Urban News

(HOUSTON) -- There are going to be a lot of smiles in vehicles on Houston area freeways in the coming days. Signs reading "55 MPH" are slowly being taken down and the old "60 MPH" and "65 MPH" signs are being put back up.

City transportation officials reluctantly lowered in-city speed limits some months ago in order to meet increasingly more stringent federal air pollution standards. They knew something had to be done about auto emissions in the city.

Now, according to the Houston Chronicle, an agreement has been reached between the Texas Department of Transportation, city officials and the EPA that will allow for higher speeds to return to city interstates and interstate-grade highways.

The EPA announcement was conveyed to Houston area drivers by Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday. As the Chronicle points out, the announcement was made just hours before Election Day, even though it was termed a coincidence.

(CHARLESTON, S.C.) -- It could be next year before the Charleston, S.C., suburb of North Charleston has any luck in trying to book major acts into its arena. According to charleston.net, an online news provider, the city's mayor says that the city and a company called Arena Ventures are seeking to reach an agreement about the future of entertainment there.

During the past year, of all the 30 major events that came to the Charleston metropolitan area, only five were booked into the North Charleston facility.

Additionally, a company had tried to get bookings for minor league baseball games in the sports complex.

So far five shows have been booked for 2003.

The city had signed a contract to pay concert agents $300,000, spread over a five-year period, to get better entertainment acts and sporting events into the North Charleston facility.

(LOS ANGELES) -- A freak accident involving a city transit bus has taken the life of one person and sent two others to hospitals in Los Angeles. CBS News says that an MTA bus collided with a privately owned vehicle near the posh Beverly Center shopping complex on Tuesday.

The accident happened at the busy intersection of San Vicente Boulevard and Fourth Street. Fire rescue teams had to work to free a passenger in the car involved in the accident. She was pronounced dead after being taken to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The driver of the bus was taken to a hospital. The driver of the car suffered only minor injuries.

Although accidents involving Los Angeles city buses are not uncommon, more common have been accidents involving the city's light rail system and pedestrians. Much of that system runs on surface streets, in the manner of the old Red Car trolley cars of decades past (and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" fame).

(MINNEAPOLIS) -- Winter has hit the Minneapolis metropolitan area and with it a spate of accidents, two of them fatal. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says that a 17-year-old driver lost control of his car on icy-snowy roads in the southern suburbs of the metro area this week. The out-of-control car was then struck by another vehicle. The dead student, a senior at an area high school, was not able to be revived by medics.

In a separate accident, the driver of a van died under similar circumstances. He lost control of the car and it was struck by another vehicle. The impact forced the first car into a ditch, where it rolled over before coming to a stop.

That driver was also pronounced dead at the scene.

Even though the worst is far from having arrived, when it comes to weather in the metropolitan area -- and forecasters this year are at odds as to how bad the winter will be -- many suburbs, including Eagan, Prior Lake and Lakeville have been hit with hazardous road conditions. Much of the concern has been over icing conditions rather than snow, this time around.