$100 Million deficit. Houston Police may be asked to take a furlough?

Police to be furloughed? No, but according to Isiah Carey, Fox 26 Houston, it may happen, key word "may". The City of Houston will be facing a steep deficit for the year 2010, that at least seems to be true. From Isiah's blog (that is a perfect example of a poorly designed blog):

Sources have said and we've confirmed through the City Controller's office - Houston faces a $103 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year of 2010. Janice Evans with the Controllers office tells the Insite Annise Parker will announce the big hole this Tuesday and Wednesday to council members.

Unfortunately what was not confirmed and clearly speculation on Isiah's part was the furlough of city workers. Which leads to the question: What the Fox? Also not confirmed is putting our police force on a month long furlough. Or how about our fire fighters? How about trash pickup? If you are going to speculate, then speculate with gusto for the maximum effect. Furloughing the police for a month is much more effective journalism than furloughing city workers.

Local Fox TV has not been this sloppy in the past but this is just bad reporting. It doesn't compare to the lack of journalism leading to the war in Iraq, but it is based upon the same foundation of not doing your homework like you are supposed to do.

In the past (prior to the war) the media was our source of debunking myths, exaggerations, or just plain lying out your teeth, but that has changed. Local Fox has been relatively good compared to the national FoxTV which not only does not debunk bad information, it perpetuates false information, myths, and just plain lies. I hope the local Fox station doesn't become like their parent organization because their parents are on crack. And about the furloughs:

"Parker believes all options need to be considered (to balance the budget) but ultimately this is a decision that will be left up to the Mayor and City Council."

Now, that is much better.