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November News Digest

25 November 2011

Large crowds lined the route of the 62nd annual Holiday Parade in Downtown Houston on Thanksgiving Day.  The parade, which is televised live, brings Santa Claus to town and ushers in the holiday season. Thanksgiving is followed by a shopping spree on Black Friday when bumper sales are supposed to gets shops “out of the red and into the black.” Shoppers camped outside some stores to be sure of getting the biggest bargains.

River  Oaks is the most prestigious residential neighbourhood in Houston but former mayor Bob Lanier is having difficulty selling his mansion there (pictured). Over the past 16 months the asking price has been lowered three times from $12 million to $6.9 million. The three-storey, 13,386sq.ft., six-bedroom property at 3665 Willowick Road

backs on to the 14th fairway if the River Oaks Country Club golf course.

Members of the Houston-Grampian Association are marking the Texas Day of the Scots (30 November) with a St Andrew’s night ceilidh at the Black Lab pub, 4100 Montrose Boulevard.  

Star players David Beckham, Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan gave Los Angeles Galaxy the edge over Houston Dynamo in the Major Soccer League Cup final. Keane put Donovan through to score the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute. A crowd of 30,281 attended the final in California. Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said, “I’m so happy for Beckham. He’s done in every country he’s been. What more can I say about what he’s brought to this organisation in the five years he’s been here?”

18 November 2011

The mayors of five U.S. cities, including Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker,  spent a week in Israel on a visit sponsored by the Project Interchange, an institute of the American Jewish Committee, to explore areas for bilateral co-operation. Mayor Parker said, “Houston and Israel have in common an entrepreneurial spirit  and an appetite for innovation. This was an opportunity to learn howwe might be able to apply Israel’s model in Houston.”  The mayors visited Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and the Northern Border.

The first direct scheduled flight from Houston to Africa took off from George Bush Intercontinental Airport on 16 November. Continental Airlines are using a 276-seater Boeing 777 on a daily service to Lagos, linking the U.S. energy capital with the Nigerian oil capital. The flying time eastbound is 11 hours 35 minutes and 13 hours 20 minutes westbound. Houston has a significant Nigerian community.

A stretch of Interstate 10 through Houston is the fourth most congested highway in the U.S. Rush hour delays on the 4.4 mile stretch between T.C. Jester and San Jacinto Street are estimated to cost $43 million a year in terms of wasted fuel and drivers’ time. Interstate 10  runs though six states from California to Florida. It carries traffic from West Texas to San Antonio and Houston. Other Houston routes notorious for congestion are 610 North Loop West between Highway 290 and Yale Street and Highway 59 from Buffalo Speedway to Interstate 45.  

11 November 2011

Houston Mayor Annise D. Parker (pictured) has been re-elected to run the city for a second two-year term.  She won 50.8% of the 115,881votes cast. The turn-out was a disappointing 13.4% of registered voters and her margin of victory was less than expected. Mayor Parker commented, “I had five opponents – plus, I had the economy and that was a tough opponent. We’ve had an incredibly difficult two years in Houston, as we have across the nation. We have tackled a number of tough problems but I was able to balance two budgets without raising taxes, without debt, and without laying off a single police officer or firefighter. Point me to another major city that’s been able to do that.”  

Dr Conrad Murray (58), who has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter arising from the death of Michael Jackson, is well regarded in Acres Homes, a run-down Houston suburb. He opened a free clinic there in the early 1990s in memory of his father, and has been spending two or three days a month in Houston since the singer’s death.  “He’s the best doctor we’ve had since his father. He’s a humanitarian,” said an Acres Homes resident. Dr Murray ran a cardiology practice in Houston before being appointed Jackson’s personal doctor in 2009.  Dr Murray’s defence attorney, Houston lawyer Ed Chernoff has said there will be an appeal against the conviction.

For the third time in six seasons Houston Dynamo have won the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference championship, clinching the title with a 2-0 win over Sporting Kansas City. They now take on the Western Conference champions, Los Angeles Galaxy at Carson, California on Sunday, 20 November. David Beckham and Irish international Robbie Keane are members of the Galaxy team.

The Kingwood area of Houston was hit by a weak tornado during thunderstorms on 8 November. It uprooted trees and caused roof damage. Tornados, usually weak, are experienced once a year on average in Houston.

4 November 2011

America’s former First Lady and Houston resident Barbara Bush (86) is stepping down as head of the foundation she founded in 1989 to promote literacy by encouraging parents and children to read together. She is handing over to her son Jeb, former governor of Florida, and daughter Doro Bush Koch, of Maryland, but Barbara will remain honorary chairman. It is estimated 14% of American adults (30 million) are functionally illiterate and unable to understand a basic newspaper. The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy has invested more than $40 million in family literacy programmes across the U.S.  Its offshoot, the Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family Literacy, has awarded more than $4.3 million in grants to 159 projects since 1996. The foundation raises funds at annual Celebrations of Reading in Houston and Dallas.

After a promising start, Texas Governor Rick Perry’s bid to become President of the United States appears to be faltering. His opinion poll ratings show him losing ground in the race to be chosen as Republican candidate in the November, 2012 election.

A founder member of the Houston/Grampian Association is the new treasurer of the Grampian-Houston Association. Ian Gordon, who represented the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Scottish Development Agency in Houston and is now retired in Aberdeen, has stepped into the vacancy caused by the resignation of Alex McLean as treasurer.

One of the biggest crowd pullers in the Houston calendar, the International Quilt Festival, is taking place this weekend at the George R. Brown Convention Centre.

It’s the largest quilt show, sale and quilt-making academy in the world.