By: Amanda Hart There is a cat serial killer on the loose in the loop. Since 2008, multiple cats have been mutilated and left for the owners to find in the Heights, Montrose, and River Oaks neighborhoods.  The most recent attack was this past June and occurred in the neighborhood of Lazybrook in the Heights. The victim’s family cat was cut in half and part of the cat was positioned in front of their home in the street and the other half was located ten days later a few blocks away.  The police acknowledged that the cat was mutilated ... Read More »

By: Erin Dyer Houston homeowners Aisling and Wes Jones’ beloved pet was suddenly shot dead at their home last month. Boss was an eight-year-old, 54-pound Boxer dog that the couple had had in their family since Boss was just six weeks old. Like many others who raise and love their pets, Boss was like “their very own child” and is deeply missed. Free Press Houston spoke with Aisling about the details of the events that lead up to Boss’s untimely demise – one that she and her family consider to be a horrific tragedy. According to Aisling, on the day ... Read More »

A few practical ways for the City of Houston to increase revenue, decrease the budget shortfall, and make everyone’s lives a whole lot easier by adapting to 15-year-old technology. By Omar Afra Illustration by Tim Dorsey Despite Houston’s relative resilience to the recession and actual job growth, our municipal government is pretty much up shit’s creek when it comes to fiscal responsibility. With an accumulated deficit of 2.5 billion dollars and an annual budget deficit of 130 million dollars, it is critical that the city both finds efficiencies and raises revenue. Mayor Parker has launched a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’-type ... Read More »

By: Erin Dyer Houstonian Natalie Plummer was arrested on Thursday, June 21, for standing on the sidewalk and holding a paper sign. While riding her bike down West Dallas on her way home from the grocery store, Plummer noticed HPD pulling over cars that were allegedly speeding. She took videotape of this happening near downtown because she believed HPD was wrongly pulling over random people that were not even speeding. In attempt to prevent any other drivers from being pulled over, Plummer created a sign that read, “Speed Trap!!” and held it up to cars that passed by while she ... Read More »

By: Erin Dyer Houston’s city council approved a law this past Wednesday that will require each local strip club visitor to pay a $5 fee upon entry in addition to any mandatory cover charges required by the club itself. Not only is the new fee enforced at all strip clubs, but also any other bar or club that occasionally hosts adult entertainment events such as wet T-shirt contests, etc. It is estimated that 30 clubs are subject to the tax. This new local tax, similar to the Sin Taxes set on alcohol, gambling, junk food and tobacco, has been dubbed ... Read More »

By: Erin Dyer On Thursday, June 14, more than 450 people congregated in Downtown Houston for a peaceful protest. Most of these protestors that gathered are the men and women who mop the floors, take out the trash, sanitize restrooms, and do the dirty clean-up work at corporations such as JP Morgan Chase, Marathon Oil, KBR, Shell, Continental, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, El Paso, and CenterPoint Energy. Forbes Magazine ranks Houston as America’s fastest growing Millionaire city– this means its millionaire growth rate is higher than that of the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. There are currently 96,700 millionaires in ... Read More »

By: Erin Dyer Houston’s Woodland Heights resident and homeowner, Lauren Garcia, 30, is fully aware and educated about Houston’s new noise ordinance. When she was arrested on her own property she decided to speak up and warn her fellow Houstonians about how far the Houston Police Department is willing to take this noise ordinance and stretch their power as law enforcers. Garcia hosted her thirtieth birthday party at her house a few blocks outside of the Houston Heights on June 9. HPD crashed her birthday celebration around 11pm on account of an outdoor DJ playing loud music. After moving the ... Read More »

By Alex Wukman Over a month has passed since an HPD officer pulled a shotgun on a party being thrown by the Houston Free Thinkers. In that time the story went viral and prompted an internal affairs investigation. At the height of the media coverage Free Press Houston did our due diligence and sent in an open records request to get HPD’s side of the story, they just sent it over. And while the results of the investigation and the final outcome of the court case won’t be known for some time, the initial incident reports created by the officer ... Read More »

By Alex Wukman This shit is getting too predictable. Honestly, another week brings another report of HPD overreacting to the noise ordinance. Last week it was a cop pulling a gun this week it’s a report that Dubstep DJ Badbwoy BMC was arrested for an alleged noise violation. Apparently a little after midnight on Wednesday, February 8, an HPD officer rolled up to Mango’s where BMC was working some tracks from his upcoming “Dubbed Out” LP, which drops in March from Swisha House, into his weekly gig. According to BMC, real name Billy McCain, HPD stopping by is all too ... Read More »

By Alex Wukman An ambulance and four HPD cruisers roll up to a non-descript lemon yellow faded-to-almost-white building on Branard, a quiet side street in Montrose. The two or three cars doubling back down their interrupted shortcut doubtlessly think they’ve stumbled onto the scene of an overdose/drug bust. The only detail that doesn’t fit that assumption, a detail all too easily overlooked in the midst of a panicky U-turn, is the long handicapped railing extending from the building. The railing is the only clue that the building is more than just another post-war Faux Victorian in a rapidly gentrifying Inner ... Read More »