Morning Roundup: Biting the Bullet edition

Good morning, Houston. Been missing the Texas Cyclone since it was torn down last year? Then you'll be happy to know about the Boardwalk Bullet, a nearly 100-foot-tall wooden roller coaster set to open this summer at the Kemah Boardwalk. Tim Anderson, Kemah Boardwalk manager, said the Bullet will have more crossovers than any other wooden coaster in the world, and it'll be a bit taller and longer than the famed Cyclone. "It has actually more wooden roller coaster per square foot than any other wooden roller coaster that's ever been built," Anderson told KTRK. It'll take us the two weeks or so until the coaster opens to figure that one out.

>> Richmond teen dies lifting weights: Cameron Schaub, a 16-year-old student at Foster High in Richmond, was found dead on a weight bench Friday — apparently having choked to death when a 240-pound weight fell across his neck. Schaub was lifting weights at home when the incident occurred; according to autopsy results, he died of asphyxiation caused by compression of the larynx. Fort Bend County sheriff's spokeswoman Terriann Carlson said it seems the death was an accident, but an investigation is under way.

>> Inmates going to the dogs: Meet Jason Kozlow, a state prison inmate who trains tracking dogs for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Kozlow get chased by the dogs on a weekly basis — he trains 10 crossbred hounds — and loves it. "It's a sense of freedom when you're out here," Kozlow, who is serving a 17-year sentence, said. "There's nobody around. Just you and nature. It's just great." TDCJ has between 1,400 and 1,500 dogs stationed at 41 prisons and jails, and they're trained to track felons and escaped inmates as well as lost kids and elderly people. Since September, the dogs have been sent out more than 160 times, or nearly twice a week. The training involving inmates has its own built-in security — an inmate would be ill-advised to run away with a pack of inmate-sniffing dogs on his trail — and it's all done on a volunteer basis. "It's all voluntary," TDCJ Deputy Director for Prison/Jail Management Rodney Cooper said. "We don't force any inmates to do this."

>> John Hill dead at 83: Former Texas Supreme Court justice and gubernatorial candidate John Hill died Monday at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, where he was being treated for a heart problem. As attorney general, Hill made the move to close the infamous Chicken Ranch in La Grange in 1973; he went on to be the Democratic nominee for governor in 1978, but he lost the election to Bill Clements. Hill is the only person in Texas history to have served as the state's secretary of state, attorney general and Supreme Court justice, according to the AP.

>> Today's weather: It'll be a little warmer, but maybe not rainy, today: Look for an afternoon high around 92, with a 20 percent chance of showers this evening. Though the temperature doesn't look all that high, you might want to take a 10-pound bag of ice with you when you go outside today — the heat index could reach 106. Ah, summer.

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