Good morning, Houston. Nothing to lol at here: the Houston SPCA is rolling out a new policy for pet owners who drop off their pets. From now on, there will be a fifteen minute "counseling session," during which the owners will know if the pet is going to be a candidate for adoption or if it's going to the big litterbox in the sky. The policy is meant to make it harder for owners......

The Voice Behind Harry Potter Makes Apperance & Tape-Signing So you spent all weekend ravenously getting through the final chapter in the Harry Potter series. Still hungry for more? Jim Dale, the narrator of all seven Harry Potter audiobooks will put on a performance and will be available to sign copies of the audiobook tonight at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church. Jim Dale became "The Toast of Broadway" [NY Times 1981] when he created......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

Jack Valenti, the long-time head of the Motion Picture Association of America and Houston native passed away today at his home in Washington. He was 85 and still suffering the effects of a stroke he had in March. Valenti was born in Houston to Sicilian immigrants in 1921, growing up on the still unpaved streets of the 1st Ward. He traced his love of movies to a string of jobs working in downtown Houston movie......

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. Austinist wasn't as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on "Heroes." Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that......

Forget Fun for a Hamilton, what's more fun than a Sunday NY Times for only a Washington? Maybe this was just a one-off event, but Houstonist was able to purchase the normally $5 paper for just $1 at the Starbucks near the Apple store in the Galleria. It was, historians believe, the first time in history that anyone ever saved money by buying something at the Galleria. For just $1 you get the NY Times......

Chrisopher McCarthy, the 21-year-old Houston tourist stabbed last week on a New York City subway train, left the hospital yesterday and said he plans to get back to Houston as soon as possible. Though McCarthy lost between 60 and 70 percent of his blood after the stabbing — the knife punctured his heart — doctors at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center said they expect him to make a full recovery. The NY Times described him as......

The NY Times reports today on Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen's new multimillion-dollar book deal, which puts him in the same class — at least in terms of literary profits — as presidents, popes and Alan Greenspan. Osteen has signed a deal with Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster. It's something of a coup for Simon & Schuster, who lured Osteen away from Warner Faith, publisher of the Your Best Life Now juggernaut.......

As we enter the seventh week of the trial of ex-Enron Chairman Ken Lay and ex-CEO Jeff Skilling, the Chronicle takes a look at some of the iffy investments Enron made before it imploded. The foreign energy deals weren't nearly as stable as Enron execs indicated, but most of them are still operational — though, as the Chronicle notes, it's not clear how well they're doing today. Prosecutors have focused on four international power projects:......

Add some local Latinos to the list of people weighing in on Houston 1836, the name chosen for Houston's new soccer team — seems they're a little unhappy about being reminded of the Texas Revolution and the violence and discrimination against Mexicans that followed it, the NY Times reports today. The team's owner, the Anschutz Entertainment Group of Los Angeles, appears to have upset some of the very soccer-crazy fans they were hoping to lure,......

If you're planning to drive through Louisiana soon, things should be a little easier: An I-10 bridge connecting New Orleans and Slidell over Lake Pontchartrain fully reopened this morning after being damaged by Katrina. Some sections of the five-mile concrete bridge were ripped out, while others shifted as much as five feet out of place. To repair the bridge, crews took undamaged sections from the westbound side and used them to patch the eastbound side,......

It's no secret that Houston and the New York media have had a love/hate relationship over the years — well, OK, mostly hate. So we were interested to see what the NY Times said in yesterday's 36 Hour travel feature on Houston — and it seems writer Dan Halpern actually got it: Houston doesn't have a clear-cut positive reputation, like Austin (the laid-back slacker capital), or even a good nickname, like Dallas (Big D).......