Morning Roundup: T-minus 10 and crossing edition

Good morning, Houston. If you've walked — or driven — downtown or in Midtown lately, chances are you've noticed the fancy new "countdown signals," which flash the number of seconds pedestrians have to cross an intersection before traffic lights change. They'll soon be installed at more than 300 intersections in neighborhoods with high amounts of pedestrian traffic, including the Medical Center; though they cost $1.3 million to put up, officials say the efficient LED signals will save $10,000 every day in energy costs. But we can't help but wonder how long it'll take Houstonians to start seeing the flashing numbers as more of a challenge than a safety measure — really more a question of when than if, based on our experience.

>> Adult education?: Some Fort Bend County parents are up in arms over news that their middle school kids witnessed a pair of classmates involved in a sex act in class. Parents of kids at David Crockett Middle School got a letter Friday notifying them about the incident, which involved two eighth-graders; in the letter, Principal Corliss Rogers said that both students had been disciplined. It's not clear exactly what the sex act was or how it, uh, went down: Some parents told KPRC that their kids told them it happened when the teacher stepped out of the classroom. "I think there should be more supervision," parent Gerry Banez told Channel 2. "If that's the case and they have time to do such things, obviously there's not people there to supervise them." Other parents said the problem has to do with a lack of respect: "No respect for authority, no respect for themselves [and] not for the other kids in the classroom," Lubergha Munson told KPRC.

>> A little Dr. Scholl's might have saved him: A man was stabbed to death in North Houston on Saturday night after he and his roommate got into an argument over foot odor, police say. It happened at the Magnolia Cove Apartment Homes in the 100 block of Goodson, where the suspect and victim — who were subleasing a bedroom in the apartment of a married couple — reportedly got into a drunken argument over whether one of the men's feet stank. The female tenant of the apartment was sitting outside when the fight broke out; eventually, she looked in the window and saw one of the men with two knives in his hands, By the time she got inside, he was reportedly on top of the victim, stabbing him. The suspect, who claimed he didn't meant to stab the victim, remained at the scene until police showed up; neither man's identity has been released.

>> This week's weather: OK, we're not going to stake our weather-forecasting reputation (such as it is) on this, but it looks like we might see some more seasonal temperatures by the end of the week. Right now, the long-range forecast calls for highs in the lower 80s this weekend, with lows around 60 — but we've been fooled before. Today doesn't look so great: Expect a 50 percent chance of rain, an afternoon high in the upper 80s and a low tonight around 73.

Cooler weather or not, we always have headlines ...