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ODESSA — Texas’ renewable energy industry is booming.

Accounting for nearly 90% of new electrical generation, wind, solar and battery storage industries have established themselves as a reliable source of energy for the state’s grid — and positioned Texas as a national leader in the renewable energy arena.

Legislation by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, will dramatically test its ability to maintain its momentum.

The legislation proposes sweeping administrative rules, imposes fees and requires the Texas Public Utility Commission to approve wind and solar projects before they can break ground. It is the second time Kolkhorst has attempted to tie a tight leash to renewables and deter what she and her allies describe as a visual blight in rural Texas towns and unchecked growth.

The bill passed its first legislative test last week when a Senate committee voted overwhelmingly to advance it to the full upper chamber. It must also have approval in the Texas House before it becomes law.

Renewable energy groups fiercely oppose her efforts and say the bill would limit energy production the state’s grid desperately needs to support Texas’ population growth. The Energy Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main electrical grid operator, projects demand to double in the next decade. And they said it is antithetical to Gov. Greg Abbott’s “all of the above” approach to energy generation.

While there has been a noticeable shift around renewable energy at the Capitol, Kolkhorst and other lawmakers have not relented. Lawmakers have advanced other bills, including a proposal by state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, which requires 50% of the grid’s energy to rely on power sources that can be turned on or off at will, meaning natural gas and coal. Renewable energy companies must help achieve this goal, or must otherwise purchase “natural gas credits” to comply.

“Any policy that hamstrings or puts red tape on energy development, any energy development, is not good for the grid,” said Daniel Giese, director of state affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association. “It’s not good for consumers either.”

Kolkhorst did not respond to an interview request.

Her backers said lawmakers should strike a balance between enabling the industry’s growth and protecting landowners, wildlife and natural resources and preserving landscapes. They said not enough information has been gathered on the environmental impacts of the growing solar and wind industry’s infrastructure. Cara Gustafson, a spokesperson for Stewards for Conservation, a group formed last year to advocate for this issue, said it is not driven by an anti-renewable sentiment.

“We knew we were going to be painted as anti-renewable no matter what,” Gustafson said. “If we were anti-renewables, we would just say that.”

Kolkhorst’s bill would require any wind or solar equipment generating anything greater than 10 megawatts to seek a permit with the Public Utilities Commission, the state agency that regulates electric, telecommunications and some water and wastewater utilities. The application must contain a description of the facility, specify its type and a copy of information filed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It also directs the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to review environmental impacts.

Applying for a wind or solar facility would also trigger a public hearing with counties within 25 miles of the proposed project. The applicant must publish the details of the hearing at least twice in a newspaper. The utility commission must wait no less than 30 days before approving or rejecting the application, consider what the bill’s writers call “compliance history,” and accept input from nearby county judges.

Those who get the permit must ensure any equipment is at least 100 feet away from any property line and 200 feet away from any habitable structure. Wind projects must be kept at a distance of 3,000 feet from the nearest property. Property owners can waive these requirements.

The bill would additionally order any permitted facility to monitor, record, and report any environmental impacts and conduct wildlife assessments to submit them to Parks and Wildlife. Every permitted facility must also pay an environmental impact fee determined by the utilities commission, which would pay for a “clean-up” fund.

The proposed rules for the wind and solar companies stand in stark contrast to policies that govern oil and gas production. For instance, no statewide rule mandates oil and gas wells to be at certain distances from residential properties. Cities can pass ordinances to set them. County governments don’t need to hold hearings. The oil and gas industry is subject to certain air and water pollution rules regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The Texas Railroad Commission oversees permitting, sets hearings and approves or denies an operator’s application.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Texas Railroad Commission, which issues permits for oil and gas drilling, said permitting “is designed to protect groundwater and the surrounding sub-surface environment to ensure residents aren’t affected by pollution.”

The spokesperson added the commission requires operators to build firewalls around oil tanks that are within the limits of any city, and where tanks are at least 500 feet from any highway or home or closer than 1,000 feet to any school or church. The railroad commission also considers whether the tank is hazardous.

Gustafson said the bill gives landowners more agency over the projects by establishing a uniform process for every project. She said environmental studies are necessary to protect natural resources.

The Parks and Wildlife Department, in a hearing last year, urged industry developers involved in wind, solar and storage projects to seek their input to “minimize the impact” on wildlife and natural resources. Laura Zebehazy, the agency’s ecological and environmental planning director, during the hearing said her team works with some, but not all, renewable energy projects.

Zebehazy, who said parks and wildlife input is voluntary, said the construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of the equipment can have negative environmental and wildlife consequences.

None of this is required currently under Texas law. Wind and solar companies work directly with landowners who agree to a lease and contract from which they benefit financially. The industry almost exclusively relies on its relationship with landowners, said Judd Messer, the Texas vice president of the Advanced Power Alliance, a group advocating for renewable energy policies in 11 states. He said the bill invites the state to regulate a landowner’s ability to manage their property freely, adding that no other energy-generating industry is subject to the same standards.

The renewable energy sector faces other pressing issues regarding its growth, said Messer. He said the industry is focused on dealing with the waste created by equipment that no longer generates electricity.

Messer said the bill “only inserts more government into a situation where private property rights and free enterprise ought to win the day.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

EDINBURG – National Democrats are planning to target U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz in next year’s midterms, putting the Edinburg Republican in their crosshairs for the second straight election cycle as the party looks to rebound from a disastrous showing in South Texas.

De La Cruz’s 15th Congressional District was the only Texas seat included on the initial list of 2026 targets unveiled Tuesday morning by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of U.S. House Democrats. The announcement signals that national Democrats are poised to put money and other resources into flipping the district, a longtime Democratic stronghold before De La Cruz brought it under GOP control in 2022.

De La Cruz was also the DCCC’s lone target in Texas last year, reflecting the lack of competition that has endured since Republican state lawmakers redrew the state’s political maps to protect endangered incumbents. In 2024, De La Cruz won reelection with 57% of the vote — the only one of the state’s 25 GOP-controlled congressional seats where the Republican nominee failed to net 60%.

The district is anchored in Hidalgo County and its biggest city, McAllen, along the U.S.-Mexico border. It runs through rural South Texas up to Guadalupe County east of San Antonio. Hispanic residents make up about three-quarters of the district’s eligible voting-age population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

De La Cruz’s win over Democrat Michelle Vallejo was one of several high-profile GOP wins in South Texas last year. As in 2022 — when De La Cruz also defeated Vallejo — Republicans in Texas and Washington, D.C., saw the race as an important benchmark in their efforts to continue gaining ground among Latino voters and cutting into Democrats’ hold on South Texas.

Vallejo, the co-owner of her family’s flea market in Alton, saw a path to bring the seat back under Democratic control, starting with her newfound support from national Democrats who had declined to seriously invest in the race two years earlier. The DCCC put the district on its early target list and gave Vallejo mentorship and resources through its Red to Blue program for candidates in races it deems competitive.

But much of Democrats’ national spending came not from the DCCC, but House Majority PAC, a super PAC connected to House Democratic leadership, and Republicans easily outspent Democrats in the district.

In a statement, DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat, made clear the party would target De La Cruz over the economy.

“Monica De La Cruz is running scared, and she should be,” DelBene said. “From tanking the economy, gutting Medicaid, abandoning our veterans, to making everything more expensive, she’s broken her promises to Texans, and it’s going to cost her her seat.”

The DCCC “is already working to recruit authentic and battle-ready candidates in Texas who reflect this community and will work to better Texans’ lives,” DelBene added.

Zach Bannon, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said De La Cruz “has been a relentless champion for Texans, delivering real results” for the state.

“She was reelected last year by nearly 15 points, and she’ll once again embarrass any out of touch Democrat that is foolish enough to challenge her,” Bannon said in a statement.

National Republicans will be defending a narrow House majority next year, though they are also going on offense in some districts. The NRCC last month named two Texas Democrats — U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen — among the 26 incumbents it plans to target.

Gonzalez previously represented Texas’ 15th Congressional District before switching to the neighboring 34th Congressional District after the 15th was drawn to favor Republicans.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shortly before he was forced to resign, the nation’s top vaccine regulator says he refused to grant Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s team unrestricted access to a tightly held vaccine safety database, fearing that the information might be manipulated or even deleted.

In an interview with The Associated Press, former Food and Drug Administration vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks discussed his efforts to “make nice” with Kennedy and address his longstanding concerns about vaccine safety, including by developing a “vaccine transparency action plan.”

Marks agreed to give Kennedy’s associates the ability to read thousands of reports of potential vaccine-related issues sent to the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. But he would not allow them to directly edit the data.

“Why wouldn’t we? Because frankly we don’t trust (them),” he said, using a profanity. “They’d write over it or erase the whole database.”

Marks spoke to the AP on Sunday, after officials in Texas confirmed the nation’s second measles-related death in an unvaccinated child this year. Marks attributed the death to the tepid response from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which again encouraged the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on Sunday but has also promoted claims about vitamin A supplements.

During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy told lawmakers he is not “antivaccine.” But since taking office, he’s promised to “investigate” children’s shots, and agencies under his watch have terminated vaccine-related research, canceled meetings of vaccine advisers and are poised to reinvestigate ties between vaccines and autism — a link debunked long ago.

Since being sworn in, “Mr. Kennedy has increased the pace by which he intends to minimize the use of vaccines in this country,” Marks said.

An HHS spokesperson said Kennedy has advocated for vaccination multiple times since becoming health secretary and pointed to a social media post Sunday in which he called the vaccine “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.” But hours later, Kennedy also praised “extraordinary healers” in the Mennonite community who he said were using a drug combination to treat measles. Neither of the drugs has been shown to directly treat the disease, which is a viral infection.

Marks is highly regarded by former FDA leaders and biotech industry executives, but his time at the agency was not without controversy. During the COVID-19 pandemic he was alternately criticized for being too slow — under Trump— and too fast — under Biden— to authorize new vaccines and boosters.

Marks says he “tried everything” to work with Kennedy. At the center of that effort was a plan to increase publicly available information about vaccine ingredients, safety and side effects.

Marks and his team had hoped to kick off the initiative with a two-day public “listening session,” followed by an expert report written by an independent organization, such as the National Academies of Sciences.

Overhauling the VAERS system

The centerpiece of the effort would be a vast overhaul of the VAERS system, maintained by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FDA and CDC scientists monitor the database for “possible signals” of emerging problems with vaccines. But analyzing the data requires both medical and statistical expertise, because anyone can submit unverified reports of side effects, injuries and death. The public-facing website warns that the data is unverified and may be incomplete or inaccurate. Misinterpretations of VAERS have long been central to anti-vaccine groups and messaging.

Marks notes that government scientists spend hours adjudicating each report of serious injury or death, often by tracking down death certificates and interviewing health providers. It’s not unusual for investigators to find reports of deaths that were caused by something totally unrelated to a vaccine, like a car crash, or that a death occurred months after vaccination in someone with a serious illness.

Much of that detail is redacted for legal reasons. But Marks said his office was committed to making much more information available.

“This is a legitimate thing that I actually was willing to compromise on,” Marks said “We need to make VAERS more transparent so that people can understand that we actually do the work on the backend.”

Details of Marks’ plan were confirmed by a second person with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak publicly about internal agency matters.

The proposal was sent to FDA’s acting commissioner, Trump appointee Dr. Sara Brenner, in mid-February, but Marks and his team did not hear back.

By mid-March, Marks’ office was fielding multiple requests from Trump administration staffers seeking full access to the VAERS database. In responding to the requests, Marks and his staff emphasized the sensitive nature of the data, which includes confidential personal, medical and corporate information.

The HHS spokesperson said that it would make “perfect sense” for staffers working for Kennedy to seek access to the VAERS database to do their own analysis.

Marks says Kennedy is ‘walled off’ from FDA

Marks said he never spoke directly with Kennedy, whom he described as “walled off” from FDA officials.

On the day he was forced out of his post, Marks said he was summoned to a meeting at HHS headquarters.

Two senior HHS officials greeted him and recalled Marks’ work during the COVID-19 pandemic; he had coined the name and developed the concept for “Operation Warp Speed,” which rapidly accelerated the development of vaccines and therapies to treat the virus.

After an awkward silence, Marks said, one of the officials told him: “Look, he wants you gone.” According to Marks, it was an obvious reference to Kennedy.

“It was pretty clear that either I was going to resign, or they were going to fire me,” Marks said.

He submitted his resignation later that day, citing Kennedy’s support for “misinformation and lies” about vaccines.

The HHS spokesperson said Kennedy is “installing scientists committed to reversing the chronic disease crisis,” and that Marks was a “rubber stamp” for the drug industry.

This week, Kennedy is making stops across the southwestern U.S. as part of a “Make America Healthy Again” tour focused on fluoridation, food dyes and other issues.

Marks said Kennedy should be working to get more children vaccinated to stop the outbreak.

“I consider these needless and senseless deaths,” Marks said. “These kids should get vaccinated. That’s how you prevent people from dying of measles.”

LUFKIN — When Mary Beth Hash-Walker heard the Nacogdoches Social Security office was closing, the 72-year-old retiree was quietly glad. She and other Nacogdoches residents have watched the office sit largely vacant for years, used — by her estimate — once a month.

“It’s the biggest waste of taxpayer dollars that I’ve seen,” Hash-Walker said.

The terminated lease is just one of several federal offices slated to close in Texas as part of President Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s effort to shrink the federal government and end what they call waste, fraud and abuse.

The final number of offices closed, as well as other canceled federal contracts and grants, in Texas and across the country remain uncertain. While the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), led by Musk, shares its work online, it changes frequently. For example, the Social Security Administration and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lufkin were at one point set to close. Both are expected to remain open. The whiplash has left those who use government services confused.

Meanwhile, advocates for the elderly, poor, and a host of other groups such as farmers, are worried about the final outcome for their communities. About 25% of the East Texas population relies upon some sort of federal aid, according to an analysis by EIG, a bipartisan policy group.

Hash-Walker is one of the East Texans. She spent many years shuttling her husband, Jack, and more than 500 pages of documents to Lufkin to keep up his benefits as a disabled veteran. She always scheduled those meetings first thing in the morning and got in line, which often extended outside, before the office even opened. Now, she also does this for herself.

“It’s always old, old people,” she said. “And you know, it’s been hot some days, rainy some days, and I feel so sorry for those people.”

The 36-mile drive was a pain, Hash-Walker said. But doable. She’s worried about other East Texans, older and farther away.

“Think about all the people who are out in these small towns — Garrison, Timpson, Gary — that have to drive all the way over there,” she said. “That’s a long way for not just elderly people, but for anybody.”

Social Security beneficiaries can access most services online or over the phone — for now. But Trump has suggested changing that to cut down on fraud, a change that could make physical office space more of a necessity.

“I think there are a lot of considerations about people’s ability to get to and from these offices when they need to be in person,” said Jonathan Schwabish, a senior fellow in the Tax and Income Supports? Division specializing in aging and retirement for the Urban Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank.

The Lufkin offices was among the many leases originally on the chopping block when the DOGE was first created in January. Panic set off.

Phones at the Social Security Administration have been ringing as nearly 100,000 more people per day have called in the last three months compared to 2024. And the percentage of callers who actually reached a representative dropped from 58.4% in 2024 to 45.1% in 2025.

The Social Security Administration in a March statement said all reports of offices closing permanently were false, except some small hearing rooms with no employees. Like the one in Nacogdoches. Closing that office is expected to save the government $86,414.

“The SSA is committed to providing service where people need help and our local field offices are no exception,” Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security, said in a statement. “We have not permanently closed any local field offices this year.”

Schwabish at the Urban Institute said the Trump administration needs to closely examine the impacts of its choices. Cutting the Lufkin Social Security office, for example, would have left hundreds of thousands of East Texans 70 miles or more away from the closest Social Security office.

The Nacogdoches Farm Services Agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is also on the chopping block. And just like Social Security, Texas Farm Bureau representatives’ phones are buzzing with farmers on the line.

Texas farmers and producers want to wrap their heads around the proposed changes, said Gary Joiner, the Farm Bureau’s director of communications. Farmers are concerned about what will happen if those offices close or if staff is reduced.

The Farm Service Agency closing won’t directly affect the average American consumer. But it can make it more difficult for farmers to work with the USDA, an agency many rely upon from season to season.

Much of the talk has been speculative, Joiner said. Communities catch wind an office may close and news spreads like wildfire.

“My understanding is, (the list) is a proposal from the Department of Government Efficiency,” Joiner said. “It’s the ultimate decision of those agencies and those cabinet positions that oversee those agencies, whether those recommendations are pursued.”

A USDA spokesperson said Secretary Brooke Rollins, a Texas native, supports Trump’s initiative to eliminate wasteful spending and the agency is optimizing building capacity while prioritizing frontline services. Rollins has promised to protect what is vital to the American people.

Joiner has faith Rollins will do what is best for Texas farmers and ranchers, he said.

“We hope that when given that opportunity and that ability to make that decision, she will do the right thing,” Joiner said. “And she’ll make sure those offices are open and those offices are staffed at levels that are necessary to service Texas agriculture.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

WEST TEXAS (AP) – Three people have died from measles-related illnesses in the U.S. since the highly contagious virus started ripping through West Texas in late January.

The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024, with Texas reporting the majority of them: nearly 500. The cases include two young elementary school-aged children who were not vaccinated and died from measles-related illnesses near the epicenter of the outbreak in rural Texas, which led Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to visit the community.

Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. The virus has been spreading in undervaccinated communities. The third person who died was an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated.

The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said last week that cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?

Texas’ outbreak began more than two months ago. State health officials said Friday there were 59 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 481 across 19 counties — most of them in West Texas. The state also logged 14 new hospitalizations, for a total of 56 throughout the outbreak.

More than 65% of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus stated spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county now has logged 315 cases since late January — just over 1% of the county’s residents.

New Mexico announced six new cases Friday, bringing the state’s total to 54. New Mexico health officials say the cases are linked to Texas’ outbreak based on genetic testing. Most are in Lea County, where two people have been hospitalized, and two are in Eddy County.

Thursday’s death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Kennedy. Health officials in Texas said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure.” A child died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6 — and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult on March 6.
How many cases are there in Kansas?

Kansas has 24 cases in six counties in the southwest part of the state as of Wednesday. Kiowa and Stevens counties have six cases each, while Grant, Morton, Haskell and Gray counties have five or fewer.

The state’s first reported case, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks based on genetic testing, a state health department spokesperson said. But health officials have not determined how the person was exposed.
How many cases are there in Oklahoma?

Cases in Oklahoma remained steady Friday: eight confirmed and two probable cases. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the state health department said.

A state health department spokesperson said measles exposures were confirmed in Tulsa and Rogers counties, but wouldn’t say which counties had cases.
How many cases are there in Ohio?

Ohio reported one new measles case Thursday in west-central Allen County. Last week, there were 10 in Ashtabula County in the northeast corner of the state. The first case was in an unvaccinated adult who had interacted with someone who had traveled internationally.

In central Ohio, Knox County officials reported two new measles cases in international visitors, for three cases in international visitors total. Those cases are not included in the state’s official count because they are not in Ohio residents. A measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 in 2022.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?

Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases. The agency counted six clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025 as of Friday.

In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles. So far in 2025, the CDC’s count is 607.
Do you need an MMR booster?

The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.

Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.

A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.

Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.

People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.
What are the symptoms of measles?

Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.

The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.

Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
How can you treat measles?

There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates matter?

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.

___

AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shortly before he was forced to resign, the nation’s top vaccine regulator says he refused to grant Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s team unrestricted access to a tightly held vaccine safety database, fearing that the information might be manipulated or even deleted.

In an interview with The Associated Press, former Food and Drug Administration vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks discussed his efforts to “make nice” with Kennedy and address his longstanding concerns about vaccine safety, including by developing a “vaccine transparency action plan.”

Marks agreed to give Kennedy’s associates the ability to read thousands of reports of potential vaccine-related issues sent to the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. But he would not allow them to directly edit the data.

“Why wouldn’t we? Because frankly we don’t trust (them),” he said, using a profanity. “They’d write over it or erase the whole database.”

Marks spoke to the AP on Sunday, after officials in Texas confirmed the nation’s second measles-related death in an unvaccinated child this year. Marks attributed the death to the tepid response from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which again encouraged the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on Sunday but has also promoted claims about vitamin A supplements.

During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy told lawmakers he is not “antivaccine.” But since taking office, he’s promised to “investigate” children’s shots, and agencies under his watch have terminated vaccine-related research, canceled meetings of vaccine advisers and are poised to reinvestigate ties between vaccines and autism — a link debunked long ago.

Since being sworn in, “Mr. Kennedy has increased the pace by which he intends to minimize the use of vaccines in this country,” Marks said.

An HHS spokesperson said Kennedy has advocated for vaccination multiple times since becoming health secretary and pointed to a social media post Sunday in which he called the vaccine “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.” But hours later, Kennedy also praised “extraordinary healers” in the Mennonite community who he said were using a drug combination to treat measles. Neither of the drugs has been shown to directly treat the disease, which is a viral infection.

Marks is highly regarded by former FDA leaders and biotech industry executives, but his time at the agency was not without controversy. During the COVID-19 pandemic he was alternately criticized for being too slow — under Trump— and too fast — under Biden— to authorize new vaccines and boosters.

Marks says he “tried everything” to work with Kennedy. At the center of that effort was a plan to increase publicly available information about vaccine ingredients, safety and side effects.

Marks and his team had hoped to kick off the initiative with a two-day public “listening session,” followed by an expert report written by an independent organization, such as the National Academies of Sciences.
Overhauling the VAERS system

The centerpiece of the effort would be a vast overhaul of the VAERS system, maintained by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FDA and CDC scientists monitor the database for “possible signals” of emerging problems with vaccines. But analyzing the data requires both medical and statistical expertise, because anyone can submit unverified reports of side effects, injuries and death. The public-facing website warns that the data is unverified and may be incomplete or inaccurate. Misinterpretations of VAERS have long been central to anti-vaccine groups and messaging.

Marks notes that government scientists spend hours adjudicating each report of serious injury or death, often by tracking down death certificates and interviewing health providers. It’s not unusual for investigators to find reports of deaths that were caused by something totally unrelated to a vaccine, like a car crash, or that a death occurred months after vaccination in someone with a serious illness.

Much of that detail is redacted for legal reasons. But Marks said his office was committed to making much more information available.

“This is a legitimate thing that I actually was willing to compromise on,” Marks said “We need to make VAERS more transparent so that people can understand that we actually do the work on the backend.”

Details of Marks’ plan were confirmed by a second person with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak publicly about internal agency matters.

The proposal was sent to FDA’s acting commissioner, Trump appointee Dr. Sara Brenner, in mid-February, but Marks and his team did not hear back.

By mid-March, Marks’ office was fielding multiple requests from Trump administration staffers seeking full access to the VAERS database. In responding to the requests, Marks and his staff emphasized the sensitive nature of the data, which includes confidential personal, medical and corporate information.

The HHS spokesperson said that it would make “perfect sense” for staffers working for Kennedy to seek access to the VAERS database to do their own analysis.
Marks says Kennedy is ‘walled off’ from FDA

Marks said he never spoke directly with Kennedy, whom he described as “walled off” from FDA officials.

On the day he was forced out of his post, Marks said he was summoned to a meeting at HHS headquarters.

Two senior HHS officials greeted him and recalled Marks’ work during the COVID-19 pandemic; he had coined the name and developed the concept for “Operation Warp Speed,” which rapidly accelerated the development of vaccines and therapies to treat the virus.

After an awkward silence, Marks said, one of the officials told him: “Look, he wants you gone.” According to Marks, it was an obvious reference to Kennedy.

“It was pretty clear that either I was going to resign, or they were going to fire me,” Marks said.

He submitted his resignation later that day, citing Kennedy’s support for “misinformation and lies” about vaccines.

The HHS spokesperson said Kennedy is “installing scientists committed to reversing the chronic disease crisis,” and that Marks was a “rubber stamp” for the drug industry.

This week, Kennedy is making stops across the southwestern U.S. as part of a “Make America Healthy Again” tour focused on fluoridation, food dyes and other issues.

Marks said Kennedy should be working to get more children vaccinated to stop the outbreak.

“I consider these needless and senseless deaths,” Marks said. “These kids should get vaccinated. That’s how you prevent people from dying of measles.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that a special election to fill the late Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner’s seat won’t be held until November and defended the timing by renewing criticism of past Houston-area elections.

Abbott’s announcement that the special election will be on Nov. 4 came as Democrats have accused the governor of delaying the election after Turner’s March 5 death to help Republicans maintain their razor-thin margin in the U.S. House. Abbott has the sole authority to call for a special election.

The governor said the wait “will give Harris County sufficient time to prepare for such an important election.”

Harris County, where Houston is located, has faced scrutiny in recent years because of problems that have included long lines, poll worker and ballot shortages and ballots that were not counted the day of the election.

“Safe and secure elections are critical to the foundation of our state,” Abbott said in a news release. “Forcing Harris County to rush this special election on weeks’ notice would harm the interests of voters.”

With 5 million residents, most of whom are Latino or Black, the county is the most populous in Texas and the third-most populous in the U.S.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, one of the candidates vying for Turner’s old seat, criticized the wait. Menefee had called for an election in June.

“It is unconscionable to leave nearly 800,000 people in this district without representation in Congress for most of the year,” Menefee said in a statement. “We’ll go through hurricane season, budget battles, and attacks on Social Security and Medicaid with no one at the table fighting for us.”

Menefee, along with Democratic U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, had threatened to sue Abbott over the delay.

Last week, Teneshia Hudspeth, the chief elections officer in Harris County, said the county was “fully prepared” to hold the election.

In 2023, Abbott signed a bill that removed Harris County’s elections administrator and transferred the responsibility to other local officials, including Hudspeth. Hudspeth noted that since then, “my office has successfully conducted eight elections.”

Turner, a former Houston mayor, died just weeks into his first term in Congress.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at juanlozano70

AUSTIN (AP) – Authorities released a woman and her three children from custody on Monday after immigration agents detained them late last month while investigators were making an arrest at an upstate New York farm as part of an unrelated criminal case.

President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told Carthage-based TV station WWNY last week that the family detained on March 27 is in the country illegally. Advocates for the family said they have been in the process of seeking legal status in immigration court.

Authorities haven’t said why the family was released after spending more than a week at a federal lockup in Texas, but their detention sparked protests in recent days outside of Homan’s upstate New York home, while a social media post by the children’s school principal describing the community’s “shared shock” circulated widely online.

“The Sackets Harbor community’s steadfast concern, care and love for their neighbors is what brought this family home,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.

New York Assemblyman Scott Gray said the mother and children, who have not publicly been identified, were released following a health review and interviews with authorities.

“ICE has made an independent decision to release the family,” said Gray, a Republican from Watertown.

The outpouring of support for the family included a demonstration on Saturday that drew hundreds of people to Sackets Harbor, a small town on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario where Homan has a home and where the children — who are in third, 10th and 11th grade — attend school. Principal Jaime Cook, who pleaded for the family’s release in a Facebook post, was among the demonstrators.

“The fact that our students were handcuffed and put into the same van as the alleged criminal from down the street is unconscionable,” Cook wrote in her post. “When I think of my third grader’s experience, my stomach twists and it is hard to breathe.”

The mother and children were detained after federal agents arrived at North Harbor Dairy Farm in search of a 43-year-old South African man wanted on a charge of distributing images of child sexual abuse. That man was arrested, as were seven people suspected of being in the country illegally, including the woman and her three kids.

In interviews, Homan said the family’s home was within the area covered by the search warrant and that agents had done “everything by the book.”

“Sometimes when you serve a warrant in a criminal investigation, there’s other people in the vicinity that have to be detained for questioning and safety reasons. But it’s part of the job,” he told WWNY.

He said investigators had to do “due diligence” before a decision could be made on whether to release the family.

”There’s a process during these investigations where — could these children, could that family be a material witness in this horrendous crime? Can they provide information and evidence in this crime? Were they victimized within this crime?” he said.

The Trump administration has made it a priority to deport anyone in the country illegally, even those officers encounter while targeting someone else. That is a departure from President Joe Biden, whose administration limited deportation priorities to people deemed national security or public safety risks and those stopped at the border.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to questions about the family’s legal and immigration status and whether they would be allowed to remain in the country.

Cook said the students “were doing everything right.”

“They had declared themselves to immigration judges, attended court on their assigned dates, and were following the legal process,” she said.

Jennifer Gaffney, superintendent of the 400-student Sackets Harbor Central School District, said the district would provide “the care, understanding and sensitivity necessary for our students and staff to begin the healing process from this traumatic experience.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she learned from Homan on Monday that the family was returning to upstate New York.

“New York has been consistent: we are open to working with federal immigration enforcement to crack down on gang members or violent criminals,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “But I will never support cruel actions that rip kids out of school or tear families apart.”

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Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.

AUSTIN – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the future of the Texas hemp industry is on the line as state lawmakers consider sweeping bills that would tightly regulate or outright ban THC products. Senate Bill 3 would wipe out all hemp-derived products — from gummies, vapes and flower buds to THC-infused beverages — that currently grace the shelves of more than 8,000 Texas stores. Under current law, hemp products with less than 0.3% THC are legal; however, SB 3 would erase that important distinction. The Senate passed the bill with a 24-7 vote on March 19, and it now moves to the House, where a more moderate proposal — House Bill 28 — calls for tighter regulations instead of an outright ban.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the ban is his top priority during this legislative session. Patrick has taken a hard line on the issue, contending that THC products pose a significant risk to public health, particularly for children. “This is a poison in our public, and we as the Legislature, our number one responsibility is life and death issues,” Patrick declared at a recent press conference. He contends that misleading packaging and dangerously high THC levels — claims of some products containing “several times more THC content than marijuana purchased from a drug dealer off the street” — endanger Texans. Patrick’s resolve extends to THC-infused beverages, which he insists should not be exempt from the ban. State Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican from Lubbock, introduced Senate Bill 3. “I named SB 3 a major legislative initiative of mine because I will not allow retailers to circumvent the law and put Texans’, and especially children’s, lives in danger,” he said in a press release. He has also warned hemp retailers, advising them to consider closing their doors voluntarily as investigations and potential lawsuits loom. “You might want to voluntarily close your doors because the investigations are going to continue, and I’m sure the lawsuits are about to come. You know what you’re doing.” Patrick sai

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that Coppell ISD officials want Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against the district thrown out saying it is “political fodder” against public schools based on a manipulated hidden-video recording, according to court filings. Officials allege in their counterclaim filed Tuesday that efforts to discredit Coppell and other public schools’ educators are being made to influence debates over school choice. “Why? To provide the Attorney General with political fodder against public school districts such as CISD during the current debate and upcoming votes in the Texas Legislature about private school vouchers and public school funding,” the filing read. “This is an improper purpose.” Coppell ISD officials said they could not comment on pending litigation when reached Friday.

In a recent message to parents and staff, Superintendent Brad Hunt addressed the suit and wrote the district is “committed to providing a high-quality education that follows the state curriculum.” The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. In March, Paxton accused Coppell school officials of breaking state law by teaching students critical race theory and pushing “woke ideology.” The attorney general’s office referred to a hidden camera recording filmed by a group called Accuracy in Media that appeared to show a Coppell ISD administrator evading the state’s “prohibitions on the use of CRT in state policies and curricula,” according to a statement from his office announcing the suit. Critical race theory is a framework that explores how policies and laws uphold systemic racism. It was largely debated in academia. In recent years, many conservatives conflated it with work aimed at making schools more equitable for students. In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law to eliminate critical race theory from schools.