blogHOUSTON

KHOU's Greenblatt continues scrutiny of Hilton Americas/pension fund finances

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Wed, 3 Dec 2008 23:14:09 -0600

KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt is continuing his reporting on the pension fund shortfall and related Hilton Americas accounting. Yesterday, Greenblatt described the refinancing proposal that was discussed in a budget hearing: The problem started when H...

The Lykos political purge begins

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Tue, 2 Dec 2008 23:53:30 -0600

Harris County District Attorney-elect Pat Lykos has already begun to purge perceived political enemies from the DA's office. Here's an excerpt from A Harris County Lawyer, the prosecutor whose blog has provided an invaluable look inside the DA's O...

That's Peter Brown, ARCHITECT (cont'd)

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Tue, 2 Dec 2008 23:32:13 -0600

The Chronicle posted this letter from Councilmember Peter Brown on HISD's recently proposed school closings/consolidations: The proposed HISD closings and consolidations of Carnegie Vanguard High School and eight neighborhood elementary schools d...

Move It column covers METRO audit, expensive fuel contracts

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Tue, 2 Dec 2008 23:26:35 -0600

The Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz reports that METRO has commissioned a required performance review of itself: An inside look, including customer complaints, at how Metro manages itself is now in the works. The board awarded a $225,000 contract to Boo...

State Auditor's Office, Queen Sheila raise concerns over METRO

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 22:43:58 -0600

Isiah Carey and Texas Watchdog both call attention to this audit report by the State Auditor's Office on METRO. The report (which should be read in its entirety) is generally complimentary of METRO. However, the most interesting section (Chapter T...

City lays out agenda for Austin, prefers that you not think about city pensions too much

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:04:53 -0600

The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel lays out Mayor White's to-do list for the 2009 legislative session in Austin. Closer to home, KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt ran a story just before Thanksgiving on the perilous state of Houston's municipal employee pensi...

Houston trauma centers struggle to take up UTMB slack

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:16:12 -0600

KHOU-11's Leigh Frillici reports on the local trauma-center impact of Ike's UTMB devastation: Damage and financial troubles after Hurricane Ike cost UTMB at Galveston its level one trauma center. Now patients are flown to the next closest center w...

METRO IAH express bus service long overdue, but expensive

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:06:21 -0600

The Chronicle's Rosanna Ruiz does a nice job with this METRO press release posing as a news article: Houston residents and out-of-town travelers can rely ... on taxis, shuttles and now nonstop bus service to George Bush Intercontinental Airport. M...

Houston makes affordable homes less affordable

_@_ (Anne Linehan) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:38:50 -0600

The city of Houston has added thousands of dollars to the cost of building new homes (via the Chron's Carolyn Feibel): New homes built in Houston will have to meet more stringent energy-saving standards starting next October under a new energy cod...

What happens to Bolsover Street?

_@_ (Anne Linehan) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:33:38 -0600

With the recent news that Lamesa Properties has been unable to secure financing for its proposed Sonoma development, what will end up happening to Bolsover Street, which the city sold to the developer (via the Examiner's Michael Reed): Councilwoma...