Professional Services Sector

UPDATED: African-American Architects Charge "Grave Concerns" in HISD Bond Construction Selections

Updated: HISD Spokesman Jason Spencer challenged HNOMA's numbers, sending this note after reviewing the letter a second time: "All of the design contracts approved by the Board stipulate that the design fees are not to exceed 7 percent of each project's budget. Assuming that all of the projects hit ... More >>

Florida Atlantic University Sells Stadium Naming Rights to Horrible Private Prison Company GEO Group

Before rapist and kidnapper John Enard clipped off his monitoring bracelet and strolled out of his Houston halfway house, he had it made it clear to state authorities: he would offend again before ever being sent back to prison. One of the best ways to allow Enard to run off and rape again was to p ... More >>

Top 5 Reasons Not to Be a Concert Promoter

Have you ever dreamed of promoting your own shows? I'll bet you've even sat around at times plotting out your own bills, dreaming of how awesome it would be to see an all-star line-up of, let's say, Poison, Ratt, Tesla, WASP, White Lion, and Cinderella. And while that sounds absolutely horrific, I'm ... More >>

Woodlands Pavilion Moves Up to World's No. 2 Amphitheatre, Says Pollstar

Houston's edgy restaurants and diverse museums may have drawn the attention of The New York Times, but both alternative and classic rockers, plus brawny country stars, scattered boy bands and Latin lovers, drew enough people through the turnstiles of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion that concert- ... More >>

Surprise! Rick Ross' Maybach Tour Stop In Houston Canceled

According to an email we have just received from Live Nation in Houston, the Maybach Tour set for next week on December 13 at Reliant Arena, has been canceled. In fact, Ross has canceled the rest of the tour. He cited problems with the tour promoter among other things. The tour -- featuring Rick ... More >>

Thomas Lee Elkins: GEO Group Lets Sixth Rapist Stroll Away From Halfway House in 24 Months

The rapist of a 16-year-old girl is the latest sexual predator to slip through the sieve that is the privately run Southeast Texas Transitional Center. Thomas Lee Elkins, convicted of aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault in 1991, absconded from the facility, 10950 Old Beaumont Highway, October ... More >>

Rearviewmirror: 5 Ways Ticketmaster Survived Pearl Jam

Do you hate Ticketmaster convenience fees? If you don't, it's because you've never been to a concert. The various fees tacked onto admission prices by the global ticketing behemoth can add a pretty penny in a hurry to the face value of a chance to see and hear our musical heroes, and they're one of ... More >>

Sugarland Says It Will Play New BBVA Compass Stadium

Updated with comments from BBVA Compass Stadium Director of Marketing, PR & Booking Gina Rotolo -- 12:24 p.m. Pop-country duo Sugarland will be playing the Houston Dynamo's new stadium, BBVA Compass Stadium, the band announced in a set of tour dates on its Web site. The show, scheduled for Aug. 26, ... More >>

MFAH Film Premieres: 2011 British Arrows

Comment of the Day: We Are Racist Rats

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Wells Fargo Hit for Funding Allegedly Badly Run Private Texas Prison

Wells Fargo hit by protests.​Wells Fargo just can't win: All the bank wants to do is make good on its underwriting of a private prison company with a history of inmate deaths, sexual abuse and record-tampering, and now a group called Texas United for Families wants the bank to pull out. Speci ... More >>

Prison Pays

Despite a history of abuse and bad conditions, private prison corporation GEO keeps getting contracts from the state.

GEO: Private-Prison Company Somehow Keeps Getting Contracts In Texas

Illustration by Keri RosebraughA look into private prisons​When Arthur William Brown left his Houston halfway house December 15, he did the usual: he signed the check-out form that residents of the facility have to sign whenever they leave the premises for the day. Only on that day, Brown ... More >>

New Dynamo Stadium May Not Change Concert Climate Much

Marco TorresLady Gaga at Toyota Center, July 25​Conceivably, today's announcement that the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority has agreed to act as landlord for the proposed Houston Dynamo stadium in downtown's East End could present a serious challenge to the Houston area's reigning concer ... More >>

The 2010 British Television Advertising Awards

Anthony Ray Ferrell, The Good Samaritan Killer: Third Escapee From His Halfway House In 20 Months

Photo courtesy HPD Victim Sam Irick and his alleged killer Anthony Ray Ferrell​The man charged with killing a Good Samaritan during a purse-snatching is the third person to escape the same state-contracted halfway house in the last 20 months.Anthony Ray Ferrell had fled a "halfway house in ... More >>

Grinding Justice

Operation Streamline costs millions, tramples the Constitution, treats migrants like cattle and doesn't work.

BARC Supervisor, On Tape, Squelches Employee Complaint And Says Mayor Has His Back

BARC, making sad puppies everywhere​When Chatauqua Allen, a supervisor at the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, was shut out of certain meetings, she got the nagging notion that it may have to do with her race.The feeling was compounded when Allen, who is black, w ... More >>

"Modern Art Graffiti"

Or "How to sit on contemporary art"

Texas Has Fewer Inmates; What The Hell Are We Doing Wrong?

​The U.S. Department of Justice recently released a report about state prison populations, and Texas was one of six states with large decreases in the number of people incarcerated.  These numbers continue, the report says, "the trend of slower growth observed in the prison population since 2 ... More >>

Things Get A Little Testy At Commissioners Court

"Am not!!" "Are too!!" ​Harris County Commissioners Court met this week, and the subject of which law firms get hired to handle bond business came up.County Judge Ed Emmett tried to ask about spreading the business around or getting a discount. Things didn't go all that well.EMMETT: Okay, I just ... More >>

Report: Justice Dept. Approves Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger (UPDATED)

[UPDATED to include AEG President and CEO Timothy J. Leiwecke's statement about the merger.] ​ Via CNBC, businessinsider.com reported Monday morning that the U.S. Justice Department has approved the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster into a multi-platform entertainment corporation that can do ... More >>

Fix Your Face

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker is more hip-hop than most rappers.

What's It Gonna Take To Get A No-Kill Expert To Look At The City's Animal Shelter?

More bad news for advocates who want the city's animal shelter to go no-kill: a proposed contract between the city and national no-kill consultant Nathan Winograd appears to be stuck in limbo....sorta like a puppy in a pound, come to think of it.Bett Sundemeyer of No Kill Houston tells Hair Balls th ... More >>

Bayousphere

Re: In the Line of Fire

Found...and Now We’re Lost

May Cause Discomfort

May Cause Discomfort

Lots of Problems

Twelve Oaks' expansion ignites a turf war with neighbors

MUD-Slinging Breakaway

A kingmaker leads an exodus from legal giant V&E

Catching a Big One

Moody hooks a $75 million verdict against a fish farm and a law firm

Political Flights of Fancy

Dem Hispanic stars collide while a resigning judge targets the county attorney

The Law and the Lord

A two-year legal battle leaves the church coffers a whole lot smaller

Bar Tabs

The D.A. and county attorney dip into office funds to up the influence in judicial polls

V&E Gets a Dressing-down

Big law firms begin to go casual, filing the suits away

Smooth Operator

Jack Linvillle transformed a little architecture firm into a leading public contractor -- with help from some well-heeled political pals

Insider

Not Ready for Prime Time. Continental may have taught the mayor how to fly right

Marriage Contract

The Scotts' personal public-private partnership really paid off in city projects

Crushing the Opposition

Baylor and Fulbright & Jaworski -- with the help of a lame duck judge -- see to it that Bonnie Dunbar won't get a chance to tell all in court

The Insider

This week signals a change in leadership at the Houston Press.

Good Work If You Can Get It

A New Orleans law firm paid $250,000 to a Houston topless dancer. Now it wants the money back.

Having outlived the good ol' boy era, when it had a hand in every deal, houston legal giant

Vinson & Elkins is entangled in a legacy of litigation from its past.

Into the Mystic (Book)

It's Joe B.'s World

In the Kingdom of Bob, lawyer Joe B. Allen is the prime minister of vested interests

Pro Bono Publico

A Vinson & Elkins lawyer wins a big one for a death row inmate

Letters

The Private Life and Public Death of Frank Koury

Frank Koury wanted to keep his gay life at home and his legal life at Fulbright & Jaworski separated. But when he died, everything was revealed.

Rockets Mania

As the Rockets fought for the title, Houstonians fought -- and failed -- to keep their sanity