Good morning, Houston. If you were an HPD cadet, you'd think you'd want to keep your nose clean — but apparently no one sent that memo to a cadet who was busted this weekend for allegedly buying and selling crack in southeast Houston. The man was caught off Scott and Nagle in the Third Ward; according to KHOU, he told police he had been smoking crack all weekend with at least two other HPD......

We've heard a lot about yesterday's bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and we also noted a story yesterday about repairs on a Highway 288 bridge that had to be carried out after recent heavy rains washed out part of the bridge's embankment. The natural question, then: Could something like the Minneapolis collapse happen in Houston? And the answer: Sure it could, but officials are doing their best to make sure it doesn't. According to the Chronicle,......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. I’m thinking of buying my first new car, and I’m terrified of the whole process. I just know I’m going to get screwed. Do you have any tips for me? I don’t know what undercoating is! You need two basic items when traveling the murky waters of car buying: education and the ability to walk away. The first one is easy; the second......

Rainy days suck. They suck the life right out of Houstonist when it comes to mixing drinks. Who is motivated to mix drinks when all you want to do is nap and watch movies? When the rain comes we reach for the suds; they're relatively no fuss. We tend to drink beer on the back porch, throw the empties into the yard and watch them float all the way to the fence. Unfortunately, we had......

Houstonist has noticed that Craigslisters no longer view Missed Connections as a place to re-connect, but rather as a form of InterWeb-based therapy. More than a few angry folks out there expressed themselves. You people need professional help. Scott Gertners Friday Night - w4w - 34 You were waiting on my husband and I Friday night, we were sitting at one of the round tables near the main bar. You were dress in all......

Good morning, Houston. So, did you hear about the guy who accidentally shot himself during a gun show at the George R. Brown Convention Center? Nope, not a joke: The guy was apparently trying to disassemble his Glock .40-caliber handgun while shopping for a part for the gun when he shot himself Saturday afternoon — but the real kicker is that it looks like he was carrying the gun illegally. "We have signs posted......

Today's Houstonist hint: If you get stopped by the police while carrying crack, don't hide the drugs by swallowing them. It's bad enough to get arrested for possession, but somehow it's worse if the officer who arrests you has to save your life first — which is what happened early Wednesday morning in Hitchcock. Around 2:30 a.m., HItchcock police officer Chad Powers made a routine traffic stop. While he was taking to the driver of......

Yabba dabba doo time is nearly upon us. Time to meet some buddies at the ice house and crack open a cold beer. It's a daily ritual for Houstonist. During one such ritual, we were greatly disturbed about the amount of consideration that went into someone's order regarding which light beer was the easiest on her waistline. We informed the carb counter that the difference between beverages was not significant unless she was planning to......

Found Magazine publishes the flotsam and jetsam literature: birthday cards, notes written on receipts, lost love letters, doodles, whatever happens to give a glimpse into other people's lives. The magazine has proved wildly popular and it tours all over the country, giving readings and events, while also collecting said flots/jetsam. Found has had events in the past at the Aurora Picture Show, but this one's going to be a little bit different. Dirty Found......

“Punxsutawney Phil” saw his shadow. The sun is out. The temperature is rising. It must be Spring! As soon as the time changes, we suppose it will be official. Since we only have a couple weeks of the mild season in Texas, you had better take advantage. The San Diego-like climate demands outdoor seating and a cold, tasty beverage for hanging with your Houstonist peeps at your favorite watering hole(s). Y’all are coming tonight,......

In an interesting example of public-private partnership, Target Corp. has offered to help pay for security cameras to be installed around Houston to help the officer-short HPD out. It seems a little odd at first glance, but it turns out Target is no stranger to the law-enforcement game: Turns out Target has one of the most advanced crime labs in the country at its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was initially set up to deal......

Gilbert Amezquita, a man who spent eight years in prison on what might have been a false rape arrest, has begun the process of getting $200,000 in state compensation for his jail time. Amezquita was arrested in connection with the 1998 rape and beating of Kathy Bingham at her father's publishing company, which left Bingham in a coma for 10 days. When she woke up, she told police that "Gilbert" had attacked her; based primarily......

Houstonist loves it when UH and Rice go head-to-head, because it means we win either way, right? Last night the Cougars faced the Owls in basketball for the second time this season. Rice already won at home against UH this season. Termed an "epic collapse" by those sensationalistic Chronicle sportswriters, in their last meeting, UH blew a 24-point lead in the second half. This time, however, the Coogs had the home court advantage, and, well,......

Today, Houstonist submits to you a Tex Mex thought experiment: What if you were to take a decent Tex Mex restaurant, say, Spanish Flower, dim the lights to 15% of their original brightness, spiffy up the wait staff, add a valet service, and stock the restaurant with pretty patrons? Here are but a few of the curious results: your otherwise humdrum Saltillo tile takes on the mysterious hue of an exotic Italian slate. Usually......

Good morning, Houston. After almost two weeks of clouds and rain, we were starting to wonder if we might be getting seasonal affective disorder — we stuck our head under our desk lamp for a while, but it didn't seem to help. Needless to say, we're really happy to see the sun this morning. But not, you know, this happy. >> Another DeLay?: The Travis County District Attorney's office is appealing a court decision......

Nearly two weeks after a speeding wrecker killed an elderly couple leaving a Bible study, the city has decided to tighten the rules governing how wrecker drivers are licensed under the Safe Clear program, Mayor Bill White announced yesterday. Among the changes in the process is a more stringent appeals process for wrecker drivers who are denied licenses. A retired HPD assistant chief will now preside over appeals (a sergeant did so before), and documentation......

The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Happy Katie. We'd write a funny caption for this, but we like the one the photographer provided so much we're just going to print it straight: "Who said Hummer owners never went off-roading? Saw this beauty in the Target parking lot. There was plenty of space net to it, so it looks like this driver had a case of a) the lazies, b) severe crack......

A robbery suspect led police on a two-hour chase today; it ended when the man crashed his pickup into a Pasadena waterway Eskico Truman Garner, a 75-year-old Texas City man, was sentenced to more than 33 years in prison today for trafficking in crack cocaine Also in Texas City, some residents of the apartment complex where an explosion occurred Wednesday still can't go home because of smoke damage and electrical outages And Curtis Jetton, injured......

We really don't know what we've done to deserve this, but this week has been like Christmas in July when it comes to stories about parking enforcement. Yesterday there was word that the city might start cracking down on disabled parkers, and now we learn that Houston's meter maids people do so much more than just writing tickets — in fact, they're (in KUHF's words) "downtown ambassadors." Dang, that's impressive. Parking Enforcement Assistant Director Liliana......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it......

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy......

Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only ist south of the Equator. Editor Leandro M. Pinto leads the paulistanos down there. You can protest someone at his office, sure, but when the whistle blows at the end of the day can you follow him home? D.C. has sports fans, apparently, and elephants aren't really cut out for zoos. There's this trick where you can read information from......

Looks like HPD's crackdown of crime in and around southwest Houston apartment complexes is paying off — in the three weeks since the operation began, some number of people have been arrested and quite a bit of drugs has been seized. But thanks to local TV news, it's hard to tell just how many or how much. We do know that the sting targeted five apartment complexes on or near Fondren, Hillcroft and Gessner, plus......

From the "You've gotta give it to the man for trying" file comes the story of Oscar Martinez, who hid crack cocaine on top of a banana split during a traffic stop. A Richmond police officer pulled Martinez over Sunday night for a traffic violation on FM 1640, ran his information through the computer and found that Martinez had a suspended license and was wanted on an outstanding warrant. As the officer was arresting......

It seems all you need to crack the most enigmatic of ancient mysteries is grit, determination, six world class universities and research organizations, a 7.5 ton 3-D state of the art X-ray machine, and funding by both an 80 year old trust and a 160 year old financial institution. Stir this pot, and soon enough you will come closer to understanding the true nature of the 2100 year old device than anyone previous. It's just......

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are......

Depending on a board vote later this week, HISD might crack down on bullying, cheating and classroom distractions — all the things that make school so memorable. A new code of student conduct under consideration by the HISD trustees would give teeth to the district's bullying rules, which now stipulates that students who bully or verbally abuse other students have reports sent home to their parents and might get detention. Under the new policy, principals......

Uh, so if you drive along Nasa Road 1 on a regular basis, you might want to watch out for this: A bridge is shifting, causing a crack and a 3.5-inch drop in the middle of the roadway, according to KHOU. Channel 11 learned about the problem from a viewer, and when the camera crews went to Clear Lake to check it out, sure enough, there was a crack. But don't worry: TxDOT is on......

One Houston restaurant is planning to put its money where its mouth is — however that translates into the world of franchises. On May 1, all 41 restaurants in the Taqueria Arandas chain will close to mark Mexican Labor Day and oppose proposed federal legislation that would crack down on illegal immigration. Taqueria Arandas management said it's making the move in support of the company's 2,500 employees who want to be part of a general......

Seattlest saw a house party get senselessly attacked with a shotgun and end in ">seven dead. A local senator is debated and their version of the big dig is investigated. To truly get to the bottom of it they interview the writer Jonathan Raban. Bostonist has its first birthday party and investigates how to attach more gambling dollars to the Red Sox. Benjamin Franklin is celebrated and Johnny Damon is not. Image by Ethan Bagley......