Texas Business reports: COLLEGE STATION – Though recent storms promised to reset the drought button for a large part of East Texas, the western half of the state will likely see below-normal precipitation from now through August, according to a Texas A&M University climatologist. 

One of the state’s worst droughts in decades has been particularly hard on its iconic ranching business, with the barren land leading to increased costs to feed cattle. In Starr County, at the southern tip of the state, Texas Agrilife Extension agent Omar Montemayor can’t give the ranchers money or rain, but he is teaching them ways to keep their herds healthy.

Texas Business reports:  FORT WORTH—American Airlines today launched a systemwide boarding process it claims saves overall boarding time by allowing customers who are traveling light to board earlier. 

Texas Business reports: COLLEGE STATION – Texas cotton planting intentions may be affected by the replanting to cotton of freeze-damaged wheat acreage, but a Texas A&M extension service expert doesn’t expect the change to be significant on dryland wheat acres. 

The resilient longhorn, able to survive on sparse foliage and water, has endured in Texas for more than 100 years. But the recent sale of about 100 longhorns by theTexas Parks and Wildlife Department has spurred debate about the breed’s future in the state.

Texas Business reports: The Texas Comptroller's Office reported state sales tax revenue in April was $2.15 billion, up 3.9 percent compared to April 2012. 

Texas Business reports:  IRVING, Texas—Exxon Mobil Corporation started development of the Julia oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. 

As he looks at the calendar, DeWitt County Judge Daryl Fowler is getting nervous.

Fowler is among a group of officials in the Eagle Ford Shale area who are lobbying lawmakers for money to address the rural South Texas region’s roads, many of which have been pummeled by drilling activity. With about a month left before the legislative session ends, he and others fear the push for funding has stalled. 

Texas Business reports: Texas factory activity was flat in April, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. 

FracFocus, the online registry used by Texas and other states to disclose information about hydraulic fracturing, “creates obstacles to [regulatory] compliance” and seems “structurally skewed to delete” records, according to a report from Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law Program.

Texas likes to be “business friendly” and as the state legislature considers bills to limit environmental regulation to keep it that way, some economists warn of the longer term consequences. 

Recent rains helped pull more of the state out of drought- but 92 percent of Texas is still experiencing at least a moderate drought and in some of the state drought has worsened.

Charlette Hearne thought she and her neighbors in southeast Oklahoma had won their water war against Texas. A decade ago, Oklahoma considered pumping billions of gallons of water out of the Red River basin—a poor, rural slice of the state—and selling it to Texas to slake the thirst of Dallas-Fort Worth, the country’s fastest growing metropolitan region.

Texas Business reports: AUSTIN--Interest rates on new credit card offers dipped this week for the first time in more than two months, according to the CreditCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report. 

Texas Business reports: COLLEGE STATION—The damage to the wheat crop in the Panhandle, Southern Plains and Rolling Plains regions from the last bout of freezing weather was not uniform, but losses were “significant,” according to a Texas A&M extensionservice agronomist. 

A group of Texas optometrists is lobbying the State Legislature for more power to negotiate contracts with health insurance companies, and the measure they are supporting could hit consumers’ wallets, some business advocates say. 

AUSTIN — On a late Saturday morning at a lot near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, a twice-weekly flea market is in full swing. A Tejano band begins its first set. The beer is flowing. More than 1,000 people — mostly Spanish-speaking families — roam among vendors peddling fresh eggs, live chickens, unlicensed Spiderman dolls, neon leggings, potted plants, bridesmaid dresses and all things Virgen de Guadalupe. 

Texas may have built a reputation as the energy capital of America, but in some parts of the state, like Midland and South Texas, the oil and gas boom has actually driven electric prices up — substantially. 

The broomsticks Kevin Peterson makes aren’t magical, but that hasn’t stopped them from flying off the shelves.

Peterson, a University of Texas senior, is poised to become the sole manufacturer of official gear for quidditch — a real-life sport inspired by the Harry Potter novels — if the sport’s governing body adopts his designs.

Call it the Rick Perry gold rush: The governor wants to bring the state’s gold reserves back from a New York vault to Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Retail sales increased in March, according to business executives responding to the Texas Retail Outlook Survey. However, the sales index fell 4 points to 8.4, suggesting growth slowed. Inventories also rose more slowly. 

Texas Business reports: Texas factory activity increased in March, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, rose from 6.2 to 9.9, indicating a slightly faster pace of output growth. The share of manufacturers noting a decrease in production fell to its lowest level in two years.