Category Archives: News – Houston Local

Busy hurricane season predicted

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hurricane.jpgThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its annual storm forecast yesterday, and the NOAA is predicting from 12 to 15 tropical storms during this upcoming hurricane season (June through November). Or, as Fark translates, “We have no clue how many hurricanes there will be, so we say ‘a lot’ to keep our asses covered.”
At any rate, the NOAA predicts that seven to nine of the storms could become hurricanes, and that three to five of those could become major hurricanes, which are defined as category 3 (winds of between 111-130 mph; here is a hurricane category chart) or above. Nine hurricanes developed during the hurricane season last year and four of those hammered Florida over a 40 day period.
Public officials along the upper Texas Gulf Coast are particularly concerned with the NOAA’s forecast because the Houston area has not been directly hit with a hurricane since Hurricane Alicia, which was a category 3 storm in 1983. The eye of that storm came in on West Beach on Galveston Island and then essentially followed a path along I-45 through downtown Houston and beyond. The damage to the area was incredible, and left thousands of Houstonians without power for weeks. As bad as Alicia was, however, oldtimers in Houston contend that it was nothing compared to the destruction that was caused on September 11, 1961 by Hurricane Carla, which was a category 4 (winds of 133-155 mph) storm that had the same minimum barometric pressure as the great 1900 storm that killed over 6,000 people in Galveston.
Finally, this series of Houston Chronicle articles earlier this year revealed that many state and local public officials do not believe that they safely evacuate all coastal residents on the upper Texas coast in the event of a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. Not a comforting thought as we head into an active hurricane season at a time when the Houston area is long overdue to take a direct hit from a storm.

More favorable date for the Shell Houston Open?

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pga_tour_logo.gifAs noted in this previous post, the Shell Houston Open has suffered for years because it is played two weeks after The Masters Tournament when most of the best players are taking a break before gearing up for the U.S. Open in June.
However, the PGA Tour is currently negotiating a new television contract and, in that connection, is considering a revamped schedule that would move the Players Championship’s current late March date to a more favorable date in May. This Florida Times-Union article on the subject sets forth the following tournament schedule model that is being considered as an alternative to the current one, and this schedule would give the Shell Houston Open a much more favorable date the week before the Players Championship:


January
Mercedes Championship, Hawaii
Sony Open, Hawaii
Buick Invitational, La Jolla, Calif.
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Palm Desert, Calif.
February
FBR Open, Scottsdale, Ariz.
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Nissan Open, Los Angeles
Chrysler Classic of Tucson
March
Ford Championship at Doral, Miami
Honda Classic, Palm Beach Gardens
Bay Hill Invitational, Orlando
Accenture Match Play, Innisbrook
April
BellSouth Classic, Atlanta
Masters, Augusta, Ga.
MCI Heritage, Hilton Head, S.C.
Shell Houston Open
May
Players Championship
Wachovia Championship, Charlotte, N.C.
EDS Byron Nelson Championship, Irving, Texas
MasterCard Colonial, Fort Worth, Texas
FedEx St. Jude Classic, Memphis, Tenn.
June
Memorial, Dublin, Ohio
Booz Allen Classic, Potomac, Md.
U.S. Open
Barclays Classic, Westchester, N.Y.
July
Western Open, Lemont, Ill.
American Express Invitational
British Open (B.C. Open, Endicott, N.Y., the same week)
U.S. Bank Championship, Milwaukee
August
Buick Open, Warwick Hills, Mich.
International, Castle Rock, Colo.
PGA Championship
NEC Invitational (Reno-Tahoe Open the same week)
September
Deutsche Bank Championship, Norton, Mass.
Tour Championship, Atlanta (John Deere Classic, Silva, Ill., same week).
End of official money season and beginning of next official money season.

September
Bell Canadian Open
84 Lumber Classic, Farmington, Pa.
Southern Farm Bureau Classic, Annandale, Miss.
October
Valero Texas Open
Chrsyler Classic of Greensboro
Michelin Championship of Las Vegas
Funai Classic at Disney World
End of official money events for calendar year

U.S. Attorney calls it quits

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shelby.jpgMichael Shelby, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas for the past three and a half years, announced his resignation today to enter private practice.
The U.S. Attorney’s position in Houston has been a revolving door for years. It’s a big district with a ton of drug and immigration cases, and — despite the ongoing Enron prosecutions — has really never been a particularly active office in pursuing the juicier white collar criminal cases. Moreover, because of a myriad of conflicts, Mr. Shelby withdrew the local office early from investigating or prosecuting any of the Enron cases, which have been handled by a special Enron Task Force comprised of prosecutors primarily from New York City and Washington. Here’s hoping that the local bar committee will be able to come up with a candidate for the position who will be able to stay for a prolonged period, say a decade or so. My sense is that the assistant U.S. Attorneys in the local office would really appreciate the stability that such a long tenure tends to promote.

Discovery’s Great American Tour hits Houston

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discovery.jpgOver the past several months, The Discovery Channel has been promoting an interesting project called the Greatest American of All Time. During a road show promoting the contest, Americans from all over the country have been nominating other Americans who they believe have had the greatest influence on what it means to be an American.
The road tour kicked off last month in Boston and is stopping in Houston over this weekend. The Great American Tour Bus will be at the Art Car Parade on Saturday between 10 and 3 and at the Galleria on Sunday between 11 and 7. Attendees have the opportunity to write a short blog entry essay or give a video testimonial on who they think deserves to be the Greatest American.
The road tour will conclude in June and be followed by a TV series with Matt Lauer of the Today Show that counts down the top 100 nominations to No. 1, who will be named the Greatest American. This appears to be a great project to introduce young children (and older ones, too) to great Americans, so check it out if you’re in the neighborhood this weekend.

New NASA chief is shaking things up

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NASA_logo.gifThis Washington Post article reports on new NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin‘s ambitious plan to shave four years off the timetable for building a next-generation spaceship to replace the obsolescent space shuttle. Dr. Griffin’s accelerated plan is to launch the new spaceship by 2010.
As noted in this previous post, Dr. Griffin faces entrenched opposition within the federal government and from government contractors to his efforts to revitalize NASA. This is story worth following closely, for its outcome will have a dramatic impact on the future of U.S. spaceflight, NASA, and the local Houston economy.
Update: Aerospace engineer Rand Simberg comments on Mr. Griffin’s initiatives in this TCS piece.

Dr. Bart Smith updates Houston economic forecast

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Bart Smith.jpgAs noted earlier here and here, University of Houston economics professor Dr. Barton Smith is the leading expert on the regional economics of the Houston metropolitan area. Dr. Smith is also the director of the UH Institute for Regional Forecasting, and his report on the local real estate market that he gives a couple of times a year to the Houston real estate business community is always one of the most well-attended luncheons in the Houston business community.
All in all, Dr. Smith views the Houston economy to be in a small but steady growth mode that is largely dependent on what happens in the exploration and production sector of the oil and gas industry. While Houston’s housing market is not overinflated, Dr. Smith believes that it is currently suffering from oversupply, although not close to the extent of the dreaded days in the Houston real estate market of the mid-to-late 1980’s. Dr. Smith reminded the audience that high energy prices alone are not enough to create a booming economy in Houston anymore, and noted that, while upstream energy grew at nearly 5 percent last year, the overall regional economy grew only 0.9 percent. Dr. Smith pointed out that this is the result of such factors as slow growth in downstream energy (including refining and petrochemicals) and in non-energy sectors of the regional economy.

OTC.05

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OTC.05.jpgThe grand ol’ dame of Houston conventions — the Offshore Technology Conference — is winding down over at Reliant Park.
The OTC covers state-of-the-art technology for offshore drilling, exploration, production, and environmental protection, and it is the world energy industry’s foremost event for the development of offshore resources. This is the 36th straight year that industry engineers, technicians, executives, operators, scientists, and managers have gathered in Houston for the OTC, and the conference’s exhibit floor on the floor of Reliant Stadium — including massive and specialized equipment and technological devices used in the extraction of oil and gas from offshore locations — is one of the more fascinating that you will ever see at any convention.
Although an industry conference rather than one that caters to the masses, the OTC has always been interesting in that it tends to mirror the state of the local Houston economy. During the early 1970’s through the early 1980’s, the conference boomed as increased global demand for energy and Middle East embargoes ratched up the price of oil. After conference attendance topped out at almost 110,000 in 1982, the prolonged bust in the energy industry in the mid-1980’s resulted in substantially decreased attendance. In 1984, the conference was held without an exhibition of equipment and technology at all, and the late 1980’s brought speculation that the expense of putting on the conference may have become an overpriced luxury for industry participants.
Nevertheless, over the past 15 years or so, the OTC has grown steadily to regain its stature as one of the key oil and gas industry conferences held each year, and last year’s attendance of almost 50,000 was the highest since the 1982 record. A pass to the exhibit hall is usually easy to obtain and a visit is well worth it. The conference winds up today, so hurry.

Eric Andell pleads guilty to federal theft charge

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andell-480.jpgIn a surprising development, Houstonian Eric Andell, a former deputy undersecretary under fellow Houstonian Rod Paige at the Education Department, a former Harris County district and appellate court judge, and probably the most popular Democrat in local political circles, pleaded guilty to charging the federal government about $9,000 for personal travel in which he conducted personal business and worked as a visiting judge while still employed in Washington. He faces up to one year in prison and has agreed to reimburse the federal government for the improper charges. Mr. Andell will be sentenced July 29 in Washington.

Has it really been ten years?

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houpost.gifDon’t miss Banjo Jones reminiscing about the Houston Post, which closed ten years ago today.
When I moved to Houston back in the early 1970’s, the Post was Houston’s morning paper and the Chronicle was delivered in the afternoon. Then, the Chronicle began to publish multiple editions, including a morning edition. Seemingly before you knew it, the Chron had bought the Post’s assets and the Post was no more.
As Banjo notes, Houston lost something quite special when the Post closed, and the newspaper landscape in Houston has never been anywhere near as interesting without it.

Godbold named State Bar Board Chairman

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godbold.jpgOne of the truly good guys in Houston’s legal community — Fulbright & Jaworski litigator Tom Godbold — has been elected chair of the board of the State Bar of Texas and will assume the one-year term during the State Bar’s annual meeting to be held June 23-24 in Dallas.
Tom has given his time generously to Bar activities for some time. He has served on the State Bar Board since 2003, and was awarded a State Bar Presidential Citation for serving as Chair of the Legal Services for the Poor Funding Request Work Group in 2004. Tom has also been active in the Houston Bar Association for years and served as its president in 2002-2003.