Here are some Monday morning links, to get your week rolling:
- Opinion: Insurance Institute Traffic Camera Study Flawed (TheNewspaper.com)
- Opinion: Insurance Institute Traffic Camera Study Flawed, Part 2 (TheNewspaper.com)
Nevertheless, you’ll continue to see proponents of such cameras citing the study. - HPD: Red-light runners increase without cameras (Gabe Gutierrez, KHOU-11 News)
See above. - The Hill's Geek-in-Chief (Patrick Gavin, Politico)
That’s area U.S. Rep. John Culberson. - Babies and grandmas: Who will Texas' Medicaid cuts hurt? (Houston Chronicle)
Look for thousands of these “faces behind the cuts” editorials (most posing as news stories) before the current budget session is complete. This tiresome genre became extremely popular (among journalists, anyway) early in the Reagan Administration, as liberals reacted to what they perceived as a national leader finally serious about paring back all but essential programs (never mind that it didn’t really turn out that way). Mainstream media, in decline ever since, remain in love with the genre. - Faces behind the budget cuts emerge (Peggy Fikac, Houston Chronicle)
A friend passed this story along with his reaction:The Chron should have snapped a pic of my “face behind the budget.” As I was reading Fikac my face scowled in horror at all the crap I’m paying for.
And Texas is a “low tax” state, too. How can we be spending all this in the first place?
That perspective is rarely represented in these “faces behind the cuts” editorials posing as news.
- Texas lags behind California in high-speed rail plans (Nolan Hicks, Houston Chronicle)
To which most Texans reply, “Great!”One peril of turning loose interns at a newspaper that apparently no longer employs enough quality editors is that you sometimes get bizarre assertions like this:
California, long maligned as the golden state of governmental malaise, has embarked on a different path.
Umm, yeah, whatever that means.
- Anger, but no riots after HPD beating video (Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle)
- The Queen of King Street (Paul Knight, The Texas Observer)
Former Houston Press staffer offers Texas Observer reliably lefty spin on Catherine Engelbrecht of King Street Patriots. *yawn* - How Houston Commutes (Greg's Opinion)
- The Price of Football That Even Nonfans Pay (Mark Yost, WSJ)
What we’re still paying for the Astrodome. - Houstonians could lose water if drainage fees aren't paid (Bradley Olson, Houston Chronicle)
