Photo courtesy Sheltering ArmsPeople are sometimes suspicious when one of Scott Pool's inspectors calls. The offer -- to weatherize one's house for free -- sounds too good to be true. "We have to convince them that, really and truly, nobody's going to charge them," says Pool, the weatherization director at Sheltering Arms Senior Services, a multi-faceted non-profit in Houston. "People have to be assured that there's no scam involved." Weatherization means caulking, insulating or otherw
Remember the days when KTRH was worth listening to?It remains the only AM news station in town, and the largest. But layoffs have damaged the product, although not as much as the decision by Michael Berry to throw objectivity out the window in order to appeal to the Dittoheads and Hannity fans who listen to the talk shows.The 9-11 am hours have gone from news to more right-wing blather, which at least is idenitifed as opinion. But look at what they're calling "news" today on their website:The le
Photo by dcJohnThe winners and losers of Barack Obama's stimulus plan can be figured out -- to a degree -- by a new study by the White House's Council of Economic Advisors.It breaks down by congressional district how many jobs will be created or saved by the act; the big loophole there, of course, comes from the words "or saved." It's a lot harder to quantify whether a job would have been lost without the act than it is to find a job directly created from stimulus funds.But, for what it's worth,
Photo courtesy rickperry.orgGovernor Rick Perry boldly announced today that he won't take a half-billion in federal stimulus funding because...part-time workers might benefit.There's a stance for you.The proposed stimulus funds are designated for unemployment benefits, but come with a mandate that part-time workers also get unemployment. That's a no-no in Perryland.Small-business owners (How come Republicans never mention "big-business owners"?) would have to pay too much in unemployment taxes i
Photo by MyEyeSeesWe wrote after the election about King County, the Texas county that gave John McCain his biggest percentage margin in the presidential race.Fully 93 percent of King County's voters went for the Republican, even though the county clerk told us the county is "pretty Democratic."Eight voters -- not eight percent, but eight voters -- went for Obama. The latest census shows 11 black residents in the county, but we make no assumptions.Anyway, the hard-digging folks at the Texas Watc
Love it, hate it, the federal stimulus money is coming and it's got to be spent on something.Why not Neil Bush?Bush, the wayward son of the Bush family (and that's saying something) is, of course, the guy behind Ignite!, the company that tries to get schools to buy its Schoolhouse Rock-like gadgetry.Mostly, he's been selling it to HISD, most famously when his mother gave a Katrina donation stipulating it be spent on Neil's stuff.But the generous giving of Barbara Bush can only go so far. What's
Photo courtesy MiloMilo Town HallWe've been reading all day about how Houston got stiffed on the latest handout of federal stimulus money for cops and were kinda blase about it.Houston, after all, has gotten its fair share of Homeland Security cash because of the port and our target-rich refineries. Besides us, New York, Seattle and Pittsburgh were also shut out, so hey, no biggie fries.But then we see headlines like "18 Maine Police Departments Get Stimulus Money." TV station WGME (Motto: "Y
When Lorenzo Timmons was hurt and out of work last summer, and finally ran out of money to pay the rent, he had little choice but the unthinkable: to gather his wife, daughter and whatever he could carry and move his family into a homeless shelter. The Houston Press reported in a cover story early this year (People Like Us, March 19) that the specter of previously stable, working families falling into homelessness was becoming increasingly common in Houston -- and that there were few opt
