Houston news

• Frank's Backyard a casual new addition to downtown's hubbub

  12-02-2018 23:56 via chron.com
  THE CONCEPT
  A years-in-the-making project from the owners of Frank's Pizza, Deborah and Eddie Love, who envisioned a tranquil green space within downtown's hubbub. They bought the property in 2010 with the intent of opening a restaurant, but the plans morphed into the more casual patio bar.
  THE SPACE
  The two-story, 2,000-square-foot space is wedged between Frank's Pizza and the Aris Market Square apartment tower. The entrance is a two-level frame clad in patina'd steel. The downstairs patio has
  
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• Houston physician accused of running 'pill mill' has license suspended

  12-02-2018 23:39 via chron.com
  In a Monday press release announcing the suspension of Myrtle Oates' license, the Texas Medical Board said that her "continuation in the practice of medicine poses a continuing threat to public safety."
  
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• What data reveals about child abuse in Houston

  12-02-2018 22:57 via chron.com
  Last week, newly released federal data shed light on Texas' disturbing increase in child abuse deaths.
  
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• Conjoined twin girls separated at Texas Children's

  12-02-2018 22:47 via chron.com
  Houston doctors have successfully separated two identical twin girls conjoined at their chest and abdomen, a procedure so complex it required a multidisciplinary team of 75 staffers from eight specialties. During a delicate seven-hour operation Jan. 13, Texas Children's surgeons divided 13-month-old Anna and Hope Richards, who shared their chest wall, lining of the heart, diaphragm and liver. In addition, they had a large blood vessel connecting their hearts.
  
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• More seniors embracing technology

  12-02-2018 22:46 via chron.com
  Studies show that the number of seniors who use technology such as smartphones, global positioning system (GPS), computers/tablets and e-readers is increasing.
  Many seniors find technology to be helpful - once they learn how to use it - and feel it improves the quality of their lives.
  Baby boomers
  Baby boomers are the most active senior generation in history, but they were not born with technology like video games or cell phones/smartphones.Because of that, it's been challenging for them to adap
  
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• Many going back to school at age 50-plus

  12-02-2018 22:44 via chron.com
  Things are changing and people over age 50 are working later in life, partly because they have a longer life expectancy than previous generations. Another change, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, is that people 50-plus are going back to school in higher numbers than ever.Here are some reasons why this is happening:
  Unexpected early retirementSome people retire earlier than they had expected or wanted, due to employer decisions, economy, health challenges or other reason
  
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• There are smart ways savvy seniors can save

  12-02-2018 22:43 via chron.com
  As people get older, their budget often tightens. Luckily, there are some easy ways to save money. See which ones work for you:Ask for senior citizen discounts at restaurants, hotels, department stores, grocery stores and pharmacies. There may not be a notice posted everywhere that offers them. Get into the habit of doing this regularly. These discounts typically range from 10 to 15 percent, according to Jon Lal, founder and CEO of cash-back and coupon website BeFrugal.com.
  Amie Clark, one of th
  
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• The rodeo spirit: Communities' residents get in

  12-02-2018 22:42 via chron.com
  The end of February means one thing for many Houstonians: Rodeo Houston season. And every year, many of the Houston area's senior living communities plan themed activities to get their residents excited about the festivities.
  On Feb. 28, residents of Eagle's Trace will continue a tradition involving the Houston Rodeo by participating in Armed Forces Appreciation Day. A group of 55 residents who served in the military, along with their spouses, will board a shuttle bus provided by Harris County f
  
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• Life experiences relayed in Inprint's memoir workshops

  12-02-2018 22:42 via chron.com
  Since 1996, the Houston-based literary organization Inprint has offered free memoir writing workshops to senior citizens in diverse community centers around the city.In the workshops, seniors write about their life experiences - stories about their family, childhood, neighborhood and a changing world.
  A memoir, a form of autobiographical writing, gives writers and others a look into who they were, and some of the things they experienced."These workshops benefit senior citizens in many ways. (The
  
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• The Hallmark event targets social isolation

  12-02-2018 22:41 via chron.com
  The secret to living longer and healthier may be directly connected to your social life.
  Loneliness, especially among the senior population, is now an epidemic, and as bad for us as smoking. A Houston-based not-for-profit senior living community, The Hallmark, is embracing new ways to combat the high costs of emotional isolation.Preventing loneliness means increasing social connectedness. Communities that embrace a culture of vitality offer an environment for people to live longer, more fulfilli
  
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• Elder Law: Death, taxes and changes in the new tax act

  12-02-2018 22:40 via chron.com
  Some things never change. For instance, two things you can't avoid are death and taxes. Even though significant and sweeping changes recently were passed by Congress with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, this basic rule still holds.
  Several rules in regard to gift and estate taxes did not change.
  For example, the annual exclusion allowing an individual to gift to any number of individuals without cutting into their lifetime exemption is one thing that was not changed by the new tax law. Howeve
  
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• BBB on seniors: Feeling lucky? Think again

  12-02-2018 22:38 via chron.com
  With the recent Powerball hype and the upcoming Publishers Clearing House "$5,000 A Week Giveaway," scammers are counting on us to press our luck this time of year.Now, more than ever, is the time to be on high alert for fake sweepstakes or lottery awards.Be wary of calls to your phone, emails or letters in the mail notifying you of some contest or sweepstakes you have won or unclaimed prize money owed to you. Chances are it's nothing but a big scam.Take Mrs. Smith for example: She had received
  
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• The grand adventure: Gamesmanship essential to grandparenting

  12-02-2018 22:37 via chron.com
  One hot, summer day in Dallas in 1952, my grandmother and I sat at one end of the big kitchen table and she taught me to play "Double Solitaire." To this day, I still love the challenge of this game. I haven't, however, had the opportunity to teach my grand darlings this game because they learned to play the computer version.
  We do, however, play some board games and to my surprise, they've loved playing games like Chinese checkers, Candyland, Scrabble, checkers and chess (with no computer or ph
  
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• University of Houston student carjacked near campus

  12-02-2018 22:33 via chron.com
  A University of Houston student was beaten and carjacked near campus Monday afternoon.
  
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• Houston charter school Victory Prep North abruptly closing

  12-02-2018 21:25 via chron.com
  The in-district Houston ISD charter school serves about 300 students on the city's north side. The closure left some parents fuming about the decision to shut down the campus in the middle of the semester, with only one week's notice.
  
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• Abbott to announce 'hundreds of millions' of dollars to mitigate future floods, disasters

  12-02-2018 21:11 via chron.com
  Cities and counties inundated by Hurricane Harvey and its floods will have an opportunity to tap hundreds of millions of dollars for disaster mitigation projects, the governor office plans to announce Tuesday.
  
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• Democratic donors in Texas outspent Republicans in Alabama

  12-02-2018 20:30 via chron.com
  AUSTIN -- One of the biggest upsets in recent political history came at least partially thanks to Texans and their wallets. Texas donors ended up giving nearly $1 million to Alabama Democrat Doug Jones, who narrowly defeated Republican Roy Moore in one of the most contentious special elections in the nation late last year. Newly released campaign finance records show that just in the final three weeks of the campaign, Texas donors stepped up and sent nearly $550,000 to Jones's campaign - mo
  
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• Tear gas, pepper spray use up in Texas prisons, including on suicidal inmates

  12-02-2018 20:14 via chron.com
  Texas prisons over the past decade have seen a 71 percent increase in the use of chemical agents on inmates, often those attempting suicide or self-harm.
  
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• Trump's proposed NASA budget focuses on human exploration, eliminates education office

  12-02-2018 19:57 via chron.com
  President Donald Trump announced Monday a $19.9 billion request -- a $400 million increase from last year – would allocate $10.5 billion for human exploration. But that increase for exploration comes at some costs.
  
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• Thieves attempt to steal ATM using forklift

  12-02-2018 19:07 via chron.com
  The forklift was hauled away after the Harris County Sheriff's Department arrived.
  
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• Car chase leads to arrest in north Houston backyard

  12-02-2018 19:01 via chron.com
  Houston police arrested a 29-year-old man early Monday following a car chase that ended with the man hiding in a backyard.
  
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• Woman accused of assaulting Uber driver near SE Houston

  12-02-2018 18:33 via chron.com
  A Houston woman has been charged with two misdemeanors after being accused of assaulting her Uber driver.
  
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• WorkWise: Values, fatigue and cancer recovery

  12-02-2018 17:46 via chron.com
  Editor's note: This is the first part of a two-part WorkWise column. Look for part two: "Beating cancer through work".
  A cancer diagnosis leads to soul-searching about values and unrealized objectives, aided and hampered by sapped energy.
  Focus
  Although Jason Stalnecker, owner of Whistle Building Maintenance (whistle-cleaning.com) in Ewing, New Jersey, had a business to run, he focused more solidly on his family – his wife, two sons and two daughters – when dealing with Oligodendrogl
  
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• Man shot near home in East Little York

  12-02-2018 17:07 via chron.com
  The man, Oscar Comeaux, 40,  was shot in the arm and abdomen near his home, Houston Police said. He was shot near 9900 Cheeves Road about 11:45 p.m. Friday, police said.
  
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• Man pushing cart dies after hit by car while crossing street in Spring Branch

  12-02-2018 17:03 via chron.com
  A 71-year-old man pushing a shopping cart across the street was killed Saturday in a crash in the Spring Branch area.
  
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• Man pushing cart across street struck and killed in Spring Branch

  12-02-2018 17:03 via chron.com
  A 71-year-old man pushing a shopping cart across the street was killed Saturday in a crash in the Spring Branch area.
  
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• Houston City Council to debate stricter, Harvey-driven development rules

  12-02-2018 16:09 via chron.com
  The council's regulatory and infrastructure committees will meet jointly at 2:30 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall, 901 Bagby. Public speakers can sign up in person -- and any number of representatives of the real estate, development and building industries are expected to do so.
  
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• Twitter users share the #SignsYouveBecomeYourParents

  12-02-2018 16:06 via chron.com
  Everyone's fated to become like their parents, one way or another.
  
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• Young man found dead inside Big Bend National Park

  12-02-2018 15:47 via chron.com
  The 23-year-old worked for a concessions provider inside Big Bend.
  
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• Trump infrastructure plan relies on states for bulk of $1.5 trillion

  12-02-2018 15:00 via chron.com
  The plan, outlined by administration officials over the weekend, calls for the federal government to invest $200 billion over the coming decade to leverage as much as $1.5 trillion in state and private infrastructure spending.
  
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• Lawsuit: Prairie View A&M coach helped student accused of sexual assault flee Texas

  12-02-2018 14:50 via chron.com
  After a Prairie View A&M University student told her coach she was sexually assaulted, the coach bought the perpetrator a plane ticket out of Texas to help him flee, a new lawsuit said. The female student athlete, identified by the name "Mary Doe," filed the lawsuit, which accuses Prairie View A&M of creating a hostile environment for her education and violating Title IX, the federal nondiscrimination law.
  
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• Houston third healthiest city in Texas according to WalletHub

  12-02-2018 14:17 via chron.com
  Of the 174 cities ranked on the list, 16 of them are in Texas.
  
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• Harris County Commissioners set to vote on $105 million Astrodome revamp

  12-02-2018 13:00 via chron.com
  Should Harris County move forward with renovations to the Astrodome? Commissioners could decide Tuesday.
  
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• How Apple plans to root out bugs, revamp iPhone software

  12-02-2018 12:00 via chron.com
  Apple's annual software upgrade this fall will offer users plenty of new features: enabling a single set of apps to work across iPhones, iPads and Macs, a Digital Health tool to show parents how much time their children have been staring at their screen and improvements to Animojis, those cartoon characters controlled by the iPhone X's facial recognition sensor. But just as important this year will be what Apple doesn't introduce: redesigned home screens for the iPhone, iPad and CarPlay, an
  
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• Google's next Android overhaul could embrace iPhone 'notch'

  12-02-2018 11:30 via chron.com
  Google is working on an overhaul of its Android mobile software for a new generation of smartphones mimicking Apple Inc.’s controversial new "notch" at the top of the iPhone X, according to people familiar with the situation.
  
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• After Harvey, slight majority still opposes more taxes for flood control projects, survey says

  12-02-2018 07:01 via chron.com
  Houston area residents overwhelmingly support construction of a third west side reservoir, buyouts of vulnerable homes and other steps to protect lives and property from floods - yet slightly fewer than half are willing to pay for such measures through higher taxes, according to a survey released Monday.
  Lopsided majorities of those surveyed expressed support for almost all the ideas state and local officials are discussing, including stricter building codes and development rules, to limit the e
  
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• Trump administration seeks to privatize ISS

  12-02-2018 03:45 via chron.com
  WASHINGTON - The Trump administration wants to turn the International Space Station into a kind of orbiting real estate venture run not by the government but by private industry.
  The White House plans to stop funding for the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory. But it does not intend to abandon the orbiting laboratory altogether and is working on a transition plan that could turn the station over to the private sector, according to an internal NASA docume
  
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• Grand Canyon helicopter crash 'horrible' - 4 rescued, 3 dead

  12-02-2018 02:07 via chron.com
  GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - Four survivors of a deadly tour helicopter crash onto the jagged rocks of the Grand Canyon were being treated at a Nevada hospital on Sunday while crews tackled difficult terrain in a very remote area to try to recover the bodies of three other people.
  Six passengers and a pilot were on board the Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters chopper when it crashed under unknown circumstances on Saturday evening on the Hualapai Nation's land near Quartermaster Canyon, by
  
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• White puts up first ad in Texas Democratic gubernatorial primary

  12-02-2018 01:34 via chron.com
  The TV ad that will run on Houston stations is the first from any of the nine candidates in the Democratic primary race to challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in the November general election.
  
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• First-class travel distinguishes Scott Pruitt's tenure as EPA chief

  12-02-2018 01:34 via chron.com
  Just days after helping orchestrate the United States' exit from a global climate accord last June, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt embarked on a whirlwind tour aimed at championing President Donald Trump's agenda at home and abroad.
  On Monday, June 5, accompanied by his personal security detail, Pruitt settled into his $1,600 first-class seat for a short flight from Washington, D.C., to New York. His ticket cost more than six times that of the two media aides who came
  
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• Trump to unveil $1.5 trillion plan for infrastructure

  12-02-2018 01:19 via chron.com
  BC-US--Trump-Infrastructure, 4th Ld-Writethru,641
  Trump to unveil $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan
  AP Photo NYSH104, NYSH103
  Eds: Restores background, corrects to $1.5 trillion in first paragraph, story summary. With AP Photos.
  By JONATHAN LEMIRE and MARTIN CRUTSINGER
  Associated Press
  WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump on Monday will unveil his long-awaited infrastructure plan, a $1.5 trillion proposal that fulfills a number of campaign goals, but relies heavily on state and local governm
  
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• British charity could lose funding over allegations that disaster victims were expoited for sex

  12-02-2018 00:28 via chron.com
  Oxfam, one of the world's most prominent relief agencies, could lose its funding from the British government over reports that its workers exploited survivors of a massive earthquake in Haiti, and possibly other disasters, for sex.
  It is a "complete betrayal of both the people Oxfam were there to help and also the people that sent them there to do that job," Britain's international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, told BBC News, which noted that the nonprofit received $44 million in govern
  
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• Has winter returned? Maybe not for long

  12-02-2018 00:10 via chron.com
  The cold won't stick around for long: High temperatures will be in the 70s by Wednesday.
  
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