Morning Roundup: Watch for falling lights edition

Good morning, Houston. Imagine that you're driving along one day when a traffic light falls from an overhead line and crashes through your car's windshield. You'd think the city would be responsible for the accident, right? Wrong! Just ask Lei Zheng, who was on a shopping trip with his wife and son last year when a traffic light fell on his Volkswagen. Zheng and his family weren't seriously hurt, but they did ask the city to reimburse their insurance deductible and some medical expenses totaling less than $2,000 — and the city refused based on the idea that traffic lights and signs are exempted from liability. "We have to follow the law. The state Legislature is the body that addresses this issue," Harlan Heilman, a manager in the city's claims office, told the AP. Turns out the government is only liable if it was negligent or failed to address a known problem, which apparently wasn't the case with the falling traffic light.

>> Does that really count as self defense?: There's something kind of unusual about the story of Angela Espinosa, the northwest Harris County woman who confessed to shooting her husband in self defense early Monday morning: She apparently shot him while he was sleeping, several hours after he allegedly threatened her. Sheriff's deputies got a 911 call from Angela Espinosa just after midnight yesterday; she told them that she hot her husband, Jaime, as he slept, then set the gun on the bedside table, called the police and waited for officers to arrive. The nature of the alleged dispute between the Espinosas is unclear, as is how Angela plans to prove self defense when there was such a lag between the threat and the shooting. "If I threaten you with a gun and you shoot me, then it's self defense. If I threaten you with a gun and then you wait two or three hours until I go to sleep and then you shoot me, it's really not a self-defense issue," sheriff's Lt. John Denhold told KTRK. The Espinosas' three kids, who reportedly slept through the shooting, are in the care of relatives.

>> Stop and go: It's no secret to Houston drivers that the city has a problem with at-grade freight rail crossings — just ask anyone who's almost been late to work after being stuck at a rail crossing for a half hour. And now, at least one federal official understands the problem, thanks to a helicopter tour Mayor Bill White took Surface Transportation Board Chairman Charles "Chip" Nottingham on Monday. White and Nottingham flew over the Port of Houston and the Bayport complex, then swung over to Highway 90A in Fort Bend County before following the Union Pacific tracks into the city, through Memorial Park and back to the East End. "Houston is at the epicenter of interstate commerce and international trade," Nottingham told the Chronicle. "But there is a flip side to that. I was amazed to see how many crossings you have and how many neighborhoods are right up against railroads. We saw a stopped train blocking several streets and a commuter bus doing a U-turn in the fourth-largest city in the country in the middle of the day." Welcome to Houston, Chip.

>> Today's weather: Looks like rain today — a 50 percent chance, in fact, as a (very) weak cold front moves through the area. The storms shouldn't be too bad, but isolated areas could see 2 to 4 inches of rain, so keep an eye out for that. Otherwise, expect a high around 90 this afternoon, with an overnight low in the lower 70s. That cold front, by the way, will lower temperatures into the high 80s for the rest of the week. Break out the parkas!

Right now, though, parka yourself right here and check out some headlines. (Get it? Parka? Oh, never mind.)