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AUSTIN – The Texas Senate gave unanimous approval to a sweeping water bill Wednesday that would address a range of issues that have caused a looming water crisis in the state. The bill focuses on creating new sources of water supply to meet Texas’ growing water needs.

Senate Bill 7, filed by state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, was the first bill in a highly anticipated package of water-related bills to pass. It includes proposals to address Texas’ water supply needs by using funds on strategies such as desalination, projects on produced water treatment plants and reservoir projects. It also creates an office tasked with planning and coordinating the development of infrastructure to transport water — referred to by lawmakers as a “water tree” — made by a project.

During the discussion on the Senate floor, Perry reaffirmed his push toward creating new supplies of water. He said the bill prioritizes new water sources, including brackish and marine water, along with “shovel-ready” reservoirs and wastewater treatment in rural communities. Perry has acknowledged in the past that the state’s water infrastructure needs repairs. However, he did not spend much time discussing that concern Wednesday.

Perry said after traveling the state, he believes Texas is 25 years behind on supply development.

“We’ve developed all the cheap water, and all the low-hanging fruits have been obtained,” Perry said.

In addition, Perry stressed that any new water supply plan has to include all of Texas’ 254 counties. He also said it has to be a coordinated planning approach across the state that leverages existing water resources to regional expertise.

Changes were made in Perry’s bill since it was first introduced. The new version of the bill added provisions that would separate the Texas Water Development Board’s funding specifically for administrative costs — up to 2% in funding — and carryover of unused funds. While Texas prohibits using state-funded pipelines for intrastate water transfers, the bill clarifies that out-of-state water can be imported through these pipelines.

One other change offers protections to sources of freshwater by prohibiting projects that extract water from sources with a certain amount. Perry assured lawmakers they were not funding the depletion of existing freshwater aquifers.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, called the bill visionary and applauded Perry on his work.

“It changes water law, it changes water procurement,” Gutierrez said.

Moving forward, the constitutional amendment that will accompany the water bill is House Joint Resolution 7, which will dedicate $1 billion to the Texas Water Fund for up to 10 years. The annual stream of state tax dollars would help cities and local water agencies buy more water and repair aging infrastructure. If approved, Texans can vote on that ballot measure in November.

With the state’s population booming, data shows the state’s water supply is falling behind. According to the state’s 2022 water plan, water availability is expected to decline by 18%, with groundwater seeing the steepest drop. A Texas Tribune analysis found that cities and towns could be on a path toward a severe water shortage by 2030 if there is recurring, record-breaking drought conditions across the state, and if water entities and state leaders fail to put in place key strategies to secure water supplies.

Water experts and organizations celebrated the passage of SB 7.

Jennifer Walker, director of the Texas Coast and Water Program for the National Wildlife Federation, said it’s a step in ensuring Texans have reliable and resilient water supplies. Perry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, said he is grateful for Perry’s work on the bill.

“(I look) forward to reconciling the House and Senate approaches to accomplish the best collaborative water policy for Texas to secure our shared water future,” Fowler said.

Jeremy Mazur, director of infrastructure and natural resources policy for Texas 2036, said the unanimous passage of SB 7 is a good sign the chamber wants to move forward with a bold strategy to address infrastructure challenges. However, he said there is still more work for the Legislature to do.

“Even though SB 7 has passed, there are several other big measures in the legislative pipeline that need to be addressed, including the constitutional dedication of state revenues for water infrastructure,” Mazur said.

Perry said the water development board will still have to establish rules for what kind of projects get prioritized for funding. The House will now take up SB 7 for debate. Perry’s Senate Resolution has been referred to a Senate committee on finance but has not been heard yet. A similar House bill, led by state Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, is still pending. Harris’ HJR 7 was passed unanimously out of committee and is waiting to be scheduled for a hearing.

LUBBOCK — Katherine Wells was tapping her phone.

It was the last week of January, and the director for the Lubbock Health Department had a jam-packed schedule. She was working with her team to put in place the new community health plan. Flu cases were on the rise. She had media interviews lined up to talk about stopping the spread.

She refreshed her email again. And there it was — confirmation that someone in nearby Gaines County had tested positive for measles. It was the first for the region in 20 years.

She took a deep breath.

Two months later, with more than 400 cases across Texas, Wells is the first to admit things feel eerily similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. And just like then — when police guarded her home after she received death threats — Wells’ work is facing questions from skeptics.

“People accuse me of creating the measles outbreak to make the health department look more important,” Wells said. She laughed as if she was used to it.

The reputations of public health institutions have taken a beating in the last five years as the pandemic became a political flashpoint. Some people saw public health leaders as heroes for urging people to wear masks, stay away from big crowds and get the vaccine. Others saw them as villains bent on robbing Americans of their freedoms.

Wells has served as the public health director for 10 years. Long before the measles outbreak and COVID, she navigated situations like Lubbock’s high sexually transmited infections and teen pregnancy rates. Lubbock is the largest city in Texas’ South Plains, with nearly 267,000 residents. It’s also largely conservative. More than 69% of Lubbock County voted for President Donald Trump last November.

Lubbock also stands as a critical medical hub for the South Plains, and Wells is the leader. With a dearth of rural hospitals, physicians, and limited care at clinics, people from all over the region flock to Lubbock for health care. This is how Lubbock became entangled in the measles outbreak. Most of the cases have been recorded in nearby rural Gaines County, where 280 cases have been identified. Patients have sought medical care in Lubbock.

Like many public health directors, most people didn’t know Wells until March 2020, when the city and the rest of the country was upended by the COVID pandemic. As she led the city through the crisis, she became a household name — for better or worse.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said public health directors work behind the scenes to stop bad situations from happening. They are invisible shields, he said, which can make their work challenging when it’s suddenly pushed into the public eye.

“When something really bad happens, like with COVID, the fundamental trust wasn’t there,” Benjamin said. “They didn’t have a relationship with the community.”

Misinformation has played a large role in eroding trust in public health institutions. Most adults are uncertain whether health misinformation they have heard is true or false, according to a recent KFF survey,. Another KFF survey found that between 81%-84% of Republicans trusted only four people to make the right health recommendations — their doctor, Trump, Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Wells’ job is not likely to get easier any time soon.

A Lubbock’s children hospital is now treating children with severe measles who also suffer from vitamin A toxicity. This comes after Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update the measles guidance to promote the vitamin’s use, which most health experts object to. The Trump administration is eliminating pandemic-era grants that were used to boost the department’s response to the measles outbreak, including paying for employees. And Wells is navigating what could arguably be an even more delicate line than COVID — managing the outbreak of an eradicated, preventable disease, with a worn-out staff and a growing distrust from the public.

“You can’t fix public health overnight,” Wells said. “It’s not like the fire department. I can’t run in, put the fire out and they’re all proud of me. It’s totally different.”

Since the first measles case, Wells’ life has a new daily routine. First, she meets with the state health department. Then she meets with other public health leaders from around the state. Later her staff about new cases or exposures.

Unlike during the pandemic, however, the health department’s other work isn’t on hold. Wells and her team have pulled double duty, also working on STI rates, waning flu cases and substance use prevention.

Wells herself is working seven days a week. It’s given Wells, and her family, deja vu.

“My daughter’s been so sad lately and I asked her what was wrong,” Wells said. “She finally told me, ‘Mommy, this measles thing feels like COVID again. I don’t get to see you.”

Wells’ work — and sacrifices — are driven by a belief that everyone deserves good health.

“Public health should be part of the community,” Wells said. “Public health is all about talking to community members and figuring out what we need to do to make things better.”

Before moving to Lubbock, Wells lived in Austin and worked at the state health department for 14 years. She moved to Lubbock in 2012, still working for the state health office, with the goal of rebuilding the city’s public health system.

Despite her passion, Wells’ work has been far from easy. When Wells started in 2015, she had 10 staff members and an underfunded department. She created a strong team — one that started preparing for COVID two months before it was detected in the U.S.

By 2020, Wells had the support of city leaders. She appeared in weekly virtual COVID briefings for the media and public alongside former Mayor Dan Pope and other Lubbock officials. They worked quickly with first responders to create the vaccine clinic in the city’s civic center.

By 2024, the atmosphere was different. There were new faces on the City Council, including a new mayor, Mark McBrayer. As the health department was preparing to open a new facility, McBrayer was working on a no-new-tax revenue rate for the city’s budget. He was considering cuts to the health department’s budget, among others, to achieve this. Amid the threats and public outrage, the grand opening attracted a major crowd — more than were at Wells’ wedding, she said.

The health department’s budget wasn’t cut, but there have been other bumps in the road. More recently, Wells faced pushback over the Community Health Improvement Plan, a report that provides the city with recommendations to improve the health of its residents. It focused on improving accessibility to health care, educating the community, and strengthening coordination amongst servicers.

Some members of the new council hesitated to approve it, calling the plan an excuse to justify expanding government spending on health care. It led to a long meeting with hours of public comment. David Glasheen, one of the council members against it, said it was redundant because hospitals are mandated to provide indigent care. Council member Tim Collins said part of the plan would help the department become nationally accredited, which would help the city get more grants in the future.

Council member and Mayor Pro-tem Christy Martinez-Garcia supported approving the plan. She told The Texas Tribune some of the members were misinterpreting the plan’s purpose.

“Once they understood why this was so important for future opportunities and grants, it helped,” Martinez-Garcia said. “But, it’s something we’re going to have to face moving forward again, because of the political environment of our society.”

Martinez-Garcia’s view of Wells has come a long way since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Martinez-Garcia is the owner and publisher of Latino Lubbock Magazine, one of only two media outlets — along with El Editor — that cater to Lubbock’s Hispanic community. About 38% of Lubbock’s population is Hispanic.

During the weekly press conferences, Martinez-Garcia would press Wells about getting information out in Spanish. It was important, but also personal for Martinez-Garcia. She lost seven family members to COVID-19, because she says a plan wasn’t in place to help the community. Martinez-Garcia said Wells was receptive to the criticism and made changes. She placed vaccine stations in East and North Lubbock, making it accessible to impoverished and out-of-reach communities.

“She was trying to make it as equitable as possible for everybody,” Martinez-Garcia said.

Last month, Wells prepared an article about measles from the health department for Latino Lubbock Magazine. It was written in English and Spanish.

The community health plan was eventually approved, with Glasheen being the lone vote against it. Wells said she didn’t know where the pushback was coming from, but blamed herself for it. She said she didn’t do enough to reach out to the newer members and explain what her department does.

“It looks like we’ll have some opportunities in the future to explain that,” Wells said.

As the health department in a major medical hub, Wells has a responsibility to support the smaller health departments. Her team has worked with the South Plains Public Health District, a multi-county health department that provides vaccines, STI treatments, and other basic health care. It includes Gaines County, the epicenter of the measles outbreak. Wells and her team have helped craft news releases, providing staffing and information as needed. Wells said their duty is to talk about the measles to the public and calm fears.

She also said their job is “to talk about what we need to do to respond, who’s at risk and put the vaccinated people at ease.”

Misinformation has inflamed the outbreak. Benjamin, from the American Public Health Association, said vitamin A has no role in preventing measles, and public health leaders have to try and correct the misinformation. Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock said they admitted fewer than 10 pediatric patients who were initially hospitalized due to measles complications but also have elevated levels of vitamin A. This is causing abnormal liver function for patients.

“It’s a therapy if you’re already vitamin deficient,” Benjamin said. “It has to be given carefully, and it’s something doctors do in the hospital because these are very sick people. It’s not something at the grocery store.”

Wells doesn’t see the measles slowing down anytime soon. After researching other measles outbreaks, Wells thinks this one could go on for a year.

“We identified this outbreak with two children in the hospital,” Wells said. “Which means there was measles circulating in certain pockets. So we were behind the eight ball in the initial response.”

Vaccination is the most effective way to stop the disease from spreading, but Wells knows it’s a choice people have to make. The city arranged several drive-up vaccine clinics quickly after the first case was identified. She says public health’s role is to counter the messaging around why people are scared of vaccines.

Now Wells is concerned about what else could come back. The measles outbreak shows the potential other diseases such as mumps and polio could have on unvaccinated populations.

“You see measles first because it’s the most infectious,” Wells said. “It doesn’t mean we’re not going to see outbreaks of other childhood viruses.”

As these public health crises have unfolded, Wells has been quietly working on her doctorate. It could be what sets Lubbock apart during the next pandemic. And last week, she successfully defended her dissertation on building public health systems in Texas, and is now Dr. Wells.

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

EDINBURG — At 2 a.m. Friday, Rick Saldaña was traveling back to Edinburg from Mercedes, a city about 26 miles away, in an area known as the Mid-Valley.

The roads were flooded. The frontage roads that feed into the expressway resembled lakes. Hundreds of cars were abandoned by people unable to drive further.

The rain kept coming. Winds reached about 60 miles per hour and Saldaña could barely see anything.

“It came with a vengeance,” he said.

Saldaña is the emergency management coordinator for Hidalgo County. In his office in Edinburg, county workers and staff from the Texas Division of Emergency Management were still just at the beginning of what is expected to be a long road to recovery.

The effects from the rainfall killed at least six people. Four died from drowning in the Valley and in Reynosa, Mexico, and two from a house fire suspected of starting from a lightning strike. Hundreds more required rescue from their flooded homes or vehicles. By Monday, three days after the storm, several neighborhoods still remained underwater.

Assessments of the total damage are still underway, but Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for the four counties of the Valley. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was on the ground Wednesday to make their assessment.

Preliminary reports suggest the damage and recovery totals from the flood would likely exceed $100 million, according to the National Weather Service Brownsville.

“We were predicted to get no more than one to two inches of rain,” Saldaña said. “For whatever reason, it shifted. It shifted our way.”

Big storms have hit the Rio Grande Valley region in South Texas before. The most recent in Saldaña’s memory was 2018. March and April when the seasons change can be precarious, he said.

“To me, those are scarier because you have no time to plan, versus with a hurricane, they give you ample time to start monitoring,” he said. “These come in as surprises, and that’s what happened. It surprised all of us.”

Saldaña said the county has made significant strides in improving the drainage system since then by widening the drainage canals to expand the amount of water that can flow through them.

But what the area saw last week was a 100-year flood, he said.

“Our drainage system couldn’t support it,” he said. “It doesn’t make a difference if you have the world’s best drainage system.”

Between March 26 and 28, the Valley received nearly 20 inches of rain, crushing prior daily,

multi-day, and monthly March records in many areas. In a few locations, the amount of rainfall even rivaled the all-time two-day record set by the historic Hurricane Beulah in 1967, according to Barry Goldsmith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Brownsville.

Meteorologists knew rain was coming. The surprise was where it fell.

Forecasts had the storm over the Coastal Bend toward brush country, Goldsmith said.

“It wasn’t until, really, within 12 hours that we were like ‘Oh no, it’s going toward the Valley now!'” he said.

Even at that point, they didn’t know exactly which county or which portion of the Valley was going to get hit.

“It wasn’t until the game was underway that we were able to tell people this is going to be really bad in parts of the Valley,” he said.

A National Weather Service report on the storm acknowledged that their models were off, noting that even the areas predicted to be the strongest hit by the storm were only expected to receive 7-12 inches.

The report explained that the dynamics of the fast-flowing, high-altitude air currents — that are most typical in the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast regions of the U.S. — led to high-energy, recharging of the atmosphere that caused repeated rounds of rainfall and severe weather.

The heaviest rains fell in Cameron County which sustained the most damage where the Valley International Airport in Harlingen had to close for multiple days due to flooding on the runways. Other reports of severe weather included a tornado that briefly touched down in Hidalgo County.

The devastation extended to farmers as well.

Despite longing for rain to sustain their animals and crops during a prolonged period of drought, the huge volume of rain likely destroyed existing crops.

“Torrential storms produced devastating rainfall totals, causing widespread destruction and posing a severe threat to Valley residents, farmers, and ranchers,” Sid Miller, the Texas agriculture commissioner, said in a statement. “In addition to extensive damage to homes, vehicles, and infrastructure, the region is also facing significant agricultural and livestock losses.”

Sonny Hinojosa, water advocate with the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2, said many crops were already up and the flooding likely killed those plants.

“Poor farmers, they’re taking a beating,” Hinojosa said. “First, they’re short on irrigation water and then you get a flood event like this and it drowns whatever crop you have.”

There is a silver lining.

One of the reservoirs that provides water to Valley farmers, the Falcon International Reservoir, received 45,663 acre-feet of water from the rain, growing from 11.2% to 12.8% of its capacity.

It’s just a fraction, Hinojosa said. However, if the U.S. receives half of those gains, it could provide three to four weeks of irrigation water for farmers.

“They rose a bit,” Goldsmith said of the water levels at the Falcon reservoir. “But they’re still well below what’s needed to help improve the water resource situation that’s facing the Valley.”

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

BERKLEY, CA (AP) – Real estate software company RealPage filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Berkeley, California — the latest city to try to block landlords from using algorithms when deciding rents. Officials in many cities claim the practice is anti-competitive and is driving up the price of housing.

Texas-based RealPage said Berkeley’s ordinance, which goes into effect this month violates the company’s free speech rights and is the result of an “intentional campaign of misinformation and often-repeated false claims” about its products.

“Berkeley is trying to enact an ordinance that prohibits speech — speech in the form of advice and recommendations from RealPage to its customers,” RealPage attorney Stephen Weissman told reporters on a conference call.

The Department of Justice sued Realpage in August under former President Joe Biden, saying its algorithm combines confidential information from each real estate management company in ways that enable landlords to align prices and avoid competition that would otherwise push down rents. That amounts to cartel-like illegal price collusion, prosecutors said. RealPage’s clients include huge landlords who collectively oversee millions of units across the U.S.

In the lawsuit, the DOJ pointed to RealPage executives’ own words about how their product maximizes prices for landlords. One executive said, “There is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the entire industry down.”

San Francisco, Philadelphia and Minneapolis have since passed ordinances restricting landlords from using rental algorithms. The DOJ case remains ongoing, as do lawsuits against RealPage brought by tenants and the attorneys general of Arizona and Washington, D.C.

Berkeley’s ordinance, which fines violators up to $1,000 per infraction, says algorithmic rental software has contributed to “double-digit rent increases … higher vacancy rates and higher rates of eviction.”

RealPage said all these claims are false, and that the real driver of high rents is a lack of housing supply.

The company also denies providing “price fixing software” or a “coordinated pricing algorithm,” saying its pricing recommendations — higher, lower or no change — align with whatever property-specific objectives the housing providers want to achieve using the software.

And since landlords already are incentivized to maximize revenue, RealPage argues that real estate management software can show them how best to maintain high occupancy, and this in turn reduces constraints on the supply of homes.

The lawsuit accuses American Economic Liberties Project, an advocacy group that opposes monopolistic practices, of spreading falsehoods that have caused local officials to pursue misguided policies.

“AELP’s false narrative has taken root in certain municipalities that are particularly eager to find a scapegoat for their own hand in impeding the housing supply,” the lawsuit said.

Weissman said RealPage officials were never given an opportunity to present their arguments to the Berkeley City Council before the ordinance was passed and said the company is considering legal action against other cities that have passed similar policies, including San Francisco.

A spokesperson for Berkeley City Council did not comment on the lawsuit and said officials had not been formally served with the complaint. A spokesperson for the AELP did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

AUSTIN – The Texas Senate, with the bare minimum number of votes, approved the nomination of a formerly indicted Austin police officer to a law enforcement watchdog agency on Wednesday, despite a Democratic effort to block his confirmation over misconduct allegations.

Justin Berry, a senior Austin Police Department officer who had been indicted on charges of aggravated assault during the racial justice protests in 2020, was confirmed Wednesday, 21-10, to serve a second term on the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which sets standards for police training and conduct.

Senate Democrats, whose ranks had the potential to tank Berry’s nomination if they stayed united, had urged their colleagues to reject Berry on the floor Wednesday.

But state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa — a Democrat from McAllen in South Texas, a region that has recently surged toward the right — broke with his party to provide the critical vote needed to confirm Berry to a second term. Hinojosa is one of the more conservative Democrats in the Senate.

In an interview, Hinojosa said that he “didn’t take the vote lightly,” and had reviewed the allegations against Berry and met with him one-on-one on Tuesday before deciding to approve his confirmation.

Hinojosa found insufficient evidence backing the accusations of misconduct, he said, and had spoken to other members of the law-enforcement commission who described Berry’s work on the board so far as “competent and professional.” Hinojosa alerted the Senate Democratic Caucus chair, Sen. Carol Alvarado of Houston, of his decision Wednesday morning.

“I didn’t feel there was any criminal behavior that would rise to the level of rejecting his nomination,” Hinojosa said, adding that he thought rejecting Berry would make him a “scapegoat” for failures at higher levels of police command. “It’s not an easy one, but at the same time, I’m not here to second guess the governor.”

Berry’s confirmation marked another failed attempt by Democrats to exercise power in a state government long dominated by Republicans. Gov. Greg Abbott nominated Berry in January 2024 for a second term, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who tightly controls the Senate, was determined to win a confirmation vote.

In opposing Berry’s confirmation, Democrats cited past allegations against Berry that said he used excessive force and misused his police power. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, according to Abbott’s announcement of Berry’s nomination, “establishes and enforces standards to ensure that the people of Texas are served by highly trained and ethical law enforcement, corrections, and telecommunications personnel.”

Abbott’s announcement of Berry’s nomination cited his over 16 years of experience in law enforcement and the “numerous awards, medals and commendations” he had received, including the Austin Police Department Honorable Conduct Medal and the Austin Police Department Meritorious Service Medal.

Before the confirmation vote, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, said: “The governor’s selection of an officer with his history is evidence of a growing intolerance of dissent at the highest levels of our government. … There are more than 8,000 peace officers in the state of Texas. Why did the governor pick one with this very public record?”

Berry, who twice ran for the Legislature as a Republican, was indicted on charges of aggravated assault in February 2022 related to an incident in which a Black Lives Matter protester was shot in the face with “less-lethal” munitions. Austin District Attorney Jose Garza dropped the charges against Berry and most of the other 18 officers who were indicted on use of excessive force a year later.

Eckhardt, who led the effort to block Berry’s confirmation, said her teenage daughter was at the protest and witnessed the shooting.

“This incident alone should cause some question regarding his fitness to set the standards of conduct and training for peace officers in Texas,” she said during a committee hearing Monday, adding that other allegations against Berry of employing excessive force or misusing his police power over the past two decades caused her “additional concern.”

The political fight over Berry’s confirmation began when he did not appear for questioning before the Senate Nominations Committee at its March 10 hearing — when his nomination was listed on the agenda — as Democrats had requested.

All 11 Senate Democrats then signed onto a March 19 letter to state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels and the committee chair, requesting that Berry appear for questioning.

“We are unaware of any prior instance in which a sitting committee member’s request for a nominee to appear has been denied,” the lawmakers said, adding that Berry’s nomination is “not uncontroversial,” and citing three individuals who were seriously injured by munitions during the 2020 protests and $18 million in civil settlements paid by the city of Austin to protesters as a result of police conduct.

“Although most of the indictments have been dismissed (four indictments remain active), questions regarding Mr. Berry’s actions that day go to the heart of his fitness to serve on the commission,” they said.

Berry later met privately with the committee’s three Democrats — Eckhardt, Alvarado and Borris L. Miles of Houston — but did not appear before the larger committee, whose Republican members on Monday unanimously sent his nomination to the full Senate.

On Monday, Eckhardt said that Patrick denied Democrats’ request last week that Berry appear before the committee.

“Senators offer their advice and consent through their deliberations and vote,” Patrick said in a Wednesday statement before the vote. “I will not allow any nominee to be subjected to an unfair process outside of that scope.”

Eckhardt had “made it clear she wanted to turn a committee room into a courtroom,” he added. “That is clearly outside the scope of offering advice and consent.”

The tension over Berry’s nomination came to a head in committee on Monday, as Eckhardt began explaining her concerns with his record and describing a packet of documents she had compiled and shared with lawmakers on the allegations against him.

Campbell quickly interjected. “Senator Eckhardt, you can make these very brief. You will have time to express your concerns on the mic, on the floor,” she said.

Eckhardt continued, and less than a minute into her remarks, Campbell cut her off again and tried to move the hearing forward. The two spoke over each other before Eckhardt, appearing exasperated, concluded.

Berry’s second term is set to conclude in August 2027.

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

NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla sales fell 13% in the first three months of the year, another sign that Elon Musk’s once high-flying car company is struggling to attract buyers.

The leading electric vehicle maker has faced a growing backlash from Musk’s embrace of right-wing politics and his role in the Trump administration. Opponents have staged protests at Tesla showrooms in the U.S. and in Europe, where the sales declines have been steeper.

Tesla’s line-up is aging, and some consumers may have held off from buying its bestselling Model Y while waiting for an updated version. The Austin, Texas, company also faces fierce competition from other EV makers offering vastly improved models, including those of China’s BYD.

Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681 globally in the January to March quarter. The figure was down from sales of 387,000 in the same period a year ago. The decline came despite deep discounts, zero financing and other incentives and could be a warning that the company’s first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors.

Dan Ives of Wedbush said Wall Street financial analysts knew the first quarter was likely bad, but turned out even worse than expected. He called the sales results a “disaster on every metric.”

“The brand crisis issues are clearly having a negative impact on Tesla…there is no debate,” he said.

Musk has been President Donald Trump’s point man in his effort to cut government spending. As criticism of Musk mounted and Tesla’s sales and stock price slumped, Trump last month held an extraordinary press conference outside the White House in which he praised Tesla, blasted boycotts against the company and bought a Tesla himself while TV cameras rolled.

Tesla investors have complained Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency has diverted his focus from running Tesla. On Tuesday, New York City’s comptroller overseeing pension funds holding Tesla stock called for a lawsuit accusing a distracted Musk of “driving Tesla off a financial cliff.”

After falling as much as 6% in early Wednesday, Tesla stock shot up more than 5% on indications that Musk may soon return his attention to Tesla. Politico, citing anonymous sources, reported Trump has told Cabinet members that Musk will step back from his role at DOGE in coming weeks.

Tesla’s stock has plunged by roughly half since hitting a mid-December record as expectations of a lighter regulatory touch and big profits with Donald Trump as president were replaced by fear that the boycott of Musk’s cars and other problems could hit the company hard. Analysts are still not sure exactly how much the fall in sales is due to the protests or other factors.

Still, even bullish financial analysts who earlier downplayed the backlash to Musk’s polarizing political stances are saying it is hurting the company, something that Musk also recently acknowledged.

“This is a very expensive job,” Musk said at a Wisconsin rally on Sunday, referring to his DOGE role. “My Tesla stock and the stock of everyone who holds Tesla has gone roughly in half.”

Tesla cars have been smashed and set on fire in recent weeks, and protests have been staged at hundreds of Tesla dealerships. Owners have put bumper stickers on their cars saying, “I bought this before Elon went crazy.”

Europeans have also balked at buying Tesla, especially Germans upset after Musk publicly supported a far-right party in national elections and gave what many say was a Nazi-like salute at a Trump inauguration rally in January.

Tesla is expected to report earnings of 48 cents per share for the first quarter later this month, up 7% from a year earlier, according to a survey of financial analysts by research firm FactSet.

Nearly all of Tesla’s sales in the quarter came from the smaller and less-expensive Models 3 and Y, with the company selling less than 13,000 more expensive models, which include X and S as well as the Cybertruck.

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AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report from New York.

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — A 17-year-old student was fatally stabbed by another student during an altercation at a high school track meet in suburban Dallas on Wednesday, police said.

The suspect, 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, was taken into custody and charged with murder, according to police in Frisco, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Dallas. Bond had not yet been set.

A police spokesperson said Anthony was being held at the city jail and would be transferred to Collin County jail. The spokesperson also said he did not know whether Anthony had an attorney yet.

Efforts to find contact information for family members to speak on Anthony’s behalf were not immediately successful.

The Frisco Independent School District said the stabbing happened at a meet where student athletes from eight of the district’s 12 schools were competing.

The student who was killed was Austin Metcalf, an 11th grader at Memorial High School, according to an email the principal sent to parents Wednesday.

Details on what led to the stabbing were not immediately released. Frisco police asked for anyone with information to come forward.

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This story has been updated to correct the age of the student who was killed to 17. Police said previously that he was 16.