Free Republic

Houston 'Redneck white city down in Texas." That's how Houston Mayor Annise Parker sums up the caricature of her town, and she wants everyone to know it's bunkum. Houston is "a really cool city," she says. "Open and entrepreneurial and welcoming." It's also booming. The mayor herself is a walking testament to the cosmopolitan contrarian reality of modern Houston. Annise Parker is a Democrat in a deep-red state, the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. She's a social liberal who's also a former oil-industry executive with a pro-business attitude running what may be the nation's least-regulated metropolis....

Three armed home invaders broke into a house and beat up the resident before pushing him into a closet, not realizing it was a weapons storage area.

Officials with the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce and Houston Northwest Chamber, the city of Tomball, and the Klein and Spring school districts went to Virginia recently to serve up a little Texas hospitality to Exxon Mobil employees who will be relocating to the new campus in 2014 and 2015. An estimated 3,000 employees and their families attended the “Let’s Discover Houston Fair” in late April at the Exxon Mobil headquarters for Downstream Operations in Fairfax, Va., to learn about the communities, schools and the amenities in the Greater Houston area. “What Exxon Mobil put together to bring us...

Residents of a Houston neighborhood are being warned to stay away from giant African land snails after a woman found one in her garden and snapped a photo of it. The snails, researchers warn, are potentially dangerous to touch, in part because they can carry meningitis. Scientists have warned anyone who comes in contact with them to wash their hands thoroughly. "They also carry a parasitic disease that can cause a lot of harm to humans and sometimes even death," Autumn Smith-Herron, director of the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species at Sam Houston State University, told NBC Houston...

**SNIP** The short video played just before Perry took the stage to a welcome applause from the crowd. It shows Perry taking aim at an egg from about 100 yards out with a LaRue Tactical rifle, which is made by a company that recently opened up shop in Texas. The video then shows Perry hitting metal targets like a marksman. The video got quite a reaction online, and not all of it was good. The responses on Twitter ranged from folks saying Perry’s video did nothing but “promote and excite the already gun-thirsty and violent society” to others saying “I...

A controversial home-defense project will be hitting the streets of Houston soon. The effort, called the Armed Citizen Project, seeks to give shotguns to residents of moderate and high-crime neighborhoods. University of Houston graduate student Kyle Coplen came up with the idea, and he hopes that because he's publicizing it, criminals will be scared off from targeting the neighborhoods where shotguns have been distributed. "It's our hypothesis that criminals do not want to die in your hallway," Coplen said. "We think that society should use that fear to deter crime." The project's gun of choice will be a single-shot shotgun....

King Street Patriot members met this Monday April 30, 2013 to listen to a diverse and passionate panel of six to discuss immigration. Before the panel began the discussion Catherine Engelbrecht spoke to the crowd and briefly covered the Gang of Eight, the groups’ involvement in helping the victims of West Texas, and most alarming the hate mail received in reference to having a panel speak about immigration. Hate mail based on myths or emotions and not facts. Miss directed negative press and criticism is no stranger to the King Street Patriots and its sister organization True the Vote.

French energy services firm Technip has leased a 17-story building, adding to the space it already occupies along the Energy Corridor, developer Mac Haik announced Wednesday. “We are experiencing unprecedented growth in our Houston office and are optimizing our resources among all segments,” David Dickson, president of Technip North America, said in a statement. North of Houston: Aerial photos of the Exxon Mobil campus The lease is for 428,831 square feet in Energy Tower III at 11740 Katy Freeway. The building, which was started without a tenant lined up to occupy it, is near completion. It is part of a...

For decades, the image of the 18-wheeler has been that of a smoke-belching behemoth, the grinding gears and hissing brakes synonymous with the power of the diesel engine. But a 20-truck fleet powered by hydrogen fuel cells will begin rolling across the Port of Houston later this year in a test of whether the vehicles can improve air quality and still provide enough heavy lifting to handle cargo. In the largest demonstration project of its kind, the electric fleet will unload containers from ships and deliver them to a Wal-Mart warehouse. “We’re looking at our carbon footprint,” said Aston Hinds,...

Houston, Texas' energy industry is flourishing, making the job market for today and tomorrow very robust, remarked Huw Rothwell, executive director of Michael Page International at the American Petroleum Institute's (API) Houston chapter luncheon Tuesday. Michael Page is a global publically traded professional and executive recruitment consultancy with more than 5,000 employees worldwide. "The oil and gas industry in Houston is in very good condition, adding about 102,000 jobs in the last three years," he said. The driving economic growth is attributed to: • high oil prices - levels that encourage investment • innovative technology - hydraulic fracturing, deep water...

Harris County -- A Houston-area family is suing T.G.I. Friday’s after their 17-year-old daughter was raped by an employee at a restaurant in Webster. It happened on May 20, 2011 at the T.G.I. Friday’s located in the 19400 block of the Gulf, according to court documents. The lawsuit claims a then 17-year-old high school senior was raped at the T.G.I. Friday’s at an after-hours work party held by the general manager and other employees. The suit alleges the staffers had previously been partying at a topless bar and had gone to the restaurant to continue drinking after 2 a.m. Attorneys...

Charges have been filed against two men arrested Wednesday in a bizarre Webster case involving sexual assault, kidnapping and threatened murder. ... The teenaged boy [one of the hostages] somehow freed himself, got the family's handgun and confronted the intruders who fled.

If you drove by CITGO’s corporate headquarters yesterday you would have seen what many consider a disturbing sight. Many Houstonians are up in arms after driving by CITGO's Eldridge Parkway headquarters and noticing the U.S., Texas and Venezuelan flags being flown at half staff, and you let your feeling show on Matt Patrick's afternoon show. “I gave them a call, and the operator told me that it was in observance and respect of the death of Hugo Chavez,” Teddy told Matt Patrick on his afternoon show on The 9-5-0 yesterday. Teddy wasn’t satisfied with the company’s explanation. “I told the...

Houston homeowner returned home after dropping his wife off at work to find three teenage burglars in his house Wendesday, Feb. 27. The man was able to get to his rifle and held the three intruders until the police arrived. Randy Magdeleno arrived home at 8:30 a.m. and found the glass in his back door broken. He heard voices inside the house. A spate of burglaries in Houston has prompted many to take precautions, including Magdeleno who had left a rifle (an unloaded .22LR bolt-action) where he could get to it, just in case. And Magdeleno was able to get...

A suspect has been charged in a recent defacing of a mural of President Barack Obama near a popular midtown restaurant.

... "This is usually full of .22 up here. .45 and .40... "We used to sell 30,000 rounds a month of ammo and we’ve done that in a week, and sometimes even a day in ammo," James said. What little they do have is generally high end and there is a limit on all purchases: a three-box max or 150 rounds at a time. That’s for all types and all sizes. It’s not just one store. Ron Casady has been shopping for weeks. "I noticed online and everything is out of stock. Click add to cart. Sorry we are out...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's a good news update on a home ransacked and spray painted by a pair of teen burglars in northwest Houston. While the burglars are now in custody, community members and Marines stepped in to help the homeowner -- a 93-year-old World War II veteran. The Marines quickly marched into the defaced home of WWII veteran Elbert Wood, eager to help. "It's important that he knows we're here for him and that we're always his brothers," Major Roberto Rodriguez said. The presence of these local Marines is just one example of the outpouring of support for Wood...

It's being reported on KXAN.com noon news that multiple people shot at on Lone Star College in Houston, TX. It's a tech school.

The Black Heritage Society is sponsoring the 35th annual "Original" MLK Parade beginning at 10 a.m. on the corner of Texas and Jackson in downtown. Glorice McPherson, event coordinator for the Black Heritage Society, said the festivities will include an awards gala, a health fair, and a groundbreaking for a statue of MLK Jr. Charles Stamps, chairman and CEO for the MLK Parade Foundation, said the parade will have two battle of the bands contests this year instead of just one, as well as the youth parade.

I just wanted to ask you freeper's.. Some new hispanics moved in my neighbourhood 3 months ago. It is a man,wife, son 22 years old,daugher 9 years old. Their son likes to smoke weed and drinks beer sitting in his driveway in his suv. He smokes the weed in a way, it is hard to capture him on film doing it. He sits in his driveway next to my driveway and he has his music turned up in his suv as loud as it can be made to go up.My whole house shakes,rattles, it's boom,boom,boom.The other home owners are Hispanic...

The deceptively named “Cancer Project” animal-rights group is at it again. This time its target isn’t hot dog makers, but grilled-chicken servers. The group, a branch of the PETA-linked Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), filed a lawsuit in Connecticut yesterday against three restaurant chains demanding warnings about a supposed link between grilled chicken and cancer. As we told the media, PCRM is nothing more than an animal rights front for pushing vegan activism, which is funded primarily by a single rich donor. Since 2003, PCRM and the Cancer Project have derived 60 percent of their budgets from a...

PALOS HILLS, Ill. (AP) A local bank has closed a mosque's account after it donated money to an Islamic charity under federal investigation for allegedly helping terrorists. Family Bank and Trust Co. closed the account of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview after the mosque wrote two checks to the Islamic American Relief Agency, according to the mosque's imam, Sheikh Jamal Said. Mosque Foundation president Oussama Jamal said the mosque made its donations in August and September, before the federal government froze the charity's assets and raided its Missouri offices in October. The Treasury Department alleged Islamic American Relief was part...

Run>Hide>Fight. Your guide to surviving an active shooter event. This is a video the city of Houston put together on what to do should you (a citizen) run across an active shooter, such as the guy in the movie theater. They were just finishing it when the Colorado shootings occurred. If you haven’t seen it……it is well worth the watch and worth sharing with your family and friends as well. DHS sponsored video, worth watching. They sorta gloss over the gun free zone sign on the door. I'd be somewhat inclined to spray the fire extinguisher in the shooter's face,...

A woman died on an international flight Wednesday. The flight was American Airlines flight 962 and originated from Sao Paulo, Brazil. According to police, the 25-year-old woman made her way to the airplane’s lavatory then collapsed and died after walking from the lavatory. The plane was headed to the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport but was diverted to Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport; it landed around 6:30 a.m. Officials are scheduled to perform an autopsy on the woman who was not identified at the time of this report. After several hours later, the flight continued onto Dallas and landed there just before before...

Over the weekend, Houston Democrat Precinct Chair John Cobarruvias tweeted, "Can we now shoot the #NRA and everyone who defends them?" This, apparently, is part of what he calls "hard-hitting political commentary" on his blog "Bay Area Houston." Prior to the asinine tweet broaching the subject of shooting NRA members as a solution to gun violence, Cobarruvias had spent some of his "hard-hitting political commentary" mocking conservatives -- or as Cobarruvias himself put it, by "laughing and puking on GOP Tea Baggers."

BP has begun building a new supercomputing complex for commercial research that it claims will be the biggest in the world at its Westlake Campus in Houston, the company reported Friday. The project is designed to keep BP at the forefront of seismic imaging technology and, the firm said, will be a critical tool in its global hunt for oil and natural gas in coming years. The new High-Performance Computing (HPC) center, scheduled to open in mid-2013, will serve as a worldwide hub for processing and managing very large amounts of geological and seismic data from across BP's portfolio. It...

Even in name, Athena Gun Club doesn't come across as your average shooting range. Nor does it feel like one upon entering the airy lobby off the Katy Freeway, its spa-serene atmosphere belying what takes place behind soundproof walls until a visitor glances to the right or left to see a plentiful array of handguns, machine guns, rifles and Tasers on display. *snip* .. the largest gun range in Houston and the most expansive facility in the nation, with 26 indoor lanes that boast Action Target and digital retrieval systems, bullet traps, ammo recycling and an advanced ventilation system that...

HOUSTON, TX - Friday afternoon at an early polling place located at 6719 W. Montgomery Road in Houston, NAACP members were seen advocating for President Barack Obama according to volunteer poll watchers on location at the time. According to Eve Rockford, a poll watcher trained by voter integrity group True the Vote, three NAACP members showed up to the 139 precinct location with 50 cases of bottled water and began handing bottles out to people standing in line. While wearing NAACP labeled clothing, members were "stirring the crowd" and talking to voters about flying to Ohio to promote President Barack...

The poll watcher who said individuals in NAACP T-shirts took over a Houston polling site told TheBlaze Sunday that the “ringleader” of the group was also accused of touching an electronic voting machine that a voter was using.Eve Rockford said the woman in the NAACP attire first screamed at the poll supervisor and demanded that a clerk be removed during the Friday incident.“She starts screaming at [poll supervisor Rose Cochran] and she says ‘get this clerk out of here, get him out of here I’ve had enough of him,” Rockford, 51, told TheBlaze. “He starts calmly, using his voice, ‘she’s...

HOUSTON, TX - Friday afternoon at an early polling place located at 6719 W. Montgomery Road in Houston, NAACP members were seen advocating for President Barack Obama according to volunteer poll watchers on location at the time. According to Eve Rockford, a poll watcher trained by voter integrity group True the Vote, three NAACP members showed up to the 139 precinct location with 50 cases of bottled water and began handing bottles out to people standing in line. While wearing NAACP labeled clothing, members were "stirring the crowd" and talking to voters about flying to Ohio to promote President Barack...

Volunteer election poll watchers from True the Vote, the Houston-based nonpartisan election integrity group, are reporting that Houston’s NAACP chapter has taken over an election polling station. The full sworn statement of the True the Vote volunteer who claims to have witnessed the event is below: Incident Report Eve Rockford Precinct: 139 Polling location: Acres Home Multi Service 6719 W. Montgomery Road, Houston, TX 77091 County: Harris Poll Supervisor: Rose Cochran Asst. Supervisor: Bernard Guskie Clerk: Lawrence Simko, Marsha, Franchetta Pines, Dayan Cohen Offender: NAACP and Sylvester Turner Date and Times: 11/2/2012 2:25 and 5:25 At 2:25 the NAACP 3...

Three hours after early voting "closing time" in Harris County, people in line by 7 p.m. were still waiting to vote. Two polling locations remained open after 10 p.m.: the Franz Road Storefront in Katy and the Bayland Park Community Center on Bissonnet. At least six other voting locations remained open hours past 7 p.m., including West Gray, Acres Homes, Alief, Jersey Village, Champion Forest and Cypress..... ....As of 10:04 p.m., 700,019 ballots had been cast in the two weeks of early voting at the county's 37 locations.....

The Chronicle's backing of Barack Obama in 2008 broke a 44-year string of endorsing Republican candidates for president. Like so many others, we were captivated by the Illinois senator's soaring rhetoric and energized by his promise to move American politics beyond partisan gridlock and into an era of hope and change. It hasn't happened. Four years later, President Obama's deeds have failed to match his words, much less his specific vows to cut the national debt by half and bring the nation's unemployment rate to 6 percent. As Texans, it is a particular vexation that this president's attitude toward the...

Shirley Simmons was pulled over last month for speeding in a school zone near her grandson's south Houston campus. When she got home, put on her glasses and closely read the ticket, she discovered two incorrect charges: failure to display a valid Texas driver's license and lack of insurance. She went to two nearby Houston Police Department stations, but was directed to the traffic division downtown. After a supervisor spoke with her and the officer, the two extra violations were removed. She still must go to court later this month for driving 5 miles-per-hour over the limit. But Simmons, a...

Videographer James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas caught an official for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign helping who she thought was an Obama supporter set herself up to vote more than once in November. Stephanie Caballero is the regional field director for Obama’s Organizing For America in Houston, Texas. Federal Election Commission documents show, according to Project Veritas, that Caballero is a “salaried employee of the DNC [Democratic National Committee].” Caballero is caught on camera helping the young woman try to vote in Florida and Texas in the upcoming election.

A man who snapped photos of a brewing storm last month received a visit Friday from an FBI Agent, inquiring why he would want to take such photos. Michael Galindo explained that he was simply volunteering for the National Weather Service. And FBI Agent David Pileggi seemed to be satisfied with that response. But Galindo was left wondering whether he now has a permanent FBI file. “He told me, ‘you’re not a threat and you are doing a public service but just be careful next time,’” Galindo said in a telephone interview with Photography is Not a Crime. The problem...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/houston/press-releases/2012/russian-agent-and-10-other-members-of-procurement-network-for-russian-military-and-intelligence-operating-in-the-u.s.-and-russia-indicted-in-new-york Russian Agent and 10 Other Members of Procurement Network for Russian Military and Intelligence Operating in the U.S. and Russia Indicted in New York Defendants Also Include Texas- and Russia-Based Corporations; 165 Persons and Companies ‘Designated’ by Commerce Department U.S. Attorney’s Office October 03, 2012 BROOKLYN, NY—An indictment was unsealed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging 11 members of a Russian military procurement network operating in the United States and Russia, as well as a Texas-based export company and a Russia-based procurement firm, with illegally...

AMAZING young lady ( Philippine ancestry) Nails Whitney Houston in Grocery Store Karaoke. Must see!

Houston area investigators are looking into a stand-your-ground case where after a minor fender-bender, a 22-year-old white male was shot and killed by a 23-year-old black woman. During a morning commute, Crystal Scott and Jonathan Ables were in an accident and pulled into a Shell gasoline station to survey the damage...

Despite an unusual plea for leniency from Houston's city controller, five-time felon and swindler Dwayne Jordon was handed a 30-year sentence Friday after admitting to stealing 23 properties from rightful owners by forging deeds and building new homes on pilfered land. He then resold the properties to unsuspecting victims. Harris County District Judge David Mendoza said he weighed competing factors to find a "sentence that fit the crime." He said he considered Jordon's construction work on stolen and legitimate lots in a blighted neighborhood, evidence of his continuing scams while free on bond and Jordon's role as a father and...

KFCs in Houston are now serving meat slaughtered under Sharia Law. The practice of Halal is said to be a much slower, calmer process which begins with a prayer for the animal. Some say this discriminates against non-Muslims. But Paul Shapiro, Vice President for Farm Animal Protection at the Humane Society of the U.S. simply calls it inhumane. "Animals have their throats cut without being rendered unconscious prior to the cutting," says Shapiro. "That's unlike other types of more conventional slaughter where an effort is supposed to be made to render the animals insensible to pain." Rasheed Ahmed with the...

April 14, 1999, Wednesday COMMITTEE HEARING SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS: SUBCOMMITTEE ON NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTH U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS) HOLDS HEARING ON THE CRISIS IN AFGANISTAN  WASHINGTON, D.C. SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS), CHAIRMAN U.S. SENATOR JOHN ASHCROFT (R-MO) U.S. SENATOR GORDON H. SMITH (R-OR) U.S. SENATOR ROD GRAMS (R-MN) U.S. SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS (R-WY) U.S. SENATOR PAUL DAVID WELLSTONE (D-MN), RANKING MEMBER U.S. SENATOR ROBERT G. TORRICELLI (D-NJ) U.S. SENATOR PAUL S. SARBANES (D-MD) U.S. SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD (D-CT) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA) THE HONORABLE KARL F. INDERFURTH ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOUTH ...

DHS-funded video gives tips to survive a shooter. http://www.federalnewsradio.com/473/2966001/DHS-funded-video-gives-tips-to-su... After last week's shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., the city of Houston has released a how-to video on surviving a shooter event. The video was created with funds from the Homeland Security Department. "I can't imagine the horror and grief. If it is at all possible for any good to come out of it, perhaps it can be letting people know the options to consider if it happens again," said Mayor Annise Parker in a statement. Entitled "Run, Hide, Fight," the video depicts a fictional shooting incident at...

Mourners for a man who was killed in a shooting earlier this month apparently beat up a man they thought was intruding on their loved one's funeral early Friday afternoon in northwest Houston. The attack occurred at the Paradise Funeral Home at 10401 West Montgomery while family and friends were holding a service for Claude Kibbie. Kibbie died July 26, a day after he had been shot in the head while driving away from an argument in the 9500 block of Trudy. Police said at the time they had no suspect or motive in the case. Mourners at the funeral...

Houston area police were involved in the cutest police chase ever this morning when a Smart Convertible led cops around the highways outside the city. Awwwwww! The Smart has a top speed of 90 MPH, so we aren't yet ready to call this a high speed chase. The driver was arrested without any issues after he pulled off the highway and into a driveway. There's no word on what he did wrong, other than drive a Smart Cabriolet in public. While not confirmed, we're hearing it was towed away from the scene by a local child with a big wheel.

The phone rang before sunrise. It woke Craig Patty, owner of a tiny North Texas trucking company, to vexing news about Truck 793 - a big red semi supposedly getting repairs in Houston. "Your driver was shot in your truck," said the caller, a business colleague. "Your truck was loaded with marijuana. He was shot eight times while sitting in the cab. Do you know anything about your driver hauling marijuana?" "What did you say?" Patty recalled asking. "Could you please repeat that?" The truck, it turned out, had been everywhere but in the repair shop. Commandeered by one of...

Full Headline: 'Run, hide, fight': Homeland Security releases public service video on how to get to safety and survive a mass shooting Following last Friday's mass casualty shooting in Aurora, Colorado, the City of Houston has released an instructional video on what to do in case of a similar emergency. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the city hopes that the video can help people prepare people for the worst. Entitled Run.Hide.Fight. Surviving an Active Shooter Event, it depicts a fictional shooting incident in a crowded office building. In the six-minute video, a narrator warns that all shooter events...

Work crews clearing the land for the Grand Parkway expansion have made a surprising discovery -- human remains which are being described as 'prehistoric.' The remains were found in the stretch of land known as Grand Parkway segment E. The Grand Parkway segment between I-10 and Highway 290 has been under construction for nearly a year. Last month, in advance of bulldozers moving in, a state archeologist working on the project found something not unexpected for those who seek out the past -- a handful of bones dating back to prehistory. "I know it's a rare find, but knowing this...

Deep oil industry roots will keep Houston’s energy-driven economy powering forward over the next half century as the world continues to demand hydrocarbons, a University of Houston professor said during remarks at the Houston Chronicle. Speaking to journalists during the latest in a series of Chronicle editorial lectures with Houston experts, UH History Prof. Joe Pratt said there was no question where the energy capital has been or will be in decades to come. “It is still us,” Pratt said, citing the expected dominance of oil and gas in the world energy market through much of the next century. The...

  Lawyers for several groups which are opposing the state's voter i.d bill have raised their estimate of how many otherwise eligible Texas voters would not be able to cast ballots if the law were implemented, 1200 WOAI news reports.   Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Westfall, representing the Justice Department, told a federal appeals court panel in Washington that 'as many as 1.4 million people' lack the appropriate government issued i.d. needed to vote under the Texas law.   That is up from the 600,000 people that Attorney General Eric Holder said would be 'disenfranchised' if the law is implemented.   Westfall gave...