Morning Roundup: It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's freakin' early! edition

Good morning, Houston. The bad news: You've missed your chance to see the International Space Station this morning as it orbits above Texas. (We suppose it's only bad news if you're interested in seeing the space station — if you're not, hey, you won't be disappointed!) The good news: You'll have three more opportunities before the end of the week. The ISS will be visible at 4:08 a.m. Thursday (for nearly four minutes, beginning in the north-northwestern sky) and again at 5:44 a.m. Thursday (for three minutes in the western sky), and it'll also be visible — just barely — at 8:52 p.m. Friday (for less than a minute in the north-northwestern sky). Is it worth waking up at 4 a.m. to see the space station go by? Send us your pictures and we'll tell you.

>> What price a picnic?: Mike Strech, the man who oversaw Harris County's toll road system, resigned last week after being confronted about a plan to have county vendors pay for his department's annual summer picnic. Strech had written a letter to companies asking them to donate money for the picnic — something Strech's boss told him not to do — and when officials questioned him about it, he turned in his resignation. The request wasn't illegal, Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal said, because Strech didn't have (and didn't claim) the authority to award or cancel contracts, so he wasn't promising favors in return for donations. Still, Public Infrastructure Director Art Storey, Strech's boss, has notified county vendors that they aren't to make such gifts without his permission. Strech didn't return calls from the AP.

>> Still steaming in Fort Bend: Fort Bend ISD parents upset over the district's handling of an elementary school principal who let one of her teachers have time off to appear on The Bachelor protested outside the FBISD administration building Tuesday morning. Tammy Carpenter, the principal of Colony Bend Elementary School, resigned after being criticized for letting Amber Alchalabi appear on the show; later, Carpenter's husband, Rick, a baseball coach at Elsik High School, also resigned his position. Parents say they know they can't bring the Carpenters back, but they want the district to know they're not happy with the way things turned out — and they're making a point for their kids, too. "We are trying to teach our kids who are here to stand up for what they believe in and to stand up for an injustice," parent Cathy Hines told KTRK.

>> Speaking of school trouble: Students at the MTI College of Business and Technology had an unpleasant surprise yesterday: With no warning, the school had closed its doors. MTI — which has been in business for 27 years and operated campuses on the east side and at Regency Square — blamed the closure in declining enrollment, and a spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission confirmed that school officials notified the state Tuesday morning that it was shutting down. The people it didn't inform, apparently, were the students and staff: "I'm up here trying to get my transcripts and find out what's going on. Am I going to be able to finish school or what?" student Kim Davis said. "I'm trying to find out what's going on with the school because I'm just in shock." The state will try to place MTI students in another school, and if that's not possible, it will reimburse at least part of their tuition.

>> Today's weather: The sunshine's back! Not that it ever really left, but that persistent chance of rain that never really delivered is gone — for now, anyway. Look for lots of sun today, with a balmy afternoon high around 93. Tonight, the temperature will fall into the upper 70s under clear skies.

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