Parkwood American Grille is now serving modern American fare in Friendswood, according to a release from the restaurant.

The restaurant comes from the team behind Pier 6 Seafood & Oyster House, including owner Raz Halili and executive chef Joe Cervantez, who previously served as head chef for Killen’s Steakhouse in Pearland.

What’s in a name: Parkwood American Grille offers a variety of dishes including steak, Gulf seafood, pasta, as well as specialty items such as the mini Maine-style lobster rolls with caviar and the Parkwood burger with wagyu beef.

📍2131 W. Parkwood Ave., Friendswood 

Ruchi's Indian Cuisine opened its doors in early September in Pearland along Business Center Drive.

On the menu: The restaurant offers starters, such as chilly paneer, apollo fish and crispy chicken, among other starters.

Biryani dishes include chicken dum, paneer fry, lamb fry and goat fry.

Other dishes include vegetable curry, tandoori chicken, kababs and basil chili pesto chicken, among other items.

📍3422 Business Center Drive, Ste. 130, Pearland

Houston-based rocket propulsion company Venus Aerospace opened a new propulsion test stand at the Houston Spaceport on Sept. 10.

The gist: The new test stand is a part of "critical infrastructure to support the continued development and maturation of its rotating detonation rocket engine technology," according to a Sept. 10 news release from the company.

The $3.9 million test stand was funded through the Texas Space Commission's Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund, which is part of the state's investment in growing Texas' aerospace and space economy, the news release notes.

Quote of note: “Building and testing propulsion systems at this pace requires the right infrastructure around the technology,” CEO and Co-Founder Sassie Duggleby said. “We’re grateful to the Texas Space Commission and the state of Texas for investing alongside companies like Venus."

The Harris County Commissioners Court denied a recommendation for County Treasurer Carla Wyatt to receive a 30% raise. As a result, Wyatt will not join the slate of other county elected officials who received pay raises this year.

What happened: The county’s eight elected constables, the district attorney, county attorney, district clerk and tax assessor-collector will earn $305,000 annually.

The court approved those raises in August. Per an Aug. 24 press release, Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth denied the raise.

Zooming in: The recommendation came as the county seeks to shutter the treasurer’s office. As part of its legislative priorities, Harris County officials will ask the state House and Senate to approve cutting the office. Other large counties in Texas, such as Galveston and Tarrant, have eliminated their treasurer’s offices.

Across Texas, the taxes that homeowners pay to their local school districts went down by about 13.6% in 2025, one state senator found.

The overview: Across the board, many Texas counties mailed out reduced property tax bills for the 2025 tax year, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, reported. During a Sept. 1 hearing of the Senate Local Government Committee, he said the average homeowner's property tax bill went down by about $140 last year, falling from $1,037 per year in 2024 to $896 per year in 2025.

Texas' 2026-27 budget includes $51 billion in property tax relief, previous Community Impact reporting shows. Unless the legislature rolls back existing tax exemptions, the state will be required to spend that much or more on tax relief in future bienniums.

How it works: The state does not charge property taxes, meaning homeowners are taxed by local entities such as school districts, cities, counties and municipal utility districts. The Texas Legislature, however, can place limits on how much local governments raise taxes annually and require tax exemptions for certain groups.