The annual window to sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act opens Nov. 1, and many Texans are expected to pay more for coverage this year.  Enhanced premium tax credits that have helped ACA enrollees shave off the cost of their premiums are slated to expire at the end of the year. The loss of the subsidies will have an outsized effect on Texas, where nearly 4 million people signed up for ACA coverage this year. Policy experts fear that ratcheting up the cost of ACA coverage will make it so unaffordable that people will drop health insurance coverage altogether.  Additionally, funding for navigators, which helped 26,533 Texans sign up for ACA last year, has been reduced by 90% this year. view article

Texas ranked 3rd least safe state in U.S., WalletHub safety report says. See which is safest  The 2025 "Safest States in America" report ranked Texas 48th out of 50, ahead of only Arkansas and Louisiana.   view article

At a Texas Tribune event Thursday, energy experts discussed how the state’s growing energy demands will impact residential bills and how legislation is trying to regulate new big energy users.  At a Texas Tribune event Thursday, energy experts discussed how the state’s growing energy demands will impact residential bills and how legislation is trying to regulate new big energy users.  Texas is preparing for an unprecedented surge in electricity demand, with projections showing the need for nearly double the state grid’s power capacity within the next six years.  The state’s main electric grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT, attributes the forecast in part to a wave of large-scale industrial development from data centers, hydrogen production and oil and gas operations transitioning to electrification. Population growth and extreme weather events also contribute to the state’s increasing energy needs.  Despite a 30% increase in generation capacity over the past four years — largely driven by the growth of solar, wind, and battery storage — energy experts who gathered at a Texas Tribune event at Dallas College at the Cedar Valley campus Thursday said the grid must adapt fast to meet growing demand.  They said the state’s big challenges include legislative uncertainties and keeping residents’ electric bills from skyrocketing. view article

Hurricane Melissa, which formed Saturday, is expected to remain a powerful major hurricane when it makes landfall in Jamaica Monday night or Tuesday morning and southeastern Cuba late Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. As of 11 a.m. Sunday, the rotating center of Melissa was about 110 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, and creeping west at 3 mph. The Category 4 hurricane was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 mph. Hurricane-force winds (74 mph or stronger) extend outward up to 25 miles from the center and tropical storm winds (39-73 mph) extend outward up to 175 miles. view article

wAfter more than a month without meaningful rain in Austin, our first real chance has finally arrived and the weather this weekend comes with a serious threat of severe thunderstorms and possible flooding across Texas.  view article

Lawmakers serving on special committees investigating deadly floods blasted a river authority for failing to build a flood warning system on the Guadalupe River.  Texas legislators on Wednesday lambasted a local river authority for a decision last year not to move ahead with pursuing a flood warning system — a decision that Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt from Houston declared was “pathetic.” view article

The new data center will work directly with a nearby windfarm to use energy the windfarm can’t send to the state’s electricity grid. view article

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Officials in Alaska rushed Tuesday to evacuate and find housing for people from tiny coastal villages devastated by the remnants of Typhoon Halong. But the remote location and severe damage are limiting their options as they race against other impending storms and the onset of winter.  High winds and surging waters battered low-lying, isolated Alaska Native communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in southwest Alaska, nearly 500 miles (800 km) from Anchorage, over the weekend. The Coast Guard plucked two dozen people from their homes after the structures floated out to sea in high water, three people were missing or dead, and hundreds of people were staying in school shelters — including one with no working toilets, officials said.   The system followed a storm that struck parts of western Alaska days earlier. view article

The Houston Independent School District voted to raise property taxes to pay for storm repairs, and the board is scheduled to vote on Wednesday. HISD officials say the district needs funds to help recoup nearly damage caused by Hurricane Beryl and to address other storm-related repairs. view article

The City of Houston is spending $16 million to turn a former migrant shelter into a homeless “super hub”—a facility officials say will streamline access to services, but critics warn will damage the city’s image ahead of international events. view article

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deployment of state National Guard units to Oregon while the court reviews the legality of the federal order. view article

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deployment of state National Guard units to Oregon while the court reviews the legality of the federal order. view article

Texas teachers don’t give up their First Amendment rights when they step into a classroom or when they speak outside of it, but protections are limited when what is expressed is considered disruptive, legal experts say.  The Texas Education Agency’s decision to investigate educators accused of praising or excusing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk puts free speech protections to the test. It has educators uncertain about what they can safely say off the job — a question Fort Worth ISD wrestled with in 2019 when a teacher was fired over anti-immigrant posts, highlighting the murky boundaries of educators’ First Amendment rights.  As of Oct. 1, TEA has received 351 complaints tied to social media posts from public school employees across the state. Spokesperson Jake Kobersky said that number does not represent separate individuals and includes certified educators as well as other school staff. Each complaint is being reviewed and investigated, he said. view article

Taxpayers on on the hook for millions upon millions of dollars in damages and other issues thanks to nebulously worded contracts, poorly regulated risk pools, and other sorts of legal drama. Marc Gravely, a legal expert and construction defect lawyer, breaks down how our public schools are being tricked or even extorted by outside groups. view article

A Huntsville ISD mother says her 9-year-old son’s life has been turned upside down after a fight at school left him hospitalized with severe head injuries. The incident happened Friday around 1:30 p.m. inside the gymnasium at Samuel Walker Houston Elementary School. According to a letter sent home to parents, the campus went into “temporary hold” status while an ambulance was called to handle the situation. view article

The Wylie ISD and Cisco city communities are mourning the sudden and shocking death of one of their own. Wylie ISD school bus driver, 64-year-old Lupe Garcia of Cisco, was the sole fatality of a collision with a school bus while walking around the Wylie Bus barn. That incident occurred around 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 19th. Wylie ISD Director of Communications, Mike Thompson, expressed to KTAB/KRBC the district’s condolences for the family, students, and coworkers who are grieving at this time. view article

A fifth grade Lumberton Independent School District student reported "vulgar" language in the STAAR reading test last month, according to information from LISD.  view article

Vidor ISD superintendent Jay Killgo estimates the district has $12-13 million in damages from Harvey. Both Oak Forest Elementary and Vidor Middle School are unusable right now. Those students are going elsewhere, which is overcrowding some schools. view article

Burnet school district officials were probably expecting to get more than two years from the synthetic turf installed at Bulldog Field in 2015, but that didn’t happen and it’s now set the district back $150,000. Burnet Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Keith McBurnett, however, said the district is looking to get $105,000 back from one manufacturer. Last year, officials noticed some turf fibers sticking up higher than others, so they took a closer look, McBurnett said. “To most people, it probably wasn’t noticeable,” he said. “We had all the experts look at the field, and they looked at the backside. It needed to be replaced.” view article

North American Solutions (NAS), a leading provider of insurance and risk management services for public entities, is excited to announce that Michelle Faust, currently Director, Safety & Risk Management at Round Rock ISD, will be joining the NAS team in January. view article

A teen who was severely bruised in a "brutal and excessive" nightstick attack by a Pasadena ISD school resource officer has settled his federal lawsuit for $60,000. Cesar Suquet Jr. was 16 in May 2014 when he went to the principal's office at South Houston High School to retrieve his cell phone, which had been confiscated earlier that day. His request was declined and he was told to leave. view article

Garland ISD was one of just 10 districts statewide recently honored by The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB). The district’s Risk Management Department earned a 2015 TASB Risk Management Fund Innovation Award for its creative safety video campaign. view article

Abilene ISD board approved the bid on Monday evening at its agenda review meeting. Construction coordinator for the district, Joe Humphrey, says Martinez Elementary took the brunt of the storm. view article

Three students from Stehlik Intermediate School in the Aldine Independent School District were taken to an area hospital Tuesday morning after a minor collision with a cement mixer. The wreck happened about 8 a.m. on West Road at Deer Trail Drive as the bus was transporting students to the school at 400 West Road, a school district spokeswoman said. The school is just west of Interstate 45. view article