Golden Roastery officials said the roastery opened a second location in the Spring-Klein area on Nov. 15. The Golden Roastery has an additional location in the South Houston area. 

The details: Golden Roastery offers Arab and Turkish sweets including roasted nuts, halal gummies, chocolates, coffee and Palestinian delights. The Middle East roastery offers both in-store services and a dining area available to enjoy its Palestinian delights.

• 5199 FM 1960 W., Houston

Symphony North of Houston is celebrating its 50th anniversary season, showcasing five decades of community orchestral music in northwest Harris County and the Greater Houston area, CEO and President Steve Sands said.

The details: The nonprofit community orchestra was incorporated June 30, 1975, and now features about 65 volunteer musicians who rehearse and perform together while working in careers ranging from education and engineering to law and banking, Sands said.

Sands said Symphony North performs its concert season at Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball and operates on a philosophy that classical music should be accessible to everyone. Admission to concerts is by donation. 

The impact: The orchestra presents a series of concerts each year aimed at enriching the community’s cultural life while giving members a place to continue their musical education and performance experience, Sands said. 

Texas has grown rapidly in recent years, and data indicates that development is not slowing down. The Lone Star State gained about 168,000 jobs from September 2024-September 2025, leading the nation in job growth, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

The overview: Texas is attractive to businesses looking to relocate or expand their operations due to its tax incentives and grants, lack of a personal income tax and roughly 200 higher education institutions, business leaders said during a Dec. 10 summit held in College Station by industry network YTexas.

As businesses of all sizes continue to move to Texas, local governments and associations also need to “support the ones that are already here,” said Dean Browell, the chief behavioral officer for Feedback, a digital ethnographic research firm.

Zooming in: In an October study, Feedback found that long-term Texas residents want to live in growing communities with strong education systems and plentiful job opportunities. That growth, however, can lead to rising property taxes and living expenses before residents begin feeling the benefits, Browell said.

The Texas power grid is expected to hold up this winter, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Dec. 9. This is due in part to “tremendous supply growth on the ERCOT grid,” ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said, amid an influx of data centers coming to the state.

The overview: Since last winter, over 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity have been added to the ERCOT grid, Vegas said. That growth, which largely comes from battery storage and solar facilities, could be used to power about 2.8 million homes during periods of peak electric demand.

Zooming in: Under most weather conditions, there is a less than 2% chance of a grid emergency through February, ERCOT found.

However, Texas could be in trouble in the unlikely event that a repeat of Winter Storm Uri hits large parts of the state this winter, although ERCOT noted that the probability of such a severe storm happening again was "well under one percent." The February 2021 freeze devastated an unprepared power grid, resulting in nearly 250 deaths.