U.S. Coast Guard

Bloody Tide: How Puerto Rico Affects the U.S.

As Puerto Rico is battered by a wave of drugs and brazen murders, Houston and other continental U.S. cities feel the blowback.

As Hurricane Sandy Moves to East Coast, The HMS Bounty Has Sunk, 2 Crew Missing, Was Supposed to Winter in Galveston

The HMS Bounty, the historic wooden ship that was supposed to winter in Galveston this year, has sunk off the North Carolina coast, it was reported today. According to a statement from the U. S. Coast Guard, two members of the crew were still missing, after 14 others were rescued by the U. S. Coas ... More >>

Coast Guard Seized $100,000 Worth of Illegal Shrimp Last Week

Only a couple of weeks prior to the Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season opening, the Coast Guard has been busy seizing thousands of pounds of illegally harvested shrimp in Texas waters. Last Monday, the Coast Guard Cutter Heron caught two shrimping boats hauling up their catches in closed water ... More >>

Obama's Mini-DREAM Act: Who Wouldn't Want These People As Citizens?

President Obama has thrown Republicans into a tizzy by having the Department of Homeland Security issue new guidelines, effective immediately, that put much of the defeated DREAM act into law. Obama announced that the following persons would be granted deportation waivers: People who came to the U. ... More >>

Noel Sosa-Ruiz: Bizarre End For Man Who Killed His Kids' Mother At Her Office

Photo by HPDNoel Sosa-Ruiz: Tries to escape to Cuba​The death of 29-year-old Yodani Cruz-Rojas was odd enough -- the father of her children walked into the suburban dentist's office where she worked and killed her in a hail of gunfire -- but now there's an odd finale. The suspected killer, No ... More >>

AG Sues to Preserve Galveston's Fort Crockett

​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a suit on behalf of Texas's state historical officer, asking a judge to order the owners of Fort Crockett to fix the buildings and not demolish them. The state is asking for a temporary restraining order against Max Bowen Enterprises and Juan Hijo ... More >>

The Roughest Catch: Ike Jime on the Gulf Coast, Part 3 of 4

Photos by GroovehouseJim Naismith, left, and Barry Irwin clean their catch on the boat's stern.​Read the first and second parts of our four-part series on Gulf sashimi-grade fish, and stay tuned tomorrow for the final installment. "Watch 'em," says Captain Barry Irwin as he approaches a chart ... More >>

Your Bolivar Ferry Experience Might Be Annoying For A While

Keep your fingers crossed​If your time-off plans include a leisurely cruise on the Bolivar Ferry this holiday season, expect things to be a little more leisurely than usual. One of the ferries is in the shop for emergency repairs, TxDOT's Karen Othon says, and another is in for regularly sche ... More >>

Three Hour Tour Turns Into Extended Stay At Allen's Landing for Houston Yacht Club

Photos by Taylor TurnerNot exactly Gilligan's Island.​The not-so-everyday presence of yachts on Buffalo Bayou has been bringing sight-seers to Allen's Landing this week. But the docking is no holiday for the boaters, who've been stranded at the downtown birthplace of the city of Houston since Sund ... More >>

Tar Balls In Galveston: What's New?

Searching "tar balls," "Galveston" and "not uncommon" yields results​The tar balls in Galveston have gotten widespread attention, even though their number and effect is laughably small compared to other states and even though they probably traveled here by boat and not ocean currents, meaning more ... More >>

The Tarballs Cometh, To Galveston

Crystal Beach, via KHOU​As the Fourth of July weekend loomed, Galveston's visitors bureau put out a press release "reminding the public that Island beaches remain oil free and open for business this 4th of July holiday weekend....The U.S. Coast Guard confirms that the spill remains more than 200 ... More >>

Pappas Files Lawsuit Against BP and Halliburton

The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, engulfed in flames.Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard​It was only a matter of time before the Gulf fishing industry -- whose entire livelihood has been threatened by the Gulf oil leak -- struck back at the organizations responsible for causing the m ... More >>

Local Lawyers Unimpressed With Transocean's Bid To Limit Its Oil-Spill Exposure

Photo courtesy US Coast GuardPLEASE let the oil-spill litigation be heard here, Houston hotel owners pray​Transocean, the Houston company that owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon rig that is currently gushing huge amount of oil into the Gulf, is looking to limit the amount of damages they may ... More >>

Fight The Oil Spill By Giving Your Dog A Haircut

Blow-drying after the cut is optional.​Until today, Hair Balls thought pet hair clippings were only good for making you sneeze, but apparently the hair is incredibly absorbent, which could come in handy in the case of, say, a gigantic freakin' oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Pet Paradise, a ... More >>

Chef Chat: Jeremy Massudi of Two Saints Restaurant

​Two Saints Restaurant has only been open for about seven months. But it already some regular followers. The night we visited, two different groups of customers went to the kitchen to say hi to Massudi like old friends, asking what he was featuring that night on the menu. We later found out th ... More >>

MIYAKO'S LYCHEE-TINI

Stirred and Shaken: Miyako's Lychee-Tini

Photo by Troy Fields​When I eat expensive sushi, it's usually at family dinners honoring special occasions — my little brother coming down from Austin for Mom's birthday, my little brother getting out of city lockup, my little brother beating that misdemeanor drug charge. (Lesson learned ... More >>

Pay No Attention To Those Military Jets Screeching Overhead Tomorrow

​If you happen to look up the skies tomorrow and see high-powered military jets wildly maneuvering to intercept and possibly shoot down a potential terror threat, don't panic.We're not saying you would panic -- you're probably a level-headed person who would assume it was some type of exercise. Th ... More >>

Beaumont TV Station Warns Of Pirate Attacks: We Investigate!!!

Back in November, Hair Balls indulged itself in some utterly sub-Swiftian satire on the possibility of Ike-wracked Galveston reconstructing itself as a haven for pirates. We suggested that Galveston apply for a Federal License to Plunder, citing advantages such as ease of access to all the booty ... More >>

Searching for Hurricane Ike Victims

Some may never be found.

Coming (Maybe) To Kemah: A Fake Christopher Columbus Ship

You know what Kemah needs?We mean, beyond extensive repairs in the wake of Hurricane Ike.What Kemah (apparently) needs is a replica of the Nina, one of the three boats Christopher Columbus sailed to make his old-white-man invasion of the bucolic New World.There is a mysterious plan afoot to restore ... More >>

Heroes Hip Hip Hurray: Was Tina Turner Right?

Heroes Hip Hip Hurray, Heroes Hip Hip Hurray www.heroeshiphiphooray.com In rock and roll, the concept of a "hero" has always been lyrical fodder. John Lennon and David Bowie both voiced our yearnings for fearless ones who fight injustice in the open or just suffered quietly in their own futile wa ... More >>

Some Ike Statistics

Sunny San Leon Picks Up the Pieces After Hurricane Ike

Sole of Houston: Deep Harrisburg: Lomax and Beebe Take on the East Side Again

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

Random Checks at the Bolivar Ferry, Up Close Communications, Ted Poe, Gene Green and Mac Haik

Galveston escapes with a close call

Friends sponsor movie fund-raiser for injured Gulf Coast surfer

Aliens to the Rescue

That Sinking Feeling

Coast Guard epic succumbs to watery clichés

Dark Water

A reporter, a photographer and canoeist Tom Helm paddle from the Galleria to Galveston Bay by canoe and kayak, finding beauty, danger and urban debris in equal measure

All Yours

Yours, Mine & Ours lowers the bar for miserable remakes

Owed to Billy Joe

Today all the best poets are singers. That's why a singer should be Texas's next poet laureate.

Golden Boy

Morgan Faulkner may be the best surfer Texas ever kicked out

Welcome to Fire Island

While communities across the country block LNG terminals, Quintana just shrugs

Oral Argument

The duel of the tongue vibrators

All Aboard

Since 9/11, tanker sailors are having a tough time making it to dry land in Houston

Ship Wrecked

A Houston firm certified the oil tanker Prestige as good to go. It broke apart in the Atlantic, causing the worst environmental disaster in Spanish history.

All Duct Up

From leftist camps and corporate security to semi-panic and port patrols, Houstonians tackle terrorism threats. Sort of.

Dead Weight

Kathryn Bigelow gets Water-logged with too many plots

Storm Warning

Disaster film sinks under its own melodramatic weight

Dead Man Walking

Minus his female soul mate, a young politician loses his spiritual way

News of the Weird

Raw Deal

Oysterman Joe Nelson says pollution is slowly killing Galveston Bay. But is anyone listening?

News Hostage

Press Picks

Press Picks

America, America

The Year of Living Anxiously

Are We Having Fun Yet? Or is it just the jangly buzz of advanced urban stress syndrome?

Spy Games

Tom Clancy and Harrison Ford take aim at the War On Drugs

The Battle for Lavaca Bay

Diane Wilson asked only that her home bay be allowed to live. She says she was told no. So she went to war.