At least one person died in the freezing weather. High demand for electricity is forecast to continue into Saturday.
Emily Foxhall
Emily Foxhall is The Texas Tribune's climate reporter. She joined the Tribune as an energy reporter in December 2022, focused on the state’s transition to green energy and the reliability of the power grid. She completed a year-long Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 2025. Emily is based in Houston, where she grew up. After a stint as a Tribune student intern in 2012, she began her career at the Los Angeles Times and its community papers. She later worked at the Houston Chronicle where her environmental reporting uncovered the effects of climate change and pollution on the region. She won several Texas Managing Editors awards and was part of the 2017 team that was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Harvey. Emily graduated from Yale University in 2013, where she studied English and was a Yale Journalism Scholar.
Posted in
Energy
Texans should prepare for “life-threatening” wind chills, but officials remain confident in power grid
Gov. Greg Abbott and other leaders say Texans should protect their homes and vehicles as large portions of the state will experience dangerously cold temperatures.
Posted in
Immigration
More than 1,500 migrants wade across the Rio Grande into El Paso in one day
Over the weekend, U.S. immigration officials processed and released more than 1,700 migrants into El Paso, overwhelming local shelters.
Posted in
Politics
El Paso DA Yvonne Rosales a no-show in Walmart shooting hearing
The district judge has asked the embattled district attorney, who resigned Monday, to appear in court Thursday or risk being arrested.
Posted in
Politics
El Paso joins Gov. Greg Abbott in busing migrants to New York City
The Democrat-led city sent 35 migrants from Venezuela as New York officials have complained that Abbott’s busing is straining city services.
Posted in
El Paso shooting
“I think of them always,” survivor of El Paso Walmart shooting says of those who were killed three years ago
Speaking out for the first time, an El Paso mom recounts the moments from a bank inside the Walmart where 23 people were fatally shot and dozens more were injured in 2019.
Posted in
Environment
Texas, New Mexico pushing for settlement in Rio Grande water fight
The case sparked from a series of lawsuits over Rio Grande water and escalated with Texas arguing that New Mexico pumping prevents Texas from receiving its fair share.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Two years after Walmart mass shooting, El Paso leaders see inaction and betrayal by Texas officials
In what some people call an affront to the families of the 2019 shooting victims, Texas Republicans expanded gun rights earlier this year when the state Legislature passed a permitless carry bill.
Posted in
Energy
Off Beaten Path, Coastal Cabins Are Paradise for Their Permit Holders
Through a nearly 40-year-old program run by the Texas General Land Office, several people hold permits to use cabins on remote, state-owned islands near the Intracoastal Waterway. Permit holders love the isolation — and the fishing.
Posted in
State Government
TDCJ Faces Ongoing Staffing Challenges
During the 1990s, many Texans believed prison construction would help boost the economies in rural areas. Today, ongoing staffing shortages in rural units are causing legislators and other officials to reconsider that assumption.
