29 April 2009
HPOU president to mayor: Amend or scrap the sanctuary directive
In the latest edition of Badge & Gun, the publication of the Houston Police Officers' Union, president Gary Blankinship serves up this rather pointed memo to Mayor White*:
To be sure, Mr. Mayor, the Houston Police Officers Union joins you in urging Washington to live up to its clear responsibilities; but today we also are calling on you, along with Gov. Rick Perry and other state and local leaders, to finally recognize state and local governments also have a vitally important and necessary role to play in addressing illegal immigration.
It's time for you to do your job as well.
For starters, you should amend or scrap the 17-year-old Houston Police Department policy (General Order No. 500-5), which firmly states that "officers shall not inquire as to the citizenship status of any person, nor will officers detain or arrest any persons solely on the belief that they are in this country illegally."
It is outrageous to learn that, as recently as November of last year, you were fully aware that thousands of illegal immigrants eligible for deportation - all convicted felons like Joel Alfaro - were slipping through Houston's jails undetected by federal immigration officials.
You rightly noted the city of Houston "can't deport people;" but isn't that particularly true if the city policy you have repeatedly defended intentionally discourages our officers from reporting them?
We welcome your new support for the 287(g) program that lets HPD train and coordinate with federal immigration officials - and other new pledges of enhanced resources and cooperation - but you can do more. We also hope you will act immediately to change Houston's status as a so-called "sanctuary city...."
Mayor White does NOT like the use of the term "sanctuary city," Mr. Blankinship! Nor does he like to talk about General Order No. 500-5.
Nonetheless, there is no reason that our elected leaders (and the public) shouldn't have a frank discussion about this directive that came from an unelected police chief 17 years ago, something we've been arguing for several years now.
BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/09 10:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
28 April 2009
Chron publisher spins (and spins and spins) latest circulation decline
As anticipated in the addendum to yesterday's post on the Chronicle's sagging circulation numbers, the newspaper featured publisher Jack Sweeney's spin on the severe decline today:
“We’re concentrating our sales and marketing efforts on our core market, the ZIP codes where our advertisers need it,” he said.
Sweeney said home delivery accounts are up nearly 5 percent Sunday and more than 21 percent on key weekdays in those 75 ZIP codes.
While the Chronicle has fewer seven-day customers, “five-day, three-day and Sunday-only delivery programs have helped fuel that growth,” Sweeney said.
In the core Houston market, Sunday home delivery has continued to grow — a more than 1,000-paper gain in this reporting period. In the core market, daily readership is up 3 percent, Sunday is up 9 percent and seven-day readership is up 4 percent, Sweeney said.
“And when you add chron.com, our reach is nearly 2.4 million adults each week, or 55 percent of the market,” he said.
Combined print and online audience is up 5 percent over the last year, based on data from the Scarborough Audience Ratings Report. Chron.com exceeded 91 million page views in March, up 14 percent over last year.
“Strong journalism keeps consumers of Chronicle content engaged on multiple platforms: print, online, mobile or all three,” Sweeney said. “That’s the way information is consumed these days, and our metrics are large and growing in all modern measurement areas.”
At times like this, saying less is probably better. But the Chron's senior management seems to be in denial. Who knows, maybe the numbers will pick up next time, now that the big blogHOUSTON blogroll exorcism is complete! At least they didn't put a reporter's name on that "story."
The newspaper's so-called reader representative posted this earlier:
The Houston Chronicle's circulation declined 13.2 percent daily and 7.8 percent on Sundays, according to the latest circulation figures. Here's the story.
Also, here are the top 25 newspapers by daily circulation. The Chronicle remained the seventh-largest metropolitan newspaper in the country. Check it out.
He links to the Chron PR release posing as a news story for the 13.2 percent number. Then he links to the Editor & Publisher story, which actually cites a decline of 13.96%.
Isn't that just par for the course?
UPDATE (04-29-09): In a rare update to the About:Chron blog, Jim Newkirk explains the discrepancy:
Update: Several readers pointed out by e-mail a discrepancy between the Chronicle daily circulation figures reported in the Chronicle and the figures reported in the Editor & Publisher online story. The Chronicle story reflects a Monday through Saturday average for daily circulation and our story should have made that clear. The story by E&P reported a Monday through Friday daily average for the Chronicle. Gene Haddock, Chronicle vice president for circulation, told me the Audit Bureau of Circulations considers Monday through Friday as well as Monday through Saturday valid reporting metrics for daily circulation figures.
Story? Just call it a press release.
BLGOVERSATION: Unca Darrell.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/09 11:09 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
We can be such a pain
Journalists love online public databases, which allow them to look into all sorts of relationships (status with the comptroller of public accounts, political donations, property tax assessments, etc).
Of course, there's nothing to stop non-journalists from checking out those same databases, and sometimes it can be interesting to throw names into those sorts of databases and see what pops up.
So, that's a little background to set up my finally getting a chance to read last week's Houston Press story* on alleged sudden-acceleration problems with the Toyota Prius**.
The story leads with complaints about the car from one Bobette Riner, who apparently has an arbitration case pending over the car. That name seemed familiar, and sure enough it popped up in a few past Houston Press pieces. Plugging it into a few more searches turned up a shared address with Richard Connelly. The longtime Houston Press staffer.
No relationship was mentioned in the story, which seemed liked a glaring omission, so I emailed the author of the story. A comical series of emails followed, which the Houston Press Hair Balls blog rushed to document here yesterday. PLEASE go read Rich Connelly's fine account and come back. We'll wait.
I didn't take offense at the Press editor's email*** (really mild, to be honest), but was still a little confused at the notion that the relationship "probably" should have been disclosed. This is hardly a great scandal (or even a minor one really), but it should have been disclosed, if only to keep people who can be "a pain" from nagging about why a consumer advocacy report wouldn't disclose such a relationship. The publication's onetime media critic concedes as much in the comments at that entertaining post at Hair Balls:
I can only address the last question. My wife had the unintended-acceleration problem and found other people on the web who said they had also experienced it.
I brought up the idea at one of our weekly story meetings, saying it might be worth it for someone to look into.
I then had nothing to do with the story until I read it after the issue hit the streets. And I assumed the connection would have been in it, and it should have been, and from what I can tell it would have been if anyone had thought of it.
Right. It's surprising professional journalists overlooked making that connection in a story that ran across so many Village Voice corporate "alt" weeklies, but mistakes happen. We will now move on to being a pain (but less of a pain than this commenter!) on other topics.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/09 11:06 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (6)
27 April 2009
Texas Watchdog posts White/Finger correspondence
Those public-information-request junkies over at Texas Watchdog finally got Mayor White to turn over email correspondence with developer Marvy Finger today (how the Chronicle got those documents first, yet cited Texas Watchdog's request, remains a mystery, but as news consumers we like the results of competition!).
We were amused by this warning from our mayor, cited in the Texas Watchdog story:
“I do believe the success of this project is important for the continuing renewal of downtown Houston,” White wrote Jan. 14.
Discovery Green’s part in that renewal is apparent in a Oct. 25, 2007, e-mail in which White outlines the course the city should take against vagrants sleeping or panhandling in the park.
“I don’t want to over-dramatize, but this has been a flash point in other cities, and if we are not clear and on top of this issue from the very beginning we could put at risk the manner in which Discovery Green is perceived,” White wrote. “No citizen, whatever their background ‘owns a bench’ or a chair.”
Now, if you want to write a check to put a nametag on the bench or chair, that might be a different story!
Some 99 pages of correspondence obtained by Texas Watchdog through this request have been posted to their website, and they are asking for help from the crowd in picking through the documents to see if anything interesting pops up. So if you have a little spare time and like that sort of thing, by all means go help 'em out!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/09 10:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
More misadventures at BARC (or, Does Mayor White hate puppies, cont'd?)
Over at the Houston Press, Craig Malisow continues to keep tabs on the misadventures at BARC, the city's problematic animal control organization. According to the report, BARC failed to have a vet on duty again this weekend, due to some sort of mixup. Then, the city couldn't seem to get its story straight:
[W]hile important folks like HHS Assistant Director Michael Terraso speak openly and freely with some volunteers, he's never spoken directly with Hair Balls. So this morning, Terraso e-mailed a volunteer about the weekend mix-up, stating "The unfortunate circumstance of this last weekend was the result of relief vets not showing up as scheduled on Saturday and Sunday and not calling to let the management know. "
Which is perfectly in keeping with what [Kathy] Barton told us. But at 2:56 pm today, he e-mailed that volunteer again to say, "I apologize, but I was in error in the email I sent earlier. I have been told that a vet was not scheduled for last Saturday. I am investigating as to why one was not scheduled."
So, for publication, Health and Human Services tells us one thing. And then, in a private e-mail, the assistant director says the complete opposite.
That doesn't sound like Mayor White's story of transparency. Maybe he should have a task force look into these ongoing problems. Err, never mind.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/09 10:06 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Not good news if you work at the Chronicle
It shouldn't come as any surprise that newspapers keep going down that spiral. Following a link from Drudge Report you find this story about the top 25 newspaper circulation numbers.
The Houston Chronicle was down almost 14% of daily circulation to 425,138. Sunday fell 7.8% to 583,364 copies.
This number reflects circulation numbers during a six-month period ending March 31, 2009.
Ouch! For the top 25 list go here.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: And yet, some member of Chron management decided that a laughable exorcism of blogHOUSTON from all Chron.com blogrolls should be a priority for the newspaper (and not, say, the precipitous decline in customers).
I feel bad for the poor Chron journalist who has the duty of getting Jack Sweeney's spin on this latest decline. Maybe they will just label it as "Houston Chronicle News Services." Or more honestly, just run a straight press release.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Jason @ 04/27/09 11:13 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
26 April 2009
If the City subsidized just one more downtown hotel, would we be world class? (updated)
Several days ago, the Chronicle's Bradley Olson reported on Mayor White's latest, greatest effort to make downtown world class:
Houston is poised to provide a $9.6 million tax subsidy for an Embassy Suites downtown, part of a raft of public-private hotel development that has sprung up since the completion of Discovery Green.
City Council today is expected to consider the deal, which would provide the hotel developer up to $1.4 million a year for seven years if it agrees to set aside at least 70 percent of the planned hotel’s 262 rooms for conventions and to participate in national advertising geared toward attracting more convention business to Houston.
Houston-based American Liberty Hospitality, which is developing the $34.5 million hotel, did not return a call seeking comment.
In fairness, perhaps the company is too busy resolving its "NOT IN GOOD STANDING" status with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to help a Chron scribe report on what should be the public's business (thanks to Tom Bazan for that catch).
Mayor White's press staff surely won't like that a dissenting voice was included in the coverage:
Michael D. Oden, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied economic development subsidies, said an important question is why private investment will not suffice if there is such a strong convention market.
“What are the market failures here that justify a public subsidy?” he asked.
Houston's power brokers prefer that such questions not be asked. Such scrutiny is not usually The Houston Way.
Thankfully, Councilmembers Clutterbuck and Holm temporarily derailed this proposal with a tag, but it comes back on this week's agenda.
UPDATE (04-27-09): On the topic of The Houston Way, Olson has a brief in today's slim Chronicle on Mayor White's promotional efforts on behalf of Marvy Finger, based on documents requested by Texas Watchdog. Here's hoping Texas Watchdog will have a more detailed followup on their site, since the Monday Chronicle is a thin effort indeed these days. [ADDENDUM: Texas Watchdog promises an update shortly. Strangely enough, they apparently have not yet seen the documents from THEIR public information request. It is not clear how the Chronicle got hold of them before the organization that actually requested them.]
UPDATE 2 (04-27-09): And there's yet MORE on The Houston Way in today's Chronicle, from (you guessed it)... Olson:
The partial closure of Rivercrest Drive, brought about through a 12-year campaign by a small community of wealthy, powerful Houstonians who wanted to shut off their street from cut-through traffic, has kicked up dust all the way from City Council to the Texas Legislature.
On one hand are people like Oliveira in Briargrove Park, who cannot understand why the city permitted an action they believe has sent far more cars into their neighborhood, without so much as a public hearing on the matter.
They see only the outsized influence of their neighbors in Rivercrest, who have donated tens of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns of City Council members and national politicians and make their living as trial lawyers, professional athletes and business executives.
On the other side are those neighbors in Rivercrest, who lived for years on a long, straight street with no curbs, sidewalks or stop signs that had turned into something of a racetrack for cars trying to avoid rush-hour traffic on Westheimer. They had tried for more than a decade to get some help from the city, only to continually bump up against the will of their neighbors and a bureaucratic morass at City Hall.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport (and more), Texas Watchdog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/26/09 10:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
The TMC's power to condemn
Today's Chron carries an op-ed by Asmara Tekle-Johnson and Hugh Rice Kelly on the Texas Medical Center's power to condemn private property, and how it is using that power. Here's an excerpt:
The Texas Medical Center’s explosive growth combined with the condemnation power over “adjacent” property exercised by its obscure service company, “Texas Medical Center Inc.” Legally, “adjacent” means much more than is generally understood: TMC Inc.’s condemnation power extends to the boundaries of single-family, deed-restricted neighborhoods — on the west for four miles, from Main at Sunset to the Rice Village, back to Main along University Boulevard, and from there almost to Brays Bayou. On the east, a two-mile boundary extends condemnation jurisdiction to the Riverside Third Ward neighborhoods.
Nor is this threat a mere possibility. TMC Inc. already has established its willingness to condemn and bulldoze deed-restricted homes, 16 so far, and “extinguish” their single-family deed restrictions.
The chilling consequences of TMC Inc.’s residential condemnations are obvious in a five-minute drive through the Central City subdivision near Holcombe Boulevard at Almeda Road. Once a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood of modest homes, in the past five years Central City has been devastated. Today it is marked by a score of bulldozed lots and more than half of its home sites have fallen into the hands of speculators — and TMC Inc. A 500-car employee parking garage looms over the neighborhood where homes once stood. Its glaring lights by night and its bulk by day now dominate the landscape. On the garage side of the subdivision, only two of 18 houses survive, the homes of their vanished neighbors condemned and bulldozed. A neighborhood brimming with children must now cope with cut-through traffic, light and noise pollution, and streets clogged by parked cars.
And while we have often commented on METRO's quasi-governmental status, TMC Inc. sounds far worse:
TMC Inc. is operated by an invisible, self-perpetuating board that does not account to any public authority. No open government processes apply to this wholly private company, and its management and board are beyond the reach of open records requirements, open meetings laws or any other democratic process. While the media and citizens can protest and influence the actions of the governmental and regulated entities entrusted with eminent domain power, the people have no forum to challenge TMC Inc.’s decisions — a singular privilege endowed on no other private entity in Texas history.
The writers note that state Rep. Garnet Coleman has sponsored HB 3709 which would end the TMC's power to condemn homes. This sounds like a worthy bill to get behind. And after that, maybe someone will offer a bill to curb METRO's power to condemn private property.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/26/09 08:04 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
23 April 2009
Harris County District Clerk's office ahead of the curve on electronic filing
KUHF-88.7's Rod Rice has a story on a topic that seems altogether rare these days: government showing some initiative and getting something right. Here's an excerpt:
It is not a requirement in Harris County, but even so, the District Clerk's office has set a state record for the number of civil court documents and lawsuits filed electronically. Rod Rice reports.
It happened on April 13th when the office processed 455 electronic case files. Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson says electronic filing has a number of benefits. The most important is access.
“The one thing that we’re looking to do here in the District Clerk’s office is from the time a case is filed, to have that case filing available online for public consumption within 24 hours, that’s our goal.”
It would seem that kudos are in order for Mr. Jackson and his staff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/09 09:49 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Reader interaction time: What's wrong with this picture?
Here is the headline and lede from Chronicle reporter Mike Snyder:
City to repair whistleblower’s home
Mayor Bill White has decided to spend $53,000 in local funds to repair the northwest Houston home of Marsha Farmer, who died last December after struggling for years to stop the waste of federal money in Houston’s home repair program.
We don't even know what to say, so feel free to finish this post for us in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/09 09:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
22 April 2009
AG: Public entitled to Mayor White's public calendar, developer correspondence
Texas Watchdog reporter Rosanna Ruiz (formerly of the Chronicle) has posted her first story for the online news organization, on Mayor White's recent effort to shield his calendar and certain correspondence from the public:
Mayor Bill White has for more than two months hidden his calendar and his correspondence with a developer, but the attorney general says White must now release at least a portion of this information.
White argued to keep some of the records under wraps after Texas Watchdog requested them in January under the Texas Public Information Act. However, he hasn’t released any of the records.
Texas Watchdog requested his 2008 calendar, as well as correspondence between White and developer Marvy Finger, whose firm built condominiums adjacent to a downtown park.
Mayor White usually talks a good game when it comes to government transparency, so it's surprising he was so resistant to these requests. It will be interesting to see what is in the documents when they are finally made available.
Apparently, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst complied with similar calendar requests made by Texas Watchdog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/22/09 04:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Is refurbishing the Astrodome worth a few hundred million to you?
KPRC-2's Robert Arnold checked in last week with a report on possible uses for the decrepit Astrodome.
County Judge Ed Emmett sounds realistic about the poor prospects of an Astrodome hotel these days, but suggested a use we hadn't heard before:
"If the hotel idea doesn't come to fruition, then I think we'll be looking at something that will be a more public venue -- something everybody can use," said Emmett.
One idea being floated is to use the Dome to host the dozens of festivals held in Houston every year.
"You've got secure weather and it gives us some flexibility," said Emmett. "This coming weekend is a great example. You've got the International Festival and we're hearing it's going to rain for two days."
Local 2 Investigates also spoke with officials from Astrodome Studios, a private company that has been working for the last year-and-a-half on a proposal to turn the Dome into a massive sound-stage and production facility.
Company co-founders Cynthia Hand-Neely and Elise Hendrix said the project would be privately funded.
We're quite selfishly hoping the privately financed movie studio comes through. If it doesn't, preserving the Astrodome could get really expensive:
"At the very least, you're talking a couple hundred million dollars to make it something that's usable," said Emmett.
Emmett said that kind of expenditure could require a bond referendum."I think the public will support something that keeps the Dome intact and turns it into something that's usable by the public," said Emmett.
If it's a choice between a few hundred million dollars for a facility without much of a purpose or a much less expensive parking lot, I would vote for the parking lot. What do you think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/22/09 12:09 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (16)
21 April 2009
THAT will show us (part 2)! (updated)
A reader emailed earlier asking if we knew why the Chron removed blogHOUSTON from the "Blogs we've linked to" section on the Chron.com editorial page. The reader claimed Dwight Silverman had not answered several email inquiries to that effect.
We knew the newspaper exorcised blogHOUSTON from many blogrolls, but we didn't realize they had also removed it from the "Blogs we've linked to" section (which is strange, given the fact the newspaper has linked to the blog). Sure enough, it's gone (see the screenshot below).
We still have no idea why the blogHOUSTON exorcism was suddenly such a priority for Chron higher-ups, but we did notice something funny about the editorial page screenshot: Two of the people who were laid off several weeks ago (Claudia Kolker and Veronica Bucio) are still listed as members of the Editorial Board. Doh!
The newspaper continues to have some wacky, albeit entertaining, priorities. Perhaps one day, some adults will re-evaluate.
UPDATE (04/22/09): They have removed the outdated photo of the editorial board and updated the list of members!
Glad we could help out with that, Chron folks, and glad you're still reading our little "blacklisted" blog.
How in the world did you find your way over after the big BLOGROLL EXORCISM?!
And where should we send our web consulting fee?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/09 09:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Vandals hit METRO's Kingwood Park-and-Pillage lot
KHOU-11's Rosa Flores reports on more vandalism at METRO's Park-and-Pillage lots:
A vandal was at it again in Kingwood on Monday.
Police say several cars were broken into at the Kingwood Park & Ride – the same place where cars were vandalized earlier this year.
[snip]
Commuters said there used to be a guard stationed there, but there hasn’t been one since security cameras were installed on the premises.
Obviously, that move continues to work out well for METRO's customers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/21/09 09:15 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
20 April 2009
Congrats to the Chronicle, 2009 Pulitzer finalist
Congratulations are due for the Chronicle (and current and former staff ), honored today as a Pulitzer finalist for coverage of Hurricane Ike.
The Chronicle proved unable to duplicate the success of the nearby Times-Picayune, which captured the Pulitzer in the breaking news category in 2006 for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Instead, the New York Times took the top prize in the category this year, for its Spitzer coverage. Still, it's a big deal being named finalist, and it's especially nice to see the recognition of a stellar team effort during a crisis.
And now... a question (or several) for diminutive editor Jeff Cohen. Would it be possible, finally, for the newspaper to stop looking to a prize board for validation? To stop trying to get their attention with death-penalty journalism so skewed as to be a caricature? With environmental gotcha activism by a journalist who left town fairly quickly when the prize didn't materialize? With a cartoonist who won the Prize at another newspaper trying just a little too hard here?
Your community news coverage/analysis of Ike was Pulitzer finalist quality (and if the newspaper's past coverage of Enron or Stanford Financial had been so strong, that prized Pulitzer surely would have been captured). Why can't the newspaper focus like a laser on local/regional affairs all the time, instead of just during a crisis?
Granted, that's made more difficult now with all the layoffs and the lack of emphasis on local/regional news, reported by professional journalists (reflected by a glance at Chron.com's disjointed main page, by this strange sister site, and really the absence of any serious effort to communicate the newspaper's vision to the public moving forward). But if the Atlanta Journal-Constitution can re-evaluate itself from top to bottom after its own downsizing, engage with its readers, and remake itself as a news and editorial organization, why couldn't our Pulitzer-finalist newspaper? Who knows, owning the local/regional news space and re-engaging the entire customer base (even those in the center and rightward!) might eventually lead to that elusive Pulitzer -- or at the very least, a healthier bottom line (just in case a proprietary electronic news reader isn't quite the salvation promised by the Hearst suits).
Darrell Hancock and Cory Crow have written more -- and more thoughtfully -- on this topic, so go check out their stuff and leave them some comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/20/09 11:13 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 April 2009
WSJ's Holman Jenkins on red-light-camera revenue-streams
Commenter kjb434 passed along an interesting Wall Street Journal article by Holman Jenkins to us on red-light cameras, entitled "The war on short yellows." As Jenkins notes, voters don't much like red-light cameras, although pols craving revenue certainly do:
One Arizona sheriff recently proved you could get elected by opposing speed cameras. Meanwhile, the state legislature is considering bills to dismantle the system created by Gov. Janet Napolitano when she faced a gaping budget deficit, before she escaped to the Obama Department of Homeland Security. Petitioners in Arizona are also gathering signatures to put the question directly before voters -- speed cameras have never won when submitted to voters.
Even the Scottsdale City Council recently voted not to oppose the anti-camera bills in the state legislature.
Why is this important? Because Arizona, specifically Scottsdale, is home to the two biggest companies, American Traffic Solutions and Redflex Traffic Systems, in the incestuous world of promoting and operating traffic cameras for revenue-hungry governments.
Laid to rest long ago should have been the pretense that the goal is "safety," not chasing cash.
We've long argued against Houston's red-light cameras on due-process grounds, and we certainly don't believe any Houston pol who suggests that revenues played no part in our own red-light camera scheme. What do you think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/09 10:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
THAT will show us!
Unca Darrell asks why blogHOUSTON was kicked off some Chron.com blogrolls.
We have no idea, but it is the case that the little blog was once on the blogroll at Houston Politics, and seems to have been removed over the last few days. (UPDATE: Ditto SciGuy's blogroll).
It's strange to think that blogroll exorcism is a priority for anyone at the continually shrinking newspaper, but then again, some reporters do find the time to explain that news reported elsewhere isn't news and to pass along fifteen-year-old (+) stories (to prove some obscure point?), so we've long stopped trying to figure out the priorities at 801 Texas Avenue.
Anyhoo.... our blogroll continues to grow, and the blogs we link offer all sorts of interesting perspectives on the Houston area. So as the Chron continues to shrink, feel free to click away on our growing collection of links!
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/09 10:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
17 April 2009
Only in Houston...
KHOU-11 reports on an unusual crash that took place early Friday morning:
The West Loop southbound was shut down for about two hours overnight after two crashes involving a mobile taco stand and a fire truck, respectively.
It happened around 1 a.m. near San Felipe.
Police say a pickup truck was moving fast down 610 when he smashed into the back end of a slower-moving truck pulling a taco stand.
The pickup actually went all the way inside the stand.
[snip]
While HFD was at the scene blocking the lanes, and SUV smashed into the back of the fire truck.
The episode is quintessentially Houston, is it not?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/17/09 10:06 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
15 April 2009
City continues review of Mobility Response Team problems
Earlier in the week, the Chron's Bradley Olson blogged about efforts to fix some of the problems with the Mobility Response Team, another of Mayor White's Ready-Fire-Aim! programs that wasn't quite ready for primetime at launch:
City Council members got a lengthy presentation today from the Houston Police Department on its plans to reform the "Mobility Response Team" program, which Mayor Bill White has called a "traffic SWAT team."
A series of Wayne Dolcefino reports on lengthy breaks taken by mobility officers during peak traffic hours, exaggerated accounting for their work and a stunning set of clips showing them doing little to nothing (including one while an elderly woman struggled to cross the street just a stone's throw away) prompted HPD to conduct a thorough investigation.
At an unusually well-attended (by council members, that is) Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting, Assistant Chief Vicki King outlined more than a dozen training, supervisory and accountability reforms they are in the process of implementing for the program.
The Undercover Man's followup reporting on the (not-unimportant!) story he broke is here. He adds that HPD's investigation into the problems he documented should be completed in May.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/09 11:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Chron reporter downplays TV coverage of HUD audit story
Remember back in the "good old days" of journalism when multiple news organizations tried to beat each other to stories (some major, some not-so-major)?
We've grown accustomed to newsroom cutbacks, newspaper closings, and less competition in general to break news.
What we aren't quite used to are blog posts like this one, essentially explaining why the Chronicle apparently* didn't feel the need to cover audit report irregularities in a city department, a story picked up by two television stations:
Television reports late last week might have left the impression that Houston's federally funded housing programs were immersed in scandal. But compared with previous audits of the city's Department of Housing and Community Development, the latest federal monitoring report was rather mild.
The April 6 report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development included 40 "findings" -- violations of federal rules -- and a smaller number of "concerns," which are to findings what tadpoles are to frogs. The findings and concerns focused on problems with record-keeping, procedures and administration of the complicated federal programs, rather than on any misuse of funds.
No big deal! Er, wait, someone can't make up his mind:
That's not to suggest that the report is unimportant.
What? Isn't that pretty much what it suggested?
Compared to past problems, maybe the current problems truly are no big deal. But was the (not-"unimportant") audit report really such a little deal that it merited no coverage from the city's newspaper of record?
This seems peculiar, but perhaps someone can explain it to us in the comments or via email**.
* We don't recall seeing any such story online, in the e-edition, or from searching, but sometimes Chron.com searching can be finicky.
** We do consider emails to the blog on the record and fair game for publication.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/09 11:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Texas Watchdog adds Steve McVicker, Rosanna Ruiz to the fold
On the Texas Watchdog site, Trent Seibert announces the addition of two new reporters to the organization: Steve McVicker and Rosanna Ruiz.
Readers here should be familiar with both. Ruiz most recently provided the Chronicle its most critical coverage of METRO in years, before Jeff Cohen apparently decided to de-emphasize the transit beat (and laid her off). McVicker has worked in a number of local newsrooms, providing notable coverage of HPD's crime lab fiasco for the Chronicle (before getting laid off) and, more recently seeing his book made into a bigtime movie starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.
These are significant additions for Texas Watchdog, and their five journalists may well make up the second biggest metro desk in the city (especially since, as Rich Connelly and the Houston Press drone ad nauseam, KTRH-740 is *gasp* more about conservative talk than news these days, a possibly lamentable fact but something that stopped being news quite a while ago).
Congrats to Texas Watchdog and to Ruiz and McVicker on what should be an interesting partnership. We're looking forward to learning about more METRO deception and funny numbers, not to mention just how many thousand rape-test-kits are sitting in a (leaky?) closet somewhere still waiting to be analyzed several years after the Bromwich Report on the crime lab.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/09 07:20 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
14 April 2009
Houston-area Tea Parties (updated)
Several Tea Parties are planned in and around the Houston area tomorrow, and the big one at Jones Plaza should be jam-packed:
We expect quite a crowd. If we have overflow we are setting up an overflow area to protest the post office. Please stay on sidewalks there, and we apologize if Jones Plaza becomes too full. We are working to accommodate people in case this happens.
If you are unsure about coming downtown, The Woodlands, Sugarland, Clear Lake, Tomball, and a few other communities are hosting Tea parties. Please consider going to them. All Texas tea parties can be found here: http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/texas/
Things will get underway at 4pm at Jones Plaza, at 5pm in The Woodlands, and at 6pm in Clear Lake -- all accommodating folks who have to work, you'll notice, unlike a METRO board meeting.
If you make it to one of the Tea Parties tomorrow, please tell us about it in the forum.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS (04/15/09): Houston's Expert on Everything, Bicyclist (and Democrat) Bob Stein, has an opinion (actually, two opinions) on the Tea Parties. Here's the first one, offered to KHOU-11:
Organizers say the events are non-partisan, but 11 News political expert Bob Stein disagrees.
“This is an effort by the Republican National Committee to build up grass roots for a decimated party,” said Stein.
Here's the second opinion, offered to the Galveston County Daily News:
More than 300 people gathered in a city park Tuesday to rally against “out of control” government spending and to ship protest tea bags to Washington, D.C. Whether the first of what will be a series of tea party protests across the country is the start of a grass-roots political movement or just another form of political theater is yet to be determined.
“I think it is too early to say,” said Rice University political science professor Bob Stein. “There is a good deal of partisanship, but for an event the Republican Party would normally put its stamp on as the loyal opposition there really isn’t a (party) spokesperson on this.
“To me, the story is why the Republican Party is not jumping on this. (Republicans) are supportive of this, but not sounding the trumpet.”
Thank you, Bicyclist Stein, for those two contradictory opinions!
Incidentally, neither story identifies Stein as a Democrat.
ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: Our beloved Chronicle dips its toe into the Tea Party water with this story:
Anti-tax protesters turn out for dreaded April 15
Gosh, it's a mystery why that paper is bleeding readers.
MEANWHILE: KPRC-2 covers the local story much better than the Chronicle.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Suburban Goddess, This Blog Is Full Of Crap.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/14/09 06:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (45)
13 April 2009
Texas Watchdog hosts public information meet-up (updated)
Want to learn how to file a public information request?
The folks at Texas Watchdog are hosting a blogger meetup on Tuesday to explain how the pros do just that.
The gathering is set for Coffee Groundz at 5:30 pm Tuesday. More information is available here.
UPDATE (04/14/09): Former Chron transit reporter Rosanna Ruiz announces on twitter that she will now be writing for Texas Watchdog, which seems like a good partnership. No word on whether she'll be at today's gathering.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/13/09 10:53 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
12 April 2009
Murray Newman does what DA Lykos and the media didn't . . .
. . . which was research of the Batson challenge that led to the Chronicle story about DA Lykos publicly tossing two prosecutors under the bus.
Click here to refresh your memory.
Murray forked out $25 for the transcript of the Batson challenges and actually shares with us what transpired. Anyone who read the Chronicle or watched the news and watched DA Lykos grandstand by calling her prosecutors "negligent" and "incompetent", giving the public the impression that these two prosecutors are racist, needs to read Murray's post.
Here's an excerpt;
Juror Number 13 was struck for having seven Class C Issuance of a Bad Check cases, and also could not make a decision on punishment versus rehabilitation.
They say character is crucial in the courtroom; this also includes the characters of jurors. Great job, Murray!
Posted by Jason @ 04/12/09 11:00 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
West: "The favored developers get favored treatment, and nobody else does"
The Chronicle ran a three-author story today that discusses the city's seemingly capricious decisionmaking process regarding aid to developers. Here is an excerpt:
The City Council’s decision last week to assist the developer of Regent Square, an $850 million mixed-use project off Allen Parkway, with up to $10 million in reimbursements raised new questions about the administration’s policy for supporting private developments with public money, and whether such assistance has been fair, consistent or even in the public interest.
“The impression out here in the community is that there is no standard,” said Jane West, a Sixth Ward neighborhood leader who participated in meetings with the city on the Sawyer Heights proposal. “The favored developers get favored treatment, and nobody else does.”
That does seem to be The Houston Way! Be sure to read the entire story.
Along the same lines, the Chronicle also recently ran a column by Lisa Gray on downtown as a living destination (hope springs eternal!). In particular, the following graf stood out:
Marvy Finger, the developer of One Park Place, bet big on Discovery Green before the park was even built. On a block adjacent to the park, Finger proposed a 37-story residential building, luxury apartments with room for a first-floor grocery store and restaurant.
Why not bet big? Mayor White effectively built a lovely, if tiny (compared to Central Park, or even our own Memorial or Buffalo Bayou parks), potty spot for the pets of the affluent residents to come, AND has personally acted as an advertising agent for the project. Funny how things work out for some developers in Houston, eh?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/09 09:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)
METRO: Mary Sit fluffs the numbers; Frank Wilson is MIA
In the never-ending quest to pad ridership numbers, METRO's expensive blogger posted this statistic the other day:
METRO carries some 108 million riders every year.
That caused a reader to whip out his calculator:
108 million divided by 52 week averages out to about umm 2.07 million riders per week...
That's called METRO Math. Hopefully it will not soon be coming to a school district near us.
Meanwhile, KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel notes that Frank Wilson is doing his best impersonation of Clarence Bradford, minus the press release (via Barry Klein)
11 News has been trying to get clarification about the cost differences for the last two days. The explanation apparently needs to come from Metro President Frank Wilson, who has been unavailable for comment.
Has anyone checked with METRO's vendors to see if Frank's out looking for a new job? Or maybe METRO continues to be easily befuddled by the day-to-day intricacies of the transit business:
So maybe that's why the deal fell apart: Somebody says something that the people at Metro don't understand, so they just let it slide. If Parsons starts throwing around ideas Metro doesn't understand, we hope it asks for some clarification, considering all that money involved.
Our tax dollars at work. (Except Pasadena and Baytown, of course.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/12/09 06:27 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
10 April 2009
KRIV: HUD audit finds problems in Houston housing program
KRIV-26's Isiah Carey broke a story last night on a HUD audit of a City of Houston housing program:
The audit is best described as explosive. It targets the City of Houston's Housing Department.
It highlights more than 40 deficiencies at in the agency. The housing department is designed to provide affordable housing and other opportunities for those with low income.
[snip]
Investigators say HUD dollars were used to pay the expenses of a relative of a man who heads a housing program. The city's rental project may discriminate against those with disabilities, and the Home Rehabilitation Program provided poor work in some cases.
[snip]
Some houses were considered overpriced and auditors want to know why three employees were paid with housing dollars to work in the mayor's office....
Well, THAT doesn't sound quite right, but it does sound like The Houston Way. We are looking forward to the talking-points explanation from Mayor White's press shop (and maybe even his volunteer twitterers and blog commenters).
KHOU-11's Lee Mcguire adds more to this story in a report tonight. The Houston Chronicle hasn't reported on this story yet (or the METRO budget disclosure discrepancies for that matter), but at least MeMo and her kids are posting new content!
UPDATE (04/11/2009): Isiah Carey has more in this post (and accompanying video), including the current Housing director's lament that the organization was "screwed" when he arrived. Recall that FOB (Friend of Bill White) David Mincberg headed the organization before bailing out to run unsuccessfully for County Judge. There is also video of Mayor White rambling on and not making much sense. Clearly, fixing the numerous problems in this organization was about as high a priority for Mayor White as fixing BARC, HPD's staffing issues, and the unfunded liabilities in the municipal pension funds. Maybe the next administration will get around to those things!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/10/09 11:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
March sales tax revenue down
A sign of the times (via HBJ):
During the month, the state collected $1.58 billion in sales tax revenue, 3.8 percent less than in March 2008.
In February, sales tax revenue was down 2.6 percent from February 2008 and down nearly 9.4 percent from January 2009.
[snip]
Ten local transit systems received $92.2 million in March sales tax payments, down 5.8 percent compared with a year ago.
Houston received $35.1 million for its allotment, down nearly 1.6 percent from the comparable period a year ago.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/10/09 04:42 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
09 April 2009
Does Bill White hate puppies? (cont'd)
Craig Malisow continues his diligent reporting for the Houston Press on the deplorable conditions at BARC. Here is the lede from today's post:
A faulty anesthesia machine, a dog that nearly escaped during euthanasia, poor lighting, and a busted air conditioning system were among BARC's surgery room problems highlighted in an intra-office e-mail, according to newly released public records.
Go read the whole thing.
At least they released the records (transparency being The Houston Way after all). Perhaps next they'll turn loose the Twitterers and blog commenters to set critics straight and let us know that Mayor White really does love puppies!
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Does Bill White hate puppies?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/09 10:22 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
HairBalls broadens the media-crit beat!
Richard Connelly, who once had a serious media-criticism column for the Houston Press, lately has been reduced to lamenting all the conservative talk on KTRH-740 on the publication's Hair Balls blog (as an aside, some degree of irony came today, when another blogger rewrote a Glenn Beck segment for Hair Balls, and more irony is provided by his publication's advertisements for amateur food and politics bloggers for THEIR blogs).
Now, Connelly has apparently added Chron.com conservative bloggers to the "beat" (such as it is), finding one of Dwight Silverman's handpicked poliblogger stars less than convincing.
As Cory Crow notes, Dwight Silverman's star political bloggers on the left apparently are not part of the new beat.
We are perplexed as to why any of this is serious fodder for a (one-time) media critic, or why he wouldn't just find more interesting media to consume if it's so off-putting.
Sadly, there was a time when Connelly would have skewered the Chronicle for running a Washington Post story about a local data center -- and that would likely have been a fun read. Then again, the Village Voice family has gotten pretty bad about "repackaging" content these days (compare and contrast a Miami Village Voice writer's feature on Stanford Financial Group), so maybe it's best not to go there. Besides, amateur blogger Laurence Simon seems to have covered it pretty well, although it's worth adding that the WaPo version is about 300 words longer. It must be nice having a real newspaper in one's town (or a good alt-weekly or two, for that matter).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/09 10:13 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (4)
07 April 2009
KHOU's Desel exposes light-rail cost discrepancies; METRO refuses to comment
KHOU-11's Jeremy Desel has been examining what METRO is telling the public about the costs of rail expansion versus what METRO is telling the federal government about the costs of rail expansion, and -- shock! -- he finds large discrepancies.
The initial story is set up as one of those typically formulaic he-said/he-said standoffs between Paul Magaziner and Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson, but we're going to take on the role of really good editor, excise those elements, and give the facts center stage:
On March 4, the Metro Board voted on a contract with the Parsons Group to design, build and operate four new Light Rail lines.
The cost for the North Line would be $387 million, and the cost for the Southeast Line would be $441 million.
[snip]
According to letters dated on March 23 from Metro to the Federal Transit Administration, Metro indicated that the current net project cost estimate would be $896 million for the North Line and $911 million for the Southeast Line.
The numbers in the letters are more than double the estimated costs in Metro's contract with its builder.
Neal Meyer also takes on the part of really good editor, and offers this synopsis:
Last month, the Metro board announced that it had approved a deal (though it had not signed a contract) with Parsons Transport Group where Parsons would lead a consortium to build four of the Metro Solutions Phase 2 rail lines, but not including the Wheeler / Richmond rail alignment. This deal would involve building a total 20 miles of Metro's planned 30 miles light rail for a price $1.46 billion. The costs of the North Corridor and Southeast Corridors were announced to be $387 and $441 million respectively. Desel's accompanying news story showed footage of last month's board meeting where Chairman David Wolff expressed optimism of falling costs, presumably due to a fall in materials costs resulting from the current economic downturn.
However, apparently in an FTA Letter of No Prejudice communication dated March 23rd 2009, the costs of the North and Southeast Corridors were stated at $896,797,000 and $911,211,000 respectively.
[snip]
...Metro has been telling the public and Parsons one thing and the FTA something entirely different concerning project costs. At $897 million, the 5.4 miles of the North Corridor will run $166 million per mile. The Southeast Corridor will run at $134 million per mile. At costs like this, the 30 miles of Phase 2 will run $4.5 billion plus, a figure the Wizard predicted 18 months ago.
Taxpayers deserve better than this. The discrepancies between both sets of numbers is between $2 - $3 billion....
THAT is the punch line (not that Paul Magaziner and Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson dispute the amount of the discrepancy, or that Magaziner opposes wasteful METRO projects in general).
Unfortunately, Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson refuses to speak to Desel about the discrepancies. In a report tonight, Desel said a METRO vice president initially had something to say about the numbers, then decided that he did not have anything to say. Perhaps in the coming days, somebody at METRO will have something to say about what looks like a doubling in costs for METRO Solutions and an effort to keep the public in the dark. We hope it will be more helpful than Raequel Roberts rambling on nonsensically about nine-volt batteries or the organization's expensive blogger rambling on about China's ambitions to make significant quantities of electric cars.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/07/09 11:57 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
06 April 2009
Stiles hits the state ethics beat
Today's Chronicle has a feature by Matt Stiles on state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston. Here's an excerpt:
If he were a baseball player, state Sen. Rodney Ellis would be flirting with the Mendoza Line, the undesirable designation given to batters with averages around .200.
Only three senators had a lower passage rate than Ellis during the last legislative session. The veteran Houston Democrat is known for filing more legislation than any of his colleagues.
This year, the 54-year-old Ellis is juggling at least 183 potential laws, more than anyone else at the Capitol.
But don’t judge him by his passage rate, which stands at about 20 percent for the decade.
“If somebody’s going to criticize me because I do too much, because I’m ambitious, well, I stand accused,” he said with a chuckle during a recent interview.
Hee hee hee! And if someone's going to criticize him for possibly unethical behavior that happens to benefit him and business associates financially? He doesn't have nearly so much to say about that:
Over the years, he’s also faced criticism for mixing public work with private business as an investment banker. Just recently, the online news organization Texas Watchdog reported that Ellis’ company had profited as a minority subcontractor on an $800 million controversial bond package that Ellis publicly endorsed. He denied wrongdoing.
Not even a real quote? Tsk tsk.
Speaking of ethics, we neglected to link to another nice bit of work from Stiles that was posted to Chron.com recently: a nifty searchable database of money spent by lobbyists on elected officials and state employees. Well done, Mr. Stiles!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/06/09 09:30 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
05 April 2009
Two opinions on the Chron from around the local blogosphere
The County Seat blog updates us on the activities of Chronicle metro/state/teen diarist Lisa Falkenberg, who apparently spoke recently to the grownups at a Democratic Party event that reportedly later involved serious discussion about candidates to run against Republican judge John Phillips, whom Falkenberg has criticized more than once in the Chronicle.
Shockingly, Alan Bernstein, who regularly posts about similar Republican Party events on Chron.com, did not chronicle this meeting for the newspaper. Perhaps one day! (Or maybe in lieu of that, we'll get emails about nearly twenty-year-old Chron coverage of some related political event).
Meanwhile, over at The ClownVision Chronicles, John Royal posts the following about the Chron sports pages, although it might just as easily be said about other parts of the newspaper:
So why is the Chron failing? That answer is simple: the Chron treats its readers as idiots. And there's only so long that a consumer can be treated with such utter contempt.
That seems to be the way the Chronicle's diminutive editor wants it to be. Fore!
Feel free to discuss further on the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/09 10:09 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
04 April 2009
Adventures in downsizing, Jeff Cohen-style
A commenter on the Chron's reader rep blog (an oxymoron in its current form) offers this:
The only things I have noticed since the Chronicle's re-organization are:
1) The blogs are updated less frequently
2) I get daily spam from chron.comNot winning the game, Chronicle...
Au contraire. There has been another noticeable development that traces directly back to diminutive editor Jeff Cohen's, ah, "re-organization" -- copy editing oopses (via Hair Balls):
Lay Off Copy Editors, Lose Opening Paragraphs
Still A Rough Transition For The Chronicle
Meanwhile, Jeff Cohen took all his pain and sadness to the Shell Houston Open on April 1st. Looking good, Mr. Editor!
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Maybe Cohen is pondering future cuts while hitting the links. Fore!
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Cohen notes it's an "interesting time" to be a journalist, hits the links
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/04/09 11:19 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
Pasadena gets METRO service; far-flung Harris County suburbs still have nothing
Chron.com reports that METRO is unveiling a Park and Pillage, er, Ride, in Pasadena on Monday:
The city of Pasadena does not contribute sales tax revenue to Metro, so Harris County is using federal transportation funds to pay for the service, with Pasadena chipping in $39,000. Total annual cost is $212,800. Metro has a similar contract to provide bus service to and around Baytown, which is also not a Metro member.
Residents of far North Harris County, on the other hand, do contribute sales tax revenue to METRO and have nothing to show for it, which is by design. Remember when the Chron's Rad Sallee confirmed that METRO was punishing those who voted against wasteful, inefficient light rail?
So again we see that Harris County suburbs are taxed but not serviced, while Baytown and Pasadena are serviced but not taxed.
Something's wrong with this picture, but there's an easy solution: METRO should release the outer 'burbs from the taxing agreement, since it admits it has no interest in providing service for those areas, and that money should go to Harris County for road maintenance.
MORE: On METRO's Sit and Spin blog, Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson adds:
"It's important to remember that the people who ride transit also pay for it - not just with fares, but with tax dollars."
Not exactly.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/04/09 07:57 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
02 April 2009
Gexa Energy security breach compromises customer information
KTRK-13 reports that local electricity provider Gexa Energy suffered a security breach that compromised personal information of customers:
If you are a customer of Gexa Energy, your personal information may have been compromised.
The personal information was compromised a year ago, but the company is only now sending out letters to consumers. Gexa officials say that's because law enforcement asked the company to remain quiet during the investigation.
Gexa officials say they do not know how many customers' personal information was compromised, but they are sending the letter to customers past and present and even to those who may have enrolled in a Gexa plan, but didn't ultimately end up choosing the provider.
As a former Gexa customer, I got one of those notification letters. They were ever so helpful in letting me know I should monitor my credit. Thanks Gexa!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/02/09 10:51 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
Michel, Michelle, Ma Belle, who can tell the difference?
Chronicle tennis wine columnist Dale Robertson is surely having a bad week.
He led this week's column, about prominent women in the wine world, as follows:
It’s no longer unusual to meet a woman winemaker. Helen Turley raised the bar almost off the charts. Other than perhaps Michelle Rolland, there’s likely no more famous a wine consultant to be found in the world. Glass ceilings are for greenhouses, not vineyards.
There's just one little problem.... The famous wine consultant cited in the lede was Michel Rolland, very much a male. That led to this correction in today's Chronicle:
International wine consultant Michel Rolland was misidentified in a story on Page 2 of Wednesday’s Flavor section.
Yeah he was! (Because he IS a he, after all).
Sadly, the Chron didn't even blame a copy editor for the gaffe (which might have been understandable, since the Chron just fired so many of them). Apparently, the tennis wine columnist just blew it. Oops!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/02/09 10:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 April 2009
Where's the outrage now?
Remember when the Chron's erratic features editor Kyrie O'Connor had one of her classic meltdowns over a female firefighter who gave birth, left the hospital, and took an advancement exam because the mean old men in the department don't make exceptions, ever, even for women who are giving birth?
Okay, in all honesty, you probably don't. But here's a snippet:
The other day Beda Kent gave birth to a 7 1/2-pound baby girl, took a brief nap, got up from her hospital bed, took some Motrin, went to the George R. Brown, took and passed a Houston Fire department promotion exam -- for captain, no less -- scored 104 out of a possible 110, apparently outpointed some 350 other test-takers, lost her hospital bed, left her newborn in the hospital because she had no choice, and went home.
Holy smoke. Now that is a woman.
Childbirth used to be a big deal, back when anyone cared. I remember my mother-in-law telling me that, five days post-partum, the doctors let her sit up and dangle her legs over the side of the hospital bed.
Tell that to Beda Kent who, not incidentally, is a 12-year veteran of the department.
According to today's Chronicle, the firefighter promotion exam is given with about the regularity of a full solar eclipse, and no exceptions are made, ever, that would allow anyone to take the test at another time. HFD District Chief Jack Williams, who sounds like he takes the rule book very, very seriously, said even a firefighter injured in the line of duty wouldn't be allowed to take the test at a nonstandard time.
Come again?
You mean, if a firefighter suffered smoke inhalation rescuing a baby from a burning apartment, he or she -- presumably he -- would not be given an alternate time? And no one would kick up a fuss?
I don't even believe that. I don't believe the union, the media, the local mote-and-beam blogs, Bill O'Reilly and for all I know Emeril Lagasse and Michiko Kakutani wouldn't scream to the high heavens about such an outrage.
But Beda Kent? All she did was bring a healthy life into the world. If she'd decided to spend more than two-and-a-half hours resting up after that minor event, she would have blown her chances for a promotion for a couple of years at least.
Apparently Beda Kent isn't the kind of person who asked for special treatment.
She's not asking for special treatment, but I am. The Houston Fire Department should be mortified to put a veteran firefighter through such a stupid and painful exercise. Promotion exams aren't visions of Our Lady -- they're utterly within human control. What is the point? That Beda Kent, or that hypothetical injured fire hero, would take advantage of the system to study up? Or cheat?
If you can't figure out a way around such a silly possibility, you ought not to administer tests at all. (If you can't imagine a way out of this one, how can I trust you to get me out of my burning townhouse?)
And if you're the union, or the doctors, or the mayor or the mote-and-beam bloggers -- I'm calling you out, Anne Linehan -- or Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham or the Blessed Virgin herself, you'll summon up some outrage against the sorry, stupid, Procrustean, benighted policies that forced Beda Kent out of childbed to go find a couple of No. 2 pencils and show the system what a woman can do, whether she should have to or not.
Big talk!
Flash forward about three years.... to this rare Houston Press HairBalls post covering something other than Rich Connelly's dissatisfaction with KTRH:
We know have a new leader in the clubhouse for Worst Way To Find Out You Lost Your Chronicle Job.
Dai Huynh, one of the paper's food writers, was scheduled to come back from maternity leave. The night before she gets a call telling her, in effect, "don't bother."
I'm a fan of Huynh, and sad to see this news.
But so much for my white-male perspective. Where is Kyrie O'Connor's "outrage" over this?
Not a peep, so far as we can tell.
So much for the big talk from the Chron's erratic features editor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/01/09 10:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (12)
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