The announcement comes two months after an investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and NBC News detailed the deadly cost of the government’s failure to regulate portable generators.
Lexi Churchill
Lexi Churchill is a reporter for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative. Before joining ProPublica, Lexi interned at CNBC, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Columbia Daily Tribune and KCUR 89.3, Kansas City’s NPR affiliate. Her reporting on the University of Missouri’s Title IX appeals process won the GateHouse Public Service Award for 2018. Lexi graduated from Mizzou in 2019 with a degree in investigative convergence journalism.
Generators can cause deadly carbon monoxide poisoning. But the industry resists rules to make them safer.
Portable generators are among the deadliest consumer products. Two decades after the government identified the danger, and as climate change leads to more power outages, people are left vulnerable by a system that lets the industry regulate itself.
Texas must do more to effectively prevent carbon monoxide disasters, experts say
Months after the deadly gas killed at least 17 Texans during a massive winter storm, lawmakers have failed to take significant action to protect most of the state’s residents.
Houston-area U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls tests positive for COVID-19
The Republican congressman and former Fort Bend County sheriff, who is fully vaccinated, announced Saturday he’d tested positive for COVID-19.
Inside an agonizing three-hour wait for 911 response to carbon monoxide poisoning in Texas
Following a 911 call about a family that had fainted, first responders arrived at the house and knocked on the door. No one answered, so they left. Inside, an entire family was being poisoned by carbon monoxide.
Texas enabled the worst carbon monoxide poisoning catastrophe in recent U.S. history
They used their car to stay warm when a winter storm brought down the Texas power grid. In a state that doesn’t require carbon monoxide alarms in homes, they had no warning they were poisoning themselves.
Nonprofit that financed a private border wall is now the focus of a corruption case
Investigators say fundraisers for nonprofit We Build the Wall, including Steve Bannon and founder Brian Kolfage, lied to donors and pocketed funds. Trump has tried to distance himself from the group but Kolfage has bragged about their ties.
Gov. Greg Abbott is limiting enforcement of COVID-19 orders, but many cities already took a lax approach
Texas cities and counties have dramatically different interpretations of the state’s COVID-19 emergency orders. Complaint data from a dozen cities shows that disparate approaches to enforcement, particularly among businesses, have been incredibly common.


