We were occupied over the weekend, so here is a belated roundup of news and views from the past week.
[ME1] It’s been roughly a year since a group of HPD cops led by disgraced officer Gerald Goines (apparently) murdered two people at 7815 Harding Street. Today, a district court judge declared a man innocent after a review of his case showed the conviction based upon lies by Goines. The wheels of justice keep turning in Harris County, ever so slowly.
By the way, isn’t a year-plus long enough for the public to know how many of the officers who raided Harding Street were hit by fire from other cops involved in the massacre? Why have those findings been buried?
[ME2] The CEO of the manufacturing company that exploded on 24 January promised to make everything right last week – then quickly backed away from the promise. Interestingly, some people had home insurance and will likely be made whole. Others… inexplicably, did not.
Here’s your friendly BH reminder/nag: Buy home or renter’s insurance, and definitely consider buying flood insurance unless you are positive you don’t need it (and very few Houstonians are situated well enough not to need it – we now know 50-inch rain events are real things).
[ME3] Perry Homes, which has exacerbated flooding in Kingwood’s Elm Grove area with a misguided (and arguably mismanaged) development project, would like a bailout from Harris County leaders. Meanwhile, the Harris County Flood Control district now owns the Raveneaux Country Club, which apparently will figure prominently in flood control.
[ME4] Houston’s municipal finances are not the worst in the country, but they are not that great either. Urban Reform picks up on the latest Financial State of the Cities reporting from Truth in Accounting.
[ME5] Houston restaurant owners, apparently not persuaded by all the assurances from city officials and the area newspaper of record that crime really isn’t a problem, gave HPD chief Art Acevedo an earful recently. Maybe more of them should have voted for Bill King, hrm? Elections matter.
[ME6] Harris County demoted the head of their Hurricane Harvey recovery program last week. Neither the County nor the City of Houston seems to have gotten all that much done in terms of helping thousands of homeowners affected by Hurricane Harvey.
[ME7] A Houston Democrat makes the argument that to save American democracy, voters really must not be allowed to vote for Donald Trump again. You can’t make this stuff up.
[ME8] Bill Balleza has signed off for the last time as KPRC-2 anchor.
[ME9] Houstonian Tony Adams watched video of some 8,274 pitches from Astros home games in 2017, and logged the results. The database is available at SignStealingScandal.com.
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