Morning Roundup: Monday, Monday edition

Good morning, Houston. Hot weather? Rain? Another week in our cube farm? Looks like Houstonist has a case of the Mondays. We'd better just move on to the news ...

>> Mayor: I'll find money to keep day-labor site open: A spokesman for Mayor Bill White said Friday that the mayor will help find $100,000 to fund a day-labor site after city officials voted to cut its public funding. Critics of the site, which is popular with illegal immigrants seeking work, say that it encourages illegal immigration and helps undermine the U.S. workforce. Supporters, who include City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, disagree: "It's safe, it's secure, it's a controlled environment, as opposed to street corners and retail parking lots," she told the AP. White spokesman Frank Michel said the mayor has agreed to work with the site's directors to find other sources of funding, but he didn't give any specifics. "What that [source of funding] is, I can’t say at this point because it hasn’t yet been identified," Michel said.

>> What's up at the zoo? The admission price: Starting July 1, admission to the Houston Zoo will increase a little bit: by $1.50 for adults and $1 for children, making the price of an adult ticket $10 and the price of a kid's ticket $5. The increase will help the zoo maintain its exhibits and bring in new attractions — and, as officials point out, the new price is still relatively low. "We make money in other ways, too. But this is a relatively small increase," zoo director Rick Barongi said. "Just look at the cost of a movie and a Coke today, you know, and this is an all-day experience." The Houston Zoo remains a bargain compared with other zoos in the country, too, as KTRK points out: Two adults and two kids will be able to visit the Houston Zoo for $30 once the increase is in effect, compared with the $37 it would cost the same group to visit the Fort Worth Zoo and the whopping $76.50 they'd pay to go to the San Diego Zoo.

>> Children's Museum set to begin expansion: Things went really well for the Children's Museum of Houston's recent fund raising campaign — so well, in fact, that the museum met its initial $26 million goal six months early, meaning ground will be broken on an expansion to the museum's building Aug. 26. The $26 million was needed to trigger a $2 million challenge grant from the Wortham Foundation and will allow construction to begin on the three-story addition, which will double the museum's square footage to 83,000. And it can't happen to soon, museum board president Lee Lahourcade said: "Currently, there are approximately 1 million children from age birth to 12 living in the Greater Houston area, and this population is increasing at a rate of 10 percent per year, which makes it all the more important for us to start our museum's expansion as soon as possible to serve the needs of Houston's families."

>> This week's weather: Looks like rain, both now and through the week. The rain chance will steadily decrease from 80 percent today to around 40 percent by Friday, but temperatures will increase through the week from the mid-80s today to just above 90 by the weekend. The probability of strong storms is highest from now through Tuesday night, so keep an umbrella handy. Today, look for an afternoon high around 85 with an overnight low of 77.

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