HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A fire in southeast Houston injured a toddler and the child's grandmother this morning. It happened around 2am on Kirkdale near Beamer.
Officials say the fire started in a back room of the one-story house. They both made it out but are being treated for smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local » HOUSTON (KTRK) -- One Navy veteran vividly remembers the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Dave Hughes was 17 years old at the time. He was piloting a motor boat between American ships when he saw the first line of Japanese zeroes. He says for a moment he thought the planes were American fighters doing practice runs, until they started strafing ships.
Hughes says he and other sailors worked around the clock to save people from damaged ships and prepare for a possible follow up attack. (Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local » LIVINGSTON, TX (KTRK) -- Local immigration activists are alleging human rights abuses at the Polk County Detention Center. They gathered Saturday to board a bus and drive to the center in Livingston for a protest.
They claim the detainees suffer from inadequate medical care, poor nutrition and a lack of access to legal services.
Protestors called for the closure of the facility, which houses hundreds of immigration detainees waiting for their cases to be resolved.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »What we found is based on last year's numbers. Houston police officers are firm believers that you control this year's. They advise leaving purses at home and taking only one credit card, along with your driver's license or ID.
In the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, lugging bags to and from, shopper Tracey Parker is extra careful.
"Make sure I have my keys out, so that I'm prepared, and I make sure I'm definitely aware of what's going on around me, especially when I have my little ones with me," Parker said.
Paying attention is your best line of defense against those looking to commit a crime of opportunity.
Mary Hawkins has a second line of defense, her son.
"I always try to come with her wherever she goes," Deric Hawkins said.
So where are the safest places to shop?
Using our exclusive Crime Tracker, we added up last December's reported thefts, assaults and robberies in and around local malls.
Not surprisingly, we found the highest number of crimes at the biggest mall -- The Galleria. It had six vehicle break-ins and one pick-pocketing last December.
Greenspoint and Willowbrook are tied for second, with six crimes each.
Memorial City, Sharpstown and Baybrook all had five. Northline and Meyerland had four incidents; Town and Country had one, and Gulfgate had none.
Many malls like Memorial City have visible security, but Houston police officer Jim Woods says it's mostly about the individual.
"If you're not paying attention and you're not being aware of what's around you, you can be a potential victim," Woods said.
And you don't even have to be around. Shopping safety, he says, starts at your car.
"Before I came here, I emptied my car out," shopper Teresa O'Donnell said.
That's exactly what officers suggest. Also, they say you should make your most expensive purchases last and go immediately home from there.
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This undated promotional photo provided by Adrenalin PR shows members of the Richmond, Va., based rock band "Lamb of God," from left, John Campbell, Randy Blythe, Mark Morton, Willie Adler and Chris Adler. The band was set to appear at the Great Western Forum with the Grammy-nominated "Slipknot," as part of the Subliminal Verses Tour on April 9, but the owners of the venue near Los Angeles wanted to cancel the entire show and relented after it determined that Slipknot had toned down its image. (AP Photo/Greg Watermann) HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A heavy metal singer charged in the death of a fan in Europe was in downtown Houston Thursday night, performing in a concert at Bayou Place. Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe was indicted for manslaughter Monday by authorities in the Czech Republic. Two years ago, a fan jumped on stage during a concert and was shoved by Blythe. The fan fell and died of a head injury two weeks later.
"The government over there, they posted a video of it and all that, and it showed the security guy pushing him off and he runs into him and he just kinda shoved and the guy just fell off stage," Lamb of God fan Scott Fisher said.
KTRK legal analyst Joel Androphy says this is a security issue. He also says the singer would not have been charged in the United States.
(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Entertainment »As the day was starting, at about 6:45am, from north Texas to the Gulf Coast, people were greeted with flash in the sky. Some report hearing what sounded like a sonic boom. Ashley Graham says she was walking her dog here in Houston.
"It was like a big flash and I thought it was lightning," she recalled. "It was a big light, and it was kind of scary, but I didn't think about it too much."
A lot of people are thinking about it now. A flash, a colored light -- reports are still coming in. It could be seen all around the area if you were up early enough.
"If we have a time when a people are outside when something happens, then we get all these reports," said Dr. Carolyn Sumners with the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Dr. Sumners missed the event. There is no definite explanation yet for the light and what appeared to be a trail across the sky. But for now she suspects it's part of a meteor as it hurtled through the earth's atmosphere.
She said, "The longer we go with no manmade explanation, the more we think it really was a meteor."
Meteors are common. We also call them shooting stars. In the lobby of the museum planetarium, there is part of a meteorite on display, composed of iron ore that burned across the sky.
On Friday afternoon the National Weather Service questioned whether it was debris from a Russian satellite as it re-entered the atmosphere. For now, it's a mystery, and a very intriguing one, just a few weeks before the Mayan calendar's prophecy of doomsday.
"It's getting closer to that day, and this big flash, and I didn't know what it was," Graham said. "Yeah, a lot of different things were going through my mind."
"It is a little scary and you think about all the other things that have happened over the months and over the years and it makes you think about a lot," said museum visitor Glenda Scales.
A week from today a meteor shower is expected to begin. Perhaps this flash across the sky was the prequel. So far the official determination of the flash across the sky has not been made.
If you saw it, tell us about it on our Facebook or Twitter page. And if you happen to have captured a photo or video, email it to us at news@abc13.com or upload it on our iWitness reports page.
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The tapestry depicts the Virgin Mary and Saint Vincent of Saragossa. HOUSTON (KTRK) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents last month seized a 16th century tapestry stolen from Spain, under the National Stolen Property Act. The tapestry was seized in November from a local business under an HSI initiative called "Hidden Relic." This initiative is designed to investigate, recover and repatriate stolen cultural property.
"HSI understands the cultural and historical significance of protecting a country's treasures," said Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of HSI Houston. "Our special agents are at the forefront of the effort to identify and return these important items to their lawful owners in the same way we would want our global partners to return America's artifacts in the event they were ever stolen."
The Government of Spain requested assistance to seize the property, indicating that the tapestry was stolen in December 1979 from the cathedral in Roda de Isabena, Spain.
The tapestry depicts the Virgin Mary and Saint Vincent of Saragossa. It was produced in the 16th century and was part of the cathedral's collection that was declared a national monument by royal decree in 1924.
In January 2010, the tapestry was displayed for sale at the Brussels Antiques and Fine Arts Fair (BRAFA) in Brussels, Belgium. It subsequently sold at auction for $369,000 to a business in Houston. The Spanish Civil Guard's Heritage Protection Group learned of the sale. After investigating, it obtained a court order, and under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) requested assistance in recovering the stolen property.
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