The Insider

Hobby was unavailable for comment, as was Dennis Duffy, the UH system attorney handling the case.

Felder's attorney, Houston lawyer David Lopez, says his client filed suit earlier this month after lengthy negotiations with UH officials over a cash settlement stalled. Lopez says one hurdle to a settlement was that the UH board of regents had caught heat because of the excessive goodies they approved for Schilt and Pickering, and took a hard line with respect to a settlement with Felder and future bureaucratic litigants.

"Ironically enough," chuckles Lopez, "one of the folks that appears to be the strongest voice [on the board of regents] in objecting to potential litigation and individual claims is my buddy trial lawyer [John] O'Quinn. I guess so long as it's being paid to him and his clients, it's all right."

Angels Among Us
Former Houston Post editor Gerald Garcia is back in town -- and for a change, he's interested in shaping the minds of young journalists rather than just canning them. Garcia, the captain at the helm when the paper sank in 1995 and an executive with a reputation for cutting staffs and closing papers, recently called Ted Stanton, University of Houston's associate director of undergraduate studies for the communications department chairman, to inquire about possible teaching positions.

Stanton says the chat never got beyond a general discussion of the positions for which A&M graduate Garcia might be academically qualified, and Stanton has no plans to bring the self-nicknamed Angel of Death on board anytime soon.

Good thing. We'd really hate to see the Daily Cougar closed down and its assets sold to the Hearst Corporation.

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