Blogs

A 29-year-old woman who lived at the FLDS ranch at the time of the CPS raid spoke to members of the Rotary Club of Houston earlier today. The woman spoke briefly and wouldn't reveal her name, but her attorney said she wanted the crowd to understand that the FLDS mothers were quite normal.

"I chose to [be married]," she said. "I know a lot of people say, 'Oh, they're supposed to say that,' but if I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be here. If I didn't want to be a mother, I wouldn't be."

The woman said she was married when she was 20. She gave birth to her first child at 25. When Child Protective Services raided the ranch, she presented a Texas driver's license that stated her age. Still, she was held as a minor for about two months before being reunited with her children. She's living in San Antonio until CPS investigations are complete.

After years of dismal test scores and a demonstrated inability to get a grip on its finances, as well as months of high drama with the school board firing and un-firing its superintendent several times, the North Forest ISD was officially put on notice today that the state is going to run its business. Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced that he’s going to put in a new three-member board of managers to replace the elected school board and a new superintendent as soon as the Justice Department gives its OK. The board of managers approach is the last step before shutting down a district.

“The district is expected to start the new school year with an $11.8 million budget deficit. The district will not be able to sustain itself financially at its current taxing rate,” Scott said in a statement.

Austin Studios is having a movie memorabilia sale tomorrow and Saturday. From noon to 5 PM tomorrow and 8 AM - 2 PM Saturday at 1901 E. 51st Street (in Austin, duh), you can pick through all manner of props and cinematic leftovers.

Debbie Haber at the studio balked at providing a complete manifest of what's going to be up for grabs (though she did describe a prop treasure chest from Spy Kids and set pieces from The Faculty and Varsity Blues.

So one is left to wonder what other tantalizing bits of Texas movie detritus could be lurking just behind that Paul Walker stand-up? Assuming other directors besides Robert Rodriguez will be represented, here are a few things I'd be keen on procuring my own self:

1. A production still from this scene set in the secret Galveston training camp from Uncommon Valor You know, the one that looked suspiciously like Yosemite National Park? Bonus points if it has Waltrip grad Patrick Swayze in it:

Yesterday Channel 13 Eyewitness News reporter Miya Shay reported that Discovery Green’s brand-new $21-million dollar parking garage leaks. Not major gushers, mind you, just some drip-drips.

The source for her story? An unidentified City Council member who wouldn’t speak on camera “because of the sensitive nature of this issue.” (What’s so “sensitive” about a couple of leaks?)

Anyway, we tried to talk with Discovery Green Park Director Guy Hagstatte but he was busy in meetings all morning, so we got hold of a representative for the park (who also wished not to be named – are we missing something here?). She assured us that the leaks, aside from the occasional plop-plop drip on the head of an unsuspecting visitor, are not a major concern for the garage and not an indication of structural damage.

Houston is officially e-mail crazy.

That's according to AOL, which we were somewhat surprised to learn still exists.

But it does, and it has issued its fourth annual survey of e-mail habits in America.

The results -- only New York is more obsessed with e-mail than Houston. We beat Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco and every other city that was involved.

An e-mail was circulating around the East End this week, urging residents and business owners come Wednesday night to "an explosive meeting that will change the course of light rail in Houston."

How "explosive" things got is a bit debatable, but East Enders let Metro know they are plenty pissed about the agency's plans for their neighborhood.

Metro is looking at putting in a six-lane bridge and a large bus-repair center in the East End; Julio del Carpio of the Harrisburg Merchant Association says 40 or so businesses would be eliminated by the plans.

The last of the three suspects in the shooting that left HPD's first Hispanic female officer paralyzed has been apprehended, thanks to a Crime Stoppers tip.

Police arrested Andrew Garcia at 1:30 this morning in a condo at 10912 Gulf Freeway after getting the tip.

“This capture shows once more the value of the Crime Stoppers partnership among citizens, law enforcement and the media, working together to bring the most violent offenders in our city to justice,” Crime Stoppers executive director Katherine Cabaniss said.

For a while there, we were wondering -- as a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review put it to us the other day -- "No offense, but why is it that the only reporter who has asked John Edwards the question [about infidelity rumors] is an editorial assistant from a Houston alt-weekly?"

We don't know.

What we do know, though, is now that the rest of the media seems finally open to asking the question, Edwards is ducking the press.

UH prof Jody Williams isn't the only Houstonian doing good deeds in Africa this summer.

David Chaney, an accountant, is taking part in a neat project out of the UK that lets tourists who are visiting Uganda (and some do, we guess) work for a week or so on rebuilding schools in that country.

"The nice thing about this organization is that you can spend one day working there or six months. That is why it gets promoted to travelers because they can spend part of a vacation volunteering whenever it fits into their schedule," says Chaney.

Much of the work is Habitat-for-Humanity type physical labor, but travelers involved for longer spells who have a special interest can end up teaching students. (Teaching accounting or pounding nails in the Ugandan sun? We know which choice we'd make.)

Mayor Bill White got some publicity recently when he told The New York Times the reason Houston really, really sucks at recycling is because "Houstonians are skeptical of anything that appears to be oversold or exaggerated." Or things that are "trendy or hyped-up."

Some Houstonians, it turns out, are skeptical of obviously lame excuses.

At any rate, we were intrigued by White's analysis that Houston refuses to do stuff just because other places are doing it, even if it might be all hype.

The record truly supports his theory, if by "supports" you mean "doesn't support."