By: Erin Dyer Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A, recently made a statement that has been flooding the news and social media like Hurricane Katrina. Cathy expressed his family’s support of “traditional” marriage between man and woman, and only between man and woman, reflecting biblical views. While Cathy, as an American, has the right to have and stand by his personal beliefs, it was clearly a bad business decision to state that his company, Chick-fil-A, backs his views. Many people are unhappy, to say the least, with Chick-fil-A’s ignorant anti-gay marriage beliefs, and thus have agreed to boycott Chick-fil-A completely, vowing ... Read More »

The trial of three members of the Russian punk band, Pussy Riot, has begun. The three women, Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, were arrested in early March on charges of“hooliganism” and have been in jail ever since.  And as if five months behind bars for staging an impromptu performance in a cathedral isn’t bad enough, they are facing up to seven years in prison if found guilty. Pussy Riot is a feminist punk band from Russia that has been causing ‘trouble’ for almost a year now.  Five of the ten members staged a performance on ... Read More »

By Amanda Hart Photos by SEIU We’ve all had those days driving down I-45 when we happen to look over and catch a majestic sunset framing our city skyline. Those soaring buildings, on some level, validate our incredible human ingenuity. However, a recent dispute between the property managers and the workers who clean those same buildings reminds us that every step we’ve taken forward as a species always seems to be followed by several steps backwards. A six hour work day in the life of Maria Teresa Lopez, a janitor who works at Greenway Plaza One here in Houston, consists ... Read More »

By: Erin Dyer Houston-born instrumental Jazz band, Free Radicals, has released their newest CD: “The Freedom Fence.” Since the band’s founding in 1996 by drummer and producer, Nick Cooper, the Free Rads’ discography includes The Rising Tide Sinks All (1998), Our Lady of Eternal Sunny Delights (2000), Aerial Bombardment (2004), and most recently, The Freedom Fence (2012). Maybe I’m biased because I have enjoyed listening to this awesome local band for years (I’m clearly already a Free Rads fan), but The Freedom Fence kicks ass. Each track, of 23 total, melts into each other like new lovers on ecstasy. The ... 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 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 »