• 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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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. >>......

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......

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......

So here's a weird story from northeast Harris County overnight: When a wrecker driver repossessed a man's car — or stole it? — he and the car's owner ended up in a high-speed chase that resulted in gunplay and the destruction of a taco stand. It started at about 11:30 p.m. yesterday when the tow-truck driver said he was repossessing a car at a home in the 4200 block of Weaver. The car's owner apparently......

Sad news from Katy: During lunch yesterday, a sophomore at Seven Lakes High School walked outside the school building and shot himself. The 16-year-old had a pulse when he was found, but he died at Memorial Hermann Hospital, KHOU reported. What's not known is why the boy shot himself — officials said a note was found near his body, but its contents haven't been released yet. Meanwhile, there are rumors, according to KTRK: Worried moms......

If there's one thing Houstonist has learned in all our years of sweet life, it's this: When you've done something wrong, it's better to 'fess up to it than to cause more trouble and get yourself in an even bigger mess. But obviously not everyone has figured that out — take, for example, the Waltrip High School student who reportedly assaulted a deputy who was trying to give her a ticket for truancy yesterday. It......

Here's one you don't hear about every day: In Sugar Land yesterday, a woman reportedly shot her estranged husband during an argument over who would get custody of their dog. It happened just after noon in the 1700 block of Country Club when Adam Birkenheuer showed up at Cynthia Weinheimer's house and tried to take their Shih Tzu. He ended up getting shot in the leg and was Life Flighted to Memorial Hermann Hospital. Birkenheuer,......

Doctors at Memorial Hermann Hospital have reattached a 12-year-old boy's left arm, which the boy lost Monday afternoon while playing alongside a train track in north Houston. The accident happened near Frisco and Donlen at about 5:45 p.m.; according to KHOU, the boy and some friends tried to jump aboard a slow-moving train and the boy's arm somehow got severed. Fortunately, neighbor Louis Rubio acted fast with some towels and a cooler: “I ran......

There was a tragic end to the story of an apartment fire in southeast Houston yesterday afternoon: Three children left at home with no adult supervision died, apparently from smoke inhalation. The 2-year-old twin girls and a 4-year-old boy were unconscious when firefighters pulled them from the burning apartment at 8250 Park Place; the kids died later at Memorial Hermann Hospital. An older relative was reportedly watching the children Tuesday afternoon and left them with......

In southwest Houston today, a daycare center caught fire with 18 kids inside; no one was injured, but the building sustained heavy water damage The UT Medical Branch, Galveston's largest employer, said today it will cut 1,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce, because of operating losses The bodies of two missing U.S. soldiers have been found in Iraq; one of them is believed to be 23-year-old Kristian Menchaca of Houston During a......

As the saying goes, there's nothing like a crime spree/police chase to end the week with a bang. And we had a pretty good one this morning that started when an armed man and woman tried to rob and carjack a man in southwest Houston. The attempted robbery happened near Brighton Lane and Murphy Road; the couple fired a shot and grazed the victim, then left the scene. On their way out, they hit a......

So here's one of those things you hope will never happen to you if you're a cop: HPD officer Ricky Rojas Garcia was responding to a traffic accident on I-10 near downtown yesterday morning, and he ended up having to dive over a guardrail to avoid being hit by a speeding truck. It started when Garcia used his patrol car to block traffic on I-10 near Taylor Street until three chain-reaction accidents were cleared.......

In one of those moves that makes Houstonist think we really don't know the first thing about marketing, Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital is changing its name to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. Ah, yes, of course. The groundbreaking move, according to hospital CEO Steve Allen (no, not that one), is meant to reflect the hospital policy of "putting children first." We can just imagine the hospital's new slogan now: "We put children first. See?" The hospital......

The Chronicle is reporting that a woman crossing a downtown street was hit by a Metro bus this morning — fortunately, she's OK. It happened just before 10 a.m. at Fannin and Congress; the bus was turning south onto Fannin from Congress when it hit the woman in the crosswalk. The 67-year-old victim was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital with complaints about soreness in her hip, neck, back and leg. She was, after all, hit......

This morning, Metro's limited rail service became more limited when a power outage shut down the MetroRail line. METRO officials said a power outage at about 4:15 a.m. shut down the entire line. Power had been restored to the line running from the Fannin South Park & Ride lot to its stop near Memorial Hermann Hospital by 7 a.m. The portion of the light-rail line includes all stops in the Texas Medical Center. While crews......