Shannon Ryan

6 days ago | abc13.com | Shannon Ryan

LIBERTY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- A state entity overseeing Texas jails ordered the Liberty County Jail to shut down, citing long-standing dangerous conditions that reportedly contributed to a fire in April. A spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Jail Standards told ABC13 that Liberty County appealed the state's order on April 25, the day before it was set to take effect. The order called on the jail to voluntarily cease receiving new inmates and to evacuate all current inmates on April 11.

2 weeks ago | abc13.com | Shannon Ryan

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- More than 1,000 City of Houston employees will show up to work for the last time on Thursday after accepting a retirement buyout package. In March, Mayor John Whitmire exclusively told ABC13 that the retirement incentive package was being introduced to help combat the city's projected $330 million budget shortfall. About a third of the 3,000 eligible city employees accepted the retirement package.

2 weeks ago | abc13.com | Shannon Ryan

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Fifth Ward job training program designed to lift people out of poverty is stuck training people for jobs that no longer exist, as the Trump Administration cuts and suspends EPA grant money. More than $20 million in federal grant money was earmarked in recent years for a program intended to revitalize the Fifth Ward. The neighborhood contains several industrial contamination sites. ABC13 has reported on cancer clusters in the area.

2 weeks ago | abc13.com | Shannon Ryan

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A federal judge has found Spring Branch ISD in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act. In 2021, Dr. Virginia Elizondo sued Spring Branch ISD alleging their school board system, comprised entirely of at-large seats, diminished the voting power of minorities. Most school board members come from more affluent neighborhoods south of I-10, instead of seats being equally distributed among neighborhoods.

2 weeks ago | adn.com | Shannon Ryan

Alaska, enough is enough. Our state needs to move past the oil price rollercoaster and Permanent Fund hog-tie boxes and create or recreate stable and adequate revenue sources to fund this state. Our lack of education funding is the biggest concern by far, but it is certainly not the only area that our state does not fund enough.