So, you might have heard about this already, but the story is too good to pass up: There was a power outage in the north end of downtown early Thursday morning, and it was caused by a raccoon trying to raid a bird nest. It happened around 12:30 a.m. at CenterPoint Energy's Gable Street substation in the 500 block of McKee when the unfortunate raccoon got electrocuted, plunging more than 1,500 customers north of Congress......

The big stories Thursday: two inner-Loop fires, one of which cut electricity to thousands of people and another that potentially endangered workers in a high-rise under construction. Fortunately, no one was injured in either fire, though they both caused headaches for people trying to get around the city. The first fire broke out at an electrical substation off the Southwest Freeway just before 1 p.m. yesterday, knocking out electricity to about 17,000 customers in the......

Regular shelterporners will know about our soft spot for contemporary architecture — more specifically, good contemporary architecture — so it's no wonder we're excited to feature the only Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed house in Houston, a 1982 home in Turner Addition. As Stephen Fox says in the Houston Architectural Guide, it's "self-effacing from the street and quite opulent inside." True enough. Richard Keating, the partner in charge of SOM's local office from the mid-1970s......

So the MetroRail line is leaking electricity. It's nothing new: Metro admitted to the problem last year, and since then it's come up more than once. But what's news is that the problem continues to be a problem, and according to community watchdog Tom Bazan, it could bring the Pierce Elevated down on our heads (assuming, of course, we were standing underneath it at the time). Bazan is worried that the electricity leaking from the......

The trial run of a city program that aims to cut energy costs in low-income areas has met with much success in one northeast Houston neighborhood. The city now has plans to expand the program to two deserving neighborhoods next year. But just how do they do it? Weatherization. According to one satisfied customer, this included fixing a broken window and installing insulation around her doors and in her attic. 641 homes in Pleasantville received......

So here's something you might want to take note of: CenterPoint wants to make some massive increases to the fees it charges for basic services. No, really, they're big. CenterPoint wants to increase what it calls 'miscellaneous service charges.' The current fee for an initial connection is $5, but it would increase to $40. If a customer wants to move a gas meter, the fee would jump from the current $50 charge to $350. "These......

If you work or travel through downtown, you may want to take note of this: Earlier this morning, a fire at a CenterPoint Energy substation knocked out the power to northeast downtown. Crews are working on having the problem fixed, but it doesn't look like the power will be restored until after rush hour this morning, maybe later. The outage hasn't affected the rail line, but it has shut off the traffic signals in the......

Sean Brown and Matt McCombs, both 18, were indicted today, charged with the early July murder of 16-year-old Ashton Glover Juan Garza, 27, is in jail in Pasadena as a suspect in the stabbing death of his 61-year-old mother, who police said he killed and robbed to support a drug habit Witnesses said lightning caused a two-alarm fire at a north Houston apartment complex this afternoon Police are still searching for Kollett Cooper, a Fort......

So if you've ever wondered what would happen if a hot dog touched a live power line — yeah, you know you have — do we have a deal for you: a demonstration from CenterPoint Energy showing exactly that. It was part of a safety demonstration at the George R. Brown Convention Center, and CenterPoint's Alicia Dixon said the hot dog was meant to simulate a human finger. "The hot dog simulates a human finger,......

Plantersville-area residents had to evacuate this afternoon after a valve blew on a natural gas pipeline A man arrested for trying to kidnap a young girl in Pearland claims he's tried to abduct more than 100 kids across the Houston area Up to 20,000 Texas coastal residents could lose their windstorm insurance coverage in the wake of the expense of last year's hurricanes The Public Utility Commission thinks CenterPoint Energy might have made too much......

So the high temperature Monday was 92, 13 degrees above the normal high — it tied the record, which was set in 1987, and was hot enough to take the state's electric generators by surprise. Yesterday afternoon, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas asked power distributors across the state to implement rolling blackouts, and there may be more in store today. Shortly after 4 p.m. officials with the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, the organization......

Big news is the big price of oil, which closed at more than $70 a barrel today, an increase of more than $1 over Thursday CenterPoint Energy began issuing rolling brownouts today because of high electricity usage during this week's heat wave; state energy officials are urging Texans to conserve electricity as much as they can A construction crew working in southwest Houston uncovered some bones that may be human; county medical examiners are looking......

The Houston area has an unrelenting issue with animals: they just keep turning up where they aren't supposed to. The latest evidence of this vexing issue happened when a woman got her pet sloth — yes, you read that right — stuck in a tree, and it wouldn’t come down for days. The Magnolia resident became so desperate after Greezy the sloth was stuck in an 80-foot pine tree for four days that she......

A fire in a downtown manhole damaged an underground electric line early this morning, causing power outages around the courthouse complex that may not be fixed until this afternoon. Five circuits in a manhole in the 500 block of McKee Street caught fire, knocking out power to the downtown post office, the Harris County Family Law Center, the Harris County Juvenile Justice Center, the Crispin Building, the Islamic temple and the King George Hotel, among......

A CenterPoint Energy pilot program to deliver broadband Internet access over power lines seems to have turned out to be a flop — at least for now. CenterPoint began offering Broadband over Power Lines to a Greenway Plaza-area neighborhood last year, which allowed users to plug modems into their electrical sockets and surf the web faster than a standard broadband or DSL connection. Though it apparently worked, the company decided BPL isn't right for......

The state law that required a Houston firefighter to take a promotion exam 12 hours after she gave birth may violate federal law, a UH law prof says In 2005, home sales and the median price of single-family homes broke local records even as other housing markets around the country slowed Houston airports will begin accepting EZ Tags for parking payment this summer Several witnesses testified today in a hearing on whether millionaire Robert Durst,......