Subject: Jobs and Labor

• He's an Out-of-Comptroller!

  Former city tourism official accused of paying mom's nursing home bills out of agency funds

  July 6, 2000

• Black Math Experiment to Go On Hiatus

  May 27, 2008

• Metro Gets Picketed

  July 28, 2008

• Uh-Oh, O'Reilly: Racial Discrimination?

  August 7, 2008

• Houston Chronicle Staffers Facing Buyouts, Layoffs

  September 4, 2008

• Pink Slip Exhibits

  When the cash-flush MFAH vows no layoffs, don't believe it

  April 17, 2003

• Fox 26 News May Be Facing Some Big Job Cuts

  Difficult times may be coming for Channel 26, Fox's local news operation.A television-news website reports that Fox is planning big cutbacks at stations across the country. "Stations like New York's WNYW, Chicago's WFLD and Houston's KRIV are expected to be hit hard," reports TVNewserKRIV is an "owned and operated" station, meaning its run by Fox and is not just an independently owned station that used Fox programming. It also means Fox corporate is making decisions about staffing and salaries,

  December 12, 2008

• A Slight Omission

  December 1, 1994

• Station Break

  February 8, 1996

• Beneath the Dogs

  May 9, 1996

• DisUnion

  October 31, 1996

• Sherlock's Pub Gets Spanked Back With Harassment Ruling

  The ass-spanking and breast-squeezing has come to a stop at Sherlock's Pub (we assume), but it was an expensive lesson.The owners of the bar on Westheimer agreed to pay $115,000 to settle a class sexual-harassment case brought against them by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC announced today.The commission claimed the owners had subjected female employees to sexual harassment and retaliated against a whistleblower."Continually" from 2005 through 2006, the EEOC said, a former

  February 4, 2009

• Minimal Theories

  January 16, 1997

• Static

  August 14, 1997

• The Insider

  October 9, 1997

• The Mean Spirit of Texas?

  April 30, 1998

• (Pay)checks and (Im)balances

  May 21, 1998

• Here's A Plan: Fewer People, More Work At The Chronicle

  The Houston Chronicle is having problems, like most big-city dailies, but it might get a whole lot worse. One of the latest rumors sweeping the San Francisco Chronicle would have the deskies in Houston handling headline writing, copy editing and layout for their ailing sister paper by The Bay. The other option is India. This is bound to raise the grumbling in the Houston Chronicle newsroom a few decibels as Chronistas await the next layoff wave of layoffs of 10 percent or more. The situation in

  February 27, 2009

• Steel Reunion

  October 1, 1998

• Grand Prix Profits

  October 15, 1998

• Some Thoughts On The Chronicle Cuts: So Long, Suburbs

  (Note: For a while, this item was posted with the wrong byline -- it's by Steve Olafson, not Richard Connelly, and always has been. Thanks, and sorry.)The layoffs at the Houston Chronicle cut much deeper into the editorial side of the newspaper than the announced company-wide 12 percent reduction that was announced by publisher Jack Sweeney. By the count of newsroom workers who survived, 27 percent of the paper's editorial staffers were let go yesterday.That amounts to 90 employees, they said

  March 25, 2009

• Layoff Tales From The Chron

  The layoff tales are spreading from 801 Texas, home of the Houston Chronicle. Here's one. A former copy editor relates her day: my favorite part of the whole experience was being greeted with an offhand joke about copy editors by the bigwig who told me my copy editing job was being eliminated.  or maybe it was being shuffled off to an office with an "outplacement specialist" who peppered me with questions about what other jobs i might want right after being given the news. or maybe it

  March 26, 2009

• Circle Those Wagons!

  July 1, 1999

• Bad Faith and Texas Mutual Insurance: Plausible Deniability

  State doesn't keep track of how many denials are reversed on appeal

  November 13, 2008

• Bad Faith and Texas Mutual Insurance

  November 13, 2008

• Down at the Boardwalk

  A couple's claim against Landry's -- was it bawdy behavior or veiled blackmail?

  November 1, 2001

• The Annotated Alberto Gonzales

  April 24, 2008

• Taking the Plunge

  Saad Mahmoud is a Rice engineering grad. Instead of fielding $60,000-a-year job offers, he's been trading manual-labor skills for rent-free living -- while waiting out one of the worst job markets in two decades.

  June 19, 2003

• Fool's Gold

  August 25, 2005

• Black and White

  Good ol’ boys prosper at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Many African-Americans don’t.

  November 11, 2004

• Moving Target

  The city is rolling out the welcome mat for CITGO. But many workers want the company to get lost.

  January 15, 2004

• Behind the Happy Face

  Labor pains flare in a worker's fight with Wal-Mart

  October 30, 2003

• Paying Their Way

  June 26, 2003

• Bloody Monday

  For 14 workers of the struggling opera, the fat lady sings

  May 30, 2002

• War on bin Laden -- or Unions?

  Bush's battle against terrorism now bars some federal labor activities

  January 17, 2002

• What's Wrong with This Picture?

  MFA director Peter C. Marzio gets a bonus of $1.7 million while front-line museum employees say they have trouble paying their rent

  January 17, 2002

• Riding Short

  Houston firefighters say the city has been playing Russian roulette by carrying crews of three members instead of four on its trucks. Last October, Jay Paul Jahnke anted up with his life.

  January 10, 2002

• Hard to Say Good-bye

  Economic woes hit the Chronicle, and job cuts are coming

  September 6, 2001

• CEO Mom

  To Penny Warner, home is where the work and children are

  August 31, 2000

• Workers Reject a Union

  A January walkout fails to bring representation to Quietflex

  May 11, 2000

• Awakening Giant

  Immigrant Hispanic workers at Quietflex spoke out. Now their struggle may reshape organized labor in Houston.

  February 24, 2000

• Affirmative Action for Whom?

  UH's score on the EEOC raises credibility questions

  August 26, 1999

• News Hostage

  June 17, 1999

• Bloodletting?

  The medical examiner's controversial DNA expert is fired... for doing her job

  January 9, 1997

• 36 Years At DPS, Eight Months As Chief -- And He's Outta Here!

  The Department of Public Safety has put out a terse statement announcing that Colonel Stanley Clark, the director of the agency, has resigned that position as of 5 pm today.Why? No answers are forthcoming from DPS or other officials. "This is an elite law enforcement agency. We expect all our employees to demonstrate the highest degree of professionalism. The director must set the example for all employees in their workplace communications," Allan B. Polunsky, chairman of the Texas Public Safety

  May 4, 2009

• Your Federal Government: Protecting The Rights Of Old People To Work In Strip Clubs

  Now this is the kind of federal government you're getting now that Obama's in office -- the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing a Houston strip club for firing a worker because she was too old.Finally, we have a gover -- what the hell? We're gonna get old strippers now? Bring back McCain!!The EEOC's Houston office says AHD Houston, Inc., which owns Centerfolds and Cover Girls -- described by the agency as "'strip clubs' catering to male customers" -- violated age-discrimination laws

  May 6, 2009

• Mature Strippers and Lottery Money:

  May 14, 2009

• Hard Times on Milam For A Man Who Wants No Publicity For His Publicity Stunt

  Just minutes ago we got a text from a friend on lunch break, informing us of neatly dressed man briskly walking down Milam armed with a posterboard that read "I Need a Job." He gave us no other clues to go on but when one hears about someone meandering around downtown carrying a sign, we will always have visions of apocalyptic warnings or horrific military tales. Naturally we had to rush down to the street like so many children rushing down the staircase on Christmas morning. The anticipation of

  July 14, 2009

• Hey Houston!! You're Getting A Raise!! (Well, Some Of You Are)

  ​There's startling news out of a new survey by Hewitt Associates, a national human-resources firm: People are getting raises.In this day and age! Not only that, but Houston is at the top of the pack for this strange, more or less unheard-of phenomenon.Hewitt's survey shows that Houston workers can expect to see a 3.4 percent increase in their salaries next year, which compares to rates like 3 percent in Minneapolis/St. Paul and Washington, DC, 2.4 percent in San Francisco and 2.2 percent in Lo

  August 11, 2009

• Life, Post-Ike: A Full Recovery

  September 10, 2009