Good morning, Houston. As we were sitting around Monday morning contemplating using a witch's extremity to keep warm, we started to wonder exactly how cold it's gotten in the city before — and, thanks to the Internet, we know! According to the National Weather Service, the record low temperature for Houston was 5 degrees Fahrenheit, which we hit on Jan. 23, 1940. Maybe more interesting, though, is the Houston snowfall record: Turns out we......

Good morning, Houston. There's a new weapon in the battle to make Houston the most beautiful city in America: Beginning next week, commercial property owners will have to hide their Dumpsters behind a building, wall, fence, berm or shrub. Officials said they hope the rule — which City Council approved six months ago — will help increase property values and make properties safer (and, of course, prettier). Anyone who violates the ordinance can be......

We're not sure whether it was something in the air or what, but something seems to have made Houstonians decide to crash into each other (and, in a couple of cases, walls) on area roads last night. First there was the guy who backed through a wall of the Houston House parking garage — we already talked about that — and then, around 8 p.m., a driver crashed into an Indian restaurant at Dairy Ashford......

Good morning, Houston. Do you feel more metropolitan? Or bigger, maybe? According to estimates released by the Census Bureau yesterday, the influx of hurricane evacuees has made the Houston metro area the country's sixth largest. The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area now has an estimated 5,483,857 residents, which puts it ahead of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach but still behind the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Philadelphia metro areas. Another population fact: Harris County......

More on the deaths of Leon and Maurine Roberson, the couple who were killed Oct. 18 when a speeding wrecker driver broadsided their car: Assistant Harris County DA Warren Diepraam says the wrecker driver, Sergio Gonzalez, had cocaine in his system at the time of the crash. Gonzalez hit the Robersons' car as they left church in the 11800 block of Wallisville Road; according to reports, Gonzalez was going 20 or 25 mph above the......

Before you try to tackle President Bush and the state of the whole country tonight, you can read Mayor White's state of the city address, delivered yesterday afternoon at a Greater Houston Partnership luncheon. White, a popular and effective mayor, discussed the achievements of the city in the past year as well as goals and programs he sees for Houston's future. Among other things, Bill White mentioned the success of his Safe Clear program in......

Nearly two weeks after a speeding wrecker killed an elderly couple leaving a Bible study, the city has decided to tighten the rules governing how wrecker drivers are licensed under the Safe Clear program, Mayor Bill White announced yesterday. Among the changes in the process is a more stringent appeals process for wrecker drivers who are denied licenses. A retired HPD assistant chief will now preside over appeals (a sergeant did so before), and documentation......

We now have more statistics on the city's Safe Clear mandatory towing program: Most of the cases in which people were towed under Safe Clear last year — two-thirds, in fact — were the result of vehicles with mechanical problems or flat tires on Houston freeways. And though about 56,000 tows were done under Safe Clear in 2005, that's only 5 percent of all tows in Houston during the year. The numbers came from a......

Not everyone loves Houston's Safe Clear program, but it's hard to argue with the results: less accidents, less traffic, less rubbernecking. Now we're told that this program may be expanded to include wreckers. Awesome! But is Mayor White selling himself short? Could this not be expanded to other areas of the city. Below, the -ist list for other Safe Clear uses: 1. The Grocery Store - Everyone has been caught behind the person in the......

Mayor Bill White plans to testify in federal court today on behalf of the Safe Clear program, telling officials how the city has changed the mandatory towing scheme to follow a judge's orders last fall. The program has been under fire since it began last year. It originally only allowed wreckers with contracts for particular sections of the city to tow stalled cars off highways in those sections of town, but after complaints from towing......

Police are still investigating the stabbing death of a man in southeast Houston early this morning Mayor Bill White said he plans to testify in federal court Wednesday about how the city has changed the Safe Clear towing plan to comply with a judge's orders Prosecutors are asking a federal judge to give a life sentence to an accused Victoria smuggler who they say was responsible for the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in 2003......

Mayor Bill White used statistics about freeway accidents Tuesday as evidence that the Safe Clear program is working. Analysis of traffic data by officials at Rice University and the Texas Transportation Institute found freeway crashes in Houston dropped to 13,137 in 2005 from an average of 14,670 in 2003 and 2004. White also attributed a drop in freeway congestion to the mandatory towing program, for which the city pays about $600,000 of the $3 million......

HPD investigators say 11 Katrina evacuees have been linked to a string of violent crimes in Houston; eight are in custody, but police are still looking for the other three A wrecker driver who crashed into a car on the East Loop on Wednesday, killing its driver, may not have been headed to a Safe Clear call, investigators say Houston-based Halliburton said it will spin off a minority stake in controversial subsidiary KBR, which has......

A deadly accident on the East Loop involving a Safe Clear wrecker yesterday has drawn criticism of the city's mandatory towing program and calls for investigations of all drivers in city programs. "We need a thorough investigation of not only this driver but all drivers who are involved in city programs who are then involved in accidents," said Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a critic of Mayor Bill White's mandatory freeway towing program, which cost the city $3......

Gov. Rick Perry made a surprise trip to visit Texas troops in Iraq, urging Americans to remain patient through the difficult rebuilding process there Police found more than $500,000 worth of stolen construction equipment in the back yard of a northeast Houston home, including bulldozers and other heavy machinery; neighbors said they had no idea it was there Enron's dynamic duo, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, have appealed a judge's decision not to move their......

We're not sure this has anything to do with the Safe Clear changes, but Houstonist can't resist recounting the story of a tow truck driver who hit the hay, then hit some hay. The driver fell asleep behind the wheel in northwest Houston and ran off the road into a bunch of hay, sending hay bales flying toward other motorists. "I was trying to get away from this thing that was rolling towards my car,"......

Something to remember when you're tooling along the freeway in your 1983 Diatribe this weekend: If you break down, you can now call your own wrecker company under the Safe Clear program. City Council made the change Tuesday so the program complies with a federal judge's order. Houstonist remembers well the can of stink Mayor Bill White opened with the bizarre (but effective) program, which gave wrecker companies exclusive towing contracts for specific zones of......