Release Date: December 3, 2008
Office of Mayor Phil Hardberger: 207-7083
City removes Red Oak on Main Plaza
Work crews Wednesday removed a Red Oak on the east side of Main Plaza due to recent and severe cracking along its trunk and at least one major limb.
The cracking was discovered during a routine inspection of the trees in Main Plaza by the City forester. Although the tree was inspected several months ago by several tree experts, the visible cracks occurred only recently.
“I am saddened that we’ve had to pull down another tree on Main Plaza, but the safety of our citizens comes first,” said Mayor Phil Hardberger. “We will be planting new trees this month to replace the ones that have been removed.”
Staff will continue monitoring the health of the remaining trees on Main Plaza.
Bill Scanlan, chairman of the Main Plaza Conservancy, said that the loss of another tree compounds the tragedy of the prior losses earlier this year. However, “in addition to planting new trees, we are exploring ways to bring artistic shade structures into the plaza,” he said. “Meanwhile, music and other programs will continue to make Main Plaza a gathering place for the whole community.
By Greg
Harman
Dr. Mr. Red
McCombs,
Can we imagine Texas losing a fight to
Kansas or Mississippi? Why, yes we can.
After all
the obscene
salesmanship
by our elected leaders for a project best performed deep in bunker
somewhere (or, perhaps, offshore where such research has historically
been done), Homeland Security selected Manhattan, Kansas over San
Antonio and four other sites for the massive National Bio &
Agro-Defense Facility.
The charge is to study
diseases that have
no known cure and pass freely between human and non-human kin.
Homeland's own risk analysis undertaken only after they had been burned
by the U.S. General Accounting Office for failing to take into account
potential outbreaks suggested the current study site of Plum Island as
the safest bet.
Your hometown daily has been a more than
faithful
booster of the project. If you missed biz columnist Hendricks on the
topic this morning, well, you didn't miss anything new — except maybe
the
reason we're addressing this post to our favorite
wheeler-dealer. (Any of those million-dollar keystrokes tied to risk,
David?)
We
won't feign our regrets here. We only wish that after confirmed domestically (Fort Detrick, no less!) cultured anthrax to Congressional white-letter scares and
leaky foot-and-mouth events (commonly known as "outbreaks") outside UK labs, that Homeland would have made
security its overriding concern in the site selection criteria, rather than rely on the
"community support" and financial incentives that seem to have guided
this process from day one.
Study foot-and-mouth in
the center of the nation's Concetrated Animal Feedlot country?
Really?
From the Associated
Press:
Greg Harman
That big, white slip of paper represents the long and winding road that has been the fight for basic information about how your City-owned utility is run. So, crack a bottle, we've vaulted another hurdle this week, albeit one with itty-bitty type.
After costly attorneys inside CPS and the Texas Attorney General's office had the chance to run over (and back up to run over again to confirm lethality) a nearly four-month-old request the amount your utility pays for inside/outside legal counsel and on bottom-line-busting lawsuits, I netted me a goodie: The amount they pay their own team of lawyers.
Why on earth they thought this was proprietary information is beyond me.
You may recall, I dredged up the whole ridiculous cat-and-mouse game they play with public records back in September.
I wrote then:
Woulda been a wall there. Presidio County Commissioner points to where a wall almost stood. Instead they got massive flooding on both sides of the Rio. Other areas south of Falcon Dam have since been canceled. Are recent Obama appointments reason to cheer the demise of the Wall?
Greg Harman
The blanket authorities granted Homeland Security by the 2006 Congress that have allowed border wall construction to move forward unhampered by any “antagonistic” contrary federal laws, laws such as the Native American Graves Protection Act or our cherished Clean Water and Air acts, thanks to language in The Real ID Act, are about to expire.
At least, that appears to be the message emanating from President Elect Obama’s rollout of a powerful cadre of border-region lawmakers named to his cabinet and advisory teams in the past two weeks.
While the dubious choice of Hillary “Sniper Fire” Clinton to lead the State Department has marinated in editorial ink for more than a week, the collection of Southern Tier officials from New Mex Governor Bill Richardson, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (of “Show me a 50-foot wall and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder” fame), and experienced Homeland resister University of Texas at Brownsville President Juliet V. Garcia have given wall opponents reason for optimism.
A rumor circulating that Real ID opponent, U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona, is on the short-list for the Secretary of Interior slot is feeding that excitement.
Grijalva, who had been scheduled to speak at a summit on Border Wall resistance this week, cancelled his appearance there. His press secretary in Tucson said that several cancellations have been made as Grijalva prepares to return to Washington for the upcoming session, but confirmed they are hearing the same rumors everyone else is.
“He has not been contacted by Obama’s transition team,” Natalie Luna said. “But we have heard he is one of the names out there.”
In Texas, thousands of endangered acres maintained by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Audubon Society, and The Nature Conservancy, would be sealed off from the public under current construction plans. Anne Brown, VP of National Audubon Society, has fought hard to gain insight or information from Homeland about the wall that would likely force her group to close their 130-acre sanctuary to the thousands of area schoolchildren who enjoy the verdant reaches of towering sabal palms. She hasn’t gotten much cooperation.
With the new leadership taking place, however, the chances of the Real ID Act being overturned are increasingly likely. “I would hope that they would [do that],” Brown said. “Because I know what that would mean.” However, the final outcome “remains to be seen,” she said.
Duran Duran have been forced to cancel tonight’s show (Monday, December 1) in San Antonio, scheduled to take place at the Majestic Theatre, because the band’s keyboard player, Nick Rhodes, is still suffering from a very serious inner ear infection and doctors have told him that he is not allowed to fly.
The four band members have been on the road in Latin America since the start of November, and tonight’s show would have been their first North American date on the final leg of their year-long Red Carpet Massacre World Tour. The band expressed extreme disappointment in tonight’s cancellation, and will attempt to make up the date in the near future.
Tickets for tonight’s show will be fully refundable from the point of purchase.
"No Longer Older Than Dirt"
Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite)
#1 Bob the Gardener and the Cave of Parrots
Bob the Gardener (the behind the scenes Svengali) writes in...
Jones
does the Current have a weekend getaways writer? can I deliver this scoop to you?
planning to spend a lost weekend in Xilitla, leaving tomorrow afternoon, to scope out the weird surrealist ruin that is Las Pozas, links below. there is also a cave full of parrots. It occurs to me, late in the game yes, that this is sort of right up your alley?
I will take pictures in hopes of being able to construct something that could be sold for 30 dollars to your editors.
I think it’s an excellent idea. How about 25 dollars?
#2 The Artist Formerly Known As Mantecatron Responds From Mexico Re: Gardener Bob and the Cave of Parrots
So, Brad (Bob) is entering the high stakes world of rare bird smuggling...
I did read about that place. I don't care for Europeans in Mexico. Or rich eccentrics. Or surrealism.
Maybe during my third or fourth pass at Mexico....
How long us Brad going to stay?
What's new?
B
#3 OTS Insider Jack the Elder Writes from Costa Rica
Mark, I´m in Costa Rica until mid- Dec. Hope the swap goes (or went) well. Lots of bikes on the roads here, and about a fatality per week on average. Later, Jack
#4 Sad Sack
Friend of OTS Michael from Austin writes in again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Y_ncOVlDw&eurl=http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/
I refuse to feel bad for the man. But damn!
Wrong Call
I don’t know why I kept my California cell phone number. I suppose it’s easy to remember. Also, it's out of state so perhaps less people will call me. Those two things seem to be contradictory but it works for me.
I occasionally get calls from people in LA always looking for someone else, though usually it’s incomprehensible mumbling. Case in point, someone calls yesterday and asks for the office fax number. I decided to play along and try to get more information from the caller. It sounded like she wanted the fax number for “bone deep”. That sounded like it had to be a porn film. I told the woman that I was really busy in the office right now and that she should quit calling me and hung up.
Moments later, I googled “bone deep” and it seems it might actually be an A- list movie being shot in downtown LA. Something about bank robbers and being produced by Grand Hustle Entertainment, or something like that.
Not sure where this is going yet but I’m on the look out for more calls coming in. I’ll probably just start collecting phone numbers and taking messages for the Production Coordinator.
I’ve been told my number is a few digits off from the Fox Studios number. Anyway, we’ll see where this goes.
Smoke, Mirrors, and Beaujolais Noveau
On Friday I stopped by Unit B for an opening for some interesting new work. Being the 3rd Thursday of November (or was it Friday?) I remember that it was time for Beaujolais Noveau, so I bought a plastic (plastic!) bottle I found at Whole Foods and went on down.
It was a two person show yet the different works seemed to flow so well together it was difficult to discern where one began and the other ended.
And yes, perhaps that was the point.
I'm not saying it was freezing but it wasn't hot either. A fire in the palacial side yard kept people occupied. Fireside chatting included: "yeah, what about that benefit with Snowbyrd up in some weird banquet hall up by the airport", "ha, that's a plastic bottle you're drinking out of", a few people giggling at a local artist for having his fly down.
Spurs Move Uphill
A few weeks ago the season was in jeopardy of being left for dead. First, new player Roger Mason Jr. strung together a stretch of impressive games and held the team together while Manu and Tony Parker were out with injuries. The team began playing impressive slowdown, make it ugly defense and the team allowed itself to stay in just about every game.
More recently, Spurs rookie (rookie!) George Hill began to get more minutes, and basically, has brought an even greater excitement back to the team.
(Yeah, those highlights are pretty horrible. Jump to the 2:00 mark for a way too brief mention of Hill. Basically, there's not a lot of video out there to work with. My hands are tied.)
Almost everyone is playing well. Manu Ginobili is back and performing his indescribable sorcery. The team that was “older than dirt” now has a new lease on legitimacy.
Sure, if I had a Spurs press pass I’d be giving you more details but let’s not go crazy. I’ll watch from random televisions across the city, continue to take the pulse of the city, make notes and chart team improvement. If I’m at the game there are all those free buffets that writers gorge themselves on, overloading their system with carbohydrates, which is nothing but begging for crashing and bad writing, which is something I’m already threatening as it is.
So yes, I’ll stick to Bar America, Texas T, and other VFW Halls across the city biding my time.
Feeling Cheated?
A lot of my energy has gone into organizing this event...
...at the last second I secured a 10 year old Beatles cover band called The Weetles (who will play at around 1:45). And in the process got their father and his emo/indie rock band Worm to also play (at about 2:45/3:00.)
Blue Means Go will also perform a now rare acoustic show to close things out at 4pm.
Bike Swaps are so gone.
And so goes another week on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continued...
The night before Thanksgiving is huge on the nightlife circuit — no work, Wednesday drink specials, and all you’ve got to do the next day is laze around and eat. In fact, I can’t remember a Thanksgiving (after I was in high school) that I’ve woken up without a hangover. But spending the entirety of Thanksgiving inside with The Parentals, your cousin’s bratty kids, and extended relatives that want to argue about your political views warrants another night out, so here’s our picks.
I’ll personally be starting my weekend off at Scout Bar tonight (after baking pecan pies) to see local up-and-comers Cult to Follow. The band is led by Bryan Scott of Union Underground fame, and features Todd Connally on guitar, Troy Doebbler on bass, and Jason “Shakes” West behind the kit. Though three-fourths of the band is from San Antonio, it’s not fair to pigeonhole them simply as a “local band” — the Texas scene has already been buzzing about their regional touring and big plans await the foursome in the new year. They headed to the studio this September to finish up their forthcoming, and still untitled, full-length album, which will debut early 2009. Spinning Chain and Ghandis Gun open up for CTF, and the show serves as the official Staind, Seether, and Papa Roach after party. $10 21+ only, no cover with a Staind ticket stub, 8 p.m. doors.
A Thanksgiving night best-bet is the annual show by local rockers Sun*Day — the band rocked out to a full house at Royal Palace Ballroom during their first Thanksgiving show in ’91 without knowing it would become a 17-year tradition. The Next Day, Ledaswan, and One Last Shot share the White Rabbit stage. $5 all ages, 8 p.m. doors.
Other Thanksgiving hotspots will be The Mix, Limelight, and Scout Bar. The Mix caters to its drinking crowd with Thursday night regulars The Undercovers providing the tunes — $3.25 Crown and $2.25 Kamikazis, Kickstarters, and Kathlicpussys behind the bar. Limelight’s resident DJ troupe Fuck Yeah! won’t be taking Thanksgiving night off either. The popular quartet will be heating up the joint with electro, indie-rock, and ’80s tunes, so expect the dance floor to be packed ‘n’ sweaty. Perfect way to work off that turkey. Scout Bar’s Big Ass Beer Night will also be in full effect — it’s $3 for a 23-ounce souvenir glass, $2 domestic refills, $3 import refills, and $2.50 wells. No cover and Jar of Flies onstage.
CPS Energy held their quarterly board meeting yesterday, amidst much glad-handing and fanfare. (Do all Texas companies have a group prayer and a pledge of allegiance to the flag before their board meetings?) Yet beneath all the gloss, a potentially disturbing truth emerged. While ultimately delaying the decision for another year, CPS clearly laid the groundwork for making expansive use of nuclear power in South Texas.
Of course, the company didn’t come right out and open up the meeting with such a pronouncement. The nuclear option was deceptively camouflaged by preceding it with lots of happy talk about “aggressive” action to help reduce consumer energy usage and costs. But in the end, it was all building up toward a nuclear-power pitch that failed to include environment health concerns as one of its “risk factors” and which wouldn’t save residential consumers any money for at least 34 years.
On the plus side, CPS is moving forward with a $685-million energy efficiency plan that aims to curb San Antonio’s power usage enough over the next 12 years to avoid building a new power plant. But they’re trying to greenwash the nuclear option by juxtaposing it with plans to get a solar power plant going by 2010 or 2011. If a nuclear disaster or major contamination occurs in South Texas some day, it will likely be traced back to this moment.
The beating around the nuclear bush began with an extensive report on the company’s energy-efficiency study by Nexant, a San Francisco-based energy consulting company that was spun off from a technology consultant group of multinational corporate titan Bechtel in January 2000. Readers of John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man will recall Bechtel being described as one of the world’s most powerful engineering and construction companies, “a prime example of the cozy relationship between private companies and the U.S. government,” with an executive staff populated by Reagan-Bush cronies. Perkins places Bechtel near the center of his expose about a “corporatocracy” that exploits resources and people around the world. One example includes Bechtel receiving the first major contract in the reconstruction plan for Iraq in 2003.
Terry Fry, Nexant’s Senior Vice President of Energy and Carbon Management, reported on the “Demand Side Management Potential Study” for CPS, in which he cheerily revealed that CPS could cut 569 megawatts by 2020 with “energy-efficiency technology,” resulting in “a good-sized power plant that could be avoided.” One of the CPS folks then declared that the company will “aggressively pursue” the megawatt reduction potential offered by the Nexant study. Specifics were not discussed, but it was hinted that the plan is likely to include programs to help customers retrofit their homes and businesses to be more energy efficient. This could include things like insulating older homes and changing out windows.
After some more glad-handing and a short break, CPS’s Paul Barham – Senior Director for Generation Research & Planning – then stepped in to lower the nuclear boom in his report on the company’s “Strategic Energy Plan” update for FY 2009-10. The update began with talk of a plan to “increase renewable energy supply” and “maintain environmental commitment.” It then moved into discussion of power-generation options – natural gas, coal and expansion of the STP (South Texas Project) nuclear plant.
Barham touted the company’s goal of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions as part of its environmental commitment and then revealed that the STP expansion would help the company cut 127 million tons of C02 emissions by 2033, as opposed to only 32 million tons through renewables or 49 million tons through the Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan (STEP). The expansion of STP would involve building two new nuclear plants in Bay City.
Barham then presented a “Risk Summary” comparison of nuclear power with that of natural gas and coal. The four risk factors considered in the spiffy graph were capital, technology, carbon, and fuel cost. This understandably left some in the audience scratching their heads. There had been some nebulous talk earlier about a “fifth fuel,” but there was no fifth column for environmental risks? Nuclear only got a red light for capital, with yellow for technology and green for carbon and fuel cost, while natural gas received green for capital and technology but yellow for carbon and red for fuel cost. Coal got two reds and two yellows.
“Nuclear is the only one of these options that has no CO2 emissions,” said Barham. He also noted that “solar and wind don’t look very cost-effective … but we do have a big place in our plan for renewables.”
The report continued through analysis of capacities and fuel-price volatility, before reaching Jerry Maguire’s “show me the money” moment with a projected monthly residential electric bill chart. While nuclear would cost consumers a little more than gas or coal for the first 19 years, Barham noted how it would become cheaper than coal after 24 years and cheaper than natural gas after 29. This calculation excludes the 8-10 years that it would take to get the nuclear option up and running in the first place. So CPS apparently plans to sell consumers on the nuclear plan by saying that it will save us some money on our electric bills sometime in the 2040s - woo!
The summary concludes that expansion of STP should remain an option for future energy generation due to this “most affordable long term cost,” the lack of carbon emissions and how it presents mainly a “construction cost risk” versus natural gas’s “fuel cost risk.” (Still no mention of the environmental and health risks from the toxic radioactive waste that can take millions of years to decay.)
San Antonio will have a full year to debate the matter however, as Barham recommended that final Board and Council decisions be delayed until fall 2009 for further analysis. This will include factors such as public input and “community involvement,” financial market uncertainty, a new presidential administration with new energy priorities, additional clarity on federal incentives (potentially the most critical factor from CPS’s perspective), updated information on carbon policy, Congressional action on natural gas supply, and ongoing developments with project partners NRG Energy and Exelon.
There was no further detail on the latter, but Cindy Weehler of the Consumers’ Energy Coalition was on hand to point out that it may have to do with how Exelon is currently being sued by the state of Illinois for taking over nine years to inform a local community about leakage of millions of gallons of radioactive water from its Braidwood nuclear plant into groundwater, drinking wells, and a forest preserve. The continuing lack of a definitive plan for properly disposing of the nuclear waste already created over the past few decades is another factor that never seems to enter the discussion when the big power companies and John McCains of the world pontificate on the subject.
“All of that is code for nuclear,” said Weehler of Barham’s report. Stay tuned, as the Current will be following this story every step of the way…
From the Romenesko forum at poynter.org comes cold comfort in the form of another Express-News memo: fewer jobs here, but, hey, Houston might be looking for copy editors and page designers. This note elaborates on news that the paper will shed 50 full-time workers (perhaps as many as 20 from the newsroom, according to one source) before the end of the year through buyouts and/or layoffs.
Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 11/25/2008 9:05:48 AM
Title: Express-News to outsource more work
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
Memo to San Antonio Express-News employees
From: Rivard, Robert
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 11:40 AM
To: SAEN Editorial
Cc: Stephenson, Tom
Subject: buyouts
Colleagues:
Brett tells me there are newsroom rumors of layoffs today. Not so. The
big in-house headline probably will be the winners of the chili cook-off. We've promised to share information with you as soon as we can, and there is not much to actually share beyond what we had to say last week to the editorial leadership.
I am returning from NY after a meeting with other editors at the Hearst Tower at which we discussed the state of our industry and various cost-cutting measures, including the coming consolidation project and our staff reductions. Today is, I believe, the last official day for opting in to the voluntary buyout program at the Express-News. Nothing on that front is actually happening today. I will meet with Tom Stephenson and others in the leadership next week to review the tally of requested buyouts, and assess the difference between the number of requested buyouts and Tom's stated goal of a companywide 50 FTE reduction. I also will schedule meetings with newsroom staff that will be affected by the consolidation project.
Right now we are producing Travel in Houston and we will produce Taste
there by late December or early January. We expect to produce at least
one of our seven daily SA Life sections in Houston by midyear. That
date, of course, could change, but you can see from the projected pace
of this project that nothing much is imminent here. There will be some
new job openings for copy editors and page designers in Houston at
some point, we believe, but I can't project when those job postings
might occur.
Thank you for all your good work and dedication through these most
difficult times.
Bob
B.B. King entertained a large crowd at the Majestic Theater on Thursday night with a well-received performance of nearly two-hours. Some may have felt the show was a bit light on actual guitar playing and a bit heavy on King's joking around while his band vamped out behind him, but at age 83 the blues legend impresses just by still being on the road at all.
King acknowledged thoughts of retirement but said thoughts of going fishing, swimming and drinking beer don't really appeal since he doesn't drink anymore and "I ain't no Johnny Weissmuller... and you can look at me and tell I ain't no Michael Phelps."
King doesn't spend as much time on his guitar as say Buddy Guy (who's still only a spry 72), but he had the crowd in the palm of his hand whether he was playing, singing or laughing. The classic "Key to the Highway" was a highlight where King's smooth tone and liquid playing stood out while the humor was a highlight on "One More Favor" as he pleaded "please see my grave is kept clean."
Some of today's rock stars could certainly still learn a thing or two from the octogenarian bluesman. After "One More Favor," a fan came right up to the front of the stage to snap a photo of King, who smiled and posed for the shot (as opposed to jumping into the crowd to assault the photo taker as Guns 'n' Roses singer Axl Rose infamously once did at a St. Louis concert in 1991.)
King still has a way with the women too, many of whom clearly remain smitten with him despite his now grandfatherly appearance. At one point he remarked how he doesn't like "the way the rappers and hip-hoppers been talking about the ladies," before dedicating a love song to all the ladies in the house. When you compare King's longevity with the flash-in-the-pan careers of many of those rappers, it looks like he's got a point worth considering.
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