The Houston Chronicle reports this morning on a potential conflict of interest at the Metro transit agency, highlighting the marriage of a Metro official to an employee with the light-rail contractor Parsons Transportation Group. Metro's John Von Briesen, senior director over the light-rail transit package, is married to Sallye Perrin, a Parsons vice president and manager of project development for its rail and transit systems division, the newspaper says. The paper followed up with links to key documents in the story.

From the Chron:

In May 2009, three years after Metro hired Von Briesen as a rail program director, the California-based construction and engineering firm Parsons won a $1.4 billion contract to design, build and operate four light-rail lines for Metro. ... Von Briesen now works on issues involving the University rail line, which is at an earlier stage of development and isn't included in the Parsons contract, Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said.

The report comes as Metro responds to allegations that it improperly shredded documents, and fired its top attorney Pauline Higgins after she expressed concern about how a public information request was being handled. Texas Watchdog reported last night on accusations that Higgins' overbearing management style led to high turnover in her department.

KHOU News 11, which has led the pack in reporting on the shredding controversy, gave viewers an update earlier this week from state officials who say Metro has not followed the law that governs how long it keeps documents.

The juiciest video is toward the middle, a snippet of tape that News 11 says points to questionable document retention practices. The video features "yet another attorney recently fired from Metro, explaining a recent policy change to start regularly destroying documents," KHOU reporter Mark Greenblatt explains in the piece.

Thanks to Harvey Kronberg for "wedding/shredding" headline idea.