Memorial Hermann doctor admits altering transplant records

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports a surgeon in the liver transplant program at Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center admitted earlier this year to circumventing federal rules to make it highly unlikely that certain patients would receive an offer for a life-saving organ, according to federal documents provided this week to the Houston Chronicle. The surgeon, who was not named in the report but was later identified by the hospital as Dr. J. Steve Bynon, said he changed information in a transplant database without going through a formal review process. He is quoted in the documents as saying he took the “shortcut” to “ensure patients were safely transplanted.” Other hospital officials told regulators that the surgeon made the changes because his patients were sick, the documents say. Patients, however, were not notified of the changes while they remained active on the waitlist, according to the documents, which describe deficiencies found during an April 4 inspection by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The surgeon “admitted that it was ‘all his fault,’ and he maybe should have inactivated the patients from the waitlist,” according to the documents. Making such changes without notifying patients is a breach of medical ethics, an expert told the Chronicle. The documents reveal new details about previously reported problems in the hospital’s liver transplant program and raise additional questions about Bynon’s possible motives. They portray an environment where he repeatedly acted without consulting the hospital’s medical review board, a group of medical workers that collectively decides which patients should be added or removed from the transplant wait list. Bynon, a prominent abdominal transplant surgeon who took over the Memorial Hermann program in 2011, has been sued by multiple families who allege their loved one died as a result of changes he made to transplant information. Neither Bynon nor his attorney responded to a request for comment Thursday.

Tennessee man leads deputies on multi-county pursuit

Tennessee man leads deputies on multi-county pursuitNACOGDOCHES COUNTY – A Tennessee man who led Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office deputies in a multi-county pursuit Tuesday morning was found with a firearm and marijuana. According to the sheriff’s office and our news partner KETK, a deputy attempted to pull over a speeding 2020 Toyota at around 7:15 a.m. on US 259 near Central Heights school zone. The driver identified as 41-year-old Christopher Michael Chaney, of Ashland City, Tennessee, fled and reached speeds of 120 mph, the sheriff’s office said.

Nacogdoches Police Department officers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers reportedly assisted in the pursuit as Chaney continued to flee toward Garrison on U.S. 59. Continue reading Tennessee man leads deputies on multi-county pursuit

Tyler mother seeks answers 8 years after son’s death

Tyler mother seeks answers 8 years after son’s deathSMITH COUNTY — Nearly a decade after her son was killed, a Tyler Mother is still looking for answers. For eight years, Mary Moore, mother of Steven Ray Smith who was killed in September of 2016, has been searching and hoping for answers. “I can’t sleep at night because I miss him,” Moore said. “It’s the worst thing that a mother can feel, like a black hole in your heart.”

According to our news partner KETK, in 2016 Aisha McGee and Steven Smith were shot to death outside of a now closed club in northwest Tyler. Tyler police officer Andy Erbaugh served as one of the responding detectives on the case. “On September 18th, 2016, at around 2:44 in the morning,” Erbaugh said. “No witnesses except for one stayed on scene and we found that two people had been shot and killed.”

He said unfortunately they still don’t have a suspect, leaving the families lost for answers. Continue reading Tyler mother seeks answers 8 years after son’s death

US awards $3 billion for EV battery production in 14 states

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is awarding over $3 billion to U.S. companies to boost domestic production of advanced batteries and other materials used for electric vehicles, part of a continuing push to reduce China’s global dominance in battery production for EVs and other electronics.

The grants will fund a total of 25 projects in 14 states, including battleground states such as Michigan and North Carolina, as well as Ohio, Texas, South Carolina and Louisiana.

The grants announced Friday mark the second round of EV battery funding under the bipartisan infrastructure law approved in 2021. An earlier round allocated $1.8 billion for 14 projects that are ongoing. The totals are down from amounts officials announced in October 2022 and reflect a number of projects that were withdrawn or rejected by U.S. officials during sometimes lengthy negotiations.

The money is part of a larger effort by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to boost production and sales of electric vehicles as a key element of their strategy to slow climate change and build up U.S. manufacturing. Companies receiving awards process lithium, graphite or other battery materials, or manufacture components used in EV batteries.

“Today’s awards move us closer to achieving the administration’s goal of building an end-to-end supply chain for batteries and critical minerals here in America, from mining to processing to manufacturing and recycling, which is vital to reduce China’s dominance of this critical sector,” White House economic adviser Lael Brainard said.

The Biden-Harris administration is “committed to making batteries in the United States that are going to be vital for powering our grid, our homes and businesses and America’s iconic auto industry,” Brainard told reporters Thursday during a White House call.

The awards announced Friday bring to nearly $35 billion total U.S. investments to bolster domestic critical minerals and battery supply chains, Brainard said, citing projects from major lithium mines in Nevada and North Carolina to battery factories in Michigan and Ohio to production of rare earth elements and magnets in California and Texas.

“We’re using every tool at our disposal, from grants and loans to allocated tax credits,” she said, adding that the administration’s approach has leveraged more $100 billion in private sector investment since Biden took office.

In recent years, China has cornered the market for processing and refining key minerals such as lithium, rare earth elements and gallium, and also has dominated battery production, leaving the U.S. and its allies and partners “vulnerable,” Brainard said.

The U.S. has responded by taking what she called “tough, targeted measures to enforce against unfair actions by China.” Just last week, officials finalized higher tariffs on Chinese imports of critical minerals such as graphite used in EV and grid-storage batteries. The administration also has acted under the 2022 climate law to incentivize domestic sourcing for EVs sold in the U.S. and placed restrictions on products from China and other adversaries labeled by the U.S. as foreign entities of concern.

“We’re committed to making batteries in the United States of America,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.

If finalized, awards announced Friday will support 25 projects with 8,000 construction jobs and over 4,000 permanent jobs, officials said. Companies will be required to match grants on a 50-50 basis, with a minimum $50 million investment, the Energy Department said.

While federal funding may not be make-or-break for some projects, the infusion of cash from the infrastructure and climate laws has dramatically transformed the U.S. battery manufacturing sector in the past few years, said Matthew McDowell, associate professor of engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.

McDowell said he is excited about the next generation of batteries for clean energy storage, including solid state batteries, which could potentially hold more energy than lithium ion.

US Senate panel OKs action against Steward Health Care CEO

BOSTON (AP) — Members of a U.S. Senate committee looking into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care adopted two resolutions Thursday designed to hold CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt — one for civil enforcement and another for criminal contempt — for not testifying before the panel.

The votes come after de la Torre refused to attend a committee hearing last week despite being issued a subpoena. Both resolutions will be sent to the full Senate for consideration.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said de la Torre’s decision to defy the subpoena gave the committee little choice but to seek contempt charges.

“For months, this committee has invited Dr. de la Torre to testify about the financial mismanagement and what occurred at Steward Health Care,” Sanders said at Thursday’s hearing. “Time after time, he has arrogantly refused to appear.”

In a letter sent to the committee Wednesday, Alexander Merton, an attorney for de la Torre, said the committee’s request to have him testify would violate his Fifth Amendment rights.

The Constitution protects de la Torre from being compelled by the government to provide sworn testimony intended to frame him “as a criminal scapegoat for the systemic failures in Massachusetts’ health care system,” Merton wrote, adding that de la Torre would agree to testify at a later date.

“Our concerns that the Hearing would be used to ambush Dr. de la Torre in a pseudo-criminal proceeding were on full display last week, with the Committee soliciting testimony from witnesses calling Dr. de la Torre and Steward executives ‘health care terrorists’ and advocating for Dr. de la Torre’s imprisonment,” Merton added.

The resolution for civil enforcement of the subpoena instructs the Senate legal counsel to bring a lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Columbia to require de la Torre’s testimony before the committee.

The criminal contempt resolution would refer the matter to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to criminally prosecute de la Torre for failing to comply with the subpoena.

“Even though Dr. de la Torre may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Even though he may be able to own fancy yachts and private jets and luxurious accommodations around the world. Even though he may be able to afford some of the most expensive lawyers in America, Dr. de la Torre is not above the law,” Sanders said.

Texas-based Steward, which operates about 30 hospitals nationwide, filed for bankruptcy in May,

Steward has been working to sell a half-dozen hospitals in Massachusetts. But it received inadequate bids for two other hospitals, Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer, both of which have closed as a result.

A federal bankruptcy court this month approved the sale of Steward’s other Massachusetts hospitals.

Steward has also shut down pediatric wards in Massachusetts and Louisiana, closed neonatal units in Florida and Texas, and eliminated maternity services at a hospital in Florida.

At the same time, de la Torre has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars personally and bought a $40 million yacht and a $15 million luxury fishing boat, Sanders said.

Ellen MacInnis, a nurse at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, testified before the committee last week that under Steward management, patients were subjected to preventable harm and even death, particularly in understaffed emergency departments.

She also said there was a time when Steward failed to pay a vendor who supplied bereavement boxes for the remains of newborn babies who had died and had to be taken to the morgue.

“Nurses were forced to put babies’ remains in cardboard shipping boxes,” she said. “These nurses put their own money together and went to Amazon and bought the bereavement boxes.”

Texas education commissioner calls for student cellphone ban in schools

AUSTIN (AP) – Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath on Wednesday said next year lawmakers should ban the use of cellphones in public schools across the state.

Morath’s endorsement of a statewide ban came during his testimony at a Senate Education Committee hearing, where he called the use of cellular devices “extremely harmful” to student progress.

“If it were in my power, I would have already banned them in all schools in the state,” Morath said. “So I would encourage you to consider that as a matter of public policy going forward for our students and our teachers.”

Morath’s comments fall directly in line with a debate taking place in school systems across the country, a contentious subject that doesn’t divide neatly along party lines. The commissioner brought up the topic of cellphones while testifying about student outcomes on national and state exams. On the most recent state exam, only 41% of Texas students demonstrated an adequate understanding of math, a significant cause for concern among lawmakers Wednesday.

People supporting universal cellphone bans note that the devices distract students from learning and are harmful to children’s mental health.

Others worry that banning cellphones prevents young people from exercising personal responsibility and communicating with their parents during emergencies — a growing concern as mass shootings have become more common throughout the United States. During the Uvalde school shooting, where a gunman massacred 19 students and two teachers, children trapped inside the school used phones to call police for help.

Still, some committee lawmakers on Wednesday responded to Morath’s testimony with an openness to the idea.

“Mental health is becoming a bigger and bigger issue,” said Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio. “I like what you said about if we could get rid of the cellphones, you know. I mean, it would help all of us if we could do that. But we can’t. I mean … how would it look?”

Morath pointed out that many Texas school districts already ban cellphones in schools, some outright and others only allowing limited use during times like lunch or traveling in between classes.

“Administratively, this is a very doable thing,” he said.

Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican, said that “while we will make an attempt” to ban cellphones from class during the next legislative session, it is ultimately the responsibility of school districts to take action.

“Everything doesn’t take legislation,” said Campbell, who proposed a bill during the last legislative session that sought to prohibit smartphone use during instructional time. “It takes leadership.”

Seventy-two percent of high school teachers across the country say that cellphone distractions are a major problem in their classroom, compared with 33% of middle school teachers and 6% of elementary school teachers, according to Pew Research. Seven states thus far have passed laws that ban or restrict cellphone use in schools, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Legislators in California, which has the most students enrolled in public schools in the country, recently approved a bill requiring school districts to develop a policy restricting the use of cellphones by 2026. But it is unclear whether Texas, where more than 5.5 million children go to school, will soon follow suit.

During The Texas Tribune Festival earlier this month, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democratic member of the Public Education Committee from Austin, said she doesn’t like the use of cellphones in the classroom, “but it may be that we should leave it to school districts to decide that on their own.”

“I don’t know,” Hinojosa said. “We’ll have to hear the debate.”

Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, who also serves on the Public Education Committee, said most of the schools he represents have already restricted cellphones.

“I don’t think we need law for everything,” he said.

Woman sues Florida sheriff after mistaken arrest lands her in jail on Christmas

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Jennifer Heath Box had few worries as she exited her cruise ship at Fort Lauderdale’s port on Christmas Eve 2022.

The Texan and her husband had spent six days at sea celebrating with her brother, a Georgia police officer who had just completed cancer treatment. In two hours the couple had a flight home to Houston, where they would spend Christmas with their Marine son, who was leaving for a three-year deployment in Japan, and two other adult children.

But according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday by Box against the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, its deputies wrongly arrested her as she disembarked and then jailed her for three days, subjecting her to a body cavity search and blasting her cell with death metal music and freezing air.

Deputies accused the 50-year-old financial systems administrator of being a much younger woman with a similar name who was wanted in Harris County, Texas, for felony child endangerment. Harris County had mistakenly put Box’s photo on its warrant, but none of the other information matched.

“I’ve never done anything to where I would find myself on the other side of bars,” Box said at a Thursday press conference near Port Everglades, Florida. “It was really difficult for me because I had to call my kids and tell them that I wasn’t going to be there” for Christmas.

Box said while being booked, a male inmate tried to enter her cell several times, which she called “terrifying.” She said even after Harris County told Broward they had the wrong woman in custody, she wasn’t released for another day and missed her son’s departure.

“It was humiliating, degrading,” Box said of her treatment.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office issued a statement Thursday saying while it “sympathizes” with Box, the department and deputies Peter Peraza and Monica Jean did nothing wrong. It blames the situation on its Texas counterparts.

“The BSO deputy (Peraza) followed the appropriate protocols in handling this matter, and after receiving confirmation of the Harris County warrant, arrested Ms. Box,” the statement said. “Had it not been for the arrest warrant filed by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Customs and Border Patrol would not have flagged Ms. Box, BSO would not have been notified and she would not have been arrested.”

The groundwork for Box’s mistaken arrest was laid when she boarded the ship nearly a week earlier. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol conducts background checks on cruise passengers and matched her to the Harris County warrant. When her ship returned, she was already targeted for arrest.

Border Patrol officers stopped Box after she scanned her ID to leave the ship and summoned Peraza and Jean.

While it was Box’s photo on the warrant, she and her attorneys say the deputies and later their supervisors refused to acknowledge several obvious discrepancies. Box’s middle and last name were not the same as those on the warrant. She is also 23 years older and 5 inches (13 centimeters) taller than the real suspect and has different colored eyes, hair and skin tone.

Charges against the real suspect were dropped days later by Harris County prosecutors, who called the case “weak.”

Box’s attorney, Jared McClain of the nonprofit Institute for Justice, said they aren’t suing Harris County because it simply had one employee make a mistake. He said Broward sheriff’s officials, on the other hand, repeatedly refused to look at the evidence and work to correct a mistaken arrest that should have been obvious, even when contacted by Box’s police officer brother.

“At none of those red flags did anyone in Broward County stop and say, ‘Maybe we’re making a mistake here. Maybe we shouldn’t put this woman in jail over Christmas.’ So that’s why we’re here in Broward County,” McClain said.

The lawsuit does not seek a specific monetary amount, but McClain said the arrest cost Box and her family thousands of dollars in additional hotel and legal costs.

Body camera video shows that Box, wearing a sweatshirt reading “Santa Baby,” and her husband are flabbergasted when told she is being arrested, but they remain calm. In return, the deputies never get physical with her or raise their voices.

Box tried to point out the warrant’s discrepancies, but Peraza pointed to the matching photo and said he had to arrest her. Box removed her jewelry, handed it to her husband and then put her hands behind her back to be cuffed as passersby watched.

After Box was placed in Peraza’s patrol car, the deputy again seemed to study the warrant. He opened the door, asked Box again for her full name, which she provides. She points out that both “Jennifer” and “Heath” are common names. He slowly closes the door as he again reads the warrant, but then drives her to jail.

Box says even though the jail was extremely cold, she was given a thin jail uniform while the guards wore stocking caps, heavy jackets and gloves. She said she and her cellmate slept together back-to-back to keep warm.

Finally, a day after she says Broward learned of Harris County’s mistake, she was released. She said she expected an apology, but none was given.

Instead, she says, she was told “stuff happens.”

Judge denies effort to halt State Fair of Texas’ gun ban

DALLAS (AP) — A judge on Thursday denied a effort by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to halt the recently announced ban on guns at the State Fair of Texas.

Dallas County District Judge Emily Tobolowsky denied the state’s request for a temporary injunction to stop the ban from taking effect when the fair opens next week.

Fair officials’ announcement of the ban last month, which follows a shooting last year at the fair, was met with swift criticism from Republican state lawmakers, who have proudly expanded gun rights in recent years. Texas allows people to carry a handgun without a license, background check or training.

Paxton, a Republican, threatened to sue if the ban wasn’t repealed, and when fair officials stood their ground, he filed a lawsuit against the State Fair of Texas and the City of Dallas. The city owns Fair Park, the 277-acre (112-hectare) grounds where the event is held.

Paxton has called the the ban an illegal restriction on gun owners’ rights, saying Texas allows gun owners to carry firearms in places owned or leased by government entities unless otherwise prohibited by law.

But city officials and fair officials have said the State Fair of Texas is a private nonprofit that leases the property from the city for its event. The city has said that the State Fair of Texas is allowed by law to decide whether or not they chose to allow fair-goers to carry firearms. Fair officials have said the fair is not a government entity, nor is it controlled by one.

Last year three people were injured in the shooting at the fair after one man opened fire on another. Videos posted on social media showed groups of people running along sidewalks and climbing barriers as they fled.

The fair, which runs for nearly a month, dates back to 1886. In addition to a giant Ferris wheel, a maze of midway games and livestock shows, the fairgrounds are home to the annual college football rivalry between the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma. Big Tex, the five-story tall cowboy who greets fairgoers, has become a beloved figure. When the towering cowboy went up in flames in 2012 due to an electrical short, the fair mascot’s return was met with great fanfare.

First rioters to breach a police perimeter during Capitol siege are sentenced

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four men who were among the first rioters to assault police officers and the first to breach a security perimeter during the attack on the U.S. Capitol were sentenced on Thursday to prison terms ranging from one year of intermittent confinement over weekends to eight years behind bars.

Before handing down the punishments, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb decried misinformation being spread in the public about the riot and efforts to downplay the violence that left more than 100 police officers injured.

Cobb said the “temperature remains too high,” citing threats against public officials and the apparent assassination attempts targeting former President Donald Trump. The judge said it “scares” her to think about what could happen after the next election.

“Not in my lifetime have I seen a situation where the peaceful transfer of power was threatened like it was on Jan. 6,” she said.

Stephen Randolph, a certified nursing assistant, was sentenced to eight years in prison. James Grant, who was accepted to the University of Alabama’s School of Law before his arrest, was sentenced to three years. Jason Blythe, a delivery driver, was sentenced to two years and six months. Paul Johnson, who owns a tree removal business, was sentenced to one year of intermittent confinement over weekends followed by two years of home confinement.

They were all convicted of felony offenses for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. A fifth co-defendant, Ryan Samsel, will be sentenced on a date yet to be determined.

The five men didn’t know each other before they converged on a traffic circle outside the Capitol. But prosecutors say they spearheaded the first assault on police officers guarding the Capitol from a crowd of Donald Trump supporters.

At Peace Circle, the co-defendants lifted two metal bike racks into the air and drove them into a police line, striking Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards in her face. Edwards slammed her head against a metal handrail, knocking her unconscious and giving her a concussion.

Randolph then jumped over the barricade, grabbed Capitol Police Officer David Cruz and pulled him toward the crowd before another officer intervened.

The breach at the Peace Circle “opened the floodgates” for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol, prosecutors said.

“The importance of this initial breach cannot be overstated,” they wrote.

Prosecutors recommended sentencing Randolph to 11 years and three months in prison. They asked for Blythe, Grant and Johnson to be sentenced to nine years behind bars.

Attorneys for Randolph, Blythe, Grant and Johnson said their clients regret taking part in the Jan. 6 riot.

“I’ll forever regret my decision to approach the fence that day,” a tearful Randolph said of the bike rack barriers that separated the police from rioters.

Grant’s attorney, Robert Feitel, called it “almost incomprehensible” that prosecutors would seek such a lengthy sentence for the man. Grant has been behind bars since January 2022 after he was charged with driving while drunk with an assault rifle in his car and will get credit for the time he has already spent locked up.

“I think I’ve been sufficiently punished,” Grant told the judge.

Grant’s attorney said he should be eligible for release almost immediately after getting credit for time served and good behavior in jail. The judge ordered Blythe and Randolph to be taken into custody immediately after their sentencing hearing.

Johnson and Blythe both turned to apologize to two Capitol police officers who were sitting in the courtroom.

“I stand for you guys,” Johnson said. “I don’t know where my mind was that day.”

“I’m sincerely sorry for what I did,” Blythe said.

The co-defendants’ conduct wasn’t limited to the first breach.

Randolph, 34, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, stayed at the Capitol for hours on Jan. 6, climbing to the Upper West Terrace and watching other rioters assault police officers guarding a tunnel entrance.

Blythe, 29, of Fort Worth, Texas, had to be forcibly removed by police as he resisted their efforts to clear him and other rioters from the Upper West Terrace.

Grant, 31, of Cary, North Carolina, climbed into the Capitol through a broken window and entered a senator’s office. After his arrest, he told investigators that the FBI was “the biggest threat to Americans” and that prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters was “a big witch hunt.”

Johnson, 39, of Lanexa, Virginia, used a megaphone to exhort other rioters to attack, yelling at others to “get on the front lines.” After the initial breach, he continued to “rally rioters at strategically significant points,” prosecutors said.

“Johnson not only dictated orders akin to a military commander, he also engaged in combat against officers,” they wrote.

In February, Cobb presided over a trial without a jury before she convicted the co-defendants of charges including obstructing police during a civil disorder.

A fire that burned for 4 days after Texas pipeline explosion has finally gone out

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — A pipeline fire that burned in a Houston suburb for four days finally went out Thursday as authorities announced a criminal investigation into the blaze that had roared into a towering flame, forcing neighborhoods to evacuate and melting parts of nearby cars.

Before the fire fully stopped Thursday evening, officials announced that human remains were found in an SUV that had been next to the flame since the explosion happened Monday. Investigators say the fire began after the driver of that car went through a fence alongside a Walmart parking lot and struck an above-ground valve.

Officials in Deer Park, where the explosion occurred, described the crash as an accident, and said police and local FBI agents have not found evidence of a coordinated or terrorist attack.

“This has developed into a criminal investigation and will be actively ongoing until more information is available,” the city said in a statement late Thursday.

As authorities worked to identify who had driven the vehicle, residents who were forced to flee the towering blaze returned to assess the damage on Thursday. They found mailboxes and vehicles partially melted by the intense heat, a neighborhood park charred and destroyed and fences burned to the ground.

“Devastated, upset, scared. We don’t know what we’re going to do now,” said Diane Hutto, 51, after finding her home severely damaged by water that firefighters poured on it to keep it from catching fire. Hutto’s home is located only a few hundred feet from the pipeline.

Before the fire went out, its reduced size meant police finally had access to the area around the pipeline. Investigators removed the white SUV and towed it away Thursday morning.

While medical examiners with Harris County were processing the vehicle, they recovered and removed human remains found inside, Deer Park officials said in a statement.

Officials say the underground pipeline, which runs under high-voltage power lines in a grassy corridor between the Walmart and a residential neighborhood, was damaged when the SUV driver left the store’s parking lot, entered the wide grassy area and went through a fence surrounding the valve equipment.

But authorities have offered few details on what caused the vehicle to crash through the fence and hit the pipeline valve.

Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based company that owns the pipeline, on Wednesday called it an accident. Deer Park officials said preliminary investigations by police and FBI agents found no evidence of a terrorist attack.

The pipeline is a 20-inch-wide (50-centimeter-wide) conduit that runs for miles through the Houston area. It carries natural gas liquids through Deer Park and La Porte, both of which are southeast of Houston.

Authorities evacuated nearly 1,000 homes at one point and ordered people in nearby schools to shelter in place. Officials began letting residents return to their homes on Wednesday evening.

Hutto said Thursday the fire incinerated her home’s backyard fence and partially melted a small shed where her husband stored his lawnmower. Inside the home, mold and mildew were starting to set in from the water damage, and part of the ceiling in her daughter’s bedroom had collapsed.

“Everything is just soaking wet,” she said. “It smells bad. I don’t think there’s really anything we can salvage at this point.”

Across the street, Robert Blair found minor damage when he returned to his home Thursday morning. It included broken and cracked windows and a window screen and irrigation system pipes that had been melted by the heat.

“We were very lucky here. It could have been worse,” said Blair, 67.

The pipeline’s valve equipment appears to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Energy Transfer has not responded to questions about any other safety protections that were in place.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, said Thursday that officials will look at whether they can require companies like Energy Transfer to install better security measures, including concrete structures around pipelines and their aboveground valves.

“If they had that around it, I don’t think this would have happened,” Blair said.

Energy Transfer and Harris County officials have said that air quality monitoring showed no immediate risk to individuals, despite the huge tower of billowing flame that shot hundreds of feet into the air when the fire first began, creating thick black smoke that hovered over the area.

Houston, Texas’ largest city, is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires are a familiar sight in the area, including some that have been deadly, raising recurring questions about the adequacy of industry efforts to protect the public and the environment.

Hidalgo said some residents she spoke with told her they don’t feel safe living in the area after this week’s fire.

Hutto, whose husband works in a petrochemical plant, said living near such facilities has always been a concern, but this week’s fire has changed things for her.

“I don’t think I want to live here anymore. I’m just too scared to stay here,” Hutto said.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

The politics of immigration play differently along the US-Mexico border

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (AP) — The politics of immigration look different from the back patio of Ardovino’s Desert Crossing restaurant.

That’s where Robert Ardovino sees a Border Patrol horse trailer rumbling across his property on a sweltering summer morning. It’s where a surveillance helicopter traces a line in the sky, and a nearby Border Patrol agent paces a desert gully littered with castoff water bottles and clothing.

It’s also where a steady stream of weary people, often escorted by smugglers, scale a border wall or the adjacent Mount Cristo Rey and step into an uncertain future. It’s a stretch of desert where reports of people dying of exhaustion and exposure have grown commonplace.

“It’s very obvious to me, being on the border, that it’s not an open border,” said Ardovino, who pays for fencing topped by concertina wire to route migrants around his property. “It is a very, very, very difficult situation.”

As immigration politics have moved to the forefront of this year’s presidential election, they’ve also dominated contests for hotly contested congressional seats that could determine which party controls Congress. The urgency is greater in some districts than others.

Three of 11 districts on the Southwest border are rematches in districts that flipped in 2022 with the election of Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez in New Mexico and Republican Reps. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona and Monica De La Cruz in Texas.

A partner in a decades-old family business, Ardovino lives in one border district in Texas and works in Vasquez’s New Mexico district.

“It’s frustrating for people who need a border bill of any kind, any time, to start dealing with the big picture,” Ardovino said.

Early voting starts Oct. 8 in Sunland Park, where partisan control flipped in 2018, 2020 and again in 2022 with the election of Vasquez.

Democrats in Congress, including Vasquez, are aggressively touting border initiatives. He emphasizes his knowledge of the region as the U.S.-born son of immigrants with relatives on both sides of the border.

“With migrant activity along the border, we have had to adjust our approach,” said Vasquez. “I can say here that the sky is blue for 50 years, but when it turns red, you have to admit that it’s turning red.”

Here, border politics are literally a matter of life and death. Federal and local authorities describe a new humanitarian crisis along New Mexico’s nearly 180-mile portion of the border, where migrant deaths from heat exposure have surged.

In the Texas race, Democratic challenger Michelle Vallejo has taken a hard line, shocking progressive allies. She openly courts Republican allies in her campaign against De La Cruz. One of her recent ads describes “chaos at the border” and calls for more Border Patrol agents.

In Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Ciscomani calls border enforcement his top priority but has distanced himself from Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Instead, Ciscomani tells an immigrant’s story — about his own arrival in the U.S. at age 11 from Hermosillo, Mexico. He received citizenship in 2006.

“We have a responsibility to enforce the law on the border, and we also are a community of immigrants – myself included,” he said.

U.S. Border Patrol arrests of migrants on the Southwest border plunged to a 46-month low in July. In New Mexico, where coordinated law enforcement raids in August targeted houses where smugglers hide migrants, the trend has been less pronounced.

Vasquez, looking to become the first Democrat to win reelection in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District since 1978, has pitched legislation to disrupt cartel recruitment of young Americans as migrant couriers and stepped up efforts to detect fentanyl at the border.

In 2022, after Democrats redrew congressional maps to split a conservative oil-producing region into three districts, Vasquez ousted one-term Republican Congresswoman Yvette Herrell by 1,350 votes.

Herrell, running for the seat for the fourth consecutive time, joined Republican House leaders in alleging that Democratic rivals undermined U.S. elections by voting against a proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters.

“It’s our sovereignty over the open border,” said Herrell at a rally in Las Cruces.

Noncitizens already are prohibited from voting in federal elections. Vasquez says the requirement would make participation harder for legitimate voters.

Some say Herrell’s rhetoric could alienate a voting-age population that’s 56% Hispanic.

“It’s a tightrope that she’s got to walk in trying to get any of the pro-Trump enthusiasm,” said Gabriel Sanchez, director of the University of New Mexico Center for Social Policy.

Herrell’s approach resonates with retired Border Patrol agent Cesar Ramos of Alamogordo.

“People here in Alamogordo are 110% behind legal immigration, but despise that there are criminal acts of smuggling, and just breaking into the U.S. with no legal documentation,” he said.

Elsewhere in the district, concerns about border enforcement and inflation are testing Democratic Party allegiances.

Luis Soto, of Sunland Park, said migrants who cross the border impact his efforts to open a cannabis dispensary.

“I’m waiting for a fire marshal inspection and he’s busy saving people in the desert, rescuing bodies from the river, helping people out that are locked in a trailer,” said Soto, 43, the son of immigrants from Mexico in a family of lifelong Democrats, “We come from immigrants as well, but I think if the system was fixed, it would work out even better for them as well as for us.”

Vasquez in New Mexico and Ciscomani in Arizona are near ideological opposites, but they’ve co-sponsored bills to modernize temporary farmworker visas, spur local manufacturing and combat opioid trafficking.

“Juan and I play basketball together, and he has become a good friend,” Vasquez said. “There are solutions on the border that we can do today that may not look like comprehensive immigration reform.”

Ciscomani said he’s eager to collaborate with Democrats. His Democratic challenger, Kirsten Engel, scoffs at that notion, saying Ciscomani publicly rejected a major bipartisan border bill in February, days after Trump told GOP lawmakers to abandon it. The $20 billion bill would have overhauled the asylum system and given the president new powers to expel migrants when asylum claims become overwhelming.

“We’re very disappointed that it was rejected so swiftly by the very elected officials that talk about having border solutions,” said Engel, a law professor and former state legislator.

At Sunland Park, an off-road Border Patrol vehicle kicks dust into the morning air. An unmarked bus arrives for detained migrants. Ardovino, from his deck, gazes at Mount Cristo Rey and wonders aloud what it will take to make this work for people coming in search of a better life — and for those already here.

“The whole desert is unfortunately littered with people’s lives,” he said.

___

Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this report from McAllen, Texas.

Lindale newspaper returning to print and online

Lindale newspaper returning to print and onlineLINDALE – Lindale’s only newspaper, the Lindale News and Times, is coming back to the town in print and online with a new name, the Lindale News. According to our news partner KETK, the good news about the Lindale News comes after the former owner and publisher, Jim Bardwell, announced that the paper was closing down after 124 years but now its being saved thanks to a nonprofit from Irving.

Bardwell has reportedly donated the intellectual property rights to the paper to the Irving based nonprofit news organization, Rambler Texas Media. Rambler’s publisher John Starkey and the Lindale Chamber of Commerce met on Thursday and announced that Rambler will be continuing the Lindale Times’ 124 years of history.

“THE LINDALE NEWS LIVES ON! Today John Starkey stopped by our office with hot off the press newspapers. We are excited that Rambler Texas Media has come to town to help us continue to promote events, organizations, and our community.”
Lindale Chamber of Commerce Continue reading Lindale newspaper returning to print and online

North Texans push to rename a road to the airport ‘Trump Way’

WISE COUNTY – An effort in one North Texas city to rename a public street after former President Donald Trump has so far hit roadblocks, but supporters aren’t giving up. Some Republicans in Wise County have sought to change the name of Airport Drive in Decatur to “Trump Way.” The quarter-mile road leads to the Decatur Municipal Airport on the northern side of the city. The issue came up multiple times this summer at the Decatur City Council, including Sept. 9, but officials took no action. Several council members said it’s important that the council and the city remain nonpartisan. However, if supporters get enough signatures from registered voters, the proposal for “Trump Way” could come up for a vote on a future ballot.

Rick Lifto, the chairman of the Wise County Republican Party, told the Star-Telegram that there are many streets, highways and buildings throughout Texas named for former presidents — but not Trump. “I thought well, if we’re going to recognize him in some way, what would be the most appropriate? It seemed appropriate that we should name something after Trump,” Lifto said. The Metroplex has several highways bearing the names of former commanders-in-chief, most notably those who are from the Lone Star State. The 52-mile President George Bush Turnpike, honoring the 41st president, wraps around the northern suburbs of Dallas — and happens to intersect with the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway. George H.W. Bush’s name is also on Houston’s airport. As for Bush 43, there’s Bush Drive that leads to his presidential center at SMU, as well as an elementary school in Collin County and the southbound I-44 bridge at the Red River (which was a tribute bestowed by the state of Oklahoma, which also has a 20-mile stretch of U.S. 287 called Trump Highway in the Panhandle). Hundreds of thousands of people each day take Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway, also known as Interstate 20, through Arlington. And up in McKinney, there’s a small neighborhood where every street is named after presidents, including Clinton and Carter drives. In Decatur, population roughly 8,000, the would-be Trump Way is nowhere near as traveled as those other presidential roadways, nor does it have many addresses. There’s a Texas Army National Guard recruiting office on the corner, though technically its address isn’t Airport Drive. Google Maps images show a few potholes along the short stretch of asphalt, which doesn’t even have center striping. Lifto, the Republican county chair, said he first approached Wise County government leaders about renaming a road after the 45th president (who also hopes to become the 47th). In his view, Lifto said that Trump supported several pieces of legislation that benefited Wise County, including bills calling for high-speed Internet in rural areas.

Coming soon to your town.

A church sign is seen at House of Prayer near the First Haitian Church and community center in Springfield, Ohio, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)

One of the fact-check moments in last week’s debate between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris occurred when Trump talked about Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.

ABC moderator David Muir was quick to challenge Trump’s assertion (even though that wasn’t Muir’s job) while Kamala Harris stood by making a grand show of derisive laughter.

I wish Trump hadn’t gone there. His raising of the topic was an unforced error. Whether Haitian migrants are eating the domesticated pets of Springfield or not (disgusting as that is) isn’t really the point.

The point is that there is exactly zero chance that Haitian migrants could eat the cats and dogs of Springfield, Ohio if the Haitian migrants weren’t there in the first place.

Trump’s casting of the problem in terms of migrant carnism served only to validate the criticisms of the media and of Trump haters while letting Harris off the hook for the knowable consequences attendant to airlifting thousands of poor, unvetted migrants into a small town in the heartland. The problems now on display in Springfield are a manifestation of a much larger humanitarian problem that was intentionally created by the administration in which Kamala Harris currently serves.

A much more pertinent angle – and thus an angle never explored by the two partisan hacks from ABC that were “moderating” the debate – is how the Biden administration justifies dropping 20,000 unvetted migrants into a community of just 58,000.

There’s no dismissing that with derisive laughter. There’s no need for a David Muir “fact check.” The fact isn’t disputed.

Imagine if you woke up one morning to find that one of every four people living in your town was poor, unemployed, unable to speak the language, untethered to the norms and customs of your community and completely dependent upon your tax money for the necessities of life?

What if suddenly the number of students in your kid’s already overburdened classroom expanded by a third – and none of them spoke English?

New York City mayor Eric Adams never misses an opportunity to tell you that his city is being pushed to its limits under the strain of feeding and housing 67,000 illegal migrants. What if it were four million, the number in Springfield, OH scaled up to the native population of New York? How loudly would Eric Adams be squealing then?

It isn’t about eating dogs and cats. It’s about the fact that no nation that wants to call itself sovereign can permit millions of people to come in unvetted with no thought given as to the impact.

The simple truth is that Kamala Harris couldn’t care less about the problems that 20,000 Haitian migrants have visited upon Springfield, OH. Neither could David Muir. Muir and Harris care only about electing Harris.

But you and I and every sane person you know should care. Because the consequences of Biden administration immigration policy now being felt in Springfield, Ohio are coming to communities across the country if Kamala Harris wins the election.

Man found guilty of killing local pastor

TYLER – Man found guilty of killing local pastorA jury found Mytrez Woolen, 25, guilty of killing Starrville Methodist Church pastor Mark McWilliams on Thursday. According to our news partner KETK, after deliberating for roughly three hours, the jury returned the verdict. The trial started on Monday and both sides made their closing arguments Thursday morning. Woolen was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Woolen was accused of hiding out in the church overnight in January 2021 after running from police, then shooting the pastor, grazing his wife with a bullet and shooting another parishioner several times. He pleaded not guilty to capital murder in April 2021.