Rice says it has hired more than 200 tenure‑track professors and plans roughly 30 percent more hires as undergraduate enrollment expands toward about 5,000. The push includes AI cluster searches and campus building projects to keep the 6‑to‑1 student‑faculty experience intact.

A League City scratch-off player claimed a $7.5M Loteria Supreme top prize and says the windfall will be a generational gift for his daughter.

A DACA recipient and nurse’s assistant has been held at El Valle Detention Center after a Feb. 16 traffic stop; family and advocates rallied for her release.

Memorial City Mall will require under-18 visitors to be chaperoned May 9–10 and will check IDs as management steps up security amid social-media chatter.

A federal fairness hearing is set in Lincoln over a $10M Nelnet settlement tied to a 2022 breach that may have exposed about 2.5 million borrowers’ records.

Leaked HISD drafts propose specialty campuses for some students with disabilities, sparking parent alarm about segregation and disruption. District leaders say the change would centralize expertise and cap caseloads.

Spring Branch ISD is considering closing Northbrook Middle as enrollment falls and the district tries to close a roughly $24 million gap; meetings are set in early May.

A 10-year-old Venezuelan boy appeared alone in Houston immigration court after his mother was detained; his guardian says federal officials sought his removal to Ecuador.

A passerby flagged down deputies in downtown Houston Wednesday night and helped rescue a dog left inside a hot parked car. Animal groups warn that cars heat up to dangerous levels in minutes.

A Houston shopper turned a routine convenience-store stop into a $3 million win after buying a Texas Lottery scratch ticket at MJ's All Season Food Store on Lee Road.

WalletHub’s 2026 ranking puts Texas in the lower third for working mothers, citing long workweeks, weak parental‑leave policies and gaps in childcare and leadership.

State data show big differences across Texas campuses: UT Austin graduates borrow far less while some campuses — including HBCUs — still report much heavier loan use.

A Houston jury has awarded a former Rice University quarterback $1.3 million, finding the school discriminated against him during campus discipline that cost his scholarship. The ruling follows a 2023 appeals reversal that sent the case to trial.