Health Care Issues

Into the Ashes: Cosmos Cafe, RIP

Foster Kids In Texas Get Lots of Meds

No Smoking Ban In West U Bar (Note Single, Not Plural)

Texas Continues To Shine At Being Uninsured

Smoke Toys: BBQ Pits by Klose

How Could Anyone Criticize Texas' Anti-Smoking Campaign?

Here’s yet another list that Texas finds itself at the bottom of: the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ report of how states have been spending (or not spending) the money they’ve been receiving from the landmark 1998 multi-billion dollar settlement with Big Tobacco. Texas comes in at 46, s ... More >>

Study Finds That Houston Hispanics Like Beer. Next Up: Are Baseballs Round?

A study done for the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (Motto: "You Don't Want To Come To Our Office Parties") has revealed a shocking truth: Hispanics like beer. More than 5,000 Hispanics were interviewed in Miami, New York, Philly, LA and right here in Houston to determine ... More >>

Hard Habit to Break

M.D. Anderson just can't say no to research funding from the tobacco industry

Letters

M.D. Anderson just can't say no to research funding from the tobacco industry

Holistic Touch

Some ex-patients credit the mind-body therapy of New Age healer JoAnne Mandel with saving their lives. Others say her compassion stopped at the bottom line.

City Says Smoking Ban Has Had No Impact On Bars

Photo by porcelaingirlTwo years ago, Houston City Council approved a smoking ban for local bars. This week, it was announced that the city had spent $12,000 to measure the impact of the ban.Their conclusion? It had no impact on bar sales whatsoever. "It's reassuring that we did the right thing ... More >>

Bar Patrons

Warning: Tobacco companies' advertising money may be addictive in Houston's club scene

Methodist Hospital Gets Hit For Medicaid Fraud

Seal courtesy DOJUsually when the Justice Department announces the settlement of a Medicaid-fraud case, it's a small-time operation dealing with wheelchairs or even adult diapers.Not today.Today they've nabbed a nearly-$10 million settlement out of Methodist Hospital here for defrauding the federal ... More >>

Smoking, Metal Detectors, Drug Sweeps and Houston Pavilions

The Ban and Business

Fighting Cancer

Who says Texas isn't battling cigs?

Somerville, Smoking and Chicken Fried Porn

Who says Texas isn't battling cigs?

The Smoking Ban

Has it been good for Houston? A dozen local music figures sound off

Up in Smoke

The ban's arrival, from a Catbird's seat

Mail Call

Lights Out

Smoked Out

Will "self-enforcement" be enough for Houston's expanded smoking ban to work?

Up in Smoke

City Hall and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association once again threaten the right to light up in bars

Letters

City Hall and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association once again threaten the right to light up in bars

Letters

City Hall and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association once again threaten the right to light up in bars

Letters

City Hall and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association once again threaten the right to light up in bars

Got a Light?

All kidding aside, why smoking may be good for Houston

Breaking the Birthday Binge

All kidding aside, why smoking may be good for Houston

Reefer Madness

The government says Clayton Jones shouldn't smoke marijuana. He says it's the only thing that keeps him from blowing his brains out.

Best Democrat

District 147 State Representative Garnet Coleman

Letters 09-14-2000

Blowing Smoke, Pay to Play, Ill Will

Lucky Strikes Back

A tobacco company takes to the streets to reassure marginalized smokers

Live Free and Die

Smokers' rights activist Dave Pickrell thinks his freedom is being stubbed out cigarette by cigarette. He's fighting to stop that, coughing all the way.

Houston Is Epicenter Of Big Medicare-Fraud Sweep

​Houston is at the center of a big sweep against Medicare fraud announced today by the feds. A grand jury here issued indictments involving more than $16 million in fraud, and agents went out today and arrested 32 people in Houston, New York, Boston and Louisiana.Sayeth the feds: The Strike Force ... More >>

Weed Takes Root

Marijuana's steady creep toward legalization nationwide.

Congratulations, Kemah Smokers: You're 20 Feet Closer To The Front Door

Hey you two!! Take it outside!! At least you won't have to walk far​The Kemah city council couldn't agree on a smoking ban in bars and restaurant bars at their meeting last night, but they did agree on one thing: Those desperate, addicted puffers forced outside in rain, cold and heat can be a litt ... More >>

Hip-Hop for HIV Awareness Concert

Hey you two!! Take it outside!! At least you won't have to walk far​The Kemah city council couldn't agree on a smoking ban in bars and restaurant bars at their meeting last night, but they did agree on one thing: Those desperate, addicted puffers forced outside in rain, cold and heat can be a litt ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Group Starts In Texas, We Think

Image from disinformationIt's possible an announcement was made​Our sister blog, Toke of the Town -- the number one site for all weed-related news on the net -- reported yesterday on the founding of a new group seeking to make medical marijuana legit in Texas.Lots luck with that, fellas.There's an ... More >>

Smoking Ban Gets Semi-Vaporized In Galveston

Send a few to Galveston, Ronnie​Smokers can enjoy a rare victory in the Banning Wars thanks to Galveston.The city council there ignored the wishes of the new mayor and in a close vote revised the drastic ban on public smoking that had been in effect since the first of the year.That ban outlawed sm ... More >>

Marijuana Laced Soda: Dixie Elixirs, The Anti-Red Bull

dixieelixirs.com​Medicinal marijuana is legal in 14 states, and it's big business. Earlier this month the New York Times reported on the financial boom from medicinal marijuana ads in Colorado, citing our sister publication in Denver and Village Voice Media's COO, Scott Tobias:

Texas Pathetic In Fighting Kids Smoking, Report Says

The kidz and their tobacco​Texas is set to get $1.8 billion this year from the huge tobacco-litigation settlement of a decade ago, but it will spend just 0.6 percent of that on preventing kids from smoking, a report from a coalition of health groups said today. The state spends $11.4 million ... More >>

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

The kidz and their tobacco​Texas is set to get $1.8 billion this year from the huge tobacco-litigation settlement of a decade ago, but it will spend just 0.6 percent of that on preventing kids from smoking, a report from a coalition of health groups said today. The state spends $11.4 million ... More >>

Texans Support Statewide Smoking Ban, Says Group Pushing for Statewide Smoking Ban

Joe Camel is in the other 30 percent​If you want to ban smoking in all indoor work and public places in Texas, then you agree with 70 percent of residents here, according to a new poll by the Smoke-Free Texas Coalition. Such a ban is supported by 67 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of Indep ... More >>

Lack Of Social Safety Net Tying Many Musicians To Day Jobs

"I fantasize sometimes that my musical career would hit gold and help us escape these grim realities, but it's not something I really expect to happen." ​There are few issues in the current political climate more fraught with contention than whether or not the U.S. government will take a more ... More >>

Bassey & Rose Essien: Father-Daughter Team With Million-Dollar Adult-Diaper Scam

In this family, missy, we scam the government with adult diapers!!!​Keeping things in the family, passing knowledge from one generation to the next: It's a heartwarming American tradition, especially when it involves ripping off Medicaid for more than a million dollars with an adult-diaper sca ... More >>

Planned Parenthood: Punched in the Uterus by Misguided Texas Senate

More bad news for women who rely on Planned Parenthood.​A Texas Senate subcommittee wrangled the vulvas of Texas women into a chokehold yesterday with its latest assault on Planned Parenthood. Republican Senator Robert Deuell, who is a physician, introduced a bill to a three-member subcommitte ... More >>

Doris Vinitski: Paid $1,000-Per-Patient Kickbacks To Recruit For Medicare Fraud

Calling all "patients"​How lucrative can ripping off Medicare be? Lucrative enough that one scamster was offering up to $1,000 a patient to "recruiters" who sent customers her way. Doris Vinitski, 46, the owner of Onward Medical Supply, signed up the patients and then started billing Medicare ... 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 >>

Ron Paul Wants Feds' Hands Off Your Weed

Ron Paul and Barney Frank, probably discussing Phish​It takes a big issue to get US Reps Barney Frank and Lake Jackson's Ron Paul leading the fight together, but they have found one: Weed. Paul and Frank and four other Democrats (only one of whom has a last name that's also a first name) are ... More >>

Jodi Leonore Latson: Quite the Alleged Medicare Defrauder

Houston makes the fraud lineup.​If you're going to defraud the U.S. government, go big. It's not like they're going to miss a stray $62 million or so. Thus was the thinking of Houstonian Jodi Leonore Latson, 45, who -- unfortunately for her -- ended up as one of the bigger fish caught in a na ... More >>

Obama's War on Weed

In a strange about-face, the president tries to hack medical marijuana off at the knees.

Tea Time at the New Marquis II

Photo by Paul KnightThe unchanged Long Island, sitting on the pre-renovation bar​Seeing people smoking outside of the newly renovated Marquis II is strange enough to distract you from the other changes, like the exterior coat of dark paint and the windows that make the place seem less like the ... More >>