Good morning, Houston. If you're looking forward to Earthquest, the $600 million-plus, 250-acre theme park being planned for east Montgomery County, you should be happy to know that the park plan has gotten a boost: Earlier this month, Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation to enable tax incentives for the project. The park, to be built on Caney Creek near Highway 59 and FM 1485 in New Caney, is the brainchild of paleontologist Don Lessem, the chief adviser to the producers of Jurassic Park; it'll have a dinosaur theme and will include a dino museum, but will also have rides, an IMAX-style theater and a $150 million spa hotel. Assuming all goes as planned, the complex should open in 2012 and attract more than 2.5 million visitors a year.

>> Benton case headed for retrial: Attorneys failed to reach a deal last week in the case of Ashley Benton, the teen accused of murdering a gang member during a fight at a Montrose-area park last summer. Benton's first trial ended in a mistrial two weeks ago after jurors couldn't agree on a verdict; prosecutors offered two plea deals to the defense last week, but defense attorney Kent Schaffer said his colleagues felt the would do better at a second trial. Though Schaffer wouldn't discuss details of the deals that were offered, he said the defense would not accept any deal that resulted in prison time for Benton, 17. Jury selection for the retrial was set for Jan. 4.

>> UIL may hold off on steroid testing: State officials may delay proposed random steroid testing for high school athletes if they can't find a way to quickly alert parents and student athletes that over-the-counter supplements could cause students to fail the test, the Chronicle reported this weekend. Studies show that one in five dietary supplements could result in positive doping tests, which led state Sen. Kyle Janek (R-Houston) to propose putting the testing off temporarily. Officials had planned to begin the tests as early as this fall, but the legislation ordering them only specified that they should begin in the 2007-08 school year; Janek noted that means they don't have to begin before this year's football season. As for the message the state will try to get out to athletes and their parents: "The message should be, 'Don't take supplements at all,'" Jeff Kloster, associate commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, said. "I believe that we have to do everything we can to get all the education out there as quickly as we can before we start testing."

>> This week's weather: Looks like the string of beautiful days we had last week won't be continuing: There's a pretty good chance of rain every afternoon this week, though it'll let up a bit at night. Today, look for a 40 percent chance of afternoon showers with a high around 91; overnight, the rain chance drops to 30 percent and the temperature will fall into the mid-70s. That forecast won't change much as we move through the week: There's a 50 percent chance of rain every afternoon, with highs in the upper 80s. The good news, though: You still don' t have to water your lawn.

Speaking of good news, we have some — and some that's not go great — after the jump ...

• Houston had the cheapest gas in the state last week — an average of $2.38 a gallon — but that was a 3-cent increase over the previous week
• A driver who claimed he was bring chased crashed on the Eastex Freeway on Saturday night
• The owner of an illegal game room in northwest Harris County accidentally shot and killed a bystander Friday while trying to prevent a robbery
• Advanced DNA testing could lead to the identification of three victims of 1970s serial killer Dean Corll
• The mother of the toddler in the controversial "ecstasy" Internet video said the girl can roll her eyes on command — a trick she says the girl learned from watching a horror movie
• A worker at a northwest Harris County business was killed Friday morning when the building exploded and burned
• The Baytown Little Theater is in bad shape after a driver crashed into the building Friday, landing on center stage
• In northwest Houston, a bicyclist was shot while riding Saturday night; he's in serious condition
• Even a battle with cancer didn't stop Marvin Zindler from giving his rat and roach report last week
• A group planning an MLK memorial in Hermann Park needs to raise $25,000 by the end of the month to qualify for a matching grant
• A hearing for Joshua Mauldin, the man accused of burning his 2-month-old daughter in a Galveston hotel microwave, was canceled Friday after Mauldin declined to contest and evaluation that he's competent to stand trial
• Mike Nooney, a local businessman, donated $3,500 to replace more than 80 child car seats stolen along with a Texas Children's Hospital trailer last week
• U.S. News & World Report has ranked the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center the nation's top cancer hospital
• A rash of thefts have led Houston churches to adopt pretty serious security measures
• John N. Ehrman, the former CEO of Houston-based Rocky Mountain Energy, has been indicted on charges that he schemed to inflate the price of his company's stock
• The mother of a mentally disabled woman has filed suit against the nursing home where her daughter lived, claiming the home kicked the daughter out after she accused a male staffer of raping her