Subject: Ben Taub

• Tales from Transit: Proxima Estacion

  October 3, 2007

• Little Joe Washington Gravely Ill

  April 2, 2008

• The Year of Living Anxiously

  Are We Having Fun Yet? Or is it just the jangly buzz of advanced urban stress syndrome?

  December 29, 1994

• Downing

  American Dreams

  September 30, 1999

• No Miracle on Main Street

  A homeless woman's plight highlights the harsh realities for the disabled poor

  December 9, 1999

• Nowhere to Land

  Crisis care for the mentally ill crumbles under the weight of not enough money, too much beauracracy

  August 24, 2000

• Turn The Beat Around

  Long before DJ Screw, Darryl Scott was Houston's mixmaster, spinning records that eventually spun him into the ground. A reformed Scott has a new rap these days - the word of God.

  January 18, 2001

• A Night in the Tub

  An angel named Grace, a doctor who's a real Trip and fresh gore flooding the ER -- the new Ben Taub gets old quick

  September 6, 2001

• Best Triumph over Tragedy

  Greg Wood

  September 26, 2002

• Staying Safe

  Another approach to drug trials

  July 28, 2005

• First They Came For The Trans-Fats...

  El Paso Senator Eliot Shapleigh is worried about the country's obesity epidemic. He has seen the horrid results of unchecked waistlines - diabetes, heart disease, guest spots on Jerry Springer. So he recently authored a bill that would ban trans-fats in Texas restaurants starting in 2010. Shapleigh points out that California and New York City have passed similar measures with great results.Hair Balls is a proponent of this bill, because if there's one thing that defines "democracy," it's telling

  December 10, 2008

• First They Came for the Trans-Fats...

  El Paso Senator Eliot Shapleigh is worried about the country's obesity epidemic. He has seen the horrid results of unchecked waistlines - diabetes, heart disease, guest spots on Jerry Springer. So he recently authored a bill that would ban trans-fats in Texas restaurants starting in 2010. Shapleigh points out that California and New York City have passed similar measures with great results.We're a proponent of this bill, because if there's one thing that defines "democracy," it's telling pe

  December 11, 2008

• Letters

  December 16, 1993

• Hermann Park or Parking?

  March 24, 1994

• Gazing Ahead into 2009, Part 2

  [Note: see here for Rocks Off's previous prognostications.]   U2 (March) Best Case Scenario: Armed with the backing of Live Nation, they release their best album in over a decade and Bono shuts his face as they sell out Reliant Stadium in two minutes. Worst Case Scenario: The recession (finally) hits the touring industry hard; people stay home and listen to The Joshua Tree drinking beer in their garage.

  December 31, 2008

• Psychotic Reaction

  October 6, 1994

• Getting the Lead Out

  December 14, 1995

• Letters

  October 17, 1996

• Trauma Mama

  October 16, 1997

• Crystal Clear Persuasion

  February 11, 1999

• Protests Over The Proposed Shutting Of Ben Taub's Pediatrics Unit

  Photo by John Nova LomaxA few years ago, Carla Sageth was in high school, and she was dying. Her lungs were wasting away. Doctor after doctor at clinic after clinic diagnosed asthma and sent her on her way. She became unable to walk, and still her mom, who had no insurance, kept trying to find a doctor who could put Carla right. Finally one of them just told Carla and her mother that Carla's was a very bad case of asthma, in fact, so bad that it would kill her in a few months.That was when Carla

  March 26, 2009

• The Most Dangerous Game: Man Vs. Metro

  Photo by Mike GiglioLomax, keeping to his strict warm-up regimen for the big raceIt was to be the ultimate contest between man and machine. Hair Balls announced in earnest at this afternoon's staff meeting its plans to sample the new 402 Quickline Bellaire, which was unveiled by Metro on Friday. The so-called "signature" bus -- the first of its kind in Houston -- runs along the standard Number 2 Bellaire route during rush hour, making far fewer stops in order to travel at a heretofore unima

  June 2, 2009

• Little Joe Washington's 70th Birthday

  March 5, 2009

• Fresh Starts

  For two Houston politicos, 2003 brings big changes

  January 2, 2003

• Reality Check

  Houston is scrambling for psychiatric and emergency medical services. But hoping for better state funding is just another psychotic episode.

  July 25, 2002

• The Fantastic Foreskin

  Circumcised men are employing weights and pulleys to cover themselves back up

  July 12, 2007

• Letters

  May 12, 2005

• Souchin' into Bethlehem

  Greg Wood's latest health scare costs him a few pounds of flesh and almost takes his arm

  January 20, 2005

• On the Case

  Our new TV series is ready to roll

  September 30, 2004

• Bloodless Coup

  There'll be no waivers for patients in this experimental blood-substitute program

  March 4, 2004

• Greg Wood

  Ash Wednesday (Stag)

  October 24, 2002

• Wood Redux

  Greg Wood puts his old band and a young heart attack behind him with Ash Wednesday

  August 29, 2002

• Back To Basics

  Steven Van Zandt is dedicated to garage rock

  April 11, 2002

• Flogging Molly

  Friday, March 29

  March 28, 2002

• Paying the Price

  Hospital district officials wanted a simple one-sentence policy on immigrant health care. What they got instead was a criminal probe and plenty of politics.

  October 11, 2001

• Charity Case

  After the big split, HCC goes for the glamorous giving

  January 4, 2001

• Warded Off

  She got into a suspect nursing home. And the probate system got most of her money.

  April 20, 2000

• Downing

  Texas Lottery. Let's buy our tickets and bet on the day that Robert Arthur Pearson finally kills himself in public while we all watch

  November 25, 1999

• Letters

  June 17, 1999

• Alison Cook looks back at 1996: Year of the Rat

  December 26, 1996

• Ana's Angel

  Jay Hamburger rushed in where others feared to tread ... only to find that no good deed goes unpunished

  April 4, 1996

• Bayou Body Count: An Attempt To Steal A Car Ends Badly

  Texas and the right to defend oneself with deadly force seem to go hand-in-hand. And so it was for one man and his wife on Saturday along the 1100 block of Langwick. Houston police say a man shot and killed Darryl Milton Franklin Jr., 37, after Franklin tried to steal his car around 6:25 in the morning. Franklin was breaking into the couple's car when they noticed what was happening and rushed over, dragging Franklin out of the vehicle and telling him they were calling the cops, police say. Fran

  June 9, 2009

• Bayou Body Count: When The Current Girlfriend and Estranged Wife Fight, Nothing Good Happens

  A Harris County Constable reserve deputy has been charged with killing a man outside a bar early Friday morning at 2708 North Shepherd.According to Houston police, reserve deputy Jose Castillo, 39, was outside Buffalo Fred's Icehouse at around 2 am when he is accused of shooting Angel Erevia Jr., 31, four times, once each in the abdomen, back and both arms. During the night, Erevia's girlfriend and estranged wife began fighting at the bar. When the icehouse closed for the night, the estranged wi

  June 10, 2009

• Mack Brown vs. Iraq & John Lomax vs. a Metro bus

  June 11, 2009

• Bayou Body Count: The Handyman Goes Wild

  It was the case of a handyman gone wild. Harris County deputies began investigating the murder of Elizabeth Ann Williams, 66, after her body was discovered inside her home at 3618 Treaschwig on March 28. Williams had been stabbed and beaten. On Monday, detectives say, they finally got their man. News reports say Bruce Dennis Triplett, 50, was arrested at a motel near Mercury and I-10 and charged with Capital Murder. Photo courtesy of HCSOBruce Dennis TriplettAccording to investigators, Williams'

  June 16, 2009

• Bayou Body Count: Terrible Tragedy, In A Lexus

  Just before 4 pm Tuesday, according to Houston police, Pedro Enrique-Garcia Rosabal, 34, called his wife to say he'd just picked their two kids up from summer school and was going to kill them. Turns out Rosabal made good on his threat, shooting his 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son with a .380 semi-automatic in his Lexus before turning the gun on himself, police say. The two children were pronounced dead at the scene, in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 6110 Fairdale. Rosabal was

  June 18, 2009

• The TSU Trae Day Shootings: A Near-Eyewitness Account

  Rocks Off just got off the phone with our man Shea Serrano, reporting from the Trae Day afterparty at Galleria-area nightclub the Roxy. He found an eyewitness - or at least someone who was close enough to the action Wednesday to have the living shit scared out of him - to Wednesday evening's shootings at TSU that left several people injured and taken to various Houston-area hospitals.Serrano reports that photographer Adarrius "Swift" Joseph was standing in the parking lot of TSU Stadium, near th

  July 23, 2009

• Bayou Body Count: A Cold Case Solved

  ​After 15 long years, Houston police detectives believe they've finally found their man. Michael Deshawn Winfrey, 36, has been charged with capital murder for allegedly shooting a man who was protecting his son at a pay phone at 6603 Fuqua on April 24, 1994.Police say Jeffrey Brown, 30, was driving along with his daughter, 8, and son, 7, when he pulled into a parking lot to use a pay phone. As he was stepping out of his car, Winfrey appeared and allegedly pointed a gun at Brown's son, telling

  July 28, 2009

• The Ike Baby Boom That Wasn't

  Photo by bbaunach​Whenever a city suffers a blackout for any extended period of time, you can be sure that journalists will trot out the old story about a "baby boom" happening nine months later.It's definitely been enough time for any local Ike babies to get themselves out into the big ol' world, so -- just how big was the Ike Baby Boom in Houston?Not so big. In fact, it was pretty much a bust.Hair Balls got actual birth figures from the Hermann Hospital System (eight big hospitals for births

  July 29, 2009

• The Baby Boom That Wasn't and Allen Stanford Deserves a Break, Right?

  August 6, 2009