By Amanda Hart Photos by Erica Raggett A new coffee shop recently opened in the Heights, and it’s serving up a lot more than just your daily dose of caffeine. A 2nd Cup and its creator, Erica Raggett, are taking on human trafficking one cup of coffee at a time. They are located at 1035 E. 11th St., and their current hours of operation are Sundays from 8am-2pm and Tuesdays from 4pm-10pm. Free Press Houston sat down with Erica to talk about how A 2nd Cup came to be and what they hope to accomplish here in Houston. FPH: Who ... Read More »

"The 'Drug War' kills more people than drugs themselves." - Tony Payan, Ph.D., Baker Institute (Rice University) Scholar for Immigration and Border Studies Read More »

As of August 1st, under the Affordable Healthcare Act, life just got a helluva lot better for women. All FDA approved forms of birth control – including the pill, IUD’s and more – are all officially available through private insurance companies with no cost sharing like co-pays or deductibles  for the women they cover.  There are many things the the health care act has made available specific to women’s health. Pap smears and annual wellness exams are also now covered by your insurance with no extra cost to you! Besides the birth control and preventative screenings now available the act ... Read More »

By Dr. Absinthe Holiday season is upon us. In a few more weeks it will be Thanksgiving], then your gift-giving holiday of choice, followed closely by New Year’s Eve. Time spent (fighting) with family. Long lines everywhere. Annoying, cutesy jewelry and car commercials. Watching (hopefully) good football. The return of your favorite holiday movies. Nonstop Christmas music, everywhere. Wishing you had a date to any of your friends’ parties, or wondering why the hell you even started dating that jerk face of a romantic partner anyway. The War on Christmas”!. The inevitable disappearance of the Pumpkin Spice latte for another ... Read More »

By: Dr. Absinthe One of those most liberating sexual experiences I’ve had was with an out-of-town friend whose place I was crashing at one weekend. We had gone on a few coffee shop dates while he lived in Houston and had become friends, but we never moved beyond that to make it to either of our bedrooms before he moved. After he agreed to house me for the weekend while I was visiting his town he said there was a futon I could have full reign of but he also mentioned he found me attractive and was always welcome to ... Read More »

By: Dr. Absinthe By this point it’s safe to assume that most people out there have been to a sex shop at least once, if only to get some cartoonish genitalia for a bride-or-groom-to-be. But what happens after the bachelorette and bachelor parties are over and you need a little help? Sometimes the fun you want to have (whether alone or with partners) requires a bit more than human anatomy alone can provide, and that’s where sex stores come in As the fourth largest city in the US, Houston has as many sex shops as there are ridges on a ... Read More »

By:Amanda Hart It is expensive to be born with a vagina. Tampons alone at times are a commodity (ladies, let me introduce you to your new best friend: The Diva Cup. Your “shit, i guess I’ll just use toilet paper” days are over). And tampons are just one of the many items our vagina’s demand that we sometimes can’t afford. However, i would have to say that above all the other items we need to function in our society the one closer to the top of the list is some form of birth control. I would like to think that ... Read More »