In brief: A passing shortwave will bring a decent chance of showers, and possibly a few thunderstorms on Thursday. However we expect dry weather for fireworks on the Fourth of July, and most of the weekend should be rain-free. Temperatures look to remain hot for awhile, as is expected during July.
A shortwave surprise
One thing about meteorology is that it always keeps you on your toes. For several days now we’ve been predicting that high pressure would largely keep rain chances at bay during the second half of this week. But now it turns out that high won’t be quite strong enough to keep an atmospheric disturbance, known as a shortwave trough, from sliding into the region today. It is unlikely to bring widespread showers and thunderstorms, but there should at least be some scattered activity this afternoon, and a few showers on the Fourth of July as well. I still don’t anticipate any impacts on fireworks, however.
HRRR model depiction of radar at 2 pm CT suggests the possibility of some showers and thunderstorms later today. (Weather Bell)
Thursday
The radar is quiet right now, but later this morning we are likely to see some showers develop to the west of the region. These should progress toward Houston during the middle of the day, bringing scattered showers and thunderstorms into the area this afternoon. Overall, your chance of seeing precipitation is probably about one-in-three. Skies, otherwise, will be partly sunny with high temperatures in the mid-90s. Winds will be light, from the south at about 5 mph. Rain chances die off tonight, with muggy conditions and lows in the upper 70s.
Friday
The Fourth of July will bring a mix of sunshine and clouds, with high temperatures in the mid-90s or thereabouts. We will again see a chance of rain, although coverage might be slightly less than Thursday. So we should be somewhere between scattered and isolated showers. I expect these to diminish during the evening hours, so impacts on fireworks should be negligible. Lows Friday night will drop into the upper 70s.
Saturday and Sunday
The first half of the weekend should bring partly sunny skies, with highs in the mid-90s. Rain chances are low to non-existent on Saturday. They look a little bit higher on Sunday, perhaps 30 percent, with the same heat and humidity.
This weekend will be hot, but not excessively so for this time of year. (Weather Bell)
Next week
Another disturbance is likely to traverse the area on Monday, leading to an elevated chance of rain before high pressure returns again. Most of next week will probably see highs in the mid- to upper-90s, with a slight chance of rain along the sea breeze. So, all in all, it should be pretty July-like.
From the University Museum at Texas Southern University:
“This exhibition creatively interrogates the promises versus realities of Black liberation since the announcement of General Order No.3 in Galveston, Texas, while honoring the legacy of the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.).
Featured artists: Tay Butler, Nathaniel Donnett, Brian Ellison, Ann Johnson, Cat Martinez, David McGee, Robert Pruitt, Alexis Pye, Phillip Pyle II, Lanecia Rouse, Kaneem Smith, and Anthony Suber.”
“Janaye Brown (she/her) (b. San Jose, California; based in Berlin, Germany) makes video work that explores perception of time, fragmented narratives and the unseen. Anna Mayer (she/her) uses ceramics to respond to colonial legacies within land use, archaeology, and 1960s-70s Land Art. stephanie concepcion ramirez (she/her) is a Salvadoran-American artist from PG County, Maryland. Her practice utilizes the language of photography with site-specific installations, video and text. Her work is based on notions of memory, personal and historical amnesia that trace the veins of the Central American diaspora.”
Lina Puerta, “Crop Laborer Green,” 2018, handmade paper composed of pigmented cotton and linen paper pulp, embedded with sequined fabrics, lace, and finished with gouache, 29 x 20 inches
3. Heirloom
Ruiz-Healy Art (San Antonio)
June 18 – August 9, 2025
From Ruiz-Healy Art:
“Drawing from the Ruiz-Healy Art archive, the exhibition explores how cultural artifacts, moments, and gestures are embedded in visual language. Heirloom explores everyday objects, inherited materials, symbolic forms, and language to carry, reconstruct, and honor memory. Featured artists turn to material such as family photos, ritual items, and heirlooms for preservation and re-contextualization. Objects, sometimes humble, other times ornate, act as traces of lived experiences.”
Millicent Alvarado, “Finders Keepers,” mixed media
“In Menagerie, Millicent Alvarado invites viewers into a vivid and intense garden populated by expressive characters and forms that delve into the untamed nature of raw emotion, the absurdities of lived experiences, and frictions that emerge when distinct personalities collide.
Each piece — painstakingly crafted from hand-cut paper, found materials, and sculptural elements—serves as a visual metaphor for the complex web of the artist’s inner workings. Alvarado captures the humor, tension, and vulnerability inherent in navigating the world. Anthropomorphic figures and surreal montages play out emotionally heightened experiences—confrontation, self-reflection, difficult ends and new beginnings — each rendered with a blend of amusement and wry observation.”
“Sonia Medina, an architect and interior designer from Honduras, creates work that dissects space, belonging, and identity. Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizomatic philosophy and Graciela Hierro’s ethics of care, she explores the fluidity of place and the multiplicities that form it.
Texicana: Mapas Iconográficos is a visual essay on Americana through the immigrant gaze — a love letter to Texas drawn from the Americana propaganda campaigns of the Cold War era. Using architectural drawings, immersive projections, and diagrammatic illustrations, the project maps these symbols through immigrant narratives, recontextualizing them through lived experience. The exhibition unravels cultural hybridity, weaving together irony, nostalgia, and pride — an ode to the spaces we leave behind and those we learn to call home.”
CHICAGO—Emphasizing the constraints of God’s healing hands, a new study published Thursday in the Journal Of The American Medical Association found that the curative power of prayer was limited exclusively to genital warts. “Our data revealed that while people attempt to cure a host of medical conditions by praying, the only ailment it was shown to be effective against was genital warts,” said lead author Dr. Patrick Mercier, explaining that despite prayer being promoted as a remedy for cancer, drug addiction, and mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia, such invocations for divine intervention were utterly useless unless the condition somehow involved viral growths located around the groin and anus. “The ability of prayer to treat sicknesses and disorders was so narrow, in fact, that it could not even heal plantar warts found on the soles of feet. That said, entreaties to our Creator were so efficient at addressing genital warts specifically that patients who held their hands over the affected vulvas and penises and pleaded to a higher power for relief often found their HPV breakouts cleared up within 24 hours.” Mercier added that curing genital warts was actually the only thing prayer was capable of achieving across the board.
The Surfer: Nicolas Cage stars in a psychological thriller about the horrors of not knowing whether young people are making fun of you or not.
Another Simple Favor: In this sequel to the 2018 hit A Simple Favor, you’ll come for the outfits, stay for the outfits, and leave wondering if the outfits were worth it all.
Juliet & Romeo: Whoa, they changed the order of the names? Anything could happen in this crazy flick!
Thunderbolts*: Stick around for the post-credits scene where Florence Pugh stares blankly down at the eight-figure paycheck in her hands, remembering there was a point in her career when she was in Little Women.
Rust: Box offices are betting that fans will show up for this big-budget prequel to The Baldwins.
Karate Kid: Legends: In the latest installment of this action drama series, Daniel LaRusso returns to train a new protégé in the art of eating frozen yogurt in a gi after getting out of karate class.
Hurry Up Tomorrow: If we band together, we might be able to white-knuckle it through the Weeknd’s acting phase.
Transformers: The Interminables: If you thought the last seven Transformers movies were confusing, just wait until you hear all the completely incomprehensible gibberish about Forasic Stones, Shields of Time, and Wind Decoders they’re spewing in this one.
F1: Brad Pitt anchors this sports action film that tries its damnedest to convince us race car drivers are athletes.
Smurfs: A musical fantasy comedy voiced by a star-studded cast, with graphic sex scenes that technically don’t count as porn because Smurfs don’t have human genitalia.
NCIS: If putting a couple episodes of the CBS drama onto the big screen is what it takes to get people to come back to theaters, then so be it.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps: This is never going to end, huh? No matter how many of these movies bomb, it’s just going to be like this for-fucking-ever, isn’t it?
Together: Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a codependent couple desperate to avoid public association with their real-life brother and brother-in-law.
From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina: A movie so good they have to mention a different movie in the title.
The Fugitive: The Fugitive is awesome. It’s never a bad time to watch The Fugitive.
HOUSTON – After more than 50 years, Houston Community College has a new name on the way.
News broke on this exciting news during an HCC’s Board of Trustees meeting June 18th. Houston Community College will now be named “Houston City College”. The colleges’ board of trustees voted 6-3 in favor of the rebranding of the school.
Besides the name, there will be many other changes coming to the HCC school system like expanding into bachelor’s degree programs. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools CommisSion on Colleges was able to approve HCC’s request to become a Level 2 institution. This approval is what HCC needed in order to be able to offer bachelor’s degrees on top of the associate’s degree which they are currently offering. Many other colleges around Texas have made the same move as HCC in order to reflect the expansion of their schools.
Chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher had been petitioning for the change since August of 2024. Her hope for this change is to boost enrollment and improve the image of HCC as a possible destination for students determined to get a 4-year degree. Some programs that will be offered for the 4-year degree will be robotics, health care management, business management and even artificial intelligence.
This name initiative began with a submission of new names from students, faculty, staff and the community itself. There were three other top contenders like, Houston College, City of Houston College, and Greater Houston College, but ultimately, they decided on Houston City College. KPRC Click2Houston created an online poll asking its readers on how they felt about the new name change. 14% felt indifferent, 36% liked the new name, and 50% said they hated it. Besides the name it seems like Chancellor Margaret wants to make sure people know that the schools’ purpose will not change. “As Houston City College, we will continue to provide quality, affordable instruction through certificates, associate and baccalaureate degrees at a community college price.”
1. Our new hires keep leaving, and I’m worried people think it’s because of me
The team I work on is going through a period of transition right now, with several people on our team leaving within a short space of time. I am currently an assistant and recently interviewed for the position of supervisor. I didn’t get the job and, while I respect the decision of my manager, I am disappointed and the team are aware of this. Part of the feedback was a concern that my communication style may come across as too negative, which I am trying to be more aware of in the workplace.
We’ve had some new assistants join the team recently and within a few days of starting the job, they’ve made the decision to leave (all independently — they’ve never met each other). I think this has been due to their expectations of the job not meeting the reality. I really enjoy welcoming new people to the team and helping them to feel comfortable, and it’s one of the few opportunities I can use to practice my supervisor skills. I’ve been extra conscious of my communication style and what I’m telling them about the job so they don’t feel overwhelmed. As my interactions with these new hires are one-to-one, my managers rely on feedback from the rookies to determine if they’ve had a good experience. I’m concerned with this current trend that my managers might think that I’m scaring them away or warning them that they should look elsewhere (I’m not — aside from my recent disappointment, I’m quite happy on the team despite our challenges of being understaffed). I think our problem is more likely to be that we’re not presenting the job accurately during the hiring process or not screening candidates as effectively as we could be.
Am I overthinking this, or is there a chance that I’m starting to be seen as the Office Villain? If this requires a change from me, do you have any thoughts regarding what to say when raising this with my manager?
If you’re the person working most closely with the new hires, it is possible that your manager will wonder if something is happening in those interactions that’s driving people off — not necessarily that you’re badmouthing the job, but something (in particular, since she told you that you might come across too negatively, she might think that’s part of it). That doesn’t mean it’s really the case, or even that your manager will conclude that — but because it’s unusual to have multiple new people quit a job within a few days of starting it, it’s not unlikely that your boss would at least consider the possibility as she tries to figure out what’s going on,
The best thing you can do is to get out of ahead of it by raising it with your manager yourself. For instance, you could say, “I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s behind our losing X new people so quickly. I’ve really worked hard to welcome them and help them feel comfortable and to be excited about being here, so I don’t think it’s the training experience. But I do think it could be that we’re presenting the job as X during the hiring process and not preparing them for Y, and it might help to be sure people have a really clear understanding of what the work will be like before they come on board.”
2. My manager denied my time off for a reason our company later overruled — but she never came back and told me
I have been at my provincial government for six months after working as a student intern for them for several summers before. Unbeknownst to me, the union I joined has been in negotiations with our government for about a year, and we recently held a 91% strike vote (which is amazing, no issues with that or my union whatsoever!).
However, because of the strike vote (meaning we could strike any time within the next 120 days) management instituted a policy that no vacation leaves were to be approved for anyone until negotiations were finished and there was no possibility for a strike. I approached my manager, Anna, a month ago asking for time off later in the summer, she informed me of this policy, I accepted I wouldn’t be able to get away this summer, and all was well.
However, I have been informed by my former manager (from when I was an intern), Carol, that this policy was rescinded some time ago (about two weeks after I requested time off) as it was against our collective agreement. Time off becomes null and void once a strike happens, but cannot be denied prior. A message from higher-ups went around to all the managers in my department about the decision, and Anna and other managers were supposed to inform us and start allowing time off requests. Carol looked to see if the message was ever sent in an email that she could forward to me, but apparently it was only sent via Teams, which in our org deletes messages after 24 hours.
No one in my working unit was ever informed of this change, even though other units were. I’ve spoken with some of my coworkers, and apparently this is par for the course for Anna. She had only been in a management position for a few months before I joined the team, and apparently there were some politics that involved her getting promoted over a more suitable candidate because of favoritism from higher-ups. I can’t really speak to this as I wasn’t there, but I have definitely noticed that I have to doublecheck things she says as her information has repeatedly been wrong and against our policies.
I am not sure if Anna hasn’t informed my team because she forgot, or because she deliberately wants to withhold information from us. The rest of my team seems to think it’s the latter. I obviously want to take the time off, but I’m not sure how to approach her about this. I’ve tried to find somewhere to “organically” come across the information so I can approach her with it as though she just missed it and I can bring it to her attention, but I have been unable to do so. Is there a way I can diplomatically ask her about why the information was withheld?
The most diplomatic approach is to frame it as an oversight: “When I originally asked for the first week of August off, you didn’t think you could approve it because of the possible strike, but since then the company apparently clarified that they wanted to handle time-off requests normally, because of our collective agreement. Okay for me to submit a new request for the time since that’s been changed?”
You’re not getting into why she withheld the info (which was maybe intentional or maybe wasn’t), just asserting your understanding that the prior reason is no longer in effect. If that doesn’t resolve it, talk to your union about enforcing the collective agreement.
3. “Out of the office until date X”
If someone says they are out of office until Date X, does that mean they are returning on Date X, or the next day? I have seen people use it both ways and it’s confusing.
People do use it both ways, and it is confusing. Technically “out of the office until July 10” should mean “back in the office on July 10,” but a lot of people use it mean “out through July 10.” People could clarify by adding “returning on (date)” but they often don’t.
4. Is work becoming colder and less personal?
I have a question about workplace norms over the last 20+ years that I wondered if you could comment on: do you think business has gotten much less personal and much more cold? Less sexual harassment and happy hours and having your boss over for dinner, more layoffs with no notice, less likely to give the job “to someone who needs it” vs. the best qualified person (e.g. not lay off the cancer patient or new mom.)
Obviously this is both good and bad, as my examples show. But is this a real trend or am I cherrypicking from a sample of “me and my friends”?
Those aren’t the examples I’d choose to illustrate it (obviously less sexual harassment is not “more cold,” and it’s always been pretty common to do layoffs without notice, often using severance in lieu of notice) but I agree with you that work has moved toward feeling less personal. Some of that is coming from more employers moving toward caring about the bottom line at the expense of nearly anything else, and some of it is workers responding to that overall trend by detaching a bit on their own sides (but there’s no question that it started on the employer side).
5. Should I tell my company that our EAP wasn’t helpful?
I recently have been going through the aftermath of a death in my close family and reached out to my employee assistance program (EAP). My EAP offers eight free sessions with a therapist, which sounded awesome. But, after reaching out, they matched me to a practitioner too far away, one inappropriate for my situation (trust me on this one!), and a virtual one who asked for my number to set up an appointment and never contacted me after I gave her my information. I reached out to the EAP many times and was not able to get help.
My question is: should I inform management about this issue? It’s personal, but they know about the death in the family so it’s not too sensitive. I’m moving forward getting support without the EAP. But other people going through hard things might not have that option and we deserve an EAP that works. Should I call it out?
Yes, please tell HR. They need this kind of feedback so they know when there’s a problem. If you’re hesitant to share it because you feel like you’re complaining, don’t think of it as a complaint; think of it as alerting them to a problem with a vendor (which it is).
I saw you this morning as you were getting your paper, gazing wistfully at that flagpole bracket like it broke your heart in junior year. You want to hang an American flag. It’s summer. Citronella. Popsicles. It’s natural to feel the tug of the stars and stripes.
But what if Craig Doherty—that lawyer for the ACLU who just moved next door—sees it while he’s walking his dog and thinks you’re a Fox News-er? Or that you’ll be yelling about Soros at block parties, or prefacing everything with “As a taxpayer…”?
I’m here to help you.
But first, I gotta bust your chops a little. You liberals made a huge strategic error when you abandoned the flag to the NRA and Facebook “Jesus moms.” Tactically naive, Bob. Symbolic real estate matters.
But relationship repair is a thing, and the flag forgives. You can fly Old Glory and still rep the Blue Dog Democrats. It’s just gonna take a little contextualizing.
Here’s how.
1. Pair your flag with a “sibling.” The rainbow flag is a classic choice. Clear signal. The trans flag? Even better. And throw in a Union Strong banner. We’re building a visual narrative.
2. Keep a strict 1:3 flag–to–IN THIS HOUSE sign ratio. Don’t let the flag be the loudest thing in your yard. Balance it out with WE BELIEVE… placards in multiple languages. If possible, include one handmade by a child.
3. Acquire a dummy Prius. Doesn’t need to run. Park it in your driveway 24-7. Slap two COEXIST stickers on the bumper. Three if you’re trying to offset your pickup-truck situation.
4. Hang the flag upside down. Add an eye-catching sign: THIS IS A DISTRESS SIGNAL—NO KINGS! Very of the moment.
5. Eugene V. Debs wind chime.
6. Get a Greenpeace fanny pack for your garden gnome. Also consider a Bernie birdbath or a Pete Buttigieg weather vane.
7. Install a sidewalk chalkboard for real-time updates of your ActBlue donations. Did you give $15 to an Ohio state house race? Nice. Brag about it. Patriotism is all about participation.
8. Add an open PBS umbrella to your porch setup. Instant credibility. It says: “I have seen at least two-thirds of Ken Burns’s oeuvre.”
9. Careful: Don’t do eagles. No eagles in flight, eagles clutching scrolls. That’s opposition branding now. If you must go birding, try a blue heron.
And if you want to pull out the (forgive the expression) big guns:
10. Build a small red, white, and blue structure labeled LIBERAL PATRIOTISM ACCOUNTABILITY ZONE. Inside, include a pamphlet with stats on drone warfare and an invitation to confess you once clapped when a billionaire built a rocket. Add a couple of bean bags. Encourage dialogue.
There you go, Bob. Ten easy ways to fly your flag without losing face at the farm share. Let it flap above your drought-tolerant indigenous pollinator patch like a beacon of responsibly conflicted pride.
The flag belongs to all of us—left, right, Andrew Yang. You can love your country and still side-eye it. That’s real patriotism.
Now go on. Hang that flag. Beth is home from Sarah Lawrence, and it’ll distract her from my kinetic sculpture of Trump drilling in the US Botanic Garden.
And if anyone gives you a look, just point at your wind chime.
TORONTO – In a shocking press conference today, the Centre for Skills Development admitted that “networking is key” to getting a job, advice they’ve given for years, is just a fancy way of saying that it really helps to have a friend of a friend on the inside. “I mean, could you theoretically meet somebody […]
SILVER SPRING, MD—Issuing a public warning for Americans to watch or they might miss out, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reportedly recalled three navel oranges Wednesday to prove that they could juggle. “Toss ’em here,” said spokesperson John Lavietes, adding that American consumers who had recently purchased navel, Valencia, or blood oranges should not consume the citrus fruits but instead bring three of them to the nearest FDA office so the federal agency could show them something. “It’s been a while, but we can definitely do it. Organic, GMO, even a mandarin or tangelo should be brought to this lectern immediately. Come on, any region or distributor works. They have to be firm, though. If they’re not firm, we can’t do it.” At press time, the FDA had recalled one more orange to replace the one that had rolled under the table.
WASHINGTON—Highlighting a growing wealth gap nationwide, the Pew Research Center published a report Wednesday that revealed the average American’s plan for retirement now involves Richard Gere falling for them after paying for sex. “Our findings suggest that the vast majority of people are now hinging their retirement on Mr. Gere spotting them on the street, beckoning them over to his sports car, and becoming so smitten with their rough-hewn, street-smart ways that he invites them for an unforgettable evening at his hotel,” said report author Karyn Harpswell, adding that out of the 3,784 Americans surveyed, virtually all respondents listed putting on thigh-high boots and large hoop earrings to catch the veteran screen actor’s eye as a more sound investment strategy than a diversified portfolio, careful budgeting, or a Roth IRA. “Regardless of age, sex, or racial background, the thought process seemed to be that after one incredible night of lovemaking, they would wake up in Gere’s bed and find he already had plans to pay them to stick around for the next week. Then, between the exquisite meals at fancy restaurants and glamorous outfits on his dime, any additional retirement planning would be unnecessary, particularly if they could eventually convince Gere that they were meant to be together forever.” The report added that the plans of most Americans also involved avoiding Jason Alexander at all costs.
NEW YORK—Calling it a “historic moment” in women’s basketball history, the WNBA announced Wednesday that the league would expand into three more cities as its Caitlin Clark cloning experiment neared completion. “Soon, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia will reap the rewards of our effort to bioengineer several perfect replicas of Caitlin Clark,” said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, adding that the league would have the capacity to populate 18 teams with exact genetic copies of the point guard once the clones were finally done incubating. “Fans all over the United States and Canada will be able to watch dozens of Clarkoids that have been grown in a vat of nutrient-rich solutions housed deep beneath the WNBA’s headquarters. And by 2030, we hope to launch even more teams filled with opposing clones of Angel Reese.” At press time, the WNBA had paused their new franchises after an entire team of Caitlin Clark replicas spontaneously began vomiting blood and exploding into piles of viscera just a few minutes into their debut exhibition game.
Tinder is rolling out a mandatory Face Check feature in California, prompting users to undergo a biometric face scan to verify their identity before they can use the app. What do you think?
“As long as they don’t fact-check anything else on my profile…”
Bob Huntley, Regional Receptionist
“Hopefully they implement ab verification, too.”
Joseph Gray, Tub Filler
“Good, I’d feel much better knowing the person negging me is real.”
LOS ANGELES—Revealing new details about the highly anticipated film, actor and producer Jared Leto teased Wednesday that the villain in Tron: Ares would be a teenage girl who lies for attention.“If you thought Clu was scary in the last film, just wait until you meet Kaylee,” said Leto, who shared that the antagonist would stop at nothing to destroy his character’s career with her false allegations, no matter the repercussions they might have for multimillion-dollar projects. “I play Ares, an AI being in a race against time to save his reputation from a malevolent and vindictive teenager. Many of the characters in the film assume that Ares is the evil one, but it’s only because they’ve fallen for Kaylee’s twisted lies. Ares is innocent! Plus, pretty much everyone can agree she looked at least 17 at the time.” Leto added that even though the movie took place in a sci-fi world, he thought its story would be relatable to many powerful men his age.
