The $500 fine from the Texas Ethics Commission comes after the agency found the Harris County judge broke state campaign laws barring use of government resources for political purposes.

Texas officials say power outages could last weeks in parts of Houston after thunderstorms with hurricane-force winds tore through the city and killed at least four people.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo says it could take “weeks” for power to be restored in some parts of Houston following fierce storms with winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo says it could take “weeks” for power to be restored in some parts of Houston following fierce storms with winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Forecasters expect storms to begin tapering off but some roads remain closed due to flooding.

Floodwaters in the Houston area and parts of Southeast Texas are starting to recede, allowing residents to begin returning to their homes and assess damages after days of heavy rainfall.

Floodwaters in the Houston area are starting to recede, allowing residents to begin returning to their homes and assess damages after days of heavy rainfall.

Thousands of residents have either evacuated or are now under shelter orders.

Torrential rain is causing flooding in the Houston area.

Parts of Harris County, including The Woodlands, were under flood warnings Thursday.

Hidalgo’s staffers were indicted on felony charges related to how they allegedly helped award an $11 million contract to a political consulting firm headed by a Democratic strategist.

The vice president’s Houston visit comes as the Biden campaign works to shore up Latino support ahead of a potential rematch against former President Donald Trump next year.

The county’s top elected official will be discharged from a mental health facility this weekend and plans to return to work on Oct. 2 after two weeks of outpatient therapy.

Hidalgo said she was diagnosed with the condition last month and aims to return to her post in September. More people across the country have been diagnosed with the condition since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal environmental authorities have ordered a temporary halt in the shipment of contaminated waste from the site of a fiery train derailment in Ohio involving hazardous materials.

A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said only a court order could force a redo of elections.

A Democrat who is the top official in Texas’ largest county on Thursday acknowledged problems around Houston on Election Day that included paper ballot shortages and delayed openings of polling locations.

GOP donors spent millions to unseat Hidalgo, a Democrat who leads the state’s most populous county, and take back a seat they lost four years ago. Republican Alexandra del Moral Mealer conceded the race Wednesday morning.

President Joe Biden marked Women's Equality Day by blasting abortion restrictions as “beyond the pale.”.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar singled out financial firms under a 2021 state law that prohibits most state entities from contracting with companies that have reduced or cut investments in the oil and gas industry.

The child was not in daycare or school and health officials are still identifying how the virus was transmitted.

The felony charges are misuse of official information and tampering with a government record. Hidalgo, who oversees Harris County, has the largest constituency of any elected Democratic executive in the state.

Hidalgo, the Harris County judge, says a criminal probe into a contract her office awarded is a political hit. But as a potential future statewide candidate, does the episode expose a flaw in her approach to politics?

Republicans are suing and Democrats want a full review after Harris County missed deadlines to have its votes tallied and failed to count 10,000 ballots in its initial returns.

The Texans for Better Democrats Coalition is throwing its support behind Candis Houston, who is running against state Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston, and Rep. Claudia Ordaz Perez, who faces fellow El Pasoan Rep. Art Fierro.

A man in Harris County is reportedly the first person to die from the omicron COVID-19 variant in the United States.

Early indicators suggest the variant is very contagious, but little is known about the severity of disease it causes.

Calls for an independent investigation into what led to 10 deaths at the Astroworld music festival have gone unheeded.

The Houston police and fire departments were deeply involved in safety measures for the music festival where a surging crowd killed eight people.

The Houston police and fire departments were deeply involved in safety measures for the music festival where a surging crowd killed eight people.

Houston officials say they will ask tough questions in their investigation of a crowd surge at a music festival that killed eight people.

Other city and county governments in Texas are offering incentives to unvaccinated people to get a shot. Statewide, vaccination rates have increased modestly.

Texas Republicans have advanced bills that would make voting harder in a state that already has some of the nation’s toughest restrictions after hundreds spoke against the proposals.

Houston and Harris County were denied funding over other Texas communities despite requesting $1.3 billion for ongoing relief efforts. Local officials are asking the federal government to intervene.

Houston area officials are expressing shock and anger after learning their communities, which suffered the brunt of damage from Hurricane Harvey, will be getting a fraction of $1 billion that Texas is awarding as part of an initial distribution of federal funding given to the state for flood mitigation.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Tuesday received a national boost from a prominent Democratic women’s group.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declined to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Texas Rangers' home opener.

Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune. (Audio unavailable. Click here to listen on texastribune.org.) In the latest episode of our podcast about the Texas Legislature, Evan Smith talks to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo about Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to end coronavirus restrictions — including the mask mandate — as well other points of conflict and tension between cities, counties and the state.

States are scrambling to catch up on coronavirus vaccinations after bad weather last week led to clinic closures and shipment backlogs. Nevada health officials are working overtime to distribute delayed shots. But limited supply of the two approved COVID-19 vaccines hampered the pace of vaccinations even before extreme weather delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses. Steve Sisolak said Monday that 46,000 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that were delayed by weather began arriving in the state. Looking ahead to summer, Pfizer and Moderna executives said they expect to complete delivery of 300 million doses each, and J&J aims to provide an additional 100 million doses — more than enough to vaccinate every American adult.

As temperatures plunged and snow and ice whipped the state, much of Texas' power grid collapsed, followed by its water systems. As temperatures plunged and snow and ice whipped the state, much of Texas’ power grid collapsed, followed by its water systems. The community deserves answers.”___Around 2 a.m. Monday, the full measure of the crisis Texas faced began to be apparent. Most people did not yet know that Texas’ power grid had been on the brink of total failure. AdThe Texas grid isn’t walled off, but there are only a few, small interconnection points with the Eastern U.S. grid and Mexico.

State officials said surging demand, driven by people trying to keep their homes warm, and cold weather knocking some power stations offline had pushed Texas' system beyond the limits. “This event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for. At DFW, the temperature was 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius) — 3 degrees (-16 degrees) colder than Moscow. In Houston, officials said Bush Intercontinental Airport runways would remain closed until at least 1 p.m. Tuesday, a day longer than previously expected. The southern Plains had been gearing up for the winter weather for the better part of the weekend.

Texas also set new state highs with nearly 14,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and 393 newly reported deaths. Texas joins a handful of states with at least one known case of the new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. It was first identified in the United Kingdom and appears to spread more easily from person to person. But state health officials say there is no evidence it causes more severe disease, and say current vaccines are expected to still be effective. “The fact that this person had no travel history suggests this variant is already circulating in Texas,” state health Commissioner Dr. John Hellerstedt said.

Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? The first known case of a new and possibly more contagious coronavirus strain has been reported in Texas, in an adult male resident of Harris County who had no history of travel, according to the state health services department and Judge Lina Hidalgo. It does not cause a more severe disease and vaccines “are expected to be effective against it,” the health services department said of the variant. But “the fact that this person had no travel history suggests this variant is already circulating in Texas,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the state’s health services department. The case is being investigated by the state health services department and Harris County Public Health.

A medical staff exits the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) on New Year's Day at the United Memorial Medical Center on January 1, 2021 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)AUSTIN, Texas – Coronavirus cases are exhausting the availability of intensive-care unit beds in parts of Texas as hospitalizations with COVID-19 continue to soar to record levels, state health statistics showed on Tuesday. In all, the state estimated 314,465 COVID-19 cases were active. All ICU beds at hospitals in the Abilene and Bryan-College Station areas are full, while only two are available in the Laredo area with three in the Paris-Texarkana area. For seven days in a row, COVID-19 patients have filled in 15% of the Houston region's hospital beds, according to state health statistics.

AUSTIN, Texas – The crush of the coronavirus surge in El Paso has the city sending its non-COVID-19 cases to hospitals elsewhere in the state, officials said Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, Harris County sent out an emergency text alert to all 4.7 million of its residents asking them to cancel their holiday gatherings and to get tested. It’s just not the time,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official. At a news conference, Hidalgo warned that the number of COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations locally is increasing. Hidalgo said that since late September, the number of average new daily cases in Harris County has increased by 250%.

Many other counties have also ordered schools to push back their start dates for in-person learning. A joint public health order from Harris County and city of Houston health officials states schools must remain closed until at least Sept. 8. But the order could be extended beyond that date, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said. Other Texas counties that will require online learning for the initial weeks of the school year include Travis County, Tarrant County, Dallas County and El Paso County. The Harris County order comes a week after Harris County officials recommended schools delay in-person teaching until at least October.

HOUSTON Top officials in Houston are calling for the city to lock back down as area hospitals strain to accommodate the onslaught of patients sick with the new coronavirus. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, both Democrats, said this weekend that a stay-at-home order is needed for America's fourth largest city to cope with the surge of COVID-19 cases. State health officials reported 8,196 new cases Sunday, another 80 deaths and a total of 10,410 people hospitalized due to the virus. On Friday, Abbott extended a statewide disaster order that warned Texans another shutdown might be needed if the virus spread isnt contained. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

DALLAS Leaders in two of Texas' biggest cities are calling on the governor to empower local governments to order residents to stay home as the state's continued surge in coronavirus cases tests hospital capacity. Austin Mayor Steve Adler told CNNs "State of the Union" Sunday that he wants Gov. Gregg Abbott, a Republican, to return control of his city to the local government as its hospitals face a potential crisis. If we dont change the trajectory, then I am within two weeks of having our hospitals overrun, Adler, a Democrat said. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.

Greg Abbott didnt predict that the number of COVID-19 cases would fall as the state allowed businesses and cultural centers to reopen. Case numbers in Texas hit a new daily high Wednesday, and the seven-day average of cases reported daily has been rising steadily for the last two weeks. As of Thursday, there were 2,008 people in Texas hospitals who tested positive for COVID-19, a number that also reflects a two-week upward trend in cases in Texas. Getting large numbers of people together for long periods of time was just what the doctors ordered us to avoid at the start of the pandemic. The risk was clearly worthwhile to a large number of people, in Texas and elsewhere.

HOUSTON The Houston area has begun to see a significant increase in cases and hospitalizations related to the coronavirus, officials said. The upturn began two weeks ago and accelerated this week, the Houston Chronicle reported. Before the increase, the Houston area had settled into a roughly month-long plateau, the newspaper reported. Restrictions in the Houston area and the rest of Texas began to be lifted on May 1, with the reopening of restaurants, retail stores and malls, but with limits. The Galveston County Daily News reported Yarbrough announced his resignation in a Wednesday letter to City Council.