Past Articles by Carrie Feibel
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Labor Day Patrols Stepped Up To Combat DUI Once again, law enforcement agencies are warning Texans about stepped-up enforcement on the roads during the holiday weekend. |
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NASA Veteran Remembers Neil Armstrong And Apollo Era Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, will be laid to rest today during a private funeral service in Ohio. The astronaut was 82 when he died last Saturday after cardiovascular procedures. KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel visited the Johnson Space Center and spoke with a long-time NASA engineer who helped Armstrong train for the Apollo missions. |
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CDC Says West Nile Infections Highest Since 2003 Federal health officials say West Nile Virus cases are up 40-percent nationwide over the last week alone and are on pace to surpass the disease's worst years in 2002 and 2003. |
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A federal judge has ruled in the legal fight over a highway being built across the Katy Prairie. The judge says construction on Segment E of the Grand Parkway can continue, but says officials now must consider how potential flooding will affect the Addicks and Barker dams that protect much of Houston. |
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Donor Milk Bank Expands At Texas Children's Hospital Mothers and doctors call it "liquid gold." Human breast milk has been shown to be healthier for babies than formula, and can even save lives. Texas Children's Hospital now operates its own milk bank, drawing on donations from nursing mothers in the Houston region. |
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New Online "Ozone Map" Will Help Houston Residents Reduce Lung Exposure A new local website launches today, one that will allow people to track Houston's most notorious air pollutant, ozone, down to the neighborhood level. KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel explains that the online ozone map will work much like a weather map. |
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UH Regents Approve $85 Million To Begin Construction Of New Football Stadium The University of Houston will proceed with plans to build a new football stadium by the 2014 season. The Board of Regents just approved an $85 million dollar financing plan that will allow construction to begin as soon as January. |
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Tip-over Deaths From Unsecured TVs Rising Among Kids Trauma surgeons in Houston are speaking out publicly after an uptick in accidents involving televisions falling on children. KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel has more from one family whose toddler survived. |
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Texas Power Plants #1 In US For Mercury Pollution A new report ranks all 50 states for toxic air pollutants coming from power plants. Texas comes in at number ten. |
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Obamacare Debate Continues Among Local Congressmen Houston-area congressmen continue to spar over the national health care law, which remains a divisive issue heading in to the November races. KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel has more from both sides of the political divide. |
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Voters Have Two Options For Metro Funding On November Ballot The board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County has finalized its proposal for a ballot referendum in November. Voters that live in Metro's service area will be allowed to choose whether to continue a controversial revenue-sharing program. But there is a small twist. |
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Offshore Oil And Gas Services Company Is Also A NASA Contractor During a recent visit to Houston, NASA officials from D.C. focused on the importance of developing new technologies for the space program. KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel accompanied them on a tour of a NASA contractor that applies oil and gas technology in outer space. |
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Federal Money Flows To Houston To Train Additional Higher-Level Nurses Texas has been grappling with a shortage of doctors and nurses for years. Now a provision of the Affordable Care Act aims to tackle the nursing shortage, and the Texas Medical Center in Houston is set to receive millions of dollars to train more nurses. |
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UTMB Shedding 51 Positions, Adjusting To State And Federal Cuts The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston is laying off 51 people but says the long-term plan is to grow the workforce. |
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Civil Rights Group Sets Up Shop In Houston A civil rights organization has opened a permanent office in Houston. This will be the fifth location for the nonprofit known as the Texas Civil Rights Project. |
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Texas Ranks Low in Study of Children's Well-Being A national report that measures the well-being of children ranks Texas 44th in the country. The report tallies how well Texas kids are doing in areas like health coverage and teen births. The lone star state is not shining too brightly when it comes to child welfare. |
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Feds Probe "Culture of Safety" In Offshore Industry, Recommend Wider Focus A federal agency is wrapping up its investigation into the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout. Investigators say the offshore industry is focusing on the wrong things when it comes to preventing huge accidents. |
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Sally Ride, First U.S. Woman In Space, Dies At 61 Sally Ride, the first female astronaut in the U.S. space program, has died from pancreatic cancer. She was 61. |
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Harris County Education Officials File Lawsuit Over Botched Election The Harris County Department of Education has learned that the election it held on May 29 has been botched. The department has now filed suit to have the results thrown out. |
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Texas Slow To Review Health Insurance Rate Hikes To make insurance more affordable, the federal health law requires every state to conduct a special review whenever a health insurer wants to raise premiums more than 10 percent. The Texas insurance department hasn't completed a reviews of any of the nine qualifying rate increases. So the companies' rate increases have taken effect. |
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New NASA Rover Will Reach Mars in Three Weeks NASA scientists are hoping to drum up public enthusiasm for their next big mission to mars. A new rover has almost reached the red planet and will hopefully land safely on August 6th. |
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Critics Say Texas Regulators Moving Too Slowly On Health Insurance Rate Hikes Now that the Supreme Court has upheld President Obama’s health care law, Texans have been debating whether to expand Medicaid. But there are many parts of the law that are mandatory, not optional. Some say Texas should be implementing more of them now. |
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Rally Criticizes Perry, Calls For Expanded Medicaid In Texas Reaction continues across the state to Governor Rick Perry's announcement that he doesn't want Texas to expand Medicaid under the national healthcare law. A group of uninsured workers rallied today outside the emergency room at Ben Taub Hospital in the medical center. |
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Another Physican's Group Weighs In On Gov. Perry's "No" To Obamacare Options Governor Rick Perry says he doesn’t want Texas to expand Medicaid to more adults under President Obama’s healthcare law. The choice is optional for states. |
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Gov. Perry Says "No" On Obamacare Options, But Legislature Could Have Final Say Governor Rick Perry says he doesn't want Texas to implement two major changes under President Obama's healthcare law. The announcement troubles health advocates who say uninsured Texans need those two options. |
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Black Pastors Can Draw on NAACP's Theological Manual to Preach About AIDS The NAACP meets next week in Houston for its annual convention. During that time, the civil rights organization will roll out a special campaign to encourage black pastors to talk about HIV and AIDS from the pulpit. But, it's not just another public health crusade. |
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NAACP meets in Houston with Presidential Election in Mind The NAACP is holding its annual convention in Houston this year. The gathering starts over the weekend and both President Obama and Mitt Romney are expected to speak at the convention next week. Carrie Feibel has more about what the two candidates hope to accomplish politically. |
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Houston Congresswoman Gets Ready For New Healthcare Fight The Supreme Court has upheld most of President Obama's health care law. But the political fight over how to implement the law is not over, least of all in Texas. |
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Free Tows Available for 4th Holiday Low gas prices are propelling more Texans onto the roads for the July 4th holiday. Travel will be up five percent from a year ago, and AAA Texas is hoping to discourage drunk driving through its free towing program. Carrie Feibel has more. |
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Some Texans Cheer Supreme Court Ruling, But Republicans Dismayed Texans have been absorbing the news about the historic decision from the Supreme Court, which upholds most of President Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act. KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel found responses ranging from joy to fear to uncertainty about what comes next. |
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Houston Healthcare Community Braces For Supreme Court Decision Thursday morning the Supreme Court is expected to announce its long-awaited decision on the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare." KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel has more about what's at stake and what some in Houston's healthcare industry expect to happen afterwards. |
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Houston Reacts To Supreme Court Ruling On Immigration The Supreme Court's split decision on Arizona's immigration law has also left many people in Houston feeling ambivalent about what happened. Lawyers, politicians and advocates give their take on what the ruling will mean in real life. |
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KUHF Conversations: Gail Collins Gail Collins is a national columnist for The New York Times, but for the past few years she's taken a special interest in what happens here in our state of Texas. Now she's written a new book: As Texas Goes ... How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American. She'll be speaking tomorrow night at the Wortham Center, as part of The Progressive Forum. KUHF reporter Carrie Feibel has this sneak-preview chat with Collins. |
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Some Services Restored, But Money Still Tight In City's New $4.2 Billion Budget The Houston City Council has approved a new fiscal year budget of $4.2 billion dollars. The financial picture looked a little brighter this year when compared to significant cuts made last year to city services. |
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C-section Deliveries In U.S. Plateau At 33%, But Texas Rate Is Higher New data from hospitals shows that the rate of births by C-section has leveled off, after rising for eight years. But Texas still has one of the highest rates. |
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Corpse Flower About to Bloom In Galveston's Moody Gardens It's been almost two years since a corpse flower bloomed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Now another corpse flower is about to bloom in Galveston. |
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Lawsuit Accuses Harris County Hospital District of Illegally Charging Patients Who Can't Pay A legal advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Hospital District, for charging fees to patients who can't pay, and for other billing practices. |
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Science Museum Unveils New Prehistoric Hall Of Rare Fossils The Houston Museum of Natural Science has unveiled its new fossil hall, an $85 million journey through evolution. Although dinosaurs dominate visually, the exhibit contains other, subtle beauties, such as ribbon-like bands of ancient slime. |
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UTHealth School Of Dentistry Moves To New Home The University of Texas School of Dentistry is moving into a new home in the Texas Medical Center. The six-story building is off Old Spanish Trail, south of the VA Hospital. Class sizes are growing and the school needs more space. |
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Online Map Pinpoints Hurricane Risks for All Harris County Homes The City of Houston and Rice have launched an online “storm risk tracker” for every address in Harris County. Residents can see how vulnerable their properties are to wind, flood and power loss when a hurricane comes through. Updated on June 6, 2012. |
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KUHF Conversations: Rice Engineering Professor Phil Bedient. Hurricane Ike is now four years in the past, but scientists are still studying its tremendous impact. Now the Texas A&M University Press has just published "Lessons from Hurricane Ike" — a series of essays on what scientists have learned, and what can be done for the next big storm. KUHF Health and Science reporter Carrie Feibel spoke with the book's editor, Rice engineering professor Phil Bedient. |
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Schools Get Ready to Serve Summer Meals School districts across Texas are gearing up to begin providing students with free meals over the summer break. Spring Branch ISD opens some free-meal locations today, and Houston ISD starts providing meals next week. |
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Arthritis Stigma Persists Despite Being #1 Cause Of Disability Nearly one million adults in the Houston area suffer from various forms of arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation is trying to end stereotypes about the disease, which many dismiss as an old person's condition that can't really be treated. |
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Dragon Splashes Into The Pacific Ocean, Mission Success The Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific and into the history books today, becoming the first privately-owned spaceship to make a round-trip journey to the International Space Station. |
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SpaceX Capsule Cleared To Leave Space Station and Head Back To Earth The first private spaceship to visit the International Space Station will attempt to return to earth tomorrow. Astronauts have loaded the Dragon capsule with cargo to bring back to Earth, and are preparing to release the unmanned vehicle about 4:30 tomorrow morning. |
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Military Families Touched By Suicide Speak Out On Memorial Day Memorial Day offers all Americans a chance to grieve, honor, and recognize troops who died fighting. In many ways, the rituals — like playing "taps" and offering wreaths — are straightforward and comforting. But some military family members in Houston still struggle to find closure, because their loved ones died of suicide. |
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Dragon Docks At ISS In First For Commercial Space Flight The first privately-controlled spaceship has reached the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule, belonging to the California company SpaceX, docked with the station this morning. |
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Unmanned Cargo Capsule Close to Space Station, Preparing to Dock Two days ago, SpaceX successfully launched the first commercial spaceship towards the International Space Station. The unmanned capsule is now quite near the space station and waiting for NASA to give permission to dock. |
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Private Company Will Attempt To Reach Space Station With Cargo Early tomorrow morning a private company, SpaceX, will launch a rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral. Many are saying it will usher in a new era of commercialized space flight. But the mission remains highly experimental. |
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Legislators Grappling with State-Wide Shortage of Healthcare Workers A Texas Legislative Committee met this week in Houston to discuss urgent health problems facing the state. Among them, the shortage of primary care doctors and the role nurses may play in filling the gap. |
