Government Spending

NASA Budget Cuts Could Hit Johnson Space Center (First No Shuttle, Now This?)

In recent years, NASA has been hit pretty hard, and another hit may be coming. We're a long ways off from the days when JFK told the nation that the United States would put a man on the moon, and in recent years, what with the Great Recession, space exploration seems to have taken a backseat. Hell, ... More >>

Retired Lab Chimps Pressed Back Into Service

A San Antonio lab says primate research is necessary for curing diseases like AIDS and hepatitis. But what progress has really been made.

Will HISD Thumb Its Nose at Rick Perry & Go for the Race to the Top?

The deadline is looming for the next round of the Race to the Top, a program federal education department officials all but admit was drafted for Houston Independent School District after Texas refused to compete for federal grants. When Education Secretary Arne Duncan hinted such a district-based ... More >>

Metro Board Gets Input On Whether To Keep Subsidizing City Budgets

The recent outbreak of hysterical excitement around the city can only mean one thing: the Metro board will soon decide on ballot language for the General Mobility Program referendum. With this fateful day closing in, the board convened last night to accept more public input on the issue. Speakers ... More >>

Rick Perry's War on Planned Parenthood Suffers Setback

A federal judge has put a hold on Governor Perry's war on Planned Parenthood, in part because he doesn't believe Texas will keep Perry's promise to make up for lost federal funding. Texas, of course, has banned Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving Women's Health Program funds, beginning tomorr ... More >>

Metro Gets the Light-Rail Federal Funding It Craved

Metro had itself a party this morning, with tons of local officials making happy speeches and a federal official on hand to dole out cash. The transit agency announced it's officially been cleared to get $900 million in federal funds to build more light rail in town, funds that had been endangered ... More >>

BP to Pay $50 Million in Civil Penalties for Pollution Connected to Texas City Blast, AG Says

The Texas City blast​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has announced that BP has agreed to pay a $50 million fine "for unlawfully emitting pollutants during and after the March 2005 explosion" at its Texas City plant. The civil penalties come two years after BP paid $50 million to resolve fe ... More >>

Texas Cities and Nonprofit Entities to Get About $3.5 Million in National Settlement of JPMorgan Suit

Settlement helps, a little.​Financial giant JPMorgan has agreed to pay $228 million to settle charges that it manipulated deals involving the government bond market, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says the state's portion of it will be about $3.5 million. The money will go to Texas mu ... More >>

Christina Clardy: West U Doctor, Two Others Convicted in $30 Million Medicaid Fraud

Christina Clardy among those convicted.​Christina Clardy, a 61-year-old West U doctor, was convicted with two other people of running a massive Medicaid-and-money-laundering scam that somehow involved Nigerian tankers, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced today. Kenneth Anokam, 56, and Niger ... More >>

Comment of the Day: No Money For Schools, But Plenty For Formula 1 Racing

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Tamraka McGriff: Judge Says No More Tattoos for School Administrator

Tamraka McGriff's philosophy​Tamrake McGriff is the coordinator of transportation for the Beaumont school district and, apparently, she loves her skin art as much as she doesn't like her body. So much so, in fact, that a judge has barred her from getting any more tattoos or plastic surgery unt ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Liquor Laws and Church

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Conservatives' Plan to Close Budget Gap: Sell Liquor on Sundays!!

Drink up and close that budget gap​The conservative-dominated Texas House has come out with its plan on how to close the state's massive budget gap, and it's not just full of silly stuff like "make state employees pay for parking." Although that is part of the plan. No, the conservatives who ... More >>

Cactus Poaching

Texas Budget Gap: The Estimate Comes In, and It's Huge

Maybe we could use less lighting on the capitol building​Let's harken back to the blissful days of autumn 2010, when Governor Rick Perry was able to deflect any talk of a looming budget gap by blithely noting no official estimate for it had been made. Democrats' talk that it might be as high ... More >>

Tea Party Congressmen From Texas Love Their Earmarks

Damn those earmarks!! Except mine​Brave, insightful, brilliant, not-at-all-crazy U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann founded the Congressional Tea Party Caucus to save America from Muslim presidents and stop federal spending by stopping earmarks, the modern term for pork-barrel projects. Republicans i ... More >>

Annise Parker: Merry Christmas, Employees!! Take An Unpaid Furlough Day!!

Mayor Annise Parker, celebrating Christmas​Mayor Annise Parker, in conjunction with a municipal union, is asking City of Houston employees to take voluntary furlough days before the end of the year to ease the city's budget crunch. "While the City has been able to withstand the current econom ... More >>

FAIR-y Tales: Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

DWI: Getting Away With It Is Getting Tougher In Harris County

Blood tests for drunk drivers will be the norm now that Harris County got a fat chunk of federal cash. ​Drinking and driving is serious business in Harris County, and to prove it, the District Attorney's office held a press conference this morning to promote some changes they've made. "A lot of dr ... More >>

Big Stop Sign On Metro's Light Rail Projects

Photo by Bryan WilliamsMetro's light rail expansion plans are slowing down. Big time. ​More bad news, at least for people hoping for more light rail in Houston, came from Metro headquarters this morning when the agency's president, George Greanias, announced that the light rail expansion budget fo ... More >>

The Magnetism of Superintendent Terry Grier

Some magnets are in the crosshairs​The great magnets of the Houston ISD -- DeBakey, HSPVA, Carnegie Vanguard, T.H. Rogers -- have nothing to fear from any remodeling of the district's magnet program, Superintendent Terry Grier declared at a media roundtable Tuesday.Schools that make him go "wow" a ... More >>

Metro Gets Bit By The "Buy American" Rule

An FTA ruling concerning light rail cars purchased from Spanish company CAF puts a whole lot of money in jeapordy for Metro. ​Metro has received just about the worst news possible: The Federal Transit Administration's "Buy American" investigation found that Metro did, in fact, violate federal guid ... More >>

Metro Takes Several More Steps To Distance Itself From Frank Wilson

The Sweetheart Contract bus may have made its last run​The buzzword around Metro is "new."A recent press release from the agency, for example, promoted "New Metro's" standards, and at this morning's board meeting, the agency's president, George Greanias, talked about the same New Metro.And it did ... More >>

Terry Grier Sticks HISD Principals With $19 Million Bill (Updated)

UPDATE: News flash from Houston ISD: Summer School will go on, just maybe not in the way it previously operated. And the $19 million shortfall may not be quite that high. See end of post. Photo by Margaret Downing Terry Grier: you're on your own, principals​Houston ISD principals are going ... More >>

Houston And Texas Letting Money For Low-Income Housing Go To Waste

The feds gave Houston money to clean up foreclosed houses, but the money isn't being spent. ​According to a new report from a low income housing group, the City of Houston may have to repay millions of dollars in federal funds that were meant to clean up neighborhoods hit hardest by foreclosed hom ... More >>

Train Wreck

How Metro and its president Frank Wilson got so far off track.

Mario Gallegos Continues His Anti-Terry Grier Letter Writing Campaign

Gallegos is writing, but he's not hearing back from Grier​State Senator Mario Gallegos has continued to dictate letters since calling for Houston ISD superintendent Terry Grier to leave in an earlier letter, saying Grier was going to ruin the lives of students here.In his latest set of letters -- ... More >>

Frank Wilson Survival Watch, Day 3: Spanish Bombs

​How long will the embattled Metro president last? Hair Balls presents today's installment of the Frank Wilson Survival Watch. 1. The Federal Transit Administration sends Frank Wilson a damning letter. Dorval Carter, the FTA's chief counsel, alerted Wilson at the end of last week that the feds are ... More >>

HISD's Very Own Blackboard Jungle

​Fondren Middle School is "a blackboard jungle. The efforts that are required there are Herculean...The kids at Fondren have to learn how to come to school and where the school is located."Trustee Larry Marshall, not known for mincing words when he considers something unacceptable (famous Larr ... More >>

HISD Employs Shazam-You're-a-Magnet Strategy In Effort To Save Schools

Photo by Margaret Downing​Under a proposal unveiled today by Superintendent Terry Grier and his staff, Jones High School, for years now one of the most academically troubled schools in the Houston school district, will be turned into a science, technology, engineering and math magnet with a specia ... More >>

Stimulus Money: How To Stop Homelessness In Houston Before It Happens

​When Lorenzo Timmons was hurt and out of work last summer, and finally ran out of money to pay the rent, he had little choice but the unthinkable: to gather his wife, daughter and whatever he could carry and move his family into a homeless shelter. The Houston Press reported in a cover story ... More >>

Milo, Maine Gets More Federal Stimulus Cash For Cops Than Houston

Photo courtesy MiloMilo Town Hall​We've been reading all day about how Houston got stiffed on the latest handout of federal stimulus money for cops and were kinda blase about it.Houston, after all, has gotten its fair share of Homeland Security cash because of the port and our target-rich refineri ... More >>

Neil Bush Wants Him Some Of That There Stimulus Money

Love it, hate it, the federal stimulus money is coming and it's got to be spent on something.Why not Neil Bush?Bush, the wayward son of the Bush family (and that's saying something) is, of course, the guy behind Ignite!, the company that tries to get schools to buy its Schoolhouse Rock-like gadgetry ... 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 >>

Good News For Metro! A Political Speech!

Best Renovation Project

Charity Begins at Home

Fixer-Upper Downer

HUD hammers the city for botched house repairs for seniors and the disabled

Doing Time

With JC in the TDCJ

Dueling Docs

The city's top MDs collide, but the mayor sides with Shelley

Keeping On Task

The DPS will oversee state drug forces troubled by a track record of abuses

Drug Money

Narcotics task forces in Texas spend millions of dollars each year busting low-level users and dealers. Is it money well spent, or are officers just addicted to easy cash?

Tax Rebate Waste?

Lest tax payers forget about the rebate, U.S. Rep John Culberson drives the message home with $36,000 worth of mailings

Lost in The Woodlands

A former slave colony finds it isn't even worth basic water and sewage systems

Broken Promises

Fourth Ward residents are left with a harsh reality

No Relief in Sight

Traffic congestion will remain a problem for westside streets as the Westpark Tollroad and the HOV-lane projects are stalled

What a deal!

Joe Fuentes has no staff, no office, no documentation of the people he says he's helped, but hey, he's a good guy. Let's give him half a million dollars-plus.

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.

"A Flaky Deal"

To snare a federal grant, the city of Houston overstated the extent of lead poisoning among children in poor neighborhoods. But now that it's got the money, the city can't figure out how to help those who need it most