Kevin Whited, Author at blogHOUSTON

McShan reports on HPD manpower shortage

June 15, 2005 Kevin Whited

Jeff McShan did some excellent reporting on HPD’s manpower woes for KHOU-11 this evening. The entire report should be read, but here are some excerpts: For months, Houston police officers have been telling 11 News

SAFEclear costs go up up up! (cont'd)

June 15, 2005 Kevin Whited

City Controller Annise Parker’s limited audit of the SAFEclear program was released today. The audit estimates costs for SAFEclear from January 2005 to June 2005, and then for the next fiscal year. The full report

Kinsley: Are editorial boards relevant?

June 14, 2005 Kevin Whited

Today, Mr. Kathryn Kase‘s editorial board put its anti-death penalty spin on a Monday Supreme Court decision. The editorial is typically lackluster, and concludes as follows: Texas’ full-throated resort to the death penalty demands that

Former mayor's brother implicated in corruption trial

June 14, 2005 Kevin Whited

Former Brown Administration officials Oliver Spellman and Monique McGilbra have already admitted to taking bribes while working for the city. Now, the Chronicle‘s Dan Feldstein reports that prosecutors have alleged that Nate Gray also tried

Mayor White revises mobility plan approved by voters (updated!)

June 13, 2005 Kevin Whited

Mayor White came out with a big press blitz today regarding METRO that heaped praise on Representatives Tom DeLay (R) and John Culberson (R) among others. Within hours, Rep. Culberson sent out an email (not

Crime lab analyst who made up results finally resigns

June 13, 2005 Kevin Whited

KTRK-13’s Ted Oberg reports that the analyst who remained employed by the HPD crime lab after faking test results has finally resigned: One analyst resigned instead of being fired. The second analyst was reprimanded in

Chron runs first of multi-part olds from Casey

June 12, 2005 Kevin Whited

Rick Casey uses the recent BP explosion to take a trip down memory lane, recounting a tale of OSHA violations by a Houston company headed by Erik K. Ho in the 1990s. Casey contends that

Editorial LiveJournal: Mr. Gibbons rides his bike!

June 11, 2005 Kevin Whited

Chronicle editorial page editor and Platonic idealist James Howard Gibbons has another of his Editorial LiveJournals in today’s newspaper. Here’s a sample: The summer day had set in with its usual severity when I set

Houston firefighter explains rejection of labor deal

June 10, 2005 Kevin Whited

Recently, Houston Fire Department union members rejected a deal negotiated by their leaders and Mayor White. Most media coverage hasn’t really gone into much depth why members rejected the deal, and the Chronicle even wrote

Houston sales tax revenues booming for the month, year

June 10, 2005 Kevin Whited

The Houston Business Journal reports that Houston’s sales tax revenues for May are up 5.8% from one year ago. Furthermore, the city has collected $188.85 million in sales tax allocations so far this year, compared