From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • A man crashed his car into a Sugar Land home on Lynnwood at Oak Wood early Saturday morning. No one in the home was injured and the driver is in the hospital in stable condition. • The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo is 76 years old. • An 84 year old Puerto Rican man with dementia is missing after walking out of......

>> City offers $15.5M for possible stadium site: The Chronicle reports that the city has said it'll pay more than $15.5 million for five downtown blocks that could become the site of a stadium for the Dynamo. The parcel is bounded by Texas and Walker on the north and south and Dowling and Hutchins on the east and west; it's just east of the Lofts at the Ballpark and immediately south of a vast......

• A man who tried to run over his girlfriend after a Valentine's Day argument was killed on I-45 near Richey Road after he was struck by a vehicle while running away from sheriff's deputies. • Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, married Patricia Calmers and Paul Burgess in the cafe of IKEA on I-10 after the couple won a contest sponsored by the Swedish furniture company. Billy Gibbons is an ordained minister of the......

• A cold front that will be preceded by a storm system is expected to drop temperatures this afternoon. Don't forget your coats and umbrellas. • Two suspected Conroe drug dealers were shot during a sting involving the Montgomery County sheriff's office. The sting occurred in a busy shopping center parking lot and an officer was nearly hit by the suspects vehicle. • Police in the Rice Village area are on the lookout for......

Good morning, Houston. We enjoy a good, quick breakfast as much as anyone, but seriously, there are limits — just ask the four people who were hurt Monday when a driver who was eating oatmeal at the wheel crashed into a Metro bus near downtown. Witnesses told KPRC that the driver ran a red light at Pierce and St. Charles and hit the front of the bus, which caused the driver's vehicle to spin......

Kevin Everett may soon be a walking miracle. Just weeks after a brutal on-field collision almost killed him, and his doctors were convinced he would be a paraplegic, Everett was moved today from a Buffalo-area hospital to a rehab facility affiliated with Memorial Hermann Hospital. The goal: to have him walking within the next several weeks. A quick response by the Buffalo Bills' team doctor is credited with giving Everett the fighting chance he has......

Good morning, Houston. Do you feel like you're living and dying in 3/4 time? Need a margarita(ville) or two to pick up your spirits on this way-too-hot Monday morning? How about a vintage Jimmy Buffett video to help you through the week? "Come Monday" has long been one of our favorite JB songs, and what better time to listen to it than now? Plus, his girlfriend was super-hot, and we can't argue with that.......

So, it would be bad enough to nearly be involved in a wrong-way collision on a freeway — but it would be that much worse to fall from an overpass after you nearly crashed. Don't believe us? Ask a guy who did exactly that on the Southwest Freeway early this morning. It happened in Stafford just after midnight, when police say the man was headed south on the northbound feeder road of the Southwest Freeway......

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......

You may remember that we talked last fall about the Texas Medical Center testing its buildings for the effects of stray current from the MetroRail line — electricity leaks that Metro says are inconsequential, but that observers worry could be weakening the foundations of nearby buildings, bridges, roads and other structures. Well, the preliminary results of those tests are back, and they show worrisome levels of current at three sites. Does that mean buildings are......

Good morning, Houston. Let's take a trip to the United Kingdom for a bit to learn how they celebrate Orangemen's Day. July 12 means "Orange marches" in this area to commemorate Prince William of Orange's victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (remember your world history?). This day has sometimes been the cause of sectarian clashes between Protestants and Catholics, although most of the parades are very peaceful,......

Good morning, Houston. Did you happen to be in the West U. area last night? If so, maybe you noticed the train derailment in the area, which prompted the evacuation of a handful of houses and the closure of a section of Bissonnet Street. The derailment, which involved seven cars, happened on the Union Pacific line near the corner of Community and Judson; four of the cars were carrying wheat and lumber, and another......

Police are still investigating some of the details behind a tragic story that unfolded this morning: at about four AM, a stolen SUV carrying several teenagers hit a stalled train near Baytown, leaving four of the young passengers dead. Police reported that the driver of the Jeep Cherokee did not see the train and ran right into a tanker car. The four backseat passengers were killed instantly. The driver was taken by helicopter to Memorial......

We're not ashamed to admit it: We love the little train that goes around Hermann Park. The tiny cars, the meandering route, the tunnel, the bridge — all of it, we suppose, reminds us of our childhoods, when it didn't really matter that we were riding a train that just went in a big circle. So we're interested to see how a proposal to overhaul the train works out: Will it preserve what we love......

It's hard to pass up a news item headlined "Houston police officer survives being shot in the face," isn't it? We guess that's what KTRK was hoping when it put that headline on a piece about a Houston police officer who was shot while questioning some guys who were jaywalking Wednesday night — but it turns out the situation wasn't quite as dramatic as you might think: It happened at Renwick near Bellaire. We understand......

Good morning, Houston. If you haven't gotten a speeding ticket in the city lately, consider yourself lucky — a lot of your fellow Houston drivers have. According to a report from the National Motorists Association, Houston is the third worst speed trap in the nation (up from fifth place last year). The ranking was based on the number of Houston-related posts to the NMA's Speed Trap Exchange — which, by the way, is definitely......

When we were little, Mama Houstonist always told us not to take shelter under a tree during a lightning storm. And though we followed her advice, we were always a little skeptical: People don't really get hit by lightning if they're standing under a tree, do they? Actually, yes, they do — just ask the four guys who were struck yesterday at Bear Creek Park. The men were playing soccer at the park when a......

The Chronicle has a little more today on the woman who a police officer shot early Sunday when she lunged at him with a knife in the lobby of HPD headquarters: The day before she showed up at 1200 Travis, Marnell Villarreal left a rambling, cryptic voice mail message with an attorney who had represented her about 14 years ago. Attorney Clyde Miller said the message was mostly unintelligible, but he could make out Villarreal......

An odd story from HPD headquarters: Early Sunday morning, officers shot and killed a woman who lunged at them inside the building's lobby. It happened just after 2 a.m., when 42-year-old Marnell Villarreal showed up at the HPD building at 1200 Travis wanting to talk to an investigator. According to KTRK, officers sent her away because she had brought a weapon into the building before. She paced outside for a while, then came back into......

A chase that involved three police cars and a suspected vehicle thief led to the death of an innocent 24-year-old woman in a residential area of southeast Houston yesterday. The woman, Rikki Danielle Sanchez, was killed instantly when the car that was being chased crashed into her pickup, sending her "flying" into a brick home. Afterwards, the suspect resisted arrest until a policeman shocked him with a Taser. He was taken to Memorial Hermann with......

Frenchman Sébastian Bourdais took home first place at the Houston Grand Prix this weekend for the second year in a row. Oui, oui. But it sounds like a few Houstonians were a little too inspired by Bourdais' high speeds. Street racing at Spencer Highway and Beltway 8 is the probable cause of a 5-car crash yesterday afternoon. The crash included two Ford Mustangs, which are the cars suspected of racing. One of them fled the......

Good morning, Houston. We forgot to mention a bit of news last week: According to ForbesTraveler.com, Houston is the sixth-best restaurant city in the country. "San Antonio may have a far more manifest Mexican food culture, but Houston, which spirals forever outward, has far more breadth and depth," the site said; it specifically cited upper-end Tony's, Café Annie and Américas, but also mentioned the Breakfast Klub, with its "irresistible" chicken and waffles. Mmm. >>......

Good morning, Houston. We were going to begin the day talking about how American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar finally got voted off the show last night, but then we ran across this item: Wednesday was the 30th birthday of KTRK's Live at Five afternoon newscast. Big deal, you say? Why yes, it is — because, thanks to Channel 13, you can watch the very first episode of the show, from April 18, 1977. Dave......

A bizarre accident in Midtown early this morning: A woman trying to cross the street was hit and dragged along the pavement by a street sweeper. It happened around midnight at Webster and Bagby; the woman ended up being pulled along the street for about 10 feet before the driver realized what had happened. The woman was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital with a broken leg. We're happy she wasn't hurt more badly, but we......

One of the many reasons Houston is a great city is because of the amazing medical community. One aspect of this community is the Air Ambulance service, known as Life Flight. We are sure you have seen these shiny red helicopters flying overhead, but did you know that the Life Flight helicopters average 17 years old? Well the Memorial Hermann Foundation is looking to change that, by raising $40million for six new helicopters (and related......

A bizarre scene that involved a car accident, an SUV atop a Cadillac and gunfire reportedly brought traffic to a standstill along the Southwest Freeway in front of Memorial Hermann Southwest hospital yesterday morning — but thanks to TV news, it's hard to know exactly what happened. According to KPRC, it started around 11 a.m. yesterday when two vehicles — a Ford Expedition and a Ford F-150 pickup — were chasing each other along the......

Good morning, Houston. If there's one robot we've always been crazy about, it's the lovable R2-D2, veteran of all six Star Wars movies. And we're not the only people who like the little guy: This month, about 400 public mailboxes will be covered to look like R2-D2 to coincide with the release of a stamp marking the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars. The USPS has even rolled out a flashy website as......

Considering how much some Texans love their guns, it's surprising that we don't hear about accidental self-shootings more often than we do. But really, you can go for months without a single incident, and then bam — or, we suppose, bang — you get a really good one. The incident in question happened yesterday afternoon at Gay Pontiac on the Gulf Freeway in Dickinson. The victim: an off-duty Harris County Sheriff's Office reserve major and......

Wow, this would suck: In northwest Harris County last night, a man cleaning up around his work area got his hair stuck in an industrial machine. It happened around 11 p.m. at a T-3 Energy Services facility on Cypress-North Houston Road as the unidentified 19-year-old man was sweeping up near a machine that makes metal parts for energy companies. The guy thought the machine was completely turned off, but he was wrong: His long hair......

A woman had to be rescued from her car Thursday morning after she drove into a lake, apparently because she was talking on her cell phone and didn't notice the road had ended. It happened around 9:30 a.m. at Oregold and Sunbright, just off Eldridge Parkway in northwest Harris County; police say the woman, Yu Hee Kim, drove her 2001 Lexus over a curb, across a grassy expanse and into one of the manmade lakes......