Convenience Big Store: Katy ISD discusses controversial plan of employing chaplains in lieu of counselors

Unlimited Digital Access: Only 25¢!
Fall Sale
Subscribe Today.

Electric vehicles haven't taken off in Texas. The reason is a familiar one.

I think one of the reasons I'm so obsessed with history is that, per the old adage, it repeats itself.

Electric cars aren't exactly flying off the lots here in Texas, my homonymous colleague Claire Hao reports, and a study by the University of Houston reveals why: there just aren't enough charging stations.

"Texas has more than 2,000 charging stations, a fraction of the nearly 11,000 gas stations available across the oil-and-gas dominant state," Claire reports.

It's an interesting quandary, and one we've seen before.

When cars were first introduced, they were impractical for a number of reasons, but the most daunting one was that gas stations weren't readily available yet. Cars were better than horses in a lot of ways, but horses didn't need to be plugged into a scarce power source on a regular basis.

Eventually infrastructure caught up with technology, and now cars are the norm. Horses, once integral to human civilization, are now, for the most part, a very expensive pet.

I don't own an electric vehicle for a number of reasons, the first of which being that I buy used cars and drive them until the wheels fall off, but the lack of charging stations is also a negative for me.

A quick search on the EV charging station locator shows that there are about 30 charging stations in Katy- almost all of which are located along the I-10 corridor.

Let's chat about electric vehicles. Do you or would you own one? Do you think EVs are to cars what cars were to horses? Let me know your thoughts.

Claire Goodman, Katy reporter

claire.goodman@houstonchronicle.com

Education

Katy ISD Board of Trustees President Victor Perez listens to comments during a board of trustees meeting on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023 in Katy. The Katy ISD board of trustees took public comments on how to address gender fluidity among students.

Photo by: Elizabeth Conley, Staff Photographer

Katy ISD draws opposition from parents for plan to employ chaplains on campus.

A measure that would allow the Katy ISD board of trustees to use district funds to employ chaplains on campuses drew opposition from some Katy parents Monday.

Christie Whitbeck, superintendent of Fort Bend Independent School District, poses for a portrait before she speaks to reporters Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, at a FBISD administration building in Sugar Land.

Photo by: Jon Shapley/Staff Photographer

Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Christie Whitbeck will retire.

Christie Whitbeck, superintendent of Fort Bend Independent School District, will leave her position next week after the board of trustees approved her voluntary retirement agreement Monday.

Growing Katy

Putt-putt golf course and entertainment center by Tiger Woods prepares to open its doors on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, at Pop Stroke in Katy.

Photo by: Raquel Natalicchio, Staff Photographer

New residential development planned near Katy's entertainment hub.

City Choice Realty has purchased nearly 10 acres of land near Katy Asian Town and the Colonial Parkway entertainment hub for the use of residential development.

Need to Know

This map shows forecast cloud cover for Tuesday afternoon. The deeper cloud cover will remain generally offshore of the Upper Texas Coast. Mostly sunny skies are expected across much of Southeast Texas Tuesday.

Photo by: Pivotal Weather

Houston basks under sunshine this week: When will temps climb?

A sprawling area of high pressure will keep Southeast Texas weather dry and sunny this week ahead of our next front.

Openings and Closings

HCA Houston Healthcare will be expanding their service after purchasing 11 SignatureCare Emergency Centers throughout the Houston area.

The centers, renamed HCA Houston ER 24/7, are in Cypress, Memorial City, Spring, Atascocita, Mission Bend, Westchase, Bellaire, Copperfield, Stafford, Heights and Montrose.

Shout out

Shout out to the Nelson family- the recommended namesake for Katy ISD's newest junior high.

The Nelson family has a rich history in the Katy community that spans five generations.

One last thing ...

A crayfish from nobody-knows-where can clone itself, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department would really appreciate it if you would not put them in our waterways, my co-reporter Peter Warren writes.

The marbled crawfish is the only decapod crustacean in the world to reproduce via self-cloning, Peter reports. The entire species is female, and the State of Michigan reports that marbled crayfish "have the ability to lay up to 700 unfertilized eggs that develop into genetically identical offspring."

Perhaps the most terrifying element of the story is that no one actually knows where these things come from. They were first discovered in the pet trade in Germany.

So if you have a self-cloning crayfish of unknown origins that you're keeping as a pet, please don't release it into the wild.