Work it

11 Texas cities make Forbes list of best places to find a job

Austin
Sugar Land
San Antonio
Courtesy photo

It's not exactly news that Forbes loves Texas. It's named Houston one of America's most affordable cities, one of the best places to buy a home, and Texas one of the best states for business.

So it's no surprise that Texas cities dominate Forbes' new rankings of the best cities in America for jobs. The study's overall No. 1 pick for an improving jobs market is Central Texas's Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, listed at the top of the small cities list. The Killeen-area job market has expanded 2.5 percent, in large part from military spending.

Other Texas small cities on the list include College Station-Bryan (No. 4 overall, No. 3 for small cities) with 1.7 percent employment growth; Midland, which skyrocketed from No. 45 in 2010 to No. 5 on the back of oil money (and 5.4 percent employment change; and Odessa (No. 11 overall, No. 8 for small cities).

Austin, grouped with Round Rock and San Marcos, was the top large city on the list and sixth overall with 1.9 percent growth. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown came in third among large cities (No. 14 overall), San Antonio-New Braunfels was No. 4, and Dallas-Plano-Irving came in at No. 5.

Among middle-sized cities, Texas virtually scored a trifecta with El Paso in first (and third overall) with 2.1 percent nonfarm employment change, Corpus Christi right on its heels at No. 2 (No. 12 overall) and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission in fourth place (27th overall).

With over a third of the the 30 top cities on the three Forbes lists, almost every city in Texas was singled out as a center with a growing economy and improving jobs market. Or as Forbes put it, "No place displayed more vibrancy than Texas.... Whatever they are drinking in Texas, other states may want to imbibe."

Hey, we'll say cheers to that.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”