Subject: Social Policy

• Virtual Vouchers

  March 29, 2007

• Recommended Reading: The New Yorker’s Story About T. Don Hutto Residential Center

  March 6, 2008

• Legal Action Stirring On Illegal-Alien Raid

  August 1, 2008

• ICE Won't Be Nabbing Illegals At Hurricane Shelters

  September 11, 2008

• Changing of the HISD Guard

  Positions open as top Paige deputies depart on the Northbound Train

  February 15, 2001

• Learning How to Survive (at) CEP

  HISD and a paid trustee get entangled in the spreading empire of a private firm touting safe alternative schools for troubled kids. So why are some students and parents so scared?

  May 31, 2001

• Gloom And Doom For Uninsured Texas Children

  November 3, 2008

• ICE Raids Getting Flack

  November 10, 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 among the states in terms of ER care.How do we suck? Let us count the ways.

  December 9, 2008

• Obama's Education Pick Brings Back Memories Of HISD's Rod Paige

  Barack Obama has truly broken the mold in picking a Secretary of Education -- he's chosen the superintendent of the largest school district in his home state.Wait -- that sounds familiar. George W. Bush did the same thing, of course, when he tapped HISD's Rod Paige to come to Washington in 2000.The similarities between page and Chicago schools superintendent Arne Duncan have not gone unnoticed in the press.Here's Alexander Russo In the Huffington Post: It's hard not to think of incoming preside

  December 17, 2008

• Stay or Go?

  December 15, 1994

• Joel Carmona's Last Ride

  April 4, 1996

• Basic Ballard

  March 13, 1997

• "A Flaky Deal"

  April 24, 1997

• Cozy Ties

  July 10, 1997

• All in a Day's Work

  April 2, 1998

• Deporting Disparities

  August 6, 1998

• An Award for Our Writer

  January 21, 1999

• Shin Splits

  July 29, 1999

• HISD: Too Big For Mere Texas Meetings

  The Texas Association of School Administrators is a high-powered organization of superintendents and other education bureaucrats. They recently held an important legislative conference in Austin, dealing with pressing issues like stimulus funds.Attendees got updates from key state senators and reps, like Senator Florence Shapiro, chair of the Senate Education Committee, and Scott Hochberg, vice-chair of the House Public Education Committee.Pretty crucial stuff, you'd think. But the Houston schoo

  April 1, 2009

• UPDATED: Miguel Tejada Pleads Guilty To Making Misleading Statement

  Miguel Tejada appeared in court today and pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of making a misleading statement to Congressional investigators. Tejada acknowledged that he lied when he denied to investigators any knowledge of banned substances being used by other major league players. Prosecutors told the judge that they had "insufficient evidence" to prove that Tejada lied when he denied taking steroids or HGH. Sentencing has been set for March 26, 2009. The maximum punishment for Te

  February 11, 2009

• SPECIAL APRIL FOOLS' DAY EDITION

  March 26, 2009

• Tom Tancredo and Coconuts

  October 2, 2008

• Was Cesar Chavez Really Against Illegal Immigration?

  July 3, 2008

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

  June 19, 2008

• College Immaterial for High School Students in Vocational Training

  Good paying jobs, no huge loan burdens, exciting course work — the new vo-tech attracts more and more hi-tech students

  May 15, 2008

• Immigration: Cubans Enter U.S. at Texas-Mexico Border

  January 10, 2008

• Border Fence May Destroy Wildlife Habitat

  May 31, 2007

• Letters to the Editor

  May 4, 2006

• Back to the Future

  Andrea Bowers presents life before Roe v. Wade

  February 23, 2006

• Children at Risk

  February 23, 2006

• Bye-Bye Bongs?

  Tubing without beer bongs? Why?

  April 22, 2004

• Dead Heat

  Veteran Danburg tries to hang on against Wong in the new 134th District

  October 31, 2002

• Best Democrat

  District 147 State Representative Garnet Coleman

  September 26, 2002

• Million-Dollar Babies

  Some CEP students have been locked in for years

  June 27, 2002

• Needling the Mayor

  Former drug czar Lee Brown has trouble negotiating a question about why there's no needle-exchange program for addicts in Houston

  April 25, 2002

• 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.

  October 11, 2001

• Best Local Boy Made Good

  Rod Paige U.S. Secretary of Education

  September 20, 2001

• The Bored Patrol

  Border Patrol agents in South Texas contend they are getting paid to stay put as illegal immigrants go around them. Is this how the much-hyped crackdown along the Rio Grande is supposed to work?

  June 21, 2001

• See George Educate

  A Texas journalist gives George W. Bush his due

  March 2, 2000

• Placed in the Discard Pile

  About to be booted from the Fourth Ward, poor people are being told they are too poor to qualify for public housing in Houston

  October 28, 1999

• Old and In The Way

  December 16, 1993

• 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 seven-month nationwide search to replace the previous chief, Kent Robertson. Barton said that since the "incident command team" will be in charge for the time being, "There will not be a lack of lea

  July 7, 2009

• BARC's Alleged Dog-Puncher Is Out Of A Job

  Murray Bailey, the BARC kennel attendant accused of punching a puppy in the head in June, is no longer working at the facility, Health and Human Services Spokeswoman Kathy Barton tells Hair Balls. We're waiting to hear if there's an official explanation, but Barton said Bailey was still on his probationary period and was therefore subject to at-will termination. A long-time BARC volunteer had accused Bailey, who spent much of the last 13 years in prison on aggravated assault convictions,&nb

  August 5, 2009

• Shipley Do-Nuts Pays Up For Using Illegal Immigrants

  ​Shipley Do-Nuts, the oddly spelled longtime Houston morning favorite, will be forking over a ton of cash to the feds for using illegal immigrants in the workplace.The U.S. Attorney's office has announced the company will pay a $250,000 fine and forfeit $1.3 million to the government for harboring illegal aliens.The company pled guilty to the charges last September, and the sentence was handed down by U.S. Judge Ewing Werlein.John Morton, Homeland Security assistant secretary for Immigration a

  August 7, 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 Hair Balls in an e-mail. "The continuing issues have been a distraction for many of the good people of the Health Department who are doing excellent jobs on human health and other programs. It will

  September 1, 2009

• Marriage and...what else? Illegal Immigration...again!

  September 3, 2009

• Astronaut Causing Some Heartburn For NASA With His Immigration Stance

  Photo courtesy NASA​Astronaut Jose Hernandez, just back from two weeks in space, is gathering some attention for his statements on immigration policy.The Los Angeles Times reports that "NASA went ballistic" over comments Hernandez made on Mexican TV, comments which were definitely not along the lines of "build a fence and shoot the climbers."Hernandez -- who lives in the Houston area; his wife owns the Tierra Luna Grill near the Johnson Space Center -- is a huge media star in Mexico, the Times

  September 16, 2009

• If Halloween Is Coming, So Are Offensive Costumes

  ​The "Illegal Alien" costume causing uproar amongst immigrant rights activists, anti-immigrant supporters and free speech advocates is the first major faux pas of this Halloween season. While anti-immigrant supporters are scrambling to find the costume, immigrant rights activists are calling for a public boycott of the suit."We feel it's dehumanizing and that it's inappropriate. We're trying to put a face on immigrant issues and this costume takes away from that by making fun of them," says

  October 20, 2009

• Health Department Roundup

  ​The Thierry Andre Tellier Café and Pastry Shop (2515 River Oaks) was closed last week because of a health code violation but has reopened. There was a consultative visit by the Houston Department of Health and Human Services last Thursday, during which inspectors found that food was not protected from potential contamination. We called the shop, which has since reopened for business, and were told the closing was due to a broken pipe, but repairs have been completed and all is well in th

  October 28, 2009