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On June 12, 2020, the FDA granted an amendment to the EUA for the CDC diagnostic test used to detect COVID 19 to address global shortages of materials needed to perform the test. This amendment provides alternatives for processing the test: Four additional extraction reagents were approved that can be used in the existing extraction methods; An additional extraction instrument and associated reagents were approved; and a new process that can be used in place of the extraction method when materials for the current method are limited

HOUSTON - More than 67,00 people in Harris County voted on the first day of early voting in Texas, according to officials......Monday's total in-person early voting numbers were 67,471, which has set a new record for the first day of early voting. The previous record was around 47,000 set in 2012.

The mission was supposed to be a textbook "controlled delivery" - a routine trap by law enforcement officers using a secret operative posing as a truck driver to bust drug traffickers when their narcotics are delivered to a rendezvous point. Instead, things spun out of control. Shortly before the marijuana delivery was to be made Monday afternoon, three sport-utility vehicles carrying Zetas cartel gunmen seemingly came out of nowhere and cut off the tanker truck as it rumbled through northwest Harris County, sources told the Chronicle. They sprayed the cab with bullets, killing the civilian driver, who was secretly working...

Daniel Griswold, an immigration expert at Cato Institute, writes, "In l997, the National Research Council published a major study on immigration. It found that an immigrant with a college education is a huge net plus for the United States." This powerful finding resulted: "Immigrants and their descendants represent a net fiscal gain for the United States. The typical immigrant and all of his or her descendants represent a positive $80,000 fiscal gain to the government. An immigrant with more than a high school education (plus descendants) represents a $198,000 fiscal gain, one with a high school diploma a $51,000 gain,...

AUSTIN - Along with making deep cuts in the state's budget, Texas lawmakers this year passed bills cracking down on drunk drivers and making it more difficult for the government to take private property. Other new laws ease up on regulations for farmers' market products and allow for catching catfish with one's hands, a technique known as "noodling." Much of the legislation takes effect on Thursday, the first day of Texas' fiscal year.

On October 16, EIA reported the good news that the United States increased its proved reserves of crude oil by 2 percent in 2007. The even better news was in natural gas where the United States added more than twice as much in proved reserves as it produced in 2007 and ended the year with a highest total proved reserves since at least 1977, when EIA first estimated proved reserves. -snip- It was the ninth consecutive year in which reserves grew, but the growth was more than twice as much as in any other year since EIA began estimating proved...

Further to his 100% hydrocarbon free electricity generation proposal, Al Gore has proposed a new government program, "Fart Recycling." Methane gas in the atmosphere has increased 150% since the mid 1700's. (During the same time period, Carbon dioxide increased only 30%.) Methane gas has more than 25 times the greenhouse gas impact per gram as compared to carbon dioxide. As many know, flatulence, "farts," are almost entirely methane gas. Therefore, Al Gore has developed a new program to combat this obviously increasing peril to our planet, and make a little money for himself at the same time. Everyone will be...

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter. The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: 1. Liberals; and 2. Conservatives. Once beer was discovered, it required grain and...

KATY — All snout and tail, the pink and brown pigs contentedly rooting in the wire pen behind Craig Baker's stone shop seem piggishly comic. They're racing pigs, after all, and that's got to be funny. But few in the sprawling subdivisions along Baker Road are laughing. These pigs are subtle weapons, here to show the new neighbors — the Katy Islamic Association — they aren't entirely welcome. Tension has been growing in this west Harris County community since September when the Muslim group announced it had purchased 11 acres south of Interstate 10 to build a mosque, school, community...

From a 2006 peak of $3.04 on August 7, 2006, EIA's weekly U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline has fallen by 54 cents per gallon in just 6 weeks, including a 12-cent decline in the past week. This is already the second-largest uninterrupted decline in the history of the survey (dating back to August 1990), trailing only last year's 9-week, 78-cent drop after Hurricane Rita. Some analysts have predicted that average U.S. prices will drop near $2 per gallon or lower, and prices under $2 have already been reported in a few locations. Not surprisingly, one of the most...

It's one of the unsolved political mysteries of 2003: Exactly who drew up the plan for Democrats to abuse the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, or SSCI, as a stealth weapon to undermine and discredit President George W. Bush and the U.S. war effort in Iraq? The plot, authored by aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., vice chairman of the committee, has poisoned the working atmosphere of a crucial legislative panel in a time of war, Senate sources say. It centered on duping the panel's Republican chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, into approving probes that in actuality would be...

An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well kept secret about his military service. The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers. According to the secretary of...

Finally, an accomplishment has been identified for Senator Kerry. "It is now confirmed that Senator Kerry is the ONLY Senator from Massachusets who has pulled someone from the water to save them from drowning."

MESSAGE FROM A RETIREE: WORKING PEOPLE FREQUENTLY ASK RETIRED PEOPLE WHAT THEY DO TO MAKE THEIR DAYS INTERESTING. I WENT TO THE STORE THE OTHER DAY. I WAS ONLY IN THERE FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES. WHEN I CAME OUT THERE WAS A CITY COP WRITING OUT A PARKING TICKET. I WENT UP TO HIM AND SAID, "COME ON, BUDDY, HOW ABOUT GIVING A SENIOR A BREAK?" HE IGNORED ME AND CONTINUED WRITING THE TICKET. I CALLED HIM A NAME. HE GLARED AT ME AND STARTED WRITING ANOTHER TICKET FOR HAVING WORN TIRES. SO I CALLED HIM A WORSE NAME. HE...

SUGAR LAND -- A teenager was arrested Friday in the slaying of his mother, stabbed with two kitchen knives earlier in the day while cleaning a home owned by Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, police said. Tristan Williams, 17, was arrested as he walked down the street near the house in the upscale Sweetwater subdivision. Williams was being held in the Fort Bend County Jail, said Sugar Land police Capt. Mike Lund. His charge of aggravated assault was expected to be upgraded to murder. Police said Wllliams' mother, Alice, 37, was attacked in the kitchen during an argument...

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State Aug. 21, 2003, 10:02AM Hate crime 'victims' admit to arson scheme By DALE LEZON Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle A Klein couple who claimed their house was burned in a hate crime admitted staging the blaze to collect on insurance. Nicholas Gatlin, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to arson and insurance fraud and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Steve Baldassano. His wife, Tracey Gatlin, also 31, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and received four years deferred adjudication. They also must pay $13,000 in restitution to Allstate,...