Good morning, Houston. If you've lived here a while, you probably know that the city is prone to livestock running amok — so it shouldn't be too surprising that Third Ward residents found a pair of ewes loose in their neighborhood yesterday. Some neighbors and a KTRK crew tried to catch the animals and eventually chased them to the TSU campus, where a Harris County sheriff's deputy and KTRK photographer Ben Lutman made a......

Good morning, Houston. Next time you happen to be walking along Northwood Drive in Baytown — and really, we can't imagine why you would be — be sure to use the sidewalk. If you don't, you could end up being slapped with a $150 citation. It happened to Clifton Stewart, a minister who said he moved to the neighborhood to save money; on Aug. 21, Stewart was cited for violating a state law that......

It seems just yesterday that a falling concrete beam took a bite out of a concrete wall on the Sam Houston Tollway at its interchange with the Katy Freeway. And now the same thing has happened again, more or less — except this time it was a piece of construction debris, and it landed on a passing motorist's car. That motorist, Terry Burgess, told KHOU how he was driving along the eastbound Katy Freeway feeder......

Depending on the outcome of a vote by Harris County Commissioners Court tomorrow, rates on the county's toll road system could increase 25 cents by the end of the summer, the first step in a plan to double tolls over the next 20 years. That means that, by 2027, drivers would pay $2 per EZ Tag transaction and $2.50 per cash transaction on Harris County toll roads — though it's not clear just how......

Good morning, Houston. It's Thursday — the last day of May — which means there's just a few more hours to enter the Houstonist photo exhibition. We're accepting entries until 11:59 p.m. tomorrow, so be sure to send your photos before then. As always, the details and entry form are at 600sqmi.com. Good luck! >> Aw, hail: We knew there was a chance of rain yesterday, but we didn't expect a long bout of......

Ah, now Houstonist remembers why we're totally avoiding the Katy Freeway area these days: falling concrete beams. Or at least one falling concrete beam — one that took a chunk out of a Sam Houston Tollway guardrail yesterday afternoon, narrowly missing passing traffic and closing the tollway for a couple of hours. It happened around 3:30 p.m. as Williams Bros., one of the contractors building the new mega-Katy Freeway, was tearing down a column at......

So it's after lunch and it's still not icy — yet. To celebrate, officials have reopened some freeway interchanges that were closed yesterday when it looked like all hell would break loose. According to the Harris County Toll Road Authority, the following ramps and bridges are now open: ramp from eastbound Westpark tollway to Southwest Freeway northbound ramp from the southbound Grand Parkway to the eastbound Westpark tollway the Fort Bend Parkway from the Sam......

Houstonist was just advised, via the Chronicle, that there are some road closures beginning at 5:00 p.m. today and continuing until the threat of icing has passed. Mainly, this might concern you if you live "outside the loop", or need to head that way in the next day or so. So, notify your friends or family if needed. Make a mental note to adjust your drive, if you haven't left work already. Houstonist asks......

Would any of our weekends be complete without a major construction-related traffic jam on the Katy Freeway or the West Loop? Fortunately, we don't have to waste any time considering the possibility of a jam-free weekend: Big traffic problems are expected on the West Loop this weekend as new pavement is opened between San Felipe and Highway 290. The move means two alternate lanes of the northbound Loop between Richmond Avenue and 290 will be......

If you're a fan of toll roads — and let's be honest, who isn't? — you'll probably be really pleased to know that Harris County and the state have reached an agreement that will let the county expand three toll projects using state right-of-way. Total cost: Well, we don't know. TxDOT has asked the county for $1 billion upfront, plus an unspecified share of future toll revenue, to use state land to build 80......

Plantersville-area residents had to evacuate this afternoon after a valve blew on a natural gas pipeline A man arrested for trying to kidnap a young girl in Pearland claims he's tried to abduct more than 100 kids across the Houston area Up to 20,000 Texas coastal residents could lose their windstorm insurance coverage in the wake of the expense of last year's hurricanes The Public Utility Commission thinks CenterPoint Energy might have made too much......

Once in a while, a story comes along about an incidental fee that's gone horribly wrong — you know, like the one about the poor soul who finds a book his great grandmother forgot to return to the library and ends up being responsible for $1 million in overdue fines. The report about the guy who owes the Harris County Toll Road Authority $9,287 in delinquent tolls isn't quite that extreme, but it'll do.......

More details this morning on the car chase that ended yesterday in a head-on crash: It sounds like Jatinderjit Kaur Mann, the guy being chased, was a little crazy. The chase started after Harris County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to a disturbance call at 1:17 p.m. Wednesday at Berryhill Baja Grill in the 5400 block of FM 1960. When deputies arrived, the disturbance grew into an assault after an altercation in the restaurant parking lot.......