Good morning, Houston. When it comes to politics, we suppose there's a lot to be said for the shock factor — which is why Brian Klock, a candidate for Congressional District 22, is getting some attention. Klock, one of 10 people vying for the Republican nomination for CD 22, has put up a billboard showing downtown Houston being destroyed by a huge explosion. "The Threat Is Real," the billboard reads. "Ask Brian Klock." 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......

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......

City Council voted today to expand the city's "civility ordinance" to more neighborhoods, including Montrose and the Sixth Ward Clara Harris, the woman accused of running over her husband in a hotel parking lot, has filed an appeal and hired a new lawyer Ralph Sampson, a former Houston Rocket, has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud related to a vehicle purchase; he will spend two months in jail in Atlanta In a campaign stop......

Police found a man who had been shot to death in a car at a southwest Houston apartment complex yesterday afternoon, but they don't know who he is or who killed him A psychiatrist testified Friday that he warned Andrea Yates not to have more children when she attempted suicide after the birth of her fourth child in 1999 There's been a crime spike in the Fort Bend County suburbs in recent months, the KTRK......

A federal judge ruled today that Republicans can't replace Tom DeLay with another candidate in this fall's 22nd Congressional District race Nine current and former Cy-Creek EMS employees have been indicted in connection with a 2004 grenade prank that cost a man part of his foot In southwest Houston, a toddler died this afternoon after a television fell on his head Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay Enron $29.5 million to settle its part of......

When Houstonist missed Dave Chappelle's Block Party Tour last week at the Verizon, we had no idea we were actually missing one of the year's most inexplicable two-fer events. Yes, everyone's favorite congresswoman joined the comedian on stage for no apparent reason — we don't even know if there were any TV cameras around. The news comes to us from the Houston Press, which tells the story better than we could: Just before intermission, Chappelle......