COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 3 -- American Electric Power Corp. issued the following news release: While the Public Utility Commission of Texas denied approval of Southwestern Electric Power Co.'s (SWEPCO) plan to add 309 megawatts (MW) of wind energy to serve Texas customers, American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has received the other regulatory approvals needed to acquire the entire planned 1,485 MW of North Central wind generation. AEP is investing approximately $2 billion to bring new renewable ener  more

STEPHENVILLE, Texas, July 3 -- Tarleton State University issued the following news release on July 2: Dr. Credence Baker has been named dean of Tarleton State University's College of Graduate and Global Studies following four months as interim dean. "Dr. Baker has been instrumental in developing and implementing strategies for growing graduate enrollment," said Dr. Karen Murray, Tarleton Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. "Her strong commitment to innovation in recruitm  more

HOUSTON, Texas, July 1 -- The Baylor College of Medicine issued the following news release on June 30: From gyms closing to ordering more takeout, COVID-19 has disrupted the health and fitness routines of many people. According to a weight loss expert at the Baylor College of Medicine, stress and spending more time at home can lead to emotional eating and snacking all day from boredom. This may contribute to weight gain over the past few months - a phenomenon many are referring to as 'COVID-15  more

HOUSTON, Texas, July 1 -- The Baylor College of Medicine issued the following news release: Batten disease is a family of 13 rare, genetically distinct conditions. Collectively, they are the most prevalent cause of neurodegenerative disease in children, affecting 1 in 12,500 live births in the U.S. One of the Batten disease genes is CLN6. How mutations in this gene lead to the disease has been a mystery, but a study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and published in the Journal o  more

WACO, Texas, July 1 -- Baylor University issued the following news: Baylor University announced the funding of a new endowed faculty position within the Honors College, which will provide increased emphasis within the College on research in the Health Sciences. The $1.5 million gift from Dr. James Robert (JB) Parker of Amarillo, Texas, will combine with a match from the Baylor Academic Challenge to create The James Robert Parker Endowed Chair in Health Science and Leadership. "Baylor alumni co  more

BEREA, Kentucky, July 1 -- Berea College issued the following news release: William S. (Bill) Daugherty was elected in April to serve on the Berea College Board of Trustees for a term beginning July 1. A 1976 Berea College alumnus and recipient of Berea's 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Daugherty is a co-founder and serves as a Managing Partner of BlackRidge Resource Partners LLC, an independent exploration and production company with oil and gas production in Kentucky, Illinois, Texas, Okla  more

HOUSTON, Texas, July 2 -- CenterPoint Energy issued the following news release: CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) announced that its Board of Directors has appointed David J. Lesar as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2020. He succeeds John W. Somerhalder II, who has served as interim president and chief executive officer of CenterPoint Energy since February 2020 and a director since 2016. Milton Carroll, Executive Chairman, said, "The Board determined in February th  more

THE WOODLANDS, Texas, July 2 -- Chevron Phillips Chemical, a petrochemical company, issued the following news: July 1, 2020, marks the 20th anniversary of Chevron Phillips Chemical, formed when Chevron Corporation and Phillips Petroleum (now Phillips 66) combined their petrochemical operations. As one of the world's top producers of ethylene and polyethylene, with 31 manufacturing and research centers globally, we produce materials that improve quality of life around the world. Two decades an  more

HOUSTON, Texas, July 1 -- ConocoPhillips, a producer of oil and gas resources, issued the following news release: ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) announced its estimated production curtailment impacts for the second quarter of 2020 and provided comments on future curtailments. For the second quarter of 2020, the company's curtailments were primarily related to oil production and averaged approximately 225 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBOED) on a net basis. Of the total net curtailmen  more

MINNEAPOLIS, Texas, July 3 -- Edmentum issued the following news release: Edmentum, a global education leader and pioneer in online teaching and learning solutions, announced that its suite of programs will be available to schools and districts through OMNIA Partners, Public Sector. This partnership will make it more efficient for participating school districts to purchase and implement Edmentum programs, including Study Island, Exact Path, Courseware, EdOptions Academy, Assessments, and Readin  more

IRVING, Texas, July 3 -- ExxonMobil, an international energy company, issued the following news release: ExxonMobil and Princeton University's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment have renewed their collaboration to research lower-emission technologies and energy solutions. The new, five-year agreement builds on ExxonMobil's participation in Princeton's E-filliates Partnership, which began in 2015. E-filliates is a corporate membership program administered by the Andlinger Center an  more

IRVING, Texas, July 1 -- ExxonMobil, an international energy company, issued the following news release: More than 80 accredited Texas colleges and universities will receive more than $12 million as part of the ExxonMobil Foundation's Educational Matching Gift Program. ExxonMobil employees and retirees contributed nearly $4 million to Texas colleges and universities, and those individual donations were matched by $8.8 million in ExxonMobil Foundation grants. The ExxonMobil Foundation program m  more

IRVING, Texas, July 1 -- ExxonMobil, an international energy company, issued the following news release: More than 30 accredited Massachusetts colleges and universities will receive more than $2.1 million as part of the ExxonMobil Foundation's Educational Matching Gift Program. ExxonMobil employees and retirees contributed more than $750,000 to Massachusetts colleges and universities, and those individual donations were matched by more than $1.4 million in ExxonMobil Foundation grants. ExxonMo  more

IRVING, Texas, July 1 -- ExxonMobil, an international energy company, issued the following news release: Twenty accredited Louisiana colleges and universities will receive more than $3 million as part of the ExxonMobil Foundation's Educational Matching Gift Program. ExxonMobil employees and retirees contributed more than $850,000 to Louisiana colleges and universities, and those individual donations were matched by nearly $2.15 million in ExxonMobil Foundation grants. ExxonMobil, employees and  more

IRVING, Texas, July 1 -- ExxonMobil, an international energy company, issued the following news release: More than 60 accredited Pennsylvania colleges and universities will receive more than $3.3 million as part of the ExxonMobil Foundation's Educational Matching Gift Program. ExxonMobil employees and retirees contributed more than $900,000 to Pennsylvania colleges and universities, and those individual donations were matched by nearly $2.4 million in ExxonMobil Foundation grants. ExxonMobil,   more

IRVING, Texas, July 1 -- ExxonMobil, an international energy company, issued the following news release: More than 75 accredited New York colleges and universities will receive more than $3.5 million as part of the ExxonMobil Foundation's Educational Matching Gift Program. ExxonMobil employees and retirees contributed more than $1.1 million to New York colleges and universities, and those individual donations were matched by $2.4 million in ExxonMobil Foundation grants. ExxonMobil, employees a  more

BEAUMONT, Texas, June 26 -- Lamar University issued the following news: Lamar University's Utah paleontology team received a National Science Foundation three-year grant for approximately $764,000. The grant will fund a multi-university collaborative project titled, "Collaborative Research: After the Bridgerian Crash: An Integrated Analysis of Mammalian Paleocommunities and Paleoecologies During the Middle Eocene" to excavate and study 40 million-year-old mammal and associated reptile fossils i  more

BEAUMONT, Texas, June 26 -- Lamar University issued the following news: Lamar University is one of seven university teams chosen to partner with NASA, to develop innovative design ideas that will help NASA advance and execute its Artemis program objectives. The selections, announced June 11, are a part of the 2021 Moon to Mars eXploration Systems and Habitation Academic Innovation Challenge, sponsored by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems division and in partnership with the National Space Gr  more

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 30 -- Tarrant County College issued the following news release on June 29: Tarrant County College, one of the region's top economic generators, has been be selected to participate in the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE)'s two-year Everyday Entrepreneur Venture Fund (EEVF) Program Phase II. As a participant, TCC will receive a grant to provide seed funding and loans to aspiring entrepreneurs who are women, people of color, veterans and o  more

WASHINGTON, July 2 -- The Republican Governors Association issued the following joint statement: The Republican Governors Association (RGA) released the following joint statement from RGA Chairman Texas Governor Greg Abbott, RGA Vice Chairman Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, and RGA Policy Chairman Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enters into force on July 1, 2020: * * * "It is with great excitement that we join with leaders around our nation and the world  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 4 -- The Republican Party of Texas issued the following news: Thursday night, the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) of the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) passed a resolution in support of moving forward with the Party's in-person Convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston from July 13-18. "After extensive debate Thursday evening, the State Republican Executive Committee reinforced its support for proceeding with our State Convention in person   more

HOUSTON, Texas, June 29 -- Rice University issued the following news release: Seeing light emerge from a nanoscale experiment didn't come as a big surprise to Rice University physicists. But it got their attention when that light was 10,000 times brighter than they expected. Condensed matter physicist Doug Natelson and his colleagues at Rice and the University of Colorado Boulder discovered this massive emission from a nanoscale gap between two electrodes made of plasmonic materials, particula  more

HOUSTON, Texas, June 29 -- Rice University issued the following news release: Rice University researchers are teaming with nonprofit VotingWorks to validate and improve open-source technology for voting by mail, work that will give local elections officials an important option if they're flooded with applications from voters asking to cast mail ballots in November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is funded by a National Science Foundation Rapid Research Response (RAPID) grant that wil  more

HOUSTON, Texas, June 29 -- Rice University issued the following news release: A scientist might want to do cartwheels upon making a discovery, but this time the discovery itself relies on cartwheels. Researchers at Rice University have discovered details about a novel type of polarized light-matter interaction with light that literally turns end over end as it propagates from a source. Their find could help study molecules like those in light-harvesting antennas anticipated to have unique sens  more

HOUSTON, Texas, July 2 -- Rice University issued the following news release: Artificial enzymes made of treated charcoal could have the power to curtail damaging levels of superoxides, radical oxygen ions that are toxic at high concentrations. The nanozymes developed by a Texas Medical Center team are highly effective antioxidants that break down damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced in abundance in response to an injury or stroke. The researchers suggested the materials, described   more

HOUSTON, Texas, June 29 -- Rice University issued the following news release: Powdered sugar is the special ingredient in a Rice University recipe for mimicking the body's intricate, branching blood vessels in lab-grown tissues. In research published today in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, Rice bioengineers showed they could keep densely packed cells alive for two weeks in relatively large constructs by creating complex blood vessel networks from templates of 3D-printed sugar. "On  more

LEAVENWORTH, Kansas, July 3 -- The University of Saint Mary issued the following news: University of Saint Mary Vice President of Athletics Rob Miller has announced the hiring of Angellica Grayson as the inaugural head women's flag football coach. Grayson comes to USM after coaching and teaching at Summer Creek Middle School in Crowley, Texas. "We are excited to have Angellica launch and lead our flag football program," Miller said. "Her passion for the game of football while providing greate  more

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 29 -- Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary issued the following news release: Pastors without bachelor's degrees may now enroll in the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Spanish-language Master of Theological Studies degree (Maestria en Estudios Teologicos, or MET) due to revised accreditation standards approved June 25 by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools, which accredits the seminary and approves post baccalaureate pr  more

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, July 2 -- Texas A&M University's College of Engineering issued the following news on July 1: Col. Rosendo "Ross" Guieb has been named the first executive director of the George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex (BCDC). Effective today, Guieb moves from the senior staff of Army Futures Command (AFC) to the new role of managing the BCDC, a complex being built on the 2,000-acre RELLIS Campus in Bryan, Texas, to help accelerate military innovation. "Ross will be integral  more

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, July 3 -- Texas A&M University issued the following news release: Texas A&M University Libraries has released its Anti-Racism LibGuide as a resource to help further understanding about structural inequalities and systemic racism against BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). The guide defines terms such as "institutional racism," "oppression" and "microaggression." It also features audio, videos and exercises to further explain the many complex issues Americans  more

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 30 -- Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences issued the following news release: Like most college students, Cannon Lenfield '20 didn't have a lot of extra funds on hand when his 9-year-old dog, Liberty, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2018. Yet the Texas A&M University student proved to be very resourceful in finding ways to pay for his dog's treatment. "At that point, I had just paid tuition and couldn't afford to pay any more  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3 -- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued the following opinion (No. No. KP-0319): To: The Honorable Pam Guenther, Jackson County Criminal District Attorney, 115 West Main, Room 205, Edna, Texas 77957 Re: Authority of the Jackson County County-Wide Drainage District to set a tax rate and to levy and collect taxes without commissioners court approval (RQ-0328-KP) Dear Ms. Guenther: You ask about the respective flood-control tax authority of the Jackson County County- W  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1 -- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued the following opinion (No. KP-0318): To: The Honorable Dana Norris Young, Cherokee County Attorney, Post Office Box 320, Rusk, Texas 75785 Re: Authority of a judge of a court of record to appoint an official court recorder in lieu of an official court reporter (RQ-0327-KP) Dear Ms. Young: Citing "an increased shortage of court reporters, and the need to avoid delays in court proceedings when an official court reporter retires,  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3 -- Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, issued the following news release: Governor Greg Abbott issued an Executive Order requiring all Texans to wear a face covering over the nose and mouth in public spaces in counties with 20 or more positive COVID-19 cases, with few exceptions. The Governor also issued a proclamation giving mayors and county judges the ability to impose restrictions on some outdoor gatherings of over 10 people, and making it mandatory that, with certain exception  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1 -- Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, issued the following proclamation: WHEREAS, I, Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas, issued a disaster proclamation on March 13, 2020, certifying under Section 418.014 of the Texas Government Code that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) poses an imminent threat of disaster for all counties in the State of Texas; and WHEREAS, in each subsequent month effective through today, I have renewed the disaster declaration for all Texas counties; and WHEREAS,  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3 -- Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, issued the following news release: Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) announced that $2.67 billion in federal funding has been approved to support Texas hospitals that provide care for people receiving Medicaid. This is a $1.07 billion increase from the previous State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2020. The Uniform Hospital Rate Increase Program (UHRIP) is a statewide program that provides for increased Medica  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1 -- Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, issued the following news release: Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) announced $9 million in federal funding for nursing facilities to implement infection control projects to protect residents and staff from the spread of COVID-19. Starting July 1, nursing facility providers in Texas are encouraged to submit applications to HHSC to receive this federal funding. "We know that older Texans are more s  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3 -- Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, issued the following news release: Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) will provide approximately $182 million in emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits for the month of July as the state continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. HHSC received federal approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to extend the maximum, allowable amount of SNAP benef  more

AUSTIN, Texas, June 30 -- Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, issued the following news release: Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is extending the application deadline for the federal Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfer program (P-EBT) to July 31. Extending the deadline will help ensure eligible families have time to apply for this one-time food benefit. P-EBT is a one-time benefit of $285 per eligible child and can be used in the same way as Su  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1 -- Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, issued the following news release: Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation suspending elective surgeries at hospitals in Cameron, Hidalgo, Nueces, and Webb counties to help ensure hospital bed availability for COVID-19 patients in these communities. This proclamation amends the Governor's previous Executive Order to include these four counties in addition to Bexar, Dallas, Harris, and Travis counties. "As these counties experience a surge   more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3 -- The Public Utility Commission of Texas issued the following news release on July 2: In today's open meeting of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, commissioners agreed in principle to extend the state's Electricity Relief Program past its current July 17th deadline to August 31, 2020. Citing the governor's decision to curtail certain economic activities in the face of rising coronavirus diagnoses and COVID-19 hospitalizations, the commission authorized staff to draf  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 2 -- The University of Texas issued the following news release: A medication used as a second-line of defense against tuberculosis shows a promising influence on first-line interventions for fear and anxiety disorders, according to a new clinical study by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin. D-cycloserine (DCS) has landed itself on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines for its abilities to stop the growth of bacterial cell walls. But in   more

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, June 29 -- Trinity University issued the following news: In 2010, a student asked professor Ruben Dupertuis about Trinity University's research opportunities in the humanities. Unfortunately, there wasn't much available yet. So, over the past decade, Dupertuis devoted his time to pioneering undergraduate humanities here at Trinity. He's now been honored by the Council of Undergraduate Research (CUR) as a 2020 Arts and Humanities Faculty Mentor Awardee. He is one of only two  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3 -- The University of Texas issued the following news release: With just under five months until Election Day, President Donald Trump holds a single-digit advantage over former Vice President Joe Biden in Texas, with 48% of Texans polled preferring Trump and 44% favoring Biden, in a new University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll. "This is another sign of Texas' increasing electoral competitiveness after declining Republican victory margins in statewide races over the   more

IRVING, Texas, July 1 -- TXU Energy, a subsidiary of Vistra Energy, issued the following news release: TXU Energy, the leader in innovative, customer-centric retail energy plans, announced the launch of TXU Energy AutoSaverSM. The company's newest plan provides customers with a low electricity rate based on monthly NYMEX natural gas prices - which drive energy rates in Texas - while shielding them from the risk when gas prices rise. Here's how it works: When gas prices fall, customers will see   more

VICTORIA, Texas, July 2 -- The University of Houston Victoria campus issued the following news release: The University of Houston-Victoria and Geico have created a partnership to help Geico associates complete a business degree. The Employee Partnership Program was established during the spring between UHV and the Geico regional office in Katy. The partnership is ideal because the Geico regional office is only a few miles from the UHV Katy instructional site, said Karla DeCuir, senior director  more

HOUSTON, Texas, July 2 -- The University of Houston issued the following news release: With a five-year, $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, David Francis, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair of Psychology, will create and direct a national research and development center at the University of Houston for English Learners. The center will be part of the UH Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES), of which Francis is   more

DENTON, Texas, July 2 -- The University of North Texas issued the following news release: Since beginning college, University of North Texas student Kelly Jacques wanted to use her engineering talents to minimize the need for soldiers on the battlefield. And now, thanks to a scholarship from the U.S. Department of Defense, she is getting her chance. "I know people in the military risking their lives every day and I've always felt that I should give something back to help them," Jacques said. "  more

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1 -- The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Advanced Computing Center issued the following news release: Nearly every drug that is, or has ever been, used was derived from nature -- harnessing compounds created by organisms over eons to fight diseases. But decades ago, biochemists postulated that it might be possible to design a new drug from scratch by linking up amino acids in precise ways. The tricky part, as it turned out, was predicting in advance how the amino acid  more

RICHARDSON, Texas, July 4 -- The University of Texas Dallas campus issued the following news release: New research from The University of Texas at Dallas suggests food deserts might be more prevalent in the U.S. than the numbers reported in government estimates. In a feasibility study (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00071/full) published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, scholars found that the methods used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ident  more

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, July 1 -- The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio issued the following news release: Barth syndrome is a rare condition that occurs almost exclusively in males. Symptoms include an enlarged and weakened heart. The condition is present at birth or becomes evident early in life. Life expectancy is shortened and there is no treatment. The laboratory of Madesh Muniswamy, PhD, in the Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at  more

DENTON, Texas, June 30 -- The University of North Texas issued the following news release: Jincheng Du, an internationally recognized researcher in nuclear waste processing, found that the corrosion of stainless steel containers used to store nuclear waste actually accelerates the breakdown of the glass or ceramic waste forms they contain, leading to much more rapid deterioration. This finding means the current models of storage site longevity need to be corrected. Systems expected to last for  more

RICHARDSON, Texas, July 2 -- The University of Texas Dallas campus issued the following news release: The University of Texas at Dallas is announcing the formation of a new Living Our Values Task Force that will focus on issues of systemic racism, inherent bias, equity, diversity, access and inclusion within the campus community. The task force's objectives will include reviewing and analyzing all aspects of campus life. This will be done in consultation with a broad-based community of student  more

IRVING, Texas, July 2 -- Vistra Energy issued the following news release: TXU Energy, the leader in innovative, customer-centric retail energy plans, announced the launch of TXU Energy AutoSaver. The company's newest plan provides customers with a low electricity rate based on monthly NYMEX natural gas prices - which drive energy rates in Texas - while shielding them from the risk when gas prices rise. Here's how it works: When gas prices fall, customers will see automatic savings on their bill  more