New Caney ISD’s board of trustees has a new president after a newly elected trustee joined the board Nov. 17, prompting a leadership reshuffle.

What’s changed: Elizabeth Harrell—who previously served as board vice president—was unanimously approved as the new board president during trustees’ Nov. 17 meeting. Before Harrell was selected, former board president Creg Mixon said he voluntarily stepped down as board leader.

Ty Trout was selected as the new board vice president, while trustees Wendy Sharp and Angela Tompkins will serve as secretary and assistant secretary, respectively.

The background: Harrell was first elected to NCISD’s board in May 2010 before leaving in 2016, as previously reported by Community Impact. She was reelected to the board in 2017.

A new 200,000-square-foot warehouse is expected to open at the East Montgomery County Industrial Park in New Caney.

The local impact: Catalyst Trading Company leaders are talking with EMCID officials about building the warehouse on a 23-acre plot of land in EMCID’s industrial park. The facility would employ seven workers.

Read all about it: Catalyst Trading Company maintains an inventory of industrial catalysts—as well as aluminas, molecular sieves and inert supports—which can be used for applications such as refining, environmental or petrochemical processes. The business is based out of Houston and launched in 1990.

• Opening date TBD
• East Montgomery County Industrial Park (exact address TBD)

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on Nov. 12 announced a $2.5 billion philanthropic campaign—the largest in the center’s history—to support cancer-fighting initiatives.

Read all about it: MD Anderson already raised $1.9 billion for the campaign, called “Only Possible Here,” during a preliminary silent fundraising phase, according to a Nov. 12 news release. The Houston-based center focuses exclusively on treating, researching and preventing cancer.

The campaign’s three focus areas include expanding reach, expediting breakthroughs and elevating the patient experience, all with the goal of ending cancer, per the release. Money raised throughout the campaign will support several MD Anderson programs and initiatives, including the Cancer Neuroscience Program and Kinder Children's Cancer Center, among others. 

Quote of note: “This campaign presents an opportunity for anyone to become involved in the world's most important and impactful effort to end cancer,” campaign Chair Clarence P. Cazalot Jr. said in a Nov. 12 statement.   

Texas cannot use its newly redrawn congressional map in the 2026 election, an El Paso federal court ruled Nov. 18.

The details: The state must instead use the congressional map that Texas lawmakers drew in 2021, after the 2020 census. 

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote in the Nov. 18 preliminary injunction. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

What they're saying: Texas Republican leaders said they would “swiftly appeal” the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court takes up the case, its justices will be pressed for time ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to apply to run in the March primary elections.

Texas Democrats celebrated the Nov. 18 ruling as "very good news for Texans."