>> Wintry mix blasts Panhandle, North Texas with sleet, snow: They came from the north and helped freeze your tootsies. Yep, those darn north winds are to blame for the uber chill around town today writes Meteorologist Tim Heller on the Houston Weather Blog. The same system that blanketed North Texas with nine inches of snow and caused Dallas-Ft. Worth airport to cancel 200 flights will share its chill with Houston. "This type of......

Good morning, Houston. Seriously, what is it with North Texas these days? Yesterday we had the story of the 18-wheeler full of human heads, and today there's the Fort Worth man who accidentally shot himself in both legs in his cubicle at work. According to police, the 47-year-old man put his .45-caliber gun into his jacket pocket Tuesday morning, then draped his jacket over the back of his chair at an insurance office. When......

Good morning, Houston. Want to hear something weird? Investigators say a North Texas man had a stolen bone implanted in his neck. The man, Jim Livingston, had a herniated disk in his neck; in 2005, a surgeon replaced it with a small bone from a donor. Everything was fine until last year, when Livingston got a call informing him that the bone was believed to have been stolen from a body at a funeral......

Looks like no one really expected David Ritcheson to jump from a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend: The Chronicle is reporting that Ritcheson told a couple of friends he was thinking of jumping the night before he did so. "I'm going to jump first thing in the morning before anyone is awake," Ritcheson told two friends, according to a 10-year-old North Texas girl who overheard the exchange. The child, Landee......

Good morning, Houston. So, did you hear about the calf that ran loose along the Gulf Freeway feeder road near Clear Lake City Boulevard yesterday? As if there aren't enough things causing traffic on our freeways, you know? The calf apparently got loose through a hole in a fence, and it wandered along the feeder for nearly an hour and a half, eluding its would-be captors until it slipped back through the hole where......

There are few details about it so far, but a Porter couple was arrested yesterday for helping a convicted robber escape from a Fort Worth lockup. The escapee in question is Eladio Diaz Jr., who was last seen Sunday night at the North Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility, a minimum-security compound for parole violators; Jose Chavez and his wife, Jacqueline Diaz Chavez — Eladio Diaz's sister — were arrested for allegedly helping Diaz break out. Diaz......

In a strange turn of events, the University of North Texas announced it will rename its new athletic practice facility after the football coach the school just fired. Why? Because Mattress Mack said to. The backstory is this: After nine years as head coach of the UNT Mean Green, Dickey was fired last week because officials weren't happy with the team's recent performance (2-9 last year and 3-7 so far in 2006); coincidentally, he learned......

We're just a little over two months away from Election Day 2006. (It’s on Nov. 7), which means we can expect to see a lot more of the candidates in the next few weeks. Today, independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Kinky Friedman hits town in the midst of his college tour — he's making a stop today at the University of Houston, and then tonight, you can catch him at the Flying Saucer downtown. Nothing......

Remember earlier this year when the Dallas area said it couldn't handle the 40,000 special-needs evacuees who might need shelter there if a major hurricane hits Houston? And remember a little while later, when the area decided maybe it would be able to accommodate them after all? Well, the most recent news is that D/FW has confirmed shelter for about 16,500 evacuees so far, and now it's worried that providing for the other 23,500 could......

A band of fierce storms that ripped through North Texas last night could produce some bad weather in Houton tonight. The storms are traveling with a cool front that should lower the temperatures just a bit Thursday. "As this front approaches southeast Texas, I think it will be getting into our far northern counties," [KHOU meterologist David] Paul said. He said the severe weather would possibly start around 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. and would......

State highway officials are accepting proposals for a leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor that would run from North Texas to Mexico, passing west of the Houston area and including links to the Port of Houston. The TTC is a proposed network of superhighways that will include separate lanes for cars and trucks, freight and passenger rail lines and infrastructure for communications and pipelines. The first TTC route will run parallel to Interstate 35 through Central......

The Houston area is under a tornado watch until 1 p.m. today as a cold front moves through, bringing potentially severe thunderstorms. Other parts of the state had a taste of wild weather yesterday: A series of strong storms rolled through North Texas, and in the Valley, winds gusting to near 50 mph knocked down power lines and may have caused a small grass fire near Harlingen. Forecasters say the storms should be out......

When Houstonist went to bed last night, it was warm and muggy. When we woke up, it was brisk. And now it's headed toward downright cold — fast! Today started at about 66 degrees, but the temperature suddenly fell about 10 degrees this morning and looks like it's not going to stop. The Official Houstonist Weather Station shows 56 degrees now, but "meterologists" say it's closer to 52 or 53. It's all part of a......

A CenterPoint Energy pilot program to deliver broadband Internet access over power lines seems to have turned out to be a flop — at least for now. CenterPoint began offering Broadband over Power Lines to a Greenway Plaza-area neighborhood last year, which allowed users to plug modems into their electrical sockets and surf the web faster than a standard broadband or DSL connection. Though it apparently worked, the company decided BPL isn't right for......

Residents near Dallas started noticing a major change in the water color in a section of the Trinity River -- burnt orange. Since the river flows to the east of Houston as it empties into the Gulf, should we be worried? Not necessarily: Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said more tests will be done, but potential dangers appear to be minimal. Also, authorities said people in North Texas should not expect burnt......

Though firefighters have been able to battle grass fires in North Texas and Oklahoma, continued dry, windy weather is putting more areas at risk Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has ties to Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty today to charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion In the Heights, a nude man walking around a strip-center parking lot was Tasered after beating up a police officer The Texans will begin interviewing candidates for head coach Wednesday Lines......

The next time you're cruising around the county throwing lighted cigarette butts out your car window — well, don't. Recent dry conditions and high winds led to 110 brush fires in Harris County between Saturday and Tuesday — up from the usual average of five a day. Though it's nowhere near as bad locally as it has been in North Texas and Oklahoma, officials say New Year's fireworks aren't necessarily the best idea here. "The......

At Westbury High, a catfight between evacuees and local students led to 27 arrests and one extremely minor injury With a few hours to go until the Astros' deadline to offer Roger Clemens salary arbitration, there are murmurs that the 'Stros will be setting the Rocket free The freeze line tonight should stay north of Huntsville and College Station, meaning cold rain for Houston but potentially icy conditions in Central and North Texas The 5th......

The sound of pocket change clanking into those distinctive Salvation Army red kettles during the holiday season is a bit lacking of late, local officials told the Chronicle. Compared to this point last year, the organization has seen a 10 percent drop in donations. The cause? Donor fatigue. You can thank Katrina, Rita, the Pakistan earthquake and even the tsunami for that. Nevertheless, local Salvation army officials told the Chron they were confident they'll......