Good morning, Houston. Remember the city's smoking ban, which went into effect in September? Well, so does KPRC. The station checked around and found something that will shock you to your very core: Houstonians are still smoking in bars and restaurants! No, really. One of the bars Channel 2 visited was Henry Hudson's Pub on the west side, where reporters found customers and the bartender smoking — and "we even bought a pack of......

If you're downtown often, you've probably noticed the new parking garage that's being completed at Main and Walker. We first paid attention to the garage because of its fugly concrete-frame exterior — yeah, that's the way the garage is really going to look, and apparently, its design isn't sitting too well with residents of Commerce Towers, the condo development across Walker Avenue. "In my room, it seems like thousands," Daniel Woodson said. "It's probably only......

So here's something interesting about the city's full-on smoking ban, which is set to take effect in about a month and a half: According to KTRK, there's still no permitting process in place for cigar bars, one of a handful of types of businesses that are supposed to be exempt from the ban. Mike Shapiro, who owns a cigar bar downtown, is one of the people who's trying to figure out what's going on: "I......

Good morning, Houston. Hot weather? Rain? Another week in our cube farm? Looks like Houstonist has a case of the Mondays. We'd better just move on to the news ... >> Mayor: I'll find money to keep day-labor site open: A spokesman for Mayor Bill White said Friday that the mayor will help find $100,000 to fund a day-labor site after city officials voted to cut its public funding. Critics of the site, which......

This is the first in a series of posts about the simmering 2007 City Council races. Check Houstonist in the next week or two for information about Districts D and E and At-Large Positions 3 and 5. Current District I Representative Carol Alvarado is term-limited this year, and two contestants are hotly vying for her seat. James Rodriguez, Alvarado's former chief-of-staff and her pick for the position, announced his candidacy late last year - a......

We rang in 2007 with a mixed message about Houston's crime rate: Though the homicide rate reached a 12-year high in 2006, instances of other crimes decreased last year. Today, thanks to KTRK's mystical Crime Tracker, we know a little more about exactly how those stats break down — and in short, things are better in the notorious Fondren/southwest district, but not so good on the east side. The Crime Tracker found that the Fondren......

Earlier this month, we talked about the proposal to build a youth sports complex on the site of the Wortham Park Golf Course, one of three public courses inside the Loop and an East End institution for a hundred years. The complex proposal is part of Houston's push to keep the Dynamo in town — the team is looking for a new stadium and has stipulated that a youth soccer/sports complex be part of the......

What do you get when you cross Chron.com with Houston city government? A delicious new blog. Finally, the Chronicle has tapped the market of people who want to know everything that goes on at City Hall - we're talking seven posts a day worth. In all seriousness, we're excited about the new blog, especially its "On the Agenda" feature. Matt Stiles is the official City Hall blogger, but we already have four posts today from......

A group of downtown residents gathered last night to talk with city leaders about what development that they'd like to see in their 'hood — and, not surprisingly, at the top of their list were more retail markets and fewer nightclubs. "I'm sick of seeing [downtown] slide, going into a burlesque environment," Annette McBride, who has lived downtown for more than 10 years, said. City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado agreed that the clubs can be a......

If you've got an opinion, city council wants to hear it. Starting tonight with M.J. Khan, city council members will be hosting public meetings to garner comments on the city's budget for 2008, the 2008-2013 Capital Improvement Plan, and the 2007 Annual Consolidated Plan. Houstonist highly encourages participation in local politics. Since 1984, city councilmembers have held these meetings annually to hear comments from their constituents about the city's budget and needed improvements. Citizen Request......

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs told the Chronicle this morning that she will resign her seat on the Houston City Council as soon as the results of Tuesday's Congressional District 22 special election are certified, paving the way for her to head to Washington to spread a little sunshine around the halls of Congress. For a few weeks, anyway. Sekula-Gibbs, a write-in Republican candidate to fill out Tom DeLay's expired term in the House, beat out three other......

Remember Patricia Gutierrez and Melissa Rojas, the two women who were killed when they drove into a flooded underpass during the flooding a couple of weeks ago? Finally, the spot where they died is getting some markers that could keep more people from getting stuck in high water there — though it's not clear to us exactly how effective they'll be. TxDOT announced this weekend that the underpass at the Gulf Freeway and Tellepsen......

Smokers, you'd better light up while you still can: Thanks to a 13-2 City Council vote today, smoking will be banned in most bars come September. After much discussion over alternate proposals, councilmembers decided to stick with the ban Mayor Bill White and Councilwoman Carol Alvarado supported, which prohibits smoking in all workplaces (with exceptions for a handful of situations, including cigar bars, tobacco shops, hotel meeting rooms and outdoor patios). The overwhelming support for......

As expected, City Council delayed a vote on expanding the city's smoking ban at its meeting yesterday — and with councilmembers divided between a variety of proposals, it's anyone's guess how the vote will go when it's actually taken. Mayor Bill White, who supports a smoking ban at all enclosed workplaces with exceptions for cigar shops, certain meeting rooms, private functions and a handful of other situations, said things are close: "I think the majority......

A couple of City Councilmembers have come up with 11th-hour alternatives to the city's proposed smoking ban, which council is supposed to take up tomorrow. The proposal would ban smoking at all workplaces in Houston, including restaurants and bars; exceptions would be patio areas and businesses designated as tobacconists or cigar bars. Councilwoman Toni Lawrence has one alternative: She's begun circulating a petition that would exempt standalone bars and clubs from the citywide ban. "My......

The four former mayor pro tem employees accused of taking $200,000 in illegal bonuses and payraises are scheduled to appear in court today after three of them surrendered for processing at the Harris County Jail and posted bond yesterday. All four were indicted last week on charges of theft and tampering with a public record; the tampering bail was $2,000, but the theft bail ranged from $40,000 for Theresa Orta to $150,000 for Rosita Hernandez,......

So former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado testified before a grand jury yesterday about the City Hall payroll scandal involving four of her ex-employees who allegedly helped themselves to nearly $200,000 in unauthorized payraises and bonuses — and the panel may hand down indictments in the case as early as tomorrow. Alvarado appeared before the grand jury voluntarily; the four former mayor pro tem employees testified last week under subpoena. What's said in the grand......

Two of the four former mayor pro tem employees who were fired this spring, accused of giving themselves nearly $200,000 in unauthorized payraises and bonuses, testified before a grand jury yesterday — and though we don't know what happened in the grand jury session, prosecutors said the panel will consider bringing felony charges of tampering with a government record or theft by a public servant against the group. "We're trying to get this thing before......

We were sitting around this weekend wondering what happened to everyone's favorite city councilwoman — no, not that one; we're talking about Carol Alvarado, who stepped down as mayor pro-tem after it was discovered staffers in her pro-tem office took $143,000 in unauthorized pay bonuses. It's been quite a while since we heard anything in the pro-tem case, but now, finally, there's some news: The four dismissed pro-tem employees and Alvarado herself will testify before......

Seems we're never in the right place at the right time — yesterday, for example, we weren't downtown when the egg-hurling City Council groupie Robert Horton let another egg fly, missing Mayor Bill White while the mayor was talking about ways to ease city traffic. Horton, you may remember, has a history of (ahem) egging councilmembers on. In 2004, he threw his first egg in council chambers. It was aimed at Carol Alvarado, and though......

A City Council committee will hear testimony this afternoon about the effects of secondhand smoke, the first of two hearings planned to help officials decide whether to extend the city's smoking ordinance to possibly ban smoking in bars as well as restaurants. And there's a new twist to the discussion: Apparently tired of the idea that people can smoke in bars, but not in restaurants, the Greater Houston Restaurant Association came out in favor of......

Late last year, we discussed how routine population growth plus the flood of hurricane evacuees who have settled in Houston might mean the city has to redraw its City Council districts because of a provision in the city charter requiring two new council districts when Houston's population reaches 2.1 million. That process could begin soon, Mayor Bill White told councilmembers yesterday, depending on a population estimate expected to be released by the Census Bureau next......

A proposal to tighten the city's midnight curfew for juveniles is a step closer to becoming law: Yesterday, the City Council's Public Safety Committee approved the proposed ordinance, meaning it will likely be up for a full council vote next month — with Mayor Bill White's support. The proposal would institute a 10 p.m. weekday and 11 p.m. weekend curfew for kids younger than 17; those 17 and older wouldn't be subject to the law.......

A new report on the dangers of second-hand smoke has authorities across the country scrambling to strengthen their local smoking ordinances — including Houston, where City Council could push for a ban in all public buildings when the ordinance comes up for review in September. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said yesterday that there's evidence that second-hand smoke is more dangerous than previously thought, especially to children. "Second-hand smoke is not a mere annoyance. It is......

A group is trying to get the city charter changed to allow HPD officers to get more involved in immigration enforcement by removing a policy that prevents officers from asking people about their immigration status and giving them access to federal databases. The group, Protect Our Citizens, kicked off a petition drive yesterday at City Hall to try to get the 20,000 signatures required to put the measure on the November ballot. Under HPD's current......

City Councilwoman and former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado used at least four city employees to set up meetings with a personal client who has paid her nearly $75,000 in consulting fees since 2002, despite her earlier assertion that she never asked staffers to do non-city work, the Chronicle reports today. Messages from Alvarado's city e-mail account show Alvarado asked city workers to set up meetings on several occasions with San Antonio buinessman Rudy Rodriguez,......

There's nothing quite like a good City Council rumble to close out the week, and we had one Wednesday courtesy of the national immigration debate — more specifically, a local plan to renew city funding to a day-labor site. The flap started after some councilmembers delayed a vote on the federally funded $100,000 contract that would allow Neighborhood Centers to continue running the site in the Second Ward where day laborers wait for jobs. The......

A new development in the invesigation into City Councilwoman and ex-Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado: Prosecutors have subpoenaed records from Alvarado's outside consulting jobs, which we assume is just another part of the Harris County DA's probe. DA investigators have spent the past couple of days in San Antonio and the Austin area subpoenaing documents from a couple of political consulting firms for which she’s done contract work. Alvarado’s personal financial statement on file at......

KHOU has gotten hold of a compilation of documents from the Office of Inspector General's probe into the City Hall payroll scandal, and it looks like temporarily former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado may have a little explaining to do. Channel 11 points out the e-mail Alvarado was sent warning her about excessive bonuses her pro tem employees were taking, a detail that came out during the ex-employees' hearing on Tuesday. For the first time,......

After a 16-hour hearing and deliberation process, the city's Civil Service Commission upheld the firings of four former mayor pro tem employees accused of taking nearly $200,000 in unauthorized payraises and bonuses, but it cleared two lower-level employees of conspiring to get the bonuses. During the hearing, the ex-employees said former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado had either personally OK'd, or given them the authority to OK, bonuses and raises far beyond the norm for......