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10 March 2010

MATT BRAMANTI scores with this tweet:

Chron tweet

We expect Jeff Cohen will be hitting the links the rest of the week.

Honestly, though, did America's worst big-city daily really need to devote 30+ grafs to this not-story?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 08:42 AM | Comments (0)

MARC CAMPOS notes that new HISD chief Terry Grier has been busy in his first six months, upsetting the usual suspect:

So far it looks like to me that the only person that is publicly unhappy with the Superintendent is the teachers’ union honcho [Gayle Fallon]. Everybody is A-OK, just observing, or keeping their pieholes shut. Commentary is one of the ones that is A-OK.

The folks who hired Grier had to know they were getting a reformer. He has hit the ground running. That all seems A-OK so far to us.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 08:12 AM | Comments (4)

THE CHRONICLE reports on METRO's plans to issue $2.6 billion in bonds to finance its light rail construction (and, ostensibly, to avoid the limits imposed by the 2003 referendum on the boondoggle's skyrocketing costs).

The Examiner's Michael Reed reported on METRO's bond plans last week.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 08:00 AM | Comments (1)

BARRY KLEIN passes along a guest commentary ("More trains + short blocks: The coming downtown mobility mess") that we have posted here.

We have previously reviewed METRO's coming downtown mobility mess here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 07:53 AM | Comments (0)

09 March 2010

ONE OF THE (MANY) DISTURBING ASPECTS OF SHREDDERGATE is how chatty METRO officials have been about the firing of Pauline Higgins, former chief counsel for the transit agency. They even released personnel documents purportedly showing what a terrible employee she was. Now, Texas Watchdog's Lee Ann O'Neal reports that one of METRO's reasons for dumping Ms. Higgins is that "she held meetings after-hours at the agency's offices for a charity golf tournament named in memory of her dead son."

Metro also accused Higgins in the report of giving Metro jobs to people who also helped out with the golf tournament. But one of the four people referenced told Texas Watchdog Tuesday that he's been doing legal work for Metro since well before Higgins arrived at the agency. Another one of the four was hired as a summer intern, not as a full-time permanent employee.

But, you see, this can't stand. The transit agency that employs Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson, and his close friends, has standards and policies, and Higgins violated them with her charity golf tournament.

That revelation led me to a bit of rummaging around METRO's website, and in their Outreach section, there is one M. Helen Cavazos, METRO VP of Human Resources and Diversity, who was recognized by the Dynamo as a 2009 Outstanding Hispanic Community Leader for "her continuous contribution and giving back to the community." Did Ms. Cavazos do ALL her continuous contributing and giving back after hours AND off-site? Ms. Higgins' problem, apparently, was having after-hours meetings at the Lee P. Brown Administrative Building.

Since METRO is a-okay with speaking at length about personnel issues, METRO should disclose how many other employees it has investigated (and fired!) for after-hours charitable work done at METRO HQ. We're most curious.

Except that now, METRO spokeswoman Raequel "9-volt" Roberts says, "We've said all that we're going to say as far as personnel issues." Smearing complete, mission accomplished.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/09/10 08:27 PM | Comments (8)

08 March 2010

SLAMPO checks in with an update on his favorite, non-resident Houston Councilmember, Al(oysius) Hoang.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 11:18 PM | Comments (0)

THE CHRON'S SENIOR METRO/STATE COLUMNIST (and plagiarist) apparently decided that it was time at least to acknowledge METRO's Shreddergate scandal.

It's a typically lazy, lackluster effort that breaks little new ground*, save that we learn METRO's PR blitz apparently included a meeting with the Chron editorial board,** one of the organization's biggest cheerleaders over the years (along with some transit "reporters").

UPDATE: Apparently, The Plagiarist's column had an embarrassing problem for those reading the print edition (the online version has been corrected): It referred to fired attorney Pauline Higgins as Wiggins repeatedly:

In Rick Casey's Sunday column, former Metropolitan Transit Authority chief counsel Pauline Higgins' name was spelled correctly the first time, but misspelled in subsequent references.

Whoops! Copy editing is not a strong suit of America's worst big-city daily.

*Reader Participation Opportunity 1: Go help out Cory Crow by answering his question, "Can someone tell me the point of this Rick Casey column?"

** Reader Participation Opportunity 2: Imagine the fun naming possibilities of that meeting of the minds! We immediately thought of, "LET'S TRASH THE WRITTEN WORD TOGETHER!" Feel free to add yours in the comments.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 08:30 PM | Comments (1)

THE CLEARLY UNRETIRED UNCA DARRELL explains that the Chron editorial board's latest health care screed is "unprincipled, deliberately false, and wrong."

How does that distinguish this one from most of their output exactly?

UPDATE: On a sort-of-related note, Matt Bramanti called our attention to this brutal graf that the editorial board generated over the weekend:

The proposed loan guarantees are also a clarifying recognition by the administration that nuclear power, which supplies 20 percent of the nation's electricity, has a significant role to play in the steady greening of the nation's energy supplies backed by Obama.

They also called nuclear energy a "fuel."

Dreadful prose. Dreadful substance. Occasional dishonesty. The editorial board certainly does its part at America's worst big-city daily!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 07:57 PM | Comments (0)

THE CHRON EDITORIAL BOARD sums up the mentality at America's worst big-city daily very well today:

In a pre-primary interview, White said he fully expects the GOP to make the state of Houston an election issue. He expects the rebuttal to come not only from his own campaign but from Houstonians and local news media.

Local news media might not completely go along, but the Chronicle will be cheering loudly for their man, we're sure. America's worst big-city daily loves to play cheerleader for favorites (pols, causes, and boondoggles alike), even if the folks at 801 Texas Avenue are usually not so candid about it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 05:36 PM | Comments (3)

07 March 2010

THAT'S HOW METRO ROLLS: Business owners along Post Oak have been left "totally in the dark" about METRO's light rail plans for their area. The Examiner's Michael Reed notes METRO's lame response -- they consulted with the Uptown Management District, the City of Houston, and oh yeah, some unnamed "area property owners." Maybe Ed Wulfe was one?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/07/10 07:12 PM | Comments (1)

06 March 2010

VARIOUS MEDIA OUTLETS reported on Friday's court decision in which a skeptical state district judge extended an order barring METRO from destroying any further documents (Chronicle, KHOU-11, KTRK-13, KPRC-2). The judge expressed skepticism of METRO's assurances regarding its shredding (he must not find the past David Wolff/Frank Wilson fibs about transparency as compelling as, say, the last few Chron transit reporters). He also criticized the agency's apparent effort to smear recently fired attorney Pauline Higgins by making her personnel file a part of the proceedings.

Additional developments since the last Shreddergate update:

The Harris County District Attorney's Office confirmed it had opened an investigation into Shreddergate.
The Chron's Mike Snyder posts an instructive METRO "transparency" training video that was referenced several days ago by KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt.
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg asks questions of METRO's speaking attorney (apparently, insider Gene Locke just draws up documents, sits, and makes lots of money but not so many oral arguments lawyering for METRO).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/06/10 11:15 PM | Comments (4)

05 March 2010

SPRING MAY FINALLY HAVE SPRUNG, and that's as good an excuse for an outdoors blogger/beer/BS gathering as any.

We're gonna hit the West Alabama Icehouse this time, Saturday, 2pm-???

As an added bonus, a friend's band is having a CD release show there at 4pm, so you can stick around for some music if the mood strikes.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/05/10 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

IN THE LATEST SHREDDERGATE DEVELOPMENT, the Chronicle reports today that the relationship between a high-level exec with METRO's light-rail contractor and a senior light-rail executive within the organization is a potential topic at today's court hearing over a judge's order barring METRO from shredding documents.

METRO (represented by rejected mayoral candidate Gene Locke, a nice Houston Way touch!), which apparently would like to resume shredding documents without all this unusual and pesky media scrutiny, assures that it took steps to prevent any conflict of interest: METRO's executive, the organization tells reporter Mike Snyder, "signed a memo agreeing, among other things, not to talk to his wife about business included in the contract."

So there you have it!

UPDATE: The Chron Houston Politics blog has posted supporting documents for today's story.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/05/10 08:03 AM | Comments (6)

04 March 2010

TEXAS WATCHDOG tonight reports on the release of the personnel file of Pauline Higgins, METRO's recently departed attorney who claims she was fired because she raised questions about the organization's document retention policies/shredding.

Higgins' counsel Rusty Hardin told Texas Watchdog that the release of Higgins' personnel file is an ongoing effort by METRO to malign his client's reputation, to distract from the bigger issues raised by Shreddergate.

Shreddergate just keeps getting more interesting!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/10 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

OUR FEEDREADER popped up this headline from METRO's blog earlier:

Need more cash? Try this idea.

We clicked over thinking METRO's expensive blogger might be elaborating on the agency's apparent plans to reclaim millions in general mobility fund obligations, but it was just a filler post on how much money one might theoretically save with an efficient transit system of the sort that does not exist in the Houston area.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/10 10:20 PM | Comments (1)

THE EXAMINER'S MICHAEL REED has a nice story this week on METRO, its $2.6 billion bond plans, the general mobility trust fund (that does or does not exist as a coherent accounting line item, depending on which authority is trying to peddle which snake oil), and METRO's apparent plans to start keeping general mobility funds after 2014 (despite the fact that voter approval will be required).

It's the sort of informative story that hasn't been done by the area's newspaper of record, which prefers the role of METRO cheerleader (and METRO advertising outlet). We hope that Reed will continue to report on the state of METRO's finances.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/10 09:25 PM | Comments (0)

THE CHRONICLE'S NANCY SARNOFF reported last night that H-E-B is under contract to purchase the former Wilshire Village Apartments property in the Montrose area. The Examiner News reported more today.

The property has generated speculation and discussion since the eviction of remaining residents and demolition of the apartments last year.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/10 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

KHOU-11'S MARK GREENBLATT has a METRO Shreddergate update:

Texas officials say the troubled transit authority has failed to follow a state records and documents preservation law.

That statute requires local government agencies to tell the state how long they will keep public records before destroying them. Officials with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission say Metro has failed to comply with state law since 1991.

Rusty Hardin, counsel for Pauline Higgins (the attorney recently fired by METRO), told Greenblatt that Higgins was fired for trying to push METRO's management to comply with the state law.

METRO, which fulfilled a recent Chronicle public information request on its document retention policies on the same day*, did not respond to Greenblatt's request for comment, according to the story.

BLOGVERSATION: Houblog, Harris County Almanac.

* When does THAT ever happen? Perhaps being a METRO cheerleading outfit for years does have its benefits.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/10 07:44 AM | Comments (7)

03 March 2010

HOUSTON PRESS JOURNALIST CRAIG MALISOW posts a depressing update about the 2008 bust of a dogfighting ring in the Houston area:

The majority of Harris County dog fighters charged after a massive 2008 undercover investigation were given deferred adjudication, served as little as two days in jail, had their charges dropped, or were never arrested.

Harris County prosecutor Belinda Smith came off much better in this lengthy, riveting piece that Skip Hollandsworth did for the August 2009 edition of Texas Monthly. Apparently, that wasn't the whole story of this massive (and massively expensive, we expect) law-enforcement effort.

BLOGVERSATION: Harris County Almanac.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/03/10 08:59 PM | Comments (0)

THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE and most every other major newspaper in Texas endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

It didn't seem to have much impact. Maybe it's time for the Chron to follow the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's lead and think about getting out of the endorsement game altogether -- although they could still record screening interviews as a public service and post them online for citizens.

We'll throw this thread open for your thoughts on that or anything else related to yesterday's primary election.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/03/10 07:40 AM | Comments (7)

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More on METRO's $2.6 billion referendum workaround

Shreddergate update: METRO has standards, you know!

Campos on HISD and change

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