Economic Issues

Houston, You're Damn Mellow When It Comes To Finances (Really?)

A new study claims Houston is one of the best cities in the country when it comes to not getting too stressed about personal finances. This "Houston" that CardHub.com is talking about is apparently the one right here in Texas -- the one where we don't know too many people who aren't "stressed about ... More >>

The Sit-In Worked! UH President Commits $1 Million to Helping English Teaching Fellows Out of Poverty

After nearly a week of early mornings, late nights, and a few choice Facebook posts, it seems the University of Houston's English Teaching Fellows' sit-in has finally ended. A meeting with President Renu Khator, and a subsequent statement from her office, detailed the measures the university is will ... More >>

Texas Cattle Ranchers Face a Trifecta of Worrying Issues, Which Means Higher Beef Prices in 2013

This year will mark the 136th time the Cattle Raisers Convention has met, but it's in a climate that these cattlemen haven't battled for a long time. More than 2,500 ranchers and landowners are convening in Fort Worth this March to discuss a trifecta of issues that won't easily be solved. Ranchers ... More >>

HISD Doesn't Win Broad Prize, But Being a Runner-Up Means $150K in Senior Scholarships

Bad News/Good News: Houston ISD didn't win the prestigious Broad Prize this year honoring the country's top urban public school districts. But just by being one of the finalists, it receives $150,000 in scholarships that it can hand out to its graduating seniors. The fifth time (as a finalist) was ... More >>

Paul Dorrell: Living the Artist's Life

EarthQuest's Don Holbrook Sued by Ohio City for Alleged Fraud

Don Holbrook, one of the masterminds behind the perpetually stalled New Caney clusterfuck known as EarthQuest, has been sued by the city of Huber Heights, Ohio, for allegedly performing a substandard economic analysis for the city. The city, located just northeast of Dayton, entered into a $66,000 ... More >>

Kyle Field: Aggies Consider Tearing It Down

Here's a thing we never expected to hear from Texas A&M, which usually guards tradition like it's the essence of life: They're looking at tearing down Kyle Field. We're not saying Kyle Field shouldn't be replaced -- it's been added onto haphazardly enough to be a strange facility, and there is no d ... More >>

Miracle Faker

Rick Perry is right: America can learn from Texas. He's just wrong about what the lesson is.

The Bank of America Five Dollar Fee Firestorm Reminds Us Timing is Everything

As old as paying bills with checks​Last week, Bank of America announced it would begin charging $5 monthly fees to any customer who wanted to use a debit card at retail establishments, setting off a wave of angry online protests by customers and people already infuriated by government bailouts ... More >>

Texas: Immigration Detention Capital of the Country

In Texas, illegal immigration is often extremely lucrative.​Texas is number one again today. To our trophy case of great honors, we add Most Beholden To Private Corporations, When It Comes To Illegal Immigration. The Detention Watch Network recently released aggregated data about the big busi ... More >>

Houston: Better than Los Angeles, Berlin and Tokyo (and All but Ten Cities in the World)

The only Texas city to make the list.​Hey now, it's another one of those sprawling studies ranking the best cities in the world. This time around, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Partnership for New York City have ranked the world's urban agglomerations according to their importance and power ... More >>

That SafeClear Tow Will Now Set You Back $50

Got $50?​Mayor Annise Parker announced a new wrinkle to the city's SafeClear program this morning -- that forced towing of your stalled car from the highway, the one you can't refuse? It'll now cost fifty bucks. Roadside assistance, such as fixing a flat, will be $30. Parker said the city wi ... More >>

What the Hell Is a Churkey?

bbc.comMy, those little turkens sure do look delicious!​What has the body of a chicken, the head of a turkey, and is bred for its skills in magic? Okay, so that last one's a rip on Napoleon Dynamite, but there really is such a beast, originating in the far corners of Eastern Europe. Recently ... More >>

Prison Pays

Despite a history of abuse and bad conditions, private prison corporation GEO keeps getting contracts from the state.

The Heights-Area Walmart's 380 Agreement: Council Voted On A Draft Version?

The Heights Walmart deal worked despite missing documents from the developer. That's sure to drive some people crazy​Hair Balls obtained new e-mails this week that reveal an interesting detail about the controversial 380 agreement between the city and developer Michael Ainbinder: The application, ... More >>

The Ten Bleakest Songs In Country Music History

decodedstuff.com​Country music isn't all high-tech rednecks and honky tonk badonkadonks. Country artists have a tendency to, every now and then, sing about some dark, disturbing stuff. Sometimes scary, sometimes violent, and sometimes just weird, here are some country songs that rival the blac ... More >>

City's Housing Department Axes 29 Jobs

Got to live within its means​The city's Department of Housing and Community Development has cut 29 jobs due to budget strains and will begin a restructuring "that will restore financial integrity, improve performance and facilitate expansion of the mission to include a new focus on community devel ... More >>

Peanut Butter Miracles

Amid the chaos that is Haiti, Dr. Patricia Wolff has made ending child malnutrition her life's work.

Annise Parker Appoints Committee To Study Continental Merger; Problem Solved

Some mellow mood music for the panel​Continental Airline's decision to merge with United and base itself out of Chicago wasn't very good news.But fret not: A committee has been appointed to study the situation.Mayor Annise Parker has announced the economic impact of the merger will be examined by ... More >>

Head Start Enrolling Kids Too Rich To Qualify, Including In Texas, GAO Reports

Get a Head Start, even if you're keeping a poor kid out​The problem with the Head Start program is that it's always been an exclusive, good-ole-boy club where only poor and disenfranchised kids can matriculate. The doors are flung wide open to ragamuffins, only to be slammed shut in the faces of e ... More >>

The Pot That Juan Built

Don't worry about it - Target's picking up the tab for your tickets

Here's One Vote Against A New Dynamo Stadium

​So the Houston Dynamo are upset that Harris County hasn't yet given them money for their planned pleasure palace. Well cry me a river.I'm not sure if the Dynamo have noticed, but there's a rather severe recession going on in the country right now. And though the Dynamo are only asking for ten ... More >>

Yes, Anastasia, You Too Can Cyber Land a Job in a Recession

​Pardon us, but we're about to impart some useful, seasoned knowledge on you. Don't get too accustomed to it, however. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming of a wee bit of technology talk with a whole lot of intertwined innuendo in no time.But for today, we educate. Our topic? E ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: The Lighter Side of the Recession, Little Shop of Horrors, Our Town

The Awful Truth

Attn: Wall Street. Michael Moore is a Marxist (but he's still selling the same old shtick).

Recession Or Not, Pasadena's Getting Some New Theater

Byron Hagan and Marshall Hainley​Nobody told the Red Door Theater Company there was a recession going on. The plucky theater troupe launched their group earlier this year in, of all theater-starved places, Pasadena. With true Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney/"Let's Put on a Show" spunk, Artistic ... More >>

Young Jeezy: The Recession

Mims Hopes He's Still Hot

In 2007, you'd have hard going trying to find a radio station/club/block party/baby christening that was not blaring Mims' beautifully simplistic "This Is Why I'm Hot." It was absurdly catchy, spawning countless bootleg remixes, parodies, and even a thesis by the Village Voice's own Rob Harvilla th ... More >>

Some Recession Survival Tips For Houstonians

Photo by AfroswedeRemember that Houston energy-industry buffer that some economists were talking about? The one that would protect us, at least for a while, from the free-falling economic recession the US (and most of the world) now finds itself in? Well, it's gone. The unemployment rate is risin ... More >>

The Last Piece Of Good Economic News?

The 88 major job markets across the U.S. lost a total of 1.2 million jobs in 2008, according to a study by Bizjournals.Only 15 of the 88 markets saw a job increase in the year. And the city with the largest increase of all -- Houston.We added 57,300 jobs in 2008. While that may have been a good mont ... More >>

The Whole Wide World: Peter Tosh's The Ultimate Experience

Peter Tosh The Ultimate Experience (Shanachie) www.shanachie.com More than 20 years since Peter Tosh's 1987 assassination, the Wailers co-founder's legacy (as well as Bob Marley's) live on around the world, but that rings especially true in his native Jamaica, where he burst out of poverty and ... More >>

A Black Friday Soundtrack

It's become a tradition. You spend two days cooking, slaving over a hot stove, sweating into the family green bean casserole, making gallons upon gallons of iced tea for assorted loved and loathed ones. But instead of taking the next day off to go comatose and let the fullness subside, what do yo ... More >>

Art Rock: Recession Thursday at Numbers

Art Rock: Recession Thursday at Numbers Tonight

Child Protective Services: Problems, Reforms and More Problems

A quick fix may only have created more problems for CPS and the families it serves

Straight Talk with World Net Daily

In the Sub-Prime of Life

Homeowners complain that Litton Loan is quicker to foreclose than it needs to be

From Houston with Love

The city sends a special something to Africa

The Fix Is In

UTMB is under fire in Dallas for its jail health care. So why is Houston ready to install it here?

Bogotá's Best Birds

Don't cook tonight! The first of a three-part series on summer takeout

Caring for Clairice

A naked woman's traffic death rekindles concerns about Shed

Taxing Miss Daisy

Previous tax bills and blighted properties haunt the city housing director

Close Quarters

Questions about conflicts of interest and motives cloud a $77 million city housing deal

Landrush

The city of Houston is being carved into special taxing districts, promising windfalls for some, financial burdens for others

Airhead Journalism Alert!

"Please -- Stop Me Before I Print Again!"

Dish

Fighting the Renaissance

A family battles to save its land -- and a homeless shelter -- from an urban-renewal juggernaut

Minimal Theories

Despite the rhetoric, evidence on the minimum wage initiative isn't conclusive either way

Stadia Watch

Lenwood Johnson's Last Stand

APV is more than his home. It's his life. No wonder he can't let it go without one final struggle.