On March 6, 1836:

Around 5:00 A.M. on Sunday, March 6, [Santa Anna] hurled his columns at the battered walls from four directions. Texan gunners stood by their artillery. As about 1,800 assault troops advanced into range, canister ripped through their ranks. Staggered by the concentrated cannon and rifle fire, the Mexican soldiers halted, reformed, and drove forward. Soon they were past the defensive perimeter. Travis, among the first to die, fell on the north bastion. Abandoning the walls, defenders withdrew to the dim rooms of the Long Barracks. There some of the bloodiest hand-to-hand fighting occurred. Bowie, too ravaged by illness to rise from his bed, found no pity. The chapel fell last. By dawn the Centralists had carried the works. The assault had lasted no more than ninety minutes. As many as seven defenders survived the battle, but Santa Anna ordered their summary execution. Many historians count Crockett as a member of that hapless contingent, an assertion that still provokes debate in some circles. By eight o’clock every Alamo fighting man lay dead. Currently, 189 defenders appear on the official list, but ongoing research may increase the final tally to as many as 257.

The sacrifice of Travis and his command animated the rest of Texas and kindled a righteous wrath that swept the Mexicans off the field at San Jacinto. Since 1836, Americans on battlefields over the globe have responded to the exhortation, "Remember the Alamo!"

Read more about the Alamo from the Texas Handbook Online.

The Houston City Hall bonus scandal investigation is finally starting to bear some fruit. According to KPRC-TV, Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado has “temporarily” stepped down from that capacity as the Office of Inspector General released its report on the matter.

While Alvarado will remain on City Council, the four employees from the Pro Tem office accused of receiving the improper bonuses are scheduled for hearings on their status Tuesday. The matter is also finally in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office.

The Office of Inspector General said its investigation revealed "sufficient evidence to conclude that the four employees, in fact, received incentive bonuses and/or salary increases that were not approved or obtained in accordance with existing city policy and rules." The matter has been referred to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for review.

KHOU-TV has more:

"I intend to temporarily … step aside from the office of the mayor pro tem pending the outcome of the grand jury investigation," said Alvarado at Monday’s news conference. "I did nothing improper and I’ve accepted responsibility."

Mayor White continues to stand behind the embattled, and now former, Mayor Pro Tem.

"There is no credible evidence that the mayor pro tem had any involvement in this particular scheme," said Mayor White. "My hope is that she would be able to resume responsibilities in that role," said Mayor Bill White. "I respect the fact she has taken responsibility and imposed consequences on herself. I anticipate there will be changes in taking out some responsibilities from the mayor pro tem’s office."

It is curious that the Mayor vocally stands by his Pro Tem yet he anticipates reduced responsibilities for that office in the future. Unfortunately we seem reduced to two rather unpalatable choices in the matter. Either Carol Alvarado knew what was going on with the improper bonuses, or she was blissfully ignorant of how the office was being run in her name. Neither choice inspires confidence, but the final say now appears to be in the hands of District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

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Like plans that have been floated here in Texas to tax wire transfers south of the border, Arizona and Georgia are debating similar bills. The Mexican Government is apoplectic that a huge chunk of their cash cow is about to be slaughtered. Anyone for a nice grilled steak?

Once more, the details…

WHAT

LST’S Official Election Night Results Watch Party

WHEN

Tuesday, March 7th, 2006, from 7:00 pm until ?

WHERE

The Steamboat House steakhouse off of the Sam Houston tollway at Gessner

(Near the Sam Houston Race Park, with the gigantic statue of Sam Houston in front of it)

Mapquest

We’ve even heard rumors that certain plastic inflatable animals will be making a surprise appearance…

Like a trip down memory lane…

The University of Chicago is in many respects a very strange place. I’ve discussed at length the extremes of weirdness and lack of personal hygiene that may be found here, but I don’t think I’ve appropriately addressed the bizarreness of the non-student population. There are bums, aging revolutionaries who troll the quad in search of recruits, freeze-dried hippies who beat up trucks that usurp their right-of-way, and most prominently, creepy old men who think they’re still students at the university.

The occasional mythical 60-year-old hanger-on who religiously attends undergrad lectures is probably a staple of any academic environment. He’s like an unanticipated side effect of a life of the mind, the terse afterthought at the end of the drug commercial that warns that, despite the drug’s overwhelming efficacy, in a minuscule number of cases, it caused subjects to grow genitalia of the opposite sex. And I could be ok with such freak occurrences, if there were only one a generation. But this year, I’ve already encountered at least five unnamed old men lurking in my classes.

The most prominent–and prominently annoyin–is the Snapple Man.

From nobody sasses a girl in glasses– read the whole thing.

It almost seems like as wrong as the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board so often gets it, that’s how frequently the Chronicle’s Blog-Czar Dwight Silverman gets it right.

Congrats to Ree-C Murphy of RightMom (psst– and LoneStarTimes.com too) for the recent debut of Boldy Go– a sci-fi oriented blog she’ll be hosting under the Chron.com banner.

We hope our noting this here doesn’t kill the deal or cause any problems for Ree-C or Dwight.

Government leaders often try to send subtle clues to their thinking and policies– witness President Bush publicly carrying a copy of Natan Sharansky’s "The Case for Democracy" to underline his commitment to ending tyranny across the globe.

So I wonder what Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado must be making of Mayor White announcing the completion of the OIG investigation into the "Bonusgate" scandal…. outside the Houston Holocaust Museum?

Happy Monday…

Hope your week gets off to a better start than this guy’s.