Tag Archives: coronavirus

It’s city of Houston budget time again

Posted on May 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

That federal COVID relief money continues to be very nice. Once again relying on federal money, Mayor Sylvester Turner’s proposed $5.7 billion budget for next year would pay for raises for all city employees, offer tax relief to seniors and … Continue reading →

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Time once again for Texas hospitals to struggle financially

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I feel their pain, but… More than $3 billion in federal money has flowed to Texas health care providers in recent months to help pay for COVID-19 treatments, tests and vaccines for patients without health insurance, according to national health … Continue reading →

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Are we about to get more COVID in Houston?

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We could be. New data from the Texas Medical Center shows COVID-19 cases have leveled off over the past week, but some trends suggest the Greater Houston area could be on the verge of seeing higher virus spread. TMC hospitals reported an average of … Continue reading →

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Looks like Texas didn’t even have to sue to keep Title 42 from ending

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

A different Trump judge already put it in the bag for them. A federal judge in Louisiana plans to temporarily block the Biden administration from ending Title 42, a pandemic-era health order used by federal immigration officials to expel migrants, … Continue reading →

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Texas sues to stop the end of Title 42

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Just another day at the office of destruction for Ken Paxton. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Friday to halt the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from lifting Title 42, a pandemic-era … Continue reading →

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Our deadly roads

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It was a bad year last year. Last year was the second deadliest on record for vehicle fatalities on Texas roads, reflecting a lethal trend here and throughout the nation, especially in large urban areas. In 2021, 4,480 people died … Continue reading →

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Biden administration to appeal airplane mask mandate order

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration said on Tuesday it would appeal a judge’s ruling ending a mask mandate on airplanes if public health officials deem it necessary to stem the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and … Continue reading →

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Mask mandate lifted for planes and trains

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

And other forms of mass transportation. The Biden administration will no longer enforce a U.S. mask mandate on public transportation, after a federal judge in Florida on Monday ruled that the 14-month-old directive was unlawful, overturning a key White House … Continue reading →

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We don’t have enough garbage truck drivers

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We don’t pay them enough, it would seem. For the last few months, Juan Sorto and his neighbors have looked toward the curb on Thursdays and asked themselves the same uneasy question: Did the garbage trucks come? Last week, they had. … Continue reading →

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Paxton threatens HISD over its COVID sick leave policy

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We live in such stupid times. Attorney General Ken Paxton and Republicans in the Legislature are taking aim at Houston ISD, arguing that the district’s COVID sick day policy violates state law. This academic year, Houston ISD is offering 10 … Continue reading →

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New variants being detected

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Got to keep an eye on that. Two new omicron subvariants that health officials say are contributing to a COVID uptick in New York State have been identified in Houston, according to researchers at Houston Methodist. Genome sequencing efforts within the hospital system have … Continue reading →

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We don’t have to treat political performance art as news

Posted on April 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This is a story in the Chronicle about one of our Senators, who made some whiny petulant statements on social media about a celebrity best known for work in the 1980s who had posted about getting his second booster but … Continue reading →

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Grand jury indicts three Hidalgo aides

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Not great. Three Harris County staffers at the center of a mounting investigation into a since-canceled vaccine outreach contract have been indicted with misuse of official information and tampering, according to district clerk records. Aaron Dunn, Wallis Nader and Alex … Continue reading →

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COVID hospitalizations at a low in the state

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good news (say it with me) for now. Texas hospitals are treating fewer than 1,000 patients with COVID-19 for the first time in two years. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, hospitalizations totaled 993 on Sunday. The … Continue reading →

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When is an emergency no longer an emergency?

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know, but not yet. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo still has emergency powers to handle COVID, after a proposal to end her authority failed at commissioners’ court this week. The proposal, by Precinct Four Commissioner Jack Cagle, failed … Continue reading →

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City Council to return to in-person meetings

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I feel like I should always append a “For now” onto commentary about things like this. You know, for all the obvious reasons. Mayor Sylvester Turner said Wednesday he wants all City Council members to return to the chamber next … Continue reading →

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Here comes BA.2 in Houston

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

But don’t panic, it’s just a change in the virus composition, not an increase in viral load. Houston is seeing an uptick in the number of BA.2 cases, with genome sequencing and wastewater testing picking up higher levels this week compared to … Continue reading →

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More eating outdoors downtown

Posted on March 31, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This is a good idea, and I’m glad it’s being continued. DINING IN DOWNTOWN HOUSTON CAN be a hassle, what with the limited parking and COVD-19 restrictions affecting seating space at so many eateries. Fortunately, the city of Houston is … Continue reading →

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Studying COVID in cats and dogs

Posted on March 30, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Seems like a reasonable thing to look at. Brushing a dog’s teeth is hard enough. The dog looks at you plaintively, eyes wide with betrayal, as you insert the toothbrush and perform a quick pantomime of a tooth cleaning in … Continue reading →

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Yeah, ivermectin is useless against COVID

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Hardly a surprise. Antiparasitic drug Ivermectin became a partisan battleground during the Covid-19 pandemic, as anti-vaccine influencers and Republican politicians hawked it as a miracle cure, to the widespread skepticism of infectious disease experts. A peer-reviewed study recently presented by Dr. Edward Mills, a professor … Continue reading →

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Iconic Heights church for sale

Posted on March 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some neighborhood news that has us all a little worried. Heights Christian Church, a community gathering place for more than a century, is selling its historic property and merging with another congregation. Rev. Amber Mattingly, the pastor at the church … Continue reading →

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Appeals court upholds school district mask mandates

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe not the most timely ruling ever, but still nice. An appellate court on Thursday sided with Texas school districts in their dispute with state officials over mask mandates, which numerous school systems have already lifted as pandemic conditions have eased. The … Continue reading →

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A trifecta of crap from the Fifth Circuit

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It’s what they do. A federal appeals court has ruled for Texas in three lawsuits challenging the state’s voting laws, including mail-in ballot provisions and the elimination of straight-ticket voting. In a series of 2-1 rulings Wednesday evening, a panel … Continue reading →

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COVID may be down but it’s definitely not out

Posted on March 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Just a reminder, this pandemic hasn’t gone away. It’s less of a threat to us here right now, but it’s still very much a threat. The evolution of the coronavirus is likely to produce dangerous new variants that escape built-up … Continue reading →

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How low can COVID go?

Posted on March 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I feel like this is more a function of time and evolution than anything else, but we’ll see. New coronavirus cases across the greater Houston area dropped to their lowest level in four months, new data showed Monday, just days … Continue reading →

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MLB’s Canadian conundrum

Posted on March 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s an interesting wrinkle to the recently-resolved MLB lockout. With the Major League Baseball season set to start, unvaccinated players will once again need to sit out series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Players who haven’t been … Continue reading →

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Of course the Census undercounted people of color

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This was the Trump administration’s goal from the beginning. The 2020 census continued a longstanding trend of undercounting Black people, Latinos and Native Americans, while overcounting people who identified as white and not Latino, according to estimates from a report the U.S. … Continue reading →

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Turns out it’s not great debuting a transit service in a pandemic

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

What are you gonna do? The future of Houston transportation is not moving many people, even as traffic rebounds to pre-pandemic levels and ridership returns to many Metropolitan Transit Authority lines. The Silver Line, billed as a viable alternative to … Continue reading →

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And we’re back to yellow again

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s hope it lasts. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday lowered the county’s COVID threat level to yellow, signaling a controlled level of cases following the decline of the omicron wave. The yellow level means COVID poses a “moderate … Continue reading →

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Sure, go ahead, test ivermectin

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Just keep your expectations very low. Texas universities, including Texas Tech’s Health Science Center in El Paso, are now recruiting subjects for a nationwide study to test the effects of unproven repurposed drugs against non-severe COVID cases. Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic … Continue reading →

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More school districts dropping mask mandates

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Unsurprising. Some of Texas’ biggest school districts are lifting mask mandates for students just weeks before spring break. Houston Independent School District, the state’s largest district, and Dallas ISD announced Monday that they would not require students to wear masks. … Continue reading →

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We’ve had a lot of COVID

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Wow. More than half of Texans had been infected by COVID-19 as of late January, according to a nationwide blood sample survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey was based on samples from 52 commercial … Continue reading →

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The Rodeo is back

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Gonna be interesting to see how different it is, if it’s different at all. And this year, after a one-year hiatus, the rodeo again will be focused on preventing the spread of COVID-19, the virus that abruptly brought the rodeo … Continue reading →

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HISD lifts its mask mandate

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

A bit earlier than expected. The Houston Independent School District will lift its mask mandate Tuesday, no longer requiring the use of face coverings at all facilities and buildings, district officials said Monday. The change in policy at Houston ISD … Continue reading →

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