(WASHINGTON) -- Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill Thursday to accompany President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick to be secretary of the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, where they met with Republican senators in hopes of helping his nomination process amid new details about a 2017 sexual assault claim against him.
Hegseth met with several Republican senators Thursday morning including Sens. John Barrasso, Roger Wicker, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.
Hegseth emerged from his final meeting with the Republicans and thanked Trump, Vance and the senators, for the "incredible opportunity" to be nominated as the secretary of the Department of Defense. He said he takes the senate's advice and consent for this nomination "very seriously."
"It's an Incredible opportunity that I do not take lightly," Hegseth said.
Barrasso met with Hegseth Thursday morning and called the former Fox News host a "strong nominee."
"Pete pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power -- not the current administration's woke political agenda," Barrasso said.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee -- which will manage the secretary of defense nomination and eventual hearing, met with Hegseth and Vance Thursday morning for about an hour.
After the meeting, Wicker said Hegseth would be in "pretty good shape" during his confirmation process.
Hegseth, an Army veteran, could face a challenging road to confirmation and is speaking with Republican senators to in hopes of helping his nomination process.
Hegseth's visit to Capitol Hill comes after new details emerged on the 2017 sexual assault claim against him.
The woman who accused Hegseth of sexual assault in 2017 told police at the time that he took her phone and blocked her from leaving the room the night of the incident, according to a 22-page police report posted online overnight. Hegseth told police the encounter was consensual.
The woman told police she had drank "much more than normal" and could not remembers many details of the evening, but remembered saying "no" a lot during her encounter with Hegseth, according to the report.
On Thursday, Hegseth responded to a question about the sexual assault claim, saying "the matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared and that's where I am going to leave it."
Asked if the Hegseth allegations and police report came up in their conversation, Wicker said they didn't get into specifics.
"We weren't specific, but, ya know, since no charges were brought by the authorities, we have only press reports," Wicker said.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said she believes an FBI background check into Hegseth would be "helpful" in knowing more about Trump's pick.
Ernst, a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services committee, also said "there's a lot floating around out there, we need to actually be able to visit with him face to face, and I know the committee will do a thorough vetting."
Hegseth has been involved in other controversies as well. He has said in interviews before being named that he advocated a "frontal assault" on the DOD, including firing what he called "woke" generals and eliminating the Pentagon's diversity goals. He also argued that the United States "should not have women in combat roles."
Hegseth's Capitol Hill visit comes just one day after Vance and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump's nominee to be attorney general, met with senators to make his case for the role. Gaetz announced Thursday that he is withdrawing his name from consideration to be Trump's attorney general.
Gaetz's meetings with senators took place the same day the House Ethics Committee decided against releasing the report into him over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
-ABC News' Arthur Jones and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
Matthew McConaughey says it took turning down a $14.5 million payday for Hollywood to take him seriously in dramatic roles.
The actor appeared on tennis pro Nick Kyrgios' Good Trouble podcast and revealed he left Hollywood for Texas because he kept getting scripts for romantic comedies.
After a string of successful ones, like How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Wedding Planner, he wanted more.
"When I was rolling with the rom-coms, and I was the 'rom-com dude,' that was my lane and I liked that lane. That lane paid well ... I was so strong in that lane that anything outside that lane – dramas and stuff that I want[ed] to do ... Hollywood said, 'No, no, no. You should stay there.'"
He added, "So, since I couldn't do what I wanted to do, I ... moved down to the ranch in Texas."
He reportedly told his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, "I'm not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do."
The actor and author says he stuck to his guns even after studios sweetened the deal with a potential paycheck as high as $14.5 million. "That was probably seen as the most rebellious move in Hollywood by me because it really sent the signal, 'He ain’t f****** bluffing,'" McConaughey recalled, noting the gambit worked.
He insists, "The devil's in the infinite yeses, not the no's. 'No' becomes more important than 'yes.'"
McConaughey says N-O is even more important if you've become successful. "We can all look around and see we've over-leveraged our life with yeses and going, 'I'm making C-minuses and all this s*** in my life because I said yes to too many things.'"
LONGVIEW – According to a report from our news partner, KETK, an 18-year-old remains behind bars after leading police on a Tuesday pursuit and then crashing a stolen vehicle into a building, the Longview Police Department said.
Officers were called around 12:17 a.m. to a deadly conduct in the 1300 block of Lawndale Street. While responding to that call on the northwest Longview street, police saw a vehicle that had been reported stolen an hour earlier and initiated pursuit. “A short pursuit followed and then ended when the suspect vehicle crashed into a vacant building after striking a home as well,” said Longview PD. “There were no injuries at any of the involved locations.”
The driver, identified as 18-year-old Xavier Tennison of Longview, was booked into the Gregg County Jail. He was charged with evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and unlawful carrying of a weapon. He is being held on a total $87,000 bond.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the Longview Police Department at 903-237-1199.
(LONDON )-- As Jahanzeb Wesa fled toward the Pakistani border in the middle of the night, he wondered if his career defending human rights would help protect him now that he was a refugee himself.
A 28-year-old Afghan journalist and women's rights advocate, Wesa said he was attacked by a Taliban fighter while covering a women's rights protest just after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. If he didn't make it across the border, he said, he knew he would likely be killed.
"We worked for 20 years for a better future for Afghanistan," he recalled thinking. "Why did we lose everything?"
But arriving in a new country brought no sense of safety.
Following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, some Afghan journalists said they have been in limbo waiting for humanitarian visas while living in exile in Pakistan, where they fled across the shared border when Kabul fell.
The Taliban's violent suppression of criticism, along with draconian crackdowns on women's rights, meant journalists who stayed in Afghanistan were at constant risk of being detained, tortured, disappeared or killed.
In Pakistan, unable to legally work and threatened with deportation through government ultimatums and face-to-face interactions, some Afghan journalists applied for visas from countries that promised to help Afghan refugees.
Almost three years later, many said they still have not received a decision.
In the meantime, their prospects in Pakistan are dire, several told ABC News.
Life in Pakistan
Several Afghan journalists living in Pakistan told ABC News that their fear of deportation is omnipresent.
Khatera, a journalist from northern Afghanistan who asked ABC News not to publish her last name for her safety, fled to Pakistan in April 2022 after the Taliban raided her newsroom, destroying radios and TVs.
"After that," she said, "everything was a nightmare."
Like many Afghan journalists in Pakistan, Khatera arrived on a tourist visa she had to renew every six months through a private travel agent. Visa renewals were sometimes denied without reason, and officials often asked for bribes, she said.
The Pakistani government did not reply to a request for comment.
Housing, health care and transportation in Pakistan can be prohibitively expensive for Afghans, whose tourist visas don't allow them to work. Many rely on depleting savings, support from family members, or under-the-table jobs, according to those who spoke to ABC News. Given the economic strain, the biannual visa fee and the corresponding bribes present significant burdens, they said.
But not having proper documentation can bring serious consequences. "Anywhere you're going, the police are asking about your valid documents," said Khatera. They sometimes conduct nighttime home check-ins and try to deport those who can't provide valid papers, she said.
Those disruptions to daily life don't appear to be unique to journalists. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report declared a "humanitarian crisis" of Pakistani authorities committing widespread abuses, including mass detentions and property seizures, against Afghans in Pakistan. Over a month and a half, the report said, Pakistani authorities deported 20,000 Afghans and coerced over 350,000 more to leave on their own.
Afghan journalists regularly receive death threats from the regime at home over social media, Wesa said. "If I'm deported to Afghanistan," he said, "the Taliban is waiting for me."
"No journalist has been condemned to torture, disappearance, or death by the government of Afghanistan," said a spokesperson for the Taliban-run Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that "all citizens of the country are equal in the eyes of the law regardless of their position and profession."
Some journalists said they also face a widespread mental health crisis. Rahman, an Afghan journalist who asked ABC News to use his middle name due to what he described as ongoing threats from the Taliban, struggles with worsening depression and anxiety. He said he fears for himself and his family, still in Kabul.
"It's daily mental torture," he said.
An endless wait
The conditions in Pakistan have spurred many Afghan journalists to apply for humanitarian visas from the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and other European countries. Yet, some have not heard back for about three years.
Wesa applied for an Australian humanitarian visa on Jan. 4, 2022, six months after he arrived in Pakistan. He supplemented his application with support letters from Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and other nongovernmental organizations stating his life was at risk, he told ABC News.
More than two years after filing his initial application, he has received a confirmation of receipt but no further updates, he said.
A departmental spokesperson from the Australian Department of Home Affairs said they "expect it will take at least 6 years from the date of receipt for processing to commence on [the applications] lodged in 2022, 2023, or 2024."
"We will wait – there is no other way," Wesa said in response. "I hope they help us as soon as possible."
"Day by day, I'm faced with depression and health issues," he said. "My only hope is that Australia will save my life."
Rahman, who reported on women's rights in Afghanistan, is saving up to apply for a family visa from Australia, where his fiancée lives. The process costs over $9,000. He said he believes a humanitarian visa application will not receive a response.
Requests for help from the French embassy and the U.N. have also yielded no results, he said.
"I believe these countries have always been for freedom and for democracy. They can help out," he said. "I just wonder why it takes such a long time."
Khatera applied for a visa from the Swiss embassy. It took a year and a half to receive the file number, she said. She was told she needed close relatives in the country, but otherwise, they would likely not be able to help.
"I'm getting depression," she said. "I'm just trying to fight."
Every Afghan journalist in exile interviewed by ABC News said they continue to receive threats from the Taliban over social media and fear for their lives every day.
The Taliban denied sending the threats, saying "the government and officials of Afghanistan have not threatened any journalists."
Broken promises
Afghan journalists waiting in worsening conditions for responses to their visa applications said they feel that Western countries have broken their promises to help Afghan refugees.
The United States expanded a resettlement program for Afghan refugees in 2021 to include journalists and humanitarian workers who had helped the United States. However, as of 2023, The Associated Press reported that only a small portion of applicants had been resettled.
The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Afghan Pro Bono Initiative, a partnership providing free legal representation to Afghan refugees, published a 2023 report entitled "Two Years of Empty Promises." The report found that the U.K. resettlement programs for Afghan refugees were fraught with delays, understaffing, administrative hurdles, narrow eligibility and technical issues.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other NGOs called on Western countries to adopt prima facie refugee status for Afghan women and girls, which would grant refugee status without the need for individual assessments, potentially streamlining the application process and decreasing lengthy wait times.
Despite the dragging wait times and the pervasive hopelessness, many of the 170 Afghan journalists in exile in Pakistan continue to speak out against the Taliban.
Wesa's X account includes frequent posts about Afghanistan -- legal updates, protest videos and women singing to resist what they describe as draconian Taliban policies.
"In any country, I will stand for Afghan women," he said. "I will risk my life for them."
MOUNT PLEASANT — According to our news partner KETK, the Mount Pleasant City Council voted to cut longevity pay in half on Tuesday night, a bonus many city employees receive during the holiday season. According to the city’s website, each full-time employee should have received ten dollars for every month employed. For example, if an employee has worked for 12 months, they would receive a 120-dollar bonus at the end of the year however council members voted Tuesday night to cut it in half from 10 dollars to five.
“Full-time employees receive $120 per year longevity pay [that is] paid at the end of the year,” the City of Mount Pleasant’s website said. “Longevity pay begins after completion of one year of service to the City.”
The Mount Pleasant Law Enforcement Association and the Professional Firefighters of Mount Pleasant Local 5069 posted statements expressing their disappointment with the city council’s decision. Continue reading Mount Pleasant cuts Christmas bonuses in half
Ukraine State Emergency Service/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON and KYIV) -- Russia on Thursday launched what officials in Kyiv said was an intercontinental ballistic missile toward southeastern Ukraine, but a U.S. official told ABC News that Russia launched "an experimental medium-range ballistic missile against Ukraine" near Dnipro.
The official said the United States briefed Ukraine and other close allies and partners in recent days on Russia's possible use of this weapon in order to help them prepare. According to the official, Russia likely only possesses "a handful" of these experimental missiles.
Two U.S. officials previously told ABC News it was not an ICBM but instead an intermediate-range ballistic missile, or IRBM.
The launch raises the prospect of nuclear weapons; IRBMs or ICBMs can both be equipped with nuclear warheads. A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that the ballistic missile Russia fired at Dnipro contained MIRVs, or multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, meaning it had multiple warheads that hit the target. MIRV technology is used in ICBMs to use multiple nuclear warheads atop the missile so they can strike multiple targets. The missile used Thursday did not carry nuclear warheads.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in remarks Thursday following the missile launch, said Russia has the right to use its weapons against the military facilities of countries employing their weapons against Russia.
"We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military objects of those countries that allow to use their own weapons against our objects. In the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and in a mirror manner," Putin said.
Putin said Russia used "one of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems" in an attack on Ukraine, adding that it was a "ballistic missile with a non-nuclear hypersonic equipment" and that the "test was successful."
Russia warned the U.S. 30 minutes before the launch of its new "Oreshnik" missile against targets in Dnipro, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news outlet TASS.
The Kremlin announced earlier this week that Putin had updated the country's nuclear doctrine, a move that lowered the bar for Russia to respond with nuclear weapons. Russian ICBMs are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, although it appeared the missile fired on Thursday was not equipped with one.
Ukraine's military was "95% sure" the strike on Thursday was with an ICBM, a Ukrainian official told ABC News, but added that they were still examining the missile parts on the ground and had not yet reached a final conclusion.
"Today it was a new Russian missile. All the parameters: speed, altitude -- match those of an intercontinental ballistic missile," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media. "All expert evaluations are underway."
The Ukrainian Air Force announced Thursday morning it had tracked the launch of the ICBM, along with six additional missiles, all of which were targeting the Dnipro region. The ICBM appeared to have been launched from the Astrahan region, in Russia's southwest, Ukrainian military officials said.
All of the missiles were launched in about two hours, beginning at about 5 a.m. local time, Ukraine said.
All were targeted at businesses and critical infrastructure, but only the missile that Ukraine identified as an ICBM struck the city, Ukraine said. The six other missiles were shot down. There were no reports of casualties or significant damage, officials said.
The U.S. officials said the assessment of the launch, the type of missile and warhead, and the damage in Dnipro was continuing. The distance from what Ukraine said was the launch point to the strike location in Dnipro is about 600 miles, a distance shorter than what an ICBM would be expected to travel.
Two experts told ABC News the projectile, seen in video circulating online, looks likely to be "a ballistic missile with MIRV-ed capabilities."
The launch of an ICBM, if confirmed as such, would arrive amid concerns that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could further escalate. This week, Ukraine's military for the first time launched U.S.-made ATACMS missiles toward targets within Russia, days after U.S. President Joe Biden allowed for such use of the long-range weapons.
Putin, in his remarks Thursday, blamed the U.S. for escalating the conflict, saying: "I would like to emphasize once again that it was not Russia, but the United States that destroyed the international security system. And by continuing to fight, cling to their hegemony, they are pushing the whole world into a global conflict."
Kyiv on Tuesday launched six of the ATACMS at targets within Russian territory, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Zelenskyy said he would not confirm if Ukraine had used ATACMS to conduct a strike on an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, but said Ukraine has ATACMS and "will use all of these" against Russia.
Within hours of Russia announcing it had struck down five of the ATACMS on Tuesday, the Kremlin announced that Putin had updated the country's nuclear doctrine.
Following that warning, Ukraine on Wednesday fired long-range British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia for the first time, a Ukrainian military unit involved in the operation told ABC News. At least 10 of those missiles hit an estate in the village of Marino, the unit said.
They were targeting a command post where North Korean army generals and officers were present, the unit said. More than 10,000 North Korean troops are said to be operating alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region.
Ukraine's 413th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion, which helped provide fire control for the strikes, told ABC News that there was intelligence showing high-ranking North Koreans were present.
Zelenskyy cast the Russian strike on Thursday as a result of Russia and its leader being "terrified."
"Obviously, Putin is terrified when normal life simply exists next to him. When people simply have dignity. When a country simply wants to be and has the right to be independent," Zelenskyy said. "Putin is doing whatever it takes to prevent his neighbor from breaking free of his grasp."
ABC News' Joe Simonetti, Lauren Minore, Yulia Drozd, Natasha Popova, Tanya Stukalova and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — A man arrested in August after a 15-hour police standoff at a restaurant a few blocks from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is being returned to Mississippi, where he had escaped from a county jail.
Joshua Zimmerman is being extradited, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bailey Martin confirmed Wednesday to The Associated Press. She would not say when he is being moved, and it was not immediately clear whether Zimmerman is represented by an attorney.
“Due to this being an open and ongoing investigation, no further comment will be made at this time,” Martin said.
Zimmerman was arrested Aug. 21 at a seafood restaurant a few blocks from the United Center in Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention was taking place. The Marshals Service said there was “no connection or threat to the event or those attending.” Investigators said they believed Zimmerman was working at the restaurant.
Zimmerman was wearing street clothes and was not handcuffed when he fled from the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi, on June 14.
At the time of the escape, Zimmerman was set to make a court appearance on Mississippi charges of attempted murder and armed robbery. He was also awaiting extradition to Texas, where he is charged with murder, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
According to court records in Harris County, Texas, Zimmerman is accused of fatally shooting a woman, Keyanna Mercer, at a Houston motel on Sept. 2, 2023. The two were asked to leave the motel after multiple complaints of fighting, and when staff members checked the room to see if they had left, they found Mercer’s body with a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Court records also show Zimmerman was arrested in Connecticut in 2022 on a felony sexual assault charge. He pleaded not guilty and was freed on a $200,000 bond, but a warrant was later issued for his re-arrest.
Days after Zimmerman’s arrest in Chicago, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department in north Mississippi said it had set new security procedures. A former deputy jailer was fired from his job and charged with conveying articles useful for the escape of a prisoner.
DALLAS (AP) — The family of a man shot and killed by a Dallas police officer who said she mistook his apartment for her own was awarded nearly $100 million Wednesday in a federal civil trial.
The jury found after a three-day trial that ex-officer Amber Guyger used excessive force in the death of Botham Jean in 2018 and violated his constitutional rights. Jurors returned a verdict against her of $98.65 million.
“This verdict stands as a powerful testament to Botham’s life and the profound injustice of his death,” a statement from Jean’s family’s legal team said. “This case laid bare critical issues of racial bias and police accountability that cannot be ignored. Today’s verdict sends a clear message that law enforcement officers who commit crimes cannot be insulated from the consequences of their actions.”
Guyger said at the time that after a long work shift, she walked to Jean’s apartment — which was on the fourth floor, directly above hers on the third — and found the door unlocked. She said she thought the apartment was her own when she drew her gun and entered.
Jean, an accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, had been eating a bowl of ice cream when Guyger entered his apartment and shot him.
Guyger was later fired from the Dallas Police Department, found guilty of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was denied parole earlier this fall, media outlets reported.
The shooting drew widespread attention because of the circumstances surrounding it and because it was one of several shootings of Black men by white police officers.
During closing arguments, attorneys for Jean’s family asked the jury to send a message that Dallas County residents “are going to be safe in our homes,” The Dallas Morning News reported.
Guyger waived her right to participate in the trial, according to court filings, which the family said showed a lack of accountability for her actions.
PALESTINE — According to our news partner KETK, a man is behind bars after causing crash that killed an 85-year-old woman on Tuesday in Palestine. The police department said at around 4:17 p.m. officials were dispatched to the intersection of N. Loop 256 and Palestine Avenue due to a two-vehicle crash. A Toyota Tacoma, driven by Mark Thomas, 65 of Palestine, allegedly collided into a Ford Fusion, driven by Laura Braisher, 54 of Palestine.
The Ford had two additional passengers, 85-year-old Dorothy Sims and a child. The driver and passengers of the Ford were taken to a local hospital where Sims later died, officials said. The child was taken to a Dallas hospital with serious injuries.
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Ivette Palomeque has endured plenty of threats as a registered nurse in Houston, but she’s still shaken by the memory of a family threatening to shoot her and her colleagues at a local hospital. The incident happened years ago at a hospital where Palomeque no longer works. A patient died, and the grieving family was so upset and angry that they threatened to come back to the hospital with guns, Palomeque said. Fortunately, they never did. “It was scary because they had to actually put the unit on lockdown,” said Palomeque, a critical care nurse. “Staff were scared. Some were nowhere to be found, and later on we found out it was because they were hiding.”
The incident was a particularly egregious example of the threats, abuse and violence that Palomeque has seen during her 13 years as a nurse in the Houston area. She’s seen a pregnant colleague being kicked in the stomach. She’s also been hit and kicked by a woman who refused to leave the room so staff could perform CPR on her husband. Palomeque now works at Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center, which she credited for making her feel much safer than other places she’s worked. Experiences like Palomeque’s are all too common for nurses who have seen a steady increase in violence and abuse toward health care workers. The possibility of being exposed to workplace violence has long been a lamentable part of the job, but such incidents became more common during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not subsided since then, according to a 2024 survey by the nurses’ union and professional organization National Nurses United. The prevalence of violence and abuse has been harmful to nurses, who continue to experience high levels of burnout in the wake of the pandemic. That stress is causing many to reevaluate their careers; the National Nurses United survey found that more than six in 10 nurses were considering quitting their job or leaving the profession entirely due to workplace violence. “It takes its toll on the workforce,” said Serena Bumpus, the CEO of the Texas Nurses Association. “And that is a huge factor in whether or not nurses decide to stay where they are, or just in the profession as a whole.”
AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman says that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked a bankruptcy court judge to stop the sale of his Infowars platform, accusing satirical news company The Onion and Connecticut families of using a “flagrantly non-compliant Frankenstein bid” to win the auction for his media empire last week. Attorneys for Jones filed for a restraining order and temporary injunction on the sale of his company Free Speech Systems and Infowars on Monday evening. This comes after the backup bidder, First United American Companies LLC — a business associated with the ShopAlexJones.com website — filed a motion to disqualify The Onion’s winning bid on Monday morning.
The company behind The Onion, Global Tetrahedron LLC, with the backing of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims’ families in Connecticut, bought Free Speech Systems and Infowars in an auction last week. According to court filings, First United American Companies believed the cash value of its bid to be higher than the cash value of Global Tetrahedron’s bid. Walter Cicack, the attorney representing First United American Companies, claimed bankruptcy Trustee Christopher Murray colluded with The Onion and the families and violated the terms of the auction set by the judge. The auction attracted only two bids, according to court records and stated by Murray in a status conference held Thursday. Each bid, Murray said in the conference, had different finances and plans, and so Murray made his decision based on which offer would best benefit Jones’ unsecured creditors. First United American Companies’ final bid was $3.5 million for the rights to Infowars and Free Speech Systems, according to evidence submitted in the Monday filing by First United American Companies. The Onion’s final bid was $1.75 million in cash assets with a distributable proceeds waiver — meaning the Connecticut families would forgo up to 100% of their entitlement of the funds to better serve the unsecured creditors depending on the amount of other bids — and the sharing of future revenue that Infowars and Free Speech Systems generates to the families.
SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports that two conservative judges from Texas are being floated as possible U.S. Supreme Court nominees amid speculation that a justice may retire during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. Judges Andrew Oldham and James Ho, both on the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, are viewed as likely members of Trump’s shortlist in the event of a vacancy on the high court, according to several legal experts. Both came up through Texas legal circles and were among the Trump appointees named to the 5th Circuit who have shifted the court further right. “The Trump administration will look for someone who’s got perfect ideological purity, and I think either of those two 5th Circuit judges would fit that mold,” said Lucas Powe, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
Conservative and legal activists are speculating that some of the U.S. Supreme Court’s oldest justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, may retire in the next two years, when Republicans will have a majority in the U.S. Senate and could confirm a nominee without the need for any Democratic support. Conservative justices currently hold a 6-3 majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, including three Trump appointees. If Trump can successfully replace sitting members with younger justices, he will not only have nominated a majority of the court but also solidified a conservative majority for generations. Federal judges are appointed to life terms. Legal experts said the 5th Circuit, which covers Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, is a natural place to look for appointees. It is widely known as one of the most conservative benches in the country that has upheld Texas’ abortion restrictions, struck down gun prohibitions for domestic abusers and greenlit Texas’ border security measures.
SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Report says CPS Energy is actively working to plan for extreme growth in electricity demand over the next decade as new data centers come online in the state, executives told the utility’s board of trustees on Monday. Because San Antonio is located in the geographic center of Texas, CPS Energy will have to play a large part in upping the transmission capacity of electricity within the state as data centers continue to pop up across the state, said Elaina Ball, the utility’s chief strategy officer. CPS Energy expects to spend about $1.3 billion on transmission projects over the next five years to add a load-serving capacity of 1 gigawatt — enough electricity to power about 750,000 homes — to help Texas carry the demand load that new data centers will be generating, Chief Energy Delivery Officer Richard Medina said.
Data centers are specialized facilities designed to store, manage and process large volumes of digital data. They consume roughly 10 to 50 times the energy that a typical office building does. While data centers accounted for about 4% of the total U.S. electricity consumption load in 2023, it is projected to consume up to 9.1% of that load by 2030, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. Texas ranks second in the amount of electricity consumed by data centers within the United States. “We have never seen an industry demand an increase for power like we’re seeing right now,” Ball said. “Probably the closest was when there was adoption of HVAC technology, but it truly is a stunning amount of growth that everyone in our industry is grappling with … and we are no different here in Central Texas.” CPS Energy is planning to build three new substations and 15 new or upgraded transmission lines over the next three to five years, Medina said. In total, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has approved nine “San Antonio South Reliability Projects” to increase statewide system capacity, support growth and increase renewable generation in south and central Texas over the next decade. CPS Energy’s board of trustees approved the route and construction of two of these projects on Monday.
AUSTIN – Weeks after ProPublica reported on the deaths of two pregnant women whose miscarriages went untreated in Texas, state lawmakers have filed bills that would create new exceptions to the state’s strict abortion laws, broadening doctors’ ability to intervene when their patients face health risks. The legislation comes after the lawmaker who wrote one of Texas’ recent abortion bans wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle defending the current exceptions as “plenty clear.” But more than 100 Texas OB-GYNs disagree with his position. In a public letter, written in response to ProPublica’s reporting, they urged changes. “As OB-GYNs in Texas, we know firsthand how much these laws restrict our ability to provide our patients with quality, evidence-based care,” they said.
Texas’ abortion ban threatens up to 99 years in prison, $100,000 in fines and loss of medical license for doctors who provide abortions. The state’s health and safety code currently includes exceptions if a pregnant woman “has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.” A separate exception exists that provides doctors with some legal protections if they perform an abortion for an ectopic pregnancy or in cases when a patient’s water breaks. The bills, filed in the state House and Senate last week, create new health exceptions. They would allow doctors to induce or perform abortions necessary to preserve the mental or physical health of a patient, including preserving the patient’s fertility. Doctors could also provide abortions in cases where the fetus had an anomaly that would make it unable to survive outside the womb or able to survive only with “extraordinary medical interventions.” State Rep. Donna Howard, who filed the bill in the Texas House, said ProPublica’s recent reporting adds to evidence that the current legislation is a threat to the safety of pregnant women in Texas and increases the urgency to make changes. “This is my reaction,” she said. “It’s one of extreme sadness and disbelief that we are at a point where we are allowing women to die because we haven’t been able to clarify the law,” she said.
BROWNSVILLE (AP) — SpaceX on Tuesday launched another Starship rocket, but passed up catching the booster with giant mechanical arms.
Unlike last month’s success, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight from Texas for safety reasons, and the booster hit the water three minutes later.
SpaceX’s Elon Musk said Wednesday via X that the booster catch was aborted due to lost communication with a launch tower computer.
At the same time, the empty spacecraft launched from Texas atop Starship soared across the Gulf of Mexico on a near loop around the world similar to October’s test flight. Skimming space, the shiny retro-looking craft descended into the Indian Ocean for a controlled but destructive end to the hourlong demo.
It was the sixth test for the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket that SpaceX and NASA hope to use to get astronauts back on the moon and eventually Mars.
SpaceX kept the same flight path as last time, but changed some steps along the way as well as the time of day. Starship blasted off in late afternoon instead of early morning to ensure daylight to see the spacecraft’s descent.
Among the new objectives that were achieved: igniting one of the spacecraft’s engines in space, which would be necessary when returning from orbit. There were also thermal protection experiments aboard the spacecraft, with some areas stripped of heat tiles to see whether catch mechanisms might work there on future flights. And the spacecraft descended nose-first during the last part of entry, before flipping and splashing down upright into the Indian Ocean. Even more upgrades are planned for the next test flight.
Donald Trump flew in for the launch in the latest sign of a deepening bond between the president-elect and Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO.
SpaceX wants to eventually return and reuse the entire 400-foot (121-meter) Starship. Full-scale recycling would drive down the cost of hauling cargo and people to the moon and Mars, while speeding things up. The recycling of SpaceX’s Falcon rockets flying out of Florida and California has already saved the company time and money.
NASA is paying SpaceX more than $4 billion to land astronauts on the moon via Starship on back-to-back missions later this decade. Musk envisions launching a fleet of Starships to build a city one day on Mars.
This was the sixth launch of a fully assembled Starship since 2023. The first three ended up exploding.
