Free Republic

Strange things are afoot in the South Texas oil patch and in the sky above...cellphone video, taken by worker Xavier Garza, shows a reddish-orange orb in the northern sky. Witnesses say the camera didn't pick up a dozen more lights that appeared and reappeared several times, typically hovering in formation. It happened two nights in a row. And last week, a photo surfaced on the website of the Mutual UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) Network, a volunteer group that investigates UFO claims, purportedly taken at a well site in the same stretch of the Eagle Ford. Allegedly taken from a security...

Charles Hauboldt, a Texas funeral home owner, wants nothing more than to see his Houston Texans bury the Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl drive at this Sunday’s big game at M&T Bank Stadium. He’ll get his chance as the winning bidder for a playoff ticket auctioned by a Texas Catholic priest and rabid Ravens’ fan. Hauboldt’s high bid of $2,115 won him the ticket, a flight to Baltimore, lodging and ground transportation – not to mention the chance to sit next to Trinitarian Father Stan DeBoe, the man who put the ticket up for grabs. The money will be used to...

Call it Niall Ferguson's Pauline Kael moment . . . During the roundtable segment this morning on ABC's This Week, Ferguson, an academic with appointments at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford, said that "all the Texans I know" can't stand Rick Perry. Ferguson was reacting to host Christiane Amanpour's question about Perry's highly-animated New Hampshire address. Ferguson professed to like the "swaggering Texan" side of Perry he apparently saw in the speech. George Will had a caustic comeback. View the video here.

Christopher Hitchens said that his 'time' is coming as he made his first public appearance in months...The controversial writer and fervent atheist, who is suffering from oesophagus cancer, attended the Atheist Alliance of America conference in Texas where he was presented an award by Richard Dawkins. The 62-year-old said that he had been determined to attend the conference because of the state's Bible Belt devotion. Receiving the Richard Dawkins Freethinker of the Year Award, Hitchens looked gaunt and his voice was soft. ... During his speech Hitchens said that he appreciated the fact that Texas governor Rick Perry had been...

More Texans disapprove of Rick Perry’s performance as governor than approve of his work for them, a new poll finds. Forty-five percent of Texas voters have a positive view of Perry’s job performance while 48 percent disapprove, according to the latest poll of Texas voters released by Public Policy Polling today: . The good news for Perry: The Republican presidential contender has finally moved ahead of President Obama in the Lone Star State, 51 percent to 44 percent, after trailing the Democratic incumbent a month ago.

Do you live in Texas, but hate governor Rick Perry? Do you love coyotes and hate concealed weapons and lower taxes? Well the Obama campaign is anxious to hear from you. "Your feedback will help hold him (Perry) accountable on the campaign trail, inspire fellow Texans to get involved, and introduce his record -- his actual record -- to voters across the country," Hector Nieto, the campaign's Texas director, told Texas supporters in an email blast today. "Your words will remind him that even as he runs, he won't be able to hide --

Texas Gov. Rick Perry sounds more like a presidential candidate by the day. This weekend he gave a rousing speech at the Republican Leadership Conference in which he blasted the Obama administration as a bunch of smarty-pants busy-bodies. “They clearly think they know best,” said Governor Perry. “And let me tell you, I vehemently disagree. They don’t know best.” As he kept speaking he was interrupted by audience members chanting “Run Rick, Run!” But here’s a question: Is it too late for Gov. Perry to throw his drawl into the ring? It gets late early when it comes to running...

Badass ole Stevie, I miss him...

Authorities are still searching for a Rio Grande City woman after busting a Starr County-based gun ring. A federal grand jury indicted Jeniffer Lopez and nine others on federal firearms charges last week. U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives (ATF) agents arrested two ringleaders and seven suspects but 28-year-old Lopez remains at large. The group is accused of “straw purchasing” about 60 high-powered handguns and assault rifles between December 2008 and April 2009. Straw purchasing is buying a gun for a criminal or someone else. The federal crime is punishable up to five years in prison. Court records...

Four Houston Texans were named to the 2010 AFC/NFC Pro Bowl, the NFL announced today....

Playoff Hopes Still Alive With One Week to Play I facetiously told a friend ago that I had a better chance of nabbing a Pulitzer Prize than the Texans had of making the playoffs after losing their fourth in a row and falling to 5-7 a few weeks back. But after watching how the stars have seemingly lined-up perfectly in favor of the Texans over the past few weeks, maybe a trip to Columbia University during the month of May just might be in the cards for me after all someday.

Playoffs Hopes Remote With Four Games Remaining The Houston Texas had one major objective heading into the 2009 season: Playoffs or bust. With a 5-7 record and four games to remaining, I guess it’s pretty safe to say the 2009 season has been a colossal bust.

It was Charles Dickens who once wrote “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” It’s almost as though Mr. Dickens had privy to a time machine and was in attendance to witness the same pain and agony that Texan’s fans saw first hand on Sunday after noon at Reliant Stadium.

The sound of the air being knocked out of the guts of over 71,000 people all at once is devastating. It’s the sound that ended the Monday Night Football battle between the Titans and Texans as Kris Brown missed his second field goal of the night.

Young’s confidence is now at an all time high. Plus, he’ll be even more motivated by the fact that home in Houston was where he was hoping to stay after being bypassed by the Texans’ brass during the 2006 draft. Young then took out his revenge in tantalizing form, as he raced through the middle of the field to lead his Titans to an overtime victory during his Reliant Stadium debut .To further heighten the humiliation that game, there was a deafening roar of the crowd cascading though Reliant Stadium as though it were a Texans’ player who had scored...

No one knows for sure what the outcome of the game would have been if Kris Brown's field goal attempt would have been good as time expired in Indianapolis on Sunday. But we do know that the game would have been extended to overtime; and the way the Texans’ offense was clicking, chances are, they probably would have found the end zone.

Heading into Sunday’s match up against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Texans had posted two wins this season against teams with a combined record of 1-9. Beating a red-hot Bengals team, who were riding a four game winning streak, would certainly be a needed shot in the arm, and a great way to silence critics who claim that this is indeed another Texans team going nowhere soon. Heart wrenching losses and erratic decision making over the past few weeks have certainly heightened that uncertainty, and falling to 2-4 would have placed the team in a very precarious position, but Matt Schaub...

Inches short and a half too late would be the best way to sum up the Texans’ latest loss. Down by a touchdown and three tries from just outside the Cardinals' 1-yard line, the Texans were in what appeared to be a perfect situation to tie up the game and take their chances in overtime.

Reliant Stadium --- Stocked with a lineage of Hall-of Fame players, three Super Bowl championships and a reputation of intimidating its opponents like no other team in history, the Oakland Raiders were once a revered NFL franchise. Since their Super Bowl appearance after the 2001 season, the Raiders have won fewer games than any other team and are now the laughingstock of the league.

It was supposed to be the beginning of something special here in Houston. After slaying the mighty Titans on the road last week, most Texans fans felt as though their franchise had finally turned the corner. The organization even tagged Sunday’s homecoming as “Battle Red Day.” With a history of routinely dispatching the suddenly-struggling Jacksonville Jaguars, and the inept Raiders heading into town next week, a 3-1 start to the season appeared to be all but a done deal. But as the venerable Lee Corso of ESPN frequently quips: not so fast my friend!

oft and uninspired, were a couple of the terms used to describe the play of the Texans after the loss to the Jets last week during the season opener. Some fans were even calling for a coaching change after the debacle, hoping the Texans brass would keep the telephone numbers of Bill Cower and Tony Dungy on speed dial. Things can really change fast in one week. Despite being down by 14 points in the second quarter and unable to establish any sort of running game, the Houston Texans earned perhaps its most monumental win in team history with a...

It was all set up so perfectly. The NFL schedule gods gift-wrapped a home game featuring a rookie quarterback--- who by the way had only started 16 college games--- to feast upon for the much-anticipated season opener in front of the Texans faithful. After all, this is supposed to be the season where the franchise had finally turned the corner; a season that on paper, is considered to be the best team ever fielded by the Texans organization, after a solid draft and a myriad of off-season moves. There is no way a team slated to challenge for supremacy in...

Pathetic. Atrocious. Embarrassing. Disgusting. Feel free at any time to add your own negative adjective to describe the Houston Texans performance on Sunday in the season opener against the New York Jets at Reliant Stadium. The 70,718 fans in attendance, mostly wearing white at the Texans request, should get a refund. Now we all understand that this was just one game, but enough is enough. Every year we get so excited and believe this is our year, just to have to sit there and watch a terrible product on the field. Under head coach Gary Kubiak, the Texans are beginning...

Are there any more frightening words in all of football than “Rex Grossman is your starting quarterback”? I can’t think of any, except maybe, “Hi, I’m Michael Vick. Mind if I walk your dog?” Yes, the Texans are down to this, Rex Grossman, starting at QB. Matt “I’ve got a boo-boo” Schaub sat out the final preseason game, which in and of itself is not a big deal, but given Schaub’s history of missed games due to injury it leaves the mind to ponder the horror of watching Rex Grossman start four or five or six games for the Texans....

Reliant Stadium - It took Adrian Peterson just under eight seconds to scamper 75 yards on the game’s first play to put Minnesota up 7-0. It also took just under eight seconds for the NFL’s best running back to leave the Texan’s coaching staff with a pounding headache as they frantically search for answers as to how best shore up their porous defensive. The only good thing about Monday’s 17-10 lost to the Vikings is the fact that it is still only the preseason. Granted, the hysteria surrounding the Brett Favre circus provided the ambiance of a playoff-type atmosphere at...

ANO, Texas - A police officer was put on desk duty after pulling over an NFL player rushing to see his dying mother-in-law in the hospital and holding him in the hospital parking lot as she died. Dallas police officer Robert Powell stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats' SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center during the early hours of March 18 after Moats rolled through a red light. Moats and his family had gotten a call saying his mother-in-law was dying. Video from a dashboard camera inside the officer's vehicle, obtained by Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV, revealed an intense...

NEW YORK (AP) _ Unless the courts intervene, the Minnesota Vikings will have to make their stretch run at the NFC North title without their two stalwart defensive tackles. Kevin and Pat Williams, who have anchored a Minnesota defense ranked second in the NFL against the run, were among six players suspended by the league on Tuesday for violating the league's anti-doping policy. New Orleans Saints Deuce McAllister, Charles Grant and Will Smith also were suspended along with Bryan Pittman, the Houston Texans' long snapper.

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...

Some Texans are afraid of losing their land to the Trans-Texas Corridor while others loathe the thought of a quarter-mile-wide swath of toll roads and railway lines transforming the countryside into a superhighway. People continue to turn out in droves at public meetings concerning the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor proposal, specifically the portion known as the TTC-69 proposed from Brownsville to Texarkana. A meeting Monday, Jan. 28, at the fairgrounds in Austin County was no exception, drawing more than 1,000 people. Opposition to the proposed corridor has come from people in all walks of life, said Chris Steinbach, chief of staff...

HOUSTON (AP) - The Houston Texans agreed to terms with free agent running back Ahman Green on Sunday. The 30-year-old former Green Bay Packer will likely become the starter for a team that struggled at the position last season after Domanick Williams - formerly Davis - missed the year with knee problems. Green will be introduced at a 1 p.m. news conference in Houston on Monday, said Texans vice president of communications Tony Wyllie. Terms of the contract were not immediately available.

Macquarie to buy newspaper chain; critics fear it's to silence Trans-Texas Corridor opponents. One of the foreign firms leasing the Indiana Toll Road is drawing suspicion from some Texans after announcing plans to acquire a chain of small newspapers there. Australia-based Macquarie Media Group last week said it will pay $80 million for American Consolidated Media, which publishes 40 community newspapers and shopping publications serving nine communities in Texas and Oklahoma. Macquarie's sister company, Macquarie Infrastructure Group, last year joined with the Spanish conglomerate Cintra to lease the Indiana Toll Road for the next 75 years. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels...

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico - U.S. and Mexican authorities are searching for three Americans and two Mexicans kidnapped by dozens of armed men who swarmed a Mexican hunting ranch near the U.S. border. Witnesses told police that 30 to 40 armed men entered the La Barranca ranch late Sunday and took the five men. The ranch, used for deer hunting, is located near the Mexican town of Hidalgo, about 40 miles northwest of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, Texas, late Tuesday identified the Americans as Librado Pina Jr., 49, who owned the ranch, and his...

11,000-year-old Texans are stars of the Bosque Museum 01:31 PM CST on Friday, November 17, 2006 By MARY G. RAMOS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News A special new exhibit at the Bosque Museum in Clifton, Texas, features the lives of some extremely early Texans. Prehistoric people (called Paleo-Americans by archaeologists) lived in a cave shelter on the western bank of the Brazos River a bit downstream from the Lake Whitney Dam in Bosque County about 11,000 years ago. Paleo-Americans were using the 150-foot by 30-foot shelter before ancient Egyptian civilization began. A Texas archaeologist discovered the shelter,...

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers traded running back Samkon Gado to the Houston Texans on Wednesday for another young running back, Vernand Morency. The trade is pending both players passing physicals with their new team. The Texans have been looking for reinforcements at running back since Domanick Davis, the franchise's leading rusher, was placed on the injured reserve two weeks ago. Houston claimed 1999 Heisman Trophy Winner Ron Dayne off waivers after he was released by Denver last week. Coach Gary Kubiak said he made the trade for Gado because he wanted to add a big, power...

Texans put on border watch By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles (Filed: 03/06/2006) An American state is installing security cameras linked to the internet along its 1,000-mile Mexican border to enable citizens to monitor illegal immigration and drug smuggling from their homes. The armchair border patrol will be given a free telephone number to alert authorities to any criminal activity they see. Texas is investing $5 million (£2.65 million) in the "virtual border watch". Rick Perry, the state governor, said it would deploy surveillance cameras with night vision at "criminal hot spots and common routes used to enter this country"....

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2006 – This July, two military men plan to become the 16th and 17th Americans to swim the Strait of Gibraltar, raising funds in the process for troops disabled in recent action overseas. David Broyles and Rush Vann of Austin, Texas, expect to swim the 12.5 miles of Mediterranean waters from the southern coast of Spain to Morocco to help draw public support for America's wounded heroes, according to a press release. "As a pararescueman in Iraq, my job was to save lives," Broyles said in an open letter. "I'm no longer in Iraq and I'm no...

A 2004 British documentary called Turning Muslim in Texas has resurfaced in a big way on the Internet, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers for its account of white Texans who grew up Christian but now practice Islam. Almost whimsical in tone, the 23-minute documentary portrays its handful of subjects as patriotic and politically conservative, and fond of pursuits that Brits associate with Texas – shopping, firing guns and going to football games.

There was speculation Casserly would be fired in the wake of the Texans' 2-14 season and their controversial choice for the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. "I have an interest in doing other things right now," he said. "This was not an easy decision, but it was a decision I felt I had to make at this point in time." The Texans passed over Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and hometown favorite Vince Young to take defensive end Mario Williams with the top choice in last month's draft. Many fans were outraged, but Texans owner Bob McNair said...

How much trouble is a number worth? Reggie Bush, projected as the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, thinks it's at least worth petitioning the league. "I want to see if I can keep No. 5," Bush told ESPN The Magazine on the set of a Subway commercial he was shooting in Los Angeles. The former USC running back and 2005 Heisman Trophy winner has been wearing that jersey number since high school. NFL rules, however, don't allow for running backs to take that number -- 33 years ago the league adopted a numbering system to make it easier...

HONOLULU -- In a move that could augur the selection of Southern California tailback Reggie Bush as the first overall pick in the 2006 draft, league sources here for the Pro Bowl confirmed late Thursday that the Houston Texans have exercised a "buy back" clause in quarterback David Carr's contract, paying him an $8 million bonus to secure his services for three more seasons. The Texans, who announced the extension Friday in a news release, did not provide details, but called a 2 p.m. news conference to discuss the deal. Retaining the four-year veteran quarterback, who would have become eligible...

HOUSTON – Hurricane Rita closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast and the heart of the U.S. oil-refining industry with howling 145 mph winds Thursday, but a sharper-than-expected turn to the right set it on a course that could spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit. The storm's march toward land sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the nation's fourth-largest city in a frustratingly slow, bumper-to-bumper exodus. "This is the worst planning I've ever seen," said Judie Anderson, who covered just 45 miles in 12 hours after setting out from her home in the Houston suburb of LaPorte....

HOUSTON (AP) - C.C. Brown has more worries than most NFL rookies. While he learns plays and competes for a spot with the Houston Texans, thoughts of Afghanistan are never far away. As a member of the Mississippi National Guard, the sixth-round draft pick could be called for duty at any time. He and his best friend, Darrell Sproles, grew up poor in Greenwood, Miss., and enlisted together as seniors in high school because they saw it as their only way out. Now Sproles is in Afghanistan and Brown, a strong safety, is trying to make the most of his...

National Football League News Wire The following stories are the most recent transmissions from ESPN.com wire sources Sunday, August 14, 2005Ex-NFL player Robbins arrested on marijuana charge - AP (1:47 PM ET)Panthers, at almost 100 percent, are excited after preseason win - AP (1:25 PM ET) Raiders assistant taken to hospital after fainting on sideline - AP (2:08 AM ET)UNDATED: yards receiving. - AP (1:39 AM ET) Saturday, August 13, 2005NFL Preseason Capsules - AP (11:38 PM ET) Schottenheimer sticking with errant kicker Kaeding - AP (10:15 PM ET)Panthers retire Mills' jersey at halftime - AP (9:50 PM ET)Without Owens,...

3 March 1836: Travis' Report and Appeal for Aid for the Alamo. On the night of 3 Mar, Travis sent out the last message from the besieged Alamo with courier John W. Smith. He penetrated enemy lines with the message from Travis to the Texas Independence Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos which describes the situation at the Alamo in detail: In the present confusion of the political authorities of the country, and in the absence of the commander in chief, I beg leave to communicate to you the situation of this garrison. You have doubtless already seen my official report of the...

"March 2, 1836 dawned, frigid and gray; cutting winds blew through glassless windows. Texians - as they styled themselves - huddled close, pulled blankets tight, and gave birth to a dream." -- Dr. Stephen L. Hardin, professor of history, The Victoria College That dream of which Dr. Hardin recently spoke so eloquently was that of a free Texas, a shining Republic answering to no one but its own elected representatives, and formed from the ground up by the blood, sweat and tears of a rough-hewn bunch of frontiersmen who would die willingly to stake claim to the Texas clay beneath...

Sunday, October 3, 2004 Houston Texans vs. Oakland Raiders 12:00 Noon Kickoff, Reliant Stadium The goal of the Houston Texans Hispanic Heritage Day presented by MOTOROLA, is to create a special and diverse event that celebrates the importance of Hispanic heritage and increases awareness to our Hispanic Raving Fans. Mango Punch performed during last year's Hispanic Heritage celebration. This year will mark our third annual Texans Hispanic Heritage Day and in the past this event has served as a historic moment for the Houston Texans, our city and a model for professional sports. As part of Hispanic Heritage Day, the...

MSNBC is reporting that "Texan’s for Truth" is going to be offering a $50,000 reward for "irrefutable proof" that President Bush completed his National Guard service obligations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A television writer and fund-raiser for John Kerry is the first six-figure donor to a new group that is criticizing President Bush's National Guard service during the Vietnam War. Daniel O'Keefe, a writer/producer whose work includes such sitcoms as "The Drew Carey Show" and "Seinfeld," donated $100,000 this week to Texans for Truth, an Austin-based group that plans to run anti-Bush television ads starting Monday. The group spent about $100,000 on its first ad buy, an anti-Bush commercial that starts Monday in the presidential battleground states Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. In addition to his Texans...

Mystery still surrounds E. Texans' arsenal By LISA FALKENBERG Associated Press Jan. 24, 2004, 10:39AM NOONDAY -- William Krar and Judith Bruey built an arsenal in three rented storage units in this rural East Texas town and federal authorities still don't know why. A federal raid in April 2003 found nearly half a million rounds of ammunition, more than 60 pipe bombs, machine guns, silencers and remote-controlled bombs disguised as briefcases. Pamphlets on how to make chemical weapons and anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-government books were also discovered. Beside containers of hydrochloric, nitric and acetic acids, agents found more than 800...

Do you enjoy fishing, surfing, beachcombing, sunbathing, or just long walks on the beach at sunrise or sunset? Are you aware that the beaches of Texas belong to the citizens of Texas? Did you know that there is an ongoing battle, to take away YOUR right to access YOUR property? The "Texas Open Beaches Act" guarantees, the citizens of our great state, open and unrestricted access to all Texas beaches,from "mean low tide" to the "vegetation line." The current fight is over the last 3.2 miles of open beach, at San Luis Pass. By the way, that is the only,...