Home Care In Sugar Land, TX

Governor Greg Abbott today announced the Texas Music Office (TMO) and the City of Sugar Land will co-host an in-person and virtual Music Friendly Texas Community workshop on Wednesday, February 28.

"Music is key to the Texas brand and to our local economies,” said Governor Abbott. "I thank the Texas Music Office for helping communities large and small develop creative partnerships and grow new jobs. With support from the Texas Music Office, the Texas music industry accounted for more than 192,000 direct and indirect permanent jobs and generated more than $26 billion in economic activity statewide in 2022. Working alongside local leaders like those in the City of Sugar Land, we can ensure even more Texas communities have the tools needed to succeed."

TMO Community Relations and Outreach Specialist Chip Adams will join to explain the Music Friendly Texas Community designation and the benefits of becoming certified and answer any questions.

Participation in TMO’s Music Friendly Texas program, the first in the nation since introduced by TMO in 2016, provides Texas communities with a network for fostering music industry development and sends a clear message to industry professionals that certified communities are serious about attracting and developing music industry growth. The Sugar Land workshop is the first step in the certification process. When completed, Sugar Land will join 58 other Texas cities that have earned the Music Friendly Texas designation.

Musicians, venues, and the general public are welcome to join in person or online.

Music Friendly Texas Community Workshop – Sugar Land

Wednesday, February 28 at 5:30 PM

Sugar Land City Hall Chambers

2700 Town Square Blvd. N.

Sugar Land, TX 77479

To join virtually

More information on the event

Questions may be directed to: Sha Davis, City of Sugar Land, Civic Arts Manager, 346-604-0392, [email protected]

Learn more about the Music Friendly Texas Certified Community Program

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The Texas Music Office in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Tourism is the only state music office in the nation. Since 1990, TMO has fostered the economic development of Texas music businesses, Texas musicians, and Texas communities. TMO operates an extensive network of certified Music Friendly Texas community partners across the state, serves as a clearinghouse for Texas music industry information, acts as a liaison between music businesses and government offices, publicizes significant industry developments, and attracts essential music industry to the Lone Star State. A vibrant Texas music industry supports local job creation while drawing visitors from around the globe, attracting a talented workforce across industries, and supporting business recruitment and expansion efforts throughout the state.

The town of Sugar Land, Texas gets its name from the crop that made it rich and prosperous – sugarcane. But in 2018, while building a new school, a secret came to light. Construction crews uncovered a cemetery containing 95 unmarked graves.

One man named Reginald Moore knew about local history and, having worked in law enforcement, about convict leasing. He raised the alarm to the Fort Bend Independent School District that there might be bodies buried in that land. Reggie worked tirelessly, telling the stories of those who worked in the fields, making sure their remains were treated with respect and returned to their families.

According to reporters and hosts of the podcast Sugar Land, Naomi Reed and Brittney Martin, prison records, news reports, and legislative documents show the Imperial Sugar Company leased convicts through at least 1912:

A less discussed part of [Sugar Land’s] history: Near the turn of the 20th century, the area was the largest hub for convict leasing in Texas. The practice of leasing convicts for labor was adopted across the South in the decades following the Civil War. At the time, it solved two major issues white landowners faced: It provided a cheap workforce to replace the slaves they’d lost and allowed them to continue treating Black people as second-class citizens.

In episode 8 of the podcast, we hear from Brandon Jackson. Brandon is a possible descendant of one of those buried in the unmarked graves. He discusses what that connection means to him.

Produced in collaboration with the Texas Newsroom, Sugar Land explores the story of the Sugar Land 95, how they got there, and Sugar Land’s reckoning with its not-so-sweet past. The podcast also explores the impact of convict leasing and how its impacts are still felt today.

This is the latest installment of our Local Spotlight series – where we talk with journalists whose local work is making an impact.

Prices in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), declined 0.1 percent for the two months ending in December 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that the energy index declined 8.3 percent, almost entirely due to falling gasoline prices. The food index decreased 0.1 percent over the past two months. The all items less food and energy index increased 0.6 percent, largely due to higher prices for owners’ equivalent rent of residences. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, bi-monthly changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U advanced 4.5 percent. The index for all items less food and energy rose 5.2 percent, while food prices increased 5.3 percent over the year. Energy prices declined 5.9 percent, the result of a decrease in the price of electricity. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

Food

Food prices fell 0.1 percent for the two months ending in December. Prices for food at home (grocery store prices) declined 0.4 percent, while prices paid for food away from home (restaurant, cafeteria, and vending purchases) advanced 0.3 percent for the same period. Within the food at home category, the indexes for dairy and related products (-4.7 percent) and meats, poultry, fish, and eggs (-2.1 percent) led the decline. These decreases in the food at home index were mostly offset by increasing prices for fruits and vegetables (+4.9 percent).

Over the year, food prices rose 5.3 percent. Prices for food at home advanced 4.6 percent since a year ago, and prices for food away from home increased 6.3 percent. Within the food at home category, the indexes for fruits and vegetables (+18.6 percent) and other food at home (+4.1 percent) contributed the most to the over-the-year increase.

Energy

The energy index decreased 8.3 percent for the two months ending in December. The decline was largely due to lower prices for gasoline (-14.7 percent). Prices for electricity and natural gas service fell 1.0 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, for the same period.

From December 2022 to December 2023, energy prices declined 5.9 percent. The decrease was driven by falling prices for electricity (-6.5 percent), natural gas services (-17.3 percent) and gasoline (-2.0 percent).

All items less food and energy

The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.6 percent in the latest two-month period. Index movement was mainly driven by rising prices for owners’ equivalent rent of residences (+1.0 percent), rent of primary residence (+1.1 percent), and used cars and trucks (+1.0 percent). Lower prices for public transportation, apparel (-2.2 percent), and medical care commodities partially offset these increases.

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy rose 5.2 percent. Components contributing to the increase included shelter (+7.7 percent), other goods and services (+8.4 percent), and apparel (+5.3 percent). Partly offsetting the increases were price decreases in medical care (-1.2 percent) and recreation (-1.5 percent).

The February 2024 Consumer Price Index for the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land area is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.

Technical Note

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 93 percent of the total U.S. population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers approximately 29 percent of the total U.S. population. The CPI-U includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical workers, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and retirees and others not in the labor force.

The CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and the other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. Each month, prices are collected in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments—department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments. All taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are included in the index.

The index measures price changes from a designated reference date; for most of the CPI-U the reference base is 1982-84 equals 100. An increase of 7 percent from the reference base, for example, is shown as 107.000. Alternatively, that relationship can also be expressed as the price of a base period market basket of goods and services rising from $100 to $107. For further details see the CPI home page on the internet at www.bls.gov/cpi and the CPI section of the BLS Handbook of Methods available on the internet at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/.

In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together with weights that represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group. Local data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average. Because the sample size of a local area is smaller, the local area index is subject to substantially more sampling and other measurement error than the national index. In addition, local indexes are not adjusted for seasonal influences. As a result, local area indexes show greater volatility than the national index, although their long-term trends are quite similar. NOTE: Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of prices between cities; they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period.

The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas, Core Based Statistical Area includes the counties of Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

A Filipino American supermarket chain opened its first Texas location in Sugar Land, another milestone in Houston’s growing, diverse business community.

California-based Seafood City Supermarket opened its 50,000-square-foot store at 15235 Southwest Freeway this month. In addition to offering products from Filipino brands, the store includes a Bakers Avenue bakery and a Filipino-style barbecue called Grill City.

Seafood City was founded in 1989 near San Diego and has grown to 32 locations in the U.S. and Canada, according to its website. It plans to open more stores in Texas, said Mildred Smith, a spokesperson for Seafood City.

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When deciding where to open stores, Smith said, it looks for large communities of Filipino Americans.

“Houston has the critical Filipino-American population as the highest priority for a store. It also has the right economic demographics to showcase our store properly,” Smith wrote.

HOUSTON CHEFS: Elevating Filipino cuisine beyond a Southeast Asian food trend

R-Jun Felices, 20, drove with family about half an hour northwest to visit the new store. Felices said that while many of the products can be found in other stores, the restaurant Grill City and the store’s size seem unique for the area.

“It’ll definitely become a go-to place (for area residents) just because of how big it is,” Felices said.

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Jill Panuncillon, from the Pearland area, visited to show her boyfriend’s family the food selection, including tocino, a pork dish, and lumpia, a kind of egg roll. Panuncillon said it’s helpful that the supermarket has a variety of products under one roof.

“Usually you have to go to multiple Filipino stores,” Panuncillon said.

Frances Hizon, of Austin, who was visiting family in Cypress, found products such as Filipino beers that she doesn’t often spot at other stores.

An estimated 28,548 Harris County residents identify as Filipino, according to the 2020 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, compared with an estimated 4,821 in 1980.

The population growth has coincided with an increase in Filipino American mom-and-pop shops and the introduction of Filipino restaurant chains such as Jollibee and Max’s Restaurant, said Noemi Frias, president of the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston.

Frias said the store, which employs about 150, helped create jobs for the Filipino community.

SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) -- The City of Sugar Land has partnered with a company that will bring autonomous air taxis to the Houston area by the end of the decade.

Wisk has been working to develop four-seater, self-flying eVTOL aircraft, or vertical take-off and landing, since 2010.

"This really will become such a fascinating and useful mode of transport," Emilien Marchand, the director of ecosystem partnerships for Wisk, said.

So far, they have identified the Los Angeles, Brisbane, Australia, and Houston areas as places to bring their air taxis.

The Sugar Land Regional Airport will serve as one of their so-called vertiports and training and maintenance facility for the area, with operations projected to start by 2030.

"I would say we asked a lot of questions first," Mitchell Davies, the deputy director of aviation for the Sugar Land Regional Airport, said. "There's things that we want to know about (like) what they're wanting to do before we jumped on board. I can say we were immediately interested."

Houstonians can hop aboard one aircraft and fly to one of the designated vertiports in a fraction of the time it would take to drive. Marchand said they are still working to identify the vertiports' locations with the existing airports, downtown, stadiums, or the Galleria under consideration.

"We have a lot of residents who commute into Houston, and we see this as another option for them," Davies said.

According to Marchand, the pricing should align with an Uber Black.

"This will definitely be what we call a 'crawl, walk, run,' so don't worry, there will not be thousands and thousands of aircraft from day one, and even at day X, we expect to start with a few aircraft and then some as the industry will grow," Marchand said.

Marchand said the project will be funded both privately and publicly.

For more on this story, follow Mycah Hatfield on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

SEE ALSO: Boeing pulls off first test flight of self-flying air taxi: Video