An Unlikely Suspect

Alligator creates a mini panic on Galveston beach, but no worries — the bacteria is worse!

It's hard to imagine what creepy crawly creatures swim around in the already questionable Galveston water. But out of all the unknowns, spotting an alligator just a few feet away, might be one the last things you guessed — seconds before hightailing it out of there.

But that's the scenario beach-goers at Galveston's Bermuda Beach faced over Memorial Day weekend.

KTRK Ch. 13 showed a video that a viewer sent in of the supposed freshwater lurker's encounter with animal rescue and police officers. The viewer described it as like, "a scene from a movie." Maybe Jaws, or that movie with Betty White and the killer alligator . . . Lake Placid?

"Alligators tend to avoid people like the plague."

Thankfully, no injuries were reported and Hollywood had nothing to do with it. The gator was safely released in a marsh near Brazoria County.

This beach gator has had plenty of company in the news too. There were also gators spotted near a northeast Houston H-E-B and a massive one's been roaming through a Fort Bend neighborhood. At least those alligators were somewhere close to their natural habitat though.

The Galveston gator is more of a mystery.

The Curator of Reptiles at the Houston Zoo, Stan Mays tells CultureMap that although uncommon, it is not impossible for an alligator to get accidentally get flushed from local rivers into the bay.

"Typically they do not like saltwater, and if it was out on the beach chances are that it did not want to be there," Mays says.

It's not the first time an alligator has wandered off near Galveston. Mays attributes these sightings to strong weather and natural disasters, like Hurricane Ike that tend to cause shifts in the environment, leaving animals to fend for themselves in unlikely places. However, Mays is confident that there are other, more significant things to worry about at the beach this summer.

"Alligators tend to avoid people like the plague," he says.

"I would be more worried about the bacteria and jellyfish in the Gulf."

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”