Economy

Refineries in Texas and along its Gulf Coast could get a boost from Venezuela's heavy crude. But oil producers might hesitate to get involved in the country while its future remains uncertain.

Winter holiday festivals have become a regular way to grow revenue for America's smallest towns. And with more people shopping online, those events are key to pulling people away from their screens and into stores.

The announcement that Tyson would shutter a massive beef processing plant in Nebraska was the first such closure in more than a decade. Beef processors are running at lower capacity, as the U.S. cattle herd size is the smallest it's been since the 1950s.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Xcel Energy for negligence, which he alleges caused the 2024 Panhandle Wildfires. Our Samantha Larned reports Xcel has maintained its stance of accepting responsibility, while denying negligence. Tyson Foods plans to scale back production at its plant in Amarillo, eliminating more than 1,700 jobs. Harvest Public Media’s Molly Ashford reports on what that means for ranchers and consumers.

Most of the package is earmarked for row-crop producers. It aims to help farmers – especially those who grow soybeans – balance out losses from high costs and a trade war with China.

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling Monday that allows for the removal of books from a Llano public library. The removal of the books was ruled constitutional earlier this year and this week, the Supreme Court denied the request for a rehearing, effectively ending the years-long legal battle. The Trump Administration will be sending $12 billion to farmers to help them stay in business and compensate for their trade war losses, but Harvest Public Media's Frank Morris reports farmers worry most of the bailout money will go straight to banks and suppliers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a new website to centralize information about the New World Screwworm. Texas Public Radio's Marian Navarro reports a case was detected this fall in a Mexican city less than 70 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. City departments will be closed this Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. Our Sean Ryan says offices and community centers will remain closed until Monday, but libraries and museums will resume normal hours over the weekend. A new national survey finds that nearly half of the 1,300 participating small business owners experienced a drop in profits this fall.

A national survey found the smallest business owners are feeling less confident as they close out the year. Inflation, tariffs and shifts in consumer spending are some of the reasons why.

Forty percent of babies in the U.S. are born to unmarried mothers. Increasingly, those moms are over 30, at a time when teen pregnancy has fallen off a cliff and births are declining for younger women.

Enrollment opens today for three programs from the USDA providing relief for farmers and ranchers affected by natural disasters in 2023 and 2024. Our Samantha Larned reports on the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, the Milk Loss Program, and the On-Farm Stored Crop Loss Assistance Program. United Supermarkets will lay off more than 100 positions from the headquarters office in Lubbock, with gradual "restructuring" over the first few months of the new year.