It’s your Wednesday evening edition of news and views:
- Houston man’s $2,500 water bill leads to weeks of confusion, bureaucratic wrangling (Steve Miller, Texas Watchdog)
Our near doubling of water rates probably won’t produce similar gains in customer service, we’re guessing. Still, public officials ought to call back reporters with some answers when they promise to do so. - How safe is your water? (Mark Greenblatt, KHOU-11 News)
After the ridiculous increase in my water bill (higher than electric this month) thanks to the Parker Administration, I would hope there were concomitant increases in safety! In all seriousness, go check out Greenblatt’s work. - King Street Patriots Ready To Go National (Hair Balls)
During this year’s election cycle, the King Street Patriots became an easy target, identified as a bunch of Tea Party crazies who descended upon the polls to intimidate voters in minority precincts.
After an election night party last week, we’ve been wondering if any of that is true, and really, it’s probably not. The group, mostly made up of middle-aged white people, became extremely well-versed in state election laws (moreso than many election judges, the group says) and set out during early voting and on Election Day to make sure those rules were followed.
Well, isn’t that nice?
You know what would have been even nicer (and not gutless)? If just one professional at Village Voice Houston had stood up three weeks ago when the Amateur Hour was posting rumor and innuendo about King Street Patriots as news on their blog, and actually done some real reporting on the topic.
- The 10 Worse [sic] Things About Family Thanksgivings (Hair Balls)
The quest for pageviews produces…. unfunny mockery of family tradition. Wow. What a sad fall from onetime media critic at a publication that grownups read to lingering bitter hack at local corporate alt-weekly amateur hour. - Houston’s Spending in the Red (Laurie Johnson, KUHF-88.7 News)
The end of the first quarter of the fiscal year came with some bad news for Houston councilmembers. The city has overspent its budget by $9.6 million. City Controller Ron Green says $1.6 million of that is for higher electricity costs. But the remainder is because cost-saving measures that were written into the budget and scheduled to go into effect this past July still haven’t been implemented.
Remember how Council was so eager to compliment itself after allegedly passing a balanced budget in June? Premature.
Oh, and where was Mayor Parker during this tough talk about lingering budget deficits?
Incidentally, the mayor was absent for the budget discussions. She’s at an education summit out of town.
- Harris County taps experienced hand for public defender (Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle)
There’s a new member of the local establishment, and the Chron is there. Rah rah! - Houston police will issue red-light camera tickets until March (Gabe Gutierrez, KHOU-11)
Fine. There’s no good reason to pay the things, though. - Greanias Asks Business Community for Support (Write On METRO)
“The question for all of us is: If we build the new METRO…will you join us? Will you help us? We’re going to work our hearts out,” said Greanias, adding, “One of the down sides of being a local guy is, if I screw this up, I will have to live with it.”
Come on now. That’s not The Houston Way. More accurate: “If I screw this up, I will take a job with one of METRO’s many contractors/affiliates/favored interests.”
- Channel 2 anchor Jerome Gray's contract not renewed (David Barron, Houston Chronicle)
- Sen. Dan Patrick Has Good Start, Files Fiscal Conservative Bills (Big Jolly Politics)
Good for KDAN. His effort to weaken the supermajority requirement in the Senate, however, is a shortsighted, not-conservative move.
