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......

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......

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......

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......

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 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......

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......

Hundreds of Houston-area students skipped school today to participate in rallies protesting tighter restrictions on immigration, some of them determined to march all the way from Missouri City to downtown. Among them were about 100 students from Jeff Davis High School, a few hundred from Austin and Sam Houston highs, 65 from Alief Hastings and nearly 100 from Eisenhower. A Davis student, Hector Arguelles, distributed a flyer giving a description of pending federal legislation that......

One of the city employees involved in the bonus scandal in the mayor pro tem's office gave an interview to KPRC this afternoon, very vaguely pointing the finger at Mayor Pro Tem and City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado. Florence Watkins, who has worked for the city for nearly 12 years, said she knew she was wrong for taking a share of $130,000 in unauthorized pay bonuses, but she thought she had earned the money. Her salary......

Robert Horton, who was removed from City Council chambers two years ago for throwing an egg at councilmembers, returned to City Hall today armed with more eggs. The council went through discussions on a variety of issues, but they were interrupted by a gentleman who likes to be called Senator Robert Horton. While he spoke, police removed a newspaper he held in his hand that concealed an egg. Horton then produced a second egg. But......