(The Center Square) – Multiple lawsuits have been filed against CenterPoint Energy, including three this week, over power outage failures in southeast Texas after Hurricane Beryl hit on July 8 and it took 12 days to restore power to customers who were able to receive it.

Gov. Greg Abbott demanded that CenterPoint meet a list of requirements by July 31. The Public Utility Commission and the Texas legislature also launched an investigation. The PUC held its first public meeting on the issue Thursday; next month a legislative hearing is scheduled.

CenterPoint president and CEO Jason Wells apologized on Wednesday at PUC's meeting, saying, “I want to apologize to our customers for the frustration we caused. We will do better. While we cannot erase the frustrations and difficulties so many of our customers endured, I and my entire leadership team will not make excuses. We will improve and act with a sense of urgency.”

At a news conference earlier this month, Abbott said he may demand the PUC reject a pending request by CenterPoint to recover a profit. Last year, its profit was over $6.5 billion. Abbott said there were allegations of CenterPoint “penny pinching” and cutting corners that may have contributed to delayed restoration of power. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who created a special investigative committee overseeing the Senate's investigation, warned CenterPoint, “a freight train is coming. You better be prepared. Whether you're at the top, or any part of management who oversaw this response or preparation, everybody's job should be on the line. We will not, and cannot, tolerate this.”

At least 14 Houston-area deaths were reported as hurricane-related, including seven who died from “heat exposure due to power loss,” according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. At least 22 died from Beryl in Harris, Galveston and Montgomery counties, according to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

While CenterPoint requested to recover a profit, three lawsuits were filed in Harris County this week seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in losses.

One $100 million class-action lawsuit was filed by Houston powerhouse trial attorney Tony Buzbee, a former mayoral and city council candidate who defended Attorney General Ken Paxton during his impeachment trial. The initial filing included 15 hospitality and restaurant groups and now includes over 200 in the Houston and Galveston area, Eater reported.

“CenterPoint was negligent in the maintenance of its lines and equipment, properly investing in infrastructure, adequately preparing for the hurricane, and properly conducting power restoration operations,” the lawsuit states. It also raises a similar argument made by Abbott and Patrick that Beryl was a low-level Category 1 hurricane, saying, “It is terrifying to imagine the extent of power grid failure that would be caused by CenterPoint's ineptitudes should a Category 5 hurricane make landfall in the Greater Houston area.”

CenterPoint has come under scrutiny after the February 2021 freeze when millions of Texans were without power, heat and water. As bills skyrocketed and customers struggled to pay them, CenterPoint's former CEO's pay was reportedly nearly $40 million.

Rose Sanders Law Firm filed a separate class-action seeking $100 million in damages, representing a range of businesses, including salons, spas, and doctor's offices. It provides a link on its website for businesses affected by Beryl who may be eligible to be a plaintiff in its class action lawsuit.

Its lawsuit makes similar claims to Buzbee's: its clients collectively “pay CenterPoint millions upon millions of dollars yearly for electricity” and if any fail to pay their bills on time, “CenterPoint will disconnect and refuse to provide electricity.

“Yet, when CenterPoint negligently fails to provide power, even though it has promised to do so and has a legal obligation to do so, it figuratively shrugs its shoulders, claims ignorance, and blames its failures on the weather or other external forces, claiming it had no idea or clue that the event causing the disruption would be so bad or could wreak such havoc.”

Another lawsuit was filed by a Houston area man who suffered second- and third-degree burns when a tree-damaged power line fell on him on July 11, three days after the storm, Houston Public Media reported. The lawsuit alleges CenterPoint was negligent for not maintaining and inspecting its power lines, not cutting back trees and vegetation near them, or warning about dangerous conditions.

(The Center Square) – A new school safety system has launched in Texas through the Texas Education Agency.

“As a new school year approaches, the safety of students, school faculty, and staff across Texas remains a top priority,” Gov. Greg Abbott said. “To bolster school safety standards, we are launching Sentinel – a new, sweeping system to enhance the safety and security of students and teachers across our great state. This cutting-edge technology is available to all schools in Texas and will expand the state's threat assessments process, improve real-time communication capabilities, and better safeguard our children, teachers, and school communities.”

Abbott thanked the head of the TEA's Office of School Safety and Security, John Scott, for working with superintendents and school safety personnel across the state to create and implement the new system.

Abbott created the role and appointed Scott in 2022 after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde to ensure that all public schools in Texas are implementing school safety policies and using best practices to safeguard against school shootings or other dangers.

Scott previously served as assistant special agent in charge for the U.S. Secret Service Dallas/North Texas District. He's been the single point of contact for coordinating school safety and security efforts statewide, working with the Texas School Safety Center, the Department of Public Safety, the Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, and the Advance Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, school districts, and other entities.

Since he was brought on, several new policies have been implemented. Scott said his office “continues to search for ways to better support the 1,200 school systems in Texas and their efforts in keeping students and staff safe. The launch of Sentinel represents this continued focus, and I'm grateful for the Governor's support in getting this critical safety infrastructure off the ground and operational.”

Sentinel is an innovative and comprehensive system designed to enhance the safety and security of students, faculty, and staff in school buildings statewide. The TEA provides it for free to all schools in Texas. It enables robust monitoring of school systems' implementation and operation of safety and security policies and improves the threat assessment process.

Sentinel was designed to standardize Behavioral Threat Assessments (BTAs) into a single reporting mechanism to enable schools to have a clear way of conducting BTAs and managing threats. This uniform approach helps school systems identify, assess and mitigate risks to students and staff.

Sentinel is also part of statewide emergency operations providing state leaders with timely and accurate information and informing schools about local or statewide emergencies through a mass communication capability. The communications capability will also enable the TEA to securely communicate guidance, resources, or other information to schools.

Sentinel was developed after the Texas legislature passed two bills that Abbott signed into law last June.

House Bill 3, filed by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, strengthened state monitoring of school safety and increased the school safety allotment. It became effective last September. Senate Bill 30, filed by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, provided an additional $1.1 billion for school systems to bolster the safety of their facilities. It became effective last June.

The Texas School Safety Center has also extended its school safety reviews to ensure all public schools are following the appropriate procedures to maximize school safety. Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training programs have also expanded training to all school districts, prioritizing school-based law enforcement.

State agencies are also expanding their ability to report suspicious activity through the iWatchTexas reporting system as well as expanding public awareness through public safety campaigns.

(The Center Square) – Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says former President Barack Obama is running for a fourth term in response to President Joe Biden announcing he isn't running for reelection and is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.

“Obama is seeking his 4th term as president,” Patrick said in a social media post. “The June debate was a hit job on Biden by his own party; humiliating him was step one to run him out. There was no need for Biden to debate that early, as I said at the time. They were with him every day. They knew how badly he would perform.”

He also reposted a claim he made about the June 27 presidential debate, that it was a set up by Democrats to push a failing Biden out the door, The Center Square reported. After Biden's disastrous debate performance when he could not complete sentences and appeared confused, Patrick said the decision to schedule the debate so early “was a set-up by the Democrats to replace Biden on the ballot. The Democrats' post-debate analysts on CNN are making it clear that Biden needs to be replaced. So obvious this was the set-up.”

“Obama has been running the White House and will continue to run it with Michelle or Kamala,” Patrick said. “They picked Biden in 2020 so Obama could serve a third term, and now Obama seeks a fourth term.”

He's referring to former First Lady Michelle Obama, who Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also said could be the Democratic presidential nominee or on the ticket, though that is now unlikely. Cruz also said “Barack Obama is already running the Biden administration. I think he is already the puppet master behind this Biden White House. I don't think that Joe Biden is the decision maker.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made a similar observation as Patrick, saying, “It looks more and more like that very early debate was a set up to force Biden to step aside.” Biden's Sunday announcement “may not have happened without that disastrous debate.”

Abbott also blasted Biden and his “border czar” Harris for their border policies, saying he will need to “triple the border wall, razor wire barriers and National Guard on the border.”

Not soon after, he announced that Texas National Guard troops were installing triple strand razor wire at the border in El Paso, Texas.

At the Republican National Convention, Abbott urged Americans to vote to secure the border by voting for Trump.

The greatest number of illegal border crossers entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration of over 12 million, including two million who evaded capture, known as gotaways, The Center Square first reported.

Harris has faced criticism for years for not going to the border, not meeting with residents who live there or with family members of those killed by illegal border crossers.

Abbott appointed Texas' own border czar, Mike Banks, 18 months ago and argues he has done more to secure the border in one day that Harris ever did.

After Biden announced he wasn't running for reelection, Abbott reiterated that Harris has never acted as a “border czar” or made any effort to secure the border.

“Kamala Harris has not done her job. She's a failure at one of the … issues that Americans care most about. I think Americans can and should and must reject her at the ballot box in November,” he told Fox News.

Abbott posted a video clip of Harris saying she hadn't been to the border just like she hadn't been to Europe. He said in response, “You will see a lot of this. The ‘border czar' has been an utter failure. America's future is bleak if the border czar becomes president.”