The generator industry has touted automatic shut-off switches as a lifesaving fix for carbon monoxide poisoning. But the voluntary standard falls short of what federal regulators say is necessary to eliminate deaths.
Perla Trevizo
Perla Trevizo is a Mexican-American reporter born in Ciudad Juárez and raised across the border in El Paso, Texas, where she began her journalism career. Trevizo spent more than 10 years covering immigration and border issues in Tennessee and Arizona before joining the Houston Chronicle as an environmental reporter. She has written from nearly a dozen countries, from African refugee camps to remote Guatemalan villages, with the goal of broadening readers’ understanding of the global issues that impact the local communities where she has worked. Her work has earned her national and state awards including the Dori J. Maynard Award for Diversity in Journalism, French-American Foundation Immigration Journalism Award, and a national Edward R. Murrow for a story done in collaboration with Arizona Public Media. She was also honored as the 2019 Arizona Journalist of the Year by the Arizona Newspaper Association. She is based in El Paso.
A year before Uvalde shooting, gunman had threatened women, carried around a dead cat and been nicknamed “school shooter”
Identified as at-risk, he never received special education services and ultimately flunked out, according to a Texas House committee report.
Justice Department is investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star for alleged civil rights violations
Emails obtained by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica confirm that federal authorities are probing discrimination claims involving Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border initiative.
Congress investigates portable generator manufacturers following carbon monoxide deaths in Texas and other states
Many generators on the market have not received potentially lifesaving safety upgrades. Citing an investigation by The Texas Tribune, ProPublica and NBC News after the February 2021 winter storm, a House committee wants to know why.
Settlement reached over private border wall, but experts say it won’t stop the environmental damage
Federal authorities have reached a deal that gives builders of the privately funded fence control over where to inspect for damage and leeway over which issues they choose to repair.
Problems remain for We Build the Wall group after founder’s guilty plea
Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage faces more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding donors to the private wall effort.
Fact-checking Texas leaders’ claims about Operation Lone Star
As reporters investigated Gov. Greg Abbott’s border initiative, they repeatedly found situations in which Abbott and Department of Public Safety officials cited accomplishments that lacked crucial context or did not match reality. Here are a few examples.
Texas has spent billions of dollars on border security. But what taxpayers got in return is a mystery.
Since 2005, Texas Govs. Rick Perry and Greg Abbott have launched a multitude of widely publicized and costly border initiatives, which usually kicked off during their reelection campaigns or while they were considering bids for higher office.
Gov. Greg Abbott brags about his border initiative. The evidence doesn’t back him up.
Arrests of U.S. citizens hundreds of miles from the border. Claiming drug busts from across the state. Changing statistics. The data that Texas leaders use to boast about Operation Lone Star raise more questions than answers.
Carbon monoxide killed a Texas mother and daughter. A firefighter was reprimanded after a delayed 911 response.
After half of a Houston family was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, reporting by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and NBC News revealed that a fire crew had failed to enter the house to check on them. A firefighter has now been disciplined.

