Commentary

HOUSTON’S JANUARY SALES TAX ALLOCATION DOWN 12.4%: “The city will receive $51.4 million, down 12.4 percent from $58.7 million in January 2009. This is the third straight month of double-digit declines in the Bayou City’s

KRIV-26’s RANDY WALLACE posts a nice investigative report on recent failures at the Houston Housing Authority. Homebuyers who qualify for assistance complain of moving goalposts and ridiculous red tape. The Housing Authority offers any number

BORRIS MILES, the erratic character who once successfully beat State Rep. Al Edwards, behaved like a buffoon in office, lost his re-election campaign against Edwards, and is now challenging Edwards again for the seat, took

BUCKHEAD INVESTMENT PARTNERS, the group hoping to develop a mixed-use high-rise property at 1717 Bissonnet (the so-called Ashby high-rise) sued the City of Houston today (KRIV-26, Chronicle). The Chronicle story ends in a curious manner:

THE CHRON’S CHRIS MORAN reports that Harris County Commissioners Court has decided to pay a $50,000 bribe in hopes of improving Harris County’s chances in the great high-speed-rail-the-federal-government-can’t-afford boondoggle. Well, he framed it a little

KTRK-13’S DEBORAH WRIGLEY reports that the Lakewood/Osteen self-help congregation has started a drive-through faith-healing service. Can the Lakewood Remote Faith-Healing editions for the Wii and iPhone be far behind?

SS CHRON PRIORITIES: Editor Dwight Silverman conducts an in-house class on “advanced Twitter usage.” Editor Kyrie O’Connor attends but gets distracted analyzing what the men in the room are wearing. Apparently, this is not a

KHOU-11’s Jeremy Rogalski follows up on previous reporting on the area’s problems with abandoned buildings with a nice analysis of City of Houston response times to citizen complaints about the same. The results are not

KTRK-13’S TED OBERG reports that the City of Houston is taking action to tear down a derelict building, “two weeks after Eyewitness News” reported on it as part of a story on the demolition backlog.