Morning Roundup: Spring is sprung edition

Good morning, Houston! Are you a fan of Texas wildflowers? Good news, then: Thanks to a rainy winter, wildflowers are blooming across Central Texas and in parts of North and East Texas. If you're planning a flower-spottin' trip, check out the latest reports of wildflower hotspots — and remember, though it's really not illegal to pick bluebonnets, TxDOT recommends that you refrain from driving into them. Dang.

>> Katrina fraud galore: The AP reports that, nationwide, more than 600 people have been accused of Hurricane Katrina relief fraud — and they could just be the tip of the iceberg. "We found several dozen schemes. There are probably a lot more out there," Gregory Kutz, a federal Government Accountability Office investigator, said. "The real clever ones cover their trail and disappear and they’ll never be caught." Among those who weren't so clever: an Alabama woman who filed 28 claims for Katrina damage in four states, all false. So far, the GAO has forwarded more than 22,000 potential fraud cases to the government's Katrina task force, but most of them probably won't go anywhere; according to the feds, FEMA has recovered less than 1 percent of an estimated $1 billion in payouts on fraudulent claims.

>> Chew Park tagged: Via blogHouston, KTRK reports that a Montrose resident last week saw several gang members spray-painting graffiti in Ervan Chew Park, where 15-year-old Gabriel Granillo was killed in a gang ambush last summer. "I think if they put more lighting up or put little lights up on the sidewalk, then it will deter a lot of crime activity," Allen Cole, who lives near the park, told Channel 13 — and that may be the best solution since, as blogHouston notes, the police manpower shortage may keep the fuzz from concentrating on gang hotspots like Chew Park. (Thanks to Kevin, there's even a flickr set of graffiti at the park.)

>> One less Enron guilty plea?: Looks like the list of guilty pleas connected with the Enron collapse could be shrinking soon: Prosecutors on Friday filed papers asking a judge to grant Christopher Calger's request to withdraw his plea on charges of wire fraud. Calger, a former Enron North America executive, entered his plea in connection with an asset sale; an appeals panel's decision to reverse some criminal convictions in a separate Enron case last year paved the way for his lawyers to seek a withdrawal. "This dismissal allows Chris to get on with his life, which has been on hold for some time now," Philip Hilder, one of Calger's attorneys, told the Chronicle.

>> This week's weather: Tired of the clouds and rain? You might want to skip this week, then: The forecast calls for a chance of rain every day but Thursday. Highs will be in the lower 80s today and tomorrow, but temperatures should fall into the mid-70s in the afternoons and mid-50s overnight in the latter part of the week — at least we have that to look forward to.

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