Houston Texas News

Thursday, February 21, 2019 Top afternoon stories: Harris County DA Kim Ogg (center). Harris County DA To Ask For More Staff For Case Review Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Thursday she will again ask for funding to hire additional prosecutors and investigators, citing the need to review more than 1,400 cases involving Gerald Goines, the Houston police officer who led a deadly drug raid on January 28. The move comes after Ogg failed…

HOUSTON – The first public report from the Hurricane Harvey Registry will be released at a Thursday afternoon press conference. The registry is a collaboration by the Environmental Defense Fund, Rice University and health departments in Houston that is still collecting information about the health impacts in the wake of Harvey. Mayor Sylvester Turner will be joined by Rice University Provost Marie Lynn Miranda, Chief Environmental Science Officer at the Houston Health Department Loren Raun, Executive…

HOUSTON – The first public report from the Hurricane Harvey Registry was released at a Thursday afternoon press conference. The registry is a collaboration by the Environmental Defense Fund, Rice University and health departments in Houston that is still collecting information about the health impacts in the wake of Harvey. The survey featured 9,798 registrants as of Jan. 2. Over 29,000 residents across the reagion were captured. Out of those numbers: 44 percent had their home…

Homes in the Canyon Gate area of Cinco Ranch are surrounded by water from Barker Reservoir, Saturday, September 2, 2017, in Houston. (Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle) Homes in the Canyon Gate area of Cinco Ranch are surrounded by water from Barker Reservoir, Saturday, September 2, 2017, in Houston. (Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle) Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photographer / Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photographer / Mark Mulligan / Houston…

A street near the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs that was flooded in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. In Texas, hundreds of victims of the flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey are suing the federal government. They say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers purposely flooded their homes and should pay for the damage. The cases center on how the government managed Houston’s main reservoirs during the storm, and the outcomes could have implications…

SUGAR LAND, Texas (FOX 26) — Sugar Land police say marital issues likely contributed to a murder-suicide in the Telfair subdivision on Monday morning. Police say Sreenivas Nakirekanti, 51, shot his wife Shanti, 46, then turned the gun on himself at their home on Pendergrass Trail. Police say they recieved a 911 hang-up call from the home at around 6 a.m. Monday. Officers arrived to find the Shanti’s body in the driveway and Sreenivas dead in the…

SEABROOK, Texas (FOX 26) — A major five-year highway expansion project has begun through Seabrook and Kemah, putting dozens of businesses in upheaval. The project will widen State Highway 146 on a 4.5-mile route. When it’s finished SH-146 will be expanded from four to twelve lanes. The project will affect 43 businesses in its path, many of which are having to demolish and rebuild elsewhere, according to Seabrook Mayor Thom Kolupski. “We’ve lost some very well-established…

The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting of a former Prairie View A&M University student by a campus police officer. Houston police are searching for the men behind a violent purse snatching that was captured on video. The waiting list for affordable housing in Houston has ballooned from a problematic 14,000 people before Hurricane Harvey to more than 112,000. Former first lady Laura Bush spoke at the Houston Methodist Research Institute on Wednesday. 

HOUSTON, Texas (FOX 26) — There could be pay raises in the near future for teachers in Texas. Texas Senate Bill 3 aims at giving teachers a $5,000 pay increase funded by school districts throughout the state. FOX 26 News spoke with two teachers who are hoping that what their peers are experiencing in Colorado doesn’t happen to them. “I think that if you look at, not just HISD, but across the state, the lack of really competitive…

FOX 26 (SPRING, Texas) – Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown is bringing a 6-foot waterslide to the Houston area. Wet & Wild SplashTown in Spring is being rebranded as Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown. The park will open for the 2019 season on May 4 with a new ride, a Caribbean theme and improvements throughout, Six Flags says. “We are thrilled to welcome Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown into the Six Flags family of parks,”…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans Monday to withdraw several hundred National Guard troops from the state’s southern border with Mexico in defiance of the Trump administration’s request for support from border states. About 100 of the 360 troops will remain deployed under California’s agreement with the federal government to focus specifically on combating transnational crime such as drug and gun smuggling, Newsom spokesman Nathan Click said. Specifically, they will be tasked…

HOUSTON (FOX 26) — Did you realize that Houston was left in a severe affordable housing crisis after Hurricane Harvey? A year and a half after Harvey, hundreds of thousands of people in Houston are still suffering. Count it a blessing if you are fortunate enough to live in an affordable home of your own.    Carmela Guerra, a mother of four who is fighting ovarian cancer and receives disability, doesn’t have that.  “There are times I don’t…

HOUSTON – Houston Habitat for Humanity has traditionally been for first-time homeowners who need help landing that first home. Now, the “Almost Home” program is available to those whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Harvey. Allison Hay, executive director of Habitat for Humanity, extended an invitation to homeowners still dealing with Harvey damage. “We’ll work with you,” she said. “You don’t have to be a first time home buyer this time. We’ll bring you into…

Virginia. Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam Virginia. Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A political death watch took shape at Virginia’s Capitol as Gov. Ralph Northam consulted with top administration officials Monday about whether to resign amid a furor over a racist photo in his 1984 yearbook. Practically all of the state’s Democratic establishment — and Republican leaders, too — turned against the 59-year-old Democrat after the picture surfaced late last week of someone…

RICHMOND, Va. (FOX 5 DC) – Resisting widespread calls for his resignation, Virginia’s embattled governor on Saturday vowed to remain in office after disavowing a blatantly racist photograph that appeared under his name in his 1984 medical school yearbook. In a tumultuous 24 hours, Gov. Ralph Northam posted a video on Twitter on Friday apologizing for the photograph that featured what appeared to be a man in blackface and a second person cloaked in Klu…