24 June 2009

Corrections, Chron style: Wrong = "outdated"

Chronicle transportation columnist Carolyn Feibel posted this interesting clarification/correction towards the end of this week's column:

Speaking of stimulus funds, I gave you outdated information in last week�s column. Metro cannot use $30 million of federal stimulus funds on building the new light rail lines, despite what the agency had expected (and we had reported) earlier. In fact, none of the stimulus can be used on the future rail expansion. That�s because Metro doesn�t yet have final approval from the Federal Transit Administration for the planned North and Southeast rail lines.

Outdated information?

How about incorrect information?

It's easy enough for these mistakes to happen. METRO's PR department almost certainly outnumbers the hard-working journalists who occasionally cover the organization, and facts/figures that METRO supplies surely don't get the rigorous fact-checking and vetting that they should.

Nonetheless, erroneous information is still erroneous (and not simply "outdated").

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/24/09 11:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

23 June 2009

Linkpost: 06/23/09

For quite a while, we've linked to interesting local blog posts over on the sidebar. Most people probably don't notice it there, so we're going to try reposting them here in the aggregate, maybe with some comments and/or excerpts, maybe not, perhaps in a different order than on the sidebar. This may or may not become a regular feature, but we'll try it for a while and see how it goes. Please do click over and read some of the fine blogs in town that we read regularly.

Jay Porter Had a Plan to Stick It to the Man (Or Something Like That) (Slampo's Place)
No time for the word-by-word evisceration it deserves, but . . . (Unca Darrell)
Strike the question marks (Unca Darrell)

As a former journalist who still loves the profession, looking at 29-95 -- and knowing a traditional newspaper birthed it -- makes me feel unclean.
These are the voyages.... (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport) How did anyone think that shade of green looked GOOD?
Matt Stiles Joins Chronicle Exodus (Hair Balls) Good for Austin, not so much for Houston.
Lykos and the Legislative Update (Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice
Pete's Fine Meats Cheeseburger All the Way (Eating Our Words)
Houston Press Doesn’t Not Condone No Plagarism (Fourth And Fifty) This blog serves up Houston sports with a fun twist. If only 3/4 of the local sports radio talkers were as interesting.
Reason Number 28 That Jim Deshaies Is My Favorite Sportscaster (The ClownVision Chronicles)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/23/09 10:42 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati | Comments (0)

Now there is an insurance database

The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel writes about the new database created to help police catch uninsured motorists. Since October, police can run license plates and will see if there is confirmed insurance coverage with the state. The readout will give the officer the vehicle's registered owner, make and model of the vehicle, and the coverage record (i.e. confirmed, expired, or unconfirmed). It's the same as officers running license plates looking for stolen vehicles or expired registration. Just two reminders for the public:

1. It is perfectly legal for officers to run anyone's license plate; and

2. If you find yourself stopped and you know you weren't speeding, don't get confrontational and start arguing. Let the officer tell you why you were stopped and go from there!

Posted by Jason @ 06/23/09 10:36 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

22 June 2009

Hair Balls posts the latest on BARC

Over on the Houston Press Hair Balls blog, Craig Malisow posts several updates on BARC (here, here, and here).

Do you think Mayor White discusses his administration's neglect of BARC (and puppies!) when he is touring Texas and talkin' to the folks?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/22/09 10:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

Chron.com makes a mess of columnists page, again

Chron.com recently updated its columnists page, after a similar update in May.

Austin politics reporter Peggy Fikac is now listed on the page, as is sports reporter "Gerald" Solomon.

Unfortunately, the RSS feed for Fikac's individual columns is broken, and "Gerald" Solomon's name is actually Jerome Solomon.

The food and wine columnists, who were added to the page in the last update in May (including a photo of Alison Cook that appeared for a short time, inexplicably), have been removed from the page for unknown reasons (it's probably best to add those respective RSS feeds to a reader and forget trying to find them on Chron.com).

Does anyone check these web revamps before they go live?

UPDATE (06/23/09): Solomon's name is fixed now (thanks for reading, guys! Glad we could help *wave*). Now about that Fikac RSS link?

UPDATE 2 (06/23/09): And now, the Chron.com web team has replaced some of the old orange-dominated design with.... a hideous, clashing green:

Chron.com goes green... and orange... ewww!

Do any grownups with taste preview these changes before they go live?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/22/09 10:10 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)

21 June 2009

Where in Texas is Mayor White?

With apologies to Carmen Sandiego, we've been amused to see Senate-candidate White traveling the state in search of money and votes, trying very
hard not to sound like the good progressive he resembles in, uh, more urban settings.

A week ago he was in East Texas, talking jobs and the economy:

White says, "You know the people of East Texas they just want the American dream, they come from different backgrounds and they know education is important and the economy, so is worker re-training cause there's a lot of people, they get laid off they need to be able to get re-trained so they can have a job that has a future for them."

Do you think he talked about hybrid cars and weatherizing homes, too?

He also squeezed in a bit of grooming as well.

A couple of days later, he was in the Rio Grande Valley, talking education and balanced budgets:

White said his experience in dealing with disasters, balancing budgets and handling other municipal chores would serve him if he is elected to the U.S. Senate.

"I know how to improve productivity and I know how to balance budgets," he said. "Those skills are really important in Washington."

Mayor White's idea of a balanced budget involves borrowing lots of money to pay current debt obligations in order to free up money for operating expenses. It's similar to using a credit card to make one's mortgage payments.

It's also worth remembering when Mayor White hit the trifecta of his disaster/budget/municipal chore acumen: when he proposed using leftover Hurricane Ike funds to help first-time homebuyers pay off debts and improve their credit scores. Yeah, that went over real well.

As the campaign season rolls along, we'll try to keep an eye out for the further adventures of Senate-candidate White as he treks across Texas.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/21/09 06:44 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (14)

1560 The Game cracks Top Ten for morning drive

The Chronicle's David Barron reports that relatively young sports talker KGOW-1560 continues to show some impressive growth:

Mild surprise No. 1: For the first time since August 2008, one of Houston�s four all-sports radio stations cracked the top-10 in morning drive among men ages 25-54, according to Arbitron.

Mild surprise No. 2: For the first time in the Arbitron portable people meter era, two all-sports stations are in the top-10 in morning drive for men 25-54.

Mild surprise No. 3: The top sports station ranked seventh in the demo last month, the best ranking since an eighth-place finish for the segment leader in October 2007.

By now, it�s no surprise that the aforementioned No. 7 station last month is KGOW (1560 AM). KILT (610 AM) checked in at No. 10 in the morning drive demo.

Arbitron�s copyright interpretation prohibits the use of specific share numbers for the men�s 25-54 demo, but it is fair to note that KGOW more than doubled its morning drive share in May when compared to April, beating KILT by more than a point. KNFC (97.5 FM) was third and KBME (790 AM) was fourth.

In other dayparts, KILT ranks 11th in the demo for middays (10 a.m.-3 p.m.), leading KGOW by more than a point. KILT also leads KGOW by more than a point in afternoon drive (3-7 p.m.) and ranks 13th among all stations. KILT ranked ninth in evenings, thanks, no doubt, to Rockets basketball, and also leads in the weeklong 6 a.m.-midnight numbers in men 25-54.

For a young startup radio station that many people didn't even expect to be around by mid-2009, that's some really impressive growth.

At a time when other local media organizations are shrinking or churning much content from other parts of the empire and cheap/free bloggers, it's nice to see an independent commercial media outfit focusing almost exclusively on the local scene and its loyal audience -- and flourishing. Good job, 1560 The Game!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/21/09 02:39 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

20 June 2009

$180,000 in "undeclared" cash seized at Bush Intercontinental

Someone tried to get a suitcase full of money past customs at IAH last week:

The Customs Border Protection (CBP) stopped an unidentified person traveling to Mexico after the X-ray machine images revealed great sums of money in the lining of his suitcase.

Since the beginning of this year, the CBP has seized more than $1.4 million at the George Bush International Airport, according to CBP representative Yolanda Choates.

[snip]

Since the traveler refused to sign the form, the currency is taken to the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeiture Division, where the U.S. District attorney can choose to hold the funds as evidence or deposit the money into a federal account.

The money is subsequently forfeited unless the traveler decides to file a petition to get the money back.

Choates could not say why this is happening so frequently in Houston [...]

A mystery!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/20/09 07:29 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

18 June 2009

Houston Airport System stonewalls Texas Watchdog on salary request

The folks at Texas Watchdog, who have recently run into resistance with City of Houston public information requests (as have the folks at KHOU-11 News), report that the Houston Airport System is playing the passenger safety card in refusing to release detailed salary information about its employees. The Texas Watchdog request comes on the heels of the mysterious departure of longtime airport system kingpin Richard Vacar, and the city's refusal to discuss the matter substantively with passive Chron scribes.

We're fans of transparent government, to be sure. But we're also sympathetic to the notion that publishing a list of salaries, names, and addresses of personnel responsible for keeping the airport secure may not be a smart security move. Surely there is some compromise that can be reached, though, because there are still lots of questions about the Vacar resignation/firing and how he was running the Houston Airport System. The public deserves some answers, regardless of whether Mayor White would rather be campaigning for the U.S. Senate.

BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/09 10:44 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

How does he REALLY feel about the city's efforts?

Here's a fun lede from the Chron's Bradley Olson:

Houston has moved heaven and earth to expand its recycling programs this year after a trade publication ranked it at the bottom of all major U.S. cities in 2008.

Heaven and earth!

No need for the editorialists to weigh in now. The "news" lede says it all!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/09 10:11 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

New HPD property room a step in the right direction

This promising headline appears on the KTRK-13 site tonight:

The days of missing evidence are over

They must be using Chronicle headline writers, because the story doesn't quite match:

It could be up to a year before the new property room is fully functional. It could take that long to transfer the some 500,000 pieces of evidence that are currently stored in the old property room. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt calls it an investment and a giant step forward for law enforcement.

It is a brand new $13 million state of the art property room with all of the bells and whistles, and a stark contrast to the outdated, dilapidated old building the Houston Police Department has been using to store evidence since the late 1970s.

Here's hoping the transition goes quickly and smoothly. The community needs to be able to count on HPD to handle evidence reliably.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/09 09:58 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

17 June 2009

Audacity: Lee Brown claims he fought hard to fix HPD crime lab!

Yesterday, KPRC-950 talker Chris Baker called our attention to the latest installment of Houston's Crime Lab Follies, a wrongful conviction lawsuit seeking millions from the City of Houston (as reported by the Chronicle's Mary Flood):

George Rodriguez�s lawyer asked a federal jury Monday to make the city pay �tens of millions of dollars� for the disgraced Houston Police Department�s crime lab�s pivotal role in the wrongful conviction that put his client behind bars for 17 years.

�What was taken away from him was his youth,� said attorney Barry Scheck, whose Innocence Project works on behalf of convicts in similar circumstances. Rodriguez went to prison wrongly at age 26 and walked out at 43 to find his three daughters grown and his father dead, the lawyer said.

In opening statements Tuesday afternoon, Scheck told jurors about the loneliness, fear and depression his client suffered in prison after being wrongly convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl.

This happened, he said, because policy makers at the city of Houston were deliberately indifferent to rampant under funding, under staffing and a lack of supervision at the crime lab that created a high risk an innocent person could be convicted or the guilty one could go free.

Former mayor and HPD chief Lee Brown today was forced to say more than we have ever heard from him on the topic of his mismanagement of the crime lab. Here are some choice excerpts from Mary Flood's reporting for the Chronicle:

Lee P. Brown testified Wednesday that crime lab mistakes made during his tenure as Houston police chief weren�t his fault and that he worked hard to get the lab the resources it needed.

[snip]

�There was a consistent desire of people in the lab to get more people and consistently I tried to get more people for them,� Brown said. But, he said, in the mid-1980s the city had a hiring freeze, the police academy was closed and he couldn�t get all the required positions or even overtime approved.

[snip]

Showing Brown several police department memos about the crime lab, Rodriguez�s attorney questioned Brown about being told the lab was understaffed and that people lacked training and supervision. A 1986 memo said the lab was �cutting additional corners� and had �diluted quality assurance� and that it could be �embarrassed� because of lab deficiencies.

Brown testified he considered staffing problems to be the root cause of all those references to unreliable lab results and failure to meet professional standards.

�It was tough for the city,� Brown said. �I fought hard to get them what they needed.�

�It turned out it was tough for some criminal defendants who were not guilty, too,� shot back Rodriguez�s attorney Mark Wawro.

Cory Crow elaborates on Lee Brown's hard fighting.

We've noted the Lee Brown/Clarence Bradford reign of error previously with regard to the crime lab, and the fact that neither man has ever given much of a public accounting of his role in the fiasco (Bradford despite running for Harris County DA, and now for City Council). Whatever the outcome of this case, at least Lee Brown has finally been forced to discuss his part in perpetuating the crime-lab fiasco. His testimony doesn't seem to have convinced many Chron.com commenters.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/09 10:26 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)

Chron.com "as good an example of what not to do with a newspaper site as any"

Banjo Jones notes some recent ratings of newspaper websites by Douglas McIntyre of Wall Street 24/7.

McIntyre is not a fan of Chron.com, giving the site a D+:

This site is a bit of a mess and is as good an example of what not to do with a newspaper site as any in this survey. The navigation across the homepage includes twenty five tabs some of which are labeled poorly enough so that it is hard for the reader to understand what they are. The front page really does not have a headline per se. The stories at the top of the page are features which don�t appear to be chosen to compel the reader to go further into the website. Some of the stories near the top of the page are from the Associated Press, an indication that the editors don�t feel that they have enough compelling content of their own. The stories do have the basic social network and reader interaction tools including the ability to comment on stories and share them on Twitter or Facebook. The large sections of the paper like �Business� are only a long list of headlines, some of which have brief story summaries. The only illustrations on many of these pages are low resolution headshots of bloggers. The main news page has nearly no illustrations at all. Multimedia features are completely missing, a sign that Chronicle management treats the online paper as an after-thought. Entertainment sections are the only well-designed portions of online newspaper. Most Chron.com sections look like cheap blogs. The site runs a fair amount of local advertising, much of it not very well designed.

The main problem that we -- as serious newsies -- have with Chron.com is that news is so difficult to find amidst the tacky features, user party pics, and other fluff content. It's not at all clear what the people in charge of Chron.com are trying to accomplish with their website (a localized version of MySpace?), but the news seems to be one of many competing priorities.

We must correct McIntyre on at least one bad assumption, however (bolded, above). The folks at 801 Texas Avenue do take the web seriously, in terms of resources and focus. Chron.com is no afterthought. Rather, it is apparently the Houston Chronicle management's vision of a contemporary newspaper website.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/09 09:43 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

San Francisco passes on Chief Hurtt

The two Hearst Chronicles report that San Francisco will not be hiring HPD Chief Harold Hurtt:

San Francisco has bypassed Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt to fill its top cop spot.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday reached outside the city and selected George Gasc�n, police chief of Mesa, Ariz., to replace outgoing Chief Heather Fong.

That's disappointing, but Hurtt probably won't be with us much longer in any case. It seems unlikely that any of the current mayoral candidates have any interest in retaining Chief Hurtt, and one of the stronger candidates has been crystal clear that he will not be part of a Parker administration:

City Controller Annise Parker already had called for Hurtt�s dismissal at an event earlier this month.

�I don�t believe he�s really ever integrated himself into the larger Houston community,� Parker said in an interview. �Public safety is so essential to everything we do, and we have to have a chief that has his fingers on the pulse of the city.�

We do need someone willing to commit to Houston, but my preference would still be a CompStat-oriented top cop, even though that likely would mean an outside hire.

BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/09 08:46 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

16 June 2009

METRO adds a new trick to the Danger Train files

From KHOU-11 via the Houston Chronicle Froot Loops bureau comes this report on a train derailment in Houston:

A Metro light rail train derailed around 12:30 a.m. this morning near the intersection of Greenbriar and Braeswood, between the Texas Medical Center and Reliant Park.

[snip]

The derailed train collided with a power pole and another rail car.

The toy train derailed?!

How does that even happen?

We're sure METRO will be entirely forthcoming with the details. *wink*

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/16/09 09:52 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

15 June 2009

Chron: MetroRail has 11 million riders every year

As critiques go, this is as tepid as they come, but it's undoubtedly all the Chron editors will allow, and it will be held up as an example of the Chron's tenacious, watchdog reporting:

The Metropolitan Transit Authority touted numbers from a state-mandated audit last month showing that ridership increased 3 percent over the past four years.

The agency also touted increased revenue � partly because of fare hikes � and at least $150 million in light-rail expansion funding that the federal government has indicated it plans to funnel to Metro.

But a closer look at all the good news shows that ridership is slightly below where it was in 2000, despite a 17 percent increase in Harris County�s population. Bus ridership � Metro�s core service � has dropped more than 14 percent.

The new audit has prompted a debate over Metro�s performance. But how critics grade the agency also hinges on what they think its fundamental mission should be. Should you count the number of riders? Number of buses? Cost to the taxpayer? Whether buses are on time? Crowded? Comfortable? Energy efficient?

The critics' concerns (and facts) are flattened by the non-critics' explanations. You'll be so surprised to see where Carolyn Feibel turned for soothing reassurances:

Members of the Citizens� Transportation Coalition also counsel patience during construction. �A dollar you spend on new facilities is a dollar you don�t spend on operations, and vice-versa,� said CTC board member Christof Spieler. Another difficulty is maximizing ridership while also using tax dollars wisely, he added.

Robin Holzer, the coalition�s chair, pointed out that simply counting riders does not take into account the quality of the trip.

The light rail is quieter, more comfortable, and more reliable than a regular bus. �It�s got level boarding, which is great if you are in a wheelchair or have a baby stroller,� she said.

Apparently, that is the new measure of worthiness to spend billions of taxpayer dollars: level boarding. Never mind that a tiny fraction of the greater Houston-area population will ever use it, or that the train will increase congestion by taking away traffic lanes. Reducing traffic congestion was one of the initial selling features of light rail. Now level boarding is a talking point.

As Metro adds more light rail lines, riders will flock to it, Holzer predicted. Metro officials project 160,000 daily trips by 2030.

Yes, well, the predictions METRO makes for public consumption are often wildly different from actual projections on government documents.

And then there's this:

Since 2006, more than 11 million people have ridden the Main Street �Red� Line every year.

I'm guessing that stat refers to boardings, but METRO has a tendency to run fast and loose with stats and wording, as Rad Sallee explained three years ago:

The measure that Metro watches most closely � the key indicator of how well it is performing its mission � is often referred to as "ridership." But this turns out to be a slippery concept. As with the elephant and the blind men, you need to examine it several ways for a complete picture.

Slippery is the perfect word to describe METRO. But just for fun, let's run with the "11 million riders" data point for a moment. Back in 2006, METRO told the Ottawa Sun that 12 million passengers were riding the light rail line every year. Now it's down to 11 million. Hmmmm. That would seem to be a declining trend.

BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/09 05:06 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)

14 June 2009

D'oh!

A domed Houston -- what a fabulous idea:

It seems like an idea from science fiction, a comic book, or even The Simpsons movie -- a 21 million-square-foot dome encompassing a city and insulating it from hurricanes, humidity, and heat.

The Discovery Channel program Mega Engineering recently explored the possibility of a dome that would stretch out over downtown.

It would be made out of Ethylene Tetrofluoro-ethylene or ETFE -- a light, durable material that withstand winds up to 180 mph, which is well above the speed for a Category 5 hurricane.

ETFE is most familiar as the bubble-like surface that covers the Water Cube, the 2009 Beijing Olympic aquatic venue.

Air vents would regulate the temperature and massive doors would allow transportation in and out of the structure. But how realistic is it?

Dilip Choudhuri is a structural engineer with the local firm Walter P. Moore that has built huge projects such as the Toyota Center and Minute Maid Park. Choudhuri said now is the time to think about future solutions like a dome.

"I think it's a great thing," said Choudhuri. "You have to push ahead to the future."

Absolutely. Mayor White should immediately push for the creation of a new quasi-governmental agency, � la METRO, to oversee the project. We could call it D'oh! -- Dome over Houston -- with downtown residents and businesses paying a new tax for the privilege of being under the D'oh! The list of advantages is long, and the selling features of the project are numerous. Go for it, Houston!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/14/09 06:28 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)

12 June 2009

Chief Hurtt still in the running for SFPD top job

Happy Friday!

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt is one of three finalists for the top cop job in San Francisco, sources have told the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has selected the city�s next police chief, but he said Thursday his pick is thinking twice about accepting the job after a Board of Supervisors committee voted to strip public safety agencies of tens of millions of dollars in funding.

[snip]

The Board of Supervisors budget committee voted Wednesday to rewrite parts of Newsom�s interim budget. Traditionally, the board rubber stamps the interim budget, but the committee voted to strip $82 million out of the police, fire and sheriff�s departments to reverse cuts to the health and social services programs.

I'll bet some camera revenue could generate replacement funds.

And then there's this:

Hurtt could not be reached for comment.

[snip]

Hurtt is out of the office this week, HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva said.

Phoenix is lovely this time of year.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/12/09 05:03 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (11)

11 June 2009

Port of Houston's new security district

The Houston Business Journal reports that Commissioners Court has given its blessing to a new public-private partnership:

The Harris County Commissioners Court has approved the creation of the Houston Ship Channel Security District, a public-private partnership aimed at funding enhancements to security technology, infrastructure and processes along the ship channel.

Leading the program is Pat Bellamy, chairman of the security district�s council and director of the University of Houston�s Southwest Public Safety Technology Center.

UH�s SWTC entered into a three-way agreement with Harris County and the Houston Port Authority to carry out sophisticated planning, development, design, construction and implementation of port security projects.

The story notes that private partners will contribute funds to match federal grants and cover operating costs.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/11/09 07:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

10 June 2009

Cy-Fair ISD decides it can't afford homestead exemption

But a couple of years ago, the district could afford an $807 million bond issue. Go figure.

Cory Crow has been keeping up with the story. You can read his thoughts here and here.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/10/09 06:43 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

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ACTIVE TOPICS

Corrections, Chron style: Wrong = "outdated"

Now There Is an Insurance Database

Linkpost: 06/23/09

Where in Texas is Mayor White?

Chron.com makes a mess of columnists page, again

The threads above are the most recently active in the blogHOUSTON comments (RSS).

LOCAL BLOG TALK

Bad Boys Breaking Bad (Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center)

A Quick Note To The Houston Chronicle (The ClownVision Chronicles)

A GOP Agenda for a Metropolitan County (Ed Hubbard)

Three Brothers Bakery Reopens (Eating Our Words)

Texans Down 'N Dirty: Dicky Justice Edition (Battle Red Blog)

Strike the question marks (Unca Darrell)

No time for the word-by-word evisceration it deserves, but . . . (Unca Darrell)

These are the voyages.... (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport)

Jay Porter Had a Plan to Stick It to the Man (Or Something Like That) (Slampo's Place)

Matt Stiles Joins Chronicle Exodus (Hair Balls)

Pete's Fine Meats Cheeseburger All the Way (Eating Our Words)

Houston Press Doesn’t Not Condone No Plagarism (Fourth And Fifty)

This section is regularly updated with posts from local bloggers who add to the blogversation about Houston media, politics, and life.

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