Judge Pleads Guilty, Avoids Sex Crime Trial

Spill has now affected every Gulf state

(NEWSER) - Oil from the BP spill has now reached the shores of every Gulf state. Tar balls from the spill were found over the weekend on a Texas beach 400 miles from the Gulf gusher, AP reports. Authorities—who rapidly dispatched cleanup crews and sent BP the bill—believe the tar balls may have dropped off a passing ship instead of drifting all the way from the Deepwater Horizon. More»

Cellphone and pelican conspire against Texas driver

(NEWSER) - A Texas driver distracted by a low-flying pelican took an unexpected detour—into 3 feet of water. Andy House, 34, drove a Bugatti Veyron EB, worth about $1 million, into a saltwater lagoon near Galveston. "He was calm,” the driver of the wrecker that took away the waterlogged French sports car told the Houston Chronicle . “If it had been me, I'd have been cussing, but he was calm." More»

(NEWSER) - Officials in the coastal Texas town of Galveston are baffled by a series of arson fires targeting palm trees, the Houston Chronicle reports. “This is strange,” the town’s fire marshal says of the spree, which has hit 30 trees since May. “It’s the first case in my experience dealing with a tree arsonist.” More»

Bush and Clinton, having raised $1.5M, see more need in devastated Texas

(NEWSER) - Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton called today for more money to aid Texas communities devastated by Hurricane Ike, the Houston Chronicle reports. The pair, who toured the Galveston area, has raised $1.5 million for their Bush-Clinton Coastal Recovery Fund. The money will be used to augment state and local efforts once reconstruction begins. More»

(AP) - Rats, raw sewage, and a no-excuses curfew await exiled residents who try to return to Texas' storm-wrecked Galveston Island when it reopens next week, officials warned today. But that didn't keep some of the 45,000 evacuated islanders from trying to get home. Some ignored orders to turn around outside the city, while others resorted to deception to sneak past police guarding a roadblock. More»