Tessa Barrera

The new HISD Superintendent Mike Miles is going to do pretty much what he wants to do to get all kids to read, write and learn. The H-Town Mayor and other community leaders held a press conference yesterday to hit the superintendent and here is a quote from the Mayor in the Chron:

“We stand ready to assist any person — the superintendent, Board of Managers, teachers or anyone else — to improve the quality of education in all of our schools, but you cannot do that by closing the library on some campuses and converting them into disciplinary centers.”

Here is what the Superintendent put out an hour or so before the Mayor’s press conference:

“I cannot and will not govern the state’s largest school district by press conference or press release. The time for politics is over, and we will not be distracted by intentional misinformation.”

In Commentary’s book, they are a long way from being on the same page. Heck, a long way from being in the same book. Double heck, a long way from being in the same library, err, pardon the pun.

I guess the Mayor has to keep things stirred up. I guess.

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This is a new one in my book. 10 folks die at a concert and the criminal defense lawyer for the concert’s headliner is moaning about the of the release of the concert tragedy report. See this from the Chron:

Travis Scott’s lawyer says the timing of a 1,266-page Houston Police Department report about the Astroworld Festival tragedy was an intentional effort to hurt sales of the rapper’s fourth solo album, “Utopia.”

“It is a coincidence that I do not believe in,” said Kent Schaffer, Scott’s lawyer. “They knew when the album was coming out, and they released the report just hours after the release, probably hoping to drum up bad publicity for Travis.”

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said the timing was coincidental. 

“In my news conference on June 29, I stated I would release the police incident report surrounding the Travis Scott Astroworld concert. The redaction of the 1,266 pages was completed on Thursday, July 27. We released the police incident report on Friday, July 28,” Finner said.

“Utopia” was released Friday, followed hours later by the HPD report. Authors of the report were critical of multiple agencies and cited poor training and communication as contributing factors to the chaos that resulted in the deaths of 10 people. They did not, however, place the blame specifically on Scott or event personnel.

Here is the Chron article: Astroworld report timing ‘intentional’ to hurt Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ (houstonchronicle.com).

10 folks died. The lawyer has screwed up priorities for sure.

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Houston Life is a local talk show that focuses on H-Town area arts, entertainment, non-profits, food, and other happenings. It is part of the KPRC-TV Channel 2 operation that airs at 1 pm local time Monday thru Friday.  Derrick Shore has been the co-host for a few years. They have been without a fellow co-host for seven months or so. Yesterday they announced Tessa Barrera as the new co-host.  Tessa is a South Texas – Coastal Bend native from Corpus Christi.  She is co-host of The Rod Ryan Morning Show on 94.5 The Buzz and she will continue to keep that gig.

The featured photo is the Houston Life team of (l-r) Lauren Kelly, Shore, Barrera, and Melanie Camp.

Commentary is also a fan of Latinas getting top positions at our local media outlets.

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My Beatles wall calendar for the month of August has a photo of four from 1963. I found this caption that goes with the photo:

18th November 1963: The Beatles holding their silver LP and EP discs presented to them by EMI records in London to mark sales of records including the LP ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘Twist and Shout’, the best-selling EP of all time.

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We won last night and are a half game back on August 1.

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