Austin, TX
Texas is ready for winter weather: Gov. Abbott
Texas braces for winter weather
Gov. Abbott said state agencies are in place and ready for the winter weather that is moving into Texas. During a briefing, the governor said the emphasis is on public safety, especially in the Dallas-area where UT plays Ohio State Friday in a College Football Playoff
AUSTIN, Texas – Emergency management teams at the state operations center in north Austin were busy tracking the winter weather that was moving into Texas.
Governor Greg Abbott was briefed on the storm prep followed by this assessment.
“It looks like we’re ready to go,” said Gov. Abbott.
Images of all the snow that has fallen across the mid-west are not being ignored. Isolated power outages in Texas are possible, but the grid is expected to hold, according to Pablo Vegas, the head ERCOT.
“As a point of reference, we have added more than 10,000MW of new generation just this year since last winter. And so we’ve got more supply on the grid than we ever have had before. And we’ve been coordinating very closely with all the power generators and the transmission distribution utility companies over the last week in preparation for this upcoming weather event,” said Vegas.
Austin weather: Central Texas braces for wintry mix
Central Texas is bracing for some possible wintry mix starting Thursday night and into Friday. Scott Fisher has the latest details
Statewide, more than 300 warming centers were open as of Wednesday, Jan. 8, according to Governor Abbott.
“Resources are staged across areas of concern. Responders are stocked with water, ready to eat meals and blankets and are prepared to transport stranded motorists to nearby warming stations,” said Abbott.
For the past several days, more than 2,000 TxDOT crews have been pre-treating major roadways. The agency is now in the process of transitioning into road clearing.
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“We do have more plows. We have more equipment. We have them staged across the state more strategically. And they’re all staged and ready to go for this event,” said Brian Barth, TxDOT deputy executive director.
Road crews from South Texas, according to Barth, have also been moved to north Texas to provide extra manpower.
“We have all of our resources focused from the I-10/20 split, running up I-20 all the way up through Texarkana, because that’s where the current forecast shows our biggest threat,” said TDEM Chief Nim Kidd.
Texas winter weather: Officials talk about response
Governor Greg Abbott and other state officials talk about ongoing response to severe winter weather impacting parts of Texas.
The wintry mix will hit as college football fans head to Dallas for Friday’s playoff game between the Longhorns and Ohio State. Roads around the AT&T stadium are expected to be open, although the governor said drivers need to be aware of possible slick spots.
“There should be no hindrance to people being able to attend the game. Obviously, with potential snow or icing conditions in the DFW area, on I-35, on I-20, on all the different interstates or roadways that lead to the Dallas-Fort Worth area is incredibly important that everybody drives extra safe. If you’re very cautious and slow and methodical in your driving, everything’s going to be just fine,” said Gov. Abbott.
Central and south Texas may not get iced in, but Governor Abbott indicated residents in those parts of Texas should also be weather-wise.
There is a concern that the rain in those regions could cause isolated flooding. A warning was also issued about misusing heaters and power generators. Cases of carbon monoxide poisoning and fires can increase during winter events.
The Source: Information from press conference hosted by state leaders
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is getting its first major new national stock exchange in decades, and finance experts say it could create new opportunities for Austin’s tech companies and startups looking to grow.
The Texas Stock Exchange is launching this week in Dallas, with live trading expected to begin as early as Friday. The exchange began operations Monday, and it says all publicly traded stocks should be available on the platform by the end of the month. Thousands of publicly traded stocks are expected to be available by then.
Ray Perryman, President and CEO of the Perryman Group, said the launch signals Texas’ growing influence in the financial sector.
“It really lets the world know that Texas is indeed a major player in this industry,” Perryman said.
Gov. Greg Abbott called the exchange another sign of Texas’ expanding economic reach, saying, “This is another step that expands the financial might of Texas in the United States, and cements our economic power on the global stage.”
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Perryman said the exchange could provide another path for companies to go public and could help attract more growing companies to Austin and the rest of the state. He said the added access to capital could have ripple effects across the economy.
“It increases opportunities for firms in the area to expand, have access to capital, to be more profitable. That means they hire more people. That means they pay more taxes. That means they buy more things in their supply chains,” Perryman said.
Texas ranks second in the U.S. for Fortune 500 headquarters, behind California and ahead of New York. With the Texas Stock Exchange set to launch, experts say Austin’s startup community could see even more growth.
Perryman said Austin-area tech firms could benefit from having an in-state exchange option.
“They’ll now have a vehicle here in Texas that will be more efficient and less expensive to register on than the traditional exchanges,” Perryman said.
Perryman said the exchange’s success will depend on how many companies choose to list on it, how much investment it attracts, and how many additional companies decide to move to Texas.
Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturing company Tesla recently leased a 682,000-square-foot speculative industrial building in the Austin Hills Commerce Center.
The industrial building, which sits at 11801 Decker Lake Road, is set to be completed by January 2027. The project is helmed by Sansone Group and Principal Asset Management, and Musk’s Tesla is set to occupy the second phase of the development, according to reporting from the Austin Business Journal. The total size of the Austin Hills Commerce Center will be 1.4 million square feet when complete. It’s currently unclear what Tesla will utilize the space for.
The development highlights the increased demand for massive industrial buildings in the Austin area. According to the outlet, there are at least a dozen speculative buildings that span upwards of 400,000 square feet in various stages of development, from finished to the early planning phases.
Throughout the Austin Metro and across Texas, large swaths of real estate are rapidly becoming Musk’s playground. The world’s richest man has 2.2 million square feet of space around Austin on lease, and more than 10 million square feet that he owns and built.
The Musk company portfolio includes a reported 112,000-square-foot sublease at the Seaholm Power Plant in downtown for xAI and the airport-adjacent Gigafactory, which spans over 10 million square feet. A $20 billion Terafab campus, that would feature 2 million square feet for research and development, is in the planning stages.
Bastrop County is home to several Musk-owned business’ buildings, most of which are placed along country road FM 1209. Musk is also building an Optimus humanoid robot production facility near the Gigafactory. Musk’s companies have spanned the Austin area’s entire suburban space, from as far north as Taylor to as far south as Kyle.
Areas outside of Central Texas within the Musk companies include Cameron County, which is the home of Musk’s Starbase that functions as a manufacturing hub as well as the headquarters of SpaceX. The Starbase facility also includes the company’s primary launch site, which was recently relieved of local legal pressure centering around the company’s ability to shut down public Boca Chica Beach for launches.
— Hunter Cooke
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AUSTIN, Texas — THC products in Texas will once again be up for discussion during a hearing from state lawmakers today. The hearing will look at the health and public safety impacts of THC. This is the first step in deciding on potential changes to hemp laws when state lawmakers return to the Capitol in January. Currently, the state’s hemp industry remains in legal limbo. Retailers can legally sell many hemp-derived products, but the rules surrounding smokeable hemp like Delta-8 THC remain tied up in court.
Should Texas pass stricter or looser laws on THC products? ANSWER BELOW and see the results LIVE on CBS Austin This Morning from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.
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