Good morning, Houston. If the dearth of new TV in the wake of the writer's strike has left you willing to watch anything, we've got some news for you: HTV, the municipal station, is launching a new program! Woohoo! Entertainment Houston, a 30-minute show, will focus on — wait for it — Houston's facilities, included the Wortham Center, Jones Hall, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the not-quite-finished Discovery Green. A new episode......

• 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. How many of you knew what Monday was? Anyone? Anyone? That's right: It was the 220th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. To mark the anniversary, the nation had a little holiday, Constitution Day — but how many people actually knew about it? Not many, apparently: Though federal law says students at public high schools should be taught about Constitution Day, a recent survey of students found that......

Headed around town this weekend? - Maybe to an Astros or Dynamo game before School starts up? Well, you may want to take rethink your normal route and put on your patience hat as several major road closures will be going on around town. Here are the major closures from TxDOT (full list here): I-10 Katy Westbound Connector Ramp to BELTWAY 8-WEST north- and southbound. TOTAL CLOSURE. Closed continuously from 5:00 AM, Saturday, August 25......

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. If you're looking forward to Earthquest, the $600 million-plus, 250-acre theme park being planned for east Montgomery County, you should be happy to know that the park plan has gotten a boost: Earlier this month, Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation to enable tax incentives for the project. The park, to be built on Caney Creek near Highway 59 and FM 1485 in New Caney, is the brainchild of paleontologist Don Lessem,......

Just when you thought it was safe to confine your red-light running to the suburbs: the Sugar Land City Council voted to put up red light cameras at intersections in their town as soon as September. Copycats. Sugar Land police chief Steve Griffith said that there would probably be cameras at 59 and Highway 6, one of the city's busiest intersections, as well as three or four other heavily traveled intersections. He said that as......

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......

Good morning, Houston. Remember when our fair city was trying to land the summer Olympics? Well, maybe we should be happy we didn't get them, given London's problems with its 2012 Olympics logo. The logo — a brightly colored, highly abstracted version of the numerals "2012" that cost $796,000 to design — drew fire at first for its look, and now there's word that the animated version of the logo is apparently causing epileptic......

Good morning, Houston. So here's something cool to look forward to for the next two years: In mid-2009, 20 of the famed terra cotta warriors of Xi'an will be on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The exhibition will run from May 18 to Sept. 25; until then, you can visit the local knockoff, which is quite impressive in its own right. >> Early voting begins today: Harris County voters will be......

There are few details about it so far, but a Porter couple was arrested yesterday for helping a convicted robber escape from a Fort Worth lockup. The escapee in question is Eladio Diaz Jr., who was last seen Sunday night at the North Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility, a minimum-security compound for parole violators; Jose Chavez and his wife, Jacqueline Diaz Chavez — Eladio Diaz's sister — were arrested for allegedly helping Diaz break out. Diaz......

Not everyone had a loving day yesterday. The Courier of Montgomery County is reporting narcotics officers found marijuana stuffed inside a heart-shaped candy box in a South Montgomery County home yesterday. Inside the box, officers found a note that read, "I thought I'd get you something you'd really like." Bianca, the Montgomery County Special Investigation Unit's drug dog, sniffed out the find, said Deputy Tom Thompson. "Bianca alerted on the door and ran straight......

Good morning, Houston. We assume you're still recovering from last night's State of the Union drinking game and National Pie Day celebrations, so we won't waste any time with introductory nonsense — except to note that today is National Peanut Butter Day (not to be confused with National Peanut Butter Lovers' Day, which comes around March 1, or National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day on April 2). Try not to get too crazy. >>......

OK, so if you're a former cop yourself, you'd think you would be slick enough to avoid being arrested for a crime spree, right? Well, maybe not: Police have made an arrest in a string of Montgomery County bank robberies, and the prime suspect is a former HPD officer. His name is Raymond Martinez, and he's been charged with the aggravated robbery of a Wachovia branch in April; Sgt. Bryan Carlisle of the Shenandoah Police......

So this really sucks: In Montgomery County yesterday evening, a guy checking out a sign advertising cheap gas caused a crash that killed another driver. The accident happened at around 5:30 p.m. at FM 3083 and Jefferson Chemical Road near Conroe, where the driver of a Ford Escort saw the gas prices at a Quick Stop station. He made a sudden left turn — presumably not out of the left lane — causing a driver......

Three men, one from College Station (we're holding off on the Aggie joke, and you should too), one from The Woodlands, and one from Needville, were indicted yesterday by a Montgomery County grand jury on charges of soliciting sex from teenagers on the internet. The three men, who were arrested back in July, were the dupes of a sting put in place by the Texas Attorney General's office's Cyber Crimes Unit and the Shenendoah Police......

Weird news out of Willis: Yesterday afternoon, a homeless man reportedly shot a trucker who was on his way to a fast-food restaurant. The shooting took place at Interstate 45 and FM 1097 at around 1 p.m. when truck driver Willie Ray Goree of Irving was walking to Jack in the Box and talking on his cell phone. For no apparent reason, Feofaaki A. Hafoka, who was living under a nearby overpass, fired at least......

If you're a big dinosaur fan, get ready to be excited: The AP is reporting that Dinosaur City, a dino-themed theme park, will open in Montgomery County in the summer of 2008. It's the brainchild of "Dino" Don Lessem, who we'd have to call a dinosaur fanatic: He's written scads of books, advised movies and TV shows (yes, including Jurassic Park), supervised excavations and founded the world's two leading foundations for dinosaur research. And......

The bad news: It's another rainy morning, and it looks like we may be in for isolated strong storms tonight. The good news: When all this moves through the area, we'll have a beautiful weekend. As long as the city doesn't flood, we're OK with that. According to the Chronicle, more than two inches of rain have already fallen in parts of northern Harris County and Montgomery County this morning, and another inch or......

In Montgomery County, police are searching for a criminal who may or may not have been wearing a wig while knocking over a Woodlands-area bank and attempting to rob another Wednesday — apparently, the crook is either a man wearing a bad wig and women's clothing or a woman with an exceptionally unfortunate hairdo. The suspect walked into a Woodforest Bank branch at 327 Rayford Road at about 12:40 p.m. Wednesday and gave a teller......

Wow, it sure rained a lot overnight. We mean a lot — more than seven inches fell downtown, more than six in southern Brazoria County, just as much in east Harris County and part of Liberty County. The good news is that most of the heavy rain has moved north of the Beltway, but the bad news is that it's now sitting over Katy, northwest Harris County, Montgomery County, Bryan-College Station, Huntsville ... yeah, you......

So here's something we didn't know about: a 40,000-square-foot bunker built in Montgomery County by a Chinese oilman who was afraid of another world war. It sounds like a fascinating place, and it's becoming Continental Airlines' new backup operations center. The airline has chosen the bunker as the location for its backup computers and data systems that would monitor Continental flights if a citywide disaster puts Continental's downtown command center out of operation. The shelter,......

Adam Williams, the inmate who escaped from a Conroe hospital early yesterday morning, never really had a chance: His face was all over local TV news, dozens of cops and police dogs were looking for him and a helicopter was tracking his moves with heat-seeking radar. Little wonder, then, that Williams was captured late Wednesday night — in a tree. According to KHOU, two TABC agents spotted WIlliams walking along some railroad tracks near I-45......

In Montgomery County, police are on the lookout for an inmate who escaped from a Conroe hospital overnight. Adam Williams, the guy in question, was arrested for outstanding warrants in Liberty County and for possession of a firearm by a felon; he was in leg restraints and under guard at Conroe Regional Hospital, but managed to get out of the restraints and slip past the guard. (Which means neither the restraints nor the guard were......

A plane crashed in Montgomery County this afternoon; engine failure was apparently the cause Tuesday's police chase by the guy who thought he couldn't be chased had City Council all atwitter this week The Labor Department has proposed a $12 million settlement to cover some Enron workers' claims Kalip Jefferson, 18, was found guilty of murder today for killing a woman when he ran a red light during a 2005 police chase Donations to the......

Some news stories hook you from the very first sentence, don't they? The latest example we've seen is this KTRK piece about nefarious goings-on along a Montgomery County highway: Imagine driving along when something smashes into your windshield, sending pieces of glass flying in your face. Whoa! Yes, we can imagine that, and it doesn't sound pleasant. It's happening on Highway 105 at South Walker Road, just east of Cut and Shoot, and police......

This week in stupid (OK, actually last week in stupid) we have the story of the Conroe woman who needed money to pay a traffic ticket, so she allegedly sold some crystal meth to a nearby man Thursday — while both of them were standing in line at a Montgomery County courthouse. Police say Deana Ayres, 25, sold ice methamphetamine to Charles "Bubba" Groze Jr., 40, of New Caney while she was waiting to talk......

Seven of Hempstead's 13 police officers have been suspended for setting off SWAT team grenades for fun back in 2004, KPRC reports. All we can say is: "Wow." The first grenade prank happened when reserve officer Gene Williams, set off one of the explosives under a police car at a Hempstead truck stop. Police say he later set off another grenade at a backyard party, causing one of the guests to lose a foot. As......

Not being criminals ourselves, Houstonist doesn't always stay up on the latest crime trends, so we were a little surprised to hear about the local scrap metal craze. Thieves have begun targeting scrap yards, cemeteries, buildings, rooftops and anywhere else metal is readily available — and it's partly China's fault. According to KHOU, China is taking all the copper and aluminum it can get to make electronics and other goods, so thieves here steal......

A small helicopter crashed this morning at an airfield in Montgomery County; the pilot suffered minor head injuries and the incident is being investigated HPD officers were involved in three separate chases in four hours overnight A 12-year-old boy walked in on two men robbing his parents' house in New Territory and got tied up, but was able to call 911 for help Early this morning, 500 gallons of fuel spilled at Ellington Field when......