Industries

Down Boy: Texas Ranks Third in Most Dog Bites in the U.S.

Being a mail carrier for the postal service must be a bitch, particularly in older neighborhoods where they have to walk up to houses instead of just driving by a mailbox. There's the heat and carrying a big pack full of mail. But, perhaps the worst part is the fear of being attacked by a dog. Any a ... More >>

Comcast SportsNet Gives In (A Little): Free Trial This Month -- All The Astros Action You Want!! (Maybe)

The endless, tedious fight between Comcast SportsNet and local cable providers has left Houston sports fans out of luck if they're trying to follow the local teams. That may have changed, however. Comcast SportsNet has announced they're giving a free trial to most Houston cable viewers, which will ... More >>

Florida Atlantic University Sells Stadium Naming Rights to Horrible Private Prison Company GEO Group

Before rapist and kidnapper John Enard clipped off his monitoring bracelet and strolled out of his Houston halfway house, he had it made it clear to state authorities: he would offend again before ever being sent back to prison. One of the best ways to allow Enard to run off and rape again was to p ... More >>

Report: Texas Ranks Near the Bottom in Tobacco Settlement Spending

Texas is only spending 2.4 percent of the tobacco settlement money it collects on tobacco prevention campaigns, placing the state near the bottom of the Centers for Disease Control's recommended state-spending list, according to a December report. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' report states t ... More >>

Country Club Sopranos

American banks are on a massive crime spree. Obama and Romney hope you won’t notice.

Mikkeller Offers a New Salvo in the Beer Wars: 300 IBU Tastes Like Burning

The beer wars are nothing new. Long before craft beer came along, the large macro breweries engaged in back-and-forth barbs, jockeying for position in the market. Usually carried out via marketing and commercial sniping, the battles all but amounted to multimillion-dollar re-enactments of schoolyard ... More >>

UH Hires Developers for New $105 Million Football Stadium

Look at the University of Houston, acting all grown up and everything. They are so cute at that age. UH, long suffering in grand old Robertson Stadium, particularly in recent years when the football team has been, you know, actually good, finally is moving forward on a much ballyhooed stadium plan ... More >>

Natural Wine Becomes a Crime

If you follow along here at Wine Time, you know that we frequently cover Natural wine and the vitriol-fueled debate on Natural wine that often eclipses the wines themselves (and we have written about Natural wine in Texas here). The stakes in the Natural dialectic just got higher. Last month, a Eur ... More >>

America's Petro-Terrorists

Wall Street and Washington conspire to destablize the U.S. economy, one barrel of oil at a time.

Brave, A Rare Family Film

A movie about courage that actually has some.

Infographic: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Texas Wine and More

See our slideshow of Texas wines and wineries. In this week's cover story, we take a peek behind the cellar door to investigate some of the Texas wine industry's more frustrating secrets. Namely, that much of the wine bottled and sold in Texas is made from California grapes -- and that almost all ... More >>

Dr. Khaled Jabboury: Incredible Story of a Proven Cancer Doctor Getting Steamrolled by the Insurance Giants

It's a Thursday afternoon and Dr. Khaled Jabboury greets a patient in the waiting room of his office at the West Houston Medical Center. The woman, though it's not immediately noticeable, is facing the toughest challenge of her life. As Dr. Jabboury has proven, she has come to the right place. For ... More >>

Southwest vs. United: The Tale of the Texas Tape

This week brings another chapter in the titanic showdown between Southwest Airlines, who wants to fly international flights out of Hobby, and United Airlines, the company that flies international flights out of Bush. United knows that allowing international flights out of Hobby would be a very, ver ... More >>

Pink Slipped: The 7 Best Artists To Be Dropped From Their Label

Once upon a time, record labels were the most important thing to an artist who chose to work within the music industry. They could make or break anyone and even world renowned artists knelt at the feet of their masters. Getting dropped from a label was, at one time, a death sentence. Even today man ... More >>

Texas Beer Fest 2012

American Parasite

Mitt Romney's years at Bain represent everything you hate about capitalism.

Comment of the Day: United, Southwest & Loyalty

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 involving wit ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Vintage Texas: Top Texas wine authority Russ Kane chronicles the bankruptcy filing and botched sale of one of the state's leading wineries, CapRock, in Lubbock. According to his report, New Mexico winery Gruet has been ordered to pay $4 million for a breach of contract after bidding in a bankruptcy ... More >>

Bill & Ted's Alex Winter Examines Napster's Fall In SXSW Doc Downloaded

Alex Winter (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Idiot Box) has spent the last decade trying to make a movie about Napster, the revolutionary peer-to-peer filesharing site that changed the music industry forever. Winter met Napster founder Shawn Fanning in 2002 and was instantly energized by the p ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Wine Thoughts: There's so much groovy stuff happening this week in the Texas enoblogosphere. But we just have to open today's post with a nod to one of our favorite and most balanced wine bloggers here in our state, Sandra Crittenden, author of Wine Thoughts, who writes about one of our pet peeves: ... More >>

Swizz Beatz is the CEO of Shuttered Megaupload...Wait, What?

We've all failed as music journalists. Swizz Beatz is the CEO of Megaupload.com and no one seemed to notice? No one, except Wikipedia (yes, that bastion of factual information on the web), which lists Swizzy's government handle, Kaseem Dean, as the head honcho of Megaupload. Megaupload's "About Us" ... More >>

Wine of the Week: 2000 Valpolicella by Giuseppe Quintarelli

Photo by Jeremy Parzen.Giuseppe Quintarelli, one of the greatest winemakers of our lifetime, passed away on Sunday in the Valpolicella, Italy. He was 84.​From the tiny village of Negrar in the picturesque Valpolicella (Veneto, Italy) to the upper reaches of the One-Percenter wine collectors in ... More >>

Harris County Sues Over All That Dixon in the San Jacinto River

Harris County attorney Vince Ryan announced he's suing a collection of companies for 45 years' worth of pollution in the San Jacinto River, and he's asking for up to $25,000 a day in penalties. Ryan is suing International Paper Company, Waste Management, Inc., Waste Management of Texas, Inc. and Mc ... More >>

Last Minute Shopping: The 10 Best Online Retailers (Not Named Amazon.com)

​For a decade now, online retailers have increasingly grown their sales to the point they now rival traditional brick and mortar establishments. Let's face it, it's just easier to shop online if you have a computer, an internet connection and a desire to avoid crowds. You can sit there with a ... More >>

Spinning the Black Circle

Is the music industry stabilizing?

Record Store Day Contest Coming This Afternoon

​When so many Americans will be camping out at Best Buys and fighting over big screen televisions at Walmart, music fans will be sleeping soundly in anticipation of Record Store Day's Black Friday events. The now annual day celebrating the stores that once carried the weight of music sales is ... More >>

What Do Wine and Saddles Have In Common? The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

​Over the course of a weekend, volunteers with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo wash 20,000 wine glasses in two days. It's just one of the staggering statistics behind the annual International Wine Competition, the contest that leads to the Rodeo Uncorked! Wine Show and to a few lucky wineri ... More >>

The Keystone XL Pipeline: Houston's Cardno Entrix In The Crosshairs

Keystone XL: Coming to Texas​Houston-based Cardno Entrix is the latest target of scrutiny in the newest allegations of cronyism surrounding TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline project. A group of U.S. senators has called for an investigation into the State Department's handling of the Keystone ... More >>

Natalie MacLean's Unquenchable Search for the Best Cheap Wines

​To research her new book Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World's Best Bargain Wines, Natalie MacLean traveled to wineries in eight countries including Australia and Italy over a five-year period. Each chapter in Unquenchable pairs a wine with a day of the week and a meal. While the book ... More >>

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 >>

10 Fish You're Eating That Are Endangered Species

Human beings: acting like jerks since we killed off the pupfish.​Yesterday, we touched briefly on the plight of the idiot fish, a small red fish with giant, round marbles for eyes. It's delicious, despite its odd appearance. And it's also endangered. Yet it's still sold and served across the w ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Know a Houston-based blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. ​TweetChat #TXWine: If you've been following along here at Wine Time, you know that Texas wines have been on our minds. We found out about the TweetChat #TXWines thanks to t ... More >>

Open the Taps: Houston Lobbies for Statewide Access to Better Beer

Will you support the cause?​It's one thing to sit and complain about the wretched restrictions the State of Texas has placed on the sale and distribution of craft beer. It's quite another to actually do something about it. And because Houston is a city of do-ers, five Houston craft beer lovers ... More >>

Come and Bake It

Local movement fights for cottage food bill.

Feds Sue Kinder Morgan for $1 Million in Unpaid Overtime

The Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Houston's Kinder Morgan that seeks more than $1 million in what it says is unpaid overtime owed to "4,500 current and former operators, technicians, maintenance workers, laborers and administrative nonexempt employees." Kinder Morgan provides serv ... More >>

Vintners Own Winery: Wine (in a Freaking Keg!) in the Heights

Happiness is eight different wines on tap.​I called my most wine-savvy friend upon receiving the invitation to the event. "Did you know there's a freaking winery in the Heights, just a few blocks from your house?" This was followed by a string of expletives (apparently she was not aware). I co ... More >>

Don't Kill the Messengers

How bike couriers plan to survive the internet age.

Whitney Harper: Song Downloader's Appeal Slapped Down By U.S. Supreme Court

Faith Hill shall not be denied​Five record labels that sued a 16-year-old San Antonio girl six years ago for illegally downloading a bunch of shitty music the labels vomited upon the listening public can finally exhale: the U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear the girl's ... More >>

The 2010 British Television Advertising Awards

$2.99 Grand Slams at Denny's on Black Friday

We prefer the Moons Over My Hammy​Let's say for the moment you plan on being out early on Black Friday. Let's also say your four hours of sitting in line followed by the frenzied trampling of other humans to buy the hundred-dollar laptop and three-hundred-dollar flat screen television you are ... More >>

Flying Fur: PETA Members to Protest on Black Friday

Don't expect hot, naked protesters on Friday. Think about it if you like, but don't expect it.​When you are out picking up some toys for the tikes at the Galleria this Friday, you might see something besides chubby Santas and frustrated holiday shoppers. You might catch anti-fur protesters. A ... More >>

Grinding Justice

Operation Streamline costs millions, tramples the Constitution, treats migrants like cattle and doesn't work.

A Taste of Honey: Harvesting A Beehive

Photos by Brittanie SheyTom Helm, urban outdoorsman and hobbyist beekeeper​This weekend we were invited to a honey-harvesting party at the home of Tom Helm, an urban outdoorsman who in 2006 was the subject of our cover story "Dark Water", in which he and then-Press reporter Josh Harkinson kaya ... More >>

We're Buzzed About Houston Beer Week

foshydog​From October 11 to 17, local taprooms, eateries, breweries and beer aficionados will join forces to pay homage to all the creative combinations of hops, malt, yeast and water - better known as beer. The first ever Houston Beer Week will be eight days of beer magic taking place in Hous ... More >>

Bullet Train Between Dallas And Houston: It's Coming (Maybe)

How about a Lone Star flag on the front of that thing?​Houston business leaders got briefed yesterday by a Japanese company looking to build a bullet train between Dallas and Houston, with mostly private funds.It's part of a U.S. offense by the Central Japan Railway, which, according to media repo ... More >>

Greenpeace Says Dow's Freeport Chemical Plant Has Lousy Security

You won't be smiling when the leak comes​Think all those toxic chemicals stockpiled at industrial plants around Houston are safe and secure? Well, think again.According to Greenpeace, the giant holding tanks and railroad cars full full of hazardous materials are ripe for disaster -- be it by terro ... More >>

November Cinema and Media Arts Festival

Alex Rivera screens Sleep Dealer during the Houston Cinema Arts Society film fest

Drink and Walk

Buy Your Bike Bods Here

Dry-Aged Discrimination

What grade of beef are the steaks at The Capital Grille?