We're always looking for more ways to learn about our great city, so why not start at home? Not only is it interesting to know about the plat upon which you live, but it can also help to paint part of the picture of Houston's interesting, albeit short history, and there are quite a few on and offline resources to help with research. An easy way to start is to find the specific name of......

Good morning, Houston. Well, uh here's something you don't hear about every day — but it being Halloween and all, we couldn't resist: In Hunt County, police pulled over an 18-wheeler Sunday morning and found about two dozen human heads in the back. True story. But it's not what you think: Turns out the heads (which were embalmed) were specimens used in medical training in Fort Worth, and they were headed back to a......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. The BarCamp Houston Files Here's a roundup of links, blog posts and photos from BarCamp Houston 2. Dwight Silverman experimented by covering BarCamp ad nauseum through Twitter. If you couldn't be there Dwight's Twitter Litter could keep you up to date virtually minute by minute. Jim Thompson, Katherine Druckman, Robert Nagle, A Wandering Eyre and sean.blog were there too and posted their experiences. There are also......

Breaking news: it's raining. A lot. So if you were schedule to appear in court today, here's this tidbit from the good ol' CoH: The City of Houston Municipal Courts remain open today, Thursday, August 16, 2007, however, those individuals who are scheduled to appear in court and are unable to make their court appearance due to inclement weather, will be given the opportunity to reset their case (s). Resets will be given in......

Good morning, Houston. We all know there are some perennially bad traffic spots around town — seriously, we all know — and now one of our local traffic nightmares has made Forbes' list of America's worst traffic traps. The spot is the Katy Freeway/West Loop interchange, which Forbes says costs drivers a whopping 25 million-plus hours of delays each year. That makes the 10/610 interchange the second worst in the country, by Forbes' reckoning,......

Good morning, Houston. If you need another reason to wish you were in Hawaii right now, today is a public holiday in the Aloha State. Specifically, it's Kamehameha Day and the Hawaiians are celebrating the monarch who first ruled over a unified Hawaii. Interestingly, this is the only American holiday that honors a monarch. Hawaiian officials have been hard at work planning events and floral parades on each of the islands, as well as an......

Excellent work, gumshoes! Here's your first Top 10 list, made up of your suggestions and our opinions. If you didn't get a chance, be sure to go back and read the various comments made on the first Top 10ist, because there are a few gems. [Next step: contribute to next week's Top 10ist by commenting - below this post - in response to the new prompt, which you will find at the bottom.] Good......

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles brings us the locations of the city's 10 newest red-light cameras, a couple of which we had already noticed — while lawfully stopping at red lights, we might add. And here they are: Northbound Wayside at Gulf Freeway Northbound Woodridge at Gulf Freeway Northbound West Bellfort at Southwest Freeway Northbound Fairbanks N. Houston at Northwest Freeway Northbound West Sam Houston Parkway South at Westpark Eastbound FM 2351 at Gulf Freeway Eastbound......

Good morning, Houston. Have a roach problem? How about turning it into a windfall? The Houston Museum of Natural Science is offering 25 cents per roach for the first 1,000 live, healthy American cockroaches people bring in. No kidding: a whole quarter for trapping and transporting a roach! The roaches will be used for a museum display on insect sanitary engineers — seems the critters, which are often associated with filth, are actually known......

A crosstown police chase turned into a bizarre standoff early this morning, leaving the suspect dead — but not until he had tried to charge at the authorities with a street sweeper. According to KTRK, it all began around 12:30 a.m. at Briar Forest and the Beltway, where police saw the driver of a white Cadillac speeding. They ran the car's plates and found out that it might have been connected with several robberies, so......

Good morning, Houston. Some good news: It's Friday. Some bad news: If you entered a contest on the Chronicle's website, your personal information could have been made public. SecurityProNews discovered a public section of the site that contained the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of thousands of people trying to win stuff from the Chron — and though the information has been removed, there's still the chance that John Q. Public could......

Ten more red-light cameras have gone online around the city, many of them — like in the last group to begin operating — along the Southwest Freeway. The locations of the new cameras are: West Loop at San Felipe (east frontage road) Southwest Freeway at Bellaire (west frontage road) Bissonnet westbound at Southwest Freeway east frontage road Southwest Freeway at Beechnut (east frontage road) Southwest Freeway at Fondren (east frontage road) Chartres northbound at......

A charge of resisting arrest against Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary were dropped yesterday after a judge said Weary didn't use enough force during a traffic stop to justify the charge. Weary, remember, was Tasered by an HPD officer last week when he was pulled over on the West Loop; police said he was verbally combative, refused to turn over his license, pushed away handcuffs and stepped toward one of the cops, which was......

Would-be criminals, here's something else to add to your list of don'ts: When you're fleeing the scene of a crime, don't come close to running down a police officer. That's a lesson one burglary suspect learned the hard way early this morning after an attempted robbery at a northwest Houston car stereo store. According to police, three men broke into Car Stereo Plus near the West Loop and West 18th Street at about 4:45 a.m.......

Your chances of being caught running a red light just went up: The city's 10 newest red-light cameras go online today, bringing the total number of cams to 20 — not quite halfway to the city's goal of having 50 cameras up and running by early next year. The initial batch of cameras began operating Sept. 1, and since then they have caught more than 3,000 traffic violators, according to HPD: "They've proven what we......

After about five years of work, the $344 million reconstruction of the West Loop is finally finished — and though it's quite a bit better than it used to be, it's still a freeway. That means traffic still backs up, there's still noise, hundreds of cars still spew pollution and nearby neighborhoods still have a dozen lanes of concrete at their back doors. Hey, that's not good, right? Well, maybe not, some people say. The......

Juan Leonardo Quintero, the man accused of killing HPD Officer Rodney Johnson during a traffic stop last week, is scheduled to appear in court today — but Quintero's case may have farther-reaching effects than his own fate as it again brings up discussion of Houston's immigration policy. First, what we know about the shooting Thursday afternoon: Johnson had pulled Quiintero over for driving 50 mph in a 30 mph zone near Hobby Airport. Because Quintero......

Sure, the $225 million West Loop reconstruction will formally be capped off today with a ceremony at the Woodway exit, but don't make the mistake of thinking that means it'll be smooth sailing through Uptown this weekend. No sirma'am, a variety of projects on 290 and the Katy Freeway will give you plenty to plan around if you're headed out to the west side. So, here we go: 290 eastbound will be closed from 9......

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt announced yesterday that 10 more red-light cameras are being installed around town, some of them on state-owned roads thanks to a ruling from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Hurtt said the cameras will begin operating in about a month at the East Freeway at Uvalde on the east side, FM 1960 at Tomball Parkway in northwest Houston and eight locations on the southwest side: the West Loop at Westheimer, the Southwest......

Bad news from southeast Houston yesterday evening: Rodney Johnson, a 12-year veteran of HPD, was apparently killed by a suspect sitting in the back seat of his patrol car. It started just after 5 p.m., when Johnson pulled over a pickup with two people inside; a female passenger fled the scene, but Johnson detained and handcuffed the male driver. Later, Johnson was found at Randolph and Braniff, on the southern edge of Hobby Airport, shot......

As if you didn't have enough good reasons to avoid Uptown on a weekend, here's another one for you: major traffic closures on the West Loop. What, that wasn't enough to get your attention? All right, then, the details: The ramp from the West Loop northbound to the Katy Freeway in both directions will be closed from 9 p.m. today to 5 a.m. Saturday. One lane of the ramps from the Katy Freeway (both directions)......

TxDOT has dropped plans to build 30-foot-high elevated frontage roads along the Katy Freeway between Washington and T.C. Jester, a move apparently driven by concerns from nearby residents about noise, pollution and aesthetic harm the elevated roads could bring. The proposed new feeder roads were part of TxDOT's $40 million proposal to create continuous frontage roads between Washington Avenue and Taylor Street — there are now gaps between Taylor and Studemont, Yale and Patterson......

Would any of our weekends be complete without a major construction-related traffic jam on the Katy Freeway or the West Loop? Fortunately, we don't have to waste any time considering the possibility of a jam-free weekend: Big traffic problems are expected on the West Loop this weekend as new pavement is opened between San Felipe and Highway 290. The move means two alternate lanes of the northbound Loop between Richmond Avenue and 290 will be......

The eastbound lanes of the Katy Freeway were closed this afternoon at the West Loop after a truck hit an overpass and lost its load An HISD proposal to close Kashmere High School next summer if the school doesn't improve its performance is drawing fire from the community Metro said it won't discount a Richmond Avenue light rail alignment even though U.S. Rep. John Culberson asked the agency to do so yesterday A former Magnolia......

Living in Houston, we've all come to expect surprising things falling out of trucks and landing on the freeway — it seems like every week, a bunch of plastic chairs or a load of vegetables ends up creating an obstacle course for motorists. But late yesterday came the best example (and yet one of the most disgusting) we can remember in a long time: a bunch of dead animals jumped ship near the West Loop......

What would a weekend in Houston be without some transit closures? This time around, we have a double shot: A road closure on the Katy Freeway and a MetroRail closure and bus detour in the Medical Center. First, the Katy: All eastbound lanes of the freeway between Silber and Washington will be closed from 9 p.m. today through 5 a.m. Monday. You can use east-west surface streets as a detour, or just stay home and......

We wonder: Does anyone actually try to use the Katy Freeway/West Loop interchange on the weekend anymore? Every weekend, lanes and ramps are closed there and we can only guess what kind of traffic backups it creates — we'd think people would get the idea and avoid the area altogether. But we guess Ikea's siren song is strong. At any rate, here are this weekend's Katy closures: The ramps from the Katy east- and westbound......

We might have dodged a bullet over the weekend when Katy Freeway construction got postponed because of the rain, get ready for another shot today: A section of the freeway near the West Loop will be closed tonight. The eastbound lanes of the Katy will close between Silber and Washington at 9 p.m. tonight, along with the ramp from the West Loop southbound to the Katy eastbound. If you're headed east, you might want to......

Good news: You'll have time to get closer to your car this weekend, thanks to more freeway closures beginning tonight. Here's the skinny: • The Katy Freeway will close between Washington and Silber from 9 p.m. today until 5 a.m. Monday so construction crews can move in beams for new ramps as part of the freeway widening project. Several entrance and exit ramps at the Katy/West Loop interchange will also be closed at various times......

KPRC is reporting that a woman had to be rescued on the Katy Freeway this morning after a gravel truck overturned and dumped its load on top of her car. The truck reportedly overturned at about 10 a.m. on the eastbound freeway near Washington Avenue, trapping the woman inside her car. HFD crews made the scene and dug the woman out; the woman was taken to the hospital, but her condition hasn't been released. KPRC......