Southwest Airlines Inc.

Southwest Introducing Nonstop to Washington, D.C., Reagan National Airport

Beginning the first week of August, if you need a flight to DC, it just got a little easier. Southwest Airlines is launching nonstop flight service between Hobby Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport according to a release. Recently, the airline began nonstop service to Pittsburgh (y ... More >>

Harris County Attorney Sues Sharpstown Hotel Over Drugs, Prostitution, Violence

Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, in conjunction with the Sharpstown Management District, filed suit against the Plainfield Inn off Interstate 59 and Bissonnet on Wednesday. The hotel is known around the country -- it must be because they mentioned that TWICE in the press release -- for its prostit ... 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 >>

Odd Pair: Mile-High Wine

Photos by Jeremy Parzen.​"What are my white wine choices?" I asked the other day after boarding one of the roughly 24 Southwest Airlines flights that I will take this year, as I commute monthly to work with one of my clients in California. "Chardonnay," answered the steward. "Is there more t ... More >>

Hobby Airport Renovations Promise to Make Air Travel Even More Fun For The Next Year

Once you're inside, it's back to all thease and comfort of air travel​Nothing these days is as soothing, hassle-free and just plain fun as flying on a commercial airline. So the fact that starting today, repairs are going to be causing detours for the next year in traffic circulation at Hobby ... More >>

Green Day Singer Kicked Off Flight Over Pants, Heralds Armageddon

Mason Lankford said, "There will come a day when we forget the Rapture ever even happened," but Rocks Off is keeping an eye out for signs of our impending Armageddon. We were wrong last time, but we're totally right this time! ​In a bizarre incident last Thursday, Billie Joe Armstrong, belove ... More >>

Southwest's Pilot Apologizes For Misogynist, Anti-Gay Rant

Sorry about that.​KPRC, which first broke the story, has an update: The pilot caught on an open cockpit microphone denigrating gays and flight attendants has sent out a company-wide apology letter. Captain James Taylor said he "deeply regret[s]" the remarks. "Please know that this event has ... More >>

Up From the Underground

Alex "Pr!mo" Luster got himself a documentary from the street art life.

Southwest Airlines TV Ads: Creepy, Kinky, Sexist or Just Bad -- Five Examples

Southwest Airlines had another big month in February, the company announced today. They also announced they'd be joining in the latest round of airfare hikes, which is nice. We do love us some Southwest here in Texas. Maybe it's the ads. Through the years, they've been...odd, for the most part. Als ... More >>

Southwest Prepares to Fly to Newark: Five Tips

New Jersey: Enter at your own risk​Southwest Airlines is busy with the final preparations for their new service into Newark Liberty Airport. As a native of the Garden State -- one who grew up only a few miles from Newark Airport -- we're here to help. Five tips for the airline: 5. Offer a s ... More >>

What's Closed: Your One-Stop List, Updated Throughout the Day

​The announcements of closings due to the anticipated winter storm are beginning to roll in, the most significant so far being HISD closing all its schools and offices tomorrow. We'll be keeping a list of what's closed and updating it throughout the day, so check back frequently for news. Our ... More >>

Aeros Would Like To Start Making Plans, But The AHL Doesn't Have A Schedule Yet

LeBron, causing trouble again​The Houston Aeros know who they'll be playing this season. They know the date of their home opener, and they know the dates of five other home games. What they don't actually have yet, as the start of the AHL regular season draws close, is an actual schedule, and with ... More >>

Dave Chappelle and Other Memorable Celebrity Airplane Freak-Outs

Victoria Osteen: No Dave Chappelle​Because celebrities are better than regular people and therefore fly a lot, it's only natural that the friendly skies are occasionally subjected to the inexplicable fame-fueled freakout.The latest famous person to go bananas at 30,000 feet was comedian Dave ... More >>

Kevin Smith

The director behind Clerks and Mallrats makes it big

Pop Rocks: "Fly, Fatass, Fly!"

Before I'm accused of size discrimination, a little source material: If you've spent even five second on the internets in the last two days, you're aware of the escalating hostilities between movie director/"person of size" Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines. Smith, 39, originally purchased two ... More >>

Southwest Airlines Picks On The Wrong Fat Guy

​Southwest Airlines, the pride of Texas, has picked on the wrong fat guy.Kevin Smith, the director of Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, was tossed off a Southwest plane this weekend in Oakland because he was deemed a safety risk because of his weight.Like any modern person, he took his ou ... More >>

Southwest To Make Guinea Pigs Out Of Passengers, All In The Name Of The Environment

​We've heard of test pilots, but Southwest Airlines is offering the chance to be a test passenger.The airline is introducing a new "Green Plane," one where the materials used on a lot of things are lighter, resulting in a plane that uses less fuel to fly.If it works.One aircraft will be outfitted ... More >>

Houston Companies Don't Do Too Badly In Survey Of Gay-Friendly Workplaces

​The Human Rights Campaign Foundation has issued its latest rankings of how businesses treat their gay and lesbian employees, and things look a little better than last year.The report gave 305 businesses a top score of 100 this year; that's an increase from last year's 260. Eleven of the top 20 Fo ... More >>

Gubernatorial Candidate Kinky Friedman: My Dog Could Run This State As Well As Rick Perry

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​ "Going from musician to politician is definitely a step down," says Kinky Friedman, who announced his Texas gubernatorial candidacy Tuesday morning. "But I'll take it for Texas." Of course, it's a step that Friedman, author of songs such as "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jes ... More >>

Gubernatorial Candidate Kinky Friedman: My Dog Could Run This State As Well As Rick Perry

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​ "Going from musician to politician is definitely a step down," says Kinky Friedman, who announced his Texas gubernatorial candidacy Tuesday morning. "But I'll take it for Texas." Of course, it's a step that Friedman, author of songs such as "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jes ... More >>

Southwest Airlines Offering Some Really Cheap Seats

Photo by ACommentSouthwest Airlines has created a huge amount of buzz among low-fare junkies this morning with the announcement of a two-day sale where all tickets cost either $30, $60 or $90 one-way.As the Dallas Morning News' aviation blog puts it: Southwest calls it "one of the biggest fare sales ... More >>

Local Dude's Lawsuit To Be A Hooters Waiter Ends With A Settlement

Photo by noelweathersNikolai Grushevski sued Hooters in January after the restaurant didn't hire him as a Hooters Girl. Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing at Hooters, told Hair Balls at the time, "If we lose this go around, you can next expect hairy legged guys in the Rockettes to line up and ... More >>

Life On The Rodeo Road: The Road Was My Home

Photo by Paul KnightScotty Drennan Rodeo cowboys basically live on the road, traveling with a herd of men and women crazy enough to ride, rope and wrestle live animals for a paycheck. Each day, Hair Balls is asking a different cowboy to tell us a little bit about himself and his wildest story from a ... More >>

Houstonian Survives First Day Of Amazing-ness

Photo courtesy CBSHoustonian Jodi Wincheski and her partner have (apparently) survived to live another day on The Amazing Race.The reality-Tv show's 14th season premiered last night, and Wincheski was on one of the teams, partnered with a fellow Southwest Airlines flight attendant.According to this ... More >>

Erin Andrews: Playboy's Sexiest Sportscaster

Photo by speedye The competition has ended, and just like the Philadelphia Phillies putting down the upstart Tampa Bay Rays in last year's World Series, ESPN Erin Andrews' dominated her competition once again to repeat as Playboy.com's Sexiest Sportscaster. Playboy.com attempted to toughen things u ... More >>

Erin Andrews: Playboy's Sexiest Sportscaster

Photo by speedye The competition has ended, and just like the Philadelphia Phillies putting down the upstart Tampa Bay Rays in last year's World Series, ESPN Erin Andrews' dominated her competition once again to repeat as Playboy.com's Sexiest Sportscaster. Playboy.com attempted to toughen things u ... More >>

Man Wants To Lick Hooters (In The Courtroom)

Nikolai Grushevski, a man from Corpus Christi, has filed a lawsuit because Hooters wouldn't let him work as a waiter, which we guess would be called a Hooters Boy. "Hooters tries to circumvent the law by referring to its waiters as 'Hooters Girls.' Hooters is wrong," claims the lawsuit, filed yester ... More >>

High-Speed Rail Coming To Texas, Once Again

Last week, the Houston Business Journal reported that high speed rail  is coming to Houston. At a speech at New York's Penn Station, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced that her office will soon begin "accepting expressions of interest to finance, design, build, op ... More >>

Southwest Airlines Going All International On Us

You are now free to move about...another country?Has Southwest Airlines, the little Texas company that introduced cattle-call boarding, going all international on us?The airline announced today it's taking the first steps to offering flights to Canada, which is a country somewhere to the north of th ... More >>

At Least Someone Wants To Come To The Texas Bowl

Okay, so Notre Dame somehow preferred the Hawaii Bowl to the Texas Bowl. Some people just prefer Honolulu to Houston, we guess.But ND's replacement, Western Michigan University, is pleased as punch to be coming here.That can happen when you live in Kalamazoo (Motto: No, We Are An Actual City).The an ... More >>

A SugarHill Supergroup of Sorts

The SugarHill Gang, from left: Fever Tree's Rob Landis, Radio Birdman's Dennis Tek, engineer Andy Bradley, Tyson Steth, Kenny Cordray and Dust Peterson Photos by Chris Gray Watching musicians in the studio is like watching meat processors make sausage: it's tedious and there's lots of blood. But i ... More >>

Southwest Adding Flights To See Obama Get His First Executive Experience

As we've noted before, Houstonians are going wild over the chance to be in DC for Barack Obama's inauguration (assuming it still goes on, after the world discovers The Truth about his birth certificate.) More proof: Southwest Airlines is adding flights to Washington just to handle the increased ... More >>

Tight Fight: Bring Back the Summit!

They Fought the Law

In Rap, You're Nothing Without a Sheet

Houston Radio Still Sucks

David Sadof shares his dream station with Racket

No Fun Allowed

Who hates parades? Councilman Mark Goldberg.

Keeping It Real

Spring Creek stands poised to ride into history, one way or another

Thong and Dance

Hang with the scantily clad at the No Pants Party

Caroline Herring

Friday, January 23

Thirty Seconds Too Late

Cold Relief

Radio wild card Coldplay struts in from the UK with plenty of attitude

New Digs, Old Tricks

The Riviera Grill has moved downtown, but it doesn't know how to make an urban statement

Buyers' Remorse

The Cohns say their builder ripped them off with a poorly built home that became infested with mold. They've joined other Texas homeowners who want a lemon law passed just for houses.

West Coast Cool

L.A. curator turns "The Big Show" into a breezy stroll along Santa Monica Boulevard

We're (Kinda) Sorry

The Chron finally gets around to apologizing for being wrong about the supposed Clinton-staff vandalism scandal

The Aroma of Authenticity

El Hidalguense makes its Long Point neighbor seem downright American

Year of Living Dangerously

Sports palaces, city cell-phone shenanigans and subdivisions where Montrose once stood. Could any self-respecting survivalist leave the bunker behind?

Back in the Saddle

Clay Farmer

Do Not Go Gentle

Former Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby fights on for better, more diverse education in Texas

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