HoustonChronicle.com News
Mar. 4, 2002
Volume 7.09

In this Issue:

Letter from the Editor

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Plus:

*Report Card
*What's New at HoustonChronicle.com
*How to Send Us Community Notices
*How to Contact Us

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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

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**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

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*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
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**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.

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*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. 

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*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

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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
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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

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