⚖️ Travis Scott lawyers up: More than 120 lawsuits related to the Astroworld deaths and injuries have been filed in Harris County, with total damages sought exceeding $3 billion. To deal with his share of those suits, Houston rapper Travis Scott has hired Daniel Petrocelli, who’s said to charge $1,500 an hour, and who once won an $8.5 million verdict in Fred Goldman’s wrongful-death lawsuit against O.J. Simpson. Scott’s legal team also includes Kent Schaffer, one of Houston’s top criminal-defense lawyers. (Texas Lawbook)

🏠 Houston is surprisingly close to ending homelessness: Since 2011, homelessness in Houston has declined 50%, writes Mike Nichols, CEO and president of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County. Now, he says, Houston could become the United States’ first major city to end homelessness – meaning that no one known to be homeless goes more than 30 days without permanent housing. What would it take to get there? Nichols is precise: 1,900 affordable apartments for single adults and young people. (Urban Edge, by Rice’s Kinder Institute)

🍿 McConaughey turns down the candidate role: Earlier this year Matthew McConaughey was polling ahead of both parties’ likely nominees for Texas governor – never mind that the movie star is more secretive about his political party than about his drug history or his wet dreams. But Sunday evening, as the filing deadline neared, McConaughey withdrew via a tweeted video. Instead of entering politics, he said he’ll focus on supporting “entrepreneurs, businesses and foundations” that “are creating pathways for people to succeed in life.”  He signed off: “Just keep livin’.” (Matthew McConaughey, Twitter)

🔫 Party pix of police and pols: Who says Republicans and Democrats can't get along? Harris County District attorney Kim Ogg, self-described as a “progressive prosecutor,” and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, one of the best Republican base-rilers in politics, stand grinning next to each other in a group photo taken at mogul Tilman Fertitta’s “True Blue” gala to support the Houston Police Department. Fertitta-style entertainment included a shooting arcade with HPD’s SWAT team. The official party pix, alas, don’t show that. (Paper City)

👭 The friends she wishes she had: Houston-born Halston Dare has scored a Spotify hit in “Girls,” a cheerful club song about a fun friend group. Dare was inspired by women she hung out with – though not in the way you’d expect. One night while she was working with a songwriting partner, they were mean to her, and she began riffing on a more positive girl gang. (Houston Chronicle’s Preview; “Girls,” on Spotify)

Earlier this month, Houston Arboretum naturalist Tiffany Ritter curiously watched a velvety black slug move slowly across a path, and even stopped a few minutes to take a time-lapse video. Only later, she writes, did she realize to her horror what she’d seen: iNaturalist and Google informed her that it’s a black-velvet leatherleaf (Belocaulus angustipes), an invasive species from South America. 

The slugs have a voracious appetite, and they carry a parasite that can cause health problems in humans and dogs. The Texas Invasive Species Institute recommends that if you see a black-velvet leatherleaf, you put it in a Ziploc bag with salt, freeze it overnight, then toss the bagged remains into the garbage. If you touch the slug, disinfect your hands thoroughly.

“It was this particular slug's lucky day,” writes Ritter. But she’ll be ready for the next one.