Michael Jackson's Doctor Has NW Houston Ties

Houston police knocked on the door of the sister of Dr. Conrad Robert Murray Thursday in Southwest Houston.

Dr. Murray is a cardiologist from Houston with ties to Michael Jackson's death investigation. Murray runs the Home Heart and Vascular Institute in Northwest Houston as well as a clinic in Las Vegas.

Recently, Dr. Murray is said to have been a personal physician to Michael Jackson. The Cardiologist is believed to have been at Jackson's side when 9-1-1 was called to his Los Angeles area home.

Wednesday night, investigators in Los Angeles retrieved a car with Texas plates from Jackson's home.

The plates are registered to a Houston woman, Dr. Murray's sister.

The woman did not appear to be at home when Houston Police arrived.

Police are not considering Dr. Murray a suspect in Jackson's death. They are interested in speaking with the Cardiologist about Jackson's final hours.

LCS to hold open house on new facility on June 25th

The foyer of one of the buildings at the new LSCS facility is decorated.

Lone Star College System officials are inviting the community to an open house on June 25 at its new facility on State Highway 249 at Louetta Road.

The site, once home to Hewlett Packard's north campus and the former Compaq Computer headquarters, has been a mystery to most northwest Houston residents - a massive, beautiful complex with mirrored buildings, that could be seen tucked away neatly on SH 249 behind security gates at every entrance.

But now, since the purchase by Lone Star College System, college officials want to open the facility to the public by having perhaps a first-ever community open house.

The open-house event is set for Thursday, June 25, from 4 to 7 p.m. and all residents are invited to come by and visit the facility.

"This will be a family type event," said Ray Laughter, vice chancellor for external affairs. Hot dogs and other light refreshments will be served at the campus as part of the open-house celebration.

The open house will include tours of the facility and information booths will be featured about various aspects of the college system, like Lone Star Corporate College and its workforce programs, along with the Lone Star College-University Center.

"There may be those who even live nearby this facility who have never had the opportunity to see what it looks like past those security gates," Laughter said. "The tours on June 25 by our staff members will actually guide you through the buildings for a look."

The facility changed hands on May 7 when LSCS announced that it had purchased the core of the Hewlett Packard north campus on SH 249 at Louetta Road - 45 acres for a purchase price of $42.15 million.


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North Houston Gallery Furniture Fire Video

4-alarm blaze strikes Gallery Furniture warehouse
No injuries as fire threatens Houston retail icon
By MIKE GLENN, DANE SCHILLER and DAVID KAPLAN
May 22, 2009, 7:22AM

As flames ripped through one of Houston’s most notable retail icons Thursday night, Gallery Furniture founder Jim McIngvale vowed to rebuild.

But McIngvale, who earned fame with his colorful commercials and self-imposed moniker of Mattress Mack, acknowledged “millions and millions” in dollars of merchandise had been damaged in his flagship store’s warehouse.
To his employees he promised, “We won’t quit.”
This morning he was at his other location at 2411 Post Oak Blvd., which opened earlier this year, preparing to start selling furniture again. True to form, shortly after dawn he was filming a commercial to remind customers of the new Galleria-area location.

McIngvale said it wasn't clear when he could get back into the original location, much less reopen it. In the meantime, he said the store is scouting locations for warehouse space to house several truckloads of furniture on its way.
A few firefighters remained this morning in case of flare-ups. They planned to continue pouring water until heavy equipment could be brought in to pull away the remains of the hulking warehouse and expose any leftover hot spots.
Gallery Furniture — one of Houston’s brightest success stories, known as the store where Mattress Mack will “save you money” — faced serious damage as the four-alarm fire ripped through its warehouse in the 6000 block of the North Freeway near Parker.
But fire crews successfully kept the blaze from spreading to the store’s 100,000-square-foot showroom — the area visited by the public — during a two and a half hour battle. Morning commuters on the freeway slowed to look at the warehouse wreckage.
McIngvale said it was premature to speculate about the fate of the main store’s contents.

“Realistically, we could have a lot of smoke damage,” he said, noting thousands of pieces of furniture must be assessed.
The store was still open to customers when the fire started at 8:40 p.m., but no one was injured.
McIngvale was at the store when the blaze ignited. After an employee alerted him of a possible fire, McIngvale looked at surveillance cameras monitoring the property. “I saw 10-foot flames and realized how serious it was,” he said.
Flames towered over the warehouse’s storage area when fire crews arrived and started dousing it with elevated water cannons.

But the contents of the furniture storage warehouse only increased the flames. “It’s good fuel – it’s basically a big wood fire,” said Houston Fire Department District Chief Tommy Dowdy.
As 150 firefighters worked to contain the blaze, Mayor Bill White showed up to lend his support.

What caused the blaze was not immediately known. One employee said the fire may have started near a generator in the warehouse, but that report has not been officially confirmed, Dowdy sai

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Northwest Houston community fights against installation of park fence

HOUSTON -- A local park is in the middle of a tug of war between neighbors in Northwest Houston and a school. Under a county program, neighbors raised thousands of dollars to make a park better, but Garden Oaks Elementary school wants to keep neighbors out during the day.

Like 200 other parks in Harris County, Garden Oaks is a SPARK park. The SPARK School Park Program is a non-profit organization that was developed in 1983 as a way to increase park space in Houston.

Most SPARK parks are fenced, but not this one. Neighbors, who put up $40,000 to pay for new playground equipment, say they've been able to use it whenever they wanted.

But now the principal of Garden Oaks Elementary wants to put up a fence. She says it's for security reasons and for the safety of the children. In fact, she says a fence was in the original plans.

"It's just disappointing. It's a fun park. It has lots of stuff for big kids and little kids, and it's a good place," said Abi Hoffman who lives in the area.

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Ike Baby Boom?

Doctors who work in Houston’s busiest maternity ward say they’re expecting an especially bustling June, leading some to conclude that Hurricane Ike was the perfect storm for making babies.
It’s been eight months since Ike knocked out the region’s electricity, leaving many with no television, Internet access or other distractions for days, if not weeks. Now there’s a curious bump in the number of women who are rounding out their third trimesters of pregnancy.

Several obstetrical practices associated with The Woman’s Hospital of Texas are extra-busy these days with prenatal care.
“I looked, somewhat in shock, at my little book of deliveries for June, and it’s 26,” said Dr. John Irwin, president of Obstetrical and Gynecological Associates.
He routinely delivers 15 to 20 babies a month and called the Ike boomlet “a real phenomenon.” His colleagues in the 35-physician practice have seen a similar increase in patients who probably conceived during the powerless days after Ike.
“There’s about a 25 percent increase in the number of deliveries coming up in mid-June to mid-July,” said Irwin, also chief of surgery service at Woman’s Hospital.

At a hospital that ranks in the top five for births statewide, that means at least 100 more bundles of joy this summer. “We are well-prepared for it,” said hospital CEO Linda Russell. “We have just opened up a new wing with 92 additional beds.”
The hospital usually delivers around 8,000 babies annually. In 2008, the facility clocked more than 9,000 births and expects to break that record this year. And because August, September and October traditionally have the most deliveries, the hospital will require additional staff for five months this year, Russell said.
Storms and blackouts are routinely remembered with baby bounties. But this time, with the recession creeping in, folks had multiple reasons to stop going out and start snuggling in.


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Houston car wash waxes religious

By JEMIMAH NOONOO Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
May 7, 2009, 6:37PM

Mayra Beltran Chronicle
SHARING FAITH: The Rev. Charles Cooper, second from right, of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, leads Dr. Gleem Car Wash employees in prayer at the end of Bible study at the car wash on May 1 .

The Rev. Charles Cooper is pacing deliberately.
“I’m in dialysis, I go three times a week,” he preaches, his cadenced voice rising gradually. “But that doesn’t stop me from serving God!”

Here, in the lobby of Dr. Gleem Car Wash and Lube Center, there are no pews, no choir, no ushers.
There are, however, about 20 folding chairs arranged in a circle. Listeners — mostly staff — hold coffee mugs in one hand and search for Bible verses with the other. And everyone seats themselves.

“We’re having church here,” Cooper continues, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt emblazoned with the Gleem logo. “The Spirit is where the Lord is.”
For the past four years, employees have held Bible study at its northwest location on Friday mornings. There are four locations throughout Houston.

The idea was born after weekly staff meetings began ending in fights and finger-pointing, said manager Herb Alcarez. Some of the staff members would leave mid-meeting, slamming doors behind them.
Alcarez and fellow manager Kevin Jenkins — whose father founded the business in 1967 — decided to offer Bible study at the meetings. The managers approached Cooper, a regular customer and pastor at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, to help. Pastor Alex Morrison, of Houston Christway Ministries, also helps lead the Bible study.
“I used to think ‘I got these car washes. God, I’ll call you when I need you,’ ” Jenkins said, about the decision to express faith more openly. “Now it is ‘God, this is your car wash, show me what to do.’ ”
Though the Bible study is open to everyone, mostly employees attend. Members of the group of about 20 attend different churches.

On a recent Friday, prayers are requested for family members: Pastor Cooper says his daughter is like “the prodigal son”; another participant asks for prayer about participating in a funeral.
The subjects are as varied as the recession (no one’s job is in jeopardy, thanks to God), the swine flu (God will protect employees) and the kinds of customers the group sees (you can’t take your Rolex watch to heaven).
“I’m grateful for my job, to be able to put food on the table for my family,” says Christino Jose Aguilar. “That’s the best feeling in the world.”

The 7 a.m. Bible study is not the only clue that this is a faith-based business.

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First reported US swine-flu death occurs in Houston

The first reported death in the United States from the swine flu outbreak was that of a 23-month-old Mexican toddler who fell ill in Brownsville and was transported for treatment in Houston, where the child died Monday, city officials said.
Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, did not say which hospital treated the child or give any other details about the toddler.

There still have been no reported Houston-area cases of the disease, which is thought to have begun in Mexico but is being detected around the world. However, Barton said Houston should expect to see cases originate here.
She added that hospitals that handle any flu cases, swine or otherwise, take precautions to prevent its spread, such as masks, frequent handwashing and other sanitation measures.

"Even though we've been expecting this, it is very, very sad," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who made the initial announcement of a Texas death on several nationally televised morning shows today. "As a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family."

Germany today reported its first three cases of swine flu. The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States before today rose to 66 in six states, with 45 in New York, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, but cities and states suspected more. In New York, the city's health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.

The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn't been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.
"We're working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful," Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work, told The Associated Press.
The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.

"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Cuba and Argentina banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people and sickening well over 2,000. In a bit of good news, Mexico's health secretary, Jose Cordova, late Tuesday called the death toll there "more or less stable."

Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, has taken drastic steps to curb the virus' spread, starting with shutting down schools and on Tuesday expanding closures to gyms and swimming pools and even telling restaurants to limit service to takeout. People who venture out tend to wear masks in hopes of protection.
New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Britain, Canada and now Germany have also reported cases. But the only deaths so far have been Mexican citizens, baffling experts.
The WHO argues against closing borders to stem the spread, and the U.S. — although checking arriving travelers for the ill who may need care — agrees it's too late for that tactic.

"Sealing a border as an approach to containment is something that has been discussed and it was our planning assumption should an outbreak of a new strain of influenza occur overseas. We had plans for trying to swoop in and knockout or quench an outbreak if it were occurring far from our borders. That's not the case here," Besser told a telephone briefing of Nevada-based health providers and reporters. "The idea of trying to limit the spread to Mexico is not realistic or at all possible."
"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.

Authorities sought to keep the crisis in context: Flu deaths are common around the world. In the U.S. alone, the CDC says about 36,000 people a year die of flu-related causes. Still, the CDC calls the new strain a combination of pig, bird and human.

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