Area News

SHREVEPORT, La. – More than 250 Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) employees from across the company’s Ark-La-Tex service territory made the roughly 17-hour journey to Ohio to assist sister company AEP Ohio with power restoration efforts. The deployment includes lineworkers, damage assessors, vegetation management professionals and support personnel responding to severe storm damage in Columbus…

AAA Texas, City of Dallas Judiciary and MADD encourage families to attend Saturday safety event as teens return to school As families settle into the back-to-school season, AAA Texas, the City of Dallas Judiciary and Mothers Against Drunk Driving are encouraging parents and teen drivers to attend a free Teen Driver Safety Class this Saturday…

DALLAS, Texas — August 12, 2026 — J. Alexander Law Firm, will provide free backpacks to school-age children at four Hibbett Sports locations across Dallas and Fort Worth beginning Sunday, August 16. Each giveaway will run from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Families may select the location closest to home, and backpacks will be distributed…

New educational publication translates complicated financial topics into practical information for entrepreneurs, real-estate investors and small-business owners. The Smith Advisory LLC has launched The Smith Advisory Journal, an online publication created to help small-business owners, entrepreneurs and real-estate investors better understand the tax, bookkeeping and financial issues that can affect their businesses. Published at TheSmithAdvisory.com,…

The statewide gas price average in Texas is $3.63 per gallon for regular unleaded fuel, according to the AAA Texas Weekend Gas Watch. That price is the same when compared to this day last week and is 85 cents more per gallon compared to this day last year. Of the major metropolitan areas surveyed in Texas,…

By Berenice Garcia, The Texas Tribune August 13, 2026 EDINBURG — At 50 years old, Abel Gonzalez says he’s happy to be involved in his eight-year dream career of filmmaking, something he sees as fostering the budding film industry in the Rio Grande Valley. But, he still has some anxieties. He’s worried that a family…

By Alejandro Santos Cid, The Texas Tribune August 13, 2026 Tests of a substance found inside the van driven by a man shot to death by immigration officers last month in Houston revealed it wasn’t methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz confirmed to The Texas Tribune. “I can confirm what’s already public: lab testing showed the…

By Jaden Edison and Sneha Dey, The Texas Tribune August 3, 2026 More than 100,000 families are participating in Texas’ private school voucher program during its first year, a number that could increase as officials finalize enrollment data, according to the state’s finance chief.  White families make up the largest share of participants so far,…

By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune August 13, 2026 Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday proposed further limiting screen time in K-12 schools, framing the idea as a way to improve student learning across the state and building off the Legislature’s move to ban cell phones in public school classrooms. Citing studies purportedly showing decreased screen…

By Berenice Garcia, The Texas Tribune August 13, 2026 McALLEN — A federal judge upheld a temporary restraining order against government contractors building a border wall along the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, pausing construction until Aug. 27. Spencer Construction LLC and Royal Concrete Products LLC were prohibited from continuing construction or related work and…