Wow — it's still six months to Christmas, and yet we're getting gifts already: The AP reports that everyone's favorite golden-haired politico, Shelley Sekula Gibbs, is laying the groundwork for her campaign to return to Congress. Oh, yes. Sekula Gibbs (notice that she's dropped the hyphen, which she worried could be a problem during her write-in campaign for Congress last year) announced that she has some high-profile Republican supporters for her 2008 campaign, including homebuilder......

Good morning, Houston. We hope you got your fill of the Texas Legislature, because the 80th session is officially over. Your Senators and Representatives have been hard at work since January, passing lots of bills and making even more news, and now they'll be taking a break. The Houston contingent did us proud, from strip club taxes to baby-selling to overcoming liver transplants. We hope all the Texas political blogs can survive until 2009.......

If you didn't get a chance to vote in Saturday's election, don't worry. You'll get another one on June 16 - that's when Roy Morales and Melissa Noriega will go head-to-head in a runoff. That's also Mayor White's birthday, so let's make him proud, although he was coy about who he voted for himself. The special election was held on Saturday to fill the vacant at-large seat formerly held by Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. The S. S.......

Good morning, Houston. Did you read the Chronicle over breakfast this morning? We're sure the paper is thanking you: According to the Newspaper Association of America, the Chron lost 2 percent of its circulation in the six-month period ending in March. That's really not so bad compared with drops among some of the other biggest papers in the country: 3.5 percent for The Washington Post, 4.2 percent for the LA Times and a whopping......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

Good morning, Houston. We initially kicked off the day with a story about warnings of tainted fish in Clear Lake, but it turns out it's not the Clear Lake around here — it's one in Panola County, East Texas. Two Clear Lakes? Who knew? (We would have, had we checked online. Oops.) So you'll be happy to know that there aren't any seafood warnings out for our area, but that doesn't mean we're not......

Good morning, Houston. After almost two weeks of clouds and rain, we were starting to wonder if we might be getting seasonal affective disorder — we stuck our head under our desk lamp for a while, but it didn't seem to help. Needless to say, we're really happy to see the sun this morning. But not, you know, this happy. >> Another DeLay?: The Travis County District Attorney's office is appealing a court decision......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

Because Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is only going to be a congresswoman for a few weeks, we suppose she feels the need to make the news as often as possible: Earlier this week, Tom DeLay's staffers walked out on Sekula-Gibbs, and now Shelley is accusing those staffers of inappropriately wiping all the office computers clean before they left. We smell a developing Capitol Hill smackdown — no, not the one between Shelley's people and DeLay's people; we're......

Looks like everyone's favorite brief-tenure congresswoman, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, has made an impact on Washington already: According to Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, former Congressman Tom DeLay's aides quit en masse yesterday, apparently after finding the golden-haired Sekula-Gibbs a little hard to work with. The full text of the Roll Call article is only available to subscribers, but we'll summarize: As you remember, Sekula-Gibbs won the special election last week to fill former Congressman Tom......

Post-election, there's a potentially interesting situation shaping up on the transportation funding subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. That's the group, remember, that OKs federal transit funds — it's the one U.S. Rep. John Culberson sits on, and it is his membership in that subcommittee that allowed Culberson to deal a strong blow to Richmond light rail plans this summer. But here's what may be interesting: With Democratic control of the House, newly elected......

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs told the Chronicle this morning that she will resign her seat on the Houston City Council as soon as the results of Tuesday's Congressional District 22 special election are certified, paving the way for her to head to Washington to spread a little sunshine around the halls of Congress. For a few weeks, anyway. Sekula-Gibbs, a write-in Republican candidate to fill out Tom DeLay's expired term in the House, beat out three other......

Houstonist stayed up half the night glued to our television just to bring you the latest election results, locally, state-wide, and nationally. Let's look at how things went down yesterday. Locally: Much to the mayor's delight, propositions A-H all passed. This means good things for Houston's libraries, parks, police force, airports, etc. Mayor White is keeping the city moving, literally and figuratively. The Chronicle offers complete election results, but we're going to look at a......

If you're Republican CD22 candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, we guess it's pretty cool when the president comes to town to campaign for you — and if you're President George W. Bush, where better to get an enthusiastic reception than Sugar Land? So it seems only natural that Bush turned out yesterday to stump for Sekula-Gibbs, who is trying to win Tom DeLay's congressional seat on a write-in campaign. Bush's visit was largely instructional: "See, if you......

During yesterday's City Council meeting, many councilmembers took the chance to offer their condolences to the family of Rodney Johnson, the HPD officer who police say was killed by an illegal immigrant during a traffic stop last week — but gilt-haired Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs went one step farther, saying Mayor Bill White should use Johnson's death as a platform to change the police department's policy on immigrants. And that didn't sit well with other councilmembers,......

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place. SFist Tourist......

A popular southeast Houston gas station clerk was shot to death this afternoon during a robbery The National Cemetery Council of Greater Houston will hold a Veterans Day parade this year after all Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace has withdrawn from being a write-in candidate for Tom DeLay's former congressional seat State prison officials have ditched a policy that restricted long-distance travelers' visits with inmates Some northwest Houston residents are opposing HISD's plans to build......

A man who caused a Gulf Freeway traffic accident that killed three will face charges of intoxication manslaughter Ex-TSU President Priscilla Slade appeared in court this morning, but her case was reset for Sept. 14 Autopsies were performed this morning on the bodies of two men found on the west end of Galveston Island yesterday morning City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs will seek Tom DeLay's seat in Congress, she announced today Capital murder charges have been......

Tom DeLay said today he will withdraw from the congressional race to allow Republicans to run a write-in candidate in November Federal officials are looking into the bus fire that claimed the lives of 23 nursing home residents during last year's Rita evacuation determine whether buses are safe for people with special needs Four penguins and a load of exotic fish died today when the truck carrying them to Moody Gardens overturned on an East......

The U.S. Supreme Court said it won't intervene in the attempt to replace Tom DeLay with another candidate on the November ballot Leon Andrade, a 36-year-old migrant worker, was arrested today for the March 12 machete murder of William Huang, a Houston minister and seafood market owner An 8-year-old Liberty County boy is in critical condition after being shot in the head while playing video games at a friend's house; the shooting seems to have......

A federal appeals court ruled today that Tom DeLay cannot be replaced with another candidate on the November ballot A Humble salon owner accused of secretly videotaping customers in tanning booths was placed on a curfew during a court appearance today Last night in Montrose, a man dressed as a woman was stabbed at a bus stop; the victim is expected to be OK and police are investigating the incident The latest revelation from KHOU:......

The two men involved in a Texas City apartment explosion yesterday may have been involved in an anarchist group, sources tell KHOU Michael Shelby, a former U.S. attorney who was found dead at his Houston home Tuesday, shot himself, his autopsy report said State Attorney General Greg Abbott will ask the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a ruling that Tom DeLay must remain on the November ballot Two 12-year-old boys were killed overnight......

Police found a man who had been shot to death in a car at a southwest Houston apartment complex yesterday afternoon, but they don't know who he is or who killed him A psychiatrist testified Friday that he warned Andrea Yates not to have more children when she attempted suicide after the birth of her fourth child in 1999 There's been a crime spike in the Fort Bend County suburbs in recent months, the KTRK......

A federal judge ruled today that Republicans can't replace Tom DeLay with another candidate in this fall's 22nd Congressional District race Nine current and former Cy-Creek EMS employees have been indicted in connection with a 2004 grenade prank that cost a man part of his foot In southwest Houston, a toddler died this afternoon after a television fell on his head Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay Enron $29.5 million to settle its part of......

HISD trustees voted 6-3 yesterday to reject a 4-cent tax hike that would have brought the district $44 million, saying they didn't want to burden homeowners with extra taxes St. John Baptist Church in Missouri City, founded by freed slaves in 1869, burned early this morning in what police say was a deliberately started fire; an investigation is under way As we head into the holiday weekend, looks like storms may be coming, KHOU's David......

A group is trying to get the city charter changed to allow HPD officers to get more involved in immigration enforcement by removing a policy that prevents officers from asking people about their immigration status and giving them access to federal databases. The group, Protect Our Citizens, kicked off a petition drive yesterday at City Hall to try to get the 20,000 signatures required to put the measure on the November ballot. Under HPD's current......

A driver was killed on the Southwest Freeway near Newcastle early this morning in a head-on collision with a driver going the wrong way Ashley Paige Benton, the girl accused of murdering a teen in this week's attack at Chew Park, should remain in custody on a murder charge, a judge said today A ride at Schlitterbahn Galveston was shut down today after people complained of becoming itchy after being in the water; officials believe......

There's nothing quite like a good City Council rumble to close out the week, and we had one Wednesday courtesy of the national immigration debate — more specifically, a local plan to renew city funding to a day-labor site. The flap started after some councilmembers delayed a vote on the federally funded $100,000 contract that would allow Neighborhood Centers to continue running the site in the Second Ward where day laborers wait for jobs. The......

Whatever your political leanings, you're going to want to mark June 9 on your calendar: It's the day you'll want to get together with friends and have a farewell party for Tom DeLay. Whether you mope or celebrate is your business — but can you think of anything else DeLay has done that has the potential of bringing so many people together? Look out, liquor cabinet! DeLay wrote House Speaker Dennis Hastert yesterday that June......

City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs said today she'll seek the nomination for Tom DeLay's seat in the November election The mother of missing 3-year-old Kendrick Jackson is standing by Kendrick's dad, Roderick Fountain, the prime suspect in the disappearance Community leaders said they'll work to increase support of the TSU/HISD Lab School, which is included on the school district's list of campuses to close A man was rescued from his car last night after driving into......