Sometime after 2:30 p.m., a Dodge Charger tried to take on a Metro light-rail train.
Steve Jansen
The light rail won.
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If your weekend plans including tooling around downtown on the light rail, get ready to make some adjustments.
Not this weekend
Businesses and residences will be open as usual, but construction between the Downtown Transit Center and UH-Downtown stations will be suspended and buses will be used instead.
The shuttle buses will operate every 10 minutes, Metro says.
Why the shutdown? " Systems ductbank work and demolition preparing for new track for METRORail expansion," says the agency.
Regular rail service will continue between the DTC and Fannin South.
The shutdown will take effect from 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 to midnight, Sunday, Sept. 16, with regular service back up Monday morning.
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Take it all -- while you can get it.
Both George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby airports will have free wi-fi thanks to Google Play (yay!), but only through the end of September (boo).
As we reported in July, Houston airports don't have the extended free wi-fi amenities that many others in the country do. As part of a multimillion deal brokered in 2007, George Bush Intercontinental sticks to a 45-minute limit.
As our writer Mitchell Slapik wrote: "Once your time runs out, they don't have hourly rates, so you have to pay $7.95 for a full day or $9.95 for a month to stay online. Fortunately, you can use some of that extra time at any of Boingo's 500,000 hotspots around the world."
Well, as part of a promotion generous offer by Google Play, free Boingo wi-fi will be available "at more than 4,000 hotspots nationwide. Sponsored wi-fi locations include 15 airports as well as Boingo-enabled Manhattan subway stations, and thousands of hotels, shopping malls and cafes," Boingo says.
One more problem solved as regards the Texans: Getting to home games.
Photo by Reliant
It's maybe not as important as making sure Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson make it through the season without missing a half-dozen games each to injury, but if you're a fan headed to Reliant, you do want your experience to be as hassle-free as possible.
To aid in that goal, Metro is once again offering free light-rail rides to the park, meaning not only do you save a couple of dollars, but you avoid having to queue up to buy a ticket that probably won't be checked. (Unless you decide to risk it and your luck's running out.)
Better yet -- you get to ride in an Andre Johnson-encased rail car, one wrapped in a picture of him celebrating the kind of big play we all hope he will have to celebrate many times this year.
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New Jersey-based express bus service Megabus is coming June 19, and you can already start booking $2 round-trips to Dallas, New Orleans and San Antonio. There will be 18 nonstop departures a day from two locations: Polk and Travis downtown, and the Eastwood Transit Center at 4400 Gulf Freeway. 
Megabus.com Sleek double-deckers are part of the Megabus fleet.
Fares for all trips start at $1 and increase as the travel date approaches, so booking early is wise. To promote their arrival here, during the first week of sales (meaning right now), all tickets are going for a buck, and the company is giving away 10,000 free seats.
Megabus's fleet is reportedly plush: Some are double-deckers and they offer free WiFi and power outlets to riders. The company claims that their fleet is environmentally friendly as well.
Trips to Austin and Galveston are also available at Megabus.com, but those routes are operated by Megabus partner the Kerrville Bus Company. No free trips to those cities are being given away as part of the promotion.
But think of it: a dollar to New Orleans! That will leave you lots of extra cash to spend in that city's many museums, bookstores and edifying historical monuments!
Follow Houston Press on Facebook and on Twitter @HairBallsNews or @HoustonPress.
Well, well, well, the City of Houston announced over the weekend that 
our long, horrible nightmare is over ding dong the wicked witch is dead they have settled their lawsuit with American Traffic Solutions to rid us of the scourge red-light traffic cameras FOREVER once and for all.
Setting aside for the moment the fairy tale-like hyperbole, the city has agreed to pay ATS $4.78 million to settle their dispute over the agreement they had with the company to keep the red lights operating. City council approved ending the red-light camera program after a vote by Houstonians in November 2010 rejected them. We wrote about the entire fiasco in a September cover story.
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If your New Year's Eve plans include drinking past the point where it'd be wise to get behind the wheel, Metro's got your back.
Happy New Year from Metro.
All buses and light rail are free from 6 p.m. New Year's Eve until 6 a.m. New Year's Day, the agency announced.
Metro says it "wants to help individuals celebrating the arrival of the New Year a safe option
to get home rather than getting behind the wheel."
The world's cleanest, germ-free light-rail station -- albeit one in which you no doubt will be encouraged to piss in jars -- will be Stop 3 on Metro's new East End line.
Bring your own urine jars.
That stop will be officially designated the Altic/Howard Hughes stop, the agency announced today.
One stop later will be the Cesar Chavez/67th Street stop, and the Southeast Line has an MLK stop, but those two are tied to streets in the area with those names.
Metro spokesman Jerome Gray tells Hair Balls the Hughes name came from community suggestions. The station's location is near the site of the original Hughes Tool & Die Company plant.
Hughes is the only person to be honored by a station name not directly tied to an already-existing neighborhood or street, although technically the plant could count, we guess.
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Our favorite Metro cops -- the officers whose quick actions helped save Houston Press Music Editor Chris Gray after he suffered a heart attack last month -- were presented with awards this morning from Metro and the American Heart Association. 
Photo by Craig Malisow Our heroes!
Officers John Zepeda and Leonard Wagner just happened to be at the downtown light-rail station where Gray had collapsed on his way in to work on October 28. After a Good Samaritan, who we still haven't been able to personally thank, dragged him off the tracks, Zepeda quickly administered CPR and called for assistance. That's when Wagner swooped in, and the duo took turns administering the life-saving procedure until Houston Fire Department EMTs got to the scene.
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Metro had itself a party this morning, with tons of local officials making happy speeches and a federal official on hand to dole out cash.
Let the latest phase of trough-feeding begin!
The transit agency announced it's officially been cleared to get $900 million in federal funds to build more light rail in town, funds that had been endangered due to previous Metro administrations' ineptitude (to put the best possible spin on it).
"The rail expansion team, Metro board members, past and present and our entire staff, past and present, should be proud of accomplishing an enormous task. We've never lost sight of the prize and finally it is Houston's," board chair Gilbert Garcia said at the event. "We thank all the community patriots for all their help in making this day happen. This is a major investment in the region that will not only create jobs but boost economic development."
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