blogHOUSTON

The Chron Caucasian Think Tank's rough couple of days

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:56:07 -0500

The Chronicle's Caucasian Think Tank has had an erratic few days (maybe that should be, "even more erratic than usual"). Yesterday, they came out in favor of Mayor Bill White's Veterinarian Shakedown Revenue Stream. That's hardly surprising, since...

Houston mayoral candidate loans money to campaign, charges usurious interest rate

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:11:43 -0500

Political candidates loan themselves money all the time. Indeed, mayoral candidate Peter Brown has surged into the lead in Houston's mayoral race largely based on media buys made possible by the large amounts of money he has loaned his campaign. A...

Changes at the blog

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:42:19 -0500

As readers have no doubt noticed, we've made some changes at the little blog. Anne Linehan and I have decided that we're going to move forward with shorter, more frequent posts with more links, less blockquoting, and maybe a little more attitude. ...

HPD Withdraws From Immigration Screening

_@_ (Jason) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:25:49 -0500

Susan Carroll of the Houston Chronicle reports: The Houston Police Department will not participate in a controversial immigration screening program, federal officials said on Friday, ending a months-long saga over the city's plans. Immigrations an...

KTRK: HPD Crime Lab looks for outside help to clear its case backlog

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:10:33 -0500

A couple of weeks ago, Mayor Bill White admitted he was concerned about a backlog at the HPD crime lab that has existed for years. Tonight, KTRK-13's Andy Cerota reports that crime lab officials have been working hard to secure outside help to cle...

Are there any editors left at the local newspaper?

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:44:31 -0500

Yesterday, the Chron ran one of its most amusing corrections since the latest recipe debacle: A story about funding for a segment of the Grand Parkway on Page B1 Saturday misspelled the name of the chair of the Citizens Transportation Coalition, a...

Texas Watchdog: Senior county attorney official resigns amidst ethics queries

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:44:05 -0500

Texas Watchdog is teasing their latest story, which apparently involves the resignation of a senior official in Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan's office: A top lieutenant of Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan has resigned his post in the wake of ...

Bloomberg: Souring stadium bond deal could squeeze area taxpayers

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:36:02 -0500

Bloomberg dropped an ominous story about Houston today. Here's an excerpt from the report by Darrell Preston, Edward Klump and Aaron Kuriloff: Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, which built the Texas city's 71,500-seat National Football Leagu...

Texas Watchdog: M.J. Khan still can't decide where he lives

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:43:36 -0500

Lame-duck councilmember and city controller candidate M.J. Khan apparently still can't decide where he lives. For years, questions about his true residency have dogged Khan. And as Steve Miller and Jennifer Peebles point out at Texas Watchdog, Kha...

Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (#4)

_@_ (Kevin Whited) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:31:22 -0500

Put a band-aid on the city's pension obligations early on, then ignore them. Lots of money "saved," cha-ching! We are referring, of course, to the massive unfunded liability at the Houston municipal employees pension fund*, which Mayor Bill White ...