Results tagged “harriscountyda”

Yesterday was the second of the Super Tuesdays for this Presidential Election year and included primary elections in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. Houstonist could careless about who wins. We're just excited to see the record turnout at the polls. We all win when that happens. Congratulations, Houston, and all you Texans that don't live in our kickass town.

Good morning, Houston. Remember the city's smoking ban, which went into effect in September? Well, so does KPRC. The station checked around and found something that will shock you to your very core: Houstonians are still smoking in bars and restaurants! No, . One of the bars Channel 2 visited was Henry Hudson's Pub on the west side, where reporters found customers and the bartender smoking — and "we even bought a pack of cigarettes out of a machine inside the pub," according to reports. We're just as surprised as you are — and as City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado is. "To be breaking the law so blatantly, obviously these people have no concern, no care, no sensitivity," she said. And no Nicorette, it would seem. KPRC reports that two city smoking inspectors have followed up on 228 complaints since the ban went into effect, which have resulted in more than 60 warnings and four citations.

>> City offers $15.5M for possible stadium site: The Chronicle reports that the city has said it'll pay more than $15.5 million for five downtown blocks that could become the site of a stadium for the Dynamo. The parcel is bounded by Texas and Walker on the north and south and Dowling and Hutchins on the east and west; it's just east of the Lofts at the Ballpark and immediately south of a vast Minute Maid Park parking lot. The city's offer assumes the land is worth $49 a square foot, which is less than an outside assessor's estimate of $50 to $55 but way, more than Harris County's appraisal of $12.50 a square foot. The offer doesn't mean a stadium on the site is a done deal, though: Andy Icken, the city's deputy director for public works and engineering, said a stadium will only be built if the city can reach an acceptable agreement with the Dynamo owners.

Good morning, Houston. Remember the plans for the Dynamo stadium on the east side of downtown? And remember Metro's plans for two new light rail lines heading out from the east side of downtown? Turns out there's a question about whether the stadium will be in the way of the rail lines — and it's not clear yet whether the proposed stadium will have an effect on the rail alignments. "We are evaluating a number of options. Any proposed solutions will be part of the ongoing process with the FTA. We do not expect this to affect the timetable for construction," Metro spokeswoman Sandra Salazar told the Chronicle. Metro maps — which Salazar said are being revised — show the East End and Southeast rail lines routed along Capitol Avenue, which runs through a site the Chronicle reported that the city and Dynamo are looking to buy for the stadium.

Good morning, Houston. If you've ever been driving around in the 'burbs and wondered who names the streets, well, it just might be someone like Susan Vreeland-Wendt, who the Chronicle's Nancy Sarnoff interviewed yesterday. Vreeland-Wendt, marketing director for The Woodlands Operating Co., has come up with more than 1,600 names for roads, parks and neighborhoods in The Woodlands in the last 20 years. Turns out she gets inspiration from all kinds of places: paint charts, wine bottles, songs, poetry — even . "Whenever I travel I bring a note pad," she told the Chron. "It's become an obsession. After a while, you never go anywhere without noticing names of things and writing them down." Ms. Vreeland-Wendt, if you're reading, may we humbly suggest a new neighborhood called Houstonist Hills? It does have a certain ring to it ...

Good morning, Houston. Looks like our freewheeling land-use policies have gotten some national attention: The Wall Street Journal has a story focusing on the proposed residential tower at Bissonnet and Ashby. "The condo-tower dustup is just the latest in a string of odd situations allowed by Houston's lenient land-use rules," the article explains. "Rowdy cantinas, rock-crushing operations and commercial dumps sometimes pop up in residential neighborhoods. Condo towers sprout next to schools. A pay-by-the-hour...

Good morning, Houston. There's a new weapon in the battle to make Houston the most beautiful city in America: Beginning next week, commercial property owners will have to hide their Dumpsters behind a building, wall, fence, berm or shrub. Officials said they hope the rule — which City Council approved six months ago — will help increase property values and make properties safer (and, of course, prettier). Anyone who violates the ordinance can be...

Good morning, Houston. Today's the last day of August, and you know what that means: Yes! Tomorrow, it'll be September! And why is that exciting, you ask? Well, as it happens, there are a few (relatively) interesting thing about the ninth month: For example, when the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Sept. 2 was immediately followed by Sept. 14 — which, legend has it, led to riots by people who thought...

Apparetly, the troubles at the HPD crime lab aren't quite over yet: An analyst in the lab was suspended last week, accused of improperly handling evidences, which means that police will have to review about 200 narcotics cases. The analyst, whom the Chronicle identifies as James K. Carpenter, reportedly "was not handling evidence in compliance with lab protocols," which led investigators with the police department's Internal Affairs Division to check out the lab last week....

So a man named Willie Joe McAdams was arrested Thursday during a traffic stop at Main and Hillcroft — at first glance, not so unusual. But what makes this arrest different is that McAdams was picked up so he can return to jail: Two and a half months ago, McAdams was accidentally released from state prison 36 years early. Oops. McAdams was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2004 for shooting Cedric Thomas in...

Good morning, Houston. You might want to grab a drink before you get started on this morning's news: According to KHOU, a shift toward growing corn in Mexico could lead to a spike in the price of tequila. It seems a lot of Mexican farmers are getting rid of their blue agave fields to make way for corn, which is in demand thanks to the growing popularity of ethanol — and as the amount...

The first gang member testified yesterday in the trial of Ashley Benton, the 17-year-old girl accused of stabbing 15-year-old Gabriel Granillo to death last summer during a gang fight at Chew Park — and he told jurors that Granillo wasn't trying to run away from the fight, as prosecutors had said during opening arguments Monday. The witness — a 20-year-old members of Southwest Locos Salvatrucha, a Houston subset of the MS-13 gang, who calls himself...

Good morning, Houston. We all know there are some perennially bad traffic spots around town — seriously, we all know — and now one of our local traffic nightmares has made Forbes' list of America's worst traffic traps. The spot is the Katy Freeway/West Loop interchange, which Forbes says costs drivers a whopping 25 million-plus hours of delays each year. That makes the 10/610 interchange the second worst in the country, by Forbes' reckoning,...

More on Garrett William Mallot, the man who shot a fellow passenger to death aboard a Metro bus back in March: A grand jury decided Friday not to indict Mallot for the shooting because jurors determined it was done in self defense. Details were in short supply when the shooting took place — all that was reported was that Mallot was walking along the center aisle when he brushed up against the victim, Otis James...

Good morning, Houston. The bad news: You've missed your chance to see the International Space Station this morning as it orbits above Texas. (We suppose it's only bad news if you're interested in seeing the space station — if you're not, hey, you won't be disappointed!) The good news: You'll have three more opportunities before the end of the week. The ISS will be visible at 4:08 a.m. Thursday (for nearly four minutes, beginning...

A tragic tale from north Harris County yesterday: A 2-year-old boy drowned in a retention pond near his home while he was apparently searching for a lost puppy. Police believe the boy, Darius Allen, sneaked out of the house — where he was being watched by two siblings, aged 7 and 11, while their parents were at work — and followed the dog through an empty, unfenced lot before he fell into the pond. According...

Good morning, Houston. Do you love trees? Well, you're in luck: Today happens to be Love a Tree Day. Houstonist has something of a soft spot for trees ourselves — we've often enjoyed their shade, climbed their branches and even skied into one or two — and so we wholeheartedly endorse showing a little tree love today. Don't have a tree to lavish your attention on? No problem: Join Trees for Houston and help...

After four hours of deliberation, a jury yesterday sentenced former Texas Southern financial chief Quintin Wiggins to 10 years in prison for misspending nearly $300,000 in university funds on personal expenses for former TSU President Priscilla Slade. That doesn't mean the Wiggins story is over — his lawyer said he plans to appeal — but for now, we can't help but wonder how Wiggins' sentence will affect the outcome of Slade's trial this summer.

An odd story from HPD headquarters: Early Sunday morning, officers shot and killed a woman who lunged at them inside the building's lobby. It happened just after 2 a.m., when 42-year-old Marnell Villarreal showed up at the HPD building at 1200 Travis wanting to talk to an investigator. According to KTRK, officers sent her away because she had brought a weapon into the building before. She paced outside for a while, then came back into...

Good morning, Houston. Score one for Sugar Land's fake downtown: This summer, it will become the location of the Children's Museum of Houston's first satellite location. The Children's Museum of Houston Discovery Center at Sugar Land Town Square — that's CMHDCSLTS for short — will occupy 9,000 square feet of space in the Town Square development for six weeks beginning June 1. Though it's just a temporary deal, museum brass say the Discovery Center...

More bizarre news keeps emerging in the story of Laurie Williamson, a Houston woman accused of keeping her children sick to get attention for herself. Prosecutors say Williamson, a former nurse, used her medical knowledge to convince doctors that her three kids suffered from a variety of ailments including Tourette syndrome, Crohn's disease and epilepsy — which led to unnecessary medications and surgeries for the children. Psychiatric experts say it looks like a classic case...

Steven Weinstein, the man whose car had a dead body hidden in its trunk, will be held without bond until at least Friday, a judge ruled yesterday. State District Judge Caprice Cosper said she wants Weinstein, 42, stabilized on anti-depressant medication before she considers bond and wants him examined by a mental health professional before he's released. "I appreciate what you're saying," Weinstein told Cosper. "But the best thing for me is to take my medicine, stay in my bed, in my home."

Good morning, Houston. Do you feel more metropolitan? Or bigger, maybe? According to estimates released by the Census Bureau yesterday, the influx of hurricane evacuees has made the Houston metro area the country's sixth largest. The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area now has an estimated 5,483,857 residents, which puts it ahead of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach but still behind the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Philadelphia metro areas. Another population fact: Harris County...

More on the deaths of Leon and Maurine Roberson, the couple who were killed Oct. 18 when a speeding wrecker driver broadsided their car: Assistant Harris County DA Warren Diepraam says the wrecker driver, Sergio Gonzalez, had cocaine in his system at the time of the crash. Gonzalez hit the Robersons' car as they left church in the 11800 block of Wallisville Road; according to reports, Gonzalez was going 20 or 25 mph above the...

An unusual story is developing at Kashmere High School, where the family of a student with Down syndrome claims her son was raped in a campus restroom by another special-needs student Friday. The students, both 16, weren't supposed to be in the bathroom at the same time, but one apparently walked in undetected; later, a teacher discovered both students in the room, unclothed, and now the alleged victim's mother says her son isn't doing well....

Gilbert Amezquita, a man who spent eight years in prison on what might have been a false rape arrest, has begun the process of getting $200,000 in state compensation for his jail time. Amezquita was arrested in connection with the 1998 rape and beating of Kathy Bingham at her father's publishing company, which left Bingham in a coma for 10 days. When she woke up, she told police that "Gilbert" had attacked her; based primarily...

In an unusual move yesterday, the judge presiding over a hearing for Juan Quintero, the man accused of shooting HPD Officer Rodney Johnson to death during a Sept. 21 traffic stop, cleared the courtroom and let Quintero choose who his court-appointed lawyer will be.

When you're investigating fatal car crashes and other crime scenes, we imagine the last thing you want is a camera that doesn't work — but that seems to be exactly what HPD is dealing with, according to a couple of news reports. The case in question is the death of Leon and Maureen Roberson, the elderly couple killed Oct. 18 when a speeding wrecker broadsided their car as they left Bible study at their northeast...

At least 80 Houston bars are scrambling to get their state licenses in order after the owners of the licensing service they used disappeared with their money and paperwork, the AP reports today. Bar owners found out this week that Butera License Service hadn't kept their licenses current; at least one bar, McElroy's Irish Pub, had to close for a day after owner Max McElroy found out his liquor license had been expired for two...

The legal situation regarding Juan Leonardo Quintero, an illegal immigrant accused of shooting a Houston police officer to death after a traffic stop last week, is shaping up: According to the Chronicle, Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal will put on his prosecutor's hat to lead the case against Quintero. Rosenthal hasn't helped prosecute a case in years, but he said he was moved by a meeting with Officer Rodney Johnson's family. Quintero, meanwhile, remains in...