Subject:

Health Care Issues

  • Blogs

    January 30, 2012

    Ike Odelugo: Concert Promoter Gets Six Years for Medicare Fraud

    Aghaegbuna "Ike" Odelugo of Sugar Land is a concert promoter, we're told, but that can be a rough business to make a buck in these days. Ripping off Medicare, however, can be a breeze -- until you get caught. Odelugo, 39, was sentenced to six years in federal prison today on health care fraud and ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 26, 2012

    Hammer Time: The Social Network Actor Busted at Border for Pot Brownies

    The Texas border is a rather notorious place when it comes to drugs and people trying to cross into the United States carrying them. In fact, both Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg were busted in the exact same location, Sierra Blanca. Traditionally, these drugs are found in the vehicle of the accused or ... More >>

  • Dining

    January 19, 2012

    CFS and a Cigarette

    City Cafe, an old-school diner in South Houston, still turns out a stellar breakfast.

  • Blogs

    January 18, 2012

    Chicken Fried Steak and a Cigarette at City Cafe

    Glenn Livet and I both unwittingly covered two South Houston classics this week: He in a dive bar post about Bonnie's and me in a review of City Cafe. Both establishments are notable for several reasons: they are long-lived, they are full of character (and characters) and they both still allow smok ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 3, 2011

    Money-Hungry MLB: Author Says the League is Treating Some Retirees Like Garbage

    David Clyde: $10k richer but still no MLB retirement benefits for the Houstonian​Specific Major League Baseball retirees are getting the shaft, according to the author of the controversial A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB and the Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve. The crux of Dou ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 17, 2011

    ACL: Smoking Ban Openly Flouted At Zilker Park, But Ah Hell What Did You Expect?

    Marco Torres​For the most part this year's drought and wildfire-related smoking ban at ACL is being followed, but during Friday's festivities it wasn't hard to find fans smoking to their hearts content on the grounds, or in the case above, on the ground. It seems to be only really deterring ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 16, 2011

    ACL: Cults Semi-Wows To Start Our Day And Ha Ha Tonka Bassist Says To Hell With Smoking Ban

    Craig Hlavaty​Smoking ban? What smoking ban? Ha Ha Tonka bassist Lucas Long don't care about the smoking ban at Zilker Park. Good times, y'all.

  • Blogs

    July 6, 2011

    Abortion Sonogram Hearing: Novel Arguments from Plaintffs, So Judge Wants More Briefs

    Novel arguments from abortion-rights supporters, judge says.​Opponents trying to block the state's new so-called sonogram bill may have a tougher road in Texas than they've had in other states. This morning's hearing in Austin, before U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, did not produce an immedia ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 24, 2011

    A Possible Houston Cure For Crack Addiction Runs Into Red-Tape Problems

    Thomas R. Karsten believes he has a vaccine for coke​While a Houston doctor thinks he has found the cure for cocaine addiction, bureaucratic red tape is hindering the vaccine's approval and building doubts for its future success. "My hopes are pretty simple: number one, find some company in t ... More >>

  • Dining

    March 31, 2011

    House Party

    Eating at Cafe Mawal is like attending a backyard barbecue.

  • Blogs

    March 31, 2011

    Comment of the Day

    ​Today Katharine Shilcutt confirmed that the Health Dept. outlawed customers bringing dogs to Moon Tower Inn, much to our collective chagrin. One commenter, Zippy, made some good points: I get not bringing dogs INTO restaurants, but the rule against having dogs on patios is ridiculous. And i ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 10, 2011

    Patrick Ita: The Genius Who Combined Medicare and Katrina Fraud

    Like combining chocolate and peanut butter​In the Southern District of Texas, U.S. Attorneys often deal with two kinds of fraud: scams involving a) Medicare, or b) Hurricanes Katrina or Rita. It takes a special genius to combine the two, and apparently Patrick Ita is that man. Prosecutors un ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 2, 2010

    Ruth Netscher: Whistleblower Claims UT-Health Science Center Used Mental-Health Patients As Guinea Pigs

    Research done without consent, suit says​A former doctor and faculty member at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston claims that she was fired because she blew the whistle on other doctors who used mental health patients as research guinea pigs without proper or legal consent. ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 26, 2010

    Raw Materials Issues Blamed for Shortage of Lethal Injection Drugs

    Perhaps a firing squad?​Sodium thiopental, the drug that the state of Texas so desperately needs for its executions, is approved by the FDA for use only as an anesthetic. On the market for more than 70 years, it has been largely replaced in American hospitals by other anesthesia, according to ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 13, 2010

    Sandra Thurman Patino: Motorized Wheelchair Scam FAIL, Loses $1M & A Cadillac To Feds

    The "Jazzy" model, no kidding​Sandra Thurman Patino, 46, had a pretty good deal going with a Medicare scam involving motorized wheelchairs, but now she's headed to federal prison for four years.Plus she's giving up the $1.1 million she had in the bank, and a Cadillac, to the feds.Patino was senten ... More >>

  • Blogs

    June 15, 2010

    Richard Lee: Former Houstonian Leading California's Legal-Weed Battle

    Houstonian showing Californians the way​Californians, those wacky folks, will be voting in November on a referendum to legalize recreational marijuana.Not medical marijuana, recreational marijuana.And they've got a Houstonian -- and his 80-year-old mother, who still lives here -- to thank.Richard ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 21, 2010

    Local Group Leads Charge To Limit "Harmful Substances," a/k/a What Houston Is Known For

    ​If you like the idea of lower health care costs and are not one of the twisted few who are philosophically opposed to breathing cleaner air, there's a good chance you'll be excited to know that there's an effort underway to update the federal policies which govern toxic chemicals.Earlier today, t ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 1, 2009

    This Just In: BARC No Longer Part Of The Health & Human Services Department

    Photo by abcrumley​The Bureau of Animal Regulation and Control will be removed from the Health and Human Services Department, according to Frank Michel, the Mayor's communications director."We will be working to remove BARC from the Health Department over the next couple of weeks," Michel told Hai ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 7, 2009

    BARC Chief Is Fired, With Little In The Way Of Explanation

    BARC Bureau Chief Ray Sim was fired today, spokeswoman Kathy Barton confirmed. She would not give specific reasons, saying only "I think it was just an issue of timing...[it was] not the right time for this guy." Sim began his job in May, after the Department of Health and Human Services conducted a ... More >>

  • Blogs

    June 26, 2009

    Houston Firm Can Stop Your Smoking Habit -- Online!!

    Teh Internets can solve almost any problem, it seems, from having to pay for music and news to bringing down Islamofascist dictatorships. Now smoking has apparently joined the list. A small Houston company that runs interactive pay-sites to help with compulsive hair-pulling and skin-picking disord ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 9, 2009

    If You're Going to Smoke, Stay Away From Siamese Cats

    Photo courtesy of Joan ThewlisTexas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine has tackled the question of whether second hand smoke can give heart disease or cancer to your pets - and comes up with a profound maybe. "Laboratory studies using dogs trained to smoke cigarettes have shown that they develop ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 25, 2009

    Statewide Smoking Ban For Bars: Coming Soon?

    Photo by Daniel KramerIt's been tried before, but this time there may be some possibility of a statewide smoking ban in Texas.Two bills address the subject, (one by Houston's Rodney Ellis) and the Texas Restaurant Association has announced it can support a ban.Although the TRA says it has "som ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 13, 2009

    Guilty Of Medicaid Fraud? Depends

    If you're going to try to defraud the government, please -- for your own self-esteem -- choose a more glamorous plan than one involving adult diapers.When the announcement came in from the US Attorney's Office headlined that a local company owner had been "INDICTED IN ADULT DIAPER FRAUD CASE," we co ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 10, 2009

    R.I.P., Eleanor Tinsley

    Eleanor Tinsley, who served on the City Council for 16 years, has died.She was big on two things -- getting Houston's billboards taken down, and trying to stop cigarette smoking anywhere and everywhere, it seemed.The elegantly coiffed Tinsley -- she always looked like the Dallas-native Baylor alum s ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 2, 2009

    Local Scientists Say The Superbugs Are Coming To Get Us

    Listen up people - we have run out of options. At least when we come to superbugs, if University of Texas Medical School researchers Dr. Barbara E. Murray and Dr. Cesar Ariasare to be believed. The two study infectious diseases for a living, so they should know. Their article in a recent New England ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 9, 2008

    Texas Receives A Gentlemen's C For Its Emergency Rooms

    The bright side of the latest report by the American College of Emergency Physicians is that Texas did not get a failing grade in its efforts to provide emergency-room access and care to residents.On the other hand, we're not making the Honor Roll or anything.ACEP gave Texas a C, placing it 29th amo ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 20, 2008

    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 >>

  • Blogs

    November 3, 2008

    Gloom And Doom For Uninsured Texas Children

    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 >>

  • Calendar

    October 16, 2008

    David Sedaris

    Humorist returns on the heels of his latest release, When You Are Engulfed in Flames

  • Blogs

    July 14, 2008

    Fraternity Hazing Suit Settles

    Humorist returns on the heels of his latest release, When You Are Engulfed in Flames

  • Music

    May 1, 2008

    The Deal sisters bring back the Breeders

    Role Playing

  • Blogs

    January 5, 2007

    Passing a Buck to the Smokers

    Role Playing

  • Culture

    April 27, 2006

    The Body Shop

    The HMNS features the life's work of a creepy German doctor

  • Film

    March 30, 2006

    Puff Piece

    Thank You for Smoking's satire falls short of incendiary

  • Calendar

    February 2, 2006

    Whoa, Baby

    A medical drama-comedy is born

  • News

    April 14, 2005

    Who's Your Daddy?

    Track your true identity along a DNA trail left behind by your ancestors

  • News

    April 7, 2005

    Breaking the Birthday Binge

    Track your true identity along a DNA trail left behind by your ancestors

  • News

    October 21, 2004

    Dance Fever

    HISD kills a reality show on high school dancers

  • Best of Houston

    September 23, 2004

    Best Veggie Burger

    HISD kills a reality show on high school dancers

  • News

    June 6, 2002

    Con's Con

    A contained experiment in Medicaid finally gets uncovered

  • News

    November 22, 2001

    Letters, Week of November 22

    Fed Up with Feds, Still Reeling, Diabolical Docs

  • News

    August 2, 2001

    Rx for Failure?

    MHMRA restricts Medicaid services at mental health clinic pharmacies

  • News

    October 5, 2000

    Letters

    Behest of Houston?, Paranoia by the Pack, Transsexual Treat

  • News

    April 27, 2000

    Methadone Meltdown

    Dr. Amos and Cecilia Ozumba ran Houston Maintenance Clinic for four years. Have they finally run it into the ground?

  • News

    April 20, 2000

    Warded Off

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

  • News

    August 19, 1999

    Dangerous Deficits

    Mental health cuts may come back to haunt the public

  • Music

    December 29, 1994

    New Year's for the Irresolute

    Mental health cuts may come back to haunt the public

  • Calendar

    November 17, 1994

    Press Picks

    Mental health cuts may come back to haunt the public

  • News

    December 16, 1993

    Old and In The Way

    How slow turnings of tiny bureaucratic gears grind up real Texans

  • More >>
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