HCA Houston Healthcare Clear Lake announced Dr. Musaddiq Waheed as its new Chief Medical Officer in a July 10 news release.

The details: Waheed has over two decades of clinical and physician leadership and supporting growth, including the expansion of graduate medical education programs. 

Digging deeper: Most recently, Waheed served as Chief Medical Officer at HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast in Pasadena, according to the release. There he led initiatives to reduce length of stay, improved emergency department throughput, elevated patient experience and drove gains in clinical quality metrics, including sepsis compliance, stroke response times and reductions in hospital-acquired infections.

📍500 W. Medical Center Blvd., Webster

The inspiration to take after his grandparents, who owned two Baskin Robbins shops, and be more involved in the Seabrook community fueled Dylan Lirette to open Space City Cow in late 2024.

Since then, Lirette has crafted over 90 flavors to feature in monthly rotations with a handful of everyday favorites and seasonal creations that are always available.

What's special about it: Every batch of ice cream at Space City Cow is handmade daily and only five gallons of one flavor are produced at a time, according to the business's website.

Each flavor also has a distinct base, rather than starting from a traditional vanilla or chocolate base, Lirette said.

"For example, we have like a Cajun influence because I'm from Louisiana, so we'll have Bananas Foster. It's actually like Bananas Foster in the ice cream," he said. "Our motto is 'taste the difference' because it's different. When you taste it, it's not just a regular ice cream."

CenterPoint Energy officials announced a new initiative which aims to provide a savings of up to $5 billion to all residential and small to medium businesses over the next decade in a Aug. 11 news release.

The big picture: The initiative stems from both the strengthening of requirements for large load energy users like data centers in the 89th Legislative Session and a project to add 14 gigawatts of energy load to CenterPoint Energy's service area.

Senate Bill 6 was authorized in the 89th Legislative Session and requires any development which expects to utilize over 75 megawatts of power at any point to pay higher overall energy costs.

In their words: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to generate historic levels of customer savings of more than $5 billion statewide by leveraging new investment in large projects to build a more affordable, reliable and resilient electric grid for millions of customers," CenterPoint Energy Chairman and CEO Jason Wells said.
 

Harris County is facing the task of balancing a $178 million shortfall going into fiscal year 2026-27—amid several requests that would require millions more in funding.

The big picture: According to the latest update from the county’s office of budget management, Harris County is facing a $178 million shortfall in the FY 2026-27 budget. Daniel Ramos, executive director of the Harris County Office of Management and Budget, said the county has faced a roughly $150 million shortfall annually in recent years.

The discussion: Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis expressed heavy concern regarding how the county would ultimately address the shortfall, which has become a repetitive issue.

“When I was a banker, if you have a shortfall five years in a row, ... that's a structural deficit,” Ellis said.
”We’re about out of smoke and mirrors.”

Another thing: Commissioners also authorized raises for all eight elected constables, the district attorney, county attorney, district clerk, county clerk and tax assessor-collector which brought all positions to the same salary of $305,000 annually.