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BY LISA GRAY • FRIDAY, NOV. 5, 2021
NEWS-TON

Where cops are most likely to search your car: If police pull you over for even the most minor traffic violation -- say, for forgetting to signal a turn -- they can decide to search your car. In some parts of Texas, the Houston Chronicle found, traffic searches are shockingly likely. Cleveland, just north of Houston, is among the worst: More than 90% of cars stopped for traffic violations are checked for contraband. Critics say that those intrusive searches tend to be racially biased, and besides, turn up very little that's illegal. (Houston Chronicle)

Robots could enforce traffic laws more fairly. So we ought to automate as much as we can, argues writer Matthew Yglesias, using things like the red-light cameras that the state of Texas outlawed a couple of years ago. "We have the technology to detect vehicle speed, take images of cars breaking the rules, read license plate numbers from those photos, and fine the responsible drivers," he writes. Machines' traffic enforcement would be fast and fair -- and it'd work best, he argues, if the fines are lower than they are now. (Slow Boring)

“Escape California”: Gov. Greg Abbott launched a Twitter campaign to convince shippers to forget the Port of Los Angeles and come to Texas. A snappy embedded video notes that some Golden State ports are backed up by 100 days – and that it'd only take about two weeks for a ship to detour through the Panama Canal up to Houston. (Abbott’s tweet, via Bloomberg)

URBAN ALMANAC: HERBAL SPREE

November is the best time to plant herbs here, says the Houston Herb Society: The weather is finally cool enough for rosemary, parsley, cilantro, pineapple sage and lemon verbena. Society members will be selling those plants and many others at the annual Herb Fair on Saturday. Plus they'll offer visitors a free make-and-take "herbal smoke bundle." We assume that whatever they're rolling is totally legal, even in Texas.

Photo: Rosemary, by Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images

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RECOMMENDED

Accordion Kings and Queens:  At Texas Folk Life's reliably great annual concert, conjunto trades sets with polka, zydeco, Cajun, and more. This year's headliners are Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys and Christina Valdez. Plus, it's at Miller Outdoor Theatre -- so it's free.

Grilled artichokes at Hillstone: City Cast Houston reader Amy Ahlbrand Robinson reports that they're the best thing she's eaten lately. (In case you're wondering: Hillstone is the new name of Houston's on Kirby Drive.)

Crochet and cocktail pairings: No, they make no sense. But somehow it's funny when Houston's Cindy Wang pairs ultra-cute crocheted Squid Game dolls with with a Dalgona-flavored milk punch. Check out @geekyhookereats on Instagram -- and yes, that's "hooker" as in "crochet hook."

What's your Houston happy place? Is there a taco that fills you with unreasonable joy? A bayou view that makes your heart swell? Don't keep it to yourself!

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All Californians treated as escapees.


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