Lawyers claim the companies "demonstrated a brazen disregard for human life" during last week's deadly windstorm in Houston when a crane collapsed, killing one worker and seriously injuring another.

The Southern District of Texas has sworn in the first Asian American as the 24th presidentially-appointed U.S. Attorney.

U.S. prosecutors suspect a Wyoming company of potentially concealing problems with a pipeline that broke in 2015 and spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River.

Houston did not disappoint in the weird news department this year.

HOUSTON – A man faces charges after he jumped a fence, climbed a ladder a hijacked a crane in downtown Houston last week. Following the incident, Timothy Elijah Gonzales was charged with criminal mischief and possession of a controlled substanceTimothy Elijah Gonzales (KPRC 2)Houston police said they were called to a construction site around 3 a.m. due to “suspicious activity.” Gonzales was about 15 stories up. When he climbed up there, investigators said the man walked along the catwalk and got inside the cab of the crane. Police said he managed to move the crane at one point. SWAT got the man down from the crane around 6:13 a.m. and he was compliant.

CRANE, Texas Officials say five people were killed including three young children in a vehicle collision in West Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety said 23-year-old Bailey Nisbet was driving a sport utility vehicle south on U.S. Highway 385 early Friday morning when it drifted into the northbound lane and struck a pickup truck. Officials said Nisbet, of Baytown, and the driver of the pickup truck, Carl Rice, 67, of McCamey, were both killed, as were the three children riding in Nisbet's vehicle. The accident happened just south of Crane, which is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Odessa. Officials identified the children who died as 5-year-old Kimber Nisbet, 3-year-old Kamberee Nisbet and 11-month-old Kasen Nisbet, all of Baytown.