The ten problematic homes in West University Place are huge and beautiful — luxurious — ranging in value from $945,000 right up to $2.8 million. Without knowing about a major paperwork oversight, families have lived in the homes for four, five, sometimes up to nine years.

A police officer from West University Place was fired last month and now faces two felony charges that could each bring 2-to-10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Nelson Hernandez, who is still appealing his Sept. 18 termination from the West U. Police Department, is charged with two counts of tampering with a governmental record after he allegedly fabricated the reasons he pulled over two cars. Video footage from his in-car camera showed a different story than Hernandez allegedly wrote in his report, according to a complaint the police department filed with the Harris County District Court.

In the thick of a smoke so oppressive that visibility was cut to a couple feet, the shadowy figures of the firefighters drifted in and out of sight. But their voices on the radio were loud and clear.

“We’ve got a victim,” called the tinny voice. “We’re trying to bring him out.”

The criminal case against Bellaire Police Officer Jeff Cotton will remain shrouded in secrecy for the next couple months after his defense attorney asked the court to postpone the trial due to a scheduling conflict with an expert witness.

Cotton was charged with aggravated assault by a public servant in the Dec. 31, 2008 shooting of Bellaire resident Robbie Tolan. His trial was scheduled for Jan. 25, but it will now be postponed until March 8.

Bellaire residents and officials may soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing there will not be a 20,000-seat soccer stadium on the city’s outskirts. The massive protests that arose from the community may have helped push the Houston Dynamo Stadium back to its original location, just east of downtown Houston.

As many teenage boys rush home from school to plop in front of video games, 16-year-old Joseph Lewis can’t wait to check the new orders that came in from his thriving online business. One customer ordered 162 of the same person. Another ordered 300 hands.

Time appears to be against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay in his fight to exonerate himself of money laundering charges before he is permanently replaced as House majority leader.

In an attempt to meet a late January deadline for DeLay to regain his position, DeLay’s attorneys asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to compel a lower court to give the congressman a speedy trial. Since the state’s response to the request was filed today, the court could agree to consider the issue as early as Wednesday, but would not make a decision for another two weeks.

Communities around Fort Worth and all over the state began fighting the legislature last week to stop a proposal that will slow or stop local governments from building new parks, and possibly decrease the economic growth and quality of life benefits that come with them.

The Texas Recreation and Parks Account, which provides grants to local governments to build community parks, already suffered a 30-percent reduction by the 78th Texas Legislature. Now the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has proposed cutting the fund to the brink of extinction, because Gov. Rick Perry mandated that all state agencies reduce their budgets by 5 percent …

Sixty-two University of Texas shuttle buses allegedly contain an electrical system defect that causes engine fires, which makes the buses “unreasonably dangerous and a threat to the safety of bus riders,” according to a recent lawsuit.

Multiple bus fires have caused some shuttle drivers and members of the group Students for a Fair and Safe Shuttle to question ATC/Vancom of Texas’ bus maintenance procedures.

State environmental officials are monitoring a plume of a carcinogenic dry cleaning chemical that is quietly spreading through the Edwards Aquifer in Northwest Austin.

The plume poses no immediate health threat because the chemical is not in an area of the aquifer tapped by wells for drinking water, according to officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency that monitors groundwater contamination.