Morning Roundup: The beast within edition

Good morning, Houston. Have you ever looked at your pet gerbil and thought, "Y'know, Nibbles really looks like an ibex?" If so, you might consider seeing an eye doctor — or entering the Houston Zoo's Naturally Wild photo contest. The zoo and KTRK are looking for photos of pets that look like wild animals; if yours makes the cut, you could win a family membership to the zoo and a gift card from Petco. Time to teach Snowball to look ferocious.

>> The bad seed: In the trial of Bart Whitaker, the Sugar Land man accused of plotting to kill his family, a detective testified yesterday that the December 2003 murders of his mother and brother wasn't the first time Whitaker had planned to bump off his relatives. In fact, police found out about a previous plot and warned the Whitakers, but Bart's dad said he didn't think anything of it because Bart told him the cops were mistaken — naturally, police are always mistakenly accusing people of murder-for-hire plots. Bart Whitaker's trial is expected to last three weeks; his lawyer isn't trying to prove he's innocent, but is trying to keep Whitaker from facing the death penalty.

>> Coming soon: mandatory defibrillators?: The state Senate Education Committee approved a proposal yesterday that would require all Texas schools to have at least one automated external defibrillator on campus. If approved, the bill would supplement a similar UIL rule passed last fall for all member schools; under the legislation, school nurses, coaches, PE teachers, band directors, cheerleading coaches and athletic trainers would be required to learn to use the AEDs. What the bill doesn't specify is how schools would pay for the devices, which can cost more than $1,000 each.

>> Talk about trouble: Jon Matthews, the former Houston radio host, had his probation revoked and got a three-year prison sentence yesterday in connection with a charge of indecency with a child in October 2003. According to court records, Mathews violated several conditions of his parole, including testing positive for alcohol, being dropped from a counseling program for sex offenders and engaging in sexual fantasies online. On that last count, "Mr. Matthews presented himself to be a female stripper who took her three-year-old son to work with her. The defendant described sexual acts between the strippers and the three-year-old boy," a Fort Bend corrections department report said. As you might expect, Mathews isn't a female stripper and doesn't have a three-year-old child. No word yet on whether he'll be required to undergo more counseling.

>> Today's weather: There's more fog this morning, which will be followed by a cloudy afternoon with a high around 72. We'll have a slight chance of rain today and tonight, with an overnight low of 61; tomorrow there'll be a better chance of showers as a front begins moving through the area.

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