We’re trying out a “Week in Review” post this week to highlight news and such from the week with links (and commentary, perhaps). It may or may not become a regular feature.
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The mighty Houston Chronicle ran a series this week on the high number of unarmed people who have been shot by HPD officers. The reporting also noted that many HPD cars do not have dashboard cameras to document officer behavior (or misbehavior).
HPD’s Chief scofflaw Charles McClelland, who was not cited by his own department after sending a pedestrian flying downtown and then misleading investigators and the public about what happened, has not had much to say about the Chronicle reporting. However, HPD is rolling out new uniforms and, new paint for the police cars!
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Neal Meyer posted on Marc Levin, and the intellectual resistance to the regulation and criminalization of… everything. As if on cue, Mayor Annise Parker this week announced plans to regulate so-called payday lenders (we can only imagine the city will be finding some way to charge exorbitantly for permits).
In other action, Mayor Parker announced that the City of Houston would now be providing benefits for legally married same-sex partners of employees, a decision seemingly in tension with the city charter and the state constitution.
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City Council runoff candidate Roy Morales had a number of setbacks in his quest to remain a feeder at the public trough. His lawsuit to throw Michael Kubosh off the ballot was instead tossed by the court. Then he picked a fight with blogger David Jennings, and lost again.
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Speaking of setbacks, NEW METRO resembled the same old dysfunctional METRO this week, as it announced that it was scaling back ambitious plans for a grand downtown station, and that the budget for the scaled-back version is still problematic. Swamplot filled in some of the background that the Chron‘s consistently incurious transit reporter omitted. We will probably have more to say about this ourselves.
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Democratic State Representative Gene Wu, who hid his liberalism from voters masterfully in the last election, had a good time hanging out with a pro-abortion zealot. Whee!
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The Chronicle’s diminutive former editor (now a Chron vice president who oversees the editorial pages) has the newspaper’s editorial pages focused on… golf. Fore!
Unca Darrell is not impressed with some of the editorial board’s other recent work.
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United Airlines announced new international flights from its hub here in Houston, a nonstop to Munich and an additional nonstop to Tokyo. Apparently, the struggling carrier is no longer intent on “punishing” Houston for the decision to allow Southwest to offer a few flights to Mexico out of Hobby.
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David Barron has done a good job covering Astro owner Jim Crane’s latest lawsuit (against Drayton McLane and Comcast). Whom will Crane sue next?
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Remember when KTRK-13’s Undercover Man Wayne Dolcefino pursued government officials and waste, and had other journalists chasing (no pun intended) his public information requests?
KTRK’s new Undercover Man compiles… restaurant reports.
Not to be outdone, KHOU-11 (which once ran Mark Greenblatt’s outstanding investigative reports) warned of the dangers of… bouncy houses this week!
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The Astrodome boondoggle proponents were silent on the topic this week. Last week, of course, County Judge Ed Emmett announced that he “is going to go do other things for awhile and see what happens.” The decrepit building continues to suck a few million dollars per year out of taxpayers while area leaders “do other things.”
