Hometown Glory

Where the jobs are: Two Houston suburbs rank in the Top 5 in the nation for jobgrowth

Fort Bend County, which took No. 2 on the list, counts Sugar Land (pictured) andMissouri City among its top towns.
Photo by Ed Schipul/Flickr
Montgomery County, home of The Woodlands (pictured), snagged No. 4 on the list.
Photo by Marlo Saucedo

Is this more fodder for Gov. Rick Perry's talk of a Texas Miracle? Five Texas counties are listed among CNN/Money Magazine's list of "Where the jobs are," receiving accolades for offering plentiful jobs and a great place to live.

Fort Bend County, home of Sugar Land and Missouri City, ranks No. 2 on that Top 25 list. Data shows a 78.1 percent job growth from 2000 to 2011, and the article cites "a favorable tax structure, strong school system and easy access to Houston," all which make the area attractive to business.

Among the companies that keep Fort Bend thriving are Schlumberger, CVR Energy and Fluor Enterprises, which is in the midst of an expansion that will add 2,000 jobs.

Topping the list is Loudoun County, Va., a hub for Verizon Business and AOL data centers that has seen 83.6 percent job growth between 2000 and 2011.

Among the companies that keep Fort Bend thriving are Schlumberger, CVR Energy and Fluor Enterprises, which is in the midst of an expansion that will add 2,000 jobs.

Williamson County, which includes the Texas towns of Cedar Park, Georgetown and Round Rock, ranks No. 3 with 73.8 percent job growth, thanks to companies like Dell Computer Corp and Thermo Fisher.

Montgomery County comes in at No. 4, with 63.5 percent job growth and more on the way with a forthcoming Exxon Mobil campus and a soon-to-be-completed Anadarko Petroleum tower.

But the jobs aren't just centered around Houston and Austin suburbs: Collin County (which includes Frisco, Allen, Plano and McKinney) is sixth on the list, with 55.9 percent job growth; and Denton County (which includes Flower Mound, Lewisville and Denton) snags the seventh spot, with 53.4 percent job growth.

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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.”