Category Archives: The great state of Texas

More on our future doctor shortage

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

This is unsustainable. Abortion restrictions have forced Texas obstetrician-gynecology residency programs to send young doctors out of the state to learn about pregnancy termination, a burdensome process educators say is another example of abortion bans undermining reproductive health care. At … Continue reading →

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Universal Studios to open a theme park in Frisco

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest, at least to those in the target demographic. Another major development is coming to Frisco. City business leaders on Wednesday morning announced that a new Universal Studios theme park is planning to come to the booming Collin County … Continue reading →

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Nobody knows the state of the gas supply in Texas

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

That can be a problem during freezes. You know, like the one we had over Christmas. As questions continue to swirl about widespread outages Atmos Energy customers experienced in North Texas and beyond last week, the opacity of Texas’ sprawling … Continue reading →

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Texas Department of Agriculture sort of recognizes climate change

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a start, I guess. On the heels of a historic drought that devastated crops from the High Plains to South Texas, a new Texas Department of Agriculture report released Tuesday linked climate change with food insecurity and identified it … Continue reading →

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Don’t Musk my rural Texas

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

For your perusal. In August 2021, a handful of Bastrop County residents noticed something big unfolding on quiet Walker Watson Road. The two-lane road, about a quarter-mile long from end to end, bisects cow pastures, corn fields and woods. It’s … Continue reading →

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Thirty million Texans

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

We reach another milestone. Fueled by migration to the state from other parts of the country, Texas crossed a new population threshold this year: It is now home to 30 million people. New estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census … Continue reading →

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The Uvalde bus driver who helped save shooting victims’ lives

Posted on December 31, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Great reporting. When Uvalde school bus driver Sylvia Uriegas got the call on May 24 to report to Robb Elementary, she had no idea about the horror she was approaching. With nothing but a rudimentary first aid kit filled mostly … Continue reading →

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ERCOT makes it through, with an assist from the feds

Posted on December 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

In case you were wondering. A day after ERCOT asked the U.S. Department of Energy for an emergency order allowing its generators to bypass emissions standards to stave off potential outages, Texas’ electric grid met demand with ease on Saturday. … Continue reading →

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The Christmas Bird Count

Posted on December 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

If you’re looking for a little holiday project… For the 123rd year in a row, the Christmas Bird Count is happening all over the country. Bird enthusiasts and nature lovers head outside, take a census of birds in their area … Continue reading →

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It’s winter surge time again

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, though I think you already suspected this. COVID-19 cases are rising across Texas two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday, echoing last year’s surge of the omicron variant. There are more than 18,000 positive … Continue reading →

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No, really, are we emotionally prepared for this freeze?

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Ready or not, here it comes. State officials warned residents Wednesday to prepare their homes and vehicles for the coming freeze while trying to reassure on-edge Texans that the electric grid will stay online. Temperatures are expected to plummet Thursday … Continue reading →

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Now is a great time to buy a Christmas tree

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Procrastinators rejoice. When it came to buying a Christmas tree in Houston it paid off to procrastinate. Prices, already high last year, jumped further this year as retailers sought to lock in supplies despite increases spurred by skyrocketing fertilizer and … Continue reading →

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New Land Commissioner, same screw job for Houston and Harris County

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I didn’t expect any different. I’m still mad about it. When akewayLakeway Republican Dawn Buckingham jumps from the Texas Senate to the helm of the state General Land Office next month, she will inherit control of the state’s Hurricane Harvey recovery, a slow-moving multibillion-dollar … Continue reading →

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Are we emotionally prepared for the oncoming freeze?

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the real question at this point. ERCOT on Friday notified power generators in Texas that they need to be online and ready to provide power during an expected wave of cold air that could drop overnight temperatures into the … Continue reading →

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More battery power coming

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Now here is something that might actually help the grid. A surge of new battery projects is expected to come online on Texas and California’s power grids, as developers seek to store the excess electricity produced by those state’s sprawling wind and solar … Continue reading →

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Quantifying the abortion ban harm

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

These stories will keep on coming. Usually, articles in medical journals are about science; they bring data to their readers, who can use them to provide evidence-based care to their patients. But sometimes, evidence is an expression of grief or … Continue reading →

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DPS asks to be rewarded for its abject failure at Uvalde

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I like to think that I don’t get easily shocked, but this did it to me. The Texas Department of Public Safety wants $1.2 billion to turn its training center north of Austin into a full-time statewide law enforcement academy … Continue reading →

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Our property tax system is soooooooo awesome!

Posted on November 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

How awesome is it? So awesome you don’t even have to live here to get a tax break. Herschel Walker, the former Dallas Cowboys running back and Republican candidate running for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, is slated to … Continue reading →

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The cryptomining surge in rural counties

Posted on November 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s one possible answer to that question I posed the other day. Jacob Rodriguez was driving a John Deere tractor in a West Texas cotton field when he received a phone call that would change his life. “I was pulling … Continue reading →

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Still rough times for oysters

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Continuing from earlier in the year. Tuesday marks the start of Texas’ commercial and recreational oyster season, but the bulk of the state’s oyster reefs are already closed for harvesting. This follows last year’s season during which the majority of … Continue reading →

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Our future doctor shortage

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Putting a pin in this. As reported by Jan Hoffman for The New York Times, in order to satisfy their prerequisites for specialty board certification, OB-GYN physicians in post-graduate medical residency programs must comply with national requirements, which include training in the performance of … Continue reading →

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The surge in mail order abortion pills

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see how long this lasts. We know the Lege is going to take aim at it. Requests for mail-order abortion pills continued to spike in Texas, nearly doubling this summer after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, … Continue reading →

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By the way, the grid is still not fixed

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

In case you were wondering. A federal assessment indicates the Texas electricity grid remains almost as vulnerable to extreme winter weather as it was when it nearly collapsed during a prolonged deep freeze in February 2021 — although state utility … Continue reading →

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Drought is not good for pumpkins

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, kids. This year’s hot, dry weather has wreaked havoc on Texas agriculture, and the state’s pumpkin crop has not been spared. Farmers and agricultural experts say that drop in supply has translated into higher prices for pumpkins popular for … Continue reading →

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The Corpus Christi desalination plant fight

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This ought to be interesting. Texas regulators issued an environmental permit Thursday for the Port of Corpus Christi to build what could become the state’s first seawater desalination plant — but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may refuse to accept … Continue reading →

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Is this just the calm before the next COVID wave?

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Things look good now, at least in the Houston area, but COVID never sleeps. As the U.S. heads into a third pandemic winter, the first hints are emerging that another possible surge of COVID-19 infections could be on its way. … Continue reading →

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The limitations of Plan B

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

A helpful and timely explainer from the Associated Press. WHAT ARE EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVES? Emergency contraceptives are used to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex or if a method of birth control fails. Two types of medications, sometimes referred to as “morning … Continue reading →

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The imminent Latino plurality

Posted on September 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It may already be here, but it’s not quite officially official just yet. A closely watched estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday indicates that Texas may have passed a long-awaited milestone: the point where Hispanic residents make up … Continue reading →

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Our overall vax level is down

Posted on September 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Not great! The coverage rate for routine childhood vaccines – or the percentage of kids getting them – dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic and have yet to recover, according to statistics from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Health … Continue reading →

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Your omicron booster will be ready this week

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I’ll be getting mine. Most Texans will be eligible in the coming days for a second round of Covid-19 booster shots after updated vaccines got final federal approval this week. The new doses, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are designed to … Continue reading →

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Let’s protect Galveston’s red wolves

Posted on September 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

They’re one of the cooler things about Galveston. The coyotes that roam Galveston Island are quickly becoming famous. The animals are the subject of dedicated social media pages and their silhouettes have been emblazoned on T-shirts. Earlier this year, they … Continue reading →

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Beware the tasty invasive Aussie lobsters

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Hopefully we can eat enough of them to mitigate their impact. They may be delicious, but they’re also invasive. Texas Parks and Wildlife announced Thursday that several Australian redclaw crawfish were recently discovered again at an apartment complex pond in the Brownsville area. Labeled … Continue reading →

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Texas will get a lot from the Inflation Reduction Act

Posted on August 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Thanks, Biden! Texas’s clean energy sector is expected to be one of the largest beneficiaries of the climate and health care legislation President Joe Biden has signed into law, according to estimates released by the White House Wednesday. Over the next … Continue reading →

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We’re going to have a “colder than normal” winter

Posted on August 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

What could possibly go wrong? Savor the rest of the sweltering summer because this winter in Texas is going to be “colder than normal,” according to Farmers’ Almanac. The Almanac, which has been predicting the weather outlook for farmers and … Continue reading →

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