“A year like this, where everything is disaster, is just, I’d say, devastating,” cotton farmer Steven Walker said.
2022
Posted in
Health care
Texans are dying on state highways every day — especially in rural “dead zones”
Fatal crashes in rural areas accounted for 51% of Texas’ 4,489 traffic fatalities in 2021, even though only about 10% of the state’s population lives in a rural area, according to data from the state’s department of transportation.
Posted in
Politics
House committee votes to release Trump tax returns over objections by U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady
Brady, the top Republican on the House tax-writing committee, urged the committee not to release the former president’s records just before it deliberated on what to do with them.
Posted in
Economy
Army Corps of Engineers withdraws plan to dredge Texas Gulf Coast Superfund site for oil tanker traffic
The reversal follows a challenge by Earthjustice and Gulf Coast community groups alleging flaws in the corps’ environmental review of Matagorda and Lavaca bays.
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Energy
Federal report identifies cause of 2019 Port Neches chemical plant explosion
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board found that TPC Group LLC failed to identify problem areas where dangerous chemicals might cause explosions and didn’t implement a safety recommendation that could have prevented the blast.
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Criminal Justice
Ex-Fort Worth cop sentenced to nearly 12 years for manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson
A jury found Aaron Dean guilty of manslaughter last week for the fatal shooting of Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, while she was babysitting her nephew in a family home.
Posted in
Uvalde school shooting
On the day of the Uvalde shooting, her school bus became a makeshift ambulance
Sylvia Uriegas transported children who were wounded inside Robb Elementary School to the hospital. The terror of that day still haunts her.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
A Texas superintendent ordered librarians to remove LGBTQ-themed books. Now the federal government is investigating.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has opened what appears to be the first-of-its-kind investigation into the Granbury Independent School District after it banned school library books dealing with sexuality and gender.
Posted in
Uvalde school shooting
Records reveal medical response further delayed care for Uvalde shooting victims
Previously unreleased video, audio and interviews show for the first time how the medical response faltered after police finally confronted the Robb Elementary shooter.
Posted in
Politics
Texas elections secure despite COVID-related “irregularities” in 2020, audit finds
Four Texas counties were evaluated in a 359-page audit released by Secretary of State John Scott on Monday, two weeks before he steps down as chief election official.