Showing posts with label houston. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Patrick Swayze 1952 - 2009

Check out this great tribute to Patrick Swayze:

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/09/rest-in-peace-patrick-swayze-i-do.html

© Janet Crain

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Monday, March 9, 2009

Texas Cities Setting for Drug Cartel Wars

by Janet Crain
The comments in the Houston Chronicle by some people who want to solve this horrible problem by legalizing drugs are really stupid, IMO. To those who feel we should just let all the illegals in and legalize drugs to solve this problem I would say:

Give me a break! In the first place it would not work. You would still have competing gangs killing each other. And we should not cave to bullies and terrorists because they will get worse. People want to rob banks and sometimes they do. What's the answer? Throw the doors open and hand out money? NO!!! Shut the borders and enforce the drug laws and illegal alien laws. Not enough personel? Hire some more with all that money pouring out of Washington. And/or use the National Guard.

Don't just give up!!!

What about the demand for hard dangerous drugs? Gonna legalize those too? Anybody can cook up Meth. It ruins lives. Turns parents into zombies.

We do not need a nation on drugs.

Get a grip. Sober up if necessary.

Help don't hinder.

Mexican cartels infiltrate Houston

Recent arrests in a mistaken killing point to the perilous presence of gangs

By DANE SCHILLER
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

March 7, 2009, 9:28PM

Family photo

Jose Perez was enjoying a night out with his wife, Norma, in 2006 when hitmen with a Mexican drug cartel mistook him for a rival trafficker and gunned him down.

But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away.

Perez, 27, was just a working guy, out getting dinner late on a Friday with his wife and young children at Chilos, a seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway.

His murder and the assassination gone awry point to the perilous presence of Mexican organized crime and how cartel violence has seeped into the city.

Arrests came in December when police and federal agents got a break in the 2006 shooting as they charted the relationship and rivalries between at least five cartel cells operating in Houston. A rogue’s gallery of about 100 names and mug shots taken at Texas jails and morgues offers a blueprint for Mexican organized crime.

Houston has long been a major staging ground for importing illegal drugs from Mexico and shipping them to the rest of the United States, but a recent Department of Justice report notes it is one of 230 cities where cartels maintain distribution networks and supply lines.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6299436.html

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Houston Home Ownership Idea Draws Ire Across the US

by Janet Crain
The Houston mayor wanting to use taxpayers money to pay off private citizens' credit cards so they could qualify to buy a house is insane!

Owning a house is a privilege. Earned by saving and doing without. Why should those who did the right thing have to pay off people's credit cards who bought extravagant items and services?

Because easy credit was available and so tempting these people just couldn't help themselves? Cry me a river.

White backs off 'credit enhancement' with tax dollars

Houston plan 'hit a nerve across this country,' councilwoman says

By CAROLYN FEIBEL
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Feb. 24, 2009, 11:21PM

Mayor Bill White yanked a controversial plan Tuesday that called for the city to use taxpayer funds to pay off some personal debts for first-time home buyers, following a flood of outrage and criticism from across the city and beyond.

“I don’t think we ought to be in the business of paying off someone’s debt so they can buy a house,” White conceded during an impassioned City Council meeting. “Paying off people’s credit cards is ridiculous.”

Many council members expressed “embarrassment” over the idea, which received national media attention after the Chronicle wrote about it in Tuesday’s editions. The story appeared to strike a nerve among taxpayers already angry over the recession, the housing meltdown, and federal bailouts of banks and automobile companies.

“Everybody’s outraged about this,” said Councilman Ron Greene, adding that a constituent e-mailed him a copy of a bill and asked him to pay it. “This was not well reasoned.”

The “Credit Score Enhancement Program” would have given up to $3,000 in grants to individuals who are trying to qualify for mortgages through the city’s homebuyers assistance program. City officials had said some applicants fall short of eligibility by only 10 or 20 points on their credit scores, and paying off some debt balances can quickly improve their numbers.

Councilwoman Pam Holm waved a thick stack of e-mails from angry residents.

“I do not understand how we can ever justify spending taxpayer dollars to pay somebody’s credit card,” she said. “I don’t understand how it can be even considered to come up. I am truly embarrassed. I think it shows poor leadership.”

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