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Our salute to ‘Iron Bill,’ bye-bye to Brock and the times they are a-changin’ at TMC.
We salute the memory of Houston firefighter William “Iron Bill” Dowling. He died this week and tragically becomes the fifth Houston firefighter to succumb to injuries from a 2013 motel fire on the Southwest Freeway. Dowling courageously lived with a mangled body and injured brain before finding peace. The words of then-Mayor Annise Parker after the event have become haltingly prescient: “There is nothing that will heal the hurt we all feel.”
An exhibit honoring the men of the USS Houston and the HMAS Perth who gave their lives during the WWII battle of Sunda Strait is on display through June 30 at downtown’s Julia Ideson Library. On this section front today, columnist Joe Holley spins the tale of this little-known story about the ship that meant so much to our city. See his column, but better, go see the photos and memorabilia.
James Harden, the super-cool, super-hirsute Rockets point guard, is quietly authoring one of the finest seasons of any athlete in Houston history. He “is stretching the boundaries of what was considered possible for an individual player,” writes Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins in a flowing and glowing cover story this week. Says the 6-5 Californian who has toned down his once flamboyant off-court lifestyle: “I’m not worried about anything but hooping.”
The anthropology of Texas, however, is that no matter how good Harden is or that the Astros opened a new spring training facility, most of the ketchup-stained sport diehards still talk football 24/7/365. So here’s your football week, Tweet style. Texans, sensing their playoff window is closing, jettison overpaid, underperforming QB Brock Osweiler. Texans likely to roll the dice on oft-injured but talent-rich Tony Romo, a 13-year veteran of the dreaded Cowboys. It’s a gamble but one the team must take. Meanwhile, one of the best high schoolers in Houston history, Vince Young, is trying to relaunch his career with Saskatchewan of the Canadian Football League.
San Francisco isn’t taking kindly to the Billion Dollar Buyer complaining about a local mandate that makes restaurants pay for workers’ healthcare. “We have a 3 percent (or more) add-on to the menu because they make us give all our employees full health care,” Tilman Fertitta said. “We can’t afford to do it.” So, consider this, BDB producers: Episode One of Season Three could be devoted to TF helping lower-wage earners buy health coverage.
CERAWeek brings to Houston each spring the intellectual elite of the fossil fuel industry. If you’re trying to get a table at Tony’s, you’re competing with A-listers from the majors and officials from the highest of the high levels of government. They’re here to talk policy and peer into the most important crystal balls of commerce. After a few down years for the industry, 2017 was filled with optimism. OK, make that cautious optimism. But there was a hiccup. The price of oil was down as much as 8 percent this week, dipping below $50 for the first time since December.
Politics makes for extremely strange bedfellows. That’s the only explanation for how Ted Cruz could have gone to the White House for dinner Wednesday without punching POTUS in the nose. During last year’s mud-wrestling match, aka the Republican primary, Donald Trump (a) leveled a despicable and grossly unfair insult of Cruz’s wife on Twitter, (b) suggested Ted’s father had something to do with the assassination of President Kennedy and (c) couldn’t address our distinguished senator without calling him Lyin’ Ted. Maybe Cruz has forgiven the comments, but the people of Texas shouldn’t until Trump does something he’s never done before: offer a public apology.
The Texas Medical Center lost two brilliant executives this week (longer editorials coming soon). MD Anderson’s Ron DePinho resigned as president of the world’s leading cancerfighting institution. An elite researcher on one hand, he couldn’t use the other to stop the spreadsheet bleeding. Some estimated the MDA was losing more than $30 million a month. Meanwhile, heart surgeon Robert Robbins moves from the top job at the Texas Medical Center to the presidency of the University of Arizona. Robbins brought a transformative and entrepreneurial agenda to what was once a parking garage-operation. His vision needed about a decade to execute; he slips out of town at the four-year mark. More than anything, the next chapter for both places would best be served by stability.