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Most signs point to an improving COVID-19 situation in Texas—unless you consider the recently questionable elevated test positivity rate that’s keeping us from reopening. On Aug. 13, Texas reported 6,879 hospitalized COVID-19 patients statewide, the lowest number since June 30. And on that day, the Texas Medical Center in Houston had its 27th consecutive day of decline of the seven-day trend of daily COVID-19 patients hospitalized, with the average of hospitalizations being almost half of their peak. Texas’s seven-day average of new daily COVID-19 cases on August 13 was 38% off its July 14 peak. Those are good signs but...

This week, the Harris County Commissioner’s Court met to discuss the possibility of raising taxes next year. The reason? “People need more of us,” according to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Judge Hidalgo is partially right—people are in need. The government lockdown and oil market chaos has unleashed a wave of human suffering. Consider that the Houston MSA’s unemployment rate is 9.9 percent today; that 400,000 people filed jobless claims from March to June; and that food banks are still under siege. What’s more, major industries specific to the region—like energy, medicine, and aviation—are struggling to turn a profit. But...

The charges, which grew out of a lethal 2019 raid based on a fraudulent search warrant affidavit, suggest that cops routinely built their cases on lies.A Harris County, Texas, grand jury has confirmed the criminal charges against six former Houston narcotics officers that District Attorney Kim Ogg announced on July 1, while adding two more counts against one of the defendants. The 17 felony charges include falsification of search warrants, fraudulent reports of drug purchases, and phony overtime claims. The indictments, which were issued on Friday, reflect the shady practices and lax supervision that enabled veteran Houston police officer Gerald...

Yesterday, Instagram obscured a video from the superstar’s account for touting a conspiracy theory that claims a cure for the coronavirus has “been found and proven and has been available for months.” “They would rather let fear control the people and let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” the caption read for the 61-year-old pop icon’s 15 million followers. The censored clip features Dr. Stella Immanuel, a primary-care physician based in Houston, Texas, and major figure in the so-called “America’s Frontline Doctors” video, which has already been removed from major social-media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube and Facebook....

Last week, the US ordered the closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston, accusing Chinese diplomats there of turning the facility into an illegal spying hub. However, according to a report this week, San Francisco and New York consulates are the central locales for Chinese spying operations in the United States. The order was made to “protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information,” a US National Security Council spokesperson said at the time. The problem, however, is that the Houston, Texas-based consulate is not the Communist nation’s primary hub for espionage. The Chinese Communist Party operates two major hotspots...

(photos available at website) In response to evidence of China’s intensified spying on the United States, the State Department has retaliated by expelling China’s consulate from its Houston premises, one of five across the nation. The U.S. has also delayed returning U.S. diplomats to China. To this measured, nonviolent answer to a national-security threat, progressives like Houston-based State Rep. Gene Wu (D-137th District) are venting their outrage. When called out on social media by this webzine and others for blaming America and shilling for the Chinese government, Wu and his allies have called eviction supporters extremists, warmongers, and—as if on...

[W]hat’s easy, when it comes to race, is pretending to be outraged about commonly used words. At the Los Angeles Times, for instance, an editor has said the word “looters,” which has been used many times in the paper, now has “a pejorative and racist connotation” and that anyone who is inclined to use the word should “talk to your immediate supervisor.” Translation: Best not use the word at all, if you want to stay employed. In Houston, a Realtors association announced it would no longer use terms such as “master bedroom” or “master bathroom” not because any sane person...

The Midland County Commissioners’ Court on Monday will hear a presentation from the Odessa doctor who claims to have found a “silver bullet” in the fight against coronavirus. The opportunity to speak during Commissioners’ Court will give Dr. Richard Bartlett, a family physician in Odessa, a platform to present his findings, according to County Judge Terry Johnson. Bartlett has touted an inhaled form of budesonide, a steroid often used to treat asthma, as a cure for the virus in several interviews with the news media. Commissioner Randy Prude said he asked Bartlett to give a presentation during the meeting because...

U.S. officials pried open the doors of the Chinese consulate in Houston on Friday and took over the building shortly after Chinese officials vacated the facility on orders from the Trump Administration. Federal officials and local law enforcement surrounded the Houston facility Friday afternoon as the Chinese officials moved out of the building that the Trump Administration contends was a hub of spy activity by the Chinese Communist Party. Forty minutes after the 4 p.m. eviction deadline passed, U.S. officials broke into a back door of the consulate and a man believed to be a State Department official led the...

Washington (CNN) - US federal agents and local law enforcement entered the Chinese consulate compound in Houston Friday afternoon following Tuesday's order to close the diplomatic facility after US officials alleged it was part of a larger Chinese espionage effort using diplomatic facilities around the US. A series of black SUVs, trucks, two white vans and a locksmith's van entered the property as a crowd of observers and news cameras observed from the edge of the diplomatic compound. US officials speaking to reporters Friday said the consulate had been implicated in a fraud investigation at a Texas research institution and...

Beijing has ordered one of the U.S. consulates in China to shut down, in an apparent retaliation against Washington over its decision to close down the Chinese consulate in Houston.China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, the capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan Province. In a statement issued on its website on Friday, the Ministry said it informed the U.S. Embassy about its decision on Friday morning.Currently, the United States has six diplomatic outposts in China, an embassy in the capital Beijing, and five consulates. The five are located in the Chinese cities...

It's always ominous when a diplomatic mission destroys documents. Whatever the reason behind China's frantic purge at its Houston consulate, it isn't good. A dramatic scene unveiled Tuesday night when it was reported that personnel at the Consulate General of China in Houston were burning documents in its courtyard. Nearby residents reported seeing and smelling smoke in the air. Houston police and firemen rushed to the building but weren’t allowed to go inside.It is always an ominous sign when a diplomatic mission starts destroying documents. This scene is reminiscent of a similar event that took place on December 7, 1941,...

According to Asia analyst Gordon Chang, the Chinese consulate in Houston, recently ordered closed by the state department, may have been clandestinely supporting various protest groups in the United States with the goal of stoking racial violence. Chinese consulates across the country have come under renewed scrutiny in recent months as several high-profile hacking jobs targeting Americans were exposed. Just recently, two college-age hackers were arrested by the FBI and charged with several cybercrimes.The Chinese consulates in America have become nests of spies and saboteurs, so it shouldn’t surprise us that they are carrying out directives of the Chinese Communist...

The U.S. has ordered China to close its Houston consulate in order to protect American intellectual property and American’s private information.. China calls the action a provocation that violates international law. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Wednesday that the U.S. had abruptly demanded the previous day that the consulate cease all operations. He said that China strongly condemns “such an outrageous and unjustified move that will sabotage China-U.S. relations.” The U.S. State Department issued the following statement: The Vienna Convention states diplomats must “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State” and “have a duty not to...

For the past several weeks, Americans have been inundated with media reporting of Periclean encomiums for violent convicts and drug addicts who died while resisting being arrested for yet another violation of the law. Surely the American media and politicians have stepped through the looking glass when the police are criminals, criminals are victims, and crime victims - well they are not worth talking about in the whole scheme of things. No, the only thing that is important is that Black lives matter - and even then they count only when they are killed by white police officers, but not...

China is moving to close the US consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu in retaliation for the forced closure of the Chinese diplomatic facility in Houston on Tuesday, according to a source briefed on the decision. Washington maintains five consulates on the Chinese mainland – in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu and Wuhan – as well as a consulate general for Hong Kong and Macau. The closure of the Chengdu facility is expected to escalate tensions between China and the US... Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, said China would take countermeasures but that closing the Wuhan...

Individuals in the China Consulate in Houston were filmed burning documents after being ordered shut down by the US government for accused efforts of espionage taking place there. The Chicago Tribune reported this morning: The United States said Wednesday that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property” and the private information of Americans.China strongly condemned the move, the latest in a series of steps by the Trump administration as it ratchets up pressure on the world’s second-largest economy over trade, technology, human rights and security. Firefighters responded to reports of papers...

The United States on July 22 said it ordered the Chinese consulate in Houston to close, according to State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.“The United States will not tolerate the PRC’s violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we have not tolerated the PRC’s unfair trade practices, theft of American jobs, and other egregious behavior. President Trump insists on fairness and reciprocity in U.S.-China relations,” Ortagus said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.“We have directed the closure of PRC consulate general Houston, in order to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information.”Ortagus did...

MLB is giving players the option of wearing BLM patches on their jerseys? Knock yourselves out as I won't be watching....ever again

The Chinese Foreign Ministry is vowing to retaliate in a dramatic escalation of tensions after it said the United States had demanded Beijing close its consulate in Houston. Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US made the demand on Tuesday and described the US move as “unprecedented escalation”. Wang said the Chinese embassy and consulates in the US had received both explosives and death threats recently. “China demands the US revoke the wrong decision. If the US went ahead, China would take necessary counter measures,” Wang said. Wang’s disclosure came after Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of The Global Times, said on...