30 April 2006
Casey and Hines draw salaries for this?
Chronicle readers who don't read the New York Times might have found Rick Casey's column on James Baker from earlier this week interesting.
The New York Times article was better, though, not to mention more timely.
It's not really clear why the Chronicle pays its metro/state columnist to rewrite stories he reads in the national press.
Then again, it's also not really clear why the Chronicle pays its D.C. columnist to write about things he sees on C-SPAN.
The reinvention of the Chronicle still has a ways to go, it would seem, little slaps at the New York Times notwithstanding.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/06 10:41 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
The ideal state isn't a very timely state
A week ago, Chronicle reporters Matt Stiles and Steve McVicker broke a story on one cop whose income has recently topped Mayor White's, thanks to overtime pay.
The Chronicle editorial board, having dispensed with that pressing matter of a Jamaican food recipe yesterday, finally weighed in on the matter of the HPD overtime pay today:
Arresting drunken drivers and securing their conviction is a laudable police goal, but it appears some Houston police officers have received extraordinarily large overtime payments for off-duty court appearances. The practice raises questions about HPD's management of scarce law enforcement resources and department policies that may have encouraged wasteful expenditures.
Wow, it took a week to come up with that?
The ideal state certainly seems a little... slow.
And the ideal state seems a little insensitive, if the conclusion is any indication:
Chief Hurtt says the high overtime totals are unavoidable because of understaffing in the police department. Perhaps that's so, but when the HPD indians are making almost as much as the chief for sitting in court, a financial sobriety test of DWI task force policies and procedures is in order.
Indians?!
Don't they know that's Native Americans? The horror!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/06 10:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
KTRK: City hopes to build a windmill farm
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg reports that Mayor White has plans for the City of Houston to become a producer of electricity:
Electricity will cost the city of Houston $130 million this year. That's $30 million more than last year because of rising natural gas costs. But now, the city tells us it has a plan to spend its way to a lower power bill.
[snip]
So then why is the city asking for a $50 million loan to build windmills? They could be 17 huge windmills, each of them almost 400 feet tall to generate power the city would use for itself.
[snip]
The proposed city of Houston wind farm on top of downtown Houston would take three square miles. Don't worry. It won't be built in downtown, but 250 miles away in Kennedy County. The windmills would connect to the Texas power grid, which runs all over the state, so Houston could grab the wind electricity here.
[snip]
[I]n the last 12 months, Houston's natural gas electricity ranged in price from 14 cents per kilowatt hour right after Katrina to six cents today. Wind energy is a steady six cents - today, tomorrow, and for years in the future.
"Break even or save the city money on what it would pay on its energy bills," said Mayor White.
The city's application is still with the IRS, which needs to approve it. Then city council votes on the plan. If that goes well, the windmills could turn in 2008.
We sympathize with the Mayor's desire to lower the city's cost for electricity, although it's not clear that the city needs to be in the electrical-generation business. Before branching out to that field, it would be nice if the city could simply get better at the murder-prevention business, and the graffiti-eradication business, and the crime-response-time business, and the emergency-call-answering business, and the pothole-repair business, and... well, you get the idea.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/06 11:30 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
Lifestyles of the rich and academic (cont'd)
In a post on some recent reporting by Matthew Tresaugue on Priscilla Slade's expenses at Texas Southern University, we wrote:
It would be most informative for readers if the Chronicle would request similar expense information for Slade's equivalents at other state universities.
Today, Tresaugue delivers on that request. Here's an excerpt:
Documents show that Slade traveled the world, furnished her million-dollar home, employed a full-time maid, bought rounds of drinks and learned to play golf at the school's expense.
She defends much of the spending as legitimate and necessary as chief advocate and fundraiser for the 11,600-student university.
But a Houston Chronicle analysis of 2005 financial records from 26 public university presidents shows that Slade's spending generally exceeded that of her peers. Her expenditures at TSU, a historically black university, revealed few, if any, examples of the penny-pinching displayed by many of her colleagues.
Out of all the presidents in Austin on the eve of the appropriations hearing in February 2005, only Slade spent more than $200 on her room. Her room service and bar tabs added $76.80 to the Four Seasons bill.
Meanwhile, the University of Texas-Pan American's president, Blandina Cardenas, stayed at the Red Lion in an $80-a-night room.
"What we have is a sense of entitlement with some presidents and chancellors," said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, Calif. "There is a belief that they ought to live like the people in the highest income brackets. Part of this is because we expect them to raise money. But we're forgetting this is a public service."
The story is worth reading in its entirety.
(hat tip to Laurence Simon for the heads up on the reporting)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/06 11:16 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
29 April 2006
Houston Community Newspapers acquires Examiner weeklies
The Houston Business Journal reports that the Houston Community Newspapers group has purchased the Examiner Newspaper Group, which puts out free Examiner weeklies in select Houston neighborhoods:
Houston Community Newspapers has purchased the Examiner Newspaper Group.
The Examiner newspapers, which are printed for West University, River Oaks, Bellaire and Memorial, will join the HCN network of 31 newspapers reaching more than 635,000 households.
George Boehme, publisher of the Examiner Group, will remain with the newspapers and continue to operate out of the offices in Rice Village.
Starting in the May 10 issue, the Examiner newspapers will convert to a traditional broadsheet format, and will include Greater Houston Weekly, a lifestyle insert published by HCN.
In addition, the papers will join HCN's news-sharing partnership with KTRK-TV Channel 13.
The only overlapping newspaper is in the Memorial area. HCN's Memorial Sun will merge into the Memorial Examiner, also starting May 10.
The Examiner newspapers do some nice work. Here's hoping the partnership with Houston Community Newspapers benefits both.
BLOGVERSATION: Brazosport News.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/06 09:25 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chief Hurtt's chief of staff agrees to demotion, pay cut
The Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz reports that Chief Harold Hurtt's chief of staff has agreed to a demotion, in relation to a sexual harassment claim that was filed in February:
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt's chief of staff agreed to a demotion, salary reduction and reassignment as a result of a sexual harassment claim filed against him.
Lt. Joe Buttitta will be demoted to the rank of senior officer with a maximum salary of about $53,000. The demotion will be effective by May 6, said HPD spokesman John Cannon.
[snip]
Buttitta will no longer work from HPD's downtown headquarters at 1200 Travis, but his new assignment has yet to be determined, Cannon said.
Buttitta was suspended Feb. 28 after the allegation was made and an internal HPD investigation launched. Cannon would not reveal the findings of the department's investigation, referring all such inquiries to Buttitta's attorney.
It seems unlikely that an innocent person would agree to a significant demotion and cut in pay.
Last year, HPD lost a $600,000 sexual harassment lawsuit.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: KHOU News Blog.
PREVIOUSLY: Mayor White can't be happy about this (Isolated Desolation).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/06 08:20 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Better wait a few days before trying the recipe
To celebrate the Jamaica-themed International Festival that opened last weekend and closes this weekend, the Chronicle editorial board has posted a recipe for Jamaican rice and peas as one of its two daily chances to opine on matters of importance to Houstonians.
Given the newspaper's recent difficulties with recipes, not to mention the editorial board's occasional difficulties with facts, the blogHOUSTON crew recommends holding off on trying the recipe right away. Watch the corrections for a few days, THEN give it a try if you're so inclined.
Consider this post a public service announcement from your friends here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/06 07:58 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Editorial LiveJournal: Mr. Gibbons goes to the theater!
It's been quite a while since a member of the Chronicle editorial board treated us to a diary of one of his/her grand adventures in the city of Houston in the form of an Editorial LiveJournal.
Bad things come to those who wait, however, as James Howard Gibbons has an account of his trip to the theater in today's Chronicle:
In this overstimulating age, I'm frequently tempted to say, "Oh, let someone else go out and get himself royally entertained." Fortunately, I resisted the temptation and went to see a production of Molière's The Miser, which runs through Sunday at the Alley Theatre.This production of the 17th century French play, by Theatre de la Jeune Lune, adapts the script for today's audiences. But while the play now refers to Enron, the themes are dissimilar.
It seems kind of fitting that that Mr. Gibbons chose to write about an interpretive bastardization of Molière on a bastardization of a major newspaper editorial page.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/06 07:46 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
Priscilla Slade goes to the victim card
Priscilla Slade, effectively fired from Texas Southern University for inappropriate use of university funds, is suing the university in an effort to squeeze even more money from the institution.
The Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue has the details:
Priscilla Slade sued Texas Southern University's governing board Friday, claiming the regents failed to provide a mandatory hearing before effectively firing her as president.
The lawsuit, filed in state district court, accuses the regents of making plans to hire a new president while Slade still holds the job. Attorney Ron Franklin, who represents Slade, said he hopes to win unspecified monetary damages.[snip]
"Her contract requires them to give due process and a hearing, and they have ignored it," Franklin said.
The board [of regents] inquiry, conducted by the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, found that Slade and former Chief Financial Officer Quintin Wiggins failed to follow university policies and state laws, including "long-accepted principles prohibiting the use of public money for private gain," to buy more than $260,000 in furniture, landscaping and security equipment for her house.
A recent university audit also found that Slade spent nearly $650,000 over the past seven years on personal purchases not allowed under her contract.
In the lawsuit, Franklin claimed the audit "was selective, incomplete, misleading and clearly calculated to create an impression of wrongdoing on Dr. Slade's part."
Dr. Slade seems to have done a fine job creating that "impression" all on her own.
Slade's attorney gave KTRK-13 a nice quote, in reference to the hearing that TSU must give Slade before her firing is official:
"If I know before a trial begins that the jurors have already decided everything and are trying to decide whether or not to cut off her head or hang her, why would I go through that scam," said Franklin.
It's quite an upside-down world in which a university official can put someone convicted of bouncing checks in charge of finances, (allegedly) misuse nearly $1 million, AND claim to be a victim of the equivalent of a hanging when terminated for cause!
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Priscilla Slade.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/06 07:14 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)
28 April 2006
Chron: Clark to transfer to Illinois facility (Updated: Perhaps not)
On Monday, Anne Linehan posted about Andrea Clark, the most recent Houston hospital patient to run up against the state's futile-care law. Right Wing News had previously posted on the topic (and continues to follow the story). Local bloggers followed suit, and KHOU-11 ran early local coverage of the matter.
Today, the local Hearst daily decided to cover the matter, with reporter Todd Ackerman explaining the following:
Hoping to defuse the latest local controversy involving Texas' futile-care law, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital agreed Thursday to transfer a severely ill heart patient to a facility in suburban Chicago.
The agreement, announced three days before the hospital planned to take Andrea Clark off life support, comes amid a growing movement to reform the Texas law, which allows hospitals to discontinue terminal patients' life-sustaining care as long as their ethics committee determines the case is futile and gives the patient's family 10 days notice to find another facility.
[snip]
The agreement to transfer Clark today to Glenshire Nursing & Rehab Centre, a long-term acute-care facility in Richton Park, Ill., came Thursday evening, at the conclusion of lengthy negotiations between St. Luke's and Clark's family. The family had preferred she stay in Texas and wanted St. Luke's to extend the 10-day deadline so they could continue searching for another in-state facility. In the end, her sister, Lanore Dixon, said the family felt it had no other options.
St. Luke's will pay the transfer costs, even though the law says the patient's family is responsible for such payment. Ward says she was told they will amount to nearly $15,000.
"We are delighted that this issue has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties," said Rosemary Luquire, senior vice president and chief quality officer for the St. Luke's Episcopal Health Care System. Another senior official said the hospital's position had been about "compassion and the best interests of the patient."
Clark, 54, a "blue baby" upon whom Drs. Michael E. DeBakey and Denton Cooley performed pioneering open-heart surgery on the then new heart-lung machine in the late 1950s, has been at St. Luke's since November.
Her condition deteriorated after open-heart surgery in January and bleeding in the brain this month, Dixon said.
The conflict erupted April 19, when Dr. Robert Carpenter Jr., chairman of St. Luke's ethics committee, wrote Ward and Dixon to say that the committee had unanimously agreed with Clark's attending physician that "the life-sustaining treatment currently being provided to your sister is inappropriate and should be discontinued."
This is great news for Andrea Clark and her family, although it is unfortunate that Clark must leave the state to continue to receive life-sustaining medical treatment.
The Chronicle article notes the role that the internet played in drawing attention to the St. Luke's decision as well as the state law behind it:
"There may be an agreement, but the real story is a law that allows physicians and ethics committees to make life-and-death decisions based on what they perceive a patient's quality of life to be," said Jerri Ward, the lawyer representing Clark. "It's unfortunate Texas has become ground-zero for this futile-care movement."
Even without Ward taking the matter to court, Clark's case galvanized hundreds of supporters around the country. Online forums and blogs aired details of her sister's campaign to stop St. Luke's from pulling the plug and opponents of the plan flooded the hospital with outraged phone calls. A small protest was held outside St. Luke's last weekend.
Blogs are never going to displace mainstream media and basic journalism, but one function that blogs (posts and the ensuing conversation) do perform is to act as shadow editors -- to push stories that aren't getting attention, to push angles that aren't getting attention, to illustrate biases and other mistakes in reporting, and the like. In this instance, there's not much doubt that blogs helped this story to bubble up and get the attention of mainstream press.
As for the issue itself, we've been discussing it for a while in our forum (see the RELATED links at the end), with a healthy back-and-forth on both the pros and cons of the Texas law. Some of us find the following news heartening:
The case comes a year after three high-profile cases in Houston. In one, Texas Children's Hospital removed from life support a 6-month-old boy with a fatal form of dwarfism. In another, courtroom-wrangling by the lawyer of a 68-year-old man in a persistent vegetative state extended the 10-day deadline and gave the family time to find another facility, where he died four months later. And in the last, a 6-month-old girl with leukemia died five days before Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital planned to unplug her respirator.
Those cases and others — Ward filed a petition Thursday in Austin in another such case — prompted the reassessment going on in the capital, said Greg Hooser, an attorney and consultant leading the meetings. He said the reforms likely will include an extension of the 10-day notification period.
Dr. William Winslade, a prominent bioethicist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, said the reforms should include a more impartial process.
"One problem with the law is that it gives all the bargaining power to the hospital and doctors," Winslade said. "I think it would be better if an external mediator looked at cases. I'm sympathetic to hospitals on these issues, but I've talked to too many families who feel browbeaten and without recourse."
Given how this law has played out in a number of instances and the controversy it has generated, surely nobody can object to a reassessment.
UPDATE: Right Wing News is now reporting that St. Luke's has nixed the deal to transfer Clark.
UPDATE 2 (04-29-2006): The Chronicle reports that the Illinois facility nixed the deal.
UPDATE 3 (04-29-2006): Wesley Smith offers some thoughts on the futile-care law at play here.
RELATED (from the archives): Help Andrea Clarke, Hospital to remove Houston man from life support, Life and death in Houston, Feeling our way through the end of life.
BLOGVERSATION: Cvstos Fidei, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/06 09:19 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
Sheila Jackson Lee arrested outside Sudanese embassy
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was arrested today with four other members of Congress, for protesting outside the Sudanese embassy:
Five Congress members were willingly arrested and led away from the Sudanese Embassy in plastic handcuffs Friday in protest of the Sudanese government’s role in atrocities in the Darfur region.
“The slaughter of the people of Darfur must end,” Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a Holocaust survivor who founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, said from the embassy steps before his arrest.
Four other Democratic Congress members — James McGovern and John Olver of Massachusetts, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Jim Moran of Virginia — were among 11 protesters arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor subject to a fine.
“We must hold the Sudanese government accountable for the attacks they have supported on their own citizens in Darfur,” Olver said.
Dozens of demonstrators carried signs, some reading “Stop the slaughter” and “Women of Darfur suffer multiple gang rapes,” in front of the embassy Friday morning.
The protesters cheered as the Congress members and others were cuffed, hands behind their backs, with plastic ties and quietly led to a white police van by U.S. Secret Service uniformed officers.
The arrests were expected. Lantos’ office issued a news release about them in advance.
Ordinarily, we'd make light of the Congresswoman's penchant for latching on to publicity and cameras, but at least this time she brought the media spotlight to an issue that certainly deserves it.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston Democrats.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/06 01:15 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (16)
Sorry about the disruption
Our web host experienced a massive denial of service attack earlier today, and it rendered quite a few familiar sites unavailable in addition to ours.
As Matt Bramanti notes, the problem has been isolated, and things seem to be getting back to normal.
We join him and others in flipping the bird to the enemies of civilization who were responsible for the crude attempt to squelch speech.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/06 12:09 PM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (1)
27 April 2006
KTRH: METRO, Siemens disagree on stray-current problem
KTRH-740 reports on the ongoing concerns over stray current along the METRO rail line:
At a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Metro has already fixed damage along the line thought to have been caused by electrical current eating away at metal bridge anchors around the tracks.
Engineers are still performing assessments, but a February report from Siemens Transportation Systems, the company that built the line, says no damage has been caused to "either utility lines or Metro facilities due to stray current."
Metro disagrees. The transportation authority says other experts have found evidence of electrical leakage at spots along the line and have suggested more tests be done.
Local METRO watchdog Tom Bazan has experienced great difficulty getting METRO to comply with his numerous public information requests on the stray-current issue, but it doesn't seem to be a problem that's going away anytime soon, especially if METRO and the contractor are now squabbling over the extent of the problem.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/06 07:57 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
Gibbs & Bruns back out of travel firm lawsuit revenue stream
The Houston Business Journal's Jenna Colley reports that Mayor White has suffered a setback in his bid to sue internet travel firms:
Prominent Houston law firm Gibbs & Bruns LLP has bowed out of plans to represent the City of Houston in its fight to recapture Hotel Occupancy Taxes from online travel companies, forcing the city to choose another firm from scratch.
According to Houston City Attorney Arturo Michel, Gibbs & Bruns' decision centered around information contained in a memo issued by Houston City Controller Annise Parker to Houston City Councilmembers on April 11 that questioned the city's ability to recapture back HOT taxes from online travel companies such as Expedia and Travelocity.
So far, no formal legal action has been filed by the city.
According to Michel, Gibbs & Bruns attorneys expressed concern over the effects that such a memo from a high-ranking city official like Parker could have on any potential litigation.
Officials with Gibbs & Bruns could not immediately be reached for comment.
Michel called the firm's decision an overreaction and pledged to work toward hiring another firm to take the case.
For weeks, the contract with Gibbs & Bruns has faced delays as some city councilmembers wrangled over the possibility of securing a legal victory against the online travel companies.
It's doubtful that Mayor White will be deterred in his pursuit of this new revenue stream.
PREVIOUSLY: Mayor White concocts creative new revenue stream, White plan to sue internet travel companies delayed by council.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/06 07:47 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Fighting crime: A van AND an acronym!
Yesterday, we learned that HPD would be breaking out a new crimefighting van to take on the rising murder rate.
Today's reporting suggests that HPD is breaking out all the stops. Not only will there be a new van to fight crime, but Chief Hurtt has unveiled a new acronym:
Houston police hope a new mobile command center will help fight crime in the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.U-net, which stands for Unified Neighborhood Enhancement Team, is a police station on wheels where officers can access information and process criminals.
[snip]
U-net was unveiled Wednesday at a substation on Fondren and West Bellfort in southwest Houston.
In a Lone Star Times exclusive, Matt Bramanti managed to get a photo of the U-Net van in action.
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt clearly have the bad guys on the run now!
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/06 07:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
Life calls...
...and I must answer.
Things will be hectic for me for the next few days, so I am going to take a break from blogging until next week.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/27/06 06:06 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (3)
The sex tape that wasn't
Remember KHOU-11's breathless reporting of a SEX TAPE at a local high school?
11 News has learned about a tape that shows two students having sex on the dance floor at a school-sponsored event.
We've learned someone is selling the tape at Madison High School.
[snip]
Sources told 11 News that during the function, inappropriate sexual behavior took place, behavior that was videotaped by a student and then burned to dozens of discs.
Well, never mind:
Vice investigators could not find obvious signs of sexual contact depicted in a video of a Valentine's dance sponsored by Madison High School, police said on Wednesday.
"By looking at the tape, you can't make any conclusions that there was obvious lewdness, but you might have parents and others say that some actions might have been inappropriate," said John Cannon, a Houston Police Department spokesman.
[snip]
The tape itself does not constitute enough evidence to charge anyone at the dance with public lewdness, Cannon said.
Both HPD and HISD are continuing to investigate. It would seem that some type of "dirty dancing" took place, but is that really so shocking these days? Look what Hollywood routinely offers up.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/27/06 05:58 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
26 April 2006
Murder rate up; City to deploy crime van
The Houston Police Department has released crime statistics for the first quarter of 2006, and the numbers aren't good.
Since most media outlets in town are likely to be reporting the White Administration's spin on the numbers, it's helpful that KHOU-11 has posted the actual stats to its website in the form of a PDF file.
The raw number of murders in the first quarter of 2006 is up 18.4% from the same period in 2005, according to the report, and overall incidents of violent crime are up 6.1%. The number of homicides per 100,000 residents is up 10.8% from 2005, and overall violent crime (per 100,000 residents) is down by 0.6%.
Both sets of numbers are helpful (raw numbers are useful, and so are numbers that take into account population), but it will be interesting to see which ones are reported by various media outlets and how they work the White press shop's spin into their reporting.
KHOU's Amy Tortolani reports that Mayor White is promising action:
"The murder rate is just unacceptable." said Mayor White. The situation is so alarming that Wednesday, Mayor White asked city leaders to take steps to attack the problem.
Houston Police Captain Dwayne Ready said his department is up to the challenge and will be moving into high crime neighborhoods. "This will be different bringing command van right out there in the field whereever officers are deployed," he said.
A van?
Man, Mayor White sure knows how to put the bad guys on the run!
Wouldn't it be cool if they painted it to look like the Mystery Machine from the Scooby Doo cartoons, only with a big "FEAR REDUCTION INITIATIVE" slapped on the side?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/26/06 06:24 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
KPRC: City continues to pursue loan for controversial developer
In November of last year, Richard Connelly shined some light on a seemingly arcane bit of business on Mayor White's agenda:
It's probably not a great idea for a city government to do business with a developer of low-income housing if that developer is the subject of an FBI probe that may bring down Dallas's mayor pro tem.
So it's likely a good thing that Houston didn't lend developer Brian Potashnik $2.3 million, as it planned to do at one time.
But how it reached that decision shows the city bureaucracy is still a wondrous thing to behold.
Approval of the two loans to Potashnik was on the agenda of City Council's Housing Committee November 15; the meeting ended before they reached the item, so discussion was rescheduled for November 21. Between those dates, committee chair Shelley Sekula-Gibbs was asked (by a Houston Press reporter) whether she knew about the FBI investigation.
It turns out she did, and had asked the city's director of housing, Milton Wilson -- all the way back in June, when a deal with Potashnik was first proposed -- to respond to her concerns about the Dallas matter. She never heard back from him.
"We have had some very ill-conceived, ill-advised relationships with…affordable-housing developers in the past, and we should be scrutinizing these things very carefully," Sekula-Gibbs says. "It really bothers me that we were not given more detail on this project."
Wilson says he didn't get back to the councilwoman because the proposed deal was dead, and had been dead since shortly after it first came up. (This all concerns the arcane and Byzantine world of HUD, so just accept the fact that both the housing projects in question have already been finished.)
Just to make things more confusing, the mayor's office tried to resuscitate the deal after its demise. Aides there wanted to redirect money to the project partly because the city had placed some Katrina evacuees in the apartment complexes.
So, as far as the council's Housing Committee was concerned, they were still being asked to get in bed with Potashnik and weren't getting any response to their concerns about that potential hookup. Wilson, however, says he would have told the committee to ignore the item if they had reached it at the November 21 meeting.
Right.
Here's a report on KPRC-2's website today:
A Dallas developer wants a $2.3 million loan from Houston, but some city council members say it's risky business as a bailout that could cost taxpayers, the KPRC Local 2 Troubleshooters reported Tuesday.
Brian Potashnik is developing apartment complexes in Houston and asking Houston City Council for a $2.3 million loan with your tax dollars. He's also at the center of an FBI investigation in north Texas.
The cash is needed because his company, Southwest Properties, missed out on federal funds that were linked to a development contract that he signed with the city. He lost the federal money because some city leaders said his company violated the contract.
"I don't want anyone to think they can not live up to their contract obligations and just come to city council and change the contract," Houston City Councilman M. J. Khan said.
The contract required Southwest Properties to secure certain bonds before building two senior citizen apartment complexes. But that did not happen and they were built anyway, the Troubleshooters reported. One of them is on Airline and the other is located on Aldine Bender near Interstate 45.
[snip]
White's staff has been pushing for the loan despite the broken contract.
"We entered into negotiations with the owner to try to find a way that we could mitigate the fact that they had not complied with the requirements of the contract," said John Walsh, the mayor's housing aide.
[snip]
Council members grilled him about the FBI investigation in Dallas, where city leaders are accused of taking free rent in exchange for approving his projects.
Potashnik told Houston City Council that he did nothing improper, but he would not talk to the Troubleshooters about any of it.
[snip]
Council members are getting the full court press for the loan, even from Mayor White, the station reported.
In a memo, White called both of the projects "high quality" and he alluded to the FBI probe in Dallas, saying it shouldn't be a problem in Houston, even if wrongdoing is found.
But enough council members are bothered about all of the questions surrounding the loan of tax money that the vote could be delayed Wednesday or council could vote it down.
It sounds like business as usual at City Hall. Maybe that is what Mayor White means when he talks about running the city like a business.
RELATED: Nonprofit's 'loan' helped builder profit (Dallas Morning News), Investors sue developer entangled in City Hall investigation (Dallas Morning News), Stacked deck (Dallas Observer), Firm in Dallas probe has housing projects pending in Houston (Houston Chronicle, 06/23/2005).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/26/06 10:52 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
25 April 2006
Controller Parker shuts down special Council bank accounts
KHOU-11's News Blog reports an interesting little thing that was discovered during the Bonusgate investigation and how it's now been shut down:
Houston City Controller shuts down 11 special bank accounts set up by councilmembers and routed through the city's books.
Houston City Controller Annise Parker has shut down 11 special bank accounts set up by several councilmembers.
Parker says she closed the accounts in order to prevent any inadvertent violations of campaign finance laws or city laws.
The accounts, which were discovered during the mayor pro tem bonus scandal investigation, were set up to raise donations for community events.
They were operated as non-profits under the control of individual council members.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Let's see, today is April 25.
Here is what the Chronicle editorial board wrote about the matter on March 8:
The district attorney is deciding whether to charge the four city employees. With both Mayor White and Councilwoman Alvarado providing full cooperation, the investigation of City Hall's bonusgate should be quickly put behind us.
It's a good thing nobody in town pays much attention to the Chronicle editorial board and the investigation continues. Otherwise, who knows how many "inadvertent" abuses might have occurred?
UPDATE (04-26-2006): KHOU posts a news report, as does the Chronicle.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/25/06 04:21 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Speaking of thieves...
The Chronicle's blogging features editor is all riled up today on the subject of intellectual thieves (and for the record, this sort of thing riles us up too):
But see, when I steal, I footnote. Kids today! They think the whole world is out there for them to sample. Intellectual property is soooo over.
Just ask the smart-aleck kid from Harvard (eccchhh!) who got the big book contract. Well, duh, I could have gotten a book contract at 19, too, if I'd decided to steal somebody else's entire oeuvre.
19?
Some newspapers don't really mind if featured veteran columnists borrow the work of others without proper attribution (and then offer a lame non-apology after getting caught).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/06 04:21 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Chron politics section overloads on New Orleans
Chris Elam notes that the Chronicle politics section has a disproportionate number of stories about New Orleans today.
Perhaps Chron.com could just retitle "Politics" as "Times-Picayune" and be done with it?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/06 03:42 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
Press-release reporting, Austin-bureau style
A security breach has compromised the personal information of students of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, according to a press release from the school.
The press release recounts a previous security breach:
A similar security breach took place in 2003. Former student Christopher Phillips was found guilty of accessing protected computers without authorization and possession of stolen Social Security numbers.
Interestingly, Janet Elliott's reporting for the Chronicle's Austin bureau also recounts the previous incident:
A similar security breach took place in 2003. Former student Christopher Phillips was found guilty of accessing protected computers without authorization and possession of stolen Social Security numbers.
That looks strikingly similar. Maybe the newspaper should have just posted the press release?
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Mattsapundit.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/06 12:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
Will Enron PR lessons help Carol Alvarado?
(Temporarily only a) Councilwoman Carol Alvarado has an Enron tie? Kinda, sorta, according to Isiah Carey:
Mark Palmer was one of the few high profile executives at Enron not indicted in the ongoing probe. He now runs a public relations firm, Public Strategies. The agency is in charge of salvaging former Houston Mayor Pro-Tem Carol Alvarado's image after bonus-gate. So far Palmer's partner, Joe Householder, has always advised Alvarado to address her city scandal issues. I'm sure he knows bonus-gate is not gonna go away...
And playing the victim is not a winning strategy either.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/25/06 11:53 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
24 April 2006
Help Andrea Clarke
John Hawkins at Right Wing News blog came across a disturbing story playing out right here in Houston. It involves a woman who is on a respirator and receiving dialysis, and hospital officials have decided to end those treatments:
My sister, Andrea Clarke, is at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, TX.
The hospital ethics committee met the day before yesterday and concluded that Andrea's treatment (respirator and dialysis) should be discontinued. We have ten days to move her from that hospital or they will "pull the plug" and let Andrea die. Andrea, until a few days ago, when the physicians decided to increase her pain medication and anesthetize her into unconsciousness, was fully able to make her own medical decisions and had decided that she wanted life saving treatment until she dies naturally. We have learned that this is part of the process, when hospitals decided to declare the "medical futility" of continueing treatment for a patient. But, this is not a Terry Schiavo case; not anything like it. Andrea, when she is not medicated into unconsciousness (and even when she is, and the medication has worn off to some degree) is aware and cognizant. She has suffered no brain damage to the parts of her brain responsible for thought and reason, or speech. She has only suffered loss of some motor control.
[snip]
Houston hospitals have a policy in that once the medical treatment of a patient has been deemed "medically futile" no other hospital in the area will accept transfer of that patient to their facility. This means that the patient, who is usually in a very delicate condition anyway, has to be transported over a long distance, in order to receive care.
That is from the original story that Hawkins saw. Subsequently, Hawkins spoke to Andrea Clarke's sister and here's what he learned:
She told me that her sister recently had surgery for a heart condition. After surgery, she developed an infection and that's why she's so weak and needs a respirator to breathe. Again, her sister is not brain dead, she can speak, and she does not want the hospital to let her die.
Moreover, disturbingly, according to Ms. Childers there is a doctor at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital who has examined her sister and said that he thinks she has a chance to recover. Imagine that, folks -- being sick, having the odds against you, but wanting to fight for your life -- and having the hospital that's treating you cut you off at the knees when you're at your most vulnerable.
Melanie has told me that she has been trying to find another hospital that will take her sister before the deadline, but she's had no success so far (even though her sister has insurance) and St. Luke's and a social worker assigned to the case have been of little or no help.
[snip]
Update #2 ***: I've just gotten off of a phone conversation with Andrea Clarke's lawyer, Jerri Ward of Garlo Ward.
I had her look over this post and she did confirm all the details and added a few more. She said that Andrew Clarke is widower, with a 23 year old son, and she does not want to die.
She also added that the hospital's ethics committee held the meeting where they decided to terminate Andrea at 7 AM and refused to reschedule it, which led to Andrea Clarke's family sleeping in the parking garage in order to make it on time and Jerri not being able to make it.
The deadline for Andrea Clarke is Sunday and Jerri said she'll be exploring "all legal avenues" in an effort to stop it, but because of the way the law is written in Texas, she's not confident she can get Andrea Clarke into a new facility or keep St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital from terminating Andrea Clarke's medical care.
I can't recall seeing anything about this in our local media, but if you have, please forward the link so I can include it.
I hope this story will receive some attention so Ms. Clarke's family will have the time they need in order to move her to another hospital. I'm no expert, but it sounds as though Andrea Clarke wants to live, her family wants her to live, and even a doctor has said she can recover. It is unconscionable that she would not be given that chance.
UPDATE: KHOU-11 is now reporting the story.
RELATED (from the archives): Hospital to remove Houston man from life support, Life and death in Houston, Feeling our way through the end of life.
BLOGVERSATION: Cvstos Fidei, Lone Star Times, Texas Rainmaker.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/06 08:51 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (34)
Outstanding property tax radio
Dan Patrick (KSEV-700) has just finished debating someone, whose name I couldn't quite catch, on the Sharp Tax Plan.
Dan's position was that this really is a tax increase, albeit on some businesses; that without an appraisal cap, any property tax cut is meaningless and temporary due to property tax creep; that the state never discusses cutting spending; and that with a healthy surplus, the state of Texas should be returning the overpaid revenue to the taxpayers.
Amen!
The gentleman he was debating (Tom something) argued that this is a shift in taxation to some businesses, and is not really raising taxes.
Dan said that the state will be raising the amount of taxes it collects by $4 billion per year through this new business tax, and through property tax creep, any reduction in property taxes will take two years to be wiped out. Ugh.
This is by far THE issue that will see Dan elected to the state Senate, and if he can stay focused and not get swallowed up by all the schmoozing and comity crap that seems to plague legislative bodies, he could shake things up in Austin.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/06 05:08 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (6)
Food and drink roundup (04-24-2006 edition)
Time for a quick and easy food and drink roundup.
Alison Cook does her turn reviewing Dolce Vita Pizzeria Enoteca and rates it quite highly.
Robb Walsh finds the normal hour-and-a-half wait at Ra Sushi gets shorter if the hostess is slipped some cash. Maybe there's a real dearth of trendy restaurants on my fave list, but do people really slip twenties (or more) to cut in line at these restaurants? He also stops by the new Floyd's Cajun Seafood House.
Dai Huynh goes crazy for peppercorns. This isn't your mom's salt and pepper.
Ken Hoffman checks out Papa John's new Kong's King-Size Pizza. Twenty four grams of fat per serving not enough for ya (yes, one slice is one serving)? He then tries the new French Toast Sandwich from Burger King, which rings in at 32 grams of fat. Do we really need fast food sandwiches made with fried bread?
And Lance Scott Walker makes Mocha Life sound comfy.
World Class, all of it. Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 04/24/06 01:05 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (3)
Is Houston world-class enough for the Olympics?
George DeMontrond hopes so:
Monday morning, the Houston 2012 Foundation Chairman George DeMontrond will present a report to City Council members on the latest push to eventually get the games.
He said they will make recommendations for future bids.
God help Houston.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/06 09:28 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
Richmond rail line voted down before
Rad Sallee's Move It! column today says that Richmond Avenue rail is not a new idea. It was first proposed back in the early 1980s, but ran into problems:
Retired architect Edward "Ted" Richardson dropped by last week with some interesting reading: two environmental impact statements that the Metropolitan Transit Authority produced in the early 1980s for what it then called the "Southwest/Westpark corridor."
[snip]
An interesting sidelight to today's debate: Both street-level light rail as a transit mode, and Richmond as a route, were ruled out. The 1980 draft environmental statement says light rail would cause "severe traffic disruption on major cross streets and operate at relatively low speed."
And guess what? A vote was held:
Voters turned down that plan by a scorching 62 percent to 38 percent. Two decades later, by contrast, they approved — narrowly — the plan that's binding now.
Ahhh, but voters did not approve a Richmond rail line in 2003. They (barely) approved (they thought) a Westpark rail line. Perhaps we now see why Metro didn't put Richmond language on the 2003 ballot.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/06 09:25 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
Metro's new smart card system appears to be working
Now that Metro has a new company working on its smart card system, things appear to be moving along at a much faster clip:
Some bus riders may already have noticed a small box mounted beside the bulky unit. The new readers are not only sleeker than the ones they replace, they are smarter and a lot more durable — with no moving parts.
Like the existing cards, the "smart cards" that work with the new readers will be sold at Metro Ride Stores and at retail outlets. But in place of a magnetic strip that can be programmed with digital code, they have an embedded computer chip.
Both types of card can keep track of fare charges, but the old cards had to be inserted into the reader, and riders needed a separate card for each type of fare purchased: day passes good for 24 hours from time of purchase; time passes good for seven, 30 or 365 days after first use; and stored-value cards that offered discount fares for paying in advance.
A single smart card can be programmed any of these ways, and will work on buses or MetroRail trains.
Now, if we could just get Metro to practice fare enforcement (turnstiles, perhaps?) on MetroRail.
Rad Sallee's story includes the big dollar contract details:
Metro terminated Cubic's $8.5 million contract in March 2005 and hired Ascom (later bought by ACS) in August. Lobron said the ACS contract, for up to $20 million, covers much more than Metro had asked from Cubic, including marketing assistance, a public education campaign, a help desk and other services. To date, $14 million has been spent, he said.
Meanwhile, Cubic has sued to collect the $4 million unpaid balance on its contract. The case is pending in state district court.
Cubic is suing to get the balance of a contract when it never delivered a working product? Unbelievable. For some reason I had thought Metro was suing to get back all the money it had paid to Cubic, but apparently not, so that's four million taxpayer dollars down the drain.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/06 08:37 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
Black voter turnout in New Orleans was big...or maybe not
What to make of New Orleans' mayoral election? According to the Chronicle, black voters made the difference for Mayor Ray Nagin:
The most intriguing news out of this city's mayoral primary election is the story of what didn't happen: White voters failed to dominate at the polls Saturday as thousands of black voters returned home.
Nearly eight months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the majority of New Orleans' black neighborhoods, black voters kept incumbent Mayor C. Ray Nagin's candidacy alive, casting an estimated 90 percent of votes in his favor.
But according to the New York Times, black voter turnout was disappointing:
Black residents, whose neighborhoods were the most devastated by the storm, voted in much smaller numbers than whites did on Saturday, even more so than usual. White turnout is usually higher than black turnout, but the gap was about double what it is normally, analysts said Sunday.
As a result, most of the votes here were cast against Mr. Nagin, who is black, even though he came out on top in a crowded field, with 38 percent of the vote. If that trend holds, New Orleans will elect its first white mayor in nearly 30 years on May 20, when Mr. Nagin will face Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who got 29 percent, in a runoff.
Wouldn't it be interesting to take race completely out of this story and see how the media reports the election returns?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/06 08:16 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (9)
23 April 2006
HPD officer earns more than mayor; Chief Hurtt unconcerned
Chronicle reporters Matt Stiles and Steve McVicker report today on an HPD officer whose salary topped that of Mayor White last year:
As a senior officer in the Houston Police Department, William Lindsey Jr. received a salary of about $72,000 last year.
Because he is on the department's DWI Task Force, however, Lindsey's overtime pay put him at an income level rivaling Mayor Bill White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt.
The 27-year HPD veteran grossed more than $100,000 in overtime pay in 2005, and he wasn't the only task force member pulling in a six-figure income.
Two others in the unit, including Lindsey's supervisor, were boosted above the $100,000 income level last year with significant help from overtime pay.
Though police and prosecutors defend the hefty overtime as an effective means of getting drunken drivers off Houston's streets, critics of the practice say many of those hours are an unnecessary expense that increases the risk of putting physically and mentally fatigued officers on duty.
Lindsey's total income of more than $172,576 from HPD last year put his pay above White's $165,000 but below Hurtt's $184,000. The mayor and police chief are not eligible for overtime pay.
Among the other task force members with six-figure incomes in 2005 was Lindsey's supervisor, Sgt. Edward Robinson, whose $76,055 in overtime pay boosted his overall compensation to $161,722.
Given the previous reporting by Stiles on the HPD bonus program for mechanics, this is not terribly surprising. However, one does wonder about the financial management and accountability at HPD.
Hurtt, who learned about the high overtime pay after Chronicle inquiries, said he doesn't worry about the public's perception of the spending.
Apparently, he's more worried about truly important matters for HPD -- new badges, cameras for Tasers, red-light cameras, renegade downtown pedestrians, crimefighting by acronym, and our very favorite, the Fear Reduction Initiative.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/06 10:47 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
The B-Team reports/emotes on Slade
The Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue has done some excellent work covering Priscilla Slade and her spending scandal at Texas Southern University.
Unfortunately, Tresaugue's name is nowhere to be found on the weekend reporting on the Slade affair, but we have one story that's pretty much a recap of his reporting and two stories heavy on emoting and enabling.
To start off the B-Team reporting, KHOU-11 runs Pam Easton's Associated Press account of the Slade scandal. Here's an excerpt:
Priscilla Slade was one of Texas Southern University’s biggest cheerleaders as its president, nearly doubling enrollment, constructing new academic buildings and overhauling the financial aid system.Slade became a popular and high-profile president during more than six years leading the historically black university — the alma mater of the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan and other notables.
But her accomplishments have taken a back seat to scandal.
Slade was fired last week and faces a criminal investigation into her use of state money. She’s accused of improperly spending $87,000 to furnish her home, $138,000 on landscaping and exterior improvements, and $56,000 on security related equipment and labor.
That all seems accurate and familiar. Who knows, maybe Easton even read Tresaugue's reporting, even though it's nowhere acknowledged in the AP story.
The Chronicle posted a story today by David Ellison about "revived anxiety" at TSU:
Texas Southern University regents last week conjured up ghosts of the past.
In voting 8-1 to fire President Priscilla Slade, the board revived bitter memories among alumni and supporters in Houston's black community of the revolving door in the president's office before Slade took over in 1999. The action also invoked a lurking dread: that lawmakers in Austin might try to merge the historically black school with another university system or — worse — shut it down.
"I think the merger issue is coming up, absolutely," warned Minister Robert Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam's southwest region. "It's difficult when you lose your independence. That's about to happen here."
While other officials were quick to dispute that, the reaction shows that anxiety over Slade's departure is clearly about more than money. Even those who support her dismissal — amid allegations of nearly $650,000 in questionable spending — credit Slade with saving the university from financial ruin. Alumni and other supporters fear the loss of momentum for future leadership.
"Without her leadership, I'm not really sure what the future holds for Texas Southern," said Keith Scott, a member of the TSU Alumni Austin Chapter. "Her leadership was very important and very crucial."
Here's a novel thought for Mr. Ellison (who actually complains in the story that "[a]ttempts to contact alumni who supported the firing ... were unsuccessful"): Instead of interviewing a handful of "important" loudmouths, why not go to the campus and ask as many students as possible what they think of a university president who improperly uses university funds to support a lavish personal lifestyle, rather than making sure those funds support student aid or academics?
The Chronicle's insipid "Sunday Conversation" also makes a return (unfortunately), and it's a conversation between a TSU alum and... David Ellison (busy guy). Here's the introduction:
When Katrina LeVert learned of the firing of Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade last week, the TSU graduate sent an e-mail to the school's alumni affairs office opposing the governing board's decision. LeVert, a legislative and regulatory specialist for a Houston company with a degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich., attended TSU from 1989-1993, before Slade was named president in 1999. A native of Biloxi, Miss., LeVert said she was so impressed with Slade's performance that she became active in the university's alumni association. Chronicle reporter David Ellison spoke with her last week.
The next time you don't like something that happens in the city of Houston -- like a white-collar thief being terminated for cause -- perhaps you should email Mr. Ellison (david.ellison@chron.com) and let him know about it. Maybe you too can take part in a Sunday Conversation with the local Hearst daily! I'd suggest keeping it pithy, as Bill O'Reilly says.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/06 10:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 April 2006
Who is Boone Clayton?
It's nice that the Houston Hearst daily decided to send one of its Big 12 reporters out to cover the University of Houston baseball game last night.
It would be even nicer if the Big 12 reporter would check the Cougar roster or official box score before filing his report:
Memphis scored two early runs off Lincoln, jumping on his mid-90s fastball early in the count. Lincoln started throwing his curveball and changeup to set up his fastball, and the results were dominating.
The Cougars righthander retired the final 13 batters he faced and allowed only two base runners after falling behind 2-0 in the third inning. He struck out five of his final six batters before exiting after eight innings. Boone Clayton pitched the ninth and got the win.
His name is Clayton Boone.
Maybe the Big 12 reporter ought to spend a little more time reading Chron.com's excellent UH Sports blog. UH journalism student Ronnie Turner really does a nice job with it. Turner's post on last night's Cougar victory was filed at 9:30 pm, incidentally.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/22/06 08:33 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
21 April 2006
Forbes: Astros 10th most valuable MLB franchise
The Houston Business Journal reports that Forbes has released its latest valuation of Major League Baseball franchises, and that the Astros rank tenth:
The Houston Astros are worth an estimated $416 million, the 10th most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball, according to Forbes.com.
In the special report, The Business of Baseball, Forbes ranks the New York Yankees as MLB's most valuable franchise, worth $1.03 billion. The biggest winner was the Washington Nationals, whose value rose 42 percent to $440 million to rank sixth out 30 MLB franchises.
[snip]
Forbes calculates revenue, operating incomes, stadium deals and a variety of other metrics in compiling team valuations.
Forbes estimates the Astros took in $173 million in revenue last season and earned $30.2 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Instead of ringing up a friendly Chronicle reporter to argue that the team actually lost money, a team official deferred all questions to the league office, according to Brian McTaggart's reporting for the Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/06 05:52 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
City extends contract of waste disposal company that ripped it off
KTRK-13 reported on Wednesday that City Council granted a one-year contract extension to a waste-disposal company that overbilled the city:
A garbage collection company that overbilled Houston taxpayers will continue picking up your trash.
On Wednesday, the Houston city council granted Republic Waste a one year contract extension. Our 13 Undercover team found that Republic charged the $2 million for hauling trash that didn't belong to Houston residents. Mayor White pointed out that Republic paid back the money and fired employees.
White says it's cheaper to renew the contract instead of taking bids for a new garbage contract.
Today's Chronicle coverage, which surprisingly credits KTRK for breaking the original story, goes into further detail:
Republic agreed in February to a $2 million settlement with the city, as well as a $140,000 reimbursement for the audit, which was completed last week.
A second phase of the audit by Controller Annise Parker will examine other aspects of city trash collection.
The first phase confirmed that Republic, which picks up trash for 86,000 households in Houston, charged the city for collecting and disposing of tons of garbage from other cities. The company has more than $50 million in city contracts.
A separate investigation linked the wrongdoing to several company employees and showed that top officials played no part in the scheme.
Will Flower, a spokesman for Republic, said Wednesday's council vote shows the city has confidence in his company.
Councilwomen Addie Wiseman and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs voted against the contract. Wiseman said the company misused taxpayer dollars and violated the public's trust.
The vote was 12-2. Councilman Ronald Green was absent.
Is this an example of "running the city like a business," as Mayor White likes to put it?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/06 05:31 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
Taqueria Arandas to close May 1 in support of illegal aliens
KHOU-11's Karla Barguiarena reports on a local restaurant chain's show of support for illegal aliens, replete with the debasement of the English language that has become the norm in these sorts of stories:
Supporters of immigration reform want to keep the heat on lawmakers to give undocumented workers a chance at U.S. citizenship.
One popular Houston restaurant chain is planning a boycott to show solidarity with the immigrants but some people worry it may backfire.Since it opened its doors more than 20 years ago, Taqueria Arandas has never closed -- until now.
"Majority vote -- everyone wanted to close," said franchise president Judy Camarena.
On May 1, the Mexican Labor Day, all 41 restaurants and bakeries in the Arandas chain will close.
Owners say it's in support of their 2,500 employees who want to be part of the next big Hispanic protest which is a call to skip work and not spend a cent on May 1.
It's certainly the prerogative of the owners of Taqueria Arandas to close for any reason they want.
But, they shouldn't be surprised if some people don't appreciate their display of support for illegal immigration, or if immigration officials scrutinize the documentation of any inadequately documented workers that might be on the Arandas payroll.
BLOGVERSATION: Houblog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/06 04:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Chief Hurtt's Thursday press conference
It appears Chief Hurtt held a press conference Thursday touching on a range of issues:
At a Thursday press conference, Chief Harold Hurtt said the force was doing extensive recruiting all over the country to beef up the staff.
The N.E.T.T. program used about 84,000 man hours, using $3 million.
About 2,800 people have been arrested as a result of the program, which targets areas that are hot spots for crime.Chief Hurtt said the red light camera contract was still taking place, and they are currently testing tasers with audio-video cameras. They cost $400 more.
He also spoke on the shooting at an HISD school bus. He said he met with HISD on Thursday, but that the TAKS testing is slowing down the investigation.
Chief Hurtt said HPD was not involved in Wednesday's immigration sting.
I had hoped that there would be some stories posted today expounding on all those tidbits KHOU-11's News Blog reported, but all I can find so far is this from KUHF-88.7 on the Taser cameras:
In 2004, the department bought almost 4000 Tasers that don't have the audio and visual capabilities. Since then, they've been used hundreds of times to subdue suspects without using lethal force. Hurtt says it's important to have a visual record of Taser incidents to make sure officers are adhering to department policy when they use them.
"We see that as very valuable in being able to record the voice exchange between the suspect and the officer as well as observing the suspect's behavior prior to the deployment of the Taser."
Hurtt says it would cost about $1.5 million dollars to add Tasers with cameras to the force, something he says the department can't afford right now.
According to KPRC-2's story from earlier this week, the camera wouldn't start recording until the Taser was turned on, which would seem to leave very little prior behavior to be recorded.
And everyone who's surprised that HPD didn't participate in Wednesday's roundup of illegal immigrants, raise your hand.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/21/06 07:37 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
20 April 2006
HPD releases sketch of suspected bus shooter (updated)
HPD has released a composite sketch in the HISD bus shooting incident:
A composite sketch was released Thursday of a man suspected of shooting at a bus filled with Houston Independent School District students, shattering a window, KPRC Local 2 reported.
[snip]
Police released the following description of the shooter -- an African-American man with a very dark complexion, average build, 6 foot 3 inches or taller, in his late teens or early 20s.
I guess since the sketch clearly shows a black man, local media can now include the full description.
So far this has only shown up on KPRC-2's website. We'll see if other local news sites follow suit.
UPDATE: The Chron has a new story posted with the headline, "Teens offer description of man who shot at HISD bus":
Police are crediting a sharp-eyed teenager with giving them a solid description of a man who fired a gun at a moving HISD bus.
The girl, 13, was among about 30 students riding the bus in the 9900 block of Ashville about 5 p.m. Tuesday when a bullet pierced a window two seats behind the driver.
She spotted a man standing near a church just before the single shot rang out.
What? You wanted more of a description than that? Too bad -- that's all the Chron's giving us.
KTRK-13's story includes the sketch and the description.
UPDATE (4-21-2006): KHOU-11 and KTRH-740 post the sketch. KTRH includes the description; KHOU does not.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/20/06 06:02 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 April 2006
Casey dissects US News ranking of UH Law Center
The Chronicle's Rick Casey (yes, Rick Casey) dissects the recent US News law school rankings that may have played a part in Houston Law Center Dean Nancy Rapoport's recent decision to step down.
Here's an excerpt:
The magazine polls the dean and three faculty members at every law school. In that poll, Houston ranks slightly above SMU and well above Baylor. This counts for 25 percent of the U.S. News rankings.
But the magazine also polls more than 1,000 lawyers and judges for 15 percent of its rankings. In that poll, Houston scores miserably, well behind SMU and Baylor.
The school, with a relatively small endowment and state budget cuts, also is dragged down by resource issues such as student/faculty ratio.
But the single biggest negative factor is the low scores nationally among lawyers and judges.
Leiter suspects that the sample is skewed to the coasts, something a former U.S. News editor I spoke with denied. I think many lawyers may simply not know the school, but have an image of Houston that does not project an excellent law school.
There is a box for "don't know," but few lawyers I know would be comfortable checking that box.
The former U.S. News editor, who defended the rankings as helpful to students, himself expressed surprise.
"I would never think of Houston as being No. 2 in Texas by peer rankings," he said.
Clearly, the belief among those "in the know" is that the University of Houston Law Center is the second-best law school in Texas.
However, the low rankings nationally among lawyers and judges probably are a result of misperception, including a negative perception of Houston in general, but also a less-than-stellar perception of the University of Houston in general nationally. That's unfortunate.
PREVIOUSLY: UH Law Center dean resigns.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/06 10:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Selby profiles soon-to-be State Senator Patrick
Since we've recently linked articles that suggest local talker Dan Patrick is behaving more and more like a politician, it's only fair (and balanced) to link to Gardner Selby's recent story about Patrick in the Austin American Statesman:
He said he sought to succeed retiring Sen. Jon Lindsay in frustration over the GOP-majority Legislature falling short of cutting school property taxes, retooling how schools are funded and addressing illegal immigration.
Patrick touts a mix of goals not always associated with Republicans: higher teacher pay. Removing school administrators. Enhancing access to health insurance for children of the working poor. Spending surplus revenue on lowering property taxes, and paying for the cuts in future years by whacking away at the state budget.
He says that lowering the state cap on annual property appraisal increases from 10 percent to 5 percent should be on the Legislature's agenda (it's not yet), adding: "A tax cut without a cap is basically meaningless, because it will all disappear in two years. And we'll be sitting here in 2008 and be back to where we were today in terms of property taxes, and we'll have all these new business taxes. And business taxes affect everybody."
Of the two-thirds consensus requirement before measures win debate, Patrick said: "I want to see every major issue have good, old-fashioned honest debate."
The appraisal cap is Patrick's biggest issue, and his most likely winner.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/06 10:13 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)
Bridging the digital divide - the series
Earlier this week, the Chronicle's Alexis Grant provided the latest installment of the newspaper's series, Bridging The Digital Divide, Downtown WiFi Bubble Style:
Cyberspace may be a freewheeling world, but most users still have to pay to surf it
That will likely be the case in Houston, even if access gets cheaper and more convenient once the city installs its proposed wireless network.
"I'm not sure we'd get a lot of interest from a multimillion-dollar investor that couldn't get a return on their investment," said Richard Lewis, the city's director of information technology. "Water is not free. Why should communications be free?"
The city is gearing up to choose a vendor that would finance and build a city WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) network. As envisioned now, it would be free for city government and in several public places around the city, including parks and libraries. But most residents and businesses would pay, albeit less than they do now, to access the high-speed network.
The city is requesting proposals for a network solely in downtown, estimated to cost about $300,000, Lewis said. The provider would then have the option of extending the network to other areas of the city.
Although a single contractor would provide the network, it would connect to various Internet service providers. The city would regulate the wholesale rate ISPs paid to the network, so the providers could charge consumers about $15 per month compared with the $30 to $50 now.
Grant continues to refer to what people pay "now." That is nonsensical, since right now there is no wifi bubble available to access across the whole of downtown, at any price. Perhaps she is referring to the cost of various wifi hotspots (although T-Mobile customers can use T-Mobile hotspots for as little at $19.99 per month, less than the $30-50 she continues to cite). Perhaps she is referring to the cost of residential broadband, in which case she is in error, since SBC Yahoo DSL is available for around $13 per month. In the next installment of Bridging The Digital Divide, Grant should really clarify those price figures she's been throwing about in the last two installments.
Substantively, Larry Hendrick has discussed the costs of "bridging the digital divide" as Mayor White proposes in some detail, concluding:
In the referenced article, the city has stated that they intend to cap the price at the $15-20/month range and I am here to tell you that the true cost will be much higher. There is no way around it if you look at the true cost to provide this service, and not the fairy tale the city is proposing.
Hendrick's post should be read in its entirety.
For the sake of balance, maybe Hendrick could even make an appearance in the Chron's next installment of Bridging the Digital Divide!
PREVIOUSLY: Bridging the digital divide, Grant/White style!.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/06 09:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
The Houston Bowl is circling the drain
Last week, USA Today reported some troubling news about the Houston Bowl:
The payouts from last season's Houston Bowl have not yet been made in full, marking an unusually long wait for the conferences involved.
"It's the first time that has happened to the Big 12 in its 10-year history," said Bob Burda, assistant commissioner of communications for the league, which sent Iowa State to the bowl.
Including the 2005 season, Big 12 teams have 68 bowl appearances.
Houston Bowl executive director Shawn Bouley said Wednesday that he could not comment on the status of payouts, citing reasons of confidentiality.
Nearly a week later, the local Hearst daily decided the matter might be of interest to its readers:
Strapped by financial problems and waning attendance, the Houston Bowl could cease operations as early as next week, a college football official said Tuesday.
The 6-year-old bowl is currently without a sponsor, and the Big 12 and Mountain West conferences have yet to receive the full payout of $1.2 million each for participating in last year's game.
It looks as if Houston's lower-tier bowl is about to go the way of the Bluebonnet Bowl. Given recent attendance figures, it doesn't appear that very many people are going to miss it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/06 03:00 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (5)
City budget will require borrowing, using cash reserves
KTRH-740 says the city of Houston will need to borrow and dip into its cash reserves, according to a new budget plan:
The City of Houston will borrow about $100 million against taxpayer money and spend cash reserves to make budget, according to planning documents delivered recently to City Council.
Mayor Bill White says there will be some borrowing for pension obligations, and it will use some cash surpluses that have been deliberately built up over the past two years.
White says City Council won't finalize the plans until it votes on a budget in June.
Look for Mayor White to use this as ammunition in his campaign to derail implementing Prop. 2.
PREVIOUSLY: City, METRO are enjoying sales tax windfall (April 15, 2006), City's credit rating outlook downgraded (March 12, 2006)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/19/06 12:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Local media won't provide complete description of bus shooter
If you've been watching the news, you know that someone shot at an HISD school bus yesterday, injuring two students. Here's the suspect's description in the Chronicle's story:
A man wearing a red shirt and black pants fired at least two shots, striking the bus as it traveled on Ashville in south Houston about 5 p.m. Tuesday.
[snip]
Many students on the bus, however, gave police a description of the shooter, Abbott said.
Here's the description in KTRK-13's story:
Fortunately, no students suffered any serious injuries. They did tell police they saw a man running after the bus was hit, but it was only a vague description.
Some of the students onboard did see the alleged shooter running away from the scene, and they have provided police with a description.
KPRC-2 and KTRH-740 do not mention any sort of suspect description in their stories.
Now, here's the suspect's description that was provided to local media:
The students on the bus described the suspect as a black male, in his late teens or early 20s, with a "thick" build, wearing a red shirt with black pants.
Those were the details provided to police by the children on the bus.
So, there is someone on the loose who shot at a school bus filled with children, yet local media won't give the public the information provided by eyewitnesses that could help apprehend him.
We've been down this road before with the Chronicle, when Reader Rep. James Campbell explained why the paper often decides to leave race out of descriptions:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/19/06 10:19 AM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (2)
HPD considers buying cameras for Tasers
KPRC-2 reports that HPD has found yet another new money-spending opportunity:
The use of tasers by police officers has been at the center of controversy in Houston and across the country. To hopefully quiet critics, the Houston Police Department is considering putting cameras on all tasers. While the department hopes the cameras will help justify the use of the weapons, some officers question whether the results will justify the expense
[snip]
"Anytime we use them, we are confronting individuals who are so out of control and displaying such violent behavior that the officers don't have any other option," said Lt. Robert Manzo with the Houston Police Department.
To hopefully settle the debate, the Houston Police Department is strongly considering purchasing tiny cameras for every taser in the department.
The new cameras are actually part of a modified battery pack, which can record up to 90 minutes of both audio and video.
[snip]
Each camera costs $400. If the department decides to put cameras on all 3,700 tasers, that's nearly $1.5 million.
Isiah Carey got a heads up on this taser camera program a few days ago from an HPD officer who worries that the expenditure will cut into funds for basic policing needs.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/19/06 07:16 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
18 April 2006
METRO gives drivers the green light to hit the Danger Train
Laurence Simon posts about his experience at a METRO light rail crossing today -- he literally watched the traffic lights go green while the train was in the intersection.
I saw the same thing happen earlier this week at Main and Elgin (noted as an update to this post).
It is true, as Laurence points out, that only a complete moron would hit the gas on green (without looking) at any intersection in Houston, let alone a Danger Train intersection. Still, as METRO seriously contemplates the insanity of laying a rail line down the middle of yet another heavily-trafficked street (Richmond), it might be nice if they could actually get the traffic lights working properly on their current experiment in dangerous transit.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/06 10:21 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (10)
Mayor White is anxious for red light camera revenue to begin flowing
KTRH-740 is reporting that Mayor White is agitating for Council to approve the city's red light camera contract with American Traffic Solutions:
It appears a contract for red-light cameras will be pushed through Houston's City Council, although Mayor Bill White says he's still trying to convince council members to go with the American Traffic Solutions Co.
White says no elected officials have interfered with the selection process, and he doesn't believe politics will play a part in making a decision.
As a reminder, Kristen Mack recently discovered the connection between Mayor White and ATS:
HPD maintains that ATS won because it had the best overall package.
As is typical in efforts to land profitable city contracts, someone on every side has some City Hall connection.
ATS' ties are through former Texas Land Commissioner Gary Mauro, a good friend of White.
[snip]
Both worked in 1975 for then-U.S. Rep. Bob Krueger, D-New Braunfels. City Hall chatter to the contrary, Krueger says he has no ties to ATS.
But Mauro and White have other political connections. Mauro headed Bill Clinton's presidential campaigns in Texas. White worked in Clinton's administration as a deputy energy secretary.
And the reason for the contract challenge was because a requirement was changed as the red light camera test run got underway.
But the whole process has been shenanigan-free, Mayor White assures us.
RELATED READING: California: Modesto Cameras Increase Accidents,
Maryland: Red Light Cameras Increase Accidents, Georgia: Accidents Increased with Red Light Cameras, Winnipeg, Canada Report Shows Accidents Increased with Cameras, Portland Cameras Cause 140 Percent Jump in Rear End Collisions, Colorado Study: Red Light Cameras Increase Accidents 83 Percent, Philadelphia: Accidents Up at Camera Intersections, Washington Post: Red Light Cameras Increase Accidents
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/18/06 10:12 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
UH Law Center Dean resigns
UH Law Center Dean Nancy Rapoport has resigned, apparently rather unexpectedly. The Chronicle and Texas Lawyer have the story. Tom Kirkendall wonders if the latest U.S. News and World Report law school rankings are the reason, but TP suggests, in the comments to Tom's post, that the real reason might have more to do with relations between Dean Rapoport and faculty members.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/18/06 09:27 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (4)
17 April 2006
City Hall performance-pay investigation continues (updated)
Remember back in early March, when the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists argued that there was nothing to see, and that it was time to move on from the City Hall bonus scandal?
Here's an excerpt from their editorial:
The district attorney is deciding whether to charge the four city employees. With both Mayor White and Councilwoman Alvarado providing full cooperation, the investigation of City Hall's bonusgate should be quickly put behind us.
Thankfully, nobody pays much attention to the Editorial LiveJournalists, certainly not the Chronicle's City Hall reporters, other local journalists, or local law enforcement. And so, following a March 24 story by Chronicle reporters Matt Stiles and Alexis Grant that analyzed HPD's odd bonus program for its mechanics, it appears that city officials AND the Harris County District Attorney's office are looking into the HPD bonus program.
KPRC-2 posts the following AP dispatch:
City Controller Annise Parker believes the department needs to review the plan.
"It shouldn't be a supervisor getting a bonus because his subordinate hits a target. It should be a supervisor getting a bonus because he exceeds his job," she said.
[snip]
Parker said the payments create the appearance that bosses give subordinates extra pay in an effort to increase their own.
With almost all mechanics earning incentive pay, Parker said the bar is set too low and the program's performance standards need to be completely re-evaluated.
Police commanders are also reviewing the program.
Executive Assistant Chief Martha Montalvo said police managers are sometimes eligible for incentives, but she isn't sure whether that should be the case for those in the fleet program.
"I don't think there was anything illegal about it. Would I like to make changes to it? Of course," she said.
But Montalvo said the program is worth the money because the average number of marked police vehicles available has increased about 5 percent since 2002. The productivity also has allowed the mechanics to work on other departm