TEXAS GENERAL LAND OFFICE

Texas General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham will visit Harris County on Tuesday as she and Harris County leaders hold a joint news conference to discuss disaster recovery funding.

The land commissioner manages public land, enforces mineral rights leases, controls the Texas Permanent School Fund, distributes natural disaster relief funding and is responsible for the Alamo.

The land commissioner manages the Texas General Land Office, which manages the Alamo, administers natural disaster relief funding and helps fund public education. The seat is open after incumbent George P. Bush lost his primary bid for attorney general.

A deadline has passed with no resolution over whether Texas will settle a dispute over claims it discriminated against minority residents in how it distributed flood relief money from Hurricane Harvey.

Processing will continue, but time is running out to submit draft applications to the GLO for eligibility consideration and assistance with missing documentation.

Republican Dawn Buckingham and Democrat Jay Kleberg won their primary runoffs. The winner of November’s general election will replace George P. Bush as head of the Texas General Land Office.

Despite an admonition from federal authorities, Land Commissioner George P. Bush’s plan still steers aid disproportionately to whiter, inland counties at less risk of natural disasters.

Land Commissioner George P. Bush is in the middle of a fierce runoff in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general against incumbent Ken Paxton. During the race, several of Bush’s opponents have criticized his office’s work in distributing Hurricane Harvey relief funds.

Texas plans to repurpose the panels, left over when the Biden administration halted work on former President Donald Trump’s wall, to erect 1.3 miles of border barrier.

Scientists say a study that estimated far more golden-cheeked warblers in Texas than previously thought has been attacked and taken out of context as the state and federal government battle over the bird’s endangered status.

At least three other Democrats and four Republicans are vying for the office that GOP incumbent George P. Bush is leaving to run for attorney general.

Just four years ago, Hurricane Harvey left Houston underwater.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday to discuss what he says were disparities in how some neighborhoods are being treated by the post-Harvey home rebuilding program through the Texas General Land Office.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner will speak at an inquiry about the Texas General Land Office’s (GLO) “initial denial and inequitable allocation of congressional appropriated mitigation dollars from Hurricane Harvey to the City of Houston.”

Houston residents and officials are seething over a Texas agency's decision to not award the city a single cent of the initial $1 billion in federal flood mitigation funding the state was promised following Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Houston area representatives gathered Thursday to call upon the Texas General Land Office to ensure the worst-hit areas by Hurricane Harvey in the city and Harris County will receive the funds allocated by Congress.

The state took over the program this week and Torres and other residents who have applied for assistance say they’re worried that could lead to yet more delays. A third of the funding — nearly $428 million — went to a program for home repair and reconstruction. Harvey dumped up to 50 inches (1.3 meters) of rain on the Houston area following landfall on Aug. 25, 2017. In the Houston area, Harvey flooded more than 150,000 homes, with more than 16,000 residents identified as potentially needing repair help. In its own program, the land office has fixed more than 2,000 homes and has approved nearly 2,900 reimbursements statewide.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas The search for two crew members of a dredging boat who went missing following an explosion last week in the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas has been ended, the U.S. Coast Guard announced. Our Coast Guard crews worked intently alongside state and local partners to locate the two crew members who remained missing, but unfortunately, we were unable to locate them, said Capt. Edward Gaynor, commander, Coast Guard Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi. The decision to suspend a search is never easy and a lot of factors are considered before suspending a search. Port of Corpus Christi officials said it was a propane pipeline.

HOUSTON Its been nearly three years since Harvey hammered the Houston area and yet, there are still those who havent fully recovered. The City of Houston and the State of Texas have been locked in a battle over how to manage the rebuilding effort. In March, the Texas General Land Office came to an agreement with Harris County to take over the rebuilding efforts. The City of Houston had a different opinion when approached by the state. Both are now working with and seeing progress through the GLO, as the temporary restraining order does not impact their rebuilding efforts.

HOUSTON Mayor Sylvester Turner and the city of Houston seek a temporary restraining order to prevent the Texas General Land Office from taking control of Hurricane Harvey disaster relief funds. Nearly two years ago, the federal government provided those funds to assist Houston homeowners, whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Harvey. According to city officials, Houston has allocated $446 million or 35% of the total funds to homeowners. The single-family program has served 234 homeowners, with another 246 families submitted to or approved by GLO and currently being served, according to Houston officials. Houston officials also contend that the citys programs are better and more appropriate for the citizens than the GLOs plans, which proposed amendments that violate the terms of its sub-recipient agreement.

HOUSTON – The Texas General Land Office is planning to eliminate the city of Houston's control of funding for Hurricane Harvey housing relief. In a letter sent to Mayor Sylvester Turner Wednesday, the GLO stated it was overhauling "all responsibility for administering disaster assistance to city residents." The GLO argues the city has done little with the recovering funds. The state has four years to allocate the funds to Houston residents, so there still is time. Turner said the city is taking all necessary legal steps to preserve the city’s right to administer the funds.

The city of Galveston announced on Sunday that it was closing all public beaches in the city and restricting traffic on the beach west of the end of the Seawall. As of Sunday, the Galveston County Health District had confirmed 60 cases of COVID-19 within the county. In a press release, the city said they had attempted to avoid closing public beaches as they wanted to provide residents a form of exercise while maintaining safe social distancing. “As a result, the city of Galveston must restrict access to the public beach. As a public beach, it must be closed to all.”The orders will be enforced by the Galveston Police Department, the City Marshal’s Office and the Galveston Beach Patrol.