Good morning, Houston. In these days of near-$3 gas, there's one group of drivers who aren't so worried: hypermilers, who use certain techniques to squeeze every possible M out of their MPG. Hypermiling involves a few pretty simple changes in the way you drive, including coasting, accelerating slowly from stops and the skillful use of cruise control. Used correctly, hypermiling can increase your car's fuel efficiency by 30 percent or more — so why......

Well, here's something you don't hear about very often — and thank goodness you don't: In Conroe, a woman has died after her boyfriend set her on fire during an argument. It happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday when John Marshall Dodd, 41, got into a fight with his girlfriend, 44-year-old Terry Leigh Lee (or Terry Lee Bailey, according to KPRC and KHOU), at Lee's house. "Apparently they had been out for the evening, gotten......

A tragic story continued unfolding this week in the case of Dennis Ray Driver Jr., the 8-month-old Houston boy who died late last year while asleep on his father's chest: The father, Dennis Driver, has been charged with murder in connection with the infant's death — and police say the boy died from taking cocaine. It happened Dec. 28, when Driver says he fell asleep with Dennis Jr. asleep on his chest; when Driver woke......

By now, you might have already seen the video floating around the Internet that seems to show a toddler who has been given ecstasy. If not, you can check it out here — just be prepared to see a lot of stupidity. In short, it's a video that first appeared on YouTube (it's since been removed); it shows the child sitting on the floor of a van, eyes rolling, as she's tapped, squeezed and slapped......

More details on the story of Claudia Cortes, the 23-year-old mother in whose closet a newborn baby's body was found Sunday: The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office has ruled that the baby girl was strangled to death. Cortes, who was charged with tampering with evidence after she showed up at Ben Taub and insisted she hadn't given birth, though doctors found that she had, could face additional charges pending the outcome of an interview by......

New information in the story of a woman whose 2-year-old daughter died Monday at Hermann Hospital: Though the woman initially claimed the child had fallen into a campfire on a Galveston beach, she now says the child was scalded in a hot bath. When the mother, 24-year-old Yokandra Lanett Midkiff, brought her daughter Krysdiunbria to the hospital Monday, Krysdiunbria was in a coma and suffering from severe infections from the burns. Doctors weren't able to......

More on the strange case of a baby found mutilated in Webster last month: The AP reports that a Harris County CPS caseworker testified yesterday that he doesn't believe the injuries were caused by a dog, as the infant's mother claimed. "No, I don't believe the dog attacked the child," the CPS's Armando Morin said. "The dog would have had dried blood under its chin, bloody paws. It didn’t have any, animal control said." Five-week-old......

More bizarre news keeps emerging in the story of Laurie Williamson, a Houston woman accused of keeping her children sick to get attention for herself. Prosecutors say Williamson, a former nurse, used her medical knowledge to convince doctors that her three kids suffered from a variety of ailments including Tourette syndrome, Crohn's disease and epilepsy — which led to unnecessary medications and surgeries for the children. Psychiatric experts say it looks like a classic case......

Good morning, Houston. If you loved the DeLorean DMC-12 — and who didn't? — you might be interested to know that what's left of the DeLorean Motor Co. (basically, the name and the logo) is now headquartered in Humble. And the company's vice president, James Espey, is hoping to collect former De Lorean employees' into a book, I Lived the Dream: Stories From Those Who Built the DeLorean Sports Car. This summer, the DeLorean......

Last week we told you about the elementary school kid who got in trouble for bringing a grenade to school — but it turns out he wasn't the week's only pint-sized miscreant: At another Houston elementary school Friday, an 8-year-old was found carrying cocaine. Seems life is tough in Houston's third-grade hallways. Authorities believe the Scott Elementary student brought the cocaine from his house, where police arrested two people: Eladio Moreno, the kid's father, who......

Good morning, Houston. Today's question: How cool are you? According to Ken Hoffman, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau is trying to find the 10 coolest people in Houston to form a focus group that'll help promote the city. Hoffman saw the list of nominees and wasn't impressed — but seriously, when was the last time anyone was impressed by one of the GHCVB's marketing plans? So here's the deal: If you can......

Houstonist has heard the stories about babies being left on people's doorsteps and in trash cans, but the baby who was left in an apartment complex's mail room was a new one on us. It happened at the Haverstock Hill Apartments in north Houston. “Doctors think she was about a day old, and they think she must have been a home delivery because she had her umbilical cord tied with a rubber band,” said......