The Bob Bullock Texas History Museum is not like any other institution in town. And the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum Foundation is a charity unlike any other. So, no wonder the foundation’s Texas Independence Day Dinner is an event unto itself. Formal, in a nervous way, and earnest, in a winning way. This year, the honorees were former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush. They were named History Making Texans, a rather awkward title, but not undeserved. Attending the ceremony on Tuesday in numbers were state’s Republican establishment, along with various bigwigs, ambassadors and other dignitaries. This was the ...

State patriots encountered no scarcity of Texas Independence Day events in Austin yesterday. One that I picked from the hamper was as small gathering hosted by the Entrepreneurs Foundation at the Four Seasons. One hundred or so people attired in “business casual” clustered around a buffet and a bar before hearing about the prime couple of the evening. Donna Berber and Shane Berber That would be Philip and Donna Berber. To remind readers, the Berbers sold CyberTrader.com to Charles Schwab, then parked $100 million in Schwab stock in their Glimmer of Hope Foundation. By concentrating on basic needs — clean water, ...

I’m an inveterate tour guide. As a youth, I’d show visitors the hidden gems of Houston (most of them are well hidden). I could point you to the most alluring spots in the desolate Badlands of South Dakota, or the finest espresso in the urban battlegrounds of Brooklyn. Yet little did I know, when Kip and I moved to the Bouldin neighborhood 12 year ago, that a mostly decrepit strip of shops along nearby South Congress Avenue would become a top tourist attraction. As a pedestrian, I appreciated the incomplete commercial density, gentle grade and wide sidewalks. But tourist magnet? ...