Calling all pooches! Oliver, a friendly (obviously, he's hosting this soiree) Golden Retriever is having a little canine social event, the Bow-Wow Bash at the Houston Arboretum this Saturday from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. Please RSVP quickly here, to ensure your participation. There will be music and refreshments in the meadow and dog owners get poochie punch and a doggie bag with bottled water and a treat for their "party animal". Please be sure......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. Since hurricane season begins Friday, Dilettante thought it might be time to share the tips that have seen her through various weather “events” over the years. Print this up and tape it to the inside of your bathroom cabinet in case of emergency. - If you are faced with an imminent flood, tornado, hurricane or other natural disaster, the first thing you must......

Sure, we had it easy during the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season — not one hurricane made landfall in the U.S. last year — but things might be a little more complicated this year. Colorado State University forecaster William Gray is expecting 17 named storms in the Atlantic this year, with a pretty strong chance that one of them will hit the U.S. Better start buying that plywood and bottled water now. According to Gray's team's......

Houston is having one hell of an Arbor Day and you too can be a part of it (you just have to get your hands a little on the dirty side). Arbor Day was established in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City, Nebraska. It seems that the Nebraska Territory was not readily settled, due to the lack of trees on the tallgrass prairie (the better to build and heat cabins - log cabins,......

It's not that Houstonist doesn't love Pasadena, but we have always had the sneaking suspicion that we should take our own bottled water when we visit there. And it turns out we might not have been that far off base, according to a KTRK report: City of Pasadena officials are concerned about someone dumping chemical waste into the Vince Bayou Water Treatment Plant. The facility processes and treats water coming from residents' homes, but authorities......

Houstonist doesn't want to jinx anything, but have you noticed that it's now late September and we haven't been threatened by a hurricane yet? According to the Chronicle, that means we could be out of the woods — but if we've learned one thing from living in Texas, it's never to assume anything about the weather. The reason to breathe easier is that, historically, very few hurricanes have hit the Texas coast after this......

There is a saying in Texas: if you don't like the weather, wait. Since some very hot typically summer weather a couple weeks back, we've gradually seen the high and low temperatures drop including our first glimpse at the 60's (no, not those 60's) and the most subtle hint of the fall weather ultimately on the way. But, what about this week? Monday Through Thursday We have a weak cold front moving our direction......

Well, we got our first official tropical scare of the year this week. Hurr...er...Tropical Storm Ernesto (his friends call him Ernie) has been blustering across the Caribbean since the middle of the weak. But, Ernie clearly has his sights set on Florida, so we can breathe a sigh of relief, that is IF we can breathe in the stifling heat and humidity. Monday Through Thursday A weak Canadian frontal boundry has been lingering across......

While Houstonist believes in preparedness and Tropical Storm Chris continues to churn in the Atlantic, it isn't time to start boarding up just yet. That having been said, the National Hurricane Center continues to monitor Chris and has yet to downgrade him to a tropical depression as had earlier been predicted. Chris continues to survive depsite many estimations and is aiming directly for Cuba with winds currently around 40mph. Current forecast models keep Chris on......

We at Houstonist already have our bottled water, plywood, cat carriers and extra gasoline just in case a hurricane evacuation is necessary this summer. We don't want to get caught in another hurricane-induced melee again this year, but that shouldn't be a problem — at least in July. Dr. Jeff Masters, one of the most well-respected tropics forecasters on the net, has given us all hope with a better-than-expected forecast for the month of June.......

An Amtrak train bound for Houston and a truck loaded with gravel crashed near Columbus this morning, injuring the truck driver, a train engineer and several passengers The price of crude oil closed the week at $70.19 after $2 decreases Wednesday and Thursday; the final number reflected a 25 cent increase over Thursday's price A pedestrian was injured this morning in Midtown when he got off a MetroRail train and jaywalked in front of a......

Chelcey Pollock, the woman accused of burning and burying her dead baby's body, turned herself in to police today Ken Lay's lead lawyer, Mike Ramsey, had a stent implanted in his carotid artery today; it's not clear whether he'll return to the Lay/Skilling trial before it concludes A search is under way for a 3-year-old boy who apparently walked out of his dad's apartment in west Houston this morning The trial of Mark Gilliland, the......