Morning Roundup: Registration day edition

Good morning, Houston. Are you registered to vote? Do you need to make changes to your registration? Better take care of it fast: Today is the last day to register or alter your registration if you want to vote in the Nov. 6 elections. Voters in 34 jurisdictions will elect candidates this year, and the state has 16 bond issues on the ballot — and, of course, there are big-ticket items like HISD's $805 million bond proposal. You may download the voter registration application and make changes to your registration at the Harris County Tax Office website, but remember: registrations and changes must be delivered to a Harris County Tax Office location by 4:45 p.m. today or be postmarked by 11:59 p.m. tonight. For more information, call 713.368.VOTE.

>> Slade jury begins deliberation: Jurors in the trial of former TSU President Priscilla Slade began deliberating Monday after hearing closing arguments. Slade is on trial for allegedly misspending more than a half-million dollars' worth of taxpayers' funds on personal expenses, including a 25-piece dinner set worth $40,000 and a $17,000 sectional sofa for her private home. Prosecutor Donna Goode told jurors that Slade "duped" TSU and state leaders, but Slade's attorney, Mike DeGuerin, said Slade did nothing wrong. "The best thing that ever happened to TSU was Dr. Slade. What they need is Dr. Slade or someone just like her," he said. If Slade is convicted of misapplication of fiduciary property with a value over $200,000, she could face life in prison.

>> Saved in the nick of time: Curators from the Menil Collection are working to figure out how to restore a Saul Steinberg mural that was rescued from the Texas Clipper I, a former ocean liner destined to become an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico next month. The mural by Steinberg, which depicts vignettes of life on a post-World War II luxury liner, was installed in the ship's bar when the former military transport vessel was converted to a passenger ship, the Excambion, in 1948. In 1976, the mural was covered up with red, white and blue wallpaper and a mural, and it was eventually forgotten as the ship became the Texas Clipper I, a floating classroom for 30 years of Texas A&M students. What's significant about the mural is that it's one of seven Steinberg did — and three identical murals that once graced the walls of other ships have already been destroyed. Now the Menil, which owns a number of Steinberg drawings, is looking at the best way to preserve the mural: "I hope that in some way, in some form, that it will be resurrected so that other people can look at it," Stephen Curley, an A&M English professor who taught aboard the ship beginning in 1974 and is writing a history of the vessel, told the Chronicle. "It will repay whatever effort it takes."

>> Today's weather: Look for a 40 percent chance of showers today, with intermittent sun and high around 88. Tonight, the rain chance will ease up a bit as the low hits near 70 — and things should begin getting cooler (and drier) tomorrow night.

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