Texas

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) — U.S. and British authorities Monday continued an investigation into the weekend standoff at a Texas synagogue that ended with an armed British national dead and a rabbi crediting past security training for getting him and three members of his congregation out safely.

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) — Four hostages are safe and their captor is dead after an hourslong standoff that began when the man took over services at a Texas synagogue where he could be heard ranting on a livestream and demanding the release of a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas board that had unanimously supported a posthumous pardon for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston backpedaled in an announcement Thursday, saying “procedural errors” were found in their recommendation months after leaving the decision to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

The unusual reversal was announced by Abbott’s office two days before Christmas, around the time he typically doles out his annual pardons.

Dec 23 (Reuters) - Four people were injured when a fire erupted on Thursday at an Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) complex in Baytown, Texas, one of the largest refining and petrochemical facilities in the United States.

There were no fatalities and those injured were in stable condition and receiving medical treatment. Other personnel were accounted for, Exxon said.

The fire had been put out by roughly 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), several hours after the blaze erupted.

An Exxon official told a news conference that the fire had affected a unit that produces gasoline.

HOUSTON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- An unvaccinated man living in Harris County, Texas, is believed to be the first victim having died from the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the United States, local media reported Monday.

"Sad to report the first local fatality from the Omicron variant of COVID-19. A man in his 50s from the eastern portion of Harris County who was not vaccinated," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo tweeted earlier in the day.

The victim had an underlying health condition, she added.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Justice Department sued Texas on Monday over its new redistricting maps, saying the plans discriminate against minority voters, particularly Latinos, who have fueled the state’s population boom.

The lawsuit claims the Republican-controlled state violated part of the Voting Rights Act in drawing new district boundaries for its congressional delegation and state legislature. It’s the Biden Justice Department’s first legal action challenging a state’s maps since states began redrawing their maps this year to account for population changes.

HOUSTON, Dec 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The World Petroleum Congress, the largest triennial gathering for the industry, kicked off yesterday in Houston, the largest city of south central U.S. state Texas, amid the shadow of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the uncertainty of global economic activity and energy consumption.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert has joined the crowded field of Republicans mounting primary challenges against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The East Texas lawmaker is the latest prominent Republican seeking to unseat his party’s incumbent in the wake of Paxton’s top deputies reporting him to the FBI last year for alleged corruption. Gohmert announced his candidacy on Twitter Monday with a fundraising request that highlighted “the latest ethical, moral, and criminal allegations” against Paxton.

HOUSTON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- A 9-year-old boy, critically injured during the Astroworld music festival stampede ten days ago in Houston, south central U.S. state Texas, died on Sunday, bringing the death toll of the tragedy to 10, his family told local media.

The boy named Ezra Blount had been on life support since the Nov. 5 tragedy, according to a report from ABC13.

Ezra's father told ABC13 last week that his son was a young fan of rapper Travis Scott.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democrat Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas, pursuing a blue breakthrough in America’s biggest red state after his star-making U.S. Senate campaign in 2018 put him closer than anyone else in decades.

O’Rourke’s announcement Monday kicks off a third run for office in as many election cycles. He burst into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary as a party phenomena but dropped out just eight months later as money and fanfare dried up.