KTBB News, Weather, Talk

HOUSTON (AP) – About 10 miles from Johnson Space Center, a Houston-area church takes a moment during Wednesday Bible studies and Sunday evening services to pray for two members who cannot be there. In fact, there’s no way on Earth for NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Tracy Dyson to show up at Providence Baptist Church. They’re in space, orbiting the planet. More specifically, these two members are working on the International Space Station together. Like many astronauts before them, they brought along their faith when they launched into space. “God uses all of us in pretty neat ways, and I think I get the most joy from what I do thinking about it in those terms,” said Dyson, discussing her job on the “Bible Project” podcast ahead of her March launch on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Dyson’s six-month mission isn’t scheduled to end until September, but Wilmore and his fellow NASA test pilot, Suni Williams, should have been back weeks ago. They are staying longer than expected following thruster failures and helium leaks on Boeing’s inaugural crew flight for its Starliner capsule. Wilmore and Williams have said they are confident the capsule will return them home safely; engineers are still poring over Starliner test data. There’s no return date yet, which means the congregation’s worries have subsided for now since they are safe aboard the space station, said Tommy Dahn. He is a pastor for the Pasadena, Texas, church where Dyson worships as a newer member and Wilmore is a longtime elder. It’s the launch and return days that ratchet up their anxieties — and prayers. “We will definitely be on vigil as we find out when that’s going to happen,” said Dahn, who is in close contact with Wilmore and his wife during the latest mission. Wilmore paused before boarding the Starliner on each launch attempt, huddling in prayer with technicians and Williams. He acknowledged the risks of spaceflight — especially on a test flight like his.

BEAUMONT – A Timpson man has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking and firearms violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs.

Austin Yarbrough, 31, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone on August 7, 2024.

According to information presented in court, from 2021 through 2023, law enforcement conducted an investigation into a drug trafficking organization operating throughout East Texas. Yarbrough was identified as a member of that organization and a distributor of methamphetamine, as well as a firearms trafficker. As a member of the organization, Yarbrough would receive methamphetamine transported by his co-conspirators and then distribute the methamphetamine in the Timpson area. On multiple occasions, law enforcement conducted operations leading to the purchase of methamphetamine and firearms from Yarbrough, including a modified .45 caliber rifle with a shortened barrel and an adjustable stock.

Further investigation revealed Yarbrough has previous felony convictions, including possession of a controlled substance, burglary of a building, and bail jumping. As a convicted felon, Yarbrough is prohibited by federal law from owning or possessing firearms or ammunition.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

This case was investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Angelina County Sheriff’s Office; Drug Enforcement Administration; and FBI. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald S. Carter.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association at a meeting Tuesday voted to seek a rate increase of 10% for 2025 residential and commercial policies, which could cost some coastal property owners hundreds of dollars more each year. After several hours of occasionally heated public testimony, TWIA’s board voted 6-3 in favor of the increase. The proposal next goes to the Texas Department of Insurance, where if approved the rate hike would be expected to take effect in January. The emotionally charged meeting in Galveston illustrated the distress many coastal Texas property owners are experiencing as extreme weather events reshape the insurance landscape. Opponents of the rate increase emphasized how the change would strain their budgets.

One retiree said that with windstorm insurance, flood insurance, homeowners insurance and property insurance, he pays more than $600 a month — on a fixed income — to live in a house he owns outright. On TWIA’s average residential premium of $2,300 a year, the rate hike would add $230. “We cannot afford this,” said a woman who explained that she and her husband are retired. “I’m going to use the heavenly vernacular of hell: Oh, hell no.” TWIA, a not-for-profit insurance association, was created by the Texas Legislature in 1971 to provide wind and hail insurance in Texas’s 14 coastal counties and a corner of Harris County. As of March, there were about 250,000 TWIA policies in force in coastal Texas, a 37% increase from 2020. The association also administers the Texas Fair Plan Association, which provides property insurance to Texas homeowners who have been denied by at least two other companies. “The impact on many of our residents will cause a disaster,” said Ryan Skrobarczyk, director of intergovernmental affairs for Corpus Christi. “Many of our residents are already stretched thin, struggling to balance essential needs with the inflationary cost of living.”

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man who claimed an intellectual disability in a late attempt at a reprieve was executed Wednesday evening for the killing of a woman who was jogging near her Houston home more than 27 years ago.

Arthur Lee Burton, 54, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. local time. He was condemned for the July 1997 killing and attempted rape of Nancy Adleman, a 48-year-old mother of three.

Burton appeared nervous as he lay strapped to the death chamber gurney and a spiritual adviser prayed briefly over him, the inmate’s right leg twitching under a white sheet that covered him from his chest to his feet.

“I want to say thank you to all the people who support me and pray for me,” Burton said when asked by the warden if he had a final statement, his voice repeatedly cracking with a sharp breath after saying several words.

“To all the people I have hurt and caused pain, I wish we didn’t have to be here at this moment, but I want you to know that I am sorry for putting y’all through this and my family. I’m not better than anyone. I hope that I find peace and y’all can too.”

He nodded to his brother, Michael, watching through a window nearby, took four gasps as the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect, then appeared to yawn before all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 24 minutes later.

Adleman had been brutally beaten and strangled with her own shoelace in a heavily wooded area off a jogging trail along a bayou, police said. According to authorities, Burton confessed to killing her, saying “she asked me why was I doing it and that I didn’t have to do it.” He recanted this confession at trial.

Hours before the scheduled execution time, the U.S. Supreme Court declined a defense request to intervene after lower courts had previously rejected Burton’s request for a stay.

Burton’s lawyers had argued that reports by two experts and the records showed Burton “exhibited low scores on tests of learning, reasoning, comprehending complex ideas, problem solving, and suggestibility, all of which are examples of significant limitations in intellectual functioning.” They had argued the evidence was a strong indication of an intellectual disability that made him “categorically exempt from the death penalty.”

Prosecutors, however, argued that Burton had not previously raised claims of an intellectual disability and that he had waited until eight days before his scheduled execution to do so.

An expert for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Burton, said in an Aug. 1 report that he had not seen any evidence Burton suffered from a significant deficit in intellectual or mental capabilities.

“I have not seen any mental health or other notations that Mr. Burton suffers from a significant deficit in intellectual or mental capabilities,” said the report by Thomas Guilmette, a psychology professor at Providence College in Rhode Island.

The Supreme Court in 2002 had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people. But it has given states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.

Burton was convicted in 1998 but his death sentence was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2000. He received another death sentence at a new punishment trial in 2002.

In their petition to the Supreme Court, Burton’s lawyers accused the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals of rejecting their claims of intellectual disability because of “hostility” toward prior Supreme Court rulings that criticized the state’s rules on determining intellectual disability.

In its filing to the Supreme Court, the Texas Attorney General’s Office denied that the state appeals court was refusing to adhere to current criteria for determining intellectual disability.

Burton was the third inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, and the 11th in the U.S.

On Thursday, Taberon Dave Honie is scheduled to be the first inmate executed in Utah since 2010. He was condemned for the 1998 killing of his girlfriend’s mother.

___

Lozano reported from Houston.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

PORT ARTHUR (AP) – The $43 million infusion the Port Arthur Independent School District received in federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds accomplished more than Phyllis Geans could have ever imagined.

The money allowed the district to upgrade antiquated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Teachers earned retention stipends at a time when many were leaving the profession. Students received new band instruments. An ambitious summer program taught them about photography, robots and skydiving.

“We were excited, really excited, because we started thinking about things that we knew were almost impossible,” said Geans, Port Arthur ISD’s assistant superintendent of operations. “It was unreal.”

Districts like Port Arthur ISD, where roughly 85% of students are economically disadvantaged, received a level of financial support they likely wouldn’t have received otherwise — and they took advantage of it by investing in community health, learning, infrastructure and safety.

But the more than $19 billion Texas schools received in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds over the last four years will expire on Sept. 30, with a few exceptions.

The money will go away at a time when Texas schools are already struggling to keep the lights on. A number of districts are planning to enter the next school year with multimillion-dollar holes in their budgets as inflation has sent costs soaring. The Texas Legislature failed last year to approve a significant boost to the base amount of money every school receives per student — an amount that hasn’t changed since 2019 — as lawmakers fought over whether to fund private education with taxpayer dollars.

School administrators say losing the pandemic relief funds not only threatens the programs they paid for but also highlights how precarious their districts’ situation has become after years of clamoring for more state funding.

“It’s not about making up ESSER, because we all knew that was one-time funding,” said La Joya ISD Superintendent Marcey Sorensen. “I just would ask, without getting political whatsoever, that everybody just look in the mirror and say, OK, if we really haven’t provided additional funding since 2019, maybe it’s time that we just give school districts a little bit more of what they need, knowing that kids have different needs now.”

Congress established the ESSER program in 2020 to help schools address the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Texas, districts experienced significant enrollment declines and the number of burnt-out teachers exiting the profession skyrocketed. Years of educational gains unraveled as kids, parents and teachers struggled with school closures and the hurried transition to online learning.

District leaders say the federal pandemic relief funds helped them address learning disruptions and provide additional academic support for students.

“They helped us ride out the five years of no new funding from the state,” said Ronald Wilson, Hearne ISD’s chief financial officer.

Recent studies show the relief funds helped schools across the country improve test scores. For districts where most students come from low-income households, the funds were particularly meaningful, and not just for academics.

In Port Arthur ISD, where most students are Black and Hispanic and the four-year graduation rate is well below the state average, the Brilliance Academy summer program took students on an indoor skydiving trip, where they learned about wind resistance, speed and velocity. The district created a program that paid high school seniors to provide supplemental classroom instruction to elementary kids. Geans said some of the students who participated in the program later expressed interest in pursuing a career in teaching.

Meanwhile, Paris ISD established income incentives for teachers to mentor students. Hearne ISD hired behavioral specialists and social workers to assist students and their families during the pandemic. San Elizario ISD built spaces for recreational activities like playing the piano and hosted family fitness, literacy and math events.

“I think we were more successful in growing the whole child, on the part where we’re growing young ladies and young men,” said Jerrica Liggins, Paris ISD’s secondary education director and college transition coordinator. “We gave them things that they need to be successful in the next grade level or whether they were graduating and going out into the workforce. We gave them things that helped make them a better person.”

Schools across the country have faced questions about how they’ve spent federal relief funds. District officials who used them for things like hiring more staff for their central offices, purchasing pool passes or renovating sports stadiums have received the harshest criticism.

Texas schools will likely face similar spending questions next year. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, recently directed that chamber’s education committee to review how public schools spent the massive influx of federal COVID-19 relief money. The review will likely focus on how districts used the funds to improve student outcomes.

Standardized test scores are one of the main ways in which student achievement and growth are measured in the state, and the same is true for how the use of pandemic relief funds has been evaluated in national studies.

In Texas, the pandemic caused a dramatic decline in learning, with reading and math scores hit particularly hard. The effects were even more profound for students who participated in online classes. Math scores have yet to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

How to hold schools accountable for Texas students’ academic performance has also been a contentious issue in recent years. School districts have fought with the Texas Education Agency over its letter grade accountability system, claiming recent changes would hurt their ratings. School officials have argued that testing scores alone are not enough to measure school systems’ effectiveness.

What ESSER spending evaluations sometimes miss is the extent to which the relief funds helped school districts stay alive, said Amanda Brownson, deputy executive director of the Texas Association of School Business Officials.

The funds “helped them keep the doors open, helped them make sure staff were in classrooms ready to greet kids when they came back; it helped them not … collapse,” Brownson said. “What we don’t have is the counterfactual: What shape would school districts be in right now if they had to manage the pandemic and had not had ESSER funding available?”

Maintaining the programs Texas schools created with federal relief funds will likely be difficult without them.

A recent survey conducted by the TASBO found that out of 313 school districts across the state, nearly 80% reported deficit budgets or a lack of resources as one of their top challenges. Ninety percent of respondents said they have less than a quarter of pandemic relief funds remaining.

Gov. Greg Abbott has faced sharp criticism from public school advocates for his unwillingness to support standalone legislation to significantly boost school funding.

Since last year, Abbott has pushed for education savings accounts, which would allow families to use tax dollars to pay for their children’s private education and other school-related expenses. Opponents in the Texas House, citing worries that such a program would siphon funds away from public schools, successfully blocked the measure. But it meant public schools wouldn’t get the funding boost they wanted: Abbott had said he would veto any school funding proposal that did not include an education savings accounts program.

The governor has vowed to make a similar push when the Legislature reconvenes next year.

The uncertainty around state funding for public schools has created a situation where school districts are spending more time worrying about their financial sustainability and less about what’s best for students, said Monty Exter, governmental relations director of the Association of Texas Professional Educators.

But for low-income districts, money difficulties are not unfamiliar. And they plan to do what they’ve always done: find ways to provide for students and families with their limited resources.

Some school districts are encouraging their staff to be on the lookout for local grant opportunities. Others are thinking of asking voters to increase the tax revenue going to schools or support school bonds. Few say they are looking to the Legislature for solutions.

”We’re taking as much of the funding issues on ourselves and moving forward,” said Hearne ISD Superintendent Adrian Johnson, adding that he is still hopeful that legislators will do more to fund public schools.

“But we’re not waiting on that to happen,” he said.

DETROIT (AP) — Federal safety authorities say they are seeking information on a crash and fire involving a Tesla Cybertruck that killed a driver of the futuristic new pickup.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday it is gathering information from Tesla. The agency did not send crash investigators, nor has it opened a formal investigation into the crash. It did not say if it is investigating the cause of the fire or whether the driver was using a partially automated driving system.

Messages were left Wednesday seeking comment from Tesla and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The death apparently is the first involving the angular stainless steel-clad truck, which went on sale Nov. 30.

KHOU-TV reported that state troopers are investigating the crash, which occurred in the Baytown area of Chambers County early Monday. The truck was heading down a parkway when it left the road for an unknown reason, hit a concrete culvert and went up in flames, the station reported.

The Cybertruck was recalled twice in June to fix problems with trim pieces that can come loose and front windshield wipers that can fail. It has been recalled four times since its introduction.

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports Austin-based CrowdStrike’s worldwide outage last month now has the company staring down a barrage of escalating legal issues. On Monday, the cybersecurity company was sued by airline passengers whose flights were delayed or canceled. In a proposed class action lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin, Texas, three travelers accused CrowdStrike of negligence in testing and deploying its software, which they claim caused the outage. The disruption also affected banks, hospitals, and emergency services worldwide. The plaintiffs state in the suit that travelers were sent into a frenzy and in response were forced to spend hundreds of dollars on lodging, meals and alternative travel. The suit goes on to add that others missed work or suffered health problems from having to sleep on the airport floor. The lawsuit concludes that CrowdStrike should pay compensatory and punitive damages to all fliers whose flights were disrupted.

CrowdStrike said in a statement: “We believe this case lacks merit and we will vigorously defend the company.” The Statesman previously reported that Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said there is “no choice” but to initiate a lawsuit against CrowdStrike after it caused widespread software outages in July that cost the airline $500 million. Beyond public apologies from its CEO, CrowdStrike released a blog post detailing how it will change operations to avoid a similar event. Changes include adjusting its update verification system to better filter faulty code. Additionally, the company said it was no longer going to release mass updates to avoid the possibility of mass outages. Not long after the crash, CrowdStrike sent Uber Eats gift cards worth $10 to its partners who worked long hours to restore systems for customers. According to TechCrunch, a tech news website, the Uber Eats voucher was accompanied by an email that read: “And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” and the email continued, “To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!” The response to the voucher was a mix of confusion and frustration, and, due to high usage rates, Uber flagged some of the vouchers as fraudulent making them unusable. CrowdStrike is adamant that it sent the voucher as a thank you and not as an apology.

FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Fort Worth and four other major Texas cities are investing $2.7 million in potential economic benefits expected to be created by the Michelin Guide, which recognizes restaurants across the globe for food quality. The state’s travel office paid $450,000 annually for marketing and promotional efforts tied to the expansion, along with a $90,000 per year contribution from the cities of Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, tourism officials said. The three-year agreement — totaling $270,000 per city — is intended to increase tourism in the state, but does not guarantee a set number of stars or other Michelin designations for each participating city. “Texas is one of the top destinations for visitors from across the nation and the world, and with the Michelin Guide spotlighting the diverse and flavorful Texas culinary scene, we will continue to attract even more global travelers to the Lone Star State,” said Tim Fennell, director of the Travel Texas office.

The five cities will spend over three years a collective $1.35 million, which will be matched by the state during that time. Michelin Guide, launched by brothers André and Édouard Michelin in 1900, began awarding star ratings to restaurants in 1926. Fewer than 2,000 of the guide’s roughly 17,000 restaurants are located in the U.S. but that number could change after inspectors visit Fort Worth and other Texas cities. Fort Worth officials said they are excited that some local restaurants could get global recognition from Michelin, which is arriving in Texas for the first time. The local funding for the Michelin Guide — $90,000 annually paid through Visit Fort Worth, the city’s tourism arm — is almost the cost equivalent of leasing two prominent billboards in a major city for about a year at an average rate of $3,500 per month, officials said. “With 1 in every 3 tourism dollars being spent on food and beverage by Fort Worth visitors, the largest tourism-spend category grossing more than $760 million last year, it was a no-brainer to join efforts in bringing Michelin to Texas,” Mayor Mattie Parker said.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas Children’s Hospital said Tuesday it is laying off 5% of its workforce amid a series of financial challenges for the nation’s largest children’s hospital. The hospital declined to provide a specific number of employees being affected by layoffs, but Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources officer Linda Aldred said in an interview that Texas Children’s has approximately 20,000 employees across 120 locations in Houston, across Texas and around the world. A 5% reduction in that workforce would cut roughly 1,000 jobs. Multiple factors, including lower patient volumes in Houston and a two-week delay in the opening of the new Austin campus, contributed to the hospital reporting an operating income loss of nearly $200 million through the first six months of its current fiscal year.

Aldred said the layoffs are the result of what she characterized as “historic financial challenges” within the health care industry. She said Texas Children’s took other measures before determining layoffs were necessary; for example, the hospital has reduced the size of its executive leadership team and plans to cut executives’ compensation this year. “This has been so challenging and so difficult for us to get here. We have been really thoughtful about it,” Aldred said. “We plan to communicate these changes (Tuesday), and we do not plan to have additional cuts or job eliminations.” Aldred said Texas Children’s does not anticipate the cuts will affect patient care. The layoffs come about one month after Fitch Ratings, one of the three major credit rating agencies, downgraded Texas Children’s bond rating to AA- from AA after the hospital reported operating income losses of $198.1 million through the first six months of fiscal year 2024. Texas Children’s issued bonds to fund its growth and facility renovation projects, including construction at the new $450 million Austin campus and an expansion in women’s services. The hospital previously announced a $245 million expansion of its Pavilion for Women in the Texas Medical Center.