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HOUSTON – Houston Public Media reports that Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee on Monday filed lawsuits against two Houston-area gas stations for alleged price gouging during Hurricane Beryl. According to Menefee, his office received more than 250 complaints of price gouging following the hurricane, which left millions without power throughout the Houston region. A majority of these businesses — a mixture of hotels, gas stations and convenience stores — were sent a cease and desist letter to get them to reduce their prices, Menefee said. However, only two businesses refused to comply: two Shell gas stations, one located in Bellaire and the other in Baytown. “The fact that these companies have refused to do the right thing, despite being given the opportunity to do so, shows why we need to hold them accountable,” Menefee said. “We need to make an example of them to make sure that during the next storm, our communities can be sure that they’re not going to be taken advantage of.”

TEXAS – Bloomberg News reports that Texans set an unofficial record in electricity use Tuesday as soaring temperatures spurred homeowners, schools and businesses to crank up air conditioners. Power demand on the state grid rose to 85,559 megawatts at 6 p.m. local time, topping the August 2023 record of 85,508 megawatts, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The amount becomes official after more accurate meters are calculated, the grid operator said. Northern and central sections of the Lone Star State contended with hazardous conditions as the heat index — a metric that takes into account the impact of humidity on the human body — surged, according to the National Weather Service. Electricity prices jumped to a two-week high as demand tested records. Thus far, the summer of 2024 hasn’t been as intense from a heat perspective as 2023, when power demand shattered all-time highs on 21 occasions. The riskiest hours for the grid come around sundown, when solar supplies plunge. Batteries have been a saving grace, kicking on during early evening to supplement power supplies from traditional sources such as natural gas-fired plants.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced last spring that he would pardon former Army Sergeant Daniel Perry, who had just been convicted of murdering an armed Black Lives Matter protester, Jeana Lungwitz was shocked. But she also felt a glimmer of hope. Abbott said he pardoned Perry because he believed he had acted in self-defense. And Lungwitz, who directs the domestic violence clinic at the University of Texas at Austin, was representing a woman seeking a pardon for the same reason: she said she’d been acting in self-defense when she killed her abusive husband. “If Perry could get pardoned, surely she will,” said Lungwitz, who asked the Chronicle not to name her client in order to protect her privacy.

But last month, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, denied the woman’s application. She is now out of prison after serving 15 years for murder, but with the conviction on her record, she has been unable to get a job or find an apartment in her hometown of Fort Worth. “It’s just a blatant slap in the face,” said Dana Smith, a close friend of Lungwitz’s client. “The prisons are full of women that are victims of domestic violence and were in self-defense mode somehow. Their lives are ruined.” Four years ago, the Republican governor announced a specialized pardon application for survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence, many of whom have criminal convictions as a result of what they endured. At the time, he said he wanted to provide a path to “redemption and restoration” for such survivors. But that hasn’t happened for the vast majority of applicants, who must provide exhaustive detail of their previous criminal record and proof that it is linked to their abuse.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, was transferred to a federal prison in Texas almost nine months after he was stabbed in a different facility, the federal Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Chauvin, 47, is now housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, a low-security prison. He was previously held in Arizona at FCI Tucson in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22 1/2-year state sentence for second-degree murder.

The transfer comes nearly nine months after Chauvin was stabbed 22 times in prison by a former gang leader and one-time FBI informant.

Another former Minneapolis officer, Thomas Lane, who held down Floyd’s legs as the man struggled to breathe, was released from federal prison in Colorado on Tuesday, the Bureau of Prisons said. Lane, 41, was serving a three year sentence for aiding and abetting manslaughter.

When Lane pleaded guilty, he admitted that he intentionally helped restrain Floyd in a way that he knew created an unreasonable risk and caused his death. He admitted that he heard Floyd say he couldn’t breathe, knew Floyd fell silent, had no pulse and appeared to have lost consciousness.

Floyd, 46, died in May 2020 after Chauvin, who is white, pinned him to the ground with a knee on Floyd’s neck as the Black man repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. Lane, who is white, held down Floyd’s legs. J. Alexander Kueng, who is Black, knelt on Floyd’s back, and Tou Thao, who is Hmong American, kept bystanders from intervening during the 9 1/2-minute restraint.

Kueng and Thao are both set to be released in 2025. Kueng is detained at a federal prison in Ohio and Thao at a facility in Kentucky, according to Bureau of Prisons records.

The killing, captured on bystander video, sparked protests in 2020 as part of a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice.

Lane is the first of the four officers convicted of crimes related to Floyd’s killing to be released from prison. He served time for a federal sentence alongside his state sentence after being convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

Chauvin is making a longshot bid to overturn his federal guilty plea, claiming new evidence shows he didn’t cause Floyd’s death. If he is unsuccessful, he would not be released until 2038.

John Turscak, who is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes committed while a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, attacked Chauvin on Nov. 24, 2023. He told investigators he targeted the ex-Minneapolis police officer because of his notoriety for killing Floyd.

FCI Tucson, a medium-security prison, has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. Chauvin’s lawyer at the time, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of the general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he would be a target.

Turscak, who was charged with attempted murder, told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not responded so quickly.

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Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo contributed to this report from Washington.

A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new rule from the Federal Trade Commission that would have made it easier for employees to quit a job and work for a competitor.

In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ada Brown granted a motion for summary judgement filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other plaintiffs, and rejected the FTC’s own petition for a judgement in its favor.

In reaching his decision, Brown concluded that that the FTC “exceeded its statutory authority” in making the rule, which the judge called “arbitrary and capricious.” The judge also concluded that the rule would cause irreparable harm.

As a result of the court’s decision, the FTC won’t be able to enforce its rule, which was set to go into effect on Sept. 4, according to the judge’s ruling.

Still, the decision does not prevent the agency from addressing noncompete agreements through “case-by-case” enforcement actions, said Victoria Graham, an FTC spokesperson.

The FTC is also considering appealing the court’s decision, Graham said.

The FTC voted in April to prohibit employers nationwide from entering into new noncompete agreements or enforcing existing noncompetes, saying the agreements restrict workers’ freedom and suppress wages.

But companies opposing the ban argue they need noncompete agreements to protect business relationships, trade secrets and investments they make to train or recruit employees.

Apart from the Texas case, companies sued the FTC in Florida and Pennsylvania to block the rule.

In the Florida lawsuit, which was brought by a retirement community, the court granted a preliminary injunction, prohibiting enforcement of the rule just for the plaintiff, but not any other company.

In the Pennsylvania lawsuit, the court concluded that the plaintiff, a tree company, failed to show it would be irreparably harmed by the ban and that the company wasn’t likely to win the case.

The divergent rulings mean the issue could end up working its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A small plane crashed in a West Texas neighborhood Tuesday, killing the pilot and a passenger and setting off a large fire on the ground that injured a woman, authorities said.

Witnesses said the plane struggled to gain altitude after taking off from an Odessa airport and then struck a power line before crashing in an alley at about 7 a.m., according to authorities. Both people aboard the plane died.

“It’s obvious the pilot attempted to avoid the houses,” Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis said.

The large fire on the ground came after a couple of explosions after the plane crash, he said.

In addition to a couple of mobile homes, some outbuildings in backyards also caught on fire, said Odessa Fire Rescue Chief Jason Cotton. The woman who was injured had to be rescued from one of the burning mobile homes and was taken to a hospital, he said. There was also damage to vehicles, fences and a restaurant in the city of about 114,000.

The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the pilot as Joseph Vincent Summa, 48, of the Houston suburb of Bellaire, and the passenger as Joleen Cavaretta Weatherly, 49, of Orange, which is east of Houston.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a Cessna Citation business jet. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

ODESSA (AP) — To cope with a growing population and increasing demand for water, a popular resort and residential complex in Terlingua told its residents that it would limit water sales.

The eight-member board overseeing 200,000 acres of privately owned land and short-term rentals called Terlingua Ranch Lodge — about 70 miles from the Big Bend National Park — sells drinking and nondrinking water to permanent residents. Many rely on the association for their monthly supply.

But for the first time starting in September, the board will reduce the amount of nondrinking water residents can purchase monthly if the well water levels begin to drop. Board members hope to avoid running out of water again, as in 2018 when one of the ranch’s five wells dried up.

“We’ve created a dependency,” Larry Sunderland, the association’s water committee chair, told The Texas Tribune last June. Sunderland said then that residents shouldn’t rely on the ranch wells because they weren’t drilled to sustain the ranch’s existing population and accommodate tourists.

The water scarcity in this West Texas village is a microcosm of the state’s own water crisis. Texas’ booming population is straining water systems and supplies, and the state is only beginning to meet the demand. The Texas Water Development Board, which manages the state’s supply, began distributing $1 billion in taxpayer-approved dollars for urgent projects addressing those needs. In Terlingua, this is the first step to conserving water and the start to understanding how much water flows underneath them.

“Everything is a guess at this point,” Sunderland said of the water coming out of the well, adding that the technology will help property owners manage their water needs by knowing how much water the board has available.

Dues-paying property owners can purchase a set amount of water monthly. The association’s charter says they can purchase 1,000 gallons of nondrinking water monthly. Each gallon costs 10 cents — $50 if they take the full amount. Property owners can get up to 25 gallons of free drinkable water every week. Anything above that is 25 cents per gallon.

Its unclear how much water these new limits will save. More than 5,000 people own property on the ranch. But most don’t live there, and the number of full-time residents changes frequently.

The ranch does not sell water to tourists. It will not issue limits for tourists who book short-term rental cabins and use the water.

Additional restriction may be possible based on water levels. The board, which owns five water wells, begin monitoring the wells using sounding tubes.

The board will use a 0-4 rating system to measure the health of its wells. At 0, sales will be normal. At 1, the ranch will begin reducing water sales by 20%, to 800 gallons monthly. At 2 it will cut water sales by 50%. At 3, its second highest status, the board will cut 75% of the water it sells to just 125 gallons. And at 4, the highest rating, the ranch will stop selling water altogether until the well recovers.

Scientists, regulators and local officials are just beginning to uncover precisely how much water is beneath the soil in Terlingua. The Water Development Board has no precise map of the body of water, called an aquifer, in South Brewster County, where Terlingua sits.

The equipment monitoring the stages of the well will offer a glimpse. Sounding tubes detect the elevation levels of a water well. When the tube reaches water, the tube pulses, indicating the water level, said Kevin Urbanczyk, a professor of geology at Sul Ross University and board member of the Brewster County Groundwater Conservation District.

The board will use the sounding tube at the start of each month and publish the results on its website.

Urbanczyk said the sounding tubes provide limited information about the water that rises to the surface. Obtaining comprehensive data about the bed of water even further below requires a team of scientists, engineers, and funding — a time-consuming and expensive process. He said the conservation district has partnered with the ranch to study the available data. He plans to solicit funding and help from the Water Development Board in the future.

“Their wells are limited in their capacity, and they’re trying to put Band-Aids on it,” he said. “And with that increasing population, I’m not surprised at all. I think that a conservation mindset is a really good step in the right direction for that.”