Morning Roundup: Circulation problems edition

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 14.3 percent for the Dallas Morning News. USA Today remains the biggest paper in the country, with a circulation of nearly 2.3 million — we guess Americans really love Denny's placemats.

>> Kinda makes you sick: Iyad Abu El Hawa, the man who gave a fake flu vaccine to more than 1,100 Exxon Mobil employees in 2005, was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison yesterday. El Hawa, who owns several Houston health care businesses, bought thousands of syringes and needles in a doctor's name without permission; he then directed an untrained employee to fill them with a sterile water solution, along with co-defendant Martha Denise Gonzales, arranged to administer the solution to the Exxon Mobil employees under the pretense that it was flu vaccine. Exxon Mobil spent $700,000 on blood tests after the deception came to light; a hearing in two weeks will determine the restitution El Hawa and Gonzales owe. But El Hawa's attorney, Steven Rocket Rosen, said restitution shouldn't even be part of the deal: "At no time did he want to steal $700,000 from Exxon," Rosen said.

>> Laundry time's over: Adrian Williams, 27, has been arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping for stuffing his girlfriend inside a clothes dryer at an apartment complex Thursday. Police went to the apartment after one of the woman's relatives called for help after being unable to reach her; when the cops pulled her from the dryer, she was unresponsive, but had a pulse. Details haven't been released yet, but Williams is reportedly being held in the Harris County Jail without bond.

>> A bumpy ride for early voters: Computer backlogs in a new state voters database caused problems for some early voters Monday — namely, they showed up to vote and found that their names weren't on the roster. Oops! The glitch affected areas that depend on the secretary of state's office for their voter rolls, among them Waller County, where some are worried that this could be the final straw for Prairie View A&M students already frustrated over problems they encountered in the November election. "If they have to call in to check the status for every single student, it's going to discourage them from voting," Prairie View Mayor Pro-Tem Marie Herndon said. Harris County, which keeps its own voter records, wasn't affected by the problems.

>> Today's weather: There's a pretty good chance we'll see some rain throughout the day, though it might not be as dramatic as what we had yesterday evening. Look for an afternoon high around 80 and an occasionally gusty south wind. Tonight, the chance of rain will decrease and the temperature will drop to around 68.

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