Past Articles by Edel Howlin
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Census Bureau Begins Biennial Housing Survey More than 100 U.S. Census Bureau representatives are beginning five month housing survey in the Greater Houston area that could include a knock on your door. |
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The Country Responds To Explosion At West's Fertilizer Plant The word from the town West right now is that 14 people are confirmed dead, including Dallas firefighter Captain Kenny Harris. That number may grow as Senator Cornyn says 60 people are still unaccounted for. While West attempts to find their feet in the wake of this disaster, the outpouring of support from all over has been heartening. |
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Grassroots Group Aims To Change Gun Laws In Texas, But Is The Lone Star State Ready? Hundreds of moms from all over Texas gathered on Austin Capitol steps this past weekend. The "Texas Rally for Gun Sense" was mirroring President Obama's continuing call for universal background checks, assault rifle and high capacity magazine bans. But is Texas ready? |
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Texas Vets Making Noise Over Tuition Benefits Threat For over 90 years Texas has offered veteran's free college tuition under the Hazlewood Act. Amongst other things it gives veterans 150 hours of free tuition. In 2009 the act was expanded to allow unused hours to transfer to a veteran's spouse or child. But now the costs of this act are spiraling and veterans want to make sure Hazlewood is protected. |
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Senator Cornyn Files “Careers for Veteran’s Act” in Senate On the day when the Texas legislature is filing final bills for this session, Sen. Cornyn is proposing the 'Careers For Veterans Act' to the U.S Senate. It aims to target unemployment among veterans. |
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Looking Inside At The Innovations Of Foley's The department store Foley’s, now Macy's, originated in Houston and will close up shop for good this Saturday. Hear some of the novel ways this iconic department store changed retail in part two of the last tour. |
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Touring Macy's (Foley's) in Downtown Houston One Last Time In the 1940s, Foley’s was the shopping mecca in downtown Houston. In a two-part special, KUHF takes a final stroll through the Houston institution. |
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Helping Our Heroes: Reducing Veterans Claims Waiting Times For local veterans the claims process is not just a long waiting game, it's also pretty complicated. In part two of looking at claims pitfalls in our veterans' series, we examine the rest of the process, starting with how claims get rated. |
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Helping Our Heroes: The Story Behind the Disability Claims Line Between the two Texas veterans affairs offices — Houston and Waco — processing veterans' claims, there's a backlog of over 80,000. It's a number that's growing because of a large returning veteran population, and a complicated process. As part of our Helping Our Heroes series, we take a look at the claims' pitfalls from both sides. |
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Scooping Your Poop For You, Not Just A Passing Phase It's no secret that we live in an animal friendly city. Boarding and grooming are a booming industry and so is the services of scooping your pet's unwanted matter. For a small fee over 16 companies with names like Rovers Leftovers and Scoop Le Poop will remove that unsightly and unsanitary pet waste for you. |
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Stephenson Signs First Bill As A State Representative It's time for an update from the 83rd legislative session. KUHF is profiling lawmaker Rep. Phil Stephenson from Wharton County. His latest achievement was signing his first bill for $4.8 billion dollars to pay Texas' Medicare bill. |
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Court Case Involving Occupy Protesters Resolved A complicated and confusing case involving "Occupy Austin" protesters, the Port of Houston and undercover Austin Police officers has come to a conclusion in a Harris County courtroom. |
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Gun Control Debate Raises Tension At Town Hall Meeting The topic of gun control in Texas can be pretty divisive. This much was apparent at a town hall meeting in Liberty City recently when two moms who had both experienced gun violence spoke to their local Congressman Steve Stockman. |
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United Way Aims To Make Itself A One Stop Shop For Veterans' Services Annually 3,000 veterans are choosing Houston and Harris County as a place to start civilian life. United Way of Greater Houston conducted a needs assessment for these veterans and found gaps in services. But it's hoping to change that. |
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Specialty Courts In Harris County And Texas Under the Microscope Recently there was some concern that Houston's new Mental Health Court would be closing. Instead, new District Attorney Mike Anderson used asset forfeiture funding to add another judge. Specialty courts like Harris County's mental health, drug and veteran's courts are a growing trend in Texas — and now Governor Perry is trying to get a handle on their success. |
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Buffalo Soldier National Museum Outgrows Location And Relocates To Midtown The city has had a museum dedicated to the Buffalo Soldier since 2001. Recently it relocated to the Houston Light Guard Armory building near Midtown after outgrowing its Southmore home. So aside from the address and the growth of over 19,000 square feet, what’s changed? |
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WWII Vets From Texas Receive France's Legion Of Honour Fifteen World War II veterans were awarded the Legion of Honour at Ellington Field today. It's France's most prestigious medal awarded for merit and bravery. |
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Getting To Know A Local Lawmaker: Rep. Phil Stephenson Out of 150 House Representatives in the Texas Legislature, 43 are brand new including Representative Phil Stephenson of Wharton County. He's a CPA by day and for the next few months he'll also be a legislator. KUHF news will be following his progress, highs and lows so today we introduce one of your local lawmakers. |
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What Veteran Issues Will Be Addressed In This Texas Legislative Session? State legislators intend to lay out their bills for the 83rd legislative session over the coming months. Veteran's organizations will be waiting to see if they are part of lawmaker's plans. Most notably they'll look for legislation that works on reducing the disability claims backlogs that are continuing to rise in Texas. |
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Local Hen Movement Takes New Legislation To City Council Last August we spoke to a movement working on making it legal to keep chickens in Houston's backyards. Currently the ordinance says it's illegal to have hens within 100 feet of an adjacent building. "Hens for Houston" has since been trying to change this by educating as many people as possible about its mission and about keeping chickens. Recently, the next step was facing Houston City Council and it was a session unlike any other. |
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MLK Jr. Remembered In Kids Speeches For Annual Gardere Oratory Competition Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday is celebrated in a special way every year in Houston. Twelve elementary school children came together at a church downtown to give speeches honoring Dr. King. The kids tried to channel his activism, vision and zeal. They all succeeded, even if there could only be one winner. |
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Rep. Flynn's Bill Wants To Reduce Training Hours In Handgun Proficiency Course Gun legislation has been a major political talking point in the wake of the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. In this Texas legislative session House Bill 47 has been filed. It relates to reducing the number of concealed handgun license training hours. |
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A Piece of Houston's Downtown Legacy Up For Auction Houston's oldest social club is closing its doors in downtown. Established in 1894, The Houston Club will be selling everything from paintings to kitchen fixtures. This auction marks the end of a certain era in Houston's history. |
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More And More Restaurants Opening Their Doors To Four-Legged Friends Before September 2011 there was no legislation to allow dogs on any restaurant or café property. Now over 30 restaurants in Houston have paid for a city permit so four-legged friends can dine alongside their owners. |
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Veteran Aims To Paint Every Fallen Texas Soldier The number of fallen Texas soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is at 611 and counting. One veteran in Baytown has made it his life's mission to commit every single one to canvas. In our continuing veteran series "Helping our Heroes" we look at how one man's paintings help those who are left behind. |
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Knitting Guild Gives To Those In Need During The Holidays In the holiday season, we try to focus on the tradition of giving. Instead of reaching into their pockets, one local guild is using knitting needles and wool to give to those in need. |
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Veteran Organization Gets Toys To Needy Vet Families This Christmas Christmas isn't the easiest of time for military families or for returning veterans. When work is scarce, gifts and Santa Claus can get pushed down the priority list. Luckily the Lone Star Veteran Association has that base covered for many veteran families this holiday season. But they also want you to remember those who are still serving overseas. |
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Visually Impaired Girl Receives Early Christmas Gift That Allows Her To Read Christmas came early for one local visually impaired 7-year old. Kaitlyn Brown is the lucky recipient of a machine from nonprofit sight savers and The University of Texas Health Science Center. The machine can magnify objects up to 79 times which allows her to read and learn like other kids her age. |
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Houston Mom's Group Turn Contest Loss Into Win For Local Library You may not have heard about it, but a few months ago, Houston went head-to-head with a little town in North Carolina called Mount Airy. The prize was $5,000 dollars to go to one local library’s kids programs. Houston didn’t win, but that’s just the beginning of the story. |
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Local AIDS Clinic Use Tree To Remember Family And Friends Tomorrow marks World Aids Day. In the greater Houston area over 30,000 people are dealing with HIV and AIDS. Seventeen hundred new infections are diagnosed each year in Harris County and the Thomas Street Health Center near downtown is working to get that number to zero. But today they're remembering those they've lost. |
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World Wants A Little Piece Of Texas On A Map Over 35 million historic maps and documents are stored in the Texas General Land Office. A program called "Save Texas History" is working to conserve them by selling reprints of the maps with many bound for Germany. |
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MFAH War Exhibit Touches Veteran The latest exhibit to open at the Museum of Fine Arts isn't your average photography display. Powerful images chronicle the life cycle of war from recruitment to remembrance. It's an exhibit that's likely to touch many people who have been impacted by war, most notably veteran's like Tom Mitchell. |
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Responsible Turkey Frying For Thanksgiving When it comes to turkey fryer fires Texas is the number one state with 19 reported fires in the last five years. Not surprisingly a vat of hot oil and an open flame can prove to be quite a lethal combination. So lethal that fryer fires result in over 15 million dollars in property damage annually nationwide. So if you must, how do you fry a turkey safely? |
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Houston Vies For Bloomberg's $5 Million To Help Create 'One Bin For All' As a city we recycle about 14% of our waste. A new "Total Reuse: One Bin for All" idea hopes to move that way past the national average of 27% with some help from New York's Mayor Bloomberg and $5 million dollars. |
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Cruise Ships Finally Come To Bayport The Port of Houston has announced a partnering with two cruise lines at its Bayport facility. A cruise terminal which has been mostly dormant since it was completed almost four years ago. |
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Trafficking Talks Hope To Make A Change To Growing Numbers Last night Rice University held a talk on human trafficking. It's a topic Rice has selected to focus on for their inaugural 2012 — 2013 Seminar. Houston is considered a trafficking hub and one organization who spoke last night is trying to turn that around. |
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How's Texting While Driving Ban Working Locally? As we head toward the next legislative session, one bill on the agenda might look very familiar. It's the texting while driving law that was passed, but then vetoed by Governor Rick Perry last session. However the law has been implemented on the local level in certain cities and with mixed results. |
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HISD Gets $1.9 Billion Bond Approved The city has been flooded by signs, billboards and TV ads asking for a "yes" vote on the Houston Independent School District's bond proposal. Yesterday voters approved that bond and now HISD will receive 1.9 billion dollars to improve 38 schools. |
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Early Voters: HISD Bond Proposal, Yes or No? Tomorrow is the final day you can early vote for the Houston Independent School District's bond proposal. It's a $1.9 billion dollar plan to replace, rebuild or renovate 38 schools. Two opposing Political Action Committees have been fighting to get your vote. So which one is winning and how are people voting. |
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Houston, We Have Stamp Collectors! The Houston Ship Channel appeared on a stamp earlier this month. For local stamp collectors and appraisers it was a huge event, but that doesn’t mean they'll be adding the Houston landscape to their collection. That’s because they’re very picky about the stamps they choose. So who are these philatelists and where can you find them? |
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Galveston Seawall Tourists To Pay For The Pleasure Of Parking Next Year Paid parking is coming to Galveston's Seawall. A popular tourist spot that had not previously charged a cent and it's not your average old-fashioned parking meter either. |
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Local Organizations Fund New Parenting Classes In Harris County alone, 800,000 parents have kids under 18, but less than 2 percent of them take parenting classes. Now more than 50 local organizations are putting money and resources into increasing that number to help parents when they need it the most. |
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Using Houston Model To Combat Human Trafficking According to the State Department's ambassador on human trafficking, Houston is leading the nation in initiatives to combat the problem. The Ambassador is in Houston to spread the word, but also to discuss what more needs to be done. |
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Helping Our Heroes: Local Veteran Organization Needs Your Vote As we near election day, one local veteran organization is also looking for your vote. "Rebuilding Together Houston" is a group that repairs veteran's homes is in a tight four way race for $25,000 dollars. |
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'As Goes Janesville' Documents The Real Life Stories Of Laid Off GM Employees The Julia Ideson Public Library downtown will be the venue tonight for the screening of As Goes Janesville. A documentary about the Wisconsin town right after General Motors closed its doors there. Director Brad Lichtenstein will be there for a Q&A tonight. |
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Vermont Journalist Talks About Being Kidnapped In Syria We've been following local journalist and former UH student Austin Tice's story since he left for Syria earlier this year. He disappeared on August 13th and the only update on him has been a YouTube video with his captors. To get some insight on what might be happening with Tice, Edel Howlin spoke to another journalist who was also kidnapped in Syria. |
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3rd Annual Summit On Human Trafficking, Are We Winning The Fight? Local organization "Children at Risk" held its third annual summit on human trafficking in Dallas today. This year has been busy for raising awareness of trafficking in Houston and Texas. But when will that work be enough? |
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Helping Our Heroes: PTSD Help In Houston Many veterans are reluctant or don’t know how to tackle their post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues. Those are the people that the Michael E. DeBakey hospital is looking for at their mental health fair this Friday. In our continuing series Helping Our Heroes focuses on PTSD and where some help can be found for our local veterans. |
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R. Allen Stanford's Virgin Island Estate Items Go Under the Hammer As we near four months since R. Allen Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison, his belongings are still being liquidated. The most recent items are from his St. Croix estate in the Virgin Islands. |
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New Video May Be Clue to Missing Journalist's Location Houston journalist Austin Tice was last heard from in Syria on August 13th. That was until this week when a video with someone who looks very like Tice was posted to a pro-Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad website. The video shows him being held hostage and in obvious distress. But all may not be lost says one security expert. |
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