02 November 2006
If you're going to have a blog...
John Wagner offers some of the Chron.com bloggers a primer on the terminology.
We would have assumed Dwight Silverman would have given a quick lesson on the terminology and mechanics of the thing prior to turning the Chron.com bloggers loose, but he's a pretty busy guy, so maybe a few Chron.com bloggers missed it.
They should read Wagner's post in any case!
UPDATE: Right on cue, John McClain demonstrates that he could really stand to read the primer.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/02/06 11:34 AM |
Stick a fork in Jordy Tollett
No more beating around the bush -- Mayor White wants Jordy Tollett out of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau when Tollett's term expires (via KHOU-11):
Houston’s mayor has taken another step toward ousting the city’s colorful convention and tourism chief.
Mayor White has made it clear he’d like to see Jordy Tollett leave the city’s Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, although we haven’t been told exactly why.
Tollett had recently taken a leave of absence after he was spotted drinking during business hours.
Now the mayor is asking the bureau’s chairman to hire an executive search firm.
KHOU provides a link to the mayor's letter to the chairman of the GHCVB, and the letter is much more, uh, pointed than the above story indicates.
Jordy'll have to really work those "legendary survival skills" to survive this one.
BLOGVERSATION: Isiah Carey's Insite.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/02/06 07:19 AM |
01 November 2006
The religion of peace confuses some professional journalists
The Chronicle recently ran this entertaining correction:
A story on Page B1 Sunday gave incorrect information about Ramadan. The Muslim holy month is not held during a fixed time each year as was reported in the story, but instead cycles 10 days earlier each year, based on the Muslim calendar.
Whoops!
That's yet another reason to add Mark Steyn to the Chronicle's stable of columnists. Even though he makes a joke of it, he really does know the timing of Ramadan.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/01/06 10:50 PM |
Muni wifi: "A whole new wave" is coming!
In the latest celebration of Mayor White's effort to blanket the city with wireless internet access, the Chronicle included this quote:
Local politicians and community and business leaders were enthusiastic about the network's potential. It would provide opportunities for Houston's technology sector and cut costs for other businesses, said Umesh Verma, chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership's technology infrastructure committee.
"There will be a whole new wave of the way we live and the way we work and the way we play," he said.
Can anyone explain what the bolded sentence even means?
BLOGVERSATION: Business Unusual.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/01/06 10:00 PM |
Mayor kills controversial voting location flu shot plan
Just a few days ago, a judge ordered a Vietnamese nonprofit organization to stop running ads promising items of value in exchange for turning out to vote, a circumstance that is prohibited by election law.
More recently, controversy has been generated over a plan by the City of Houston to offer flu shots at some early voting locations. Rorschach was one of the first bloggers to ask how this was different from the Heflin/Vo incident referenced above, and KSEV radio ran hard with the topic. Eventually, Harris County Republican chair Jared Woodfill sent out an email criticizing the plan, asserting that the early voting locations chosen for flu shots were heavily Democratic.
In the wake of mounting criticism, Mayor White announced today that the vaccination program was canceled. Matt Stiles reports for the Chronicle:
Mayor Bill White today ordered a halt to a privately funded drive to offer flu vaccinations at early voting sites in Hispanic and black neighborhoods, amid conservative criticism that the effort would boost Democratic votes.
Since Monday, the city had been offering the free vaccinations at four polling places around Houston under a national grant program, used in more than 20 other cities.
White defended the program at a news conference today, saying public health was the city's only motive in launching the initiative. Still, he said he decided this morning to abandon the plan after today to avoid perception that it could be viewed as an effort to draw certain voters to the polls. White is a former chairman of the state Democratic Party.
"There was no political motive whatsoever to do it," he said. "I don't want to have to spend more money in defending a baseless lawsuit than we're giving away in vaccine — or allow anybody to question the integrity of the political process."
Mayor White made the right decision. I am not a mindreader and am not going to assume anything nefarious about the mayor's intent, but the fact is that the specifics of the program (especially the locations) left the mayor open to charges of partisan manipulation. Furthermore, the program also doesn't seem that different conceptually from the scheme above, which a judge stopped.
While we think the mayor made the right call here (finally), perhaps there's still a good use for all those flu shots. Why not give them out at the Veteran's Day Parade in a little over a week? Maybe that's a proposal that Councilmember Michael Berry and San Antonio talker Joe Pags could even get behind on their Clear Channel radio programs if the mayor agrees!
That would be a nice bonus for people who come out on November 11 to honor our veterans.
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee, Miya Shay, Isiah Carey's Insite, HouStoned, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/01/06 08:39 PM |
Lacking a sense of civic duty
While Houston's red light cameras may be cranking out the tickets like crazy, many of those on the receiving end aren't rushing to pay the fines (via KTRH-740):
Only 11 percent of people who received a red-light camera ticket in September paid the fine before the end of the month, according to the City Controller's financial report. The paid tickets brought in less than $10,000 in revenue compared to the expected $84,000 in issued tickets.
People who did not have an issue with the citation paid their tickets said Houston Police Captain Dwayne Ready. "They looked at the picture; they looked at the evidence and just submitted their payment."
Ready said red-light camera runners have 45 days to pay the fine, so no payments were past due at the time the September report was posted.
Come on, people! MayorWhiteChiefHurtt and ATS are counting on you!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/01/06 09:00 AM |
31 October 2006
Chron spins circulation decline
As predicted yesterday, the Chronicle's press-release-spin-posing-as-news article on the newspaper's latest big circulation decline has been posted. Here's the lede:
The Houston Chronicle is now the seventh-largest metropolitan newspaper in the nation on Sundays — up from eighth — the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported Monday, even as circulation declined.
Lemonade from lemons!
Here's publisher Jack Sweeney's spin:
The Chronicle remained the seventh-largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the nation, and home delivery circulation is up on Sundays, Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said.
"We feel it's the start of a home delivery growth trend," Sweeney said.
"Our free, digitized information world has certainly put pressure on paid news products," Sweeney said. "But there is still plenty of demand for a compelling local newspaper."
There is. And we remain hopeful that in this woefully poor written-word town, Philip Anschutz will eventually deliver one!
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Yankee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/31/06 09:02 AM |
Mayor was told last year some SafeClear drivers had criminal backgrounds
It took two more SafeClear-related deaths for city officials to revisit their program (here was the first) to see how tow truck drivers are getting their licenses (via the Chronicle):
The city has suspended the licenses of 16 wrecker drivers who work under the Safe Clear mandatory towing program as part of an effort to tighten rules, Mayor Bill White announced Monday.
Many of those drivers should not have obtained licenses because they had criminal records, White said. They first were denied, but later succeeded through a too-lenient appeals process, he said.
Good grief. SafeClear proponents assured the public when the program was rolled out that a thorough screening process was in place to prevent criminals from being a part of the forced-towing program. What's most amazing to me is that Mayor White never asked anyone to review the process that licensed tow truck drivers, even after he and Council were told there was a problem one year ago:
Suzanne Poole, president of the Houston Professional Towing Association and a critic of Safe Clear, supports the new rules, saying they will strengthen the licensing process.
"I think it's going to give it accountability and it's going to take away the discretion of a hearing officer," she said.
Poole had complained to the City Council in November 2005 that felons were granted licenses after their applications initially were denied.
Asked about her comment, White said Monday he had discounted Poole as a critic, but that she was right.
There's some arrogance for you. Mayor White just dismisses critics instead of considering there could be some merit to the complaint.
Again, Mayor White and City Council were told one year ago that criminals were driving Safe Clear wreckers and no investigation was initiated. That's outrageous.
Now there are new rules in place to prevent this from happening again:
To tighten the process, the Houston Police Department now will require a retired assistant chief to preside over appeals hearings instead of a sergeant. The chief must create a written record of why the denial was upheld or overturned and request a letter of recommendation from the officer in charge of the mobility incident division.
"People were just routinely being able to overturn the decision of police officers on appeal," said White, who called the appeals process flawed. "That's not what we intended."
The rules change also means dozens of wrecker drivers not in the Safe Clear program will have to reapply for their city licenses, White said.
Imagine, a government program that wasn't running as was intended. Perhaps this time the mayor will make sure the licensing process is reviewed periodically.
BLOGVERSATION: Isiah Carey's Insite
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/31/06 07:00 AM |
30 October 2006
E&P: Chron circulation declines 3.6% over last six months
Editor & Publisher is reporting that the nation's major newspapers have seen more erosion in circulation, according to the latest data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Here is Jennifer Saba's assessment for E&P:
The Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX report for the six-month period ending September 2006 released this morning confirmed yet again that major metros are struggling to show growth. The losses are steep while the gains are meager.
This is the fourth consecutive semi-annual report to register a severe drop in daily circulation and -- perhaps more troubling to the industry -- Sunday copies. While the estimated decline 2.5% for daily circulation for all reporting papers may seem negligible, consider that in years past that decrease averaged around 1%. Sunday, considered the industry's bread-and-butter, is losing more, with a decline of 3%.
The Houston Chronicle registered a 3.6% decline in circulation over the last six months, according to E&P.
It will be entertaining to see how Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney spins the decline in the press-release-posing-as-news article that is sure to come soon.
RELATED: Old media evolves slowly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/30/06 08:11 AM |
29 October 2006
Longest Chron Eye ever?
There's a new Chron Eye For The Death Row Killer Guy posted today.
The Chron Eye is the local Hearst daily's regular effort to humanize death-row killers as they await execution. This one is by Sarah Viren, who seems to have produced the longest Chron Eye ever -- nearly 1,200 words!
The death-row killer, Donell O'Keith Jackson, is scheduled to depart this world on Wednesday.
BLOGVERSATION: Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/29/06 10:54 PM |
Old media evolves slowly
A correction on Chron.com caught my eye today:
Two players listed as Rockets in today's NBA season preview (Section K) are no longer with the team. Ryan Bowen and Casey Jacobsen were waived Friday, one day after the Chronicle's press deadline.
Media outlets that react so slowly to the world will either find ways to react more quickly or continue to lose relevance, we would guess.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/29/06 04:21 PM |
If a tree falls in the forest...
Four Chronicle reporters update us on the impact of the big janitors strike today:
The Service Employees International Union says 1,700 janitors are on strike, no longer picking up the trash, cleaning the toilets and straightening up in dozens of buildings around town.
But an informal survey of tenants who work in the buildings being struck downtown, at Greenway Plaza and near Tanglewood found few signs of overflowing wastebaskets, messy bathrooms or dirty floors.
"I didn't know they were on strike," said Laura Lee, director of administration at Dancie Perugini Ware Public Relations at the Chase Tower, which is one of the buildings the SEIU has publicly targeted for its strike.
Our bustling, booming entrepreneurial city isn't going to shut down because a few hundred unskilled workers have gone on strike.
There must not be much local news if the Chron city desk was able to put four reporters on that tough topic!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/29/06 03:52 PM |
How does one get a $95 tax bill?
A veritable who's who of Harris County and Houston good ol' boys got together to roast and toast retiring state Sen. Jon Lindsay, and Matt Bramanti highlighted it as only Matt can.
LST wishes him well on his retirement. Hopefully he’s got enough cash stashed away to pay the $95 tax bill on his 13-acre tree farm.
Goodbye, Sen. Lindsay.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/29/06 08:40 AM |
28 October 2006
City bonuses subject of audit
Matt Stiles reports that the DA's office has asked Houston controller Annise Parker to begin an audit of all incentive bonuses handed out to city employees, because the bonuses could violate state law:
At the request of Harris County prosecutors, Parker recently began an audit of incentive payments since January 2004 in all city departments, including City Council and those that rewarded salaried employees with one-time bonuses for long hours worked during last year's hurricanes.
Parker said she thinks all the pay was authorized by supervisors, unlike the bonuses that led to the indictments last month of four workers in the Office of Mayor Pro Tem.
But some could have violated a provision in the Texas Constitution that prohibits using public money for gifts. Generally, cities must have incentive plans in place before giving employees extra compensation, Parker said.
"We honestly don't believe that there were any more illegal bonuses in the sense that someone had their hands in the till and no one was aware of it," she said after the Houston Chronicle obtained a copy of a memo notifying Mayor Bill White of the audit. "We think it's an inadvertent violation under state law."
[snip]
The Chronicle reported in March that one in six city employees had received some incentive pay during White's tenure, totaling about $4 million.
White strongly encourages one-time incentive payments for city employees, based on set performance criteria, as a way to reward hard work and improve service.
He has approved plans for employees at the 311 Service Helpline, for example, to receive extra pay when they meet their productivity goals.
Meeting goals gets a city employee bonus pay??? How about exceeding goals (usually the measure in the real world)? Meeting goals should mean one gets to keep one's job. Things sure are different when one has a government job, eh?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/28/06 07:18 PM |
Keeping a public transit agency's focus where it belongs
We've often noted the fact that Metro has done a great disservice to the public it supposedly serves by drastically cutting and altering bus routes over the past several years.
Reason's Out of Control blog points to an LA Times story that says Los Angeles' transit agency has just been relieved of a decade of court oversight which forced it to improve bus service for poor and minority riders. During the last ten years, LA's Metropolitan Transit Authority (unwillingly) transformed itself into a model transit agency after neglecting the riders it was intended to serve in the first place:
Under the consent decree, the MTA reluctantly purchased 1,472 natural gas-powered buses, added 1.3 million hours of service and increased security while maintaining low fares.
Those actions transformed the county's transportation system — once plagued by inoperable buses and frequent breakdowns, a lack of drivers, poor adherence to schedules and insufficient capacity — into a nationally recognized transit leader.
This month, the MTA — whose 2,000-bus fleet went from being one of the nation's oldest and dirtiest to one of its newest and cleanest — was ranked among the nation's best transit agencies by its trade group, the American Public Transportation Assn.
Where had the MTA's focus gone? To light rail that served affluent areas.
The NAACP, which represented bus riders, says it will be watching to see if the MTA goes back to its old ways:
Larson and others fear that, without the court's watchful eye, transit officials will return to neglecting the county's heavily used bus system to build and operate expensive subway and light-rail lines through more affluent neighborhoods.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/28/06 03:31 PM |
The Houston Zoo's role in saving Panamanian frogs
The Chron's Jeannie Kever has the fascinating story of how some folks from the Houston Zoo are aiding efforts to save endangered frogs in Panama from a fatal virus.
Room service for frogs -- what an image!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/28/06 02:11 PM |
27 October 2006
Food and drink roundup (10-27-2006 edition)
It seemed as if it would never come, but it's Friday. What a perfect day for a food and drink roundup.
Alison Cook gives us two reviews this week. Sushi is first on the menu (sorry) at Aka Japanese Cuisine out in far west Houston. The venerable Cafe Annie gets a look this week, too. It's a big city, and it's bound to happen, so Alison asks in her Chron blog what you would have done.
Robb Walsh has some interesting offerings. I neglected to mention this in the last roundup. He continued in his search for tacos de trompo by heading over to Taqueria Monterrey Chiquito. My diet has gone to heck already, so I'm going to have to make room for this before I come to my senses:
They call the sausage salchicha rioja. It isn't exactly a hot dog -- it looks like a fat red knockwurst. The pleasantly spicy red sausage is slit down the middle and the incision is stuffed with cheese, and then the whole thing is wrapped in bacon and grilled. The cheesy bacon dog is folded into a flour tortilla and garnished with avocado slices. For Latin American junk-food aficionados, this is a major find.
Yummy. He also tries Indika in Montrose. Finally, he does part Chinese buffet/part dim sum on the outskirts of Sharpstown's Chinatown at a new location of Kim Son. At least, I think it's the outskirts. That Chinatown area is growing.
Nicki Britton goes searching for the healthiest beef.
Dai Huynh marvels over the plethora of pomegranate products. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks pomegranate ale sounds good.
Ken Hoffman doesn't help my fall off the diet wagon with his review of Dunkin' Donuts' French Toast Twist.
In other news, Diedrich's Coffeehouse on Westheimer is shuttering November 6 to make room for an expanding hair salon next door. The booming local economy is helping local high-end restaurants see some profits. And Denis' Seafood not only has experienced a management change of late, it's going to get a new name as well. (Ah Houstonians. Take an infant to a seafood restaurant, know that infants aren't supposed to be exposed to seafood, and then complain there isn't anything but seafood on the menu. *sigh*)
And Kobain gets the attention of the Chron's Clubs and Bars section.
World Class all of it!! Enjoy!!
Posted by Callie Markantonis @ 10/27/06 11:04 AM |
METRO hopes to spread message via new blog
The Chronicle's Alexis Grant reports that METRO is about to enter the local blogosphere:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority is hoping for heavy traffic — to its blog.
The agency plans to unveil a Web site before the end of the year to communicate directly with the public and has hired a full-time blogger, former Houston Chronicle reporter Mary Sit.
"Communication is something we're always striving to improve on," said Raequel Roberts, spokeswoman for Metro. "A free-ranging dialogue is important, and we're hoping that we can establish this through a blog site."
Roberts said Sit just started developing the blog, so it's unclear what features it will include.
If the blog includes robust commenting functionality and METRO's leadership actually reads/responds to it, then a METRO blog could be a very useful tool for METRO riders with complaints/concerns.
The bolded excerpt, however, implies that METRO views its blog as simply another PR outlet, and that somehow the current outlets (the current website, the local media) aren't sufficient to get METRO's message out. We'd suggest that METRO's bigger problem is that it isn't sufficiently responsive/accountable to the public and to its users, not that it can't get its "message" out to the public. Here's hoping the blog helps with the former. METRO doesn't really need another outlet to issue misleading press releases on Friday nights!
On a purely self-referential note, we were amused that Grant worked in a reference to the "Danger Train." It greatly amuses me that the term was actually coined by my good, pro-rail friend John Vaughn one night after we saw some music at the Continental Club (along the rail line).
UPDATE: Grant's story also mentions HPD has looked into a blog. Maybe Chief Hurtt could post photos and stories from Phoenix on the weekends! And when spring training starts in the Phoenix 'burbs, he could even post baseball updates from the Cactus League!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, On Message, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/27/06 08:00 AM |
26 October 2006
Houston crime victims' advocate gets results
The Associated Press is running a story on Andy Kahan, director of the Mayor's crime victims' office.
Kahan recently convinced the Texas Department of Public Safety to change a policy under which it removed names of deported illegal immigrants from its sex offender database. As police discovered after the tragic death of officer Rodney Johnson, sometimes deported sex offenders return to our fine city! Apparently, Kahan was convincing, as the DPS moved quickly to change the policy after his request.
KTRK-13 reported the story last week, and Isiah Carey had a good blog post on the topic.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/26/06 10:30 PM |
25 October 2006
"Lucy" will be visiting Houston
The Chronicle's Eric Berger reports that "Lucy," the famous fossil, will be visiting Houston next year:
After four years of negotiations, officials with the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Ethiopia signed an agreement Tuesday finalizing details of a six-year U.S. tour beginning in September in Houston. Other confirmed cities include Washington, New York, Denver and Chicago.[snip]
The bones have never been exhibited abroad, and normally rest outside of public view in an Ethiopian Natural History Museum vault.
[snip]
It is not known how much the Houston museum and others will pay Ethiopia for the right to exhibit Lucy's bones, which will be titled Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia.
This is an unbelievable coup for Houston.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Yankee.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/25/06 09:09 PM |
[Previous 20 Entries] [Next 20 Entries]