HoustonChronicle Houston & Texas News

A Dallas County jail guard recently fired after allegedly making anti-gay remarks and commenting about religion has said his free speech rights have been violated but he will not seek to regain his job. A sheriff's department review concluded Stephen Johnson, 59, persisted in volunteering his religious opinions and speaking out against homosexuality.

A debate over whether to abide a range of views on abortion and homosexuality has flared up as voters prepare to elect a county chairman in a run-off election next month.

A helicopter crash during a hunting trip on a ranch in south Texas left the pilot and a passenger dead. The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Brian Faglie of Uvalde and Dale Jones of Houston.

Conservative anti-gay activist Dave Wilson will be on the March 2 primary ballot for Harris County Precinct 4 commissioner as a Democrat. County election records indicate that Wilson, 63, has voted in eight GOP primary and runoff elections since 1995, but never in a Democratic election.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined CES almost $1.5 million and cited the industrial waste company for 71 alleged violations.

Liberty Co. officials are trying to determine if slaying of store owner was a hate crime.

As Stevie “Bubba” Walder is charged with murder, police are investigating whether the Christmas slaying of Naushad Virani in Liberty County was a hate crime.

Although the community is proud one of its own will be Houston's next mayor, they also take pride that voters didn't look at Annise Parker as simply "the gay candidate."

Annise Parker's comfortable rise to mayor is drawing attention from national news outlets who are noting the significance of the nation's fourth largest city making history by electing an openly gay leader.

Here's the bottom line, or maybe the punch line: In Houston, it is now harder for a lawyer to be elected mayor than a lesbian.