CPS

Over 4,000 CPS Energy customers in San Antonio are waking up without power after a massive storm rolled in Tuesday morning.

A report revealing serious problems with the Texas CPS removal process is the basis of a new bill that was recently filed in the Legislature, which would require far more extensive training for CPS case workers.

The Intellectual Property Office said the practice might break criminal and civil law.

This week, CPS is hosting a meeting asking for the San Antonio community’s input about the city’s future energy endeavors.

Terrence Harper has been sentenced to 99 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of injury to a child for the 2018 beating of his 4-month-old son Trace.

Nearly 20% of CPS Energy customers have overdue bills, and the total cost of outstanding charges has grown since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

A Child Protective Services case worker was forced to resign this summer, days after police in San Marcos found a juvenile runaway at her home.

CPS Energy wants community input on planning San Antonio’s energy future.

CPS discharged 72,494 pounds of toxic chemicals, including chromium compounds, into Calaveras Lake and stormwater in 2020, according to data it filed with federal regulators.

The father of a 15-year-old describes the "nightmare" near three-year wait for her case to be heard.

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help locating a 17-year-old who ran away from CPS custody in San Antonio.

Calvary Baptist Church on FM 78 near the Meadow Park and Sunrise subdivisions in Bexar...

In 2001, then 5-year-old Nicholas Plaza disappeared. As his case unfolded, a series of lies and abuse were uncovered, Erica and Leigh dissect the details of the case many around San Antonio have never forgotten.

The $159 million cash deficit could lead to a credit downgrade for the utility, trustee John Steen warned.

CPS energy has postponed a project in Southwest San Antonio due to severe weather concerns, the utility announced Sunday.

The giveaway will take place at Woodlawn Lake Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

James Watson is found guilty of murdering six-year-old Rikki Neave in Peterborough.

The number of reported rapes making it to court in England and Wales has continued to decline.

Nearly 1 in 10 investigators in Child Protective Services' Austin office have resigned since the controversial order.

A couple in Minnesota adopted six children in Sioux Falls.

The newest report for child fatalities brings bitter sweet news for children in our state, 199 Texas children died in 2021, the number dropped when compared to previous years. The number of children who died by child abuse in Bexar County did not change from 13.

On the heels of two child deaths in San Antonio, allegedly from abuse, KSAT is taking a look at new laws passed last year that affect abuse and Child Protective Services cases.

The CPS previously said it would not name the men accused of sharing offensive messages with Couzens.

Although this week’s strong cold front won’t be as extreme as last year's freeze, families should still prepare.

The PM's claim that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile is not backed up by the evidence.

Although this year’s winter weather hasn’t been near as impactful as last year’s, San Antonio officials aren’t hesitating when it comes to preparedness.

Alex says the wait for her alleged abuser's court trial leaves her "constantly thinking about it".

Jonathon Best abused Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after England's penalties defeat.

A car crash in Helotes left three people with serious injuries and hundreds without electricity temporarily.

District 2 teams up with CPS Energy and host Utility Assistance Fair amid disconnections

Harry Dunn's mother, Charlotte Charles, says the resolution of a civil case is a relief.

A man accused of fatally shooting a pregnant woman in front of her two children in a San Antonio motel room has been formally charged with capital murder of multiple persons.

This episode examines how a state foster care system with 15,000 children is supposed to work, the ways it’s currently failing and what you can do to help.

The Met previously concluded it was "not the appropriate authority" to investigate Jeffrey Epstein.

A couple experiencing homelessness is hoping their good deed inspires people to help others in any circumstance. This comes after they spent 12 hours watching over three young children who San Antonio police say were abandoned by their mother.

Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 1578 into law last week, which focuses on situations where the child's injury might actually be a medical illness.

The law mandates CPS investigators to verbally remind people under investigation they have the right to record conversations and appeal investigation results.

Two weeks before a deadly winter storm hit San Antonio, killing a still untold number of people, CPS Energy had become ‘seriously past due’ on bills for its customized weather platform, records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders confirm.

Brenda Venables disappeared in 1982 and her remains found in Kempsey nearly 30 years later.

A San Antonio mother accused of killing one of her children could have access to the other one if a local judge grants permanent custody to the father, according to an attorney representing the second child, who is 11 months old.

As the collapse of the last criminal trial marks the end of a long legal road, Judith Moritz asks what the legacy of Britain’s worst sports disaster is.

CPS customers are bracing themselves for the next financial brunt.

As a flurry of bills were being discussed at the Texas Legislature last week, even state representatives were forced to acknowledge our current foster care quandary: how do you continue to streamline and privatize the system while also increasing oversight of it?

The emergency preparedness committee chair briefed City Council on information the group has received so far from CPS, SAWS, and COSA.

A file is being sent to prosecutors as part of the inquiry into the death of Stuart Lubbock in 2001.

The landmark Domestic Abuse Bill became law this week. Two survivors describe what it means for them.

click to enlarge Sanford NowlinMillions of Texans went without power last month as the state's electrical grid buckled under the strain from the prolonged cold front. CPS Energy has sued at least nine natural-gas suppliers, including giants BP Energy and Chevron, alleging they charged excessive rates as it struggled to keep the power on during February's winter storm.The suits, filed Monday in Bexar County District Court, allege the suppliers overcharged the city-owned utility tens of millions of dollars, imposing "commercially unreasonable, unconscionable and unlawful prices" during the catastrophic freeze.BP's prices, for example, swung upward by 6,729% during the storm, CPS argues in its filing against that company.The flurry of suits is an effort by CPS to slash the $1 billion in charges it incurred last month as it fought to keep customers' lights and heat working as the state's power grid teetered on the brink of collapse.CPS says its owes $670 million to natural-gas suppliers plus an additional $350 million for electricity purchased from the state's grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). The utility sued ERCOT earlier this month , alleging it charged “excessive, illegitimate and illegal prices.”

Multiple representatives from CPS Energy have pushed back on the notion that they were ill-equipped to forecast storms. AdMoreno said last week the utility also uses public sources like the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio and local newscasts. RELATED: CPS Energy faces $1 billion bill for winter weather power crisisA CPS Energy vehicle. (KSAT)DTN’s vice president of weather operations, Renny Vandewege, told the Defenders via telephone Friday CPS uses a customized version of the company’s weather platform, WeatherSentry. And while DTN employs a significant number of meteorologists, Vandewege did not know if communication between DTN and CPS increased as the storm approached Texas.

SAN ANTONIO – CPS Energy and its customers could be facing a $1 billion bill for February’s weather-related power crisis, though utility officials say they are doing what they can to protect customers. Gold-Williams said CPS would pursue regulatory assistance and help from elected officials to avoid customers shouldering that load. And then we will use every other tool in our toolbox to work to get this cost down,” Gold-Williams said. AdGold-Williams has previously said CPS would look to spread the cost to customers out over 10 years or more. AdTrustees also voted Monday to order an independent review of CPS’s preparedness, communication, and response regarding the power crisis.

San Antonio – Dozens of irate CPS Energy customers gave the utility’s top brass a piece of their minds during the first CPS Board of Trustees meeting since last week’s controlled outages. At the peak of the utility’s controlled outages strategy, there were about 372,000 customers without power. Among other complaints, they also criticized the utility’s forced outages that left some people without any power for multiple days. The amount CPS pays for fuel is typically rolled into customers’ bills over a 45 to 60-day period. “I do very much understand how customers don’t want to pay anything associated with the storm,” Gold-Williams said during the meeting.

CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold-Williams is scheduled to give a report on the “New Unprecedented Texas/San Antonio Energy Market Event” at the 1 p.m. Monday meeting. AdThe amount CPS pays for fuel is typically rolled into customers’ bills over a 45 to 60-day period, Gold-Williams told reporters on Friday. CPS officials have said that at the peak of the forced outages, which were meant to preserve the larger Texas power grid, there were about 372,000 CPS customers without power. Greg Abbott also held a phone conference with state leaders Saturday to discuss how the state could help reduce the burden of high energy bills following the power crisis. MEETING INFORMATIONThe CPS Energy Board of Trustees meeting will be held 1 p.m. Monday by telephone and live-streamed online.

Update 7:45 a.m. SundayTxDOT San Antonio announced on Twitter that all interchanges and roadways previously closed due to the winter storm are now open. Update 1:30 p.m. SaturdayTxDOT San Antonio announced on their twitter that they are focusing on reopening multiple roadway closures across the city. The finesilver curve in downtown San Antonio is also closed, according to the Texas Department of Transportation in San Antonio. The temperature at 10:51 a.m. was 37 degrees reported at the San Antonio International Airport. Locals immediately lit up their social media feeds with joyful proclamations of surprise and photos of the rare San Antonio weather event.

Rebecca Slezak /Staff photographerCPS is asking the public to let employees restore power safely, without threats of violence or harassment. "Our crews have been working 24/7 to restore power while bearing the severe winter weather conditions," a Facebook post reads. "We understand the community is frustrated but please remember that our workers and our families live here too and are a part of this community."

KIRBY, Texas – EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated residents in the Kirby area hadn’t had power since Thursday. As snow came down again Thursday morning, most - but not all- CPS customers had their power restored. With the forced outage strategy CPS had been following to keep the Texas grid stable suspended, close to 99% of customers had power again. In an area near Binz-Engleman and Ackerman Roads in Kirby, a CPS outage map showed nearly 1,300 customers without power since Tuesday night - though several residents told KSAT they hadn’t had power since Tuesday morning. “We were yelling and screaming and saying, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ We offered to go get them some coffee.

We need the electricity, but we need the water too, and there’s no way for us to dialyze,” Allen said. AdThe effects of the winter storm on the electrical grid this week have CPS Energy and other Texas energy providers overwhelmed. CPS Energy President and CEO Paula Gold-Williams said the energy supply during the winter storm couldn’t meet the demand. She said a third of the system would not be taking down as it’s a critical circuit. Concerns about SAWS pumps taken off the critical circuit have dialysis patients like Allen in distress with no access to water.

SAN ANTONIO – As Lea Ann Tinney shivered through a Monday without power inside her home in the Government Hill neighborhood, she consulted a CPS Energy power outage map that stated only six customers in her 78208 zip code were affected. Tinney then walked outside and counted at least five other homes that were without power at that very moment. Gold-Williams and a utility spokesman defended CPS’s response to the winter storm, pointing out that it was a significant weather event followed by a prolonged period of freezing temperatures. “CPS Energy is going to continue to analyze its performance, how we did, what else we could do, but there are just natural limitations to the system that normally works extremely well 360 days a year,” Gold-Williams said. A utility spokesman said Tuesday afternoon that it had advised customers to begin conserving energy usage as early as last Wednesday, ahead of the storm that hit Sunday night.

“Here’s what I’m hearing from residents all around the city and from parents in particular: If we don’t have stability in the public school system, why should we stay in Chicago? If we have to worry about lockouts and strikes, particularly after a historic contract where everyone thought we had bought labor peace for five years, people vote with their feet,” Lightfoot said. “And what I worry about is with young families, one of the first questions they ask is, ‘How is the school system?’ And if the answer is, ‘completely rife with strife and uncertainty,’ that sends a real message: Don’t stay in Chicago.”

Among 11,612 students expected to attend virtually, about 87% did so, and close to 13% were absent on average, according to CPS. About one-half of one percent of those students ended up attending in-person. Though CPS has been saying that students can’t switch to in-person learning at will, district officials said that it was allowed on a case-by-case basis last week if a principal felt staffing was sufficient. Most students in the first wave are attending five days a week, rather than upper elementary grades that will use hybrid models when they return.

Vaccine eligibility is expanding to front-line essential workers, including educators, beginning Monday. Teachers and other school staff members can then start getting vaccines through pharmacies or health care providers if they are able, city Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. But the city is reliant on the federal government to provide the vaccine, and the amount Chicago has been receiving is “minuscule” compared with the number of people who need to be vaccinated in the next phase, Arwady said.

“It will matter what’s considered legal and what’s not because it has some ramifications in the long run, but like everything else between CTU and CPS, it really is in question whether it’s legal or whether it’s not, and we shouldn’t get confused by that or distracted by it,” Bruno said. “It’s really about, what are the most important issues at play, and what is it that the parties are doing that makes it impossible to get to an agreement, or what does it take for them to get to an agreement?”

Other community groups that include CPS parents have mostly been more aligned with CTU’s interests regarding school reopening plans, which have been delayed several times amid ongoing union opposition. Raise Your Hand, a group of parents and other residents, has criticized CPS’ push to reopen and so has the new Chicago’s Grassroots Education Movement, which bills itself as an organization of parents, community members, teacher organizations and unions. And dozens of Local School Councils have sent out letters decrying the reopening plan. A majority of aldermen have also come out against it.

“We want to make sure it’s accurate. The importance is we have an option for everybody,” she said. “I think that we keep getting into these percentages around whether it’s opt-in or attendance, there is no right answer and because more people choose one thing over the other doesn’t make it right. And so I think the goal which we’ve tried to articulate is a path toward in-person instruction for every student in CPS.”

On Jan. 4, when the first group of returning teachers were due to report in person, about 60% were marked present, according to CPS data. But the figure was up to more than 70% by Monday, the day the first students — preschoolers and children in some special education programs — returned. That still left more than 500 teachers not in attendance; of those, 145 were deemed absent, and on Tuesday, they were locked out of their Google Classroom accounts and their pay was withheld. That figure dropped to 100 later in the week. By Friday, the number of AWOL teachers was down to 87, but the percentage of total staff members who showed up was the lowest since Monday.

To be eligible for the program, graduates from CPS and select high schools must have a 3.0 GPA and test near the college level for English and math. Participants receive financial waivers for up to three years and can transfer to a partner school, where they receive $1,000 to $60,000 of financial assistance per year, depending on the particular arrangement, plus advising and transition supports.

The first employee was last at school Jan. 7 and notified the district of a positive COVID-19 test the next day, according to CPS. Over the weekend, contact tracers identified and notified close contacts, asking six staff members to quarantine, CPS said. The second case, confirmed Wednesday, involved one of those close contacts, who did not report to school Monday. Contact tracers identified two close contacts of the second case who were not also contacts of the first case and asked them to quarantine as well.

CPS has said it approved 100% of accommodation or leave requests from staff members with underlying medical conditions who applied under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But as of late last year, less than 20% of requests had been approved from those who said they live with someone with a serious medical condition, and less than half of the total requests had been granted.

“My child is staying home and I am really hoping we are going to be able to convince CPS to negotiate in good faith with the union,” said Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, one of 35 City Council members who have signed a letter opposing the current reopening plan. I am in awe of these teachers that have come here today to teach outside in 27-degree weather. It’s really cold and this is what teachers do, right? This is what we see them do consistently, is sacrifice themselves.”

CPS and city officials have pushed back reopening plans multiple times but have said their phased-in plan, which would have the bulk of kindergarten through eighth graders returning on Feb. 1 for parents who choose that option, is a cautious approach with many health safeguards in place. They also say remote learning has disproportionately hurt Black and Latino students, though the union has countered that communities of color have also been affected the most by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chicago Department of Public Health last month declared schools could likely reopen if the time it takes for new coronavirus cases to double reached 18 days, about 50% longer than it was at the time. By the end of the month, the doubling time was nearly 41 days, according to CPS. Over the summer, city officials had pointed to an 8% positivity rate or a seven-day average of 400 new cases per day as benchmarks that could indicate the virus was too uncontrolled for in-person learning.

SAN ANTONIO – False stereotypes about foster kids being troubled or difficult are keeping children from the futures they deserve. As KSAT has reported, research shows it’s even harder for foster children of color. Hispanic, Black children wait longer to be adopted in Bexar County, experts sayThose stereotypes are even worse for foster children of color. To extinguish that fear, Keyes holds workshops every quarter with other churches, welfare organizations, foster kids, future foster families and advocates like Hernandez. “I want you to know, you’re going through so many placements, so many homes, so much right now.

SAN ANTONIO – Throughout the child welfare sector, experts say children of color have worse outcomes in the system when it comes to placement and adoption. Simmons, who sits on the Texas Advisory Committee on Promoting Adoption of Minority Children, said in Bexar County, Hispanic children wait the longest for adoption, followed closely by Black children. The extreme disparities have experts like Simmons reviewing parts of the system in desperate need of change. “Right now, the State of Texas has done a really great job of engaging with kinship programs reducing disparities for Black and Hispanic children,” Simmons said. Their adopted boys are Hispanic and Black, the two specific types of children that have historically and currently need adoption the most.

Since 1989, real estate agent Zenobia Coverson was a fairy godmother for children in the foster care system that she called “the forgotten children.”Throughout the year, Coverson would fill about 700 gift baskets and wrapped gifts for distribution to children in the CPS foster care program. CPS caseworker Mary Lou Rodriguez was there as the doors to The Forgotten Child storage unit were opened. Rodriguez was able to pick out gifts for children under her guidance. Eleanor Salazar, a CPS caseworker, said foster children generally don’t have high expectations for the holidays. CPS is looking for brand new gifts for children ages infant to older teenagers.

“With disparate rates of attendance and participation in remote learning, our Black and brown students are facing an unprecedented educational crisis that has the potential to reverberate for decades,” CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement. Given the learning loss and missed opportunities for our children, the discussion can no longer be focused on whether or not to reopen but how to do so safely. Numerous studies and data from schools in Chicago and throughout the country have shown that classrooms can safely reopen with proper mitigation strategies, and we must open our doors in order to counter the dire educational consequences for students who need support the most.”

In addition to grouping children in pods, as well as providing face masks to students and staff and requiring their use with minimal exceptions, such as eating, drinking and medical exemptions, CPS has taken steps to comply with public health guidance and mitigate coronavirus outbreaks. Those include symptom and temperature screening; supplies of soap, sanitizer, wipes and disinfectant sprays for each school; and the installation of air filters, sneeze guards and distancing signs. CPS has also hired dedicated contact tracers and plans to bring in an additional 400 custodians. The district will also “facilitate access” to free COVID-19 testing for students and staff who show symptoms or have had close contact with an infected person, and is planning surveillance testing of school-based staff.

“As we pause this proposal at this juncture in the process, we are filled with mixed emotions but are committed to work in partnership with you, your staff and members of the Chicago Board of Education to bring this proposal to the fruition for the students and families in our community,” they wrote. “We will resubmit our proposal at a later date and will continue to include many voices from North Lawndale to ensure that this school is built for our beloved community.”

“While this issue did not pose an information security risk or permit access to anyone outside the CPS network, we understand it may have been concerning for you and your children,” DiBartolo said. “We apologize for any issues this error may have created, and we have taken measures to ensure it does not happen again.”

Unless CPS provides the union with information needed to confirm a school’s compliance, the remedy requires CPS to determine which duties absolutely can’t be performed remotely and how much time they take, and to make a work schedule within three days “keeping in mind the duty to maximize remote work as a protective measure during the pandemic." The schedules would become effective within seven business days. If an employee takes issue with their schedule, the matter would go before the arbitrator.

“While the law does not require the district to bargain over the decision to reopen, the district has received the Union’s request, and we are reviewing it," CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement. "We continue to meet and work with CTU, as we have all year, in the hopes they will become a productive partner in getting students safely back to in-person learning.”

According to CPS, which assessed the ventilation, 94% of the more than 36,000 spaces in school buildings — including classrooms, administrative offices, gyms, libraries and nurse offices — are cleared for the return of students. Ninety-nine percent of the classrooms assessed were cleared. A space must have a functioning mechanical ventilation system or a working window with at least one air purifier, depending on the size of the room.

Although their families don’t yet have the option to send their children back to school before the end of the calendar year, for thousands of other CPS families with special education students, decision day is Wednesday. Along with pre-kindergartners, about 5,000 students in moderate and intensive special education programs have been identified as the first who could resume in-person learning. But for many parents, the decision is not simple.

On a call Thursday night hosted by CPS’s Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services, district representatives did not have many answers for parents asking about a return to school and said they had been in an “assessment phase.” One CPS parent on the call said given what parents had been hearing from principals and what had been reported in major news outlets, she found it hard to believe officials on the call didn’t know anything about cluster programs going back.

While students and teachers continue remote learning at least through Nov. 5, clerks and other employees have been working in school buildings since before the start of the new year. But an independent arbitrator on Friday ruled that CPS violated its contract with the teachers union by making some employees work in person under what may not have been “safe and healthful” conditions.

“Conditions in some schools are deplorable, particularly on the South and West sides,” said Sabrina Woods, a clerk at Foreman College and Career Academy. “This is a risk that CPS is asking us to take. Why does CPS feel that our lives are not important? Where is the respect for hundreds of dedicated, hardworking school clerks? Where is the planning for real safety for our students and their families once we do return to buildings?”

Meanwhile, here in the city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that she wouldn’t commit to allow in-person learning this fall. The mayor said that the decision on whether or not CPS will return in classrooms for its second quarter will come in the next few weeks.

LEON VALLEY, Texas – A CPS Energy bucket truck that was stolen from a Leon Valley gas station on Bandera Road Friday morning has been recovered, CPS officials said. CPS Energy officials said the company is working closely with the San Antonio Police Department on the investigation.