Layoffs and Downsizing

Re: Layoff and Buyouts at the Houston Chronicle

Houston Chronicle Staffers Facing Buyouts, Layoffs

Re: Houston Chronicle Staffers Facing Buyouts, Layoffs

Disconnected

Jim Edwards quickly built a long-distance-dialing empire. But he couldn't keep the distress calls on hold. Then the line went dead.

Rocks Off Is Interviewing This Guy Tomorrow

Jim Edwards quickly built a long-distance-dialing empire. But he couldn't keep the distress calls on hold. Then the line went dead.

Pink Slip Exhibits

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

Got Mad, Got Even

Two former HL&P workers took revenge against the Light Company, but say the city settled for "chump change"

Station Break

Beset by budget problems, bereft of substantive local programming, Channel 8 finds itself at a crossroads. Perhaps it's time to put the "public" back into Houston Public Television.

Beneath the Dogs

A court victory for laid-off Latino workers spotlights the harsh conditions in Houston's surplus of small plastics plants

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 o ... More >>

At The Chron: Where You Going With Those Boxes, Boy?

Photo by laffy4kIt's been an excruciating five-week wait for employees of Houston's only daily newspaper who are scheduled to learn today and tomorrow if they still have jobs. As one nervous reporter described it on Twitter a few days ago, "Out working on plans B-through-F. Anything to take mind ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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. ... More >>

Chron Guts Sports Department

Photo by Lori Greig On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle laid off a whole bunch of writers and reporters, including Michael Murphy, MK Bower, and Terrance Harris, the beat writers for the University of Houston, Rice, and TSU. On Wednesday, while they were laying off people over on the advertising and ... More >>

Best Karaoke

Spotlight Karaoke

Chron Guts Sports Department

Photo by Lori Greig On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle laid off a whole bunch of writers and reporters, including Michael Murphy, MK Bower, and Terrance Harris, the beat writers for the University of Houston, Rice, and TSU. On Wednesday, while they were laying off people over on the advertising and ... More >>

Layoffs at the Houston Chronicle

The Black-and-White Blues

Bon Appétit!

Have a Nice Day with some ´80s heartthrobs

Best Radio News

Have a Nice Day with some ´80s heartthrobs

Children of Enron

One of Ken Lay's many legacies: the families whose lives were disrupted by the fall

Talky? You Bet!

Sheila Jackson Lee's verbosity leads to a jackpot

Chicken Soup with a Goal

The Enron story is about more than fat compensation packages and falsified ledgers

Logos, Lies and Layoffs

A walk in the city parks department

Bloody Monday

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

Any Story Will Do

It's rerun time with the Chronicle's Enron coverage

Hard to Say Good-bye

Economic woes hit the Chronicle, and job cuts are coming

Two Of The Five Chronicle Award Winners From The Weekend No Longer There

In the category of good news/bad news, we have a journalism item for you. Five employees of The Houston Chronicle won first place recognition over the weekend in the annual Texas Associated Press Managing Editors journalism competition, the most ballyhooed in-state contest in the insular, self-congr ... More >>

Ford Honcho Tells Houstonians The Domestic-Car Market Ain't Dead Yet

Mark Fields, the flashy young head of Ford's Americas division, ran through the many woes of the auto industry before a group of mostly white-haired local car dealers who gathered for a luncheon yesterday at the Galleria Westin Hotel. There were the massive stock dips and job losses, the government ... More >>

Houston Chronicle, Modestly Declining To Blow Its Own Horn. For Some Reason

Photo by alex-sThe Houston Chronicle bannered a headline Saturday over a story about federal inspectors criticizing the Harris County Jail: "County Jail Fails Feds' Probe."The story outlined the results of the inspection, saying "poor access to health care and life-threatening conditions" at the jai ... More >>

Kemah Says It's Firing Cops Due To Ike; Cops Think Otherwise

Photo by Daniel KramerMaybe you heard, but Hurricane Ike smashed up Kemah pretty badly, and things aren't looking too good for the city these days.Sure, the vaunted boardwalk is coming back, and the local Wal-Mart is scheduled to reopen today, but the city has reported about a $400,000 loss in ... More >>

Life, Post-Ike: A Full Recovery

Just when it looked like UTMB might leave Galveston forever, local legislators saved it.

HISD Looks to Hire Teachers From California

​The Houston ISD is heading out to California (and later to Louisiana, Michigan and Florida!) to recruit teachers, its press office announced today.Specifically, it is looking for bilingual, secondary math and science teachers and cash-strapped California -- where reportedly more than 20,000 teach ... More >>

Man Vies to Be Sickest Child Molester of All

Also wanted to direct Pampers ads.

Alleged Aggie Doctor Brags Of Firing Obama-Voting Employee

​The TexAgs political message board is probably not the best place to go for nuanced, sophisticated discussion of the day's issues, unless you think Fox News is fair and balanced.But things can get lively. Like recently, when a poster named dermdoc put up an item headed "Laid off my first Obama vo ... More >>

Unions Take to the Barricades For Old Teachers

Photo by Margaret Downing​Both the local AFL-CIO chapter and the Houston Federation of Teachers are urging a huge turnout at Thursday night's Houston ISD board meeting to protest planned layoffs of teachers and other district employees in an attempt to stop what one union leader calls "this insane ... More >>

Long, Loud And Raw Houston School Board Meeting Leaves Few Happy

It wasn't quite like this at last night's HISD board meeting, but it was close​In a lengthy and tumultuous school board meeting Thursday night, trustees voted 8-1 to fire Principal Mable Caleb and five other administrators and teachers from the Key/Kashmere mess, approved another 170 employe ... More >>

Young and Recessioned: Stephen Rawlings, From Engineer to Part-Time Musician

​The Big Recession may have hit the rest of America harder than it has Houston, but that doesn't mean we're not feeling the effects. Especially the youngest people in the job market -- whether it's twentysomethings trying to start their dreamed-of career or teens looking to begin making money on t ... More >>

Young & Recessioned: Jason Jeansonne -- An Engineering Degree Gets You Work At A Movie Theater

Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Jason Jeansonne, a 24-year-old Texas A&M grad whose engineering job didn't work out as planned. I got this job at an engineering company back in October of 2008. That was before any of the real bad financial stuff happened. I got hir ... More >>

Lauren McCabe, Young & Recessioned: Three Jobs At A Time

​Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Lauren McCabe, a 25-year-old living in New Orleans who went from being unemployed to teaching how not to do it. I went to school at Columbia in New York City. I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. And even people who say they do, ... More >>

Cypress Hill

​Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Lauren McCabe, a 25-year-old living in New Orleans who went from being unemployed to teaching how not to do it. I went to school at Columbia in New York City. I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. And even people who say they do, ... More >>

Annise Parker's First Budget Doesn't Include Major Layoffs Or Furloughs -- Yet

​One of the things that Mayor Annise Parker touts about the city's 2011 proposed budget -- released today -- is that it's balanced without any major layoffs in city departments or any mandatory furloughs for city employees. By the end of her presentation at City Hall, however, Parker said that you ... More >>

Young & Recessioned: "Dave" Discusses The Strip-Club Option For Jobless Females

​Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Dave, a manager at the Gold Cup gentleman's club, who says stripping is a great part-time gig when the economy gets tight. With the economy being down and men being laid off, a lot of women have had to pick up the slack. And this is an i ... More >>

Halliburton Sued For Firing Pregnant Employee

Houston's Todd Kelly sues Halliburton again​We've written a lot about lawsuits against Halliburton/KBR, mistly involving horrow stories coming from employees in Iraq. But the latest is from a Dallas woman, Lynda Darden, who is suing because, she says, the company fired her for getting pregnant ... More >>

The Sword, Venomous Maximus, Black Congress, Omotai

Houston's Todd Kelly sues Halliburton again​We've written a lot about lawsuits against Halliburton/KBR, mistly involving horrow stories coming from employees in Iraq. But the latest is from a Dallas woman, Lynda Darden, who is suing because, she says, the company fired her for getting pregnant ... More >>

Carrie Feibel & Eric Kane: Chronicle Romance Makes The New York Times

According to the Times: "Collins Metu Engagement photos of Carrie Feibel and Eric Kayne at the Menil in Houston, Texas" ​The lusty, throbbing crucible of lust that is the Houston Chronicle was exposed in The New York Times Sunday, as a bodice-ripping tale of love at first sight, layoffs and ... More >>

It's 'Big Girl, Big Boy Time,' HISD's Paula Harris Says

HISDPaula Harris gets tough with fellow board members.​In a lengthy and sometimes tense board meeting that brought Houston ISD trustee Juliet Stipeche to tears, trustee Carol Mims Galloway to call for a tax increase and announce that all was not hunky dory with the board, and board President P ... More >>

Katy ISD: The Days of Rage Continue

Voices shall be heard.​Egypt, Libya: They got nothing on the Katy school district. Katy ISD's Days of Rage continued today, as Morton Ranch High temporarily went on lockdown and McMeans Middle School had its own uprising. Of course, "uprising" may be overstating it, but students at the schoo ... More >>

City Selling Its Downtown HPD Headquarters, Preventing Jailer Layoffs

For sale or lease: HPD HQ​Houston will look to sell or lease the downtown police headquarters as part of a deal that will keep HPD from having to lay off 273 jailers, Mayor Annise Parker announced today. The city and the HPD pension plan also agreed to allow the city to defer payment of $17 m ... More >>

Pools And Community Centers Come Under Parker's Budget Ax

Pool's closed today, and all summer​Eight swimming pool pools and seven community centers won't open this summer and about 750 city employees will be laid off under the new budget proposed by Mayor Annise Parker today.The fire and police departments avoided layoffs. "Developing this budget h ... More >>