Houston's Clear Thinkers: Legal Commentary

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Legal Commentary

Houston's Clear Thinkers

Wide-ranging observations on law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to members of the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
By Tom Kirkendall

Post Frequency: 4.2/day

Last Entry: July 20, 2010 at 03:01:00

Slugging Metro?

Posted on June 04, 2008
I'd bet that a program such as this (H/T Craig Newmark) would rival (if not exceed) the ridership on Houston Metro's light rail line. Slugging is a term used to describe a unique form of commuting found in the...

So, what's the difference?

Posted on June 03, 2008
Mel Weiss was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison yesterday for making undisclosed payments to class representatives in class action lawsuits that his firm handled. As noted here about a year ago, Weiss didn't have much of a choice given...

Ron Paul, we hardly knew ye

Posted on June 02, 2008
This post from last June noted Houston-area Congressman Ron Paul's deft media touch on Comedy Central's Daily Show. Now, a year later, Jim Henley sums up the utter failure that Paul's presidential campaign became: This fellow can’t spell "candidate," but...

The price of soccer keeps going up

Posted on June 01, 2008
Based on what's going on in Washington, D.C., my prediction on the eventual public subsidy of the proposed Dynamo soccer stadium in Houston may be a tad low. With D.C.'s proposed $150 million public subsidy for about 25,000 seats,...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

I would have never guessed

Posted on May 31, 2008
That, according to this handy database, this person would have given the most commencement speeches during this current season of university graduation ceremonies. Similarly, I would not have guessed the city in the world that is home to the...

The Bear Stearns lesson

Posted on May 30, 2008
Today brought the final installment of Kate Kelly's extraordinary three-part W$J series on the fall of Bear Stearns. My goodness, was Kelly a fly on the wall over at Bear's office during all of this? Although all three installments...

The instinct against the money-makers

Posted on May 29, 2008
I swear, you can't make this stuff up. As Larry Ribstein cogently explains, Southwest Airlines has taken advantage of futures markets over the past several years to hedge its fuel costs (previous posts on Southwest's hedging program are here)....

Hope on the horizon

Posted on May 28, 2008
Following up on this post from awhile back, don't tell the folks at MIT that the prospects for mankind are gloomy. Check out this MIT News article that resulted from the institute's news office asking a collection of MIT...

Checking out Houston on the tour bus

Posted on May 27, 2008
Randal O'Toole went on a bus tours of different parts of Houston while he was in town for the Preserving the American Dream Conference a couple of weeks ago and he chronicles his impressions with observations here (neighborhoods between...

Dragged into the mud

Posted on May 26, 2008
The collateral damage of Roger Clemens' questionable approach to disputing his use of performance-enhancing drugs is already extensive. It now appears that the best player in Stros history may get pulled into the public fray. As this post from...

Flying high

Posted on May 25, 2008
Check out what Michel Fournier is doing for fun today....

Opting out with meaning

Posted on May 24, 2008
Earlier this week, the owners of the National Football League elected to opt out of the final two years of the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement with its Players Association. The Mile High Report and Stacey Brook do good jobs...

Reflecting on the raid

Posted on May 23, 2008
The Third Court of Appeals' decision yesterday ruling that the State of Texas had illegally seized over 450 children from their homes at a polygamist West Texas ranch threw a large monkey wrench into the largest custody case in...

Houston's solid housing market

Posted on May 22, 2008
One of the under-appreciated benefits of living in the Houston metropolitan area is its varied and reasonably priced housing market, which is the subject of this Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report. The report notes that Houston's housing market...

Overrated

Posted on May 21, 2008
While this Golf.com article surveys the most overrated professional golfers, this Dave Berri post analyzes the most overpaid NBA players. Guess who made the latter list?...

And you thought the Mitchell Report was ugly?

Posted on May 20, 2008
So, the controversy over the Mitchell Commission Report has pretty much died down, right? Well, it looks as if another potential public relations nightmare is brewing for Major League Baseball: Tucked away inside the United States attorney’s office in...

The cost of Spitzerism

Posted on May 19, 2008
On Friday, February 11, 2005, shares of American International Group closed at $73.12 per share. Last Friday, after Eliot Spitzer and the meltdown in the subprime mortgage markets, AIG's shares closed at $39.34 per share. James Freeman of the Wall...

Nice comeback

Posted on May 18, 2008
Legendary defense lawyer Gerry Spence is defending Geoffrey Fieger on campaign finance charges in Detroit. Former Spence student Norm Pattis flew into the Motor City and took in a day of the trial last week. He passes along the...

Look at what Mary Flood has been reading

Posted on May 17, 2008
Chronicle legal reporter Mary Flood covered many of the Enron-related criminal trials, so it was only natural for her to pick up a copy of former Enron Task Force prosecutor, law professor and current Oregon attorney general candidate John...

Friday Musings

Posted on May 16, 2008
So, did you know that Taxi Driver is the greatest wealth-creating movie of all-time? Speaking of movies, actor Mickey Rourke has been down on his luck for the past several years, but he sure had a good run of...

Houston's best 19th hole

Posted on May 15, 2008
Although Jack Burke's venerable Champions Cypress Creek Golf Course may arguably be a bit overrated, this Ron Kapriske/Golf Digest article rates the Champions Men's Locker Room Bar as one of the 50 best 19th holes in the country: Sit...

The Chron's continuing soccer stadium drumbeat

Posted on May 14, 2008
In this post from last week on the proposed downtown soccer stadium, I observed that the Chronicle should simply declare that it supports the public financing of the stadium and quit attempting to rationalize that such financing makes economic...

Ignoring the noise from next door

Posted on May 13, 2008
The problems that the obsolescent U.S. drug prohibition policy exacerbate along the Texas-Mexico border are a frequent topic on this blog, so this Mary Anastasia O'Grady/W$J article on the latest developments in the drug war just south of the...

The Players trumps the Masters

Posted on May 12, 2008
Well, he didn't do it with a belly putter, but Sergio Garcia fulfilled my prediction after last year's British Open that it was just a matter of time before he won a big-time tournament. On Sunday afternoon, the 28...

Nixonland

Posted on May 11, 2008
George Will gives Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland (Scribner 2008), a history lesson....

Worth a watch

Posted on May 10, 2008
For those of you interested in the vexing issues involved in application of the death penalty and child predator laws, the scene below from Boston Legal is worth ten minutes of your time (H/T David Feige). I don't agree with...

Suspending reality on financing the soccer stadium

Posted on May 09, 2008
Look, I realize that the reasoning for public financing for the proposed Houston Dynamo soccer stadium not been particularly rational. But this Chronicle article takes the cake in terms of suspending reality. Reporters Bernando Fallas and Bill Murphy breathlessly...

My favorite tournament

Posted on May 08, 2008
It's not one of the four majors (despite the PGA Tour's constant drumbeat to make it the fifth), but The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach just south of Jacksonville, Florida is my favorite golf tournament...

Stros 2008 Season Review, Part One

Posted on May 07, 2008
Despite a weekend sweep of the division-rival Brewers (16-16) and another stirring comeback victory over the Nationals (14-19), the Stros' record (17-16) reflects their performance through the first fifth of the 2008 season -- an average National League ballclub...

The subprime mortgage criminal lottery

Posted on May 06, 2008
Well, well, well. Look who is resurfacing in connection with the creation of the Justice Department's latest criminal Task Force to investigate whether crimes were committed when the subprime-mortgage market collapsed (just what we need -- another corporate crime...

Previous | Next