Huntsville

Houston Area Might See Some Winter Weather as Soon as Friday

It's so damn hot in Houston most of the time, we forget what cold weather feels like. Then, we get a week where it doesn't make it out of the 50s and we wish for warmer climates if only because frozen margaritas seem so much less appealing when it is 40 degrees outside. Right now, we're in the midst ... More >>

TDCJ's Existing Nonexistent Facebook Policy: Its CFO Was Facebook Friend with Inmate, Too

A prison guard fired for being Facebook friends with an inmate was reinstated after it was discovered that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's chief financial officer was Facebook friends with the same dude. The alleged idiocy was uncovered by The Backgate, a blog run by TDCJ employee Duane ... More >>

Willie D: "For Black People, Being Educated Is Not Enough"

"Racism is a cancer that America does not want to cure." -- Willie D Willie D is a passionate man. About everything. About politeness as a social construct. About girls with little to no hair. About countries in South America. All of it. Any of it. Everything. But perhaps especially about race an ... More >>

Last Night: Eli Young Band At Reliant Stadium

Eli Young Band RodeoHouston, Reliant Stadium March 5, 2012 Texas country fans ain't your average, run-of-the-mill country fans. We're not referring to country lovers who live in Texas, either. When we speak of Texas country, we're talking about the strain of country music that's reared on the small ... More >>

Fourteen Years After His Death, Fat Pat's Legacy Continues Acting Bad For Scrilla

In Huntsville, back somewhere around 2000, there used to be this club called The Tin Can. There are a bunch of reasons to remember The Tin Can; two stand out and another is unfortunately appropriate today. The most nefarious of the three: It had to have been the most unsafe club in American histo ... More >>

Annise Parker Strongly Urges (Probably in Vain) NASA to Get Going on Its Next Manned Mission

Light this candle.​Mayor Annise Parker joined today with the mayor of Huntsville, Alabama -- do we really need to tell you his name is Tommy Battle? No, really, it is -- to inform NASA and all politicians who vote on it that they better get going on NASA's new project. The two "have formally ... More >>

Por Favor, Nanny

Houston moms help the help.

Openings & Closings: July 2011

Chef Raj Dixit takes over at The Inn.​Another busy week in the city where good things happen in threes: Three coffee shops are opening soon, three chefs have moved into new positions, and three restaurants are fast on their way to opening (or reopening, in one case). And bad things happen in t ... More >>

Texas Is a Lying Junkie When it Comes to Buying Death-Penalty Drugs, Inmates Say

Anything for a fix, man.​You know those guys who are masters at faking prescriptions or massaging paperwork in order to abuse their drug of choice? Texas might be a member of that club. Two TDCJ inmates are complaining to feds that the state's paperwork shows the mandatory DEA registration n ... More >>

"Wetback Wednesdays" Now "Whiskey Wednesdays," Irish Have Not Protested Yet

Whiskey defuses a crisis​The Draft Pub in Huntsville said it would stand tall against criticism of its "Wetback Wednesday" special, but it has changed its mind.In an odd column defending its decision not to cover the issue, the Huntsville Item says the bar has decided to change the name to "Whiske ... More >>

"Wetback Wednesdays" At Huntsville Bar: What's The Problem?

Not so happy for some​The Draft Bar in Huntsville has daily specials, and catchy names to go along with them.Including  "WB Wednesdays." When resident Arthur Guerrero recently asked what the "WB" stood for, television station KBTX reports, he found out it wasn't "Warner Bros."It's Wetback Wed ... More >>

Speed In A Hunstville School Zone, Get Fined $312

Houston makes the top 10 list for big fines​The school year has begun in some places, and that means school zones are up and cops are watching for violators. In some places you can't text or talk on your cell in a school zone; in every place you can't speed in one.What are the worst places in Texa ... More >>

Attention, Houston Crime Victims: Be Like This Guy

TV news loves to talk to witnesses or victims of crime. We'd love it, too, if they were all like this guy, from Huntsville, Alabama.Please adopt his style when you are interviewed for television, Houston.Thank you.

TDCJ Inmate Wonders What's A Dude Gotta Do To Get His Wicca On In Prison

​Charles Roberts -- aka Alabama, aka Hell Boy (according to a lawsuit he filed from prison) -- was recently transferred to Huntsville from Edinburg after he claimed, via lawsuit, that the prison didn't allow him to practice his Wiccan religion. Michelle Lyons, the director of public information fo ... More >>

Crosby, Stills & Nash

Heirloom Melons: Swan Lake

Photos by Robb Walsh​Swan Lake is an heirloom melon with a sensational honey-like flavor and a custardy texture. It's my new favorite melon. I had never even heard of heirloom melons until last weekend when I ran into this guy selling them at the Bayou City Farmer's market on Richmond. Garth ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Huntsville

Most Houstonians probably know Huntsville for the colossal Sam Houston statue, designed by Texas artist David Adickes, himself a graduate of Sam Houston State University and a Huntsville native. At 67 feet tall, "Big Sam" is dubbed The World's Tallest Statue of an American Hero. Or maybe they know ... More >>

Glenn Beck Takes a Break From the Economy; Talks with Marcus Luttrell, Former SEAL Who Chased Down Men Accused of Shooting His Yellow Lab

If you have been listening to right-wing pundit Glenn Beck's daily syndicated radio show on 740 AM KTRH in the mornings or watching his Fox News Channel TV show in the evenings, no doubt you have heard the sad tale of former Navy SEAL and Navy Cross recipient Marcus Luttrell. The distinguished war ... More >>

At the Death House Door

Web exclusive!

“Viewfinder: New Images from Texas Artists”

There’s more to these photographs than meets the eye

Can Edouard Save Jose Medellin?

Four-Dollar Gas Doesn't Stem Felons From Flooding Houston

Here Comes the Black

Aimee Bobruk, Hilary York

concert preview

Drenched In Blog: '80s Night at The Lose Box

Here Comes "Trouble"

Roll up to Everyone's Art Car Parade

No Pain, No Gain

Our solution for saving Texas's claim to capital punishment fame

Outside the Box

In keeping with the Halloween spirit, we bring you the tale of George Russell, who buries people in cardboard on his property. Welcome to his neighborhood.

Visitors' Guide

Get Bowled over by the best of the real Bayou City

Best Champion of the Underdog

Texas Defender Service

Make It S-T-O-P

The Texans go scoreless on tunes as well as turf

A Guarded Past

Texas's impressive new prison museum engages in a little escapism of its own

Taking Aim

Texas inmates fleeing the coop might as well pin targets on their backs, under a new prison policy.

Best Place to Mountain Bike

Huntsville State Park

Prose and Cons

Crusading convicts turned the docile Echo newspaper into a voice for prison reform. Fellow inmates cheered, but alarmed TDCJ officials preferred silence.

Diane Craig

Fortunes Told (Check to Check)

Letters 08-24-2000

A Ring of Reverence, Early-Warning System, Sand and Toilet Seats

Death Row Show

The media makes causes of more and more capital murder convicts. Meanwhile, John Albert Burks dies almost unnoticed, just another inmate moving along on the efficient execution assembly line of Texas justice.

Sam Houston's Retreat?

SHSU stirred the higher-ed circles. Now the excitement has turned to exodus.

Hanging with Mr. X

Quanell comes on strong at Graham's execution, then vanishes

Letters From the Inside

Ricardo Lara spent 19 years in Texas prisons. He got out the other day.

Stand Up and Holler

A Huntsville execution draws a strange crowd

Book 'Em, Draper

Rough Justice

Last week Anthony Ray Westley was executed for a murder he may not have committed. Only his lawyer and family seemed to care.

The Case for Gulf War Gate

A decade of struggles for sexual equality means that male prisoners today are having to answer to female jailers.

Now everybody, it's claimed, will be on their best behavior. Really?

Down on Peckerwood Hill

It's the last stop for some Texas prison inmates

Mr. Big

Houston sculptor David Adickes has one message for the art world: large is good

The Church of the Immaculate Barbecue

Heaven has its smoking pits too -- at New Zion Baptist Church in Huntsville