Category Archives: The great state of Texas

Texas A&M’s nukes

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting. The Texas A&M University System has selected four companies to explore developing advanced nuclear reactors on its Rellis research campus in Bryan, university officials announced Tuesday morning. Each of the four companies — Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Aalo Atomics and … Continue reading →

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Fighting back with Amy Hagstrom Miller

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Great article. In the frenetic days following the November election, longtime abortion provider Amy Hagstrom Miller spent a lot of time in meetings—some in person, some on Zoom—rallying her troops. As one of the most prominent, and tenacious, independent abortion … Continue reading →

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Still more measles

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Still nothing to freak out about! Right!? At least 10 cases of measles — eight of which are among school-aged children — have been reported in Gaines County in West Texas over the past two weeks, driving worries of an … Continue reading →

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Bird flu and the zoo

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a big threat, which zoos are taking very seriously. Across the United States, bird flu is no longer a concern only for dairy and poultry farms — it’s now knocking on the gates of zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, putting some of … Continue reading →

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More measles

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Nothing to see here! At least four cases of measles, including two involving school-aged children, have been reported in Texas in less than two weeks, putting state health agencies on alert. For some communities, this is the first case of … Continue reading →

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Assessing North Texas’ wildfire risk

Posted on January 29, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting stuff. North Texas terrain and climate differ significantly from Southern California’s, but the possibility of wildfires in the Tarrant County area that are as destructive as those in Los Angeles cannot be ruled out, according to Luke Kanclerz, head … Continue reading →

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Three water stories

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This lawmaker wants to fix Texas’ water shortage with desalination and billion-dollar pipelines The state lawmaker expected to carry out Gov. Greg Abbott’s “transformative” water reforms this year wants to earmark billions of dollars to develop new sources and fix … Continue reading →

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RIP, Cecile Richards

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

An icon passes. Cecile Richards, a lifelong advocate for women’s rights who led Planned Parenthood for 12 years, has died at the age of 67 after a battle with brain cancer, her family said in a statement Monday morning. Richards, … Continue reading →

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James Helton and Wavery Guidry

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

What an amazing story. On Galveston Island lies a story that could have been forgotten if not for the efforts of local historians. Two Black lifeguards, James Helton and Wavery Guidry, who made over 30 rescues combined between 1935 and … Continue reading →

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Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

We all have a role to play in slowing its spread. Communities in Texas are being urged to take action to slow the spread of bird flu in the avian population. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) offers suggestions … Continue reading →

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Just a little reminder

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This story asks a question that it doesn’t quite answer but is worth pondering. There are rolling hills west of Los Angeles and stretching to the Pacific Coast covered with homes — many now charred by recent wildfires. North and … Continue reading →

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Who wants to sell Houston’s water to West Texas?

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I have questions. Gov. Greg Abbott is said to be exploring a plan to buy water from Houston and send it to West Texas — a potentially contentious idea that comes as he has teased “totally transformative” measures in the … Continue reading →

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Water cremation

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is fascinating, and also something I knew nothing about. An illegal cremation method got a medical center in North Texas a cease-and-desist letter from the Texas Funeral Service Commission and its body donation program under internal review in November. … Continue reading →

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CenterPoint finds a use for those useless-to-us generators

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

San Antonio, here they come. A plan is in the works to partially relieve Houston-area ratepayers of CenterPoint Energy’s $800 million lease of controversial generators that have sat mostly unused during power outages. The bulk of the lease includes 15 large generators, … Continue reading →

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Somehow, the Boca Chica land swap is off

Posted on December 18, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I only found out about this now because this story, dated November 14, was either never on the Houston Chronicle homepage or was missed by me when it was, until it was on Page One of the December 16 print … Continue reading →

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Starbase City

Posted on December 16, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Elon Musk would like his own company town, please. SpaceX’s goal is to colonize Mars. But first, it wants to create an official city in Texas. Employees living on the site of SpaceX’s operations in South Texas are requesting a … Continue reading →

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Interview with Sandie Haverlah of the Texas Consumer Association

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

You might have noticed that CenterPoint has been in the news a lot lately. There’s the various audits of its performance during Beryl and the derecho, proposed legislation to make it refund the money it spent (and charged to customers) … Continue reading →

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Reviving Texas’ uranium mines

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Wow. In the old ranchlands of South Texas, dormant uranium mines are coming back online. A collection of new ones hope to start production soon, extracting radioactive fuel from the region’s shallow aquifers. Many more may follow. These mines are … Continue reading →

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The homeowners’ insurance is too damn high

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Texas isn’t such a cheap place to live when you factor in insurance costs. When Maryann McGregor retired in 2020, she and her husband considered downsizing and selling their four-bedroom home in Clear Lake to their adult son. The couple … Continue reading →

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Texas does not want to know what the post-Dobbs maternal mortality rate is

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Not at this time, and not if it can help it. Texas officials will not investigate pregnancy-related deaths for 2022 and 2023, skipping over the years immediately following the state’s controversial abortion ban, which critics say has led to more … Continue reading →

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I guess we have to talk about fluoride again

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

deep sigh Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, is taking a swing at fluoride in drinking water. In a post earlier this month, Kennedy said the Trump administration … Continue reading →

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We may learn more about how much power cryptominers are using

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Texas’ utility regulator on Thursday adopted a rule requiring cryptocurrency mining facilities connected to the state’s main electric grid to register with the state’s grid operator. The rule, which was mandated by lawmakers in a 2023 bill, requires crypto … Continue reading →

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The wild turkeys of East Texas

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Fascinating. Thanksgiving turkeys are abundant this time of year. But their wild brethren — the less plump variety strutting around the edge of forests — are less plentiful, especially in East Texas where researchers and state officials have spent decades … Continue reading →

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Porsha Ngumezi

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Remember her name. Wrapping his wife in a blanket as she mourned the loss of her pregnancy at 11 weeks, Hope Ngumezi wondered why no obstetrician was coming to see her. Over the course of six hours on June 11, … Continue reading →

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The Texas A&M bonfire collapse, 25 years later

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

A somber occasion. A panicked Richard and Janiece West were glued to the radio as they drove to College Station on Nov. 18, 1999. The Bellaire couple hadn’t heard from their 19-year-old son since they woke up that morning to … Continue reading →

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The Texas A&M Space Institute

Posted on November 20, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Cool. A grassy field next to NASA’s Johnson Space Center is getting an otherworldly makeover. Officials gathered Friday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Texas A&M University Space Institute, which will re-create the moon and Mars to help develop rovers, … Continue reading →

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Time for another warfarin update

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Not much effect on the feral hog population yet, but it’s still early days. Nine months after the Texas Department of Agriculture approved a new toxicant to curb crop-destroying feral hogs, many farmers and ranchers are still leery or unaware … Continue reading →

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Texas and Oklahoma peacefully settle their border dispute

Posted on November 13, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Well, at least one thing went well this past week. Texas just altered its border with Oklahoma. Well, a small sliver of it, anyway. And, no, Texas didn’t become any bigger. After years of dispute over how the boundary between … Continue reading →

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Time once again for another “future doctor shortage” post

Posted on November 12, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

This continues to seem bad. Texas’ new abortion laws are stressing the state’s already beleaguered OB/GYN workforce, and threatening the pipeline of new doctors that would help provide relief, a new survey shows. More than 70% of practicing OB/GYNs in … Continue reading →

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If we’d listened to OB-GYNs in the first place we wouldn’t be having these problems now

Posted on November 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I very much appreciate what they’re saying, but let’s be honest, their words will have no effect. The newly reported deaths of two pregnant Texans sparked a renewed plea from Texas OB/GYNs, including dozens in the Houston-area, for lawmakers to … Continue reading →

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Loving County defunds its police

Posted on November 4, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

How is it that a place with so few people can generate so much news? When activists demanded cuts to police budgets in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 death at the hands of Minneapolis police, Texas lawmakers reacted swiftly, passing a … Continue reading →

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Nevaeh Crain

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

ProPublica said it had two stories of women who died after being unable to get an abortion during a miscarriage. This is the second one. Candace Fails screamed for someone in the Texas hospital to help her pregnant daughter. “Do … Continue reading →

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Josseli Barnica

Posted on October 31, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Remember her name. Josseli Barnica grieved the news as she lay in a Houston hospital bed on Sept. 3, 2021: The sibling she’d dreamt of giving her daughter would not survive this pregnancy. The fetus was on the verge of … Continue reading →

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The data centers of Medina County

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting story. When Suzanne and Anthony Stinson married in 1980, they moved to a pioneer-built house outside of Castroville and raised their children on land that had been in his family since the 1840s. Back then, “it was all country … Continue reading →

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