One late pinch-hitting assignment for Kuff here as regains his strength. Greg Wythe here, reporting from the greater Sharpstown-Gulfton community.

I've got a few more pointed thoughts penned over at my own blog, but it strikes me that this bit of news is worth echoing, even if to just stand on it's own:

That's from the local ABC affiliate. On my own site, I note how odd it seems that this station reports the good news, while the local CBS affiliate seems to only run with the bad news.

But it's also worth noting that when the bad news comes out, the cameras head straight to the Mayor or the police chief. The good news, though? It's time to go straight to Shawnna for that!

As anyone who's paid attention to Houston crime fairly and accurately will note, we're pushing a good solid year of crime going down if you look at 12-month periods. While the entire 2006 report was by no means favorable, it was also noted that stats improved dramatically over the last quarter of the year. Given this first-half comparison in 2007, and you've got a far different picture than has been painted by partisans trying to break the 10% threshold against a mayor they can't find a way to get out of office.