John Cornyn

Doubling Down: Texas and Casino Gambling

The Alabama-Coushatta want their casino back. The Texas horse tracks say betting on races isn’t enough. Both see expanded gambling in the state as their ticket to solvency.

Former Texas Governor Mark White Joins Others Calling For a Proper Sentence for Duane Buck, Since the Last One was a Tad Bit Racist

During Duane Buck's 1997 hearing for shooting and killing his girlfriend, a psychologist claimed that Buck was more of a danger because he was a black man. He was spared from lethal injection in 2011, because of that claim. Enter former Texas Governor Mark White, who thinks that the racist claims a ... More >>

Facebook's Top Recipients of Campaign Donations Includes...Ted Cruz?

With Facebook in the news for all types of political and financial reasons, different groups are looking at where the social-media giant spends its campaign cash. According to influenceexplorer.com, the top recipient of campaign funds from individuals connected to Facebook is Barack Obama, not surp ... More >>

Lost Boys: Senate Bill 596

Village Voice Media asks for your support

Lost Boys

New research demolishes the stereotype of the underage sex worker — and sparks an outbreak of denial among child-sex-trafficking alarmists nationwide.

Money Rains From the Skies For HISD

Photo by Margaret DowningTerry Grier: Always nice to announce new money coming in​Houston ISD got a double dose of good news today when it learned it's getting $31.5 million in Teacher Incentive Fund grant money (spread out over five years) to help enable it to continue paying bonuses to teachers ... More >>

John Cornyn To Meet With Gays Because...They're Like Fetuses?

John Cornyn: Affirming "basic human dignity" in odd ways​Texas Senator John Cornyn has scheduled a meeting with Log Cabin Republicans, those GOP stalwarts who care so much about fiscal policy they're willing to ignore who they're associating with.To the surprise of no one, a "family values" preach ... More >>

Schoolhouse Rocked: Allegations of Conflicts of Interest at HCC

If the HCC board room is rockin', don't come a knockin'​Things seem to keep getting uglier over at Houston Community College. On Thursday, the board of trustees reportedly held a closed session to discuss an investigation into possible conflicts of interest by trustee Yolanda Flores and former t ... More >>

MoveOn.org Throws a Little Protest in Houston

Photos by Christopher Patronella, Jr.Moveon.org, throwing signs. See a slideshow from yesterday's protest.​Local members of MoveOn.org held a rally Tuesday taking aim at corporate control in Washington, delivering petition signatures to the Heights office of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and ur ... More >>

John Cornyn Has KBR's Back In Any Future Rape Cases

​We've written several items about Jamie Leigh Jones, the local woman who is suing KBR over a gang-rape she says happened while she was working for the company in Iraq.The company put up roadblocks to her attempts to resolve the situation and her claims of rampant sexual harassment in KBR camps, b ... More >>

Time Grudgingly Credits The Chronicle For Its Work On Army-Recruiter Suicides

Time magazine has done a comprehensive report on the suicides among Army recruiters, a massive piece with plenty of attention paid to the troubles in Houston.As we read it, we wondered -- more and more as it went on -- how they were not giving any credit to the Houston Chronicle, which has been doin ... More >>

A Pardon For Galveston's Jack Johnson? McCain's On It

Senator John McCain is announcing today that he wants President Obama to issue a pardon for Jack Johnson, the "Galveston Giant" who ruled boxing's heavyweight division in the early 20th Century and was convicted of transporting a woman across state lines to get him some.Because McCain is all about t ... More >>

T. Boone Gets Ready For His Million-Megawatt March

General T. Boone Pickens is invading Washington, D.C. tomorrow. Well, virtually. Members of his New Energy Army, numbering somewhere between 1.5 and 3 million strong, are planning to bombard Congress with emails and phone calls urging lawmakers to pass legislation favorable to Pickens' plan to ... More >>

Allen Stanford And John Cornyn: Best Buds For Sun-Drenched Road Trips

Photo by Z_deadWho likes to travel with Houston's newest financial-meltdown icon?Senator John Cornyn, that's who.Talking Points Memo has the goods, via legistorm.com, on a "fact-finding trip" (quotes federally mandated by the US Department of Air Quotes) that Cornyn took on Allen Stanford's dime to ... More >>

Hispanics Delivered by Border Midwives Are Having Trouble Getting U.S. Passports

Post-9/11 worries target South Texas

Veteran's Day In Houston

The 2008 Voting Charts: U.S. House District 22

Texas Votes 2008: In Chart Form!!

Cornyn's Killing Noriega, Money-Wise

Big Bad John Cornyn Is One Tough Cowboy, Apparently

The DREAM Act Might Be Dead, But These Kids' Hopes Are Not

They are American in everything but name. They can go to college in Texas and improve themselves. Doesn't matter. At the end of the day, they're just illegal immigrants without social security numbers or futures.

Border Fence May Destroy Wildlife Habitat

U.S. Fish and Wildlife services spent $80 million to reclaim wildlife habitat in South Texas. Now Homeland Security is ready to wipe that out.

FYI

Dear John

Horse Flesh

Texas struggles with what to do with its overabundance of Equus caballus, while Europeans wait with open mouths

Purchase Orders

Bob Perry writes a lot of checks to politicians, and wields a lot of influence as a result

Dance Fever

HISD kills a reality show on high school dancers

Got It, Flaunt It

Those campaign donations aren't buying yard signs and pamphlets

Food Fight Hiccup

Will four felonies spoil Four Families' Hobby deal?

Dream Team or Bad Dream?

Democrats sift pre-election portents for the answer

Over the Rainbow

Democrats get their ticket. But can they get the votes?

Paying the Price

Hospital district officials wanted a simple one-sentence policy on immigrant health care. What they got instead was a criminal probe and plenty of politics.

A Night in the Tub

An angel named Grace, a doctor who's a real Trip and fresh gore flooding the ER -- the new Ben Taub gets old quick

War Dance

Alabama-Coushatta Indians are shedding their passive ways in big bets on land claims and casinos. But some fear they could be gambling away their great tribal heritage.

In Through the Out Door

A new law hastens a Brown official's departure

Fish Stories

Will a whistle-blower suit snare John Whitmire?

Home Again

Ten years brings the Texas justice system to its senses. Roy Criner's free.

Suck-Up Time

Court on a hot tin roof

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.

Sand in Your Craw?

Make yourself heard

This Sand is Your Sand

At the Village of Surfside, it's not just the beaches that are eroding. It's the Open Beaches Act.

Zoned Out

An A.G.'s opinion only adds to the questions over Houston's special tax districts

Dubious Deal

Special tax zones are already stimulating growth-a thriving cottage industry of attorneys, lobbyists, high paid consultants, developers and questionable financial projections

Landrush

The city of Houston is being carved into special taxing districts, promising windfalls for some, financial burdens for others

The Man Who Would Be Kingmaker

Karl Rove has masterminded all of Bush's political victories. Now he faces his toughest challenge: convincing you that the presidential front-runner owns his own soul.

Border Bound

Is Elton Bomer the bully who's needed to help colonias -- or just another political grandstander?