Photo by Houston PD

Stephanie Redus was charged with advertising placement of her child on Craigslist -- a misdemeanor.

Having trouble raising the kids? Put them up for adoption on Craigslist.

At least that's what one area mom did for her son. Stephanie Redus of Huffman sent out a desperate plea to the Craigslist community, saying the responsibilities of parenthood were just too much and she couldn't handle the pressure.

Redus, 29, posted the Craigslist ad on May 1, which read, "Hi, I'm trying to adopt out my three-year-old son. I'm not in a good place in my life and don't feel like I can care for him properly, but I don't know where to start. If you or know anyone who is interested in caring for him please let me know. I'm a single mom and can't do this. Thanks, Desperate."

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Courtesy Weather.com

It's tough not to think about weather after the devastating tornadoes that hit Oklahoma the last two days. The probably F-5 tornado that struck Moore just south of Oklahoma City could be one of the largest on record, an incredible two miles wide at its peak. Tornadoes are certainly nature's most instantaneously destructive force. Killer, super-sized F-5s can, as we've seen from the heartbreaking footage, level entire towns in a matter of minutes and with very little warning.

Here in Houston, forecasters are not expecting an outbreak of tornadoes. We don't generally have the kind of conditions conducive to forming large twisters, fortunately, but we do have heat and humidity. Both are back in force.

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The Harris County Medical Examiner's office confirmed to Hair Balls that Downing Street Pub Manager Joseph Dufault died in Sunday's single-vehicle wreck on Allen Parkway. Dufault was driving a Hummer around 2 p.m. near Waugh when he sped off a curve before smashing into a tree. He was 29.

According to KHOU, witnesses said the Hummer was "driving too fast...and flipped several times before landing upside down." A female passenger was also in the car, but escaped with minor injuries.

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Sen. Dan Patrick has finally put an end to the anti-American, pro-Islam lessons in 900 Texas school districts

Months after becoming one of the favored bogeymen among certain right-wing circles, it appears CSCOPE, the curriculum and lesson framework used in nearly 900 school districts around the state, is no more. State Sen. Dan Patrick held a press conference Monday morning announcing that he had received a letter from the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative alerting him that they would cancel CSCOPE at this Friday's meeting.

"The era of CSCOPE lesson plans has come to an end," Patrick, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said at Monday's press conference. "At the end of the day, I think this is the best move forward...for our students, for our parents, and for our teachers...This was a program that had issues within the content of the lesson plans that brought concerns to parents and legislators and teachers as well as part of the business operations behind it."

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Going into the 83rd state legislative session, it seemed as if the state water plan would swim on through the legislative plumbing faster than Nemo went down that sink drain and onward to freedom and hanging out with some tubular sea turtles in Finding Nemo.

Well, that's just not how things went down. The water bill itself got passed, but the bill that would provide the funding for it faltered in the state House as Tea Party Republicans -- who never want to pull anything from the Rainy Day Fund -- and the Democrats -- who would only pull from the fund for water if the fund was also drawn on to restore education budget cuts made in the last session -- got together against the bill and managed to kill it on a technicality.

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Illustration by Al Cameron

Did Hotze miss his true musical calling?

We were stoked to hear that Republican activist Steven Hotze -- a physician who once extolled the virtues of 19th century snake oil such as colloidal silver and who belongs to a hardcore Christian sect that believes doctors shouldn't provide medical services on the Sabbath -- had recorded some anti-Obamacare jams.

His auto-tuned voice drops science along the lines of "Texas should be free again, it should be an independent nation" over a spare but pulsating piano-bass-and-drum track that strikes us as something you might hear in Hell's waiting room.

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With cool cards to spare

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, like women's hoops star Skylar Diggins this past weekend, I graduated from the University of Notre Dame.

And thus ends the list of things that Skylar Diggins and I have in common.

At the time of my graduation, I was (and still am) a pasty, unathletic, sarcastic and not all that attractive man. At the time of her graduation, Skylar Diggins is a dark complected, world class athletic, stunningly attractive woman.

Additionally, my nicest graduation present was a briefcase from my parents. Skylar Diggins just got a Mercedes from Jay-Z.

Point, Diggins.

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Most people reading about the killings of Kaufman County officials earlier this year - Mark Hasse, an assistant district attorney was shot on the courthouse steps in January, then District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were found dead in their home on Easter weekend - responded with the appropriate reactions of horror, concern and flat-out disbelief that things like this could happen in that quiet little county up in North Texas. But some people - namely the criminal types - seem to have had a different response.

Instead of taking the time to ponder what the hell was going on in Kaufman County to make someone go after government officials, it seems some may have looked at the murders - which former Justice of the Peace Eric Williams and his wife Kim were arrested for and charged with - as an excellent idea.

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Have you ever been traveling, and you just have this sneaky suspension that you left something in the hotel room?

The lads in Orange over at BBVA Compass Stadium might be having that same feeling right about now. Just two weeks ago, they were the proud owners of a 36 home match unbeaten streak. They even took their winning ways on the road; winning back-to-back road games at the LA Galaxy and at DC United by a combined 5 goals.

Since then, they've lost two straight at home for first time since 2010. The latest defeat... a 2-0 loss to the New England Revolution on Saturday night.

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Music is a tough business. Thousands of artists are writing and performing tens of thousands of songs every day for little to no wage, trying to strike it big and gain some degree of relevance.

However, in the Darwinian age of the internet, YouTube, iTunes, and a thousand different television channels, sometimes you don't find relevance as much as relevance finds you.

Ask Alexis Normand.

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