Morning Roundup: Flex time edition

Good morning, Houston. If you've ever been sitting in an endless business meeting and thought to yourself, "A Half Lord of the Fishes would feel really good right about now," looks like you're in luck — as long as you can work your way into a meeting at the Hotel Derek, which will begin offering yoga breaks for people in meetings at the hotel this week. The breaks aren't going to teach you yoga; they're just basic breathing and stretching exercises. But still, it's a lot better than ending up with your butt molded to one of those cheap meeting-room chairs, right?

>> Paul throws hat into presidential ring: Ron Paul, the renegade Republican congressman from Lake Jackson, announced Monday that he will seek the GOP nomination for president in 2008. He formed an exploratory committee in January and said he's raised more than a half-million dollars in the past month — not much compared with some other candidates, but Paul said he thinks he can catch up: "With the Internet and the amount of money and enthusiasm, I think we can become very competitive." Paul said he was reluctant to run at first, but a feeling that the GOP is headed in the wrong direction led him to declare his candidacy. "A lot of people want to hear my message and I'm willing to deliver it," he said.

>> Burning Bush: During a golf game with friends on a 94-degree Palm Springs, Calif., afternoon, former President George H.W. Bush collapsed Sunday and ended up being held in the hospital overnight. Bush's chief of staff, Jean Becker, said it was no big deal: "He became dehydrated, and he had a fainting spell. He came to right away, but as a precaution, they took him to the hospital and then — much to his dismay — as a precaution, they held him overnight. The doctors released him first thing this morning," she said. "'Much ado about nothing' would be the best way to summarize his reaction."

>> Your rooms aren't quite ready: Local event planners were counting on the Hotel ZaZa — the former Warwick — to be ready for their shindigs already, but the opening of the hotel has been delayed three times and is now set for June, leaving the party planners scrambling to find alternate space. Benji Hornsey, the ZaZa's vice president, said design changes have caused the delays; though the staff has offered refunds and help making other plans to folks who booked event space at the hotel, that's little consolation for some people: "We're disappointed because we wouldn't have chosen that venue if we didn't want to have it there," Kay Austin of the Santa Maria Hostel, which had planned to hold its annual fundraiser at the ZaZa, said.

>> Today's weather: More rain. We'll have a slight chance of showers this morning, with more thunderstorms developing after 10 a.m. and through the afternoon; some of them could bring heavy rain and gusty winds. We should see an afternoon high around 73, with a low of 62 tonight ... and more rain.

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