Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Bill Banning Texting While Driving Statewide Goes to Senate
Mar 14 2017 // A bill that passed the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee on March 13 aims to restrict texting while driving statewide. While several cities already have ordinances that restrict texting while behind the wheel, SB 31 by...
Details Emerge on What Went Wrong in Tour Bus, Train Accident in Mississippi
Mar 14 2017 // The Texas tour bus hit by a freight train in a deadly crash in Mississippi wasn’t supposed to have taken the road where it got stuck at a rail crossing earlier this week, a federal official said Thursday. National...
6 Texas Counties Declared Disaster Areas Following Wildfires
Mar 13 2017 // Six counties in the Texas Panhandle have been declared disaster areas by Gov. Greg Abbott following the deadly wildfires that swept through the area on March 6 – 7 burning more than 440,000 acres. Abbott’s March 11...
Agency Cluster, Direct Access Insurance, Expands into Texas
Mar 13 2017 // California-based Direct Access Insurance Services (DAIS) is opening up its cluster membership to independent property/casualty agencies in Texas. DAIS said it is appointing Texas agencies that are looking to improve market...
Suspect in Texas Mosque Fire Feared Muslims, Investigator Says
Mar 13 2017 // A man suspected of burning down a Texas mosque believed its worshippers were terrorists and may have been looking for other mosques to target, authorities alleged during a hearing pertaining to an unrelated case against...
Texas Oil Services Company Sued for Race-Based Harassment, Retaliation
Mar 10 2017 // A Texas-based manufacturer of equipment used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has been sued by the the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over charges of racial harassment and retaliation. The EEOC says...
Ranchers in Midwest Assessing Damage After Wildfires
Mar 10 2017 // Kansas rancher Greg Gardiner got into some of his scorched pastures for the first time on March 8 and surveyed what he likened to a battle zone: carcasses of dead cattle everywhere. “It’s pretty much a...
Woman Seeks $350M in Suit Over 2015 Texas Biker Shootout
Mar 10 2017 // A Texas woman is asking for $350 million in damages after alleging in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that her civil rights were violated when she was wrongfully arrested in the wake of a deadly 2015 gun battle involving...
Louisiana Woman Pleads Guilty in Texas in Opioid Pill Mill Case
Mar 9 2017 // Carolina Giselle Berrio, a/k/a “Carolina Slocum Berrio,” “Karrie,” 37, of Lafayette, Louisiana is the latest defendant to plead guilty to being involved in a large opioid “pill mill”...
Deadly Wildfires Force Thousands from Homes in 4 States
Mar 8 2017 // Emergency crews on March 7 struggled to contain deadly wildfires that have scorched hundreds of square miles of land in four states and forced thousands of people to flee their homes ahead of the wind-whipped flames. The...
Texas Re-Certifies 7 Companies to Self-Insure for Workers’ Comp Claims
Mar 7 2017 // The Texas Department of Insurance’s Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) re-certified seven employers to self-insure workers’ compensation claims. Together, the companies employ about 30,000 people in...
Texas Ex-Postal Employee Sentenced for Workers’ Comp Fraud Scheme
Mar 7 2017 // McArthur Baker, 69, a former U.S. Postal Service employee, has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme to defraud the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Workers’ Compensation...
People
Mar 6 2017 // Texas Insurance Commissioner David Mattax has been reappointed to the post by Gov. Greg Abbott, the governor’s office announced. His term expires Feb. 1, 2019. Mattax has served as insurance commissioner since...
Within Space of One Week, 2 Tornado Outbreaks in Texas
Mar 6 2017 // At least six tornadoes blew through Central Texas overnight on Feb. 19 and 20, damaging more than 100 structures in the San Antonio area, just days after another six were reported near Houston. The mayor of San Antonio...
Texas Number 1 in Fatal Crashes, Alcohol-Impaired Driving
Mar 6 2017 // Texas highways continue to be deadly, with an increase in traffic crashes involving injuries and fatalities. Last year, 3,390 traffic crashes resulted in 3,757 fatalities and 175,347 traffic crashes resulted in 263,536...
Hub International Acquires Texas-Based Tri-Star Insurance
Mar 3 2017 // Hub International Limited (Hub) has acquired the assets of Tri-Star Insurance Professionals Inc. (Tri-Star) in Plano, Texas. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Tri-Star specializes in personal lines and...
Faulty Fire Sprinkler at Texas Library Damages Thousands of Books
Mar 3 2017 // Workers at a North Texas library estimate more than 3,000 books have water damage after a fire sprinkler wrongly went off and flooded a first-floor area. The Wichita Falls Public Library reopened on March 2 amid cleanup...
Firefighters Gaining on Control of 2 Large Texas Wildfires
Mar 2 2017 // Firefighters have more fully contained two large wildfires in West Texas, including one that destroyed four homes and prompted the evacuation of nearly 1,200 others. Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman Phillip Truitt...
Texas Businesses Line Up Against Lt. Governor’s High-Priority Insurance Bill
Mar 2 2017 // Major business interests are lining up against one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s top priorities — a bill that would make it harder for Texans to force their insurance companies to pay up when calamity strikes. Patrick...
Texas Lawmaker Seeks Insurance Policy Abortion Ban
Mar 2 2017 // An effort to prohibit coverage of abortion by many health insurance plans in Texas is back, despite stalling in previous years. Republican Sen. Larry Taylor of Friendswood is seeking to bar health insurance plans offered...
