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AMARILLO – The Amarillo Tribune reports that in June, the Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to the medication mifepristone, used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States in 2023, by ruling that the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine challenging the expansion of access to the medication by the Food and Drug Administration in 2016 and 2021 lacked a legal right to sue. The lawsuit sought to restrict access to mifepristone to include states where abortion is legal. The parties involved submitted a Joint Status Report to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, on Sept. 30. In the status report, as Defendants, the FDA said they believe that no further proceedings are necessary or warranted in the case, citing the Supreme Court’s conclusion that the original Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the FDA’s actions.

“Additionally, the State Intervenors cannot continue with their Complaint because intervention requires an existing suit within the Court’s jurisdiction, which is not present here,” the status report said. “And the State Intervenors’ claims cannot proceed as an independent suit because the States cannot satisfy venue requirements (and the States also independently lack legal standing.)” Intervenor-Defendant, Danco Laboratories, LLC, agreed with the FDA, the status report said. The Supreme Court unanimously stated in rejecting the plaintiff’s theories as insufficient to create an Article III case or controversy that “the federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs’ concerns about the FDA’s actions.” Citing the Supreme Court’s decision, they said the plaintiffs could present their concerns and objections to the President and FDA in the regulatory process or to Congress and the President in the legislative process. As a result, Danco Laboratories said the litigation should be over, according to the status report. As the Plaintiff, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine disagrees, as does the State of Missouri, the Intervenor-Plaintiffs. In the status report, they said the Supreme Court decided only whether the private plaintiffs amassed enough evidence to prove standing for the preliminary injunction, not whether their complaint should be dismissed.

DALLAS – The Dallas Observer reports that last week, a once-respected national journalist brought a whole lot of unwanted attention to Tarrant County’s elections department when former 60 Minutes reporter Lara Logan tweeted misinformation regarding mail-in ballots for the Nov. 5 general election. On Oct. 2, Logan quote-tweeted a post from the Dallas County GOP alleging that the county will be using questionable voting system components in the upcoming election. In her post she aimed her keyboard to the west of Dallas County, writing “Texas is in real danger from fraud in this election – Tarrant County is trying to send out 7 million mail in ballots & there is no sign enough people are taking this seriously. Ken Paxton & his office realize the threat. But too many are complacent & ignoring this.” In pretty quick fashion, Logan’s claim was debunked. It didn’t take much to do so for a number of reasons, but the Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Logan’s baseless allegation was, in fact, false. At that point, his office had received just under 23,000 requests for mail-in ballots, had sent out only 4,705 and had received 81 of those back.

Later, Logan would note on her X account that she had been mistaken and had meant to claim that Harris County, not Tarrant, had been guilty of mailing millions of ballots — again, without offering any evidence to support her claim. She even seemed to get her geography wrong when attempting to correct herself, writing “Correction: This should have read Harris County, Houston. NOT Tarrant County, Dallas.” Once upon a time, Logan was a prominent voice in the CBS News empire, where she became a star as a 60 Minutes contributor and as CBS News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent. But since she left CBS in 2018, Logan has been a leading voice for conservative-backed conspiracy theories of all kinds. Scroll for a bit on her X timeline and you’ll see that she, like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, thinks people can control the weather, but she’s also a vocal supporter of the right-wing efforts of the Dallas HERO amendments that we wrote about for this week’s Observer cover story. Voting by mail has become one of the hottest of hot buttons since the 2020 presidential election. Former president Donald Trump has long cited fraudulent mail-in ballots as being partly to blame for his loss in the 2020 election, although no proof of widespread fraud of any kind has been found from that election, and every lawsuit that has been filed on the matter has been defeated or dismissed.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that high-profile figures like Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Houston attorney Tony Buzbee are rallying behind a Galveston sheriff’s candidate who could lose his law enforcement officer’s license within two months of election and be forced out of office. Armed with an outsized war chest and a promise to “fight back against the liberal agenda,” Jimmy Fullen, a former Galveston County constable, defeated his opponent Ray Nolen, 57% to 43%, in the March primary, positioning him as the likely next sheriff in the Republican stronghold. That prospect, however, was thrown into jeopardy when the executive director of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the regulatory agency overseeing all officers in the state, recommended revoking Fullen’s license in June.

The TCOLE letter claims that on two occasions Fullen was untruthful in official documents about past incidents that cast him in a negative light, including being arrested twice, terminated from a job, disciplined at work and accused of discrimination. The Houston Chronicle independently confirmed these discrepancies based on records from Fullen’s former employers and other agencies. Fullen has since appealed the petition to revoke his license, and state regulators have scheduled an eight-hour hearing in January to make a final determination. Under Texas law, losing his license would disqualify Fullen from serving as sheriff, even if he has already won the election and been sworn into office. The looming uncertainty, however, has not deterred some of Texas’ most influential figures, along with a broad coalition of local Republican elected officials, from doubling down on their support for the Galveston candidate. Fullen said his legal team has advised him not to discuss the specifics of the allegations against him, as the case is still ongoing. He argued his broad appeal stems from his decades of service in law enforcement and active involvement in civic organizations, which has persuaded his supporters to overlook the two misdemeanor assault charges he faced in the 1980s.

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — At least two workers at a Houston-area oil refinery were killed Thursday after hydrogen sulfide leaked at the plant, setting off urgent warnings for nearby residents to stay indoors before authorities later determined that the public was not in danger.

Nearly three dozen other people were either transported to hospitals or treated at the scene, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. Hours after the leak began, Gonzalez said the area was still unsafe for investigators to enter and that officials may not be able to get inside until Friday.

The plant is operated by Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, and located in the suburb of Deer Park.

Gonzalez said that the gas release happened during work on a flange at the facility, which is part of a cluster of oil refineries and plants that makes Houston the nation’s petrochemical heartland.

Pemex said in a statement that investigations were underway and that operations had been “proactively halted” at two units with the aim of mitigating the impact.

City officials issued a shelter-in-place order but lifted it hours later after air monitoring showed no risk to the surrounding community, Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton said. Hydrogen sulfide is a foul-smelling gas can be toxic at high levels.

“Other than the smell, we have not had any verifiable air monitoring to support that anything got outside the facility,” Mouton said.

Television news crews showed multiple ambulances and emergency vehicles at the scene. Gonzalez had originally posted on the social platform X that one person was transported to a hospital by helicopter, but officials later said at a news conference that no one was airlifted.

The leak caused the second shelter-in-place orders in Deer Park in the span of weeks. Last month, a pipeline fire that burned for four days forced surrounding neighborhoods to evacuate.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Relatives of some of the 346 people who died in two crashes involving Boeing 737 Max planes are expected in court on Friday, where their lawyers will ask a federal judge to throw out a plea agreement that the aircraft manufacturer struck with federal prosecutors.

The family members want the government to put Boeing on trial, where the company could face tougher punishment.

In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with winning regulatory approval of the Max. The settlement between Boeing and the Justice Department calls for Boeing — a big government contractor — to pay a fine and be placed on probation.

Passengers’ relatives call it a sweetheart deal that fails to consider the lives lost.

“The families who lost loved ones in the 737 Max crashes deserve far more than the inadequate, superficial deal struck between Boeing and the Department of Justice,” said Erin Applebaum, a lawyer whose firm represents some of the families. “They deserve a transparent legal process that truly holds Boeing accountable for its actions.”

Lawyers for the government and the company filed court briefs defending the settlement, and lawyers for the passengers’ families explained their opposition to the deal. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor will get to question both sides during Friday’s hearing in Fort Worth, Texas.

If the judge accepts the guilty plea, he must also approve the sentence that Boeing and prosecutors agreed upon — he can’t impose different terms. It is unclear when O’Connor will decide the matter.

Boeing is accused of misleading regulators who approved minimal, computer-based training for Boeing 737 pilots before they could fly the Max. Boeing wanted to prevent regulators from requiring training in flight simulators, which would have raised the cost for airlines to operate the plane.

The Justice Department argues that conspiracy to defraud the government is the most serious charge it can prove. Prosecutors say they can’t prove that Boeing’s actions caused the crashes in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia.

The agreement calls for Boeing, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, to pay a fine of at least $243.6 million, invest $455 million in compliance and safety programs, and be placed on probation for three years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. Navy SEALs drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation into the January deaths.

The review concluded that the drownings of Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers and Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram could have been prevented. But both sank quickly in the high seas off the coast of Somalia, weighed down by heavy equipment they were carrying and not knowing or disregarding concerns that their flotation devices could not compensate for the additional weight. Both were lost at sea.

The highly critical and heavily redacted report — written by a Navy officer from outside Naval Special Warfare Command, which oversees the SEALs — concluded there were “deficiencies, gaps and inconsistencies” in training, policies, tactics and procedures as well as “conflicting guidance” on when and how to use emergency flotation devices and extra buoyancy material that could have kept them alive.

The Associated Press obtained the report upon request before its public release.

The mission’s goal was to intercept weapons headed to the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began a year ago. U.S. retaliatory strikes have so far not deterred their assaults.
Mission gone wrong

Chambers and Ingram, members of SEAL Team 3, died during a nighttime mission to board an unflagged ship in the Arabian Sea. Their names were redacted in the report, but officials have confirmed Chambers slipped and fell as he was climbing onto the ship’s deck and Ingram jumped in to try to save him.

“Encumbered by the weight of each individual’s gear, neither their physical capability nor emergency supplemental flotations devices, if activated, were sufficient to keep them at the surface,” Rear Adm. Michael DeVore wrote in the report.

The report said Chambers was “intermittently” at the surface for 26 seconds after his fall and Ingram was at the surface for about 32 seconds.

“The entire tragic event elapsed in just 47 seconds and two NSW warriors were lost to the sea,” DeVore wrote, referring to Naval Special Warfare Command.

Flotation equipment that was properly maintained, working well and used correctly would have been able to keep them afloat until they were rescued, the report said. Other team members told investigators that while they knew the importance of their tactical flotation system — which includes two inflatable floats that attach to a belt and foam inserts that can be added — few had ever operated one in training and there is little instruction on how to wear it.

The report said the team was operating in 6- to 8-foot seas, and while the vessel they were boarding was rolling in the waves, the conditions were well within their abilities.

As time went on, however, the rolling increased, and Chambers tried to board by jumping from his combat craft’s engine compartment to the top rail of the ship they were boarding, the report said. Some of the commandos used an attachable ladder, but because of the waves, others jumped to the top rail, which they said was within reach but slippery.

Chambers’ hands slipped off the rail, and he fell 9 feet into the water. Based on video of the mission, he was able to grab the lower rung of the ladder, but when he turned to try to get back to the combat craft, he was swept under by a wave.

Eleven seconds after he fell, Ingram jumped in. For at least 10 seconds, video shows they were above water intermittently and at times were able to grab a ladder extension that was submerged. But both were knocked about by waves. The last sighting of Chambers was about 26 seconds after he fell.

At one point, Ingram tried to climb back on the ladder but was overcome by a wave. He appeared to try to deploy his flotation device, but within two seconds, an unattached water wing was seen about a foot away from him. He also seemed to try to remove some of his equipment, but he slipped underwater and was not seen again. The sea depth was about 12,000 feet.
‘Shock and disbelief’

Both were wearing body armor, and Ingram also was carrying radio equipment that added as much as 40 more pounds. Each of the inflatable floats can lift a minimum of 40 pounds in seawater, the report said.

It said members of the SEAL team expressed “shock and disbelief” that Chambers, their strongest swimmer, could not stay at the surface. The report concluded that the conflicting and meager guidance on the flotation devices may have left it to individuals to configure their buoyancy needs, potentially leading to mistakes.

While SEALs routinely conduct pre-mission “buddy checks” to review each other’s gear, it said Ingram’s flotation equipment may have been incorrectly attached and a more thorough buddy exam could have discovered that.

SEAL team members also told investigators that adding the foam inserts makes the flotation device more bulky and it becomes more difficult to climb or crawl.

The report said SEAL Team 3 members began prompt and appropriate man-overboard procedures “within seconds,” and there were two helicopters and two drones overhead providing surveillance, light and video for the mission.

After 10 days, the search was called off because of the water depth and low probability of finding the two.

“The Navy respects the sanctity of human remains and recognized the sea as a fit and final resting place,” the report said.

Chambers, 37, of Maryland, enlisted in the Navy in 2012 and graduated from SEAL training in 2014. Ingram, 27, of Texas, enlisted in 2019 and graduated from SEAL training in 2021.
Changes to training

In response to the investigation, Naval Special Warfare Command said changes are already being made to training and guidance. It said the command is considering developing a force-wide policy to address water safety during maritime operations and is setting standard procedures for buoyancy requirements.

Other changes would refine man-overboard procedures, pre-mission checks and maintenance of flotation devices. It also said it’s looking into “fail safe” buoyancy equipment and plans to review safety processes.

Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who headed the command at the time of the mission, said it would learn from the tragic deaths and “doggedly pursue” recommended changes. Davids left the job in August in a routine change of command and is in the process of retiring.

The report recommends that Ingram receive a commendation for heroism for giving his life while trying to save his teammate. That recommendation is under review. Both were posthumously promoted one rank.

According to a separate Defense Intelligence Agency report, the Jan. 11 mission seized Iranian “propulsion, guidance systems and warheads” for medium-range ballistic missiles and antiship cruise missiles destined for the Houthis.

AUSTIN – During a legislative hearing that featured clips of television shows filmed in Texas and testimony from movie stars like Dennis Quaid, lawmakers considered whether to overhaul a film incentive program that has lured hit productions like “Yellowstone” and “Friday Night Lights” to the state.

Professionals in the film industry told lawmakers that Texas offers creative professionals an ideal setting to film because of its varied topography and low cost of living. But they said better incentives in other states pull their projects away from Texas, hurting their projects and costing the state millions in possible returns.

“One of my great frustrations was that I wrote ‘Hell or High Water,’ and they filmed the darn thing in New Mexico,” said writer and director Taylor Sheridan. “My love story to Texas was shot west of where it should have been shot.”

The 17-year old program created under former Gov. Rick Perry attracts television, film, commercial, and video game production to Texas by offering grants on eligible expenditures, including the cost of hiring Texas workers and renting film space. Movie and television projects filmed in Texas receive a 5 to 20% rebate — but only until the program runs out of money each budget cycle.

The Legislature has funded the program in varying amounts over the years. Last year, lawmakers injected a historic sum of $200 million over a two-year period, a significant increase from the $45 million over the previous biennium.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick charged the Senate Finance Committee with reviewing how effective that investment was in stimulating local economies and promoting job creation. The committee is also tasked with reviewing other states’ programs and determining how to make Texas’ program more competitive. Lawmakers expressed pride in the program’s return on investment and an interest in making the program work better for filmmakers.

But they noted that because Texas does not have a state income tax or a state property tax, a tax break would not necessarily make sense. The state would need to consider a different model that would create a long-term funding plan.

But some Senators worried that increasing Texas’ incentive might produce a bargaining war.

“I just think we are being naive,” said Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, adding that states who are “threatened” by Texas may try to institute a stronger incentive. “We have to be cognizant of that.

The current incentives have produced a 469% return on investment, according to Adriana Cruz, executive director of the Texas Economic Development and Tourism division of the governor’s office. That means that for every dollar spent on the program, $4.69 is in turn spent in Texas. The program has also generated more than 189,000 jobs and more than $2.5 billion in state spending, Cruz said.

New Mexico has one of the largest incentive programs in the country, offering 25 to 40% reimbursement. Other states with robust programs include Georgia, which offers a 30% tax credit that has no cap.

Other projects have reportedly been pulled from Texas because of better incentives elsewhere, including Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” that filmed in Louisiana and “Fear the Walking Dead” that got moved to Georgia.

“Not knowing how much incentive will exist in year three makes it really hard,” Sheridan said. “What would be very helpful is some clarity and understanding and some assurance that this thing isn’t going to go away.”

John Fleming, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Texas State University, noted that 70% of graduates from the school’s film program said they left Texas because of a lack of job prospects in the state. And 96% of those graduates said they would want to return to the state.

Chase Musslewhite, a Texas film producer who co-founded Media for Texas to advocate for the film industry, said experts have found that incentives above 45% are not viable. She suggested the state consider a franchise tax credit or a constitutional amendment to create a dedicated fund, similar to the Texas Energy Fund.

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.