The Houston Business Journal reports that there are 35 Houston-area locations (with at least one in Pasadena and one in Clear Lake). I will be out of town on this date, or I’d be tempted to check out a Chick-Fil-A just to see if anyone comes by dressed as a cow. And I’d bring my camera.

Are you wondering what the recent Chapter 11 filing by General Growth Properties Inc., –which owns Baybrook Mall,means to you?

Well, I shop there myself and have a daughter employed at one of their stores, so I care, too.

So, it was good to know there’s no reason to panic.

Lesley Cheers, corporate communications director for the company, issued this statement in an e-mail to me:

Our core business operations remain sound, stable, and profitable. Our operational model is not flawed and our properties are desirable and performing well — these are not the reasons we commenced these chapter 11 cases. Rather, it was the unprecedented disruption in the real estate finance markets and the need to refinance or extend maturing debt.

Good news, sort of.

[snip]

The second proposition is for $6.5 million, of which $6 million would be spent for a new library at a yet-to-be-determined location in the city’s downtown area.

The remaining $500,000 would be used to turn the city’s existing 16,000-square-foot library at 416 S. Friendswood Drive into a community center for hosting events and meetings.

[snip]

Baytown’s Sterling Municipal Library has a new way to serve the visually impaired. The Friends of Sterling Library, a non-profit group that supports library services, recently purchased a special computer which allows blind and visually impaired patrons to access technology with greater ease. The new computer has an extra large 22 inch monitor, a Braille keyboard, and is loaded with special software called “JAWS.”

[snip]

December 2005 to January 2009: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention receives reports of 12 cases of human infection with swine flu. Five of these 12 cases occurred in patients who had direct exposure to pigs and six reported being near pigs. Exposure in one case is unknown.

[snip]

April 28: The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. climbs to 51 in six states. The death toll, all in Mexico, was at 152; 20 are confirmed swine flu and the rest are suspected.

Job losses in Houston area pick up speed
Recession and lower energy prices deal blows to local economy
– reported by the Houston Chronicle

The building is expected to cost the city about $11 million to construct and will be finished by mid-2010. An additional 10,000 square feet of office space have been set aside at the location for the Pearland Economic Development Corporation offices, Reid said.

The Fairy Godmother Project of Houston provides free prom attire to Houston-area teens who may not otherwise attend their prom. Since 2000 we have made prom dreams come true for hundreds of students from Magnolia to Galveston and Dayton to Brookshire.

In these tough economic times with so many neighbors still struggling from the effect of this summer’s Hurricanes, we are here to give a sense of normalcy. We try to let high school students experience an important milestone while removing the burden of an extra expense.

Students who apply for our program receive prom attire at the shopping day, held March 28-29, 2009. No financial proof is needed, just an online application and a student ID.

Please visit www.fairygodmotherproject.com to learn more about our program and apply easily online. Applications will be accepted through March 20. Pass the word along!

In these tough economic times, I can imagine how difficult some families are going to find prom. Sounds like a very good project.

Negotiators from the United Steelworkers Union and Shell Oil Co., which is representing the energy industry, announced today that they reached a tentative deal for a new contract that will serve as the minimum standard for wages, benefits and working conditions for covered employees nationally.

[snip]

Good news, I guess.

Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.

With just hours to go before labor agreements expire at 11 area refineries and chemical plants, workers and company officials were making preparations Friday for a possible strike.

Union members put together picket signs, and companies prepared their plants and management teams for possible work stoppages.

If a new agreement is not reached by 12:01 a.m. Sunday, 30,000 energy and chemical workers nationwide, including 4,200 in the Houston area, could walk off the job.

Union negotiators Thursday night rejected the latest contract offer that would have raised wages 2.5 percent each year for three years. The proposal also offered a one-time $500 ratification bonus and $250 a year to workers for their unreimbursed medical expenses, if they completed an unspecified health and wellness program.

[snip]

Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.

TEXAS CITY
Gift will help pay for two new parks in city
By THAYER EVANS CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
– Houston Chronicle²

A pledge of $5.5 million by BP will help fund two new parks in Texas City, one of which will be a 45-acre sportsplex that could open by the end of 2009.

The energy company already has provided $2.5 million, Mayor Matt Doyle said. Another $2 million will be given to the city next year and the remaining $1 million will come in 2010.

[snip]

The sportsplex will be called Magnolia Park and is estimated to cost $3.5 million, he said. The price of a 338-acre environmental park that will be called Central Park is not yet known.

The city already owns the property for both parks, Doyle said.

In addition to the parks, approximately $500,000 of BP’s pledge will be spent on solar panels for the new $4.5 million Sanders-Vincent Community Center, a 15,000-square-foot facility, which is being built on five acres in the 500 block of Third Ave. N.

[snip]

Footnotes
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For the community, the benefit is that we’d be able to reach out to more students. The number of high school students in Texas will increase my 25 % between now and 2012.

Interesting. What do you think?

Casino gambling is increasingly seen by some as a way to revive this island city, which is reeling from Hurricane Ike and 3,000 layoffs by its largest employer.

The Strand Merchants Association believes gambling would bring in tourists with more money who would patronize the downtown historical area shops, many still struggling to reopen after being inundated with as much as 10 feet of storm water Sept. 13.

The increased tourism could help replace the patrons who won’t be coming back because they were laid off by the University of Texas Medical Branch last month, casino gambling supporters say.

[snip]

Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.

As part of League City’s increased efforts to be environmentally friendly, residents now can recycle glass as well as dispose of used antifreeze, motor oil, oil filters, and car batteries anytime.

In front of the city’s public works building, 1535 Dickinson Ave., city employees have built a new recycling station that opened to residents last month. It can be accessed year-round, any time of day, city spokeswoman Kristi Wyatt said.

[snip]

Footnotes
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• A professionally critiqued resume.
• An “Interview Prep Kit” including a polished portfolio, briefcase and power suit.
• List of high powered references.
• A Deep and Wide Professional Network.
• Your Plan “B”.

The Houston area, and by default the Pasadena area, is still doing relatively well (employment-wise). But tougher times are coming our way. Be prepared.

Raises are not so hot in the Houston area
– Houston Chronicle²

[snip]

Wages
increased just 2.5  percent in the Houston area between September 2007
and September 2008, according to data released Thursday by the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. One year earlier, workers here were
enjoying average raises of 4.2 percent.

Local raises are also running behind the U.S. average, which was 2.9 percent during the past 12 months.

[snip]

Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.

Houston has been selected to host the 2012 AAU Junior Olympic Games, the country’s largest amateur sports event.

[snip]

This is good news. The event is expected to bring in $40 million of economic impact.

Houstonians, brace yourselves. Economic oracle Barton Smith sees trouble on the horizon.

“We’re about to lose our energy cushion,” said Smith, director of the University of Houston’s Institute for Regional Forecasting, who presented his annual economic forecast to 1,000 developers, bankers and other business leaders at a luncheon Thursday.

When that happens, he said, Houston will look more like the rest of the U.S. economy.

Smith predicts the Houston area will lose jobs in 2009. How many will depend on the intensity of the economic slump.

In his best-case scenario, the area will lose 11,000 jobs, a 0.4 percent drop, he said. But if the global downturn deepens and draws in more countries that, in turn, will use less energy, Smith projects losses of 37,500 jobs, a 1.4 percent drop.

[snip]

Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.