Morning Roundup: Damn this traffic jam edition

Good morning, Houston. We all know there are some perennially bad traffic spots around town — seriously, we all know — and now one of our local traffic nightmares has made Forbes' list of America's worst traffic traps. The spot is the Katy Freeway/West Loop interchange, which Forbes says costs drivers a whopping 25 million-plus hours of delays each year. That makes the 10/610 interchange the second worst in the country, by Forbes' reckoning, behind the interchange of Highway 101 and I-405 in Los Angeles. Given the choice, we'd rather avoid both, thanks.

>> Mom arrested in infant's death: Jessica Leanne Hoosier, a 26-year-old Houston woman, has been charged with capital murder in connection with the death of her 2-month-old son. Police went to Hoosier's apartment Sunday after two 911 hang-ups; there, they found the baby's decomposing body. Assistant Harris County DA Sylvia Escobedo Newman said the baby had a fractured skull, arm and ribs and was malhourished, and she added that the injuries were old and new, which indicated continuing abuse. Hoosier, who showed investigators how she hit the baby with her palm on at least 15 different occasions because she said she was "mad at the baby's father," is being held without bond. Newman said the Harris County Sheriff's Office is continuing to investigate the case and that prosecutors haven't decided yet whether to seek the death penalty.

>> TSU students look into Fondren's problems: A group of grad students in TSU's urban planning program say they've found the reasons for the high crime rate, number of unsupervised children and amount of vacant, ill-maintained rental units in the Fondren Southwest area: too much multi-family housing. Fair enough, but how should the area solve its problems? The students suggested a few ideas, including the conversion of apartments to condos and townhomes; development of mixed-use commercial/retail buildings; and increasing awareness of the city's Apartments to Standards Initiative, which gives apartment owners grants to improve their properties. The problems with the study: The students didn't contact anyone in the Brays Oaks Management District when doing their research, which district communication director Jim Myers said would have given them access to data and projects the district is implementing. Also, the study didn't attribute any sources to the information it presented, which Myers said affected its credibility somewhat. Still, he said studies like this one are always useful.

>> Today's weather: Look for rain showers in the area, but not until after 4 p.m. — which leaves us all morning and afternoon to luxuriate in sunny, humid, late spring splendor. Expect a high of 94 this afternoon, with an overnight low around 74.

Now, luxuriate in these headlines: