Morning Roundup: What are ewe looking at? edition

Good morning, Houston. If you've lived here a while, you probably know that the city is prone to livestock running amok — so it shouldn't be too surprising that Third Ward residents found a pair of ewes loose in their neighborhood yesterday. Some neighbors and a KTRK crew tried to catch the animals and eventually chased them to the TSU campus, where a Harris County sheriff's deputy and KTRK photographer Ben Lutman made a final move. One of the animals was captured, the other got away and Litman got bopped in the face in the process (ouch!). Nobody's sure where the ewes came from, but the county will keep the captured one until officials figure out what to do with it.

>> More Katy Freeway closures: A new series of lane and ramp closures will begin today at the Katy Freeway-Sam Houston Tollway interchange — so we recommend rethinking that weekend vacation to Katy Mills you've been planning. Check the Chronicle's report for a full list of closures, but basically, you'll probably want to avoid that stretch of the Katy (and the tollway) from 9 p.m. today until 5 a.m. Monday. Some of the closures will end then, others will end next Friday and still others will continue for several weeks. There are a couple of ways to get up-to-the-minute updates on the construction: the freeway reconstruction project's website and the update hotline, 281.589.5924 — or you could do what we do and avoid the west side altogether. Sure, we can't play hockey at Memorial City, but at least we have our sanity. Sorta.

>> New life for old mall?: Northwest Mall may be in its last days, at least in its current form: Houston-based development group Levcor has bought the 40-year-old mall and has plans to renovate the site. What that renovation will look like isn't clear yet, but it could involve turning the mall into a mixed-use project — an attractive proposition, developer Ed Wulfe told the Chronicle. "The 290 corridor is absolutely booming, extremely attractive," Wulfe said. "Northwest Mall has high visibility." One thing that could help the redevelopment: Levcor was able to buy not only the mall property, but also an adjacent site that holds a closed J.C. Penney store. The combined 50-acre parcel is an attractive investment, Levcor President Larry Levine said, because "the whole area is turning."

>> This weekend's weather: Enter the rain chances once again: There'll be a 30 percent chance of showers today and tomorrow, dropping to 20 percent on Sunday. And yet it'll still be hot, with highs around 90 and lows in the mid-70s each day. Ah, fall.

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