Caroline Ghisolfi

1 month ago | houstonchronicle.com | Caroline Ghisolfi |Mike Morris

Houston’s affordable neighborhoods aren’t so affordable anymore. Home values in working-class areas have skyrocketed in the past decade, raising the already steep property tax burden on some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. The shift threatens to price out homeowners and renters alike, a Houston Chronicle investigation found. Several of Houston’s historic, predominantly Black neighborhoods face the greatest pressure.

1 month ago | houstonchronicle.com | Mike Morris |Caroline Ghisolfi

Home values have risen sharply in many of Houston’s working-class neighborhoods in the last decade, an abrupt change after decades of flat values. The shift threatens to disrupt low-income communities ill-prepared for rising costs. At the same time, home values rose slowest in the most expensive parts of town, covering the west side, the western half of the Inner Loop and the areas just north and south of it.

2 months ago | houstonchronicle.com | Evan MacDonald |Caroline Ghisolfi

The Houston area is home to more registered nurses than most U.S. metros, with more than 60,000 working in and around the largest medical center in the world. The area’s registered nurses also rank among the best-paid in Texas and in comparable cities across the U.S. after adjusting for local living costs, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis. The average registered nurse earned $94,400 in the Houston area in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

2 months ago | houstonchronicle.com | Caroline Ghisolfi |Amanda Drane

More than 150,000 oil and gas wells sit idle and unplugged across Texas. These wells often outlast their cash-strapped owners, who leave them behind after they die, go bankrupt or dissolve their companies. A bill from Republican state Sen. Mayes Middleton, himself an oilman from Galveston, would force oil and gas companies to plug idle wells while they are still around to do the work. As it stands, operators can leave an open hole in the ground indefinitely.

2 months ago | houstonchronicle.com | Amanda Drane |Caroline Ghisolfi

State lawmakers want to throw a major lifeline to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry. For the last 20 years, the Railroad Commission has struggled to plug all of the state's orphan wells - uncapped holes in the ground that become wards of the state when companies go bankrupt or dissolve.