Morning Roundup: A mighty wind edition

Good morning, Houston. It's August, and that means hurricane season is starting to get heavy. The country's got fins to the left and fins to the right, so to speak. As of last night, Tropical Storm Dean was crossing the open Atlantic with winds at 50 mph, while Tropical Depression #5 had put part of the Texas coast under a tropical storm watch. And over in the Pacific, Hawaii's dealing with Hurricane Flossie. Time to cross your fingers and keep them crossed for, oh, the next four months or so.

>> Gov. Perry signs bill to allow religion in schools: Rick Perry was at Clements High School in Sugar Land yesterday to ceremoniously sign a bill that sets up a model policy that Texas public schools can adopt to deal with religion in schools. The policy ensures protection for students who speak openly about their faith or do something as simple as say "Merry Christmas." It also allows for religious groups and activities on campus and religious expression in class assignments. Governor Perry said that in the past, students have been frightened to speak up about their religious beliefs, and that this is "not the American way and that's sure not the Texas way." The bill was sponsored by Rep. Charlie Howard, a Sugar Land Republican, and goes into effect September 1.

>> Tasered dad says his baby suffers head trauma: Back in April, police used a Taser on William Lewis while he was holding his newborn baby, and Lewis and his daughter fell to the ground. Lewis contends that he and his wife were just trying to leave the hospital, but police thought he was kidnapping the baby. Now he says that his daughter is suffering head trauma due to the fall that she took when she was just days old. Although it's not clear whether or not the baby received any electrical jolt, her father says that "she shakes a lot and cries a lot. She’s not real responsive. Something is definitely wrong with my daughter." CPS now has custody of the child due to a history of domestic violence between William Lewis and his wife. Lewis said he is still considering suing the hospital and denies charges of child endangerment and retaliation related to the incident.

>> Today's weather: No real relief yet: the heat index could still be as high as 109 today. The chance of thunderstorms will increase to 60% by this evening though, so maybe those clouds will cool things down a little bit. As we see it, the weather lately can only mean one thing: Houston must rock pretty hard for so many people to put up with it.

Headlines that will blow you away behind the jump...