Nick Powell

Land Office orders Texas beaches to open by Friday

Carnival to resume cruises from Galveston in August

Harris County DA probing disgraced ex-cop’s 2004 arrest of George Floyd

The family of a young man who was fatally shot in Galveston two years ago while fleeing a...

House spending bill includes funding for new state-of-the-art training ship for Texas A&M

GALVESTON — A wooden platform from a damaged fishing pier washed up on a Galveston beach on Monday, an early warning sign from Tropical Storm Beta, which is slowly approaching the southeast Texas coast. The platform was part of the 61st Street Pier, a popular island fishing spot, that was previously damaged by the rough waters of Hurricane Laura several weeks ago. News reports broadcasted footage of the pier breaking off into the Gulf of Mexico late Sunday night, after parts of it were cut into…

LAKE JACKSON — Eva Day drove through the parking lot at Brazosport College, where uniformed National Guard members loaded her red minivan with a 24-pack of bottled water. A native of Mexico, Day was shaken by the news that a brain-eating amoeba had tainted the water supply in Lake Jackson and led to the death of 6-year-old Josiah McIntyre. The Brazosport Water Authority on Friday issued a “do not use” warning for the water in Brazoria County, and though it was lifted over the weekend, a boil wat…

A Galveston man whose arrest by two mounted police officers attracted national attention is suing the city and its police department for $1 million. In a lawsuit filed in Galveston County court, Donald Neely, 44, is claiming emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and negligence after his viral arrest in August 2019 for trespassing. Neely, a mentally ill man who was living on the streets of Galveston, was arrested in the city’s downtown by two mounted Galveston officers who clipped a rope lin…

League City Mayor Pat Hallisey, who was admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 last week, has been transferred out of the Intensive Care Unit. A city spokeswoman said Wednesday that Hallisey’s condition had improved enough that he was moved from the ICU to intermediate care “He’s still on oxygen, he’s clearly not gonna be home for Thanksgiving and is expected to be there for a while until they get his oxygen levels under control,” said Sarah Greer Osborne, League City’s communications director. H…

GALVESTON — On a drive through Galveston’s historic district this past summer, Sam Collins turned the corner of 22nd and Strand and passed a mostly blank gray wall of the Old Galveston Square building, near where a Union Army headquarters stood during the Civil War. Six years ago, Collins stood at that same site as a historical marker commemorating June 19, 1865 — Juneteenth — was unveiled where Union Army Maj. General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3. declaring “all slaves free.” Stari…

Pearland nursing home cited for COVID-19 violations

A nurse at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston on Tuesday became the first county resident to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, hours after 2,900 doses of the shot were delivered to the medical branch campus. Roy Christian, 54, a nurse who works at a COVID-19 testing site at the medical branch’s League City campus, said it was “just like any other shot,” except the vaccine was injected under the watchful eye of the news media, with cameras flashing and medical branch administration o…

On a gray, blustery Tuesday in Alamo, Texas, President Donald Trump stood in front of a completed portion of the border wall on the southern Texas-Mexico border and touted the completion of 452 miles during his term. “We reformed our immigration and achieved the most secure southern border in U.S. history,” Trump proclaimed. Unmentioned in Trump’s remarks was that 163 miles of the wall are being built by a Galveston-based contractor accused in a federal whistle-blower lawsuit of illegally hiring…

By the time Chamieka House-Osuya realized she had lost power in her Sugar Land home, it was already too brisk inside the house to tough it out any longer with her three daughters. She immediately booked a night at a nearby hotel that offered what for the past several days in the Houston area has been in high demand and short supply: electricity, heat and water. “The line was literally wrapped around the corner with people hoping they could get a room in the hotel,” House-Osuya said. “You have pe…

A Houston nurse is suing a Galveston boat club in federal court, alleging the club...

A bill has been introduced in the Texas Legislature to create a regional district that could levy taxes and issue bonds to build and maintain a proposed $26 billion storm surge barrier on the southeast Texas coast. The measure, SB1160, is sponsored by state Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, with a companion bill in the state House filed by Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston. The legislation would establish the Gulf Coast Protection District, an entity composed of members from Harris, Galveston, Chamber…

GALVESTON — In the waning daylight of a radiant spring afternoon, Betty Loth sat on a high Adirondack chair outside her second-floor apartment, soaking in her cherished view of the Gulf of Mexico. It was the final moments of her nearly four-year stint as a resident at the Fort Crockett apartments, which suffered irreparable damage after a four-day February freeze swept over Texas, and Loth, 72, was overcome with wistfulness. “It’s been so sad seeing so many people, especially elderly people here…

Nearly three years after the Santa Fe High School massacre that left 10 dead, the young man charged with capital murder in the shootings is no closer to standing trial and may end up committed long-term to a mental health facility. The accused gunman, 19-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, was ordered by a state district court in Galveston in February to remain committed for at least 12 months to the maximum-security North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, where he has been in custody since November 20…

Rosenberg police have identified a man who was fatally shot by police officers after opening fire inside a Fort Bend County laundromat Friday evening. The deceased suspect was identified as Tory Casey, 41, of Rosenberg. Police responded to the scene after Casey allegedly began shooting his handgun in the air and threatening patrons, including his fianceé, Rashida Ferguson, authorities said. Officers found Casey “standing in the middle of the roadway holding a firearm,” Police Chief Jonathan Whit…

A lack of running water led to unsanitary conditions and shortages of drinking water during Texas’ February freeze, according to grievances filed by Galveston County jail inmates. While emergency generators kept the power on at the 1,180-inmate county jail, water shortage forced inmates to go to the bathroom in buckets and failed chillers made hot meals impossible for several days — troubles that, in part, have prompted the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to survey county jails that suffered…