Area News

AUSTIN, Texas— Today, Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is encouraging the Tyler community and the State of Texas to send at least 100 cards to Mr. Weldon Bowen, a resident of the Watkins-Logan Texas State Veterans Home (TSVH), for his 100th birthday on September 5, 2026. Weldon Kenneth Bowen was…

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M Forest Service has confirmed emerald ash borer in Delta, Erath, Hardin, Walker and Wood counties, continuing the spread of the invasive insect into new areas of Texas. Eight new counties have been confirmed with the invasive this year. The detections were made through Texas A&M Forest Service’s statewide emerald ash…

By Lynn Arditi Aug 20, 2026 Emergency room nurse Crystal Dhooghe speaks during a rally at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on March 17, 2026. She is among hundreds of unionized employees at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital who have been on strike since Sept. 1, 2025. (Teamsters J.C. 43) Nurse Crystal Dhooghe is used…

By Arthur Allen Aug 20, 2026 Chuck Manski, an economist at Northwestern University, at home in Chicago. After suffering severe side effects from a drug he took to treat melanoma, he studied the cancer literature and decided he could stop the treatment early. (Taylor Glascock for KFF Health News) Northwestern University economist Chuck Manski studies…

By Kelcie Moseley-Morris, Stateline August 19, 2026 A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued an order Wednesday blocking U.S. Health and Human Services from implementing sweeping changes to grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program while a lawsuit proceeds, but dozens of existing grants that were canceled this summer will remain so for…

By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline August 20, 2026 New housing projects can sometimes stall out as a developer applies to city or county planning boards and goes through cycles of inspections, reviews and approvals.  Now, cities are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to address one of the most persistent sources of housing permitting delays: incomplete applications.…

By Big Bend Sentinel, The Texas Tribune August 19, 2026 The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission’s annual public hearing kicked off Wednesday with an unusually festive scene outside the agency’s Austin offices: a tailgate party where hundreds of people from around the state cooked out, shared cold drinks and talked about the reason they’d come…

By Paul Cobler, Carlos Nogueras Ramos and Emily Foxhall, The Texas Tribune August 19, 2026 Flashes of yellow were all around the Texas Capitol grounds on Wednesday as legislators gathered to consider two of the most controversial issues in Texas politics: data centers and transmission lines. The color — displayed on bandanas, pins, shirts and…

By Gabby Birenbaum, The Texas Tribune August 20, 2026 WASHINGTON — With under nine weeks to go until early voting begins in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, both Ken Paxton and James Talarico have been campaigning around the state, meeting voters everywhere from restaurants to music halls as they’ve pitched their political visions. But on television,…

By Molly Hensley-Clancy, photography by Sarah Blesener for ProPublica Co-published with The Washington Post August 20, 2026, 5:00 am The first time Ryan Richardson was suspended from coaching volleyball, in early 2024, he gathered the parents of his teenage players in the back room of his gym in the border city of Pharr, Texas. It…