Santa Monica Daily Press (October 12)
The most populous state in the U.S. now has “the lowest per capita rate of new coronavirus cases.” Still, California just topped 70,000 cumulative COVID deaths. This is “the most in the nation, surpassing Texas by about 3,000 and Florida by about 13,000, although California’s per capita fatality rate of 177 per 100,000 people ranks in the bottom third for the U.S.”
Tags: California, Cases, Coronavirus, Covid, Deaths, Fatality rate, Florida, Populous, Texas, U.S.
Houston Chronicle (August 4)
COVID-19 is striking Texas with a vengeance. Every region is expected to “face surges larger than anything seen so far.” The Houston area is expected to break the hospitalization record on Sunday and “the previous record for ICU patients—947 set July 18, 2020—is predicted to be broken Aug. 15.” But “even more alarming,” the surge will “keep climbing sharply,” with 2,000 ICU patients expected at the end of August.
Tags: COVID-19, Hospitalization, Houston, ICU patients, Record, Surge, Texas, Vengeance
Houston Chronicle (July 15)
“The $3.5 trillion budget proposed by top Democrats represents the biggest move yet by President Joe Biden to attack climate change, including provisions such as clean energy standards for power grids, fees on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, and increased incentives for electric cars.” If enacted, the legislation, “would set in motion a historic shift from fossil fuels and deliver a blow to the oil and gas producing regions across Texas, which have powered the nation’s economy for a century.”
Tags: $3.5 trillion, Biden, Clean energy, Climate change, Democrats, Drilling, Emissions, EVs, Fees, Fossil fuels, Gas, Historic, Methane, Oil, Power grids, Shift, Texas
Boston Globe Times (March 3)
“The president’s timetable” of having enough vaccine for every American by the end of May “provides a bright light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, although he acknowledged that the nation remains in a tenuous situation” as experts “fear a fourth surge of the pandemic, fueled by worrisome new variants, as states like Texas and Mississippi rush to fully reopen.”
Tags: Bright light, Dark tunnel, Experts, Fourth surge, Mississippi, Pandemic, President, Reopen, Tenuous, Texas, Timetable, Vaccine, Variants, Worrisome
New York Times (February 20)
“The nation’s energy delivery system, not just in Texas but everywhere, needs a radical overhaul if it is to withstand future shocks and play the role that President Biden has assigned it in the battle against climate change.”
Houston Chronicle (December 3)
“With record wildfires burning across the West Coast and a record Atlantic hurricane season that pummeled the Gulf Coast, climate change is gaining importance within the Democratic Party…. That leaves Texas Democrats with the unenviable position of having to choose between one of their state’s largest employers and their party’s newly elected leader.” They are “caught in the middle of a climate catastrophe.”
Tags: Atlantic, Burning, Climate change, Democrats, Gulf Coast, Hurricane season, Record, Texas, West Coast, Wildfires
USA Today (November 12)
An extreme “Arctic blast is affecting 200 million people from Chicago to Texas, and it isn’t over yet.”
Tags: Arctic blast, Chicago, Extreme, Texas, U.S.
The Economist (June 22)
Already “one in five Americans calls Texas or California home.” The behemoths are now “the biggest, brashest, most important states in the union, each equally convinced that it is the future.” But their vision is “heading in opposite directions, creating an experiment that reveals whether America works better as a low-tax, low-regulation place” or a “high-tax, highly regulated one.” Given Washington dysfunction, “the results will determine what sort of country America becomes almost as much as the victor of the next presidential election will.”
Tags: Biggest, Brashest, California, Dysfunction, Election, Experiment, Future, Regulation, Tax, Texas, U.S., Washington
Reuters (September 15)
“Business owners who are trying to get back on track after hurricanes Harvey and Irma now face a different sort of challenge: trying to recoup lost income from their insurers.” Some experts predict approximately $70 billion in property losses from flooding in Texas alone. But recouping insured property loses is much easier than lost income. “Exclusions in the fine print of policies, along with waiting periods and disagreements over how to measure a company’s lost income, make business interruption claims among the trickiest in an industry renowned for complexity”
Tags: Business, Business interruption, Claims, Complexity, Exclusions, Flooding, Harvey, Hurricanes, Insurers, Irma, Lost income, Owners, Policies, Property losses, Texas
Chicago Tribune (September 7)
“Homeowners located in areas that are expected to flood every 100 years are required to buy flood insurance…. But they pay rates far lower than the risks warrant. That gap deprives builders of incentives to stay out of low-lying areas that are vulnerable to flooding — or to elevate structures to keep them dry when the waters rise. It also promotes the destruction of wetlands that could reduce flooding. Oh, and it helps to tilt migration toward vulnerable coastal regions like those of Texas and Florida.”
Tags: Builders, Coastal regions, Destruction, Flood, Florida, Homeowners, Insurance, Rates, Texas, Vulnerable, Wetlands
