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Weekend Insider: Midland's Oil Boom, Sex Trafficking

The Texas oil boom is causing benefits and challenges for local communities, and sex trafficking victims now have a safe house in Texas.

In Midland, the oil boom is bringing new jobs, new people and new money to the local economy.
But the explosion in the community's population also brings challenges. The same is true on the Texas coast. Spurred by cheap natural gas prices, at least a half-dozen chemical plants are planning expansions there. Does Texas have enough water and electricity to support the boom?

And the first safe house in Texas for sex trafficking victims that focuses solely on this issue opens near Houston. This comes at a time of increased attention on how to provide services for minors who have been forced into prostitution.

Find these stories in the weekend editions of The New York Times and at www.texastribune.org

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