Doris Brown’s home in Northeast Houston becomes a refuge for neighbors during power outages thanks to her solar panel and battery system.

Texas prosecutors have dropped charges against a prominent conservative activist in Houston related to allegations he was part of what authorities have called a baseless voter fraud conspiracy theory.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has announced that the special election to fill the late Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner's seat won’t be held until November.

The largest urban counties in the U.S. kept growing last year because of immigrants.

Which U.S. counties are most likely to be impacted by hurricanes?

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has toured the Houston area to assess the damage from last week’s deadly storms.

As the Houston area works to clean up and restore power to hundreds of thousands after deadly storms left at least seven people dead, it will do so amid a smog warning and rising Texas heat.

Severe storms have battered parts of the Midwest, unleashing a curtain of heavy rain, gusty winds and tornadoes in the region.

Tornadoes touched down Monday evening in rural Oklahoma as large hail pelted parts of Kansas.

Floodwaters in the Houston area and parts of Southeast Texas are starting to recede, allowing residents to begin returning to their homes and assess damages after days of heavy rainfall.

Floodwaters in the Houston area are starting to recede, allowing residents to begin returning to their homes and assess damages after days of heavy rainfall.

Torrential rain is causing flooding in the Houston area.

Virginia State Police say a small private jet was short on its approach to a rural airport’s runway when it struck trees and crashed into a hillside and burned, killing all five people aboard.

A fatal crash is under investigation in Orange County.

A large police presence responded to Dunnellon Middle School on Friday afternoon, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Texas Republicans passed measures this year to eliminate Harris County’s top election job and give the Republican secretary of state power to take oversight of elections in Houston.

A judge has called a new law unconstitutional that passed in the GOP-led Texas Legislature that will dictate how elections are run in the state’s most populous county.

A Republican judicial candidate who lost a district court election in Harris County, Texas, is the first of almost two dozen disappointed contestants to have their case reach a civil trial.

Which U.S. counties face the biggest danger from Earth's most powerful storms? With climate experts forecasting a "borderline hyperactive" hurricane season, Gutter Gnome ranked 2023's Most Hurricane-Vulnerable Counties.

Lawmakers in several Republican-led states have been looking to exert more authority over state and local election offices.

A 61-year-old Orlando man was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Orange County on Friday night, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating a crash that left one person dead on Saturday evening.

The Apopka Police Department said it responded to a robbery call in the area near the Publix on Rock Springs Road on Wednesday evening.

Deputies in Orange County are looking for a man who allegedly robbed and sexually attacked women in separate incidents at the same bus stop.

Prosecutors say a Texas woman accused of killing a close friend in 2019 who had just given birth and abducting the baby has pleaded guilty to murder charges.

A man is in serious condition after being shot in Orange County, deputies said.

A pedestrian was struck and killed in Orange County on Tuesday evening, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

A Democrat who is the top official in Texas’ largest county on Thursday acknowledged problems around Houston on Election Day that included paper ballot shortages and delayed openings of polling locations.

As communities continue to grow, so does the amount of garbage. But cities and companies are struggling to keep workers willing to do these "dirty" jobs.

Texas’ primary that put the 2022 midterm election season in full swing saw no significant issues at polling locations.

KPRC-TV is reporting a mother has been charged after her 13-year-old son was found in the trunk of her car at a Cy-Fair ISD drive-thru COVID testing site, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office confirmed.

An explosion at an ExxonMobil plant in Texas injured four people early Thursday, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

A $9 billion highway widening project being proposed in the Houston area could become an important test of the Biden administration’s commitment to addressing what it says is a history of racial inequity with infrastructure projects.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Nicholas has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane ahead of its expected landfall in Texas.

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.

Republican lawmakers around the country are pressing ahead with efforts to tighten voting laws, despite growing warnings from business leaders that the measures could harm democracy and the economic climate.

Republican lawmakers around the country are pressing ahead with efforts to tighten voting laws, despite growing warnings from business leaders that the measures could harm democracy and the economic climate.

Texas authorities say two people have been killed in the fiery crash of a Tesla that had no one in the driver's seat.

The nation’s next big voting battle is underway in Texas.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office denied it had restricted inmates' access to food and water in the days following the storm. The jail in Harris County has long been the subject of legal action due to overcrowding. Civil Rights Corps won a settlement in a lawsuit to ensure that most misdemeanor defendants in the Harris County Jail don’t languish behind bars because they can’t afford bail. In late January, a federal judge expressed frustration over what she called a lack of progress in efforts to relieve overcrowding at the Harris County Jail during the pandemic. In a court filing, nine inmates described the facility as a “metal can of contagion.”“A lot of people are just stuck, nothing is moving,” said Gundu, of the Texas Jail Project.

Victoria Houptman-Bryan joins demonstrators as they stand across the street from the federal courthouse in Houston, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, before a hearing in federal court involving drive-thru ballots cast in Harris County. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)HOUSTON – A panel of federal appeals court judges has rejected an eleventh hour Republican effort to bar Election Day drive-thru voting in Houston. The court hadn't been asked to invalidate votes already cast at drive-thru sites in the Houston area. “Hopefully it's all over now.”Attorney Jared Woodfill, a former Harris County GOP Chairman representing those opposed to drive-thru voting centers, noted that county Clerk Chris Hollins has shut down all but one of the county's 10 drive-thru locations for Election Day. "We have stopped the illegal voting on Election Day because Mr. Hollins has shut down drive-thru voting in all locations but one,” Woodfill said.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)HOUSTON – A federal judge on Monday rejected another last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston because the ballots were cast at drive-thru polling centers established during the pandemic. The lawsuit was brought by conservative Texas activists who have railed against expanded voting access in Harris County, where a record 1.4 million early votes have already been cast. Another 20,000 or more voters were expected to use drive-thru polling locations Tuesday, said Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, the county's top elections official. Harris County offered 10 drive-thru locations as an option for its nearly 5 million residents amid worries of spreading the coronavirus. More than 40% of Harris County residents are Latino, and about one in five residents are Black.

With an election official looking on an elderly voter uses the drive-thru option to vote outside Richardson City Hall during early voting Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, in Richardson, Texas. Texas is one of just five states that did not dramatically expand mail-in voting this year because of COVID-19. Long lines were common at polling sites across Texas, as were masks, although voters are not required to wear them inside polling places. Travis County, which includes the state capital of Austin, will also offer extended hours at select locations during early voting. Upping the ante is the chance to flip the Republican-controlled Texas State House of Representatives.

HOUSTON Top officials in Houston are calling for the city to lock back down as area hospitals strain to accommodate the onslaught of patients sick with the new coronavirus. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, both Democrats, said this weekend that a stay-at-home order is needed for America's fourth largest city to cope with the surge of COVID-19 cases. State health officials reported 8,196 new cases Sunday, another 80 deaths and a total of 10,410 people hospitalized due to the virus. On Friday, Abbott extended a statewide disaster order that warned Texans another shutdown might be needed if the virus spread isnt contained. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.