Past Articles by Rod Rice
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Promising Baylor Research Reduces Bad Cholesterol A lot of us are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, and they seem to be working. According to a Harvard health blog, bad cholesterol rates among Americans 45 or older have been getting lower. But that doesn't mean these drugs are for everyone. |
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Texas Senate Bill Supports Rehab Instead Of Imprisonment For Drug Possession As Texas legislators grapple with funding the state for the next two years, there is an effort to change how the state deals with those people convicted of possession of illegal drugs. The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition claims that its approach would save a lot of money and have a better outcome. |
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After Months Of Repair, Elissa Heads Back To Galveston Pier 22 The official tall ship of Texas is headed back home to Galveston this weekend after four months of repairs. The "Elissa" should soon look almost as good as new. |
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Texas Environment 2012: A Year In Review As 2012 draws to a close the big environmental story in Texas was another year of drought. The extended dry weather took a toll on our environment and the state's economy. |
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Be Prepared For Your Flight This Holiday Season Today is expected to be the 2nd busiest day for travel at Bush Intercontinental Airport and tomorrow will most likely be the busiest day of the year at Hobby Airport. The Houston Airport System has information that can help get your trip off to a less stressful start. |
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Thanksgiving Travel Expected To Increase This Year A lot of us have travel plans this week as we gather with family and friends for Thanksgiving. AAA expects a slight increase in the number of people traveling at least 50-miles between Wednesday and Sunday. |
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Houston College Celebrates 150th Civil War Anniversary With Reenactment A 35-mile forced march by Union soldiers in 1863 came to life recently in The Woodlands. A symbolic reenactment at Lone Star College-Montgomery involved about 300 students and their broomsticks. |
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KUHF Conversations: Justin Cronin Rice University professor and bestselling author Justin Cronin's novel "The Twelve" was released two weeks ago. He will be at Murder by the Book tonight at 6:30 and he recently sat down with Rod Rice here in our studios. |
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The Efforts Of Beautifying Woodland Park And Bayou A large section of Houston's second oldest park had been forgotten and lost for decades. Many people didn't even know it existed. But that's all changed when five undaunted neighbors became the "Friends of Woodland Park." |
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Texas Delegation Has Problems With GOP Convention Rule Political conventions are designed to be unifying affairs, but the Texas delegation at the Republican National Convention in Tampa is not happy about rules for future conventions. |
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New Law Provides Tax Break to Disabled Vets Spouses A new law that took effect with the start of the new year means the surviving spouses of totally disabled veterans will get some much-needed tax relief. |
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Governor Rick Perry gets the first chance to appear before a national audience tonight. The Republicans vying for the GOP's presidential nomination will be on the same stage for a debate. Rice political scientist Mark Jones has written about Perry and has an assessment about tonight debate. |
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Latest Vaccination Data "Very Reassuring" New data about vaccination rates finds the number of immunized children has been increasing across the country and in the Houston area. More on the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
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KUHF Conversations: Former HC Judge Robert Eckels Ten years ago today, on a Saturday morning, the surprising and massive destruction of Tropical Storm Allison became all too real. More than 70-thousand homes were flooded. More than 70-thousand vehicles were underwater. And Allison claimed 22 lives. The storm had passed through the area a few days prior, but almost no one knew it was looping back toward Houston to dump 35 inches of rain, most of it over ten hours. Then Harris County Judge Robert Eckels talked with Rod Rice about the worst tropical storm in U.S. history. |
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You may have noticed billboards and electronic highway signs recently that remind you to share the road and to look twice for motorcycles. As Rod Rice reports — the reason for the signs is that when a motorcycle and another vehicle collide, it is most often the driver of the other vehicle who is at fault. |
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Too Many Texans Pay Twice for the Same Education Remedial education-courses designed for college students on basic skills that they did not master in high school, costs Texas hundreds of millions of dollars according to a study by the Alliance for Excellent Education. Rod Rice reports. |
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The EPA Battle of the Buildings Begins Teams from 245 buildings around the country, including two in Houston, will compete to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rod Rice reports. |
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CDC Says Unvaccinated Children are at Risk Cases of whooping cough and measles are on the rise. That has prompted the Centers for Disease Control to remind parents that getting children vaccinated on time is a key component to keeping them healthy. Rod Rice reports. |
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Work is underway this afternoon to repair the broken Galveston waterline that triggered a water emergency over the weekend. A City of Galveston spokeswoman says the line should be repaired in 24-to-48 hours. Rod Rice reports. |
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Celebrate Earth Day Saturday at Discovery Green Air Alliance Houston is holding its 3rd annual Earth Day celebration at Discovery Green tomorrow. |
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Closing Schools and Shifting Students at HISD In a cost cutting measure, the Houston Independent School District has offered a plan to close four small elementary schools and redraw some attendance zones. Rod Rice reports. |
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Unlikely Groups Oppose Radioactive Dump A dump for radioactive waste in Texas has forged an unlikely partnership. Environmental groups and a Tea Party Organization are joining forces to oppose expansion of the planned dump. Rod Rice reports. |
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Propane Tank Protection During Wildfire Season With wildfires in or threatening all but two Texas counties, the safety of propane tanks takes on new importance. Rod Rice reports that the state agency in charge of propane safety says it's a good idea to know what to do before a fast moving wildfire threatens your property. |
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Tomorrow about 13-hundred bicyclists will take part in the 27th annual BP MS 150, the annual fund raising ride from Houston to Austin. The ride has become a favorite for riders from near and far. Rod Rice reports. |
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2011 Hurricane Forecast From Colorado State University Updated We're less than two months away from the start of hurricane season and professors at Colorado State University have updated their 2011 forecast. Rod Rice reports. |
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METRO Makes Game Day Changes in TMC As you head home from work, college basketball fans will be heading to Reliant Stadium for the NCAA Championship game. Rod Rice reports that METRO says it will add service to handle both. |
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Groups Band Together to Ban Baseball Tobacco It's major league baseball's opening day and around the country teams will again be part of a great American tradition. Not all of baseball's traditions, though, are thought to be good. As Rod Rice reports there's a concerted effort to ban tobacco use by players, managers, coaches and staff. |
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Deadline for Voter Registration Approaches There are about five dozen Harris County entities that will select leaders during the May 14th uniform election. The Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar remind you the deadline for registering to vote is only two weeks away. Rod Rice reports. |
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Keep Houston Beautiful Cleanup Underway The "Great American Cleanup" is moving towards "Keep Houston Beautiful" day. The kick-off event is Friday at Allen's Landing but efforts to spruce up the city are already underway and will continue through the end of May. Rod Rice reports. |
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Girls Camp Promotes Fire Service Careers Nationally just under 5% of fire fighters are women, but they make up only 2.7% of the Houston Fire Department. As Rod Rice reports — a couple years ago, a group of HFD women decided to be proactive in letting young women know there is a place for them in the fire service. |
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Postive News for Jobs and Unemployment The unemployment rates for both the state and the Houston area slipped a bit in February, while the number of jobs went up for both. Rod Rice reports. |
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Councilmember Wants Annual Daycare Inspection After the deadly home day care fire last month, a Houston city councilmember proposes an annual inspection of each facility. Rod Rice reports. |
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Historians Discuss Texas Textbooks As a bipartisan effort seems to be building to take another look at the social studies textbook controversy adopted by the Texas Board of Education, a group of historians from around the country will take up the topic this week in Houston. Rod Rice reports. |
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Houston Slips on List of Energy Efficient Buildings The Environmental Protection Agency has released its list of the cities with the most energy efficient buildings. As Rod Rice reports — Houston is still in the top ten but the competition is fierce. |
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Controversial Beach Ruling Gets a 2nd Look When the Texas Supreme Court ruled there was no longer a public beach easement on West Galveston Island all beach restoration efforts there came to a halt. As Rod Rice reports, now that the high court is going to take another look at the case, the Texas General Land Office hopes the decision will be reversed. |
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HISD Trustees Approve Huge Cut Per-Student Facing an estimated 171-million dollar budget shortfall Houston School Trustees have approved a huge cut in per-student funding. Rod Rice reports. |
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Private Jet Runs Out of Runway at Hobby An early morning accident at Hobby Airport caused minor damage to an airplane. The Federal Aviation Administration says there was also some damage at the airport that will need to be fixed. Rod Rice reports. |
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A Call for Tougher Child Sex Trafficking Laws Texas laws get a "C" for how they protect children from sex trafficking. A national organization is rating the sex trafficking laws of all 50 states and has just released the review of Texas. Rod Rice reports. |
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A gasoline pipeline break last week in Texas City has been repaired. Rod Rice reports that the cleanup effort is still ongoing. |
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Some Delinquent Business Taxes go to Collection April 2nd Thousands of Harris County businesses will be getting delinquent tax notices this week. As Rod Rice reports — these notices are for business personal property taxes that were due January 31st. |
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It May be Time for Comprehensive Tax Reform Most of the talk about "taxes" these days is about "no new taxes", but two Rice University economics professors have issued a paper saying the time is right to think about comprehensive tax reform. Rod Rice reports. |
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Removal of Abandoned Crab Traps Each year crabbing in state waters is closed for ten days. During that period any crab traps left in the water are considered litter and can be removed. As Rod Rice reports, with the crabbing hiatus ending this Sunday, area volunteers have been hard at work. |
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Stranded Whale Fights for Survival A 12-foot long pygmy sperm whale is fighting for its life at a marine mammal rescue facility in Galveston. |
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New Technology Helps Solve Harris County Cold Case Murder cases that have gone cold for many years can be tough to finally crack. But as Rod Rice reports — sometimes the passage of time can help lead to a suspect. |
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Law enforcement agencies throughout the area and around the state will be joining together next month to arrest people with outstanding warrants. As Rod Rice reports the annual "Great Texas Warrant Round-up" is a way to clear cases and give people a chance to avoid an embarrassing arrest. |
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Ft Bend County Hears About Commuter Rail Tonight Fort Bend County residents will get a chance to learn more about METRO's proposed commuter light rail line along the US 90A/Southwest Rail Corridor. The more than eight-mile long line would run from the southern terminus along Fannin into Missouri City. Rod Rice has more. |
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HISD Fills Out its Apollo-20 Schools Eleven HISD elementary schools will be added to the Apollo-20 turnaround initiative. The program began last fall at nine middle and high schools. It involves several key strategies to help struggling schools improve. Rod Rice has more. |
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The Budget Axe Falls on Four State Agencies One of the agencies Governor Perry wants to de-fund is the Texas Historical Commission. Rod Rice reports on what the commission does and how its loss could affect the state. |
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The Internal Revenue Service wants more people to take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit if they qualify. To help taxpayers get answers about the EITC the IRS is opening four area offices tomorrow and next Saturday. Rod Rice reports. |
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Educators and Parents Meet About Budget Cuts As the 82nd Texas Legislature begins dealing with a huge budget deficit, school districts in the state face record spending cuts. Area school officials and parents met at HISD's headquarters this morning to grasp the scope of the legislative problem as lawmakers begin the budget cutting process. Rod Rice reports. |
