Westbury (New York)

Severe Weather Is Here (w/Pictures!): Save Those Files, Use The Tunnels & Tip Your Pizza Guy Better (Updated: Person Hit By Lightning)

If you don't have a window, you might not realize it's 10 p.m. in parts of Houston. It's a dark and stormy night out there, as Edward George Bulwer-Lytton would say. Last night saw some major thunderstorm activity, with impressive lightning shows in some parts of town. (This being Houston, other ... More >>

Juan Villareal: HISD Teacher Pleads Guilty To Distributing Child Porn

A third-grade teacher in the Houston school district entered a guilty plea Tuesday to charges of possessing and distributing child pornography. Juan A. Villarreal, 52, a third-grade teacher at Anderson Elementary in Westbury, has taught in the district for 11 years, but he was out of a job once he ... More >>

Possible Tornado Touches Down Outside Willis; Rain Hits Houston

A potential tornado appears to have touched down outside Willis earlier this afternoon. Following a tornado warning issued around 1:30 p.m., Texas Storm Chasers Tweeted a photo that shows a nearby storm cycle, with an "interesting feature" touching the ground. Willis Police Department said they h ... More >>

The Humble Deli Sandwich

Houston's top 10 versions.

Farmers' Market Spotlight of the Week: Daikon Radishes, Locally Grown by Congolese Refugees

Cooler temperatures mean that the City Hall Farmers Market is open once again and that more Houstonians will be heading out to enjoy the many other excellent farmers' markets across the city. Each week, we'll be spotlighting a produce pick from the Urban Harvest network of farmers' markets by showin ... More >>

Juan Villarreal: HISD Teacher Arrested On Child-Porn Charges (UPDATED)

Federal officials have arrested a Houston ISD elementary school teacher and charged him with possession and distribution of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced today. Juan A. Villarreal, 52, a third-grade teacher at Anderson Elementary in Westbury, was taken into custody pending ... More >>

HISD Wants $1.89 Billion To Rebuild, Renovate Schools

The Houston Independent School District's Board of Trustees is considering asking voters for a $1.89 billion bond issue that would rebuild or renovate 42 schools. The board must decide by August whether to place the item on the November 6 ballot. If voters approve the bond package, HISD would "most ... More >>

Hail, Blackouts in Southwest Houston

A big ol' storm is moving through the area, bringing heavy rains, hail and electricity problems. Hails is falling in Westbury, where the power is out for hundreds of customers, according to CenterPoint's outage tracker. About 76,000 Houston homes are without power as of 4 p.m. Also affected are ar ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Crawfish Joints

For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants. Along wi ... More >>

The Crawfish Secret Is Out at Daily Seafood

​Daily Seafood (12950 South Post Oak) is located in a shabby Westbury strip mall right next to a salon that offers $30, hour-long foot massages. In an ideal world, I'd have had time to enjoy both this afternoon: foot massages and crawfish. Instead, I spent a couple of hours getting to know the ... More >>

Margaret Marie Gage, 82, Beaten to Death in Home Invasion, Bayou Body Count No. 5

An 82-year-old woman was beaten to death as part of a robbery in a quiet southwest-side neighborhood last night, Houston police said. Margaret Marie Gage, 82, was at home in the 5700 block of Sanford in Westbury when her husband opened the back door about 8:45 p.m. to let out their dog, police say. ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Dive Bars

"I know it when I see it." - Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, on correctly identifying pornography. Also applies to dive bars. The dive distinction is complicated. Used to be you could stick a bar in the non-dive phylum if a web jukebox were present. But nowadays there are dives that still fee ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Neighborhood Bars

For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants. Here it ... More >>

Gumby Christmas Lights For The Win

Photo by Lee RinerHe's celebrating Christmas, dammit!​Here's something to warm you Christmas heart -- a display of lights in Westbury. It's always difficult to get scale on these lights-at-night pictures, but those white lights on the right are the height of a ranch house. So Gumby is a two-st ... More >>

Health Department Roundup

We thought too long about the inconsistencies in the Health Department's punitive measures, and look what happened to us. ​Some bigger names caught a little heat this week, and one smaller name caught some ridiculous, Phoenix-in-August heat. We hope the owner of the smaller place in question w ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Gayness Is Not a Zero-Sum Game

​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 >>

RIP Gay Montrose? Community Members Say Yes, No and Maybe So

According to some, Montrose is seeing fewer rainbows these days.​Montrose's "gayborhood" status is officially over. Or it's just like it has been for the past five to ten years. It depends on who you ask. Hair Balls recently spoke with various movers and shakers of the neighborhood's GLBT co ... More >>

Some HISD Schools Face Big Changes From No Child Left Behind

Some HISD schools are getting left behind.​Step aside, Apollo 20. A slew of Houston ISD high schools are going to have to undergo serious overhauls to satisfy requirements of No Child Left Behind. Federal school and district ratings were released this afternoon. In a subsequent press release, ... More >>

Up From the Underground

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

Westbury High Revolution: Cairo's Got Nothing on Them

To Dave & Buster's!!!!​The heady whiff of freedom in Cairo has worked its way to Westbury on the southwest side today, as about 100 students are going to be disciplined for protesting about a canceled field trip. The Westbury High field trip was supposed to be to Dave & Buster's, where studen ... More >>

HISD's (Last?) Big Performance Bonus: $42 Million

Bonus time at HISD​The Houston school district will hand out more than $42 million in performance bonuses tomorrow, in what may be the last big-time gasp of the district's ASPIRE program for a while. HISD says 1,82816,527 employees earned bonuses ranging from $100 to $15,530 as part of the $4 ... More >>

Westbury Represent: Shannon Walker Talks From Space To The Three HISD Schools She Attended

Photo courtesy NASAShannon Walker speaks from space to Westbury today​Shannon Walker, the first Houston-raised astronaut, is up in space doing space-y things, but she took some time today to hook up with her old `hood.A video link to the three HISD schools Walker attended -- Parker Elementary (whi ... More >>

UPDATED: More Than 4,000 Students Leave the Tougher Apollo 20 Schools

Apollo 20: Not everyone's on board​What's not to like about a longer school year, longer school day, more rigor in the classroom and having your parents more involved in your education?Well, it may be coincidence or it may not be everyone's idea of heaven because more than 4,000 students hav ... More >>

THE COZY CORNER'S SALTY DOG

Stirred & Shaken: The Cozy Corner's Salty Dog

Troy Fields​"I'll be with you guys shortly," the bartender at the Cozy Corner (11530 Burdine St., 713-723-4048) said for the fourth time in two minutes. The air conditioning was set on "meat locker," and some sadist had put "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" on the jukebox. The bar was done up with Fourth o ... More >>

Shannon Walker, Westbury Astronaut: Bang, You Big Jerk, You're In Space

​ This is how the Houston Chronicle treats the first homegrown astronaut? We're appalled. Frankly.

It's Five O'clock Somewhere

We scout out happy hour in Houston.

HISD Trustees Give Grier a History Lesson

Photo by Margaret Downing​Sounding a bit like a past-the-honeymoon-stage couple whose partners are starting to feel misunderstood and underappreciated, Superintendent Terry Grier and the Houston ISD trustees got through Thursday's board workshop with a patina of camaraderie, occasionally interrupt ... More >>

ESPN And CNN In Death-Cage Opinion Brawl Over Yates High School

Yates represents.​Yates High School's basketball team continues its roll to a state championship, a role that's included some very large blow-outs of over-matched opponentsIt's attracted nationwide attention, and now two of the biggest brand names on television are getting into it.First came Rick ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: The Last Night of Ballyhoo, The Nerd,The Nutcracker, Panto Sleeping Beauty, The Story of My Life

Financial Times Loves It Some Westbury

​What's the hottest neighborhood in Houston, according to the Financial Times, that international publication with the funny pinkish color?It's Westbury.FT approvingly quotes an expert who says the neighborhood southwest of Meyerland is "one of the last areas near the Galleria and downtown where y ... More >>

Dive Bars

A handcrafted tour of the best, most obscure places to lean on a stool in Houston.

TEA Releases Further Details On School Rankings

​The Texas Education Agency has released the 2009 school rankings -- let the talk of how schools are gaming the system begin!!Results are searchable by district, by category, by all kinds of things.The 12 HISd schools that have been ranked "unacceptable":High Schools -- Jones, Kashmere, Lee, Sterl ... More >>

Perverts, Beware

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Move Over, Reba: Michael Strahan's New Sitcom Also Set In Houston

Photo courtesy FoxFox Network just announced its fall schedule, and in just under the wire is Brothers, a low-key comedy set in Houston starring former Westbury and TSU star and future NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan. The Hollywood Reporter claims Brothers received strong feedback during the pilot ... More >>

Enough With The Rain Already (Updated 11 am)

Photo courtesy Houston TranstarMessy, messy morning, as you probably have realized.The west side of town got pummeled with up to a foot of rain; some homes have flooded.Commuting is a nightmare: Frontage roads are flooded, people are going the wrong way down streets to escape. We hear that getting i ... More >>

The Stars of HISD

"Prominent" takes on new meaning

Liquid Lunch

A weekday afternoon in Westbury's Cozy Corner

Rockin' Renewal

The imminent launch of new venue Warehouse Live makes it official: Downtown is now Houston's live music hot spot

Watching the Market

Can a new farmers market support itself, and revitalize Westbury Square?

Facing the Music

Loft and condo dwellers are finding it difficult to coexist with the pounding beats coming out of clubs in Houston's revitalized downtown scene

Fostering Praise, Down on Westbury, TEA Trickery?

Letters from Novemeber 1

Letters

Consuming Hate, Best and the Rest, Percentile Envy

Letters

Rotten to the Corps, Wife Strife, Sweet and Neat

Stepchild?

Is Westbury High the victim of neglect? Or do jealous parents just mistakenly think HISD takes better care of other schools?

The Transgender Menace Next Door

She's here. She's queer. The neighbors are used to it.

Jump-starting a Political Engine

Will Montrose come home in 2001?

After-School Limbo

Middle schoolers are often left to their own devices

Peer Pressure

At Anderson Elementary, students are packed into classrooms, hallways and portable buildings as educators struggle to manage a school with too many kids

Malice in Meyerland

The sale of the neighborhood pool pits some older residents against newer arrivals