Hola, Houston. It's rodeo time. Everyone get happy. Throw ya hands in the air if you love Hannah Montana! Musical acts like Montana, rather the lack of Tejano acts on the rodeo bill, are just what have folks around Houston up in arms. Former State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos is calling for "friends across the whole great state of Texas not to attend the Houston livestock show, period." According to the ABC13.com story, the issue......

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......

Good morning, Houston. We heard a few weeks ago about a bat infestation at TSU, but now there's something else happening in the halls of academia: a bee infestation at UH. It seems 100,000 of the industrious little critters have taken up residence in the walls of the Cullen College of Engineering, but rather than exterminate, the university is planning to move the bees to a wooded section of campus. Beekeeper Mike Knuckley will......

Good morning, Houston. At Houstonist world headquarters, our e-mail boxes are graced almost daily with offers from people who want to move millions of dollars to U.S. bank accounts and allow us to take a huge share of the money just for helping — eh, all in a day. But there's a new e-mail in the same vein floating around now: It comes from someone claiming to be Michelle Kristine Kraiser, the "the Confidential......

Good morning, Houston. Have you heard the one about the bees that took over a neighborhood? Three years ago, a family (tribe?) of bees moved into a vacant home in Ruth Gray's neighborhood. Over time, they grew in number and ferocity, and when calls to the city were fruitless, Gray contacted a pest control company which said the situation was "instant, instant death." After destroying the hive, the bees attacked and three children were......

Good morning, Houston. We thought that ding someone put in the door of our 1983 Diatribe in the Starbucks parking lot the other day was bad, but then we heard about the $150,000 Aston Martin damaged last week when a car went out of control and slammed into a southwest Houston car dealership. It happened when a pickup truck hit Leonard Ross' car while he was on the Southwest Freeway feeder road near Fountain......

Linda Lay, the widow of former Enron Chairman Ken Lay, has filed against the forfeiture of nearly $13 million in property and cash that the government says is tied to criminal activity. The court action was filed after the criminal charges against Ken Lay were dropped after his death last year. The authorities have said that the property is the "proceeds of the fraud proven in the criminal case against Lay." Lay's widow has asked......

Good morning, Houston. If you're a smoker who's not a fan of the citywide smoking ban set to take effect this fall, here's something to be happy about: At least you don't live in Abilene, where a man was arrested on a warrant for smoking in public. Brian Wayne Hendrix was cited for smoking in public, a violation of Abilene's smoking ban, in late February; when he failed to show up in court, a......

Good morning, Houston! Are you a fan of Texas wildflowers? Good news, then: Thanks to a rainy winter, wildflowers are blooming across Central Texas and in parts of North and East Texas. If you're planning a flower-spottin' trip, check out the latest reports of wildflower hotspots — and remember, though it's really not illegal to pick bluebonnets, TxDOT recommends that you refrain from driving into them. Dang. >> Katrina fraud galore: The AP reports......

Good morning, Houston. It's been a long week, but fortunately, there's not much of it left. So to get things moving on toward Friday — and because we're still smarting over not knowing Texas had two Clear Lakes — we're jumping right into the news this morning. Go! >> Enron lawyers in hot water?: Two former Enron lawyers have been charged with civil violations of securities laws for — hang on to your hat......

Remember how Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's desks were being auctioned for charity on eBay? Well, when the auctions closed Saturday night, Skilling's desk had a new owner, but Lay's didn't: The high bid of $25,000 for the former Enron chairman's desk fell $1 short of the reserve price of $25,001, the Chronicle reports. Oh, the heartbreak of eBay! To refresh your memory, the two desks — identical, massive pieces of furniture designed by Gensler......

Lindsay Perth is a transplanted Canadian artist who now resides in Scotland. She is one of the artists whose work is exhibited in the Never Been to Houston show. On the right is one of her photographs from the exhibit. Lindsay answered a few questions about Houston and the show for us. Read on: What was your perception of Houston before you started this project? My perception was of lots of glass and reflections and......

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] >>......

You remember when the E-shaped signs that used to identify Enron's headquarters sold for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, right? Well, if you missed the chance to blow your retirement fund on a big, shiny E, here's another opportunity to own a piece of the ill-fated energy company: The desks that once belonged to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are up for sale on eBay. Lay's desk and Skilling's desk were custom-designed by......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Via HouStoned, we see that everyone's favorite corporate scandal may be coming to the big screen soon: Leonardo DiCaprio is planning to produce and star in a film adaptation of Conspiracy of Fools, Kurt Eichenwald's book about EnronEnron's collapse. Entertainment Tonight reports that DiCaprio will play a newcomer to Enron "who discovers the corruption that leads to its bankruptcy implosion in 2001." So that would make him, what, maybe a male version of Sherron Watkins?......

This weekend, there was news about more corruption at Enron — but this time, it involves post-meltdown Enron, not the Skilling/Lay version. On Friday, Christian Deeb Rahaim of Mandeville, La., pleaded guilty of defrauding the company out of $3 million in false consultation charges in 2005. Rahaim said he presented the company with a fraudulent $1.2 million bill for consulting services in June 2005, then tried to get an additional $1.8 million in November 2005.......

Remember former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's unusual stroke of good luck when he learned Monday that he wouldn't be sent to jail as scheduled? Well, scratch that: A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided yesterday that Skilling should report immediately to jail after all. Sucks to be you, Jeff. In the order, the court indicated its decision earlier this year to overturn convictions in another Enron trial, the Nigerian barge case,......

Looks like former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling will have at least a bit longer at home before he has to report to a federal prison in Minnesota: Yesterday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals postponed Skilling's report date while it considers his request for bail while he appeals his convictions on 19 charges of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading in connection with Enron's collapse. It's a short-term reprieve for Skilling, and it could point to......

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to......

If you like musicals of questionable quality and Enron, you're so in luck: Enron — the Musical, a locally produced stage version of the infamous corporate high jinks, is now on stage in the Heights. Seriously. Mark Fraser, a manufacturers' representative, wrote, produced and directed the show, which is based around parody lyrics set to popular show tunes. (There are 28 songs, some of which were unperformed pieces Fraser wrote for the Houston Press Club's......

A jury sentenced a teenage white supremacist to life in prison today for beating a Hispanic boy with a pipe at a party in April Two more ex-Enron executives, Michael Kopper and Mark Koenig, were sentenced today: Kopper got three years and one month; Koenig, 18 months HISD's enrollment is down by 7,000 this fall; the district blames the drop on more charter schools and people moving to the 'burbs Can anyone ever really replace......

Weeks before he's set to report to prison, former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling has agreed to the distribution of $85 million to former Enron employees, part of a series of settlements totaling $265 million for more than 20,000 workers trying to recover some part of their pensions. "Yes, it's over. Our clients are thrilled," Lynn Sarko, a lawyer representing former Enroners, said. "While they are grateful that some of their retirement money was recovered, it......

Another former Enron executive learned his fate — at least his short-term fate — in court yesterday: Richard Causey, the company's ex-head accountant, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his role in helping maintain Enron's accounting fraud. The sentence is 18 months less than the seven-year maximum Causey agreed to serve last year when he pleaded guilty to securities fraud, but it's far less than he could have ended up......

If you find yourself in the mood to pay a visit to former Enron CFO Andy Fastow, looks like you'll be headed to Louisiana: The Federal Bureau or Prisons has placed Fastow in a federal prison in Oakdale, La., about 200 miles northeast of Houston, where he'll serve his six-year sentence. Oakdale isn't where Fastow had expected to end up: At his sentencing in late September, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt recommended that Fastow be......

So Jeff Skilling had the next chunk of his life mapped out for him this afternoon: The former Enron CEO was sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison, meaning he'll get out of jail when he's 76. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ordered Skilling to home confinement for a while — for how long, it's not clear: Lake asked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to recommend when Skilling should be sent to jail.......

Five months after former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was found guilty of 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading, Skilling will learn his fate at 1 p.m. today in the federal courthouse at 515 Rusk Ave. And the hearing is open to the public — so hey, if you're having a slow afternoon, why not swing by? Under federal sentencing guidelines, Judge Sim Lake could give Skilling more than 20 years in prison if......

A man was arrested today after a six-hour standoff at a southwest Houston convenience store The average price of a gallon of gas in Houston dropped to $2.02 this week, marking the 11th straight week of price drops Ronald Williams, a 19-year-old cadet at A&M, claims he's been the victim of racial harassment from fellow cadets Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California called on the Justice Department to appeal the decision to overturn ex-Enron Chairman Ken......

So former Enron Chairman Ken Lay's criminal record is now clean, thanks to a ruling yesterday from U.S. District Judge Sim Lake that erased Lay's convictions on 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy in connection with Enron's collapse. Too bad Lay's not around to enjoy the freedom. In his ruling, Lake agreed with lawyers for Lay's estate who argued that the conviction should be erased and indictments against Lay dropped because of his death from......

This summer, about two months after former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was convicted of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors in connection with the Enron collapse, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake denied Skilling's request to have his conviction overturned. But never say Skilling is a quitter: Now, he's again asking Lake to overturn his conviction, this time based on a federal appeals court ruling. The ruling in question had to do with some......