31 December 2005
Congratulations to the Texan of the year
The Dallas Morning News has named its Texan of the Year.
It's Houston.
And it's hard to argue with this:
In 2005, Houston became the heart of Texas.
For resilience, resourcefulness and good old Texas neighborliness on a scale that did the whole state proud, Houston is the 2005 Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year.
To this day, an estimated 150,000 survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita call the Houston area home, and surveys show that most of them plan to stay. When Katrina hurled them, battered and destitute, onto Houston's doorstep, Houston met the challenge with the largest shelter operation in the nation's history. Singling out Houston is no slight to the scores of other communities that opened their arms to the storms' victims, including those right here in North Texas. They, too, performed nobly and deserve vigorous applause. But the demands on Houston, by dint of simple geography, were of a stunningly higher magnitude.
Talk to the people at the center of the relief effort, and, over and over, you'll hear words that echo those of Issa Dadoush, the city of Houston's director of building services: "These are Americans. They're our neighbors. If not Houston, who else?"
Or, as Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said, "We had no choice. It was just something that needed to be done."
The full story is here.
That pretty much caps off a world-class year for the city (we don't even have to wait until the goofy rising star ascends to say it, something to which the Chronicle devoted TWO reporters to cover for today's edition).
Thanks to everyone who made this a great place to live in 2005. For those who didn't -- well, here's hoping for better things from 2006.
UPDATE (1/1/2006): The downtown rising star celebration was so "world class" that not one local television station chose to cover it live. Let's hope this latest retarded effort from city leaders at being "world class" shall never be mentioned again, let alone be mentioned as the southwest's equivalent to New York's New Year's Eve celebration.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/05 05:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
LiveJournalists recap 2005
It's year-end reflection time for the Chronicle's LiveJournalists, and they don't disappoint -- this editorial has all the oomph of a middle school essay:
Among the less-happy reports of the past year was news that Africans continue to suffer the scourges of poverty, malaria and AIDS despite the best efforts of Bob Geldorf and Bill and Melinda Gates; and that HIV infection rates in gay American men are on the rise after years of steady decline due to a raging epidemic of methamphetamine addiction.
Bob Geldorf (yes, the "r" is in the dead tree paper, too) and the Gates' couldn't stop poverty, malaria and AIDS? Can you imagine -- thinking that three rich people could actually solve these problems?
Here's a malaria news flash: DDT works. And an African economist begs us to STOP the aid:
Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.
SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.
Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.
As for AIDS, Uganda's emphasis on abstinence has worked, much to the chagrin of condom-promoting enthusiasts.
Back to the middle school ess...uh, editorial:
A federal judge staved off academic ignorance in Dover, Pa., when he ruled that teachers would not have to talk about "intelligent design" in public school biology classes.
This is what gets me: there is little difference between evolution-believers and ID/Creationism believers when you get right down to it. Both ideas are sustained by faith. The fact that evolution-proponents feel threatened by the mere idea of Intelligent Design being taught alongside evolution speaks volumes. What are they afraid of? A little diversity of thought? Should students be indoctrinated or be taught to question and reason?
2005 saw the gruesome milestone of the 2,000th U.S. soldier to die in Iraq and reminded us how difficult removing American troops from the region will be, despite three successful elections in that fledgling democracy. Syria withdrew from Lebanon and Israel handed over the Gaza Strip to Palestinian control, but peace remains elusive.
Sigh. The international policy experts are at it again.
But many Americans were appalled to learn that their government "rendered" terrorism suspects to foreign countries for harsh interrogation, maintained secret prisons and engaged in warrantless domestic wire taps.
Well, not really. Oh sure, the media and many on the Left were appalled, but your average American who doesn't regularly talk to al Qaeda-types isn't too appalled. In fact, most of us were applauding President Bush!
Here's hoping that all those little positive changes contribute to the greater common good in 2006.
My wish for the LiveJournalists in 2006 is for better editorials and outside-the-liberal-box thinking. FORE!
BLOGVERSATION: Swing....and a miss... (Sedosi)
UPDATE: Well, this is interesting: the practice of rendition about which the idealists are appalled actually began under former President Bill Clinton. So far Big Media is fairly mum on this new revelation. The filter lives on.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/31/05 03:10 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (11)
Get those Dead Pool rosters in...today
Today's the deadline for getting in on Laurence's Dead Pool. Just be sure you follow the rules -- he's not above public humiliation to keep his players in line.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/31/05 01:11 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
If Mayor White wanted to fight graffiti, he'd find the money
In this story on Houston's growing graffiti problem, KTRK-13's Deborah Wrigley says this:
Funding cleanups is another matter for a cash-strapped city budget.
Wouldn't it be interesting if local media actually checked that out? It's stated as a fact, but why? Did the mayor's office tell Wrigley that?
Tom Bazan checks out monthly sales tax revenues reports for the city of Houston, and almost every month he finds that the city is collecting more than in the previous year. Does the city publicize that? Do local media check out monthly sales tax reports?
How come our local media question whether or not CoH has the money to increase police manpower and fight graffiti, yet local media never question whether or not the city has the money to fund an African American museum, a grand new city park, Tasers (that may be problematic), and day labor (wink, wink) sites, among many other dubious expenditures?
Oh, let's just keep going: a $35,000 desk, $2 million for a new orchestra pit in the Wortham Center, $700,000 for shiny new police badges, $85,000 to teach city employees how to be nice, and at least $100,000 to fight the voter-approved Proposition 2.
The city has the money to fund graffiti abatement; the problem is Mayor White hasn't decided to make it a priority.
UPDATE: In the forum, Laurence Simon adds the mayor's (taxpayer-funded) inauguration announcements to the list. Mayor White has to thank his supporters, you know!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/31/05 09:17 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
30 December 2005
AP presents misleading revisionist Katrina sex-offender history
Earlier, Drudge linked an AP story that contained some serious spin by the federal government:
Governors in states that accepted Katrina evacuees are being urged to locate about 2,000 registered sex offenders who fled the Gulf region during the hurricane's mayhem and may have vanished from legally required tracking.
"When sex offenders know they're being watched, when they know they're being monitored, they are less likely to offend again," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and Human Services. "When they no longer believe they are being monitored or watched, they can be tempted to offend again."
The Administration for Children and Families estimated that about 30 states are affected. In November, agency officials matched the names of sex offender registries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with the names of evacuees who applied for disaster assistance.
The agency came up with more than 2,000 matches. The find led Horn to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on a system that would allow state law enforcement agencies to find registered sex offenders who are receiving disaster assistance.
[snip]
Horn wrote the nation's 50 governors in late November to alert them to the new search they could undertake with FEMA, and the process they were to use.
"I am greatly concerned that known sex offenders who may have relocated to your State may take advantage of their anonymity and harm children once again," Horn wrote in a letter to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.
KHOU-11 has posted a chopped version of the story on its website (I don't know if they ran the story on television) and KTRK-13 mentioned the story on air earlier (they haven't posted it to their website).
In both instances, our local professional media neglected to highlight a key local angle to the story. blogHOUSTON readers may recall that in mid-November, we pointed out that Houston's media outlets had neglected to report on the sex-offender story, even though several state news organizations and the Washington Times had already reported that officials in Texas were having difficulty getting the federal government to release ANY information on evacuees who might be sex offenders. KTRK-13's Jessica Willey finally reported on the matter several days later, and other local media picked up on it after Chief Hurtt called a press conference (of course).
Thus, the federal officials quoted in the USA Today and AP stories are simply being disingenuous in suggesting that they have somehow led the charge in trying to get states interested in Katrina refugees who might be sex offenders. In Texas, we know that our state officials were very interested in obtaining that information, and had great difficulty getting cooperation from the federal government. It wouldn't have hurt KHOU and KTRK to point that out, instead of simply repeating the misleading spin from Washington.
ANNE ADDS: Parents are advised to (still) keep a close eye on their kids. The story says that Texas knows of 304 sex offenders; how many more are lurking in the shadows...or near schools?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/05 10:08 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
Dan Patrick files for SD 7, chooses son as replacement host
Kristen Mack gives us the news that Dan Patrick (KSEV-700) has officially filed for SD 7, which means he's off the air for a while now. How long is up to the voters.
With much ballyhoo yesterday, Dan announced that his son Ryan will be taking over the afternoon mike for much of his absence, with Chris Begala filling in whenever Ryan isn't able. Dan reasons that since Ryan sounds just like him, KSEV listeners will be most pleased. He also asked listeners to baby-sit Ryan and let Dan know if Ryan gets out of line. Which means Dan won't be listening to his son? Weird.
Personally I was disappointed in Dan's choices. As substitute hosts go, I'd prefer David Benzion, Orlando Sanchez, a cameo here and there by Walt Cunningham, and Blogger Radio once a week. I'm sure Chris Begala is a nice guy, but as a radio host, he tends to put me to sleep.
The good news is that Chris Baker can rest easy. As if he weren't already (link via Banjo).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/30/05 08:42 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (9)
29 December 2005
Will we finally be world-class on New Year's?
Houston officials are preparing for the city's latest, greatest push at being "world class"
Finishing touches are going on what city officials promise will be a "star-studded" New Year's Eve.It is a 9-foot by 9-foot star that will rise and shine in downtown's Main Event district.
"And it will continue to rise until it reaches its ultimate position at midnight on December 31 and January 1, 2006," said John Sotos of the Entertainment District.
[snip]
City officials hope to someday rival the New York City ball drop, but for this year at least, the symbol stays small, and if all goes well, rises to the occasion without a hitch.
"A ball drop, it's been done. A peach pit, it's been done. We want something special. No one has a rising star except us," Sotos said.
Sometimes I don't even know what to say.
Perhaps readers can help me out.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/05 11:19 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
Be careful with those lawnmowers (even in December)
The fine folks at KUHF-88.7 seem to be having a bit of a problem with their website.
Here's a story posted today:
Lawn Mower Safety
Thursday, December 29, 2005
By: Alison YoungFull-blown summer is upon Texas and with it comes a noticeable increase in powered lawn mower use. Officials in the state legislature have been seeking ways to increase awareness of the dangers these household machines pose to children.
Pssst.... It's December.
UPDATE: KUHF has updated the story to reflect that it's no longer summer, and the news director sent a very nice note earlier. Obviously, we were just having a little fun with their web operation. KUHF runs a very good, well-respected news shop.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/05 11:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Tuesday is Inauguration Day
It's almost time for Mayor White to be sworn in for his second term:
Houston Mayor Bill White will be sworn into office for a second term on Tuesday, KPRC Local 2 reported.
The inauguration ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. at the Houston Police Department memorial, located on Memorial Drive at Sawyer, near downtown Houston.
The event will feature Grammy award winner Yolanda Adams, White's inaugural address, as well as other speakers.
The ceremony is open to the public.
Free shuttle service will be provided by Metro. All the city needs to add is refreshing beverages and crudite, and the ceremony would be world class!
RELATED: 2006 Inaugural Ceremony (CoH press release)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/29/05 01:37 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)
Testing Houston's good will?
Today's Chron has a story on the city of Houston's struggle to pay rent for thousands of Katrina evacuees:
Overwhelming participation in Houston's housing voucher program for hurricane evacuees has left the city late paying millions of dollars in rent to property owners.
As of last Friday, the city still had not paid nearly 2,000 invoices, amounting to $7.2 million.
But city officials, who issued a letter to property owners last week apologizing for the backlog, say they are working overtime to get the bills paid and plan to be caught up by Monday.
"The way I would describe it is brute force," said John Walsh, deputy chief of staff for neighborhoods and housing for Mayor Bill White. "We just threw more people at the process."
Walsh said the city expanded its invoice payment staff and extended the hours of its service center to catch up. He said the city is now processing 400 to 500 invoices a day.
[snip]
The city has paid $14.8 million for invoices received through Nov. 22, and is now processing invoices received Nov. 23 through Dec. 12.
[snip]
Walsh said the major challenge has been the unexpected number of people who signed up for the program.
"When we started this in September we estimated we would do 10,000 units," he said. "By the first of October we said it would be 15,000 units. By early November it was more like 30,000 units. We've been having to adjust to a much bigger volume than we ever dreamed we would have to do."
We have praised Mayor White before for how he handled the Katrina evacuee exodus, but has it become too much for Houston to handle?
How much will the city of Houston have to spend in employee salaries to handle Katrina evacuee rent applications and payments? We know that some of our new residents are taking a toll on our (already depleted) police force. And I recall hearing (maybe on a KTRH newsbreak or from Chris Baker) that the vast majority of new applications (in the waning days of the "free" rent and utilities program) were from Katrina evacuees who had been in Houston for three days or less. They hustled down here from wherever they were to get in on the action!
We also know that there is no guarantee that FEMA will come through to pay for all this. That has been made very clear in recent news stories.
So, did Houston get in over its head? And will Houstonians be happy to foot the (increasing) cost of taking care of Katrina evacuees for one or more years, while having to pay for their own housing and living costs?
RELATED: HOUSTON IS FULL (City of Houston press release)
BLOGVERSATION: Time to pay the piper for the City of Houston (John Wagner)
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Maybe natural attrition will take care of the problem:
A man was shot to death in a hotel in the 1300 block of La Concha on Wednesday night.
The incident occurred in the StudioPLUS hotel, which is in the shadows of Reliant Park.
Police said a fight broke out between two groups inside the hotel.
The hotel is full of people from Louisiana, and according to police, the victim was a Katrina evacuee.
Police said it started as a fight between two groups inside the hotel.
The shooting started around 10 p.m., and police said both groups were shooting at each other. The fight made its way downstairs.
Very nice.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/29/05 09:24 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (10)
DeLay gains another (token) primary challenger
The Chronicle's Eric Hanson reports that Rep. Tom DeLay (R) has gained an opponent for the GOP primary:
A 50-year-old attorney from Sugar Land has filed to run against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay for the 22nd District in the Republican primary in March.
Thomas A. Campbell, who specializes in environmental law, is the third Republican challenger to take on DeLay, who has held the post since 1985.
Campbell paid the filing fee of $3,125 to the Texas Republican Party in Austin on Wednesday and entered his name in the race.
"We need to return some decency and civility to the way we conduct the public's business," Campbell said.
Campbell said he found it has become increasingly difficult for him to vote for DeLay....
Sugar Land political consultant and blogger Chris Elam suggests that Mr. Campbell seems to have found it difficult to bother voting much at all:
My records show that he's voted in two GOP primaries over the last 12 years ('96 / '02).
A glowing profile by Todd Spivak in the Houston Press describes Campbell as a "Washington insider and Republican party loyalist."
Spivak does touch on a matter previously reported by the Chronicle's Kristen Mack about perennial DeLay challenger and loser Mike Fjetland:
After the 2000 primary, Fjetland sent DeLay a letter in which he promised to support him in exchange for a plum political appointment. DeLay never responded. "When we're young and naive, you know, sometimes we do stupid things," Fjetland explains when asked about the incident. He was 50 years old at the time.
And it's not a column on local politics without a few quotes from happening Houston bicyclist and political scientist Bob Stein:
Some Democrats want DeLay re-elected to continue his slow burn in the courts, the media and opinion polls, according to Rice University political science professor Robert Stein. "They see him as a poster child for Republican corruption," Stein says.
[snip]
"Tom DeLay's more likely to resign or be convicted than lose in a straight election," predicts Stein, the Rice professor.
That sounds about right.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/05 07:58 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
28 December 2005
Did Rep. Vo have too much Moonbat Juice with the egg nog?
Laurence Simon calls attention to recent remarks and writings by state rep. Hubert Vo (D), as reported by the Houston Chronicle:
A Houston lawmaker is urging University of Texas officials to reconsider last week's decision to ban an Asian American-interest fraternity whose members were involved in hazing the night freshman member Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath drank himself to death.
Rep. Hubert Vo wrote UT President Larry Faulkner last week that the university should consider alternative punishments such as probation, community service or alcohol abuse training for the members of Lambda Phi Epsilon, rather than canceling the registration of the entire group.Group punishment, Vo said, is unfair and could send the wrong message to the Asian community by destroying an important social and support network for Asian students, many of whom are children of immigrants and first-generation college students.
Vo said Tuesday his concern has nothing to do with race and that he doesn't expect Asians to get special treatment at UT.
It's not about race, it's just about Asians. Sure, Rep. Vo. Way to be consistent.
Most universities have adopted strict policies against hazing by affiliated student organizations, especially hazing involving alcohol. A student organization that breaks those policies AND winds up with a dead student certainly isn't an organization that deserves to keep any affiliation with the university. And it's CERTAINLY not an organization that parents should entrust with providing "an important social and support network" for Asian or any other students.
I would suspect Vo was misquoted, except for the fact that the reporter apparently paraphrased from a letter he wrote. Thus, I have to agree with Laurence Simon that it simply appears our fine local state representative has been drinking the Moonbat Juice.
As an aside, it seems as if this story obsesses an awful lot over race in a newspaper whose reader representative says race really doesn't matter all that much. Whatever.
RELATED: Hubert Vo, frat man (Isolated Desolation).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/05 10:12 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (1)
That's why they're called Mrs. White
Now that television stations are reporting a spike in violent crime and MayorWhiteChiefHurtt can no longer ignore HPD's manpower shortage, it's not surprising that the Mayor's press office has turned to the previously disinterested Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists to trumpet the administration's short-term "fixes" for the problem:
The mayor has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide $6.5 million for a police task force to focus on troubled areas. This would be a good use of federal funds.The White administration is expected to push an ordinance next year that will require apartment complexes registering a high number of calls for police assistance to hire in-house security officers to protect residents. Such a law would allow for round-the-clock deterrence and law enforcement in high crime areas and make maximum use of regular police patrols.
It's only fair that apartment complex owners reaping increased revenues from storm-induced high occupancy rates should shoulder their share of the increased security costs. Their residents — and the city — will be safer from the threat of criminal activity. Vigorous anticrime measures are essential to making the rise in homicides a statistical anomaly rather than a long-term trend.
It would be lovely if Mayor White could con the federal government into supplying funds to rectify the HPD manpower shortage he inherited and largely ignored until recently, but a "task force" isn't much of a solution to the problem.
And Mayor White's notion of effectively privatizing policing for people who have the misfortune to live in high-crime areas is as offensive as his (and Dan Patrick's) original SAFEclear notion that people without $75 should stay off of local freeways.
The Editorial LiveJournalists (like MayorWhiteChiefHurtt) really haven't been that interested in HPD's manpower shortage over the last few years. If this is all they have to offer, maybe they shouldn't have bothered. But then, they do have Sedosi's nickname of Mrs. White to live up to.
RELATED: Mayor White's plan for crime -- let other people pay for it! (Lone Star Times).
PREVIOUSLY: Murders skyrocket; HPD chief says good luck protecting yourselves, Continuing the discussion of HPD's woes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/05 09:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
FEMA will help catch them, Matt
One of blogHOUSTON's buddies experienced Houston's crime problem, up close and personal:
I got robbed last night. I had some car trouble and was waiting for AAA to arrive when I was approached by three youths. The subsequent exchange went like this:
Punk: Let me see that phone.
Me: NoThen the punk slugged me over the head with something hard, and I dropped like a sack of hammers. When I came to, I was missing my cell phone, PDA and wallet. The wallet was found this morning near a Dumpster at a nearby apartment complex.
[snip]
It’s a shame that good cops are hamstrung by an administration that cares more about jaywalking-ticket revenue than they do about the knot on my head.
Ugh. We hope your head is feeling better soon and are very happy that you are (relatively) okay. (There's a joke in there about Matt's hard head, but I'm not going to make it.)
I suppose it's not very reassuring to think that if the bad guys jaywalk or run a red light, they'll get a ticket.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/05 03:00 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)
A world-class transit agency needs a world-class website
Following up on Monday's post about Metro's incorrect Holiday Schedule press release, I received an email from Raequel Roberts, Director of Media Relations for Metro and former Assistant City Editor at the Chron, who said that the press release sent out to local news outlets DID include the schedule for December 26:
As Director of Media Relations, I'd like to point out, in fact, that our news release did include our Monday, Dec. 26 schedule. And it appeared in both the Houston Chronicle and Rumbo. Several television stations also noted our holiday schedule.
I appreciate the email from Ms. Roberts, but I pointed out that the information on Metro's own site does not include December 26. She agreed that it was an oversight and added that it would be corrected. I don't know why it should be corrected at this point, since we are past the 26th, but whatever.
All of this illustrates a critical error in thinking: many people don't look to Old Media any longer for information. We don't read newspapers or little flyers and often can't work our schedules around to catch the evening news. We go online to get information and we expect online information to be correct and up-to-date.
And speaking of online information, why is it that when one goes to Metro's site, one cannot easily find the information about the January 23rd public meeting on bus route changes? I have to go to an old bH post to find a link to get to the press release that has the info. If there is an easier way to find the link, please let me know, but should it really be that hard to find public meeting information, for un-techy people like me? Shouldn't it be listed under Metro Meetings?
Perhaps Metro should consider hiring Laurence Simon to run their website. He's about as techy as they come, he's very innovative in his thinking, AND he actually depends on Metro to get around. How many Metro higher-ups can say that?
RELATED: The inadequacy of public notices in newspaper classified sections (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/05 09:22 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
27 December 2005
Editorial LiveJournalists inadvertently raise interesting question
In a Christmas Eve followup editorial to an unconvincing and overreaching editorial on the Bush Administration and "warrantless searches," the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists revealed the real cause of their distress:
The absence of a plausible justification for government spying without a warrant has raised suspicions that the targets of such eavesdropping might include journalists researching stories about terrorist groups and attorneys representing clients suspected of terrorist activities.
Question for readers: Are you distressed that, in principle, the federal government could possibly be listening to journalists gathering information from terrorists who might harm the country?
Would it change your mind if you learned that information gained from such spying could not be used in criminal prosecutions without raising real Fourth Amendment issues, but that it could be used to head off deadly attacks on the United States?
I'm curious as to what people think.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/05 10:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)
Want a piece of Astroworld?
KTRK-13 reported yesterday that Astroworld will be holding an auction (from January 6 to January 8) to sell parts of the park.
More information is available at Astroworldauction.com.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/05 10:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Mayor White wants FEMA to help fund HPD
So...MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have come up with a plan to deal with HPD's manpower shortage:
They point out that the hurricane evacuees who came to Houston have increased the city's population making a bigger job for the city's police force.
And because the city's overall population has increased since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the mayor is optimistic that FEMA will pick up the tab.
Except that Houston's police shortage and related crime problems did not begin when Hurricane Katrina evacuees began rolling into town:
HPD manpower issues begin to affect public parks (9/29/2004)
Hurtt on manpower issues: patrol city desks more vigorously! (10/25/2004)
Maybe White/Hurtt Could Put A Camera On Her house? (12/25/2004)
HPD wants to use unpaid, reserve officers to fill the gaps (3/21/2005)
Another manifestation of HPD's manpower shortage (4/12/2005)
Northside neighborhood losing touch with HPD (KHOU-11, 4/26/2005)
Neighborhood residents complain about MS-13, HPD reaction (4/29/2005)
HPD reallocates resources to deal with MS 13 (5/12/2005)
Tenants on alert after rash of aggravated robberies at complex (KHOU-11, 5/15/2005)
Police Shortage Affects HPD Response Times (KPRC-2, 5/20/2005)
Student asks city to fight murders, shootings, other crime (5/22/2005)
Multi-agency task force targets MS-13 (5/25/2005)
Armed robbers hit Galleria-area pharmacy (6/10/2005)
Up Close: Life is tough in the 'Gulfton Ghetto' (KHOU-11, 6/17/2005)
DeLay criticizes, White/Hurtt support, HPD sanctuary policy (8/07/2005)
HPD warns it may cut services to fund crime lab investigation (8/15/2005)
RELATED: Sanctuary policy could jeopardize federal funding (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/27/05 11:58 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
Hunting for that Pulitzer...at her desk (updated)
You'll recall that Banjo Jones recently pointed to a Chronicle help wanted ad:
The Houston Chronicle, one of the nation's largest newspapers, is looking for reporters who aren’t afraid to get out of the office, poke around in the world and uncover stories that make a difference in the lives of our readers.
Now, we know that Dina Cappiello reads Banjo, as evidenced by her recent Wrap Up olds, and we had hoped that Dina would follow Banjo's lead for enterprising environmental reporting, because NO ONE makes emissions reporting as entertaining as Banjo.
Alas, it appears Dina is afraid to get out of the office:
The majority of Houston-area lawmakers in the Texas House voted against legislation intended to protect the public from toxic air pollution, a Houston Chronicle analysis of 2005 voting records has found.
Penetrating stuff.
PREVIOUSLY: Nothing like a six-week lag in environmental reporting (bH)
UPDATE: See what I mean? NO ONE makes emission oopses as entertaining as Banjo!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/27/05 10:22 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
26 December 2005
Is there a grade below F-?
Speaking of pitiful Metro, it appears as though Metro decided to run on a Sunday schedule today.
The problem is that Metro's Holiday Schedule press release doesn't include that information.
How many Metro customers were left hanging? Will Metro Bigs issue an apology, or will they blame the problem on Metro's customers? I'm fairly certain no Metro Bigs had to rely on Metro transportation today, if they even went to work.
(Or did the 9 route decide on a whim not to run today? Metro may not realize that in the REAL world -- meaning non-governmental-job world -- some folks have to go to work on the day after Christmas. Really!)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/26/05 09:01 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
Sanchez to make political comeback... as treasurer?
In her Friday politics column, Kristen Mack reported on news that's been circulating among Republicans for a few weeks now:
Former City Councilman and twice-defeated mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez wants to wage a comeback — as Harris County treasurer.If he goes through with it, he will have to take on incumbent Jack Cato in the Republican primary in March. Cato first was elected in 1998 after 25 years as a television reporter and four as a spokesman for the Houston Police Department.
The job is strictly administrative and carries no real power. The county treasurer is the chief custodian of county money and accounts for and disburses funds as directed by Commissioners Court.
Local lawmakers have tried to kill the position in the Legislature, following in the footsteps of other Texas counties and of the state itself. Texas abolished the state treasurer's position by constitutional amendment in 1995 after voters elected a treasurer who campaigned to eliminate the job.
The low-profile county job wouldn't exactly be a move up the political ladder for Sanchez. It's not a steppingstone. But the pay isn't bad at $96,000 a year.
A position that has no real authority, pays nearly $100k per year, and can serve as a springboard to "bigger and better" things?
That seems about Sanchez's speed.
It would probably be much better for taxpayers if the position were abolished altogether, though.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/26/05 08:59 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
A tale of two (pitiful) Metros
Rad Sallee looks at and compares accident problems with the Danger Train and Los Angeles' new (don't say Bus) Rapid Transit:
•The 7.5-mile Main Street route here is designated the Red Line. The 14-mile busway in the former citrus country of San Fernando Valley is, appropriately, the Orange Line.
•By uncanny coincidence, the initial price tag for each was $324 million, according to the metropolitan transit authority in each metropolis.
•Critics of each project warned about the collision hazard.
MetroRail had collisions with five vehicles in test runs before opening to the public on New Year's Day 2004. The total is now 121, including 54 in 2005, according to a Chronicle count based on Metro reports. A collision between a train and a pickup Friday sent eight people to hospitals with minor injuries.The Orange Line in Los Angeles opened Oct. 29 with 30,000 riders, but four days later it had experienced two collisions, injuring 17 people. As of Friday, the accident count stood at eight, with the others described as minor. L.A. Metro spokesman Marc Littman said the rate per miles traveled is about the same as for the overall bus system.
•Both Metros blame bad driving rather than flawed design.
Motorists were held responsible for all but four collisions on Houston's Red Line — and in all the Orange Line accidents to date, said Los Angeles Metro spokesman Dave Sotero. Nonetheless, both have taken measures to improve safety.After racking up 36 collisions in its first five months, Houston's MetroRail adopted such measures as having Midtown stoplights show red in all directions when the train approaches. These cut the per-mile accident rate by 75 percent even as service doubled in June 2004.
Orange Line operators have been ordered to slow to 10 mph at intersections, and white-gloved traffic officers have been deployed to problem intersections. Sotero said there also are plans for more signs that flash "BUS COMING."
Although each line has its own right of way, separated from other vehicles, both are vulnerable to crashes at intersecting streets. The Orange Line has 36 such crossings, none with gates. Metro's Red Line has 62 crossings, 10 with gates.
The Red Line has light rail tracks instead of a busway, but Metro intends for four future extensions — the North, Southeast, Harrisburg and Uptown lines — to run specially designed buses on a rail-like right of way until ridership grows enough to justify trains.
Gosh, it's comforting to know that our Metro isn't the only one doing such a bang-up job.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/26/05 07:07 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
25 December 2005
The sorry state of Chronicle headlines
We've pointed out numerous times the Chronicle's lousy headline writing, and today we have a fine example:
Wow! HISD has absorbed 20,000 evacuee students? I didn't know that!
Of course, HISD hasn't taken in that many students (HISD has taken in about 6,000) but the headline makes it sound as though HISD has reached its limit of helping displaced Louisiana students. And in fact, the story focuses very little on HISD, contrary to the blaring headline.
Here's a suggestion for the Chron's headline writer: if Houston-area school districts really are suffering from "compassion fatigue" (and if you read the story you will find that the story is more about the dynamics of Houston students interacting with evacuee students), then write it up correctly:
Houston-area schools suffering 'compassion fatigue'
(a little editorial oversight wouldn't hurt either.)
UPDATE AS I AM WRITING THE POST: Poof! The online story's headline has changed:
Area schools suffering 'compassion fatigue'
But the BIG headline in today's paper still says, "HISD schools suffering 'compassion fatigue'."
UPDATE 2: Google News has the headline as "HISD schools suffering 'compassion fatigue'." It's really hard to undo these things, isn't it?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/25/05 11:06 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron LiveJournalists' wish for Christmas: even profit distribution
From today's Christmas editorial:
Christmas, which this year falls on the same day as Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, is a Christian holy day that has become a large part of the nation's diverse culture and economy. While the economy is healthy and growing, the distribution of profits — like the apportionment of sorrow and joy — is hugely uneven. Even as it lures Americans to splurge on gifts and celebration, the holiday season calls on us to remember those in need and give generously of time and money.
At least this year the LiveJournalists didn't wish for Christianity to be taken out of Christmas.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/25/05 09:28 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
24 December 2005
Metro gets an F-
Laurence Simon had quite a Friday night, thanks to Metro. It included walking 4.5 miles!
Do you suppose George DeMontrond, Frank Wilson, David Wolff or Mayor White have ever used Metro's services?
Privatize Metro!
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: But how can this be? Just a few days ago, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists wrote:
It was important for Metro to register increased ridership at this moment. If the transit agency can't furnish an attractive alternative to single-passenger commuting in an era of spiking fuel costs and an influx of hurricane evacuees needing transportation, the agency cannot be relied upon to play a decisive role in increasing Houstonians' mobility while reducing congestion and pollution.
Perhaps as important as the ridership gain, Metro has been able to keep its budget static, matching higher fuel costs with increased efficiency. High fuel prices are a mixed curse for Metro. While its operating costs go up, so does the number of riders, who help to defray the cost.
In order to build on its momentum, Metro is moving ahead on five rail line expansions, some of which initially will accommodate rubber-tired vehicles. It is looking to churches and other private venues to help it swiftly expand Park and Ride service. It is becoming partners with retail outlets and other private businesses to enhance the transit experience, encourage a healthier, pedestrian lifestyle and thus further increase ridership. As service improves and energy costs remain high, Houstonians owe it to themselves to give public transit a try.
It is difficult to imagine people more out of touch with Houston and Houstonians than the Editorial LiveJournalists who wrote that.
Indeed, we can recall the petulant outburst from James Howard Gibbons when the editorial page's Chief LiveJournalist was inconvenienced by the sort of ineptitude that normal Houstonians who aren't in charge of an editorial page simply have to deal with.
Can you imagine the hissyfit Mr. Gibbons would have thrown if he had to walk 4.5 miles due to METRO's increased efficiency?!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/24/05 09:08 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
23 December 2005
Pickup truck derails Danger Train
The Danger Train had a bit of a problem Friday:
Several people are recovering after a light rail accident Friday. A pickup truck slammed into the train on Main at Elgin downtown and sent part of the train right off its tracks.
The accident is one of the worst in light rail's nearly two year history. Like most of the crashes that have plagued METRO's trains, the one shortly after noon on Friday is blamed on a driver.
A scene of mass casualties is what Houston paramedics encountered near where the collision took place.
"It kind of shook everybody to the left and got off the track," said passenger Gala Abdul-Aleem.
"We were scared because the train jumped," added passenger Rodolpho Castro.
The impact jarred the several dozen passengers on board.
"We thought the train was going down because it jumped a lot," said Castro.
The train stayed upright, but derailed slightly. As METRO engineers solved that problem, paramedics rushed seven passengers and the pickup truck driver to area hospitals.
Of course, it's the truck driver's fault...and he'll probably be ticketed...and his insurance will be billed...because a train was running down the middle of Main Street.
On a semi-related note, here's a knowledgable Houstonian's experience trying to navigate downtown without getting smooshed by our world-class train.
UPDATE: Rad Sallee's story this morning says that (so far) no ticket has been issued to the truck driver due to differing stories of who had a green light. There have been instances in the past where train operators have blown through intersections when they didn't have the vertical bar (green light).
BUT this KHOU-11 story says the onboard train video shows that the train did have a vertical bar.
And Tom Bazan emails that this is accident number 126. Does any other city even come close to our accident rate?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/23/05 11:37 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
More information on Houston's new soccer team
Here's the City of Houston's press release announcing the new soccer team. It contains some information that's new to me...but maybe not to you.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/23/05 12:12 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 December 2005
Limited holiday posting
I wanted to let readers know that posting from me is likely to be limited until next week.
Here's wishing readers, commenters, local journalists, local politicians, local bloggers, and anyone we've left out a very merry Christmas / Holiday / Hannukah / Kwanzaa / Secular Gift Exchange Day -- or whatever you choose to celebrate.
Thanks to everyone who takes the time to drop by here.
ANNE ADDS: I'll probably be a bit sporadic in my posting as well for the next few days. I'd like to echo Kevin's sentiments and wish everyone a Merry Christmas, etc., and a big Thank You for helping make bH so much fun.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/05 11:11 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (5)
Murder rate in Houston skyrockets
KPRC-2 reports that the murder rate in Houston has recently skyrocketed:
The last couple of months have not helped Houston's increased number of homicides, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Houston Police Department Chief Harold Hurtt said he is disturbed by the rising trend in the city's homicide rate and is working with city officials to create a plan that will decrease the number of violent crimes.
Police have investigated 324 murders so far this year -- a 24 percent increase over the 263 homicides reported during the same time span in 2004. The percentage increase in the number of homicides that occurred during November and December are more alarming.
"In November and December of this year we had 51. Last year we had 30, and that's an increase of 70 percent over those last two months," Hurtt said.
KTRH-740 reports that two more murders today have only made the statistics worse.
With increased gang activity, not to mention the influx of Katrina refugees, it's a terrible time for HPD (and citizens) to be faced with a police manpower shortage because of politicians who have been slow to recognize and deal with the problem.
RELATED COVERAGE: Houston Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/05 10:56 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Discussing the soccer stadium
Councilman Michael Berry is on KTRH-740 right now talking about who'll pay for the new soccer stadium. Tune in and give him a call, if you are so inclined.
RELATED: Pro soccer team seeks public partner (Chronicle)
BLOGVERSATION: Sheer balls (Slampo's Place).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/22/05 10:10 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (3)
Wanted: More informed debate than "illegal, illegal!"
Yesterday, the Chronicle ran a staff editorial criticizing the use of "warrantless searches" for national security purposes.
Unsurprisingly, the editorialists overreached:
The Constitution grants the president certain powers but withholds others. The power to conduct warrantless searches is explicitly denied to the government.
That's not quite true. Over at NRO, Andrew McCarthy points out that the federal government has well-established powers to:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/05 09:50 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
That's some desk!
A blogHOUSTON reader with a keen eye spotted this in City Council's December 13th agenda:
10. Ordinance 2005-1357
ORDINANCE appropriating $36,893.27 out of General Improvement Consolidated Construction Fund for Construction of a Reception Desk at City Hall for Building Services Department,
CIP D-0113a. Motion 2005-1206
FOUR SEASONS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, INC for Construction of a Reception Desk at City Hall for Building Services Department - $35,136.45 and contingencies for a total amount not to exceed $36,893.27
It's hard to top the eagle-eyed reader's comment: "I guess you need a world class desk in order to accept world class bribes."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/22/05 08:32 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
21 December 2005
Person of the Year (updated)
Chris Baker is taking nominations for Man of the Year. He thinks it should be Mayor White.
What do you think?
I say Judge Eckels.
UPDATE: Okay, now Chris is getting in the spirit of it. Between now and Friday the Chris Baker show is taking nominations for local Man of the Year and local Punk of the Year, and he will present plaques to the winners.
Let's help him out. The forum is open and waiting for your nominations.
UPDATE AGAIN: Of course, he changes Man of the Year to Person of the Year, so I have changed the title of the post.
Diversity is beauty!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/21/05 04:32 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (13)
HISD increases police presence at schools with Katrina students
HISD is beefing up its law enforcement in response to some high-profile incidents involving Katrina evacuee-students:
HISD students will come back to class after the holidays to safer schools.
The school district announced Wednesday it has hired more police officers to help keep order in 18 schools with larger numbers of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. HISD will increase the police presence in schools by about 10 percent to start 2006 as the district continues to educate more than 6,000 New Orleans area residents who fled Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
Most Katrina evacuees have worked and learned alongside the Houston students without incident. The total number of disciplinary incidents in HISD schools is actually down 12 percent this school year compared to last year. But there have been about a dozen significant altercations between evacuees and regular Houston students, and Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said he wants more police manpower in the schools to keep a watchful eye on the situation.
“Our visitors from Louisiana are getting a good education in Houston, and we’ve heard a lot from parents about how much their children are learning here,” Dr. Saavedra said. “We’re very proud of how our schools have opened up their doors to these children who are in need. At the same time, there have been some disruptions and we will continue to deal swiftly and decisively with those. We will not tolerate disruptions and we won’t allow the education of other children to be interrupted.”
In addition to off-duty Houston Police Department officers who have been hired for 18 secondary schools to work alongside HISD police officers, HISD has coordinated with other local law enforcement agencies to increase patrols around some schools before and after school and during lunch time. The district also will step up random drug and weapons searches by canine units.
The police presence is being increased at Kashmere, Sterling, Jones, Lee, Madison, Westbury, Yates, Sharpstown, Scarborough, and Westside high schools, and at Black, Dowling, Revere, Fondren, Long, Sharpstown, Westbriar and Welch middle schools.
The HISD Police Department also will form a five-member task force that can respond to emergency situations anywhere in the 305-school district.
Maybe after school is out, HISD police officers can help Houston police officers at crime-prone apartment buildings.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/21/05 03:43 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
The stadium-financing fairy will pay for new MLS venue (updated)
John Lopez tries to reassure us that Houston's new soccer team won't be a burden to taxpayers:
And among the first promises [newly named club president Oliver] Luck announced was a most important one that every sports fan should note: A soccer-specific stadium here would not be financed like every other sports mansion on the local landscape.
Financing will not be another tax burden on citizens. Now you're talking our language, Oliver.
It should matter to you that Luck is in charge. Even if you couldn't care less about the beautiful game and all those men with funny hair and short shorts, if the No Names' stadium is put in the right place and run the right way, you benefit.
Luck's vast experience with projects bigger than the likely 25,000- to 30,000-seat soccer-specific stadium gives this organization a head start succeeding.
With associations with all the usual suspects when it comes to ownership — Chuck Watson, Jim McIngvale, Tilman Fertitta, etc. — Luck is ahead of the game. He also has been contacted by potential owners from Mexico.
And with his experience helping develop Toyota Center and Minute Maid Park, he certainly could hammer out a public-private partnership with, say, HISD.
Being eternally skeptical, I'll await the details our local media will surely dig up.
UPDATE: Do NOT miss Slampo:
In a textbook case of government “empire building,” Oliver Luck and the Sports Authority have been angling for several years to bring an MLS franchise to Houston---a job that by no stretch of the imagination was part of the authority’s initial charge. The Sports Authority should have been shuttered long ago and its bill-paying functions housed in a back office of some non-descript office building with a hand-lettered sign on the door. Didn’t County Judge Robert Eckels raise that possibility a while back? What happened with that?
Last year, in his role as the Sports Authority’s chief officer, Luck gave a speech in which he told an East End group that a revamped Robertson Stadium would be a suitable venue for an MLS franchise. There was no mention of a new stadium, according to the Chronicle story still posted on the authority’s Web site. Now that Luck has taken the revolving door to the former San Jose Earthquakes, Robertson Stadium apparently will be good only as temporary home for the MLS. A new stadium must be built. No doubt the owners of the Earthquakes figure Luck is the man to deliver one, and he's already shown them he knows how to handle the media (was he, by any chance, working out this financing plan of which Lopez writes while drawing some of his $200,00 annual paycheck from the Sports Authority?).
Our olfactories aren’t that sensitive anymore, but this has a very bad smell about it.*
Read it all.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/21/05 11:13 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
Nativity scene opponent in high dudgeon, needs Christmas spirit
A Professional Sensitive has himself all worked up in Fort Bend County:
That nativity scene in dispute is in New Territory in Fort Bend County. It's not sitting well with everyone living there.
Opponents say the nativity scene alienates other religions. They also say the scene is on government property and should not be there. The homeowners' association says it's not on government property and they're not going to take it down.
Holiday displays are decorated on the fronts of dozens of neighborhoods in New Territory, but a nativity scene has some non-Christian people offended.
"We represent Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews," said Seth Riklin, an opponent to the nativity scene. "Anyone who is not of the Christian faith is relegated to second class citizenship"
Opponents of the nativity scene say they want it taken down because they believe it alienates other religions.
"Relegated to the back of the bus because they're not of the Christian faith," said Riklin.
Mr. Riklin needs to find a (better) hobby...or maybe get a dog.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/21/05 07:55 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (8)
20 December 2005
Councilmember talk radio: Unions, transit, and Houston
Councilmember Michael Berry emails that he will be subbing for Sam Malone on KTRH-740 again on Wednesday (10 am to Noon).
The topic will be the MTA strike in New York. Berry says he wants to explore two main points:
- This is evidence of the bad side of unions. This shows why we should be concerned with recent SEIU unionization of janitors in our city, and their recently publicized (potentially illegal) campaign to influence city council races. They succeeded, with over $100,000 toward a council race. The Economist magazine in their Dec 10-16 issue make the point that this is the biggest union gain in the South in perhaps 3 decades.
- This is a good indicator of why reliance on public transportation should be reconsidered. If the bus drivers in Houston strike, they can’t cripple our economy. We’re a self-reliant lot, and fiercely individualistic. The collectivist world of public transportation for an entire city took a blow when the strike took effect.
Berry encourages folks to email him (iam -at- michaelberry.com) with their thoughts, or to call in tomorrow.
BLOGVERSATION: Houblog.com.
UPDATE (12-21-2005): Councilmember Berry has led off the show with a discussion of science and faith. Maybe the other topic comes later? Beats me.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/05 10:24 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Atlanta contractor charged with bribing Brown official
Today, the Chronicle's Dan Feldstein continues his reporting on corruption in the Lee Brown Administration with news that Atlanta contractor Floyd Gary Thacker has been charged with bribing Monique McGilbra, Houston's former building services director under former Mayor Brown:
The criminal information alleges that Thacker gave $50,000 to an Atlanta official with the understanding that a portion be passed to a second Atlanta official. Gallagher said he could not name the officials. Thacker attorney Justin Thornton of Washington, D.C., also declined comment.
In Houston, Thacker and McGilbra had a "personal relationship" in 2002, according to his charges and her plea agreement. He got a subcontract with Reliant Energy to improve the energy efficiency of Houston's traffic signals and expected a net profit of more than $250,000.
McGilbra got earrings, a $700 Luis Vuitton gift certificate, expenses for trips to Miami and New Orleans and about $6,000 cash, never disclosing her gifts to the city.
In a wiretapped phone call, Gray and a Honeywell official panicked because of a tip that Reliant might give Thacker some of the business that Honeywell hoped to receive. The tip was provided to them by Mayor Brown's brother, Earl, who was on Gray's payroll.
McGilbra assured Gray it was only because Reliant needed a minority partner. But in fact, she testified at Gray's trial, it was also because she received gifts from Thacker.
The city let Thacker design the energy saving system, but canceled his contract in 2004 before the construction stage and paid him $202,000. New building services director Issa Dadoush said Monday that he had been uncomfortable with how Thacker got the contract.
By 2004, of course, Bill White had taken over as mayor.
No doubt he continues to spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning up other messes left to him by his predecessor, whose legacy continues to grow.
ARCHIVES: Monique McGilbra.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/05 09:09 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Astros say goodbye to Alan Ashby
Did anyone else see this coming?
Alan Ashby, who played 11 years for the Astros and worked in the broadcast booth for eight years, was told today that he will not be retained by the team for the 2006 season.
The Astros announced that they had hired two veteran minor league announcers, Brett Dolan and Dave Raymond, to work together on Astros road games and to split analyst duties with Milo Hamilton during home games.
[snip]
“I was informed the ball club was not of the opinion that I should be their lead broadcaster and that they had determined they wanted to go in an entirely new direction and that, therefore, I was being let go,” Ashby said. “I was completely caught off guard and am devastated by the decision.”
That's a shame -- I really enjoyed listening to him.
BLOGVERSATION: Safety for Dummies.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/20/05 08:52 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (8)
WaPo, Chron call for fairness in DeLay proceedings
Yesterday, the Washington Post suggested that Ronnie Earle might not be playing fair with Rep. Tom DeLay:
In this case, though, the "proceeds of criminal activity" -- the corporate-funded campaign checks -- are the same as the alleged criminal activity itself. Indeed, with the conspiracy charge thrown out, the money-laundering statute is being used as something of a stand-in for the election law -- except that it carries a bigger penalty. And there's always reason to pause when a prosecutor seems to be shaping the law to fit the circumstances.
None of this is to applaud Mr. DeLay's actions in Texas or elsewhere, or to say that he ought to be restored to his role as majority leader. It may be that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has more evidence than he has yet revealed about Mr. DeLay's involvement in this ugly episode. More damaging information also may emerge from the continuing federal investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff ("one of my closest and dearest friends," Mr. DeLay once called him) and Michael Scanlon, Mr. DeLay's former communications director who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe public officials. But the law needs to be applied with care and judgment when it comes to criminalizing political activity -- no matter who is being prosecuted.
Today, the Houston Chronicle went even further:
DeLay's lawyers have done their part to delay the trial. They filed motions to have the charges dismissed on the grounds no law was violated; to have the charges dismissed due to alleged prosecutor misconduct; to have the first trial judge removed; and to have the trial moved from liberal Austin to conservative Fort Bend County. Each motion takes time to consider.
However, there is no reason the appeals court cannot come to a quick decision regarding the dismissed charge. Lawyers for both sides have thoroughly briefed the issue, and neither the law nor the facts have changed.
DeLay has more problems than those presented by his indictment. Even if he is cleared of the charges he faces in Texas, House Republicans might be reluctant to return him to the leadership. That, however, is a decision that should be made by them, not by a district attorney with the tools to postpone the trial indefinitely.
Ronnie Earle can't postpone the trial indefinitely, but the point is valid. Surely no legal end is served by the delaying tactics. If Earle can prove his DeLay charges, then that will be that. If not, then it's going to look as if he criminalized politics in order to take down a sitting House Majority Leader. Foot-dragging doesn't tell us anything.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/05 08:44 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (5)
Sanctuary policy could jeopardize federal funding
Newly elected Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) was just on Hugh Hewitt's show (KNTH-1070), and one thing they discussed was an amendment Campbell successfully added to recent House legislation on illegal immigration. Rep. Campbell explained that the amendment would stop all federal law enforcement grant funds from going to cities that don't allow local law enforcement to communicate with the feds about illegal immigrants.
An example Rep. Campbell cited was the city of Houston.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/20/05 06:52 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
Metro acquires downtown property for future needs
The Houston Business Journal has a lengthy article with details of the latest done deal by Metro's Real Estate Development Division:
The complicated set of real estate transactions gives Metro control of 20 acres just north of downtown for future transit needs, including a possible intermodal transit center.
Todd Mason, Metro's vice president for real estate, says the transit authority did not need the property -- yet -- but waiting until later would have cost millions more.
"It's not that we're out speculating on land," Mason says. "We'll pay more now to make sure it doesn't cost us and the taxpayers $15 million to $20 million more later."
[snip]
Metro is mulling a number of options for the newly acquired acreage.
A bus layover facility currently on North San Jacinto may have to be moved as part of a flood control measure. If relocation is required, the 17-acre tract on North Main could serve as a replacement facility.
Parking buses at a layover facility close to downtown would save Metro $2 million in annual operating costs, Mason says.
The sites along North Main north of Interstate 10 also are being considered for development of an intermodal center, where a variety of transit vehicles could converge. (See "All Aboard for intermodal transit center," April 22, 2005.)
Even if an intermodal center is not ultimately built there, North Main will still have to be widened because the thoroughfare is an intersecting point for future Metro transit lines.
Light rail is expected to be extended north from the existing line toward the acquired sites. And some form of fixed guided rapid transit is expected to run south from Northline Mall along Main.
Those two transit systems will meet at the narrow tunnel under the Union Pacific railroad tracks, Mason says, so Metro will probably have to widen Main Street and put a station there.
Rice University is also involved in the deal:
Metro, in turn, will lease a portion of the parcel to Rice University for use as a data center on a short-term basis at a rental rate of $100 per year.
Power outage problems at the main campus data center and the need for a back-up tech hub attracted Rice to the well-suited site, which contains an existing data center that was built five years ago for more than $20 million but never opened for business.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/20/05 11:05 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
Looking for her best life now
KTRK-13 reports on a little something that happened when the Osteen family was heading off on vacation:
Taking time off from the high profile hustle and bustle of running a mega-church, Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen and his family boarded Continental flight 1602 Monday morning at Houston's big airport. They were bound for the slopes in Colorado.
Their trip was delayed and so was the entire flight by almost two hours. Fellow passengers blame the popular Osteens, specifically Joel's wife, Victoria.
According to passenger accounts, the Osteens were sitting in first class. Soon after the plane's door was closed, the FBI says Victoria Osteen was removed following what Continental would call only a disturbance. The Osteens' spokesman confirms it involved a flight attendant, but that's all. However, one passenger tells Eyewitness News she was alerted to the front of the plane when she heard a commotion.
"She violently ran towards the cockpit, scaring everyone around her," said passenger Knicky Van Slyke. "Everyone was terrified about what was going on. And a bunch of flight attendants ran up and had to restrain her. She was banging on the door."
"Of the cockpit?" we asked.
"Yes."
Passengers say Victoria was removed first. Joel and the children followed. Meantime, everyone waited.
"They unloaded all the luggage to get their luggage and deplaned her, Joel, and the kids," said passenger Dawn Dixon.
[snip]
The Osteens' spokesman says they took another flight to Colorado Monday.
Being Lakewood Church's pastor's wife has got to be unbelievably stressful. Here's hoping the Osteen family has a restful vacation and that all the inconvenienced passengers made it to their final destinations without any further delays.
ADDED: As you might expect, Laurence Simon has his own take. =)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/20/05 09:32 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (9)
19 December 2005
HPD, feds round up criminals (but not illegal aliens)
KHOU-11 reports on recent cooperation between HPD and the feds:
Houston’s top cop said the city’s streets are safer because of a new initiative between HPD officers and federal agents.
HPD Chief Harold Hurtt credits the six-month initiative with making streets safer but admits the job is not over.
Last week, Houston police officers arrested several gang members and confiscated dozens of weapons.
It was easy to see it was not an ordinary bust when police and federal agents moved in on the wanted suspects who at the time were carrying boxes filled with guns.
One of the gang members happened to be a suspect in a murder.
“It was very important that we be were very aggressive,” said Chief Harold Hurtt. “So we took a zero-tolerance approach in enforcement,” he said. “That is that if any crime was committed, the suspects or individuals we were looking for – they were immediately arrested.”
Excellent!
But wait a second....
Supporters of HPD's sanctuary policy frequently tell us that immigration is a federal matter, and HPD has no business enforcing federal immigration law. Yet in the non-immigration instance above, HPD is happily cooperating with the feds. Not just cooperating, but engaging with federal agents in a "zero-tolerance approach in enforcement" according to Chief Hurtt!
Some cooperation with the feds is apparently okay.
As for the sanctuary policy, recent reporting seems finally to have motivated MayorWhiteChiefHurtt at least to reconsider the matter, according to KTRK-13's Miya Shay:
For more than a decade, HPD's policy has been to not ask anyone about their immigration status. But now Mayor Bill White is asking the police chief to consider possible changes.
The mayor has been under considerable pressure to change the police policy. He has now asked Chief Harold Hurtt to look into the policy. Hurtt has not been asked to change it, but to evaluate the policy at this time.
RELATED COVERAGE: KPRC-2.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/05 11:06 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Goldberg: Let's sue crime-heavy apartment complexes
Councilmember Mark Goldberg has a quaint solution to crime in Southwest Houston:
Mark Goldberg represents District C, which includes Fondren southwest.
According to Goldberg, police calls from 27 apartment complexes in the area cost the city $1.7 million.
That same year, the complexes only paid $775,000 in taxes, he said.
Goldberg said pressuring apartment owners to have security gates and cameras that work will help lower the costs of police calls.
He said his plan is simple.
“File a lawsuit against the apartment complex and make them come to the bargaining table and change the way they do business,” Goldberg said.
We thought Republicans were usually critics of our overly litigious times?
Here's hoping Goldberg's replacement, Anne Clutterbuck, has some better ideas. We're thinking the odds are pretty good.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/05 10:43 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Brain drain at the Houston Chronicle? (cont'd)
Banjo Jones follows up on his earlier "brain drain" post with the news that the Houston Chronicle is hiring.
Along the way, he turns some really nice phrases and even works in Gabriel García Márquez. That guy's talented. Banjo, that is. I'm not such a big fan of GGM.
Feel free to go discuss at Banjo's place.
UPDATE: The post seems to be unavailable now. Blogger glitch? Maybe.
UPDATE 2: The link is working again. Blogger/blogspot has been a little erratic of late.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/05 09:57 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati |
Food and drink roundup (12-19-2005 edition)
It has been ages since a Food and Drink round up appeared. They stopped about the time of Hurricane Katrina. It didn’t seem appropriate for me to prattle on about such matters while people lost life and home. It’s time we got back to eating and drinking business. I’ve picked a few reviews from the past few weeks.
Alison Cook sees the ghosts of Antone's Po' boys past as she wanders through Gravitas, located in Antone's former digs on Taft. She finds some hits and misses in the new restaurant, but I loved remembering the old place through her descriptions. She also lets us know that Pronto Cucinino does a pretty good job at the fast casual effort.
A few weeks ago, Robb Walsh reviewed one of the bH crew's fave Tex Mex joints, Cyclone Anaya's. His latest review is about the newest sushi seen-and-be-seen spot Uptown Sushi.
Mary Vuong, inspired by a new dish tried, of all places, on an airplane flight, goes off in search of Houston versions of bibimbap. This probably falls in the olds column, but do we know what happened to Dai Huynh? Is she another one for the Chron Brain Drain list?
Ken Hoffman tries Margaritaville Calypso Coconut Shrimp from the Jimmy Buffet frozen food line. Yes. The Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville frozen food line. Okay. He also tries the new unorthodox Reuben sandwich at Arby’s.
And Gracie Ochoa checks out Katy's EinStein's Pub.
World Class, all of it. Enjoy!!
UPDATE: Laurence's review of Bubba's is a good read too.
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 12/19/05 10:44 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (10)
Councilmember Berry to discuss smoking bans
Councilmember Michael Berry notifies us that he'll be subbing for Sam Malone on KTRH-740 today (10 am to noon).
His topic will be smoking bans in general, but he'll most likely touch on Houston's smoking ban as well.
Feel free to call in and give him your perspective.
UPDATE: Councilmember Berry appears to have switched to a topic (civil liberties v. civil defense) more relevant to the Presidential press conference carried by KTRH.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/05 09:48 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Can someone please buy Metro a clue?
Rad Sallee's Move It! column has some Metro tidbits in it today, including this:
The public gave the Metro board some licks Thursday at its last regular meeting of the year.
Janis Scott brought a candle and other items to the rostrum in memory of Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus sparked a 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., and helped get the civil rights movement rolling.
Scott spoke in verse, chastising Metro for not reserving an empty seat on its buses to honor Parks, who died Oct. 24 at age 92. A number of other transit agencies around the country had made the gesture.
Board Chairman David Wolff said Metro showed Parks "a great deal of respect" by displaying her picture instead.
Except that according to KTRK-13's reporting, Metro displayed Parks' picture a month before she died.
PREVIOUSLY: METRO doesn't join other transit agencies in honoring Parks (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/19/05 07:52 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
18 December 2005
Mayor White rides in police car, says crime will end
KTRK-13 reports that Mayor White wanted to get up close and personal with Houston's crime problem:
The shooting death of an evacuee living in a motel is exactly the kind of crime Mayor Bill White and Houston police are working to stop.
The mayor rode along with officers Saturday night in the city's hot spots in southwest and west Houston. Crime is on the rise, specifically around large apartment complexes.
The mayor says several people who lived a life of crime in Louisiana, are now calling Houston home and causing problems. He says that's going to stop.
HPD has increased patrols in the area and the officers are on an overtime program.
MS-13 was here before Louisiana criminals made their way to Houston. It's been an ongoing problem, Mayor White.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/18/05 09:27 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Campaign finance and double standards - cont'd
Before the City Council runoff election, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack wrote an important column on SEIU's possibly illegal efforts to influence the At Large position 2 race between Jay Aiyer and Sue Lovell.
Mack followed up on the story in her Friday column:
SEIU accompanied its endorsement of Lovell with a $10,000 check. But it went beyond that.
With eight mail pieces and phone banks on her behalf, the union spent an estimated $120,000 to benefit Lovell.
[snip]
Donations by unions and corporations to city candidates are limited by city ordinance to $10,000 per candidate in any election cycle. Aiyer filed an ethics complaint with the city of Houston alleging that SEIU effectively exceeded that limit in that the mailers were a "coordinated campaign expenditure" and were "made in cooperation, consultation or concert with" Lovell.
Larry Veselka, a former county Democratic chairman who spoke on Lovell's behalf at the hearing, said Aiyer has not shown that the SEIU's activities constituted being in concert with Lovell. "He has not presented evidence other than pure speculation," Veselka said. "The existence of an independent mailer is not sufficient alone."
[snip]
The ethics committee is charged with reviewing alleged acts of impropriety and misconduct on the part of city officials and candidates for city office. It didn't make a decision last week. Instead it took the complaint under advisement, with the plan to discuss it further and render a decision at the next meeting.
In the end, it doesn't matter. The race is decided. And the fact is, SEIU did the mail-out and Lovell knew it was coming — though she told the committee that she and the union deliberately avoided communication about the specifics.
As long as Lovell and SEIU maintain that there was no coordination, there is little way to prove there was. And city election rules place no limits on uncoordinated campaign expenditures.
SEIU has indicated it plans to be a major player in municipal politics, and certainly violated the spirit if not the letter of the city's laws on coordinated campaign expenditures by unions and corporations.
Interestingly, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists and many other partisans who love to criticize Rep. Tom DeLay (R) on campaign finance continue their silence on the questionable assistance provided to Democrat Lovell's campaign by SEIU.
BLOGVERSATION: On the wrong side of big money (Houtopia).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/18/05 07:35 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)
Chron weekend olds - part two
Back at the start of the month, the blog voice of Brazosport (Banjo Jones) alerted his readers to the fact that his local newspaper had published a fabricated account of a hard-luck kid by a CPS worker. Since then, Banjo has followed up with several posts on the matter (here, here, and here).
Today, Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey picked up on the story.
Unlike Banjo, Casey praised the publisher of The Facts and its readers:
The other part of what I like about the story is how publisher Cornwell and the Facts responded, and the reaction of the newspapers' readers.
Cornwell, who was at an ethics seminar in Oklahoma when he received a call from reporter Lauck, immediately stopped the series upon learning that the story about John had been fiction. The paper ran a detailed article about the matter.
Cornwell also met with the appropriate officials to check on how the money raised was being spent. He found nothing improper.
But the readers did. Many were outraged that the Facts had stopped the series.
"What we heard from them was that they didn't care whether the stories were true or false," he said.
Cornwell should have been more diligent about checking the stories and he should have started running the stories again after instituting proper safeguards. And if readers told Cornwell that it doesn't matter if stories in the newspaper are true or false, they are wrong (although we can't imagine many readers putting it that way).
The conclusion to Casey's column of olds is just bizarre:
I can't help but wonder what would have happened had Francis Pharcellus Church written America's most famous editorial in 2005 instead of 1892.
Would he have been flogged by chest-beating bloggers for not telling Virginia who Santa really was?
Huh?
Since Casey's column of olds doesn't mention any bloggers but credits KHOU-11's Dan Lauck for getting to the bottom of the story, I can't make sense of that non sequitur.
UPDATE (12-19-2005): Banjo comments on Casey's column.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/18/05 07:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron weekend olds - part one
After Chronicle reader representative James Campbell's blunt, critical blog post on his newspaper's decision to bury its coverage of the recent elections in Iraq on page A23, we thought perhaps Campbell would develop that blog post into a timely column for the Sunday print edition, giving his criticism of the blunder a large Sunday print audience instead of the comparatively miniscule web audience.
The turnaround time must have been too short for the Sunday print deadline. Instead, Campbell's column today was largely a reprint of a July 2005 blog post that tried to argue that Chronicle decisions not to identify perpetrators of crimes by race are not motivated by political correctness (except when they are).
From the column:
Political correctness does not prevent the Chronicle and other news media organizations from regularly reporting the race of a suspect. Actually, the reason is more practical than it is PC, though I'll concede that we do at times err on the side of sensitivity.
We're not politically correct. We're just sensitive.
We would have thought the arguments advanced in this column would have been tightened up and improved over the last five months, especially given all the comments generated by the original post, our criticism here, and criticism at Lone Star Times (here and here).
I tend to agree with Banjo Jones, who commented in Campbell's earlier post:
If a criminal is active in my neighborhood, I would want to know the suspect's race, whether or not there is a more detailed description. At least it's something. You're being disingenuous in saying the newspaper's policy is not rooted in political correctness. Instead of deciding what is or isn't relevant, why not let the reading public decide? The Connie Chung-Dan Rather example isn't relevant, unless Connie & Dan have resorted to a life of crime. A newspaper's obligation is to print the truth, not worry about whether the truth incites some groups or feeds stereotypes. Race (and gender) are two of the most basic identifying characteristics. Your policy doesn't make any sense.
I might be insensitive, but I prefer more information to less.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/18/05 06:31 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Astrodome convention center plans are proceeding
The Chronicle runs a Bill Murphy story today on Astrodome Redevelopment Co.'s proposals to turn the Astrodome into an upscale convention center. The story is, on the whole, optimistic about the project, with no quotes from any critics.
Perhaps Murphy should have spoken to Tom Kirkendall, who posts his thoughts on "the seemingly delusional plan" here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/18/05 05:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
17 December 2005
NY Daily News: Johnson declined Texans' offer
Yesterday, the New York Daily News reported that Houston Texans owner Bob McNair tried to talk Jimmy Johnson into taking over the Texans, but Johnson turned him down:
Jimmy Johnson, always a hot name for NFL jobs this time of the year, recently turned down the opportunity to be the coach and general manager of the Houston Texans, multiple sources told the Daily News.
Contacted yesterday at his home in the Florida Keys, Johnson, who now works for Fox on its NFL coverage, said, "I can't confirm any rumors. I'm happy doing what I'm doing. I have no interest in going back to coaching."
After Johnson turned him down, Texans owner Bob McNair hired former Giants coach Dan Reeves on Monday as a consultant to evaluate the 1-12 team....
Johnson, however, was the big name McNair wanted, sources said. They were together months ago when Johnson was doing a television piece on the Hurricane Katrina evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston. He also visited the Texans' offices. But that preceded McNair contacting Johnson about working for the team.
So far as I can tell, the local newspaper has not printed this rumor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/17/05 11:54 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Two local groups desperately need financial help
Due to the demands of recent events, two Houston-area groups are in need of financial assistance. First is the Houston Food Bank:
The Houston Food Bank, along with many other social service organizations, is suffering from a shortage of supplies and funds as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This year the Houston Food Bank distributed more than 6 million pounds of food above the normal output. All of that was to feed those stranded after the storms as well as evacuees who relocated to Houston. Brian Greene is the new president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank. He was hired to start in early September, but was working as executive director of America's Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans at the time and stayed there until after Katrina. He says there is an ongoing impact to the food back from the hurricanes.
Second is Texas Equusearch:
A search group that is often the first call for help for those who have missing loved ones is worried about its future. Texas EquuSearch said Friday it is operating at a deficit of $60,000, KPRC Local 2 reported.
The non-profit group has conducted 107 searches for missing people this year.
The most recent case was solved Thursday when searchers found the body of 12-year-old Teketria Buggs in the Brazos River. She had been missing since Dec. 2.
EquuSearch's founder, Tim Miller, said it's a hard job, but it needs to be done.
[snip]
Searches can be expensive operations, including sonar equipment that costs thousands of dollars to rent for water searches.
Police credit the group's dedication in finding missing people.
"There's no way to calculate the importance of it. It's very critical," said Craig Brady, with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department.
While EquuSearch has been all over the world trying to provide closure and clear missing person cases, the future of the organization is in question.
"We're at a point where we're kind of scared. We're kind of worried that the finances are going to totally run out and we're not going to be able to do it anymore," Miller said.
[snip]
Anyone who would like to help Texas EquuSearch should call (281) 309-9500 or visit its Web site at www.texasequusearch.org.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/17/05 08:33 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
16 December 2005
A brain drain at the Houston Chronicle?
Banjo Jones takes note of the fact that the Chronicle seems to have lost a great deal of talent recently:
A former Houston Chronicle news gal, Jennifer Sizemore, has been named the head of MSNBC.COM.
Sizemore was a deputy managing editor at the Houston daily before she decamped to the brighter lights of MSNBC.
One can hardly blame her for leaving the Chron in order to land such a prestigious position. She probably passes Keith Olbermann in the hallway every once in while, which must be a bigger thrill than seeing Jeff Cohen at the water cooler.
Sizemore's defection, however, again raises the recurring question of whether there's a brain drain going on at the Houston daily.
Banjo recaps some of the notable departures here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/05 11:24 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (14)
Chron reader rep: We blew Iraqi election story
Chronicle reader representative James Campbell is unusually, bluntly critical of his newspaper today:
We blew it on the story about the elections in Iraq. Instead of playing the story about how many Iraqis voted on Page One, where it should have been, we placed it on page A23.
We opted to put on Page One above the fold stories about President Bush's agreement to support a proposal by Sen. John McCain to ban the torture of foreign prisoners in U.S custody and a story about the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' reconsideration of its opinion to overturn the conviction of a woman in connection with the 1999 death of her infant son.
We completed Page One with stories about the body of a missing Fort Bend County girl found in the Brazos River, one about Hispanic literacy and another about President Bush's authorization of the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States suspected of ties to terrorists.
We earned charges of bias today. We didn't even refer Page One readers to the inside story about the elections in Iraq, which for many readers was the biggest news of the day.
The Chronicle earned charges of bias, yes, but even worse, the Chronicle definitely earned charges of being a horrible NEWS source. That last is far more damning.
We frequently suggest that the Chronicle editors (executive and line) are a major weakness, and simply don't seem like an intellectually curious or ideologically diverse bunch. Dropping the Iraq election story on Page 23 in favor of a page-one story about Hispanic literacy and a page-one story designed to make the President look bad while selling a new book by the author only drives the points home.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/05 10:20 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Cabo, Schlotzky's plan to expand in Houston
The Houston Business Journal's Allison Wollam reports that Cabo and Schlotzky's are both planning to expand in Houston after several years of contraction forced by bankruptcy:
A pair of restaurant chains have rebounded from bankruptcy and have opened or plan to open their first eateries in the Houston area since regaining their financial footing earlier this year.
Houston-based Cabo Restaurants LP, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2004, will open a new location in the Royal Oaks area this spring and also has plans on the drawing board for additional restaurants in Pearland and Katy.
And Austin-based Schlotzsky's Ltd., which filed for Chapter 11 in August 2004 and closed several area units in the process, anticipates opening a total of seven to eight new restaurants here in 2006. The first Schlotzsky's to open following a post-bankruptcy store shuttering effort began serving up the company's signature sandwiches in northwest Houston on Nov. 28.
For Cabo, the Richmond strip store was apparently quite a financial drag:
Roberson opened the Richmond unit at 6025 Richmond Ave. in 2001 in space formerly occupied by Billy Blues Bar & Grill. That Cabo closed in early 2004 because Roberson says it became a nightclub, not the restaurant it was designed to be, and was hurting the Cabo brand.
The Shepherd Plaza location, once a hot spot among the city's night crowd, had outlasted some of the center's trendiest restaurants, nightclubs and bars when it closed in 2001.
"We're going to take our time and be careful this time," Roberson says of the new expansion effort. "We have a good opportunity to rebrand ourselves as more of a traditional restaurant concept, which will help us as we move into the suburbs."
Ditching the popular Shepherd Plaza location in favor of a location on the changing Richmond strip was a bad blunder.
Schlotzky's seems to have improved its financial footing and rededicated itself to its core sandwich business:
Fort Worth-based Bobby Cox Cos. Inc. paid $28.5 million for Schlotzsky's in early December 2004, taking the company private.
Bobby Cox owns five Texas Burger restaurants in West Texas, 15 Taco Villas in North and West Texas as well as New Mexico, and 19 Rosa's Cafe restaurants in North and West Texas and California.
With strong backing and stable footing, [spokesman Debbie] Gardner says, the company is back on track.
"We are definitely in the midst of a re-growth period," she says. "We are anticipating steady growth in the Houston area. Houston has always been a good market for us."
[snip]
Chris Tripoli, owner of A La Carte Foodservice Consulting, says Schlotzsky's is making a smart first step by re-establishing itself in a "safe haven" market where it already has a strong customer base.
He believes Schlotzsky's should spend more time and energy on its core product rather than expanding the menu and the square footage of restaurants and confusing diners.
"They expanded their menu and their buildings before, but they weren't able to capture a larger customer base to support that growth," he says. "I think they now have a better understanding of their concept and what works for them."
The huge store on Kirby always confused me. It's almost as if the sandwich shop wanted to be more of a Whole Foods or Central Market cafe, but everyone still thought of it as a slightly nicer Subway.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/05 09:50 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (3)
Harris County sees increase in hotel occupancy taxes
The Houston Business Journal reports:
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt said Friday that his office had collected and distributed more than $8.1 million in hotel-occupancy taxes during the third quarter of 2005, an increase of nearly $575,000 over the same period last year.
"Even with our hotels filled for weeks with evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- most of whom were exempt from hotel taxes -- we still saw one of our best quarters in four years," Bettencourt said. "Just as some of us predicted, the taxes waived for the evacuees produced no losses. That was tax money we never would have collected anyway."
Although tens of thousands of hurricane evacuees began arriving in Houston-area hotels and motels in August and September, they were exempted by Texas Gov. Rick Perry from all hotel-occupancy taxes.
The hotel occupancy tax is 17 percent in most areas of the county, with shares of the revenue going to the city, the county, the state and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. The Harris County Tax Office collects the tax for the county and the sports authority.
Well, now the new soccer team won't have to pay for its own turf.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/16/05 01:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Houston-area ISDs struggle to pay for Katrina-students' education
Jack Williams of KUHF-88.7 covers the problem local school districts are having keeping up with the financial demands of educating New Orleans students:
Houston-area school districts are pleading with lawmakers in Washington to begin paying-off on a promise to reimburse them for taking in thousands of Katrina and Rita evacuee students. Most of those districts have seen little or no federal money despite millions of dollars in expenses.
At last count, local schools had taken in around 22,000 evacuee students, with many of those new faces served by the Houston School District. So far, HISD has welcomed more than 7500 students and is spending close to $200,000 a day to educate them. Despite the increased burden, HISD has seen virtually no federal reimbursement and expects the total burden to hit $35 million before the end of the school year. Karen Soehnge is HISD's Chief Academic Officer and says that's a lot of money to have to make up. "If in fact this spring we don't get additional help from the federal government, that $35 million, we'll have to a address that in our budget development for next year and it will have, and could have, a profound effect," she says.
[snip]
One of those leaders is Houston Congressman Gene Green, who has led an effort in Washington to get federal money to local schools who have accepted evacuee students. The House is currently considering a supplemental appropriations bill that would address the reimbursement, something Green says should have happened months ago. "Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has committed to members of Congress and even in the state of Texas the school districts, that they would be paid for those students and here we are in December and it's been since September that Houston and Harris County opened their doors to our neighbors, but it's a federal responsibility to help our districts," he says.
Since New Orleans schools are barely functioning, if functioning at all, why doesn't the money that New Orleans would have gotten from the feds go to the school districts that ARE educating New Orleans students? I certainly hope that New Orleans school districts aren't still collecting money, while Houston-area schools are actually providing their students with an education (and most likely a better one at that).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/16/05 07:18 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
15 December 2005
Earthquakes are coming -- and they expect their own stadium
via John Wagner and Laurence Simon, I see that the San Jose Earthquakes have decided to come to Hurricane country:
The San Jose Earthquakes will relocate immediately to Houston, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said Thursday.
Garber said the team's owners, Anschutz Entertainment Group, were attracted by the chance to play in their own stadium and for an ethnically diverse population willing to support a professional soccer team.
"We've always believed that the city has great potential to be a soccer market," Garber said. "We're excited about what our opportunities are there."
Uh oh. Their own stadium. How much did Mayor White and Oliver Luck promise? How long will it take our local media to find out?
For now, the team will play at UH's Robertson Stadium.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/15/05 08:31 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (9)
Joe Nixon opposes Grand Parkway Spring F2 segment
I received this email today:
Statement by Rep. Joe Nixon on Grand Parkway:
“I favor the original route through Montgomery County, north of where it is now planned.”
Excellent! With two of the four SD 7 candidates coming out strongly against the F2 segment running through Spring, I am now hopeful that state Rep. Debbie Riddle won't be a lone voice in the wilderness, fighting for the residents in far North Harris County.
PREVIOUSLY: Ellis opposes Grand Parkway through Spring
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/15/05 08:20 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
HPD trying to boost traffic-citation revenue stream?
Richard Connelly speculates that HPD may be under the gun to boost the traffic-citation revenue stream:
You may have noticed it around town lately -- a half-dozen or so cop cars at some intersection, pulling over motorists in order to give the cars a good inspection and find something to ticket.
We've seen at least two of the operations recently, and it looked like HPD was either stopping every car to find a desperate serial killer or checking for green cards in an illegal-immigrant crackdown. Instead it appears they're just trying to make up for lost revenue.
From July to September of this year, the municipal courts raked in about $1.2 million monthly in traffic fines. In October that figure fell to $950,000.
That's quite a slip. And no one in the city bureaucracy is eager to talk about it, or whether HPD is under the gun to get more cash flow to replace the loss.
Municipal courts director Richard Lewis -- or, to be precise, a "very busy" Richard Lewis, as he described himself when he finally deigned to answer questions -- said he couldn't offer any reason for the dip and suggested we call HPD. The police department said it was a municipal courts matter.
Two court staffers told us that Lewis had been more forthcoming with them -- he had blamed the dip on the fact that police were working overtime responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
There's no question the city's revenue figures took a dip. What's less certain is whether the cops have stepped up their traffic-enforcement operations as a result. At a time when the department's getting heat for a manpower shortage and lengthy response times to citizen calls, you'd hate to think they'd be devoting a lot of effort to finding niggling things to ticket (especially if you're someone who got a ticket).
You'd hate to think it, but it really wouldn't come as a surprise. MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are serious about their revenue streams!
ANNE ADDS: Has HPD's "productivity policy" been rolled out city-wide? Maybe MayorWhiteChiefHurtt need to reissue the memo on the (don't say quota) policy, as a refresher for HPD officers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/15/05 07:44 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Grand Parkway F2 segment DEIS is ready
In the forum here, connie passes on the news that the Second Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Study for the Grand Parkway's F2 segment will be presented at a public hearing at the end of January.
My information is that the study has already been presented to a group of higher-up muckety-mucks within the last couple of weeks or so, which is annoying if you think about it. Why should movers and shakers (any developers in there?) get to see it before the citizen taxpayers who will be bulldozed by the new road? Was our (outgoing!) state Senator Jon Lindsay in attendance?
I'll be very curious to see what the report says, as will many folks up here. I expect local elected officials (and those running for a certain state senate seat) will send reps to the meetings, or even show up themselves to work the voting crowd (hint, hint).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/15/05 07:29 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
14 December 2005
Council approves MediaSource contract
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that City Council has finally approved a contract with Houston MediaSource, the (recently) controversial custodian of the public access channel:
It took more than five months, but City Council today finally approved a contract for its cable public-access channel, Houston MediaSource.
The council, which rejected a previous contract in September over concerns about explicit programming, voted 11-4 to give the non-profit channel about $400,000 over the next six months.
[snip]
Voting against the contract, which includes new provisions for keeping potentially obscene material off the air, were council members Addie Wiseman, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, Michael Berry and Mark Ellis.
The six-month contract, coupled with the turnover at MediaSource, seems like a good idea. Council can revisit the issue in six months if problems persist.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/05 10:05 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
They've lost another prisoner
KHOU-11 breaks this news:
Minutes after his conviction, a Harris County prisoner ran out of the courtroom and disappeared into the streets below.
Nicholaus Scardino, 25, had just been convicted of evading arrest and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
He also uses the name Michael Crawford, according to Harris County authorities.
Deputies are searching the area around the criminal courthouse, but so far no sign of Scardino.
Otis seemed to have more resistance leaving the jail in Mayberry than deputies have been providing in Houston lately.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/05 05:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Of deluges and droughts...
My goodness, that was wild!
How did you all fare? Laurence was on an excursion when it started.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/14/05 03:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Ellis opposes Grand Parkway through Spring
Recently I mentioned that I had written to SD 7 candidates asking where they stood on the F2 segment of the Grand Parkway:
I also have not heard from Joe Nixon's or Mark Ellis' campaigns, but I have heard from Dan Patrick's campaign. He is taking the time to get himself up to speed on the issue and will announce where he stands on the F2 segment soon.
UPDATE: I have now been contacted by Mark Ellis' campaign. When I get more information, I will pass it on.
Today I received an email from the Mark Ellis campaign:
Mark Ellis is opposed to any plan that would destroy the quality of life of our neighborhoods in Harris County.
Thus he is in favor of moving the Grand Parkway project north to Montgomery County.
Many Spring residents would like to see the F2 segment routed through The Woodlands (if it must be built), perhaps connecting with 242, since residents of The Woodlands will gain the most benefit from the new highway. Of course, The Woodlands favors the Grand Parkway being built through Spring.
So, here's the current scorecard: Peggy Hamric apparently favors the F2 segment being built through Tomball and Spring; Mark Ellis opposes it; Dan Patrick is still studying it (I assume, since I haven't heard anything more from his campaign); and I have no idea where Joe Nixon stands on the issue.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/14/05 10:37 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Metro sponsors anti-crime rally
Here's a Metro press release on an anti-crime rally it held yesterday (although the release wasn't posted yesterday morning when I checked Metro's site):
This summer, with crime encroaching on the Southeast Transit Center, METRO police instituted a campaign to reduce illegal activity around the facility by increasing patrols and removing graffiti. The campaign worked, with the number of arrests for some offenses nearly tripling from September to October.
This afternoon, METRO is inviting the local community to join local government and law enforcement officials, to celebrate this success and encourage ongoing neighborhood participation in the program.
The rally will be held at 4 p.m. at the Southeast Transit Center, 6000 Scottcrest, near Scott and Old Spanish Trail.
Minister Robert Muhammad of The Nation of Islam, Precinct 7 Constable Mae Walker, HPD Captain Mark Fougerousse and Crime Stoppers Executive Director Kim Ogg will also discuss the importance of citizen involvement in crime prevention. Brochures on local crime prevention programs will be available.
Increasing police patrols and removing graffiti works? Someone tell MayorWhiteChiefHurtt!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/14/05 10:16 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
HISD news
Houston-area school districts have really answered the call to welcome Hurricane Katrina evacuees and as we know from local news headlines, it hasn't always gone smoothly.
Well, here are some nice stories from HISD, of HISD students doing what they can to bring Christmas cheer to evacuee students.
And on a related note, a Chronicle story today has some details of Katrina's impact on HISD:
Harris County schools have scrambled to absorb roughly 20,000 students from New Orleans.
HISD has taken in the bulk of those, some about 5,763 evacuees. An additional 2,800 are attending Alief schools.
"It is costing us about $180,000 a day to educate the evacuees, and while we are honored to help, we have not gotten one dime of support from the federal government," HISD spokesman Terry Abbott said. "The taxpayers of Houston are bearing all of the cost of this humanitarian educational effort right now, and we need FEMA and the Congress to step up and fulfill their responsibility."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/14/05 10:01 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
HPD looks to hire officers from other cities
KHOU-11's Jeff McShan reports on another way the city is trying to fix HPD's manpower shortage:
It's not a done deal yet, but Houston City Councilmember Adrian Garcia has confirmed that the city is looking at ways it can hire officers who have been laid off around the country.
There are many officers available to help HPD's severe staffing shortage.
The New York Police Department has lost 1,000 officers in the last three years. During the summer, Detroit laid off 600. Boston is down from 1,800 to 1,400. Cleveland recently laid off 250. And the Oregon State Police let 129 go from its 600-member force.
All the layoffs appear to be budget driven.
These are men and women that could help Houston immediately.
"Exactly, and as long as they meet the requirements that Houston police officers today have met, and that have allowed them to join the Houston Police Department, I am all for it," Garcia said. "Great experience to bring in."
HPD has begun accepting applications from officers around the country, but what hasn't been worked out is finding an acceptable, abbreviated training program that everyone would agree on.
UPDATE: An emailer tells me that this idea has been brought up a couple of times by Chris Baker over the past several weeks. In fact, Chris apparently mentioned the idea to Councilman Garcia last week. Maybe Chris could become a special advisor to Mayor White. God knows the mayor could use some of Chris' common sense.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/14/05 07:08 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
13 December 2005
KPRC resists subpoena for videotape footage
KPRC-2 is resisting an attempt by the Harris County District Attorney's office to subpoena videotape footage that never aired:
A prosecutor's demand for a TV station's videotape from a story that never aired violates the broadcaster's constitutional freedom of the press and should be thrown out, the station said.
A judge heard KPRC-TV's motion to dismiss the subpoena Tuesday but continued the hearing until Jan. 10.
The station shot the videotape while researching a potential story about home loans. Russell Turbeville, chief prosecutor of the Harris County District Attorney's consumer fraud division, said the video contains footage of an interview with a possible suspect and victims in a home improvement fraud case and another criminal matter.
TV stations regularly make available to authorities copies of stories that aired. But some experts worry that the unusual subpoena for raw footage could lead to prosecutors asking for a radio reporter's audiotape or a newspaper reporter's notes on stories that never were broadcast or printed.
"Reporters don't get paid to gather and organize and assimilate evidence for a prosecutor or any other law enforcement agency," KPRC attorney Thomas J. Forestier said. "They do get paid to gather and report whatever they consider to be newsworthy."
Expect the Chronicle editorial board to renew demands for a journalist shield law within a week.
UPDATE (12-14-2005): Dale Lezon covers the story for the Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/05 11:10 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
Deluge, droughts, rising oceans -- oh my!
Sometimes, it's just fun when the Editorial LiveJournalists crank up the rhetoric:
The longer the United States waits to join the rest of the world and act decisively to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the more likely our children will face a future where deluge, droughts and rising oceans will be the norm rather than the exception.
We certainly are no fans of deluge, droughts, and rising oceans! How will we protect the children? And just as importantly, the leftovers?
The ever patient Sedosi Alhambra gives the whole amusing thing an even more amusing Fisking.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/05 10:34 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
What next for the New Chron.com?
Over at the Brazosport News a few days ago, Banjo Jones stirred the pot a bit with these observations about the New Chron.com editorial page, and its linking of local blogs:
[T]here's a certain level of validation that comes with a link in the high 'n mighty Chron....
For those who never worked in journalism, the temptation may be to think, "Golly, professional journalists really like my writing!"
And there would seem to be some truth in that.
You have to ask, though, will they link to your post if you rip 'em a good one?
The link to Slampo today, for instance, may have been included since he made a flattering allusion to one of their reporters (or was that Slampo's patented sarcasm?) Slampo at times artfully eviscerates the Chron and so far I haven't noticed any links to those posts.
By the same token, Kevin Whited and Anne Linehan at BlogHouston take a fine tooth comb to the Houston daily on a regular basis and, I may be wrong, but I haven't noticed chron.com linking to any of their more pointed pieces while throwing a link to some of their less strident posts.
So is this the local mainstream media's attempt to co-opt Bloggerville? Is there a subtle, unspoken message being sent that says, "We will deign to link to you Pajama Nazis so long as you don't criticize our product too brutally?"
Banjo concluded by giving Dwight Silverman, who selects the blog posts, the benefit of the doubt (I think).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/05 10:25 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (10)
Kotkin contrasts Houston and New Orleans
Joel Kotkin has penned a provocative column for The American Enterprise in which he examines the underclass in New Orleans (positing a connection to urban liberalism run amok) and contrasts it with the immigrant class (noting that immigrants tend to skip over cities like New Orleans for cities more like Houston).
There is much of interest in Kotkin's article. Here are a few Houston-specific snippets:
In many important ways, the problems of America’s urban underclass are radically different from those of their European counterparts. In this country, the deepest and most intractable problems are not in cities with heavy immigrant populations (as in Europe) but rather in places like New Orleans that are dominated by native-born African Americans. Most of the cities with the highest concentrations of poverty in America—New Orleans, Louisville, Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia—are predominantly black cities.
These are also cities that most immigrants skip over. Only 5 percent of New Orleans residents were born outside the country—compared to 28 percent in Houston, 40 percent in Los Angeles, and 36 percent in New York City. This decade, immigrants to the U.S. are headed to cities like Phoenix, Houston, and Orlando that have burgeoning economies. Immigrants who do settle in heavily black metro areas generally move outside city limits, to places like Northern Virginia, Baltimore County, or Kenner (outside of New Orleans).
[snip]
The critical factor separating most U.S. immigrants from our underclass is this: Attitude matters. Most newcomers to America see this not as a land of oppressors (the sore exceptions tend to gravitate toward journalism, politics, or academia, so we sometimes get a skewed impression), but rather as a place of opportunity and fundamental fairness. This often contrasts mightily with conditions in the immigrants’ home countries. In many of those places, connections and ethnic privilege are essential to getting anything done. In Nigeria, notes U.S. immigrant/entrepreneur Ibim Bobmanuel, the key issue is “who you know.” Land is expensive and controlled by powerful families.
On the other hand, in Houston, where he immigrated in 1984, Bobmanuel was able to start a dry cleaning business in a strip mall with “about five minutes of training.” In two years he sold that business and got a license to teach special education at a public school. On the side, he started a health care business. He now employs 15 home-assistance workers, and, from an office in suburban Fort Bend, runs a trucking operation back in Nigeria as well. “Africans come here because there are far fewer barriers,” says the jet-black businessman.
Recent immigrants like Bobmanuel and their children now amount to almost 60 million Americans, the largest number in our nation’s history, and roughly one fifth of our total population. Some of this large group will inevitably fall into our underclass, as will millions of whites. And certainly the persistence of Latino second- and third-generation gang members in places like Los Angeles confirms that the integration of immigrants into the productive part of American society has been far from perfect. But the overwhelming trend in this country is for new people and new races to be folded into an ever-shifting and ever-increasing American mainstream.
There is a second article by Kotkin on the same page. It contrasts New Orleans and Houston, much like an earlier op-ed.
Feel free to discuss Kotkin's thoughts in the comments.
BLOGVERSATION: John Wagner comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/05 09:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Does low turnout mean Bob Stein's wife is doing a great job?
We almost forgot to mention this insight on low turnout for Houston's city council elections, courtesy of KHOU-11 political analyst Bob Stein:
[S]ince much of politics is about spin, there's even a positive spin on low turnout.
"Maybe in some respects that's good news. It's good news in the sense that the city is run well," said KHOU political analyst Bob Stein.
Shopping and not voting, he says, may mean less about the state of democracy than the state of overall satisfaction.
That would be the same Bob Stein who helped concoct the illegal, predatory contractual scheme that was a key component of Mayor White's original SAFEclear program, and whose wife works for the White Administration.
Stein did not add, "perhaps voters took advantage of the good weather to spend the day biking, and that kept them away from the polls."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/05 08:40 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
Metro's December board meetings
It's that time: Metro's monthly board meetings. You can peruse the agendas by clicking on each board meeting listing.
So...does anything catch your eye?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/13/05 07:04 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)
12 December 2005
Editorial LiveJournalists rewrite First Amendment
The Chronicle's Editorial LiveJournalists certainly have an entertaining view of what is required by the First Amendment.
In a Sunday editorial on a new academic textbook on the Bible, the Editorial LiveJournalists wrote:
Admirably, the book also states students' First Amendment rights in the first pages. "You are going to study the Bible academically, not devotionally," it reads. "You will not be pressed into accepting religion ... you will not be engaged in the practice of religion."Even so, the textbook includes a few of the biases its authors tried so hard to fight. It doesn't mention that the Bible's influence has not always been positive. Slave owners, for example, cited scripture urging slaves to obey masters. And the textbook's last paragraph contains this statement from a Chinese academic: "We were asked to look into what accounted for the ... preeminence of the West all over the world. ... [W]e have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity."
As the coda in an academic textbook, this passage undermines the entire project. It also raises a question. If a multimillion-dollar tome reviewed by First Amendment scholars still harbors such flaws, can ordinary teachers avoid similar bias?
It is bizarre to contend that the First Amendment requires an academic textbook about the Bible to purge any positive references to it and/or Christianity. As Orrin Judd asked, "do biology classes have to dwell on eugenics and Nazism?"
Today, the Editorial LiveJournalists revisit the topic of MediaSource:
New safeguards against obscene programming and the promise of more innovative management should satisfy council and allow swift approval of a new contract. Rather than play censor, elected city officials, access channel managers and trustees should strive to produce a free speech cable outlet that airs quality programming that will attract a substantial viewership.
If that happens, any future attempt by city officials to censor the channel's programs would face the vociferous objections of a devoted audience.
The Editorial LiveJournalists have previously accused Councilmember Wiseman of trying to play censor. The notion that minimal oversight of the public access channel by the city's elected officials is censorship or prior restraint stretches the First Amendment beyond common sense.
Just as a refresher, here is the text of the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
It's hard to find anything in the text to justify the bizarre notion that a textbook on the Bible must treat Christianity negatively, or that municipal officials cannot engage in oversight of a public access television channel.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/05 11:06 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
Campbell: Newspaper headlines gave appearance of bias
In a column that is critical of Chronicle headlines on Rep. Tom DeLay's partial victory in having charges dismissed, reader representative James Campbell gives readers an interesting look inside the newspaper:
In response to a query from me, copy editor Helen Olin explained the process behind the Page One headline: "Our logic at the time seemed pretty straightforward. DeLay was in court with hopes that his case would get tossed. That didn't happen. We put that in the main headline and explained the split ruling in the deck. I truly had no intention of appearing biased. We wrote the headline based off the story's lead paragraph. ... The lead did not take a double-barreled approach (meaning the story's first paragraph didn't read that the judge rendered a split decision). Thus, our headline focused on DeLay failing to get his case thrown out. We felt our deck, which mentioned the conspiracy charge being dropped, added balance. The point size and the story's lead, not political bias or any other non-editing related force, influenced our actions with that headline. Had it been a story about any other politician with the exact same circumstances, we would have arrived at the exact same headline. I will certainly take that into consideration next time I'm working on a story with a politically charged nature."
I accept Olin's earnest answer. I also believe there was no intent or conspiracy afoot to write a biased headline. The resulting headline, however, conveyed a bias. The headline was in fact — accurate. Most observers know that DeLay went to court attempting to get all charges against him dismissed. He failed.
By implication, however, the headline was biased. It insinuated that DeLay failed — completely — when he gained a partial victory. The deck head fully explained the judge's split decision. But the damage had been done, and readers were not concerned about the deck. Indeed, if we had written a headline that read: "DeLay wins one, drops one, trial will procede," that might have allayed complaints about headline bias.
Copy editors are taught to write compelling, witty and interesting headlines. It's a tough task, particularly on deadline. Most of our headlines hit the mark, but readers notice the ones that miss.
He was going along so well until that last sentence. In truth, the Chronicle suffers from weak headlines more than occasionally. Sometimes it can give the appearance of bias, but it may well be that the newspaper's headline writers just aren't as good as counterparts at newspapers of comparable reach.
Campbell seemed to have a little fun with this:
Instead of taking a neutral or glass-half-full approach, the headline provided fodder to those who claim we are "Chronically biased."
Who would do that?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/05 10:34 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
New Chron.com = less functionality
It appears that the new Chron.com has made another change that renders the site less useful.
Readers who receive Houston Chronicle Newsmails each day may have gotten used to clicking on section headings in those emails in order to catch up on the news from a previous day or so. This was useful, since the Newsmails don't contain all the stories in any given section.
Now, that functionality appears to have been disabled. The hyperlinks are still in the Newsmails, but the new Chron.com now redirects users to the section's current offerings. Until recently, it was still possible to click in and use the service as before (for example, this link from the Newsmail is designed to take the user to the Metro & State section for December 11 -- except it no longer works).
A redesign shouldn't result in less functionality for the user. This is a bad move.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/05 10:20 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Penders, UH generate positive press
Richard Justice has a nice profile of University of Houston basketball coach Tom Penders in today's Chronicle.
Here's an excerpt:
"I think we've already proven we're capable of beating anybody," [Penders] says. "And we're nowhere near being healthy. We're playing at about 25 percent of what we're going to be in February."You know he's spinning. You know he's selling. You don't go see Penders because you want the usual stuff. You don't go see him if you want dark clouds. You have Jeff Van Gundy for that.
That's one of the reasons the University of Houston wanted him in charge of its basketball program. Because he's bombastic, smart, resourceful, cocky, optimistic, interesting. Because he's different.
So when he starts to talk, you let him. You're having fun, and he's not hurting anyone. And besides, maybe it's going to work out exactly the way he says it will.
Penders is selling his program hard these days. It's a good read.
Penders also got some nice press from the AP today, as UH cracked the Top 25:
Houston (4-1) moved into the rankings at No. 25 a week after the Cougars beat then-No. 25 LSU 84-83 and then-No. 15 Arizona 69-65. Houston was ranked 25th in the Jan. 18, 1993 poll. The last time the Cougars were ranked for more than one week was the 1983-84 season, when they were in the top eight all season and climbed as high as No. 2.
"Being ranked is important for recruiting and credibility and later on when they pick teams in March, the committee tends to look at that as some sort of barometer," Houston coach Tom Penders said Monday. "It's a sleeping giant here. It's been down since Guy Lewis retired in 1986, but it's a tradition-rich school with five Final Fours and banners all over the place."
[snip]
The Cougars, who lost 62-61 to Virginia Commonwealth in the second game of the season, bounced back with the wins over ranked teams.
"Rather than get giddy after beating LSU, which is an unbelievably talented team, the guys immediately turned their focus on Arizona and that final score wasn't indicative of the margin of that game," Penders said. "This is best defensive team I've ever had. They really get after it. These are very athletic, quick long-armed kids who pressure all over."
Houston's appearance is a boost for Conference USA as it joins Memphis in the Top 25 the first season after Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul and South Florida left for the Big East.
"I think it's huge for the league," Penders said. "We still feel we're still at least a three-bid league."
Good for coach Penders and crew. It's a more entertaining product than many of our professional sports teams are putting out right now in Houston.
UPDATE (12-13-2005): Penders gets more positive press from Dick Vitale.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/05 09:55 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Gonzo journalism at the Chronicle?
Today's Chronicle Wrap Ups are brought to you by Banjo Jones:
In pursuit of clean air, city cites self:
Mayor Bill White has called on local industry to beef up pollution monitoring and reduce accidental emissions, all the while vowing that local government would set the example.
Yet, early last year, routine inspections by city officials at two of Houston's sewage treatment plants found that the city was failing to periodically monitor for mercury from its sludge or maintain monitoring records.
Chief must push pencil and weight:
Want to be Freeport's next police chief? You'd better be in decent shape.
Along with a minimum of 10 years of law enforcement experience, five of them as a supervisor, candidates for the job must be able to run 1 1/2 miles in 16 minutes, 28 seconds and then run 300 yards in no more than 72 seconds, Capt. Richard Miller said.
They also must do 25 push-ups, complete 29 sit-ups in a minute and leg press their own body weight once, he said.
Jeff Cohen should have kept that guy!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/12/05 08:11 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Post-Katrina apartment boom may be over
Nancy Sarnoff writes that landlords may be seeing the end of the Katrina apartment-renting frenzy:
The influx of renters that filled thousands of empty Houston apartments after Hurricane Katrina might not be the boon landlords were hoping for.
Some tenants are already leaving apartments to go back to New Orleans, while real estate observers say others are finding lodging elsewhere.
One apartment complex in Midtown that leased 37 units in one day has just received notice that 10 of those apartments will become vacant come January, said Stacy Hunt of Greystar, which manages the property.
"Some tenants are starting to trickle back," Hunt said last week while speaking to a group of real estate developers and brokers at a luncheon held by realty firm O'Connor & Associates.
Houston's multifamily market saw a boost after Hurricane Katrina hit and thousands of evacuees rented apartments here.
More than 17,000 apartments in the Houston area were absorbed in September. That's nine to 10 times more than what's typical in the the peak summer months, said Richard Zigler, O'Connor's head of research.
But not everyone thinks the boost in occupancy will last.
"I don't think they'll do nearly as well as everybody thinks they will," developer Jenard Gross said of apartments around the city.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/12/05 06:23 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Nothing says world-class like parking garages and eau de urine
Here's Rad Sallee's take on last Friday's downtown party to mark the end of street construction. He included comments from some unimpressed local business owners:
A block away at Main and Walker, Mahmoud Harmouche says his Metro Restaurant, opened in 1997, is barely hanging on. Harmouche said he has cut employees and hours since the street work and light rail project began.
"We're a blue-collar restaurant, not a high-dollar restaurant," he said. "People changing buses would stop and get dinner or breakfast. They don't do that anymore."
Now, Harmouche said, homeless people and drug dealers loiter outside and the bus riders who used to wait there to transfer are mostly gone.
On the upscale end, chef Arturo Boada blames the construction for the closing of his restaurants Solero, on Prairie near Main, and Century Diner, at Main and Texas.
On the other hand, Central Houston President Bob Eury sees parking garages as beacons of hope:
"I have to be pretty excited with what I see out there," he said, speaking of a new restaurant, two new parking garages and the Foley's department store, soon to be Macy's, all in sight of the Main Street Square fountain.
"I like the direction we're going. I like the push."
All with the pleasing aroma of urine.
UPDATE: The Chronicle has a related One Question One Answer on its Opinion page:
John Galvan
Wheeler Watch Clinic, family-owned business on Main StreetQ: Two years after the start of the light rail line, do you think it has helped revitalize Main Street?
A: There have only been two new businesses that have opened after the rail launched two years ago. It’s too hard for customers to navigate the streets now. ... They should have elevated it, but I know that would have cost more money.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/12/05 05:55 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (9)
11 December 2005
The chasm
Contrast today's Chronicle editorial on the complexities of illegal immigrants with today's Chronicle news story on how Texans feel about local law enforcement and immigration law.
That contrast further explains this.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/11/05 07:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Permanent University Fund shortchanges UH
Tom Kirkendall calls attention to a Houston Chronicle story on efforts by the University of Houston to boost its academic image.
Reporter Matthew Tresaugue focuses on a campus visit to UH by a suburban student, who ranked UH behind the University of Texas and Texas A&M before and after the visit.
The reporting really doesn't cover new ground, and as Kirkendall points out, it completely misses an important issue:
However, the Chronicle inexplicably continues to ignore the far more important story. Given the relative contributions of UT, A&M and UH to the welfare and economy of the State of Texas, does it really make sense for the University of Houston to have an endowment that is only 4% the size of the University of Texas endowment and only 10% the size of Texas A&M's? As discussed in this prior post, that is one of the absurd legacies of the obsolescent Permanent University Fund on higher education in Texas, and it is not even mentioned in the Chronicle's story on UH.
Frankly, rather than dismissing UH as an unattractive choice compared to UT and A&M, a more accurate analysis is that UH is providing far more "bang for the buck" in furnishing a quality educational resource for Houston and Texas at a fraction of the endowed capital of UT and A&M. That the system of funding Texas public universities unfairly deprives UH the capital that would facilitate a jump to Tier I status is the real story that the Chronicle should be pursuing.
As usual, Kirkendall has nailed it.
Unfortunately, the story is yet another instance where the sort of insight and analysis of local affairs that Kirkendall or I might prefer from the Chronicle is instead replaced with that breezy Features-style reporting that almost seems to take pride in the fact that it doesn't dig all that deep.
Maybe there were pretty pictures accompanying the story in print editions.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/05 02:23 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Campaign finance and double standards
The Chronicle reports on Sue Lovell's reaction to her victory in the race for city council's at-large position 2:
Lovell, who said she would focus on public safety, affordable housing, after-school programs, traffic management and flood control, said she knew the race would be close .
"I'm walking on air," she said late Saturday. "This is indescribable. I'm grateful to all the people who voted for me and helped me get here and I have a big feeling of responsibility."
People? She had better be thanking the SEIU for helping engineer her victory.
Curiously, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists and many other partisans who love to criticize Rep. Tom DeLay (R) on campaign finance were silent on the questionable assistance provided to Democrat Lovell's campaign by SEIU.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/05 01:44 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)
Tweaks and changes to the blog
I've been working on a number of tweaks and changes to the blog over the weekend.
Leaving aside the minor esthetic tweaks, there are a couple of substantive additions.
First, all blog posts now have a corresponding Technorati search link. Clicking on the link for any given post opens a search on Technorati of all blogs that reference that post. It's an easy way to track the cross-blog conversation about any given post. It's effectively our replacement for Trackback, which was disabled on this site some time ago because of abusive spammers and which isn't a feature that's available to all blog software anyway. Since we want to be part of and encourage conversation about Houston media, politics, and life, it only seems right that we incorporate some mechanism to track the same.
The second addition is the Local Blog Talk addition to the sidebar. That addition gives us a place to highlight blog posts in our general area of interest (Houston media, politics, and life) without turning the main blog here into an InstaPundit-style link aggregator (there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not what we are trying to do here). If it proves useful, I'll eventually add skins to support archives and such (there's only so much time to devote to this hobby!).
The goal with both of these substantive additions is to encourage cross-blog conversation (blogversation) about our city and topics of interest to us. Links are our friends, Houston bloggers (something the new -ist kids seem slow to learn, so we'll return the favor in their case).
In tweaking and upgrading, I've modified existing templates and skins, so if anything seems to be broken, please let me know. And if you have ideas how to promote further blogversation, those are welcome as well
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/05 12:48 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (8)
10 December 2005
Did Main Street Square get powerwashed before the party?
By the way, here's Metro's press release on yesterday's party celebrating the end of downtown's impassable streets:
To celebrate the occasion and thank area business owners, METRO, the City of Houston and the Downtown District are inviting Houstonians to a party 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday in Main Street Square.
Mayor Bill White, METRO Board Vice Chairman Gerald B. Smith and the Downtown District's Executive Director Bob Eury will host the celebration, which will include live New Orleans jazz music, a Foley's fashion show, visit from Santa and drawing for prizes, including a $1000 Foley's gift card.
"We've worked hard with METRO to get to this stage and make it easier for Houstonians to get to their jobs and to enjoy the many things our Downtown/Midtown areas have to offer," said Mayor White. "This is a milestone we're happy to have reached."
Aha. Let's visit the forum to see one of the things the Downtown area has to offer:
Main Street Square? Is that where the fountains shoot over the Metro train? Goodness. I hope they're planning to do some power washing of the area. It reeks of urine. It's really become a place for many homeless to congregate.
Thank you Callie.
Other highlights from the press release:
The transit streets project was a key component of METRO's broader plan to build a fully integrated transportation program for Downtown. That includes Houston's first light rail line, which now carries 40,000 riders each day – well ahead of a 2020 projection.
That success, Smith said, has allowed METRO to restructure its bus routes, removing 600 buses from Downtown each day.
Forty thousand riders or boardings? Since Metro doesn't have a way to count riders, it counts boardings. There is a difference and Metro knows it.
And since Metro was supposed to increase bus service by 50% under the old Metro Solutions plan (the one voters actually approved), maybe Metro shouldn't be so proud of cutting bus service.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/10/05 04:31 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Richmond Avenue business owners protest future rail line
I meant to do a post last week pointing out that Metro's Solutions Meetings announcement page has been empty for a while now. No meetings must mean that Houston is feeling all warm and fuzzy with the new and improved Metro Solutions plan.
Today I am reminded of it because KTRK-13 has a story about some Richmond Avenue business owners and residents who are still not happy with Metro's desire to put a light rail line down their street:
There is brewing opposition by a group of people who say METRO's plan to expand light rail will hurt businesses along one of its proposed routes.
The METRO light rail system will be branching out throughout he Houston area in the upcoming years. For some businesses along Richmond Avenue, METRO's proposal to place light rail on their street scares them.
"We would be cut off from our clients. We would be cut off from deliveries," said business owner Daphne Scarbrough. "We would not be able to get in and out of our businesses."
[snip]
"This will become three or four years, et cetera, of an area people will not be able to live in and will not be able to do business," said opponent Christina Campbell.
"Every small business owner won't have a customer and will be out of business and destroyed, financially destroyed," added opponent Wilson Gregory.
The reporter, Darren Lyn, then finds some supporters of the Richmond Avenue line -- a couple of commuters.
It might be helpful to find out how Main Street business owners fared when the initial light rail line was built. Did any businesses go under during the construction time? Of the businesses that survived, did any struggle to do so? Do the merchants along Main Street see increased business now that they can attribute to the light rail?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/10/05 03:59 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
09 December 2005
Fun KTRK Friday headlines
KTRK-13 had an unusual headline posted earlier:
Those who click into the story expecting to find an *ahem* unusual sketch will be disappointed relieved.
Instead, it appears that the headline writer on the website may have just been having a little fun. The headline on the story itself reads differently.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/09/05 10:58 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
Metro hires Chronicle editor
A Chronicle assistant editor has moved to Metro to become its Media Relations director:
Staff Announcement
Dec. 6, 2005Please note the following new members of METRO's External Affairs team:
Raequel Roberts
Media Relations Director
Raequel comes to us from the Houston Chronicle, where she was Assistant City Editor.Sandra Aponte Salazar
Media Relations Specialist
Sandra joins us from the City of Houston's Municipal Courts, where she was Public Information Officer. Prior to that she worked in media relations for the Houston Police Department (2000 - 2004).You can reach Raequel and Sandra by calling our media hotline: (713) 739-4040.
Ken Connaughton is now Editor/Producer with responsibility for several new communication vehicles being developed.
Of course, the Chronicle is often mistaken for the media relations arm of Metro, so it's unclear why a change in jobs was needed, but whatever.
It does appear as though Metro is attempting to beef up its spin machine, which must be welcome news for the beleaguered Ken Connaughton.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/09/05 08:36 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
MediaSource director to resign
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that the director of MediaSource, the custodian for Houston's public access cable television channel, has decided to resign:
Patti Garlinghouse, who supporters say has transformed Houston MediaSource since she took the job in 1997, plans to step down Dec. 21 — about a month before the nonprofit channel's board planned a vote on whether to retain her.
The decision, announced in a single-sentence letter to the board Wednesday night, coincided with the City Council's approval of several new board members, a near-complete shakeup by Houston Mayor Bill White since a programming controversy erupted this summer.
That Garlinghouse might quit or be fired was no surprise — she cleared personal items from her office weeks ago — but the timing was sooner than some expected. She couldn't be reached for comment.
The new board members almost certainly were going to remove Garlinghouse if she hadn't resigned.
It now seems likely MediaSource will see its contract renewed, given the turnover on the board and the depatures of Garlinghouse and former board chair Garth Jowett, both of whom seemed to bristle at input from the city's elected officials on how they were doing their jobs.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/09/05 07:37 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
Conroe begins process of annexing part of The Woodlands
Nevermind Houston trying to annex The Woodlands, Conroe is already making moves in that direction:
City officials took preliminary steps Thursday to extend the city's boundaries into The Woodlands, despite outcries from several residents who oppose the idea.
The City Council adopted an ordinance to incorporate the Municipal Utility District No. 39 into its annexation plan, giving it a three-year window before it decides to annex the MUD's 858 acres.
The MUD is on the southern edge of the city limits and includes the Harper's Landing neighborhood and 25 businesses — all a part of The Woodlands, an unincorporated master-planned community.
Mayor Tommy Metcalf said now is the right time to consider annexation because the MUD is experiencing strong economic growth.
Metcalf said that if the annexation occurs, the city would see a 16 percent increase in its $2 billion tax base and Harper's Landing residents would gain lower taxes and better services.
But many residents do not think annexation is in their best interest and do not want to be a part of Conroe.
Several residents who spoke at Thursday's council meeting said they're concerned about possible double taxation and the destruction of The Woodlands' sense of community.
They also said they were angry about how city officials handled the issue. Many residents, even those who serve on associations representing Harper's Landing, said city officials never told them of their plans.
''They told us they weren't interested in Harper's Landing, then all of a sudden it shows up as an agenda item," said Ted Stanley, a Harper's Landing resident and director of The Woodlands Association.
That's how local governments like to operate -- keep the public in the dark whenever possible.
If I were a Harper's Landing resident, I would be apoplectic. And The Woodlands Association director lives there! Other businesses in that area (if I have my geography right) include a Super Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Lowe's, Garden Ridge, and numerous smaller businesses. For all I know, the businesses may support the move, if it would lower their taxes. (Yeah, right. Everyone who believes that, raise your hand.)
But isn't that just like a city government: The Woodlands worked hard to build itself into a nice community, and now Conroe -- and potentially Houston down the road -- wants to come in and just take it!
Now that the Chronicle's archives are opened up, it's very easy to see how the city of Houston's promises to Kingwood have panned out. Kingwood residents have complained that Houston gets all the tax revenue benefits and does little in return, in contrast to what was promised.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/09/05 07:35 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
08 December 2005
High tech traffic citation truck on the prowl
Back in November, Anne Linehan linked to a KHOU-11 story about a new $150,000 high-tech truck that's being used to track down cars with outstanding traffic citations.
Today, KTRK-13 posts a story from Tom Abrahams on the high tech toy:
The city now has a truck that can scan and check up to 800 license plates in an hour, running them against a so-called hot list. That's a list of vehicles with multiple tickets.
When it finds a match, it immediately notifies the officer driving the unit, who can then place a warning on the vehicle or boot it. That's speeding up what can be slow and tedious work.
Even though an off-duty HPD officer runs the auto view truck, the city of Houston doesn't actually own it. It's owned by the law firm that's in charge of collecting fines.
"We can look for stolen vehicles and recover those if we find those along the way," said William E. King with Linebargre, Goggan, Blair, and Sampson. "If there's an Amber Alert and there's a license plate associated with it, we can put that into the system and look for that."
The city likes the results so far, estimating 15 to 20 hits a week during two months of use.
"We're more efficient in terms of having those outstanding parking citations being paid," said Liliana Rambo with the city of Houston.
The current rig costs around $150,000, but given that every hit the system makes finds hundreds in fines, it very well could be money well spent. It's a nightmare for the delinquent, but a dream for taxpayers.
Part of me wants to make fun of the $150,000 traffic citation truck. Part of me wants to do a ride-along with the HPD driver/operator.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/05 10:30 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Brrr
One of the more amusing things about living in Houston is watching the local newscasts as the first freeze of the year approaches.
The 10 pm broadcasts tonight are all over the story.
It may even get below 30 degrees in some areas!
We are a funny city sometimes.
ANNE ADDS: Last year we spent our first winter in Houston, and I can remember the first time temps flirted with the freezing mark. The local news media went wild! "Protect your pipes!" "Make preparations!" "Bring animals inside!" I was almost panic-stricken...and we had just moved here from Northern Virginia, where we had REAL winters! I asked Kevin if I needed to do something about my house's pipes (I was thinking that Houston homes must be built so that pipes couldn't withstand freezing temps) and Kevin laughed and assured me that local media gets very excited if the magic number of 32 is within sight.
This year I am laughing along with Kevin, especially at this breaking news story from KHOU-11: Lower heat setting could save on gas bill.
Who knew?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/05 10:13 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (7)
Grand Parkway musings (updated)
Over at the Houston Architecture Forum, pineda has posted an interesting hypothetical question:
Say that you were told that a major road would be going within 500' of your local high school, with the intermediate and elementary schools adjacent to that school. Say that there's nothing you can do to stop it because (a) you don't have the money, (cool.gif you don't have the political clout, and © you don't own the land being condemned, although you do live in the adjoining neighborhood and your children attend those schools. Say that you're given a choice of either having the major road (we'll call it the Grand Parkway for demonstration purposes) depressed under the intersecting 2-lane roadway (we'll call that road Northcrest) or done as an overpass with no off/on ramps.
The question is should it be an underpass or an overpass? I'd prefer an underpass, IF it must be done.
As an aside, I emailed all four of the candidates running for Jon Lindsay's SD 7 seat, asking if they have a position on the Grand Parkway F2 segment up here in Spring. I also included links to background information, in case they weren't familiar with the subject. I have since learned that Peggy Hamric came out in favor of the F2 segment a while back, but I have not received a response from her campaign. I also have not heard from Joe Nixon's or Mark Ellis' campaigns, but I have heard from Dan Patrick's campaign. He is taking the time to get himself up to speed on the issue and will announce where he stands on the F2 segment soon.
UPDATE: I have now been contacted by Mark Ellis' campaign. When I get more information, I will pass it on.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/08/05 09:40 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)
07 December 2005
Justice: Fire Casserly; No, keep him
We thought that Chronicle sports columnists had gotten past spinning for Texans general manager Charley Casserly.
Then we read Richard Justice's latest:
Dom Capers should do something bold this morning. Like fire Vic Fangio.
Maybe it's too late for Capers to save his own job. Maybe the Texans are too far gone.
Bob McNair may already have decided to fire them all. That means you, too, Charley Casserly.
We interrupt for an unpopular opinion.
Casserly should not be fired.
Got that?
He was more than competent when he was getting players for Joe Gibbs. It was only after he was turning players over to Norv Turner and Dom Capers that his competence became an issue.
He should get a second chance to hire a head coach. And this time, he should add a first-rate group of assistant coaches.
One of McNair's fundamental mistakes has been cutting corners in putting together a coaching staff. Casserly has made mistakes, too, and if there was someone better available, McNair would be justified in hiring him.
Except there's not. Unless 69-year-old Ron Wolf wants to come out of retirement and unless Scott Pioli wants out of the contract he just signed with the New England Patriots, there's no franchise-turning general manager out there.
Casserly knows the league and knows what's wrong with the Texans. He wanted fundamental changes as far back as last winter. He had lost confidence in offensive coordinator Chris Palmer. He had questions about Fangio, the defensive coordinator, as well.
He also became convinced the Texans weren't doing a good job of teaching and developing their young players at some positions.
It was Capers who decided to keep his coaching staff intact. It was Capers who put his job on the line for them.
[snip]
Casserly has already begun working up a blueprint for 2006.
The Texans are suffering from a dearth of talent, and Charley Casserly is responsible for the poor decisions on talent acquisition (as Justice's colleague John Lopez has pointed out). That's the bottom line. The last thing he should be allowed to do is draw any more blueprints!
It's fairly ludicrous for Justice to write that only two (unavailable) people could do a better job than Casserly. The rest of the excerpt seems just to be spin from Casserly. One wonders how Bob McNair and his partners feel about Casserly whining so openly to a reporter, and so much of the whining making it into print.
It's even stranger considering Justice's contrary advice in late October:
Bob McNair has offered no hint about what he'll do. But if he cleans out the coaching staff without firing general manager Charley Casserly as well, that would be ridiculous.
No matter what you think of the coaches - and it's hard to say anything good - the Texans simply don't have enough good players.
That must have embarrassed Justice at some point, because he has since changed the copy on his blog to this:
Bob McNair has offered no hint about what he'll do. But if he cleans out the coaching staff without asking some tough questions of general manager Charley Casserly as well, that would be ridiculous.
No matter what you think of the coaches - and it's hard to say anything good - the Texans simply don't have enough good players.
Nice try at rewriting, but that's one reason we excerpt rather than just linking. You never know when the Chronicle will simply whitewash something, with no warning.
Justice had it right the first time, before he apparently changed his mind.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/05 09:42 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
Patrick continues transition from insurgent to pol (cont'd)
Several readers and Rob Booth call attention to this reporting by Brandon De Hoyos for the 1960 Sun:
Opponents of the [Joe] Nixon campaign are taking issue with the awarding of a $300,000 settlement between the state representative and Farmers Insurance Group for severe mold damage in his home.
[snip]
A paper trail of e-mail correspondence between Arnold and Jim Daues, Farmers' vice president of property claims, used in the trial paint "a picture of yet another politician answering to the special interests", said Patrick campaign spokesperson Chris Begala.
Citing Nixon's representation of an insurance company against a Spring area church, in addition to support of the industry through recent legislation, Begala chalked up "Mr. Tort-Reform himself" and the issue as another reason why voters are fed up with the state of politics.
"The way our campaign looks at this is people are tired of the hypocrisy," Begala said. "Joe Nixon is just another average politician-and there is nothing wrong with that, but you can be sure he'll certainly pick up checks from his special interest friends."
[snip]
From claims of special interest favoritism to the candidate's strengths on issues of homeland security, critics also point out that Sandler-Innocenzi, Inc., the producers of the Nixon campaign's advertising, is a company of special interest by opponents and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Registered as a foreign agent of Saudi Arabia with the department, Sandler-Innocenzi, Inc. has produced campaign advertisements for many Republican candidates on the national, state and local stage.Additionally, the Alexandria, Va.-based PR firm was tapped, along with Qorvis Communications, to create a series of ads designed to counter anti-Saudi sentiment in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Polling of public opinion found favorability to Saudi Arabia dropped after the New York City and Washington D.C. attacks, in which 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudis.As a result of the hiring, opponents, like the Patrick campaign, now call into question the representative's commitment to homeland security.
"In regards to Sandler-Innocenzi, Inc..." Begala began, "It is pretty clear what this is about. People can make their own judgments."
It's funny that Chris Begala mentions hypocrisy above, since Patrick continues to state on his radio program that he will be running a campaign of ideas, and will not be engaging in negative attacks on his opponents. Interestingly, Dan Patrick and KSEV/campaign associates Edd Hendee and Chris Begala all find themselves slinging mud with the likes of Tim Fleck (now with the Chronicle) and Rick Casey on this topic, despite the finding by Ronnie Earle's office that there was no "there" there. Politics does make for strange bedfellows! And Patrick certainly seems to have become a politician, the outsider campaign theme notwithstanding.
As for Begala's suggestion that Nixon is somehow weak on homeland security because of his choice of advertising firm, it's worth noting that the firm counts many prominent Republicans among its clients, including none other than Harris County Judge Robert Eckels and Rep. Tom DeLay. Surely Chris Begala didn't mean to call them out as weak on homeland security?
The Patrick campaign has a good set of issues. It's not clear why it insists on engaging in the very behavior that Patrick says he won't engage in. They might be wise, at the very least, to invest in a muzzle for Chris Begala -- although that could make his substitute appearances for Patrick on KSEV during the campaign a bit awkward.
We can't help but think that Walker, Texas Ranger would encourage the Patrick campaign to focus on issues!
PREVIOUSLY: Patrick makes quick transition from insurgent to politician, Patrick continues transition from insurgent to pol.
CLARIFICATION (12-13-2005): In case it was not clear from the reporting or the post, I should make clear that the reporter contacted the Patrick campaign and asked for comment on the matter. Reporter Brandon de Hoyos tells me he contacted all of the candidates who are running for the seat, and gave them three days' notice for comment. He also points out that readers had initiated these queries and concerns, and he was simply covering the issues of the campaign.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/05 07:53 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Best of the Web targets the Houston Symphony
James Taranto had some fun with the Houston Symphony's attempt to be inoffensive:
Handel With Care
By and large we agree with those who prefer to call Christmas "Christmas," rather than those who insist on the generic "holiday," which is supposedly more palatable to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists, Unitarians, Zoroastrians, Taoists, Sikhs, deists, pantheists, atheists, agnostics and adherents of the Baha'i faith, even though we fall into one of those 14 categories. But the effort to be sensitive to non-Christians can lead to some very funny results. This is from the Web site of the Houston Symphony:Handel's Messiah
By Conductor Christopher SeamanBoth an awe-inspiring holiday tradition and a memorable religious experience, Handel's Messiah returns this holiday season. Guest conductor Christopher Seaman leads Houston's premier performance of Handel's choral masterwork, which includes the timeless Hallelujah Chorus.
If they really want to be sensitive to those who can't stomach "Christmas," shouldn't they change the name of the work to, say, Handel's "Dude"?
Perhaps the Houston Symphony thinks Handel's Messiah celebrates Independence Day or Thanksgiving. But then the masterwork would have to be renamed Handel's Uncle Sam or Handel's Turkey.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/07/05 06:37 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (4)
Council bans panhandling
City council passed a panhandling ban today:
The Houston City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that makes panhandling an illegal practice, KPRC Local 2 reported.
After weeks of debate and some delay, City Council members approved a plan that makes it illegal for minors and adults to stand in medians and on the side of Houston's streets asking passers-by for money.
Council members said they want a zero-tolerance policy on panhandlers, loosely defined as homeless people who stand in intersections asking for money or offer to wash windows for free or for tips.
The city leaders said they also hope the ordinance will encourage children to hold bake sales and car washes on private property, a location they consider a safer alternative.
Councilman Michael Berry called the panhandling problem a public safety issue.
"With regard to minors, we were getting a lot of calls and complaints from people who were worried they were going to run over one of these kids because they are darting in between traffic and their parents obviously weren't stopping them from doing it," Berry told KPRC Local 2. "But in regard to panhandling, generally people tell us they feel unsafe when these squeegee men come up on them. They feel unsafe when they have people leaning into their car."
Berry said City Council would spend the next several weeks working to iron out the ordinance.
In the meantime, people caught in the streets or on medians with the purpose of asking for money will be charged with a misdemeanor.
In case you were worried about Chronicle vendors not being able to earn a living, fret no more:
The ordinance will not affect people selling newspapers or Houston firefighter fundraisers.
PREVIOUSLY: Chronicle vendor killed in unsafe work environment (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/07/05 04:42 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
Downtown streets are passable -- time for a party!
If you aren't doing anything else this Friday, you can celebrate the end of downtown's torn up streets:
The City of Houston, Metro and the Downtown District wish to thank the community for its support as we celebrate the completion of the Downtown Midtown Transit Streets Project.
Friday, December 9, 2005
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Main Street SquareEnjoy fun, festivities, live music, a visit from Santa Claus and special surprise guests! Plus, register to win a holiday prize package to be drawn during the Mayor's Holiday Celebration, Saturday, Dec. 10 from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
I am not making this up. It's from an ad in today's Chronicle on page A18. The sponsors of this event (listed at the bottom of the ad) are Metro, Foley's, Houston Chronicle, Downtown District, Houston Downtown Alliance and the City of Houston.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/07/05 04:12 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (15)
Houston debates illegal alien sanctuary policy
City council heard public comments on Houston's unofficially official sanctuary policy for illegal immigrants and Councilmember Mark Ellis' proposal to end the policy:
Houston residents asked a divided City Council Tuesday to end an official city policy that forbids local police from rounding up undocumented immigrants for being in the country illegally.
Slightly more than a dozen people appeared before the council in support of Councilman Mark Ellis' proposal to overturn the policy, which prevents officers from asking about someone's citizenship status or detaining someone for being in the country illegally.
Houston is not officially a so-called "sanctuary city," since the policy is not codified in a city ordinance. Ellis' proposal would rescind the general order that governs the policy and replace it with a city ordinance that would require officers to enforce federal immigration laws.
"Houston has never passed a resolution at City Hall designating the city as a sanctuary city," Ellis acknowledged. "But (the general order) creates the appearance of a sanctuary city."
[snip]
Maria Jimenez, a veteran immigrant-rights activist in Houston, told the council the "hands-off" order, which was issued in 1992 by then-Police Chief Sam Nuchia, was necessary because it was a public safety issue.
If people in immigrant communities feared that local police would turn them in for being illegal, she said, they wouldn't call police when they needed them.
"If we rescind this order, we are undermining public safety," Jimenez said.
No, we are not undermining public safety by enforcing the law. If anything, we would be enhancing public safety.
Actually, sanctuary policies are the invention of illegal immigrant apologists:
Cities began adopting sanctuary laws in the 1980s, supposedly to foster trust between illegal immigrants and police. Proponents argued that crimes would not be reported, witnesses to crime would not come forth and immigrants wouldn't cooperate with police if they feared deportation. Yet the policies adopted reflect the power of immigration advocacy groups more than concerns about crime prevention. Politicians in large cities with significant immigrant populations simply surrendered to the demands of immigrant rights groups that sought to minimize—if not extinguish—the distinction between legal immigrants and illegal aliens. Nor is it only immigrants' rights groups that promote sanctuary cities. Business interests want a steady source of cheap, compliant and exploitable labor; the minions of the welfare state want to magnify their power by extending the largess of the administrative state to those who will, in all likelihood, take their place in the so-called "underclass."
The resulting policies not only tolerate crime—after all, illegal immigrants are lawbreakers—but actively abet and protect criminal activity by handcuffing the powers of the police.
Not only that, but poll after poll show that Americans support immigration law being enforced, including local law enforcement agencies reporting illegals to immigration officials. It is an issue that is coming to a head and Houston officials had better face up to it. It's about respecting the law, enforcing the law, and respecting our citizenship.
RELATED: Illegal Alien Sanctuary (Front Page Magazine)
UPDATE: Here's a Bloomberg story to add to the conversation. It has a bit more bite to it than the Chronicle's story:
Houston Mayor Bill White is facing increasing pressure locally and from the federal government to toughen a policy that has helped make the fourth-largest U.S. city a haven for illegal immigrants.
City Councilman Mark Ellis is trying to force a vote on a plan directing police to enforce immigration law and requiring proof of citizenship for people receiving social services. The local effort coincides with a push by President George W. Bush and bills in Congress to crack down on illegal immigration.
``The federal government, they're not going to be able to get their arms around this issue alone,'' Ellis said in a telephone interview. ``They're going to have to have assistance from the local government and state government.''
Houston police have refrained since 1992 from inquiring about the immigration status of people associated with minor crimes and investigations. The policy, General Order 500-5, is similar to one known as Special Order 40 in Los Angeles. It's designed to free up local resources and help build ties with immigrant communities.
[snip]
To force a vote on his proposal, Ellis needs signatures of at least eight of the City Council's 15 members. The Republican has six so far, and said he may seek to win over Democrats if he can't get support from two fellow conservatives on the council who have yet to sign.
Mayor White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt have defended the current policy. Immigration is a federal responsibility and local police are busy fighting more serious crimes, said a spokesman for White, Frank Michel.
The city's police force has shrunk to 4,600 officers from 5,200 since mid-2003. Many officers retired early to avoid having benefits reduced by a plan that the city enacted to shore up its police pension.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/07/05 12:58 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chronicle corrections (12-07-2005 edition)
The Chronicle has posted a correction here.
Before the redesign, Chron.com had a link for easy access to corrections. The new Chron.com has no such link and no set place for corrections as far as we can tell, so we've decided to post a link to corrections when they appear.
UPDATE: Dwight Silverman writes in the comments that Chron.com has indeed implemented a Corrections link. As I note in my response, it would be useful now to add that link to the sitemap and to the news menu, so it's more easily found.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/05 07:46 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
06 December 2005
Editorial LiveJournalists ignore alleged SEIU campaign finance irregularities
The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists today praised the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which recently unionized Houston's janitors and has now set its sights on municipal employees.
Curiously, the Editorial LiveJournalists still have offered no comment on the union's possibly illegal effort to influence the at-large Position 2 council race, even though Kristen Mack first reported on the matter a couple of weeks ago. KHOU-11's Doug Miller followed up on it more recently, as captured by the Aiyer campaign (Happening political scientist, sometime mayoral advisor, and bicyclist Bob Stein even makes an appearance in the video!).
Apparently, the Editorial LiveJournalists only get worked up over allegations of improper campaign financing when it somehow involves "bad guys" like Tom DeLay.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/06/05 11:22 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Lake Houston State Park to become Houston city park?
The city of Houston and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are working on a plan for the state to hand over control of Lake Houston State Park to the city:
Lake Houston State Park is 30 miles north of Houston between New Caney and Splendora. About three fourths of its five thousand acres is unspoiled wilderness, and the rest is used for camping, hiking, biking, horseback riding, and nature study. State Parks regional director Jerry Hopkins says they want to give the park to Houston because the state doesn't have the money to develop it any further.
The proposal now under consideration would transfer ownership of the park at no cost to the City of Houston, which would become responsible for the park's maintenance and security. Hopkins says Houston has to agree to some guidelines in developing the park, or it would revert to the state.
Hopkins says the state wants assurances that Houston will keep the park as close to its natural condition as possible.
RELATED: Conroe Courier coverage
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/06/05 10:07 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (3)
Civil War cemetery not found on HISD property (updated)
Remember that little uproar last year about HISD building new school buildings on land that supposedly contained a Civil War-era cemetery?
Well, that didn't pan out:
HISD hopes to soon begin construction of the new Gregory-Lincoln Education Center for about 750 students after an extensive archeological study found no graves on the site.
The largest archeological effort in Texas history to focus on an African-American urban community turned up “no solid evidence of a cemetery or human remains” at the 4th Ward site. HISD is asking the Texas Historical Commission for permission to go ahead with the long-planned construction of the school in the wake of the archeological study of the area between Saulnier, Gray, Taft and Genesee streets.
HISD hired archeologists who collected oral histories and conducted ground penetrating radar searches of the area. The firm of Hicks & Company, under the guidance of African-American archeological expert Dr. Fred McGhee, spent a month digging 55 trenches and test units over 10 city blocks in search of graves and other artifacts. Reports from the community had suggested there might be a Civil War era cemetery in the area.
None of archeological work found any solid evidence of a cemetery or graves. Although a number of historical features were found that “will help enrich the story of the community during the early part of the twentieth century,” the trenching “did not uncover any archeological remains that warrant further archeological investigation or that are eligible as a State Archeological Landmark,” according to the preliminary report from Hicks & Company.
RELATED: KHOU-11
UPDATE: Jason Spencer has the story for the Chronicle and he notes that funding for the new school is uncertain right now:
Archaeologists have found no evidence of a Civil War-era cemetery for freed slaves on the Fourth Ward site for the new High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, but financial problems might doom the construction project anyway.
A nonprofit group called HSPVA Friends signed a contract with the Houston Independent School District in 2003, agreeing to pay $15 million of the $30 million cost. So far, HISD officials said, the group has raised little money.
"To the best of my knowledge, they haven't raised any money of any significance," said Richard Lindsay, HISD's senior project executive. Lindsay told school board members the controversy over the school site crippled the group's fundraising efforts.
Jerome Simon, a member of the HSPVA Friends board, didn't dispute Lindsay's assessment.
He said it's too early to tell whether the group will be able to come up with the $15 million.
UPDATE 2: An emailer notes that there is more than one school to be built on the land. HISD has the money for the school it is building -- the Gregory-Lincoln Education Center. It's the The HSPVA project that is still uncertain, depending on HSPVA's ability to raise the funds to match HISD's contribution. Thanks for the clarification!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/06/05 09:21 PM | Houston Arts/Culture | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chronicle corrections (12-06-2005 edition)
The Chronicle has posted a correction here.
Before the redesign, Chron.com had a link for easy access to corrections. The new Chron.com has no such link and no set place for corrections, so we've decided to post a link to corrections when they appear.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/06/05 07:45 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
05 December 2005
Nothing like a six-week lag in environmental reporting
As Matt Bramanti points out, the Chronicle's environmental reporter, Dina Cappiello, has managed to report a bit of environmental olds today.
Since KUHF-88.7 reported that back in October, does this mean Cappiello will get around to reporting on Houston's big fine for wastewater treatment discharges by February of next year?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 09:34 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Laura Ingraham pokes fun at weird Chron immigration story
Those of you who listened to Laura Ingraham this morning may have heard her do a dramatic reading of today's Chronicle story titled, "Immigrants struggle with illegitimacy."
The dramatic reading featured Laura's very amusing dramatic stings (at the end of the third and fourth paragraphs) and the story also earned a "deep thought" moment with this quote:
"We get to a point that we are neither from there nor from here," Liliana said. "If I would have in Mexico everything I have here, I would like to go back. Here is like being in a golden cage — one is a prisoner, but it is much more comfortable. If I will have all these comforts in Mexico, I would be the happiest woman in the world."
Then Laura read this sentence, "Francisco and Liliana are fearful of being caught," and wondered why they would be fearful, since the U.S. doesn't do much about deporting illegals. And after she read the next sentence, "But they know that as long as they work hard, pay their taxes and don't commit any crimes, no one will bother them," she said this was a very strange story.
Well duh! It's a Chronicle story!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/05/05 09:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
Berry pushes forward on street solicitation ban
KHOU-11's Mike Zientek reports that Councilmember Michael Berry is proceeding with his effort to rein in Houston's out-of-control street begging:
City Council members said they have received many complaints about people in the street asking for money, and this week they will look at changing solicitation policy.
Jack Shaver makes his living in 32-second blocks by washing car windshields.
Jack Shaver’s workplace is the intersection of Way side and the I-45 feeder.
He makes his living in 32-second blocks of time.
“I don’t like this part of my life,” Shaver said. “I landed in this.”
Houston City Council will soon consider a measure that will make Shaver’s job illegal.
It would ban anyone from walking into the street and asking for money.
“I’m asking a simple yes or no question,” Shaver said. “If they want it -- great, if they don’t – great. I don’t see where the harm is in that.”
But at least one city official disagrees.
“If someone wants to squeegee windows, they can get a location and squeegee windows,” said City Councilman Michael Berry. “But not in the public roadways.”
Berry is spearheading the proposal to ban all street solicitors.
He said it is a matter of safety on the streets and calls from constituents.
“The democratic process works that if people complain to us and there are enough of them, we know it’s a real problem,” he said.
It's not a "workplace." It's a street. Streets are for driving, not for selling and not for begging.
Leaving aside the annoyance and the potential danger to drivers (whose use of seat belts and reclined position puts them at risk), it is unsafe to use streets for commerce (even though some local businesses choose to conduct deadly street commerce in order to prop up declining circulation). Here's hoping Council gets behind this ordinance.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 09:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
DMN profiles Mayor White
Bruce Nichols, the Dallas Morning News' man in Houston, has penned a glowing profile of Houston Mayor Bill White.
It's probably exciting reading for Dallas-area and state Democrats, who don't exactly have a slate of stars to celebrate right now; and the mayor's communications staff must certainly be happy to get the press after getting beaten up last week following MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's inadequate response to HPD's manpower shortage.
However, while the mayor is exceedingly popular, it is surprising that Nichols chose not to mention the mayor's occasional missteps, as reported from time to time by Chronicle reporters Kristen Mack and Matt Stiles (himself a former Dallas Morning News guy). Pardon our cynicism, but no pol can be quite as perfect as this profile suggests.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 08:58 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
One DeLay indictment dismissed; evidence to be heard on second
Various news outlets have reported that one indictment (related to a conspiracy) against Rep. Tom DeLay (R) has been dismissed. State District Judge Pat Priest, however, did not buy the defense team's argument for dismissal of the second indictment (that no illegal act was committed because no criminal proceeds were transferred).
Judge Priest did not address the motion for dismissal of the second indictment (related to money laundering) based on prosecutorial misconduct. According to reports, that motion will apparently require the hearing of evidence.
REPORTING: Associated Press, Austin American Statesman, Houston Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 08:40 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
If "stray current" isn't a problem, why did Metro balk at FOIA requests?
Today, Rad Sallee covers Metro's "stray current" problem with the light rail:
Electrical current escaping into the ground from the Metropolitan Transit Authority's light rail tracks remains a puzzle to Metro engineers. But officials of the agency say they have plugged some of the leaks and hope to find the source of the rest soon.
President and CEO Frank Wilson revealed the problem in May after CenterPoint Energy alerted Metro. The company was concerned the leakage could corrode the company's underground gas and electric conduits, Wilson said.
Electricity from power stations along the route is supposed to flow through the overhead traction wire to the train motor, then into one of the rails and back to the power station.
If rails, bridges or switches are not well insulated, power will leak into the ground and can damage metal objects such as pipes and structural steel near the rails, although such damage is generally quite slow.
In the story, a Texas Medical Center spokesman and TxDOT all pooh-pooh any problems due to stray current. And a Metro official says don't worry, be happy! Not really of course, but almost.
Isn't it comforting that Metro, having done such a fine job with 7.5 miles of light rail, gets to build more? "Quality" construction that led to stray current problems, flooding in 3 inches of rain, no mechanism to insure riders pay the fare, etc., etc. -- it really inspires confidence in Metro's capabilities.
Which leaves me to wonder why, if there is absolutely nothing to worry about, Metro stonewalled Tom Bazan for so long on open records requests for stray current documents. If everything is peachy keen and hunky dory, why not just hand over the documents, without seeking rulings from the Texas attorney general?
I'm not buying it.
RELATED: Stray current archive
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/05/05 07:26 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
Chronicle corrections (12-05-2005 edition)
The Chronicle has posted a correction here.
Before the redesign, Chron.com had a link for easy access to corrections. The new Chron.com has no such link and no set place for corrections, so we've decided to post a link to corrections when they appear.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/05 06:15 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
04 December 2005
On how to read Narnia -- or not
One of the more troubling aspects of so much academic "literary criticism" is the tendency for the critics to bring their own preconceptions, biases, and dislikes to literary texts, to the extent they even bother to consider a text at all.
That's probably one reason that I gravitated towards Straussian political theorists -- or at least those who were familiar with the textual-analytical techniques of Leo Strauss even if they did not fully embrace them -- for my own graduate studies. Strauss, of course, stressed careful textual analysis in understanding important writing, and emphasized coming to know the authors of such works as they knew themselves.
The Chronicle's Features/*/Star/Life editor Kyrie O'Connor took a stab at literary criticism last weekend. The target of her criticism? The Horse and his Boy, one of the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia children's novels. Her judgment?
While the book's storytelling virtues are enormous, you don't have to be a bluestocking of political correctness to find some of this fantasy anti-Arab, or anti-Eastern, or anti-Ottoman. With all its stereotypes, mostly played for belly laughs, there are moments you'd like to stuff this story back into its closet.
Me? No, that's more than a little presumptuous for O'Connor to suggest, actually.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/05 11:19 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
The filter that keeps us shielded from news
Did you see James Campbell's column today? It took him fourteen or so paragraphs to explain why the Chronicle downplayed (actually, noplayed) Sen. Joe Lieberman's optimistic view of the progress being made in Iraq, while not hesitating to run a front page story on Rep. Jack Murtha's call for a troop pullout.
In contrast, it took Columbia Journalism Review editor Steve Lovelady two sentences to explain why the MSM didn't give Sen. Lieberman's stance the same attention it gave Rep. Murtha's:
You think the New York Times and Washington Post should write a story every time a neocon hawk pens an essay for the Wall Street Journal's editorial page?
Somehow, I don't see that happening...
For a more solid understanding of why the media is so seemingly out of touch with average folks, check out a poll Pew Research did recently:
Negative press coverage of the war in Iraq in recent weeks has emphasized rising pessimism among the American public about the conflict. But a new survey found that 56 percent of the public thinks that efforts to establish a stable democracy in the country will succeed.
[snip]
When asked whether they thought democracy would succeed in Iraq, only 33 percent of the journalists agreed that it had a chance. The number was even worse in academe -- 27 percent of respondents thought the effort would succeed. Among the military, however, the number stood at 64 percent.
"The media and academia have always been more to the left, so how they report these things is not necessarily the way the country sees things," said Charles Gravely, 56, a real estate executive from the District.
It explains quite a bit, of course.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/04/05 09:54 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (5)
Houston earns "world class" environmental penalty
Banjo Jones reports that Houston has been socked with a huge penalty by Texas environmental regulators:
State enviro regulators have ordered H-Town to pay nearly $1 million in penalties for unauthorized discharges from 11 of its wastewater treatment plants. One fine is for $969,195. Then another fine of $17,500 was added for additional infractions that occurred at a later date.
Though Houston fell short of the million dollar mark for its crappy wastewater treatment plants, it went over the magic mark if you consider another $40,348 in penalties that were assessed against the city for air pollution infractions.
Congratulations, Houston. When you top the million dollar mark in environmental penalties in a single month, you've definitely reached international city status, along with Bombay, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, and so forth.
Dare we suggest that it's World Class (albeit not in a good sense)?
We haven't seen reporting on this from Chronicle environmental reporter Dina Cappiello, or any other Chronicle reporter for that matter.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/05 09:21 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Shutter the D.C. bureau (cont'd)
One of those inane, meaningless references favored by some professional journalists worked its way into a Gebe Martinez dispatch today:
The president's new strategy also is aimed at trying to unite the base of the Republican Party on the eve of a congressional election year, according to political experts.
It's always useful to know what the political experts who gather around the Chronicle D.C. bureau's water cooler are thinking, I guess. Martinez must be referring to them, since no actual experts expressing those sentiments are quoted in her reporting, which really doesn't cover any ground on the President's immigration policy that hasn't already been covered by the nation's more significant newspapers.
If this is the sort of fare the Chronicle D.C. bureau is going to continue to churn out, the newspaper really needs to consider shuttering the bureau and redeploying the resources to local/state coverage.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/05 09:06 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
A busy death-penalty week for the Chron
Look who made an appearance in a death-penalty column in the Chronicle this week:
Texas' method of executing capital murderers could come under scrutiny in a courtroom as the result of what some legal observers call a precedent-setting ruling by a federal judge in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes this month denied a motion by the state Attorney General's Office to dismiss death row inmate Charles Raby's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment.
Raby's lawyer says the judge's ruling has cleared the way for Raby to gain access to state documents and employees in an effort to prove that the chemicals used in the lethal injection process cause a condemned killer to "suffer an excruciatingly painful and protracted death."
"As far as I know, this is the first (lethal injection challenge) case in Texas where the motion to dismiss has not been granted," said Kevin Mohr, Raby's attorney.
Kathryn Kase, a representative of the Texas Defender Service, which provides legal counsel to several Texas death row inmates, agrees with Mohr's assessment.
"To my knowledge, there is no court in Texas that has let it get this far," said Kase, who is married to Houston Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen. "This is a very, very important ruling."
One would have thought that Steve McVicker might have been able to find someone else to quote, but there you have it.
Jeff Cohen's newspaper has been busy with the death penalty this week. Gossip columnist Rick Casey was dispatched to drive home the impression that an innocent man has been executed in Texas:
I want to make one thing clear. [Bexar County District Attorney Susan] Reed is not just focused on going after Moreno. Before she mentioned him in our Friday conversation, she said, "If your story is correct and (Cantu) is innocent, that means there is another murderer out there."
And she told reporter Olsen that if the story is correct, it demonstrates a nonfunctioning justice system.
While that's a nice clarification from Casey, the fact is he spends most of his column focused on what Reed will do if indeed Cantu was innocent. The story leaves the impression that of course he was innocent -- now all that matters is what is to be done about it. In reality, Cantu's innocence has yet to be determined -- something the Chronicle's reporters, editorialists, and even gossip columnists need to keep in mind.
UPDATE (12-05-2005): Owen Courreges posts some very good questions about the Cantu affair.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/05 08:52 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
Chronicle still having trouble with proper identification (con't.)
In Friday's Chronicle, two letters to the editor were published in response to Rick Casey's gossip column. One was written by HISD spokesman Terry Abbott and the other was written by Rosemary Covalt. You know, average Houstonian Rosemary Covalt.
Except that Rosemary Covalt is a paid staff member of the Houston Federation of Teachers.
Why didn't Judy Minshew note that?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/04/05 11:00 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
The editorialists have a hornet in their bonnet
In case Chronicle readers didn’t get the point here, here and here, the editorial board has written a FOURTH editorial on Harris County schools not running summer lunch programs…all summer long.
Galena Park, for instance, served 13 percent of eligible children within its district. It had the means to feed them all. Spring fed a pathetic 0.3 percent of its needy children. Humble, which is open all but two weeks of the summer, nevertheless fed only 5 percent of eligible kids. A spokeswoman said the district is struggling to understand why more don't use its program. HISD fed 16 percent. To its credit it has pledged to do better next year and will decide soon on a new strategy.
What’s striking here is the editorialists' complaint: that school districts are feeding such a small percentage of eligible children. Here’s a thought: maybe the parents of the eligible children are (gasp) providing food for the eligible children.
Really! It could be happening!
Poverty, after all, isn't interchangeable with laziness. In Texas, a full 80 percent of low-income families are headed by a worker. Many of these breadwinners just can't earn enough to consistently buy food and still pay nonnegotiable expenses such as housing and transportation.
It’s amazing how much food one can buy at a Super Wal-mart dollar for dollar, compared to a regular supermarket. I’m guessing the idealists don’t visit Wal-mart very often. They are probably more like Whole Foods or Central Market kind-of-folks.
Last month, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced that Texas ranks No. 1 in "food insecurity" — the lack of certainty, even among people who work, that they can afford food for their families. Averaged over the last three years, this figure leaves out the estimated 10,000 children stranded in Harris County by Katrina. Now these youngsters, like Houston's own low-income children, can count on suffering still more this summer when regular school lunch programs close.
Some government agency did a “food insecurity” study??? Can’t you picture Thomas Jefferson thinking to himself, as he’s finding just the right words for the Declaration of Independence, “and someday government will do food insecurity studies.”
It’s hard to imagine a more irrelevant editorial page.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/04/05 08:32 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 December 2005
Bad press forces MayorWhiteChiefHurtt to address manpower shortage
After a week of being blasted by the city's television media not to mention talk radio, MayorWhiteChiefHurtt now say they have a plan to deal with HPD's manpower shortage.
No, not simply an ordinance to require apartment complexes to pay for private security. That laughable "plan" of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt was ripped so badly that they've come up with this:
Police Chief Harold Hurtt will bring officers out of retirement and hire recruits before they've completed training as part of a series of initiatives announced Friday to address a manpower shortage that has plagued the Houston Police Department for more than a year.
Responding to a week of criticism that followed a deadly Thanksgiving holiday weekend with 14 homicides across the city, Hurtt also said he will adjust schedules and quadruple the department's overtime budget to get more officers onto the streets immediately.
Flanked by his command staff at a news conference, Hurtt acknowledged that the job would not be easy.
In the last two years, some 700 officers have left the department, many through retirement.
"We have lost 700 people-plus and the population's increasing — we just picked up another 150 to 200,000 people from Louisiana. So we have some significant challenges," Hurtt said.
Houston Police Officers Union President Hans Marticiuc called Hurtt's initiatives "a step in the right direction" but said he was "uncomfortable" with rehiring as many as 50 retired officers.
Hurtt's handling of the shortage became the subject of intense criticism Monday, when the union released a report indicating that response times to some 500 calls about property crimes and assaults from three police districts took officers anywhere from 90 minutes to 12 hours.
Hurtt's handling?
Mayor White's press shop is certainly effective at protecting the mayor from criticism, even though Mayor White, Chief Hurtt, and the City Council have all done their part to ignore HPD's manpower shortage, as we've noted here repeatedly (and as Chris Baker has been noting on his radio program for several years now).
It's amazing how quickly MayorWhiteChiefHurtt can put together a plan, however, when the city's mainstream media do their jobs and focus attention on the problem.
RELATED COVERAGE: KHOU-11, KPRC-2, KUHF-88.7.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/05 05:19 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
A turkey award for METRO's $2 billion bait-and-switch
Rich Connelly of the Houston Press has a Turkey Award for METRO:
Since time immemorial, at least as it's measured in Houston, Metro has been pushing for a light-rail system (or a monorail, or a hovercraft, or any sort of boondogglish type of people-mover). Houstonians, dismayed at the thought of facing an endless series of elections on the subject, finally caved in and approved a massive light-rail plan in November 2003.
Or they thought they did. This year, Metro announced a few tweaks to the $2 billion plan. Most of the tweaks seemed to involve taking light rail away from poorer minority neighborhoods and giving it to rich white neighborhoods.
Instead of the promised rail lines, low-income neighborhoods would get something called "bus rapid transit." Which apparently is transportation lingo for "buses that look a little bit like trains, if you don't look real hard." (The Metro-loving Houston Chronicle, always eager to spread the agency's party line, helpfully described BRT as anything but a bus, calling it a system "in which rubber-tired vehicles run in dedicated guideways." The vehicles, the paper noted, "would look somewhat like MetroRail trains with tires." So hey, you low-income whiners, what's the problem?)
In one of the amazing coincidences of our times, the neighborhoods that will now be getting rail are represented by John Culberson and Tom DeLay, two Republicans who play key roles in approving federal mass-transit funds. The neighborhoods now getting the Super-Duper Buses are represented by loser Democrats.
Metro's original plan was just too ambitious, and never would have won federal funding, Houstonians were told.
You know, we've all heard of car dealerships offering amazing deals, but when you get to the lot you find there was only one car available for that price. But a $2 billion bait-and-switch, that takes balls.
It seems a pretty clear-cut false-advertising case. Metro ran countless ads during the referendum campaign, with beautifully illustrated and official-looking maps showing where the light rail would be going. Then they, ummmm, made a slight alteration.
It's kind of like National Lampoon's Vacation, when Chevy Chase's character goes to pick up his new deluxe Sports Wagon only to find it hasn't come in. "Now I can get you the Sports Wagon; the only problem is that it may take six weeks," says the car dealer, played by Eugene Levy. "I owe it to myself to tell you that if you're taking the whole tribe cross-country, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster is the way to go. You think you hate it now, but just wait until you drive it."
We know how well that turned out.
Most of those complaints about the METRO Solutions bait-and-switch should sound familiar to blogHOUSTON readers.
Be sure to check out the rest of Connelly's Turkey Awards.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/05 05:00 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Additions to our Chron start page
I've added direct links to archives of Chron columnists on our Chron Headlines/Links page.
Because the redesigned Chron.com page requires so many more clicks than it should to find content, I designed this page as sort of my own personal entry page for Chron.com. Readers may or may not find it useful.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/05 12:34 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chronicle corrections (12-03-2005 edition)
Before the redesign, Chron.com had a link for easy access to corrections. The new Chron.com has no such link and no set place for corrections.
Maybe the Chron.com web developers will see fit to add a link to corrections at some point. Until then, we'll post a link to them when they appear, since they're so hard to find.
Here are the Corrections that appear today.
Interestingly, the Chronicle prints a major correction to an AP story:
In a Nov. 26 story on Page D3 of the Business section about Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, the Associated Press reported erroneously that .50-caliber rifles were used to penetrate the armor of Iraqi tanks from a mile away during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Such rifles were used against Iraqi armored personnel carriers, but military experts say they could not penetrate tank armor from that distance.
The story also said company founder Ronnie Barrett started tinkering with the .50-caliber Browning Machine Gun in the early 1980s. A company spokesman said Barrett took photos of one such gun, but then built his own rifle.The story also quoted a criminal justice scholar who said the rifle wasn't useful for hunting because it would destroy game meat — a claim Barrett Firearms disputes. Bryce Towsley, a Vermont-based gun writer, said that when the .50-caliber rifle is used with the proper bullet, it would not destroy the meat.
In the past, the newspaper has, at times, declined to correct AP errors.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/05 12:30 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
02 December 2005
HISD scores well among nation's urban school districts
I have said repeatedly that as far as large urban school districts go, HISD is one of the better ones in the U.S. Here's the proof:
Houston's fourth- and eighth-graders beat their counterparts in most other urban school districts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, results released Thursday show.
The exam, also called the Nation's Report Card, tested students' math and reading skills last school year and compared Houston Independent School District results with other cities that volunteered to participate.
They were New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, San Diego, Charlotte, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Austin. Only Charlotte and Austin performed better than Houston overall.
"We're making progress but still have a lot of work to do to compete with every school district in the county," HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said in a written statement.
State results released last month showed Texas' students beating the national average in every category except eighth-grade reading.
While Houston stacked up well against urban school districts, HISD still trails the overall national average, and the gaps between scores achieved by white students and minorities remain large.
In fourth-grade math, for example, only Atlanta and Washington had a larger gap between white and black students.
Yet compared with Hispanic and black students in other school districts, those in Houston performed well.
Those same black fourth-graders in HISD beat their counterparts at all 10 urban districts in reading and also topped the national average.
The fact is that large urban school districts face hurdles suburban districts often don't: majority minority student populations and all the associated challenges they bring with them. It is encouraging that HISD, under Dr. Saavedra's forward-thinking leadership, is getting creative to improve the education it provides its students. Dr. Saavedra has repeatedly admitted that HISD needs to improve, and it is no secret that student success tends to slide in the upper grades (in many school districts nationwide); but with a continued focus on changing that, HISD students will continue to make gains, and HISD should continue to improve in the Nation's Report Card.
Thanks to Jason Spencer for an informative story.
RELATED: Coverage from KHOU-11, KUHF-88.7
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/02/05 10:19 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
FEMA tries flexing its (worthless) muscle again
Unless federal policy changes soon, Houston will find itself in an embarrassing position three months from today — breaking a key promise made to hurricane evacuees in their most desperate hour.
Despite written statements to the contrary, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cease honoring the 24,000 year-long leases, backed by the city, signed between hurricane evacuees and local apartment landlords.
As a result the city could fail to deliver on a promise made to nearly 100,000 storm-ravaged evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — a safe roof over their heads for a year.
Landlords, who are accepting tenants without a security deposit or credit checks, would be left with scores of families unable to pay their rent.
"Everybody is concerned about what could happen," said Larry Hill, president of the Houston Apartment Association.
"The city, the mayor, the judge, everyone stepped up to the line after these storms hit. We opened our doors. I have no idea what these people would have done if the city of Houston hadn't stepped up."
FEMA needs to get its head out of its you-know-what. The citizens of New Orleans were failed by decades of corrupt government on many levels. The city of Houston, Harris County and the state of Texas stepped up to help these people when their own city and state couldn't/wouldn't. Mayor White has put forth a plan that gives these people somewhere to live, while providing them the resources to find employment and rebuild their lives. It's a constructive plan that is more than New Orleans or Louisiana could have ever done. (New Orleans' mayor is focused on free wi-fi, for God's sake!)
FEMA needs to pay the darn bill and shut the hell up.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/02/05 07:32 AM | Hurricane Stuff | Technorati | Comments (9)
01 December 2005
METRO doesn't join other transit agencies in honoring Parks
KTRK-13's Tom Abrahams reports that METRO didn't do anything special to honor Rosa Parks today:
Fifty years ago a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. It was an action that many consider to be the launching point for the civil rights movement.
Transit authorities all over the country honored Parks on Thursday in various ways. In Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Corpus Christi, they left an open seat on their buses. But Houston METRO did nothing on Thursday.
[snip]
But METRO officials contend they are not being insensitive. And they point out that just last month they honored Parks with pictures of her in every one of its 1,200 buses.
Are they talking about these signs that Laurence Simon photographed one day after Parks passed away last month?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/05 10:14 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
Metro's "stray current" problem has not gone away
A KTRH-740 newsbreak just reported a story with which blogHOUSTON readers are familiar, thanks to the determination of Tom Bazan -- "stray current" associated with Metro's light rail.
The KTRH story said that TxDOT engineers are concerned about and examining steel support beams that could be corroded by stray current caused by what appears to be a flawed MetroRail design. The KTRH report also referenced new documents that it has obtained that show at least six locations still experiencing potential problems with the stray electrical current. Tom Bazan obtained the documents (through many, many, many...MANY open records requests) and has concerns with what is happening underneath the Texas Medical Center and underneath the Pierce Elevated.
Many thanks go out to Tom Bazan for all his hard work getting this information out to the public. God knows Metro would never willingly share it!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/01/05 04:55 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (2)
Milo Hamilton: How to keep sponsors happy
Astros' announcer Milo Hamilton is writing a book:
This Thanksgiving, play-by-play Astros announcer Milo Hamilton marked his 60th anniversary in broadcasting.
Now he's sharing his stories of life in the big leagues with all of his fans. The voice of the Astros for more than 30 years is going public with stories about the business in a new book called "Making Airwaves."
"Making Airwaves" will be in stores in January. Next season, Hamilton will start his seventh decade at the microphone, his third decade with the Astros.
Will he provide tips for how to artfully mention band saws and Landry's at every opportunity? =)
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I actually saw the Shara Fryer report last night, which was much longer than what wound up on the web. Hamilton actually mentions that he deals with Harry Caray in the book, and the impression was that he does so harshly. The bitter, no-class Hamilton was probably the only guy in America that was happy when Caray died.
ANNE ADDS: In the forum, Kevin links to the history between Milo and Harry Caray, and Banjo links to a pretty darn funny Milo story and wonders if it will make it into the new book.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/01/05 11:14 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (6)
Was that a news story worth considering?
After watching this Mark Greenblatt story last night, I wondered what he might have left out. Was there any context missing? Was it one-sided and presented so as to make CCCS look as bad as possible? Did CCCS try to respond or protest the story?
We'll probably never know.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/01/05 11:01 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
Council considers broader panhandling measure
City Council is mulling Councilman Michael Berry's proposal to broaden panhandling restrictions on Houston roadways:
What began as a limited plan to ban younger children from soliciting charity money on Houston streets is now a broader discussion on City Council about reducing the numbers of window-washing, homeless panhandlers.
The council delayed a vote Wednesday on a narrowly tailored proposal that would have introduced new regulations for charitable solicitations, most notably banning minors younger than 16 and requiring adult supervision for older youths.
The panel delayed the vote a week after Councilman Michael Berry proposed changes that would prevent all minors from performing such solicitations — and would ban anyone from entering roadways or obstructing traffic to get money from motorists.
City employees — firefighters conducting "fill-the-boot" drives, for example — wouldn't be affected by the proposed regulations.
It's better than the original proposal, but would appear not to affect Chron vendors. Perhaps councilmembers are paying attention to what's happening in League City.
UPDATE: KPRC-2 has this story of creative panhandling.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/01/05 09:50 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (4)
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