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 legendary musical enigma was born in Houston nearly 30 years ago when The Units' Ready for the House was released in 1978. The album featured a lone vocalist and his guitar creating austere sounds that were out of reach for most rock and roll fans. Those who were interested searched in vain for information about the reclusive artist who became known as Jandek for his second release. Jandek on Corwood is the documentary tale......

The Chronicle reported yesterday on Harris County's plans to demolish two of its buildings to make way for another amazing county plaza. Fair enough — the county has a lot of buildings, and apparently we could always use another plaza. The problem is that the two structures that are potentially on the chopping block — the former District Attorneys Building at 201 Fannin and the Family Law Center at 1115 Congress — happen to be......

Chances are that we all know Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic Life magazine photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on V-J Day — easily one of the most-recognized photographs in American history. In the half-century since that photo was taken, there's been a lot of speculation over who, exactly, the sailor and nurse were: In the midst of the celebration, Eisenstaedt didn't stop to ask names, and there were apparently a lot of......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

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......

So, you might have heard about this already, but the story is too good to pass up: There was a power outage in the north end of downtown early Thursday morning, and it was caused by a raccoon trying to raid a bird nest. It happened around 12:30 a.m. at CenterPoint Energy's Gable Street substation in the 500 block of McKee when the unfortunate raccoon got electrocuted, plunging more than 1,500 customers north of Congress......

So, we assume you know what today is. And as you run around gathering your 1040s and Schedule Cs, remember that you have until midnight tonight to actually drop your taxes in the mail. The Chronicle reports that mail in boxes at Houston-area post offices will be collected before midnight, and a few stations will be staffed late: Air Mail Center, 19175 Lee Road (until midnight) Albert Thomas Station, 14910 El Camino Real (until 7......

From the "Thieves in disguise" file comes the story of a man who has carried out one robbery and attempted two others — all while dressed as a U.S. postal worker. The guy's first robbery attempt was at an EZ Pawn location at the East Freeway and Lockwood on March 26; he ended up leaving the store when a clerk asked him for ID. But things went better at a nearby EZ Pawn on Lyons......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

What is the deal with the building off of the east side of 45 in downtown across from the post office (bounded by Franklin and Bagby)? It looks like it was constructed (or renovated) recently and yet it sits there half-finished with broken glass. — Chris Chris, the building you're wondering about is the old Tennison Hotel at the corner of Bagby and Franklin, and you're right: It was renovated in the last few years,......

Kosse, Texas’ is a small town; with a population of less than 500. A little over a hundred years ago, this small town gave birth to a legend in country music – Bob Wills. He, along with his band the Texas Playboys, created a unique Western swing sound that would become the guide for many country and western musicians to come. His life will be remembered through the play Ride With Bob tonight through Friday......

If you work or travel through downtown, you may want to take note of this: Earlier this morning, a fire at a CenterPoint Energy substation knocked out the power to northeast downtown. Crews are working on having the problem fixed, but it doesn't look like the power will be restored until after rush hour this morning, maybe later. The outage hasn't affected the rail line, but it has shut off the traffic signals in the......

A new visitation policy at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is rankling some Europeans who make frequent visits to state prisons, the Chronicle reports. The policy, which limits people who travel more than 300 miles to visit a Texas prison to one "special visit" per trip — that's two four-hour sessions on consecutive days — prevents long-distance death penalty opponents from making connections with inmates, they claim, but prison officials say they're just trying......

Houston has been showing up on all kinds of lists lately: it's the hardest city to navigate, the worst at picking up pet poop, the fifth most toilet-clogged city — and now, when it comes to mail carriers, we're the dog-bite capital of the country for the fifth year. The distinction is based on dog attacks reported by mail carriers across the country. In fiscal year 2005, the most recent period for which statistics are......

A fire in a downtown manhole damaged an underground electric line early this morning, causing power outages around the courthouse complex that may not be fixed until this afternoon. Five circuits in a manhole in the 500 block of McKee Street caught fire, knocking out power to the downtown post office, the Harris County Family Law Center, the Harris County Juvenile Justice Center, the Crispin Building, the Islamic temple and the King George Hotel, among......

Metro's been talking for a while about a downtown transit hub that would tie a bunch of bus lines, the MetroRail network and future bus rapid transit and commuter rail lines together, much like South Station in Boston, Union Station in D.C. and Grand Central Terminal in NYC. And now the idea is a step closer to reality, maybe — the Metro board has asked for a preliminary design for a huge transit station on......