Daughter Finds Long-Lost Dad Too Late

(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»

Houston expects surge in births 9 months after storm cut power

(NEWSER) - A Houston hospital is bracing for a baby boom due 9 months after Hurricane Ike cut power to the region for days, the Chronicle reports. “There’s about a 25% increase in the number of deliveries coming up in mid-June to mid-July,” said one doctor. Another physician is herself expecting. “You can only do so much when there’s no television, nothing open, and there’s nowhere to go,” she said. 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»

(NEWSER) - News is going from bad to worse for some Texas homeowners. Hundreds of beachfront homes damaged by Hurricane Ike—and even some left spared—might be condemned thanks to a state law making it illegal to build on public beaches, the AP reports. The homes didn't move, but as Ike tore through, the beaches did; the storm redrew tide lines and redefined what's public and what's private. More»