Texas Business reports:  ABILENE—First Financial Bankshares  Inc. announced several promotions for officers based in Abilene and Fort Worth.

Texas Business reports: Texas has been ranked the top exporting state in 2011 for the 10th year in a row, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Texas Business reports: Texas factory activity increased in January, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, rose from 0.2 to 5.8, suggesting growth resumed this month.

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION – Thanks to rains, more of Texas transitioned from exceptional to extreme drought, or from severe to moderate, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Connie S. Rose received U.S. Patent D651,536 for “Cow Manure Novelty.”

Texas Business Patent Of The Day:  Manure is a smelly cow product that many use for fertilizer. However, an Abilene woman decided to frame it and apply for a design patent. Connie S. Rose received U.S. Patent  D651,536 for “Cow Manure Novelty.”

Texas Business reports: A Maryland firm won a $162 million contract to support bomber training at two Texas Air Force bases, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

 Texas Business reports: COLLEGE STATION – Many areas received rain, but the general consensus from weekly reports by Texas AgriLife Extension Service county agents was that more is needed to keep wheat and winter pastures going.

Texas Business reports: COLLEGE STATION—As many as 500 million trees scattered across the Lone Star State have died this year as a result of the unrelenting drought, according to preliminary estimates from Texas Forest Service.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Generational Equity, a mergers and acquisitions advisor for privately-held and family-owned businesses, announced the sale of its client, Trevathan Tool Company to a private investor.

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION--Sales of existing single-family Texas homes in November were up 9 percent from a year ago, according to the most recent Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. 

A dam in Central Texas' Blanco State Park, one of 7,500 in the state, the highest total in the U.S. Photo courtesy of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

AUSTIN – Possum Kingdom Lake, northwest of Fort Worth, was created when the Morris Shepard Dam was built in 1938 to harness the Brazos River. It was the first water-supply reservoir in the state. Once a major hydroelectric generating facility, the dam became the first to surrender its operating license in Texas in 2007, when turbines that generated an estimated 22,500 kilowatts of electricity were disabled. There’s no talk of taking down the dam and freeing the river, though. Unlike the United States in general, drought-prone Texas is keeping the dams it has.

Texas Business reports: Amid reports of the nation’s weak economic recovery, high unemployment and slow job growth, attention has turned to Texas, the only large state on track to surpass its prerecession peak employment by year-end, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. 

Texas Business Reports:  The U.S. economy entered a financial-market-driven recession in December 2007 from which it has yet to fully recover. The boom of the mid-2000s has been replaced with a stubborn national reality of high unemployment and sluggish output growth, with no clear indication when economic activity will return to more normal levels, according to Jason Saving of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. 

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION – Cold fronts brought rain, from a trace to 2 inches or more, to much of the state during the last week, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel.

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION — Rain came to large parts of Texas, an early Thanksgiving feast for already planted winter pastures, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel.

Texas Business reports:  The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) selected Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP to manage $3 billion of TRS' capital across a variety of private markets' asset classes.

Though seasonal ups-and-downs are to be expected, fed-cattle prices are being driven to unprecedented levels by several factors this year. (Texas AgriLife Extension Service photo by Kay Ledbetter)

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION – Fueled by declining beef production due to the drought and booming exports, fed-cattle prices soared to “unprecedented” levels, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service expert.

Texas Business reports:  LAMESA, Texas – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Robinson Drilling of Texas Ltd. for eight serious, four repeat and 11 other-than-serious safety and health violations following the death of two workers at the company's work site near Lamesa at Truitt Woods Field, Well No. 1, Rig No. 3.

Texas Business reports:  COLORADO CITY—When the Colorado High School football team plays its home games, the school's new artificial turf field benefits the area in two ways: by conserving water and generating revenue.

Texas Business reports:  ABILENE— Lauren Engineers & Constructors finalized the purchase of property near Bynum, Montana which will be used as a modular construction facility.