Results tagged “theap”

Good morning, Houston. Here's one of those things that ended up selling for much more than we would have expected: A Rosenberg man bought a lock of Che Guevara's hair yesterday for $100,000. Bill Butler, a bookstore owner, was the only bidder; he said he collects items from the 1960s and that the hair will fit in well. "A lot of his writings are still worth reading today," Butler said of Guevara. Gustavo Villodo,...

Good morning, Houston. The AP reports on an interesting phenomenon: According to preschoolers, anything tastes better if it's wrapped in McDonald's packaging — even carrots, milk and apple juice. The study was done by Stanford University researcher Tom Robinson, whose subjects were 63 low-income children aged between 3 and 5; Robinson's conclusion was that the kids' perception of foods' taste was "physically altered by the branding." Anyone want to make the argument that marketing...

Good morning, Houston. Noticed a sharp increase in the number of mosquitoes this summer? You will, observers say — and now, Harris County's first confirmed 2007 human case of West Nile virus has been reported. Break out the insect repellent, check up on the West Nile symptoms and do your best not to get stung — although, these days, we guess that's about like saying "stay out of the humidity." >>A break in Gearen...

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...

If you've ever been refused a drink in a bar because you've, uh, overindulged, you may be in fairly distinguished company: A former bartender at a Capitol-area watering hole in Austin claims she refused state Sen. John Whitmire of Houston another drink — and got fired for doing it. Rebekah L. Lear claims she was working at the Cloak Room, a legislative hangout, on March 8 when Whitmire arrived "acting intoxicated" and with a "glazed...

So it's been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans — and, according to the AP, about 5,500 heads of evacuee households in Houston are still unemployed. It's not that there aren't jobs available (city officials say there are 2 million job openings, 59,000 of which don't require a college education) or that the government isn't helping (the city has spent $1.9 million since the fall offering free résumé help, business clothing, job...

Good morning, Houston. Blah blah blah, et cetera. (Yeah, you can tell it's Friday again.) >> BP: Managers to blame for 2005 blast: An internal BP report on the deadly 2005 explosion at its Texas City refinery recommends that four top managers be fired for bad judgment and failing to do their jobs. The report — completed in February but kept confidential until it was released under court order Thursday — named Pat Gower,...

More on the strange case of a baby found mutilated in Webster last month: The AP reports that a Harris County CPS caseworker testified yesterday that he doesn't believe the injuries were caused by a dog, as the infant's mother claimed. "No, I don't believe the dog attacked the child," the CPS's Armando Morin said. "The dog would have had dried blood under its chin, bloody paws. It didn’t have any, animal control said." Five-week-old...

Good morning, Houston! Are you a fan of Texas wildflowers? Good news, then: Thanks to a rainy winter, wildflowers are blooming across Central Texas and in parts of North and East Texas. If you're planning a flower-spottin' trip, check out the latest reports of wildflower hotspots — and remember, though it's really not illegal to pick bluebonnets, TxDOT recommends that you refrain from driving into them. Dang. >> Katrina fraud galore: The AP reports...

More news from TSU: The AP is reporting that the 11-member panel charged with finding a way to fix the university's finances won't recommend putting a state-appointed conservator in place to manage the university's finances, but will recommend that some members of the Board of Regents resign immediately. The information comes from a draft report the panel prepared; its final report was due Thursday, but the panel asked for and received a 10-day extension.

So let's be honest: All weekend, you were sitting around thinking, "Sure, I'd like to know who the father of Anna Nicole's daughter is, but what I really wonder is: What's going on with Lisa Nowak?" Fortunately, the media provided a heathy dose of astronaut-related updates over the weekend. Here's what you might have missed: On Thursday, some friends had dropped by Nowak's Clear Lake home for a visit, according to an AP report carried...

The AP reported yesterday on a disturbing piece of news connected with the 2005 death of Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath, a UT-Austin fraternity pledge who suffered alcohol poisoning at a pledge party: As he was dying, members of the fraternity he was pledging reportedly wrote anti-gay slogans and drew obscene pictures on his body. Dr. Roberto Bayardo of the [Travis County] medical examiner’s office reported that party-goers had used green and black markers to write “FAG,”...

If you're a big dinosaur fan, get ready to be excited: The AP is reporting that Dinosaur City, a dino-themed theme park, will open in Montgomery County in the summer of 2008. It's the brainchild of "Dino" Don Lessem, who we'd have to call a dinosaur fanatic: He's written scads of books, advised movies and TV shows (yes, including ), supervised excavations and founded the world's two leading foundations for dinosaur research. And as if that wasn't enough, Lessem is a columnist for Highlights magazine, which we enjoy every time we go to the dentist.

The Homeland Security Department has put officials and NFL stadium owners in seven U.S. cities, including Houston, on alert after a warning was posted online claiming that the cities' stadiums would be destroyed by dirty bombs this weekend — but the government says it's looking at the threat "with strong skepticism." The threat was posted Oct. 12 as part of an ongoing online conversation. It warned of attacks on NFL stadiums in Houston, Atlanta, New...

KTRK is reporting that three Continental Airlines employees are being treated after being exposed to fumes coming from the cargo hold of an airplane at Bush Intercontinental Airport's Terminal C. Here's the story: The Continental employees were on a ramp to a plane shortly before 9:00am Friday when they suffered eye irritation from vapors coming out of a bag or box. The three workers were taken to a local clinic for medical treatment. HFD HazMat...

The AP reported this weekend that Wyeth, the maker of an antidepressant Andrea Yates took before she drowned her five kids in 2001 recently added "homicidal ideation" to the list of possible side effects — but Yates' attorney said that won't affect her capital murder retrial. No cases have been reported in which the drug, Effexor, caused homicidal thoughts, and Wyeth didn't notify doctors about the possible effect because the company said it is rare. "We believe there is no causal link between Effexor and homicidality," Wyeth spokeswoman Gwen Fisher said. "In our minds, we've taken every precaution."

We noted earlier this year that Houston's failed bid for the 2012 Olympics didn't throw the city off: Our fair city still has Olympic dreams, this time aiming for 2016. After the news first surfaced, U.S. Olympic Committee officials visited in early May to be wined and dined — but what's happened since then?

Welcome to hurricane season! The AP is reporting that HISD trustees will vote next week on a $600,000 emergency notification system that would call the parents of the district's more than 200,000 students in case a hurricane heads toward Houston. The system, which would be paid for with state technology funds, would let parents know about school closings or early releases — something most people have to find out from TV or radio stations now.

We were wondering the other day whether anyone else was noticing what seems like an unusually large number of bank branches being built these days — and then we found out that yes, bank robbers have taken note of that — and it's making their heists a lot easier. The AP notes that a growing number of branches, plus customers' growing need for accessible banking, is creating challenges for banks that don't want to be robbed. (And here's a tip for you guys: Don't do business at a bank that wants to be robbed.)

The national media occasionally forgets about everything it criticizes Houston for — sprawl, smog, oil, heat, bugs, lack of topography, Enron — and admits, though sometimes begrudgingly, that our fair city ain't such a bad place after all. The latest such nod is from the AP, which is carrying a story touting Houston as a budget vacation spot. "There's lots of Texas-size fun to be had for less than $20 in the nation's fourth largest...

In one of those stories that left Houstonist wondering, "Huh?" the AP reported about a Conroe couple who had a hard time convincing his bank that one of their $100 bills was real. Willis Smith got the bill last week after cashing a check at a Bank of America branch. When he tried to deposit the money into his account at Woodforest National Bank, he was told the bill was counterfeit. The bank that...

As the so-called "trial of the century" (at least by Houston standards) gets rolling today, the techno-crazy Houston Chronicle keeps us up to the second with two new blogs: Legal Commentary, in which attorneys give insight into the legal wranglings of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, and TrialWatch, which gives Chron staffers the chance to tell us what's going on at the courthouse, right now. From TrialWatch, we learn that reporters from Bloomberg were the...