Email Author Tim Fleck

2003 Stories by Tim Fleck

• Stocking Stuffers

  published December 25, 2003

  Christmas came early in a big way for some Houston politicos, but a whole lot more of them should be hitting up the Houston Chronicle... More >>

• Food for Political Thought

  published December 25, 2003

  Imagine this scenario: Soon-to-be-mayor Bill White comes off a late-night round of community meetings to spend a grueling morning sorting... More >>

• The Six-Year Itch

  published December 18, 2003

  Two weeks from now, all city department heads will submit their resignations to incoming mayor Bill White. The three-term limit on the... More >>

• Why Can't They Be Friends?

  published December 11, 2003

  Live, from Houston, it's Saturday Election Night! In a suite in the upper reaches of the city-owned, almost unseemly opulent Hotel of... More >>

• Slipping into Darkness

  published December 4, 2003

  Houston Police Department homicide investigators face a daunting task in sorting out the last hours in the life of 46-year-old municipal lobbyist... More >>

• Pied Piper of the Pissed Off

  published November 27, 2003

  The crowd at Miller Outdoor Theatre could best be described, to use the language of rally speaker and self-proclaimed "Dean Ranger" Torrey... More >>

• Political Identity Crisis

  published November 20, 2003

  For the first time in 32 years, come January Houston city government may be without a single black man in elective office, although there are two... More >>

• Send in the Election Clowns

  published November 13, 2003

  What a difference a couple of years make. In the Houston Press Best of Houston issue in 2001, Houston's District H councilman Gabe... More >>

• Election Ennui

  published November 6, 2003

  It was the sort of nasty little late-campaign spat that usually flares up only when a particular candidate is doing badly and someone needs to... More >>

• Is This Guy Too Smart to Be Mayor?

  published October 30, 2003

  Bill White looked as if he'd been mugged in a political back alley, and he hadn't even begun to run for mayor of Houston yet. Sitting on a couch... More >>

• Cockeyed Campaign Gambits

  published October 23, 2003

  City Councilman Bert Keller has never quite managed to cut the figure of a typical conservative Houston politician. Early in his District G... More >>

• In Search of Bogus Bill

  published October 9, 2003

  Even by Houston's offbeat political standards, it was a very strange meeting indeed. In Internet whistle-blower Brenda Flores's... More >>

• A Little Jump to the Right

  published October 2, 2003

  Annise Parker, the Houston councilwoman and city controller candidate, had just returned to her City Hall office from a morning committee... More >>

• Bad Blood on the Tracks

  published October 2, 2003

  As conservative opponents gear up to derail Metro's transit referendum, there's also dissatisfaction with the agency from an unlikely quarter:... More >>

• Trapped on the Tracks

  published September 18, 2003

  As a fanfare of recorded trumpets sounded throughout Jones Hall, an automated platform lifted the matinee performers from the orchestra pit to... More >>

• Rockets' Legal Déjà Vu

  published September 18, 2003

  While the local media gushes about the wonders of the just-opened Toyota Center, the downtown home of the Houston Rockets, team owner Les... More >>

• Return of the Boogie Man

  published September 11, 2003

  On the Friday before Labor Day, Houston City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado and state Representative Rick Noriega had just sat down to... More >>

• All in the NAACP Family

  published September 4, 2003

  Like most officials of nonprofit groups, the executive committee members of the Houston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of... More >>

• Running Mates

  published August 28, 2003

  The candidates fidgeted at the head table at the University of Houston campus Hilton ballroom and awaited another question from the luncheon crowd... More >>

• All Aboard the Love Train

  published August 28, 2003

  It was an all-too-familiar moment in the waning administration of Mayor Lee Brown, a political crisis brought on by Hizzoner's... More >>

• In Line for Arena Pie

  published August 28, 2003

  When Houston minority organizations banded together to sue the Rockets for a promised share of lucrative food and beverage concessions at the... More >>

• Joe Nixon's Two Faces

  published August 21, 2003

  At first glance, Houston State Representative Joe Michael Nixon and Spring's Oak Ridge Baptist Church would seem to have a lot in common.... More >>

• Parks War: Turks Versus Christians

  published August 21, 2003

  If the City of Houston had a bureaucratic version of anarchic, strife-torn Iraq, it would undoubtedly be headquartered at the South Wayside... More >>

• Rockets My-Nority Tryouts

  published July 31, 2003

  A couple of months ago Houston minority leaders cheered their apparent court victory over Les Alexander and the Houston Rockets. They had... More >>

• Herding Cats in District 5

  published July 31, 2003

  Texas Southern law professor James Douglas, the former TSU president, hosted an evening confab of African-American power brokers last month... More >>