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The largest brush and tire fire in a decade has drawn crews from six Montgomery County fire departments and the Texas Forest Service to about 20 acres of land in the New Caney area. The Courier of Montgomery County reports that the New Caney Fire Department arrived at the scene about 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the 48000 block of FM 1485. Firefighters contained the blaze late Saturday night, but expected it to continue burning Sunday. “The area was filled with ravines and sand with holes of eight to 10 feet deep,” New Caney Assistant Fire Chief Josh Smith told The...

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood and wounding dozens of others, begins an arduous legal process today that could end in his death. The Article 32 proceeding, as it is called, could run for more than a month with Col. James Pohl sifting through the evidence. Pohl's task will be to gather evidence and then tell higher-level commanders if a trial should be ordered. It isn't clear how Hasan's lawyer, himself a former military judge, will counter testimony, likely from GIs in a crowded Fort Hood deployment...

Margin virtually unchanged after months of campaigning AUSTIN — Ill will toward President Barack Obama and a voter belief that Republican Gov. Rick Perry has helped save the Texas economy are giving Perry a re-election lead over Democrat and former Houston Mayor Bill White, according to a new poll done for the Houston Chronicle and four other state newspapers. Perry leads with 46 percent support to 39 percent for White, with Libertarian candidate Kathie Glass trailing at 4 percent among likely voters; 11 percent were undecided. Green Party candidate Deb Shafto had less than 1 percent support. "It's not an...

As has been previously reported, the Democrats have come up with a snappy new logo. It's simple, it's blue, it's bad graphics. What was the inspiration for this genius work of rebranding? Here's the answer:

A pre-dawn fire that destroyed nearly all of Harris County's voting machines last month likely erupted in a rear section of the north Houston warehouse that was used as a classroom and storage area, authorities said on Wednesday. Houston Fire Department arson dogs didn't find any accelerants, such as gasoline, at the scene of the Aug. 27 blaze at the Harris County Election Technology Center, 606 Canino. "We don't have any reason to believe that ignitable liquids were used," said HFD arson chief Gabe Cortez. Although arson investigators haven't ruled out the fire being intentionally set, Cortez acknowledged that most...

More than 1,000 Houston dropouts woke up Saturday morning to an unexpected knock on their door from some of the city's top dignitaries — including Mayor Annise Parker, Houson ISD Superintendent Terry Grier and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White — encouraging them to return to school. Hundreds of volunteers made morning house calls as part of the Houston Independent School District's seventh annual dropout recovery walk, now called Grads Within Reach. The walk, born in Houston in 2004, has expanded to 22 Texas school districts, as well as St. Louis and Des Moines, Iowa. "Our success as a city depends...

The Texas Fried Frito Pie is the winner of the biggest food prize for this year's state fair. The battered and fried blend of chili, cheese and Fritos won the Best Taste award Monday at the sixth annual Big Tex Choice Awards. Prize winners usually attract long lines from fairgoers. Concoction creator Michael Thomas says he and his partners spent six months experimenting with different batters, chilis and chips.

After two years, the momentum returns to GOP favor in Texas races AUSTIN — The Texas general election opens this Labor Day looking like the Year of the Angry Voter. Two years ago, the momentum was with Democrats. Even though Barack Obama lost the state while winning the presidency, excitement for his campaign produced regional turnouts that helped at least four Democrats win seats in the Texas House. The tide appears to have returned to the Republicans' favor. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found just 34 percent of Texans approve of the job Obama is doing as president. That is...

Florida church will mark 9/11 by destroying books Religious leaders gathered in Houston Saturday to condemn a Florida church's campaign to burn hundreds of Qurans later this week. Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Zoroastrian and Muslim clergy spoke to about 120 people at an interfaith symposium held at the Baitus Samee Mosque in northwest Houston. They discussed the sanctity of scriptures and denounced the ill-treatment of religious books. "Even if it is a human document merely inspired by encounters of the divine, or generations of my people's wisdom passed down and kept sacred, it is still sacred," Rabbi Jonathan Siger...

The 12- and 13-year-old are accused in the shooting deaths of Garland couple DALLAS — A 13-year-old boy and his 12-year-old girlfriend will soon face capital murder charges in a Dallas-area double shooting after the second victim died, authorities said Friday. Alan Nevil, 48, died Thursday night from wounds he suffered in an Aug. 17 attack that also killed his wife, Darlene Nevil, 46, Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said. Alan Nevil was found bleeding on a neighbor's front yard. He told police who shot him, and authorities arrested the 13-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl within a quarter of a...

For the second time in as many years, the Texas Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit against the Harris County tax assessor-collector, accusing the Republican-led voter registration office with illegally rejecting voter applications and with sharing information with political allies that it did not share with Democrats last year. Leo Vasquez, who in his capacity as tax assessor-collector is the county's voter registrar, said the lawsuit has no merit. "They're just trying to throw stuff up against the wall and see if it sticks," Vasquez said. The Democratic Party made similar accusations about what it said were improperly rejected voter...

What FReepers Annoy You the Most? And why? I'm fairly annoying so I figure it falls on me to post this.

Officials still investigating cause of fire that destroyed voting devices A day after a fire destroyed virtually all of Harris County's electronic voting gear, officials were still determining the cause of the warehouse blaze and furiously exploring ways to accommodate voters come early November. Houston's fire marshal's office hasn't made a ruling on whether Friday's early-morning fire was accidental or deliberately set, said Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, who hopes to hear something on the cause early this week. "It would break my heart to think someone would do something like this to the election process," she said, adding that...

HIDALGO — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Friday backed off his support of Congress taking up birthright citizenship after earlier joining prominent Republicans who have called for a review of the 14th Amendment. "It is going after a symptom rather than the cause of the problem in the first place," Cornyn said. Cornyn, the head of the GOP Senate campaign committee, softened his stance while visiting a port of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. He met with the Texas Border Coalition, a group of local mayors and business leaders focused on border security and traffic backlogs at ports that affect...

Perry, White trust Harris election officials, voters AUSTIN ­— State election officials said they will make sure Harris County gets enough voting machine replacements to pull off a smooth election, and neither major gubernatorial campaign plans major changes after a Friday morning fire consumed all of the county's 10,000 voting machines. Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade spoke with Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and other county officials on Friday, pledging to provide whatever necessary help once they finish assessing the damage and equipment needs. "There is some time," Andrade spokesman Randall Dillard said. "It's not a good time, but...

SAN ANTONIO — Democrat Bill White said Friday that he will take the stage for a gubernatorial debate this fall sponsored by the state's largest newspapers and Austin public television station KLRU-TV. Republican Gov. Rick Perry made no commitment. On the day the Houston Chronicle and other debate sponsors formally invited the candidates to the Oct. 19 debate in Austin, Perry's campaign continued to say that he will not debate until White releases income tax returns from his years as deputy energy secretary in the mid-1990s. "We will be ready for a debate when Bill White releases his tax returns,"...

HUNTSVILLE – The legal saga that began several days after the horrifying murder of two teenage Houston girls in 1993 came to an end Tuesday night with the execution of Peter Anthony Cantu, a former gang leader who all but ordered the execution of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena. Cantu did not make a final statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. The parents of Ertman and Pena, supported by other family members and friends, looked on as Cantu stared straight up toward the ceiling, taking one deep breath before he closed his eyes. He did not acknowledge the...

(CNN) -- President Obama and his family will travel to the Gulf Coast this weekend to support businesses that rely on tourists but have been devastated by the oil disaster. The family will leave Saturday morning for Panama City Beach, Florida. "Even as the president talks about what our next steps are in our response, obviously part of this will be highlighting the tremendous economic toll that has taken place," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters earlier this week.

AUSTIN — President Barack Obama mocked Republicans as devoid of new economic ideas at a Democratic fundraiser Monday, then pounded his message that education "is the economic issue of our time" before a cheering crowd at the University of Texas. "I mean, it would be one thing if having run the economy into the ground, having taken record surpluses and turned them into record deficits, if having presided over the meltdown of our financial system, that they had gone off into the desert for a while and reflected and said, 'Boy, we really screwed up,'" Obama said at the Democratic...

Young area women say they wear the hijab to be closer to God, although head covering has drawn criticism. Huda Kahlid was walking through the Rice University campus one night last year when she heard someone in a car scream, "Jihad!" The 21-year-old student didn't let the heckler upset her, knowing she was targeted because of her hijab. "It's all about God, so you don't let those things get to you," said Wardah Kahlid, 24, who remembers laughing with her younger sister about the encounter. Muslim women wear the scarf or cloth wrapping over their hair to be closer to...