Warrant roundup begins ...

Thayer Evans wrote:
If you have any tickets you haven't gotten around to paying, this is the week to take care of them.

League City, Friendswood, Houston and other cities around Clear Lake will join hundreds of jurisdictions participating in the Great Texas Warrant Roundup this weekend.

Starting Saturday, March 6, police will be visiting homes, schools and workplaces to arrest those with outstanding warrants from municipal courts.

Most of the offenses involve unpaid traffic or parking tickets but more serious violations are included, and no amnesty is being offered. Those with outstanding warrants can be arrested at any location.

Cities are mailing notices to the last known address of those with warrants.

League City Police Chief Mike Jez said those with warrants needs to resolve them before the roundup. His police department will have “quite a few” officers participating in it this year, he said.

“The message to folks right now is avoid getting arrested on your job site or an embarrassing moment,” Jez said. “Come take of things. It’ll save you time, money and embarrassment. It’s something that’s easily avoidable. Most of them are minor offense violations anyway.”

If you think there may be a warrant out on you, contact your local municipal court to find out how to post a bond.

Clear Lake's Houston residents can call 713-731-3950 or visit the city's Clear Lake police station at 2855 Bay Area Blvd. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The International Space Station Program has won the 2009 Collier Trophy

Image:







The International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-130 crew member on space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation. Credit: NASA

The International Space Station Program has won the 2009 Collier Trophy, which is considered the top award in aviation. The National Aeronautic Association bestows the award annually to recognize the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “We're proud of our past achievements to build and operate the space station, and we're excited about the future- there's a new era ahead of potential groundbreaking scientific research aboard the station."

The International Space Station is a joint project of five space agencies and 15 countries that is nearing completion and will mark the 10th anniversary of a continuous human presence in orbit later this year. The largest and most complicated spacecraft ever built, the space station is an international, technological and political achievement that represents the latest step in humankind’s quest to explore and live in space.

Designated as a national laboratory by Congress in the 2005 NASA Authorization Act, the space station provides a research platform that takes advantage of the microgravity conditions 220 miles above the Earth’s surface across a wide variety of fields, including human life sciences, biological science, human physiology, physical and materials science, and Earth and space science.

Upon completion of assembly later this year, the station’s crew and its U.S., European, Japanese and Russian laboratory facilities will expand the pace of space-based research to unprecedented levels. Nearly 150 experiments are currently under way on the station, and more than 400 experiments have been conducted since research began nine years ago. These experiments already are leading to advances in the fight against food poisoning, new methods for delivering medicine to cancer cells and the development of more capable engines and materials for use on Earth and in space.

The international partner agencies – NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency – provide control centers and support teams that train and launch crews to the station, provide support for systems operations and coordinate the on-orbit research 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Now supporting a multicultural crew of six, the station has a mass of almost 800,000 pounds and a habitable volume of more than 12,000 cubic feet – approximately the size of a five-bedroom home, and uses state-of-the-art systems to generate solar electricity, recycle nearly 85 percent of its water and generate much of its own oxygen supply. Nearly 190 humans have visited the space station, which is now supporting its 22nd resident crew.

Boeing is the prime contractor, responsible for design, development, construction and integration of the ISS.

The award will be formally presented to the International Space Station Program team on May 13. The award is named for Robert J. Collier, a publisher who commissioned it in 1910 with the intent to encourage the U.S. aviation community to strive for excellence and achievement in aeronautic development. Past winners include the B-52 Program, the Surveyor Moon Landing Program, the Boeing 747 and the F-22. Other past honorees include the crews of Apollo 11 and Apollo 8, the Mercury 7.

Wonmore renovating Clear Lake High Rise

-(BUSINESS WIRE)--Houston-based Wonmore Ltd. announces they are investing nearly $2 million to renovate and repair the Endeavour Clear Lake luxury high-rise. Wonmore, a single purpose entity and partnership created for the acquisition of the property, purchased the remaining 44 condominiums in the Endeavour luxury high-rise on Clear Lake, located at 4821 NASA Parkway in Pasadena, Texas, for $9.5 million on December 16, 2009.

“The vast majority of the funds will be allocated to repairing the common areas and exterior in addition to other upgrades to the building. We are also excited to complete the penthouse – it offers magnificent views and will be a spectacular home”
“We have thoroughly assessed the Clear Lake luxury condominium high-rise, including any remaining damage from Hurricane Ike. The building is soundly engineered and of the highest quality. Our investment is focused on exceeding market standards and delivering a high-end offering that homeowners can feel confident about,” said John Gilmore, co-founder and managing principal of Richmore Properties, L.L.C., the general partner managing Wonmore’s investment.

The developer of the tower, Endeavour Highrise L.P., filed for bankruptcy in May of 2009. In addition to the $9.5 million paid for the remaining condominiums, Wonmore has also covered the existing 2010 homeowner assessments, as well as the outstanding taxes owed on the building for 2008 and 2009.

Nearly 60 percent of the $2 million invested in the property will go toward re-skinning the building with a G.E. Elastomeric paint designed to expand up to 400 percent and seal the structure. The roof is being upgraded and covered with a rubberized coating to repair damage from Hurricane Ike and provide additional protection against outdoor elements. A variety of upgrades are being made to all of the common areas inside the building, including the movie theater, hallways and lobby in addition to other interior architecture-related improvements. For the exterior, plans include adding security cameras, improving the landscape and hard-scape features, repairing the lighting system, and making upgrades to the docks and marina. Wonmore will also finish-out the penthouse and the other remaining units.

“The vast majority of the funds will be allocated to repairing the common areas and exterior in addition to other upgrades to the building. We are also excited to complete the penthouse – it offers magnificent views and will be a spectacular home,” continued Gilmore.

The 30-story condominium tower, designed by Houston-based EDI Architects, has 80 units between 1,278 and 7,533 square feet. With expansive views of Clear Lake and the Gulf of Mexico, the development offers residents a number of high-end features including a large, infinity-edge pool and private boat slips. Interior features include luxury, European-style finishes, 12-foot ceilings and spacious balconies perfect for taking in the complex’s sweeping views. Units in the Clear Lake high-rise are to be marketed from $350,000 to $2.9 million.

Gilmore anticipates the majority of repairs and upgrades will be completed by late spring.

Richmore Properties is a privately capitalized real estate investment and development firm. The firm invests in a diversified portfolio of real estate assets and specializes in repositioning and renovating distressed properties. The company has invested in over three dozen properties in the Greater Houston-area since 1997.

Man throws puppies off of Port Arthur sea wall.

PORT ARTHUR, Texas (AP) - Three rescued puppies are recovering after being thrown over a seawall and on to some rocks in Port Arthur.

Firefighters rescued the crying pups and placed the creatures with animal control.

KFDM-TV reports the man who tossed the animals on Sunday was heard saying he was "turning them into soldiers." A bystander noticed the abandoned puppies and summoned help.

Pat Lavergne with Port Arthur Animal Control says the puppies, with health problems such as mange, were at the shelter Tuesday and available for adoption. She described them as a retriever mix.

The owner of the dogs, who was not immediately located, could face animal cruelty charges.

Space Station Gets Room With A View

Ten years after astronauts first moved into the International Space Station, they finally installed a picture window last week to take in the neighborhood.

The Lineage of a View

By Phil Patton


The Italian-built “cupola,” delivered by the shuttle Endeavour, has seven large windows centered on a 30-inch central pane. NASA calls the cupola “the largest window ever built for space.” Until now, space travelers have had to be content with the view from portholes.

NASA refers to the cupola as a control tower, and it does resemble an early 1930s airport control tower. Its primary role is functional. It will provide astronauts with a view of the space station’s exterior robotic arm and of visiting spacecraft docking with the space station. But the $27 million cupola also provides a panoramic view of Earth and the surrounding cosmos.

Last Wednesday, the protective shutters covering the windows were opened for the first time. Africa’s Sahara Desert filled the view. “The astronauts who are accustomed to views that you and I cannot really describe were moved to tears when they looked out the windows of the cupola for the first time,” Bob Dempsey, the NASA flight director for the mission, said.

Windows have always been important to astronauts. In “The Right Stuff,” Tom Wolfe told of how the first American astronauts had to beg for a window in their tiny capsules.

Engineers hate windows. They are vulnerable to micrometeorite strikes. They admit sunlight that increases the heat load when, in the space station’s case, it orbits through the day half of the earth. The seals can deteriorate after years of enduring the drastic temperature changes in space.

To address some of those dangers, the cupola’s windows come with shutters.

Julie Robinson, a space station scientist, said in a NASA news release that “crews tell us that Earth-gazing is important to them. The astronauts work hard up there and are away from their families for a long time. Observing the Earth and the stars helps relax and inspire them.”

The new window is reminiscent of dramatic round windows in classical buildings, like the duomo in Florence or Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. It also resembles the cupola-like cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo’s spaceship in “Star Wars,” and Captain Nemo’s giant porthole in the study of the submarine Nautilus in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” The cupola attaches to a new section of the station with waste-processing equipment, exercise gear and some living quarters, including more comfortable sleep stations. It used to be known as Node 3. Now it is named Tranquility.

It is late in the game for the window to arrive. The station is almost complete. Only four more shuttle flights are scheduled. The station was originally supposed to be vacated after 2015, although President Obama has proposed extending its life to 2020. Adding the cupola now has a bit of the feel of a suburban home owner trying to spruce up his dull tract house by installing a bay window in the family room.

But the view is to kill for.

LA Times: Capybara puts Alvin on map

LA TIMES:

It's one thing to get a goldfish because your daughter begs for one. It's quite another to end up with a 100-pound rodent who has more than 2,700 Twitter followers.

Caplin Rous is a capybara. Related to the guinea pig, the capybara is the largest species of rodent. Though they're native to South America, Caplin was born in Texas and lives in the town of Buda with Melanie Typaldos, who never expected this animal to take over her life quite the way he has.

Typaldos says it all started on a trip to Venezuela, when her daughter Coral got to hold a young capybara and "fell in love."

"After we got back, she pretty relentlessly pestered me about getting one for a pet," Typaldos says. "Since Coral lived in an apartment and was planning on spending a year in Asia, she couldn't have a pet capybara herself so, she felt, it was up to me to fulfill her capybara vision."

Even capybaras that are bred in captivity like Caplin are not domesticated animals, so early handling and contact is critical for them to be comfortable living with people. Typaldos got Caplin when he was only 11 days old, and took him to work every day for the first three months. Then, "someone complained there was a furry, pig-like animal in the building," and she took a month of vacation and stayed home with him.

Caplin Rous is now 2 1/2. The second part of his name, which Typaldos pronounces like "rose," stands for "Rodent of Unusual Size" (a reference to the movie "The Princess Bride"). He's also a rodent of unusual abilities. He can walk on a leash and even do some tricks, but Typaldos says it's important not to exaggerate any similarity to a dog doing tricks.

"Dogs have thousands of years of being trained to be subservient to people," she says. "A capybara will not do a trick just to make me happy. The quality of the trick is very dependent on the quality of the treat."

Most people who keep capybaras keep them as farm animals, like a sheep or goat, but Caplin basically lives indoors with Typaldos (he eliminates in a pan of water in her bathroom). Outdoor space is necessary as well for grazing and swimming in his pool; in the wild, capybaras are semi-aquatic, diving into rivers to escape predators. Somewhat ponderous on land, capybaras are surprisingly graceful in the water.

"On land he's not very active," she says. "When he's in the water he's like another animal. That's where he's really the happiest."



There's no way of knowing how many private individuals own capybaras, but Justin Damesta, a breeder in Alvin, Texas, says that he sells five to 10 of them a year as pets.

Damesta recommends that a pet capybara be raised indoors for the first few months and then kept outdoors with sturdy fencing, a heated shelter and a pool. Potential buyers who contact him are usually fairly well informed, but, he says, "I have and will turn down people I don't consider qualified or capable."

Some other pet capybaras also can be followed on the Internet, such as Dobby in Seattle. But Typaldos is probably unique in the way she has made the capybara her mission: She spends a couple of hours a day updating Caplin's Internet presence on a blog and social networking sites.

When asked how much time it takes to care for a capybara, she says, "I spend all my time with him, but that's a matter of choice."



Caplin's Web activities are partly fun -- such as interactive games of "Rodent Jeopardy" -- with a serious educational purpose, too. "When I was thinking of getting him, there was nothing on the Web about getting a pet capybara," says Typaldos. "That was a large impetus for the blog. They're not the right pet for most people."

Typaldos has a background in biology, and also keeps horses and reptiles. Her property is big enough that Caplin can graze and swim, and she lives in a climate appropriate for a tropical animal.

On her blog, she's honest about the problems in caring for a capybara. When people ask her about getting one, she tells them first to read her whole blog, including the entries about when he has bitten her.

But Typaldos also sees Caplin as an ambassador of sorts.

"People don't like rodents," she says, but many rodents make good pets. Her kids had pet rats when they were young. "If someone says something bad about rats, on the blog or Facebook, he'll always step in and say something."

LINK TO ORIGINAL STORY WITH MORE PHOTOS

Endeavour Arrives at International Space Station

Space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station at 12:06 a.m. EST Wednesday, delivering the Tranquility module and its new room with a view, the cupola.

Endeavour Commander George Zamka guided the orbiter to a docking with Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 as the two spacecraft were flying 215 miles above Earth off the western coast of Portugal.

When the shuttle arrived within 600 feet of the station, Endeavour performed the nine-minute Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or “back flip.” Zamka rotated the orbiter backwards, enabling space station Commander Jeffrey Williams and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov to take high-resolution pictures of the shuttle. The images will be analyzed by experts on the ground to assess the health of Endeavour’s heat shield.

The shuttle and station crews opened hatches at 2:16 a.m. as Endeavour and the outpost flew off the northwest coast of Australia. With the arrival of Endeavour’s six astronauts, the station’s population grows to 11 and its mass tops 1 million pounds.

Endeavour’s crew will awaken at 4:14 p.m. Wednesday’s work will focus on supply transfers, spacewalk preparations and Water Recovery System repairs. Thursday’s work will focus on installation of the new Tranquility module onto the Unity module and the mission’s first spacewalk.

Author publishes first children’s book

By Jim Higgins
Special to The Daily News
Published February 10, 2010

LEAGUE CITY — Hurricane Rita uprooted trees and lives in East Texas in 2005, but one young woman who evacuated from the storm put down new roots in League City and began writing new chapters of her life.

The path she followed and the career she chose would at first glance seem incongruous to everyone except Christina Smith, who is as comfortable around pumps and compressors as she is reading Dr. Seuss or reciting Leonard Cohen poems.

But it is writing children’s stories and poetry that Christina Smith enjoys the most after a day of studying pumps and compressors in College of the Mainland’s process technology associate degree program.

“My dad has an English degree and reads more than anyone I have ever known but decided to work in the plants back in Orange where I grew up,” the full-time COM students and single mother of a 2-year old, said.

“My dad and mom read to me as a child. My mom wrote poetry. I guess I got my love of words from them.”

Her love for her young daughter, Samantha, coupled with a love of words led her to pen her first children’s book last year, “Skeeter Sneeter Doodlebop.”

“I came up with the name Skeeter Sneeter Doodlebop one day just talking nonsense to Sam, my little girl, when she was barely born.

“I wrote the name down and just built the story around it. Amy, a friend and illustrator who lost everything in Hurricane Ike, went with her own imagination to draw the characters.

“They are very unique-looking characters, unlike any I have seen before.”

After several rejection letters from publishers, Skeeter was picked up by Nimblebooks and became the publisher’s first children’s book.

Smith said the book, which can be purchased online, is doing quite well for an unknown author.

“Children’s books are the best. They are the happiest books on earth. They are filled with imagination and hope and offer a peacefully simplistic outlook on life in comparison to other genres.”

She already is working on her second children’s book, “Skeeter Uses Manners.” It will be available this spring. A book of her poetry, Orange Smiles and Simple Truths also was published this year.

Smith also works 25 to 30 hours a week for a local diving company.

So how will this single mom with a toddler in tow and a passion to write balance all that plus shift work once she graduates in December 2010?

“My mom and sister moved up here to help me out when I had Sam. It is because of them that I can actually do homework or go to Phi Theta Kappa events. It works out great, and Sam never has to be anywhere but at home even if I have a night class. I honestly couldn’t do it without them.

“Lone Star Diving Inc. is my adopted family. They have helped me with everything from actually getting into school, truck repairs, feeding me and even helping me study for tests. I am blessed to be surrounded by people who care about me and my future.

“I know there will be times that are hard because of shift work, but I also know that it is the quality of time you spend with a child that outranks the quantity. I am doing this all for her and I know that one day she will understand. We are going to be just fine.”

Obama's Budget Could Hurt Clear Lake

NASA budget creates uncertainty in Clear Lake
By ERIC BERGER and STEWART M. POWELL
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Change came to Washington a year ago with the election of President Barack Obama, and one year later it is thundering through Houston's space community like a shuttle's sonic boom.

The totality of impacts from Obama's proposed NASA budget for Houston, the Clear Lake community surrounding Johnson Space Center and even for the astronauts themselves is still far from certain.

Space agency officials declined Tuesday to even confirm that NASA's astronaut corps would continue after the space shuttle retires within the next year.

“Right now I just don't think it's right to guess one way or another,” said William Gerstenmaier, who, as associate administrator for space operations, oversees human spaceflight at NASA.

But it's the economic impact from potential job losses fueling the most concern.

Obama's proposal to terminate the shuttle program after five more flights was widely anticipated, but his additional proposal to end the next-generation Constellation Program raises questions — most unanswered — over whether there can be a smooth transfer for employees from one spaceflight program to another.

The NASA manager who oversaw Constellation's efforts to design the next generation of rockets and spacecraft, Doug Cooke, acknowledged that “its end will create an angst among the workers who have been working it, and the immediate effect it will have on jobs.”

It's an angst being felt across the Clear Lake area.

“It will definitely impact our local economy and trickle down to small businesses,” said Cindy Harreld, president & chief executive of the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.
Up to 2,500 jobs at stake

According to the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, the region may lose 2,200 to 2,500 jobs with Constellation's cancellation. There are about 18,000 aerospace jobs in Houston, more than 90 percent located in the Bay area.

Johnson Space Center manages about $4 billion in federal aerospace contracts each year.

“Our hope is that Congress will see the importance of manned spaceflight and overturn what the president is proposing,” Harreld said.

The space center is the heart of NASA's human spaceflight program, housing its astronaut corps and directing all activity in space, including the International Space Station.

From that perspective, Obama's decision to extend the station's life through 2020 provides at least one concrete role for the space center for the next decade.

The uncertainty comes from two other proposals.

The cancellation of Constellation would remove a firm commitment from NASA to launch humans and fly them beyond Earth's orbit.
Ex-astronaut hopeful

The astronaut corps already was facing a reduction in spaceflight opportunities from a couple dozen a year, with the shuttle's retirement, to a handful aboard the space station. Without Constellation, there's no specific plan for any other flights.

And it's possible that astronauts flying to the station might be hired and supervised by a private contractor.

“I'm sure there's a lot of uncertainty in the astronaut corps over the future,” said Leroy Chiao, a veteran of three shuttle flights and a six-month stint aboard the ISS. “I know I'd be concerned if I were still in the corps.”

Yet Chiao, who also served on last summer's panel to review human spaceflight, led by Norman Augustine, noted that Space Station Freedom, first proposed in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, was nearly canceled before being transformed into the space station program.

Chiao believes a new strategy for human spaceflight beyond Earth's orbit will emerge from NASA planners. “I feel confident the United States is not going to give up human spaceflight,” he said. “But until there's a new program I would expect there to be some angst.”

The other major change in Obama's space policy calls for $6 billion to be spent to help private companies develop rockets and crew capsules to carry astronauts to the ISS.

California has a larger private aerospace industry than Texas, but the hope is that Houston firms will get some of the work.

On Tuesday NASA Administrator Charles Bolden selected seven commercial aerospace firms to serve as the nation's “space pioneers” in Obama-era exploration, including Houston-based Boeing Space Exploration. It won $18 million to develop a transportation system and seven-person crew capsule that NASA may choose to ferry astronauts and cargo to the ISS as early as 2016.

Bolden, a former astronaut, said the administration was abandoning the long-standing practice of having the space agency finance human space exploration to enlist “the entrepreneurial mind-set into a field that is poised for rapid growth and new jobs.”
Possible job transfers

Boeing already does significant space shuttle work for NASA, and the new contract, as well as subsequent funding, would allow the company to transfer some shuttle employees in Houston to the new concept, said Keith Reiley, program manager for the company's Commercial Crew Development initiative.

Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, said he did not have any independent assessment of NASA-related job losses in Houston, though he has been a reliable supporter of the Constellation program and voiced opposition to canceling it. “We are on the verge of abandoning human space flight in the near term,” Olson said. “And I fear beyond that.”

eric.berger@chron.com
stewart.powell@chron.com

Atascocita growing by leaps and bounds!

Business Week:

Tired of reading about how rotten the real estate market is? Here's some good news that shows that even during the worst of the recession plenty of American cities, towns, and suburbs continue to grow.

One such place is Atascocita, Tex. A mostly residential community 20 miles from Houston, it gained more than 1,800 households in 2009, an 8% year-over-year increase, according to new data from Little Rock-based data firm Gadberry Group. Over the decade, amenities that have helped attract residents to this wooded locale include Lake Houston, just east of the city; the school district; and proximity to the city of Houston. With new roads in the area under construction, "we're starting to see major industry start to take a look at the area," says Mike Byers, president of the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce.

Migration levels nationwide stayed low last year as homeowners saddled with pricey mortgages stayed put—but there are some positive trends. Research by the Gadberry Group shows that some areas, resisting the effects of the recession, continue to attract both domestic and foreign migrants and, as an effect, bring in new businesses to provide services. While other cities across the U.S. have contracted, these have continued to grow.

Some states are better off than others, though. As thousands of people left places such as New Orleans and Flint, Mich. (the country's two fastest-shrinking cities), in the last decade, communities with the best mix of economic activity, proximity to job centers, and a good environment for families continued to grow. While not entirely spared by the economic downturn (some homes in these areas are now in foreclosure), people continued to move in during 2009.
Texas Grew the Most

Texas came out on top of Gadberry's survey, with four high-growth cities: Atascocita, Katy, Mansfield, and Wylie. The report only included areas larger than 10,000 occupied households that met requirements for growth rate, household income, length of residence, and other factors.

Larry Martin, principal of the Gadberry Group, says many of the places with the biggest housing growth at the beginning of the last decade, such as Nevada, Florida, and Arizona, also saw the biggest drop-off since the economy sank. Texas, however, enjoyed relatively strong housing and job markets over the last 10 years, thanks in large part to the presence of major employers in the robust energy business. As of December, the state unemployment rate was 8.3% (lower than the national rate of 10%), according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also had the largest state population growth between July 2008 and July 2009, according to a December release by the Census Bureau. "New homes are still being built and people are still moving into these homes" in Texas, says Martin.

Part of the state's strength, says Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C., is its diversified economy. Main industries include petroleum refining, chemical production, aerospace, and information technology.

Meanwhile, areas that depended on the housing boom are now dealing with high foreclosure rates. Places such as Summerlin South, Nev., which appear in Bloomberg BusinessWeek's slide show of fast-growing cities, gained population but, like the rest of the state, may be dealing with high mortgage default rates.

"If you live by migration, you also die by migration," says Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "It doesn't guarantee continued growth."
New Business Opportunities

Migration is typically highest among people in their 20s seeking jobs near large urban cores, but employment opportunities are not the only draw. "Amenities are also important in migrational decisions," says Johnson. Many families consider factors such as schools and recreational amenities like scenic areas and parks.

This is a consideration now in Spring Hill, Tenn., which gained 7,645 households since 2000 as many young families moved to the town for affordable housing and work at the General Motors plant, which is now idle. Dustin Dunbar, chairman of the Spring Hill Economic Development Commission, says this has created demand and opportunity for businesses that provide youth activities and entertainment. "We hope to recruit some businesses to cater to our largest demographics," he says.

While migration in 2010 may remain sluggish, "we'll see a continuation of urban sprawl once the economy bounces back," says Mather.

Dr. Conrad Murray to surrender today.

Dr. Conrad Murray is expected to surrender to authorities in Los Angeles this week on charges related to Michael Jackson's death, according to The Associated Press and CNN. Murray arrived in Los Angeles recently from Houston in anticipation of a decision from the district attorney's office, spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik told the AP..

"Dr. Murray is in Los Angeles for a dual purpose — on family business and to be available for law enforcement," Sevcik told the AP. "We're trying to be as cooperative as we can."

"Dr. Murray is more than ready to surrender and answer to any charges," Ed Chernoff, one of Murray's lawers, told CNN, adding that prosecutors have not announced any charges, and Murray has not been told how or where he should surrender.

No official comment has been made about when charges might, come; David Walgren, the deputy district attorney handling the case, declined to comment to the AP on Tuesday (February 2).

Law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the AP that Murray is likely to be charged with involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's June 25 death from an anesthetic overdose. Murray has denied criminal wrongdoing.

"We continue to maintain that Dr. Murray neither prescribed nor administered anything that should have killed Michael Jackson," Sevcik said.

Earlier this year, TMZ reported that the Los Angeles Police Department had completed its investigation into Jackson's death and was preparing to send the case to the DA's office within weeks.

Murray has told investigators that he administered the surgical anesthetic propofol, as well as other tranquilizers, to Jackson several times in the hours leading up to his death, and the coroner has ruled the singer died of lethal levels of the drug. Involuntary manslaughter charges would require prosecutors to show that Murray engaged in gross negligence in his actions but did not intend to cause harm or death to Jackson.

Obama's Budget Nix's Constellation

CNN) -- American astronauts will not return to the moon as planned if Congress passes President Obama's proposed budget.
Obama's budget -- which aims to tighten the nation's purse strings in certain areas while increasing money used to create jobs -- would cancel NASA's Constellation Program, which had sought to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
Constellation also intended to study the idea of establishing a moon colony. The program was set to follow the U.S. space agency's shuttle missions, which are due to end in September.

On its Web site, the White House Budget Office says the program to send astronauts to the moon is behind schedule, over budget and overall less important than other space investments.
"Using a broad range of criteria, an independent review panel determined that even if fully funded, NASA's program to repeat many of the achievements of the Apollo era, 50 years later, was the least attractive approach to space exploration as compared to potential alternatives," the site says.

"Furthermore, NASA's attempts to pursue its moon goals, while inadequate to that task, had drawn funding away from other NASA programs, including robotic space exploration, science, and Earth observations."
Overall, Obama's proposed budget increases the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's budget by $6 billion over the next five years. The president's budget would give NASA a $19 billion budget in 2011, compared to its $18.3 billion budget this year.

Congress has to approve the federal budget, and a final ruling may not happen for months.
The budget changes will not prevent NASA from returning astronauts to the moon and exploring the rest of the solar system, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said in a conference call with reporters on Monday.
"Imagine trips to Mars that take weeks instead of nearly a year; people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the Moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of firsts ... That is what the president's plan for NASA will enable, once we develop the new capabilities to make it a reality," Bolden said.

The NASA administrator emphasized the fact that the president's budget would increase NASA funding overall and said the Constellation program was behind schedule and over-budget anyway.
"The truth is we were not on a sustainable path to get back to the moon's surface, and as we focused most of our efforts and funding on getting back to the moon we were neglecting investment in key technologies to get us beyond," he said.
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, criticized the president for slashing NASA's moon-mission program from his suggested budget.

The move could cause the U.S. to fall behind other countries in space exploration, he said.
"If they don't push hard now for research and development of the new big rocket that'll take us out of low-Earth orbit and let us explore the heavens, then we are going to be falling behind China and Russia, and that's something I don't think will sit well with the American people," he said in an interview with CNN.
Louis Friedman, executive director of The Planetary Society, called that assertion "ridiculous," and said he's hopeful the end of

Constellation would lead to the U.S. returning to the moon more quickly.
Friedman believes that Constellation is a flawed and bloated program, which should be replaced with a new program that would get the U.S. back to the moon more efficiently.

Constellation was behind schedule, and a new program offers a fresh start and puts needed emphasis on space exploration beyond the moon, he said.

"I think the Constellation program probably fell on its own weight as opposed to any major policy change," he said.
Others questioned what will happen to the money NASA has already spent on its program to return to the moon.
"I think that some of the things they're working on could be used regardless of what the program is," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org and a space policy expert. "Some of it however, I think is just going to end up on the cutting room floor."

About $250 million in federal stimulus money has paid for investments in the Constellation Program, according to a CNN report. NASA's current budget gives Constellation $3.47 billion in funding, according to the White House Budget Office.
NASA says the Constellation research and technology would be useful in other space endeavors.
NASA first sent astronauts to the moon in 1969, and the space agency's Apollo program sent astronauts to the moon at total of six times.

Cleanup under way in 462,000-gallon oil spill off Port Arthur

CNN) -- Crews removed about 46,000 gallons of oil from waters near Port Arthur, Texas, on Sunday, roughly 10 percent of the oil spilled a day earlier when a tanker collided with two barges, a U.S. Coast Guard officer said.

An estimated 462,000 gallons of crude oil leaked from barrels aboard the tanker, forcing the closure of the port in southern Texas, Petty Officer Larry Chambers told CNN. The Sabine Neches Waterway near Port Arthur also was closed. It was unclear Sunday when the port, about 100 miles east of Houston, Texas, will reopen or when crews will finish the cleanup, he said.

"We certainly want it to be done as soon as possible, but with that said, safety is the main issue," Chambers said. "We're not going to open the port until it's determined that vessels can pass through cleanly, safely and not cause any further damage."

No injuries were reported when the Exxon Mobile-chartered tanker -- the 807-foot Eagle Otome -- collided Saturday with two barges being towed by a tug boat. The tanker was carrying about 570,000 gallons of crude oil to Exxon's Beaumont refinery when it crashed, Exxon Mobile spokesman Kevin Allexon told CNN. The cause of the crash was unknown, but is under investigation, he said.

"We are very concerned about how this could have happened," Allexon said. "We are very concerned about the impact to the environment, to the community. No one wants to see this happen."

The port is primarily for industrial use, but it is not far from wetlands. None of the nearby marshes or sensitive wildlife were adversely affected, Chambers said, but one heron was "oiled." The bird was alive and undergoing treatment, he said.

An evacuation order that was imposed in a 50-block area around the port after the collision was lifted. That area was evacuated Saturday out of caution, as the tanker was carrying a type of oil containing sulfide.

Fifteen skimming vessels sailed the area recovering the oil and workers dropped more than 45,000 feet of boom -- fencing-like material -- to keep the oil from spreading, Chambers said. More than 500 people were involved in containing and cleaning the spill, said Darrell Wilson, spokesman for Malaysia-based AET Tanker Holdings, the owner of the tanker.

The biggest oil spill in U.S. history occurred in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in the Gulf of Alaska, resulting in the spill of 11 million gallons of crude.

Clearlake City Council members address conflicts in order to deal with redevelopment plan

Written by Elizabeth Larson
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
CLEARLAKE – In order to discuss business related to a proposed redevelopment plan amendment, Clearlake City Council members had to follow a series of formalities last Thursday that included declaring potential conflicts and a high card draw from a deck of cards.

Redevelopment business at the council's regular meeting on Thursday, Jan. 14, included discussion of the proposed amendment and the possible formation of a project area committee.

City Attorney Malathy Subramanian was unable to attend the meeting, so Melanie Donnelly, another attorney from the same firm of Best, Best & Krieger, sat in on the meeting to help the council work through the issues.

Donnelly helped lead the council through the discussion regarding some members' potential conflicts of interest with regard to the proposed redevelopment plan amendment, which City Administrator Dale Neiman said must be completed by this coming July 9.

She said the council needed a minimum of three members in order to have a quorum on the subject, but three council members – Mayor Judy Thein, Vice Mayor Joyce Overton and Curt Giambruno – all said they believed they had conflicts because of their homes' close proximity to the redevelopment area, and that they would realize property value improvements as a result.

Donnelly said they would need to “rehabilitate” one of those council members and allow them to sit in on the decision, which she said could be done using the legally required participation exception, which allows for a conflict of interest exception to political reform act rules.

The method for selection had to be done randomly, so Donnelly presented a deck of cards and had Overton, Giambruno and Thein each draw a card, explaining that the high card would win the draw.

Thein drew a queen, Overton a three and Giambruno a 10. That meant that Thein would stay on the dais, while Overton and Giambruno recused themselves and left the room.

Councilman Roy Simons questioned if the redevelopment agency's amendment could go through just by the council's approval, or if it needed to go to a referendum, which Simons believed it did.

Neiman disagreed. “I have a different interpretation of that.”

Councilman Chuck Leonard said the plan was amended in 1994 by the council, not a referendum.

Simons insisted that the matter needed to go to a referendum. Neiman said he'll have Subramanian provide a legal opinion.

With the quorum reestablished, the council next needed to consider if establishing a redevelopment project area committee was appropriate.

“This is the first decision that you have to make in order to proceed with amending the redevelopment plan,” Neiman said.

Neiman told the council that the redevelopment plan, between the housing and project funds, will generate a total of $42.2 million for the community if it's amended.

He said they couldn't meet the deadline for establishing the committee, but that it was wasn't needed because they were not planning to add use of eminent domain or expand the project area.

“Basically there's no legal requirement to create a project area committee,” Neiman said.

Simons asked why they needed the amendment. To get the $42.2 million, Neiman replied.

“How do you expect us to believe that when we've just been through two decades of total failure” in redevelopment, Simons asked.

Neiman agreed that there have been problems in the city's redevelopment history.

Simons considered a project area committee important to the whole plan, and said lack of one in the past is one of the reasons why redevelopment, in his opinion, has failed. He added that Neiman was promising them millions when the city can't even do a sidewalk project, referring to the Lakeshore Drive area.

Neiman said the $42.2 million would be generated over a 10-year period.

“I'm not against the amendment, I want you to know that,” said Simons. “I just want it to be done right, that's all.”

Neiman said he agreed with Simons.

During public comment, community member Rick Mayo asked about a $14 million bond set to take place in 2019, which Neiman's report to the council cited as revenue. Mayo asked how a bond could be considered revenue when it's really a loan.

“That's worse than fuzzy math,” Mayo said.

Neiman replied that the bond will generate revenue for the city.

Mayo, who formerly sat on the Clearlake Planning Commission, told the council that they held 100 public hearings when Wal-Mart wanted to come into the city.

He said such a public hearing process is being circumvented for the Lowe's shopping center project at the former Peace Airport property on Highway 53, for which the redevelopment agency is proposing to help fund improvements.

Mayo said that the planning commission had wanted to keep Pearce Field opened as an airport, but then Wal-Mart decided to build in the flight path.

“This whole thing should have gone through the planning commission,” said Mayo. “The council was always a last resort.”

When Estella Creel asked about the proposed bonds, Neiman said there would actually be two – one for housing, and one for the redevelopment project. He said there would be more discussion “down the road,” as the amendment began taking shape.

Creel asked why Neiman wouldn't just say he doesn't know the answers to her questions. “I know exactly what I'm doing, Estelle,” Neiman replied.


READ THE FULL STORY

NASA to Check for Unlikely Winter Survival of Mars Lander

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is visible within this enhanced-color image of the Phoenix landing site taken on Jan. 6, 2010 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
› Full image (including backshell and heatshield) and caption
PASADENA, Calif. -- Beginning Jan. 18, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will listen for possible, though improbable, radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander, which completed five months of studying an arctic Martian site in November 2008.

The solar-powered lander operated two months longer than its three-month prime mission during summer on northern Mars before the seasonal ebb of sunshine ended its work. Since then, Phoenix's landing site has gone through autumn, winter and part of spring. The lander's hardware was not designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice-coating load of an arctic Martian winter.

In the extremely unlikely case that Phoenix survived the winter, it is expected to follow instructions programmed on its computer. If systems still operate, once its solar panels generate enough electricity to establish a positive energy balance, the lander would periodically try to communicate with any available Mars relay orbiters in an attempt to reestablish contact with Earth. During each communications attempt, the lander would alternately use each of its two radios and each of its two antennas.

Odyssey will pass over the Phoenix landing site approximately 10 times each day during three consecutive days of listening this month and two longer listening campaigns in February and March.

"We do not expect Phoenix to have survived, and therefore do not expect to hear from it. However, if Phoenix is transmitting, Odyssey will hear it," said Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We will perform a sufficient number of Odyssey contact attempts that if we don't detect a transmission from Phoenix, we can have a high degree of confidence that the lander is not active."

The amount of sunshine at Phoenix's site is currently about the same as when the lander last communicated, on Nov. 2, 2008, with the sun above the horizon about 17 hours each day. The listening attempts will continue until after the sun is above the horizon for the full 24.7 hours of the Martian day at the lander's high-latitude site. During the later attempts in February or March, Odyssey will transmit radio signals that could potentially be heard by Phoenix, as well as passively listening.

If Odyssey does hear from Phoenix, the orbiter will attempt to lock onto the signal and gain information about the lander's status. The initial task would be to determine what capabilities Phoenix retains, information that NASA would consider in decisions about any further steps.

Mars Odyssey is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.

The successful Phoenix mission was led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin. International contributions came from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; the Finnish Meteorological Institute; and Imperial College, London.

Endeavor Rollout

Crews moved the space shuttle Endeavour from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to Launch Complex 39A on Jan. 6 in preparation for next month’s STS-130 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The six-hour trip for the shuttle stack — orbiter, external tank and two solid-rocket boosters — started at 4:13 a.m. EST. Endeavour is scheduled to lift off at 4:39 a.m. EST Feb. 7 for a 13-day orbital sortie to the ISS.

Commanded by U.S. Marine Corps Col. George Zamka, the six-member crew is scheduled to deliver the third and final pressurized node to the orbital outpost. Designated “Tranquility,” it will carry the long-awaited station cupola, which will give station crews a 360-degree view of their surroundings through its five windows.

The crew also will conduct three spacewalks to link Tranquility into the station cooling and data systems, help install the cupola and work on the Canadian special purpose dexterous manipulator (Dextre), which was designed to handle many of the maintenance tasks now assigned to spacewalking astronauts.

Endeavour photo: NASA

Space Station Upgraded to "the 90s"

NASA bills the International Space Station as “the most complex scientific and technological endeavor ever undertaken.”
Perhaps that is so, but its guts are so 1980s.


By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle


That's because the 44 primary computers that do everything from guide the station around Earth at 17,000 mph to monitor for fires are powered by Intel 386 processors, first built in the mid-1980s, with a clock rate of 16 megahertz. To put that in perspective, today's processors are measured in gigahertz, a speed increase by a factor of 1,000.
Needless to say, the task of maintaining the network of computers on the station humming along is more difficult than, say, putting together a home network.

The station has components from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe, each with their own hardware and software. Each system must “talk” to one another and crashes can be a bit more problematic than losing the Internet until a technician can arrive.

One such crash did occur in 2001, during a space shuttle mission to the station.
Of all the station's computers, the command-and-control computer, which has two back-ups, serves as the “brains” of the network. The first command-and-control computer failed, then the first back-up began operating erratically and then, finally, all three failed.

Lot of hard work

With Endeavour docked to the station, the crew re-routed its communications through the shuttle and eventually swapped another onboard computer into the command-and-control slot. It turned out to be a hard drive issue.
“That took some life off us,” admits Michael Suffredini, the station's program manager.
But since that incident the station's computers have largely functioned without incident.
“It's not darn good luck that we've had success, it's the result of a lot of hard work up front,” Suffredini said.

A lot of the hard work can be credited to a Boeing software laboratory in Clear Lake, a few miles from Johnson Space Center, that's next door to the large swimming pool where astronauts train for spacewalks.
Inside the lab there's a mock-up of the computer systems on board the station where all software is tested before it is sent to the station. Every new component that's sent up to the station is tested there first to ensure it will work smoothly in space.
“
This is basically the space station on the ground,” explained Jose Pinero, a lab manager during a recent tour.
Upgrade to the '90s

The lab is now testing a software for version 10 of the station's core programming, which is roughly analogous to an aircraft's flight computer. NASA expects to fly this software upgrade, which entails more than 700,000 lines of code, in 2011.
That's the time when NASA also intends to upgrade the station's primary computers — to basic Pentium processors. That's about a five-fold increase in processing power, with considerably more memory.
“That's smokin',” quipped Steve Cox, another manager at Boeing's lab. “We'll be all the way up to 1990s technology.”

Clear Lake Scumbag Admits Guilt

Clear Lake Man Accused of Child Sex Assault

A Clear Lake man admitted to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl according to the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office.

Patrick Olson, 28, was arrested at his home on Dec. 31 and booked into the Sherburne County Jail for criminal sexual conduct in the second degree.

According to Sheriff Joel Brott, the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center reported that the girl had been assaulted.
Investigators interviewed the girl and then arrested Olson.

Investigators said he admitted to sexual contact with the girl.
Olson remains in jail pending arraignment.

Lufkin hit by tornado.

By Whitney Grunder -
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - Severe storms ripped through parts of East Texas Wednesday evening. Some Lufkin neighborhoods sustained extensive damage from a possible tornado.

Among them is the Lufkin VFW, which is now gone. The damage comes right after 10,000 dollars worth of recent tile work. A check for the construction was written Wednesday, before the storm hit.

One resident living near Gipson Funeral Home on Chestnut Street even reported seeing caskets in his backyard.
Jakoia Grimes and her children were happy to have made it safely out of their Lufkin apartment, before their entire roof collapsed. "I looked up and I just saw the light from outside and I had my girls come and sit by the door, and within minutes the entire roof caved in," said Grimes, who is now staying with family members.
Jennifer Mays watched the tornado touch down right outside Stephens Court Apartments. She described it as "massive." She said, "I couldn't believe it was so powerful to the point that it just opened up my door."
Next door, owners sifted through what remained of their welding business, part of Lufkin for 25 years. Max's Welding Shop on Denman Avenue was completely destroyed.
Owners said they can't blame God for the severe weather, and that fortunately another shop behind the building stands untouched by the storm.

"I think we're going to be able to salvage some of our equipment. I think we're going to be alright," said co-owner Betty Purgahn.
Cheddars employees also witnessed a tornado touch down in the middle of the Olive Garden parking lot. "I heard a bunch of commotion and they were talking about the patio chairs were nearly about to hit some cars so we ran to try to help," said Cheddars employee Brad Barrow.

According to witnesses, other than damaging a few of the vehicles parked in the Olive Garden parking lot, the tornado did not affect any of the buildings. The Department of Public Safety reported that the tornado lifted back up, and did not cause any injuries.
Utility crews were also working to remedy power outages caused by toppled power poles. Thursday morning, thousands of residents were without power. An Oncor spokesperson said approximately 2,500 customers were without power in the Lufkin area.

So far no severe injuries have been reported.

Wise Launch delayed

(CNN) -- An equipment problem forced NASA early Friday to delay the launch of a spacecraft aimed at scanning the entire sky to discover hidden cosmic objects, the U.S. space agency said.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission is now scheduled to launch Monday morning.
NASA crews will tackle an anomaly in the motion of a booster steering engine by removing and replacing a suspect component on Friday, the agency said on its Web site.

"The WISE spacecraft will circle Earth over the poles, scanning the entire sky one-and-a-half times in nine months. The mission will uncover hidden cosmic objects, including the coolest stars, dark asteroids and the most luminous galaxies," NASA said.

Captured escapee says prison staff helped him

by KHOU.com Staff

Posted on December 9, 2009 at 6:50 AM

CONROE, Texas—The escaped prisoner who was the focus of a week-long manhunt told a local activist that he had help from the inside. Convicted child rapist Arcade Comeaux said the weapon he used to hijack guards was in his cell for at least three weeks.

Questions still surround the prison system that allowed Comeaux to dupe authorities for years. The supposedly partially-paralyzed man managed to walk away from the guards and right into controversy.
Authorities are asking two questions; why didn’t prison officials realize Comeaux was faking his medical condition, and where did he get the gun?
Local activist Quanell X said Comeaux told him he had help from the inside.

“He named that guard and he also named someone who is involved in medical who had been giving him medical assistance,” Quanell X said.

But prison officials said Comeaux has not shared that information with investigators so there are no arrests at this time.
“This feels like the inmate is running the asylum,” said a former TDCJ staff member who remembers Comeaux clearly.
“He would sit in the food. Of course it would dry and start smelling. He refused to shower, refused to clean himself, basically saying ‘I’m immobile, I need someone to do this for me.’”

The former staff member said Comeaux orchestrated a deliberate campaign of extortion, despite medical reports that he was able to care for himself. He said Comeaux manipulated the system to get health assistance and better housing.
A grand jury on Thursday will hear the case against the convicted sex offender who was captured in northeast Houston Monday morning.
Comeaux is now facing aggravated kidnapping and felony escape charges. He was in custody in the Montgomery County Jail Tuesday, awaiting his hearing. Comeaux, who is currently serving three life sentences, was found when a salesman saw him trying to hitchhike in front of a business on East Little York.

The salesman called HPD, who came and took Comeaux into custody without incident.
Investigators said Comeaux escaped during transport from a prison unit in Huntsville to one in Beaumont.
As the prison van passed through Conroe, investigators said Comeaux pulled out a gun, held two transport guards hostage, handcuffed them in the back of the van, drove the van to Baytown, took the guards’ weapons, put on one of their uniforms and escaped.

Officials launched an extensive manhunt, but Comeaux managed to elude them for seven days before he was captured.
He had been confined to a wheelchair since 1997 when a stroke purportedly left him partially paralyzed, but when he was taken into custody, Comeaux was walking.

He has been in and out of the Texas prison system for 30 years.
Comeaux was first sent to prison in 1979 on three 10-year sentences for rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child and burglary of a building—all out of Harris County. He was paroled four years later.

His parole was revoked and he returned to prison in 1984 to serve a 20-year sentence on a new charge of indecency with a child out of Harris County. He was paroled in 1991 but was in and out of prison for parole violations until 1996.
In June 1998, he was given a life sentence for aggravated sexual assault in Brazos County.
Comeaux was given two extra life sentences after he was convicted of stabbing his wife and another person in 1999. That attack occurred in the Jester III Unit in Fort Bend County when his wife came to visit him. The other person stabbed was a man who tried to stop the attack.

Still, those at the top want to correct the miscommunication between the workers inside prison walls.

“If you are in charge of a prison, and you see there is a disputes between medical’s and correction’s, come to us and ask for laws that would eliminate the controversy, ”said John Whitmire, chairman of the senate criminal justice committee. He is calling for a full investigation of prison and medical staff.

WATCH KHOU VIDEO REPORT HERE

News Alert: Comeaux now on most wanted list

(CNN) -- A Texas inmate in a wheelchair, who escaped on foot from two armed guards as he was being transferred between prisons, is now on the U.S. Marshals' list of the 15 most-wanted fugitives.
Arcade Comeaux Jr., 49, "produced a weapon and fired upon two correctional officers, took them hostage and forced them to drive to Baytown, Texas," the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement.
He then put the officers in the back of the van and took their weapons and one of their uniforms, the statement said.

Comeaux was serving three life sentences for aggravated sexual assault and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He escaped Monday during transport from Huntsville, Texas, to Stiles, Texas.
The 6-foot, 200-pound man was shackled and in a wheelchair, "which he had claimed was needed for mobility," Michelle Lyons, director of public information for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, said in a statement.

About 45 minutes into the trip, as they were driving through Conroe, 40 minutes north of Houston, the prisoner pulled out a pistol and ordered the guards to drive south to Baytown, east of Houston.
He fired once, but hit no one during the escape about 9 a.m., officials said.
Law enforcement officers found the unharmed officers an hour later.

Comeaux was being transferred so he could be near John Sealy Hospital in Galveston for treatment of the supposed paralysis he had suffered during a reported stroke, officials said.

At least $16,000 in reward money has been offered for information leading to Comeaux's rearrest and a task force of more than 100 investigators is searching for him, focusing on the Houston area, where he grew up and has family.
His escape has led the man who oversees Texas' criminal justice system to call for a shakeup of the prison system.
"I just think enough's enough," said Sen. John Whitmire, the Texas Democrat from Houston who is chairman of the state Senate's Criminal Justice Committee.

"We need a complete shakeup of the leadership of our prison system and/or an outside review by third parties," he told CNN by phone Wednesday. "We just can't have security breaches of this nature."
Whitmire said the guards had failed to pat down Comeaux while he was in his wheelchair and before they began the trip.
"Sure enough, he has a firearm," he said. "The question is, are there others (in the prison system)? I think you have to assume that there are until you find out differently."

So far this year, more than 900 cell phones have been confiscated from the 112 locations that house the state's 158,000 prisoners. "It's pretty rampant," he said.

"I want the director to come forward and tell us what it's going to take" to solve the problem, he said.
John Moriarty, inspector general of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said such lapses are highly unusual in the state's penal system. "We have no open gun investigations other than this one," he said. "The last one was several years ago."
Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Brad Livingston, who has been in the job since 2005, did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

Snow forecast in Houston area !

On average, once every four years even Houston gets visited by the Snow Gods. Although, this could be the second year-in-a-row for Houston snow. And if snow does indeed fall this Friday as forecasted, it would be the earliest snowfall on record.

Fred Schmud of ImpactWeather said to the Houston Chronicle, “Most of our forecasting data is caught right in the middle, meaning any subtle change in the position of the upper level disturbance will have huge consequences on how much, if any, snow falls across the Greater Houston area."

Right now NOAA is predicting a 70% chance of snow on Friday.

UTMB strengthens League City presence

UTMB strengthens League City presence

By Laura Elder
The Daily News
Published November 26, 2009

Operation: The University of Texas Medical Branch continues to strengthen its League City presence, this time leasing 15,000 square feet in the Brittany Bay Center, 1600 League City Parkway.

The medical branch, the county’s largest employer, will offer occupational and physical therapy services, along with ear, nose and throat specialties, officials said. The medical branch also has leased space for an oral surgery clinic in Brittany Bay Center, a 24,000-square-foot building.

Some of those services had been offered at the medical branch’s Primary Care Pavilion, 400 Harborside Drive on the island. But the pavilion’s first floor was flooded by Hurricane Ike’s catastrophic storm surge a year ago. Leasing space at the Brittany Bay Center allowed the medical branch to consolidate services that were scattered around the county, officials said Wednesday.

The consolidation comes as crews work to complete a 110,000-square-foot specialty care center on 35 acres near Interstate 45, FM 646 and the Victory Lakes subdivision. The $61 million center is meant to attract insured patients living in the North County. It’s the medical branch’s largest single investment on the mainland, offering advanced imaging, pediatric and adult clinics, outpatient surgery and pediatric urgent care.

Staking out ever more territory in the affluent suburbs, the medical branch in August 2008 paid $9.4 million for another 29 acres next to the specialty center.


READ MORE HERE

Kemah officials adopt plan to enhance city’s park system

By MARY ANN HELLINGHAUSEN
Updated: 12.02.09
A master plan to guide development of city parks in Kemah was approved by both Kemah City Council and the Kemah Community Development Corporation last week.

The plan, developed by Kendig Keast Collaborative of Stafford, provides guidance on development of the city’s parks and recreation system.

The plan’s goals, which took into account public input from two planning workshops and a survey, include:

Development of park spaces, facilities and activities to meet varying needs of Kemah residents and visitors.

A network of trails and walkways connecting all parts of the community.

Preserving natural areas, ecological resources and local heritage and culture, and providing education about them.

Keeping parks and recreational facilities maintained.

During discussion of the plan before its approval last week, members of the Kemah Community Development Corporation discussed the placement of pocket parks at the end of several streets that dead-end at Galveston Bay. They would include amenities such as:

Habitat landscaping to attract birds and butterflies.

Kiosks providing education about bay life, the environment and the city’s culture and history.

Observation telescopes.

Fencing, gating, lighting, signage and irrigation.

A kayak launching area.

Lighthouses throughout the Lighthouse District, between 4th and 8th streets.

City officials are exploring several federal grant programs to provide funding for the improvements.

The plan did not provide cost estimates, and costs would be determined on a per project basis depending on final design, said Teresa Vazquez-Evans, KCDC president. Grant matches, at this time, would most likely be funded out of KCDC, but are subject to approval by Council and KCDC, she said.

READ MORE HERE

Welcome home Atlantis

Atlantis Lands in Florida
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:44:29 AM CST

Space shuttle Atlantis has landed at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The STS-129 mission that included three spacewalks and more than six days at the International Space Station has been completed.

Michael Jackson's doctor returns to work in Houston

Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray, who is the subject of an investigation into the death of the singer, has returned to work.

The cardiologist has resumed work at his medical clinic in Houston for the first time since the late singer's death on June 25.

"He has not been able to earn a living since the death of Michael Jackson," his lawyer Ed Chernoff told the Associated Press. "His legal fees are enormous and his debts have mounted to the point where it is unclear whether he will be able to keep his house or support his family.

"His intentions are to attend to these patients who have continued to support him, despite the attention and despite the threats."

Houston - we don't have a problem - so why is that alarm sounding?

(CNN) -- Astronauts aboard the international space station and space shuttle Atlantis woke up to a worrying sound -- alarms indicating a fire and dangerous loss of pressure, NASA said Friday.

However, a check revealed no serious trouble.

Depressurization-caution alarms sounded just after 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday, waking the shuttle and station crew, NASA said. The flight control teams on the ground determined there was no depressurization and shut off ventilation fans.

The crew was never in any danger, NASA said, and teams on the ground are looking into the cause of the false alarm.
Flight control teams at Mission Control in Houston, Texas, were bringing the station back to normal soon after the alarms, but it was 10:15 p.m. by the time the crew was able to go back to sleep because they had to wait for the station's ventilation system to be reactivated, NASA said.

Crew members go back to work Friday when they'll be focusing on preparations for Saturday's spacewalk, NASA said. They'll have to recharge batteries, switch out spacesuits and review procedures.
They also will use the shuttle's robotic arm to grab a second cargo pallet of spare equipment Atlantis brought up in advance of its transfer to the space station Saturday, NASA said.