Good morning, Houston. Sure, the national economy may be going to hell in a handbasket, but look on the bright side: Houston's housing market is remaining pretty strong, so at least you homeowners have something of value! According to a new report, the median home value in Houston fell just $500 between the end of the third quarter 2007 and the end of the year, to $119,300 from $119,800 — still a gain of......

Just when you thought that the return of actual baseball would distract us from the off-season drama, a Congressional committee has taken the first steps toward starting a criminal investigation of Roger Clemens on a charge of perjury in his testimony about whether or not he used HGH and other steroids. But what about McNamee? Thusfar, he's home free: a draft letter that mentions Clemens--and only Clemens, not his former trainer--was drawn up by the......

On this lazy, semi-holiday, it feels like the perfect opportunity to browse around the 'net and find out what's been going on with our local teams. Only the Rockets are actually playing games right now, though the Astros are gearing up for theirs in Florida right now. The Texans continue to be a topic of discussion even though the NFL draft is yet two months away. With that in mind, let's take a look at......

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and on a day like today, a young person's heart turns, naturally, to baseball. The baseball season is almost upon us, with the evaluation period known as spring training beginning in earnest today. The Astros major league camp starts today, with just the pitchers and catchers in camp. The position players will arrive later, but for today we'll take a look at everyone who's currently at the......

Seeing as how it's now officially 2008 — which, by the way, is both the International Year of the Potato and the International Year of Sanitation (thanks, U.N.!) — we figured it was a good time to pay a visit to the Houstonist Favorites page and see what your favorite Houstonist posts of 2007 were. >> Most commented: "R.I.P.: Houston-born Anna Nicole Smith" February was sort of a high-water mark when it came to, um,......

As the Texans 2007 campaign draws to a close on Sunday against the Jaguars, putting a bow on top of the most improved season in franchise history, we can look back at the highlights and lowlights. Pros: Mario Williams, the rock solid consistency of healthy Andre Johnson, Mario Williams, rookies Fred Bennet and Abomi Okoye, Mario Williams, possible tradebait Sage Rosenfels, Mario Williams, the revived Ron Dayne, Mario Williams, DeMeco Ryans' appearance on the national......

Yes, we know that this column usually runs on Mondays. But on Monday, we were dodging the crowds in search of a couple of final presents, and were still reeling from the woodshed beating the Texans received at the hands of the Colts. We saw beleaguered soccer moms parking their Suburbans at the mall with better timing and depth perception than some of Sage Rosenfels' passes on Sunday. Anyway, on to the links: - Chuck......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • Chester Miles, the missing Houston minister, has been found in a hospital recuperating from stab wounds. • The space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for launch today at 2:21 pm from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. UPDATE: Today's launch has been scrubbed and will not be rescheduled until sometime in January. • An off duty reserve constable shot and killed a 19 year......

Houstonist has an active and amazing Flickr photo group. We receive many, many photos of Houston and the surrounding areas every day and unless you are an active visitor to our photo pool many of these photos go unnoticed. So in a weekly effort to bring you more amazing photos from Houstonist readers and photographers, we are going to feature a block of photos submitted to our Flickr photo group. The images will be dug......

Good morning, Houston. It's November now, and you know what that means: We're at the beginning of nearly two straight months of Christmas. Retailers put their holiday decorations up early in hopes that shoppers will see them and get in the buying mood — but will it work? Not necessarily, if most shoppers are like Sharon Baker, who the Chron found at Macy's downtown. "I do like Christmas, but I need time to celebrate......

::Danielle Reich Trio at King Biscuit:: We saw this and we couldn't remember the last time we stopped by Height's area neighborhood pub & grub, King Biscuit. So we decided to swing back by tonight to see jazz artist, Danielle Reich. It's been too long. They probably miss us. Right? Riiiiiight. A regular at The Black Swan in the Omni Hotel, Danielle plays weekly with a trio at King Biscuit in The Heights. A veteran......

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. Looks like there's another tropical disturbance out in the Gulf of Mexico — this one is called Invest 90L, and it looks like it could be headed for the upper Texas coast. The Chron's Eric Berger is keeping an eye on the system, which is located west of Florida and is headed in a general northwesterly direction; Berger reports that it could become a tropical storm by tomorrow, but isn't likely......

Houstonist recently kept you abreast of the “Humberto Incident”, where a low pressure system in the Gulf strengthened in less than 24 hours and slammed ashore, with sustainable wind gusts of 85 mph as a Category 1 hurricane, near High Island, causing power outages, localized flooding and wind damage. When storms give you little warning – the choice is already made for you to shelter in place. The media here is rife with preparedness information......

In the mid 90’s, Matt Sharp, bass player of Weezer, decided to form a little side project called The Rentals. Their debut album scored a minor, and damn catchy, radio hit “Friends of P.” Sharp ended up leaving Weezer in the late 90’s, but only made one other Rentals album. Now, after many years of absence, The Rentals are back with a new EP, The Last Little Life. The Rentals will be hitting Warehouse Live......

We were kind of interested last week when we noticed the story of Frederic "Ric" Brame, the 72-year-old dance instructor who is facing a charge of sexual assault of a child. Brame, who taught dance in Montgomery County, allegedly began assaulting a former student when she was 12 or 13 years old — but that wasn't all: Investigators say that, for years, Brame has pretended to be noted movie and Broadway dancer Tommy Rall. And......

So you've heard all the discussion about how cities must lure the so-called "creative class" if they want to be great places, right? Basically, the idea is that the creative class — knowledge workers, artists, intellectuals and creative types, a subset of workers identified by economist and author Richard Florida — spurs economic power, high-tech industry, new ideas and growth in places that court it. Sounds like something Houston should be trying to attract, right?......

A former golf pro in Kingwood and Clear Lake was stabbed to death while on a business assignment in Florida on Thursday — and his ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend have been charged in the murder. It happened at an apartment complex in South Lakeland, Fla., where 31-year-old Colin Zieler had been living for a month; the former girlfriend, 26-year-old Heizel Beatriz Gonzalez-Martinez, is charged with being an accessory to murder and her boyfriend, 25-year-old......

Recently, Houstonist had been thinking about how it seems a long time since we had any Lisa Nowak-related news. And then, voila! — a Florida judge agreed to unseal certain documents related to the case of the lovelorn astronaut, and now we know some of the stuff she was carrying in her car when she made her infamous cross-country trip to intercept a romantic rival at the Orlando airport. Among the items in her possession:......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. Feel Good Recycling Techs & Trainers is a non-profit organization that recycles old computer equipment, rebuilds systems and then offers them for a nominal fee to those with special needs. You can help by donating your unwanted computers and accessories or volunteering your own specialized assistance. HTC Blood Drive The Houston Technology Center is having a blood drive on April 13 from 7-11am. Get out from......

Sure, we had it easy during the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season — not one hurricane made landfall in the U.S. last year — but things might be a little more complicated this year. Colorado State University forecaster William Gray is expecting 17 named storms in the Atlantic this year, with a pretty strong chance that one of them will hit the U.S. Better start buying that plywood and bottled water now. According to Gray's team's......

More on Lisa Nowak, everyone's favorite lovelorn astronaut: According to the AP, a series of steamy e-mails another woman sent to her boyfriend might have triggered her bizarre cross-country trip in early February. It seems Nowak had intercepted more that a dozen messages Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman had sent to astronaut Bill Oefelein, including one sent to him while he was aboard the space shuttle Discovery in December: "First urge will be to rip......

The Astros continue to heat up winning three straight in the Grapefruit League with a 5-0 victory over the Cardinals coming on the heels of Sunday's shelling of the Nationals. The offense was alive with eight hits, and the pitching staff shut down the red bird offense with nine innings of shut out pitching by Nieve, Gutierrez, Qualls, Asencio and White. Of course we all know that pre-season in any sport means squat when it......

Good morning, Houston. If you have an outstanding municipal warrant, it's time to start watching out: More than 150 law enforcement agencies, including HPD, are gearing up to arrest you next week. It's part of the Great Texas Warrant Roundup, which runs for a week beginning Friday; if you don't take care of your warrant, KHOU warns, you risk "being arrested and embarrassed in front of family, friends or even co-workers." No, not co-workers!......

Good morning, Houston. If you attended mass on Ash Wednesday, we hope it went more smoothly than one at the cathedral in Santa Fe, N.M. During the mass, CD players duct-taped to the undersides of pews began blasting sexually explicit language — as you might expect, it was disruptive. Church staff members took the CD players to the basement, after which a bomb squad arrived and blew two of the three players up. For......

Good morning, Houston! Two, four, six, eight ... yeah, whatever, we weren't cheerleaders. But those of you who were (or those of you who are cheerleader fans — no more needs to be said about that) should be excited to know that Houston is one of the finalists to be home of the Cheerleader Hall of Fame. We're up against Ohio, Kentucky, California, Florida and another city in Texas for the Hall of Fame,......

Houston attorney John O'Quinn is in Florida this morning to help Anna Nicole Smith's mom fight for custody of Smith's body, which is being held pending the outcome of a custody hearing. Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, wants Smith's body to be buried in Houston, but she's up against Howard K. Stern, who claims he's the father of Smith's infant daughter, Danielynn. Stern says he wants to take the body to the Bahamas so Smith can......

FoxNews has confirmed that one of Houston's own, Anna Nicole Smith has passed away. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan on November 28, 1967 in Houston, Texas the "Reality TV Star" and former TrimSpa spokeswoman (who was just included in a class-action suit against the company) has passed away in Hollywood, Florida. She was found unresponsive in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel - where she had been photographed at a boxing match earlier......

Little by little, a picture is beginning to emerge of Lisa Marie Nowak, the astronaut arrested in Florida on Monday for — well, you know the story. The results of NASA's psychiatric evaluation of Nowak haven't been released, but people who knew here are talking to reporters and telling them how Nowak was likely under an unbelievable amount of pressure between her personal and professional lives. According to Nowak's NASA biography, she has an......

Astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, who's a household name today after news broke about her plan to confront — or, police say, to kill — another woman, is back in Houston this morning as details emerge about what might have driven her to make a cross-country trip armed with a knife, rubber tubing and a BB gun. According to the AP, Nowak's marriage ended weeks ago when she and her husband of 19 years separated. Before......