KTBB News, Weather, Talk

HOUSTON – Houston Public Media reporta that the Liberty County Fire Marshal and two of his staffers were arrested and charged Monday following a monthslong Texas Rangers investigation into allegations they were tampering with government records and evidence. 63-year-old William Hergemueller, acting as the captain of the South Liberty County Hazardous Materials Team, allegedly intimidated towing companies into paying invoices for hazmat services, District Attorney Jennifer Bergman said. “Complaints were investigated where towing companies were led to believe by Hergemueller that he runs Liberty County and will send an invoice to them for hazmat services,” Bergman said. “These towing companies then felt they had to comply by paying the invoice in order to continue working with Liberty County and in order to protect their livelihood.” The towing companies paid several thousands of dollars over time.

“One tow truck company refused to pay such an invoice and Hergemueller along with Deputy Fire Marshal Holcomb showed up to conduct inspections on the business,” she said. All along, the men did not have the proper state licenses and permits to conduct their fire inspections. Bergman could not immediately say if the men were still employed by the county. Bergman during a press conference referred to arrest affidavit records, but county officials Wednesday did not provide the records upon several requests from Houston Public Media. Hergemueller is facing charges of official oppression, tampering with physical evidence and theft. 64-year-old Erskine Holcomb was charged with tampering with government records and theft. 49-year-old Jesse McGraw was charged with tampering with government records and tampering with physical evidence. ABC13 reported that Hergemueller and Holcomb responded to an 18-wheeler crash on Dec. 19, 2022. They allegedly punched a hole in the diesel tank and siphoned the fuel into their hazmat vehicle. The men allegedly unloaded products from the vehicle carrying cheese, duck meat and other produce.

AUSTIN – KXAN reports that in Wimberley, boulders and deer bones bake in the heat where there was once a thriving creek. The lakes and rivers that once attracted Texans and enabled them to grow communities there are drying up, posing an active but underappreciated emergency that sets a limit on the “Texas Miracle,” state leaders say. “Texas is out of water,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told Nexstar on Tuesday. “We can’t grow, we can’t expand, we can’t have economic opportunity and jobs without water. We’ve reached our limit, there is no more. We’ve got to do some things different.” Wimberley and much of Central Texas has been in a drought for most of the last two years. It has led some local officials to implement Stage 4 water restrictions, where residents are penalized for automatic water sprinklers and watering is confined to certain times. But out in West Texas, conditions are far worse. Miller said Texas loses about one farm every week, but it’s not for lack of land. Farmers don’t have enough water to keep their crops alive.

Texas’s population is expected to gain over 22 million people by 2070, according to the 2022 Texas State Water Plan. Over the same period, the water supply is projected to decrease by 18%. The National Wildlife Federation found Texas loses 572,000 acre-feet of water per year — enough to fill almost 240 AT&T Stadiums and supply Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, Laredo, and Lubbock combined for an entire year. As Texas regularly faces drought periods, some lawmakers are urging the state to proactively protect the most valuable resource. “It’s the silent issue, with the least urgency, with the biggest impact,” State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, previously told Nexstar. “We’ve been, for far too long, treating water like a commodity that has no meaning. And it’s truly not. It’s not a commodity. It’s a necessity.” On Tuesday, state lawmakers tasked with shepherding natural resources reviewed the implementation of the Texas Water Fund, which dedicated a billion dollars to water conservation projects across the state. But that sum is, for lack of a better term, a drop in the bucket. Perry, one of the legislature’s longtime champions of water conservation, expects it will take billions more.

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports Attorney General Ken Paxton is making a third attempt at blocking the State Fair of Texas’ new policy that would stop most people from carrying guns at the 24-day event, which begins Friday. Paxton filed a petition Wednesday with the Texas Supreme Court to challenge prior rulings from Dallas County District Judge Emily Tobolowsky, a Democrat, last week and the 15th District Court of Appeals, which has three Republican justices, on Tuesday in Austin. Both rulings against Paxton allow the policy to remain in place. The attorney general has asserted that the policy violates gun owners’ rights and that since the fair is held on land owned by the city of Dallas, it’s illegal to restrict access to people lawfully carrying firearms. He has sued the fair, the city and its interim city manager over the new rule. “The Court of Appeals clearly abused its discretion by denying emergency relief from the trial court’s order because the city’s ultra vires acts violate state law,” Paxton’s latest challenge says.

The new fair policy allows only elected, appointed, or employed peace officers to bring firearms onto the fairgrounds. Previously, attendees with a valid handgun license could carry their gun onto the 277-acre Fair Park during the event as long as it was concealed. State law doesn’t require Texans to have a permit to carry a firearm in a public place. The fair is one of the biggest annual celebrations in the state and welcomed more than 2.3 million people last year. The policy change comes after a man shot three people at the fair last October. Fair officials have argued the new policy is meant to increase the safety of attendees and state law allows private groups to prohibit firearms on property leased from a city for private events. City attorneys have said Dallas officials have no say in any fair policies, and as Fair Park’s lessee, the nonprofit can implement whatever rules it wants for the 24 days of the annual celebration. Paxton previously issued legal opinions saying private groups could ban people from coming onto leased government-owned property with guns, including rejecting a complaint in 2016 over the privately-run Dallas Zoo banning guns from its city-owned property.

DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines said Thursday that it plans to end the open-boarding system it has used for more than 50 years and start flights with passengers sitting in assigned seats during the first half of 2026 as the company tries to remodel the airline to change with consumer tastes and improve profits.

CEO Robert Jordan and other Southwest executives gave details about the airline’s future transformation at an investor meeting in Dallas. The airline plans to reserve a third of seats on its flights for passengers who would pay a premium to get up to five extra inches of legroom – and provide a source of more revenue.

The changes to some of Southwest’s quirky habits are designed to reverse its slumping stock price and to fend off a possible proxy fight with hedge fund Elliott Investment Management that could cost Southwest leaders their jobs.

It’s unclear whether the changes will work, but they could leave an airline that bears little resemblance to the Southwest customers know — a carrier that still has a core of rabid fans.

Ahead of the meeting, the airline announced that it expects to begin selling assigned seats just like all other airlines in the second half of 2025 and launch flights under the new model in the first half of 2026. The open-boarding system it has used will disappear, and passengers will be assigned seats, just like on all the other big airlines.

Southwest says its surveys show that 80% of its customers now want to know their seat before they get to the airport instead of picking among the open seats when they board the plane.

The introduction of assigned and premium seating also will require some changes to how passengers board planes before takeoff. The airline said its “most loyal customers and those who purchase premium seating” will be put in the first boarding group. In the past, Southwest customers were assigned their spots in boarding lines based on when they checked in and then left to scramble for their preferred places on planes.

However, the airline said it would continue to allow passengers to check two bags for free, describing the policy as “the most important feature by far in setting Southwest apart from other airlines.”

U.S. airlines brought in more than $7 billion in revenue from bag fees last year, with American and United reaping more than $1 billion apiece. Wall Street has long argued that Southwest is leaving money behind.

But Southwest has built years of advertising campaigns around bags-fly-free. Taking away that perk could change the airline’s DNA as much as — or maybe more — than dumping open seating. The airline said doing away with its policy “would drive down demand and far outweigh any revenue gains created by imposing and collecting bag fees.”

Southwest has been contemplating an overhaul for months, but the push for radical change became even more important to management this summer, when Elliott Investment Management targeted the company for its dismal stock performance since early 2021.

Tom Fitzgerald, an airline analyst with TD Cowen, said investors will be interested to see if Southwest introduces a cut-rate “basic economy” fare or offers changes to its Rapid Rewards frequent-flyer program.

The analyst said another major topic of interest would be whether Southwest plans to reduce its flying next year instead of growing, and whether it plans to keep shrinking the workforce. Southwest expects to cut about 2,000 jobs this year through attrition.

Company management heads into the investor day having angered an important interest group: its own workforce. The airline told employees Wednesday that it will make sharp cuts to service in Atlanta next year, resulting in the loss of 340 pilot and flight attendant positions.

Employee unions are watching the fight between Elliott Investment Management and airline management, but they are not taking sides. “That’s between Southwest and Elliott, and we’ll see how it plays out,” Alison Head, a flight attendant and union official in Atlanta, said.

However, the unions are concerned that more of their members could be forced to relocate or commute long distances to keep their jobs. Southwest’s chief operating officer told employees last week that the airline will have to make “difficult decisions” about its network to improve its financial performance.

Elliott seized on that comment, saying that Southwest leaders are now “taking any action – no matter how short-sighted – that they believe will preserve their own jobs.”

The hedge fund controlled by billionaire financier Paul Singer now owns more than 10% of Southwest shares and is the airline’s second-biggest shareholder. It wants to fireCEO Jordan and Chairman Gary Kelly and replace two-thirds of Southwest’s board.

Southwest gave ground this month, when it announced that six directors will leave in November and Kelly will step down next year. The airline is digging in to protect Jordan, however.

Elliott increased its pressure on Southwest this week by saying that it intends to call a special shareholder meeting as soon as next week to make the case for a board overhaul. Elliott has a slate of 10 potential nominees, including former airline CEOs.

“We do not support the company’s current course, which is being charted in a haphazard manner by a group of executives in full self-preservation mode,” Elliott said this week in a letter to other shareholders.

Jordan fired back on Wednesday, saying it is Elliott that wants to fly solo by lobbing “another negative press public ambush” instead of contributing to Southwest’s “transformational plan.”

“We’re willing to compromise, but acquiescing to a single shareholder’s demand for control of the company is not a compromise,” Jordan said. “There’s a lot to be excited about in Southwest, and we will not allow Elliott’s public attacks to distract us.”

Before Thursday’s event started, Southwest announced a $2.5 billion share-buyback program designed to make existing shares more valuable.

The airline also said that a third-quarter revenue ratio will rise by up to 3% instead of being between flat and down 2%, partly because Southwest gained passengers from other airlines during the CrowdStrike computer outage in July, which hit Delta Air Lines particularly hard. And it named a former AirTran and Spirit Airlines CEO to its board.

Shares of Southwest rose 6% in trading before the opening bell.

Shawn Cole, a founding partner of executive search firm Cowen Partners, whose firm has worked for other airlines but not Southwest, believes Southwest is too insular and should follow the recent examples of Starbucks and Boeing and hire an outsider as CEO. He thinks many qualified executives would be interested in the job.

“It would be a challenge, no doubt, but Southwest is a storied airline that a lot of people think fondly of,” Cole said. “If Boeing can do it, Southwest can do it.”