From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • Two men were rescued from the Gulf of Mexico 130 miles southeast of Galveston when their helicopter crashed. • Deer Park resident and former Astros pitcher, Andy Pettitte, admitted to using a human growth hormone during his recovery from an elbow injury in 2002. • During future evacuations and before boarding public transportation criminal background checks will be standard operating procedure to......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • A customer was fatally shot and a security guard wounded during a robbery at a Fiesta grocery store on Fulton St. • A Houston man was found dead in his apartment of multiple gun shot wounds on Walnut Bend Lane. Police speculate he had been dead for days. • One city work is dead and another is wounded after they were struck......

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......

Good morning, Houston. We just don't understand the entertainment juggernaut (or is it "juggernette?") that is Hannah Montana: Tickets to her Nov. 11 Toyota Center show sold out in five minutes Saturday, and now they're going for as much as $1,275 on eBay — granted, that's for a set of four tickets, but still, wow. The markup through eBay and ticket brokers has left some parents shelling out big bucks to give their kids......

After much anticipation, Sugarbaby’s finally opened its doors this past summer. As a rule of thumb, Houstonist always likes to give these big openings a bit of time to iron out wrinkles before we come in. In the meantime, we had images of a Houston version of Magnolia Bakery in NYC and Sprinkles in LA. And when we finally walked in, it took us a bit to take in the interior - all black, white......

Good morning, Houston. In case you haven't noticed, it's finally hot. We've had temperatures in the high 90s so far this week, and coupled with high humidity, they're making it dangerously warm — so much so, in fact, that we were under a heat advisory yesterday. And it looks like today's temperatures will be about the same, so remember to avoid heat exhaustion by drinking plenty of fluids, avoiding strenuous outdoor activities in the......

Good morning, Houston. You know what today is, right? It's the day before what's apparently the most important book in the history of the world, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released. If you're a Harryhead and a fan of Katy, our neighbor to the west, you should be delighted to know that Katy has been named the "Harryest" town in Texas — the distinction that goes to the town that pre-ordered the......

Anyone who's been to Crystal Beach knows it can be busy — but is it dangerous? We wouldn't have thought so, but we might have to think again after a woman was found raped and murdered on the beach early Sunday morning. The victim was 28-year-old Bridgette Gearen of Orange, who was visiting friends at a beachhouse near the corner of Crystal Beach and Redfish roads. After they spent Saturday at the beach, the group......

We've covered a few distinctive thieves in the last few months: the cell phone bandit, the bicycle bandit, the dapper bandit, the bad hair bandit — and now there's a new one: the bossy bandit, who was reportedly quite rude when he knocked over a west Houston bank last week. According to FBI officials, the man walked into the Wells Fargo branch on the Katy Freeway near Highway 6 at around 5 p.m. last Tuesday;......

So here's a new twist on the old attempted robbery story: In Pearland, a man tried to rob his wife's pizza restaurant Monday — and now both man and wife are charged with aggravated robbery. Here's how it went down: Police say a man grabbed an employee of the Little Caesar's in the 5400 block of Broadway on Monday morning as she left the restaurant with a bank deposit bag. The man said he had......

Well, here's something to be proud of: Houston's homicide rate is now the second-highest among large American cities, according to FBI figures released Monday. Keep in mind that this is the homicide rate we're talking about — Houston's was 18.2 per 100,000 residents last year, putting us second only to Philadelphia and ahead of Dallas (fifth place), which has had a higher homicide rate than Houston for each of the last 11 years. The numbers......

Good morning, Houston. If you've ever dreamed of designing a neighborhood marker, now's your chance: The Sixth Ward Property Owners group is looking for someone to come up with a sign to mark the historic area. "Right now we have markers in the neighborhood and they're in bad shape," Maria Isabel of the SWPO said. "It would be great to redo those." The design specs seem pretty open — the location and materials are......

We know what you're thinking. You've looked at the accompanying photo and have already written off this post as crap. You're wrong. Liquor stores close at 9 PM. You probably haven't given that much thought except for the occassions when you desparately needed another bottle of Hypnotiq, Jaegermeister or some other item only available at a booze shop. We know the feeling. Try hosting a kegger without a functioning tap only to arrive in......

Good morning, Houston. When we hear the words "concrete canoe," two other words come to mind: "doesn't float." But our instincts are wrong: Concrete canoes can be seaworthy, and one created by University of Houston engineering students floats so well that it's headed for the national concrete canoe competition in Seattle. The national contest is set for mid-June, and it could lead the team to a spot in the international competition in Holland in......

Police have arrested seven Houston teens in connection with the aggravated robbery of a Sugar Land doctor earlier this month — all of them students at Elsik High School and most of them claiming to be involved with the Rolling 60s gang, a subset of the Crips. The victim, who lived alone, was attacked April 19 when one of the suspects reportedly knocked on his door asking to be allowed to call his mother because......

Dontae Moore, the 19-year-old man charged with capital murder in the Dec. 27 shooting of Bellaire High School student Jonathan Finkelman, testified Thursday that he only meant to scare Finkelman by holding a loaded gun to his head during what Moore said was intended to be a robbery. Finkelman, 16, was found in Godwin Park with a gunshot wound to the head; information later emerged that Finkelman and a friend were at the park meeting......

From the "Thieves in disguise" file comes the story of a man who has carried out one robbery and attempted two others — all while dressed as a U.S. postal worker. The guy's first robbery attempt was at an EZ Pawn location at the East Freeway and Lockwood on March 26; he ended up leaving the store when a clerk asked him for ID. But things went better at a nearby EZ Pawn on Lyons......

Good morning, Houston. In case you haven't heard, Channel 11 has a new anchor to replace Lisa Foronda: She's Lucy Noland, a native of Saigon who's leaving a job as co-anchor of the WNYW morning show in New York City for the job here. "It's time for me to put down roots, to have a house and home," Noland told the Chronicle. "This nomadic lifestyle has been fun. It's taken me far and wide,......

The FBI is on the lookout for a bank robber they're calling the "Desperate Dad" — a guy who robbed an Uptown Wachovia Bank branch last month, claiming that he needed the money because he had lost his job and had a baby at home. The man walked into the bank at 4906 San Felipe at 12:37 p.m. March 6, walked to the teller counter and pulled a chrome pistol from a navy blue zippered......

Good morning, Houston. The Internet has become such a part of our lives that it's hard sometimes to step back and see just how pervasive it really is — but the folks at Domain Name Wire came up with an interesting way to do that: They counted the number of URLs advertised along Highway 71 and I-10 between Austin and Houston. The grand total? More than 68, including the whopper qualityconcreteandswimmingpools.com (which doesn't seem......

Given how much Houstonist loves a good bank robbery story, we don't know how we missed the news item last week about an exceptionally courteous man who knocked over a downtown bank branch Friday afternoon. According to KHOU, the guy walked into the Amegy Bank at 1801 Main St. around 1:30 p.m. Friday and waited in line at a teller window; when he got to the front, he handed the teller a note demanding cash.......

Good morning, Houston. If you're wondering where your transit dollars are going, check the stolen laptop market: Police are looking for a man who they say stole two computers from Metro's downtown headquarters building in mid-February. Seems the guy walked into the building Feb. 16, followed an employee to an eighth-floor conference room and picked up two laptops — unfortunately, we don't know whether he got away using public transportation, but we can dream.......

Good morning, Houston. We have two words to brighten up your day: obese squirrel. The squirrel in question got stuck in a hole in a tree in East Oak Cliff, Dallas, on Sunday — its head was inside the tree, but its rear end was left hanging. Wildlife rescue technician Joe Warner got the unfortunate animal free by sawing a hole around the squirrel, a process that took 45 minutes. All of which makes......

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......

For sheer television news drama, you just can't beat the opening lines of KHOU's report on local burglaries: They want your TV, your laptop and your jewelry. They're burglars, and they're hitting houses by the dozens in some Houston neighborhoods. Kinda makes you nervous, eh? That's why Houstonist has decided to never leave our house again. Takeout Taxi delivers, Rice Epicurean delivers, Netflix delivers, we can order underwear online — we're all set. But for......

Good morning, Houston. Are you running around on your wife/husband/significant other? Better look out: Valentine's Day is prime time for catching cheaters. The reason? If you have two or three (or six or seven) boy/girlfriends, you're likely going to need to see all of 'em on the 14th — so be careful. Or, y'know, just stick with the monogamy thing. >> The doctor is ... in?: Eric Scheffey, one of the most-sued doctors in......

Good morning, Houston. In case you were wondering, the threat of a "sickout" by HISD teachers upset over the district's new merit pay program ended up not happening after all. "It never crossed my mind [to call in sick]," Anderson Elementary teacher Linda Burks told the Chronicle. "I had a job to do." She added that all her colleagues showed up for work Tuesday, too — but then again, most of them got bonuses.......

OK, so if you're a former cop yourself, you'd think you would be slick enough to avoid being arrested for a crime spree, right? Well, maybe not: Police have made an arrest in a string of Montgomery County bank robberies, and the prime suspect is a former HPD officer. His name is Raymond Martinez, and he's been charged with the aggravated robbery of a Wachovia branch in April; Sgt. Bryan Carlisle of the Shenandoah Police......

Bank robbery, threatening note, getaway vehicle — yeah, we've heard it all before. But what made a robbery at the Wachovia branch at 235 W. 20th St. unusual was that the bandit arrived and fled on a bicycle. Yesterday afternoon, the man reportedly rode up to the bank on a bike, walked in, approached a teller and handed over a note demanding money and saying he was carrying a bomb. According to KHOU, "the robber......

The story of a SWAT standoff at a southwest Harris County home yesterday morning was a pretty big deal — a family that was held captive but escaped, two armed suspects, lots of cops — but when police finally entered the house, they found no suspects inside at all. The situation began around 4 a.m. Tuesday, when a neighbor called police to report suspicious activity at the house in the 6400 block of Modesto. One......