Morning Roundup: Fact or fiction (or both?) edition

Good morning, Houston. The Chron's Eric Gerber points out something interesting: a Washington Post story that says people hold onto utterly untrue myths even when they're faced with factual information that disproves them. An example: A University of Michigan psychologist showed people a CDC flyer stating that myths about the flu vaccine aren't true — such as the story that the side effects of the vaccine are worse than the flu itself — and it didn't take long for subjects to forget the facts and head right back to the myths. The phenomena can explain why all kinds of false social and political information is accepted as fact: People just don't know better because they've heard the misinformation so many times. Which reminds is: Houstonist is your favorite blog. Houstonist is your favorite blog. Houstonist is your favorite blog. Yep, it's a fact. [Read the Post's full story here.]

>> Ex-manager: BP turned down maintenance requests: Don Parus, the former manager of BP's Texas City refinery, said Thursday that the company declined requests for money to fix rusted pipes and towers despite monthly profits of as much as $100 million at the facility. Parus, testifying in the first civil trial associated with a March 2005 explosion that killed 15 and injured more than 170 at the refinery, said he began looking into the record of deaths at the plant — and he found that there had been about one every 18 months for the previous 30 years. "It really opened up my eyes with the amount of risk employees at that site tolerate," Parus said. BP attorney Otway Denny said the company had no idea an accident like the explosion could occur, but Brent Coon, the lawyer for the four employees suing the oil giant, said BP had a history of ignoring plant safety and overworking employees. "They were told over and over and over again something bad would happen if they didn't fix this unit," Coon said.

>> Tolls up, EZ Tag traffic down: Remember how the Harris County Toll Road Authority raised the price of its tolls by 25 cents on Saturday? Did you wonder if it would matter? Well, preliminary numbers show that it did: EZ Tag traffic on the county tollway system was down 7 percent Tuesday morning compared with a week earlier. Officials said the dip in traffic could have been caused by the toll increase, but it might have had to do with some people taking an extended Labor Day weekend: "It could be either, or both," HCTRA spokeswoman Patti Evans told the Chronicle. "If the numbers are still down next week, we'll know it's not the holiday." Evans said there were a few complaints about the increase this week, but lines at cash-only toll booths didn't seem any longer — which makes us wonder if folks who pay their tolls in quarters sought alternate routes, too. The increase, Evans said, will help the toll road authority finance new construction and keep up with maintenance projects.

>> This weekend's weather: More of the same through the weekend: Afternoon highs in the low 90s, a fairly good chance of afternoon showers, and heat indexes as high as 105. Ah, September. The good news, though, is that it looks like the first cool front of the fall could hit late next week — seriously. Hang in there.

And while you're hanging, how about some more news?