KTBB News, Weather, Talk

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — A pipeline fire that erupted in a suburban Houston neighborhood burned throughout a second day and into the night Tuesday with still no definitive word on when the blaze would finally go out, when nearby residents may be able to return home or why a car drove through a fence and hit a valve before the destructive explosion.

Although the fire was getting smaller, the disruptions caused by the Monday morning explosion in a grassy corridor between a Walmart and a residential neighborhood left some locals increasingly weary. On Tuesday, people could be seen returning to their homes to get clothes and other items before quickly leaving again.

“We literally walked out with the clothes on our backs, the pets, and just left the neighborhood with no idea where we were going,” Kristina Reff said. “That was frustrating.”

Over 36 hours after the blast — which shot towering flames like a blowtorch above the suburbs of Deer Park and La Porte — authorities have provided few details about the circumstances leading up to the explosion.

Investigators said it happened after the driver of a sport utility vehicle went through a fence near the Walmart and struck an above-ground valve. As of Tuesday evening, authorities had not still not identified the driver or said what happened to them.

Deer Park officials have said police and FBI agents found no preliminary evidence to suggest the explosion of the pipeline, which carried natural gas liquids, was a coordinated or terrorist attack. In a statement Monday night, the city said it “appears to be an isolated incident” but officials have not provided details on how they came to that conclusion.

The car was incinerated by the explosion, which scorched the ground across a wide radius, severed power transmission lines, melted playground equipment and ignited some homes.

The valve, which appears to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, is located within a long grassy field where high-voltage power lines run. Several pipelines run underground.

Authorities evacuated nearly 1,000 homes at one point and ordered people in nearby schools to shelter in place. By Tuesday afternoon that number was down to just over 400.

“The fire is still burning, but the good news is that the pressure within the pipeline is continuously dropping, which means we are getting closer to the fire going out,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a statement.

Operators shut off the flow after the explosion, but Hidalgo has said that 20 miles (32 kilometers) of pipeline stretched between the two closed valves and the chemicals inside had to burn off before the fire would stop.

Robert Hall, a senior advisor at the nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust, said it’s not surprising that it’s taken more than a day for the material to stop burning.

“You’re talking about 20-inch pipelines and miles between valves, so it takes a long time to burn down,” Hall said.

On Tuesday, the Texas Railroad Commission that regulates the state’s oil and gas industry said its inspectors only will enter the site after it is deemed safe by emergency authorities.

Houston is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires are a familiar sight, and some have been deadly, raising recurring questions about industry efforts to protect the public and the environment.

Hall, who previously oversaw pipeline and hazardous materials investigations for the National Transportation Safety Board, said there are few regulations that govern the location of pipelines near homes and businesses.

“That becomes a very local issue, community by community,” Hall said, adding that some jurisdictions require bollards — sturdy pipes filled with concrete — to prevent vehicles from crashing into sensitive infrastructure.

Hidalgo said Tuesday that Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based owner of the pipeline, has said it was working to isolate parts of the pipeline closest to the fire by clamping it on each side.

Energy Transfer did not immediately respond to a question about what safety precautions were in place near the valve.

Hall said regulations from 2022 aimed at reducing deaths and environmental damage from ruptures were geared toward gas lines, not those carrying liquids, and would not have applied to this pipeline. He added that many new safety regulations that have been put in place do not apply retroactively to pre-existing pipelines.

Both Energy Transfer and Harris County Pollution Control were conducting air monitoring in the area and have found no health issues, according to Deer Park officials.

Since leaving home, Reff and her family have been staying in a hotel room paid for by Energy Transfer. But they were eager to return.

“It would be nice to be in our own beds,” she said.

___

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. AP writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have blocked for a second time this year legislation to establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization, arguing that the vote is an election-year stunt after Democrats forced a vote on the issue.

The Senate vote was Democrats’ latest attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself a “ leader on IVF.”

The 51-44 vote was short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on the bill, with only two Republicans voting in favor. Democrats say Republicans who insist they support IVF are being hypocritical because they won’t support legislation guaranteeing a right to it.

“They say they support IVF — here you go, vote on this,” said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill’s lead sponsor and a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have her two children.

The Democratic push started earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature rushed to enact a law to provide legal protections for the clinics.

Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on Duckworth’s bill and warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could go after the procedure next after it overturned the right to an abortion in 2022.

The bill would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies and a right for doctors and insurance companies to provide it, an effort to pre-empt state efforts to limit the services. It would also require more health insurers to cover it and expand coverage for military service members and veterans.

Republicans argued that the federal government shouldn’t tell states what to do and that the bill was an unserious effort. Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats to move forward on the bill both times.

Meanwhile, Republicans have scrambled to counter Democrats on the issue, with many making clear that they support IVF treatments. Trump last month announced plans, without additional details, to require health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for the fertility treatment.

In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” on the issue and talked about the “very negative” decision by the Alabama court that was later reversed by the legislature.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that Democrats are trying to create a political issue “where there isn’t one.”

“Let me remind everybody that Republicans support IVF, full stop,” Thune said just before the vote.

The issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as some state laws passed by their party grant legal personhood not only to fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process. Ahead of the its convention this summer, the Republican Party adopted a policy platform that supports states establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all American citizens. The platform also encourages supporting IVF but does not explain how the party plans to do so.

Republicans have tried to push alternatives on the issue, including legislation that would discourage states from enacting explicit bans on the treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who say they are not enough.

Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said in a floor speech then that his daughter was currently receiving IVF treatment and proposed to expand the flexibility of health savings accounts. Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas have tried to pass a bill that would threaten to withhold Medicaid funding for states where IVF is banned.

Cruz, who is running for reelection in Texas, said Democrats were holding the vote to “stoke baseless fears about IVF and push their broader political agenda.”

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — A flame that towered over a southeast Houston suburb subsided Tuesday but was still burning following a pipeline explosion that happened when a vehicle drove through a Walmart parking lot fence and struck an above-ground valve, officials said.

“Progress has been made as first responder crews worked through the night. The fire is significantly smaller,” according to a statement from Deer Park. The city said Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based owner of the pipeline, expects the fire to burn itself out later Tuesday.

City officials said police and FBI agents found no preliminary evidence to suggest a coordinated or terrorist attack, and said it “appears to be an isolated incident,” but they haven’t offered any details on how they came to that conclusion.

Investigators were trying to learn more about the driver of the vehicle. The car was incinerated by the explosion, which scorched the ground across a wide radius, severed nearby power transmission lines, melted playground equipment and ignited nearby homes. Over 24 hours after the explosion, the driver still had not been publicly identified.

The valve, which appears to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, is located within a long grassy corridor where high-voltage power lines run. Below the ground is a network of pipelines. On one side of the corridor is a neighborhood of homes; on the other is a Walmart. Officials say the driver went through a fence alongside the Walmart parking lot and across the grassy right-of-way before striking the valve.

Officials have not given any information on the condition of the driver. Deer Park spokesperson Kaitlyn Bluejacket said four people were injured, but provided no details about the seriousness of the injuries. Authorities said one firefighter sustained minor injuries.

The roaring fire shot orange flame and then black smoke hundreds of feet into the air, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 1,000 homes and order people in nearby schools to shelter in place. By Tuesday, the City of La Porte said it slightly reduced the evacuation area south of the fire, but did not say how many people were affected.

Operators shut off the flow of natural gas liquids after the explosion rattled homes and businesses in Deer Park and the adjacent suburb of La Porte shortly before 10 a.m. on Monday. But Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said 20 miles (32 kilometers) of pipeline stretched between the two closed valves, and all the chemicals inside had to burn off before the fire would stop.

The fire was burning so hot that all firefighters could do is use ladder trucks to hose down nearby houses that began smoking in the radiant heat.

Houston, Texas’ largest city, is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires are a familiar sight, and some have been deadly, raising recurring questions about industry efforts to protect the public and the environment.

Anna Lewis, who was walking into the nearby Walmart when the explosion happened, said it sounded “like a bomb went off.” She said everyone inside was rushed to the back of the store and then taken across the street to a grocery store before being bussed to a community center.

“It scared me,” she said. “You really don’t know what to do when it’s happening.”

Geselle Melina Guerra said she and her boyfriend heard the explosion as they were having breakfast in their mobile home.

“All of a sudden we hear this loud bang and then I see something bright, like orange, coming from our back door that’s outside,” said Guerra, who lives within the evacuation area.

Both Energy Transfer and Harris County Pollution Control are conducting air monitoring in the area and have found no health issues, according to Bluejacket, the Deer Park spokesperson.

The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil and gas in the state, said its safety inspectors are investigating.

BEXAR COUNTY (AP) – A Texas district court judge on Monday denied a request by Attorney General Ken Paxton to block a Bexar County plan to mail voter registration forms to county residents ahead of the November election, saying the request was moot.

Bexar County attorneys argued in a hearing before Judge Antonia Arteaga on Monday that there was no reason for the court to issue an injunction because the forms were mailed last week, according to the San Antonio Report. Paxton’s office submitted an updated request before the hearing asking that no additional letters be sent out.

“The target of the mailing — qualified individuals who recently moved to or within Bexar County — have received those forms, and perhaps have already returned them,” said Bexar County Assistant Criminal District Attorney Robert W. Piatt III.

Ryan Kercher, deputy chief of the special litigation division in the attorney general’s office, argued that the plan could result in ineligible people registering to vote. Paxton appealed the decision on Monday evening, claiming Bexar officials “expedited” the mail out to take place before the hearing.

Voter registration applications are returned to county offices and are reviewed to confirm eligibility.

Here’s what you need to know.

The background: Bexar County officials voted on Sept. 3 to mail voter registration forms to eligible county residents, defying a threat by Paxton to “use all available legal means” to shut down the program. The Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve the $393,000 outreach contract with Civic Government Solutions, an outside firm.

Paxton sued Bexar County officials in state district court on Sept. 4, seeking an emergency order to block the program. But his office later did not show up at court to request the order, according to News 4 San Antonio.

The lawsuit is part of an ongoing feud between the state’s Republican leaders and Texas’ largest counties, which are run by Democrats, over initiatives to proactively send registration applications to people who are eligible but unregistered to vote. Harris County leaders weighed a similar plan but ultimately did not follow through.

Paxton warned Harris and Bexar counties, which include Houston and San Antonio respectively, against such efforts on Sept. 2, claiming they would run afoul of state law and risk adding noncitizens to the voter rolls. Paxton separately sued Travis County, which includes Austin, for a similar issue.

Why Texas sued: In its lawsuit, Texas argued that counties do not have the authority to send out unsolicited voter registration applications and that Bexar County officials failed to go through a competitive bidding process before awarding the contract.

Local Republican activists slammed the Bexar County deal as an illegal waste of taxpayer money that would disproportionately register Democratic voters, citing past comments from the contracted firm’s leaders indicating support for Democratic candidates.

In a letter to Bexar county officials, Paxton added that the outreach proposal was “particularly troubling this election cycle” because of the uptick in illegal border crossings under President Joe Biden, whose policies he said have “saddled Texas” with “ballooning noncitizen populations.”

Paxton, without evidence, has routinely accused Democrats of adopting more liberal immigration policies to draw on noncitizen votes to win elections. He falsely told conservative talk show host Glenn Beck in August that Democrats’ plan was to “tell the cartels, ‘Get people here as fast as possible, as many as possible.’”

Only U.S. citizens are permitted to vote under both federal and state law, and data shows that instances of noncitizen voting are exceedingly rare.

What Bexar County says: Democratic commissioners, backed by a county legal official, called Paxton’s legal threats misleading and unfounded.

Civic Government Solutions’ chief executive, Jeremy Smith, said that the outreach efforts would be strictly nonpartisan — as required by the contract — and pose little risk of registering noncitizens.

He said that the company uses a mix of public records and county data to identify people who could have recently moved and are unregistered, and he noted the checks in place to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote.

When voter registrars receive applications, they send them to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, where they are checked for eligibility against Department of Public Safety and Social Security Administration data. In addition, local voter registrars work with their county district attorney’s office to check citizenship status using responses from jury summons questionnaires.

Broader impact: The lawsuit was the latest in a series of moves by Republican leaders in Texas who say they are trying to keep the state’s election systems and voter rolls secure ahead of the highly charged November elections.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced in late August that Texas officials had removed roughly 1 million people from its voter rolls since 2021 — though election experts noted that such maintenance is a routine part of complying with state and federal law, and warned that Abbott’s framing of the action could be used to undermine trust in elections.

Abbott’s office said the names scrapped from the voter rolls included more than 6,500 noncitizens who shouldn’t have been registered, and about 1,930 of those had a voting history. Voter watchdog and voting rights groups have questioned the figure, noting that Texas has incorrectly flagged people as noncitizens in the past.

Paxton’s office also recently conducted a series of raids as part of an investigation into alleged vote harvesting in Frio, Atascosa and Bexar counties, a move the League of United Latin American Citizens cast as an effort to “suppress the Latino vote through intimidation.” In addition, Paxton has probed what appear to be unsubstantiated claims that migrants were registering to vote outside a state drivers license facility west of Fort Worth.

A group of Democratic state lawmakers asked the Justice Department last week to investigate the recent spate of election-related actions, saying they were “sowing fear and will suppress voting” among communities of color. On Sept. 4, five Democrats from Texas’ congressional delegation joined the chorus of calls for federal action — among them U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Houston, who argued for “a swift and thorough investigation.”

AMARILLO – The Amarillo Tribune reports that on Aug. 26, Governor Greg Abbott issued a press release announcing that since signing Senate Bill 1 into law in 2021, Texas has removed over one million people from the state’s voter rolls. For many Texan voters, the release created confusion and caused concern over their voter status. “It did cause a lot of panic for a lot of people,” Randall County Elections Administrator Shannon Lackey said. “We have had many, many people call to verify their status. What everyone needs to know was all of those things on that list happen on a daily basis.” In a Potter County Elections Administration press release, Potter County Elections Administrator Christy Benge explained, “The largest category of voter registration cancellations come from voters who are deceased, voters who give a signed statement affirming they no longer reside within Potter County, and voters who have a felony conviction,” with few other minor categories with very small numbers.

Lackey said that county elections officials constantly maintain their voter rolls, canceling the status of those who have died, moved away, or are noncitizens. But, she explained, election staff attempts to notify voters of their status so it can be maintained. For example, Lackey said that if someone gets a jury summons and responds that they no longer live there, the district clerk must notify the elections staff of the response. At that point, they go on the suspense list. “The suspense was another category that was listed on that report that came out,” Lackey said. “All that means is we think maybe you’ve moved or you no longer have that same mailing address. That does not cancel [your registration status.] We send out an address confirmation notice to that voter at whatever address we have available to us.” Lackey said if the voter does not respond, they stay on the suspense list for two federal election cycles or four years, and if they don’t vote or update, they fall off the voter rolls. “But that’s not done until the end of November of even years, okay?” Lackey said. “So, we don’t have mass cancellation before a general election.”

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports Texas voters think there is a “retirement crisis” and their post-work accounts are underfunded, according to new study from asset management giant BlackRock, even though the issue hasn’t drawn the same attention in national and state elections as other hot-button issues. The study is part of what company founder and CEO Larry Fink called “rethinking retirement” in his 2024 annual chairman’s letter to investors. In his letter, Fink wrote that the retirement crisis requires a substantial response from the U.S. government. “America needs an organized, high-level effort to ensure that future generations can live out their final years with dignity,” he wrote.

The new study, which surveyed 500 registered voters in Texas, seems to point toward Texan voters being in broad agreement with Fink. One of the most eye-catching figures: 91% of Texas voters think there is a retirement savings crisis in America. The survey results come two months ahead of a pivotal national election where the economy and inflation are expected to be key issues among voters, but social security and retirement savings policies have been overshadowed by abortion, immigration, foreign policy and tax priorities. Texans are slightly more concerned about a retirement crisis than the country as a whole, of which 90% said there is such an issue. Once you take that into account, the rest of the figures in the study are no surprise. More than 70% of registered Texas voters are concerned about having enough in savings or investments to fund their needs in retirement. A similar percentage are concerned about maintaining their standard of living or being able to afford long-term costs like nursing homes once they retire. Nationally, voters estimate it will take about $2.2 million to retire, but 62% of registered voters in Texas surveyed report they have less than $150,000 in retirement savings. All told, less than a quarter (24%) of registered Texas voters expressed a high level of confidence that they have enough to live throughout their retirement years. That’s a lower percentage than the 32% who reported they have no retirement savings at all.

AUSTIN – The Houston Chronicle reports the University of Texas plans to automatically admit students in the top 5% in their graduating class who apply to attend the school as undergraduates in fall 2026 — the lowest rate in the school’s history. UT President Jay Hartzell announced during a Faculty Council meeting Monday that the university would be changing its automatic admissions rate percentage, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The school has automatically admitted students in the top 6% of their graduating class as undergraduates since fall 2019, when it raised the bar from 7%. Under state law, Texas public universities are required to admit students who graduate in the top 10% of their class at any Texas high school. However, as the number of graduates and applications continued to grow, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 175 in 2009 allowing UT to accept a lower percentage of students compared to other universities due to capacity concerns starting in 2011.

UT is legally required to admit 90 percent of its first-year students from in-state residents, including 75% of whom are automatically admitted. The remaining in-state students, along with transfer and out-of-state students, are admitted through a holistic review process, which includes class rank, test scores, essays and special accomplishments. The change comes after the university reported a record number of applications, enrolled freshmen and overall enrollment during the 2023-24 school year. According to the school, 66,109 students applied to attend UT, 9,385 first-time, first-year undergraduate students enrolled, and total enrollment reached 53,082 students. UT said it is “committed to continuing to provide world-class classroom and research experiences for our students, even while we are facing record demand.” The demand has been driven “both by the success and growth of Texas, and by greater interest in UT among the state’s best high-school students,” according to the school. “We see no signs that our demand will substantially fall, and revising our auto-admit percentage to 5% will allow us to continue to meet the state’s requirement that 75% of the Texas residents in each freshman class are admitted based on high-school class rank,” the university said in a statement.