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TSA Officials Are Finding Pets in Bags at Security Checkpoints

TSA Officials Are Finding Pets in Bags at Security Checkpoints

Houston Airports Provide Layover Entertainment Through their Artist-In-Residence Program

Houston Airports Provide Layover Entertainment Through their Artist-In-Residence Program

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Houston METRO to Decide on Partnership with Houston Bike Share

By Faith Bugenhagen
Jan 26, 2023

Next week, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County’s board will vote on a partnership with Houston Bike Share that they say will increase the city’s connectivity, and help with the company's bike share program, BCycle. BCycle started in 2012 with three stations, and now has 155 stations across the...
Houston-area Airports Face Another Round of Delays after the FAA Grounds all Domestic Flights

By Faith Bugenhagen
Jan 12, 2023

Grace, a grandmother from Florida, was planning on arriving at the Tampa International Airport to catch her flight awaiting her visit to her two-month-old granddaughter, when she received a text message from Southwest Airlines that her flight was delayed. “I got a message that the flight was going to be...
U.S. Transportation Secretary Tells Southwest Airlines to Get its House in Order

By Houston Press
Dec 29, 2022

As expected, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg had some words of wisdom and exasperation for Southwest Airlines in a letter that went to CEO Robert Jordan today — the same day Southwest announced it was resuming normal operations this Friday. . Speaking on behalf of the American people —...
Southwest Certainly Wasn't Bringing People Cheer this Christmas Season [UPDATED]

By Faith Bugenhagen
Dec 28, 2022

Southwest Airlines was the grinch nobody was expecting this Christmas after operational issues and cancellations led to delays that still have travelers stuck at airports — including Houston's Hobby Airport — for the next several days. The airline canceled 70 percent of its flights on Monday and 60 percent of...
Carrie Carter's Travelogue of Whimsy & Whiskers

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 25, 2022

The Japanese have a word to express one’s purpose in life or reason for living—ikigai. Houstonian Carrie Carter loves the concept, but lacked a distinctive for summation for herself. Even when she would create her own list of “likes” and force all her friends to go over them with her...
Texas Central Can Use Eminent Domain, Texas Supreme Court Rules

By Dianna Wray
Jun 27, 2022

Well go figure. Just when it seemed like Texas Central—and its ambitious plan to build the state’s first high-speed rail line–was swirling the drain, the Texas Supreme Court has given the company a significant win. That’s right, after years of contention over the company’s plan to use eminent domain to legally force any...
Is the Company Behind the Texas Bullet Train Behind on Paying Property Taxes?

By Dianna Wray
Apr 4, 2022

The hits just keep on coming for Texas Central. Now a number of Texas counties contend that the company behind the planned 236-mile, Houston-to-Dallas highspeed rail line is behind on property taxes. The allegation comes as both sides of the debate over whether or not to run a bullet train...
Texas Central Seeking Federal Funds to Jumpstart the Texas Bullet Train Project

By Dianna Wray
Nov 8, 2021

Way back when Texas Central was first formulating its plans to construct a highspeed rail line that would tote passengers between Houston and Dallas in just 90 minutes, company officials made vague, broad promises that they would not be seeking any federal funding to construct the Shinkansen railway. However, that’s...
Establishing a Base on the Moon is Going to Take a Little More Time

By Dianna Wray
Oct 27, 2021

It’s official—NASA has once again delayed plans to launch the Space Launch System rocket, a move that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise if you’ve been paying attention. But there is a date within sight: the towering rocket stack that marks the first moon rocket NASA has constructed since...
President Biden Rode Trains for 30 Years, Maybe More Texans Will Too

By Dianna Wray
Oct 8, 2021

Although it increasingly looks like the Houston-to-Dallas highspeed rail line may actually become a reality—Texas Central, the company behind the multimillion-dollar project actually brokered a deal with a construction company back in June—there’s still plenty of room for improvement in our state’s transportation setup where people only take Amtrak if...
What SpaceX’s Civilian Crew Launch Means to Houston

By Dianna Wray
Sep 16, 2021

Wednesday night, SpaceX launched what is being hailed as “the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit” on Wednesday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida). Inspiration4, crewed by two men and two women, will become another flashy bit of advertising for the new wonderful world of space tourism. Admittedly this flight, which...
Diary of a Pandemic Holiday

By Jef Rouner
Sep 1, 2021

May People are getting vaccinated, restrictions are being lifted, and deaths are going down. For one brief month or so it looks like there might finally be some hope. I very hesitantly book the safest vacation I possibly can just in case things go south. What could be lower key...
How Our One Hour Chicago Layover Became A Thirty Hour Travel Nightmare

By Schaefer Edwards
Aug 23, 2021

On Sunday, August 15, my fiancée and I were flying home from a trip to visit some loved ones up in Minneapolis. Weeks prior, we decided to book a return path home that had one plane change, a cute little one hour layover at Chicago’s Midway Airport we figured wouldn’t...
Abbott To Sign Law Banning Vaccine Passports After Carnival Says It'll Ask For COVID Vaccine Proof

By Schaefer Edwards
Jun 7, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott declared via Twitter Monday that he was about to sign a new law forbidding state businesses from asking customers to prove they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19, just a few hours after Carnival Cruise Lines announced that two of its cruise ships would set sail from Galveston in July...
Hundreds of Thousands of Potentially Killer Airbags Still On Texas Roads

By Schaefer Edwards
May 13, 2021

Takata-brand airbags were recalled all the way back in 2008 after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discovered life-threatening malfunctions that could shoot dangerous metal shrapnel at car passengers when the airbags deployed. But even though 19 people have been killed by these defective airbags and hundreds more have been...
Breakfast Taco Full Of Crystal Meth Found By Hobby Airport TSA Agents

By Schaefer Edwards
Apr 16, 2021

In one of the more absurd news alerts the Houston Press has received in recent history, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that its security officers at Hobby Airport discovered a breakfast taco full of eggs, cheese, what appears to be brisket and a bag of crystal meth earlier...
TSA Airport Security Workers Don't Undergo Mandatory COVID-19 Testing

By Schaefer Edwards
Dec 29, 2020

This post-Christmas Sunday, over 1.28 million people flew out of U.S. airports. It was the highest single-day airport volume since the pandemic began, beating out the more than 1.19 million passengers on December 23 and the 1.17 million-plus people who flew on November 29, the Sunday following Thanksgiving. While we...
Canoe Chronicles: Knee Deep in Buffalo Bayou

By Jeff Balke
Oct 19, 2020

This is part four of an ongoing series of posts about my purchase of a canoe during the pandemic. It was a beautiful, if warm, late Saturday morning and I was standing knee deep in Buffalo Bayou. Above me, cars were whizzing by on the West Loop with no idea...
Canoe Chronicles: Seven Tips for Safer, Happier Boating

By Jeff Balke
Sep 9, 2020

This is part three of an ongoing series of posts about my purchase of a canoe during the pandemic. In case you missed them, part one of this series was about locating a canoe during the pandemic, something that was easier said than done. Part two was about managing to...
Canoe Chronicles: A Permanent Home

By Jeff Balke
Aug 17, 2020

This is part two of an ongoing series of posts about my purchase of a canoe during the pandemic. In my first installment, I left off with a new-used canoe strapped to the roof of my SUV in north Texas. What came next was a certain level of disappointment, the...