Texans affected by pollution from concrete plants push state agency to tighten regulations
As the state’s environmental agency weighs new pollution limits on the plants, several lawmakers have filed bills that would put new restrictions on the facilities, which spew pollutants into mostly low-income neighborhoods.
Texas universities urge passage of funding bill for campus construction to train more medical students after pandemic
Rep. Jim Murphy said lawmakers selected projects that would address the state’s nursing and medical professional shortages as the COVID-19 pandemic reiterated additional need for skilled workers.
After a year of racial reckoning, Black lawmakers believe they can finally eliminate Confederate Heroes Day in Texas
For years, a handful of Texas lawmakers have tried in vain to pass legislation that would remove or replace the holiday celebrating leaders of the Confederate army. The birthdays of Lee and Davis used to be separate Texas holidays, but lawmakers consolidated them in 1973 to create Confederate Heroes Day. State Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, filed the other in support. He plans to hold a press conference with Collier and other representatives at noon on the state holiday. In 2015, state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, filed a bill to rename the holiday Civil War Remembrance Day, but it died in committee.
As Texas grows, communities face an unwelcome neighbor: concrete companies. Homeowners have few options.
They soon learned it could be a concrete batch plant to service the construction of Oak Hill Parkway, a Texas Department of Transportation plan to widen Highway 290. “It just seems like we’re in this Bermuda Triangle of responsibility and accountability,” said Watson, 64, a retired head of a birdwatching tour business turned anti-concrete batch plant activist. “Because we’re not in the city, the city defers to the county on transportation. It’s like the Wild West.”Watson’s neighborhood faces an increasingly familiar problem for rural and urban homeowners alike across Texas. The number of air permit applications for concrete batch plants in Texas has increased 25% from 2014 to 2019, according to data provided by the TCEQ.