Commentary

HERE’S ANOTHER SERIOUS PROBLEM that Mayor Annise Parker has inherited from the Bill White/Harold Hurtt dynamic duo (as reported by Moises Mendoza and James Pinkerton for the Chronicle): In the Houston Police Department’s fingerprint lab,

HOUBLOG posts that the word at Public Works is that director Michael Marcotte has tendered his resignation. Houblog says multiple sources claim Mayor Annise Parker requested the resignation. UPDATE (06/25/2010): The Chronicle finally got around

THE AUSTIN DISTRICT COURT where the City filed its effort to uphold the massive water-rate increase (a case subsequently joined by water-rate increase opponents Hotze and Bettencourt) has found in favor of the City. Documents

MIKE MCGUFF notes that longtime KUHF news anchor Jim Bell is retiring (here’s hoping he has more time for online commentary now!). McGuff also reports that Chronicle legal journalist Mary Flood is leaving the newspaper.

KPRC-2 reports that METRO has terminated a couple of bus drivers who were recently featured on the news. One was allegedly using social media websites while driving; the other had a suspended license. Another interesting

UNCA DARRELL observes, “You can take the girl out of the Houston Press, but….” Then again, the Chron editorialist DID finally discover Ixtoc this week, so that’s progress at the newspaper of record in the

IN SOME OUTSTANDING REPORTING for the Houston Community Newspapers, Michael Reed details an interesting deal put together by the outgoing board at the “old” METRO for its real-estate agency. Among other fascinating tidbits, he notes:

ONE OF SEVERAL INTERESTING ASPECTS of this Culture Map Houston article on Houston’s Smart Growth crowd and their vision for Houston… is that it pretty clearly confirms that the Citizens Transportation Coalition (which now has

LOCAL BLAWGGERS PAUL KENNEDY AND MARK BENNETT offer their takes on an HPD plan, nixed by City Hall, for officers to practice drawing blood from state prison inmates (HPD Practices On Prisoners For Drawing Blood

MARC CAMPOS observes: The Chron can send a reporter over to France to cover a bike ride but not the World Cup