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Sterling High School: Keeping It All Together

As Sterling High School’s year comes to an end, merger talk has the community upset, critics say they can’t trust HISD, and its latest principal is pulling out all the stops to try to get kids to graduation.

Chefs Rate America's Food Critics at the Daily Meal; Two Houston Writers Get Ranked

They say that turnabout is fair play, and that's just what The Daily Meal did this week when it polled a group of chefs across the U.S. to see how those chefs rated some of the nation's most preeminent food critics. Those 20 food critics were chosen by Arthur Bovino, executive editor of The Daily M ... More >>

Video Released Yesterday Shows Houston Journalist Austin Tice Alive, But Terrified

In the first glimpse of Austin Tice since a message he tweeted on August 11, the captured Houston journalist appeared in a video clip released yesterday on a website supporting the Syrian government. It shows Tice marching in rugged and arid terrain, blind-folded, among men armed with bazookas and m ... More >>

Grand Forks, North Dakota, Gets an Olive Garden

Since I first read the Grand Forks Herald article last night -- "Long-awaited Olive Garden receives warm welcome" -- it's made its way around the Internet as an object of fascination faster than faked cell phone pictures of Christina Hendricks's breasts. "An Onion-worthy, rave review of...Olive Gar ... More >>

Tea Party Princess

Victoria Jackson went from the big leagues of comedy to the rabid right of modern politics.

Vegetarian Day is October 1, Celebrate with a Burger!

Omnivores, grab your favorite herbivore and head to The Counter. The Washington Ave. burger joint, as well as the Woodlands location, will be celebrating Vegetarian Day on Saturday, October 1, with their "Veg Out at The Counter" promotion. Customers will receive a complimentary mini veggie burger wi ... More >>

Republicans Dominate Democrats...in Tweeting

​Our modern technological age has created a lot of new ways to communicate with others. For some, these means seem cold and impersonal. For those who use them regularly, they are simply another option for sending messages into the giant black hole of data that is the Internet. For politicians ... More >>

Restaurant Ejects Diner for Tweeting While Eating

Social media isn't always as friendly as it sounds.​Ever since Te House of Tea and its sister restaurant, the now-defunct Saute World Bistro, signed up for Twitter accounts in August 2008 -- the first two restaurants in Houston to do so -- it's become not only de rigeur but almost necessary f ... More >>

A Possible Houston Cure For Crack Addiction Runs Into Red-Tape Problems

Thomas R. Karsten believes he has a vaccine for coke​While a Houston doctor thinks he has found the cure for cocaine addiction, bureaucratic red tape is hindering the vaccine's approval and building doubts for its future success. "My hopes are pretty simple: number one, find some company in t ... More >>

Women's Funding Network sex trafficking study is junk science

Schapiro Group data wasn't questioned by mainstream media.

Come and Bake It

Local movement fights for cottage food bill.

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. New York Times: Despite some peoples' best efforts to the contrary, the City Ha ... More >>

Dick Cheney's Shooting Victim Finally Speaks

A boon for budding comedians​The Washington Post has a great story this morning, a profile of Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, better known as the man shot by Vice-Preesident Dick Cheney on a South Texas hunting trip.The lengthy story breaks some new ground -- for instance, despite reports, Whitti ... More >>

Another Oil Rig Explosion In Gulf

Another oil rig has exploded in the Gulf, injuring one person and raising fears of another massive leak.All the 13 workers on board have been accounted for. Officials are not sure if any oil is leaking from the rig, which is about 80 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay.The Department of Homelan ... More >>

Eight Songs That Make Us Want To Go Back To School

​Last week, when Rocks Off was editing our former intern Matthew Keever's article about the worst back-to-school soundtracks when Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential" popped into our head out of the blue. Not really out of the blue, we guess, but the next thing we knew we were thinking, ... More >>

The Hole Review We'd Like To Write Next Week

Craig Hlavaty​"As we all waited, sweat-covered and parched, for the encore, something flashed over us in the crowd. Courtney Love had finally kicked her demons into the gutter, and we were all there witnessing it together. "The lights dimmed a little more and Aftermath spied that shock of bl ... More >>

Joel Achenbach: Not A Fan Of Houston

Gets hot in a Houston summer? Who knew?​Joel Achenbach is the well-respected writer-of-all-things for the Washington Post; he's in Houston, or at least was yesterday.Color him unimpressed. At least with the weather.I keep my car AC cranked, and all internal spaces in Houston are air conditioned to ... More >>

Christopher Farnsworth: Blood Oath

So the president of the United States has a vampire for a bodyguard - damn, D.C. must be rougher than we thought

Which Classy Texas Congressman Shouted "Baby Killer" Last Night? (Updated)

Last night's historic health-care vote was an emotional event on both sides of the aisle. Only one side, however, showed the class it takes to yell "Baby Killer!!" at a colleague.And all signs point to a Texan doing the deed.Anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak got up to speak late in the evening, exp ... More >>

Local Teachers' Union President Calls "Bullshit" On The HISD Superintendent, The New York Times And The Washington Post

​ Caught on her cell phone today, Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said that many people are distorting what Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a Tuesday eight-page speech about overhauling teacher evaluations.The speech wa ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Nashville Scene Critics' Poll Lauds Brad Paisley's So-Called Edginess

Lonesome Onry and Mean didn't vote in Houston Press ex-sister paper Nashville Scene's annual Best of Country Music poll, but that doesn't mean we won't comment on the results. This year's poll essentially boils down to the Big Four: Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson. Com ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Killa Kyleon, Destiny's Child, New Boyz, Lil' Flip, Devin, Trae, Cham, Freddy Gibbs, Weezy, Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Rihanna, etc.

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "H-Town State of Mind," Killa Kyleon Killa is so, so, so good at flipping at other people's songs. Wire ... More >>

Friday Night Lights, Houston Style: Why Does Everyone Hate Katy So Much?

Photos by Paul Knight​Standing in the rain on Saturday afternoon, watching Katy High School play Atascocita in a playoff game, Hair Balls remembered something we read on the Washington Post NFL blog this past week. This question, about the Dallas Cowboys, was asked: "Why are the Cowboys So Hated? ... More >>

Marvin Zindler, Going Back To The Chicken Ranch One Last Time

Next month will be two years since Houston has been robbed of the bewigged, be-surgeried, bellowing presence of Marvin Zindler.His friends and family are planning to mark the occasion with a special presentation of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.Which is kind of odd, really.Zindler was forever ... More >>

Pilobolus Dance Theater

Enjoy the body beautiful

Lights On or Off?

The fight for a TV show about truth, justice and high school football

Truth Be Damned

The intriguing yet unsatisfying play The Story takes on race, class, sex and politics

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Sweet Charity

For years Tom DeLay has used nonprofits to help himself. Now the heat is on.

Well-Dressed Rebels

Revolt of the operagoing socialites

Dumb and Dumber

Rod Paige does no better when he doesn't have an answer than when he does

Touch of Gray

Audiences tell their stories

Thou Shalt Not Pee

Yates trial judge makes a captive audience of the media

Any Story Will Do

It's rerun time with the Chronicle's Enron coverage

The Line of Fire

Enron reporters duck as the rich revolt

Moth-Eaten

In this tricked-up ghost story, the truth is way out there

Racket

Greg Wood is back with a new band, a new album, and a couple of jokes

How Dare You?

The White House gets offended by a Chron question

Immodest Proposals

The solution to Houston's image problems? Spin them away.

The Man Who Knew Too Soon?

Eight years ago Tom Curtis reported that AIDS could have been spread by an experimental polio vaccine grown on monkey kidneys. Scientists sniffed. Journalists scoffed. The story died. Now, a new book says the theory wasn't so stupid after all.

Fresh Air, Times Square

That Is Not a Traffic Jam

News of the Weird

Night & Day

March 26-April 1, 1998

The Insider

Press Picks

The Insider

Cook Gets Two Beards

Teresa's Treasures

Teresa Rodriguez's up-for-auction goods tell a lot about Teresa -- and Houston