Good morning, Houston. If the dearth of new TV in the wake of the writer's strike has left you willing to watch anything, we've got some news for you: HTV, the municipal station, is launching a new program! Woohoo! Entertainment Houston, a 30-minute show, will focus on — wait for it — Houston's facilities, included the Wortham Center, Jones Hall, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the not-quite-finished Discovery Green. A new episode......

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. Who said Barbie never did anything for anybody? She's helped make 4-year-old Phoebe Swann famous, at least for a little while: Swann recently caught a 50-pound Black Drum with a Barbie fishing rod. It happened during a family trip to Rockport; Swann was using the Barbie rod with a red plastic worm as bait when she reeled in the big fish. In case you're wondering, Swann and her dad threw the......

Good morning, Houston. If you've ever been driving around in the 'burbs and wondered who names the streets, well, it just might be someone like Susan Vreeland-Wendt, who the Chronicle's Nancy Sarnoff interviewed yesterday. Vreeland-Wendt, marketing director for The Woodlands Operating Co., has come up with more than 1,600 names for roads, parks and neighborhoods in The Woodlands in the last 20 years. Turns out she gets inspiration from all kinds of places: paint......

Good morning, Houston. We're sure you're as excited as we are to get right into this year's news, so without further ado ... >> GOP pick for Harris DA expected this evening: Harris County Republican leaders said they expect to have a candidate for district attorney by 6 p.m. today, the deadline for filing candidacy papers. The move comes in the wake of a scandal centering on DA Chuck Rosenthal, who was asked to......

Good morning, Houston. There's a new weapon in the battle to make Houston the most beautiful city in America: Beginning next week, commercial property owners will have to hide their Dumpsters behind a building, wall, fence, berm or shrub. Officials said they hope the rule — which City Council approved six months ago — will help increase property values and make properties safer (and, of course, prettier). Anyone who violates the ordinance can be......

Good morning, Houston. The bad news: You've missed your chance to see the International Space Station this morning as it orbits above Texas. (We suppose it's only bad news if you're interested in seeing the space station — if you're not, hey, you won't be disappointed!) The good news: You'll have three more opportunities before the end of the week. The ISS will be visible at 4:08 a.m. Thursday (for nearly four minutes, beginning......

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......

In an unusual move yesterday, the judge presiding over a hearing for Juan Quintero, the man accused of shooting HPD Officer Rodney Johnson to death during a Sept. 21 traffic stop, cleared the courtroom and let Quintero choose who his court-appointed lawyer will be. There was a disagreement between the judge and the Mexican consulate about the attorney assignment: The judge had originally appointed Jim Leitner to represent Quintero, but the consulate wanted Danalynn Recer......

The legal situation regarding Juan Leonardo Quintero, an illegal immigrant accused of shooting a Houston police officer to death after a traffic stop last week, is shaping up: According to the Chronicle, Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal will put on his prosecutor's hat to lead the case against Quintero. Rosenthal hasn't helped prosecute a case in years, but he said he was moved by a meeting with Officer Rodney Johnson's family. Quintero, meanwhile, remains in......

We were sitting around this weekend wondering what happened to everyone's favorite city councilwoman — no, not that one; we're talking about Carol Alvarado, who stepped down as mayor pro-tem after it was discovered staffers in her pro-tem office took $143,000 in unauthorized pay bonuses. It's been quite a while since we heard anything in the pro-tem case, but now, finally, there's some news: The four dismissed pro-tem employees and Alvarado herself will testify before......

In case you missed it between the terror alert and the recovering penguins: Former TSU Priscilla Slade made her first court appearance yesterday morning since being indicted on felony charges of misusing funds, and not much happened. Her hearing was reset for Sept. 14, and that was that. Except, of course, that really wasn't that. Slade's attorney, Mike DeGuerin, fired a few parting shots at Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal, saying Rosenthal might have tainted......

A judge ruled today that Ashley Paige Benton, the 16-year-old girl accused of killing a teen last week during a gang ambush at Ervan Chew Park, should remain in custody because of threats against her. The ruling came after Benton's attorney, Rick DeToto, asked that she be kept in custody and away from other gang members so she doesn't get killed. DeToto said it's probably the first time in his career that he's asked authorities......

KPRC is reporting that the DA's investigation into the City Hall payroll scandal has widened to include possible criminal wrongdoing by City Councilwoman and former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado. Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal told Channel 2 that there are questions about whether Alvarado told employees in the mayor pro tem office to perform "tasks unrelated to city business." Though it isn't clear exactly what the tasks were, KPRC said they would be illegal......

More on the expanding DA probe into City Hall expenses: It seems the investigation will look at travel, particiuarly that of former City Council member and mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez. KHOU reports Sanchez traveled extensively as an at-large councilmember between 1996 and 2001, taking his creepy eyes to D.C., San Francisco, New York City, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, London, Budapest and Ploesti, Romania, and his travel expenses were routed through the mayor pro tem's office.......

Investigators with the Harris County's DA's office seized more than 15 boxes of records from the mayor pro tem's office Tuesday, the same day an April 2005 memo came to light in which former Pro Tem Office Manager Rosita Hernandez asked then-Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado to approve $5,500 in bonuses. Hernandez and the three other pro tem employees were fired last week for taking $143,000 in bonuses city officials say were unauthorized. The $5,500,......

City Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado, who has found herself at the center of a city employee spending scandal, got a little more defensive Monday, hiring high-profile lawyer Rusty Hardin and a PR firm to help her cope. Though Alvarado has maintained that she didn't have anything to do with the employees in the mayor pro tem office taking extravagant payraises and more than $140,000 in unauthorized bonuses, the question remains how all......