Just when you thought that the return of actual baseball would distract us from the off-season drama, a Congressional committee has taken the first steps toward starting a criminal investigation of Roger Clemens on a charge of perjury in his testimony about whether or not he used HGH and other steroids. But what about McNamee? Thusfar, he's home free: a draft letter that mentions Clemens--and only Clemens, not his former trainer--was drawn up by the......

Straight outta TX-22 and in front of the microphone: Rep. Nick Lampson is teaming up with the Veterans Service Office and communications students at UH to help document the stories of American veterans for the Library of Congress. From the department of Did You Know?: “Houston is proud to have the largest concentration of veterans in the United States. We are obligated to do all we can to honor their service,” Lampson said. “The Veterans......

For once, there's a reason to watch 60 Minutes beyond Andy Rooney's senile rants. Everyone's favorite hometown anti-hero, Roger Clemens, will be featured on Sunday's episode of the ABC news magazine, talking with his personal friend Mike Wallace about the steroid use allegations that surfaced as part of the Mitchell Report last month. Ever since the report came out, Clemens has issued a series of denials, starting with a press release, working up to a......

Rice alum and hometown hero Lance Berkman read the Mitchell Report. (Just like everyone else, it seems, on the planet.) He applauds Andy Pettite for coming forward and spoke Sunday about his support for the former Houston Astro, reports the Chronicle, but he's ready for some answers from the Mitchell report's biggest name: Roger Clemens. I don't think it's good enough to make a blanket statement and say the guy's lying. Now that Andy's come......

Good morning, Houston. Here's one of those things that ended up selling for much more than we would have expected: A Rosenberg man bought a lock of Che Guevara's hair yesterday for $100,000. Bill Butler, a bookstore owner, was the only bidder; he said he collects items from the 1960s and that the hair will fit in well. "A lot of his writings are still worth reading today," Butler said of Guevara. Gustavo Villodo,......

Ok, so it’s been like eight years since American Pie came out. Can you believe it? We know, we’re so old. It was a totally different decade then. A forgotten, distant time in our culture. An innocent age when we’d not yet seen Tara Reid’s, well, pretty much everything. A time when most of us had never heard the term MILF. A time when Eugene Levy had not yet sold his once funny soul to......

Spent all your cash on girlie drinks and shattered dreams again this weekend, didn't you? No worries - Thriftster gives you the lowdown on cheap stuff to do until Paycheck Friday. Monday: We are confused about the Sona play date, so let's try again shall we? The weather is awesome, as if you haven't noticed, so tonight you and your main squeeze should grab a blanket and hit the outdoors to watch the free screening......

Good morning, Houston. Looks like there's another tropical disturbance out in the Gulf of Mexico — this one is called Invest 90L, and it looks like it could be headed for the upper Texas coast. The Chron's Eric Berger is keeping an eye on the system, which is located west of Florida and is headed in a general northwesterly direction; Berger reports that it could become a tropical storm by tomorrow, but isn't likely......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. Ok, why does Mr. Whipple ask me not to squeeze the Charmin, yet he does it himself? Whipplecrites! They really irk me! -- Connelly Wirth, Houston First of all, for anyone born after 1980 or so, here's a link to a couple of Charmin commercials. You will note that once upon a time there was a pencil-thin mustachioed man whose sole purpose at......

Good morning, Houston, and a happy Labor Day. We're abandoning our usual posting schedule today in favor of all-American grilled foods and the Jerry Lewis Telethon. We'll be back with our regular schedule tomorrow, but first, how about some Labor Day trivia? Labor Day began in the 1880s as annual street parades to show "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations." In the early days, there was a movement......

The Chronicle reported yesterday on Harris County's plans to demolish two of its buildings to make way for another amazing county plaza. Fair enough — the county has a lot of buildings, and apparently we could always use another plaza. The problem is that the two structures that are potentially on the chopping block — the former District Attorneys Building at 201 Fannin and the Family Law Center at 1115 Congress — happen to be......

Face the Music: An Evening of Jazz Dedicated to Fighting AIDS in Africa A college student-led nonprofit organization that raises funds to eradicate AIDS in Africa will hold a fundraising benefit concert tonight at Red Cat Jazz Cafe [924 Congress St.] in Downtown Houston. The University of Texas at Austin branch of FACE AIDS is coordinating the concert featuring five local college student jazz musicians who graduated from the High School for the Performing and......

Wow — it's still six months to Christmas, and yet we're getting gifts already: The AP reports that everyone's favorite golden-haired politico, Shelley Sekula Gibbs, is laying the groundwork for her campaign to return to Congress. Oh, yes. Sekula Gibbs (notice that she's dropped the hyphen, which she worried could be a problem during her write-in campaign for Congress last year) announced that she has some high-profile Republican supporters for her 2008 campaign, including homebuilder......

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......

Well, here's something to be proud of: Houston's homicide rate is now the second-highest among large American cities, according to FBI figures released Monday. Keep in mind that this is the homicide rate we're talking about — Houston's was 18.2 per 100,000 residents last year, putting us second only to Philadelphia and ahead of Dallas (fifth place), which has had a higher homicide rate than Houston for each of the last 11 years. The numbers......

Texas Senator John Cornyn announced yesterday at the Harris County Courthouse that he has a bill in the works that would prevent incarcerated felons from making a profit of their personal belongings or art - "murderabilia," if you will. The bill is championed by victims' rights organizations, but the constitutionality of such a law is questionable. Houston victims' rights advocate and director of the Mayor's Crime Victims Office Andy Kahan has been fighting the sale......

Opening Reception: Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston - Who We Are Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of its first micro exhibit, Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are, an installation of photographs and stories featuring Houston-based evacuees and survivors of the hurricanes, with photographs by Alice McNamara, April 30 – June 15, 2007. Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are is part of a much larger......

Good morning, Houston. So here's something cool to look forward to for the next two years: In mid-2009, 20 of the famed terra cotta warriors of Xi'an will be on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The exhibition will run from May 18 to Sept. 25; until then, you can visit the local knockoff, which is quite impressive in its own right. >> Early voting begins today: Harris County voters will be......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

While walking down South Congress Avenue on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Austin at SXSW last month, Houstonist came up upon the unofficial Houston music showcase. We decided to hang out for a while, grab a beer and some chips and queso, and catch some great local acts. We chatted with the host of the showcase, Pete Lippincott, who just happens to be the man behind the band Petesimple. Petesimple recently released their second CD......

So, we assume you know what today is. And as you run around gathering your 1040s and Schedule Cs, remember that you have until midnight tonight to actually drop your taxes in the mail. The Chronicle reports that mail in boxes at Houston-area post offices will be collected before midnight, and a few stations will be staffed late: Air Mail Center, 19175 Lee Road (until midnight) Albert Thomas Station, 14910 El Camino Real (until 7......

More on yesterday's news that Metro is now in the business of land investing: According to county tax officials, the transit agency could end up having to pay taxes on two blocks of Midtown property it's holding for a private developer for several months. Metro's board approved the purchase of the property in question, a two-block, $7.2 million parcel bordered by Main, Holman, Travis and Winbern, on March 22. The seller is developer Robert H.......

Has your city-issued garbage can turned up missing lately? Turns out you might be the victim of those wily scrap metal thieves: According to KHOU, folks are now using the big, black, wheeled plastic trash cans to store their scrap metal booty: They stick their stolen scrap in stolen City of Houston garbage cans. Then, if they see a police officer coming down the street they just pull the can over to the curb and......

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles and KTRK's Miya Shay reported earlier this week on the "courtesy" program that allows certain local elected officials to park free at Houston's airports, noting that more than 100 city officials, state legislators and members of Congress have racked up around $100,000 in free parking under the perk. Officials have been offered the free parking since the 1980s; it's intended for use during official business, but some of the instances were......

Good morning, Houston. Yeah, it's been a while since we had a Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee media moment — but now, thanks to Isiah Carey, we have a classic: a series of photos showing Jackson Lee's skill in getting in front of TV cameras during Sen. Hillary Clinton's visit to Houston last week. The hardest-working woman in Congress? You betcha — don't you know it's tough do to your own blocking? [via HouStoned] >>......

As expected, Halliburton's announcement Sunday that it'll establish a corporate headquarters in Dubai and move its CEO there sparked some criticism in Congress yesterday from legislators who claim the company is making the change so it can increase business with Iran and take tax benefits in the U.S. "I think Congress ought to hold hearings to try to determine why one of this country's major defense contractors has decided to move its principal offices offshore,"......

Good morning, Houston. If you spend your days worried that an asteroid will slam into Earth, killing us all, this probably won't do much to ease your mind: NASA says it can identify all the asteroids that could hit the Earth, but it's not sure it has the money to do so. The agency estimates it would cost $1 billion to find at least 90 percent of the 20,000 potentially hazardous asteroids and comets......

There's some news today on Metro's plan to expand its rapid-transit system: Two members of Congress from Houston have said they'll push for federal funding for more light rail, not the bus rapid transit lines Metro proposed for the northside, East End, southeast side and Uptown. The announcement from U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green, both Democrats, came at a Metro board meeting yesterday where the agency OK'd negotiating with a team headed......

The StoryCorps MobileBooth has been conspicuously parked outside of the Houston Museum of Natural Science for a few days now, giving you plenty of time to come up with a few good interview questions for your grandfather (or whomever), before they head out on February 3rd. StoryCorps is a project sponsored by National Public Radio, among other organizations, that has set out to document the everyday history of everyday Americans. The program airs on NPR's......

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing. Austinist said goodbye to their co-editor (sell-out) and played rumor monger on the SXSW lineup. And when dozens of dead birds littered downtown Austin, it's......