Mother nature is one of the most powerful allies in helping reduce and store carbon-dioxide emissions.

Here are things to know for Monday, March 14:

The parents of four children have been charged after Harris County sheriff’s deputies said three of them were found standing in a roadway Thursday night during a welfare check in Spring.

A former Valero gas station employee has been sentenced to five years in prison after deputies said he recorded a customer using the restroom without their consent.

Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas TribuneHOUSTON – Texas officials on Tuesday said the state’s environmental agency has added greater capacity to quickly monitor pollution across the state during storms and other disaster events, such as chemical fires. Toby Baker, the executive director of the TCEQ, said the agency’s effort to add mobile air monitoring capacity was in motion before the EPA OIG report, but acknowledged that Hurricane Harvey was a turning point for environmental regulators. “We learned some lessons with Hurricane Harvey,” Baker said. Tuesday’s announcement was held in Houston’s Manchester neighborhood at Hartman Park, next to Valero’s Houston Refinery, where a storage tank notoriously collapsed during Hurricane Harvey — one of the unmonitored pollution events during the storm. The extent of the emissions released by chemical plants, refineries and other industrial operators along the Gulf Coast during and after Hurricane Harvey is unknown due to the lag in air monitoring, according to the EPA report.

It found that 10 of them had reported benzene levels above the established threshold over a one-year period that ended in September. “EPA in 2015 imposed regulations to better monitor benzene and protect people living near refineries, often in working-class neighborhoods. Some stressed that the fence line monitoring data isn't necessarily indicative of public health risks and described the report as misleading. Kansas-based Flint Hills Resources said that the fence-line monitoring data it reported to the EPA isn't necessarily indicative of benzene levels in communities near its facility. In a one-sentence statement, Valero pointed out that its current benzene monitoring averages are below the threshold.

HOUSTON – The average cost of a gallon of gas in Houston is $3.19. But some stations around town sold regular gas for 13 cents less. The following three stations sold gas for less on Friday, according to www.GasBuddy.com. Valero, Highway 6 near Sienna Ranch Drive in Missouri City: $3.06Chevron, Howard Drive near Interstate 45: $3.07Sam's Club, Katy Freeway near Plaza Drive: $3.11More Information: