This mess is a place

Or in this case, an ill-conceived "transit" plan that's looking more and more like the obstinate obsession of a child, rather than a well thought-out, reasoned project designed by adults....

(from Rad Sallee of the Chron)

Metropolitan Transit Authority officials announced Tuesday they have ended talks with Washington Group International to be prime contractor on four planned light rail lines, saying the two sides were "hundreds of millions" of dollars apart.

Metro now will try to reach an agreement with Parsons Transportation Group, which ranked second among three candidates for the job when WGI was chosen in January 2007, Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson said.

Wilson said WGI will be compensated $77 million for design and engineering work to date, most of which has been paid. He said Parsons will build on that head start, allowing the projects to move forward on schedule.

The Metro board last week approved paying Parsons up to $12 million for work it will perform through December.

Metro announced the change at a hastily called news conference.

(snip)

Because of the negotiations, Wilson would not reveal what he described as the "constantly moving number" that Metro thinks is fair payment for a contractor to design, build, operate and maintain the North, Southeast, East End and Uptown lines. He also declined to reveal WGI's cost estimate for the four lines and another estimate prepared for Metro by a consultant, although he said both figures were made known to Parsons.

A financial capacity analysis prepared for Metro this month put the cost of the entire Metro Solutions Phase 2 plan at $2.6 billion. However, that includes a fifth light rail project, the University line, which is longer and likely to be more costly than the others.

Wilson said Metro plans to start construction on the East End line in June and on the North and Southeast lines in September. Construction on the Uptown line is expected to depend on funding for the University line.

Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association, a free-market group critical of the rail plans, said he was not surprised, as there have been reports of a contract impasse for weeks.

"I do not believe it won't be a setback," Klein said. "It's a different company and they're going to have different ideas of what they want in the contract. They are starting afresh."

Robin Holzer, chairwoman of the Citizens Transportation Coalition, a grass-roots group that supports the rail plans, said that it was more important that Metro, and whoever the contractor is, get the details right. "We are more worried about the connections and whether it's neighborhood-friendly than in who gets the contract," Holzer said.

Apologies for the long quotation, but there's a lot of information in the story (a very well written story btw) that deserves further scrutiny.

The first of which is Metro's admission that the finanical target for completion of the line is a "moving number". Meaning that even Metro is unsure of the ultimate cost structure and scope of a project that they designed from the outset. It tells me that there are some questions regarding some of the engineering principles that Metro has forwarded, which (by the by) calls into quesion the reliability of the DEIS that Metro has relied upon in their applications for Federal funding.

If the cost structures are potentially wrong then the analysis that Metro's consultants gleaned from those numbers are wrong as well. Rail supporters won't want to hear that, but its just a fact. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the FTA comes back and tells Metro to go back to the drawing board and provide them with some real numbers, and not pie-in-the-sky projections that are looking more divorced from reality every day.

In a sense, Robin Holzer is correct, Whoultimately gets the contract to build isn't important, but she then makes the mistake of assuming that how the lines are built is the primary concern. Barry Klein is assuming that when is the key question, he's wrong as well.


The important bit in all of this is what the thing is ultimately going to cost?

That's the question that I'm certain the FTA is starting to ask itself this morning after seeing this story. I'm betting that Metro's phones are ringing off the hook.


OTHER EYES:

BlogHouston: Metro moves to second choice contractor, solutions cost is a moving target

The Crime Lab, C.O. Bradford and Rev. Lawson's response.

Kuffner brings attention to Rev. William Lawson's written response to Mrs. White's scolding of DA candidate (and former HPD Chief) C.O. Bradford regarding his role in the now infamous "K-mart raids" of 2002.

From Mrs. White:

It was one of the worst episodes in the Houston Police Department's history. In mid-August 2002, a two-night police sweep to crack down on illegal street racing went badly awry. Hundreds of bystanders at a Kmart parking lot and nearby restaurants were arrested without cause, handcuffed and held on charges of trespassing and curfew violations.

In the ensuing public outcry, all charges were dropped and the Police Department launched an investigation. The HPD captain in charge of the raids, Mark Aguirre, was fired and later acquitted of official oppression charges. Disciplinary action was taken against dozens of other officers and staff members. The police chief at the time, C.O. Bradford, claimed he was unaware of the details of the planned sweep before it happened. Aguirre claimed Bradford had been informed of the plan and chose to scapegoat his subordinates.

The former chief is now the Democratic nominee for Harris County district attorney.

The Rev. Lawson's response:

I am deeply concerned about a recent editorial apparently opposing former Police Chief C. O. Bradford, who is a candidate for District Attorney. Let's say for a moment that, as the Chronicle implies, Chief Bradford was entirely responsible for the officers' behavior at the scene of the street racing raid. Fine. Chief Bradford knows where the buck stops. He took steps to remedy the situation and made the difficult decision to fire the officers who had created the problem on the scene.

Contrast that with Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas and the Chronicle's evaluation of his performance. In June 2004, the Chronicle editorialized about several questionable shootings by Harris County deputies. The Chronicle reported that Sheriff's deputies had shot 19 unarmed citizens over a period of time, six of whom were teenagers. They further reported that sheriff's deputies numbered fewer than half the officers of HPD and produced almost twice as many such shootings over the same period. One person shot was described by the Chronicle not as a violent suspect but as an "erratic driver."

According to the Chronicle: "Burt Springer, a lawyer for the Harris County Deputies' Organization, had this to say about an innocent passenger paralyzed by a deputy's bullet while riding with a suspected car burglar: 'If you lay down with dogs you get fleas.' Such scant regard for the innocent is seldom stated so baldly."

Just a few months after reporting on these problems with the Sheriff's office, the Chronicle turned around and actually endorsed Sheriff Thomas writing, "The professionalism of the department's investigators and deputies is in evidence." With its knowledge of all of these problems-problems that cost Harris County residents their lives-the Chronicle endorsed Sheriff Thomas and praised his professionalism, as well as that of his deputies.

The Houston Chronicle must explain why multiple shootings of unarmed teenagers by Sheriff Thomas' deputies should be endorsed, while a good African American public servant like Chief Bradford should be demonized for his efforts to make the city safer.

I would hate to think it is because Bradford is African American, or because the Chronicle wants him out of the way so that the paper can endorse another candidate. James Campbell would never do that. It is painfully clear that the Chronicle has set two separate but unequal standards for our public officials. Those of us in the black community will be waiting for the Chronicle's explanation-not Chief Bradford's.

And so begins the second stage of the Harris County DA's race amid charges of racism, dishonesty, and some creative fact finding by the good Reverend on at least one issue.

1. "Chief Bradford knows where the buck stops. He took steps to remedy the situation and made the difficult decision to fire the officers who had created the problem on the scene."

In all actuality, the problem with Bradford's handling of the K-mart incident, in many people's eyes, is that he didn't understand where the buck stopped. His entire defense was predicated on you believing the fact that he knew nothing about the raids and that they were entirely carried out by a group of renegade officers, officers who were fired in part because they didn't keep him appraised of the facts.

Whether you are a supporter of Mr. Bradford or no (Full disclosure: I haven't decided yet because the Republican alternative is pretty scary as well) his lack of management while performing the duties of HPD Chief have to give you a moments pause. That is, they should concern you if you're goal is to get a good DA, and not just to vote for someone because they are in the "correct" party. If you're for Bradford because he's a Democrat then none of this matters to you in the first place. Ditto if you support/oppose him based on skin color.


Which leads us back to the Chron's "biased" coverage of the Bradford campaign. Media "bias" is a charge brought into play by both sides when news coverage is skewed against their side. It's then conveniently played down when the other side waves the flag. Rev. Lawson accusing Mrs. White of racism is preposterous, especially when you consider that he was largly silent when Mrs. White continually endorsed Mayor Brown, especially after things started going South in his administration.

And that's where the rub lies in my opinion, back in the past. C.O. Bradford hearkens back to a dark time in the Chron's life-cycle, back when Dynegy and Enron existed, the Brown administration was bankrupting the City and scandal and mis-management was given a free-pass by the local newspaper of record. The full revelation of the uncritical eye was laid bare when Channel 11 (not the Chron) burst the Crime Lab story wide open, much to the chagrin of Hearst Publishing Corp.

Fast forward to today and the Chron is at the forefront of most scandal stories. If they don't break it, they're quick to respond to it, and fairly robust in their reporting. The Chron didn't call for Rosenthal to resign because they were providing a large amount of coverage to other saying he should. Also, to be fair, they're not calling for Bradford to withdraw from the race, only to give a full account of his role in the raid. They're encouraging him to be upfront.


They don't want to do too much however, lest the public starts poking around and uncovers some old wounds that are still fairly raw.


That's the problem that the Chron has when covering the C.O. Bradford campaign...dig too deep and they go back to dark days. Don't dig deep enough and you're accused of "bias" by a number of people on both sides of the aisle.



Maybe all of us would benefit from a full re-hashing of those days. Not only the public, before they elect one of Mayor Brown's top associates back into office, but the Chron also, who dropped the media ball during his tenure.

Code for: "costs more"

Carolyn Feibel reports that Houston's poised to make it illegal to not be green in building....

Houston builders will have to incorporate "green" design techniques such as heat-trapping vestibules and "cool roofs" that deflect sunlight under a proposed new energy code for commercial buildings.

The City Council could pass the new code for commercial buildings on Wednesday. A new residential code also is being developed and could come before the council next month.

Houston adopted its first energy codes in 2002 in response to a state mandate. This would be the first update, and it is decidedly more "green" than its predecessor.

"Obviously, with energy prices increasing, everybody's concerned that the building stock be efficient and not contributing to more emissions at the power plants," said Sheila Blake, an assistant director for code enforcement in the city's Department of Public Works and Engineering.

If passed, the new code would apply to all new construction of commercial buildings as well as residential buildings of more than three stories. It's adapted from a 2004 code created by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

The code would require simple things like covers for heated pools. But it delves into specific material requirements for required "cool roofs" that absorb less solar radiation. Acceptable types of window glass would have to strike a balance between energy insulation and a good view, Blake said.

New buildings of at least four stories would be required to have vestibules to prevent Houston's hot, humid air from rushing in when doors open and close. That was an addition to the engineering code created especially for the city's climate, said Bob Burch, an engineer with Carter & Burgess and a member of the city's Construction Industry Council. The CIC, an umbrella association for various builders groups, worked with the city on the new code.

The prevailing wisdom is that these changes will "pay for themselves" in a relatively short period of time:

"It's a good thing," said Councilman Peter Brown, an architect and head of the council's Sustainable Growth Committee. "People who don't want it are people who are concerned about the minimal extra cost of construction. That's clearly offset within say, a five-year period by the energy savings."

Burch said many of the requirements would pay for themselves in three years, or less.

"The entire industry is going toward the green," he said. "These are all things that are industry-proven and can be done and should be done."

That last bit leads me to wonder if legislation of this type is mere window dressing to provide a heavier hand to the Government in the future rather than sound public policy designed with the public benefit in mind. If the industry is moving that direction organically then is there really a need for additional hoops to help them get where they already are?

And how will this work to stifle 'new' green technologies that come down the pipe? Will they be overlooked (or stifled) in the place of the codified technologies?

Building codes should be about safety and quality of construction, not as a means of dictating technology.

What typically happens is that technology moves faster than the government can incorporate it into the code, and citizens are left wanting because of the well-meaning legislative foibles of small-pond politicians.

Pot, kettle

You've met before right?

(from Mrs. White of course)

During a hard-fought campaign last year to pass a bond issue, Houston Independent School District officials were lambasted by opponents for failing to get community input for the spending plan. The issue of school consolidation and some closings in mostly minority neighborhoods generated a voter backlash that nearly defeated the referendum.

HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra says the district is working on initiatives to improve communications with the public. "Last fall as we did our bond issue," the superintendent said, "the biggest message to us was 'you're not communicating, and when you do, it's too late. It doesn't mean anything.' "

(snip)

Decades ago HISD meetings were broadcast on Houston's PBS station and attracted a large viewership. Because the board was then fragmented between liberal and conservative elements, the meetings were often raucous. Some board members now are reluctant to televise the meetings for fear it might encourage some members or speakers to grandstand for the cameras. That doesn't seem to be a problem with meetings of the Houston City Council, Harris County Commissioners Court or the Houston Community College board, all of which are televised.

Superintendent Saavedra sidestepped the issue in a conversation with the Chronicle editorial board, saying, "I don't have an answer to that as to why we don't or should we consider it. We've never discussed it, actually."

Unlike the plans to hire an outside firm or create a new communications czar position, the meetings can be brought to the public at little additional expense. If the district wants to increase transparency and communicate better with Houstonians — rather than simply controlling its message — the easiest place to start is making its public deliberations available on television.

Hmmm...Calls for televised meetings from an Editorial staff that prides itself on its ability to have closed, private meetings with influential public leaders and then refuses to release the transcripts or provide recordings of the meetings for the public to digest?


Nah, never happen.

The times they are a' changin...

The Chron's Alan Bernstein provides an interesting glimpse a t the changing landscape of Texas politics, and the Hispanics that are increasingly having a say in how things are decided...

Hispanics on the voter rolls have nearly tripled in the passing of a generation; the number of Hispanic lawmakers from here is inching upward. The Democratic Party, if it captures county judgeships and government positions for the first time in 14 years, will owe much to a stimulated Hispanic vote and Hispanic candidates, such as Houston councilman Adrian Garcia, who is running for sheriff.

Harris County, however, continues to hold the largest Hispanic population in the United States that has never sent a Hispanic to Congress. And there is a staggering gap between its burgeoning vote of nearly 300,000 and the total number of Hispanic residents, 1.48 million, which includes all ages and residency statuses. Latinos make up 15 percent of the county's electorate and 38-plus percent of its population, the U.S. Census Bureau and Harris County officials report.

In other words, the so-called sleeping giant, known as the Houston area's fastest-growing voting group, has been making slow progress without yet achieving dominant clout.

"It's not asleep, and it's not a giant," University of Houston political scientist Richard Murray said. "It has come to be a normal-size political animal."

Houston political consultant Marc Campos remarked otherwise: "The giant is waking up, and he's making a pot of coffee."

(snip)

Also, up to about 40 percent of Hispanic voters in Texas have voted Republican in various general election races, which could give their growing numbers some influence with both major parties. But this, too, can dilute the Hispanic vote's influence on a particular candidate or cause.

However, age and residency status are the biggest reasons why Harris County's largest ethnic group is not its largest voting group. Residents who are younger than 18 or are not citizens cannot vote, categories that are thought to apply to 1 million Hispanics here. The state's Hispanic population is expected to surpass its Anglo population before 2020, but the number of voting-age Hispanic citizens in Texas is not expected to exceed the Anglo counterpart for perhaps 40 more years.

I find it interesting that Hispanic voters don't seem as interested in allowing themselves to be as typecast by the (predominately white) power structures of the major parties as some other minority groups have allowed themselves to be over the years. I also think that diversity in voting will serve them well in the future, as both parties will be forced to cater to their needs, ignoring them at their peril.

I would hope that, as they grow in influence, Hispanics continue to turn a wary eye toward anyone who tells them that their interests are best served by one party at the exclusion of the other. That kind of thinking is where political clout goes to die.

Unfortunately, this article was another one of the Chron's infamous "occasional" pieces, which means that there won't be any real follow up to it, or context provided. That's a shame, because the piece itself was well-written and interesting. It'd be interesting to see more of the same.

Desensitized by over-saturation

No offense to those who are in "real" crisis, but everything is a crisis now is it not?

(from the AP via Chron.com)

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says a sharp rise in food prices has developed into a global crisis.

Ban says the U.N and all members of the international community are very concerned, and immediate action is needed.

He spoke to reporters today at U.N. offices in Austria. He was meeting with the nation's top leaders for talks on how the United Nations and European Union can forge closer ties.

No Ki-moon, it's not a crisis. It's worrisome, it's something that we should watch and be concerned about, but its hardly a crisis.


You say as you meet with European leaders in Venice where you'll probably be dining on baby lamb, lobster and rare caviar....

Tell me what's a crisis again?

I've got a feeling we're going to see more of this...

Hey poor...Hey poor... you don't have to be poor anymore. (with apologies to Front 242)

(By Wendell Edwards of KHOU Channel 11)

In fact, at Pearland ISD cuts are so drastic that the school board is considering scaling back electives.

That includes classes at the elementary and middle school levels and could include programs such as drama.

“We are looking at programs across the district. We are not expanding any programs,” said Renea Ivy-Sims who is with the district.

Educators blame the budget crunch on the state-funding formula.

For example, in CyFair ISD each student is worth about $4,489 in state funds.

Meanwhile, a student in neighboring Tomball ISD is worth $5,415.

That’s nearly $1,000 more.

“It shouldn’t make a difference where you live as to how well your child’s education is funded,” said Ivy-Sims.

When the legislature created the new formula, it was designed to provide tax relief from high property values.

But experts say that this so-called quick fix has only created more problems.

This next legislative session, every legislative session for that matter, is expected to deal with education funding and every year their are a hosts of stories like this where districts warn with horizons darkening that the program or class they cut next might just be the one that produces the student that cures cancer.

It could be, but I doubt it. What I do know is that, if schools really want to convince us that they're doing everything they can, conducting and producing detailed expenditure audits would be a good place to start.

If the school districts are really lacking the funds necessary to provide for the educational needs of children then something must be done.


Unfortunately they haven't proven that to be the case as of yet, just that they've spent all of the revenue they've been allocated.


There's a big difference between the two.

A decidedly "non-sexy" traffic solution

KHOU's Vincente Arenas took a look at Houston's traffic woes and found out that sometimes the best solution isn't the sexiest...

On any given day you can see the lines of people in downtown Houston waiting for Metro's Park and Ride Bus.

The buses go from downtown to park and rides all over Houston and Harris County. Many only have a few seats to spare.

Lately more people have started riding the bus to avoid paying higher gas prices.

11 News: How much do you save?

“It’s about $350 a month, that's a lot. That's a lot, said bus rider Latrice Hodge.

According to the annual Houston Area Survey, Houstonians say traffic is the biggest problem facing them today.

Not crime, not immigration. Traffic.

And it's no wonder why.

Traffic congestion is an all too familiar sight in this area. Some people call I-10 West the Katy parking lot.

It's not surprising that the biggest Metro success is Park N' Ride busses. They go from the suburbs to job centers, they are relatively cheap and hassle-free. What's surprising is that Metro doesn't do more to promote them, focusing instead on social engineering and a very limited use train system.

It all comes down to common sense transportation, and providing service that meets existing travel patterns.

So, here's the question: Has Metro taken the time to do a comprehensive travel-pattern study over the last 10 years?


And, if not, why not?

And on the seventh day....

Well, you know the rest...

(from Jeannie Kever of the Chron)

Saying that a belief in creationism — the theory that God created the Earth in six literal days, as recounted in the Bible — falls outside the realm of science, the state's commissioner for higher education has recommended that a Dallas-based organization not be authorized to offer a master's degree in science education.

A committee of the Higher Education Coordinating Board unanimously backed the recommendation by Commissioner Raymund Paredes on Wednesday. The full board votes today.

Paredes said his decision wasn't an attack on creationism or religion, but an attempt to defend science education.

"Religious belief is not science," he said. "Science and religious belief are surely reconcilable, but they are not the same thing."

As a believer in divine mechanics, I see no issue with maintaining a wall of separation between that which we take on faith, and that which we try to prove in the lab. Certainly those Religious beliefs serve as the basis for many of our scientific principles and don't have to be totally exluded from conversations involving historical context as some would like, but I'm not offended in the slightest by science deciding my faith is not, well..scientific.


The baddies under the bed start to come out when science takes on religious overtones and is viewed as the absolute truth instead of the truth as we currently understand it to be based on available data and our ability to process it.

Prison society

Behold how free...

(from Adam Liptak of the NY Times via Chron.com)

The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

I'd hazard a guess that China is actually number one if all accounting was done correctly, but that just puts a band-aid on the cancer that are our incarceration rates.

"Tough on crime" as a defining political vision has to be tempered with the reality that sometimes good people do bad things and shouldn't go to prison for them. We also need to be smarter about how we handle "non-violent" crimes as well.

It's an election year so I don't expect the rhetoric to change much short-term, but maybe in the long-term a reasonable debate can be held regarding who we're putting into prison, and why.

Shout it from the (properly zoned) Rooftops!

It's Houston Area Survey time again, and the natives are giddy over numbers that show the citzenry to be in love with zoning, planning and everything else that's viewed as proper and polite in a society where a benevolent group of predominately white folks run shepherd over those who are less fortunate then are they. It's a beautiful world full of cottage boutiques, DINK families and peaceful, walkable neighborhoods where the homeless and unwashed have been zoned out of existence.


Oh yeah, there's also the small matters of question framing and study accuracy that always seem to surface when the HAS comes around.

Let's take a closer look at some of the questions, the answers, and maybe get to the deeper meanings behind the answers...


Question One: (Land Use)

Which of these statements comes closer to your own view? — We need better land-use planning to guide development in the Houston area; or: People and businesses should be free to build wherever they want?

Unsurprisingly around 70% of respondants decided that they wanted the "better" option presented in this survey. That's because "better" is a leading word and should be avoided whenever possible when conducting random sampling surveys to avoid bias-creep. This is the same issue that I took with the Alan Fletcher poll which asked if "voters should elect someone else to do a better job", the insenuation that the current options are inferior.

After all, we all want to be "better" right?


Question Two:

Unlike some cities, Houston does not have a general or comprehensive plan for future growth. Would you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose creating a General Plan to guide Houston’s future growth?

More biased language. Guess which answer over 70% of respondants either "strongly supported" or "somewhat supported"? That's right, because we all want what others have. By "seeding" the idea that other cities have a "general or comprehensive plan" while Houston does not the survey lends itself to the idea that Houston is somehow inferior in scope to those who do.

"Unlike Tommy, you don't have a sucker or a plan for getting one. Do you think you should have a sucker or do you oppose the idea of one?"


Question Three:

Are you in favor or opposed to zoning in Houston — i.e., citywide control over the uses of the land in different areas?

I have no major issues with this question as asked. What I do take issue with is how the data is being presented to the public. Here's just a few snippets:

Mrs. White:

The latest 2008 Houston Survey indicates that a majority of Houston-area residents want to protect their property.

Inside Central Houston Blog:

The population growth and constant development and redevelopment particularly inside Loop 610 cannot be ignored. It's out with the old, in with the new. Townhomes, condos and McMansions are replacing bungalows as central Houston gets denser. Yet there are few rules to govern the development.

According to the 2008 Houston Area Survey a majority of Harris County residents want to change that.

Both of those statements are not based on the facts presented in the study, and both are extrapolations of the data without factual basis.

Here's what the data DOES show, factually.

1999 Results:

Favor: 57.1%
Oppose: 33.1%
DK/NS: 9.8%


2008 Results:

Favor: 53.7%
Oppose: 29.5%
DK/NS: 16.8%


So, what does this tell us? Not much really. What we do kow is that those in favor of the proposal and those opposed to zoning fell by around 3.5% in the last nine years. The "Don't Know/Not Sure" catagory picked up most of that slack. If anything it tells us that the debate has become more nuanced with support for traditional zoning dropping and more people wanting something else. There's nothing to back up the breathless assertions of the Chron writers suggesting that Houston is finally ready to hold the line on the scourge that is open development.

I'm going to agree with Kuff on this one:

The print edition showed that the approval rate for "zoning" was a bit less than it was for the 1999 survey. This is a little like those "do you plan to vote for a Republican or a Democrat this year" polls. The generic result may look favorable for your side, but once a specific candidate - or in this case, a specific proposal - is in place, there will be specific things to criticize about it, and people who might like the idea in the abstract will see themselves as losing if it passes. This is not to say that another zoning referendum would be doomed to fail, just that having a majority in favor of the concept now means little.

With all of the negative press that people have been reading of late regarding the Ashby High-rise, the River Oaks Shopping Center and a host of other redevelopments its no wonder that people think some neighborhood protections are a good idea.

The question that still hasn't been answered is what that is, and how Houston goes about implementing it.

Relying on a survey that's increasingly demonstrating itself to be structurally flawed and in desperate need of a total re-work is a poor way to determine public policy.

Missing the forest for the trees

The Chronicle Business section gives you this...

(from the AP via the Chron)

Oil prices rose today to a all-time highs above $118 a barrel on concerns over supplies from some key producers.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose as high as $118.05 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, eclipsing Monday's all-time high of $117.83.

By midday in Europe, the contract had risen to $117.77, up 29 cents on Monday's close of $117.48 a barrel. The May contract expires at the end of trading Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude futures added 28 cents to $114.71 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

A Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture in Nigeria said Monday it may have to cut crude deliveries some 169,000 barrels a day in April and May because militants sabotaged a pipeline last week in the country's south.

The company, Shell Petroleum Development Co., declared force majeure on its April and May oil delivery contracts from its 400,000-barrel-a-day Bonny fields, effective April 22, a move that protects it from litigation if it fails to deliver on contractual obligations to buyers.

Militancy and lawlessness have spread in Nigeria's south, and attacks on oil infrastructure have become common.

"The disruption in Nigeria with Royal Dutch Shell is serious," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

The Houston Business Journal gives you this....

(from Ford Gunter of the Houston Business Journal)

Cheniere Energy Inc. (AMEX: LNG) has officially announced the opening of its Sabine Pass LNG receiving terminal and interconnecting Creole Trail Pipeline in Cameron Parish, La.

The first phase, which was recently completed, has 2.6 billion cubic feet per day of send-out capacity and 10 Bcf of storage capacity. Once the second phase comes on line in the second quarter of 2009, Sabine Pass will have 4 Bcf/d of send-out and 16.8 Bcf of storage.

Charif Souki, chairman and CEO of Houston-based Cheniere, called the opening a milestone.

"It is the culmination of years of hard work and effort," he said.

The terminal's first cargo -- a test batch on board the LNG vessel Celestine River -- arrived on April 11.

Game, set and match to the Houston Business Journal for providing coverage of a local energy event with local reporters.

I'll argue that the opening of the LNG plant is a bigger story long-term than a temporary price-spike any day. Unfortunately the Chron's energy coverage is missing a certain amount of perspective these days.

Falkenbreck has SPOKEN!!

Yesterday I asked if we were doing such a good job teaching our children that we could afford to dismiss alternative ideas out of hand..

Today, Houston's most swingin' (and highest paid) red-headed columnsist says: Yes....emphatically...

(from Lisa Falkenberg of the Chron)

What if, starting next school year, the basic skills of football — how to catch the ball, make a tackle, throw a block — were taught only once to each beginner Texas player in the peewee leagues or in middle school, and then rarely, if ever, again?

The player's growth would no doubt become stunted, his skills unable to adapt to mounting complexity, rigor and competitiveness of the game as he ages.

But, don't worry. This idea hasn't really been pitched by some UIL official for state football programs.

It's being pushed by members of another group entirely: the State Board of Education. The sport is reading. The basic skill is reading comprehension.

The back-to-basics reading standards proposal, which is open to public comment through May 18, would drastically alter the way reading and writing are taught to millions of Texas schoolchildren through the next 10 years.

One of the biggest problems with the proposal, protested by a coalition of professional educators, is that all the components of reading comprehension — such as inferring, visualizing, making predictions and conclusions — would not be taught each year after grade six.

To some board members, requiring the use of the whole toolbox of reading comprehension skills after elementary seemed redundant. So the tools are sprinkled haphazardly throughout the curriculum in different grades.

The logic (or illogic) of this? Once students have, for example, learned to draw inferences or synthesize information in Charlotte's Web, why would they have to use the same skills again years later in To Kill a Mockingbird?

I guess it seems to me that the people who are choosing to focus on grammar and basic communication skills are deeming them more important to the professional development than the cultural mindset of Harper Lee when he wrote the book. And that having the ability to interact socially is of primary importance.

Now, as an insatiable reader myself I understand the need for comprehension etc. I also know that communications skills, including the hackneyed writing you see on this blog, is the single greatest skill set that allowed me to get where I am today. Not drawing inferences from Charlotte's Web, no matter how much I wanted the pig to hold some key to my future professional development.

Again, I'm not suggesting that I'm vested enough in the theory of youth education to come down on one side or the other of this argument. It could be that this is a terrible idea.

It could also be that there is some meat in admitting that our schools need to do a better job of teaching our children to communicate right?


According to Ms. Falkenbreck the answer is a resounding NO. I imagine that many will join her in that line of thought. Fair enough, but we still are going to butt up against the reality that our educators aren't holding forth a wealth of ideas how to address the educational challenges of the future. All they're really doing is asking for a loan on Mrs. White's catapault to throw more money at the problem while they get rich on study grants. At the very least the group behind this proposal is throwing some mud against a wall.

It may stink, but at least its a start. It's just too bad we don't have the intellectual honesty as adults to perform the same due diligance we are requiring of our children. If we did I have a feeling the results that would come down the pipe would be different from BOTH sets of proposals.

Dumbest. Idea. Ever.

OK, so Harris County is number One in carbon emissions, finally "World Class" at something. This has some ecstatic and some dissapointed.

Not surprisingly, it's driven Mrs. White off the edge of the map...

A new study rating U.S. counties by their man-made emissions of carbon dioxide not surprisingly estimated that Harris County is tops by a small margin over Los Angeles.

Texas leads other states by a wide margin in CO2 discharges, and the Houston area is the heart of the Lone Star chemical and refining complex. Long known as the capital of the petrochemical industry, Houston can now lay claim to the carbon king crown.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is steadily rising and is blamed for boosting global temperatures through a greenhouse effect that traps more solar heat. As a result, European states have created a carbon trading system that sets emission limits and allows companies that do not exceed those caps to sell credits to those who do. Still in its infancy, the market is already a $60 billion business. If such a system were created in the United States, University of Houston environmental law professor Victor Flatt estimates, it could be worth $600 billion to $1 trillion.

(snip)

Houston has all the ingredients to be a hub of the carbon market: major corporate headquarters and offices, expertise in energy trading and proximity to some of the biggest greenhouse gas sources. We might be a primary cause of the problem, but we can also be a major player in its solution.

Some Houston institutions are planning for that future. Reliant Energy recently donated $300,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Commission to protect 1,100 acres of old-growth Texas forest to earn carbon trading credits. Starting next year, a joint venture between the UH Law Center and UH's C.T. Bauer College of Business will produce a course in carbon trading to begin training students for roles in what could grow into a massive market.

It would be only fitting if the city that achieved prominence in the 20th century as an oil and gas center took a leading role in managing the consequences of the global binge on fossil fuels.

In other words, you can continue to pollute as/is for as long as you can afford to purchase 'offset credits' which will probably go to research to help other areas. During the course of this "trading" naturally, there will be a small commission taken off to enrich those who dreamed up the idea in the first place. Oh, and, they don't work according to a growing number within the "green energy" sector.

That's the type of reasoned response to an issue that we've come to expect from the opinion-makers at "Houston's Leading Information Source" is it not?

Sadly, it is.

In related news: The sky is blue (part 3)

Well...Duh...

(from Dee-Ann Durbin of the AP via the Chron)

Kim Fenske drives a bus in Colorado by day, but when he's not working, he zooms around the mountains in a 2007 Toyota Prius.

Fenske, an attorney by training who has also worked as a forest ranger, was an environmentalist long before hybrid cars like the Prius hit the market. In the early 1990s, he ran unsuccessfully for the Wisconsin state legislature on a renewable energy platform.

But he recently decided to go one step further and make an environmental statement with his car.

"My decision is a very political decision. I want to get people in this country off their dependency on foreign oil," said Fenske, 48, who lives at the Copper Mountain ski resort near Frisco.

A growing number of buyers feel like Fenske. U.S. registrations of new hybrid vehicles rose 38 percent in 2007 to a record 350,289, according to data to be released Monday by R.L. Polk & Co., a Southfield-based automotive marketing and research company.

Hybrids made up just 2.2 percent of the U.S. market share for the year, but they were growing steadily even as overall sales declined 3 percent.

While the example in the story is a silly little bit of editorialzing in the news, I'd argue that the reason most consumers are looking at hybrids now is because of price considerations. I imagine you'll also see reports where "efficiency cars" with non-hybrid drives are up in sales as well, probably more for financial rather than "political" reasons.

I don't doubt that there are some (probably a loud minority) out there who are buying hybrids to "stick it" to the Oil Industry. I do however doubt that they are making up the bulk of the increase in sales that smaller cars are experiencing.

Whether the media says its so or no.

What are we teaching?

I'm far from an expert on child education issues, but this argument over the way students are taught grammar, writing and other forms of English seems important to me:

(from Gary Scharrar of the Chron)

The inability of many Texas students to write and speak good English is like a dreadful disease requiring aggressive treatment, say some education advocates who want to use different teaching approaches.

Social conservatives on the State Board of Education, influenced in part by a retired teacher, are backing a new curriculum that increases the focus on basics, including grammar.

They've met fierce resistance from teachers and educators who warn this emphasis will prepare students for the 1950s, not the 21st century, and embarrass Texas in the process.

They fear the state's proposed new standards for reading and English language arts contradict established research and will only make things worse.

"The results will be bloody," predicted one of those language experts, former English professor Joyce Armstrong Carroll.

A fight over the board's perceived exclusion of Hispanic experts from development of the curriculum has overshadowed this larger struggle.

A public comment period on the proposed curriculum will end May 18, and the 15-member board is to take final action on May 22. If approved, it will guide how the state's 4.7 million public schoolchildren learn English and reading over the next decade.

What's not clear in the article is how this is, politically, going to break down along party lines but I can hazard a guess already.

Republicans are going to be "fer it" and Democrats will be "agin it" from the start. That's just the way these things need to go as educating children will, once again, take a backseat to the parties either supporting, or poking the eye of, the Teacher's unions and education groups who are going to be on the side of increased reading comrehension.

Since I haven't seen the studies that are referenced in the story showing the benefits of favoring reading over writing and proper grammar I can't say much either way.

I do have this question however: Are we really willing to say that how we are teaching children now is so successful that examining this is beyond the pale?

Campaign signs

From the last election cycle:

Ed Emmett - County Judge and JP Pct. 5 candidate Phil Camus:


Kelly Seigler: (This one is still at the corner of Clay and Brittmore BTW.)

Something new

Lately I've been noticing a healthy obsession with food and blogging food in particular. From time to time I've even tried to incorporate food postings into this blog.

But it never really "felt" right on here if you know what I mean.

So I've decided to branch out (again) and start a second blog called I've got the Munchies to satisfy my growing interest in all things culinary.

Right now there's a hello, and a poll.

So stop by and answer the poll and keep an eye out for more Houston-centric food items.

Am I going to be as detailed or interesting as She Eats or food in Houston?

I doubt it. But I'm planning on having fun doing it and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Something to chew on over the weekend.

*Warning, because of the length of this post I'm activating the "Lose an Eye Long-Assed Post Alert (LaELAPA) for your reading protection. This is not a drill*



It's been a long time since I've commented on a MeMo post. Part of the reason is because I find the Chron's "cultural" blog to be not really related to "culture" much at all, but the real reason is even simpler: Kyrie O'Conner worries me a little. She's a little unstable and tends to "go off" at odd times. Just don't dare make a grammatical error or a spelling error on her blog either, that will get you banned for life, or ignored out of hand. (which is the reason behind my "Monkey's with typewriters" ampersand error in the titles BTW). *or, as commenter anon has pointed out, an apostrophe error* Note to self: AM blogging is better performed AFTER a cup of coffee* (nice catch however and, as I said in the comments, I will let my error stand)

At times, however, Kyrie does have the ability to get is so wrong, that I feel the need to stand up for bloggers and normal folks everywhere. This need typically strikes when she's discussing the media...

I have to say, as a paid journalist, I resent people who think that a.) news should be free or b.) news is easy to get.

The battle on a.) is probably lost. I talked to a young man recently who said he'd never buy a newspaper, but he'd read one if he found it lying on a table in a coffeehouse. All this chatter reminds me of the joke vis a vis music piracy -- and I'm sorry I can't remember where I heard it -- about how if the little Napster dude had figured out how to steal electronics from Best Buy, well, that's what everybody would have done.

The battle on b.) will either be won or democracy will be done for. Bloggers and people with video cams don't really disclose much. They comment, or they randomly come across something. The number of real stories they've disclosed is trivial.

Not to mention that their taste is horrid. The netniks gave us Snakes on a Plane -- wretched movie. And Ned Lamont and Ron Paul, the Snakes on a Plane of politics. They're great for geeking out over Lost. Really figuring stuff out? Not so much.

Nevermind that Ms. O'Conner is being stereotypical and petty, and nevermind that she has many of her basic facts wrong, the problem with this article is its insistence that the media is somehow superior to the rest of society, and that any commentary against it is only driven by "charges of bias" or the egotistical whims of shallow people.

Funny, that's what I thought the media was for. *kidding*

The fact is, most bloggers rely on the mainstream media to get it right. News is a commodity with a set market value, and the fact of the matter is the market value of print journalism is falling below the Mendoza line of fiscal solubility. This doesn't mean that media is dead, or that our Democracy is in trouble. What it means is that the old-guard media outlets need to learn to read and react to the times. The Chron could instantly become better by outsourcing their National coverage, dropping all of the high-paid opinion columnists, and redistributing the resources to the State and Local news-gathering levels.

The problem is, they won't do that. Because the "style book" for daily Metropolitan newspapers says that you have to have a D.C. Bureau to be taken seriously. Yes, it's all bollocks, but its the nature of the beast. So what you frequently get, on a National level is day-to-week old analysis pieces of news stories that feel stale by the time you read them. The best example of this is Sunday's "Outlook" commentary section. The editorials in there are a mix of local stories, and editorials reprinted that originally ran in other publications.

And they are charging for this. Nevermind that you probably have already read about this or at least heard about it on the nightly news or online via Yahoo! or Google news and won't take the time re-reading the article, but will probably use this section as bird cage liner or to catch your grease droppings or to kindle your Bar-B-Q grill (my preferred choice).

So, it's not vapidity that the readers want, it's local, in-depth hard-hitting coverage like the local stories produced by Matt Stiles, Carolyn Feibel et al. The public doesn't want Mrs. White bloviating they want solid reporting on issues that are important to them.

And bloggers want the same thing.

And then there's this snippet from the comments:

If you're going to fling around accusations of corruption and influence, impugning me and my excellent, honest colleagues who work maybe 20 times harder than you do, you need -- indeed, honor requires you -- to cite chapter and verse. I am, in my real life, a deputy managing editor at this corrupt and influenced institution, and I'd be very curious to hear what you know that I do not know.

See the problem here? It's this attitude that their profession makes them somehow more honorable, hard-working and "better" than the average Joe that leads to charges of "elitism" and being out of touch. Then news organizations have the gall to turn around and accuse politicians of that.

The problem is "ivory tower syndrome" and the media's irritating desire to remain ensconced within. Some say this is to promote independence, and some admit that they just don't think much of other people. The public, by some, is viewed as the great unwashed who would be lucky to put their pants on correctly if they weren't shown the way by the benevolent benefactors in the media. Having only met Ms. O'Conner once in person, but reading a lot of her writing, I can safely say that she lies in that latter area. My one meeting with her at one of the first blog meet-ups was enlightening to say the least. Her disdain for bloggers and our "unprofessional and cavalier" attitude towards news gathering was often painful to Kyrie. To the point that, out of the blue, she started hurling charges of bias at us. Not that we were biased, but that we all thought she and, by extension, everyone else who worked at the Chron, were biased against Republicans. She made this statement despite the fact that no one at the table ever mentioned media bias.

That's a pretty telling tale right there. A story that says a lot about the motivations of some that work at the Chron and how they handle and respond to valid criticism. The media just doesn't handle criticism well. In Bernard Goldstein's great book "Bias" he related the story of how Dan Rather had become unable to discern the difference between honest criticism and attack criticism. I think that's what is going on in the media today. They've lost the ability to internalize legitimate criticism due to the "little h" holy crusade that they feel they are on. It's a crusade that, when taken to extremes, leads to missives such as Ms. O'Conners, and which lead to stories that are intended only to offend the public sensibility. In that sense it wouldn't hurt reporters to get out among the "unwashed" and share a beer or three. They might even find that we don't hate them as much as they seem to think we do.

At the end of the day I believe that the presence of independent "hobby" bloggers serves to enhance news stories and provide a different range of opinions on a wide variety of stories. I also believe that the MSM and blogs have a symbiotic relationship that's often mistaken as parasitic by the latter half of the duo. Certainly blog views and hyperlinks drive attention to the stories in the print media and vice-versa. Bloggers that claim the don't rely on the MSM, at least in part, for their stories are flat out lying. MSM outlets who claim they don't keep tabs on the blogosphere are lying as well. Each part enhances the whole and drives value into the news commodity.

It's the job of the MSM to take advantage of that and gear their product accordingly. Whether this is on-line, or in dead-tree form (less likely moving forward) is beyond me. What I do know is that the real-time competition demands can be met by news-gathering organizations who are smart and timely, the Chron has shown some success in doing that, but has made some mis-steps along the way.

Print media will always have the problem of being 10-12 hours behind the news curve. In order to overcome that they have to rethink their business model and focus on areas where the web can't win due to lack of resources....

Hyper-local, investigative news work that's packed with detail.

Just like in the old days.


Then revel as the blogs comment on it and the public buzzes.


That, in my mind is the new media.


Thoughts?

City takes a step towards transparency

I don't care what your party affiliation (or lack of one), this is a good thing...

(from Matt Stiles of the Chron)

Asphalt streets, police cruisers, storm sewers — all obvious examples of how the city spends your tax money.

Then there are the obscure items — the toilet paper, mattresses and needles — among about $1.2 billion in supplies used to run the sprawling city government.

The city wants you to see it all.

This week, purchasing officials unveiled a new Web site that allows anyone to easily get detailed information about city contracts and one-time purchases.

Take toilet paper, for example. In a city with two major airports and 21,000 employees, it can be pricey: $1,405,397 over three years, to be exact. Now, anyone can get that figure with a few Internet clicks.

"The public needs to know where we're spending their money," said Calvin Wells, the city's chief purchasing official. "It's transparency."

The transparency can remind voters of the scale of their local government. The city plans to buy as many as 1,800 mattresses so firefighters can sleep during lulls in their 24-hour shifts. The needles stock immunization clinics and ambulances. Users also can find the unexpected, like $95 on citronella horse shampoo.

The online catalog is among several searchable features on the city's homepage, including restaurant inspections and campaign-finance records.

The digital disclosure follows a trend of governments using technology to open their books to Web visitors. Transparency advocates say that can save agencies money by automating requests for information from the public.

Considering the public trust in Government is at a low tide, things like this only help to open up the doors and let the people peek in a bit. The question is, how many will avail themselves of the resource?

As a hobby blogger with a (part-time) eye on local politics this makes me very happy. It's another tool to improve the accuracy of my numbers. As a citizen you should be happy as well because now you can check up on how your government is spending the salary you pay them.

Kudos to the City for rolling this out.

Perry In, Bill White presumeably ecstatic...

Imagine, for a moment, the best possible scenario for Bill White in the 2010 Gubernatorial election. Got it in your head?

Does it involve Rick Perry?

(from R.G. Ratcliffe of the Chron)

Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he will seek re-election in 2010 to an unprecedented third full term in office, but some saw it as political posturing designed to keep Perry from becoming a lame duck before the next Legislature.

After Perry made the re-election statement, his spokesman was quick to add that the governor plans to run again if the Legislature does not pass his agenda next year. With a successful session, the aide said, Perry may do something else instead.

It's part of a will-they-or-won't-they game that is swirling around Perry, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst about who will be the next GOP nominee for governor.

Perry has been hinting that he will seek another term in office since even before he won re-election in 2006 with 39 percent of the vote. But his statements to reporters in Dallas on Thursday were the strongest to date, saying flatly that he will be a candidate.

And there is joy and much rejoicing in Netroots land in the wake of this.

Even the Chron's accused part-time plagerist is piling on...

(from Rick Casey of the Chron)

Some Republicans groaned at Gov. Rick Perry's announcement that he plans to seek another term in 2010, but Mayor Bill White's camp reacted with glee.

White has made no effort to hide the fact that he is looking to run for governor after being term-limited out of the mayor's office next year.

(snip)

White would sell himself as a pragmatic and competent problem solver, contrasting his accomplishments in Houston with the internecine squabbling that has marked Austin — squabbling that can be expected to continue if Tom Craddick holds on to his House speaker's chair.

Hutchison has won considerable praise for hard work she did with Democrats and business leaders on the issue of military base closures around the state. She, like White, is seen as a pragmatist and a problem solver.

White supporters say she might have to tarnish that image in a tough primary, something she's not faced in her 15 years in the Senate.

"In a primary against Perry, she would have to run to the right," said one White guy. "That takes her away from her golden spot in the middle."

He also reminds Democrats that they shouldn't redecorate the Capitol building yet...

Given how weak the state Democratic Party is, it is unlikely any statewide race in the next Democratic primary would attract independents away from a spirited primary matchup between Perry and Hutchison.

After all, down ballot from the presidential contest this year, the most exciting statewide race in the Democratic primary was for the right to face U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. It pitted Houston State Rep. Rick Noriega against a geriatric hermit whose only political asset is the name Gene Kelly and two lesser-known candidates.

Noriega eked out a victory without a runoff.

What's more, opposition to Perry's unpopular Trans-Texas Corridor, which Hutchison has vigorously opposed, may kill him even among the Republican base.

So the glee that lit up the White camp Thursday is likely to fade, unless Hutchison once again loses her nerve.

What Casey DOESN'T mention is that Bill White is going to have some severe negatives to overcome in a general campaign, negatives that we know about in detail in Houston, but which will hit the rest of the State like a bombshell.

Don't forget about the land flap with the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation, or the continued problems with the crime lab or the questionable land deals that have given White all kinds of headaches and are a matter of public record. And those problems don't take into account all of the new fees and regulations that White has passed to try and balance a budget that's spinning out of control due to trinket governance. Tinkets that have his full support btw.

I admit to not being enough of an insider to know if the Democrats have other choices or if White is going to be their Knight in shining armour in 2010, but I do know that if they ride that horse they're going to have some severe negatives to go along with the positives.

Before Republicans get too giddy I should remind them that White is an effective, if not especially eloquent, campaigner, has good management and organizational skills and will be a fundraising powerhouse come election time. He's also VERY well liked in Texas' largest Metropolitan area.

Which is why the White campaign team was so happy to see Perry announce. White could mop the floor with Rick Perry and punch his ticket to the Governorship with maybe upwards of 55% of the vote.

Against Kay Bailey Hutchison however? Not so much.

The Chron's website mandate: "Be first, not necessarily right"

So comes the word from the inside regarding shoddy grammar and poor headlines that breed like rabbits on Chron.com.

(from Steve Jetton of the Chron)

It is true that there are more grammatical errors in stories on the Web than there are in print. But I don't think there's an obvious solution to this problem.

Newspapers are no longer confined to an overnight deadline and can post stories at any time on their Web sites. This allows the paper to provide information to readers in a more timely fashion.

But there is also a downside to this innovation. Any other news organization can do the same, which has led to intense competition to be first. These news organizations believe that readers will flock to the site that posts the information quickly, and not necessarily to the one that posts a well-written version later.

Also, on the Web, corrections are easy to make at any point in the process. In the print world, when you let a story go with an error, that's that. So the print product takes more care to weed out the errors.

(snip)

The Web editors are under strict instructions to update the site as quickly and as often as possible. All of these conditions contribute to a greater number of errors on the Web than readers are accustomed to seeing in the print editions. It's not that the journalists producing the copy are careless or sloppy.

It's just that on the Web, being fast outweighs being grammatically correct.

I strongly disagree with the bolded portion of the quoted text. Especially when dealing with the website of a major news daily. The reason I feel this way is because of the realities of their staffing. They have editors, most blogs don't. That being said I'm willing to accept a certain level of grammatical "looseness" and a more conversational tone in the "Chronicle Blogs" section of the website than I am in the news section. The blogs are, by all account, snippits and asides penned by the reporters that are NOT edited, nor should they be.

They should strive for accuracy, but not necessarily editorial perfection. The same rules apply, in my mind, to any blog that's operating under the auspices of "news" or "news opinion" or even "commentary".

Even at this little "hobby" blog, where I spend maybe an hour per day at the keyboard, recieve zero pay, and have a staff of one (some would argue less than that) and maybe 50 regular readers I strive at all times to be as accurate as possible with my commentary. Yes, sometimes people disagree with me and state so in the comments, but there have been very few times where my accuracy of the facts has been put to any legitimate line of questioning. My words are my own, I've never been accused of plagerism, and I let stand around 99% of the comments that are submitted to my blo, yes, even the ones that have no basis in reality. At times, I've even been known to respond to one or two.

Still, even with that in mind I sometimes return to my posts around 45 minutes after penning them and re-read them with grammar and spelling in mind. For around 3 hours after I post something its open to being "tweaked" to remove obvious spelling and grammar errors that I feel take away from the readibility of the article. Again, this is done with no staff, and without taking away from my 9-5 that I get paid for. I know there are errors. That's the inside joke in my "Monkey's with typewriters" label. A very common grammatical error that I myself am guilty of making on several occasions.

I don't think its too much of readers to ask of the Chron to get the product right. Especially considering they ARE being paid for the work they turn out. I also know, secondhand, that the problem does not lie with most of the reporting staff that the Chronicle employs, but with the management and editorial staff, especially Sr. Editors who are job-costing the Chron to death.

PR battle over Dynamo Stadium intensifies

Prognosis: Blustery...

(from Matt Stiles and Bernardo Fallas of the Chron)

Private negotiations between city leaders and the Dynamo soccer franchise about a partnership to build a new stadium downtown spilled into the public Wednesday, when Mayor Bill White complained the team had tried to "pressure" him.

During a subsequent news conference to publicly assuage the mayor's concerns, team officials said the price tag on a new stadium had climbed to $105 million, up from the $80 million to $90 million previously estimated.

The rising cost estimate could make it even harder for both sides to come to an agreement on how much the city will contribute to get the stadium built.

The dueling statements on the stadium negotiations began during the mayor's regular news conference following the City Council meeting.

In response to a generic question about the state of the negotiations, White told reporters that one of the team's owners recently showed him a letter from Major League Soccer urging a quick resolution to the negotiations. The letter, written by Commissioner Don Garber, hints at the possibility of moving the team from Houston if a stadium deal is not reached with the city.

(snip)

White was blunt in his response to reporters.

"I've gotten a little bit of a reputation, probably deserved, that I don't respond well to threats," he said. "I smiled."

Team officials later held a news conference to explain that they never intended to pressure the mayor.

But Oliver Luck, president and general manager, also reiterated the team's contention that a significant city investment in the new stadium is necessary to make the franchise successful.

"We have made our position very clear to the mayor that we are looking for some public support for that building, and we will do the right thing, which is to continue to negotiate with the city to try to identify any potential revenue streams that may eventually bridge the gap we're now facing," Luck said.

What follows from the MLS is a prime example of why, I believe, most pro-sports are not financially viable:

"Even in the fourth-largest market in the country with a young and dynamic demographic that embraces soccer, the Houston team will continue to lose money without a public-private partnership on a new soccer stadium — a fact that presents significant issues for the league."

And following that is something "odd" in the league's argument against the City.

The letter notes that league franchises across the country and Canada have entered public-private partnerships for stadiums.

Those deals involved direct public financing of the projects, while others relied on municipal land or low-interest loans, according to the letter.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but didn't the city just complete the purchase of $15.5 Million dollars worth of land of which, one possible use, could be Dynamo Stadium? (Not the "ONLY" possible use mind you..wink.wink) Is this now being discounted by the Dynamo and the League as insufficient?

The obvious answer is a tax on Dynamo ticket sales and stadium parking. Let the users of the venue pay for the venue itself instead of foisting the tax bill on a City that's been paying the piper for its reliance on trinket governance for too long. That's the obvious answer if the Dynamo accept the terrible location as the only option for Minor League Soccer in Houston.

A better answer would be for the team to find and self-finance a location outside of the City Center that could be built up as a combination stadium/youth soccer complex that Metro could hub to and with ample parking. Heck, I'm OK if the City donates the land.

The real problem here is that the league has all but admitted their financial model is a load of bollocks propped up by the public largesse. Not that they're alone in having that problem, since most leagues have convinced municipal governments that they can't live without them.

As we know in Houston that's patently false. I was quite fine getting the best NFL games from across the Nation piped into my television during the almost-decade of freedom from the NFL before Houston got saddled with the monstrosity that is the Texans. For that matter I was very happy attending baseball games at the Astrodome, and Toyota Center is a far worse venue from a fans perspective than was the old Summit.

The point is, what's good for the team is typically bad for the taxpayer, and (at times) the fan. But, Oliver Luck want's his Downtown corner office address, and common sense is taking a beating because of this.

I'm not the biggest fan of Mayor White's fascination with trinkets at the expense of the nuts and bolts that make a City move, but I'm on his side on this issue. The Mayor, like the goalie, is the last line of defense.

A blogger says "Whua?"

Maybe its because I'm home from work today with a sinus infection and the drugs have the ol' bean not ticking over at 100%, but for the life of me I couldn't figure this one out...

(from Matt Stiles of the Chron Local politics blog)

Embattled state Rep. Hubert Vo, whose re-election got more complicated in recent weeks after disclosures about conditions at his apartments, has hired an Austin-based political pro for help.

Glenn W. Smith, a former director at Public Strategies who worked for the late Gov. Ann Richards, is in town now to advise Vo on media strategy.

Smith, also a former Austin Bureau chief for the Houston Post, met with some of us today. The message was pretty clear: Vo's a good person. The apartments aren't that bad. And employees at the complexes do good things for the residents, including organizing health fairs and security training.

"I've met him a few times, and I liked him, so I wanted to help," he said. "I want him to be able to tell the good part of the story."

I'm sorry, WHAT good part of the story? The bit where the children are using dead rat carcases as toys? Or where residents of his broken down apartments are using dead rodents as a hedge against high food prices?

I'm convinced that there is a special circle of Dante's Inferno that's reserved for political communications firms.


As I head off to the Dr's office to get some prescription (you know, actually effective) medication I leave you with these words of wisdom from fellow blogger Kevin Whited left in the "comments" of the referenced post:

Instead of spending so much money on this "political pro," maybe Vo should just fix his slums?

Which is much a comment on Vo as it is on the entire political profession.

Radack's Folly?

I swear when I first saw the headline for County Commissioner Steve Radack's Katy Prairie lake plan I was bracing for another "global warming is going to kill us all" piece from the Chron. Nope. It was much worse.

(from Bill Murphy of the Chron)

Out on prairie as flat as a polished dining room table, where he has no river or even rivulet to dam, Commissioner Steve Radack intends to dig a hole and build a 500-acre lake that will teem with sportfish and lure anglers from afar.

Radack has defied nature before — his Precinct 3 is building a nearly 50-foot-high soap box derby hill in equally flat Hockley. But the proposed lake dwarfs the soap box derby in scope and cost, the way a trophy bass does a minnow.

John Paul's Landing, on the Katy Prairie in northwest Harris County, could cost as little as $8 million. But where there is no natural basin, the only choice is excavation, and that's Radack's problem. He could be looking at a $60 million price tag if he can't find someone who will dig out and remove 12 million cubic yards of dirt — enough to fill five Astrodomes — for free.

Meanwhile, federal and state biologists have questioned whether the county can funnel in enough water to build a lake and whether the water can sustain a healthy fish population.

Yes Virginia, this is a real plan by a real politician that we've elected into office.

Yeesh.

Fundraising tidbits.

Early returns are not good for Noriega...

(from R.G. Ratcliffe of the Chron)

Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn enters the general election campaign with $26 in the bank for every one held by Democratic challenger Rick Noriega, according to reports released Tuesday.

Cornyn reported having in the bank almost $8.7 million at the end of March; Noriega had $329,293.

In a state the size of Texas, a general election television advertising campaign that reaches most voters costs about $1.2 million a week.

Under that calculation, Cornyn could run television ads for seven weeks with the cash he has now; Noriega, about four days.

Noriega noted that his fundraising picked up dramatically after he defeated three opponents in the March 4 Democratic primary. He had raised $111,000 between Jan. 1 and mid-February, and then he raised $367,209 before the end of March.

"In the primary, we were running an insurgent grass-roots and Net-roots focused campaign, and we accomplished our goal of securing the nomination," Noriega said in a news release.

"Since our primary victory, we have seen increasing support for our general election bid and have put into place the fundraising team needed to win in November."

Campaign manager Mark Bell acknowledged that "this race will be expensive," but added, "We're going to make sure we have the resources to get his message out."

Fundraising in the current quarter, which ends June 30, could be critical to Noriega's efforts to convince national Democrats that a fight in Texas is worth paying for.

Translation: Note to the "net-roots" thanks but, we've outgrown you now and are looking to expand to the big time.

Scuttlebutt at the Republican precinct is that John Cornyn's campaign sent out a super secret e-mail blast to the Bloggers O' the Right with some fund raising points they might want to address. Anonymously of course.

Chron Local political blogger Alan Bernstein provides this snippet about the fundraising in CD 7:

Democrat Michael Skelly, running against Republican U.S. Rep. John Culberson in a GOP-friendly swath of Houston, confirmed tonight with filings to the Federal Election Commission that he continues to run well ahead of the incumbent in campaign fundraising through March 31.

Skelly has raised $800,000 this year, compared to just under $300,000 for Culberson -- a highly unusual advantage for a challenger in the sweepstakes for funds that are used to advertise, mobilize voters, conduct polls, etc. Skelly's team in fact makes the unconfirmed claim that he has out-raised every other Democratic House challenger in the nation this year.

Skelly's latest lump of loot comes partly from fellow energy executives around the country. He is on leave as a wind power executive and is expected to inject some of his personal wealth into the contest later.

If Bernstein's report of where Skelly's money is coming from is accurate then this sets up an interesting dynamic for the race that wasn't there before. It also reaffirms my question of how Skelly is going to win a race in a district that contains Houston's energy corridor by campaigning against the companies that employ most of the voters.

Four sharks dead at Moody Gardens

Today's story about an ozone spike in the water killing four sharks at Moody Gardens stunned me.

The reason being is that I was there ten days ago for the Galveston Chapter of the Association of American Zookepers' "Wild about Wine" fundraising event. The wife and I received a behind the scenes tour of what I'm assuming is the very display where the sharks died.

Here's a picture that I snapped of one of them:



Very sad. My condolances go out to all of the workers who are very committed to caring for the animals. I know that this is a tough time for them.

Bad news cycle for State Democrats

You can forgive Texas Republicans for enjoying their moment of solace in light of the editorial beating Hubert Vo is taking and the sad, twisted tale of Borris "Gangsta" Miles. I mean, just a while ago it seemed that Democrats had the high ground when it came to political scandal.

Sure, there was William Jefferson and his freezer full of cash, but nothing that matched up to the sheer Hollywood status of the trevails of Tom Delay, nor the "wide stance" quips that the Larry Craig situation afforded those with a (D) behind their name. When it came to political hoo-nanny, Republicans were in the cat-bird seat.

Locally it was one hit after another. First we found out that County Commissioner Eversole was only a part-time employess, then former DA Chuck Rosenthal turned out to have an affinity for watermelons and topless women, and his computer had a sticky delete key at that. Yes, those were the salad days for local Democrats, and the hearts of the Progressive Blogger Alliance were warm.

So, why the sudden change? Why are we now hearing about Democratic scandals at breakneck speed? Perhaps it has something to do with the nature of politics and not evil media conspiracies as some believe. Just as the MSM isn't out to "get" Republicans in power exclusively, neither are they seeking to stick it to Dems to help Republicans.

What we are seeing is further evidence that we get the Government we deserve. What else do you expect to happen when 90% of the population doesn't pay more than passing attention to who they are electing to office, and 8% of the 10% that is paying attention is more concerned with a letter behind a name than the character of the name that precedes said letter?

Our political system is a mess of corruption and small-minded civic servants right now. What's really amazing is that it's not worse than it actually is.

Don't get too smug Republicans, because you're next, I promise.


That's how the wheel turns.

You're a male, by definition you suck

You caused the financial mess and didn't even know it...

(from the AP via the Chron)

The hormone that drives male aggression and sexual interest also seems able to boost short-term success at finance.

But what seems to start out well can turn bad, with elevated testosterone levels over several days possibly leading to irrational risk-taking, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge in England.

"If people want to get practical, it would be good for both banks and the financial system as a whole if we had more women and older men in the markets," said John Coates, lead author of a study appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Such a change would produce a much more stable financial system, said Coates, a research fellow in the university's department of physiology, development and neuroscience.

No men in finance? MeMo will be ecstatic...

Obviously the answer is effiminate men. Heck, that's the social trend lately anyway.


Freedom over Texas is already on-board.

An update on SD 17

All's been a tad bit quiet in SD 17 since it was found that Spencer Tillman (whoops!) didn't have the required residency status to run in the special.

R.G. Ratcliffe rectifies that today with an article on the race, and some possible names for the ballot...

State Sen. Kyle Janek has not yet officially resigned and the special election to replace him has not been set. But there already are candidates lining up to fight for his Senate District 17 seat.

Houston money manager Austen Furse already is putting together a campaign staff and raising money for the race. Former Harris County Republican Party Chairman Gary Polland said he is looking at the race but is concerned the district is trending Democratic.

And state Reps. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land, and Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, also are considering running, but they won't be able to be candidates without giving up their House seats if Gov. Rick Perry sets the special election to coincide with the Nov. 4 general election.

Janek, an anesthesiologist, is moving from the district to Austin. He has announced that he will resign on June 2. He hasn't given the governor his letter of resignation, so technically there is no mid-term special election needed to replace him at present.

That apparently didn't stop Janek and his political consultant from vetting candidates as likely replacements, settling on Furse.

Furse "won what people describe to me as the American Idol version for Allen Blakemore and for Senator Janek of auditioning candidates who came to see them and sought their blessing," Polland said. "That's fine. I know Blakemore has a vote. He lives in the district. Kyle doesn't. He lives in Austin."

For his part, Furse is pleased to have the backing of Blakemore and the rest of Janek's political team, as well as political consultant Court Koenning, who was the chief of staff for state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.

Janek said he had long thought of Furse as his potential replacement in the Senate. He said his support for Furse is not the result of an audition.

The obvious questions? Will the Church of Dan mend fences with Janek since they are now (seemingly) backing the same horse? Is Gary Polland a legitimate candidate minus the backing of the legions of blindly loyal voters that Dan inspires? Can Hochberg (assuming he decides to run) take advantage of this race and grab a State Senate seat?

I imagine the answer to the Hochberg question lies in whether or not the "special" election is held in concerrence with the regular election in November or not. I don't see Mr. Hochberg giving up the sure thing that is his House seat to take a flyer in a district that doesn't trend in his favor.

Of course, the opposition probably matters a lot as well. I won't be following this race too closely, but I thought it deserved a mention since the names are starting to appear from the smoke-filled rooms.

The opening of Discovery Green

By all accounts, it was a success..

(From Cindy Horswell of the Chron)

Surrounded by dramatic views of Houston's skyline, Discovery Green stretches in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center along McKinney for about eight city blocks.

Mayor Bill White declared the opening of the park, which took four years and $122 million to complete, a historic moment.

"This is a pure urban park that will have programs every day. It will have more intense activities than our other parks," said White, who traded in his suit and tie for shorts and tennis shoes Sunday.

Houston's park is somewhat similar to the 20-acre Millennium Park that opened in downtown Chicago in 2004, he said.

To replace the parking that was used to create the park, officials decided to build an underground lot with 600 spaces beneath the park's 1-acre lake, White said.

Those who flocked to the opening "Family Day" event gushed with enthusiasm as they surveyed the green space. While the park is compact, visitors Sunday said they were amazed at how much there was to do.

Visitors could hit golf balls, play shuffleboard, explore a new playground, dine in chic restaurants, stroll through gardens and enjoy a myriad of live entertainment venues.

Not only that, but you can relax in many sponsored areas of the park and walk down the "Bill and Andrea White promenade!!! A bargain at twice the price.

The early Chron coverage has been ecstatic...

(from Mrs. White*)

Imagine that Houston was about to acquire an exciting downtown park, one that would provide ceaseless activities for those who wished them, and solace and nature for all others. Imagine that the park would be so attractive that it would have lured apartment buildings, hotels, stores and offices to its fringes before it was complete, making downtown more livable and more lived in.

The image becomes reality Sunday with the opening of Discovery Green.

(snip)

Discovery Green borrows from the lessons of New York City's Bryant Park, site of the twice-annual fashion weeks. Like Bryant Park, Discovery Green will be intensely programmed to provide visitors both pleasure and security.

Joy all around. And I'm sure its a nice park, full of fun things to do and see. (including bocce ball, for some unknown reason.)

What I'm not yet convinced of is that this park will become a destination for suburbanites, as is being claimed. I can't see people paying $10 to park so their kids can play at a park when there are many other options available, each containing free parking options and better diversions. (not to mention the museum district which is still one of Houston's best (and underappreciated) assets.)

Still, its the spirit of the event that counts right? And in the spirit of all things new and Discovery Greened, I'm willing to suspend my skepticism for a week and join in the "corporate naming" game. All this despite the fact that I spent my Sunday morning at the Houston Zoo, choosing to leave behind the trendy set and let the animals know they weren't *yet* forgotten. Oh yeah, the zoo was packed. The kids were still smiling and Hermann Park was full.

So, therefore, in the spirit in keeping with the theme of Discovery Green, I offer up the following missed sponsorship opportunity:


The Metamucil Men's Restroom.


OTHER EYES:

Off the Kuff


*Not to be confused with Andrea White

The K-Mart Raid Settled

Almost, pending approval that is...

(from Cindy George of the Chron)

Dozens of people arrested by Houston police during the 2002 street racing raid that turned into a scandal for the Houston Police Department have reached a tentative settlement with the city.

The agreement — which still needs approval by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas and the City Council — will resolve at least nine of the 10 federal cases that include more than 100 plaintiffs. Lawyers on both sides confirmed the deal, but declined to reveal the settlement amount late Sunday. They will appear in court today, when jury selection was slated to begin, but it is unclear how Atlas will proceed in light of the agreement.

City Attorney Arturo Michel said the agreement makes good sense given the mounting legal costs and the distraction the litigation brought to HPD. The department is a different agency today than before the raid and lawsuits, he added.

"They've looked at how they operate, made some changes and they're moving on," he said of police officials. "It just closes the chapter on HPD's attempt to regulate a serious problem, but raises a lot of issues on how it was done."

The settlement also means that former HPD Chief C.O. Bradford, the Democratic candidate for Harris County district attorney, could avoid recounting the details of his department's missteps during a trial. Bradford stepped down as police chief in 2003, shortly after the incident.

One of the largest mass arrests in recent U.S. history, HPD rounded up nearly 300 people during the August 2002 raid at the Kmart parking lot on Westheimer.

Most of those arrested were charged with trespassing or curfew violations, but no one was accused of street racing.

While the charges were dropped after public outcry, many filed lawsuits alleging civil rights violations. Some — such as then-20-year-old Cori Lopez — claimed they were innocent customers at Kmart or a nearby Sonic drive-in.

The hope of the Bradford campaign is that this deal wraps up and is quietly forgotten by November. It's the "If you can't see it, it can't harm you" theory of running for political office.

Will it work? Time will tell. It doesn't hurt that he's running against Pat Lykos, instead of a good, solid candidate who could give him fits. The fact still remains that, if the race turns to his record, there's going to be a lot more negatives under the rugs than positives.

Oh yeah, then there's the issue of his pay raise given right before his retirement, his crime lab problems etc.


Hopefully this settlement can close the financial books on this mess however, regardless of how you feel it affects Bradford's political race.

Fallout, or not, from the DA election.

A potential brain-drain at the Harris County District Attorney's office?

It's one of many possibilities in the wave of the run-off...

(from Brian Rogers of the Chron)

The takeover of their office by an outsider at the end of the year has some Harris County prosecutors weighing their options and considering other jobs including taking appointments as defense attorneys.

To be appointed to a felony case in Houston, lawyers must pass a test of laws and procedures common in trials. The annual test is administered in May, and prosecutors are lining up to take the three-hour exam in case they need new jobs when a new district attorney — either Democrat C.O. "Brad" Bradford or Republican Pat Lykos — takes the helm.

Both candidates have said the District Attorney's office is in need of a major shake-up, but said Thursday that no one has been "targeted" for termination.

"I really want to dispel the malicious rumor that I'm going to purge the entire office," Lykos said. "That's just not true."

She said prosecutors who are passionate, ethical and work hard don't have to worry if she is elected.

Bradford also said the rank and file prosecutors need not worry prematurely.

"There are a lot of good, hardworking professional people in the office," Bradford said. "I'm not going to make any decisions before I get into office, look at personnel files and talk to people."

However, some prosecutors who actively worked on Assistant District Attorney Kelly Siegler's failed campaign worry that their jobs putting criminals behind bars are in jeopardy because they backed the wrong candidate.

To be fair, there's no proof, and nothing on the record showing that Lykos and Bradford have plans to gut the department, especially targeting Siegler supporters, but you have to think that they would want loyal subordinates would you not?

Plus, there's the sticky little matter of political favors to hand out, friends who will be wanting jobs etc.


Oh, don't act shocked. Its the way it is in the Government we deserve.

Vo No!!

Hubert Vo's problems continue to get worse...

(from Matt Stiles of the Chron)

Residents in local apartments owned by state Rep. Hubert Vo live in conditions that appear to violate numerous health and building standards, a Houston Chronicle review of the properties has found.

In recent days, the Houston Chronicle documented exposed electrical wires, rotting wood, broken and boarded-up windows and other potential violations of the city's "minimum standards" for occupied buildings.

After seeing the Chronicle's photographs, inspectors from two city departments pledged investigations into properties owned by Vo, D-Houston, saying the conditions could lead to misdemeanor criminal citations.

"There was nothing in those pictures that wasn't a violation," said Jodi Silva, a spokeswoman for the Houston Police Department's neighborhood protection division. "You have to keep your property to certain minimum standards, and that's what these are falling under."

The Chronicle's inquiry began last week after city inspectors, acting on complaints, cited Vo for conditions at an apartment complex he owns in the East End. There, inspectors found open electrical boxes, loose wiring and inadequate balcony railings — all misdemeanor violations.

Vo's other properties, in varying degrees, showed similar problems, though one complex was outside the city limits and not subject to post-construction inspections.

Among other potential city violations at three complexes were overflowing Dumpsters, damaged parking lots and an algae-filled swimming pool — all conditions that could prompt criminal fines.

There SHOULD be outrage because of this. But this is Houston, and Vo still has a lot of political capitol stored up as the man who took out Talmidge Heflin. He's the Viet Rock Star of the Democratic Party. Sure, maybe he's undergoing a slight bit of rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic right now, but hey, isn't that the kind of activity we EXPECT from our "heroes"?

At least Vo understands the REAL issue....

Vo said he knew he would face criticism:

"It's going to affect me very much. It's going to kill my reputation. I just have to move on and try to repair the damage."

Yes, Hubert it's all about you.

OTHER EYES:

BlogHouston

Liar Liar pants on fire

It was a story that was designed to whet the appetite of anti-illegal immigration activists everywhere. Girl makes "stop illegal immigration" sign gets pummelled for it by an angry mob of Hispanic students.

Except that it was bollocks...

(from the AP via Chron.com)

School officials say an eighth-grader lied when she told them a pack of angry classmates assaulted her over an anti-illegal-immigration poster she brought to campus that read, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration."

Surveillance cameras at Athens Middle School show Melanie Bowers, 13, purposefully making scratch marks on her face and arms in a hallway after a classmate took her poster in a "snatch-and-grab" style, Athens school Superintendent Fred Hayes said.

Bowers had told administrators she was clawed and hit after about 20 students, livid over the poster message she chose for a class project, swarmed around her and wrested the sign away.

Three Hispanic students had been suspended for their role in the alleged scuffle. Hayes said their punishment remains valid because they helped take the poster, but did not hurt Bowers in doing so. Hayes said on Tuesday that witnesses reported seeing the three make physical contact with their white classmate. The Hispanic students returned to class Wednesday.

Such are the dangers when you rely on the imaginations of a 13 year-old to reinforce your beliefs about a race.

Melanie Bowers shouldn't have been held up as a spokesperson for anti-illegal immigration, she shouldn't be held up as an argument for it either. She's 13. Yet I'm willing to make you a bet right now that enraged talking heads and bloggers everywhere will be calling for her blood. She's 13.

Si se puede eh? Act tough against a child that is.

Of runoffs and the general election.

Yesterday's run-off elections produced some mild surprises and some expected results, all of which lead up to an interesting general election in November.

That being said, here are the local races that I'm planning to blog up through November...

Harris County Judge: Ed Emmett vs. David Mincberg

An interesting race that pits a fairly popular incumbent against the Bill White political machine. This race could go a long way toward determining the viability of Mayor White in a race outside of the City Limits of Houston. Oddly enough, both candidates share many qualities.

Harris County District Attorney: C.O. Bradford vs. Pat Lykos

Probably the race where the two worst candidates for the job are still standing. Lykos went negative against Siegler, and then scolded Bradford after the run-off for questioning her administrative skills. Oddly enough, Bradford seems to be running on his administrative skills as a positive. Only in the sordid, upside-down world of politics would presiding over the HPD during the bulk of the time tha the crime lab fell apart be considered a strength.

Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector: Paul Bettencourt vs. Diane Trautman.

A lower profile race that could test the breadth of Dan Patrick's support across Harris County. Paul is the long-time incumbent who's rumored to be eyeing higher office. Diane Trautman is an educator who has local Democrats very excited about the prospect of winning this lower profile, but very important posistion, from the Republicans.

Congressional District 7: John Culberson vs. Micheal Skelly

My backyard, and what I consider to be one of the better races in the Houston area in the 2008 political season. Skelly made his fortune via wind energy, and he's going to have to convince residents of Houston's "energy corridor" that he's not going to vote to strip them of their livelihoods. Culberson is a fairly strong incumbent with some serious chinks in the armor. Are they enough for Skelly to take him down?


Congressional District 22: Nick Lampson vs. Pete Olson.

Ironically, Pete Olson is a conservative version of the type of candidate that the Democrats are recruiting to take out some Republican incumbants, young, male, with a background that includes military service. The Republicans feel that this seat is theirs for the taking and will certainly provide Olson with the resources he needs to win. Lampson has a moderate voting record and a surprisingly strong base of support in a decidedly "red" district whose political leadership is determined to prove his election was a one-time anomoly. With Olson on the ticket I think the Republicans have a very strong case. If Sekula Gibbs had won the nomination then I think that Lampson might have had an outside chance. Not my neighborhood but it should be interesting.

Texas Railroad Commission Chairman: Mark Thompson vs. Michael A. Williams

Why is this race important? Because Thompson was the least qualified candidate on the Democratic side of the ledger, and he won the primary and the run-off. Mr. Williams is a very qualified Chairman and it will be interesting to see if the Democrats vote for Thompson just because he has a (D) behing his name, something they criticize the Republicans for almost daily. I expect Williams to win, but it will be most interesting to see by how much.

Texas State Senator: John Cornyn vs. Rick Noriega

The Noriega campaign has stumbled out of the gate, looking amateurish on occasion, and only time will tell if they can get their bearings and run the type of serious, well-financed campaign that they will need to unseat Cornyn. A lot of this will depend on whether or not the National Party gets involved and provides Mr. Noriega with the funds he will need to take on Cornyn's sizable war chest. As the Presidential race heats up the "Bush lackey" rhetoric is going to lose some steam and Noriega is going to have to get down to issues. His side is confident, Cornyn is confident, I'm undecided at best. Truth be told I'm not enamored with either candidate at this point, so the vote could come down to the Least Common Denominator that isn't the absolute worst.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This election season I'm going to get it in gear and try and offer up questionnaires to all the candidates early, and keep up sufficient pressure on them to answer and return them. Sure I'll be making fun of other races from time to time (including the President's race) but I'm mostly going to focus on these few races to keep this blog from becoming "all politics all the time".

So, congratulations to all the primary winners, now the real fun begins.

OTHER EYES:

Off the Kuff
KTRK's Miya Shay
Chron: Local Politics
Lone Star Times, Again
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, again, and yet again

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

It's one thing to be a closet elitist, it's another thing to broadcast it happily to the world in editorial form. Lisa Falkenberg obviously doesn't share my concerns...

I went to do my taxes the other day. Or rather, I went to have someone do them for me.

Even though I have a college degree and make a living writing about complex issues, I have never had the patience or attention span to fill out a tax form. I hate most forms, just out of principle, no matter how short.

Tax forms, with all those particular rules and instructions and numbers and potential for legal trouble if you err, are the kind of jail cells that come equipped with padded walls and straitjackets.

So, I made an appointment at an H&R Block near my house in the Heights. Being new to the neighborhood, I wasn't exactly sure where the office was. There was a tinge of concern that it might be on a "bad" street. The people who work there might be less qualified. They might stumble over my student loan deductions, and then I'd be totally clueless as to how to help them.

(snip)

At this point, I began to wonder who my tax preparer would be. Besides the two women and me, the room was eerily empty.

I asked if they had an "accountant" and got blank stares.

One of the women then ushered me to her desk. Turned out she was the tax preparer. As she began entering my information, she misspelled my last name, which, I know, is easy to do. But then she fumbled my Social Security number.

My eyes shot to the door.

Maybe it wasn't too late to feign a forgotten W-2 and make an escape.

"Your profession?" she asked in a thick accent.

"Journalist," I answered. Again, a blank stare.

"Could you write it?" she asked, inching a notepad across the desk.

"Periodista," I blurted, partly trying to help, partly out of frustration. "Reportera."

Her eyes grew wide. "You speak Spanish!" she said in amazement. The other woman also drew near with a look of astonishment.

"Sí, un poquito," I told them. Then we had the inevitable conversation, where they ask me where I learned. (Spain, in college.) And compliment my accent, which for some unknown reason is misleadingly better than my puny vocabulary and spotty verb conjugation.

From that point on, the entire tax filing session was en Español. I considered protesting, until I realized that my tax preparer was suddenly clicking away on the keyboard without incident or error. Her fingers stopped quivering. And there was a newfound confidence in her voice.

So long as I understand most of what she's saying, I thought, I'll be OK. It's only taxes. And the preparer won my heart when she began looking high and low for a coupon so I could save a few bucks on the service.

But my comfort level plunged again when she delivered the painful news. The grand total of what I owed Uncle Sam this year was more than I'd ever paid before. With the mounds of college loan interest I usually deduct, I had always gotten a refund.

I began to doubt her again. She smelled the uncertainty and became nervous. She went over all the numbers with me, explaining that some law had passed that didn't allow people at my income level to claim college loan interest anymore. I still doubted. I called my fiance and he doubted.

Fine, I thought. I would accept her calculations and pay her fee, which took another 10 minutes because of technical difficulties. Then I would go to another H&R Block in another part of town, where they have retired certified accountants who prepare taxes in English, and have them redo the form.

(snip)

The other night, my fiance redid the form himself. He planned to calculate the amount she'd been off and then we could take it to another office and they'd have to fix the discrepancy for free.

Only, a short time later, he came into the kitchen where I was making supper and gave me a disappointed look.

"Bad news," he said.

I stopped stirring the rice.

"She got it right?" I said.

"Yep."

And I was disappointed, too. But not about the money.

Why, I wondered, had I been so quick to doubt?

Imagine the editorial outrage of the Chron, LULAC and several other groups if a non-enlightened consvervative wrote this. Certainly protests and calls for boycotts of the Chron would be de rigeur.

It won't in this case however, because the public shares many of the same low expectations that Ms. Falkenberg has for the Hispanic community, they just hold them for the Chronicle.


They shouldn't, but they do.


Lo Siento

If the alternative is blank newsprint....

The Pulitzer committee takes that over Mrs. White's daily dose of "huh"?...

Calls for a boycott of the Summer Olympics' opening ceremonies have drawn different reactions. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown indicated he will be in Beijing in August. German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to boycott the event, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been noncommittal but has taken a strong stance against Chinese actions in Tibet.

In the United States, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have called on President Bush to skip the Olympic ceremonies, though they are not urging withdrawal of U.S. athletes. The White House says the president intends to attend the Games.

While the Olympics ideally are above politics, in reality they cannot be totally separated, as evidenced by the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow games following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the racial protest by U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968 at Mexico City when they raised black-gloved fists while accepting their medals.

If Chinese leaders thought they could host the world's biggest sports event without exposing themselves to global criticism for their human rights policies, they were living in a dream. Reality is beginning to intrude, big time. The attention will only get more intense with the summer heat.

Boycotting the Beijing ceremonies while competing there athletically is pointless. Instead, world leaders should use the rare window of opportunity that the Olympics provide to go to China and speak out forcefully concerning political conditions there.

OK, so Mrs. White ISN'T suggesting that the President should boycott the games, and she isn't suggesting that the US boycott the games, so what in the World is she suggesting?

Which is why THIS is not much of a surprise...

(from the AP via the Chron)

Editorial Writing: No award.

I use the "Outlook" section in Sunday's paper to light my coal's for that evening's meal. Apparantely the Pulitzer committee does as well.

Lest you thought Houston was a Democracy...

The Chron runs an innocuous little story on billboards that will remind you where the REAL power behind the throne lies. (hint, it ain't with the voters)...

(from Carolyn Feibel of the Chron)

The city has struck a deal with one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in Houston that calls for it to dismantle 831 billboards before the end of this year.

The agreement with Clear Channel Outdoor would take effect after the City Council approves it. The proposal is on Wednesday's agenda.

Under the settlement, Clear Channel would remove 831 small and medium-sized billboards from across the city, 51 of them from designated "scenic districts." That represents a two-thirds reduction of all the company's billboards that are less than 288 square feet in size

Many of those billboards were slated to come down by 2013, but some could have remained up permanently because they are located on federal roadways and are beyond the city's legal reach.

In return, Clear Channel would get an extension on 24 large billboards that would have come down between 2009 and 2013. Those will get to stay up 20 more years. The last ones will come down in 2033.

"I think that's worth it," Mayor Bill White said Monday. "It takes down more billboards faster."

Anti-billboard activists said they approved of the deal.

"We were very pleased," said Ed Wulfe, a board member with Scenic Houston. The nonprofit advocates for beautification of streets and public spaces. "For all practical purposes, it will mean no new billboards."

The group had blasted White for offering a "relocation" provision in its previous settlement offer last December. That would have given Clear Channel the right to move 466 medium billboards. That was the same as allowing new billboards to be built, the group contended.

In case you don't remember, this isn't the first time this year that Mr. Wulfe's gotten something he's wanted.

The sad thing is most people don't realize just how incestuous most of the City's mechanisms really are. Oh sure they whine a little bit about "ethics" and "cozy relationships" and those "evil developers", and then they do an about face and praise everyone when the outcome is one of which they approve. Especially if said outcome is being championed by an elected official who's expected to make a serious run for the Governor's mansion with the correct parenthesied letter behind their name.

It's amazing what the principled are willing to overlook in the name of partisainship is it not?

While I'm all for a reduction in billboards, I can't help but wonder if other groups without such well-connected leadership are getting the same level of attention paid to their causes by the administration as is Mr. Wulfe and Scenic Houston?

75 Years of Beer

In case you weren't aware...

(from the Beertown Brewer's Association)

This year we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the modification of the Volstead Act on April 7, 1933, which allowed beer to legally flow once again in the United States of America. Not to be confused with the repeal of prohibition on December 5th, 1933, April 7 marks the date when beer was the only legal libation in the United States.

This April there will be special celebrations, special release beers, and general merrymaking across the country in honor of this milestone. Join your local brewery as we toast to the 75th anniversary of legal beer.

There are, of course, several Texas Options available if you wish to celebrate the occasion by tipping back a pint of something local.

Here are a few of my favorites:

St. Arnold's
Real Ale
Rahr & Son's
Shiner

Slainte!

Wants

The ASUS Eee PC.


Yup, we wants one bad.

Public getting short with airlines.

Is this REALLY a big surprise?

(from the AP via KHOU)

Late flights and lost bags, to say nothing of higher fares, are making air travelers grumpy, an annual survey of airline quality says.

The industry posted declines last year in every area of the Airline Quality Rating, amid rising fuel prices, safety problems and bankruptcy filings that shut down three carriers last week alone.

The biggest change was in the rate of consumer complaints, up 60 percent overall. The rate more than doubled at US Airways and Comair, and rose for 15 of the 16 airlines included in the study. The exception was Mesa Airlines.

On-time arrivals dropped for the fifth straight year, with more than one-quarter of all flights late, according to the survey. The rates of passengers bumped from overbooked flights and bags lost, stolen or damaged also jumped in 2007.

“The trend is bad and it doesn’t look like it gets any better,” said Dean Headley, an associate professor at Wichita State University and co-author of the study being released Monday.

The survey results mesh with the spate of problems that have beset U.S. carriers, starting with surging fuel costs, Headley said.

It's hard to make a strong case that people should pay more for getting less, yet that's what the domestic airlines have been trying to jam down consumer's gullets for a few years now. And Joe Public is probably done swallowing shite and saying it tastes like chocolate pudding with a sick smile on his face.

What the Domestic airline industry needs is a good close shave with Occam's Razor. I can think of at least two major airlines that would probably do better shutting their doors than continuing to limp along in and out of bankruptcy trying to efficiency their way to profitability.

Old habits die hard however, and using the accepted definition of insanity we can all conclude that several top airline executives are certifiably insane.

Dallas vs. Houston

Or....How they do things up north...

(from Rad Sallee of the Chron)

Dallas Area Rapid Transit underwent a leadership shake-up last month after news that planned light rail lines to suburban Irving and Rowlett would cost twice as much as budgeted.

The Dallas Morning News reported that an independent auditor said DART president Gary Thomas had known about the increase for months before telling the agency's board.

The paper said the board discussed whether to fire Thomas but decided to keep him. An executive vice president resigned to take a job in Austin.

Meanwhile, in Houston — where projected costs of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's planned North line are now more than double earlier estimates and those of the Southeast line have quadrupled — Metro president and CEO Frank Wilson isn't sweating.

For all of the dispersions that Houston's perpetual "World Class" machine likes to hurl at Dallas, one thing is certain: Dallas has a better understanding of budgets and projected costs, and how to deal with people who don't, than does Houston.

As a result of this, the DART system (although still flawed) is a far superior system to the glorified circular bus route that Houston is hyping as its "transit solution of the future". At LEAST Dallas is trying to address how to get people from the suburbs to the City Center. In Houston the idea seems to be that people are going to leave their homes to move INTO the City Center, abandoning their yards, single family units and relative quiet to be stacked into developer friendly high-rises with excessive Association fees that mostly go to keep children's feces out of the swimming pools during the summer. Oh, don't cringe, you know its true.

So Dallas is spending some time at least worrying about the nuts and bolts of infrastructure while Houstonians keep watching the "world class" field goals move down the field....

Brokers, developers and analysts say the park is attracting new development that promises to shift downtown's center of gravity to the long-dormant area east of Main Street.

The flurry of projects shows Mayor Bill White was correct when he predicted in 2004 that a high-quality park next to the George R. Brown Convention Center would create an "explosion of growth" on its periphery, said broker Dave Cook of Cushman & Wakefield.

"Everyone now feels that they want to be on the park," said Cook, who's been involved in a number of land deals in the area.

All of which will be used to fuel increased City spending on a second high-end hotel. After construction of which Houston will finally be considered "world-class" right?


Right?


Until the next developer wants something that is. Then we fall behind again.


OTHER EYES:

BlogHouston: Frank Wilson: We'll produce details after contract is signed.
Off the Kuff: Discovery Green set to open.
Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, and Hell Storms: Book Review: Houston Electric - The Street Railways of Houston, TX.
Slampo's Place: Let's go downtown, for some Bocce.

How to destroy an op-ed in two paragraphs or less

Mrs. White proposeth...

With a budget of more than $235 million, the Texas Youth Commission system currently holds about 2,800 young offenders. It maintains a costly bureaucracy with more than 4,100 employees, yet still cannot fill 440 positions to maintain an adequate guard/inmate ratio.

John Whitmire, the Houston Democrat who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, figures that's a prohibitive cost to taxpayers for housing a population that could fit into a typical Texas high school.

After growing frustrated with efforts to reform TYC, Whitmire has come up with a sensible plan that would effectively abolish the agency and delegate its juvenile corrections duties to county or regional authorities.

He believes the move would save millions. Aside from the financial considerations, there are other good reasons, starting with the shocking treatment of teens in state custody.

For the kind of tuition footed by the public, you'd think the state agency would be providing its troubled youth with top-flight facilities and educational and therapeutic programs. Instead, it has been wracked by scandal for the past year following revelations that young inmates in an isolated West Texas penal facility were coerced into sexual activities with administrators.

Grits taketh away (in the chron.comments section, NOT on his blog)

Gritsforbreakfast wrote:
Well, part of it is that the Lege budgeted TYC at 98% of its last budget, then the last E.D. sent a bunch of kids home and basically cut the inmate population in half. So the budget stuff is quite overstated.

Texas needs to fix TYC, but everyone please STOP thinking you can do so by saving money. Building infrastructure in the counties (and Harris needs it most) will be very expensive, and fought at every step by NIMBYs. Face facts: You can't do mass incarceration on the cheap, for juvies or adults.

The Chron does a LOT of things very well. Editorialzing hasn't been one of those things for quite some time. In two paragraphs, Grits shoots down every argument that it took Mrs. White an entire op-ed to develop.

04.04.08

"We're going the wrong way!!!!"


You now know where I'll be spending my Friday evenings.

The ties that bind

The Chron's Alan Bernstein takes a look at the financial backing of the Pat Lykos campaign and finds some familiar names...

Former Harris County government chief Robert Eckels has emerged as the top financial promoter of Pat Lykos' campaign for district attorney with his veiled funding of a $17,500 leaflet that denounces candidate Kelly Siegler without revealing its senders' identities.

Using money left over from his campaigns for county judge, Eckels is this year's sole bankroller of the Harris County GOP Political Action Committee, which has been criticized by Republican Party officials for using the name while lacking any official connection to the party. The committee has received no other money this year and endorsed no one for other offices.

Many Harris County voters this week received the mailed leaflet, which makes no mention of former judge Lykos, from the "Harris County GOP PAC." By law, the committee listed treasurer Jason Miller, a computer technologist. It contains no reference to Eckels, who once employed Lykos, or of committee chairman Bob Pelfrey, a longtime Republican activist. Those disclosures are not required.

Eckels' $17,500 contribution to the committee, however, is listed on disclosures filed this week with the Texas Ethics Commission.

He has contributed at least $35,000 more directly to Lykos' campaign, and the Houston-based law firm Fulbright & Jaworski, where Eckels is a partner, gave Lykos $5,000 at his encouragement, he said Thursday.

Further proof that, once you get them out, they wiggle their way back in. The "behind the scenes" power brokers in the County stay the same, just the names on the ballots change from time to time.

What's sad is that the Lykos campaign has been painting their candidate as the voice of "change" in the DA's office while casting Siegler as "more of the same". As we can see through this revelation there's really not much change after all.

The question that I ask myself in this race is as follows: "Who has the best chance of Beating Clearance Bradford?" Because, no matter how flawed the Republican candidates for this seat turn out to be, they are infinitely better than the former HPD Police Chief who led the department during the bulk of the time that the Crime Lab was falling to pot.

There are good candidates from both parties in several races this election. The DA's race isn't one of them.

City wins appeal, new appeal coming

Around and around we go...

(from Carolyn Feibel of the Chron)

Anti-tax activist Bruce Hotze lost a legal battle with the city on Thursday, but said he will continue to fight for a cap on all city revenues.

The cap was Proposition 2, which voters passed in 2004. The city has not enforced it, because voters also passed another cap mechanism by a wider margin. That cap, Proposition 1, is not as restrictive.

"I'm mad as a hornet that the appellate court has sent this back to the lower court on a technicality," said Hotze, a local businessman and limited-government activist. "We're going to take this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to."

The "technicality" is Hotze's right to sue, known as "standing." The 14th Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Hotze and his group had no standing to bring the suit, and sent it back to district court to give him one more chance to claim standing on different grounds.

"We are gratified to have prevailed in the Court of Appeals," Mayor Bill White said in a statement. "We respect those who have fought for tax limits for years," he added.

It's disconcerting that the courts are increasingly ruling that "standing" is difficult to gain in taxation lawsuits. I understand that you can't have people suing on every new tax that they oppose, but in a situation such as this, where the City is deciding to ignore the passage of one amendment in favor of another, I would think that standing is not of primary concern. The issue to me would be voter disenfranchisement, a case where standing is assumed.

Obviously the court saw it a different way than did I, which is obviously why I'm an accountant and not a judge.

You would think that the courts would want to weigh in on this case however because of its unusual nature. If nothing else to clear things up.

Ah well, we'll just wait for round three I guess.

Mr. Chertoff, Tear down that Wall?

This is not going to go over well...

(from Christopher Sherman of the AP via chron.com)

The federal government does not have to explain how the border fence will affect the environment along the U.S.-Mexico border after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived a law requiring a final report on the fence's impact.

Members of the Texas Border Coalition were told in a conference call with federal officials Wednesday that they will not get the long-awaited final environmental impact statement on the fence. Homeland Security said it would work from a draft study.

Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, chairman of the coalition, said they were told that some findings and mitigation studies would be made available to them, but not the comprehensive report required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

"What is it we don't want to show the world," Foster said. "That makes one suspicious."

Last fall, the Department of Homeland Security released a massive draft environmental impact statement, with maps of possible fence routes and areas of environmental, historical and archaeological significance that would be studied in more detail for the final document. A public comment period followed when individuals, organizations and other government agencies submitted their concerns and suggestions for alternatives.

The National Environmental Policy Act was one of more than 30 laws Chertoff announced he was bypassing Tuesday.

Amy Kudwa, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said the agency had the draft environmental impact statement. "We will continue to work from that and will continue to move forward with environmental assessments." Kudwa did not know what information would be made public or when.

In a statement released Tuesday, Chertoff said his agency "is neither compromising its commitment to responsible environmental stewardship nor its commitment to solicit and respond to the needs of state, local and tribal governments, other agencies of the federal government and local residents."

But the move away from an established process concerned border area officials and defenders of the environment.

I'm not sure which is worse: The fact that America is considering building a border wall or the reality that the biggest concern about said wall is its potential environmental impact?

Let's be straight here for a minute: Building a wall to keep something out of one's country is a bad idea. For one, it rarely works, and for two, it makes you appear weak. Yup, that's right, weak. Because nothing says "we can't control things over here" any more than 10 feet of concrete built to keep out those deemed nasty and undesirable by the ruling group with the best plurality.

The biggest argument for the wall? Some kind of dreck about "protecting our culture". As if the "American culture" is something that is in dire need of protection. We're the country that foisted the Big Mac and Michael Jackson on the rest of the world for Chrissakes. While Jazz "sort-of" makes up for the previous two "oops", I'm not sure we can ever get our cultural ledger back into the black after producing Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Like the National Debt, we could be too far gone.


Maybe Mexico would want a wall to keep Britney and Paris from creeping into their culture?

State Representative as Slum Lord?

That's certainly the picture this article is painting...

(from Matt Stiles and Anna Ruiz of the Chron)

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."

Vo, a Democrat running for re-election to his southwest Houston seat in the Texas House, has owned the four-building, $2.8 million property under one of his companies, Newlink Investments, Inc., since 2002.

His campaign issued a statement late Wednesday:

"At the property in question, work was started a month ago to correct items the city has concerns about," the statement read.

"The city understands I will make all the necessary repairs because I want my properties to be a safe place for my tenants and an asset to the neighborhood."

Broken windows, missing window screens, wood rot and a parking lot plagued with potholes were among obvious problems visible at the complex Wednesday.

I would argue that the City doesn't understand that you are in the process of making the necessary changes because they cited you for safety and maintenance violations, but that's just me.

Hopefully Vo's assertions are more than just lip service and he maintains the property as he should. After all, we elect Government officials to put a stop to these practices, not participate in them right?

Houston Restaurant closures

After 40 years, adios to Guadalajara Bakery and Tacos....

(from Alan Turner of the Chron)

It's a safe bet that the tiny U.S. flags festooning Guadalajara Bakery and Tacos are a reflection of owner Consuelo Chavez's passion for her adopted country.

But there's a secondary meaning as well: Red is for the red-hot salsa verde assembled from a recipe so secret that not even $10,000 can loosen Chavez's lips; white is for the dozens of tortillas workers fashion by hand each morning before the first customer crosses the threshold; blue is for the way longtime patrons feel when they hear the joint at 4003 Washington is closing.

The Guadalajara, opened 40 years ago by Chavez and her husband, Heraclio, is set to be razed in August to make way for upscale housing that has steadily transformed Washington Avenue's gritty streetscape in the past 10 years.

Already a neighboring auto body shop has been leveled. Across the street, a $3 million apartment project nears completion. Elsewhere on Washington, the venerable Pig Stand diner stands empty and a wine bar has opened. Efforts to find a new, affordable home for the Guadalajara have failed.

"Everything good has to come to an end," says Chavez's daughter Blanca Rodriguez, 47, who started working in the bakery at age 9. "Change is good, but it's unfair to some."

Rodriguez's eyes seem to tear up at her assessment, but maybe it's just mist from the steam table that keeps the barbacoa and the egg and pork concoctions piping hot.

Ah the clumsy downside of gentrification, as Washington is "progressing" from a hard-scrabble area to the new hangout of the easily distracted.

First it was Felix closing after 50 years in business and now we have Guadalajara giving way to $10 haute dogs and over-priced beverages sipped by those who are too self-unaware to realize they've become the epitome of everthing they loathed during their University days.

Maybe its just me, but I'll take a $1.50 taco over a $10 dog any day of the week.

"My" Houston

Or more accurately, 'Their Houston', or their idea of what Houston should be is about to be broadcast via TV commercials across the Nation.

Using high profile celebrities with tenuous (at best) ties to the City.

John Lithgow as a Houstonian? Beyonce? (who doesn't even live here any longer)


Maybe the ad should read:

"My Houston, a great place as Long as I don't have to live there."

That seems to be the message they are sending.

Fallout from Congress' April Fools Day Joke

Society's Least Common Denominator is mad and they're not going to take it any longer....

(from David Ivanovich of the Chron)

Oil company executives expressed sympathy for consumers hurt by high energy costs Tuesday but defended their companies' record profits.

With gasoline prices at an all-time high and angry truck drivers parking their rigs Tuesday in protest of even-higher diesel prices, executives from the nation's five largest oil companies appeared before a House panel, where they were chastised by Democrats for their corporate profits and failure to invest more in renewable energy sources.

"On April Fools' Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil, who are using every trick in the book to keep billions in federal tax subsidies, even as they rake in record profits," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a longtime oil industry critic and chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

The energy executives tried to defuse some of the outrage over their profits — which Markey tallied at $123 billion in 2007 — at a time when many Americans are struggling to find the cash to fill up their cars.

"All Americans feel the pain of $100 oil, and it's not just at the pump," said Chevron Vice Chairman Peter Robertson. "Everything is more expensive. People are concerned about rising costs. And rightly so."

But J. Stephen Simon, Exxon Mobil Corp.'s senior vice president, and Robert A. Malone, president of BP America, pointed to figures they said suggest the oil and gas industry's profits last year were not out of line with companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Oil and gas companies, the executives said, earned an average of 8.3 cents per dollar of sales, compared with 7.8 cents per dollar for the Dow companies — which include Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

Simon said that Exxon Mobil's effective tax rate in 2007 was 44 percent, compared with 30 percent on average for 80 U.S. companies surveyed by Tax Notes, a print and online news service covering tax issues.

Simon said that over the last five years, Exxon Mobil's U.S. tax bill has exceeded the company's U.S. earnings by $19 billion.

Not that poor mouthing is an advisable tactic for Big Oil, but pointing out that their earnings are in line with some of the other companies on the Dow is probably a good idea. I'm also waiting for someone to point out that its new requirements from the Government, and not price gouging, that's running up the price of diesel fuel in the Country. These are the little things that get lost in the shouting when political actors decide to get their name in the media before an election.

My favorite is Congress' "demand" that oil companies spend more developing alternative resources, despite the fact that there's little profit to be made there. In effect they're ordering the companies to lose money in order to satisfy the whims of a few old white guys who don't have the education or expertise necessary to understand the market. I don't care what business you're in, that's a recipe for failure.

Equally short-sighted is the conservative view that allowing companies to drill in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the ANWAR is a salve to the wound of high commodities prices. It might help, four or five years down the road, but it won't solve the issue entirely. Trying to please her readers, Mrs. White echoes the refrain...

Republicans on the committee, not known to be friends of the consumer, made the best suggestion for increasing U.S. oil supplies, which would exert downward pressure on prices: Let oil companies drill off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

To be fair, she also pointed out this factual error coming from the mouths of Congressmen with (D)'s behind their name:

Democratic members of the committee grilled the oil company executives about why they are not investing more in alternative energy sources. But four of the five oil majors in the United States have invested billions in wind, solar and biofuels.

And geothermal, and gas to liquid technologies, etc. All that is just insignificant I guess. What they're REALLY referring to are Al Gore's carbon credits companies. There's no meaningful investment in renewables unless those companies are involved in the Democratic mind.

Perhaps the funniest reflection on the entire mess was the KHOU 'man on the street' interviews getting public reaction from consumers gleefully filling up their SUV's while blaming the oil companies for their woes. Not to suggest that owning an SUV is a bad thing, but you could do something to alleviate the problem as well right?

Of course, that's not the "new" American way. Blame everyone else for our problems and then watch societies Least Common Denominator feign surprise that our financial overreaching and rampant consumerism has gotten us to this point.

I'm still waiting for the politician that says "Hey, we could all stand to cut back a bit, you know?" Either that or accept the responsibilities that come with our lifestyle choices that is. Just sayin'.

Try and Try again

That seems to be State Rep. Ellen Cohen's motto after a State District Judge struck down her $5 "strip club" fee as unconstitutional.

(from Carolyn Feibel of the Chron)

State Rep. Ellen Cohen pledged Monday to revive a $5-per-patron strip club fee, three days after a Travis County district judge struck down the law as unconstitutional.

"We are discouraged by Judge Jenkins' verdict, but we are not disheartened," said Cohen, the law's primary sponsor when it was signed into law last June. Later Monday, she traveled to Austin to meet with the Texas Attorney General's Office, which plans to appeal the ruling.

The fees would have created the first stable source of state money for the prevention and treatment of sexual violence, Cohen, D-Houston, said. The ruling by Travis County District Judge Scott Jenkins disappointed advocates who say Texas must find a way to provide more money for rape victims, because federal funds are diminishing.

"This has a huge impact on victim services, because they're already on a shoestring," said Annette Burrhus-Clay, executive director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, or TAASA.

"You still have more than 50 percent of folks in Texas who still have no idea what a rape crisis center is," Burrhus-Clay said. Many hospitals around the state lack rape kits or a specially trained nurse who knows how to use the kit to obtain evidence for prosecutions, she added.

"The awareness has increased, but not the resources," said Mica Mosbacher, a Houston philanthropist who speaks publicly about her own experience as a victim of sexual assault.

I'm unclear on how this is going to have a "huge impact" on victim services, since it means that they are going to revert back to the funding levels they survived on before the unconstitutional law was passed? Maybe someone can help me figure that one out.

The fact that many politicians overlook in instances such as this, is that its not proper to tax a small portion of the populace disproportionately simply because you don't approve of certain legal activies, no matter how offensive you find said legal activity to be. And yes, I have the same misgivings about excess tobacco taxes to fund cancer research. Or any specific taxation that's meant to drive behavior away from legalized activity.

If you believe in victims services (and I do) then make funding them a priority in your budget plans. Or, find a way to make it viable and companies will be lining up to fill the void.

Those are your two options, and since the latter is probably not viable here (because charging someone who's just been brutally raped the "going rate" for crisis treatment probably isn't going to fly) then you have to be honest and try to insert the funding into the budget.

Just because you don't like something is not a reason to tax it into submission. That message goes out to both Republicans and Democrats. Living in a free society means tolerating things you don't approve of. We could all learn from that lesson the next time the City or State tries to nanny-legislate out of existence something they find unpalatable.

Congress' April fools joke

There's really no other way to explain it...

(from Brett Clanton and David Ivanovich of the Chron)

Gasoline prices broke records again Monday as triple-digit oil prices kept pressure on the pump, giving Congress a well-timed setup as it prepares to grill oil executives today on soaring energy costs.

The national average price for regular unleaded climbed a fraction of a penny to $3.29 a gallon, up 12 cents from a month ago, AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report said. In Houston, the average reached $3.22 a gallon, up 17 cents from last month, the motor club said.

The records came on the eve of a congressional committee appearance by executives from the nation's five largest oil companies.

The title of the hearing — "Drilling for Answers: Oil Company Profits, Runaway Prices and Pursuit of Alternatives" — hints at the reception industry leaders may expect from the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

"This new gas prices record is a perfect example of why we need these oil companies to go on the record with the American people to discuss our dangerous dependence on oil," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the panel.

With pump prices high and the economy limping, U.S. gasoline demand has fallen 10 weeks in a row, and gasoline stockpiles have swollen nearly 10 percent above their five-year average. Such a situation historically might have helped cool down pump prices.

But $100-a-barrel crude oil has changed the equation and is exerting a huge influence on the price of gasoline, said John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group in Washington. The price of crude, which typically accounts for about 48 percent of the price of gasoline, accounts for 70 percent of the pump price today, Felmy said.

Weak returns refiners have posted recently attest to the industry's struggle to absorb higher crude costs, Felmy said.

On Monday, light, sweet crude for May delivery fell $4.04 to $101.58 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But it is still up more than 50 percent from a year ago.

Were this a serious attempt to guage what the Government could do to help alleviate gasoline prices (not much) instead of a witch hunt designed to generate campaign material maybe people would take it more seriously. As it is the only people who look on these antics with any more than passing amusement are those who have just given up on success and want the Government to handle everything for them. Sadly, in America, there are increasing numbers of those people out there today.

As is usual on any energy related post I'm openly revealing my employment with a major oil and gas company. So yes, I have a bias, but its a bias brought on by first hand information, and not based on some sound byte generated by one of America's Least Common Denominators who confused their election with an annointment. So take this for what its worth.

On the bright side: High gas prices finally seem to be stemming demand, and are forcing companies to look to other resources besides oil for future fuel needs. Which is what I and other industry insiders have been saying needs to happen for months now.

Short term, there's nothing the Government can do to affect gas prices. Bringing oil company execs in under the false pretense of "fact finding" when the real intent is to make them look bad based either on fact (rarely) or emotion (more often) isn't going to solve the problem. They could implement price controls, or socialize the industry, things for which each of them have criticized other Nation-States for recently in the past, or they can open up exploration. They also can implement a "windfall profits" tax, and watch the prices go even higher. Their final (and most popular) option is to "roll back" the incentives for domestic exploration and production, which will somehow curb our reliance on foreign oil while cutting production of our own.

As I said, this is Congress' big April Fools joke.

Oh, and if all of this seems familiar:

The FTC has investigated the refining industry in the past for possible price manipulation and found nothing, he said. The office has no active probe in progress, he said.

Today, Congress will take a turn putting the industry under the microscope.

Scheduled to appear at the hearing are J. Stephen Simon, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp.; John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co.; Robert A. Malone, president of BP America; Peter J. Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron Corp.; and John E. Lowe, executive vice president of ConocoPhillips.

If the hearing seems familiar, it's because the industry has been through this before — many times, said Frank Maisano, a principal with the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani who works on refinery issues.

"It's like a rite of spring," he said. "The cherry blossoms are blooming, baseball has kicked off and Congress is starting the gas price hearings again."

You already know the one about the definition of insanity right?