Texas

Jeff Bezos blasted into space on July 20 on his rocket company's first flight with people on board, becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own spacecraft.

The Amazon founder was accompanied by a hand-picked group: his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and an 82-year-old aviation pioneer from Texas - the youngest and oldest to ever fly in space.

With marches, music and speeches, Americans on June 19 celebrated "Juneteenth," the newly declared national holiday that marks the end of slavery and which comes a year after George Floyd's murder sparked anti-racism protests.

Health workers in the city of Houston, Texas, sued the network of hospitals in that town after being threatened with dismissal if they do not get vaccinated against covid-19.

Jennifer Bridges, a nurse with the Houston Methodist Hospital Network, rejected all kinds of threats and indicated that it is wrong for workers to be forced to inoculate themselves.

Stories of race, racism and colonialism in the U.S. swept the Pulitzer Prizes for the arts, from Louise Erdrich's novel "The Night Watchman" to a Malcolm X biography co-written by the late Les Payne to Katori Hall's play "The Hot Wing King."

Federal authorities have seized 68 big cats from an animal park in Oklahoma featured in Netflix's "Tiger King."
The U.S. Department of Justice announced May 20 that the seizure of the federally protected lions, tigers, lion-tiger hybrids and a jaguar as part of a court-approved agreement to resolve a DOJ complaint against Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe over the animals' care.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is committed to signing the heartbeat bill once it reaches his desk

Motorists found gas pumps shrouded in plastic bags at tapped-out service stations across more than a dozen U.S. states on May 13 while the operator of the nation's largest gasoline pipeline reported making "substantial progress" in resolving the computer hack-induced shutdown responsible for the empty tanks.

Ljubljana – Gregor Majdič, a researcher and professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Maribor Faculty of Medicine, has been elected new chancellor of the University of Ljubljana, defeating the incumbent Igor Papič, in a run-off.

Five people were hospitalized after being shot and injured in Shreveport, Louisiana, CBS-affiliated television station KSLA reported late on Sunday, the third multiple shooting reported in the United States with 24 hours.