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WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army private who fled to North Korea just over a year ago will plead guilty to desertion and four other charges and take responsibility for his conduct, his lawyer said Monday.

Travis King’s attorney, Franklin D. Rosenblatt, told The Associated Press that King intends to admit guilt to a total of five military offenses, including desertion and assaulting an officer. Nine other offenses, including possession of sexual images of a child, will be withdrawn and dismissed under the terms of the deal.

King will be given an opportunity at a Sept. 20 hearing at Fort Bliss, Texas, to discuss his actions and explain what he did.

“He wants to take responsibility for the things that he did,” Rosenblatt said.

In a separate statement, he added, “Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, and to all outside his circle who did not pre-judge his case based on the initial allegations.”

He declined to comment on a possible sentence that his client might face. Desertion is a serious charge and can result in imprisonment.

The AP reported last month that the two sides were in plea talks.

King bolted across the heavily fortified border from South Korea in July 2023, and became the first American detained in North Korea in nearly five years.

His run into North Korea came soon after he was released from a South Korean prison where he had served nearly two months on assault charges.

About a week after his release from the prison, military officers took him to the airport so he could return to Fort Bliss to face disciplinary action. He was escorted as far as customs, but instead of getting on the plane, he joined a civilian tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. He then ran across the border, which is lined with guards and often crowded with tourists.

He was detained by North Korea, but after about two months, Pyongyang abruptly announced that it would expel him. On Sept. 28, he was flown to back to Texas, and has been in custody there.

The U.S. military in October filed a series of charges against King under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including desertion, as well as kicking and punching other officers, unlawfully possessing alcohol, making a false statement and possessing a video of a child engaged in sexual activity. Those allegations date back to July 10, the same day he was released from the prison.

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Monday paused a Biden administration policy that would give spouses of U.S. citizens legal status without having to first leave the country, dealing at least a temporary setback to one of the biggest presidential actions to ease a path to citizenship in years.

The administrative stay issued by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker comes just days after 16 states, led by Republican attorneys general, challenged the program that could benefit an estimated 500,000 immigrants in the country, plus about 50,000 of their children. The states accused the administration of bypassing Congress for “blatant political purposes.”

One of the states leading the challenge is Texas, which in the lawsuit claimed the state has had to pay tens of millions of dollars annually from health care to law enforcement because of immigrants living in the state without legal status.

President Joe Biden announced the program in June. The court order, which lasts for two weeks but could be extended, comes one week after the Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications.

“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” Barker wrote.

Barker was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2019 as a judge in Tyler, Texas, which lies in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a favored venue for advocates pushing conservative arguments.

The judge laid out a timetable that could produce a decision shortly before the presidential election Nov. 5 or before a newly elected president takes office in January. Barker gave both sides until Oct. 10 to file briefs in the case.

The policy offers spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status, who meet certain criteria, a path to citizenship by applying for a green card and staying in the U.S. while undergoing the process. Traditionally, the process could include a years-long wait outside of the U.S., causing what advocates equate to “family separation.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the order.

“The court’s decision tonight to halt the federal government from providing relief is devastating to the thousands of Texas families that could have benefited from this program,” Jessica Cisneros, an attorney for the advocacy organization the Texas Immigration Law Council, said Monday.

Several families were notified of the receipt of their applications, according to attorneys advocating for eligible families who filed a motion to intervene earlier Monday.

“Texas should not be able to decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and their immigrant spouses without confronting their reality,” Karen Tumlin, the founder and director of Justice Action Center, said during the press conference before the order was issued.

The program has been particularly contentious in an election year where immigration is one of the biggest issues, with many Republicans attacking the policy and contending it is essentially a form of amnesty for people who broke the law.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton cheered the order.

“This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law,” Paxton posted on the social media platform X.

To be eligible for the program, immigrants must have lived continuously in the U.S. for at least 10 years, not pose a security threat or have a disqualifying criminal history, and have been married to a citizen by June 17 — the day before the program was announced.

They must pay a $580 fee to apply and fill out a lengthy application, including an explanation of why they deserve humanitarian parole and a long list of supporting documents proving how long they have been in the country.

If approved, applicants have three years to seek permanent residency. During that period, they can get work authorization.

Before this program, it was complicated for people who were in the U.S. illegally to get a green card after marrying an American citizen. They can be required to return to their home country — often for years — and they always face the risk they may not be allowed back in.

TEXAS – NPR is reporting that if you’re planning to squeeze in one last summer road trip over the coming Labor Day weekend, it won’t cost as much to fill up your tank compared to a few months ago. The national average for a gallon of regular has fallen more than 20 cents since May and is now at $3.38 — about 47 cents lower than this time a year ago. Experts say the trend is likely to continue in the coming months, possibly leading to $3-a-gallon gasoline for the first time since 2021. According to AAA, as of Thursday, the price per gallon for regular gasoline ranged from $4.59 in California, where state gas tax is the highest in the nation, to $2.93 in Mississippi, which has one of the lowest tax rates on fuel. “For every Mississippi, you have a California to balance it out,” says Andrew Gross, a spokesperson for AAA.

A year ago, excessive heat forced Texas refineries to curtail operations, and Hurricane Idalia temporarily shut down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, which contributed to higher prices. Despite record-breaking heat waves across the country this summer, Texas and Louisiana, where the majority of U.S. refineries are located, haven’t been hit as hard. “The late-season wild card is always hurricanes,” says Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “If a hurricane makes landfall in a refining area, it can really disrupt things.” Forecasters have warned of a particularly active hurricane season this year, but things have been quieter than expected — so far. Hurricane Beryl did considerable damage in parts of the Caribbean and caused some disruptions to U.S. refinery operations, but things got back to normal pretty quickly. Even so, energy analyst Stephen Schork, who is principal and co-founder of The Schork Group, cautions that we are entering peak hurricane season, which falls between mid-August and late October. In 2005, the double wallop of Hurricane Katrina at the end of August, followed by Hurricane Rita nearly a month later, “completely disrupted the market and sent prices extremely higher,” he says.

AUSTIN (AP) — A Latino voting rights group called Monday for a federal investigation after its volunteers said Texas authorities raided their homes and seized phones and computers as part of an investigation by the state’s Republican attorney general into allegations of voter fraud.

No charges have been filed against any targets of the searches that took place last week in the San Antonio area. Attorney General Ken Paxton previously confirmed his office had conducted searches after a local prosecutor referred to his office “allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting” during the 2022 election.

Some volunteers whose homes were searched, including an 80-year-old woman who told her associates that agents were at her house for two hours and took medicine, along with her smartphone and watch, railed outside an attorney general’s office in San Antonio against the searches.

“We feel like our votes are being suppressed,” Roman Palomares, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Monday. “We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

The investigation is part of an Election Integrity Unit that Paxton formed in his office. Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The federal Justice Department declined to comment.

At least six members had their homes searched, Palomares said. They included Manuel Medina, a San Antonio political consultant, who claimed his home was searched for several hours while agents seized documents, computers and cellphones. Medina is the former head of the Bexar County Democratic Party and is working on the campaign of Democratic state House candidate Cecilia Castellano, whose home was also searched.

Nine officers also entered the home of volunteer Lidia Martinez, 80, who said she expressed confusion about why they were there.

“They sat me down and they started searching all my house, my store room, my garage, kitchen, everything,” Martinez said, and interrogated her about other members, including Medina.

The search warrant ordered officials to search any documents related to the election and to confiscate Martinez’s devices.

“I’m not doing anything illegal,” Martinez said she told agents. “All I do is help the seniors.”

Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs in isolated instances and is generally detected. An Associated Press investigation of the 2020 presidential election found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports the SCOPE Act is scheduled to go into effect Sunday — but a recent challenge to the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act may prevent that. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a 501(c) nonprofit, sued to block enforcement of the law aimed to protect minors from “harmful content and data collection practices.” “Courts have already enjoined similar measures in California, Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi, and Indiana,” the lawsuit reads. “While these efforts to protect young people are well-intentioned, they lack perspective. The idea that some types of social network use by some minors under certain conditions might adversely affect some segment of this cohort cannot justify imposing government restrictions on all social network use by all minors.” In the lawsuit filed Aug. 16 against Attorney General Ken Paxton, the nonprofit alleges the SCOPE Act infringes on more than just children’s rights.

“Texas has jumped on a misguided bandwagon of recent efforts to childproof the internet by passing the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act,” the lawsuit reads. “The Act subjects all Texans — not just minors — to age registration as a condition of access to digital services. It requires online services to monitor their content, and depending on a service’s mix, requires even more intrusive and imperfect age-verification screenings as a condition to engage in protected speech, violating established law.” Introduced by Rep. Shelby Slawson as House Bill 18, the act requires digital service providers to follow these guidelines: Digital service providers must register the age of the person creating an account for the platform and prevent the person from altering his/her age at a later date; A minor’s parent and/or guardian must notify the digital service provider of the minor’s age or successfully dispute the registered user’s age. The target audience for the SCOPE Act is anyone younger than 18. The Chronicle previously reported Slawson said the bill, passed during the 88th Texas Legislative Session, aims to keep kids safe online while empowering parental involvement.

AUSTIN – The Austini American-Statesman reports that the UT System Board of Regents approved a new measure in its free speech policy Thursday barring the system and its institutions, including the University of Texas, from taking political stances or making statements on matters not immediately pertinent to their campuses or operations. It is not “the role of the UT System or UT institutions to adopt positions based on political or social passions or pressures,” the new rule states. “Institutions should not, in their official capacity, issue or express positions on issues of the day, however appealing they may be to some members of the university community,” the guideline continues. Though the regents’ new order does not affect individuals at the institutions, it applies to official system and university functions, ceremonies, publications and statements.

UT System spokesperson Paul Corliss said the change was inspired by the University of Chicago’s 1967 Kalven report that insists on the importance of institutional neutrality except for instances that directly threaten the university. The spokesperson said the change is intended to foster a climate in which students, faculty and staff members are freer to express their positions and beliefs. “The University of Texas System’s commitment to free speech and open inquiry is unequivocal and demonstrated by its earlier adoption of the principles set forth in the Chicago Statement on Free Speech,” Corliss’ statement said. “Similarly, today the Board of Regents endorsed an addition to UT System policy that further ensures that all members of its university communities are free to express their views. “Rooted in the Kalven Report from the University of Chicago, the policy reflects the principle that the institution’s role is not to take positions on political, social, or other matters unrelated to its operation but to uphold a community where students, faculty, and staff have the freedom to do so.”

DALLAS (AP) — The jersey Babe Ruth wore when he called his shot during the 1932 World Series, hitting a home run to center field, has sold at auction for over $24 million. Heritage Auctions said the New York Yankee slugger’s jersey went for $24.12 million early Sunday after a bidding war in Dallas that lasted over six hours. Heritage says the buyer wishes to remain anonymous. The record-breaking amount the jersey sold for topped fellow Yankee Mickey Mantle’s 1952 rookie card, which the Dallas-based auction house sold for $12.6 million in 2022.