Texas Tribune Daily Brief | | USGS to Raise Texas Earthquake Hazard Risk | | The United States Geological Survey will raise the official earthquake risk level in Texas. The new assessment will appear on the government group's seismic hazard map, which influences building codes, public policy and insurance for homes and other buildings across the country, said Mark Petersen, national coordinator of the earthquake hazards program. "Because of increased rates of earthquakes in Texas, the hazard is higher than it was previously," Petersen said. "This is a new thing that we want to start accounting for, these potentially induced earthquakes." He, like other scientists, wonders if the Texas tremors are induced by oil and gas activity in the region. It's not the oil extraction that some speculate could be triggering the quakes, but rather the high-pressure injection of hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater into deep disposal wells, said William Ellsworth, an earthquake researcher with the USGS. Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle 01/29/2015 | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | Dallas Hospitals Among Nationâ??s Most Expensive, U.S. Report Says | | Dallas has some of the most expensive hospitals in the country for patients getting surgeries covered by private insurance according to a GAO report released Wed. The report found above-average hospital spending for heart artery stents, total hip replacements and appendectomies in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area. Jim Landers, The Dallas Morning News 01/29/2015 | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News | | |