Spent all your cash on girlie drinks and shattered dreams again this weekend, didn't you? No worries - Thriftster gives you the lowdown on cheap stuff to do until Paycheck Friday. Monday: Start the week out on a socially responsible note with the Houston Grand Opera at the Museum of Fine Arts Brown Auditorium (1001 Bissonnet St.). The event is honoring writer Leah Lax and who interviewed hundreds of Houston immigrants from around the globe...
1
Roger Marcus, a pastor, was found guilty today of burning his own church down to collect insurance money
more ›
Results tagged “immigration”
With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked...
Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take...
We've long known that Houston was a popular place for singles to relocate (and rightly so), but here's some new news: according to this map, we've got more than our fair share of single men. A LOT more than our fair share - that big blue dot = 20,000 - 40,000 more single men than women. Men in Austin and the DFW metropolis suffer similarly. So why the disparity? Creative Class commenters had a few...
Wow — it's still six months to Christmas, and yet we're getting gifts already: The AP reports that everyone's favorite golden-haired politico, Shelley Sekula Gibbs, is laying the groundwork for her campaign to return to Congress. Oh, yes. Sekula Gibbs (notice that she's dropped the hyphen, which she worried could be a problem during her write-in campaign for Congress last year) announced that she has some high-profile Republican supporters for her 2008 campaign, including homebuilder...
Good morning, Houston. Hot weather? Rain? Another week in our cube farm? Looks like Houstonist has a case of the Mondays. We'd better just move on to the news ... >> Mayor: I'll find money to keep day-labor site open: A spokesman for Mayor Bill White said Friday that the mayor will help find $100,000 to fund a day-labor site after city officials voted to cut its public funding. Critics of the site, which...
If there's one thing we love, it's an election. And the city has been obliging lately. Melissa Noriega and Roy Morales, the two candidates left standing after last month's special election to fill a vacant at-large city council seat, traded remarks on immigration as early voting began yesterday. Noriega, the clear favorite after garnering 47% of the vote in May, accused Morales of using "fear as a tactic to try to get people worked up."...
Good morning, Houston. It's June 5 — does that date mean anything to you? It should: Six years ago today, Tropical Storm Allison made landfall on the upper Texas coast, bringing with it more than 40 inches of rain in some areas (and all the flooding that went with it). When all was said and done, the damages totaled $5.5 billion, making Allison the most costly tropical storm in U.S. history. Have any memories of that weekend? We know you do — share 'em in the comments.
Good morning, Houston. If you're a fan of the Early Show, you probably caught Mayor White's national television appearance Monday morning. He appeared on the show seated between two foxy ladies, Caroline Kennedy and Doris Voitier, to discuss his receipt of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Like we told you before, he and Mrs. Voitier are sharing the award for their outstanding public service during and after Hurricane Katrina. This award...
For the past 25 years, the Houston Area Survey, directed by Rice University Sociology Professor Stephen Klineberg, has been offering a timely window into the minds of Houstonians. The recently completed 2007 survey especially shows how Houston's attitudes reflect the changes in our post-Katrina city. This year, crime was the number one worry for Houston residents, but immigration is a fast-growing concern. For the second year, the number of people who believe that the racial...
The newest results of the annual Houston Area Survey are starting to appear, showing Houstonians' increasing wariness of lingering Katrina victims and the influence of immigration in the city, among other concerns. The survey, an annual pet project of Rice University Professor Stephen Klineberg, has been tracking city-wide trends of opinions and demographics since 1982. This year, February's results show that sixty-six percent of respondents deem the influx of Katrina refugees "a bad thing",...
Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor is spending...
Good morning, Houston. Today, the world is a little less colorful: Political columnist and legendary wit Molly Ivins died Wednesday evening after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. She was 62. Ivins was a diehard liberal whose folksy charm and pointed wit won over people on both sides of the aisle — and, of course, where better to practice political punditry than Texas? "Naturally, when it comes to voting, we in Texas are accustomed...
Surely you remember Pizza Patrón, the Dallas-based pizza chain that started accepting Mexican pesos as well as U.S. dollars this week in a dual-currency trial program. Well, you're not the only one: Since it announced the program, Pizza Patrón has gotten a slew of hate mail and death threats, the AP reports. Who knew people would get so upset that they would threaten to kill a pizza restaurant?
Because Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is only going to be a congresswoman for a few weeks, we suppose she feels the need to make the news as often as possible: Earlier this week, Tom DeLay's staffers walked out on Sekula-Gibbs, and now Shelley is accusing those staffers of inappropriately wiping all the office computers clean before they left. We smell a developing Capitol Hill smackdown — no, not the one between Shelley's people and DeLay's people; we're...
If you're Republican CD22 candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, we guess it's pretty cool when the president comes to town to campaign for you — and if you're President George W. Bush, where better to get an enthusiastic reception than Sugar Land? So it seems only natural that Bush turned out yesterday to stump for Sekula-Gibbs, who is trying to win Tom DeLay's congressional seat on a write-in campaign. Bush's visit was largely instructional: "See, if you...
Looks like there might be a pretty important element missing in Houston's fight against pollution: federal prosecution of environmental crimes. According to the Chronicle, the last time prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office convicted anyone of an environmental crime on its own was 2004, when two Fayette County farmers were fined $500 for the illegal use of a pesticide. It's part of a downward trend in environmental prosecutions from the Southern District of Texas, which...
During yesterday's City Council meeting, many councilmembers took the chance to offer their condolences to the family of Rodney Johnson, the HPD officer who police say was killed by an illegal immigrant during a traffic stop last week — but gilt-haired Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs went one step farther, saying Mayor Bill White should use Johnson's death as a platform to change the police department's policy on immigrants. And that didn't sit well with other councilmembers,...
Juan Leonardo Quintero, the man accused of killing HPD Officer Rodney Johnson during a traffic stop last week, is scheduled to appear in court today — but Quintero's case may have farther-reaching effects than his own fate as it again brings up discussion of Houston's immigration policy.
An immigration-related billboard unveiled alongside the Katy Freeway yesterday is raising some eyebrows from people on both sides of the immigration issue, KTRK reports. The sign, which faces westbound traffic on the Katy at Heights Boulevard, was paid for by Grassfire.org and U.S. Border Watch; it reads, in bold red, white and blue lettering, "Stop the invasion — secure our borders." Steve Elliott with Grassfire.org told the Chronicle that the billboard is intended to let...
A group is trying to get the city charter changed to allow HPD officers to get more involved in immigration enforcement by removing a policy that prevents officers from asking people about their immigration status and giving them access to federal databases. The group, Protect Our Citizens, kicked off a petition drive yesterday at City Hall to try to get the 20,000 signatures required to put the measure on the November ballot. Under HPD's current...
City Council on Wednesday delayed a vote again on renewing federal funding to a Second Ward day-labor site after some citizens claimed funding the facility was a violation of federal law. The debate started last week when some councilmembers expressed concern over the best use of the $100,000 from the Community Development Block Grant — particularly the honey-maned Shelley Sekula Gibbs, who has supported day-labor sites in the past but did a 180 on the...
Harris County DA investigators searched TSU President Priscilla Slade's house today, looking for documents related to the home's landscaping and security system An Aldine high school teacher has resigned in the midst of allegations that she had an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old male student Gas prices in Texas were back up this week, closing at an average of $2.85 a gallon, up 3 cents over last week's average A traffic stop in Slidell, La.,...
There's nothing quite like a good City Council rumble to close out the week, and we had one Wednesday courtesy of the national immigration debate — more specifically, a local plan to renew city funding to a day-labor site. The flap started after some councilmembers delayed a vote on the federally funded $100,000 contract that would allow Neighborhood Centers to continue running the site in the Second Ward where day laborers wait for jobs. The...
Reagan High School Principal Robert Pambello has resigned amid allegations that he sexually harassed a teacher. Pambello is the same guy who got in trouble in late March for flying the Mexican flag outside the school, and some students say they think that's the real reason he left:
Remember how Taqueria Arandas was going to participate in today's immigration boycott by closing all its restaurants? Yeah, well, there's been a change of heart: The chain said Sunday it'll stay open after all.
One Houston restaurant is planning to put its money where its mouth is — however that translates into the world of franchises. On May 1, all 41 restaurants in the Taqueria Arandas chain will close to mark Mexican Labor Day and oppose proposed federal legislation that would crack down on illegal immigration. Taqueria Arandas management said it's making the move in support of the company's 2,500 employees who want to be part of a general boycott May 1.
LAist tracks an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and sees a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB. Gothamist gets down with the immigration rally and their readers want to be heard. The anniversary of the Mets' 1986 World Series is celebrated via a RBI Baseball...