>> City offers $15.5M for possible stadium site: The Chronicle reports that the city has said it'll pay more than $15.5 million for five downtown blocks that could become the site of a stadium for the Dynamo. The parcel is bounded by Texas and Walker on the north and south and Dowling and Hutchins on the east and west; it's just east of the Lofts at the Ballpark and immediately south of a vast......

Good morning, Houston. In these days of near-$3 gas, there's one group of drivers who aren't so worried: hypermilers, who use certain techniques to squeeze every possible M out of their MPG. Hypermiling involves a few pretty simple changes in the way you drive, including coasting, accelerating slowly from stops and the skillful use of cruise control. Used correctly, hypermiling can increase your car's fuel efficiency by 30 percent or more — so why......

Houstonist rolled back our clocks on Saturday afternoon (proactive folks that we are). Today, we've jumped into the Way Back Machine to let you in on a Flick your folks may have seen in the theater - The Sugarland Express. This 1974 film is the big screen major feature debut for flash-in-the-pan Steven Spielberg. The fledgling film maker uses stars Goldie Hawn and William Atherton (the annoying reporter of Die Hard fame) to tell......

Well, here's something you don't hear about very often — and thank goodness you don't: In Conroe, a woman has died after her boyfriend set her on fire during an argument. It happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday when John Marshall Dodd, 41, got into a fight with his girlfriend, 44-year-old Terry Leigh Lee (or Terry Lee Bailey, according to KPRC and KHOU), at Lee's house. "Apparently they had been out for the evening, gotten......

A tragic story continued unfolding this week in the case of Dennis Ray Driver Jr., the 8-month-old Houston boy who died late last year while asleep on his father's chest: The father, Dennis Driver, has been charged with murder in connection with the infant's death — and police say the boy died from taking cocaine. It happened Dec. 28, when Driver says he fell asleep with Dennis Jr. asleep on his chest; when Driver woke......

Good morning, Houston. If you happened to be in the Medical Center yesterday afternoon, we're pretty sure you noticed the natural gas leak. Even if you didn't see it, chances are you got caught in the massive traffic snarls it created after Main Street was closed between University and Sunset. Officials with The Methodist Hospital said a construction crew accidentally broke the gas line around noon, and it took most of the day to......

By now, you might have already seen the video floating around the Internet that seems to show a toddler who has been given ecstasy. If not, you can check it out here — just be prepared to see a lot of stupidity. In short, it's a video that first appeared on YouTube (it's since been removed); it shows the child sitting on the floor of a van, eyes rolling, as she's tapped, squeezed and slapped......

More today on Joshua Mauldin, the 19-year-old father who is accused of burning his 2-month-old daughter in a Galveston motel room microwave May 10: Though Mauldin told reporters he microwaved the baby because he was under stress, his wife, Eva Marie Mauldin, claims he did it because he was possessed by Satan. "I believe Satan works through our weaknesses," Mrs. Mauldin told KHOU. "Satan attacked [Joshua] through his weaknesses." In her interview with Channel 11,......

Good morning, Houston. Can Texas gas prices get any higher? Well, sure — they increased for the 15th straight week last week, and now they're edging toward the previous record high. The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Texas last week was $2.952, just 1.2 cents short of the previous record, $2.964, which we hit after Hurricane Rita in September 2005. Houston's average price is $2.92, still lower than most major......

More bizarre news keeps emerging in the story of Laurie Williamson, a Houston woman accused of keeping her children sick to get attention for herself. Prosecutors say Williamson, a former nurse, used her medical knowledge to convince doctors that her three kids suffered from a variety of ailments including Tourette syndrome, Crohn's disease and epilepsy — which led to unnecessary medications and surgeries for the children. Psychiatric experts say it looks like a classic case......

Last week we told you about the elementary school kid who got in trouble for bringing a grenade to school — but it turns out he wasn't the week's only pint-sized miscreant: At another Houston elementary school Friday, an 8-year-old was found carrying cocaine. Seems life is tough in Houston's third-grade hallways. Authorities believe the Scott Elementary student brought the cocaine from his house, where police arrested two people: Eladio Moreno, the kid's father, who......

Good morning, Houston! So how about this weather, huh? It kinda puts us in the mood for some news — but honestly, most anything does. We're strange like that. So let's get right to it ... >> Modesty writ large: State Rep. Charlie Howard of Sugar Land has filed a bill in Austin seeking to keep explicit content off billboards, a move he said is meant to protect kids from seeing dirty stuff —......

Good morning, Houston! Sure, you might have had some bad experiences on the bus when you were in school, but we're willing to bet your bus driver never passed out at the wheel like one did in Magnolia yesterday. The driver had just dropped a student off on FM 1488 when she passed out; fortunately, a 9-year-old passenger called 911 on his cell phone and got help. Looks like the driver had a heart......

Jurors will begin hearing testimony today to determine who gets custody for Hailey and Charla Casteneda, severely abused sisters who's parents are both in jail--their father is serving life in prison and their mother a lesser sentence. Though the mother will be eligible for parole in a few months, the state is asking jurors to sever her parental rights and allow Hailey (whose injuries were so severe that her tongue was nearly severed and who......

An abandoned Galleria-area apartment complex burned today in a four-alarm fire that lasted most of the afternoon As the summer swim season gets close, Child Protective Services is putting out a safety warning after a spike in child drownings in the Houston area Montgomery County officials will move forward with a plan to borrow $13.5 million to improve and build parks In Louisiana, a hurricane disaster drill accidentally ignored Katrina victims living in a trailer......

Houstonist has heard the stories about babies being left on people's doorsteps and in trash cans, but the baby who was left in an apartment complex's mail room was a new one on us. It happened at the Haverstock Hill Apartments in north Houston. “Doctors think she was about a day old, and they think she must have been a home delivery because she had her umbilical cord tied with a rubber band,” said......

Gov. Rick Perry announced plans to go after private funding for Texas' portion of the proposed Interstate 69 rather than waiting on federal money The city will investigate a contract with a garbage collection firm that billed Houston for the disposal of tons of garbage it collected in neighboring cities Management system failures led to the deadly BP plant explosion in Texas City in March, BP's final report on the accident said The Brazosport Facts......