Morning Roundup: So sexy, it's scary edition

Good morning, Houston. If you've ever thought that Halloween needed a little more, uh, spice, you might want to check out HauntXXX, "Houston's most titillating haunted house." The titillating part apparently has to do with nearly naked women wearing neon body paint — and as for the haunted part, well, we're not so sure (maybe these are some super-scary sexpots we're talking about). The haunted house isn't sitting well with some of its neighbors, but promoters insist HauntXXX isn't a sexually oriented business because the women will be covered in body paint. Does that really qualify? We'll see. "If we can, we're going to make sure they can't escape the law by trying to find some loophole," Mayor Bill White told KHOU.

>> Prosecution rests in Slade trial: Prosecutors rested their case Thursday in the trial of former Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade, accused of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of university money on personal expenses. A string of prosecution witnesses spent five weeks discussing Slade's spending, which included $40,000 on a dining set from Neiman Marcus and $100,000 on liquor at Scott Gertner's Sky Bar. Slade's attorney, Mike DeGuerin, contends that all the spending was necessary for Slade to maintain a lifestyle fitting the president of TSU. DeGuerin said he doesn't know how long it'll take to present his case or whether he'll call Slade to testify in her own defense; if Slade is convicted of misapplication of fiduciary property with a value over $200,000, she could face life in prison.

>> RIde Metro for free — sorta: KTRK's Wayne Dolcefino finds a way everyone can ride Metro buses and trains for free: Just get a job with the transit agency, or marry someone who has one. Turns out all Metro employees and their spouses ride free, even the 69 agency execs who make more than $100,000 a year. And those execs do use public transportation, don't they? Well, maybe not: Dolcefino checked out Metro Q Card records, which show that more than half of Metro's top managers don't use the system. Should they? "They definitely should ride it," Metro Chairman Ed Wolff told KTRK. But when Dolcefino asked how records of which executives ride are kept, Wolff walked away — toward a waiting bus, we're sure.

>> This weekend's weather: A front that blew through the area has taken the humidity down a notch — so even though we'll have highs around 90 all weekend, it shouldn't feel quite as much like a sauna outside. Look for lots of sun today and tomorrow, with a 20 percent chance of showers on Sunday.

Kick your weekend off with some headlines ...