HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The stormy weather pattern is back over Texas and your chance of getting rain remains on Wednesday.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible on Wednesday. Gusty winds and frequent lightning will be possible, but the main threat will be isolated street flooding. The storms should end as the sun goes down.
Is any severe weather or flooding possible?
Most of the storms that pop up will stay below severe limits, but we can’t rule out a stray wind gust over 50 mph and small hail. Otherwise, you can expect any shower to possibly produce lightning and briefly heavy rainfall that could cause minor street flooding.
How high are rain chances this week?
At this time, rain chances should drop to 30% on Wednesday, and then basically disappear until Father’s Day.
How does the weather look for Father’s Day?
It will be hot, with highs in the low 90s, but there will also be a chance for cooling afternoon thunderstorms. For now, the rain chance is 40%, and those chances could rise significantly after Father’s Day.
What’s happening in the tropics?
We are monitoring two areas of potential development in the Gulf of Mexico. One headed toward Florida and the other over the southwestern Gulf. Some tropical moisture from that system is expected to move into Texas after Father’s Day, increasing our chances for heavy rainfall. For more on that, head to our Daily Tropical Weather Update page.
El alcalde de Houston, John Whitmire, y el director de HPARD, Kenneth Allen, dieron inicio a la temporada de piscinas de verano desde el Alief Aquatic Center el martes 11 de junio de 2024.
El evento comenzó con el alcalde y el jefe de bomberos Samuel Peña hablando sobre la seguridad en las piscinas para el verano y anunciando la contratación urgente de más salvavidas antes de que los niños de la comunidad de Alief pudieran saltar a la piscina.
El horario actualizado de las piscinas comenzó el 8 de junio de 2024, con las piscinas abriendo los sábados, martes y jueves de 1 p.m. a 7 p.m. y los domingos de 1 p.m. a 6 p.m.
Ubicaciones de piscinas:
– Agnes Moffit, 10645 Hammerly Blvd.
– Cloverland, 3801 Hickok Ln
– Emancipation, 3018 Emancipation
– Lincoln, 979 Grenshaw St.
– Love, 1000 West 12th Street
– North Wayside, 9551 N. Wayside
– Sharpstown, 6855-A Harbor Town Dr.
– Westbury, 10605 Mullins Dr.
– Wilson Memorial, 100 Gilpin
– Alief, 11903 Bellaire Blvd
– Greenwood, 602 Beresford St.
– MacGregor, 5225 Calhoun Rd.
– Mason, 541 South 75th St.
– Schwartz, 8203 Vogue Ln.
– Stude, 1031 Stude St.
– Sunnyside, 3502 Bellfort St
– TC Jester, 4205 T.C. Jester Blvd.
– Townwood, 3402 Simsbrook Dr.
HPARD continuará abriendo más piscinas a medida que se contraten y entrenen más salvavidas.
The Port of Baltimore’s federal channel was safely reopened to its original dimensions of 700 feet wide by 500 feet deep without any major injuries, The White House said.
Work continues to remove debris outside of the McHenry Federal Channel, and a safety zone will be maintained to protect workers. Deep draft vessels will be required to have a single escort tug until the work is complete.
The preliminary costs to rebuild the bridge as quoted by the Department of Transportation are between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, officials said.
A 984-foot-long cargo ship, the Dali, struck the Key Bridge on March 26, triggering a collapse that killed six workers and affected entry into the port. The ship was refloated and moved from the crash site on May 20.
Around 50,000 tons of steel were cleared, equivalent to 3,800 fully loaded dump trucks, according to Major General Butch Graham of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Graham credited crane operators, divers, mariners, and salvage workers for their efforts, stating they have been working below, underneath, and on the Patapsco River since March 30.
The White House released a statement early Wednesday commending the work of those in the Unified Command responsible for helping to reopen the full navigation channel to vessel traffic.
“Our hearts remain with the families of the victims of the bridge collapse, and we will continue to stand with the community throughout this period of recovery,” the statement said. “Thank you to the people of Baltimore for showing us what it means to be Maryland tough and Baltimore strong. Baltimore can count on us to stick with them every step of the way, and we will continue to have your back until the bridge is rebuilt.”
According to Secretary Pete Buttigieg, traffic redirected to other ports earlier should now be able to pass through.
“Our belief and expectation is that all of those disruptions and adaptations, as important as they were, were temporary and that traffic that would have been going to Baltimore the day before this happened, belongs in Baltimore today,” the secretary said.
He added, “We have every indication that that is what is taking place, but we’ll be reinforcing that expectation as we speak with players up and down the supply chains, including a conversation that we plan to have later this week.”
Buttigieg said the port opening’s major impact would be on local workers, especially the International Longshoremen’s Association workers, as they were not working with ships not arriving at the Port of Baltimore.
“We felt enormous urgency about making sure that we did everything we could to get back to normal there,” he said. “And now those workers can count on that business returning. It’s been a gradual process, and some of them have been working for some time. Now we can say that it is fully back to normal.”
Buttigieg reiterated President Joe Biden’s intention to secure federal funding for rebuilding the bridge and added that the Maryland delegation is leading a process in Congress to make that happen.
CYPRESS, Texas (KTRK) — A Cypress woman vows never to use DoorDash again after her doorbell camera caught a delivery driver’s passenger stealing a scooter from her porch.
The victim told ABC13 that the incident happened on Monday afternoon after she used the app to place a Chick-fil-A order.
Just after 4 p.m., a video obtained by ABC13 shows a gray car pull up to her home. The driver gets out and drops the order off on her porch.
But minutes after the customer’s daughter picks up the food, the camera shows a barefoot man walking up to the house and stealing her daughter’s friend’s $700 scooter.
He then races back to a car that the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office said was being driven by the DoorDash driver.
“It’s pretty bold to do something like that in the middle of the day somewhere where every house has cameras,” the customer, who asked not to be identified, said.
She said she contacted DoorDash only to learn that the company may not even know who was driving for them.
“It was a male who dropped off the order but under a female’s name,” she said.
ABC13 asked DoorDash about its screening process and whether drivers were permitted to bring passengers with them to their deliveries. Eyewitness News also asked if the customer would be compensated for the loss of the scooter.
DoorDash sent the following statement, which didn’t address those questions:
“What happened is absolutely unacceptable and clearly violates our policies. We have immediately deactivated the Dasher account involved. We deeply regret any stress and inconvenience this has caused the customer and have offered our support.”
Meanwhile, the victim said that after years of using DoorDash, she won’t be using it again.
“It’s been convenient and great, but now that they’re hiring the type of people they’re bringing into our very nice and safe neighborhood, I don’t trust it at all anymore,” she said.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock took the wheel in February. She now leads an agency with a $1.6 billion budget and hundreds of thousands who count on its safety, timeliness, and convenience.
“If a service is easy to use, people will use it,” Brock told ABC13.
That is the simple mantra for the new METRO under Brock. She wants to change the agency’s approach. Instead of building first in the hopes of attracting more riders, she wants to attract them first. This means improving what exists instead of growing the footprint for growth’s sake.
“I would love to see light rail expanded to the airports,” she said, “but I think we need to focus on our basic current services today and making sure that we’re growing our ridership.”
Attracting riders has not been easy.
According to METRO, riders improved post-pandemic last year but fell short of pre-COVID-19 levels. This year, so far, 48 million have used METRO. To improve, Brock says the agency needs to be reliable, easy to use, safe, and on time.
“I think we have some work to do. Obviously, with our ridership being down, that’s an indication we’re not where we need to be. And so we’re working towards that,” she said.
As for safety and the possibility of Houston Mayor John Whitmire asking METRO police to supplement a shortage of Houston police officers, Brock is not concerned about how it might impact the agency’s ability to combat crime proactively on and around buses and trains.
“We should be looking at taxpayer dollars as taxpayer dollars, right?” she asked. “And we’re not separating them into buckets. I think the taxpayers would very much appreciate that we are responsible with those dollars and we are collaborating. We’re working together to see how we can solve our city’s issues and our transportation issues and how we can work together. We’re currently reviewing that process and seeing how we’re going to be able to put more people and have a larger presence on our transit system. I think presence is really important.”
Over the past five years, statistics show relatively consistent levels of crime, averaging one major crime for every 133,155 rides, those include non-violent crimes such as theft.
Brock says they’re working together to improve the state’s largest transit agency.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A City of Houston park ranger has been arrested and charged with official oppression following one man’s hourslong ordeal at Cullen Park.
Joey Lamar Ellis, 33, was booked into jail Tuesday morning. The Houston Parks and Recreation Department confirms they were notified about the park ranger’s arrest. City records show Ellis has been employed since 2019.
According to Houston police, officers were called out to Cullen Park on Saums Road at about 3 a.m. for a robbery. There, they met with Joshua Beede, who talked to ABC13 on Tuesday night.
“It’s not right what he (Ellis) did,” Beede said.
Beede said he was sleeping in his car at the park when a man driving a truck with police lights and wearing park ranger attire knocked on his window and threatened him.
“He said he was going to have my car towed away. I was going to be arrested, sent downtown, and see a judge the next morning,” Beede rattled off.
The man had a gun in his pocket, which he referenced, Beede said, and he started to make demands. First, he made video recordings of Beede admitting to things he had not done, and then he told him to take off his clothes, “which was super violating,” Beede said.
According to Beede, Ellis took his ID, demanded cash, as well as help with luring gay men to the park through a dating app, presumably, to do the same thing. He says he gave the man $120 and went along with it until he could get away to call 911.
“I was, like, fearful for my life, so I was doing everything he said,” Beede explained.
Police responded and arrested Ellis, adding they found a gun on him.
Houston Parks and Rec declined to comment about the case or Ellis’ status with the department.
The hot dog news from Coney Island is hard to swallow.
Joey Chestnut, perennial winner of the annual July 4th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition, is out of this year’s beef barf over a deal he made to represent a different weiner brand, The Post has learned.
He gobbled a world record 76 dogs and buns in 2021 and kept his title with a paltry 62 down the hatch last year.
A rep for Major League Eating (MLE), which Nathan’s sanctions to run the event, said the organizers bent over backwards to meet Chestnut’s various other demands.
They even agreed to let him participate in a rival Labor Day dog-eating fest to be taped for TV as long as no hot dog brand was mentioned.
But they said they drew the line on letting Chestnut pitch for a different hot dog brand.
“The two sides could still come to a resolution before July 4, but it depends on Joey,” an insider said.
“He’s the Michael Jordan of competitive eating. But imagine if Michael Jordan said to Nike, ‘I love being the face of Nike but I want to do commercials for Adidas too,” the source said.
Wilmington, Del. (AP) — Hunter Biden was convicted on Tuesday of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. Prosecutors argued that the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
Biden displayed little emotion as the verdict was read after just three hours of jury deliberations over two days. He briefly hugged his attorneys, smiled faintly, and kissed his wife, Melissa, before leaving the courtroom with her.
Shortly after the verdict, President Joe Biden issued a statement accepting the outcome and affirming his respect for the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.
Key Details of Hunter Biden’s Conviction:
Charges: Hunter Biden was found guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, falsely stating on the application that he was not a drug user, and illegally possessing the gun for 11 days.
Witnesses: Testimony from Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and a former girlfriend revealed evidence of his drug use, including crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia.
Next Steps: Sentencing by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika has not been scheduled. Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, although first-time offenders rarely receive the maximum sentence, and it remains uncertain whether he will serve any time behind bars.
This conviction places both Hunter Biden and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the president’s chief political rival, in the spotlight, as both have now faced legal battles in an election year dominated by courtroom drama as much as campaign events.
Special counsel David Weiss, who led the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, emphasized the importance of accountability, stating, “No one in this country is above the law.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, indicated plans to appeal, vowing to “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available.” In a written statement, Hunter Biden expressed his disappointment with the verdict but gratitude for the support from his family and friends.
The announcement of the verdict was swift. First lady Jill Biden and other family members, who had attended much of the trial, were not present in the courtroom when the decision was read. After the verdict, Hunter Biden left the courthouse holding hands with the first lady and his wife. They did not speak to reporters and departed in waiting SUVs.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire and HPARD Director Kenneth Allen kicked off the summer pool season at the Alief Aquatic Center on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
The event kicked off with the Mayor and Fire Chief Samuel Pena talking about out pool safety for the summer and announcing the urgent hiring of more life guards before kids from the Alief community got to jump in the pool!
The updated pool schedule began on June 8, 2024, with pools opening on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Pool Locations:
– Agnes Moffit, 10645 Hammerly Blvd.
– Cloverland, 3801 Hickok Ln
– Emancipation, 3018 Emancipation
– Lincoln, 979 Grenshaw St.
– Love, 1000 West 12th Street
– North Wayside, 9551 N. Wayside
– Sharpstown, 6855-A Harbor Town Dr.
– Westbury, 10605 Mullins Dr.
– Wilson Memorial, 100 Gilpin
– Alief, 11903 Bellaire Blvd
– Greenwood, 602 Beresford St.
– MacGregor, 5225 Calhoun Rd.
– Mason, 541 South 75th St.
– Schwartz, 8203 Vogue Ln.
– Stude, 1031 Stude St.
– Sunnyside, 3502 Bellfort St
– TC Jester, 4205 T.C. Jester Blvd.
– Townwood, 3402 Simsbrook Dr.
HPARD will continue to open more pools as lifeguards are hired and trained.
Washington, D.C. – New audio recordings that surfaced on social media have revealed candid remarks from Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts on the country’s polarization and the role of religion in society. The recordings were made by liberal documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor, who posed as a Catholic conservative at an annual dinner earlier this month.
In the recordings, Justice Alito is heard expressing a desire to return the country “to a place of godliness” and remarked that “one side or the other is going to win” regarding the nation’s polarized political climate. Chief Justice Roberts, when questioned about whether the court should lead America “toward a more moral path,” responded that “the role for the court is deciding the cases.”
The release of these recordings has intensified scrutiny over Justice Alito’s impartiality, particularly given his controversial statements and the critical rulings expected from the Supreme Court later this month on issues such as abortion, gun rights, and former President Trump’s immunity claims.
Lauren Windsor, who is known for her confrontational style with high-profile conservatives, defended her covert recordings. She stated that the Supreme Court operates “shrouded in secrecy” and emphasized the need for accountability from the justices.
These revelations come at a time when public confidence in the Supreme Court is already strained, raising further questions about the objectivity and transparency of its members as they deliberate on significant and potentially life-altering cases.
