Thumbs up, down
Fans have high hopes for Rockets, and one congressman gets a new title: felon.
We’re growing accustomed to living in the No. 1 city these days: Astros as the No. 1 baseball team, Rockets with the No. 1 playoff seed, the No. 1 art car parade (this weekend), and we’re even the No. 1 locale for birdwatching (see editorial above). But according to U.S. News and World Report, Houston is anything but one of the top places to live. We came behind Austin (first place), San Antonio (14th) and even Dallas-Fort Worth (18th) to land in 26th place — tucked in between Boston and Portland, Maine. These stats must be based on old information, because nothing in the write-up about our “entrepreneurial spirit” and “11,000 restaurants” references our city’s proudest boast — the shiny bean outside Houston’s new Glassell School of Art building!
Forget Sears and Roebuck. Now it’s Leebron and Harvey. The iconic, if dilapidated, art deco Sears building in Midtown is being transformed into an “Innovation Hub” under a plan spearheaded by Rice University President David Leebron and Greater Houston Partnership CEO Bob Harvey. The $100 million project, which was crafted when Houston was trying to woo Amazon, should be completed sometime around 2020.
Look forward to new ubiquitous billboards joining a beaver telling you that it’s 69 miles to the next Buc-ees: signs reminding you to buy flood insurance. Twelve large billboards and plenty of smaller ones will litter the landscape with this important warning and messages that try to cut through the myths. Even if you’re not in the floodplain, even if you never flooded, even if it isn’t hurricane season, you need flood insurance.
The World Meterological Organization retired the name Harvey from the hurricane list, joining such greats — worsts? — as Irma, Maria and Andrew. Guess that means the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management can slap the name on the back of a jersey and hang it from the rafters.
Say goodbye to Congressman Clueless. Steve Stockman, who served two non-consecutive terms representing East Texas, was convicted on 23 counts of fraud this week after funneling millions in campaign dollars and charity donations into his own bizarre projects that included wiretapping political rivals.
The Grand Old Party used to brag about having the biggest tent in politics, but the tent became significantly smaller and less grand on news that Log Cabin Republicans of Texas were denied a booth at the Republican Party of Texas convention in June. The Log Cabin guys — the GOP’s LGBT caucus — believe in all the things important to any red state voter: less taxes, more guns and the end of the gun tax, to quote “30 Rock.” But apparently that’s not enough in 2018.
Maybe Log Cabin can take it to the courts: Houston’s top federal judge, Lee Rosenthal, ruled this week that national anti-discrimination laws also apply to sexual orientation and gender identity.
If you have ever fantasized about suing your university to pay off student loans you can’t afford, this story is for you. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman reached a $25 million class-action settlement with Donald Trump’s fraudulent Trump University. An investigation found that the fakeschool scam bilked Texas taxpayers out of more than $2.6 million, but the local lawyer in charge — former Texas Deputy Attorney General David Morales — mysteriously declined to sue Trump in 2010. Now Morales is on the short list to serve as a federal judge.