On September 17, 1998, in response to an armed robbery call, Houston police burst in to the home of John Lawrence. The police didn’t find a robber (nor would they – the call was deliberately false), but they did find Lawrence having sex with another man, Tyrone Garner. Lawrence and Garner were promptly charged with “engaging in homosexual conduct,” a misdemeanor under Texas law. They paid their fine and began a long legal challenge to Texas’ anti-sodomy law. That challenge has finally reached the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, which today agreed to hear their appeal early next year. Standing in the way is the Court’s own 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, in which it held that anti-sodomy laws are constitutional. That may be about to change.
posted by pardonyou? on Dec 2, 2002 - 43 comments

Lesson learned in Houston, Texas yesterday: shop at a 24-hour Kmart in the middle of the night, go directly to jail. If you're a 10-year-old girl having a late dinner with your father at the next door Sonic, well, it's off to jail with you, too.
posted by ewagoner on Aug 19, 2002 - 103 comments

I think I may have just found the most explicit example of crass American commercialism. At eroticbid.com, you can purchase a porn star's actual labia. No, I'm not joking, and no, this isn't a rotten link.
posted by Spanktacular on Oct 4, 2001 - 17 comments

At least 12 people are dead and damage could be $1 billion as a result of flooding in the US' fourth largest city of Houston. Some areas received more than two feet of rain in a 24 hour period this weekend after the remains of Tropical Storm Allison regrouped and poured on southeast Texas. Why does this story only get one page on the major news sites, when the Seattle quake was covered extensively all over the country?
posted by LeiaS on Jun 10, 2001 - 15 comments

Yesterday I went to a local Comic Book Store here in Houston, Texas. I was looking for the hard to find 'Death Row Marv' figure that recently made the news across the nation. After I asked to see the figure (it was kept behind the counter) and dicided that the price was right, the sales person asked me if I was a policeman. I told him I was not and asked why. He told me that the Death Row Marv figure is very popular with the Houston Police Department. The officers like to have them on their desks and in their squad cars - scary huh?
posted by DragonBoy on Sep 10, 2000 - 3 comments