Jimmy Maas

Ruben Pizarro has been calling the Texas–Oklahoma game for a quarter century. It wasn't a job he set out to do.

His sports broadcasting career began while he was in residency at a Monterrey medical school. 

Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast two years ago Sunday. The Rev. T. Wayne Price remembers his lowest point – returning two days after the storm to the First Baptist Church of Refugio.

Way before the prospect of professional soccer in Austin, the tract of land near Burnet Road and Braker Lane where a stadium is planned was sort of an anything-goes, edge-of-town industrial area.

The City of Austin received a petition Thursday essentially seeking to bring the Major League Soccer stadium deal to a public vote.  

Four candidates emerged Tuesday from a field of 22 to face off in runoff elections to replace U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith in Congress.

Joseph Kopser and Mary Wilson will compete in the Democratic runoff, while Chip Roy and Matt McCall will vie for the Republican nomination. The runoff elections are scheduled for May 22.

The Refugio High School Bobcats are a powerhouse in Texas high school football. The program has just 13 losses in 11 years. They regularly shutout opponents, running up the score to double-digit differentials.

It’s been seven weeks since Harvey hit the Texas coast, and the small inland town of Refugio is still in recovery mode. The process has been slower than residents would like, but spirits are high.

“It’s been rough,” said florist Mary Rushing. “Of course, we closed down for two to three weeks, you know, mold and stinky and stuff like that.”

The special session of the Texas Legislature began with an announcement by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, pushing — among other priorities — property tax reform. But that call to action fell short of producing a bill in the 30-day session. And no change in property tax law might be OK, because Texans may not be as overburdened by property taxes as they believe.

Retired Texas teachers are closer to seeing some relief from higher health care deductibles, and current teachers may be seeing more money in the near future, too. But some teacher groups are worried the push to help teachers is more political than substantive.

The film and TV industry in Texas, at least as we’ve come to know it, is reeling.