Not behaving ethically

In case you haven't heard, yet, the City of San Antonio's deputy manager sat on a selection committee for a very big contract while at the same time applying for a job at a place where one of the head honchos also runs a company that was bidding on said big contract. He got the job, and the relevant company got the contract.

And now he seems baffled that some people don't find the smell quite right.

Deputy City Manager Pat DiGiovanni said late Tuesday that he made a regrettable, embarrassing mistake by not recusing himself from a committee charged with selecting a construction company for a $300 million Convention Center expansion project because of a potential conflict of interest.

DiGiovanni, 54, said he is drafting a letter to the city's Ethics Review Board that he expects to file this week to determine whether he violated the city's policies.

He served on a bid review committee while negotiating a new job with a nonprofit whose vice chairman has a financial stake in the Convention Center project, the San Antonio Express-News reported last week.

...

DiGiovanni accepted a job as CEO of the Centro Partnership, a nonprofit created to encourage downtown development, the day before he sat on a panel hearing presentations from four companies vying for the Convention Center project. The panel ultimately recommended the project go to a joint venture of Phoenix, Ariz.-based Hunt Construction Group and San Antonio-based Zachry Corp.

(from the Express-News)

Guess who's vice chairman of the Centro Partnership: David Zachry.

Seeking out HIV

If you see this van cruising your neighborhood ----

---- then you know you're in an at-risk area.

Oh, wait. Never mind. They're just calling out the neighborhoods anyway.

"Now we can reach out into the deep east side, south side and the west side, where there's a lot of barriers to getting to health clinics or to getting testing," explained SAAF Director David Ewell.

(from KENS-5)

What, do they have music playing, like ice cream trucks, to let the neighbors know they're in the area? Do they park and just hawk their services, like food trucks? Seriously, how do they get the people who need testing over to the truck to take the test? I would think most people passing by would have a reaction similar to this guy in the video at the news story link:

I probably would not use it, but I think it's an excellent social resource.

And I think most people who are thinking about getting a test to see if they are HIV positive would rather do so in a more discreet location, so they are probably likely to shun this resource as well, as excellent as it may be. Perhaps it will be useful and helpful in the long run, but I kind of doubt it.

I do like the way they Hispanicized the whole thing by throwing in a gratuitous "¡Ay!" in the thought balloon. Maybe the California outfit that donated it thought us San Antonians would appreciate that little bit.

Thanks, Cali.

Beer!

It's only Bud Light, but it's still a shame.

The wreck happened just before 10:30 a.m. on the ramp from 35 South to I-10 West.

Police say the beer truck driver lost control on the curve and crashed into a retaining wall.

His truck trailer flipped and beer poured out onto the roadway.

(from KSAT-12)

Snake!

Don't play with the rattlers!

Officials at a northeast-side school say students will be allowed to play at recess after a student was bitten by a rattlesnake at the playground after school on Wednesday.

Aubrey Chancellor, spokeswoman for the North East Independent School District, said the 8-year-old boy was bitten near the back of the playground at Longs Creek Elementary.

The boy was rushed to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.

(from KENS-5)

The school caught the snake and released it somewhere "far away from the school". That's too bad. They should have killed it and given the skin to the boy, so he can always remember. And so he can show his grandchildren the snake that wasn't snake enough to take him out, even as a kid.

Someone who should have thought a little more

About his choice of shirt, that is.

 The 29-year-old suspect, who wasn't immediately identified by police, told reporters he knew the trailer belonged to a local Boy Scout Troop as he was being led out of the N[or]th Side substation where he was questioned be detectives.

The suspect said he needed the money and said he was sorry for stealing from the Scouts.

(from KSAT-12)

Seriously, if you are thinking about beginning a career as a petty criminal you might want to start investing in plain clothing. And you might want to start wearing said clothing all the time. You know, just in case.

It's hard to be sexy and you know it when you're wearing PD jewelry.

Losing the focus on fitness

When does San Antonio's newest fitness craze (closing down a street to emphasize non-motorized modes of transportation) stop being such a fitness craze and starts becoming just another excuse to party?

When people start wining.

The city’s third Síclovía, a free event during which residents can walk, run, cycle and play on a 5-mile stretch of Broadway closed to traffic, will be joined by Feastivàl, a wine and food event, on Oct. 7.

...

Feastivàl, part of the Culinaria wine and cooking festival, will take over the Pearl Brewery complex with wine tastings and cooking demonstrations of healthy recipes from noon to 3 p.m.

(from the Express-News)

I wonder if the clientele mixes well.

Car crashes into house

This one did not end well at all.

Two people are dead and a home destroyed after a speeding car crashed into a house sparking a two alarm fire.

Firefighters say the driver of that car and a person who lived in the home were killed.

The fire started just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday when the car veered off the street and slammed into the house in the 4200 block of Timberhill.

(from KSAT-12)

Car crashes into house

And tries to disguise its attack as bad weather.

A van plowed into a home in the 3600 block of Crossette Drive near Babcock and Hillcrest Tuesday night. The driver then fled the scene, San Antonio police said.
Damages were estimated at $6,000, according to San Antonio police.

The homeowner was inside when the van came crashing into his sitting room and garage at about 10 p.m.

"Well, I thought it was thunder," Carlos Mata, the homeowner said. "It was big thunder. I thought (a) tree fell down."

(from KSAT-12)

Not thunder.

Car crashes into house

And tries to throw investigators off its scent by taking out a fellow automobile

A car smashed into a house on the northeast side sending three people to the hospital.

It happened just before 1:30 Saturday afternoon at Somerset and Sunrise.

According to emergency responders the car ran right through the stop sign at the intersection, hit another car and slammed into a house.

(from WOAI-TV)

Bonus strangeness: Just now, when I went to type "WOAI", I caught myself starting to type "KMOL" instead. How weird is that? It's been a while since that station used those call letters. Is that some kind of subconscious long-term memory thing? Or am I just some old geezer remembering the old days?

I am genuinely curious.

Bringing in more basketball

Is this really necessary?

Just had an interesting conversation with Steven Haney, CEO of the new American Basketball League that will begin play in January with a franchise in San Antonio ... .

Haney said the ABL’s overarching purpose is to develop players for competition in various leagues around Europe. The majority will be homegrown American players, but Haney said the ABL has gotten “tremendous” feedback about possibly serving as a farm system for young foreign players who aren’t getting time at home, similar to the loan system in professional soccer.

(from Spurs Nation)

Don't we already have a team?

Confusing the twins

Ha-ha, KSAT! Don't forget anybody's name, or anything!

Mayor Julian Castro is admittedly a little nervous about speaking at next week's Democratic National Convention.

...

"I'm going to talk about my family story. The context of creating opportunity in America. How our nation has been the land of opportunity, and what we need to do in the future to ensure that that path to opportunity is sustained," Mayor Castro said.

Saturday morning Mayor Castro, with his wife Erica, daughter, and brother Julian by his side, said goodbye to a room of hundreds of supporters.

(from KSAT-12)

Poor Joaquin. Julian seems destined forever to steal his thunder. But he shouldn't worry. Around here in the Alamo City, we all know he and his twin brother would never do anything that would lead us to confuse the two.