Goodbye hump day, hello rain. Did anyone else have a sucky Wednesday? And to top it off, the current monsoon over our office is making us have flashbacks of the beginning of the summer. What happened to our 108 degrees and sunny?! We are on a mission to make the most of this wet and soggy day, so we are heading to the Museum of Fine Arts tonight as they present Artful Thursdays. Because...
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Results tagged “suicide”
Victor Montano, a sixteen-year-old Houstonian, was hit and killed by a police vehicle in New Orleans. He had been visiting the city for about two weeks. Police caught Montano spray painting along the floodwall last Thursday afternoon. When he saw the police, he took off running and the officer followed in his SUV. The officer said it appeared as though Victor was going to jump over a fence, but when tripped and fell in front...
A UT study says that obese girls are only half as likely to go to college as young women who are not obese, reports the Chronicle. The study, which also tracked boys (in whom no correlation between educational choices and weight was found), studied over ten thousand kids over the course of several years. Statistics were adjusted for other factors known to affect college attendance in previous studies, such as income level and ethnicity....
Good morning, Houston. Where do you go when you want to get away? The Chronicle asked some of its readers that and published their answers Friday — and it's not such a bad list, with day trips, museums and natural attractions. (Also on the list: the mausoleum at Forest Park Westheimer cemetery, which definitely takes a certain kind of person to enjoy.) The suggestion we're most interested in checking out is ex-state Rep. Debra...
This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the...
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...
El-P Performs at Numbers Tonight Happy Memorial Day, folks. If you are like us, your would like to negotiate for another weekend without so much rain. We are preparing the petition. One of our favorite things to do while it rains (or pretty much any other time), oh get your minds outta the gutter, is catch some live music indoors. Last night's Elliot Lipp show at the Proletariat, really got us in the mood....
The bond for Raymond Shaw, the man charged with shooting an 11-year-old friend of his son's, was doubled to $100,000 yesterday — and following the court hearing, the victim's family said they forgive Shaw for what he did. "We believe in God," Pamela Jones, a cousin of victim Jonathan Dixson, told reporters. "We have to forgive [Shaw] for that. It hurts us. We're hurting deeply, but we have to forgive him." Shaw, you'll remember, shot...
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...
More people made it through last month in Houston than last April, according to unofficial HPD statistics. This April recorded 30 homicides, compared to last year's 31. That brings the 2007 total to 119, also down from last year's 123. Within that number, only about 2 each month involved Katrina evacuees, compared to the 20% of last year's total number. But every silver lining has its dark cloud. While the number of homicides has decreased...
William Phillips, 60, is the accused perpetrator of the murder-suicide at Johnson Space Center last Friday. Phillips, a JSC employee who feared being fired after a poor performance review, smuggled a revolver into the building and barricaded himself with his hostage. The security team at the space center had reassessed their security procedures in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings prior to this incident. The reassessment found that no major changes were needed, but...
A crosstown police chase turned into a bizarre standoff early this morning, leaving the suspect dead — but not until he had tried to charge at the authorities with a street sweeper. According to KTRK, it all began around 12:30 a.m. at Briar Forest and the Beltway, where police saw the driver of a white Cadillac speeding. They ran the car's plates and found out that it might have been connected with several robberies, so...
Concerts are abundant this week, so you have no excuse for not getting out and seeing a show. If you're a fan of Texas country, you may want to take the drive out to Bolivar Peninsula this weekend for their first Stingaree Music Festival, featuring Hayes Carll, Todd Snider, Adam Carroll, and much more. One sometimes Texas alt.country band will not be there, but will be playing at the Meridian Thursday night -- the...
Now that there's a suspect in the March 28 office building fire that killed three people, there's another question on people's minds: How could she have done it? But in the case of 33-year-old nurse Misty Ann Weaver, who confessed to setting the fire to cover up the fact that she hadn't completed some office paperwork, there apparently aren't any easy answers. Weaver told investigators over the weekend that she intended to set a small...
Remember how Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's desks were being auctioned for charity on eBay? Well, when the auctions closed Saturday night, Skilling's desk had a new owner, but Lay's didn't: The high bid of $25,000 for the former Enron chairman's desk fell $1 short of the reserve price of $25,001, the Chronicle reports. Oh, the heartbreak of eBay! To refresh your memory, the two desks — identical, massive pieces of furniture designed by Gensler...
A series of developments and twists over the weekend brought the case of murdered Texas A&M student Tynesha Stewart to a grisly point: Investigators said there would definitely be no search for her remains because there aren't any remains to be found. "There are no remaining body parts," Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said in a news conference Saturday night. "We have determined through this investigation that the defendant dismembered the victim and burned her...
The Harris County sheriff's office is investigating what was apparently a murder-suicide in southwest Harris County yesterday afternoon: Seems a woman and her ex-boyfriend got into an argument in the ex's driveway, and he ended up shooting her and then turning the gun on himself. Neighbors dialed 911 when they heard the first gunshots, and deputies say the man shot himself in the head as they drove up: "As the units approached the house, they...
Good morning, Houston. Even if you don't have a pizza pan with the Virgin Mary's silhouette on it, don't despair: You could still own a half-liter bottle of holy drinking water. The water is being marketed by a man in Stockton, Calif., who has the liquid blessed by Catholic and Anglican priests with plans to expand the line to other faiths as well. One warning: The water's label carries the note that sinners who...
Wherefore art thou, Radar? This week KPRC dumped the lovable weather dog (sending Ken Hoffman into a tizzy, no doubt), and the mikemcguff blog chronicled it for us. Radar is moving on to bigger things though: he'll become the mascot for the John C. Freeman Weather Museum. The best part of this blog post is the speculation about Radar's uncontrollable barking during newscasts and the jealousy stewing in the hearts of KPRC anchors. We'll miss...
Former Houstonian Daniel Joseph Maldonado has become the first American to be charged with joining terrorists in Somalia. Maldonado, 28, was arrested in Kenya last month and was ordered held without bond yesterday on charges that he trained with al-Qaeda to try to form an Islamic state in Somalia. According to the criminal complaint against Maldonado, he left Houston in November 2005 for Cairo; by December 2006, he was in Somalia, where he had been...
Many songs from the 80’s don’t stand the test of time; Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” is an exception. It’s been 20 years since it hit #2 on the charts and the song sounds about as fresh now as it did then. Even the video has aged well, compared to others from the same time period. A lot of that has to do with lead house member Neil Finn’s songwriting and musicianship. Ever...
A Sam Houston State University cheerleader was killed last night in an apparent murder-suicide as her roommates listened in, the Chronicle reports. It happened at the Huntsville apartment complex where Rachel Pendray, a 20-year-old from Houston, shared an apartment with three of her sorority sisters; the shooter was Jake Taylor, a guy Pendray had broken up with. The story was that Pendray had tried to break up with Taylor, but he pursued her to the...
The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor deneyterrio. Yesterday, the sidewalk was asking if it was doing anything to help humanity. Today, it's still unsure. Will it or won't it cause this person with the nice Addidas to jump over the edge? Don't be too concerned, the person isn't that high up. It's a great shot, though. It's also a good reminder to plug the Texas Suicide Prevention Resource Center. Also, if...
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,...
More on the case of Juan Leonardo Quintero, accused of shooting HPD Officer Rodney Johnson to death last week: In an interview in a Harris County jail, Quintero said he couldn't explain what happened when Johnson was shot Thursday, saying only that he "got scared" after being pulled over in a traffic stop. Johnson pulled Quintero over for speeding Thursday afternoon near Hobby Airport and decided to arrest him after he discovered Quintero had no...
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...
HISD trustees voted 8-1 yesterday to shut down three of the district's worst-performing schools next summer if the schools don't improve test scores and keep students from dropping out. The three schools — Kashmere High, Sam Houston High and McReynolds Middle School — are three of the lowest-performing in the state; according to state accountability ratings released last week, Kashmere and Sam Houston were the only schools in Texas to earn "academically unacceptable" ratings for...
SWAT officers shot an armed man at a Hobby Airport-area motel last night after a nearly three-hour standoff that involved threats and a female hostage. It started at about 10:30 p.m. when police got a tip that the man, wanted on suspicion of armed robbery, was at the Motel 6 in the 8800 block of West Airport. Cops showed up at the motel, knocked on the man's door and got threatened: "Those officers and supervisors...
Police found a man who had been shot to death in a car at a southwest Houston apartment complex yesterday afternoon, but they don't know who he is or who killed him A psychiatrist testified Friday that he warned Andrea Yates not to have more children when she attempted suicide after the birth of her fourth child in 1999 There's been a crime spike in the Fort Bend County suburbs in recent months, the KTRK...
Andrea Yates showed signs of severe mental illness and psychosis in the weeks before she drowned her five children, doctors and Yates' former mother in law testified yesterday in Yates' capital murder retrial. At least one doctor who saw Yates before the killings said she presented a substantial risk to herself and other people: "She was one of the sickest people I've ever seen, and I think she was suffering from some sort of mental...