04.30.06
Posted in General at 1:01 am by Paloma Cruz
Houston gas stations run short of fuel
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Scores of gas stations in Houston were out of at least one grade of gasoline today as the conversion to ethanol-blended gasoline from fuel with MTBE presented logistical problems, fuel suppliers and station owners said.
Valero spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown said some 80 stations in the Houston area had an outage of at least one grade.
Backlogs have been created as retail stations drain and clean their tanks to prepare for the switch and terminals retrofit bays to handle ethanol. A shortage of drivers and trucks has also compounded the problem, she said.
[snip]
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04.27.06
Posted in News at 1:20 am by Paloma Cruz
Pasadena High students form council
– reported by the Pasadena Citizen
The League of United Latin American Citizens in Pasadena has decided to form the first youth council at Pasadena High School and held its first meeting Tuesday after school in the cafeteria.
Youth Director of the Pasadena LULAC Council Maria Patino decided to form this group at PHS after the recent walkouts last month because of the bill that the U.S. Congress wanted to pass that would make it a felony for illegal immigrants to be in the United States.
Out of the many schools in the Houston area, Lamar High School was the only one that did not have an issue with the walkout due to having the LULAC council present there. Some members of the council heard rumors around school that a walkout was being planned so they notified the principal and blocked the doors to stop the students but still talked about their concerns that they had.
[snip]
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04.19.06
Posted in News at 10:39 pm by Paloma Cruz
Yard sale to benefit scholarships
– reported by the Pasadena Citizen
[snip]
Saturday, April 22, will bring another fundraiser to support scholarships and the auxiliary’s other youth programs.
Beginning at 8 a.m., the unit will be holding a yard and craft sale at its office at 2221 Preston.
[snip]
Barbecue plates will also be available. Proceeds from these will go to the American Legion.
The yard sale will begin at 8 a.m. and last until 4 p.m.
Anyone interested in renting booth space may call Ashworth at (713) 920-2874 or the American Legion at (713) 472-4255.
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Posted in News at 6:02 am by Paloma Cruz
5 hurricane drills planned for coast
Announcing the exercises, Chertoff also says pumps will stay open for future evacuations
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
The Department of Homeland Security will organize five regional hurricane exercises along the Gulf Coast to assess what states and local communities might need from the federal government if another catastrophic hurricane strikes this year, Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.
[snip]
In a clear reference to the massive Houston-area traffic jam that developed during the Hurricane Rita evacuation last year, Chertoff drew applause when he said his department also will insist that oil companies and gasoline retailers equip stations with generators that will allow them to pump gasoline during evacuations and after storms.
[snip]
Red Cross to beef up hurricane readiness
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
The American Red Cross is spending $80 million to increase the number of people it can shelter and the amount of food available in the event of another catastrophic storm like Hurricane Katrina, spokesman Joe Becker said today.
[snip]
The planned 500,000-person sheltering capacity, scheduled to be available by July 1, is more than triple the maximum number of people the Red Cross sheltered in a single night in the weeks after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast last year.
[snip]
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04.18.06
Posted in News at 10:51 pm by Paloma Cruz
Texas sales tax revenue up 13 percent
– reported by the Houston Business Journal
Texas received $1.36 billion in sales tax revenue in March, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said Friday.
This is a 13.2 percent increase over March 2005.
[snip]
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Posted in News at 12:37 pm by Paloma Cruz
Vehicle burglarized in store parking lot
– reported by the Pasadena Citizen
Pasadena police are investigating the burglary of a vehicle in the parking lot of Academy Sports and Outdoors between 1 and 1:20 p.m. Tuesday.
[snip]
The owner of the vehicle was unable to give any suspect information about the burglars. Anyone with information about the burglary can call Pasadena police at (713) 477-1221.
Pasadena police responded to four vehicle burglaries Tuesday.
Vance Mitchell, spokesman for Pasadena reminded residents to always ensure their valuables are hidden where they cannot be seen from outside the vehicle.
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04.17.06
Posted in General at 10:59 pm by Paloma Cruz
Gasoline prices continue to climb
– reported by the Houston Business Journal
Gasoline prices in Houston continued to inch up this week.
Houstonians were paying an average daily price of $2.75 per gallon on Friday, an increase of nearly 14 cents over averages tallied for the same time last week.
Statewide, the situation is no different. The current average for a gallon of gasoline throughout Texas is more than 40 cents higher now than just one month ago, according to AAA Texas.
Gasoline prices in Texas averaged $2.29 a gallon last month. As of Friday, the statewide average price for a gallon of regular self serve is $2.72, up 14 cents in just one week.
[snip]
Houston pump prices up 45 cents over last month
– reported by the Houston Business Journal
[snip]
Local drivers are paying $2.732 on average for regular, self-serve gasoline in April. This is up from $2.28 on average in March. In April of last year, Houston pump prices averaged $2.149 a gallon
Statewide, drivers are paying $2.662 a gallon for gasoline, up 38.2 cents from March.
The cheapest monthly average in Texas is in Longview at $2.60 a gallon. Dallas has the most expensive gas at $2.802 a gallon.
[snip]
More posts on this topic (at “stories from a Houston Life”):
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Posted in News at 10:24 pm by Paloma Cruz
You may have been one of the few lucky people who didn’t experience a blackout today, but odds are that your luck isn’t going to hold.
Power demands cause blackouts in Houston
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
That request was not enough, however, so at 4 p.m. ERCOT officials asked for users with interruptible load agreement, primarily industrial power users who can stop using power on short notice, to make available some 1,150 megawatts of their demand for the rest of the system.
Taking this second step is rare – the last time ERCOT drew on interruptible loads was August, 1999 — but it usually prevents the need for further measures.
At about 4:05 p.m., however, four power units at plants throughout Central and North Texas unexpectedly went out of service, according to ERCOT officials. This took about 920 megawatts of power off the grid suddenly, creating the need for the rolling blackouts.
ERCOT would not name the owners of the power plants, but a Texas Public Utility Commission spokesman said the units were owned by CPS Energy in San Antonio and TXU Energy in Dallas.
Experts interviewed on latest power emergency
– reported by KHOU CBS Channel 11
“At the request of ERCOT, Centerpoint Energy has started periodically dropping customers in 15-minute intervals on a rotating basis,” said Emily Mir Thompson with Centerpoint Energy. “Currently we have 68,000 customers without power, and that number really varies with each rotation.”
Thompson said will only lose their power for 15 minutes. It is on a random basis for the entire Houston area so customer will not know when or if their power will go out.
ERCOT has requested companies throughout Texas help conserve power.
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04.13.06
Posted in News at 12:44 pm by Paloma Cruz
America’s Most Polluted Cities
– reported by Wired News
U.S. cities continue to pollute at a great rate. Still, to put this in perspective, they are all better than Chinese cities that hold the title of the world’s worst. The Chinese wrested that title from Mexico City — since all 10 in China are more polluted than Mexico’s capital.
[snip]
Ten Most Polluted U.S. Cities (ozone rated only)
- Los Angeles (including Long Beach and Riverside, California)
- Bakersfield, California
- Fresno-Madera, California
- Visalia-Porterville, California
- Merced, California
- Houston (Baytown and Huntsville, Texas)
- Sacramento (Arden and Arcade, California, and Truckee, Nevada)
- Dallas/Forth Worth
- New York (Newark, New Jersey, and Bridgeport, Connecticut)
- Philadelphia (Camden and Vineland, New Jersey)
Source: American Lung Association (for 2005)
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04.12.06
Posted in News at 11:40 pm by Paloma Cruz
College celebrates expansion
– reported by The Pasadena Citizen
Texas Chiropractic College celebrated the growth of its facilities Friday as city and state dignitaries piled into the newly completed auditorium for the dedication of their newest addition.
[snip]
The building, which spans 35,000 feet, features state-of-the-art technology; a training and assessment center; an auditorium; faculty offices; changing rooms with lockers; an observation hall for live-but-private viewing of student-patient encounters; and a chemistry lab.
[snip]
Texas Chiropractic College is located at 5912 Spencer Highway. For more information, visit the Internet at www.txchiro.edu or call (281) 487-1170.
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