Texas

After the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday declared all of Texas a natural disaster area, which enables farmers and ranchers to qualify for emergency loans at lower interest rates, low expectations about its benefits are being reported.

Local organic farmer in Grayson County, Foster Fogarty, said the drought was seriously hurting his business, KXII.com reported.

“We’ve lost quite a few crops. Most of our squash crop this year was wiped out by beetles and we weren’t able to get a second crop in because there wasn’t enough moisture in the soil,” Fogarty said. more >>

Democratic Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made her first public appearance Monday night at a NASA event in Houston since being shot in January. She entered in a wheelchair and was greeted with a standing ovation.

When her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, received the Spaceflight Medal – awarded to shuttle astronauts who safely return home from their missions – she rose from her wheelchair to hug and kiss him. According to an ABC report, Giffords and Kelly held hands most of the event.

“She was very animated. She was smiling,” said ABC News reporter Gina Sunseri who noted that Giffords seemed to be in good spirits. “She was chatting with the people who were sitting next to her.” more >>

A Wal-Mart shopper in Alvin, Texas, who was fed up with people looking the other way when someone does something wrong, chased three men who allegedly were attempting to steal three cases of beer. Authorities eventually caught the men.

The scene was caught on surveillance video. It shows Monique Lawless, 42, who is 5 feet tall and weighs 125 pounds, sprinting out the doors after the suspects. When she spotted them getting into their car parked in a fire lane, she never broke stride. She leapt onto the hood and began stomping on the windshield, attempting to break it. She screamed, “You punks, you are not going to get away with this.”

“Then he started the car, and I knew I needed to get off because he didn’t care and they were laughing at me the whole time in the car,” Lawless told an ABC reporter. more >>

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was discharged from a hospital in Houston Wednesday, about five months since she was shot in the head at a constituent meeting in Tuscon, Ariz. She will begin her next step of recovery as an outpatient.

After being released from TIRR Memorial Hermann, Giffords, 40, will be relocated to home of her husband, Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, in League City, Texas.

Kelly, who has remained optimisitic of Gifford's recovery throughout the ordeal, praised both his wife's character and doctors who treated her. more >>

New photos of a smiling U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords are drawing hundreds of well-wishers to her Facebook page on Sunday.

Thousands more have visited the social networking site just hours after the pictures were posted. They are the first clear snapshots of Giffords since the shooting five months ago during a constituent meet-and-greet in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson, Ariz.

The photos also represent an important step in a story of survival, strength and private perseverance for the American people. more >>

Texas Governor Rick Perry’s prayer and fasting event slated to be held in Houston later this summer is drawing criticism from advocates of separation from church and state and gay rights organizations.

Earlier this week, Perry called upon U.S. governors, fellow Texans, and people from all backgrounds and Christian denominations to join him August 6 for a “solemn day of prayer and fasting on behalf of our troubled nation” at Reliant Stadium.

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has attacked the governor’s involvement in “The Response” prayer event, which he compares to a “fundamentalist Christian revival service.” more >>