Results tagged “jacksonlee”

Good morning, Houston. We admit that we have a thing for interview shows, so we thought we'd take a second to note that NBC's Meet the Press, the king of Sunday morning TV news, made its television debut 60 years ago today. Meet the Press began life as a radio show in 1945 and moved to TV a couple of years later, and it hasn't stopped since. Now, MtP is the longest-running show on...

Good morning, Houston. Suppose you're trying to keep up with piles and piles of government reports. How can you tell when there are too many? Simple: You ask for a report, of course. That's what the Texas State Library and Archives Commission did — and in a 668-page report, the commission has declared that the state is over-reported. The commission looked at more than 170 state agencies and universities and found more than 1,600...

Good morning, Houston. Looks like we'll have a tougher time cracking out those fake Benjamins next year: The $100 bill will soon be getting a high-tech makeover to thwart counterfeiters. The key feature: 650,000 tiny lenses embedded in each bill, which will magnify the printing so that the portrait of Benjamin Franklin appears to move up and down or side to side, depending on which way you move the bill. "It makes for a...

As Spring teenager David Ritcheson's family heads to Mexico today to claim Ritcheson's body, a few details are emerging about when he jumped from a Carnival cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday morning. Witnesses said Rtcheson climbed up a tower near the bow of the Ecstasy about 6:15 a.m., and moments later, ship crew members showed up and began trying to negotiate with him. Friends joined in — "What the [expletive] are...

Good morning, Houston. We forgot to mention a bit of news last week: According to ForbesTraveler.com, Houston is the sixth-best restaurant city in the country. "San Antonio may have a far more manifest Mexican food culture, but Houston, which spirals forever outward, has far more breadth and depth," the site said; it specifically cited upper-end Tony's, Café Annie and Américas, but also mentioned the Breakfast Klub, with its "irresistible" chicken and waffles. Mmm. >>...

Good morning, Houston. Yeah, it's been a while since we had a Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee media moment — but now, thanks to Isiah Carey, we have a classic: a series of photos showing Jackson Lee's skill in getting in front of TV cameras during Sen. Hillary Clinton's visit to Houston last week. The hardest-working woman in Congress? You betcha — don't you know it's tough do to your own blocking? [via HouStoned] >>...

Metro may be a step closer to building its proposed North and Southeast light rail bus rapid transit guided rapid transit lines thanks to the Bush administration's 2008 budget proposal, the Chronicle reports today. The Federal Transit Administration announced that, under the proposed budget, the two Metro lines are among six projects nationwide that could qualify for 50 percent federal funding; last week and earlier this week, the FTA also issued records of decision in...

There's some news today on Metro's plan to expand its rapid-transit system: Two members of Congress from Houston have said they'll push for federal funding for more light rail, not the bus rapid transit lines Metro proposed for the northside, East End, southeast side and Uptown. The announcement from U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green, both Democrats, came at a Metro board meeting yesterday where the agency OK'd negotiating with a team headed...

If you ever check out the other -ist sites — and you should — you've probably noticed their spiffy new design. And at long last, just in time for the holidays, the new look has come to Houstonist. Merry Christmaskkah!

yesterday, apparently after finding the golden-haired Sekula-Gibbs a little hard to work with.

Post-election, there's a potentially interesting situation shaping up on the transportation funding subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. That's the group, remember, that OKs federal transit funds — it's the one U.S. Rep. John Culberson sits on, and it is his membership in that subcommittee that allowed Culberson to deal a strong blow to Richmond light rail plans this summer. But here's what may be interesting: With Democratic control of the House, newly elected...

With all the national media attention focused on Houston during the flood Monday, it's no surprise that U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee popped up to call for a meeting to discuss the state of Houston's bayous and the installation of warning lights at flood-prone intersections around the city. After all, Jackson Lee comes running every time there's a chance to get her name in the papers serve her constituents. No, what surprised us — but...

City Council yesterday approved a flat rate for all taxi rides within the downtown freeway loop and the creation of at least eight new taxi stands downtown, all part of an effort to make downtown more accessible to visitors, people without cars and downtown office workers. The flat rate, $6 for any trip inside the loop bounded by I-10, I-45 and Highway 59, applies no matter how many people share the cab. We fully expect...

HISD trustees voted 8-1 yesterday to shut down three of the district's worst-performing schools next summer if the schools don't improve test scores and keep students from dropping out. The three schools — Kashmere High, Sam Houston High and McReynolds Middle School — are three of the lowest-performing in the state; according to state accountability ratings released last week, Kashmere and Sam Houston were the only schools in Texas to earn "academically unacceptable" ratings for...

So it's been nearly a year since tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents were displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and through a variety of deadline extensions, several thousand of them are still relying on federal housing aid. But not for that much longer — maybe — because FEMA said ">the next housing deadlines won't be pushed back — perhaps. Mayor Bill White urged evacuees to meet the coming deadlines: Aug. 31 for about...

Even though the support continues to grow for the preservation of the River Oaks Shopping Center and Theater, many questions remained unanswered, and Weingarten has continued to keep their reticence. Rumors and some evidence throw a mix of names into the equation: Hermes Architects for the northwestern curved section, Wallace Garcia Wilson Architects for the highrise, and Barnes and Noble for an anchor. While concerned patrons, shareholders, and members of the community continue to...

Ten Houston teenagers with the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship Foundation cut their trip to Haifa, Israel short and came home last week because of the violence between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The first missile targeted at the city on July 13 hit a church the students had been at just hours before as a part of a tour of holy sites. The travel program was created nearly 26 years ago by then-U.S....

Vince Young on being passed over by the Texans: 'If I get picked to play for a team that's going to be playing them, it's going to be pretty rough on them' Kirby Drive was closed between Westheimer and Fairview this afternoon after a construction crew broke a gas line Houston plastic surgeon Mark Gilliland began serving two years in jail today for the 2005 Galleria-area hit-and-run accident that severely injured two British television producers...

When Houstonist missed Dave Chappelle's Block Party Tour last week at the Verizon, we had no idea we were actually missing one of the year's most inexplicable two-fer events. Yes, everyone's favorite congresswoman joined the comedian on stage for no apparent reason — we don't even know if there were any TV cameras around. The news comes to us from the Houston Press, which tells the story better than we could: Just before intermission, Chappelle...

In the Fourth Ward, residents are concerned over yet another big apartment development that could close off what's left of the historic neighborhood from the revitalization of Midtown. The developer of Midtown Square Phase III is asking the city to close the block of Cushing Street that runs through its property as well as a section of O'Neil Street that cuts through another part of the land. Midtown Square III will be just west...

Houstonist knew it would happen. The pull of all those television cameras and reporters in one place was just too strong. That's right: U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee stopped by the Enron trial this morning.

Add Ken Lay to your list of things to be thankful for this holiday season. Remember how he put Houston on the corporate scandal map? How he dutifully sacrificed some of his homes and cars to show that he's just like you and me? And yesterday, Lay saved us from the horrors of a potentially Enron-free holiday season with a highly entertaining luncheon speech.

Houstonist loves a good party. But sometimes as we're sprawled on the couch, hangover in full swing, we wonder: What's the point? You can imagine, then, our excitement at learning about a hip downtown party with a purpose. Okay, maybe "hip" isn't the right word, and it might be a stretch to call it a "party," but it's definitely downtown. And there is a purpose. The shindig in question is a lunchtime get-together today to...