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.

John Moya and Victor De La Garza, both of El Paso, and David Saenz of Cuauhtemoc, Chih, Mexico, received U.S. Patent 8,107,714 for “Methods For Detecting And Tagging Scene Changes.”

Texas Business Patent Of The Day:  Two El Paso men and a resident of Mexico designed a method of surveillance that detects subtle changes in things ranging from airborne drones shooting footage of borders to detecting subtle changes in xrays over time of a patient.  John Moya and Victor De La Garza, both of El Paso, and David Saenz of Cuauhtemoc, Chih, Mexico, received U.S. Patent 8,107,714 for “Methods For Detecting And Tagging Scene Changes.”

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.

Anthony Timmons of Fort Davis, Daryl Burttschell of San Marcos and Howard Burttschell of New Braunfels received U.S. Patent 8,066,572 for “System For Transmitting Real-Time Game Information For A Game To A Remote Device.”

Texas Business Patent Of The Day:  Three Texans have devised a way to get real time information on a game in process.  Anthony Timmons of Fort Davis, Daryl Burttschell of San Marcos and Howard Burttschell of New Braunfels received U.S. Patent 8,066,572 for “System For Transmitting Real-Time Game Information For A Game To A Remote Device.”

Texas Business reports:  OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Ferrellgas Partners LP, a propane retailers, acquired Rio Grande Valley Gas Inc. of Edinburg, Texas.

 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:  An El Paso firm won a $19.4 million contract to build an army barracks, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports: EL PASO—Western Refining Inc. closed on the sale of its Yorktown, Virginia facilities and a segment of its crude oil pipeline in southeast New Mexico to Plains Marketing LP and Plains Pipeline LP, both subsidiaries of Plains All American Pipeline LP, for approximately $220 million.

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:  EL PASO—The Japanese Air Self Defense Forces (JASDF), operating Raytheon Company's Patriot Configuration-3 systems, successfully concluded its annual training exercise at Fort Bliss, Texas.

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:  Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 6.5 percent of Texas’ total private-sector employment. Over one-quarter (27.6 percent) of all manufacturing workers in Texas depend on exports for their jobs (2009 data latest available), according to the International Trade Commission. 

Texas Business reports:  EL PASO—Helen of Troy Limited, designer, developer and worldwide marketer of brand-name personal care, health care, home environment and household consumer products,  entered into a definitive agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company to acquire all of the assets related to the manufacturing and selling of products marketed under the PUR trademark, including all of the outstanding stock of PUR Water Purification Products Inc. 

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: An El Paso firm won an $85 million contract to provide support at a federal missile range, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

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:  Unisys Corporation is assisting the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency in opening the first pedestrian border crossing in El Paso that deploys a combination of gate systems, mobile handheld devices and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to more efficiently identify and process pedestrians crossing the border into the U.S.

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.