Good morning, Houston. Remember Mayor Bill's agreement with Clear Channel that would result in the removal of nearly 900 billboards across the city? Well, it's not necessarily a done deal after all: On Wednesday, six City Council members voted to delay the plan, saying they still had questions about its ramifications. The problem, they said, was that the deal would allow Clear Channel to move remaining billboards: "We're allowing new billboard locations to pop......

If there's one thing we love, it's an election. And the city has been obliging lately. Melissa Noriega and Roy Morales, the two candidates left standing after last month's special election to fill a vacant at-large city council seat, traded remarks on immigration as early voting began yesterday. Noriega, the clear favorite after garnering 47% of the vote in May, accused Morales of using "fear as a tactic to try to get people worked up."......

Good morning, Houston. Ever been to Podunk, Texas? You have if you've ever visited the east Houston neighborhood of Denver Harbor, which was affectionately called Podunk during the Great Depression because it was then far enough east to seem semi-rural. And as of yesterday, thanks to a state House resolution, Podunk is the Official Mythical Town of Texas. Grady got the resolution passed by gathering 700 signatures on a petition and persuading the area's......

A chase that involved three police cars and a suspected vehicle thief led to the death of an innocent 24-year-old woman in a residential area of southeast Houston yesterday. The woman, Rikki Danielle Sanchez, was killed instantly when the car that was being chased crashed into her pickup, sending her "flying" into a brick home. Afterwards, the suspect resisted arrest until a policeman shocked him with a Taser. He was taken to Memorial Hermann with......

Police are still investigating a fatal shooting aboard a Metro bus yesterday that was apparently triggered by a passenger bumping into another passenger. It happened around 11:45 a.m. on the No. 82 bus as it was inbound on Westheimer near Royal Oaks Club Drive: "The suspect was on the bus making his way through the center aisle when he brushed up against the victim," HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready told KPRC. The two exchanged words, and......

A Wharton County freelance photographer was recently indicted for something he’s been doing for many years – snapping photos.. It seems what got photographer Elmer Cavender in heaps of trouble this time were his pictures he took for the Wharton Volunteer Fire Department of a crime scene where Needville ISD Police Chief Ernie Mendoza was killed. He later sold those photos to a local newspaper, a common practice in the industry. The story twists when......

Looks like as long as you can keep from winning the lotto, you can also keep from getting killed. Last month, the city recorded only 24 homicides, down 20 percent from January 2006. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said that he attributes the decline to HPD's heavy targeting of several hot spots in the city, but indicated that the cold weather might have had something to do with the decline as well. Hurtt hopes to......

Because we're decent, law-abiding people — and also because we're not really all that ballsy when faced with the possibility of getting a ticket — Houstonist is proud to say that we've never broken the rules and gotten in an HOV lane alone (or even with our good friend Della). But we have wondered how many people do break the rules, and now we have an idea: According to Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert, 10,400......

If this week didn't get off to as good a start as you might have liked, here's something that'll help put things in perspective: At least you didn't spend all weekend locked in the trunk of your car like one local guy did. The man, whose name wasn't reported by the Chronicle or TV stations, said he was driving along 15th Street in South Houston around midnight Friday when a woman approached his car and......

Weird news out of Willis: Yesterday afternoon, a homeless man reportedly shot a trucker who was on his way to a fast-food restaurant. The shooting took place at Interstate 45 and FM 1097 at around 1 p.m. when truck driver Willie Ray Goree of Irving was walking to Jack in the Box and talking on his cell phone. For no apparent reason, Feofaaki A. Hafoka, who was living under a nearby overpass, fired at least......

We can't remember the last time we heard about a violent crime in a bread store, but there was a doozy in Jacinto City yesterday afternoon: After a nearly two-hour standoff, a man who had stabbed his estranged wife to death in the store was shot by police. There go all our illusions of safety while shopping for sweet rolls and buttered split-top. According to police, 27-year-old Mohammad Rafi entered the Mrs. Baird's store (which,......

Three months after the investigation into serious problems at HPD's crime lab was put on hold for lack of funding, not a lot has changed: The probe still isn't funded, and it looks like the city might not be willing to turn loose of the $1.5 million needed to complete it. So far, investigator Michael Bromwich and his team have reviewed about 2,300 cases that involved DNA, serology, blood, drug and firearms tests at the......

A year after Houston welcomed more than a quarter million Katrina refugees, more than 100,000 are still here, and Houstonians aren't happy. West Houston residents who gathered Wednesday at Grace Presbyterian Church to talk about the increased violent crime rate in their part of town blamed evacuees for the problem, reports the Chronicle. Police Chief Harold Hurtt came to the church to discuss a new patrol division aimed at bringing the violence to an end,......

More on the two men involved in Wednesday's explosion at an apartment complex in Texas City: KHOU reports that unnamed sources say they might have belonged to a small local anarchist group. According to Channel 11, 21-year-old Matthew Rugo, who died in the explosion, and his roommate, 21-year-old Curtis Jetton, were said to comprise half the four-member group. The other two members, both women, reportedly told investigators about their affiliation. As blogHouston notes, reports of......

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt avoided a crash yesterday, and a group of his supporters are trying to help him avoid another one — the one that could be headed his way when the results of a police union survey come down. The survey, you'll remember, found that 75 percent of respondents said they had little or no confidence in Hurtt's ability to lead HPD. About 2,300 officers responded to the Houston Police Officers' Union survey,......

The Chronicle reports this monring that five surveillance cameras will be installed on and near Main Street this fall — a move that could be the beginning of a citywide camera program, if HPD has its way. The initial five cameras, which will go online in October, will be paid for by the Houston Downtown Management District, a group that uses downtown tax money for downtown development, so they don't need the City Council's OK.......

So on Thursday, the judge in Robert Durst's 2003 murder trial found the severed front legs and head of a cat in her yard. And who sprang to everyone's mind but Durst, the eccentric millionaire who has a history of chopping bodies up? Life can be so unfair that way. Galveston Police Chief Kenneth Mack told the Chronicle that investigators don't know if the cat parts are related to the Durst case — whether Durst......

Last week, Metro gave the green light to a $20 million surveillance camera system covering all 25 of its park and ride lots and one transit center. The 350-camera system will be installed over the next six months, Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert said, and will keep an eye on the facilities 24 hours a day. But the cameras are more than just cameras, KTRH reports: A software program installed in the system will alert......

Police have released a description and sketch of the man suspected of shooting at a crowded HISD school bus Tuesday afternoon. Thirty students from Westbury High School and Johnston Middle School were on the bus in southeast Houston when a shot shattered one of the vehicle's windows, injuring two 11-year-old students. Early news reports didn't give much detail about the appearance of the suspect, but now we have the following description: An African-American man with......

Just a few weeks after HPD recommended a vendor for Houston's proposed red-light camera system, a competing company is asking the city to reconsider its decision, claiming the police department's evaluation of competing cameras systems was unfair. In early February, HPD recommended American Traffic Solutions for the project based on evaluation of four competing companies. But Nestor Traffic Systems is saying the selection process was unfair and that it's generally a better choice than ATS.......

With no easy solution to HPD's officer shortage, Police Chief Harold Hurtt has suggested a new way to fight crime: cameras. Hurtt's idea is to place surveillance cameras at crime hotspots like malls, apartment complexes and areas with high rates of prostitution and drug use. The cameras would feed directly to the police department and would be similar to the red-light cameras the city is planning to install at intersections. Similar surveillance systems have drawn......

For those of us who are a little confused about the new red-light camera system, the Chronicle offers a Q-and-A with HPD Executive Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo to clear some of those issues up. And, uh, she does. Sort of. Q: How do the cameras work? A: They're going to be attached to the signals, the traffic light signals. If a vehicle is coming at a certain rate or speed, the system knows it......