Good morning, Houston. Today's the last day of August, and you know what that means: Yes! Tomorrow, it'll be September! And why is that exciting, you ask? Well, as it happens, there are a few (relatively) interesting thing about the ninth month: For example, when the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Sept. 2 was immediately followed by Sept. 14 — which, legend has it, led to riots by people who thought......

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......

Senator Mario Gallegos, a Houston Democrat, can finally return home after jeopardizing his health to fight a controversial voter ID bill. Gallegos recently underwent a liver transplant and a follow-up procedure due to concerns that his body was rejecting the liver. He even had a hospital bed set up in the Senate sergeant's office, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Senate floor. Doctors advised Gallegos to stay in Houston to recuperate, but......

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. Do you love trees? Well, you're in luck: Today happens to be Love a Tree Day. Houstonist has something of a soft spot for trees ourselves — we've often enjoyed their shade, climbed their branches and even skied into one or two — and so we wholeheartedly endorse showing a little tree love today. Don't have a tree to lavish your attention on? No problem: Join Trees for Houston and help......

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......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

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......

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......

Good morning, Houston. Let's be frank with each other, shall we: Haven't you ever thought of yourself as a superhero? Yeah, we thought so. You'll be happy to know that it's your lucky day — or weekend, whatever — because the Sci Fi channel's Who Wants to Be a Superhero? is casting. Candidates have to have their identities set, show up in costume and explain "the true nature of their superhuman abilities and invoking the......

We've all heard the stories about how easy it is for teens to get in trouble with sexual predators on MySpace, right? And the question in Houstonist's mind had always been whose fault these incidents are — the kids on MySpace who meet the creepy low-lifes, the creepy low-lifes who prey on MySpacers, the parents who don't monitor what their kids are doing or MySpace itself? Now, some families — one from Houston — are......

Happy Martin Luther King Day, Houston. Whether you decide to attend one of the dueling parades or just stay in, we're sure you're keeping an eye on the weather — which seems to be this morning's big story. Hello, winter! >> Enter winter: We started to wonder last night if the cold weather would ever get here — but in case you haven't noticed, it did. It's rainy and around 40 degrees downtown now,......

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......

A former Spring Wal-Mart employee is behind bars, accused of leading a check-fraud scheme that apparently cost shoppers thousands of dollars — and it all goes back to store employees failing to give customers their checks back. Wal-Mart is one of those stores that uses electronic scanners to process checks, so checks are supposed to be scanned and then handed back to customers. But police say Dazzie Mingo — who, by the way, Houstonist would......

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......

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......

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......

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......

Citing Andy Fastow's cooperation with government prosecutors, the suffering his family experienced after the fall of Enron and Fastow's own penitent attitude, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt sentenced the former Enron financial chief to six years in prison and two years' probation yesterday, just over half his maximum possible sentence of 10 years. Fastow was indicted on 98 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and insider trading in 2002 for his role in Enron's collapse, but......

Last month, ex-Enron chief Ken Lay's lawyers began making moves toward having Lay's conviction on charges of fraud and conspiracy vacated, and government prosecutors indicated they would put up a fight. Well, turns out the government wasn't just whistling Dixie: In a court filing yesterday, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to hold off on ruling about the vacation until Congress can consider changing the law. The issue at hand is a 2004 ruling......

City Council voted today to expand the city's "civility ordinance" to more neighborhoods, including Montrose and the Sixth Ward Clara Harris, the woman accused of running over her husband in a hotel parking lot, has filed an appeal and hired a new lawyer Ralph Sampson, a former Houston Rocket, has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud related to a vehicle purchase; he will spend two months in jail in Atlanta In a campaign stop......

Texas will get $428.7 million in federal funding to help cover costs associated with last year's hurricanes Four area men have been convicted in an auto-loan fraud scheme that the government says led to millions of dollars in losses Larry Wayne Parker, a convicted child predator, has been charged with sexually assaulting 13-year-old Marlena Carmen Esquivel Do you own a Ford truck? Better check to make sure it hasn't been stolen: Ford pickups were the......

And the Enron legal saga goes on: A day after we learned that Judge Sim Lake approved a request from Lay's lawyers to substitute Lay's estate for Lay in court proceedings, the first step toward vacating the dead former Enron leader's conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges, Lay's estate attorneys filed a request today to erase the convictions and dismiss the indictment against Lay. But it looks like prosecutors aren't going to take that lying......

Remember earlier this summer when Enron prosecutors said they would seek $183 million from former Enron execs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling — money the government says is ill-gotten gains earned using fraud and conspiracy at Enron? And remember how Skilling complained about his $140 million share of that a few weeks later? Well, that might not have been such a good idea, it looks like: Since Lay is dead, the government has decided to......

Ex-Enron chief Ken Lay's lawyers took the first step toward getting his conviction vacated yesterday, filing a request with U.S. District Sim Lake that would substitute Lay's estate for Lay, who died July 5. The request would allow the estate to act on Lay's behalf, which would in turn allow the estate to move to dismiss Lay's indictment on charges of fraud and conspiracy in connection with Enron's collapse. Mike Ramsey, Lay's attorney, said the......

A 21-year-old Pasadena mother appeared in court this morning, accused with injury to a child by omission after her 2-year-old daughter died in a locked SUV A wreck this afternoon shut down some lanes of the South Belt near Cullen; the cause is being investigated Two of three British ex-bankers facing Enron-related fraud charges are seeking new lawyers, which could postpone their Sept. 11 trial date At Westheimer and Fondren, a man drove through the......

We imagine Jeff Skilling is somewhere drowning his sorrows in a Schlitz: Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake denied the former Enron CEO's request to overturn his convictions on fraud, conspiracy and insider trading charges. Skilling claimed the evidence presented in his trial earlier this year was insufficient, so his convictions on 19 of 28 charges should be dismissed. Well, nice try anyway, Jeff. There are other rulings ahead for Skilling, including a request from......