Morning Roundup: Another day in paradise edition

Good morning, Houston. So this is what it must be like to live in California, huh? We're looking at a string of fantastic days, with highs in the lower to mid 70s and lows around 50 into the weekend. Today, expect a high of 73 with clear skies. You know what that means? We all have to spend as much time as possible outside. Yep, you have our permission to skip school and work — but no, that doesn't mean we'll forge a note from your parents. Seriously, you're old enough to do that yourself now.

>> A penny saved: Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday voted to cut the county's property tax rate by a penny — but before you get too excited, remember that the cut will only save you about $12 a year. But hey, that's $12 more than you would have had otherwise, right? County Judge Ed Emmett proposed the cut because property appraisals were up 12 percent this year: "It is absolutely the right thing to do, given the rising appraisals in Harris County," he told the Chronicle. We imagine Emmett is also hoping voters will remember that penny when they go to the polls in the March primary to select a candidate for county judge; his opponent, Charles Bararisse, had called for a 5-cent reduction in taxes. The cut lowers the overall property tax rate to 62.99 cents per $100 of assessed value.

>> One man's trash ... : In 1977, a Houston man paid $55,000 for "Tres Personajes," a painting by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, and gave it to his wife as a gift. Ten years later, the painting was stolen from a warehouse where the couple had placed it while they were moving — and 16 years later, the work showed up among trash on a Manhattan street. Now the painting is being put up for sale, and Sotheby's says it could fetch as much as $1 million. The husband of the painting's rightful owner has died, and his widow wants to sell the work; Elizabeth Gibson, the woman who found the canvas in the trash, will get a $15,000 reward plus an undisclosed percentage of the sale price. "I would say it was an appointment with destiny," Gibson told the AP, discussing finding the painting. "I just knew it meant something. ... It was extremely powerful, and even though I didn't understand it, I knew it had power." The sale is scheduled for Nov. 20.

>> Today's weather: Oh yeah — we already covered that.

Before you go outside, though, catch up on this morning's headlines ...