Trade

An Afternoon with Arturo Sandoval

Rebecca Dauler: State Says She Ran One-Woman Extortion Racket

FacebookRebecca Dauler: Take your little cease-and-desist letter and stick it, Texas Workforce Commission!​Say what you will about Rebecca Dauler, but if what the State of Texas is alleging about her is true, you can't deny that the 33-year-old Clear Lake woman has plenty of pluck and good-old ... More >>

Messy Lawsuit Features Rival Crime Scene Clean-Up Companies

A dirty job​Who knew the crime scene/trauma clean-up business was so, um, cut-throat? If the allegations in a local civil court case are to believed, only rival drug lords conduct their business more ruthlessly. According to plaintiffs John DiGulio and K.P. Management, two area men and their ... More >>

Polarizing Playhouse

Readers react to River Oaks splurge.

Comment of the Day: Back to the `50s, But All The Way

​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 involv ... More >>

The Dark Side of Chocolate

Return to Sender

What Would Comprehensive Immigration Reform Look Like If the Feds Got Off Their Duffs?

Food Fight: Battle Gummi Bear

​Not all gummi bears are created equal. Some people - including certain unnamed members of my family - do not seem to be aware of this, and blithely purchase generic gummi bears from supermarket bulk bins. While it's hard to get angry at someone who buys you candy, off-brand gummis have a cons ... More >>

SPECIAL LABOR DIA EDITION

La Migra, NAFTA and one piece at a time

Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves

Houston Punk Revue

Three Days of Giftmas: Where To Shop For Stocking Stuffers

Photo courtesy of Corazon​Sick of corporate Christmas? Try shopping local. Hair Balls presents a 12-part series highlighting ideas for holiday gifts made and sold in Texas. If you Google "fair trade Houston" one of the first results you get is the Rice Village mainstay Ten Thousand Villages. ... More >>

O'Brien's Song

After years of fighting everybody and anybody, now the ornery, annoying civil rights activist has to concentrate on fighting for his life.

36th Anniversary: House of Coffee Beans

Photos by Robb Walsh​Peru Chanchamayo is a rare limited-production coffee that's on special this month during the 36th Anniversary of House of Coffee Beans, 2348 Bissonnet. The coffee comes from the sparsely populated Central Jungle of Peru and is certified organic, Fair Trade, and migratory b ... More >>

Who's Leaving First: Ed Wade, Cecil Cooper or Roy Oswalt?

The Astros were able to actually win a series this weekend, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in two of three games. And the good news is that they should be able to win a couple of games this week as their next four games are against the Colorado Rockies, another losing team, like the Astros, but on ... More >>

Dept. Of Badly Timed Press Releases: We're Building A New Border Bridge From Mexico!

It can be tough to dodge all the PR releases flooding journalists' inboxes offering swine-flu experts telling you to wash your hands.(Our favorite so far: Texas Dr. Gary Butka suggesting humming songs no one has hummed in years while washing hands."I'm not just talking about running your hands under ... More >>

Talking About NAFTA and Mexico

The T. Boone Pickens Road Show

A former wildcatter and corporate-takeover tycoon preaches alternative energy across America.

Guy Sues Continental Airlines over Fuel Surcharges

One Definite Effect of Ike

Four-Dollar Gas Doesn't Stem Felons From Flooding Houston

High Gas Prices: Protests, Segways and Prostitutes

High Gas Prices Still Hurting Touring Bands

Notes toward a post-cheap-gas touring economy

Black Math Experiment to Go On Hiatus

Truck Drivers Falter Under the Weight of High Fuel Prices

The rising price of diesel hits independent owner/operators the hardest

High Price of Crawfish

It’s Mathew Knowles’s Town. We Just Live Here.

Straight Talk with World Net Daily

Ty Barnett

Comic solves the world’s problems, one joke at a time

Shorthanded

Foreign pickers aren't getting through the post-9/11 barricades to harvest U.S. crops

The Power of Yes

A pair of political pranksters invent the art of "identity correction"

Uncivil Defense

Overthrow the Revolution

Factory Direct might be the Next Big Thing

Pumped Dry

Gas station dealers find big oil blocking the way in their struggles against extinction

Paying the Price

Major gas companies are driving away independent station operators, all in the name of greed

Best Time and Place to See Street Racers

Westheimer

Borderline

Some former associates aren't accepting the strange death in Mexico of eccentric attorney Roy Beene

Hot Plate

See Juarez

From a forthcoming book by Charles Bowden and the street shooters of Ciudad Juarez The photojournalists of the border are capturing the grisly face of the future. And it's a lot closer than you think.

Brothers of the Road

'The I-69 "NAFTA Highway" is supposed to create thousands of jobs. Thanks to your tax dollars, it's already provided a very good one for the underemployed brother of Tom DeLay.

The Insider

The Brother Graham (Part II)

Once upon a time in Humble, there lived two guys named Pat and Mike. They had a way of making people believe, and those people included some of Texas' highest public officials. While it turned out that their stories usually were just too good to be true

The Wendy Card

Wendy Gramm's all-American success story is a centerpiece of her husband's fledgling presidential bid. But there's more to the story than what's being packaged and sold by the Phil Gramm campaign.

Faded Love

When romance wanes, the politics can turn really personal

Trashing Houston

To a world worried about waste, Houston may offer an answer -- or at least a place for the garbage to go

The Poison Connection

A "gas leak" in a Matamoros chemical plant wafts a poison and paper cloud toward a corporate office in Houston