends on your definition of sound. The recently completed state audit of Metro found that most "key performance indicators" demonstrate a "declining performance trend," including a 36% increase in per passenger operating cost, a 19% increase in operating cost per revenue hour, a 17% increase in operating cost per revenue mile, and a 29% drop in its fare recovery rate.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/20/05 07:31 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
HPD: 131 sex offenders in the Houston area (updated)
On Friday, KTRK-13 and the Chronicle both reported that approximately 131 sex offenders from Louisiana are believed to have settled in the Houston area.
The Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz reports:
Lt. Robert Manzo, a Houston Police Department spokesman, said it now appears 131 sex offenders from Louisiana have settled in the Houston area after fleeing from the recent storms. He said the number could be whittled down further as officials comb through the list.
On Wednesday, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt announced that Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had told HPD that 287 registered sex offenders were believed to be living in the Houston area. HPD officials said they needed to identify those offenders before trying to locate them.
KTRK's Andy Cerota reports:
Texas is now home to 373 Louisiana sex offenders who arrived when Katrina hit. One hundred thirty-one are in Harris County. Along with these offenders, DPS says another 225 evacuees in Texas are wanted on felony or misdemeanor warrants.
[snip]
"What are we going to do?" asked Andy Kahan with the Mayor's Crime Victims Office. "It's like finding where's Waldo."
A member of the Harris County interagency sex offender council, Kahan says the group is looking at what other states have done in similar situations so that what happened in the aftermath of Katrina never happens again. Kahan says Florida's new plan could be a model for Texas. That state now requires sex offenders whose victims are children to report to a local jail instead of a shelter when they evacuate in an emergency.
The Chron's Editorial LiveJournalists are not going to be happy to hear Kahan's comments!
Prior to KTRK reporter Jessica Willey's Tuesday story on this topic, Houston media had been inexplicably slow to show interest.
UPDATE: James T. Campbell, the Chronicle's very own reader representative, writes the following in his Sunday editorial page column:
As many as 287 registered sex offenders from Louisiana may be in Houston, but local authorities don't know where to find them yet.
Nope, James. They reduced that number to 131. It was in your own newspaper. On Friday.
That's okay. We sometimes can't bear to read it carefully either.
There's also this error:
The good and bad news regarding how Katrina evacuees will effect our job market and local economy.
Does anybody read the material on the editorial pages before it goes to print?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 05:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Constructive criticism of the Chron.com redesign
A commenter to Dwight Silverman's blog left this link as an example of how he'd prefer Chron.com to look.
I don't dislike the Chron.com redesign, but I really like this guy's suggested improvements.
Maybe the Chron.com folks should take down his name for the next time they're offering sneak previews of proposed changes. He seems to have a good eye for esthetics and usability.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/05 11:41 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
City fires HEC employees who fled Rita
Fourteen Houston Emergency Center employees who did not report to work during the run-up to Hurricane Rita have been fired:
More than a dozen employees with the 911 Houston Emergency Center were fired for not reporting to work during Hurricane Rita, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday.
Fourteen call-takers were terminated. Four others resigned.
Frank Bernal was one of those fired. He said he was faced with a tough dilemma when Rita headed toward Houston.
"My kids were asking me, 'Dad, you're going to leave us here? Are you going to go to work and leave us here?'" he said.
He skipped work in order to stay with his family the night before Rita's landfall. That decision cost him his job.
"I regret the way things turned out, but I stand by my decision," Bernal said.
"These people, some of these people, like one, had a child with asthma. They had to make sure that machine was working so that the electricity would be on," said Richard Cobb, a union attorney.
But the city said the call-takers should have made their emergency preparations earlier. Instead, they made a decision with serious consequences.
"The city of Houston deserves to have dedicated emergency service personnel report to duty," said Joe Laud, a HEC spokesman.
The headline for this KPRC-2 story says: 911 Employees Fired For Evacuating Rita. When I first read it, I thought 911 employees were fired! As in, that's how many employees were terminated! Gotta watch those headlines.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/20/05 06:05 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
19 November 2005
Redesigned Chron.com goes live
The redesigned Chron.com site appears to be live now.
I haven't given all the new features a try just yet, but so far I like the feel of the site.
Esthetically, I like the layout of the page (okay, maybe not the orange so much). They've crammed a lot of information on each page, but it doesn't feel overloaded or cluttered to me.
The interface itself is very intuitive for me. I'm able to get around the site easily, and the Chron.com folks seem to have been very good about anticipating where users may need a little help to find features that may have moved or may be a little different now. In comparison, I still have trouble finding items on KTRK-13's redesigned site, several weeks after they launched.
There is one feature that I'd like to see added and that I suggested to Dean Betz, and that is a Technorati box that displays links to bloggers who have been commenting on the stories. WashingtonPost.com has this feature enabled for many of their stories, and I think that's very forward looking.
So what do you think of the new Chron.com?
ANNE ADDS: I agree with Kevin -- except for the orange, I like it. When I clicked on "Houston & Texas," I was given a good look at what today's Chron news is, in a very nice layout. This will be fun to explore!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/05 12:51 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (13)
18 November 2005
Two editorial livejournals in a less-than-ideal state
The Editorial LiveJournalists cranked it up today with two editorials that seemed not to be in an ideal state.
As is frequently the case when they rant against Chron "bad guy" John Culberson, the Editorial LiveJournalists got so worked up that they sort of missed what should have been a fairly easy mark:
"I strenuously disagree with the way [Johnson] expanded the size, power and cost of the federal government," Culberson said. "I just don't think he's a good role model for young people."
Culberson added that he didn't have a lot of respect for the nation's 35th president.
By dismissing such a complex political figure — who strode large across history's stage and left a legacy of civil rights and opportunity for all — Culberson reveals his uncertain grasp of American history during the 20th century, and of the role that a great Texan played in it.
His uncertain grasp of American history during the 20th century? Do the Editorial LiveJournalists really mean to deny the bolded part of Culberson's assertion above? If so, they are the ones displaying an uncertain grasp of American history.
They continue with this non-sequitur:
The last balanced federal budget before President Bill Clinton's tenure in the White House was the one LBJ submitted for fiscal 1969, with outlays of $118 billion. What must Culberson think of the current occupant of the White House, who has expanded the federal budget by 27 percent, to $2.3 trillion, and more than doubled the national debt, to $8 trillion?
From bashing Culberson to bashing President Bush -- sometimes it seems hard for the Editorial LiveJournalists to stay on topic.
As we noted on Monday, it was Culberson's pledge of support (reported by Samantha Levine on Saturday, November 12) for the legislation and subsequent reversal that was unseemly (and not his characterization of LBJ's role in expanding the size and scope of the federal government, which is accurate and unassailable). That it took the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists nearly a week to come up with an opinion on this topic -- and one that missed so badly -- is sad.
Then again, maybe they should take MORE time for composition and proofing, if today's other editorial is any indication:
With the administration's initial justification for the invasion of Iraq invalidated, it is only a matter of time before Congress' patience with the extended deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq expires. Just as it approved U.S. military action in Iraq, the House and Senate have the right to curtail it.
Presumably, the Editorial Livejournalists are referring to the WMD rationale that a previous administration (not to mention other world intelligence agencies) thought was true. While that was the major rationale offered for war, it is worth noting that additional reasons were offered. As for the second bolded portion -- the House and Senate are two different bodies, and therefore are not an "it" (although Congress could have been used there, and referred to as an "it"). In any case, Congress doesn't have rights, but power or authority.
The reference to the Left's latest "hawkish" hero Rep. Jack Murtha was entirely expected:
Murtha is a Vietnam veteran, a respected advocate for the nation's armed services and an expert on military affairs. His decision to sponsor a resolution calling for a speedy withdrawal from Iraq is an indication that mainstream support for the war, in Washington and outside the capital, is fading fast.
Glenn Reynolds noted that Murtha said the same thing a year and a half ago, but it wasn't front-page news or editorial fodder. Interestingly, Sen. John McCain's notion that the U.S. should inject more troops has been relegated to back pages (for the record, I happen personally to disagree with both).
Then there's the conclusion:
Forestalling that outcome is not a goal worthy of the continuing sacrifice of the lives of U.S. soldiers and and billions of dollars that could be better spent on Americans' needs.
And and?
Somebody really needs to start reading these things before they go to print.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/05 11:58 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Nothing like that division between news and opinion/gossip
Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey is up to his usual antics today:
NOBODY is saying state Rep. Joe Nixon improperly pressured Farmers Insurance Group two years ago to pay him more than he had coming in a settlement over severe mold damage to his home.
Nobody is saying it, but the Chronicle's gossip columnist is just throwing it out for fun.
On the metro/state news pages.
Even though the Chronicle previously reported that prosecutors found "no evidence of criminal conduct."
Because that's the sort of journalism that serious newspapers place on their hard news pages.
Casey blasted Nixon similarly two years ago. So did Austin Bureau Chief Clay Robison, albeit in his "I'm not the Bureau Chief on Sunday" editorial column (and in another Sunday editorial, in passing).
If the Chronicle executive editorial leadership wants to mix news and opinion as Casey and Robison frequently do, that's certainly their prerogative. But other editors really shouldn't expect us to take seriously their comments on "the division between the opinion pages and the news pages."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/05 10:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Travis Street getting red light cameras (updated)
This KPRC-2 story lists three of the intersections getting red light cameras:
Red-light cameras have been installed at several city intersections, including:
* Travis Street at McGowen Street
* Milam Street at McGowen Street
* San Jacinto Street at Travis StreetTwo other intersections, which the city has not released, will also have red-light cameras monitoring traffic.
All that Travis guessing seems to have been right on the mark.
Watch your rear, beginning Monday!
UPDATE: Oooookay. This KTRK-13 story says these intersections are getting cameras:
The red light camera locations are at Travis at McGowen, Milam and McGowen, Milam and Jefferson and San Jacincto and Texas.
I wondered about San Jacinto at Travis in the KPRC story, since Mapquest shows those two streets running parallel to each other. And Milam at Jefferson is the fourth one to be named (or found out). Now we are waiting to find out what intersection number five is!
UPDATE 2: Now all we need is some intrepid local reporter to document the yellow-light times at these intersections, first to make sure the yellow-light time is really sufficient for stopping, and second to make sure there are no yellow-light time shenanigans going on, as time progresses. That's one problem that has been documented in other cities -- yellow-light times are shortened to increase ticket revenue.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/18/05 10:57 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
New Chron.com blog launched; Redesigned site launch imminent?
The Chronicle's Dwight Silverman announces (what else) a blog devoted to The New Chron.com.
The big news so far?
The editors listened to critics who complained about registration, which will no longer be required to access most of the site.
Also, news consumers no longer have to be subscribers to the newspaper to access the archives (although registration is required).
Silverman writes that he won't be techblogging for the next few days as the Chron crew gears up for launch, which suggests that the launch is imminent.
PREVIOUSLY: A sneak preview of the new Chron.com?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/05 10:42 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Racism at KPRC?
The Chronicle's Mike McDaniel reports that some local "community leaders" are upset that two KPRC-2 anchors have been demoted:
Speaking on behalf of a coalition of community leaders, the Rev. William Lawson today called on KPRC-TV to restore anchors Linda Lorelle and Khambrel Marshall to their original on-air positions and asked that viewers and advertisers boycott the station
Lawson also said that the problems at Channel 2 extend to all local media.
"The statistics on minority employment in Houston's media fall well below the extremely poor national statistics," he said. "Across the board, change is needed."
Lawson was joined by a dozen supporters, including Serbino Sandifer Walker, president of the Houston Association of Black Journalists; Sylvia Brooks, president of the Houston Area Urban League; Johnny Mata and Mary Ramos of the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Roy Marsh of Everyones Internet.
The main problems at KPRC-2 are a fluffy approach to news and consistently lagging ratings.
In a colorful post on the topic, Laurence Simon asks: "[A]ren't you glad that all these so-called African American community leaders are worried about two blacks making six-figure salaries instead of tens of thousands of blacks barely making five figure salaries or no salaries at all?
It's not just African American community leaders, but Roy Marsh of EV1 (maybe EV1 got tired of meddling in bad college bowl games and decided it was time to meddle in bad local news broadcasts). Still, it's a good question. We hope that the local "community leaders" are just as active the next time METRO announces cuts in bus services, for example.
MORE: Shocking Media News -- Ratings Challenged Newscast Switches Anchors ... Film At 11 (John Wagner).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/05 07:48 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)
Metro's still trying to get train riders to pay a fare (updated!)
Rad Sallee has the story of how Metro is trying to crack down on MetroRail fare cheaters:
To reduce fare cheating on its light rail line, Metro has designated the area between the ticket vending machines a "paid fare zone." If you're in the zone, you need a ticket to ride or you might get a ticket in municipal court.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority board approved the policy Thursday, but Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert said it can't be enforced until warning signs go up, which will happen soon. Then there will be a grace period to let riders get used to the idea.
"In the beginning we will go through a public awareness program," Lambert said. "We'll probably hand out information to our customers, and our officers will get the word out. We'll give warnings for about 30 days. Our goal is to make sure people understand what we're doing."
The signs will be the only notice of the zone, which will not have barriers or turnstiles, he said. Otherwise, the system will work much as in New York or Washington, where riders must pay before stepping onto the platform, he said.
For those without tickets, there's plenty of standing room at both ends of the platform.
But there is seldom a wait at the ticket machines, and being in the zone brings a bit of shade and shelter, plus a bench.
Because only five Metro officers work the rail line full time and the trains have no conductors — the operator stays in a closed compartment — spot checks are needed for enforcement, Lambert said.
In October, officers made 79,187 checks, about 8 percent of total boardings, and issued 442 warnings or citations, he said.
Metro spokesman Ken Connaughton said "that indicates fewer than 1 percent of riders are not paying fares."
That's some nice spin from Connaughton, but regular readers of Laurence Simon will be skeptical of the idea that less than one percent of MetroRail riders are not paying the fare.
How many different languages will the new warning signs be written in? Will there be enough Metro Police to patrol all the platforms and fare-check the people standing on the platforms? Where is the new "smart card" system? Will there ever be turnstiles, so that only those who have paid the fare can get on the platform?
It's been almost two years since MetroRail began operating, and there is still no reliable way to ensure that riders have paid the fare...and Metro is planning on building more. Is this really a world-class train operation?
UPDATE: Oh my! I just read Metro's press release:
The METRO Board of Directors voted today to designate METRORail platforms "paid fare zones," restricting the areas between ticket vending machines to passengers with paid fare media.
The action is designed to facilitate fare inspections by METRO police to increase security and improve crowd management.
Crowd management? As in crowd control? Like this:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/18/05 06:58 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
17 November 2005
Man who bribed 2 Brown Administration officials gets 15 years
The Chronicle's Dan Feldstein checks in on Nate Gray, the Cleveland businessman found guilty of bribing two Brown Administration officials along with public officials in Ohio. Gray has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
The Department of Justice issued a press release on the sentencing yesterday.
RELATED: Cleveland businessman who bribed Brown Administration officials gets 15 years (Tom Kirkendall, Houston's Clear Thinkers), Spellman-McGilbra archives (bH).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/17/05 07:38 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
16 November 2005
Chron Editorial LiveJournalists write the funniest things
The Chronicle's Editorial LiveJournalists have been providing so many (unintentional) laughs lately that it's hard for us to keep up.
In a Sunday editorial, they concluded:
Americans, still working on the ills exposed by riots 30 years ago, should avoid smugness and wish France the best in a long, arduous process.
Fine, but in the paragraph that preceded the conclusion, they wrote:
Finally, and perhaps hardest of all, France is going to have make its economy more flexible — even though its high minimum wage, nearly ironclad job security and 35-hour workweek are, to many French, reflections of their deepest values.
The 35-hour workweek is a reflection of France's deepest values? Okay, I admit that it's kind of funny, and that I sometimes crack jokes about the French. But I don't do it and then lecture my fellow Americans not to be smug about France!
Their second editorial on Sunday noted:
FOR anyone who believes in the existence of mental illness, the first trial of Clear Lake housewife Andrea Yates for drowning her five children provided convincing evidence that she was a very sick woman under the delusion that she had to kill her children in order to save them.
Harris County prosecutors convinced a jury in 2002 that Yates knew right from wrong and therefore was guilty of capital murder in the deaths of three of her five slain children.
So, apparently not one member of the jury that convicted Yates believes in the existence of mental illness?
Broad strokes, Editorial LiveJournalists. Broad strokes.
They continue:
With the community now facing a possible replay of that miscarriage of justice and the waste of taxpayer dollars and court time, Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal should demonstrate reason and compassion, both for her and for us.
[snip]
There are no winners in this case, but a humane and reasonable plea bargain would go a long way toward easing the pain and controversy that the deaths of the Yates children and their mother's trial visited upon this community.
What? That certainly came out of left field. Given the Editorial LiveJournalists' frequent smears of Chuck Rosenthal, though, we're guessing their begging to be spared the horror of another trial may not resonate with the DA. Perhaps Jeff Cohen can get the Editorial LiveJournalists some grief counseling if there is another trial.
And today, the Editorial LiveJournalists wrote:
IN an agreement hammered out Tuesday, Israelis and Palestinians set out a plan for opening the borders of the Gaza Strip. In addition to the colossal achievement of giving Palestinians control of one of their own borders, the deal bodes well for progress toward crafting a peaceful relationship between the two perennially tense neighbors.
The term "perennially tense neighbors" connotes two nations long uneasy with each other, but that is not especially an apt description of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, until Israel finished its pullout from Gaza in September, it would really have been a misnomer to refer to Gaza and Israel as neighbors, since Gaza was better regarded as an administrative entity of Israel (yes, some people called it occupied, but that doesn't change the point being made here). We think perennial implies a time frame of more than two months. The phrasing was just clumsy.
At least the Editorial LiveJournalists didn't create a new treaty with this foray into international politics.
Still, somebody should be found to read these things more carefully before they go to print.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/16/05 10:35 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Happy Holidays -- smile for the red light camera!
On KHOU-11's News Blog, Greg Johnson notes that red light cameras will start clicking away on Monday:
According to Houston's police chief, red light cameras will be ready to take your picture beginning Monday.
But you won't be smiling if you're prone to running red lights.
The cameras are designed to catch red light runners and will be placed at five undisclosed, busy intersections.
Perhaps one or more could pop up along Travis?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/16/05 07:51 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
HISD introduces teacher merit pay program
Dr. Saavedra has rolled out HISD's new merit pay program for teachers:
School district officials call the incentive pay plan only one component to an overall improvement strategy.
HISD Superintendent Dr. Abe Saavedra explained, "I think that will be an incentive for some teachers. It won't be for all, but it will be for some."
The plan is divided into three parts, or strands. The first includes all teachers at a particular school, based on that school's math and reading scores compared to others in HISD with similar student demographics. The potential bonus could be from $250 to $1,000.
The second strand would reward individual teachers based on Stanford 10 test scores compared to 40 other similar schools. Again, the potential bonus could be from $250 to $1,000.
Same for the third strand, but based on TAKS scores. The bonus could range from $125 to $500.
"Pay for performance will work if base pay also grows at the same time," said Dr. Saavedra.
Guess who's not happy:
"It's got no support from the people it's supposed to (inspire)," said Gayle Fallon with the Houston Federation of Teachers.
Houston's largest teacher union says the plan doesn't start with adequate base pay and has no reliable future funding source.
Fallon said, "It's going to come out of something, and in all probability, what it's going to do is rob teachers of future pay raises."
And Gayle Fallon is ALL about base pay and future raises! I recently wrote a post on why teachers unions don't like merit pay -- it boils down to power and money. The union doesn't have any say in how merit pay is handed out, so it has less power; and merit pay isn't a part of a teacher's salary, which means union dues can't be taken out of it.
Merit pay works in the private sector, and it will work in government schools, too. There may be some kinks to work out and some rough patches here and there, but overall the idea is a good step toward rewarding good teachers for doing a good job.
Pay no mind to Gayle Fallon.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/16/05 07:28 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Banjo radio: the perils of blogging (updated)
Banjo Jones will be on CNN Radio tomorrow, discussing something he knows all too well:
Beyond the First Amendment free speech rights accorded to all American citizens, the answer is no.
In other words, you have the right to blog, but your employer, in most cases, has the right to fire you for it.
This may not seem fair, but it's the way it is.
He'll be on at about 1:50 p.m. our time. (To stream CNN Radio, scroll down the CNN homepage about halfway and the link is under the stock market numbers section.)
Banjo also links to this American Journalism Review brief that explains what happened to him several years back. While Brazosport News readers most likely know the details already, the Jeff Cohen quote at the end is priceless:
A Texas reporter's pseudonymous Weblog costs him his job at the Houston Chronicle. Steve Olafson, a former Houston Post reporter who had covered Brazoria County from his home since joining the Chronicle in 1995, had been letting loose as Banjo Jones, creator of the Brazosport News Web site and commentator on everything from family life to local political figures and the local daily, the Brazosport Facts. "It kind of just started on a whim, and kind of slowly took on a life of its own," says Olafson, who turns 49 this month. "It wasn't like any kind of horrible, scathing opinions were expressed. It was mostly a lighthearted venue, satirical much of the time." He used the pseudonym, he says, because he knew his editors would probably disapprove. But after a Brazosport Facts reporter called Olafson in late July and said a local "newsmaker" had provided evidence that he was Jones, Olafson says, he called his supervising editor and fessed up, though the Facts reporter had already contacted the Chronicle. He says he was suspended, then fired a week later. "We have standards and expect our journalists to comply with them," says Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen.
UPDATE (11-18-2005): Banjo Jones links to the mp3/podcast of his appearance.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/16/05 03:52 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)
Laurence Simon's new gig
Laurence Simon is a part of the new Open Source Media web site, which is described in this AP story:
Some 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM — short for Open Source Media.
OSM will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers will be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generate.
The ad-supported OSM site will also carry news feeds from Newstex, which in turn receives stories from The Associated Press, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service and other traditional media organizations.
Cool! This will be interesting to follow. How does he do it all?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/16/05 01:10 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (7)
Will the San Jose Earthquakes become the Houston Hurricanes?
Sports Authority CEO Oliver Luck is readying the champagne as Houston appears to be one step closer to getting a Major League Soccer team:
Major League Soccer announced Tuesday that it has cleared the way for the San Jose Earthquakes to relocate to one of a number of potential cities, with Houston the likely destination.
League commissioner Don Garber said in a prepared statement that the MLS Board of Governors granted approval to the Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner of the Earthquakes, to relocate the franchise. The decision came at a meeting Saturday in Frisco, site of the MLS Cup.
Houston is the only city specifically mentioned by Garber as a possible new home.
"In order to ensure the team will have the appropriate time to prepare for the 2006 season, a final decision on the location of the team will be reached within the next 30 days," Garber said.
[snip]
MLS spokesman Simon Borg said the league will have no comment on the situation until AEG reaches a decision.
AEG's request was made because attempts to secure a buyer in San Jose have failed.
The company purchased the franchise � a charter member of MLS � from the league in 2002 and has reportedly invested about $20 million without earning a return.
"We stepped in and took over the team three years ago," said Leiweke. "For three years we've been trying to find an ownership group (in San Jose). That's unfortunate. That said, we've made more progress in the last few months in Houston than we did in the last three years in San Jose."
The news is encouraging to Harris County-Houston Sports Authority head Oliver Luck, who has been involved in efforts to land a soccer franchise for more than a year.
"It's clearly an important step," Luck said. "From our perspective, it's validation for what a great sports town Houston has become."
One more thing to check off the world-class to-do list? We just have to be getting closer.
Do you think an MLS team will be able to pay for their own turf or will the Sports Authority offer to pay for it?
Laurence Simon wonders why Reliant Stadium isn't being named as a probable venue for an MLS team. The answer could be in a Soccer Times story from July:
[...]the league [MLS] has been stymied for some time trying to find a place to play. Reliant Stadium, where the National Football League's Houston Texans play, was looked at, but its ownership did not want to become MLS franchise owners at this time, nor did it want to become landlord.
And let's not forget that San Antonio recently rejected an MLS franchise opportunity because the city would have taken a financial beating:
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.
I certainly hope whatever deal Luck and Mayor White are negotiating with MLS doesn't soak Houston/Harris County taxpayers...too badly. There's no doubt there'll be some soaking. That seems to be the nature of these deals.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/16/05 10:25 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (12)
15 November 2005
KTRK's Willey reports on Katrina sex offender problem (updated)
In a Saturday blog post, we suggested that local media had neglected a key local aspect of the Katrina story: the dispersal of sexual offender refugees and FEMA's seeming refusal to work with state and local authorities on tracking them down.
On the 10pm broadcast tonight, KTRK-13's Jessica Willey followed up with a solid report on the problem. The story is posted here.
UPDATE (11-16-2005): The Austin American-Statesman has an update today. Mike Ward reports that the state of Texas has finally received a list of sex-offender evacuees from FEMA:
After a month of high-level finger-pointing, federal officials have finally turned over to Texas authorities a list of convicted sex offenders who evacuated from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
The release of the list Tuesday comes after officials said four children fell victim to displaced sexual predators in Texas.
State officials moved quickly to start tracking down the estimated hundreds of convicted sex offenders they think are now living in Texas but have failed to register with local police, as they are required by law to do.
"We have received the list, aliases included, and are processing it as quickly as we can to get the names into the hands of the appropriate agencies," said Kathy Walt, press secretary to Gov. Rick Perry. "We want for local law enforcement to be able to identify these sexual offenders in their communities and make contact with them to make sure they register so we know where they are, that they're not around children and not in situations they shouldn't be."
[snip]
Walt and other Texas officials said Tuesday that the list they received from federal officials contains hundreds of names. An exact count was not available because the list also included aliases, meaning some offenders are counted more than once.
Since Katrina hit New Orleans in late August, state officials said, at least four offenders from Louisiana have been arrested and charged in Texas with sexual assaults involving children -- two in Houston, one in Richardson, one in Plano.
The American-Statesman story should be read in its entirety.
The Chronicle's coverage of this story with greater implications for our community than for Austin? A thin, four-paragraph rehash of AP copy. Perhaps Austin bureau chief Clay Robison was too busy looking for Proposition 2 supporters dressed in sheets to cover this state news of importance to Houstonians.
At least Houston news consumers have KTRK and the American-Statesman keeping an eye on the story.
UPDATE 2 (11-16-2005): Chief Hurtt held a press conference on the issue this morning, which KHOU-11 covered and posted to its website almost immediately.
Since it was a press conference, the Chronicle finally managed to cover the story, with a short online story that carries a webstamp of 1:41pm. At least they beat KPRC-2 to the news, but that's really not saying much.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/05 10:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron editorialists rant about prop. 2 (updated)
A week has passed since Texans voted overwhelmingly in favor of defining marriage in the state constitution, and the Chronicle editorial idealists finally ranted about it today, characterizing the position of the majority as "mean-spirited" and as "a direct attack on gays."
But they save their "best" stuff for black voters:
Inner city black voters in Harris County, many of whom have long experience with the denial of civil rights, favored the marriage amendment by an even higher majority than the general Harris County voting population. Black discomfort with homosexual marriage is rooted less in conscious discrimination than in religious belief, but support for the amendment brought blacks into incongruous accord with members of the Ku Klux Klan, whose members rallied in Austin in support of Proposition 2.
So, the non-blacks who voted overwhelmingly for Prop. 2 are mean-spirited discriminatory gay bashers, and the blacks who voted even more overwhelmingly for Prop. 2 are too blinded by their stupid religion to realize they're no better than the KKK. Previously, of course, the Austin Bureau Chief compared supporters of Prop. 2 to the KKK (so much for "the division between the opinion pages and the news pages").
Reasonable people can debate the merits and demerits of Prop. 2 without name-calling and demonization. The Chronicle editorialists continue to show they are not reasonable people. Before long, they're going to have insulted just about everyone who might consider picking up their newspaper!
RELATED: One Week Later (Sedosi Alhambra, Isolated Desolation), Chron editorial says Texans supported “mean spirited” amendment (Owen Courreges, Lone Star Times).
UPDATE (11-16-2005): A reader emails that OpinionJournal's James Taranto also noticed that paragraph about black voters in Harris County, and wrote:
So let's see if we have this straight. If you're a person of pallor and you oppose same-sex marriage, you're guilty of "conscious discrimination," whereas if you're black, you're following "religious belief" and presumably discriminating unconsciously. Oh, and does this mean people who favor same-sex marriage are religious unbelievers? Seems to us the Houston Chronicle has just managed to insult pretty much everybody.
It's good to see our editorial idealists get a little national attention.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/05 10:41 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron's Roper fleshes out mayor's downtown wifi plans
The Chronicle's John Roper reports on Mayor White's determination to create a wireless downtown network.
People who think this means downtown will be blanketed in free wifi courtesy of the city are going to be disappointed:
The company using Houston's many easements and right of ways for WiFi antennas and other equipment would then be able to sell its airtime to residents and businesses.
It's not at all clear why this is a priority for Mayor White, given the city's many problems, but we've covered that ground previously.
The Chronicle's Dwight Silverman is soliciting feedback on the mayor's proposal over at his blog, so feel free to leave your thoughts there if you haven't already.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/05 10:12 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Mayor touts pollution initiatives; Can he fund them? (updated)
KUHF's Jack Williams reported yesterday on Mayor White's press conference on pollution:
After losing a contract with the state to inspect local refineries and industrial plants for clean air violations earlier this year, the city of Houston is launching its own new plan that Mayor Bill White says will be just as effective, but more focused
The city had acted as a clean air enforcer of sorts for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality until August of this year, when the state refused to renew its contract because of disagreements about enforcement. Along with the contract went nearly all of the city's state funding for inspections and a good chunk of its inspection staff. Now, Mayor White says the city will embark on it's own new inspection and enforcement program that will target the most pressing clean air issues. "We are trying to identify the most dangerous of the pollutants so we can put public health first. It's not just how many people are counting things out there, but it's what they're counting and what they're monitoring and the effect to public health," he says.
[snip]
John Wilson is executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention and says the city is doing what it can with a limited budget. "Obviously it would be better if they still had funding from the state and still could retain the full size of the staff at the Bureau of Air Quality Control, but on the other hand they have gained flexibility and a renewed focus on things that I think will matter more in the long-run than some of the activities that they've been doing," he says.
The Chronicle's Dina Capiello followed up with a story on the mayor's press conference cheerleading that contained the following:
Other goals lacked specifics, such as how exactly air pollution data would be evaluated by the city's soon-to-be-hired toxicologist to determine so-called toxic "hot spots."
Perhaps the biggest unknown is whether the city has the money and personnel to do what the mayor has pledged. Earlier this year, Houston and the state could not agree on the terms of a new contract, one that supplies the city $1.5 million annually for routine inspections. As a result, Houston's Bureau of Air Quality Control has cut about a dozen positions from its staff of 52.
"We will undertake the most meaningful work possible within our budget," said Arturo Blanco, the bureau's director. Later, he added that his $2.2 million-a-year department wasn't "downsizing but resizing."
Brandt Mannchen, chairman of the Houston Sierra Club's air quality committee, said that while many of the objectives are not solely on the shoulders of the bureau, it was still unclear how exactly the city was going to implement an agenda that was drafted in July.
"They need to tell me how the objective is going to be attained. I'm looking for something that tells me specifically what kind of investigation gives me more bang for the buck, how many of those you are going to do, and what companies will you focus on," Mannchen aid [sic]. "They keep saying we are going to focus on something more meaningful. Well, what is that?"
Mannchen certainly deviated from the press release! But it's a good question.
UPDATE (11-16-2005): The Chronicle's SciGuy Eric Berger looks into the Mayor's promises regarding "greening" Houston, and finds precious little detail in the mayor's Air Quality Plan.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/05 09:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Return of the Chron Eye
We thought perhaps the Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy, the anti-death-penalty newspaper's series of apologia for death-row killers, had been retired (much like the silly Editorial LiveJournals seem to have been retired).
There was the reverse Chron eye last week, to add to the suspicion.
There has been the recent tendency simply to run AP coverage of executions in Texas.
And there was this AP coverage of death row killer guy Robert Dale Rowell, posted to Chron.com yesterday.
That's why we were surprised to see today's Chron Eye by Rosanna Ruiz.
She sounds a little sad that she doesn't have much to work with, as Chron Eyes go:
Unlike many of his fellow inmates on death row, Robert Dale Rowell never got much television airtime or received much newspaper ink.
The 50-year-old will walk into Texas' death chamber tonight a virtual unknown, the 18th inmate to be put to death this year.
No public campaign has been waged on his behalf. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty issued a routine alert on Rowell's execution that does little more than lay out the facts of his case.
A last-minute reprieve is unlikely. His lawyers are not claiming he is mentally retarded or that his trial attorney fell asleep in court. His appeals were exhausted last month when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to review his case or his claim that the trial judge should have given the jury better instructions.
"There is nothing now pending," Rowell's attorney Ed Mallett said Monday.
The trial was not even one to stand out for Kelly Siegler, the Harris County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case in 1994.
So, this one was so cut-and-dried that even the usual suspects couldn't get worked up about it.
But given her shot at writing a Chron Eye, Rosanna Ruiz gives it a strong effort:
Eleven years later, Mallett describes his client as a "reasonably literate, very nice person."
"He has a history of being violent when confronted and under the influence of drugs. All of his offenses are drug-related," Mallett said. "He's aware he has an extreme susceptibility to addiction and that he cannot control it when it's available to him."
Rowell earned his GED and associate's degree in prison.
In court records, Randy Rowell explained that he and his brother had to be more independent as children because their mother had been on medication most of her life. Randy Rowell did not return a phone call seeking comment for this article.
"The whole neighborhood did drugs and once you do them, you always want them," Robert Rowell is quoted in a 1998 report after a psychological evaluation. "Before I did drugs, I stayed with my grandfather and fished and I was happy."
See, he wasn't so bad. Not for a guy with a bad mother. And he liked to fish! Life just sort of got away from him, and made him kill those people.
And that's today's Chron Eye.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/05 02:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Crowne Plaza Hotel closing its doors
Out-of-towners visiting the Texas Medical Center may soon have a more difficult time finding a hotel room.
One of the largest hotels in the area is set to close next month and the loss of rooms has given some patients more to worry about.
The Crowne Plaza will shut its doors in mid-December, taking with it nearly 300 hotel rooms.
[snip]
That has Margaret Meyer with the MD Anderson Cancer Center worried because up to 70 percent of the hospital's cancer patients are from out of town or even from other countries.
"It's just going to exacerbate the situation that already exists because rooms are very difficult to come by, given the number of evacuees we still have in our hotels," Meyer said.
The Medical Center already lost a couple hundred rooms over the past couple of months when two nearby hotels closed down.
The Crowne Plaza was one of the hotels that received city of Houston redevelopment funds -- $5 million worth. This story doesn't address whether the city has or will be able to recover that money.
UPDATE: As mwjones points out in the forum, the Crowne Plaza that's closing is a different Crowne Plaza from the one that received city redevelopment money. My apologies for not double-checking that.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/15/05 11:29 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Dan Patrick event Wednesday afternoon
On his show this morning, Edd Hendee announced that there will be a Dan Patrick for Senate campaign event at the Taste of Texas (Hendee's restaurant) tomorrow (Wednesday) from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
The event will be broadcast live on KSEV-700.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/15/05 10:03 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (4)
14 November 2005
MediaSource likely to win contract renewal
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that Mayor White is persisting in his effort to allow MediaSource to continue as controversial custodian of the public access channel:
Mayor Bill White, whose first loss on a council vote was on the MediaSource contract, has said he intends to try again to get the panel to renew the deal. The deal diverts small, monthly fees collected by cable providers to a nonprofit — MediaSource since the mid-1980s — to run a city-mandated access channel. The station is distinct from the Municipal Channel, which airs council meetings and other official programming.
That new vote could come by the end of the year, said White, who recently installed several new MediaSource board members, asking them to search for a possible replacement to longtime Executive Director Patti Garlinghouse.
"I'm personally for having public access," he said recently. "I don't think any nonprofit or public institution can be perfect. But, right now, there is some burden showing that there have been real changes at MediaSource."
The issue isn't whether the city should have public access cable television. The issue is whether MediaSource should continue to act as the custodian of the public access channel.
The previously intransigent executive leadership of MediaSource seems to have gotten the message from the Mayor's communications staff to shut up if they want to see a contract renewal:
Garlinghouse, whom board Chairman Garth Jowett has said is well regarded among her public-access counterparts nationally, declined to comment about her future for fear it would aggravate the board.
"I have full confidence in the fact that the council will ultimately vote for our contract," said Garlinghouse, declining to elaborate.
[snip]
Fairly or unfairly, Garlinghouse has been a lightning rod for some on council and for the mayor, who recently expressed a desire for "new management" at the channel.
[Councilmember Michael] Berry, for example, recalls a hearing this summer in which Garlinghouse and Jowett defiantly defended the channel from what they perceived as a politically motivated attack. Berry saw that as a lecture. Some producers disagree.
The producers are wrong. Jowett indeed arrogantly lectured Councilmember Berry, as we noted at the time, and Garlinghouse's comments only seemed to make things worse. It will be interesting to see if the mayor's communications staff can keep them quiet, or if they'll be unable to resist once again lecturing those elected officials who would dare criticize them. If they keep quiet, they'll almost certainly see their contract approved, unfortunately.
So what changes have been made at MediaSource? That's unclear from Stiles' reporting:
Her staff has made several changes to try to ensure that profanity or nudity only air in the early morning hours.
What are they?
And will Jowett and Garlinghouse be able to describe them to Council without blowing up again? Stay tuned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/05 11:49 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (10)
Transportation tidbits
There were a couple of interesting snippets in Rad Sallee's transportation column today.
First was METRO's explanation of why public hearings were cancelled recently:
Last week, the Metropolitan Transit Authority abruptly canceled two public meetings on proposed changes in 59 of its 85 bus routes, six of which were set for elimination.
But Metro says protests from the public were not the reason.
"Of course we did get e-mails and phone calls when we posted the changes," said spokesman George Smalley. But the meetings were canceled for three other reasons, he said.
First, combined bus and rail ridership was up nearly 15 percent in October over the same month in 2004. Smalley said Metro wants to find out why, and assess whether the rise is likely to be permanent, before making service changes.
Metro also wants to simplify its complicated fare structure, which some at the agency believe has turned off potential customers, Smalley said.
Third, Metro is waiting to see the results of a poll by the mayor's office, asking whether residents would rather have the agency deal with high fuel prices by cutting service or by raising fares for the first time since 1994.
Hmm, let's see... what might explain an increase in ridership in October? Oh yeah, lots of hurricane refugees using the city's public transit (for free) not to mention two World Series games. METRO should hire us as consultants, and overpay us.
Next was this criticism of METRO:
Speaking of bus service, Gonzalo Camacho criticizes Metro for investing in joint developments with private companies to build and lease office and retail space at two transit facilities.
"Instead of focusing on providing good transit service to its current transit users and expand on that, Metro is getting into a new business," Camacho wrote.
"At this rate, with the replacement of inexpensive bus transit routes with expensive bus rapid transit and light rail, and new development, my prediction is that transit ridership will continue to decrease while costs for operation and maintenance will continue to increase," he said.
Metro spokesman Ken Connaughton said that the joint projects cost Metro and taxpayers nothing and will actually produce revenue. "They will also add value to the riders' transit experience and are expected to further increase ridership," he said.
To further INCREASE ridership? We weren't aware it had been increasing, aside from October's numbers.
The column does not identify Gonzalo Camacho, who is a local civil engineer who specializes in transportation. Camacho has been a strong advocate of expanding I-45 via a tunnel system.
RELATED: Complaints about METRO's joint developments (Owen Courreges, Lone Star Times).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/05 10:57 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
How to fuel cynicism about politics
The Chronicle's Samantha Levine reports on a seeming flip-flop by Rep. John Culberson (R):
Lone Star State lawmakers often say they're Texans first and Democrats or Republicans second. They have worked together on many issues lately.
But on a revived bill that would name the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington in memory of Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat and the first president from Texas, unifying loyalties to the state are harder to find.
For some Republicans, disdain for Johnson's legacy, and behind-closed-doors pressure to avoid supporting a bill that would honor a Democrat, apparently won out.
Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, at first co-sponsored the bill, whose authors point out that no government building in Washington bears Johnson's name."My friend (Houston Democratic congressman) Gene Green asked me to," Culberson said, and besides, LBJ was from Texas."
A day later Culberson changed his mind.
"I strenuously disagree with the way [Johnson] expanded the size, power and cost of the federal government," Culberson said. "I just don't think he's a good role model for young people. I have a lot of respect for Gene Green, but not for Lyndon Johnson."
Support the legislation, or don't support the legislation.
But don't sign up as a co-sponsor of the legislation, and then come out and blast the legislation a day later.
That's not my idea of how Texans, honorable statesmen, or good role models conduct themselves, and it's the sort of thing that fuels cynicism about politics in general.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/05 10:18 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (7)
Keeping up with old friends
Maybe he'll come back to Houston. I mean, we've got world-class written all over us with our New Metro Solutions!
Coincidentally, Jerome Solomon moved from the Chronicle's sports pages to the Globe's sports pages this year. So far, Solomon still appears to be employed by the Globe.
UPDATE: An emailer sent us a link to the Boston Herald's Inside Track:
Things are getting mighty ugly over at the Boring Broadsheet, which must cut 135 jobs - 35 in the newsroom - to meet a mandate from the New York Times mother ship to close a budget gap.
Word is, not enough newspeople are queuing up to take the buyout, meaning that there likely will be layoffs. And the ax already has fallen on at least one reporter who was hired away from a pretty decent gig then told to hit the bricks come December. Merry freakin’ Christmas!
Suffice it to say, the lad did not take it all that well and he sent a whiny e-mail out to some pals, who forwarded it to some pals, who forwarded it to some more pals - who added snarky little remarks - and, as these things have a way of doing, it landed in the Track’s inbox!
“The news is, of course, absolutely devastating,” the soon-to-be-unemployed writer writes. “This is without a doubt the worst day of my life. I feel like everything I have worked for, all of my hopes and dreams, have been instantly and unexpectedly crushed. It’s like someone just walked up and shot me in the back. I wonder if I can ever recover from this. . . . Tonight I sit here in magnificent despair, trying to make sense of what’s struck me.”
Don't miss the rest of the tale. And in the very off-chance it's not clear, that "whiny e-mail" was written by an obviously despondent Lucas Wall.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/14/05 02:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Patrick continues transition from insurgent to pol
The Chronicle's Kristen Mack writes that KSEV-700 talker and Texas Senate District 7 candidate Dan Patrick has been sounding a little like those flip-flopping politicians he frequently criticizes on the radio:
Patrick has made an issue of his opponents' campaign finance sources, but apparently has decided that if he can't beat them in that arena, he'd better join them.
At the first candidate forum, held by the Cy-Fair Republican Women in October, Patrick declared candidates should adhere to a $1,000 cap on donations from any one source. He questioned why candidates were holding fundraisers in Dallas, getting contributions from as far away as New York and taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists. Although he didn't mention him by name, Patrick was referring to [Joe] Nixon.
Nixon bragged about raising more than $215,000 in one night in October, an enviable fundraising feat that drew the ire of Patrick. "The only people who should have influence is you," Patrick said to the residents of the district gathered in the packed Prime Time Steak House. "Money should only come from people in the district."Some of Nixon's did come from elsewhere, according to a list of contributors Nixon distributed.
Two weeks later, Patrick sent invitations for his first fundraiser, including to people who live outside the district. He was asking for contributions from $1,000 to $5,000. The event was held Wednesday at the home of Patrick's fellow KSEV (700 AM) on-air personality, Ed Hendee.
Patrick wouldn't say how much he raised, but acknowledged that he received some checks of more than $1,000.
"I am going to play under the rules in play. Otherwise it would be an uneven race," Patrick said. "If an individual wants to give me a $3,000 check, I will gladly accept it. But I'm not going to be funded by special interests or bought by lobbyists."
There you have it.
Mack further reports that Patrick will be on the air until filing for office, at which point he will leave the station rather than being forced to give his opponents equal time. Patrick says that every on-air reference to his candidacy will be logged on his campaign finance reports, which will surely keep opposition-research staffers busy.
There's no word in the article as to who will temporarily be hosting Patrick's afternoon show. Will it be Chris Begala, whose ability to reference "the biased liberal mainstream media" a dozen times an hour probably gives him a leg up? Will it be Orlando Sanchez, who doesn't always seem interested in talking about breaking political events? Or will it be producer and Lone Star Times guru David Benzion, who sometimes comes across as too brainy for the audience? I guess we'll know in a few weeks.
PREVIOUSLY: Patrick makes quick transition from insurgent to politician.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/05 12:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (19)
13 November 2005
Missing Places
Missing Places is an oddly compelling exercise in citizen journalism (or should that be citizen archaeology?) that tracks vanishing history, vacant lots, and "forgotten" places in Houston.
The site describes the project as follows:
The Museum for Missing Places (MMP) is a public information project that addresses contemporary issues of urban place identity through the eyes and actions of city residents. Using interactive exhibits, the Museum proposes alternative ways of mapping a city in the context of rapid and uncontrolled urban change and the uncertainty of enduring architectural landmarks.
Situated in Houston, Texas, the Museum is--before all else-- a response to a city whose urban development has long been distinguished paradoxically by the impermanence of its architecture rather than its fixity. Houston is literally defined by geographic disruption-- the buildings of the city are quickly altered, roadwork and redirected streets are the norm and volatile weather continuously pummels the city, to cite just a few examples. These disruptions create a city of revolving contradictions and perpetual discontinuity, and the job of making sense of this city is left to a scattered population.
Yet an urban life does persist behind the fragmented edifice of the city and the Museum for Missing Places believes that an appropriate way of understanding Houston is through the accumulated perceptions of the city's residents and a catalog of the places they inhabit. Through exhibits which rely on public participation, the Museum hopes to suggest ways of mapping the city that leverage the diverse observations, descriptions and insights of city residents. The exhibits of the Museum for Missing Places are designed to support this mission by surveying Houston residents about the ways they relate to their local surroundings. In a city that changes as continuously as Houston, where what's new today may be gone tomorrow, the MMP seeks to chart the shifting terrain of the city by privileging the countless perspectives of lived experience.
I found out about the project via a sign posted last week on a vacant lot near HCC in midtown. Laurence Simon writes that signs have also been popping up along the less-than-world-class urban blight along stretches of the light rail.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/05 09:52 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Did an alleged Austin sanctuary policy cost a life?
The Austin American-Statesman reported several days ago that a family is upset with what it claims is an unofficial police department policy in Austin:
Humberto Garcia thinks that his 18-year-old daughter, who was brutally murdered in his family's North Austin home last year, would still be alive if Austin police aggressively enforced immigration laws.
Now Garcia and his wife are suing the City of Austin, Police Chief Stan Knee and Assistant Chief Rudy Landeros in federal court, claiming the city has a policy against reporting undocumented immigrants that should be overturned. The city's lawyer denies such a policy exists.
About two years before he killed Jenny Garcia Hayden in January 2004, David Diaz Morales had been investigated by Austin police on suspicion that he molested a child. Diaz, 22, wasn't arrested at the time, but Hayden's father thinks Austin police knew Diaz was a Mexican citizen in the country illegally and should have called immigration agents to deport him.
In July, Diaz admitted in state District Court that he broke into the Garcia family's Whispering Valley Drive house and killed Jenny, his former IHOP co-worker, with a butcher knife. With his plea he avoided facing the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison for murder and 20 years for burglary. Diaz won't be eligible for parole until he's served 50 years.
"What happened (to Jenny) happened because he was illegally in the country and was not deported," Garcia said.
The family's lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Austin, claims that the city, including the Police Department, has an illegal "sanctuary city" policy that prevents or significantly restricts employees from communicating with federal authorities about the immigration status of people in Austin.
We don't know about Austin, but Houston does have an official sanctuary policy towards illegal aliens, and a mayor and police chief who defend it by asserting that immigration is a problem for the feds, not the city of Houston. While it's not clear that immigration should be the top priority for Houston cops, it's also not clear why they should be forbidden from enforcing federal law.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/05 09:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Blogger takes on the Chron's unofficial humor columnists
For those intrepid local journalists who might wonder what our "agenda" at blogHOUSTON is, the easy answer is that we're holding out for some think tank (or even the Ken Charles local media empire) to throw tons of money our way. Not just petty cash. TONS of money.
Failing miserably with that agenda, we try to entertain ourselves. And the local editorialists really do entertain!
It's even more fun for us when other local bloggers join the fun.
Sedosi Alhambra, who refers to the Chronicle editorial board as "Mrs. White" for its predictable stance on local politics, recently read something that caused damage to his computer screen (technically, the involuntary spewing of coffee in reaction to Mrs. White caused the damage, but that's close enough). The account is here.
And Slampo posts a brutal takedown of Rick Casey's recent two-part exercise in self-important meandering:
(After skimming this week’s first installment, we finally realized that encroaching senility is the defining characteristic of the species Chroniclus columnisticus [with apologies to the senile portion of our readership, which breaches the potentially fatal 75 percent mark, according to the Audit Bureau of Bloggery and Bullshit], a proud tradition dating back beyond Allison “The Motorman” Sanders and through Thom Marshall and Leon Hale. [Other notable characteristics: You have to be older than 50, have virtually no clue what’s going on in the city, be a white male [not that we have anything against white males], never piss any one off too too much, and no habla espanol … We’ll exempt under-50 business columnist Loren Steffy from this broad brush, as he’s far and away the paper’s best columnist, and probably bound for a more prestigious posting before too long, we’d bet.])
We’ve never gotten much of a rise one way or another from Casey since the adenoidal martinet who runs the editorial operation imported him from San Antonio, where we remember occasionally reading his column. To an out-of-towner Casey seemed to offer a pretty good inside-ball take on doings in city government there, something like Tim Fleck could be doing for the Chronicle if the paper had had the stick not to consign him to the anonymity of the editorial page. In San Antonio, Casey seemed to know his stuff. Here, he seems lost, tired and supremely uninterested (and uninteresting).
But we’ve noticed there is one subject that raises Casey’s ardor, that brings a flush to his heavily bearded cheek and a bounce to his step, one that doubtless makes him feel young again and perhaps evokes his days of glory in Old San Antone. That subject is Bill White....
Does the mayor have room in his life for another Mrs. White?
As always with Slampo, it's a fun read. I wonder what his agenda is? :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/05 08:54 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
The perils of group editorializing
Matt Bramanti took apart a Friday Chronicle editorial over at the Lone Star Times, asking "does anybody read this stuff before press time?"
By paragraph, the editorial went something like this:
- Senate committee hearings on energy company profits were a charade.
- Republicans were left to "feign hostility" during the hearings. Barbara Boxer's hostility is genuine.
- Oil execs had to endure the lecture, since they were bribed by tax cuts and permission to pollute.
- Taxing high profits will hurt supply, potentially bringing back gas lines. Besides, high prices encourage conservation.
- Execs say rising demand has boosted prices, but it's really profligate consumption by Americans, who make long drives from where they live and to shop!
- Expanding offshore drilling would boost energy supplies.
- Oil companies have a public duty.
- Energy companies should increase their charitable giving to help Houston's neediest residents
- Energy companies should increase their charitable giving to arts organizations to help Houston's neediest residents!
Bramanti blasted the questionable assertions contained in paragraph 9, but our amazement isn't with the error density of the editorial (which isn't especially high by Chron editorial page standards). Rather, it's the fact that the editorial doesn't advance any coherent view, but is instead a hodge podge of disparate paragraphs all advancing pet editorial idealist themes.
It's almost as if James Howard Gibbons decided they were going to write a nine-paragraph editorial on energy companies, and then passed around a hat to draw lots, so each editorial board member could participate by writing a paragraph, with the end result being a jumbled mess.
Here's a suggestion to James Howard Gibbons on how the editorial process ought to work: Poll your editorial board and try to decide what a majority of the board thinks about some issue. Assign a single editorial board member primary responsibility to write the thing. Circulate it among the rest of the board for comments. Revise. And by all means, read the thing for style, factual accuracy, and logical consistency before you commit it to print!
As an aside, we also noted the editorialists' use of the term "city with global ambitions." Would those be "world class" aspirations?
MORE: Tom Kirkendall points to this sensible, internally consistent Washington Post editorial on the hearings, oil companies and high profits.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/05 01:35 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
12 November 2005
More FEMA dollars on the way
FEMA has approved more reimbursement money for Houston, Harris County, and Montgomery County:
FEMA announced today the approval of $101 million in public assistance grants to reimburse the city of Houston for shelter it provided to Katrina evacuees.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency also announced it has awarded an $8.8 million public assistance grant to the state of Texas to reimburse Harris County for costs associated with providing shelter to Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
FEMA also announced the approval of a $2.6 million public assistance grant for Montgomery County for interim housing of evacuees from the Gulf Coast.
Earlier, FEMA approved a $37.2 million grant to the city and a $1.2 million grant to the county to reimburse the entities for costs of processing hurricane evacuees.
The grants pay 100 percent of eligible costs associated with providing interim housing for evacuees relocated to Texas from Hurricane Katrina. This includes costs of transportation, unit rental and furnishings projected for a limited time period.
I think I recall Mayor White's spokesman Frank Michel quoted somewhere as saying that Houston still has money in the bank (so to speak) from the last FEMA reimbursement, but that the long-term housing needs for Katrina evacuees was what needed to be taken care of next. I imagine this will help out with that.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/12/05 07:30 PM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (5)
Local media neglect key local aspect of Katrina story
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Jay Root reports some news with disturbing implications for the city of Houston:
Lurking among the hundreds of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who fled to Texas are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of sexual predators, state authorities believe.
But weeks after the state first complained, and even after four evacuees were accused of sexual attacks and arrested, the federal government won't or can't give Texas a list of Louisiana sex offenders who came here and applied for emergency assistance, state officials say.
Now the Federal Emergency Management Agency is promising to help provide names sometime next week, but Gov. Rick Perry said FEMA's "ineptitude" and "bureaucratic bungling" make him doubt that it will happen on time. And even if the agency does come through, he can't understand, he says, why it has taken so long to get the crucial information to law enforcement, who could possibly use the information to prevent sexual attacks.
One man arrested in Richardson in October was a registered Louisiana sex offender, but police say they discovered that only after he victimized an 8-year-old girl and fellow Katrina survivor.
"I am very upset," Perry told the Star-Telegram. "We can't seem to get any appropriate solutions to some of these big issues." Perry, a Republican, also called on President Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to immediately reform FEMA in the interest of public safety.
"The president right on down needs to really hammer into this agency culture that you have a job to do and that job is to assist people in times of need and to protect the citizens of this country. So far they're failing," Perry said.
FEMA has cited privacy concerns as an impediment to releasing the list of Louisiana residents known to be in Texas, a list that state officials wanted so they could check to see if any of the names match those of known sex offenders. Rebuffed, the governor's office then said it would give FEMA a list of Louisiana sex offenders so the federal agency could determine which names match aid recipients and then inform law enforcement. That list of offenders was handed to FEMA on Oct. 16, said Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw.
"As of yet we don't have anything," McCraw said. "We're expecting it. We don't know what the holdup is right now."
[snip]
In the meantime, Texas on its own has identified 140 Louisiana sex offenders who fled Hurricane Katrina and are believed to be living here among more than 400,000 Katrina evacuees, McCraw said. He declined to say how the state Homeland Security agency tracked the offenders, whose names have been provided to local law enforcement agencies. But McCraw believes the actual number of Louisiana sex offenders could be in the hundreds.
"I know it's going to be more than 140," he said.
Searches of the Houston Chronicle archives and Google news reveal precious little reporting from the Chronicle (or other local media) on this issue with serious implications for our community. A November 1 (webstamp) story by Clay Robison and Samantha Levine focused on criticism of FEMA, mentioning the sexual offender issue in passing:
The governor also wrote that "FEMA's failure to swiftly assist Texas in identifying Katrina sex offenders and violent criminals, as well as parolees and probationers who are subject to supervision, continues to jeopardize the safety of Texans and other Katrina evacuees."
A November 2 (webstamp) story by Bill Murphy also mentioned the issue in passing:
He also said FEMA has been slow to identify sex offenders and other violent criminals among Katrina evacuees.
Homeland Security and FEMA will work to identify sex offenders and other criminals among evacuees, but the process is time consuming, said Russ Kanocki, a Homeland Security spokesman.
That's about the extent of the Chronicle coverage I could find on this matter.
On the other hand, the Star-Telegram and some other media outlets (Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio's WOAI, San Antonio Express-News, Washington Times) have dealt with the issue. Indeed, the Washington Times story offered this snippet of particular local interest:
Sgt. Flinchum said LSP sex offender databases have been shared with FEMA, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Houston Police Department.
Mr. Perry, a Republican, said FEMA has just recently agreed to check the names of Louisiana sex offenders against the list of evacuees in various Texas shelters or apartments. Texas made that request weeks ago and had even supplied the registration list more than two weeks ago.
Steve McCraw, Texas homeland security chief, said FEMA officials had refused to share its database because of "concerns about privacy."
[snip]
"We did not pass the laws -- both at the federal and the state level -- to identify and to track sexual predators without reason," said Mr. Perry. "Any state or federal agency should have the courtesy and the professionalism to share that information. If the message is, 'We don't trust you with that information, Texas,' then I will be highly offended."
FEMA did not return calls for comment.
Andy Kahan, director of the mayor's crime victims office in Houston, called the situation "an unprecedented nightmare." He said, "We know there are a lot of bad guys out there, but we don't know who they are or where they are."
The local media could really stand to do more reporting on this story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/05 02:40 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
Judge Eckels recognized for leadership in hurricane relief efforts
Harris County Judge Robert Eckels has been named one of Esquire Magazine's Best and Brightest of 2005:
NEWS RELEASE
Date: November 11, 2005
Release: ImmediateContact:Gloria Roemer
Communications Director
713 - 755-4027
713 - 398-3139 (Cell)COUNTY JUDGE ECKELS NAMED AS ONE OF AMERICA'S "BEST AND BRIGHTEST"
Houston - Harris County Judge Robert Eckels joined an impressive group of 30 Americans in being named one of Esquire Magazine's "Best and Brightest" 2005. Every year Esquire Magazine selects a group of individuals who demonstrate extraordinary leadership or ability in their chosen field. Each honoree is then showcased in the December issue of the magazine.
Esquire selected Judge Eckels because of his leadership in the Hurricane Katrina and Rita operations. He is profiled in the good government field. The article written about him in the magazine is titled "The Power of Government to Do Good: Citizen of the Year". According to Esquire, "when the city of New Orleans evacuated to Houston, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels took them in. He was an island of competence in the face of catastrophe".
"This honor represents the outstanding teamwork of hundreds of dedicated men and women in Harris County who did a great job", said Judge Eckels. "It was a privilege to work with them during one of the most dramatic events in our nation's history. "
Esquire Magazine sponsored a reception and dinner for the honorees on Wednesday evening, November 9, 2005, in New York City.
Congratulations, Judge Eckels!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/12/05 09:45 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Red light cameras increase accidents (cont'd)
Portland Cameras Cause 140 Percent Jump in Rear End Collisions
Since red light cameras were installed in Portland, Oregon more than four years ago, rear-end collisions at monitored intersections have jumped 140 percent, according to city statistics. Police and city officials still maintain that the program is a success, as it generates approximately $4.3 million in annual revenue from the $237 photo citations. These findings are consistent with a number of studies showing red light cameras often cause an increase in overall accidents where they are used.
The KATU television news team also monitored the performance of the cameras and discovered that the devices were not flashing when they should. Portland's traffic engineer explained that drivers in an outside lane were beyond the camera's field-of-view and would not be cited. Moreover, about half of all potential tickets are dropped due to unclear photos. Oregon law requires a clear picture of the driver before a citation can be issued. The officials also admitted that one brand of license plate cover successfully deflects the camera, but they would not say which one.
via The Newspaper (of course)
Previous posts on red light camera accident rates are here.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/12/05 08:34 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
11 November 2005
Journalists should report the news, not tell us what to think
Relating to yesterday's post about KHOU-11's stories on HISD testing materials, reporter Mark Greenblatt appears to be sending out a form letter in reply to HISD teachers who have written to him protesting the stories:
I sincerely appreciate you writing me. Please check out our response to HISD's letter that it sent you in your HISD enews update: http://www.khou.com/images/0511/response2.pdf
This contains critical information about what we confirmed in HISD's own documents before airing our report, and that you were not told about in the enews letter the district's press office sent out.In addition, we have posted online a campus by campus listing, according to official state and HISD documents, of all the missing tests we reported about. Neither HISD nor the state dispute these secure tests are missing. You can download the documents and see for yourself what the documents say here: http://www.khou.com/news/defenders/investigate/stories/khou051109_jt_mis
singtests2.43f265db.htmlI truly appreciate you taking the time to write in, and encourage you to continue to offer feedback and to gather all the facts for yourself on this very important issue.
Kind Regards,
Mark Greenblatt
Investigative Reporter
KHOU-TV
Greenblatt says in his response to HISD's letter (first link in the letter above) that the percentage of recovered documents is not important. Greenblatt says the "absolute number of tests lost" is what's most important.
What I find interesting about this is how selective the media is about percentages. The other day when KHOU was reporting that Mayor White had been reelected, it didn't feel the need to state the actual number of voters who voted for the mayor -- 165,447 out of a population of two million plus. What WAS important in that story was the percentage of votes -- 91%.
Yet, suddenly KHOU says the percentage is not important, as it relates to HISD's testing documents. Now it's the actual number that's important.
What Greenblatt's effectively doing is advocating a view, not simply reporting. Instead of just reporting the data and letting us decide, he's telling us what it means. Again I'll ask: is that really the job of a professional journalist -- to tell us what to think?
Of course not.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/11/05 09:37 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (10)
Mayor White is soooo jealous
HISD has attained something the city of Houston hasn't:
Moody's Investors Service raised the bond rating of the Houston Independent School District for the first time in nearly two decades — a move that administrators say should save taxpayers money and show voters that the district is in good financial health.
HISD's rating was increased earlier this month from "Aa3" to "Aa2," the third-highest of Moody's 21 ratings.
[snip]
Moody's reviewed the ratings for the district's sale this week of $21 million in contractual obligations for school buses and computer equipment. HISD also expects to sell $108.6 million in voter-approved construction bonds next week. The district's rating from Standard & Poor's remains a "AA," or "very strong."
You'll recall that Fitch lowered the city of Houston's bond rating last March, and then declined to raise it just last month.
RELATED: Bond rating definitions
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/11/05 08:35 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
10 November 2005
No Pulitzer for murderer who impersonated Katrina victim
Two Chronicle reporters note that escaped murderer Charles Victor Thompson impersonated a Katrina victim while on the run:
Former escapee and condemned murderer Charles Victor Thompson posed as a Hurricane Katrina victim to get donations while on the run in Louisiana, an official familiar with the case said Wednesday.
"Some people up there in Shreveport, in retrospect, remembered who he was, having seen him and talked to him about him being a Katrina victim," said the official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
He said Thompson was able to get a small amount of money and clothes while he was in northwest Louisiana, but the official did not have details about who may have provided the donations.
No charges have been filed against anyone for aiding the fugitive.
"They didn't do anything major for him," the official said, "just little piddly handouts. Nothing that would really advance him anywhere or anything like that."
If Thompson had been a Chronicle reporter instead, at least one Chronicle editor might have called the deception responsible first-person journalism! Alas, there will be no Pulitzer for Mr. Thompson.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/10/05 10:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Chron editorialists go for the laughs
The Chronicle editorial board rushed to the defense of Mayor White's SAFEclear program today.
Incredibly, the editorial idealists committed this whopper to print:
Whatever one might think of the Safe Clear program's details, its rationale from the start was about motorist safety rather than making money.
Right.
The editorial left Owen Courreges in stitches. Sedosi Alhambra says it's just another example of Mrs. White going all out for her man.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/10/05 10:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Casserly no longer untouchable
Today, the Chronicle's John Lopez penned a column that examines Texans GM Charley Casserly's personnel decisions:
"We're 1-7, but we're not a 1-7 team," Casserly said. "This isn't a sinking ship deal. I'm not trying to blame coaching or anything like that. Sometimes these things just happen. If we make a couple of good moves, boom, we're back to where we should be next year."
On virtually every point in his decision-making over the past four years, Casserly points to what he feels was sound reasoning.
The Babin deal was made because the Texans believed Babin would be drafted before the pick was theirs, and defensive coaches desperately wanted Babin.
Regarding the offensive line, he points to tough-luck attempts at fixing things and weak recent drafts, with everyone in the organization agreeing that no top-tier tackles were available the past two years when the Texans were picking. Next year's draft, however, could yield a couple of plums, namely Miami's Eric Winston and Virginia's D'Brickashaw Ferguson.
Casserly refuses to acknowledge that Carr is anything but the franchise quarterback and the playoff-level talent he drafted in 2002. He points to rookies Jerome Mathis and safety C.C. Brown as players who have shown signs of blossoming and says Babin and linebacker Antwan Peek deserve at least another year to develop.
He sounds like someone fighting for his job. And he is.
That's really nice of Casserly not to blame the coaching staff (except while blaming the coaching staff).
Tom Kirkendall posts more on this story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/10/05 10:24 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
A textbook case of how to distort a story, courtesy of KHOU
These two stories are a first-rate example of how the media can distort a story by failing to provide context. What's the context in this case? Yes, HISD has lost tests, but it's a problem HISD has admitted to, and has been addressing -- KHOU's statistics showed a declining rate of test booklet losses -- and HISD has one of the better test resolution rates in the state of Texas at 99%.
Greenblatt sort of whistled past those facts.
And in the case of the Stanford Achievement Test, HISD is one of the few districts that accounts for and returns the tests to Harcourt, the test's publisher. Therefore, HISD is one of only a few districts that has documented losses (again, the percentage is small) because most other districts don't even account for theirs! What an amazing bit of information Greenblatt chose to leave out!
In fact, Greenblatt spoke to a Harcourt spokesman who said that the lost testing materials don't compromise the test. Greenblatt suggested that Harcourt said that because Harcourt doesn't want to develop another test! Is it really Greenblatt's place to suggest to viewers that Harcourt was lying? Is that what a professional journalist does? Well, apparently it is when said journalist doesn't get the answer he wants.
As for the TAKS test, here's what a Dallas Morning News story discovered:
According to Texas Education Agency data, 7,084 test booklets from this spring's state testing in DISD have disappeared.
That's many more than other large districts in the state. Houston lost 1,111, Austin lost 436, and Fort Worth lost 384.
Of the lost Dallas test documents, the largest number – 5,989 – were from the state's main exam, the TAKS. The remainder was from other tests, such as the alternative assessment the state gives to special-education students.
Dallas ISD lost 7,084...HISD lost 1,111, and HISD's resolution rate has been improving. Yet Greenblatt roasts HISD.
Here's a question for Greenblatt: how many tests did Cy-Fair ISD lose? How about Spring Branch? Fort Bend? Alief?
Is there a reason Greenblatt went after HISD only? We've documented this problem before with the Chronicle -- doing only tough, investigative stories on HISD and either doing puff pieces or completely ignoring other local school districts. It's bizarre. If this is an important story to do (and it seems to be a story worthy of investigation), then why not look at test booklet accountability for ALL Houston-area school districts? And present ALL facts and both sides of the story. And don't just provide "experts" who agree with the journalist's predetermined thinking.
I can only surmise that KHOU is getting some heat for this story, because on its website KHOU has provided links to many documents in an effort to bolster Greenblatt's story. Also, it has posted HISD's response letter. I haven't seen KHOU do that before with a story.
I would also guess that HISD teachers are outraged at KHOU's story. Teachers don't appreciate being accused of cheating.
RELATED: HISD's response
UPDATE: Interestingly, one of the documents KHOU has listed in the sidebar of its second HISD-bashing story is this list of school districts and how many tests they are missing. Remember that HISD is our benchmark and HISD's percentage of materials lost is .0022%. Dallas ISD's percentage of materials lost is .0202%, El Paso ISD's is .0316%, Klein ISD's is .0081%, Alief ISD's is .0063%, and Austin ISD's, Pasadena ISD's, Pearland ISD's and Spring Branch ISD's are all .0028%.
All higher -- as a percentage of materials lost -- than HISD's.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/10/05 11:42 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (5)
09 November 2005
A reverse Chron eye!
We've had a few laughs at the Chron Eye For The Death Row Killer Guy.
Today, however, the Chronicle confounded us with what amounts to a reverse Chron Eye.
Zeke Minaya actually profiled one of the victims of a death row killer guy:
The memory of the attack no longer pains Julie Hollas the most. Instead, it's the small and unexpected ways the violence and fear of those few hours have woven themselves into her daily life.
She doesn't like to leave home at night. She shrinks from hugs — even from her 7-year-old son — if hands come close to her neck. She cannot stand the smell of sweat.
"If Greg has been working in the garden, he has to take a shower before he can even kiss me hello," Hollas said of her husband of nearly 10 years. "Because it will bring back a fear. I go through it again."
Charles Daniel Thacker was already a convicted rapist when, Hollas says, he sexually assaulted her Feb. 17, 1993. Thacker was arrested two months later, after strangling Klein schoolteacher Karen Gail Crawford during an attempted rape, and convicted of capital murder.
He is scheduled to die tonight.
That's a different twist from the newspaper.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/05 10:03 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Apparently, 70%+ are bigoted potential KKK members
Yesterday, Texas voters overwhelmingly (76.2%) approved Proposition 2, which affords constitution status to the traditional definition of marriage.
Here in Harris County, 72.5% of voters approved Proposition 2.
It is worth noting that a Houston Chronicle staff editorial effectively called supporters of the measure bigots.
It is further worth noting that the Chronicle's Sunday editorialist and weekday Austin bureau chief effectively compared supporters of Proposition 2 to the KKK, and called Proposition 2 "prejudicial" and "hate-provoking."
Whatever one's thoughts on Proposition 2, it really cannot be disputed that it's a pretty stupid business model to engage in such nasty name-calling with such a large segment of your potential customer base.
And however dizzily euphoric publisher Jack Sweeney made himself after spinning so effusively about the Chron's declining circulation, he might want to consider that part of the decline just might be explained by those people who eventually are offended when the newspaper's juvenile editorialists seem to go out of their way to call so many potential customers names, and to attack their values. It should come as no surprise that some of those people may not want to pay for that privilege.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/05 09:42 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (64)
Chron: no need for differing opinion
Remember the Chron editorial where the editorialists raged at Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt?
This morning Bettencourt was on Edd Hendee's show for some election analysis, and one interesting thing he mentioned was that after the Chron editorial was published, Bettencourt (or someone in his office, I can't remember which) contacted the Chronicle about writing a rebuttal op-ed.
Bettencourt was told "no thanks."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/09/05 09:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Thinking about Sweeney's circulation spin
The Chronicle's self-serving story explaining away its decline in circulation did not escape the keen eye of Slampo, who does quite a thorough Fisking of the entire piece on his blog. Here's an excerpt:
The Houston Chronicle headline writers, no doubt aware of the rising reader clamor for more “happy news,” did indeed dig down to locate the nearly obscured silver lining with the factually sound subject-verb-direct object combination “Chronicle retains ranking.” If the paper had not retained its ranking … well, that would have almost risen to the level of real news, since by our ’rithmetic it would have required a gain of about 22,000 daily papers over the previous year to surpass the sixth-ranked Chicago Tribune---that’s a larger numbers gain than reported by the NYT---or a loss of 140,000 or so to drop beneath the eighth place Boston Globe. (It’s all about the art of the possible, we guess.)
We’re not here this evening to offer our complex and turgid explanations for the continuing fall in newspaper circulation and/or readership---we’re available to do that in private, for $250 an hour, with shower and hot towels available---but we can’t let Mr. Sweeney’s sundry rationalizations of the numbers pass without comment.
The entire post is here.
Incidentally, that Chronicle story ran the following numbers related to Chron.com:
The Chronicle also reaches many more readers online, with chron.com averaging 60 million page views and 5.3 million unique visitors each month.
A story that ran in the Houston Business Journal on Monday, however, cited different (lower) numbers for Chron.com:
Chron.com, the newspaper's Web site, averages 50 million page views and 3.8 million unique visitors per month.
The Houston Business Journal appeared to take key information from this press release from Feedburner, also dated Monday (November 7).
So, which numbers are accurate, and why the discrepancy?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/05 09:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Casey: Mayors rarely move successfully to higher office
Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey today writes about Mayor White's resounding political victory, his possible ambitions for higher office, and the difficulties that popular mayors in Texas have had moving on to higher office:
But the mayor's office, particularly of a big city, isn't an easy steppingstone to statewide posts. Neither Los Angeles nor New York City has elevated a mayor to governor or U.S. senator.
Neither, for that matter, has Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Austin. (Three years ago, popular Dallas and Austin former mayors ran for governor and U.S. senator, respectively. Both were trounced.)
Strangely, Casey does not mention once in his column the last man to win 90%+ in a Houston mayoral election, a pol who (like White) was also a darling of the downtown business establishment and who was also mentioned frequently as a potential candidate for higher office: Bob Lanier.
Ultimately Lanier never did pursue that higher office, but it seems like a glaring omission that Casey didn't even mention him.
Then again, perhaps that's to be expected when your featured metro editorialist/gossip columnist is an import from San Antonio.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/05 08:13 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mayor White has "big plans" for second term
With 165,447 Houston voters giving him the thumbs up, Mayor White rolled to a second-term win yesterday. I was going to pull from Kristen Mack's story, but Chron.com seems to be, ummm, in some kind of altered state, so I can't pull up her story.
Suffice it to say that Mayor White says he has "big plans" for Houston in his second term.
Big plans = technocratic-progressivism.
UPDATE: Okay, here's Kristen Mack's story:
"Houstonians stepped up to support an unknown businessman two years ago," he said. "I want to thank people who went to the polls today and endorsed the direction of the city."
In his first term, White emphasized issues that could be addressed fairly quickly if not always easily — synchronizing traffic lights at 1,500 intersections; devising a way to pay for flood-control improvements; winning voter approval of a plan to reduce a shortfall in the city employee's pension system; and creating the Safe Clear mandatory freeway towing program, though it still faces legal challenges.
He has borrowed a bit from popular former mayors of other big cities, from whom he sought advice between his first election and inauguration. He said he drew from Rudolph Giuliani's nuts-and-bolts approach to city government in New York; Henry Cisneros' business savvy with corporate CEOs in San Antonio; and Richard Riordan's and Ron Kirk's ability to unify diverse parts of the community in Los Angeles and Dallas.
White said that during his first term, he "tried to get the city moving, bring the community together and establish a culture of performance and results at City Hall."
Though headquartered at City Hall, White views his job site as the entire community.
"I want to change the way Houston works, bring hope to neighborhoods that have been neglected and create a standard of performance that will be used by other cities," White said last week in contemplating the second term he won decisively against minor opposition.
In an interview after his victory Tuesday, he ruled out talk that he might seek the 2006 Democratic nomination for governor.
"The honorable thing to do is to do the job you've been hired for," he said. "Being mayor of this city is a full-time job. We have big plans for the next two years."
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: This reporting is a little euphoric. Note this snippet:
White, who has made public safety a hallmark of his administration, also wants to increase the number of police cadet classes.
By year's end, the Houston Police Department will have lost an estimated 740 officers to retirement in a two-year period.
By the end of this fiscal year on June 30, the city will have completed four cadet classes — putting 280 more officers in uniform.
"I'd like to get more officers on the street sooner," White said.
If the Chronicle had quality editors, that bolded part would have been struck. While "public safety" has certainly been a key part of the mayor's rhetoric, the fact is that he has not done nearly enough to deal with HPD's manpower shortage. That aspect of public safety has been mostly neglected by the mayor and his council, despite the claims of the mayor's press people and the willingness of the city's professional press to rewrite press releases.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/09/05 10:10 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)
A sneak preview of the new Chron.com?
The good folks at the Chronicle have been hard at work on a redesign for their website.
Earlier this morning, web visitors may have gotten a sneak preview of how it's going to look.
Chris Elam grabbed this screenshot. We have to give the web team credit for their sense of humor, if not for their color selection.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/05 09:55 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (11)
End of the line for Gilley's
The Chronicle's Thayer Evans reports that the last vestiges of a Houston-area landmark of sorts are being destroyed this week:
Long before Gilley's Rodeo Arena was glamorized by the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy, Terry Rinehart worked at the legendary Pasadena club planning the road shows of country-music star Mickey Gilley, for whom the club was named.
On Tuesday morning, Rinehart, sitting in a white 2001 Chevrolet Suburban, watched as dueling yellow hydraulic excavators tore into the white metal exterior of the once famous honky-tonk.
The one-time Saturday night rodeo hotspot is being torn down this week by Kingwood-based Inland Environment Inc. at the behest of the Pasadena school district, which acquired the property through a tax default.
A fire claimed the club portion of Gilley's in 1990. The 60,000-square-foot arena was spared but has since been deserted.
The 13 1/2 -acre site is being cleared to make way for a middle school, school district spokesman Mark Kramer said.
Rinehart said "personal curiosity," not memories of Gilley's, fueled his visit.
"This is an era that the city would rather forget, I think," said Rinehart, 65, who worked at the club for nearly 20 years. "They don't like to be known as the honky-tonk, redneck capital."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/09/05 08:40 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
08 November 2005
SAFEclear costs to go up again
KHOU-11's Mike Zientek reports on changes that Mayor White has proposed to SAFEclear in response to a federal judge's ruling on the mandatory towing program:
The mayor chose Election Day to unveil proposed changes to the controversial Safe Clear towing program. But the new ideas aren't making everybody happy.
Ten months in, and the city of Houston's Safe Clear program is now looking at the fourth set of rules.
Mayor Bill White's latest proposal allows drivers the option of choosing their own towing service.
Companies that won bids for the freeways, however, would still operate. But drivers could choose not to use them.
[snip]
The new proposal is in response to a federal court order. Back in August, a judge struck down several provisions of the Safe Clear program, including the one giving towing companies exclusive rights to certain stretches of freeway. But the judge had delayed implementing his ruling until December.
As Matt Stiles reported in the Chronicle, the city will now have to cover the $900,000 it had previously received from tow companies to participate in Bob Stein's oligopolistic tow-zone scheme (which the federal judge killed). That led councilmember Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to this accurate conclusion:
"This program was originally supposed to pay for itself and be budget neutral. ... Every time it changes, it costs the taxpayers more money."
Pretty much.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/08/05 10:58 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
Mayor's press release poses as reporting on KHOU
KHOU-11's Chau Nguyen follows up on Doug Miller's teaser about municipal wifi with coverage that amounts to a press release from the Mayor's office:
Mayor Bill White said that if all goes as planned, Houston could go Wi-Fi within the next few years. That would mean anyone could get connected anywhere in Houston.
"I think the public is ready for it," Mayor White said.
So just how would the public benefit?
The mayor picked Umesh Verma with the City of Houston Technology Task Force to lead the effort.
"We're talking about life-enhancing, life-changing experiences, hopefully for the better," Verma said.
Would it be too much to start with more basic matters, such as addressing HPD's manpower shortage and repairing potholes?
If the city can't manage those basics, it certainly doesn't need to be throwing millions of dollars at matters best left to the private sector.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/08/05 10:44 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Metro cancels two public meetings on bus route changes
Remember Metro had scheduled public meetings Wednesday, to discuss that really long list of bus service "improvements"? Well, Metro cancelled them:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has canceled two public meetings that were scheduled for noon and 6 p.m. today to gather comment on proposed bus route changes.
Metro spokesman George Smalley announced the cancellation Tuesday, saying Metro "needed additional time to study the routes." Metro was considering changes to 59 of its bus routes, including six "low-performing" routes it proposed for elimination.
Weird.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Maybe they heard that Laurence Simon and some blogHOUSTONians were heading for Cabo 'ritas and then to the meeting?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/08/05 10:02 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Will HPD's new camera truck lead to confiscated cars?
There's a brand-new pickup truck decked out with video cameras cruising around town.
While people are making u-turns and gawking as it passes them, it seems that truck is helping the city make money and fight crime.
What kind of reaction has it been getting? "That's exactly what they say. What is it doing?" said HPD's Shawn Palin.
He calls the F-150 the AutoVu.
In the back, four cameras are mounted and read the license plate numbers of every vehicle they pass.
An onboard computer tells the officer if that vehicle has unpaid parking tickets.
"See, it's reading a plate right now. In my patrol car right now, I have to type the plate in. That slows it down. Plus the issue of I have to look at the computer and the keyboard to type things in. Now I can just drive by the vehicle and it'll pick it up," Palin said.
Not only does it save time, the city figures it'll help collect more money in unpaid fines.
"The vehicle is able to search more tags than the parking enforcement officers can do manually. It's an automated system, so we're being more efficient at our job," said Houston Municipal Courts Assistant Director Liliana Rambo.
My question is, when the high-tech truck finds a vehicle with unpaid fines, what happens? Is another ticket issued, or does something like this happen:
Several major cities are testing the AutoFind camera system for the purposes of scanning, ticketing, and sometimes seizing parked vehicles. Made by AutoVu in Montreal, Canada the $80,000 to $100,000 system uses a set of cameras mounted on a car and connected to a sophisticated optical character recognition program loaded onto a laptop. The software can examine 1,000 car plates per hour.
[snip]
Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and Tampa have also either tested or deployed this technology which competes with Bootfinder, a system used by two Connecticut cities and Arlington, Virgina. New Haven, CT uses the technology for car confiscation and has generated $1 million in revenue in six months by seizing 1,800 cars. One woman had her Dodge Neon towed right out of her driveway while she was in the kitchen. She only owed $85 in back taxes.
Should Houstonians get ready to have their cars confiscated for unpaid parking tickets? Now THAT'S a world-class revenue stream!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/08/05 09:27 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)
07 November 2005
Maybe Tilman Fertitta could build a Park & Ride ferris wheel?
METRO, once a regional mobility organization, is moving full speed ahead with its new real-estate development mission:
In its second venture into "transit-oriented development," the Metropolitan Transit Authority is planning a four-story Park & Ride garage in northwest Harris County, to which a developer will add space for shops and restaurants.
The Metro board approved the $31.8 million project Oct. 27, along with a previously announced $105 million joint development in the space above its Texas Medical Center Transit Center.
Plans for the new Cypress Park & Ride, on a 23-acre site at U.S. 290 and Skinner, call for Metro to build the $17.5 million garage and NewQuest Properties to add $14.3 million in development, including a "town square" with 92,000 square feet of retail space and 28,000 square feet of restaurant space.
I'm sure that the residents of northwest Harris County can't wait to make the trip to a Park & Ride garage for that down-home town-square feeling!
I really shouldn't be skeptical, though, because as Mayor White has told the press, there's really no arguing with "the brightest, the most qualified and experienced" experts who decide such matters.
However, friend Owen Courreges is as puzzled by METRO's latest boondoggle as I am, Mayor White's endorsement of rule by METRO's real-estate experts notwithstanding.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/07/05 10:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
It's more like year one than year four
Richard Justice is about as critical of Texans GM Charley Casserly today as any Chronicle sportswriter to date:
They played about as well as they can play. Afterward, they had to know it.
Even as the Texans said the usual stuff about being disappointed and continuing to fight and improve, they surely know otherwise. Until they get better players, they won't play better than they did in Sunday's 21-14 loss to Jacksonville.
Maybe it's the coaches who'll get blown out after the season, but this defeat wasn't about coaching. It was about not having enough talent.
"They made plays at crunch time, and we didn't," Andre Johnson said.
The Jaguars made more plays because they have more players. No matter what you think of the Texans' coaching — and there obviously are problems — this franchise must address why it has made so many poor personnel decisions.
Some of the mistakes lay at the door of general manager Charley Casserly. Others were made by Casserly in conjunction with coaches.
The coaching has been poor this season, and that's on Dom Capers. However, the talent acquisition has just been abysmal, and the Texans seem no further along than when they started. That's mostly on Charley Casserly.
The team needs to blow up the front office and coaching staff and try again after the season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/07/05 10:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mayor White wants world-class internet bubble
KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports on a last-minute campaign pledge by Mayor White:
Mayor Bill White stated Monday that if he wins re-election, one of the first things he'll do is push forward a plan to make the entire city of Houston Wi-Fi accessible.
He claimed that he would call for bids within the first three months of his next term and plans to place the necessary equipment atop utility poles throughout the city.
Having solved HPD's manpower shortage, the unfunded liability in the municipal employees' pension plan, graffiti, and potholes, Mayor White apparently feels free to move on to those sorts of quality-of-life matters that will surely make Houston world-class!
Oh, wait, those other basic problems aren't solved?
Never mind.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/07/05 09:39 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)
Chronicle sees steep 6% drop in circulation (updated!)
The latest newspaper circulation numbers have been reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and the Chronicle has suffered another decline in readership:
Average weekday circulation of America's 20 biggest newspapers for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. [The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.]
1. USA Today, 2,296,335, down 0.59 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,083,660, down 1.10 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,126,190, up 0.46 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 843,432, down 3.79 percent
5. New York Daily News, 688,584, down 3.70 percent
6. The Washington Post, 678,779, down 4.09 percent
7. New York Post, 662,681, down 1.74 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 586,122, down 2.47 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 521,419, down 6.01 percent
10. The Boston Globe, 414,225, down 8.25 percent
May's circulation numbers had the Chronicle's decline at 3.9 percent. Clearly, the current business model isn't working at 801 Texas Ave.
RELATED: Laurence Simon and Lone Star Times
UPDATE: The Chron is running an AP story about the nationwide circulation woes. Most head-scratching paragraph:
Four newspapers whose circulation was affected by Hurricane Katrina did not file statements with the Audit Bureau: The Times-Picayune of New Orleans; the American Press in Lake Charles, La.; The Beaumont Enterprise in Texas; and The Daily Leader in Brookhaven, Miss.
Since I don't recall Katrina impacting Beaumont, TX, I am assuming the story meant Hurricane Rita, in the case of the Beaumont Enterprise.
UPDATE AGAIN: The Chronicle did that poof-thing again. The link in the above update now goes to an entirely different Chronicle-credited story/apologia:
The Chronicle's decline was primarily due to a more conservative auditing posture by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, said Jack Sweeney, president and publisher of the Chronicle.
"We used to be able to collect and show proof of payment to ABC on overdue accounts" said Sweeney. "Now if a subscriber is one day late with a payment over 90 days, the computer system automatically eliminates the address from the paid circulation averages."
Soaring fuel costs have also altered circulation strategies, said Sweeney. "We've pulled our distribution in closer to our core market by eliminating San Antonio, Dallas, far South Texas and parts of Louisiana."
The Chronicle's 2005 circulation averages also suffered the effects of Hurricane Rita with evacuations and gas shortages curtailing rack and store sales over several days in parts of East Texas.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: That bolded paragraph is some kind of spinning by Sweeney! One former distributor tells me there was always pressure from the Chronicle brass to throw newspapers even when a subscriber stopped paying. Now we know why -- they hoped to count those "subscribers" as paid circulation if they could ever entice them into coming back. The current practice is more honest.
That business about pulling circulation from Dallas because of fuel costs is funny. Dallas has a real newspaper, not to mention the Star-Telegram. Why in the world would anybody in that metro area read the Chronicle?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/07/05 12:03 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (19)
The commuter rail pipe dream
Yesterday, Tory Gattis had an op-ed in the Chronicle exploring how overrated commuter rail is, especially when compared to other transit options:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has preliminary plans for heavy commuter lines in the northwest corridor alongU.S. 290, the southwest corridor to Fort Bend County along U.S. 90-A, and the southeast corridor to Clear Lake and possibly beyond to Galveston, along I-45. Other corridors are under consideration, including I-45 North/Hardy Tollroad, Westpark and State Highway 288/Almeda.
I have heard support voiced all over the city for commuter rail on existing tracks. It seems like an easy, obvious, and relatively inexpensive solution to our traffic woes. But this is one situation where the citizens of Houston-area residents need a more complete understanding of what they will be getting and giving up before we proceeding down this path. Are we really, really sure this is what we want?
Heavy commuter rail has some appealing qualities. The cars are big and spacious, with comfortable seats and the ability room to walk around — maybe even buy food and drink on-board. They have dedicated right-of-way corridors with no traffic hassles. And of course they have tremendous capacity.
But I find that very few people in Houston understand how rail will fundamentally change their commute, particularly when it comes to door-to-door travel times. This is something Metro needs to be much more up-front about in its public information meetings.
We won't hold our breath for any Metro up-frontness.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/07/05 09:56 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
A (CIA) leak the Chron editorialists like
They don't like the leak that "outed" the not-really-undercover CIA staffer Valerie Plame Wilson:
Although not a crime, both Libby and Rove falsely gave their personal assurance to President Bush and the public that they had nothing to do with the affair. It is now clear that the two had everything to do with the blowing of Plame's cover.
And what does it say about the character of officials who would attempt to secretly punish an opponent's spouse rather than openly defending their policy, in this case their stated reasons for going to war in Iraq?
No matter how their lawyers spin it, this is unacceptable behavior for high officials entrusted with national security secrets. If President Bush is serious about his often professed desire to get to the bottom of the Plame leak, he should demand the resignations of those who had any role in leaking her identity, regardless of whether they are indicted or convicted.
But they DO like the leak revealing that the CIA uses foreign prisons to interrogate terrorists:
Last week, the Washington Post reported that the CIA operates secret prisons in eight countries. The network, the Post reported, spread after 9/11 and includes complexes in Thailand, Afghanistan and two "democracies in Eastern Europe." More than 100 prisoners reportedly were funneled into secret detention camps.
[snip]
The Washington Post story drew in part on accounts by CIA personnel who reportedly had grown weary of the moral and practical compromises secret detention creates. The officials' concerns echo in a debate in the Senate, which is considering a $445 billion defense bill. One provision, which the Senate overwhelmingly passed, bans "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any detainee of the United States. But Vice President Dick Cheney insists that Congress exempt the CIA from this ban.
Ahhhhh, accounts. Otherwise known as leaks.
Funny how the wording can change on a dime like that.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/07/05 08:29 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
06 November 2005
Our technocratic-progressive mayor is all about efficiency
Anne Linehan ran across this AP story by Wendy Benjaminson on Mayor White.
Here's a telling excerpt:
While White gets high marks for efficiency, city officials and advocates for the poor have begun to question whether speed is the only factor in running a government.
"It's efficient the way he gets things done, but we have an obligation as elected officials to oversee what's happening," said City Councilman Gordon Quan. "We're kind of an afterthought sometimes."
The downtown park deal, Quan said, required $10 million of city money for the $58 million project. Quan said he and other council members wanted to know more about the park's design, who it was intended to serve - children or tourists - where visitors would park and other issues before they approved it.
But, he said, the mayor pushed the vote through and told Quan and other questioning members he'd get them the answers they needed. Quan said he's still waiting.
"I guess I was spoiled by democracy" in the administration of Lee Brown, who as mayor for the six years before White was elected oversaw a traditional bureaucracy and worked more closely with council, Quan said.
[snip]
And while White talks about a bloated bureaucracy that slows down his projects, the size of the city government has barely changed under his administration - down only 311 people in a workforce of almost 22,000 since he took office in January 2004.
And, no studies have been done on whether the use of the private sector has actually saved any city money.
White said efficiency is all that matters.
"I start by articulating the policy and goal that the brightest, the most qualified and experienced should make the decision. Nobody successfully argues against that," White said.
Give him points for dropping the "aww shucks" nonsense and being honest about his elitism.
Because of the city's strong-mayor form of government, a majority of Council generally has to be united to present any sort of argument to Mayor White's various initiatives. That rarely happens.
In various places, I've referred to Mayor White's political philosophy broadly as technocratic-progressivism. Despite the image he is crafting to run for higher political office, Mayor White is hardly an enemy of bureaucracy or of the size of government generally (indeed, declines in the city workforce have tended to come at an already undermanned Houston Police Department). He does seem to believe in convincing the private sector to "pitch in" on municipal affairs when it's in their interest to do so, as the story makes clear. He is certainly left of center on some issues, which the story does not make clear. But the story really nails Mayor White on what seems to be his belief in rule by "experts" -- sometimes to the detriment of more democratic rule, as Councilmember Quan only belatedly seems to have discovered. That's the main reason I describe Mayor White's political philosophy as technocratic-progressivism.
In the edited collection The Progressive Revolution in Politics and Political Science: Transforming the American Regime, Thomas G. West writes the following:
The complete picture of modern government is hard to see, because its scope is so big. But the basic principle is clear. The administration state is animated by a pervasive distrust of private associations (family , church, business, fraternities, clubs, political parties, and lobbyists) and a corresponding confidence in the capacity of public officials to direct the lives of the people. Government responds to the alleged or real deficiencies of private institutions by setting up agencies, staffed by what it claims to be scientifically trained neutral experts, to oversee the details of one or another of the vast areas of American life that used to be handled by local government or private choice. [Emphasis supplied]
Professor West is criticizing the transformation of the national government in his essay, but the bulk of his critique applies just as well to Mayor White's view of himself and local government. Whether it's the creation of an unneeded municipal parking authority that will be unaccountable to voters or consumers, or the creation of a draconian freeway towing program that is controlled by politicians and not motorists, or the deployment of limited police resources to harass and ticket downtown pedestrians just trying to get around and make a living, or the effective substitution of a less stringent revenue-limitation proposal for a popular referendum that limited-government activists had been working on for some time, or the substitution of a real-estate developer's desires for METRO rail routes and bus services as opposed to the actual plan approved by voters, or the installation of intrusive red-light cameras that presume the owner of a car is guilty if the camera snaps its license plate and that may cause as many problems as they allegedly alleviate, Mayor White is all about deploying the power of local government to solve "problems" as he perceives them, efficiently, without regard for pesky little matters of popular consent/control or concerns over the proper scope of government. As he frequently says, he was elected to solve problems after all!
For the most part, council has been willing to go along with the technocratic-progressive mayor on most of these issues, and the mayor has been very good at winning support from those who call themselves conservatives (albeit not limited-government conservatives). Like the mayor says in the story, it's hard to argue against "the brightest, the most qualified and experienced."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/05 09:31 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Mayor White to reappoint Billy Burge to Sports Authority board
Look what's on the City Council agenda for this week:
REQUEST from Mayor for confirmation of the reappointment of MR. WILLIAM F. BURGE, III, as Chair, to the HARRIS COUNTY-HOUSTON SPORTS AUTHORITY BOARD OF DIRECTORS, for a two-year term
Two more years of the comes-unhinged-if-you-criticize-him Billy Burge.
He also is the president of the Grand Parkway Association Board of Directors.
Why does the old guard keep getting reappointed to these positions? Aren't there any new faces out there? Maybe with some new ideas? Or an ounce of common sense? Or the ability to relate to the average taxpaying citizen?
I blame it on Houston's cocktail-party circuit. No doubt that's where these things are decided.
(Thanks to Tom Bazan for the heads up.)
PREVIOUSLY: Billy Burge: THE best reason to shut down the Sports Authority! (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/06/05 09:10 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron editorialists rage at state lege, Bettencourt
It's hard to get anything past the astute political observers at the Chronicle:
RECENTLY Houston City Council voted to set this year's property tax rate at 64.75 cents per $100, a quarter cent below last year's rate. Some city officials portrayed the action as a tax cut, causing two dissenting council members and Harris County Tax Assessor & Collector Paul Bettencourt to object.
Bettencourt claimed that since higher appraisals of property had resulted in an increase in city revenue, the small reduction in the rate actually constituted a tax increase. He pointed to a newly minted amendment in the state tax code that forced the city to print the following in extra-large type in the ordinance setting the tax rate: "This tax rate will raise more taxes for maintenance and operations than last year's tax rate." A similar statement must peg the exact amount that will result from higher appraisal rates on a $100,000 home. In Houston, the increase will be $5.77.
The law is an attempt by legislators to intimidate local officials and badger them into lowering taxes in order to avoid the political pariah label of being a tax raiser, even when the tax rate is reduced.
Yes, that's exactly what it is.
It's not clear that the legislature's action really merits that degree of rage from the editorial idealists towards Paul Bettencourt, though.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/05 08:09 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
A Pappas profile to make a PR firm happy
Most Houstonians are fairly well acquainted with the Pappas family and their popular chains of restaurants.
However, for those who are not, David Kaplan's glowing Chronicle profile of the Pappas brothers and their efforts to resurrect Luby's Cafeterias covers that ground fairly well:
Chris Pappas, 58, is himself a throwback, with his soft-spoken, no-frills, workaday demeanor. The Pappas brothers also oversee their family-owned restaurants: Pappasito's, Pappadeaux, Pappas Barbecue and Pappas Brothers Steakhouse.
They follow in the footsteps of their grandfather, Greek immigrant H.D. Pappas, who opened restaurants in Texas and two other states.
A throwback!
So, how long before Tilman Fertitta demands and gets equal time for his popular chains of restaurants?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/05 07:58 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)
Editorial idealists are Chevy Chase; We're not
Saturday, the Chronicle's editorial idealists got themselves all worked up over the issues important to Houstonians Kansans:
So far Kansas is the most extreme example, but the state leads a national trend to "teach the controversy" related to Darwin's theory. What's the harm, advocates including President George Bush have said, in teaching that not everyone believes evolution explains how life developed?
The harm would stem from the false assertion that there is, in fact, a controversy among mainstream scientists over whether the species on Earth evolved through random selection from species that are now extinct. In science classes, "teaching the controversy" would rob time and focus from the empirical method that is indisputably the building block for all serious research. The only possible good that could come from it is if teachers point out the illogical flaws in the arguments of those who challenge the scientific method.
Those who discount the value of this method should be willing to forgo any bird flu vaccine that is developed on the principles of random mutation, genes and natural selection [editor's note: WHAT?!]. They should also be ready for a blighted crop of Kansas high school graduates, forced to mull confusing and irrational notions of how nature works while their rivals were growing into scientists and doctors.
A blighted group of Kansas high school graduates? Oh my!
Thankfully, far more thoughtful people than the myopic Chronicle idealists have commented thoughtfully on the topic of Darwin. There's John Silber in The New Criterion, a publication that the idealists probably don't read too often (but should):
Theologians have offered the view that God created the universe ex nihilo, from nothing. This is no explanation, but, except for Biblical literalists, it leaves the issue as the mystery it is. Is it not better to admit that no one knows the answer than to propose a “scientific” answer so patently inadequate?
And what shall thoughtful individuals say about Darwinism in its fulsome development and extension? It is impossible to confront facts objectively and deny that species have evolved. The evidence showing developments in physical structure that relate the human species to hominids is compelling, and the similarities in the DNA of humans and chimpanzees provide undeniable scientific evidence of their kinship. Thus far, evolution is not merely one theory opposed to another but a scientific truth amply confirmed by facts. And there is convincing plausibility to the idea that physical or intellectual advantages have survival value. We can accept without credulity that those species have survived which possessed qualities lending them a clear advantage over the species that have become extinct. An animal that can see, for example, is clearly advantaged over those that are blind. Survival of the fittest based on specific advantages provides factual support for the process of evolution.
The critical question posed for evolutionists is not about the survival of the fittest but about their arrival. Biologists arguing for evolution have been challenged by critics for more than a hundred years for their failure to offer any scientific explanation for the arrival of the fittest. Supporters of evolution have no explanation beyond their dogmatic assertion that all advances are explained by random mutations and environmental influences over millions of years.
This view was challenged a century ago by Henri Bergson when he asked for an explanation of the extraordinary eye of the giant squid. Once the eye is fully developed, one need not question its survival value. But its development required hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. Why was every random mutation so neatly and marvelously contributory to the development of this complex structure? No scientific explanation has been offered; the view is only a working but unproven hypothesis. The empirical scientist becomes a fanatical dogmatist by insisting that random mutation sans any formative principle explains it all. (One need not appeal to an intelligent designer in order to wonder if there is an organizing force in the universe offsetting entropy.) A magician who shows you his empty top hat at time t1 and then at time t2 produces a rabbit from the hat has never had the gall to offer the mere presence of the rabbit as an explanation of how it got there. He claims it is magic. The evolutionists can do no better.
More recently, even some scientists and mathematicians have begun to question the adequacy of the emergent aspect of evolution largely for its failure to explain what Michael Behe, professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University and author of Darwin’s Black Box, calls the “irreducible complexity” of organisms. Random mutation cannot explain scientifically their complexity and the addition of so many complex elements before any survival value is established; hence, the black box or the rabbit in the hat. In Abyss: The Deep Sea and the Creatures that Live in It, C. P. Idyll considers once again Bergson’s preoccupation with the eye of the squid. Idyll notes, “What the scientist finds hardest to understand in considering the squid and the human eye is that two entirely independent lines of evolution should have converged at the same point.” Why should evolution have produced eyes in two vastly different species through totally independent lines of evolution such that each has the eyeball with its lens, its cornea, its iris, its retina, its vitreous humor, and its optic nerve? How did random mutation produce such extraordinarily similar structures in the absence of any teleological or formative principles? And how many hundreds of thousands of years passed before each additional element significantly contributed the final capacity of sight that would ensure survival?
Random mutation might be the answer, but there is no evidence to prove it. Scientists should acknowledge the difference between what is proven and what is merely a hypothesis. One is not attacking or denigrating science to point out its hubristic extensions unsupported by any evidence or methodology that could be described as scientific.
Creationists cannot deny the fact of evolution—the development over extended periods of time of new forms of life and the survival of those forms that are the fittest. These aspects of the theory of evolution are adequately confirmed by facts and must be accepted as facts by rational observers. Those who insist that human beings were originally created in their present form are as irrational as those who believe the world is flat.
But those who believe that an intelligence or some formative principle has guided the development of new forms of life have a right so to believe. At the same time scientists have the right to believe that random mutation alone accounts for the arrival of new forms of life. Each has the right to that credo or faith that best supports their view of the nature of things. At the same time, however, each should recognize that faith, not facts, supports their positions, for there is no scientific evidence or proof for either intelligent design or random mutation as a factual explanation of the arrival of the fittest. On my view, scientists and laymen should prefer to leave the issue as the mystery it is rather than commit to an answer for which scientific evidence is lacking.
If scientists do not claim to know anything as factual unless it is supported by empirical evidence, they will, as Kant observed in his Critique of Pure Reason, leave room for faith.
Unless (he did not add) they editorialize at 801 Texas Avenue, where the tolerance of the leftover defenders does not extend quite that far.
There's also Richard John Neuhaus, who addresses the topic directly in First Things (another publication that probably doesn't find its way to 801 Texas Avenue):
Remember the old Saturday Night Live show when the news anchor began with, “Good evening. I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not.” I loved the sheer chutzpah of it. That seemed to be the mode adopted by the nation’s prestigious scientific organizations when the Kansas Board of Education held hearings on teaching about the controversy regarding evolution and the origins of life. “We’re the experts and you’re not,” the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in effect, responded. Dr. Kenneth Miller of Brown University allowed that declining to testify “can be made to look as if you do not want to defend science in public, or you are too afraid to face the intelligent-design people in public.” The Kansas hearing was “a political show trial,” sniffed Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education. Never mind that there are highly certified scientists, and not only intelligent design proponents, who think there is a legitimate debate about the way evolution is taught in the schools. There are times when you rightly refuse to dignify an idea by declining to participate in the discussion of it. Some time back, for instance, I declined an invitation to be part of a university panel exploring whether the CIA and Israel were behind the attacks of September 11. But it seems to me the scientific establishment is making a big mistake in adopting the Chevy Chase posture. A state board of education may be seriously mistaken but it is, after all, the legitimate educational authority in the state. It is not very smart, and certainly does nothing to enhance scientific education, to dismiss its members and those who elected them as a bunch of ignorant wackos. Dr. Miller and others of the establishment do plan to testify in a case in Dover, Pennsylvania, where teachers are instructed to acknowledge that there is controversy about the theory of evolution. “In a court of law, you have standards, rules, and laws you are interpreting,” Dr. Scott explained. “In Kansas, it was a free-for-all.” This is really not very smart. The mandarins of the scientific establishment will get together with the robed masters of the judicial usurpation of politics to keep the booboisie from questioning their betters. “We’re Chevy Chase, and you’re not.” And then, the dimwitted masses having been put in their place, the controversy over how to teach children about evolution will go away.
The editorial idealists are Chevy Chase. Thankfully, we're not.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/05 07:27 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Looking back at a week of Astros proxy wars
Tom Kirkendall and I have been posting (and emailing) a bit over the proxy wars being carried on by Chron sportswriters who seem loyal to various members and former members of the Houston Astros' organization.
Today, Kirkendall followed up with a lengthy recap of the matter, and threw in this conclusion:
[D]espite his squeaky-clean public persona, Mr. McLane is certainly capable of getting down and dirty with the best of them when he believes that his reputation is being sullied. It also appears reasonably certain that Mr. Hunsicker did not leave with many friends in the Stros front office and that his reputation for self-promotion may have cost him dearly in terms of snaring one of the better GM positions in Major League Baseball.
Like a certain mayor, Drayton McLane has that "awww shucks" demeanor down pat, but it doesn't fool everyone.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/05 04:03 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron won't tell you why teachers unions oppose merit pay programs
The Chronicle's editorial board dislikes Gov. Perry's decision to order a teacher merit pay program that "will use $10 million in discretionary federal funds to reward teachers who succeed in economically disadvantaged schools."
Here's the paragraph that gives away which side the idealists are on:
Teacher union leaders have consistently opposed bonus pay plans linked to tests scores because the criteria for receiving bonuses can be easily manipulated by school principals to reward favorites and punish mavericks. Simply assigning advanced students to particular instructors can rig the system in their favor.
Eh, no. That's their EXCUSE, but it's not the reason. Two paragraphs down, the true reason is hinted at:
Alief school board President Sarah Winkler expressed similar sentiments to the Chronicle's Jason Spencer: "I think we need to get everyone's salary up to an equitable level before we start giving rewards here and there."
Of course, all unions strive for equitable pay. It helps maintain their power.
Here is the real problem with teachers unions and the real reason they oppose merit pay programs:
Peter Brimelow and Leslie Spencer from Forbes Magazine have been studying the rise of teacher unions for the last two decades and believe that the problem lies in the unions' huge monopolistic clout. Economically, the function of a union is to monopolize the labor supply to increase wages. Public education represents another monopoly such that every parent must pay for the schools (in the form of taxes) whether or not they use or want the service. The NEA and AFT also represent the only unions teachers may choose to join. Therefore, the teacher unions are a monopoly on top of a monopoly on top of another monopoly. Or put more elegantly by Brimelow and Spencer, the NEA and AFT represents a "near-monopoly supplier to a government-enforced monopoly consumer."
The results are catastrophic. While per-pupil spending and union activism have significantly risen over the last 30 years, teaching quality has seriously declined. Dr. Myron Lieberman from the Education Policy Institute asks, "How do the NEA and AFT raise the costs while lowering the levels of student achievement?"
[snip]
An even more destructive stance by the teacher unions is their view on teacher compensation. The NEA and AFT alliance insists upon a single-salary structure, which means all teachers get paid the same regardless of the subject they teach or their ability. This causes a barrier in attracting qualified math and science teachers, who can earn more in other professions. The teacher unions adamantly oppose the obvious solution of paying math and science teachers more money. Instead, they use the dearth of math and science teachers as a reason to increase pay for all teachers.
These unions also oppose awarding exceptional teachers with pay increases. Raises are solely based on seniority. This causes a socialistic culture that refuses to award success or punish failure. The teacher unions' opposition to "merit pay" causes an overall decline in teaching quality and student achievement.
The major trouble is unions are strongly against any competition in their market. They value job security and benefits above children, parents and teaching quality. The NEA and AFT's opposition to home schooling, school choice and charter schools is all based on their desire to maintain their monopoly. Even though teacher unions are the biggest setback to improving American education, their unambiguous solution is always to increase spending.
And each spending increase is accompanied by an increase in mandatory dues to local, state and national teacher unions. Most estimates place the annual dues between $400 and $500 per teacher.
The last paragraph is the key: every time an equitable (read: across-the-board) pay increase is achieved, union dues go up, which equals more union power. Merit pay can't be turned into a union raise, which is why teachers unions oppose merit pay programs.
RELATED: Why Merit Pay Will Improve Teaching (Steven Malanga, City-Journal)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/06/05 08:03 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
05 November 2005
Chron editorialists advise on good corporate citizens
In typically condescending fashion, the Chronicle editorial board yesterday lectured Wal-Mart on corporate responsibility:
These blunders, and the disgust they prompt in Wal-Mart's organized critics, should strengthen the company's resolve to be a better corporate citizen. The benefits both for Wal-Mart and the millions it affects could be enormous. Because of its magnitude, Wal-Mart can spur greener, more efficient practices in manufacturers, competing retailers and consumers. Even self-serving measures could widely improve quality of life:
Here's a question for the idealists: What exactly is the Hearst Corporation doing to be a "better corporate citizen?"
And locally, what is the Houston Chronicle doing to be a "better corporate citizen?" For starters, has there been any progress on improving the unsafe work environment?
Being a better corporate citizen should not simply involve the idealists' advice to others. It should start at 801 Texas Avenue!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/05/05 03:04 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
The inadequacy of public notices in newspaper classified sections
A couple of days ago I wondered about a TxDOT meeting that didn't seem to have much public notice.
Yesterday I received an email from David M. Krukewitt, P.E, of Jones & Carter, Inc., saying that public notices were posted in the Spring Observer on October 6th and 13th (Connie told me that the Spring Observer isn't available in our area), and in the Chronicle on October 2nd and 22nd.
The meeting was held on November 1st.
So, Jones & Carter did what they were required to do, but I think this example points to a need to update public notice regulations. With all the new technology out there, public notices need to keep pace. Perhaps (as Rorschach has suggested) a Harris County or Texas clearinghouse website should be established for public notices, so there is one place to look for such things.
And remember how Connie saw little signs up the night of the meeting? Why not require that signs be put up several days before the meeting, at various intersections around the area in question? In this case, various intersections around the Spring/Gosling Rd./Klein Oak High School area.
Yes, Jones & Carter did their part, but in today's internet age, it's ludicrous to think that little public notices in the back of a dead tree newspaper's classified section are adequate.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/05/05 10:53 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
04 November 2005
Is anybody at the Chron sports department on speaking terms?
Earlier in the week, Tom Kirkendall called attention to a story by the Chronicle's Jose de Jesus Ortiz that appeared clearly to be a hit piece on former Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker on behalf of either Drayton McLane or one of his lackeys in the Astros organization:
The first time I knew Hunsicker's days were numbered with the Astros was when he flirted with the New York Mets for their vacant general manager's job after the 2003 season. A report in the Newark Star-Ledger stated that Hunsicker wanted out of Houston because he had been overruled when he wanted to hire Tony Peña instead of Jimy Williams as manager after the 2001 season.
The morning that report ran, I was awoken by Astros brass furious [note: McLane and his lackeys sure know who to call when they want something in print, don't they? -klw] because they believed Hunsicker was trying to take credit for discovering Peña.
For the record, Purpura, not Hunsicker, was the one pushing for Peña.
Asked about the report, Hunsicker declined to comment. I told him I was running something about it with or without his comments because folks in his front office were offended by the inference. Whether it was true or not, Astros officials distrusted Hunsicker and believed he was the biggest leak in the franchise.
The same reporter is known for carrying water for McLane, so his hit piece on Hunsicker was hardly a surprise, even if it's not exactly the sort of fare one expects from a quality newspaper.
Today, Richard Justice responded on his blog by blasting the current Astros regime for its shoddy treatment of a longtime scout:
The Astros have laid off a scout who worked for the organization for 15 years. He was part of one of the most productive player development systems in baseball. He was only informed this week, which is late by baseball standards. Most organizations have filled their jobs for next season.
Later in the blog post, Justice takes a not-so-subtle shot at Tim Purpura in response to a reader's question.
Watching the sportswriters at the Chronicle take little shots at each other is almost as entertaining as reading sports reporter Emily Davis recall her experiences as a Beaumont six-year-old. Not quite, but close.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/04/05 07:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Banjo Jones: Morale sinking at the Chron?
Banjo Jones posts some Houston Chronicle scuttlebutt over at his blog:
Morale at the Chron, we're told, is at an all-time low. Editor Jeff Cohen can't make the paper a world-class product, like he promised he would, because he's getting his marching orders (in the form of budget constraints) from the Hearst bigwigs in New York. Their new hires, by and large, are young and rather inexperienced, so they'll work cheap. One of their more veteran reporters recently left to go work for Stars and Stripes. Who in their right mind would want to leave a "major metro daily" to work for Stars and Stripes? Someone who works at The Houston Chronicle.
A little poking around on the Stars and Stripes site suggests that Banjo's unnamed former Chron reporter is one Andrew Tilghman, who seems to be working for the Stars and Stripes Middle East bureau.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/04/05 06:46 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
KHOU exposes Texans' degenerate; Texans defend
The "11 News Defenders" ran a big story on Texans linebacker Antwan Peek yesterday. It seems Peek has been leaving unsupported children all over the country:
On a Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati, there was a battle with the Bengals. For the Houston Texans' number 98, it was a return home.
"I had my family here, and you know, we enjoyed it," said Peek.
He's Antwan Peek, linebacker on the field and role-model off, with time for community activities charities and children.
That particular October weekend, one Cincinnati child went ignored.
Omari Peek is the linebacker's 5-year-old son, but the closest he got to his father was watching him on TV.
"It's a smack in my face, it's a smack in the face of his child," said Omari's mother, Dara Moore, "Fatherhood is being there for your child."
But there's another reason.
Unpaid child support, money needed for a boy with big league dreams of becoming, "A doctor and a teacher and a football player," he said.
"It's ridiculous," said his mother, "It just makes me feel disgusted."
She is disgusted because court records show Peek owes mom and son more than $80,000 in support. This despite making $380,000 a year and getting a $500,000 signing bonus.
[snip]
But it turns out that Omari and his mother are not the only ones missing that support from the NFL father. In fact, Peek has left a trail that covers three states.
In addition to Dara Moore there's a second Cincinnati mother and child. Peek owes them $70,000 and faces contempt charges from the local court.
In Michigan, records confirm Peek owes a third mother $41,000 and in Kentucky, records show a fourth mother was owed more than $10,000 dollars.
Peek paid that in one lump sum, but only after he was locked up in jail, arrested on a fugitive warrant for felony flagrant non -support of a child.
When 11 News Defenders tried to ask Peek about the back support owed, the Texans wouldn't let their player talk. They said they locker room was closed.
His lawyer, however talked. "He understands he owes money, he clearly does," said Jim Comodeca, Peek's attorney, "Mr. Peek wants to take of his children. What he's trying to do is make things right
When he was asked why is had taken so long, "Well, I knew you'd ask that question, and I, quite frankly, don't have an answer for that question," Comodeca said.
And what about the Texans, what do they have to say about all of this?
"Antwan is not a bad person OK? He's not a bad person. He's fulfilling his obligations," said Tony Wiley, Texans spokesperson.
He hasn't been fulfilling his obligations, and that does make him a bad person.
Why is the Texans organization going out of its way to defend this loser? I'm not suggesting they cut him, but neither do they need to defend the degenerate.
MORE: Texans' Peek responds to child support allegations (KHOU).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/04/05 06:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Will Houston (finally) be world-class if we have an NHL team?
You know what else would make Houston world-class? NHL hockey, of course:
With the NHL back in business, Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said this week that he is working toward expanding his business to pro hockey.
Alexander said that not only has he made his interest known to NHL officials, including commissioner Gary Bettman, last month he began talking with investors should he be able to buy a team to move to Houston.
"I am trying to get a team. I am trying," Alexander said. "I went to see the commissioner. I told him about my interest. I can't disclose teams, but I've been talking to people (in the NHL) and to investment bankers.
Oh brother.
Laurence Simon has the takedown on this looming boondoggle -- a boondoggle that will no doubt cost Houstonians dearly; after all, the Aeros can't even afford to pay for their own damn ice. And Alexander requires Houstonians to pay for a parking garage...while he gets the revenue from it!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/04/05 11:26 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
FBI, MS-13 shootout in east Houston
There was a shootout last night in East Houston:
One alleged gang member was taken into custody and two others were killed after authorities said they opened fire on undercover FBI agents in east Houston.
The agents were investigating MS-13 gang activity when they were ambushed by five men on Liberty at Lockwood.
The agents fired back killing two suspects and wounding two others. A fifth suspect was also taken into custody.
Yikes!
Houston may not have enough police officers (and with MS-13 gang activity and the increasing problem of graffiti, the shortage is very apparent), but gosh darnit, we are going to have a lovely AND world-class downtown park! The homeless and the gangs will love hanging out in the beautiful, leafy park that Mayor White thinks will be teeming with strolling Houstonians.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/04/05 11:12 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
03 November 2005
Chron headline confuses study for poll
The Chronicle ran a Gebe Martinez story with the following headline yesterday:
Poll ties economics, school size to higher Latino dropout rate
The Chronicle's headline writing is frequently weak, but this one is horrible even by Chron standards, since the story is about a Pew study that analyzes characteristics of high schools attended by Hispanics. The story uses the term "survey," but it's not referring to polling. It's referring to a study, which should have been clear from the context of the story. The study made use of US Department of Education data, not polling data.
Furthermore, both the headline and the story contain overly broad conclusions. The Pew study is important because it suggests some unique characteristics of schools attended predominantly by Hispanics. One could use that information to construct a properly specified social scientific model in order to test the impact of school characteristics (and other independent variables) on educational outcomes. However, this Pew study did not actually do that (although the principal investigator, Richard Fry, does suggest that the different characteristics might explain differing educational outcomes, he makes no such claim that this study actually demonstrates that linkage; it does not), and both the headline and the substance of the story are erroneous to the extent they suggest it did.
It's possible that neither the headline writer nor Martinez has special expertise in social scientific modelling, which might explain the overly broad characterization.
The press release, executive summary, and full report are all available on the Pew Hispanic Center site. It might have been useful for Chron.com to provide links, since some readers actually do prefer to read source materials for themselves (which, in this case, is necessary for a more accurate understanding of the study).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/03/05 10:26 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Was Katy Taylor the favorite or not?
The Chronicle's sports reporter Emily Davis seems a little confused:
Katy Taylor was the No. 1 seed at last weekend's Region III-5A team tennis tournament, but that didn't mean the Mustangs were favored to win the two-day event.
Sure, Katy Taylor had clout heading into the tournament. Ten regional and three state titles will do that for a team. But the Mustangs were ranked No. 10 in the state, and Clear Lake was No. 7. But Katy Taylor had an edge — a non-district victory over Clear Lake that gave it the top seed.
So, Katy Taylor was the top seed, normally an indicator a team is favored to win a tournament.
But Katy Taylor wasn't favored to win, because Clear Lake entered with a higher rank in state polls.
But Katy Taylor beat Clear Lake previously, to gain the top seed and therefore an edge, according to Davis.
Got that?
Seriously, that muddled mess makes one wonder if anybody edits the sports pages.
But at least it's not as bad as some recent fare.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/03/05 09:43 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Sekula-Gibbs criticizes mayor on healthcare priorities
Doctor/councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is not happy that a majority on council voted to raise taxes even as Mayor White is cutting municipal health services:
THE city of Houston is raising taxes while cutting back services. One of the targets is our health department, which so many Houstonians count on for a variety of services, from animal control to immunizations to restaurant inspections.
On Oct. 26, City Council rejected a proposed new tax rate of 64.173 cents per $100 valuation. This would have maintained taxes at the 2005 level and prevented increased property taxes based on runaway appraised values. Instead, council voted to set the rate at 64.75 cents per $100 valuation, which will result in an increase in tax revenue. Just two days before, council was informed that Mayor Bill White approved cutting 18 health department positions. These two important decisions announced in one week show how homeowners' tax bills are rising while basic services to the city's most needy are decreasing. This is a breach of our responsibility.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/03/05 09:30 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
A red light camera sighting!
blogHOUSTON's editor thinks she spotted a camera being installed this morning at Travis and Preston.
You've been warned!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/03/05 11:59 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (17)
Was that a secret meeting TxDOT held Tuesday night?
Something odd happened up here in far North Harris County a couple of days ago.
On Tuesday, Nov. 1, Connie O'Donnell drove past Klein Oak High School at 6 p.m. to run an errand. At 6:30 p.m. she drove back past Klein Oak High School on her way home. It was then she saw a bunch of little signs stuck in the ground that said TxDOT was having a public meeting at Klein Oak High School -- right then! From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.! But the signs weren't there when she drove past the high school at 6 p.m.
Connie wasn't able to run back to the high school to see what was going on, so she called Jerry Thomas, a leader in the Grand Parkway fight, and he hustled over to Klein Oak to see what was up. He got there at about 7:30 p.m., walked in and saw a group of men chit-chatting. He approached them, identified himself, asked what was going on and they promptly clammed up. Except for Jerry, there didn't appear to be any regular public citizens at the meeting.
Now, what Jerry and Connie were able to determine is that the meeting was about the Gosling Road expansion. Right now Gosling Road ends (or begins, depending on your point-of-view) at FM 2920. The meeting was about extending it to meet up with Kuykendahl Road.
I can't imagine that there would be any serious opposition to that -- it seems to be a logical road extension -- but why all the secrecy?
There is/was no notice of this meeting on TxDOT's website and Connie couldn't find a notice in the Chronicle. She drove past Klein Oak at 6 p.m. and there were no signs, but at 6:30 p.m. there were.
On Klein Oak's website, in the calendar section, there is a blurb about the "Gosling Rd. Project Meeting" but that was the only notice Connie could find, except for the signs put up after the meeting had already started.
Oh, and Connie did see a car parked in the Klein Oak parking lot with a Jerry Eversole sticker on it. Did a staffer of Commissioner Eversole attend the meeting? Why didn't Commissioner Eversole notify his constituents of the meeting?
If anyone can find the public notice of this TxDOT meeting, please let me know, either in the forum or in an email (bloggers@blogHOUSTON.net).
And what's up with all the hush-hush surrounding a meeting that really didn't need to be hush-hush? Transparency in government -- that's what we want.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/03/05 09:36 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Nothing like an endorsement after the voting starts
With early voting coming to a close, another Council endorsement trickled out of the Chronicle yesterday: Incumbent Toni Lawrence for District A.
The election will be held on Tuesday. The value of an endorsement so close to an election and at the close of early voting is unclear. But at least the endorsers feel good about themselves. And that's important!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/03/05 08:02 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
02 November 2005
That was fast!
Remember that eye-popping sign Laurence Simon saw on a Metro bus recently?
Today he notes that Metro has changed the sign. Take a look at the new one. =)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/02/05 11:31 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
Metro's site adds new Solutions, real estate section and amazing facts!
In doing the last post on Metro's bus route cuts, I discovered something interesting on Metro's website: the old Metro Solutions page has been replaced with a new Metro Solutions page! Here's the old Metro Solutions:
METRO Solutions is in Motion
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!METRO Solutions will be paid for with existing sales tax, fare revenue and available Federal transit funds. Bond financing, authorized by voters in November 2003, will help accelerate the transit improvements. METRO will also extend funding for road improvements to Harris County, the City of Houston and the Multi-Cities through FY2014.
And here is the new Metro Solutions:
Announcement of METRO Solutions
Phase 2 ImplementationGuiding Principles
* Fiscally disciplined (affordable & efficient; stay within our budget)
* 50/50 match relationship with FTA
* Adhere to the general planning guidelines in the Referendum regarding:
o Corridors
o Equivalency of Service
o Schedule of Completion* Build more rapid transit rather than less
* Build sooner rather than later
* Build the plan in stages, with available funds, to minimize impact on surrounding communities
* Protect our ability to run high quality bus service throughout the service area
* Respect the evolving FTA criteria for funding approvals
* Referendum plan has always been a work in progress, still is, and will be
* No plan based on increase in the sales tax rate
* Remain committed to the long term goal of light rail in Phase 2 corridors
* Make maximum effort to accommodate community concerns in theservice area
That's quite a difference! No longer is there any mention of 50% more bus service; instead Metro will "Protect [its] ability to run high quality bus service throughout the service area."
And this new Metro Solutions page says the "Referendum plan has always been a work in progress, still is, and will be." In other words, a living, breathing referendum. Funny, that language wasn't included in the referendum voters approved.
Don't miss this whopper in the FAQ section:
10. How many bus routes have recently been cut?
Twenty-nine poorly-performing conventional bus routes have been cut since October 2004 with no overall loss in ridership.
And this amazing bit of buried insight:
16. METRO has stated that FTA's criteria for cost per rider is $22.00. METRO's cost per rider is $23.80. Can METRO find a way to cut costs by $1.80, so that Houston can qualify for LRT?
The FTA cost-effectiveness standard is an index that uses a combination of costs and benefits to compare projects on a nationwide basis. It is commonplace for costs to rise, not fall, during the preliminary engineering phase anywhere from 10% - 30%. Thus, submitting these two lines to the FTA as rail runs the risk of losing federal dollars, and resulting in no new transit investment for these corridors.
$23.80 per rider! Metro "improves" or cuts bus routes that exceed $5.90 cost per rider!
Also new to Metro's site is the Real Estate Services page, where you can look at surplus properties Metro is selling, view announcements, and check out the current RFPs and RFQs Metro is seeking.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/02/05 11:54 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
Time for a new round of Metro bus route cuts
Metro must still think the path to increased ridership includes cutting bus routes, because Metro has a new round of "service adjustments" ready to go:
METRO will conduct two public hearings to receive comments on considered service adjustments for Sunday, January 23, 2006. METRO has scheduled the public hearings for:
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Noon and 6 p.m.
1900 Main Street
Board Room, Second floor
In the Central Business District/Downtown
At Main Street and St. Joseph Parkway
Location is wheelchair accessible.METRO is evaluating the following route, schedule and facility modifications. Please review the information for any changes that may affect your daily commute.
NOTE: Routes considered for elimination have experienced low ridership for an extended time. In most cases, METRO offers alternate service in the affected areas. By discontinuing low-performing routes, METRO makes the best use of its resources, including your tax dollars, and continues to offer affordable, reliable and accessible service to our community.
I'll put the (very long) list of adjustments in the extended entry, but I do have a question about one of them:
37 El Sol
Sunday - Throughout the day change frequency from 35 to 50 minutes to match ridership demand. Weekday, Saturday, & Sunday - Modified the route to remove it from portions of Glendale, Hanover, and Woodvale (effective 8/14/05).
How is a bus rider supposed to know when the bus will arrive if the frequency changes depending on demand? How does someone plan to get to an appointment or to work if they can't be sure when the bus will arrive?
And remember that more bus route cuts were in Metro's new budget, in direct contrast to the Metro Solutions plan that voters approved, where Metro promised a 50% increase in bus service.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/02/05 09:43 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
01 November 2005
World-class panhandling
Laurence Simon had an interesting experience with Houston's homeless and METRO.
METRO really doesn't need to commission $250,000 studies to figure out why people aren't enamored of their transportation system. Reading Laurence's blog would cost a lot less!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/01/05 09:58 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
Cragg Hines isn't a fan of Judge Alito
Matt Bramanti points out today's Cragg Hines column on Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito:
IF you like machine guns, you'll love Sam Alito.[snip]
Alito, a rock star to conservatives who scuttled Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers, is so in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia, Bush's archetype of a supposedly strict-constructionist justice, that he's known as "Scalito" — little Scalia or Scalia lite.
But Alito need take a back seat to no one when it comes to hard-right jurisprudence.
[snip]
Just as in the machine-gun case, Alito was the lone way-out-there voice on an important point in an already bad 3rd Circuit opinion that Alito would have made even worse.
In upholding a restrictive Pennsylvania abortion law in 1991, even the increasingly conservative 3rd Circuit refused to go along with one of the legislatively approved provisions: to require a woman to notify her spouse, in almost all instances, before an abortion. To emphasize his position, Alito wrote a dissent to spell out his approval of the spousal-notice section.
The Supreme Court said on review that the provision would impermissibly give a man "the kind of dominion over his wife that parents exercise over their children."
So, all you women who want to be ordered about like the kids, sit down right now and urge your senator to get aboard the Alito bandwagon.
Egads! Lock up the kids and pets!
Back when Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court, Hines was a Chron DC bureau reporter and (you'll be so surprised to learn) he wrote a glowing story about her nomination:
President Clinton on Monday nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg , a pivotal centrist on the federal appeals court here for the past decade and before that a leading women's rights litigator, to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
Clinton, with Ginsburg at his side for the announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House, praised her as "progressive in outlook, wise in judgment, balanced and fair in her opinions."
[snip]
In his announcement, Clinton praised Ginsburg 's effort to bridge the ideological chasm that often splits open the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, generally considered second only to the Supreme Court in national legal prominence.
"Time and again, her moral imagination has cooled the fires of her colleagues' discord, ensuring that the right of jurists to dissent ennobles the law without entangling the court," Clinton said.
[snip]
The president was moved to tears as Ginsburg described her career and family, concluding with a paean to her mother who died after a four-year bout with cancer when Ginsburg was a teen-ager.
It would be nice to get an answer to one of the questions Bramanti keeps trying to get Jeff Cohen to address: Why doesn't the Chronicle have an on-staff conservative columnist?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/01/05 12:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Temporary red light camera delay
Red light cameras that were supposed to be in place Tuesday at busy downtown intersections already face a snag.
The cameras designed to catch red light runners were supposed to begin a trial run Tuesday morning, but the five contract companies involved have not signed their contracts with the city. The city wants to put five cameras at five different intersections to catch drivers who speed through red lights.
Violators will be identified from the license plate and will get a ticket in the mail. The cameras should start working in a few more days once the executives ink the deal.
No doubt, Mayor White is carefully checking the contracts for any sneaky shenanigans.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/01/05 10:32 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chron Breaking News: Iran is dangerous
The Chronicle's editors are entertaining (in a clueless sort of way) as today they discover that Iran is dangerous:
AT first, last week's anti-Israel rant by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seemed like a throwback. On his country's yearly day of solidarity with Palestinians, the Iranian leader told 3,000 young listeners that Israel "was a disgraceful blot" that "must be wiped off the map." Palestinian attacks, he said, would "wipe this stigma from the face of the Islamic world."
Even to Westerners, these poisoned stylings are now recognizable as overheated Islamic rhetoric. But it has been decades since the revolution that spawned the phrase "Great Satan" and advocated smashing Israel to fuel a theocratic frenzy. In the years since, Iran's leaders slowly have distanced themselves from some of those excesses. That such threats have now belched from a head of state — one whose country is trying to enhance its nuclear program — adds menace to this language from the past.
You have to get up pretty early to get anything past the international experts on the Chronicle's editorial board!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/01/05 07:42 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Chronicle still having trouble with proper identification
On Sunday the Chronicle ran a two reporter story on grieving Houston families who have lost a family member to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Yesterday, the Chronicle's reader rep, James Campbell, posted on readers' reactions to the story -- apparently the Chronicle is getting an earful:
A Page One story in Sunday's paper is an axiomatic reminder that you can't please all of the people all of the time no matter how careful the reporting. Chronicle reporters Allan Turner and Rosanna Ruiz wrote what I thought was an exceedingly evenhanded piece, Casualties of War, which looked at how six Houston-area families are grieving after losing a loved one to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The story was not about the 2,000th casualty in Iraq. It was not about blaming the Bush administration. It was not about Cindy Sheehan. It was not about being for or against the war. It was simply about grief and how these families are dealing with it.
My problem is that one of the moms in the Chronicle's story wasn't properly identified:
"Please, do not let our heroes become faceless, expendable statistics in history books," pleaded Amy Branham, the mother of one young Houston-area soldier killed in a stateside accident during the buildup. "For those of us who loved them with every fiber of our being, do not let their sacrifice be for nothing."
Amy Branham is also an active member of Cindy Sheehan's group, Gold Star Families for Peace -- she accompanied Sheehan to Crawford this summer -- and a guest contributor for the Houston Democrats blog. In fact, the above quote in the Chron story that is attributed to Branham is taken from a post Branham wrote for the HouDems:
Please, do not let our heros become faceless, expendable statics in the history books. We must remember them, honor them, respect them. For those of us who loved them with every fiber of our being, do not let their sacrifice be for nothing. The citizens of our country owe them that. The leaders of our country who sent them to die in a foreign country, far away from those they loved, owe them that.
And this isn't the first time Branham has been featured in a Chronicle story. Twice in August she was in stories about Cindy Sheehan's PR event in Crawford, once as a featured Houston-area mom who lost a son due to the Iraq war:
Amy Branham
Amy Branham, whose son died in a car accident days before he was to ship out to Iraq, was at Sheehan's side when the protesting mom was suddenly thrust into the limelight as the voice of anti-war sentiment in America.
Branham, of Houston, blames Bush for the February 2004 death of her son, Army Sgt. Jeremy Smith. She said her son never would have been at Fort Hood, near where he died, had he not been going to a war that she now believes is "illegal and unjust."
"When my son Jeremy died last year, I was contacted by the media, and I was so angry about the war and about my son's death, and I blamed George Bush, and I still do," she said. "But I didn't want to make his death into some kind of political thing at the time. I wanted to honor his memory and what he had done in his service for the country.
"But as time has gone on, and more and more information has come out about this war, and the lies and the way information was altered to bring us to where we are now, I just got more and more angry."
Branham said her son believed in the president and believed in his mission, but "I feel that if he were to see what is going on today, he would be very angry like so many people are."
It's past time for the Chronicle to identify Branham properly and completely, so readers can decide for themselves if her opinions are worth considering.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/01/05 06:36 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
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