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One of Houston Mayor Annise Parker's most visible goals since taking office in January has been to shake up the agency that oversees buses, rail and other forms of transit in and around the city. Parker's criticisms of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (known as Metro to those who speak Houston) have been music to the ears of Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is trying to hold off a November challenge from Parker's predecessor, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White. Through press statements and Web videos and under the predictable mantra of "Metrogate," Perry's team has packaged Parker's criticisms with a series...

...Grand Prairie Mayor Charles England said in prepared remarks that White, who is running against Republican Gov. Rick Perry, would bring Texans together to tackle the state's budget problems. In accepting the endorsement, White criticized Perry, portraying him as a divisive partisan. “We have a governor right now that divides the state into red teams and plays them off each other for the purposes of his political career,” White said. Perry spokesman Mark Miner dismissed the endorsement, saying it would not “hide the fact that Bill White is a liberal trial lawyer.” Miner also said Perry would unveil endorsements in...

...Friedman's departure left outgoing Houston Mayor Bill White and hair-care millionaire Farouk Shami as the two main contenders for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and lessened the chances of the race going to a runoff. While it does not clear the field for White, it gives him the advantage over a less-known and less experienced opponent. White has a track record in office and proof he can win elections. Shami says he will spend $10 million of his own money to win the nomination with his rags-to-riches life story, but he still will have to answer the ultimate question: Is Texas...

Mayor Bill White will formally enter the race for governor today, instantly becoming the Democrats' best hope of winning a statewide office in seven years. White, a three-term mayor who is balding and known for something of a bland personality, is expected use self-deprecating humor to tell a Hilton Americas crowd of supporters that he knows he is not a “perfect candidate” but is someone who can get things done. White has said he wants to end “strident partisanship” in Austin. He will tell supporters he wants to improve high school graduation rates and slow the rising costs of...

Thirty condemned killers on Texas death row have pages on the controversial teen website 'myspace.com' where they openly encourage young girls to communicate with them and frequently put out racist and violent messages, 1200 WOAI news reported today. While inmates are not allowed access to the internet, the pages are created and maintained by relatives and friends, 1200 WOAI news reported. None of the pages open concedes that the person who is asking your son or daughter to 'be his friend' actually admits that the person on the page is a vicious killer waiting to die, frequently for sexual related...

Nov. 9, 2006, 12:02AM Safety rules target rentals Council votes to require all city apartment owners to comply with security measures By ALEXIS GRANT and MATT STILES • Property taxes: The council voted to cut the city's tax rate by a quarter cent, a $2.50 annual savings for the owner of a home with $100,000 taxable value. The rate will drop from 64.75 cents to 64.5 cents per $100 valuation. Owners of apartment complexes with high crime rates could be required to comply with safety measures recommended by Houston police as part of a program Mayor Bill White said Wednesday...

Property owners or tenants who don't remove graffiti within two weeks after receiving notice from the city could be fined up to $500 under a proposal sent to the City Council on Monday. Councilman Adrian Garcia, chairman of the committee, said the change would help city officials enforce rules that require Houstonians to remove graffiti on their property in a timely manner. "People don't want to be at risk of getting a ticket," he said. Existing law requires property owners to abate graffiti within 30 days, or ask the city to do it.

A radio commercial for a local gun shop advises Houstonians to arm themselves against "Katricians," adding to the growing tension between Houstonians and the Katrina evacuees who have been blamed for a rising crime rate. Gun shop owner and radio talk-show host Jim Pruett said Thursday he started running the ad a few weeks ago after hearing a local television interview with a Katrina evacuee living in Houston who implied he would have to turn to crime if his government assistance ran out. "There are many evacuees here who are working," said Pruett, who has owned Jim Pruett's Guns &...

Sept. 21, 2006, 12:57AM Red-light cameras allow lucky turns About 300 citations are thrown out because of a loophole in the ordinance Hundreds of drivers who ran red lights while making turns at intersections newly monitored by cameras have not been issued tickets because of a loophole in the photo-enforcement ordinance. "The way the current city ordinance is written, turns are excluded, even if they are illegal turns," said Houston police Sgt. Michael Muench. Traffic officers reviewed more than 1,000 violations caught on camera during the first two weeks of the program, the police department reported. A third were thrown...

AUSTIN — Days after being criticized for derogatory comments about Hurricane Katrina evacuees, independent gubernatorial hopeful Kinky Friedman struck back at candidates who pander to minorities. "I don't eat tamales in the barrio, I don't eat fried chicken in the ghetto, I don't eat bagels with the Jews for breakfast," said Friedman, who is Jewish. "That to me is true racism." The comment last week was intended to reflect that he's not afraid of risking a little unpopularity for the sake of being honest, campaign spokeswoman Laura Stromberg said Monday. "He's not going to become the politician that people in...

Seething at what they consider racist slurs against African-Americans displaced by Hurricane Katrina, activists here Friday took verbal aim at gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman and west Houston residents who last week urged city officials to send evacuees back home. "The nerve of the white man to talk about shipping anyone anywhere," Houston activist Quanell X told a small group of reporters and the public Friday at a Texas Southern University news conference. "This is disgraceful." His comments came as local and New Orleans activists gathered in Houston to craft a response to the comments, which they said smeared the estimated...

City expands sidewalk law Sitting or lying banned in 3 more neighborhoods; citywide extension of the law debated Responding to residents' demands to reduce crime and clear out vagrants, the City Council on Wednesday added three neighborhoods to an ordinance that bans sitting or lying on sidewalks during most of the day, and some members said it should apply citywide. The ordinance, which also prohibits putting personal possessions on the sidewalk, already exists in downtown and Midtown, but now will apply to the Old Sixth Ward, Avondale and Hyde Park. Before the panel approved the measure, several council members sounded...

The number of National Guard troops on the Texas-Mexico border would jump from 1,500 to 10,000 under a plan to combat illegal immigration proposed today by independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman. "We've waited 153 years for the feds to help us," Friedman said. "They haven't yet. We have our own army. I want 10,000 Texas National Guard troops on the border and I want them now." The immigration proposal was one of four broad policy issues Friedman outlined today. The independent is running against incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Democrat Chris Bell, and another independent, Carole Strayhorn, the state comptroller...

As red-light enforcement cameras start taking money shots at 10 city intersections today, police are warning that it's illegal to try and thwart the technology. Starting today, owners of vehicles the cameras catch running red lights will receive $75 civil fines. The cameras photograph rear license plates, and citations are mailed to registered vehicle owners. Officials are cautioning drivers not to use clear sprays and license-plate covers advertised as preventing cameras from taking readable images of plate numbers. "It's against the law," said Executive Assistant Chief of Police Martha Montalvo, who oversees the camera program. Most of the stealth products...

Other agencies also on task force formed to combat spike in homicides FBI agents will work alongside Houston police in the office and on the streets as part of the latest counterattack on the city's ongoing gang violence, Chief Harold Hurtt announced Friday. Flanked by officials from several federal agencies and the Harris County Sheriff's Department, all of whom will join the effort, Hurtt said the new task force would target violent street gangs through shared expertise, intelligence and manpower, with 10 FBI agents in the field. "The goal is to target the most violent gangs in Houston ... and...

Katrina victims blamed for Houston crimeBy PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press Writer A letter to inmate No. 1352951 and a cell phone bill for $76.63, both found in a soggy New Orleans duplex ruined by Hurricane Katrina, led Louisiana bounty hunter James Martin to Texas. Again. It marked the seventh time since Katrina that Martin, whose pursuit of bail jumpers often begins with clues salvaged from abandoned New Orleans homes, has followed a trail to Texas. "I don't think Texas really knows what they got," Martin said. Katrina sent a lot of bad guys to Texas, as Houston is finding...

White further defines Prop 2 changes He wants to exempt funds for public safety from the revenue cap Mayor Bill White released new details Tuesday about his proposed changes to a 2004 charter provision that capped all city revenue, saying he would amend it to exempt funds for public safety. White has already said he wanted to generally limit the cap, known as Proposition 2, to apply only to revenues collected into the city's general fund. That fund gets most of its money from property and sales taxes, and it supports basic city services like police, firefighting, parks and libraries....

HOUSTON -- Houston Mayor Bill White's daughter was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, officials told KPRC Local 2. MORE AT LINK

HOUSTON (AP) - In the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, Katrina evacuee Samuel Smith sits on a donated futon and watches a borrowed television in a subsidized apartment the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided for six months. The unemployed truck driver just started looking for work.That would infuriate U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican who wants what he calls "deadbeat" evacuees from New Orleans out of his city. "Time has long since passed for the able-bodied people from Louisiana to either find a job, return to somewhere in Louisiana or become Houstonians," said Culberson, whose district neighbors the...

HOUSTON -- Counties that were saddled with chaos and traffic-choked highways before Hurricane Rita are defying an order from Gov. Rick Perry to empower one person to make evacuation decisions during a disaster. Instead, a group of elected Gulf Coast leaders adopted a different plan Tuesday that puts the authority in the hands of a 15-person committee _ even though the ultimate power to evacuate still rests with individual counties.