Christine Haas, winner of two Lone Star Emmy Awards during a five-year stint at KVUE in Austin, will join KHOU (Channel 11) next month to co-anchor the 5-7 a.m. newscast with Vicente Arenas.
Haas and Arenas will debut Aug. 25 alongside meteorologist David Paul and traffic reporter Darby Douglas, said Channel 11 news director Keith Connors.
Incumbent morning anchor Ron Trevino will continue anchoring at noon and will report for the evening newscasts. Shern-Min Chow, who has co-anchored the morning broadcast since Deborah Duncan's move this spring to host Great Day Houston, will return to weekends as the solo anchor. READ THE REST

Poehler is said to be in negotiations to star in NBC's spinoff of "The Office."

NBC and creator Greg Daniels have been mum on details about the project. The only actor cast in the project so far is comedian Aziz Ansari, but there's been speculation that the show might be built around a name actor, similar to how the original "Office" is anchored by Steve Carell.

Poehler's name was first linked to the "Office" spinoff in April, shortly after NBC announced the project at its "infront" presentation and before the release of Poehler's first starring feature, "Baby Mama," in which she shared top billing with Fey. READ THE REST

Manhattan residents often find themselves dreaming of the paradise that is Houston, Texas. The cars; the affordable barbecue; the murders. It's a working man's promised land. But why must some people have the bad fortune to get stuck in NYC, while others live the dream by breaking free and making their way to the sweltering heart of Texas? READ THE REST

"Even if you're No. 1 ... if half as many eyeballs are watching your newscast as were watching five years ago, that's a problem," he says.
"Management must maintain a TV station's profit margins even as viewers, not waiting for the evening local news to come on, turn to the Internet for news."
Douglass's dismal assessment is seconded by the news agents who represent the anchors and reporters.
The slumping economy and continued erosion of broadcast audiences are combining to produce unusually tough times for news talent, they say
It's takes longer to place clients in news jobs and salaries are not as generous, they say. And experienced and accomplished reporters are finding — for the first time in their careers — that they are expendable.
Some of the agents feel that even when the current economic downturn ends, TV newsrooms will have undergone a fundamental change with the survivors those workers who can work multiple jobs on multiple platforms.
"I'm still moving the same amount of people, [but] it's taking a little longer than in the past and it's not at the money it has been in the past," says David Brunner, president of DB & Associates in Neffs, Pa.  READ MORE

Looks very cool larger and on black

Dwight Silverman of The Houston Chronicle’s Tech Blog and co-host of Technology Bytes proudly shows us his iPhone. I chose to let the iPhone remain in color while desaturating the rest. I find the contrast between the shiny new technology and the not so shiny new tech geek rather compelling.

Nothing personal, Dwight!

The Gulf Coast Institute submitted formal comments to the Staff Report and we have started a web page dedicated to the topic. From the letter:

Further, we believe it is imperative that officials in long-range transportation planning understand that they are actually creating a land use plan for Texas. While engineers are required to create the implementation of a plan, the planning must involve land use planners. It is symptomatic of the problem that TxDOT apparently has no Certified Planners among its thousands of employees. To create a sustainable mobility plan for the future, we must link transportation with land use.

It is also important to recognize that the overwhelming majority of Texans live, work, and play in metropolitan regions, and that that majority is constantly growing. We must recognize the need for these regions to develop their own plans based on the values of their own citizens.

In this vein, we also note that some 70% of all Texans live in the megaregion known as the Texas Triangle, which includes Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, a list that includes three of the 10 largest cities in the US. As energy prices rise and the need to reduce carbon emissions becomes apparent, it is highly likely that the economies of this megaregion will become much more interdependent over time. This implies new ways of thinking about transportation of goods and people in this Triangle, especially at a time when airlines are shutting down regional service in many places.

This, among other reasons, makes it imperative that the agency truly becomes a multi-modal transportation agency, covering the whole spectrum of ground transportation options from walking to high-speed rail. The world is changing, and it is time to change this vital agency to operate in a very different environment from the one that has existed for the last 50 years.

We support continuing the Texas Department of Transportation for only four years, thereby triggering another critical review at that time to assess progress and to set yet a higher standard of excellence the citizens of Texas deserve.

We support this staff report as a critical starting point toward transforming the Texas Department of Transportation into an agency that is at the heart of our economy, community, and environment, and that is responsive to the values of the people of Texas.