Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Working to Finish Hurricane Ike Recovery Projects Before Deadline
Sep 11 2018 // It’s been nearly 10 years since Hurricane Ike devastated Galveston, and government agencies are still working to complete recovery projects before a state-imposed deadline. Thursday marks a decade since Ike made...
Texas State Representative, a Lawyer, Goes to Jail for Soliciting Clients
Sep 11 2018 // Texas State Rep. Ron Reynolds has turned himself in to authorities in Montgomery County to begin serving his year-long jail sentence. Reynolds, a Democrat from Missouri City, was convicted on misdemeanor charges for...
Orange Blob in Gulf Following Harvey’s Path Toward Texas
Sep 11 2018 // While all eyes are on Hurricane Florence churning toward the North Carolina coast, a little orange blob may be much more important for energy traders later this week. A patch of showers and thunderstorms in the western...
Jury Finds Texas Pipeline Company Guilty in 2015 California Oil Spill
Sep 10 2018 // A California jury has found the Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline company guilty on criminal charges of fouling state waters and harming wildlife in a major oil spill three years ago along the Pacific shoreline...
Texas Tort Reform Group Says Post-Cat Lawsuits Have Dropped
Sep 7 2018 // In the year following the enactment of a Texas law aimed at reducing the volume of lawsuits filed by property owners against insurance companies following natural catastrophes, the number of those types of disputes has...
Family of Man Shot at Texas Warehouse Files $25M Suit Against Employer
Sep 6 2018 // The family of a man who was killed in August in a shooting at a Houston-area food warehouse has filed a lawsuit asking for $25 million in damages from his employer. The lawsuit was filed in state civil court in Houston by...
Police: 4 Hurt in Texas Motorcycle Collision Caused by Dropped Cellphone
Sep 6 2018 // West Texas police say four people were injured in a traffic accident after a passenger riding a motorcycle tried to pick up her cellphone after dropping it on the road. The El Paso Times reports that a passenger on a...
Republican States’ Court Fight to End Obamacare Begins as Midterm Politics Heat Up
Sep 6 2018 // A Republican-led lawsuit seeking to nullify Obamacare will be spotlighted in court in the final months of congressional election campaigns, giving Democrats political fodder and sending GOP candidates in competitive races...
Wagoner Joins Oklahoma’s First United Bank’s Insurance Agency
Sep 6 2018 // First United Bank in Durant, Oklahoma, has added Shanan Wagoner to its Universal Insurance agency team. Wagoner has been selected as an insurance advisor, partnering with current bank locations and customers in Seguin,...
U.S. Report Says Lack of Staff, Resources, Planning Hurt FEMA’s 2017 Disaster Response
Sep 6 2018 // The federal government’s chief watchdog slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the hurricane that killed thousands of people in Puerto Rico last year, saying it was unprepared and failed...
Texas Division of Workers’ Comp: All Claim Files Now in Digital Format
Sep 4 2018 // Texas Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Cassie Brown has turned in the keys to a secure warehouse that the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has used since 1992 to store injured employee claims. The...
A Year Later, Texas Regulators Taking Action Against Harvey Polluters
Sep 4 2018 // More than a year after Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast, state environmental authorities have only just begun enforcement actions against a handful of companies deemed responsible for some of the most massive...
Texas Jury Awards Family $242M in Lexus Crash Case
Sep 3 2018 // A Texas jury awarded damages of $242 million to a Dallas family after finding that defects in the family’s Lexus sedan caused injuries to their two children during a rear-end collision, the law firm representing the...
Business Moves
Sep 3 2018 // The Hilb Group, Southern Maryland Insurance The Hilb Group LLC has acquired Southern Maryland Insurance Inc. The transaction became effective July 1. Located in Bowie, Md., SMI is primarily a property/casualty insurance...
Houston Eyeing Designer Bonds to Pay for $15B Ike Dike
Aug 30 2018 // A massive dike to hold back storm-driven floods surging in from the Gulf of Mexico was first proposed after Hurricane Ike devastated the Houston-area coast a decade ago. Last year’s Hurricane Harvey disaster brought...
Allstate Says Brownsville, Texas, Has the Nation’s Safest Drivers
Aug 30 2018 // Illinois-based insurer, Allstate, has named Brownsville, Texas, the city with America’s safest drivers. The ranking is based on Allstate claims data. The 14th annual Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report...
Hernandez Named Interim Texas State Fire Marshal
Aug 28 2018 // Orlando Hernandez, a 28-year veteran of the fire and emergency services professions, has been selected to serve as the interim state fire marshal, the Texas Department of Insurance announced. Hernandez has been the life...
Texan Sentenced on Workers’ Comp Fraud Charges
Aug 27 2018 // Texas Mutual Insurance Company reported that a Travis County district court has sentenced Christopher Colligan of Baytown on workers’ compensation fraud charges. The company said Colligan reported a job-related...
Houston-Area Voters Approve Flood-Control Bond Measure
Aug 27 2018 // Voters in Houston and its surrounding county marked the anniversary of Hurricane Harvey coming ashore by approving the issuance of $2.5 billion in bonds to fund flood-control projects that might mitigate the damage caused...
One Year Post-Harvey, Recovery Toughest for the Poor
Aug 24 2018 // Shirley Paley’s life before Hurricane Harvey was already a struggle: The 61-year-old former postal worker was raising her 17-year-old autistic grandson while dealing with a workplace injury that left her legally...
