VicMan

And another step is to tax junk food and/or to make it ineligible for purchase using Lone Star cards

Since the City of Houston =/ HISD, I wonder what the overall population of the HISD territory was back then and is now...

It's not that the airline's don't want to spend more money on larger aircraft. It's because they want to provide more frequent flight schedules. However the Embraer 145s and 135s are becoming less and less popular as they are not very fuel efficient. Now airlines are moving towards the Embraer 170s and 190s.

In this case it was a waste of time to protest this Wal-Mart, knowing everything stated earlier in the thread. s3mh, please don't promote jousting at windmills. Please don't promote Don Quixote-ism. Knowing that Houston is not a Spring Valley, and that it is not a Helotes, and knowing that all of the evidence points to the development being 100% within the law and regulations, it would not be possible to oppose this Wal-Mart.

The main thing is that Southwest gets access to Atlanta.

Same here. It's about time that METRO puts ads on buses. From a revenue standpoint, to me it's a no brainer.

Can we please bill all of the individuals responsible so they are immediately bankrupted? No, really, we need to determine who is guilty and force them to pay up for the money that they forced us to lose. If it bankrupts them and harms prospects for them and their families, too bad. It'll also set an example for future leaders.

The shareholder approval was no surprise. Did you ask him any questions about this?

I think it would be preferable to make an "FAQ" blog post. Instead of making people go on easter egg hunts for your responses (gosh, where to start?), make it convenient for them to see your responses to frequently-asked questions, then they can work from there. So every time someone asks you about something, link to your FAQ. I understand that in these rail the same points can be made over and over again. I think an "FAQ" blog post is the best solution.

Also part of the reason why Chicago may have been chosen was to placate the United side of the equation. After the merger is completed, Houston could always offer incentives for Continental to come back. Maybe allow Continental a low rent rate at a city-owned office building by Bush Airport.

But DVDs didn't eat into the film market until the 2000s. In the 1990s there was a theater boom. Now theaters in many parts of the country are downsizing or closing.

Women have to have permission in order to leave the country. Most Muslims live in Indonesia, India, and Pakistan. The problem with Saudi is that it is using its wealth to spread its version of Islam.

Well, yes, marketing is marketing and it's not likely that a high name chef will locate in a strip center. Having said that, I've had great food in non-chain restaurants located in strip centers. Try visiting Chinatown sometime. Plus sometimes people do want KFC, Arby's, etc.

Yeah. Spring Valley is a separate city from Houston, so Spring Valley can do that.

Where have they been kept out of in Houston? I know Wal-Mart has been kept out of New York City, but that is a city with zoning and more restrictive laws. Houston has no zoning. This may still be a PR issue for Wal-Mart, but the store is going to be built. If they aren't willing to talk to Wal-Mart and ask them to build the store a certain way, they are out of luck.

He should start placing animal traps in his truck, so if some dude tries to break in, he is snared by the trap and has to be taken out by police.

How many years ago was that? Things can change, and what is once unattractive may become attractive, or vice versa.

The countries where Westerners are forced to conform are Saudi and (to an extent) Iran. In Saudi and the Maldives they do not allow open practice of other religions, but in the latter they cannot totally expect Westerners to conform to Islamic standards as the Maldives is a resort paradise country. Saudi is the only country that severely restricts Westerners/non-Muslims (except on compounds) - but Saudi is also a very large country. To a degree Iran restricts non-Muslims/Westerners. In Europe France banned the burqa, and France and Turkey limit the wearing of religious clothing in some public settings/circumstances.

Would you agree with the idea that the City of Houston has or will have the ability to submit an attractive incentive deal if it waits until the leases in the Chicago buildings run out? Houston could let Chicago have the HQ now, and then take time to assemble a good incentive package that would be offered around the time when the Chicago leases are up for renewal. I know a lot of airlines like to have their headquarters by airports, so the city of Houston could have the United HQ built on the property of Bush Intercontinental Airport. That way United would have all of its facilities (simulators, flight operations, corporate, crew hotels, etc) in one place. The United HQ could be accompanied by additional hotels, other offices, a public high school for aviation/airline industry careers, etc.

How are they contradictory? If they are contradictory, how? I don't see how they contradict. By emergency I was thinking of scenarios where a students needs to contact a parent or to contact 911. Now, there are non-emergency times when students could check messages or place phone calls without disrupting class (between classes, lunch, or times when students have no work to do in a particular class and the teacher allows phone calls). By off I mean the power is off. By off, text messages are not checked, voice mail is not checked, etc. etc. If an emergency arises, a phone can be turned on. By "emergency" I was thinking of situations where a student needs to call a parent. When a parent has an emergency on his/her end, usually the word is relayed to the student, but the matter does not need the student's assistance. In the case of an emergency happening at a school, the parents would want to know right away.

The HISD code of conduct is here: http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectEnglish/Images/PDF/Code_Eng.pdf Under its Level II offenses: "Use or operation of paging devices, including beepers, cell phones, electronic pagers, or any other type of electronic communication system on school campuses or at functions during school hours. Such devices may be used at a time and place as determined by the individual campus in coordination with the campus Shared-Decision-Making Committee (SDMC)."

1. Too slow (For an emergency situation, going through the office is unacceptably slow now - for a non-emergency, going through the office is okay) 2. Too slow, or adults in charge are incapacitated or unable to do anything. In emergency situations, seconds count, and you want people to contact authorities ASAP. The more people with cell phones, the more quickly it will happen 3. "They are Wanted... to make life easier." - There is a reason why cell phones without SIM cards can still make emergency calls 4. "If they allow phones in the classroom.. they will be used.. as this video proves." - If a teacher is unable to control a class, then a teacher will be unable to enforce a "no cell phones in the classroom" rule anyway. If a cell phone is off and in the pocket, the teacher won't see it and won't hear it. It's like it's not there. "They are not Needed." - They were a luxury in, oh 1992. It's 2010.

Cell phones are needed in case emergencies happen and parents need to contact their children (or children can use it to contact law enforcement or the fire department) - Also if a student drives an automobile to and from school he or she should have a cell phone anyway. Always having it on one's person (instead of putting it in a locker, etc) is also a good way to ensure that the cell phone is never stolen. But in the classroom they need to be turned off so that usage does not disrupt the class. So the phones can be on their persons, but the kids shouldn't actually be fiddling with them.

AFAIK Lufthansa's headquarters are in Cologne, but the operations are out of Frankfurt.

If a Downtown property management company offers United a sweet deal, that could be a possibility.