Morning Roundup: The morning after edition

Good morning, Houston. Thanks to everyone who joined us at Kay's last night for the happy hour — and those of you who missed it, we expect to see you next time. Now, go read some news, Our head hurts.

>> Turns out it wasn't a foolproof plan after all: Police are on the lookout for Continental Express flight attendant Vivian Fragoza and her husband after Fragoza allegedly used Continental "buddy miles" to fly her husband to Houston so he could torch her car. According to police, Fragoza arranged the fire so she could get out of her $700-a-month car payment, but she made some mistakes: First, there were the buddy miles; then there was the fact that someone used a key to take the car off the airport lot; and finally, there were unspecified "electronic clues" that authorities say put Fragoza's husband, William Everett, within a mile of the car within 10 minutes of it catching fire. "There's been several hours of interviews with both Vivian Fragoza and her husband. Once the electronic evidence was confronted to her husband, a statement he provided was that he flew to Houston to install a lamp and a light and then flew back," Harris County Arson Investigator Dustin Deutsch told KHOU. Warrants are out for Fragoza and Everett, both of whom lie in Orlando, and also for Fragoza's cousin Shalim Calderon, who has been cooperating with investigators in the case.

>> Brinkley coming to Rice: Historian and author Douglas Brinkley, who has lived in New Orleans for the past 14 years, will come to Houston to be a tenured professor at Rice University, the AP reports. Brinkley was the director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization at Tulane University; at Rice, he'll teach classes on the history of civil rights, the U.S. presidency and environmental history. "He told us he was very torn and that he would have liked to have stayed but, in the end, felt he needed to go to Rice," Tulane spokesman Michael Strecker said. "We will miss Professor Brinkley and wish him every success."

>> Two Gulf Freeway closures this weekend: All lanes of the Gulf Freeway will be closed at NASA Parkway overnight tonight and Saturday to allow crews to keep building a new interchange, meaning potential traffic snarls for people making late-night drives to and from the Clear Lake area. The freeway will close at NASA Parkway at 9 p.m. today and will reopen at noon Saturday, then will close again at 9 p.m. Saturday and will reopen at noon Sunday. Feeder roads will be open in both directions during those closures. A few miles farther down the road, the Galveston Causeway will be closed from 8 to 9 a.m. Sunday for more blasting on the old causeway structure — and unless you're a good swimmer, we don't have any detours for that one.

>> This weekend's weather: In a word, fantastic. Look for sun all weekend, with highs around 80 today and Saturday and a high closer to 83 on Sunday. Overnight, the lows should remain around 60. Enjoy it while you can, though: Rain should move back into the area by the middle of next week, bringing temperatures in the high 80s with it.

Mmm, pancakes. Excuse us for a second ...