KTBB News, Weather, Talk

BROWNSVILLE (AP) — With one-fifth of states seeing active measles outbreaks, the U.S. is nearing 900 cases, according to figures posted Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s confirmed measles cases count is 884, triple the amount seen in all of 2024. The vast majority — 646 — are in Texas, where an outbreak in the western part of the state that’s approaching the three-month mark.

Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses in the epicenter in West Texas, and an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated died of a measles-related illness.

Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

North America has two other ongoing outbreaks. One in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 1,020 cases from mid-October through Wednesday. And as of Friday, the Mexican state of Chihuahua state had 605 measles cases, according to data from the state health ministry. The World Health Organization has said 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.

As the virus takes hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates, health experts fear the virus that the spread could stretch on for a year. 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 state health officials said Friday there were 22 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 646 across 26 counties — most of them in West Texas. Hospitalizations were steady Friday at 64 throughout the outbreak.

State health officials estimated about 1% of cases — fewer than 10 — are actively infectious.

Sixty-one percent of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has had 393 cases since late January — just over 1.5% of the county’s residents.

The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 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 unvaccinated child with no underlying conditions died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6.

New Mexico announced one new case Friday, bringing the state’s total to 66. Seven people have been hospitalized since the outbreak started. Most of the state’s cases are in Lea County. Three are in Eddy County and Chaves and Don?a Ana counties have one each.

State health officials say the cases are linked to Texas’ outbreak based on genetic testing. New Mexico reported a measles-related death in an adult on March 6.
How many cases are there in Indiana?

Indiana confirmed two more cases Monday in an outbreak that has sickened eight in Allen County in the northeast part of the state — five are unvaccinated minors and three are adults whose vaccination status is unknown. The cases have no known link to other outbreaks, the Allen County Department of Health said Monday.
How many cases are there in Kansas?

Kansas was steady this week with 37 cases in eight counties in the southwest part of the state. Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray and Morton counties have fewer than five cases each. Haskell County has the most with eight cases, Stevens County has seven, Kiowa County has six.

The state’s first reported case, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the Texas outbreak based on genetic testing.
How many cases are there in Michigan?

Montcalm County, near Grand Rapids in western Michigan, has four linked measles cases. State health officials say the cases are tied to Canada’s large outbreak in Ontario. The state has nine confirmed measles cases as of Friday, but the remaining four are not part of the Montcalm County outbreak.
How many cases are there in Montana?

Montana state health officials announced five cases Thursday in unvaccinated children and adults who had traveled out of state, and confirmed it was an outbreak on Monday. All five are isolating at home in Gallatin County in the southwest part of the state.

They are Montana’s first measles cases in 35 years. Health officials didn’t say whether the cases are linked to other outbreaks in North America.
How many cases are there in Ohio?

The Ohio Department of Health confirmed 32 measles cases in the state Thursday, and one hospitalization. The state count includes only Ohio residents. There are 16 cases in Ashtabula County near Cleveland, 14 in Knox County and one each in Allen and Holmes counties.

Health officials in Knox County, in east-central Ohio, said there are a total of 20 people with measles, but seven of them do not live in the state.
How many cases are there in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma was steady Friday with 13 cases: 10 confirmed and three probable. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the state health department said. The state health department is not releasing which counties have cases, but Cleveland, Custer and Oklahoma counties have had public exposures in the past couple of months.
How many cases are there in Pennsylvania?

There are eight measles cases in Erie County in far northwest Pennsylvania, officials said Friday. The county declared an outbreak in mid-April. The state said Friday it has 13 cases overall in 2025, including international travel-related cases in Montgomery County and one in Philadelphia.
How many cases are there in Tennessee?

Tennessee has six measles cases as of Thursday. Health department spokesman Bill Christian said all cases are the middle part of the state, and that “at least three of these cases are linked to each other” but declined to specify further. The state also did not say whether the cases were linked to other outbreaks or when Tennessee’s outbreak started.

The state health department announced the state’s first measles case March 21, three more on April 1 and the last two on April 17, but none of the news releases declared an outbreak. Tennessee is on a list of outbreak states in a Thursday CDC report.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?

There have been 884 cases in 2025 as of Friday, according to the CDC. Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Cases and outbreaks in the U.S. are frequently traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.
What do you need to know about the MMR vaccine?

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

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.

People who have documentation that they had measles are immune and those born before 1957 generally don’t need the shots because most children back then had measles and now have “presumptive immunity.”

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.
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.

BROWNSVILLE (AP) — A Texas appeals court ruled Thursday that the city of Austin cannot enforce its law that prohibits police from citing and arresting people for carrying a small amount of marijuana. This is the second time this month that the appeals court has ruled in favor of the state against ordinances that decriminalize marijuana.

The state’s 15th Court of Appeals overturned the decision by Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer, who had dismissed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against Austin last year, ruling that there was no legal justification to try the case. The court determined the city law “abused its discretion” by putting up any barrier to the full enforcement of drug-related laws.

Last week, this same court overturned a lower court ruling that denied a temporary injunction to prevent the city of San Marcos from enforcing its voter-approved ordinance to decriminalize marijuana because it conflicts with current state law.

“Consistent with the City of San Marcos, we conclude that the ordinance in this case is also preempted by state law,” according to the ruling about Austin’s ordinance penned by Judge Scott Field.

This is another blow to the progressive drug movement that swept into various cities across the state. Austin Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes called the ruling another example of the state stepping on local decisions.

“This court ruling is a huge letdown. Austin voters made their voices loud and clear in 2022, and instead of respecting that, the State has chosen to ignore their will,” Fuentes said.
The background

Austin voters approved a proposition in May 2022 to allow the possession of 4 ounces or less of marijuana. Police already weren’t arresting people for low-level possession, in part because it was difficult to differentiate marijuana from hemp, which was legalized in 2019.

Voters in four other cities — San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton — also approved policies policies that would end arrests and citations for possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. An initiative spearheaded by Ground Game Texas — the progressive group that first launched the proposition in Austin — worked with local organizations in the other cities and succeeded in pushing for similar policies to appear on the ballots.
Why Texas sued

Paxton filed the suit in 2024, alleging Austin was violating state law and promoting “the use of illicit drugs that harm our communities.” He filed similar suits against San Marcos, Killeen, Denton and Elgin, which also decriminalized pot.

Paxton argues the Texas Local Government Code forbids them from adopting policies that would result in not fully enforcing drug-related laws. Paxton is seeking to repeal the city’s ordinances and make them enforce state law.
What has happened in the courts so far

Hays County District Judge Sherri Tibbe dismissed Paxton’s lawsuit, upholding the argument that the state was not injured when San Marcos reduced arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession and that it allowed for resources to be used for higher-priority public safety needs.

The Office of the Attorney General appealed this decision. In February, the case was assigned to the 15th Court of Appeals, where the state’s attorneys argued that the San Marcos ordinance obstructed the enforcement of state drug laws. The city argued the policy was voter-driven, but the court disagreed, granting the temporary injunction while litigation continues.

Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer dismissed Paxton’s lawsuit against Austin last year, ruling there was no legal justification to try the case.

Both Tibbe and Soifer’s rulings have now been overturned by the 15th Court of Appeals.

This puts the fate of the ordinances in doubt and some cities have already given up on trying to fight the state.

Paxton’s lawsuit against Elgin was resolved last summer via consent decree, meaning neither side is claiming guilt or liability but has come to an agreement.

In the North Texas suburb of Denton, where voters approved decriminalization by more than 70%, the implementation of marijuana decriminalization has stalled after City Manager Sara Hensley argued it couldn’t be enforced since it conflicted with state law.

The case against Killeen, which was filed in Bell County a year ago, is still pending.
Broader impact

The future of THC products in Texas is uncertain. Currently, lawmakers are debating Senate Bill 3, which would ban any consumable hemp products that contain even trace amounts of THC, as well as House Bill 28, which would ban synthetic THC and products like gummies and vapes. The House’s proposal focuses more on tightening regulatory loopholes, allowing hemp-infused beverages and assigning the alcohol industry to regulate those products. HB 28 would also limiting the consumption of such products to those 21 years or older and implement advertising regulations.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he would move to force a special legislative session if lawmakers fail to pass the ban during the current session which ends June 2.

“Kids are getting poisoned today,” Patrick told the Senate earlier this year.

Earlier this week, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 1870 that would ban any local entity from putting a drug decriminalization ordinance on the ballot for approval. The House will take up the bill next.

AUSTIN (AP) — Texas public school ratings — which grade how well districts educate their students — drastically dropped after the state implemented stricter scoring standards, new data released Thursday shows.

Low performance ratings on the state’s A-F scale set the stage for big consequences. Parents may enroll their students at a different campus, and businesses may forgo investments in those communities. Districts that get consecutive failing grades can face bruising state sanctions, like an order to shut down underperforming schools or a state takeover.

The Thursday release of ratings for the 2022-23 school year marked the first time failing grades for districts have been made public in five years. The percentage of schools in the state that got an F rating increased from 4.5% in 2019 to 7.6% in 2023.

Of the 8,539 public schools evaluated in the state, 19.3% received an A. Another 33.6% got a B, 24.7% a C, and 14.8% a D.

Fort Worth ISD was the only district that had a school get an F rating five years in a row, meeting the threshold for a state takeover, the highest level of state intervention.

Performance scores for schools and districts are based on three categories: how students perform on state tests and meet college and career readiness benchmarks; how students improve over time; and how well schools are educating the state’s most disadvantaged students.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath interpreted the 2022-23 declines as a stabilization of student improvement after rapid recoveries following the pandemic. School districts across the state, meanwhile, say new accountability standards made it harder to get a high rating.
Ratings dropped for districts under stricter standards

The 2023 ratings show 56% of Texas’ high schools had more of their seniors prove they were ready for college, the military or the workforce than the previous school year. At the same time, nearly 90% of campuses saw their student readiness score decrease, a reflection of higher standards that went into effect that year.

“We keep raising the bar so that Texas is a leader in preparing students for postsecondary success,” Morath said during a call with reporters Tuesday.

In the 2022-23 school year, for the first time, TEA only awarded an A in college and career readiness when 88% of a school’s graduates were considered ready for life after high school. That’s up from 60% in previous years.

A legal battle blocked the release of the ratings for 19 months. More than 120 districts across the state argued TEA did not give them adequate notice before rolling out stricter college and career readiness benchmarks.

An appeals court earlier this month ruled that Morath did not overstep his authority when he made those changes, clearing TEA to make the 2023 A-F grades public.
The role poverty plays in ratings

Districts with higher rates of low-income students were more likely to get a D or an F than their wealthier counterparts. Almost none of the school districts with a rate of low-income students lower than 20% received an overall rating of D or F.

Schools in lower-income areas are often working with fewer resources to meet the same goalposts as every other school in the state. Opponents of the rating system say it is unfair for schools working with fewer resources and doesn’t reflect the enormous needs of educating students coming from struggling families.
Chronically underperforming schools put districts at risk of sanctions

The ratings released Thursday show Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade in Fort Worth was the only school that has accrued five consecutive years of failing scores.

Teachers have struggled to build out high-quality curricula for math and reading because of leadership turnover, contributing to years of low performance ratings, Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar said.

“The ratings are not new to us, even though they’re just newly released,” Molinar said. “We’re making changes. They’re very bold, but they have a sense of urgency.”

Molinar said the district will have Texas Wesleyan University help oversee operations. That kind of partnership is a life raft for struggling districts: Handing over the management of underperforming schools to a nonprofit, university or charter group means a two-year pause from sanctions.

The Fort Worth ISD school board also voted last month to close the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade and move students to the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School.

At least five other districts across the state had campuses with four years of unacceptable grades, bringing them closer to state sanctions.

One of those districts, Wichita Falls ISD, shut down Kirby Middle School in 2023 and moved students to a new building. But a TEA spokesperson said district leadership largely stayed the same, which means their failing grades — and the possibility of state sanctions that come with them — will follow them to their new campus.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Pastoral succession, megachurch wealth and family dynasties combine in a lawsuit filed against Second Baptist Church of Houston and its leaders April 15. The Southern Baptist congregation is the 17th largest church in America, according to Outreach magazine, with average weekly attendance of 19,735 in 2024. After 46 years as senior pastor, Ed Young stepped down last May and named one of his sons, Ben Young, his successor. Another son, also named Ed Young, leads a Dallas-area megachurch called Fellowship Church, which is the 13th largest church in America. But all is not well in Houston, nearly one year after Ed Young the elder took a sudden retirement at age 87 — amid grumblings inside and outside the church that he had become a bit unhinged in his rambling sermons — and orchestrated naming his son as successor.

This turn of events pitted two groups within the church membership against each other: Younger members who wanted new leadership versus older, wealthier members who remained loyal to Ed Young regardless. But that’s only the beginning of this saga. Now there are allegations of deceptive practices, an illegal church business meeting and a family’s attempt to enrich itself by control of the church’s $1 billion in assets. The elder Young is Southern Baptist Convention royalty and a legend among American pastors. He not only was elected president of the SBC twice during the “conservative resurgence,” but he grew the church from about 500 people in 1976 to tens of thousands today. Second Baptist Houston was a megachurch before most Americans knew what a megachurch was. Now, a group of members has formed a nonprofit corporation called Jeremiah Counsel “to promote, protect and restore integrity, accountable governance and donor protection for churches in Texas.” Specifically Second Baptist. Jeremiah Counsel filed suit against Ben Young, Ed Young, Associate Pastor Lee Maxcy and North Texas attorney Dennis Brewer, who served as chief financial officer of Fellowship Church in North Texas. The plaintiffs charge these defendants — labeled “The Young Group” — conspired to steal church assets and take away the congregation’s right to choose its own pastor. They accuse the elder Ed Young of enacting a series of changes beginning in 2023 “to secure the ascendance of his son, Ben Young … as senior pastor to Second Baptist’s 94,000 congregants.” That “circumvented the democratic processes which had long been observed under existing church bylaws for 95 years,” the plaintiffs charge. “This move was not merely about family succession. It was also about consolidating power and control over church governance and church assets.”

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Greater Houston is growing. So is its voracious appetite for electricity. In fact, CenterPoint Energy’s Houston-area customers could require 50% more electricity during peak usage times by 2031, company executives told investors Tuesday. That’s like adding two San Antonio metros to the Houston region. Even then, the projection is a “conservative forecast,” meaning the region’s actual electricity needs might end up much higher, CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call Tuesday morning. The local power grid would require billions of dollars of investments to accommodate this growth, if it pans out — a lucrative opportunity for CenterPoint, since the company makes money by spending big on capital projects.

“We’re not seeing growth slow down in the Greater Houston region. If anything, it’s accelerating. So, I think the electric transmission build-out will only accelerate as we get into the next decade,” Wells said Tuesday. The cost of those projects, meanwhile, would be paid for via electricity rate increases spread out across CenterPoint’s expanding customer base. CenterPoint earned $297 million in profits in the first quarter, a 15% decrease from the same period last year. Still, Tuesday’s earnings call was upbeat as executives touted the company’s plan to spend more than $27 billion in capital projects through 2030. Approximately $20 billion of those investments are planned for CenterPoint’s electric utility businesses in Houston and Indiana. Another $7 billion is planned for the company’s natural gas utilities across Texas, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio.

AUSTIN – Texas lawmakers are considering following President Donald Trump’s lead and renaming the body of water that touches 367 miles of the state’s coast to the Gulf of America.

If approved, the bill would require the name to be changed in every official reference made by a state agency, resolution, rule or publication. The Sunset Advisory Committee would be required to include these changes in future reviews of state agencies.

The fiscal note said any associated costs could be absorbed using existing resources and there would be no significant fiscal impact on local government.

Senate Bill 1717 by Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican, was passed with 20 out of 31 senators in favor of the bill. This means the House will now get the bill for consideration.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 38, which recognizes the “strategic importance” of the Gulf of America, was also passed to engrossment with 22 senators voting aye.

“Senate Bill 1717 reignites the spirit of American Exceptionalism,” Middleton said. “America is a beacon of hope. We are that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan said. We are a nation set apart from the rest of the world, upholding that sacred right of life and liberty and property.”

Democratic Sens. José Menéndez of San Antonio and Juan Hinojosa of McAllen aired their concerns about the legislation in a debate on the Senate floor.

Menéndez wanted to know whether this bill solved any problems and if this move was just a whim based on the current federal administration. Hinojosa argued the name is historical, used widely by the rest of the world and that this move was purely political.

“I guess what it means is next time that you get another president that believes we ought to change the name back to the Gulf of Mexico … then again, we’ll have to change everything?” Hinojosa asked.

Middleton maintained that the bill was not a whim, and said the lawmakers were always welcome to introduce a bill later to change the name within the state code.

Sen. Pete Flores, a Pleasanton Republican, took up for the measure by pointing to changes made by former Gov. Ann Richards, who changed the names of several Texas landmarks. He did not provide examples of these changes on the Senate floor.

Trump signed an executive order changing the name of the waterway along the southern U.S. border to the Gulf of America on Jan. 20, leading to widespread debate. Other world leaders, however, said they would not likely follow suit, including Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum.

“They can continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico,” Flores said. “What your bill is doing is codifying the name of the Gulf of America to reflect the maps that the United States government has put into effect.”

Middleton said this move is to reflect those changes.

A similar bill in the Texas House, by Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Deer Park Republican, was referred to the House State Affairs Committee in March. It has not moved since.

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

AUSTIN – A lottery courier company is suing the Texas Lottery Commission in an effort to block the agency from placing a ban on their services in less than a week.

Lottery courier Lotto.com filed the lawsuit Thursday against the commission and its new acting director, Sergio Rey. The lawsuit calls the potential courier ban an “about-face” from the agency’s previous stance on couriers, as lottery commission officials had previously told lawmakers they lacked the ability to regulate the services, the company said.

“It is time to reconsider the agency’s politically motivated decisions regarding lottery couriers and restart good faith collaboration between our companies and fresh leadership at the TLC,” said a statement from the Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers, a group formed in 2025 that represents Lotto.com and other couriers.

Couriers are third-party services that sell lottery tickets online. The services print tickets at licensed retailers they own and send digital scans of purchases to customers. Lotto.com comes in second to the nation’s largest retailer, courier Jackpocket, as the state’s highest-selling lottery retailer.

The lottery commission indicated it would ban the businesses after a heated Senate Finance Committee hearing in February, during which lawmakers voiced concerns about the potential for money-laundering through couriers or bulk purchase of lottery tickets.

Amid the mounting scrutiny, Ryan Mindell, the lottery commission’s executive director, resigned on Monday.

The lawsuit claims the commission violated 30-day rule-change notice requirements when it announced in February it would seek to ban couriers and confiscated dozens of lottery terminals from couriers that same day. It also claims that because the lottery commission had previously indicated multiple times to lawmakers that the agency could not regulate the services, the ban is invalid.

The 57-page lawsuit also cites communications between Lotto.com and the lottery commission as an indicator that agency officials were aware of Lotto.com’s operation and communicated with them repeatedly.

Lawmakers’ money-laundering concerns and others, such as illegal sales to minors and out-of-state players, have drawn couriers and the lottery further into lawmakers’ scrutiny. The commission is now under two separate state investigations by the attorney general’s office and the Texas Rangers, a division of the Department of Public Safety. Lt. Gov Dan Patrick also has listed banning couriers as one of his top legislative priorities, and a bill criminalizing the services passed through the state Senate unanimously in February.

Senate Bill 28, authored by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, has yet to be heard in the House. The lottery commission will vote on their courier ban on April 29 if the judge does not file an injunction before the meeting.

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