Brazoria County

Brazoria County Pays $850K To Settle Judge Sex-Harassment Suit; Some NSFW Highlights Of The Many, Many Porn Sites He Visited On County Computers

The horny ways of a Brazoria County judge keep coming back to bite that governmental entity in the ass. James Blackstock, the chairman of the county's juvenile probation board, has long been the subject of rumors -- and eventually court cases -- about his sexual-predator ways. Now the county has a ... More >>

Michael Palmer, West Columbia Police Chief, Accused Of Stealing Drugs From Ongoing Cases

After being accused of swiping pills from his department's ongoing investigations, West Columbia Police Chief Michael Palmer has been jailed for drug possession and tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony. The chief, currently suspended, was arrested Thursday and placed in Brazoria County Jai ... More >>

Judge Jim #@&*@ Sharp: Rate His Cursing As He Tries To Spring Friend's Daughter From Jail

Justice Jim Sharp of the 1st Court of Appeals is a guy who doesn't mince words, it's safe to say. He's dealing with the fallout of all that, as the State Commission on Judicial Conduct has hit him with a public reprimand for his actions in connection with a January arrest of a friend's daughter in ... More >>

Houston 101: The Battle of Jones Creek, 188 Years Ago Today

There aren't that many Indian battles in Houston's history, but on this date in 1824, a vicious little skirmish took place pitting Karankawas against Stephen F. Austin's settlers in Brazoria County. The trouble started on June 21 just west of what is now Angleton at a country store owned by a braw ... More >>

James Blackstock: Former Judge Hit with $3.2 Million Verdict for Sexual Harassment

A little bit of civil justice for a judge.​We've written before about James Blackstock, the former big-deal Brazoria County court-at-law judge who liked to fondle his employees' breasts when he wasn't sending porno via e-mail and text. He's been off the bench since 2008, when he pleaded guilt ... More >>

Our List of Weird Criminal Names, Part Three: The Recent Alvin Walmart Vigilante Case Was Full of Them

Not this Lawless, but also a fighter.​News of the Walmart Wahoo Vigilante rang out far and wide over the Houston area the other day, but in case you missed it, here's the story in a nutshell: Three brothers walked out of an Alvin Walmart with three cases of beer they allegedly neglected to pay ... More >>

William McRaven, UT Journalism Grad, SEAL Boss: Five Stories He Might Have Written As a Cub Reporter

How many units responded to the fire, McRaven?​As we noted yesterday, Admiral William McRaven, the head of Special Ops who commanded the raid that got Osama bin Laden, is a University of Texas grad with a degree in journalism. Like many cub reporters, he decided his journalism skills would be ... More >>

Rachelle Renee Price LOVES Getting Her Jail Mugshot Taken

Brazoria County SO​You thought Tom DeLay was smiling in his police mugshot? He was an abject depressive compared to Rachelle Renee Price. Price was picked up in Pearland Sunday for trying to pass some forged checks at a grocery store, KPRC reports, and she was taken to the Brazoria County Jai ... More >>

8-Liner Crackdown Brings Grief to the Mathematically Impaired

Nancy Donalson: One of the alleged ringleaders​Houston cops have arrested five people after a lengthy undercover operation found they were running a lucrative 8-liner operation in several area locations. Police say they seized "$1.5 million dollars in currency, nearly $200,000 in bank account ... More >>

Life in Prison With No Parole for Man Who Impregnated His 11-Year-Old Stepdaughter

Home for the rest of this sex offender's life​A sentence has come down in the case of a Brazoria County man who impregnated his 11-year-old stepdaughter, and it's a steep one: Life in prison with no chance of parole. KTRK, which broke the story and has been following it, says a judge handed d ... More >>

Dead Center

Bad things keep happening to people in Shawn Roberts's orbit.

Ron Paul for Senate: New Poll Says Texans Demand It

Ron Paul: Let the campaign begin!​As America faces the challenges of the 21st century, it is safe to say it needs as many Pauls in the Senate as possible. And we're not talking first names, either. Texas, it seems, agrees. A new poll from PPP shows Texans are demanding that Kay Bailey Hutchi ... More >>

Top 5 Uses for Leftover Halloween Candy

blog.beliefnet.comIt's November 1 and you're knee deep in Halloween candy. Now what? ​You bought a ton of candy but forgot to turn on the porch light. Sugar transforms your sweet, little angel into the Anti-Christ. You're on a diet. Although it's difficult to imagine, we realize that not every ... More >>

Janet Cox Worked For A Judge, Until She Supported His Electoral Opponent

Campaigning against your boss?​Most people who don't like their boss are able to keep it to themselves, silently wishing plagues upon him or her, or maybe venting to a trusted co-worker. But Janet Cox says she was fired from her job as a Brazoria County court coordinator when she supported the opp ... More >>

Texans-Cowboys Isn't Until Sunday, Spend Your Saturday Morning Cleaning The Beaches

Do it for the crabs.​Tomorrow morning, rain or shine, thousands of Texans across the 367 miles of state coastline will take to the sand, gloves on and plastic bags in hand. Call it a goodbye and thank you to summer, and hello fall.Groups will be gathering at 28 sites at 9 a.m. for the annual Adopt ... More >>

Genius: To Prove He Doesn't Have An Alligator Skull, Dude Shows Lawmen His Dope Crop

"Officer, check my dope crop to make sure I don't have an alligator skull!!!"​An Angleton dude was selling alligator meat illegally online, which triggered a sting by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department authorities.As they negotiated the sale, the guy mentioned he also had an alligator skull he ... More >>

Confessed Killer Nicholas-Michael Edwin Jean: Using A Cops Episode To Avoid The Death Penalty

Photo courtesy HCSODon't bame me, I was once on Cops​Nicholas-Michael Edwin Jean has confessed to killing a woman in a carjacking (and to having a whole lot of first names); he's currently in the process of trying to get a life sentence instead of the death penalty.Part of his plea to the jury: I ... More >>

Right-Wing Porn

Blogger disseminates filth.

Carrie Kelly Might Not Be One Of The Rare Female Child-Porn Dealers, But Her Mugshot Ain't Helping Her Case

Brazoria County SOCarrie Kelly, accused child-porn fan, rocking the tats​It's not everyday you get word of a woman being nabbed on child-porn charges, especially a woman allegedly working on her own and not with a sicko husband or boyfriend.But in the small Brazoria County town of Richwood, police ... More >>

Undercover Narc Nails Big Bust At Rural High School

​West Columbia is about 45 miles southwest of here; don't feel too bad if you haven't heard of it. The Brazoria County town has about 4,300 residents, 16 of whom are facing drug charges after an undercover operation in the local high school.A school-district cop went undercover at the school in Ja ... More >>

Be Careful Handling The Books In The Clute Library

​They're pissing on the library books in Clute.KTRK reports that vandals have been hitting the library recently, and residents are scratching their heads about it all."It just shows you where we are in the world today," one patron said.The station offered no information on exactly which books were ... More >>

A Lottery Winner And A County Judge Candidate Equals A Reprimand

Oopsie, Peggy Sue, you've got some 'splaining to do. Brazoria County judge wannabe Peggy Sue Bittick, a family court attorney in Pearland, violated a Texas State Bar rule when she failed to return more than $7,000 to a client who had paid her in advance to represent him in a child custody case. Th ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Angleton's Mysterious House of the Century

It all started with an obsession. And a blog post. The House of the Century was built in 1972 by the Ant Farm Art Collective, a group that included architects Richard Jost, a then-recent graduate of the University of Houston, and Doug Michels, founder of the collective and professor at UofH. (Ant ... More >>

Ron Paul, Bravely Standing Up Against The Iranian Revolutionaries

Photo by fixermarkCongress, which has nothing better to do than pass non-binding, feel-good resolutionsthat will have no effect, did just that today with a vote on a bill "Expressing support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of ... More >>

Ron Paul, Crusading Against All Pork But His

Photo courtesy Ron PaulOf all the Republicans in the US House of Representatives, who do you think has the most earmarks in the omnibus spending bill? Some RINO from up north?Nah. It's our own Ron Paul, stalwart criticizer of government spending (that's not in his district.)Fox News is touting the s ... More >>

Pearland Gets The State's Newest Superfund Site! Take That, Pasadena!

There's an ugly mess of chemicals in the groundwater on the south side of Pearland. The contamination is severe enough that the abandoned tank farm has become the latest addition to the state's Superfund Registry.This is no surprise to nearby residents, some of whom are being given bottled water ... More >>

Oldies, And Not Goodies, On The Pollution Front

The wheels of environmental justice move ever so slowly. To call it a snail's pace would be an insult to mollusks everywhere. But it is what is, as we say in the parlance of our times, so now we have the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assessing penalties against two local polluters for ... More >>

Never Been To A Gun Raffle? Head To Manvel

Judge (No, Not That One) Pleads Guilty To Sexual Assault

Ornery, Possibly Horny Brazoria Judge in Trouble

The New Ron Paul Autobiography -- Whether You Want It Or Not

Cold Case

Woman found dead 17 years ago in Manvel remains unidentified

Houston Astros, Netflix, Congressman Ron Paul

It could be a year of despair for Astros fans

Reliantly Unhelpful

The abyss of customer service gets deeper

Ugly and Slow

A booster has been messing up downtown for years

Gator Aid

Thanks to the Endangered Species Act, alligators are everywhere in southeast Texas. So now the state is going to make it easier for you to shoot you one.

Six Feet Blunder

Bring out your dead -- and wait

A Hard-on for Numbers

The Chron tries to stay, uh, abreast of circulation counts

Letters

Letters

Fostering Abuse

Did something go very wrong at Gloria and Kenny Rogers’s group home in Brazoria County? Or are they and their kids victims of a power-hungry CPS?

Not Worth A Dam

Clear Creek is on the rise, and local flood-protection methods have been helpless against it. Soggy residents, tired of being perpetual victims, are ready for a fight.

Up a Creek

Diverting streams into the Brazos and Posh Amenity lakes has been great for fancy Fort Bend developments. But it's killing Oyster Creek, the lifeblood for legendary Texas cattle ranchers.

Raw Roots

Excavations for plantation artifacts - and the real truth - are unraveling the genteel gloss covering Texans' old notions about the slave era here

A Yenne for Your Thoughts

Brazoria's D.A. raises privacy issues over DPS emissions tests

Farm to Market

Kody Ellis shows pigs. What have pigs shown him?

The Special Needs of Frank Gonzales Jr.

The Texas parole board let him out to die; instead, he got involved in a killing.

Changing the Channel

For years, homeowners, developers, environmentalists and the federal government have wrangled over a flood-control plan for Clear Creek. Now a compromise is in view -- but the creek's future is murkier than ever.

Among Friends

Buster Brown's financial disclosure includes an interesting omission -- and addition

Making a Killing

Double dipping, understaffing plague the M.E.'s office