After previous posts here and here regarding local investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino‘s recent squabble with his long-time employer, KTRK-TV, this Chronicle article confirms that the conflict arose from the station quashing Dolcefino’s story on the non-profit Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo‘s lavish spending on its offices and the Rodeo’s rather pedestrian amount of charitable contributions in relation to the size of the revenues generated by the Rodeo.
Dolcefino is famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) in local circles for his outspoken investigative journalism pieces of high-profile targets. Who can forget the devastating Dolcefino series that KTRK ran several years ago on Doug Sanders‘ now-defunct charity senior golf tournament? The Chron reports that KTRK bowed to pressure from the Rodeo in spiking Dolcefino’s Rodeo story, probably because the station is one of many local groups that is considering partnering with the Rodeo on a summer festival that is currently in the planning stages.

Essentially, Dolcefino would have reported that the Rodeo spent lavishly on its new offices at Reliant Park and that it provides many free perks to the media representatives who cover the event for various media organizations. Dolcefino’s story also would have addressed the Rodeo’s low level of charitable contributions compared to other charitable organizations, which Rodeo representatives contend is unfair because the Rodeo’s primary purpose is entertainment and its charitable contributions are ancillary to that primary purpose.
An interesting story would be comparing the charitable contributions of the Rodeo with those of Houston’s other major non-profit entertainment sponsor, the Houston Golf Association, which puts on the Shell Houston Open each April. The HGA is considerably smaller than the Rodeo, but each organization operates in much the same way — a non-profit corporation sponsoring an entertainment event with the pitch that charities are the primary beneficiary of the proceeds from the event. Maybe that’s the story that Dolcefino should really pursue.

On the heels of this earlier post regarding the controversy over whether the Harris County Sports Authority should be put out of its misery, don’t miss this Anne Linehan blogHouston.net post about current HCSA chairman Billy Burge’s (picture left) over-the-top outburst during a recent appearance of former HCSA chairman Jack Rains on Dan Patrick’s call-in show on KSEV-AM radio.
It occurs to me that, when a quasi-governmental official such as Burge expresses this degree of concern over dissolution of his agency, then that is pretty darn good evidence that the agency needs to be dissolved. Quickly.

This Chronicle article reports on the brewing controversy over whether the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority — the quasi-governmental agency created to coordinate the construction of Houston’s Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and Toyota Center — should be dissolved because its purpose has been achieved and it has nothing left to do.
Seems as if a few local legislators are questioning whether the $3 million annual overhead for the Sports Authority is really worth it when it appears that all the Authority is doing is writing checks on bonds issued to build the stadiums. Supporters of the Sports Authority are concerned that dissolving the Authority would impair the debt rating on the bonds. After spending a total of $1.036 billion to build all three stadiums, the Authority voted to sell another $37 million in bonds last summer to induce the investment rating agencies not to downgrade the bonds from investment grade to junk. The additional bond revenue was needed to make up for lagging hotel and car rental tax revenues that are dedicated to pay the bond debt.
The sports authority has about a $3 million operating budget, about half of which is dedicated to contractual obligations and professional fees that either the city or county would have to pay even if the authority were dissolved. However, the bonds are amortized over 30 years, so saving $1.5 million a year over that period is not chump change.
Curiously, the Sports Authority is attempting to justify its existence by proposing the construction of yet another sports venue.

This Chronicle article reports that the owners of the chic Hotel ZaZa in Dallas have acquired one of Houston’s oldest hotels, the venerable Warwick in the Museum District in between downtown and the Texas Medical Center.
For many years, the Warwick and the old Shamrock Hilton on the other side of the Medical Center from the Warwick were Houston’s premier hotels. However, in the 1970’s, both properties suffered in comparison to newer hotels that were built in the area near the Galleria, and the Shamrock was finally shuttered and destroyed in 1987. The Warwick has held on through a series of owners and at least one recent renovation, but it has not been able to recapture the magic of its earlier days.
Nevertheless, the Warwick is in a prime location, near the Medical Center and Rice University to the south, and downtown to the north. Moreover, the property sits in the middle of Houston’s beautiful Museum District and is on the new Metro Light Rail line. Finally, the views from the hotel down Main Street lined with majestic Live Oak trees remains a sight to behold. Here’s hoping that the Hotel ZaZa owners recognize the jewel that the Warwick can be and invest the funds necessary to restore its preeminence among Houston’s finer hotels.

Kevin Whited over at blogHouston.net continues to question why the Chronicle is taking such a hand’s off approach to the controversy over KTRK-TV’s scuttling of investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino’s piece on the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo‘s record regarding charitable contributions. This stewing controversy was the subject of this earlier post.
As Kevin notes in his post, the Chronicle’s coverage of this story is so deficient that the Dallas Morning News is covering this local story better than the local paper. Stay tuned on this one.

A couple of interesting news items popped up yesterday in regard to the Houston legal community.
First, venerable Houston-based law firm Bracewell & Patterson announced that Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is becoming a partner in the firm and that the firm will be re-named Bracewell & Giuliani. Mr Giuliani will head up the firm’s new office in the Midtown section of Manhattan office, which the firm will open in May.
Bracewell is one of Houston’s largest law firms, but has always been a step below in size to the city’s big three, Vinson & Elkins, Fulbright & Jaworski, and Baker & Botts. Bracewell currently employs about 400 lawyers worldwide and has estimated gross revenues of $200 million. Its client list includes Royal Dutch Shell, Bank of America, the Bechtel Corporation and Kinder Morgan.
Meanwhile, on the east side of downtown, Fulbright & Jaworski became the first downtown Houston law firm to have a high-rise building named for the firm as its longtime headquarters — 1301 McKinney — was re-named Fulbright Tower.
Fulbright became the largest tenant in the building after former owner ChevronTexaco moved out and sold the property last year to Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. ChevronTexaco put the building up for sale after it bought the 40-story 1500 Louisiana Building for its new headquarters. Enron had built that building to be its headquarters, but Enron’s bankruptcy scuttled those plans and ChevronTexaco picked up the building on the cheap.

One of the true characters of the University of Houston Law Center over the past generation — James A. Hippard — died this past Friday at the age of 78 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
After working his way through the then new University of Houston Law Center during the mid-1950’s, Professor Hippard went on to receive his Masters in Law from New York University, and then returned to UH where he taught Evidence, Criminal Law and Procedure, and Civil Procedure for many years. An accomplished trial lawyer, Professor Hippard peppered his classes with the practical aspects of handling cases and his emphasis on trial techniques eventually led the school to name its annual Moot Court competition in his honor. While in law school, I took Texas Civil Procedure from Professor Hippard, and my lasting memory of him is his quick wit and uncommon grace.
A memorial service for Professor Hippard will take place this afternoon at 3 p.m. in the chapel of the Geo. H. Lewis & Sons Funeral Home, 1010 Bering in Houston.