08 April 2008
Mayor White's gonna FIRE people if airport expansion runs over budget!
You probably heard yesterday that a big expansion is scheduled for Terminal B at Bush Intercontinental (via KHOU-11):
Seven years and at least $1.2 billion from now, the outdated Terminal B will be five times bigger. There will be more gates, new regional jet facilities and a second federal inspection building that will allow for even more international flights.
When asked about the cost and time overruns that plagued Terminal E's expansion, Mayor White said:
If there is big cost overruns I'll fire people,
White insisted. “ I mean it was ridiculous what happened if you look at the project management costs.”
Whoa there, big guy! That's tough talk coming from someone who played dumb when it came to handing out Terminal C's food contract to a well-connected political donor. That's tough talk coming from someone who supported putting a local company out of business so a major city player could control the airport shuttle contract. And that's tough talk coming from someone who has been silent on the recent news that METRO's light rail project has gone from a cost of around $1.2 billion to upwards of $4 billion.
One question: If the project isn't scheduled for completion until 2015ish, how's Mayor White going to FIRE people if things don't run as planned? By executive order from the governor's mansion?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/08/08 05:07 AM |
07 April 2008
The DA runoff race nastiness ends tomorrow
Tomorrow is the big runoff election for Harris County District Attorney.
In the last week or so, the race has gotten particularly nasty. Pat Lykos, perhaps realizing that her temperament and lack of trial-lawyer experience (not to mention the endorsement of the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists) probably aren't going to sell her to Republican voters, has gone on the attack against her better qualified opponent, Kelly Siegler. Several local bloggers blasted one of the nastier pieces of attack literature against Siegler, put out by Terry Lowry (who seemingly runs an endorsement-for-hire shop).
Later, the Chronicle's Alan Bernstein did some digging into campaign financing, and reported (here and here) that the financial backing for the deceptively-named PAC behind another nasty anti-Siegler attack piece came from none other than.... Robert Eckels, who has also thrown tons of his leftover campaign cash to the general Lykos campaign.
That would be the same Robert Eckels who broke a commitment to people who elected him, so that he could leave politics.
Then, he effectively breaks the commitment to leave politics in order to finance vicious Lykos attacks on a fellow Republican.
As County Judge, Robert Eckels always seemed like a fairly decent sort. More recently? Not so much.
BLOGVERSATION: Harry Lime's Houston, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Harris County Criminal Justice (and here), The County Seat.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/07/08 11:04 PM |
Discovery Green is people! *
Discovery Green, Mayor White's grand park is about to open officially, and we've started to see both national and local media coverage of the matter.
Several days ago, the Chicago Sun-Times raved about the park (while emphasizing it's a "petite" version of that great city's Millennium Park), and the New York Times seemed awfully excited about the park.
On Sunday, the Chronicle's Mike Snyder offered a more balanced look at Discovery Green. Being the more balanced (and less cheerleading) sorts ourselves, we thought we'd share a few excerpts:
When the City Council approved the $8 million outlay on Dec. 1, 2004, council members Addie Wiseman and Gordon Quan cast the only "no" votes. Both have since left the council because of term limits.
Wiseman dissented because there was no guarantee that general tax revenues would never be used for the park, and Quan said he was concerned because White's staff couldn't answer questions such as how parking would be provided. The decision to build a parking garage under Discovery Green was made later.
Another concern often expressed about downtown parks is that they're likely to attract homeless people. Root Memorial Square, a small city park just south of Discovery Green, was the site of homeless encampments for years.
Experts on designing urban parks say the best way to prevent this is to keep them filled with people and activity.
[snip]
Because Discovery Green is in a "challenging location," [Phil] Myrick said, it will have to offer compelling activities to attract visitors from far-flung neighborhoods.
"Consider your average person on a Saturday or Sunday. Are they really going to pack up the kids and head downtown, or stay closer to home?" Myrick asked. "If downtown is the only audience (for the park), it will be a terrible waste."
Guy Hagstette, the park's director, said he's keenly aware of this challenge. Planners have worked hard, he said, to develop attractions and activities that appeal to all kinds of people. Almost all of the activities, with the exception of model boats and parking in the underground garage, will be free.
People who enjoy trendy games can play bocce, an Italian sport similar to lawn-bowling, while more traditional Texans can pitch horseshoes. Part of the model boat pool will be frozen during winter months for ice skating. Children can frolic in a "mist tree" that also serves as a piece of public art and a place for joggers to cool off.
The Houston Public Library will offer indoor and outdoor reading rooms and plans to provide free WiFi service throughout the park.
Discovery Green is a lovely trinket, and perhaps it will draw heavy use from our diverse community. Who knows, we may have to have a blogHOUSTON bocce gathering some weekend (if we can figure out exactly how that might work).
Incidentally, we found Slampo's take on Discovery Green much more entertaining than the stuff from those Chicago and New York newspapers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/07/08 09:57 PM |
Frank Wilson: We'll produce details after contract is signed
After we learned last week that the cost of METRO's proposed new light rail lines rose astronomically, the Chron's Rad Sallee asked METRO's President Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson for his reaction. In essence, Frank says, "Don't worry, be happy."
He does admit there was a bit of lowballing in the initial estimates, but it's nothing. Really.
Sallee worked the math and still came up with a staggering dollar figure -- $3.3 billion for five lines. Wilson's response?
Wilson was emphatic Friday that the five lines together will cost less than $3 billion, but he wouldn't say how much less.
[snip]
[...]the above does not touch on commuter rail or expanded bus service. Metro's resources would appear to fall short, but Wilson said the whole package can be done.
He said he'd produce the details after that contract is signed.
That sounds familiar. That's similar to Mayor White's response whenever he's asked for details about a soccer stadium.
Not that there's any mystery about how government REALLY works, but it's still rather surprising when pols slip and confirm what we suspect goes on all the time. Especially in METRO's case.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/07/08 05:16 AM |
06 April 2008
KTRK-13 still fighting for sheriff's emails
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg reports that the station is going back to court to try to obtain emails from the sheriff's office, after an agreement between the parties apparently fell apart:
KTRK-TV is again taking on the Harris County Sheriff over access to public information.
This was the third time Channel 13's gone to court to try to force the sheriff to turn over email. Thursday the sheriff was about to sign off on a deal that would've done just that. His lawyer encouraged him to do it. Then the sheriff changed his mind and went back to court.
This entire argument is about email. Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas' and his staff's email.
In the midst of Chuck Rosenthal's email issues and after we had asked for some of the sheriff's own email, the sheriff ordered the deletion of more than 700,000 email messages.
A move that surprised even his own staffers and Channel 13 thought was a little strange.
"It can be viewed as suspicious that two days after Mr. Dolcefino interviews Sheriff Thomas, this email comes out ordering the deletion of every email more than 14 days old," said KTRK attorney John Edwards.
The station filed a lawsuit in January and asked a judge to order the sheriff to turn the emails over. It's the third time we've been to court. A trip even the county attorney seems to think shouldn't have been necessary.
"We thought we had the case settled on a number of occasions," said Harris County Attorney Mike Stafford. "Yesterday a little before 10, the sheriff called and he had grave reservations about settling the case."
Just before that call, Channel 13 understood the sheriff had agreed to turn all the email over and even pay the station's legal costs. But when the sheriff changed his mind, the county attorney says he has no choice but to fight it out in court.
When he fights you pay for it. And no one knows what the sheriff is still trying to keep secret.
This is turning into one of those instances where the bizarre efforts to avoid turning over public information (including the lame argument that emails archived to backup tapes aren't subject to public information requests) begin to look worse than whatever may be in the emails in question. Here's hoping that the judge rejects that argument, and KTRK finally gets the emails it has requested.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/06/08 10:58 PM |
HPD: Murders down through first quarter of the year
At the end of the week, HPD announced some good news:
HPD officials say that the City of Houston has recorded the fewest numbers of murders for the first quarter of this year since 2005.
The unofficial numbers show 78 murders were recorded through the first three months of this year.
There were 88 murders for the same period in 2007. That’s an 11.3 percent decrease.
While we would prefer that city leaders focus on getting HPD staffing up to acceptable levels and that HPD leaders embrace a COMPSTAT-oriented approach to crimefighting, we'll certainly take some good news. Here's hoping the numbers hold through the entire year.
RELATED COVERAGE: Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/06/08 10:50 PM |
A momentary break....
What a terrific weekend! Hopefully you have been out enjoying it, getting some sun and enjoying the great temps. Gotta stay healthy, you know.
Anyway, here's a story from Chron.com yesterday about how the Harris County Toll Road Authority has installed new cameras that aim to catch bad guys. You won't be surprised which local agency is eager to jump on board:
Harris County Toll Road Authority cameras are now on the lookout for more than just those drivers who blow through EZ Tag lanes without paying. County authorities promise new, upgraded cameras can help catch murderers and other violent criminals.
The cameras have the capability to search their databases and issue alerts to county dispatchers when a wanted criminal crosses their lenses.
"We're going to be catching a lot of bad guys," said Assistant Chief Deputy Randy Johnson, of the Precinct 5 Constable's Office, who also serves as the incident management administrator for the toll road authority.
Eleven cameras already are in place and another 24 will be installed by the end of the month. The toll road authority plans to install cameras throughout the toll system by the end of the year. Five similar cameras are mounted on deputy constables' patrol cars, Johnson said.
The system, which has been operating for about a month, has proved so promising that the Houston Police Department wants a piece of the action. Harris County leaders next week will consider an agreement that would include the HPD in the county system at no cost.
"This is a good law enforcement tool," HPD spokesman John Cannon said. "It's a technology we would be foolish to ignore."
Of course! This a dream scenario for Chief Hurtt, who has a serious camera fetish. He can piggy-back on Harris County's system without having to pay a cent.
Here's another idea: Recall how Houston's aging emergency radio network needs to be replaced. Harris County is light-years ahead of Houston in that regard, having already upgraded its radio system to a top-notch digital system. Maybe Houston can find some way to piggy-back on Harris County's radio system since it doesn't seem to be a priority for MayorWhiteChiefHurtt.
MORE ON CAMERA SURVEILLANCE: CCTV 'does not stop crime' (London's Evening Standard), Does camera surveillance in public areas reduce crime? (Grits for Breakfast)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/06/08 05:03 PM |
05 April 2008
Adventures in Chron headline writing (cont'd)
Matt Bramanti's keen eye spots a Chron headline that doesn't quite match the accompanying story.
Here's the headline:
And here's the story (with the relevant part in bold):
What meteorologists call a supercell thunderstorm passed across North Texas, damaging homes with hail the size of softball.
In Wise County, emergency dispatchers received two reports of damaged homes early this morning. A Wise County emergency dispatcher said one home had windows shattered because of hail and the other had its windows blow in by straight-line winds.
The dispatcher said there was hail the size of baseballs out at Decatur Airport and softball-sized hail at the sheriff's department.
We sometimes wonder if Chron headline writers are reading the same stories.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/08 02:31 PM |
04 April 2008
METRO's expensive blogger lauds new search engine; users disagree
METRO's expensive blogger recently commented on the redesign of the transit organization's website, lauding one feature in particular:
Perhaps the biggest feature you'll appreciate is the search engine we've incorporated. Want to look up the next Board of Directors meeting date? Enter key words in the search window and let the computer find it for you.
As is often the case with METRO, actual user experience deviates somewhat from the celebratory press releases. Here are the first two comments on the post:
John said:
What ever happened to MetroLink? That service that sent you alerts of certain streets were going to be closed and route changes, etc. I can't find it anywhere on the site. Try searching for it on that searching for it and the links provided all went to the standard 404 not there page..
# April 3, 2008 5:39 PM
Elizabeth said:
John, it took some digging, but here's a working link for MetroLink:
http://www.ridemetro.org/News/METROLink/content/default.asp
# April 3, 2008 8:12 PM
The 404 message* seems appropriate for METRO, actually.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/04/08 07:48 PM |
03 April 2008
Hubert Vo's "next step toward positive change": ridding himself of slumlord status! (updated)
When state Rep. Hubert Vo (D-Houston) kicked off his reelection campaign, he said:
"We've come a long way in a short time, and now we have a chance to take the next step toward positive change," Vo said. "Let's consolidate the gains of the past three years and move forward together to make our schools better, our families healthier, and our community stronger."
As today's news highlights, he could have done his own part toward making some families healthier and a community stronger:
City building inspectors on Wednesday issued several safety citations against an East End apartment complex owned by state Rep. Hubert Vo.
The citations to the Courtyard Apartments on Villa de Matel allege eight structural and electrical problems, including rotting wood, missing balcony railings, loose boards and broken windows, city officials said.
"There were the kinds of things you'd see in a building that has not been well-maintained," said Susan McMillian, a senior staff analyst in the city's Public Works and Engineering Department. "It needed more intense maintenance than what had been done."
Homeowners in the nearby County Club neighborhood have complained about the property for years, calling it a visual blight and a magnet for crime.
"It's really a deplorable situation, and the sad thing is that people are actually living there," said Charles Mayfield, a member of the area's Super Neighborhood Council. "It's really disheartening to see, and surprising, to say the least, that anybody — no matter who they are — would let the property get into such a condition."
The Chron's Matt Stiles visited the property today and has posted pictures of the dilapidated building on the Houston Politics blog. Stiles also recounts how the property manager tried to shoo him away; however, readers will not be surprised that Stiles wasn't deterred -- he soon was given a tour of the complex to see ongoing repair work.
Let's visit Vo's website again:
Hubert has been responsive when people in District 149 needed help. He led a three year battle against TXDOT’s efforts to build two very unpopular overpasses in the district. When developers attempted to bring more state funded multi-family housing projects to the Highway 6 area he was able to protect the already over-crowded schools and over extended infrastructure in those areas by stopping the new construction. He went to bat for homeowners along the West Park Tollroad for much needed sound walls and he has fought against developers wanting to build houses on a closed landfill in the district. Time and time again he has fought and won for the district.
Too bad he wasn't fighting for decent living conditions for the residents in his apartment buildings.
UPDATE: A reader emails that Vo's $4.5 million abode is for sale. Asking price -- $4.7 million. He's probably just been waiting for it to sell so he could afford needed improvements to his other properties.
I'll bet there aren't any rats in the mansion.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Texas Liberal.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/03/08 07:22 PM |
02 April 2008
Radio Mojo "stars" as unoriginal and crude as ever
Walton and Johnson, the uninspiring duo who were inexplicably given hours upon hours of airtime to fill on a once-important Houston radio station after Michael "Babe Pages" Berry managed to depose most everyone who knew much about radio programming, have (inadvertently) produced some attention-grabbing entertainment over the last couple of days.
As noted by Laurence Simon earlier, the duo apparently lifted some material verbatim from the Say Anything blog.
Except that now, the Walton and Johnson blog entry containing the plagiarism has simply been... rewritten, with the offending material removed (but there's still my furled copy -- nothing ever truly goes away on the internet), and no explanation given. Nicely played!
How unfortunate that a once-important Houston radio station is now the flagship for profane plagiarists and babe pages.
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/02/08 11:22 PM |
01 April 2008
Dangerous time/place/behavior update (04/01/2008)
Courtesy of KTRK-13 comes this dangerous time/place/behavior update from yesterday:
DeChaumes Elementary School parents are on alert tonight after the school principal telephoned to warn them about the attempted abduction of a student on a city street Monday.
An 11-year-old boy reported he was walking to DeChaumes Elementary Monday at about 7:45am when a man grabbed him, threw him to the ground and ripped his shirt. The student was not harmed, and he ran away a short distance back to a home on Rittenhouse street where he notified family members. After receiving the report, HISD Police immediately increased patrols in the area of the school.
Principal Sandy Gaw contacted 349 homes before DeChaumes students were dismissed this afternoon to warn parents about the attempted abduction. HISD Police are searching for the suspect.
The suspect is described as an African American male wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans. The student said the man who attacked him is 5'11" to 6' feet tall, between 35 and 40 years old, weighs 160 to 175 pounds and has black hair. The student said he saw the man driving a black four-door Cadillac from the model years 1991 to 1995.
You should add "walking to school, about 7:45 in the morning, near DeChaumes Elementary School" to the list of dangerous time/place/behavior situations to avoid, if you don't want to become a crime victim in Houston.
Incidentally, anyone notice anything interesting about this coverage in the Chronicle?
The alleged abductor is described as 5 feet 11 inches to about 6 feet tall. He is between 35 and 40 years old and weights 160 to 175 pounds. He has black hair. The student told police he saw the man driving a black four-door Cadillac from the model years 1991 to 1995.
Leaving aside the typo ("weights" instead of "weighs"), the Chronicle appears to go out of its way to remove any mention of race, even though it is part of a physical description (credit to Polimom for the catch). Recall that the Chronicle's former reader representative James Campbell previously downplayed criticism of such Chronicle shenanigans, contending that including racial information in such descriptions might lead to "racial scorekeeping."
Unfortunately, with Campbell's departure from the newspaper and the ongoing downsizing, the current Chronicle reader representative has not continued the reader representative column, rarely posts to the About:Chron blog, and rarely responds to blog comments/emails, so we don't expect him to have anything useful to say about this silly practice of the newspaper. In fact, we're not quite sure why the newspaper even bothers with the pretense of having an ombudsman (because Jeff Cohen could just as easily avoid critical phone calls with a good secretary and/or voicemail system).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/01/08 11:59 PM |
Playground equipment probably didn't spontaneously combust
Yesterday, KTRK-13's Deborah Wrigley reported on vandalism at a Bellaire park:
There is a plea to parents to help find the person who torched a popular playground in Bellaire.
Slides and swings were destroyed over the weekend at The Russ Pitman Park on Newcastle.
This is not the biggest crime you've heard of, but consider where it happened. A neighborhood park and a playground where small children got to play, slide and climb. There is something almost sacred about these kinds of spaces and now one of them has been violated.
On one side of Evergreen Street, a playground is now closed off with yellow tape. On the other, school children have to make do with another playground intended for larger kids.
Parents are trying to make sense of why the slide set and a jungle gym in Pitman Park is no more than melted plastic and twisted metal.
"Maybe they were playing around, messing around and started something," hypothesized parent Madeleine Peterman. "Why would you destroy a playground?"
The fire was reported around 4:30am Sunday and investigators expect gasoline or charcoal fluid may have started it. The materials burned like a tire.
The Chronicle's stellar headline writers brought their usual skill to the Hearst daily's probing coverage today:
The Chron.com commenters have some fun with that statement of the obvious.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/01/08 11:26 PM |
31 March 2008
Tuna mercury levels exceed federal guidelines in some Houston restaurants
Houston sushi fans may be interested in this news from the Chronicle's David Ellison:
Samples of bluefin tuna purchased recently from six Houston-area restaurants had mercury levels above federal guidelines, according to laboratory tests performed for the Houston Chronicle. An additional five showed mercury levels just below the federal standard.
What does that mean to sushi lovers in Houston? That depends on whom you talk to and how much you eat.
Experts and doctors are divided on the health effects of eating fish with high levels of mercury, or even what constitutes a dangerous level of contamination.
"I'm a toxicologist," said Ernest D. Lykissa, co-owner of ExperTox, the laboratory that performed the tests for the Chronicle last month. "I was a connoisseur of sushi. I don't eat tuna anymore after this study."
Others, including the seafood industry, argue that exceeding the Food and Drug Administration's 1 part per million guideline for methyl mercury in seafood does not put a person in danger of toxicity.
So, bluefin tuna sushi fans, what say you? Does this news change your dining plans at all, or do you find the risks overblown? Leave us a comment.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/31/08 10:24 PM |
Mobility Response Team in action early this morning!
I ran across a few members of Mayor White's "Mobility Response Team" on their cute little scooters this morning, and managed to get a photo:
THAT is world class!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/31/08 09:57 PM |
FTA forces METRO to get realistic about new lines' cost
Rad Sallee's Move It! column is devoted to the news that METRO has been given approval to go ahead with preliminary work on the North and Southeast lines.
However, the Federal Transit Administration also told METRO their cost projections needed to be updated...dramatically:
The Federal Transit Administration, using data provided by Metro, said in its letters that the estimated cost of the North line, which would run 5.5 miles from north of downtown to Northline Mall, has risen to $677 million, from $276 million. The Southeast Line, 6.8 miles from downtown to Palm Center, has risen to $664 million, from $158 million, the FTA said.
By comparison, the 7.5-mile Main Street line cost $324 million and needs $104 million in new rail cars and improvements.
The FTA also sent a review of Metro's proposals that attributes the increases largely to the higher costs of light rail than BRT, which uses special buses running on guideways. The increases also reflect light rail's higher ridership projections, extended through 2030, which would require 29 new rail cars and other infrastructure.
Then there are the rising costs of fuel, labor and construction materials. Although Metro's estimates assume 3.5 percent annual inflation, the FTA reviews describe this as optimistic and say Metro should "refine and update" its figures.
Wow! That's quite the underestimating!
You may recall what METRO asked for in the original 2003 referendum:
1. Metro wants to issue $640 million in bonds to accelerate construction of the next 22 miles of light rail on five segments. These would open between 2008 and 2012. Metro says the bond issue will not result in a tax increase. State law does not allow the transit authority to raise its 1-cent sales tax.
Shoot, that won't even cover one line now. But that's how taxpayers have been stuck with these boondoggle rail systems -- wildly underestimated costs, and as Sallee notes toward the end of his column:
But just remember that transit, unlike some toll roads, loses money. Little if any of this would come from profits from transit service itself.
It's all taxpayer-funded.
Also in Sallee's column is a breakdown of METRO's resources. And since there are no funding guarantees from the FTA, METRO's resources are critical.
What a waste of money. METRO would better serve residents of Houston and surrounding communities by focusing on bus service.
UPDATE: As noted in the forum, Neal Meyer has written a post about the new cost projections. Neal crunches the numbers and discovers that METRO Solutions light rail will now cost $4 billion!
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Off the Kuff, Houston Strategies.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/31/08 05:13 AM |
30 March 2008
Queen Sheila may not like this video footage
Houstonians are very familiar with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's love of TV cameras.
KHOU-11 posts a story that probably isn't going to be among Queen Sheila's favorite videos, though. Here's an excerpt (but be sure to click over to watch the actual video):
On the campus of Texas Southern University was a Democratic Senate District convention unlike the others being held across the state.Democrats together, but yet still divided over who should be the Democratic presidential nominee.
And never more was that more apparent than when longtime Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee took the stage.
A majority of the crowd showed its support for Barack Obama by shouting his name and booing the congresswoman, letting her know what they thought of her allegiance to Hillary Clinton.
That's not the sort of behavior the Queen expects from her subjects!
BLOGVERSATION: Greg's Opinion.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/30/08 09:26 PM |
Medellin Take Two: Editorial LiveJournalists fail to cite nonexistent treaty
The Editorial LiveJournalists opined earlier in the week on the recent Supreme Court decision in Medellin v. Texas.
Unlike the last time they wrote about the matter, they didn't seem to create any new treaties this time.
Baby steps!
Today, the Chronicle runs an op-ed by Texas solicitor general Ted Cruz in defense of the decision. He didn't create any new treaties either.
The full text of the Medellin v. Texas decision is available here (registration required).
BLOGVERSATION: Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/30/08 08:56 PM |
It's surprising Chief Lambert didn't come down and Taser her!
Carolyn Wright writes a letter to the Chronicle about her recent experience on METRO's transit backbone:
On March 12, I had a court appearance at 9 a.m. At Fannin South station, I tried to purchase a ticket for Metro's rail. None of the four ticket machines were working. No attendant was on duty and no instructions were posted.
On the trip downtown, a Metro policeman began collecting tickets. I tried to explain that I had no ticket because the machines weren't working. He became very offensive. He said in an extremely hateful tone, "We have passed at least 10 ticket machines since Fannin South — you should have gotten off the train, purchased a ticket and boarded the next train!" I told him I had no idea about this procedure — this was only the second time I had ridden, and no instructions were posted anywhere.
At the next stop, he told me and another woman to get off the train. He began talking very loudly and belligerently. He said he was only giving us a "warning" but threatened that this "better not happen again."
This situation might explain why Metro gets a bad reputation. People traveling by train on an occasional basis have no way of knowing the "rules"! Instructions of what to do should be posted somewhere around the ticket machines.
CAROLYN WRIGHT
Kemah
Neither customer service nor transparency are strengths of METRO.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/30/08 08:36 PM |
28 March 2008
Rosenthal, attorney fined over deleted emails
Various media outlets have reported on the latest (and perhaps the last) bad news for former Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal. Here is an excerpt from the Chronicle:
A federal judge ordered former Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal to pay nearly $19,000 in sanctions after finding him in contempt of court for deleting more than 2,500 e-mails that had been subpoenaed for a federal civil rights lawsuit.
Additionally on Friday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ordered Scott Durfee, general counsel for the district attorney's office, to pay $5,000 in sanctions after finding Durfee failed to appropriately act or advise Rosenthal on the matter.
Both Rosenthal and Durfee have until April 30 to pay their respective fines, according to the judge's order, released late Friday.
[snip]In blistering and scathing language, Hoyt's court order rebukes Rosenthal for "knowingly" violating the Oct. 31 subpoena seeking his e-mails.
"The court finds several areas of contradictions and misrepresentations that render (Rosenthal's) testimony unreliable and incredible. Moreover, the court views his conduct as venomous and hostile to the judicial process," Hoyt wrote.
[snip]
"There is no evidence that Rosenthal's computer memory space was threatened by additional e-mails or that, in fact, it was short of space. Hence, these reasons — all implausible inconsistencies — defy the law of common sense," Hoyt wrote.
Rosenthal's conduct also showed "an intentional willfulness" to disobey the law, Hoyt concluded.
The actual punishment doesn't seem as harsh as the language.
The Harris County GOP must be relieved about now that Rosenthal won't be on the ballot this fall.
BLOGVERSATION: Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, Defending People.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/28/08 11:31 PM |
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