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Best Lawyer

Nicole Casarez

Texans are used to high-profile criminal cases where, let's face it, the defendant is stone-cold guilty but has the means to get a supremely skilled and supremely expensive lawyer to bitch-slap a prosecutor's weak case. But what happens when that defendant isn't loaded, and the prosecutor is especially rabid, to the point where, exculpatory evidence be damned, he's going to get his man? How many lawyers want to step up to that plate? And how many lawyers want to step up to the plate after that defendant has been convicted? Fortunately for Anthony Graves, Nicole Casarez is one of those lawyers. Through the Innocence Project of Texas, she and her journalism students at the University of St. Thomas helped free Graves after he had spent nearly two decades on death row. Prosecutorial misconduct helped put him there; a lawyer with actual respect for the American criminal justice system helped get him out. Imagine that: saving an innocent man's life, not for a fat retainer but because you have the means and desire to. Isn't that the very definition of integrity?

Best New Professor

Bun B, Rice University

Rice University may be known as one of the leading private universities in the South, but it's not known for being trill. Or it wasn't. This past spring, one of the greatest Southern rappers of all time doubled as a professor of Religious Studies, lecturing on the parallels between hip-hop and different faiths. Bun B, a Baptist, partnered up with Dr. Anthony B. Pinn, UGK fan and head of Rice's H.E.R.E. community-outreach program, to teach "Religious Studies 331: Religion and Hip-Hop Culture." The course grew out of Bun's guest lecture to one of Pinn's classes a couple of years ago, and the rapper responsible for "Gimme That Pussy" and "Pocket Full of Stones" (among many others) proved remarkably astute. "We're not talking about hip-hop and religion being the same," Bun said. "We're showing instances where hip-hop and religion have the same goals and ideology in common within the context of the culture."

(An earlier version of this item misspelled Dr. Anthony B. Pinn's last name. The Houston Press regrets the error.)

Best Local TV Commercial

Attorney Jim Adler's "Junkyard Dog" Spot

Attorney Jim Adler has built a reputation on loud commercials touting his legal acumen, likening his approach and effectiveness to that of a particular blunt-faced toolbox staple. But lately, he's been tinkering with a new metaphor: the junkyard dog. In what appears to be a spot filmed on location in an actual junkyard, Adler is practically frothing at the mouth, talking about how unscrupulous insurance companies and the like try to screw victims out of just pay, making him as mad as a junkyard dog. Then there are the obligatory/alleged past clients, vouching for how Adler is indeed like a junkyard dog. We've got to admit, it's appealing. If we felt we were being screwed out of unjust pay, we'd definitely want a vicious, bloodthirsty beast on our side. Still, it leaves room for confusion: He's a hammer; he's a junkyard dog; he's a hammer; he's a junkyard dog; he's a hammer and a junkyard dog.

Best Appellate Judge

Terry Jennings, 1st Court of Appeals

Last year, the prosecution-lovin' judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals declared that the state's lower appellate courts could no longer reverse cases because of factual insufficiency — in essence, whenever the evidence was alarmingly weak but a jury had nevertheless convicted. Terry Jennings of the 1st Court of Appeals didn't take too kindly to the ruling. "This, respectfully, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has neither the jurisdiction nor any lawful authority to do," he wrote, before proceeding to — in a polite judicial way — tear the CCA a new you-know-what. Jennings, a former prosecutor, is no softhearted friend to criminals, but he's proven himself to be a valuable appellate judge.

Best Use of a Smartphone

RodeoHouston App

If the traffic alone at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo gets you stressed, the event's new iPhone app, launched this year, might at least ease some of the pain of coordinating your visit to one of the biggest events in Houston. The app features driving directions, a way to map your parking spot in the concrete maze that is the Reliant complex, a full schedule of Rodeo events, online shopping for ticket sales and HLSR merch, and a friend-finder that allows parents to track their teenagers' whereabouts on the Rodeo grounds. Cleanly designed, full-featured and dead simple to use, the Texas-design app is the perfect way to bridge Rodeo tradition and the 21st century.

Best South Asian Temple

Sri Meenakshi Devasthanam

Inspired by the grand Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, India, this Pearland vision is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Meenakshi. The ornate carvings and curves of the buildings in the temple complex will sweep you away to sweltering Southern India, as will the spicy vegetarian fare on sale there. If you go, expect to do more than gawk, as when we visited out of curiosity one Sunday afternoon and were commandeered by a Hindi-speaking priest into making a pooja — a ritual offering. He said a few words and lit a candle or two, we gravely pretended we knew what was going on, and then he handed us a plastic bag containing a red apple and some rose petals. Days later, not knowing what else to do, we offered these items to Buffalo Bayou, and we have to say, life since has been pretty sweet. Thank you, Meenakshi!

Best Campaigner to Improve Bikeways

Tom McCasland

Because most of them are aligned with Houston's waterways, most of Houston's bike trails run east-west. Getting north and south can be a dangerous chore, but many people believe the solution is relatively easy: convert miles and miles of Houston's utility easements for dual-purpose as bike (and hiking) trails. The snag has always been liability — CenterPoint Energy does not want to be held liable for any injuries that might occur on their land. Local attorney Tom McCasland took up that issue as his driving force for much of 2010 and 2011 and crusaded in Austin and Houston for a bill that would let CenterPoint out of bike-crash lawsuits and thus pave the way to a cycling paradise in Houston. While his effort was stymied in a committee in Austin, he believes that the momentum he gained this year will help ensure that his bill will pass in 2013.

Best Local TV News Reporter

KHOU's Mark GreenblattHoustonwww.khou.com

Well, this certainly isn't a surprise: KHOU's Mark Greenblatt winning our Best TV News Reporter award. After all, he won it in 2008 and 2010. But if you're thinking we're stuck in a rut or something, in our defense the guy just keeps coming up with compelling investigative pieces that deservedly rack up high-profile awards. In the past it's been for stories on Metro and the Texas National Guard; this year his target has been the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which he showed endeavored to hide test results showing too much radiation in our drinking water. He's definitely one reporter any government bureaucrat doesn't want to see pop up on his caller ID.

Best Criminal Defense Attorney

Katherine Scardino

A lot of people worked long and hard to get Anthony Graves exonerated and off Death Row, but it was Houston's Katherine Scardino who got the job done. Working with her partner from Angleton, Jimmy Phillips, Scardino went into the heart of darkness that the rural Texas judicial system can sometimes be and won. She gambled that former superstar Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler, who had been brought in to handle the case for Burleson County, would see that justice had not been done and act accordingly. Siegler did, and Scardino, who has been one of the most impressive criminal attorneys in the state for some time now, had another big victory to her credit.

Best Sustainable Dwelling

Rosalie HAUS

This year, a group of enterprising young professionals turned a flooded, foreclosed home in Midtown into Houston's first green co-op. With a rainwater cistern that powers the toilets, a worm farm and a huge heap of compost, the whole house is a bastion of sustainability. There's even a greasel: a Mercedes-Benz fueled by leftover fryer oil from a downtown Chinese restaurant. HAUS is home to ten young do-gooders who share chores and cooking duties. In five years they expect to create five green co-ops — and with all the green thumbs involved, the movement could quite possibly make Houston a good deal more reusable.

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