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12 July 2010

THE BLOG will be on hiatus for a short time due to a personal matter.

Please feel free to discuss any newsworthy items in the forum!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/12/10 09:15 AM | Comments (8)

08 July 2010

THE CHRONICLE reports* that former Mayor Bill White's prized SAFEclear program just cost the city about $4.2 million. To quote Cory Crow, that would be the same "program that was touted as being revenue neutral by Houston's former 'business savvy' Mayor who's now promising to take that same level of fiscal prowess to Austin." Don't expect the mainstream Texas political press or PolitiFarce to delve too deeply into such matters, though.

Also, Ubu Roi elaborates on the city's water-rate increases.

* Is that the proper way to describe a tiny blurb tucked away in a sidebar? We're not sure.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/08/10 09:15 AM | Comments (3)

07 July 2010

HERE'S A QUICK ROUNDUP of news tidbits that caught my eye after the too-short vacation.

Councilmember Jarvis Johnson told police he didn't pull over immediately a few nights ago when he was arrested because he was doing something more important, prosecutors contend. Johnson's attorney denied that he said any such thing, according to the Chronicle report.
Hans' Bier Haus keeps its alcohol license despite the best efforts of neighboring condo residents (who knowingly moved in beside the bar). The rotting meat apparently will stay as well. Adults acting like five-year-olds are entertaining!
Cory Crow rightly assesses the huge humor potential in Wal-Mart's preliminary efforts to build a store in The Heights.
One guy who wants to tell Houstonians how to live got together with some other folks who want to tell Houstonians how to live. It was once easy to giggle at such "smart-growth" busybodies in pro-development, get-it-done, business-friendly Houston, but sometimes coordinated busybodies manage to move their agenda during the giggling. Anybody heard from Houstonians for Responsible Growth lately? Bill King? Anybody?
Houston's Bicyclist Bob Stein, expert in everything, offers his expertise to San Antonio's KENS-5. We can't help but wonder if he was able get through that long quote without a breath!
When your newspaper lays off so many veteran reporters and editors, the remaining staffers (interns?) sometimes produce truly dreadful writing (even as one of the least useful senior journalists at the Chronicle prattles on about good writing).
Unca Darrell dissects Chron editorialist/columnist Lisa Gray's discovery of the Ixtoc spill. We gave it a brief treatment here.
The Chronicle's resident Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy lead author blazes new territory with this dreck. Is there any conceivable constituency that would read this and then pay the newspaper money for a subscription? Seriously, does this sort of story appeal to anyone who might buy the newspaper? Does it appeal to anyone besides the editor's activist wife, even? You'd think as circulation continues to plummet that somebody at 801 Texas Avenue might give questions like that some thought, and redeploy resources (like the Chron Eye writer, the Urban Affairs/METRO PR mouthpiece, and the entire editorial board) to useful beats. Instead, the geniuses think banning links to this blog is somehow the answer!
Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack continues to defend his $2 million soap-box-derby-hill boondoggle.
We've sometimes given Tim Heller grief for getting a little hyper in the past, but there's no better source for weather info in Houston right now. He blogs, he tweets, he writes well, and unlike some faith-based global-warming enthusiasts who talk weather/climate, he has that nice little AMS seal backing his commentary. Be sure to check Heller as weather approaches -- he's everywhere!
The University of Houston has a new baseball coach, and it looks like a smart hire. Years ago, when the baseball Coogs were good and I had season tickets, Whitting was an assistant. The program has steadily declined from regularly ranked to mediocre since his departure. Here's hoping he can get it turned around, just like he helped TCU turn it around.

What did we miss?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/10 10:02 PM | Comments (8)

02 July 2010

THE BLOG is going on a long-weekend vacation to celebrate Independence Day.

But, if any local news worthy of discussion pops up (CM Johnson's arrest, CM Clutterbuck calling out CM Bradford on crime lab issues, etc), feel free to start a discussion in the open-comments forum, or in this thread.

And Happy Fourth everyone!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/10 02:21 PM | Comments (1)

01 July 2010

CULTURE MAP'S CLIFFORD PUGH wonders why nobody had much to say about recent Chronicle layoffs, especially given the Village Voice corporate weekly's posts about the last big bloodletting on 801 Texas Avenue.

Several reasons come to mind. First, there weren't as many people involved in these layoffs, and the Chron seems to have kept a tighter lid on things this time. Second, as local media criticism goes, the local Village Voice corporate weekly seems much more focused on amateurish Chron-blogging (pot/kettle?) and KTRH beats. So who's left to say much? Culture Map, we guess.

Hat tip to local media news watcher Mike McGuff for the Culture Map link!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/10 12:31 PM | Comments (6)

CORY CROW takes a closer look at recent growth numbers for Harris County, and finds things not as rosy as they seem on the surface.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/10 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

Councilmember Jarvis Johnson has done his part to rescue us from the extensive news coverage of the hurricane that is not very close to Houston.

According to TV news reports (KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2), Councilmember Johnson was arrested overnight on felony charges of evading arrest after allegedly refusing to stop for a traffic stop. KHOU-11's report says that when he eventually stopped a few blocks later, he tried to run away (UPDATE: KHOU has now removed that from their report, without explanation, Chron-style). KTRK-13 reports that police officials say the councilmember did not appear to be intoxicated.

We look forward to hearing the councilmember's side of the story (much more so than seeing another poor reporter standing in the rain saying "it's raining").

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/10 06:28 AM | Comments (9)

30 June 2010

MARC CAMPOS reports an interesting bit of news to come from City Council discussion today: Apparently, the council redistricting process will flow through Councilmember Mike Sullivan's Ethics and Council Governance committee, rather than a special committee created for the purpose. Although council races are officially nonpartisan, Sullivan is regarded as a Republican.

We suspect that a few LibDem partybloggers will not be as sanguine as Campos about this development.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/10 12:38 PM | Comments (1)

THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE/TEXAS TRIBUNE partnership has produced an interesting watchdog story on those with criminal records being approved to work in foster-care positions.

The wall-to-wall storm coverage* may well drown out the story (pardon the bad pun), but we thought it was a nice bit of work.

* Seriously, isn't it always fun to watch area news teams mobilize for the season's first serious storm? WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE (err, just practicing, this time, but do stay tuned!).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/10 09:41 AM | Comments (6)

28 June 2010

MIKE MCGUFF notes that Alan Hemberger is no longer with KIAH-39 news and that Mary Flood has departed the Chronicle.

McGuff beats everyone to the interesting media news these days!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/10 08:47 PM | Comments (2)

THE CHRON'S BRADLEY OLSON posts some city budget remainders (and a spreadsheet) here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/10 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

26 June 2010

TEXAS WATCHDOG reports that Sheltering Arms Senior Services of Houston has removed the director of a "stimulus" weatherization program. The move comes after some damning reporting by the Houston-based watchdog news organization on shoddy workmanship and lack of transparency regarding the weatherization program.

The deposed director tells Texas Watchdog the move was part of a reorganization planned prior to the earlier Texas Watchdog reporting. *wink* Nobody at the organization would discuss the move.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/10 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

UNCA DARRELL takes the Chron editorial board to task on... the six-month deepwater drilling ban.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/10 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

HAIR BALLS has some sneering good fun with an all-too-typical case of "sudden acceleration" in Galveston (apparently, the gas pedal was mistaken for the brake).

Of course, when the poster's wife had a bout with "sudden acceleration," that was worthy of an expose by the entire Village Voice empire against the carmaker (because surely the wife -- never identified as the wife, a nice lapse of journalistic ethics that agitated one Village Voice editor when pointed out -- didn't mistake one pedal for the other).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/10 01:08 PM | Comments (1)

25 June 2010

HEY ALL,

Time for a beer, we think. A group is descending on the West Alabama Icehouse today about 6pm for some cold brews, the typical blogger BS, and some cool tunes from old fav Mary Cutrufello.

Come on by and have a beer with us if you can.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/10 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

MATT BRAMANTI forced this correction today from the Chronicle editorial board:

The editorial "Other worldly" in Thursday's Chronicle incorrectly stated that the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviet squad to win the gold medal in the 1980 Olympic Games. Following its upset victory over the Soviet Union, remembered as the "Miracle on Ice," the American team defeated Finland to win the gold medal.

Factual errors, poor writing, and frequently condescending lefty sermonizing are all too typical of that editorial board's output. The newspaper would be so much better served by shuttering the thing and redeploying the resources to the local news space.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/10 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

24 June 2010

THIS INTERESTING LINE was tucked away in Bradley Olson's Chronicle recap of the unanimous Council vote to approve the budget:

Some council members questioned how Parker will cut $22 million in spending during the coming year through unspecified "efficiencies."

That sort of makes it sound like our "balanced" budget still has a $22 million deficit. So Councilmember Jolanda Jones probably isn't going to get her shower built any time soon.

BLOGVERSATION: Live Oaks.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/24/10 10:12 PM | Comments (2)

SWAMPLOT mocks the unscientific online "poll" being spun by Astrodome redevelopment boosters as evidence that folks want to spend $1 billion+ on the boondoggle they've constructed.

As we noted earlier today, the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation really is shameless. It would be nice if some leader would step up, put a demolition plan together, and end this madness.

Do we not have any leaders in Harris County?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/24/10 12:20 PM | Comments (5)

TORY GATTIS asks and answers an interesting question regarding the latest Astrodome redevelopment proposal:

How does demolition cost almost as much as two new Reliant Stadiums, you might ask? Well, they cleverly included their real wish-list with all 3 options: a new mega-hotel on-site, new arena, additional exhibition space, and a large parking garage. There's no option to vote against any of that. It's also a clever way of making the all-out revamp package seem not that much more expensive than demolition.

It was clever. That sort of clever sleight-of-hand was apparently all that taxpayers got out of that $50,000 sweetheart consulting deal that produced three poor "package" options for a building that has outlived its usefulness and should have been demolished years ago.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/24/10 08:21 AM | Comments (0)

23 June 2010

HOUBLOG posts that the word at Public Works is that director Michael Marcotte has tendered his resignation.

Houblog says multiple sources claim Mayor Annise Parker requested the resignation.

UPDATE (06/25/2010): The Chronicle finally got around to reporting this news. Advantage: Houblog!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/23/10 08:27 PM | Comments (6)

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Hiatus

A couple of asides, in case you missed 'em...

News roundup, 07/07/2010 edition

Councilmember Johnson breaks through storm coverage

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