This is good news for Houston, and Black history stories across the globe. Learn about it in my latest for @houstonlanding.bsky.social houstonlanding.org/national-geo...

Experts are concerned the board is controlled by President John Harris, who is also Colony Ridge Inc.’s CEO and president. They are also worried the board approved $22.5 million in paving contracts to a company multiple board members have financial ties to.

Colony Ridge developers control a board that promised residents enhanced law enforcement and firefighting services, improved roads and drainage and increased economic development. Despite collecting $13 million in taxpayer dollars, the district has barely spent money on these services.

The decision to send about 2,800 students to schools across the district comes amid declining enrollment and a budget deficit of $65 million this year. The district said closures will save them roughly $32 million annually.

From @alisonannyoung.bsky.social , read more of our investigation into the lack of protection and murky regulations surrounding above ground pipelines:

t.co/L2XKbi8FCv

However, the explosion and fire in Deer Park — so massive that a Houston astronaut even photographed it from space — highlights whether pipeline structures need to be better protected against vehicle collisions.

Some in the pipeline industry say the current system of safety is working and noted that pipelines are damaged far more frequently by people digging and doing excavation work than by vehicle crashes.

After the Deer Park explosion, the pipeline’s operator, Energy Transfer, installed new concrete barriers during repairs. But company officials wouldn’t answer questions about whether their pipeline was sufficiently protected before the Sept. 16 collision.

Despite the potential for catastrophic explosions, fires and damage to the environment, records show regulators give pipeline operators wide discretion to decide on their own how much protection pipes require.

The Landing found pipelines damaged in collision incidents often had just chain link or wooden fences as barriers against traffic. Even after a pipeline exploded or burned from a vehicle crash, some pipeline operators were slow to install protective equipment.

The crashes had a common theme: pipelines with little protection against drivers that slammed into them.

A Houston Landing examination has found that, since 2019, pipeline operators have reported 36 dangerous collisions nationwide – 12 of them in Texas – that involved cars, trucks and other vehicles crashing into above-ground gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines.