Issue 02
Published May 19, 2026 · Bilingual edition
A rate case nobody's talking about, a road that keeps getting wider, and a family-run sushi counter on FM 1488 whose chef trained a decade under New York sushi masters. The second long-form profile in the Founders of Magnolia series.
Civic Watch · Two Views
The Blue Topaz Rate Case: Two Views on the Same Page
A private utility serving 40+ subdivisions across Montgomery and Harris counties — Thousand Oaks among them — has a rate change pending before the Public Utility Commission. The utility says it's catching up on infrastructure investment that was deferred for decades. Ratepayers say the math keeps bending in one direction. We laid out the strongest version of both arguments side by side.
Read both sides →Founders of Magnolia
The Sushi Master of FM 1488
Tokyo Sushi & Grill lost its first Houston-area restaurant to the pandemic — and reopened in a Magnolia shopping center on FM 1488. The chef trained for more than ten years under master sushi chefs in New York, and it shows in the consistency. A family-run, independent counter with fairly priced sushi and hibachi (the salmon hibachi, made with sushi-grade fish, is our pick), plenty of cooked options for anyone wary of raw, and a welcome that comes with a smile. The second profile in the Founders of Magnolia series.
Read the full profile →Civic Watch · Two Views
The Median on FM 1488 Was Designed in 2019. The Town Has Changed Since.
The FM 1488 widening — two lanes to four, a continuous left-turn lane down the middle, raised medians where the design calls for them, $48.3 million in state funds — was 64 percent complete as of TxDOT's March 2026 update, on a calendar that runs through the third quarter of 2027. We laid out where the project stands, what changed visibly on the corridor, and the argument over raised medians that the town has not yet resolved.
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