Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he will end Texas’ statewide mask mandate next week and will allow all businesses to operate at full capacity.

The Austin County Fair Association honored their Directors for length of service at the February Board Meeting for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 35 years of service.

So far, legislators have used the backdrop of a pandemic and the wake of the recent severe winter weather to justify slower movement.

A special meeting of the Sealy City Council was called Monday.   The department heads of the city gave reports on how they handled the ice and snow last week, the problems they encountered and possible solutions for the city to be better prepared if this should happen again.

Texas power grid operator “ERCOT” officials lift emergency conditions today. They said, “we have left the last stage of emergency operations – so we’re completely back to normal operations as of now.” 

The story of how Texas was brought to its knees by crippling cold weather leaving millions without power is a complex one, yet entirely predictable and avoidable.

How is it possible that a nuclear power plant in Texas had to shutter operations due to freezing weather, but nuclear power plants can operate without disruption in Russia? Simple – the South Texas Nuclear Power Station failed to winterize its facilities.

Even though Texas is doing everything in its power to contain the fallout that, it appears that the crisis is now spreading, because as a result of the persistent freeze and rampant “force majeueres” across the industry, more than 4 million barrels a day of output – almost 40% of the nation’s crude production – is now offline.

Meet the visionaries building a new, un-censorable, peer-to-peer web using the tools of encryption and cryptocurrency.

As people around Texas are being devastated by the freezing weather and power outages Texas might be facing a humanitarian crisis. Check out the images and videos in this article to see how people are faring in the state and the devastation that this freeze has wrought on others.

Power prices in Austin are erupting… Oncor Electric Delivery, Texas’ largest transmission and electric distribution utility, warns customers to “be prepared for additional outages and stay weather aware due to an active Winter Storm Warning.”

Iran’s government will have no choice but to limit nuclear inspections starting next week if the other parties to a 2015 nuclear deal do not cooperate with it, according to its foreign ministry.

Giving up social media or alcohol for Lent are by far the most common ways to engage in modern fasting before Easter, but, interest in (temporarily) swearing off meat is rising.

Last night at approximately 11:53 PM, Wallis Fire was dispatched to the 6600 block of Harry St in reference to a house fire. The 911 dispatcher advised that the estranged spouse, identified as Michael Ray Cardenas, had set her home on fire and threatened to kill her. Wallis Fire, with an assist from Sealy Fire Department, was able to extinguish the flames inside the residence, that was severely damaged by the fire. Cardenas is now in custody and charged with Arson, Attempted Murder, Assault on a Peace Officer, Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Tampering with Evidence.

An August 2011 report warned that Texas could experience power outages, like we’re experiencing right now, due to weaknesses in our grid caused by freezing temperatures yet nothing was done to prepare.

The Texas power grid is straining under the cold from power usage.
As the day has progressed, amid deteriorating weather forecasts and no let up in demand (despite ERCOT’s urgings), a trader at a Houston energy firm sums the situation up as eloquently and succinctly as ever: “we’ve officially hit the ‘Holy F****** S*** Levels’ here…” As a result of this, Texas power grid operator ERCOT, has issued a statement warning of an “energy emergency” and threatening “rotating outages” just when residents need the power to heat their homes the most…

The Sealy Mayor, Carolyn Bilski, issued a state of disaster order for the City of Sealy yesterday and posted the notice to the city’s Facebook Page

The week’s biggest story is the plunge in temperatures across the Great Plains from Canada to Texas, resulting in skyrocketing demand for natural gas and electric markets as tens of millions of Americans crank up their thermostats to stay warm. And that surge in energy costs comes at a time when incomes/jobs remain suppressed and Americans are being told to stay indoors.

A Wall Street Journal report strongly suggests this first ever and much-hyped WHO trip to ‘get to the bottom’ of the virus’ origins likely didn’t even scratch the surface in terms of a real investigation. When access to the raw underlying data was made, the WHO investigators were rebuffed, essentially being left with only the Chinese scientists’ version of what the data shows. One WHO researcher emphasized in a statement to the WSJ that access to the hard data is standard, but was not followed in this case.

Continued improvement – and acceleration of economic growth due to little need for lockdowns and restrictions – suggests that the US economy – and broader society as well – should be able to move beyond COVID some time in the early summer.