From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • A Houston couple went on a two month robbery spree, "to pay the rent." The couple were caught when one of their victims reported their license plate to police. • George Jeffrey Carlson, 52, of Spring, killed himself at the Canadian border near Maine after refusing to stop at a Canadian customs facility. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that the victim shot......

After many years at their location on Montrose just off of Westheimer, Ming's Cafe has shut it's doors for greener pastures in Austin. Austinist, take note and indulge in your new Chinese food overlords! We found out about Ming's closing via three sources, a friend of Houstonist, the HAIF forum and the SheEats blog which wrote a well rounded blog post about Ming's. But of course, we couldn't believe it and had to drive down......

The sentence is in for the cell phone using driver who struck and killed a deputy sheriff. Some folks think it is too light. What do you think? "How should we 'fix' illegal immigration?" "Huh. Let's get them to deport themselves." "Yeah...that's the ticket." Another crane accident has occured, another worker is dead Video from the Governor's Mansion yields a glimpse of a suspect in the arson case Folks say there aren't enough trees in......

Recently Brett Zamore of Brett Zamore Design LLC has been raking in the Architectural accolades, and we can't help but agree. The Houston resident and Rice alum is featured in this month's issue of Metropolis Magazine, along with this last week's very own Houston Chronicle. The buzz is about Brett's eco-twist on modernist prefab housing. It appears that at long last, Brett has solved a significant problem to kit home design -- shipping. It......

Over 20 years ago we all collectively asked, "Where's the beef?" But today, in an era of advanced technology, Houstonians are left to ponder alternative queries, such as “Where's the free wireless Internet?” We live in an era where automobiles can parallel park themselves. We live in an era where our televisions can predict what type programming we might enjoy and record it for us to watch at our own leisure. We live in......

While driving through the Galleria area over the weekend, Houstonist stumbled across a new Tex-Mex restaurant dubbed “Maggie Rita’s.” Never one to turn down the opportunity to guzzle a new margarita or two or twenty, we decided to make a night of it at the newest bistro to grace the strip mall at the intersection of Sage and West Alabama and skip out on our traditional Saturday night dinner at Chuy’s. Bad choice. To......

The clap of the hands, the sounds of dancing and the mystical flamenco guitar all await you upstairs at Avant Garden tonight at 8pm. Flamenco Andaluz, a local flamenco troupe, led by the extremely talented, Bianca Antonia has been holding regular Thursday night performances upstairs at Avant Garden for the past few months. Bianca Antonia is no stranger to dance. With a history of modern dance and ballet, she has been dancing flamenco since......

Many, many moons ago, when most of our 11 readers were just in diapers or better yet, not even born, there was a mega concert event that occurred at various times in both Dallas and Houston called The Texas Jam. The Texas Jam was legendary with huge names in rock headlining an all day concert. That was then... Rock The Bayou is now! Rock The Bayou is going to be a four day event......

Houston native and Texan Southern alum, Michael Strahan, announced his retirement yesterday after 15 story book seasons in the NFL, all with the New York Giants. Strahan was born in Houston and attended Westbury High. After high school, Strahan played football at Texas Southern University where he became a star. Strahan was a two-time First Team All-SWAC (1991, 1992) and also a two-time SWAC Defensive Player of the Year (1991, 1992). After Strahan's junior......

This Saturday the structural and aesthetic skills of the biggest architects and planners around town will be put to test -- on the beach. Special teams from major Houston architecture firms will convene to compete in The 22nd annual AIA Sandcastle Competition on Gavleston's East Beach, and while this might not be the bonus-bringing project of the year each firm takes the competition quite seriously. Many firms begin months in advance generating ideas, developing......

For weeks, months even, all that stood on the lot between Caroline and Austin on Southmore was a modestly sized sign for the forthcoming Asia House. And Asia House is such as strange idea, too, isn't it? We mean, does it house all of Asia? Is it of an eastern style? What exactly would an Asia House look like, anyway? The truth of it is that as time wore on, it was that kind......

Yesterday Liberty County sprouted a mouth as a gianormous sinkhole grew and grew and swallowed things - lots of things. A tanker truck was stolen and recovered Authorities suspect the thieves will sell the fuel on the black market. Wonder if they'll deliver, too. Keys to the city are so passe. We want a City Pass. Restaurant magnate Tillman Fertitta will head the Houston Police Foundation with sights set on raising money to support the......

Forty musicians performed the entire Sgt. Peppers album by The Beatles at Discovery Green, downtown’s newest park. The park was packed and people filled the hill and sat all the way up to the stage! The show started with a few random Beatles tunes, including Across The Universe complete with tabla and sitar. The group then launched into the featured performance and it was a magical event. After they played the entire album, the......

The Brochstein Pavilion, Rice University's newest set of facades on campus, will open tomorrow for a sneak-peak preview for Rice students, faculty and staff. It will be open to the public starting Friday April 25th and promises to offer guests a wide range of tasty (though probably spendy) treats including coffee, snacks and sandwiches. The Broch. Pav. is situated smack in the middle of a central courtyard between the back of the Fondren Library,......

The United States was built on a foundation of freedom. Unfortunately for Houston, foundations are freely put anywhere for any purpose thanks to the lack of public zoning. However, the Houston Area Survey says that change may be on the horizon. Richard Dawson would have been so proud. We've witnessed an acceleration in growth and cannibalization of the city. Town homes, strip center construction/renovations and apartments are exploding as developers try to cash out of......

Yes it’s a cliché that is rolled out time and time again whenever a Houston sports team finds itself in a heap of trouble. Yes it’s a cliché that citizens of our fair city loathe as much as red light cameras. But in this case it’s true. You see, tonight Houstonist made an excursion out to the Toyota Center to watch the hometown Rockets take on the Utah Jazz in the second game of......

_ 2008 Houston Livestock Show by mlsnp ________________________________________________________________ If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining a whole bunch of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here and for more great Houston photography, check out the Houston Photobloggers.......

You're probably wondering why we stopped at Kobain during the "Great Margarita Search of 2008," seeing as how the bar snuggled in the revitalized area off of Washington is not a Mexican restaurant. Well, as you may be aware we ran into a bit of a problem several weeks back, which resulted in an evening of "delightful" conversation at Kobain. Rather than gulping down whatever beer was on tap, we decided to be adventurous......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. Houston's Startup Corridor Startup Houston has recently posted an informative blog post on Proposing Houston's Startup Corridor. The post suggests that Houston's Starup Corridor could start with The Houston Technology Center on one end and Rice University on the other and somewhere near the middle is the latest startup The Caroline Collective. Startup Houston is seeking your comments on their idea, head over to their site......

The next stop on our path to identify Houston's best margarita was El Pueblito Place. Before arriving we were told to make reservations for one of the three primary cabana locations in the patio. Upon our arrival, we were delighted by this recommendation, as the patio was packed with people, save for one corner cabana which had been saved for our party. Bring on the 'ritas! Taste What enticed us about El Pueblito Place......

Internationally recognized designer-extraordinaire Karim Rashid will be at the Brown Auditorium this Thursday, March 27th at 7pm. For those less than completely design savvy, Karim has designed everything from bottle stoppers to bar stools, from fine art to disposable fashion and his clients are among the largest and most established design houses in the world. But even if you had no prior knowledge of his extensive repertoire or list of clients, you may have......

Hear the talk: The Rice Design Alliance (RDA) kicks off this year's annual architecture tour today with an illustrated lecture from distinguished photographer Richard Cheek, nationally recognized for his landscape and architectural photography. Adding to an already long list of accolades, Mr. Cheek was most recently published in Houston's newest architectural compendium, The Country Huseses of John F. Staub (Texas A&M University Press), penned by our very own Stephen Fox (reviewed previously by the......

After another hiatus to allow us to cleanse our palate, we made our next stop in the journey to find the best margarita in Houston. For those of you that have been following along, we encourage you to try out the previously reviewed restaurants yourself and to leave feedback / commentary at the end of each editorial. Alright, that's enough with the pleasantries, let's just dive right in to our review of El Patio.......

Lawn Furniture by photo_doug ________________________________________________________________ If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining a whole bunch of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here and for more great Houston photography, check out the Houston Photobloggers.......

Daydream by thomaslchen ________________________________________________________________ If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining a whole bunch of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here and for more great Houston photography, check out the Houston Photobloggers.......

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......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. Web Based Business Startup School The Houston Technology Center is starting a series of classes on Web Based Businesses. The first class is Wednesday, March 12, 2008 from 12pm to 1pm. The guest speaker will be Kevin Lacobie Founder and Chief Officer of Agoric Source, LLC. Seating is limited so make your reservations now. Living The iLife Next Saturday, the Houston Area Apple Users Group will......

Shadows by laanba ________________________________________________________________ If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining a whole bunch of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here and for more great Houston photography, check out the Houston Photobloggers.......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • A man in Brazoria County drove his vehicle into a group of people standing at the edge of driveway. One man was killed and the driver now faces homicide charges. • A 17 year old boy bludgeoned a pregnant woman to death three weeks ago with a baseball bat after a minor fender bender in a local park has been captured and......

Southwest Freeway by bilbao58 ________________________________________________________________ If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining a whole bunch of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here and for more great Houston photography, check out the Houston Photobloggers.......