Texas

HOUSTON (AP) — Hurricane Nicholas made landfall along the Texas coast on Tuesday, bringing the threat of up to 20 inches of rainfall to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana.

Nicholas touched down on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula, about 10 miles (17 kilometers) west southwest of Sargent Beach, Texas, with maximum winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Nicholas was the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.

FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday provided the first public look inside a U.S. military base where Afghans airlifted out of Afghanistan are being screened, amid questions about how the government is caring for the refugees and vetting them.

“Every Afghan who is here with us has endured a harrowing journey and they are now faced with the very real challenges of acclimating with life in the United States,” Liz Gracon, a senior State Department official, told reporters.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A standoff in Texas over new voting restrictions that gridlocked the state Capitol for 38 consecutive days ended Thursday when some Democrats who fled to Washington, D.C., dropped their holdout, paving the way for Republicans to resume pushing an elections overhaul.

HOUSTON, Aug 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S. crude oil imports decreased, while exports increased, during the week ending Aug 13, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said yesterday.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.35 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, down by about 46,000 b/d from the previous week, while crude oil exports averaged about 3.4 million b/d, up by about 768,000 b/d from the previous week, according to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

DALLAS (AP) — Pleas for help from Afghans have been filling up Caroline Clarin’s phone for days as she works from her rural Minnesota home and tries to provide hope to those who ping heart-wrenching messages of desperation from a world away.

Since 2017, Clarin, who ran a U.S. Department of Agriculture program in Afghanistan, and her wife, Sheril Raymond, have helped get five Afghans and their families from her program into the U.S. Now they are trying to help more than a half dozen other Afghans and their families leave Afghanistan.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to his office, who said the Republican is in good health and experiencing no symptoms.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge Tuesday blocked Texas from allowing state troopers to stop vehicles carrying migrants on the grounds that they may spread COVID-19 as worries and new cases are rising along the U.S.-Mexico border.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican Jake Ellzey of Texas won a U.S. House seat on Tuesday night over a rival backed by Donald Trump, dealing the former president a defeat in a test of his endorsement power since leaving office.

LAPORTE, Texas (AP) — Two people are dead after a chemical leak Tuesday evening at plant in La Porte, Texas, company officials said.

The incident happened about 7:35 p.m. and involved an acetic acid leak at the LyondellBasell facility in the La Porte Complex, company spokesperson Chevalier Gray said in a statement. Emergency responders from the City of La Porte and Channel Industries Mutual Aid were on the scene Tuesday night.

24 July 2021; MEMO: A Republican Texas official announced yesterday that he is considering blacklisting US-based ice cream company Ben & Jerry's following its decision to withdraw its product from settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territory. "We believe that it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry's ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," explained the company