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21 November 2009

THIS BLOG POST by Chron basketball writer Jonathan Feigen (he of the sometimes tortured prose) explains the latest Tracy McGrady controversy in detail, from an informed perspective. In contrast, here's a blog post from KTRK-13 sportsreader Tim Melton.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/09 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

THE ANNISE PARKER CAMPAIGN emails that they've secured the endorsement of the Chron Caucasian Think Tank*.

We're disappointed. We were hoping for another lame dual endorsement that we could mock.

* Cory Crow's moniker for the current iteration of the Chron editorial board.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/21/09 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

WE HAVE A NEW DANGEROUS TIME/PLACE/BEHAVIOR UPDATE, via KPRC-2: Weekends, Eleanor Tinsley Park, visiting a park.

Remember Chief Hurtt's motto -- you're pretty safe in Houston, except when you aren't.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/21/09 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

REMEMBER ONE AND A HALF YEARS AGO when the Chron's Matt Stiles investigated dangerous apartment buildings, and the city began "in earnest" to crack down on slum-like properties? You'll recall state Rep. Hubert Vo was exposed as a serial slumlord, and Mayor White announced the city would set aside $1 million annually for "a new team of multifamily inspectors."

Well. KHOU-11 is reporting that city is REALLY going to get serious about it...in April 2010:

After an apartment stairwell in the 9400 block of Concourse collapsed and killed two young boys last year, we all learned just how little is being done to check the safety of apartment communities.

The city admitted the apartments where the two boys died hadn’t been inspected in 12 years.

The new program will be managed by Public Works. Beginning in April 2010, the department says it will take a proactive, instead of just a reactive approach.
“We are going to periodically cycle through all of the apartments through the city of Houston doing an inspection to be sure we’ve got compliance with the city codes,” said Andy Icken, Deputy Director of Public Works.

So, the city didn't start investigating and citing run-down apartments in 2008 as Mayor White said it would?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/21/09 06:06 AM | Comments (3)

20 November 2009

CORY CROW comments on The Bill White-a-Palooza.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/09 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

BEST EXCUSE FOR A CRASH we've seen in a while: "'She told the officer and the officer relayed to me that she was coming home and was eating cake and that she lost control of her car,' said Stidham" (KTRK-13 News).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/09 07:53 AM | Comments (2)

19 November 2009

TEXAS WATCHDOG can't get a response from the Gene Locke campaign about the candidate's tax returns, but apparently "sources" have told KPRC-2's Mary Benton that they will be released in a few days.

We're expecting them to come out about 4:30 pm next Wednesday, just before Thanksgiving. But that's okay -- it will give watchdogs a nice long holiday to comb through them.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/09 09:24 PM | Comments (1)

KTRK-13'S MIYA SHAY blogs about the big meeting between Roy Morales, Allen Blakemore, and Christian Archer.

We LOVE reading stories about Gene Locke power brokers groveling for the support of the guy who finished fourth AND loaned his campaign money at usurious interest rates. More of the same, please!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/09 09:17 PM | Comments (0)

DAVID BENZION blogs that Texas voters should not allow Houston's Barbara Ann Radnofsky "anywhere near the AG's office."

We don't expect there's much chance of that.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/09 09:05 PM | Comments (0)

THE CHRON'S "SCIGUY" blogs about the "disconnect between TV meteorologists and climate scientists on the issue of global warming."

For our part, we are frequently amused by the disconnect between faith-based global-warming enthusiasts who play meteorologists on their blogs, and... actual trained meteorologists.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/09 09:04 PM | Comments (1)

THE CHRON (and other media outlets) love the "Muslim backlash" meme.

When the backlash never materializes, the natural followup is "[LATEST NEWS EVENT] raised fears."

Why does the newspaper waste its ever-shrinking print space with this?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/09 09:03 PM | Comments (0)

If you like your storytelling exaggerated and are a fan of Mayor Bill White, then you're probably going to love the latest Texas Monthly tribute to the man.

On the other hand, fans of high-quality Texas journalism may question the outright, unbalanced cheerleading. Maybe Texas Monthly is aiming to be the new Mrs. White?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/09 09:02 PM | Comments (4)

NEW CHRON POLITICAL WRITER JOE HOLLEY blogs about... speculation that Mayor Bill White might run for governor instead of Senate.

Count us underwhelmed by this sort of thing. If the Chron is even going to bother with a "political writer" when the newsroom is so depleted, surely it would be nice to get beyond lazy Rick Casey-style rehashes of the obvious.

UPDATE: This appears to be his first column for the big newspaper, on that [sarcasm] little-covered topic of Mayor White's run for a Senate seat that isn't yet open [/sarcasm].

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/09 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

18 November 2009

THE CHRON'S BRADLEY OLSON reports on Mayor Bill White's latest boondoggle: a $600,000 payoff to developers to build 10 single-family homes as part of the "Houston Hope" program. The story has slightly more balance than the Chron's more typical cheerleading/reporting on such urban boondoggles, so that's an improvement we suppose.

UPDATE: Cory Crow astutely points out that the same Mayor Bill White who is promoting this spending boondoggle recently warned the current mayoral candidates about the dangers of spending. Or maybe that was Senate Candidate White trying to sound good for rural Texas folks. It's so hard to keep straight!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/09 09:41 PM | Comments (1)

MIKE MCGUFF posts a mini-review of the new ABC13.com layout (a subject he certainly knows something about).

It's definitely an improvement over the old site, although the recent KHOU web redesign appeals to me more (as TV news sites go). What do you think?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/09 06:53 PM | Comments (0)

"UNCA" DARRELL HANCOCK finds "more good news about Texas for the Chronicle to ignore."

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/09 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

NEAL MEYER posts some interesting thoughts on jitneys and elevated busways.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/09 06:43 PM | Comments (0)

METRO quietly announced yesterday (via press release) that it now has a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Back when the Houston Press was mainly the work of professional journalists, those journalists dug up interesting facts, like the exorbitant salary of the woman responsible for METRO's insipid blog. Now that Village Voice has turned over the shop mainly to amateurs in an effort to generate pageviews (we guess), readers are instead served this sort of nearly unreadable dreck from the amateur clique.

Too bad -- we're kind of curious if METRO had to hire yet another PR person to handle the additional social media load.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/09 06:40 PM | Comments (0)

One Chron diarist is out for three months on maternity leave, apparently not to be replaced during that time. And an editorial in today's Chron offered readers a note that it was *ahem* recycled content:

EDITOR'S NOTE: This editorial also appeared in the early edition of Sunday's paper.

Does the Houston Chronicle really expect subscribers to continue to fork over $22/month for shrinking/recycled content?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/09 08:02 AM | Comments (1)

DAVID "BIG JOLLY" JENNINGS posts about Jerry Eversole, ethics violations, and the Harris County Republican Party (here, here, here, here, and here).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/09 07:47 AM | Comments (0)

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ACTIVE TOPICS

Another example of Mayor White's lack of follow-through

Credit where due on McGrady reporting

Chron Caucasian Think Tank endorses Parker

One Texas Monthly column that should count as a political contribution

The threads above are the most recently active in the blogHOUSTON comments (RSS).