Mayor Paulette Guajardo faces allegations of misconduct over a 2024 hotel development project.

From drilling groundwater wells to recycling wastewater, Corpus Christi has launched a host of projects as it races against the clock to find more water.

The city manager said the city received permits to pump more groundwater and will avoid water reductions from a shrinking reservoir for now, pushing a potential water crisis to July.

The city produces 5% of the nation’s refined products like gas and jet fuel, and experts say a serious water shortage could force production down and push fuel prices up even further.

Two out of the five projections city leaders presented Tuesday showed water shortages beginning in May. The city has yet to detail plans for how to reduce water use for residents and businesses.

The City Council will discuss the looming crisis Tuesday. One model predicted a water emergency in November. Other scenarios show that happening in May.

City officials expect to reach a “water emergency” within months and run out of water next year. That would halt jet fuel deliveries to Texas airports, hike gas prices and trigger a local economic disaster without precedent, former officials say.

After an industrial building boom on Corpus Christi Bay, the city is drilling wells to meet water demand, and rural Nueces County residents say their own wells are being impacted.

Targeted by local conservative activists, Mark Gonzalez joined an increasingly crowded 2024 primary — a move that triggered his resignation as district attorney.

Earlier this year, Ramirez won a legal fight to have his pastor beside him at his execution.

Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez said he is ethically opposed to the death penalty, but an employee wrongfully requested the execution date against his wishes. Gonzalez sought to cancel the execution two days later.

Climate change is here. We want to document where its effects are being felt in Texas, how communities are adapting and what government officials should do to help.

Despite an admonition from federal authorities, Land Commissioner George P. Bush’s plan still steers aid disproportionately to whiter, inland counties at less risk of natural disasters.

Greg Abbott announced Sunday that the Federal Emergency Declaration in response to Hurricane Hanna has been approved. The authorization from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Trump administration provides emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance and reimbursement mass care, including evacuation and shelter support at 75 percent federal funding. Hanna intensified to a Category 1 hurricane early Saturday morning, becoming the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. “I thank President Trump and our partners at FEMA for their quick response in granting this Federal Emergency Declaration,” said Abbott. “We will continue to work with our federal and local partners as we assess the damage from Hurricane Hanna and may seek additional federal assistance as we continue to respond, recover, and rebuild our communities.

HOUSTON Officials in South Texas, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic in recent weeks, said theyre also prepared to handle any challenges from Tropical Storm Hanna, which was headed their way and expected to make landfall this weekend. Areas of South Texas could see anywhere from 3 to 8 inches of rain, with some parts possibly seeing up to 12 inches. We could be dealing with significant flash flooding across much of deep South Texas, Birchfield said. South Texas officials' plans for any possible rescues, shelters and monitoring of the storm will have the pandemic in mind. Greg Abbott has announced that various resources to respond to the tropical storm are on standby across the state, including search-and-rescue teams and aircraft.

Employees with the City of Corpus Christi load sandbags into people's cars as Tropical Storm Hannah approaches on July 24, 2020. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times via Imagn Content Services, LLCCorpus Christi, already beset by a spike in COVID cases, now faces the dangers of Tropical Storm Hanna. The National Hurricane Service issued a hurricane warning for a section of the Texas coast from Baffin Bay to Sargent an area that includes Corpus Christi Bay, Copany Bay, Aransas Bay, San Antonio Bay and Matagorda Bay. The National Weather Service issued a warning of life-threatening storm surge for the areas that include Corpus Christi, Rockport and Port Lavaca. The city already closed a drive-through coronavirus testing site in Corpus Christi until at least Tuesday, officials said.

Here are things you need to know for Monday, July 20:1. When the pandemic first started ravaging the state, Nueces County stayed relatively healthy while the Amarillo region suffered. There is a 20 percent chance of tropical cyclone development over the next five days. 3 things to shareWORD OF THE DAYCaconym [kak-uh-nim] (noun) a name, especially a taxonomic name, that is considered linguistically undesirable. THIS DAY IN HISTORYJuly 20, 1969: American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

Over the four months of Texas course of the coronavirus, early hot spots Amarillo among them have been eclipsed by new regions in crisis now, South Texas. That behavior, particularly among young people, may be responsible for dozens of new hot spots that will be more difficult to eradicate. Those 123 "red zone" counties are home to some 23 million Texans the vast majority of the state's population. Typically, rural and community hospitals transfer patients to urban hospitals for acute care. Two weeks ago, there were just seven positive COVID-19 patients in the Amarillo hospital; by this week, that had more than tripled to 24.

Eighty-five infants younger than age 1 have tested positive for the coronavirus in Nueces County. REUTERSEighty-five infants who are under the age of 1 have tested positive for the coronavirus in Nueces County, CNN reports. When the pandemic first started ravaging the state, Nueces County stayed relatively healthy while the Amarillo region suffered. We currently have 85 babies under the age of one year in Nueces County that have all tested positive for COVID-19, Annette Rodriguez, director of public health for Corpus Christi Nueces County, told CNN. As The Texas Tribune previously reported, Nueces County Medical Examiner Adel Shaker said last week that a baby boy, less than 6 months old, had tested positive for COVID-19 and died.

Eighty-five infants who are under the age of 1 have tested positive for the coronavirus in Nueces County, CNN reports. The county, which includes Corpus Christi, has become emblematic of the recent surge of coronavirus cases in the state. When the pandemic first started ravaging the state, Nueces County stayed relatively healthy while the Amarillo region suffered. We currently have 85 babies under the age of one year in Nueces County that have all tested positive for COVID-19, Annette Rodriguez, director of public health for Corpus Christi Nueces County, told CNN. As The Texas Tribune previously reported, Nueces County Medical Examiner Adel Shaker said last week that a baby boy, less than 6 months old, had tested positive for COVID-19 and died.

HOUSTON – Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales issued a plea Monday to tourists: Don’t come to Corpus Christi beaches and stay home. Canales, who spoke with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, called the request “almost unthinkable” amid “freefall (COVID-19) conditions” believed to be linked to the sheer numbers of tourists drawn to the Gulf Coast. “For the next few weeks… the coast is just not clear to come home to right now,” Canales told the newspaper. “Please do everything you can to help us stabilize. We are not stable — we are in a free fall — and we need some help from Texas.”For more, go to the newspaper’s full report.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Officials in Corpus Christi said they’re looking at ways to discourage vacationers from visiting the popular South Texas city amid the coronavirus outbreak in the state. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported Mayor Joe McComb is looking at possibly restricting residential vacation rentals in his coastal city during the upcoming weeks. “We’re going to be looking at the possibilities of trying to convince them that coming down here is not in their best interest or our best interest,” McComb said. “Because the traveling bug comes with them and we just want to protect our citizens.”The majority of COVID-19 cases in Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, are travel-related, according to public documents. Texas has more than 6,100 cases and at least 105 related deaths, state health officials said Saturday.