|
|
Enron Mail |
HoustonChronicle.com News
Mar. 4, 2002 Volume 7.09 In this Issue: Letter from the Editor :::::: Plus: *Report Card *What's New at HoustonChronicle.com *How to Send Us Community Notices *How to Contact Us :::::: Letter from the Editor: As mentioned once or twice previously, seasons come and go, but the political season appears never-ending. In Texas, for newcomers to the state, we don't have to wait for a 12-hour window on Election Day in order to vote. In Texas, we get to vote pretty much whenever and wherever we would like in our county of residence for a couple of weeks before Election Day in addition to mail balloting. Right now, we are in the middle of the Early Voting window prior to the March 12 party primary elections. On March 12, you will have to go to a specific polling place (for your designated precinct) in person between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. in order to cast a vote. But you can drop by any of the Early Voting locations in the county any day this week, identify yourself and vote to select candidates for the party of your choice. Winners in these party elections will qualify for the ballot for the General Election in November, when we get to go through the voting process all over again. We consider the election process a vitally important part of our American way of life; so we encourage everyone who can to participate, and we try to make it as easy as possible to cast an informed vote. Our Politics & Elections page is updated regularly. Columnist John Williams tries to explain what's going on in a weekly column, and we maintain a collection of these columns on the Web site. We have an explanation of the E-Slate voting machines that are being used in Harris County for Early Voting and will be used for all voting in November. And links to the Copunty Clerk's Office for all of the Early Voting locations and more. For the past few week's the Chronicle's Editorial Board has been meeting with all of the candidates and offering recommendations in major contests for both political parties. Certainly, you are not required to agree with or follow these carefully considered recommendations, but the folks making them have worked diligently to produce them and would like for you to at least consider them. We have all of their decisions collected on a single Recommendations page. The Chronicle always produces a Voters Guide to help readers wend their way through the political mazes -- normally the weekend in the middle of Early Voting. It was in the Sunday paper, but it's online, too, on the Politics & Elections page. Includes information on all of the local candidates in both primaries and their campaign positions, as well as maps and sample ballots. It's a valuable resource as you try to decide which candidate should have your vote. We will adding links to Election Day voting locations when Early Voting ends for those of you who want to wait until the designated Election Day to go to the polls in the traditional manner. Thanks for visiting, and please don't fail to cast an informed vote however and whenever you choose to do it. Mike Read Editor HoustonChronicle.com News mike@chron.com ::::: **Report Card How good are the schools in your neighborhood? Each year the Texas Education Agency reviews and rates all of the individual public schools in the state. And each year the Chronicle collects all of these ratings and other information and publishes a "report card" of grades for every public school in every school district in Harris and all of the surrounding counties. Grades for individual schools are based on a number of statistical measures, including student performance on standardized tests. But also including dropout rates and other factors. The reason we mention this is that this was the weekend that we published this section. Whether you have children in the public school system or not, we all have a vested interest in the quality of education being provided by these schools -- in the aggregate and individually. We have the new grading reports on the Web site, but we also provide you with access to reports from previous years so you can follow the rise and fall of any specific school. Or see how the demographics of the neighborhood have changed over the years. See how the schools grade at: http://www.HoustonChronicle.com/reportcard ::::: *What's New at HoustonChronicle.com **Hubble Tuneup Mission We don't have the launch facilities, but Houston still is home to the astronauts who train here and go to work in orbit. Home, too, to the manned space program that is managed and controlled from the Johnson Space Center. So we do our best to make sure that our Space coverage is the best news source for information about each and every mission. Both articles and video reports. At the moment, the Space Shuttle Columbia is in orbit in the middle of a mission to tweak the Hubble Space Telescope. It's officially Mission STS-109, and it appears to be headed to another successful conclusion although it has not been completely free of problems. Follow the progress of the work in space at: http://www.HoustonChronicle.com/space ::::: **Archives Access for Non-Subscribers For a couple of year now, the online archives of the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post have been open to Houston Chronicle subscribers. Those of the Post are offline for some review right now. And HoustonChronicle.com has partnered with Qpass to provide an easy and safe way for non-subscribers to purchase access to archival material online. Three kinds of passes allow non-subscribers to search the archives. One is for 30 days, another for seven days, and a third lasts for 24 hours. To buy a pass and start a search, simply go to http://www.HoustonChronicle.com/archives That site also includes answers to any questions you might have about this new service. Please note that the Houston Chronicle archives includes only text of news articles appearing in the Chronicle starting in 1985. It does not include photographs, classified ads or paid death notices. As part of the SubscribersADVANTAGE program, the archives remain free to Houston Chronicle subscribers. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: *How to Send Community Notices to HoustonChronicle.com If you or your organization has a public service announcement or news about volunteer positions that you need filled, please send them via email to mailto:gwen.lewis@chron.com HoustonChronicle.com reserves the right to edit any notices. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: *How To Cancel Your Subscription to the Newsletter HoustonChronicle.com News is never sent unsolicited, but if you desire at any time to stop receiving the newsletter, please go to your mailing list management page: http://www.chron.com/mail/control.hts/97197771 or to be removed immediately go directly to: http://www.chron.com/mail/unsub.hts/8/97197771 If you don't have access to a web browser, you can send any email message to U-A8.10.97197771@chron-news.com and you will be automatically removed from the newsletter list. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: How to contact us: The HoustonChronicle.com World Wide Web site is located at http://www.HoustonChronicle.com/ The HoustonChronicle.com e-mailaddress is mailto:hci@chron.com The office phone number is (713) 220-2700. We are located at 801 Texas Ave., Houston, Texas 77002. Comments to the HoustonChronicle.com News editor may be directed to mailto:mike.read@chron.com or technical issues to the list manager at mailto:mike.read@chron.com *************************************************************
|