SMITH COUNTY — The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles online system is down statewide, so the Smith County Tax Office cannot process auto registration renewals or title work at this time, according to the county’s Facebook page.
Smith County Tax-Assessor Collector Gary Barber said the system went down Thursday afternoon and it was still down when they came to work Friday morning. He is not sure when it will be back up but we will alert the public when that happens.
The Smith County Property Tax Department is open for normal business.
Pedro Porro of Spain celebrates after scoring their second goal against France during their FIFA World Cup 2026 semifinal match in Arlington, Texas, July 14, 2026. (Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) -- Argentina's Lionel Messi could add another milestone to his storied career on Sunday by winning his second World Cup title. To achieve that feat, the defending champions will have to beat Spain, a team that has only allowed one goal this entire tournament.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup final arrives after 48 teams competed in over 100 matches across the United States, Mexico and Canada over the past six weeks.
Here's what to know ahead of the final weekend of the World Cup.
How did Spain and Argentina get to the final?
Spain advanced to the final after defeating France, a two-time World Cup winner, on Tuesday in a 2-0 upset. France had been tipped as a strong contender for the trophy after previously topping the FIFA men's ranking.
The Spanish men's team, known as La Roja, won its first and only World Cup in 2010. The team most recently won the UEFA European championship in 2024, defeating England 2-1.
Meanwhile, Argentina proved resilient yet again with a stunning comeback against England in the final minutes of its semifinal match on Wednesday. England had been holding onto a 1-0 lead when two late goals from Argentina flipped the score. England was unable to respond and the final score was 2-1.
Argentina has won the World Cup three times, most recently in 2022 with a victory over France in penalty kicks. The team also won the last two Copa America championships in 2021 and 2024.
The final match will kick off on Sunday, July, 19, at 3 p.m. from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
What about the third place game?
England and France are not out of the tournament yet. The two will face each other in the third place game on Saturday, July 18, at 5 p.m. ET from Miami Gardens, Florida.
What other awards are handed out besides the trophy?
The tournament recognizes outstanding individuals through several awards, including the Golden Ball for best player, Golden Boot for top scorer, Golden Glove for best goalkeeper and the FIFA Young Player Award.
Medals will be handed out to the players and coaching staff of the first, second and third place winners.
Where can I watch the final?
The last match will air live in the U.S. on FOX for the English-language broadcast, with streaming on FOX One, and Telemundo for the Spanish-language broadcast. The Telemundo broadcast will also stream on Peacock.
Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov attends a march in memory of Russian opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov on March 1, 2015 in Moscow, Russia. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)
(LONDON) -- Once one of the most powerful men in Russia, Mikhail Kasyanov now lives in exile in Latvia, his name on a list of "extremists and terrorists" that the Kremlin alleges are trying to overthrow the state.
Kasyanov first served as Russia's finance minister before being elevated to prime minister under President Vladimir Putin from May 2000 to February 2004 -- the early years of Putin's time in office when the future strongman was embedding his control and beginning to formulate his vision of a revitalized Russia.
Putin's decades-long project culminated in the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a gambit now in its fifth year. Kasyanov told ABC News last week that the campaign has achieved none of Putin's goals and could yet prove an existential challenge to the Kremlin regime.
In recent months, Kasyanov told ABC News on the sidelines of the Chatham House think tank conference in London, "the overall sentiment, overall attitude, to Putin started to change."
Among the factors applying more pressure to the Kremlin are expanding Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russia's oil production, refining and export facilities -- plus on the capital Moscow and the so-called "second capital" St. Petersburg -- apparent public concern about spreading fuel shortages, troubling macro-economic indicators and new restrictions on internet usage, Kasyanov said.
Putin, Kasyanov said, built his image around providing both stability and security. "There is nothing on this -- no stability and no security," he said, adding, "The situation now has started to change in the minds of people -- not only the ruling group, but also just the middle class, who in fact, could in any country be a driving force for any changes."
That middle class is a key constituency for the Kremlin. Concentrated in Russia's largest cities, analysts have watched keenly for any hint of dissent from this social strata.
Putin's continued refusal to order a general mobilization despite Russia's enormous battlefield losses and reported manpower strains have been interpreted by some analysts as a tacit acknowledgement that the Kremlin does not want to risk urban, middle class ire. "Putin is very much concerned about this," Kasyanov suggested.
In cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, Kasyanov said, it had until recently been possible to continue as if "nothing is happening."
"But, in the spring and now, of course, Ukraine changed their attitude. They have an advantage in long-range missiles and they have an advantage in drones," Kasyanov said.
"Gradually, they moved the war from being an 'accident' somewhere, an emergency case somewhere in the corner of Russia, to Russia -- even to Moscow. And that is quite a significant change."
'He needs pressure'
Kayanov said Western powers should seek to exploit the growing pressure on Putin and force him back to the negotiating table with genuine concessions, not the same maximalist demands the Kremlin has long made of Ukraine.
"It could happen by the end of the year if consistent pressure continues," Kasyanov said. Russia's growing budget deficit -- which as of last month reached 2.5% of GDP, according to preliminary Finance Ministry data -- could prove a particular pain point, he added.
So too might international sanctions on -- and long-range Ukrainian drone attacks on -- Russia's vital oil industry, Kasyanov added. "By the end of the year, he will face a big problem," Kasyanov said of Putin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov this week acknowledged some economic strains, telling reporters that Russia's rate of growth is currently "insufficient." But Peskov said the problems facing the country were not critical, but rather a reflection of the "rather dire state" of the global economy.
On the diplomatic front, Kasyanov said Moscow has largely failed to convert apparent diplomatic openings with Washington -- for example its success at Putin's summit with President Donald Trump in Anchorage in August 2025.
"What Putin wanted was to divide the transatlantic unity, dreaming of what they call the 'Anchorage spirit,'" Kasyanov said, referring to the U.S.-Russian understanding that Moscow said was reached at the Alaska summit, which was widely interpreted as a diplomatic coup for the Kremlin.
Broadly, Kasyanov suggested that Washington had a "wrong understanding of the whole problem." He added, "All those years, it was a useless undertaking trying to give a carrot to Putin. Because they don't understand what the Putin regime is about."
The negotiations, Kasyanov suggested, were interpreted by the Kremlin "as a demonstration of weakness." Nonetheless, both Moscow and Kyiv have acknowledged that the current conflict can only end with a diplomatic settlement.
Trump has repeatedly said he is the only Western leader capable of pressuring Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree a deal to end the fighting. This week, Trump told Fox News he believes that Putin is "ready to make a deal," possibly "soon."
"I tell him the same thing all the time. I don't want to go into great detail, but I say: 'Vladimir, it's time for you to stop. It's time for this war to end,'" Trump said. "It takes two to tango. But I think he's ready to make a deal," Trump added.
Earlier this month, Trump told ABC News of a potential deal, "We're getting much closer than people realize, and President Putin wants it to end."
But for all the Russian maneuvers and White House criticism directed toward Kyiv, Western funds and weapons have continued to flow into Ukrainian hands.
Last week, during a warm face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said Ukraine would be allowed to produce key Patriot surface-to-air system interceptors.
"That is, I think, creating a shock in Moscow," Kasyanov said of the resolute Western backing of Ukraine.
Life after Putin
Putin dismissed Kasyanov and his cabinet in early 2004, weeks before that year's presidential election. In the years that followed, Kasyanov became a prominent opposition figure, faced fraud charges -- which he denied -- and was blocked from standing as a candidate in Russia's 2008 presidential election.
After Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine In 2022, Kasyanov left Russia. He now leads the People's Freedom Party from Riga -- "temporarily," according to his business card.
Kasyanov, 68, said he has no concrete political ambitions in a post-Putin Russia. Rather, he suggested that the best case scenario would be a "long process" of political normalization and eventual democratization.
A years-long "gray period," he said, could see Putin's successors allow "imitation" or "quasi" elections and the return of a true political opposition, which Kasyanov hopes will eventually give way to a genuine vote that draws real legitimacy from the population.
"If Putin stays in power, it means there will be another period in which Russia will represent a threat and there will continue to be some kind of negotiations and preparations for some kind of revanche, as we saw in previous years," Kasyanov said.
For the time being, Kasyanov said he expects Putin to simultaneously seek to "destroy unity" within Europe and within the transatlantic system and seek negotiations.
On the domestic front, Putin will continue to keep a tight grip on the narrative, Kasyanov said, lionizing Russian achievements in the war like the retention of Crimea, further territorial gains in southern and eastern Ukraine and a supposed defeat of NATO.
In the long term, Kasyanov said he still hopes for Putin to leave the scene, one way or another. But he doubts Putin will be overthrown from the inside.
"I don't think there will be a coup, because there are no such people. All those people inside who were capable, with strength, disappeared," Kasyanov said. There are, he added, people in Russia who are "ready for changes, but they are not ready to fight, because they immediately will be in jail."
"When the situation starts to change, some of us could come back to participate in quasi-elections, which will happen not in two years after Putin, maybe in three years, maybe in four years. And at that time, real change could start," he said.
"I hope my country will be a normal European state," Kasyanov said. "We'll see."
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Joe Locke as Charlie Spring and Kit Connor as Nick Nelson in 'Heartstopper Forever.' (Netflix)
Heartstopper Forever, the movie conclusion to the popular Netflix teen romance series, is ready to make core memories.
The film, based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novels, follows Kit Connor’s Nick Nelson and Joe Locke’s Charlie Spring as they grapple with what happens to their relationship after Nick leaves for university.
As their characters look toward the future, Connor and Locke are reflecting on what the series has meant to fans of all ages. Locke tells ABC Audio he’s feeling “very grateful” looking back on a “whirlwind of five years,” while Connor acknowledges being part of something so beloved doesn't happen often as an actor.
“In fact, quite rarely ... you get to be part of something that really seems to have a genuine impact on people beyond just sort of liking a show or being entertained by a show,” Connor tells ABC Audio. “There's ... a genuine impact on people's lives that seems to have occurred, and I think no matter who you are, to be involved in that is a privilege and an honor.”
Heartstopper has grown up with its actors, with the film striking a more mature tone in its portrayal of sex, mental health issues, teenage relationship growing pains, and LGBTQIA+ identity and trans rights.
But in true Heartstopper fashion, there is, of course, a happily ever after. And since the title includes the word “Forever,” how do the stars hope it lives on?
“I hope it continues to make people happy when they watch it,” Locke says.
Connor adds, “I think that if it makes people feel comfortable, feel safe, feel inspired, feel brave — if it continues to do that, then I think we'll be in good stead.”
If you’re not quite ready to say goodbye just yet, Netflix is airing the behind-the-scenes special Heartstopper: Ending on a Hi on July 24.
TYLER — Two men pleaded not guilty on Thursday after an ICE and FBI operation in June, after being accused of transporting illegal immigrants. Arturo Alcantar-Perez and Guillermo Limon-Sanchez pleaded not guilty today in federal court in Tyler to charges including conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, trafficking in false identification documents and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to our news partner KETK, the two men were arrested on June 2 during an FBI and ICE operation at Ximena’s Furniture Store in North Tyler.
The charges stem from an alleged conspiracy to harbor and transport undocumented immigrants that began in May 2023. Alcantar-Perez and Limon-Sanchez remain in the custody of U.S. Marshals following their court appearance.
TRINIDAD – Trinidad City Administrator Cynthia Dosier resigned from her position on Wednesday as the city continues to deal with their ongoing water system issues. Trinidad Mayor Dennis Haws announced both Dossier’s resignation and the resignation of city employee Sandra Rojas on Wednesday. In a social media post, Haws said that he’s contacted the Texas Municipal League (TML) for advice on how to work through these resignations.
“I want to make you aware that this will undoubtedly create some issues at City Hall as we transition through this and I apologize for any inconveniences,” Haws said on Thursday. “I have contacted TML this morning to get their guidance on working through this, we will seek interim staffing through organizations they are associated with so that we can have qualified individuals that can start working through issues immediately.”
Dosier’s and Rojas’s resignations came after the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recently found that Trinidad’s public water system has three alleged violations, which were only found after multiple residents submitted complaints to the state because of unclean drinking water. Continue reading Administrator resigns amid water issues
ANDERSON COUNTY – The Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District took no action during a public hearing today on proposed rule changes to drilling permits. The proposed changes are being considered as Dallas investor Kyle Bass is suing the District for access to drill in Anderson County.
According to our news partner KETK, the District is considering six proposed rule changes, including potential updates to water permitting, emergency planning and overall groundwater use. The hearing also provided an opportunity for District board members to hear additional public comment.
State Sen. Robert Nichols of Jacksonville attended the hearing as she looks to clarify the current permitting rules. Bass applied last year to drill 21 high-capacity wells in Anderson County. These proposed wells could potentially extract 10 billion gallons of water per year from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
UPSHUR COUNTY – The County Commissioners’ Court unanimously voted to join the future Northeast Texas Groundwater Conservation District on Wednesday, according to our news partner KETK. Upshur County Precinct 1 Commissioner Gene Dolle said they voted to join the planned district as part of a growing effort to conserve the area’s underground water resources.
Smith and Gregg County Commissioners have also voted to join the district recently. According to Dolle, the effort to create the district has been spearheaded in Upshur County by their recently elected County Judge L. Brandon Dodd. Dodd is working closely with State Rep. Jay Dean, a longtime champion of local water conservation.
The district will be comprised of anywhere between a dozen and 16 East Texas counties that sit over the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer and aren’t yet a part of a groundwater conservation district. It would be led by its own board and the East Texas Council of Governments, and work with state lawmakers, and individual counties to help safeguard local water resources.
UVALDE (AP) — Catastrophic flash floods in Texas have killed two people and forced hundreds of rescues in areas still reeling from devastating floods a year ago, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday.
Rescuers aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Abbott said.
The governor said the hardest-hit areas are expecting more rain into Friday and are not out of danger yet, with some rivers expected to reach historic levels.
After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a large wave on Thursday barreled down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic.
Much like last year, the floods came in the middle of the night. But this time some residents in the Texas Hill Country said they received more warnings.
Forecasters urgently warned, “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour, turning them into fast-moving seas of white water. Some spots of the Guadalupe River rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters).
The governor said more than 2,000 first responders had been deployed and some evacuations began before the worst of the flooding.
“What happened last year was a warning to people on or near rivers,” Abbott said. “No one can be complacent.”
As much as 28 inches (74 centimeters) of rain fell over the past three days in Uvalde County, which was spared from the worst flooding a year ago, the weather service said Thursday. Other areas saw roughly a foot of rain.
Victims in Texas floods were swept away
The governor said one of the victims was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde while the other died in Kerr County.
Jennie Steward said the body of her husband, 65-year-old John Mark Steward, of Kerrville, was found Thursday.
She was visiting her parents when a neighbor called overnight, saying her husband was missing after water had risen to the door of their mobile home, which stood off the ground.
The entire home was swept off the platform and floated down Goat Creek on the Guadalupe, she said.
“It’s really hard that I wasn’t there with him,” she said. The two last spoke by phone Wednesday to celebrate their third anniversary. Hill Country residents say they were better prepared
The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer’s unimaginable Hill Country floods that killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth holiday.
“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who awoke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.
“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”
Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.
The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the Mexico border and in the Hill Country near San Antonio. Roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch this week, and many were expected to remain in effect into Friday.
Several agencies sent rescue helicopters to the flood zone, including Travis County in the state capital of Austin.
At a wild animal rescue, Katie Buck evacuated several dozen animals to higher ground in the dark Thursday as the normally dry Lazy Creek overflowed. She had to quickly grab a porcupine despite having no gloves.
She got all of the animals to safety, but flooding destroyed several enclosures at the Buck Wild Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehab near Ingram in Kerr County.
“We were just starting to get back on our feet again,” Buck said. “To have to go through this again is just devastating.”
Residents at an RV park in Comfort moved their trailers as sirens sounded, said manager Duke Earwood.
Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked near the river at the Comfort RV Resort. Markers showed the flooding already matched last July’s big flood.
“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said. Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters
Floodwaters also overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off most outside routes. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.
“People really can’t get anywhere,” said Carmen Rodriguez, who nervously watched water engulf her neighborhood as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”
Rodriguez said authorities seemed to be well prepared, ordering mandatory evacuations and notifying people directly.
Texas Game Wardens rescued close to 150 people by the afternoon, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson. Video released by the agency showed crews hoisting children from a house surrounded with water into a helicopter.
Flooding hasn’t reached last year’s deadly high
So far, the heavily swollen Guadalupe has remained below the record levels reached in 2025. Gauges showed it rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters) in some spots over just a few hours.
Close to Camp Mystic, which hasn’t reopened since last year’s tragedy, the Guadalupe near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), which is enough to cause flooding, according to U.S. Geological Survey and National Water Prediction Service data.
In Kerr County, where summer camps dot the river’s shores, the sheriff’s office said all campers were safe. Several camps said the children were staying inside, with one camp reporting normal flooding. Towns still rebuilding are hit by new floods
While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago in Ingram, Mayor Claud Jordan believes this round of flooding was more widespread in his city. “The rural part of Ingram, all the roads are just trashed,” he said.
“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.”
The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.
GREGG COUNTY – A man has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of his seventh DWI conviction on Wednesday. According to our news partner KETK, Jeffry Scott Web was found guilty of driving while intoxicated three or more times. The jury deliberated only 45 minutes on the sentence, according to the Gregg County District Attorney’s Office.
Officials said Wednesday’s conviction stems from a report to the Longview Police Department of a drunk driver at the Majestic Inn motel. Upon arriving to the scene, responding officers spoke to a witness that claimed a man drove around the parking lot, parked and stumbled out of his vehicle into a motel room.
Kris Jenner's mom, Mary Jo (MJ) Shannon, is shown on an episode of 'Celebrity Family Feud.' (Byron Cohen/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Kris Jenner is mourning the death of her beloved mother, Mary Jo "MJ" Shannon. She was 91 years old.
The TV personality and entrepreneur posted on Instagram Thursday that she and her family "said goodbye to my beautiful Mommy MJ."
"There are no words that could ever capture what she has meant to me or the heartbreak of having to say goodbye," Jenner wrote. "My mom was the heart of our family. She taught me everything that truly matters… to love your family fiercely, to be kind, to show up for the people you love, and to never take a single moment together for granted."
She continued, "She taught us that family is everything. She showed us how to love unconditionally and how to find joy in the little moments. She showed me how to face life’s challenges with resilience and faith."
The media personality, who is a mom of six — Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Rob Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner — said that her mother's legacy will continue to live on in their family and traditions.
Over the years, MJ appeared with Jenner and the rest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan on the reality shows Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Kardashians.
She also appeared with the family on an episode of ABC's Celebrity Family Feud.
Born on July 26, 1934, MJ was a model and also an entrepreneur.
Before the Kardashians opened their famous Calabasas clothing boutique, Dash, and launched their own clothing lines, MJ owned a clothing store called Shannon & Company in 1980, according to People.
Jenner previously talked about what it was like growing up in the store and working there with her mom when she was younger.
MJ was married three times. Her first marriage lasted only four months, according to People.
In 2017, Kim Kardashian shared a conversation with her grandmother talking about how they had similar marriage experiences.
"We have a lot in common," Kim Kardashian said in the video, which has since been taken down. "We both got married for two months once."
MJ replied, "History repeats itself."
MJ is also a two-time cancer survivor, battling both breast and colon cancer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal safety investigators looking into a runaway Tesla that killed a grandmother in her home say the driver had pressed the accelerator to full speed, suggesting the vehicle’s self-driving software was not to blame.
The driver had told police that he had the self-driving software turned on, but a report from the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday concluded that he had actually overridden that feature when he pushed hard on the pedal. Moments later the Tesla Model 3 raced down a residential street in Katy, Texas, at highway speeds, slammed into a brick home and killed a 76-year-old woman standing in the front room.
The crash last month drew national attention because Tesla CEO Elon Musk is seeking to reassure the public its self-driving feature is safe as he prepares to turn hundreds of thousands of Teslas already on the road into fully automatic vehicles and begin selling two-seated Cybercabs missing steering wheels and pedals.
The crash came two months after officials at a separate federal agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced it was elevating a 2024 investigation of the self-driving feature to new “engineering analysis” level, raising the possibility of a recall of 3.2 million Tesla vehicles.
That NHTSA probe was triggered by crashes where the self-driving feature failed to alert drivers to take control in fog and other poor visibility conditions.
The agency opened an investigation last year into 58 incidents in which Teslas reportedly violated traffic safety laws while using self-driving technology, leading to more than a dozen crashes and fires and nearly two dozen injuries.
Separate from the National Transportation Safety Board, NHTSA is also looking into the Tesla house crash in Texas, one of 46 “special crash” investigations of Tesla’s self-driving or driver-assistance technology in the past decade, according to the agency’s records. In more than a dozen of those crashes, at least one person — a driver, passenger or pedestrian — was killed.
Tesla had originally called its driver assistance software Full Self-Driving, or FSD, but auto experts and regulators complained it was misleading because drivers must always keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take over at any time.
The company has since changed the name to Full Self-Driving (Supervised).
Video of the Katy, Texas, accident shows the Tesla traveling at more than 70 mph (112.65 kilometers per hour), jumping a curb then tearing across a lawn before crushing through a brick wall of a home. A woman standing feet away, Martha Avila, was found amid piles of crumbling plaster, split beams and bits of furniture and rushed to a hospital but died.
Sales of Tesla cars still haven’t recovered fully from boycotts last year over Musk’s far-right political stands, but the stock is rising anyway as he has successfully shifted attention away from the sales figures. He says they matter less now that the company is on the cusp of major technological advances, such as turning Teslas into hands-free vehicles and having its Optimus robots take over for humans for tasks at home and work.
Tesla stock has risen 22% in the past year and is currently trading at 170 times expected annual earnings compared to 20 for the S&P 500.
For its second-quarter financial results out next week, financial analysts surveyed by FactSet expect earnings per share will barely budge — 32 cents versus 33 cents a year earlier — continuing a sixth quarter streak of flat or falling profits.
SMITH COUNTY – Beginning Saturday, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office will increase traffic enforcement along I-20 and Toll 49 in partnership with TxDOT for Operation Slow Down, which looks to keep roads safer. According to our news partner KETK, the sheriff’s office said increased stops will take place around portions of I-20 and Toll 49, to curb speeding, deter aggressive driving and to protect everyone on the road.
The initiative is focusing on decreasing the amount of speeding-related crashes and fatalities across the state. Last year, TxDOT reported that 1,247 people were killed in speed-related crashes.
“Excessive speed makes any crash more dangerous. Higher speeds mean less time to react and a much greater risk of serious injury or death. We’re asking Texans to slow down and drive with care,” TxDOT Executive Director Marc Williams said. Continue reading TxDox ‘Slow Down’ is on now
Chloe Fineman appears in her 'Saturday Night Live' season 51 cast headshot. (Rosalind O'Connor/NBC)
Chloe Fineman is saying goodbye to Studio 8H.
The comedian is leaving Saturday Night Live ahead of season 52 after starring as a cast member on the late-night sketch comedy series for seven seasons.
Fineman announced her departure in an Instagram post Thursday.
"After 7 wonderful seasons at SNL I have decided it’s time for my next chapter," Fineman wrote. "It’s cliche to say this but working at SNL has been the greatest privilege of my life. I still can’t really believe I got to be a part of it. I fell in love with the place the second I walked through the door. Lorne (if you’re reading this on your burner account) I want you to know that I am forever in your debt."
The comedian continued, "It’s really hard to leave SNL but it does feel like the right time."
"I’m going to miss it a lot. But the people who work there are my family and that place is my home, and I know I’ll never be too far away," Fineman wrote.
Fineman joined SNL as a featured player on season 45 before being promoted to the main cast in season 47.
Her choice to leave the show comes after the midseason departure of Bowen Yang during season 51. Additionally, many cast members exited the series after the landmark season 50 of the show. Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow and Emil Wakim all left the cast ahead of season 51.
New cast members for season 51 included Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska. Please Don't Destroy member Ben Marshall joined the show's cast at the same time.
LUFKIN – Lufkin Police detectives are asking for the public’s assistance in solving the murder of Darrence Kindle, a case that has remained unsolved for nearly nine years, according to release from the City of Lufkin. Kindle was shot and killed during the commission of an aggravated robbery at approximately 10 p.m., November 3, 2017, at the Dollar General on Kurth Drive.
The only description detectives have at this time is that the man is approximately 6-feet 1-inches tall, African American, and he was wearing a mask from the movie Scream.The shoes the man was wearing have been identified as limited-edition Nike Zoom Kobe Venomenon 4. The shoes were identified by a forensics company in Arizona.
“We will continue to investigate this murder,” said Lt. James Cowan, LPD Criminal Investigations Division. “It has never been closed, and we remain committed to seeking justice for Kindle and his family.”
Detectives believe there are members of the public who may hold information — no matter how small it may seem — that could help solve this case. Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to come forward.
If you have any information, please contact Lieutenant James Cowan, Criminal Investigation Division, at 936-633-0325 or email jcowan@lufkinpolice.com.
FILE – Betty Ford waves goodbye to her husband, President Gerald Ford, as he leaves their Alexandria, Va., home, Aug. 13, 1974, on his way to the White House. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty, File)
Shortly after assuming office following the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974, President Gerald Ford addressed a Joint Session of Congress. His goal was to move the country past the Watergate scandal. Contained within that speech was this passage:
Whether we like it or not, the American wage earner and the American housewife are a lot better economists than most economists care to admit. They know that a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
Those 50 words perfectly set up the examination of the divide between the Democratic Socialists who are quickly taking over the once semi-sane Democratic Party, and the rest of us who know better.
What we who know better understand is that freedom isn’t merely the absence of chains. It’s the ability to make choices, accept consequences, try, fail, and try again; all toward the goal of building a life through personal responsibility. I am fond of saying that personal responsibility is the ultimate expression of freedom.
That freedom so expressed is what built the most successful society in history. An appreciation of that belief, together with the resulting desire to protect those freedoms, is why conservatives (and to be fair for much of our history all but the craziest liberals) know now and knew then that grand promises of free health care, subsidized housing, free college tuition, free child care, guaranteed universal income and the rest of the socialist smorgasbord cannot withstand objective scrutiny. The reason is amazingly simple.
Nothing is free.
It’s worth looking closely at those who are on the vanguard of the Democratic Socialist movement. All of them have in common that they were either born here or have lived here long enough as to make it possible to take the abundance afforded by the American free market economy for granted. In their cossetted existences, plenty to eat, a safe place to sleep and an iPhone in the hand are just things that naturally occur. They never ask who had to put capital at risk and who had to do the work necessary to provide such things.
America has been so successful and enjoys such enormous economic wealth that minds-full-of-mush socialists look at it all and decide that there’s plenty to go around. No need for anyone to unduly exert oneself. Everyone should be free of the daily burdens of making a living so that everyone can enjoy economic freedom in its ultimate form.
What they don’t understand is that every promised benefit supplied by government must first be confiscated from the fruits of someone’s labor. The larger those promises become, the larger the confiscatory power of government must become – until one day that power becomes absolute.
When that happens, you get the blood-soaked regimes of Stalin, Mao, Castro and Maduro.
The ascendant socialists in the Democratic Party are promising what they believe will be economic freedom. If they ever succeed in gaining power, they will deliver precisely the opposite.
PANOLA COUNTY (KETK) — A traffic stop in Panola County led to the discovery of a nearly $30,000 money laundering scheme on early Thursday morning.
According to the Panola County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy conducted a routine traffic stop on State Highway 315 in Long Branch at 3:15 a.m. for a traffic violation.
During the stop, the deputy observed several indicators of criminal activity including false statements from the driver. The deputy requested a K9 unit, which gave a positive alert for narcotics prompting a search of the vehicle.
Within the vehicle, a bag containing multiple bundles of money wrapped in rubber bands were found, totaling over $29,000.
The driver, Jose De Jesus Torres, Jr. of McAllen was arrested for money laundering $2,500 to $30,000, which is a state jail felony. The currency was held as it awaits a seizure hearing.
Additionally, there were two children in the vehicle who were released to Child Protective Services and later placed with other family members.
Spence Moore as James "Ghost" St. Patrick and Charlie Mann as Tommy Egan in 'Power: Origins' (Starz)
Fans are getting their first glimpse of the upcoming Starz series Power: Origins. The prequel explores the early lives of fan-favorite characters James "Ghost" St. Patrick, Tommy Egan and Kanan Stark as they set out to make their mark in the New York City drug game.
The clip opens with young Ghost, played by Spence Moore, and Tommy, played by Charlie Mann, sitting in a car. “We came in this motherf***** to touch the sky brother," Ghost says. "I won’t let us settle for less.”
The two are then seen confronting a group of men before attacking them with bats.
“This moment right here is when we start dreaming. It’s about proving to ourselves that we can do this s*** on our own,” he continues, as the teaser cuts to a meeting with Kanan Stark, played by Mekai Curtis.
The clip then returns to Tommy and Ghost in the car. “This how legends get made," Ghost says. Tommy lets out a "whoo" before Ghost adds, “I don’t know if I actually believe all that s*** I just said, but it sounded so f****** dope coming out my mouth.”
Power: Origins is currently in production in New Jersey. The series picks up after the events of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, which drops its finale on Aug. 7.
The original Power starred Omari Hardwick as Ghost, Joseph Sikora as Tommy and executive producer 50 Cent as Kanan.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett said Wednesday that his decision to cut the Gates Foundation out of his charitable giving is more about believing his three kids are ready to handle giving away his entire fortune than it is about Bill Gates ‘ ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buffett told CNBC that Gates’ association with Epstein was “distasteful,” but the 95-year-old investor suggested that Gates’ actions weren’t much different from mistakes he himself had made over the years in hiring the wrong person or in choosing friends.
“No one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people,” Buffett said on CNBC. Buffett read up on Gates’ ties to Epstein
Buffett said he “read a great deal since Jan. 1 in terms of what happened with Bill and Epstein. And I have read his remarks to Congress given under oath, and I read the cross-examination.” He noted that Gates eventually ended his relationship with Epstein.
Buffett said Gates wasn’t surprised by the decision Buffett announced Tuesday to eventually donate all the rest of his $140 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to foundations associated with his family and his three children, Howard, Susie and Peter. Gates flew to Omaha a few weeks ago and spent several hours talking with Buffett. The two hadn’t spoken much since before additional details about Gates and Epstein started to come out when the federal government began releasing files from the Epstein investigation.
Gates has said that he only met with Epstein because he thought it might help him raise money for charitable causes, and he didn’t know about Epstein’s ongoing crimes.
Epstein, who was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, was found dead at the Manhattan federal lockup in August 2019. His death was later ruled a suicide by New York City’s medical examiner.
Gates called Buffett “one of the greatest philanthropists of all time, and a dear friend” who he hopes to spend much more time with in the future.
“His wisdom, generosity, and deep sense of purpose have defined both his life and his philanthropy. His support for the Gates Foundation, at nearly $50 billion over the past twenty years, has been unprecedented, and it has helped save millions of lives,” Gates said in a statement.
Buffett said in 2024 that he planned to cut off donations to the Gates Foundation after he died and let his three children decide how to distribute the rest of his fortune.
The Gates Foundation will still have tremendous resources: its endowment was worth nearly $90 billion at the end of last year and Gates has promised to donate nearly all his remaining fortune to the foundation.
In other news from the CNBC interview, Buffett revealed that he recently broke his leg and underwent surgery for it, but he said he is recovering well. Drastically increasing donations to give away his fortune by 2034
Buffett said he wants his own Berkshire shares to be distributed even quicker than he has previously indicated: by the end of 2034. To do that, he will have to drastically increase the amount he donates every year, to more than $17 billion annually.
Right now he is giving roughly $6 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and the foundations his children run: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Novo Foundation. Buffett filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday afternoon that showed he had donated a total of 12 million Class B Berkshire shares a day earlier to those foundations.
The majority of that is going to the foundation named in honor of his late wife, which may quickly become one of the world’s largest such organizations. Buffett also traditionally gives additional gifts to his family foundations around Thanksgiving each year.
He has said that after his death, a new foundation will be created to distribute the rest of his shares and that his children will have to agree unanimously on where to donate them. He wants his children to be able to make those decisions before they die or become senile, and his oldest daughter will be nearly 81 in eight years.
Buffett’s donations may affect his successor’s support
The accelerated pace of Buffett’s plan to give away his fortune over the next eight years rather than doing it over the 10 years following his death will mean that his successor at Berkshire Hathaway, Greg Abel, won’t be able to count on the support of Buffett’s family as the company’s biggest shareholder for as long as he thought. Buffett currently controls nearly 30% of the voting power with his 188,290 Class A shares.
Nevertheless, Buffett said he believes it’s clear that Abel is the right man to lead the conglomerate he built, and “that becomes more evident by the day.”
However, Buffett did note that Berkshire’s big investment in Google’s parent company, which has grown in value considerably over the past year, is one he initiated and not an investment Abel picked, though Abel did agree on it. Just last month, Berkshire agreed to invest another $10 billion in Alphabet after previously tripling its stake in the company. ___ A previous version of this story misspelled Warren Buffett’s last name in the headline.
Justin Timberlake, child star of 'The Mickey Mouse Club,' poses for a portrait Sept. 9, 1993 in Hollywood, California. (Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
M-I-C ... see ya real soon! K-E-Y ... why? Because Disney+ is bringing back The Mickey Mouse Club.
ABC Audio has confirmed that Disney+ has ordered a pilot for a reboot of the legendary show, which first aired in the '50s, returned in the '70s and then migrated to the Disney Channel from 1989 to 1996.
During that last run, the show's cast included, at various times, future music superstars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez of *NSYNC, as well as Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell.
The pilot will be executive produced by Ben Winston, whose credits include the Grammy Awards, Carpool Karaoke,The Late Late Show with James Corden and music projects for One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Adele, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, Elton John, Sam Smith and Justin Bieber.
According to Disney+, the show will be "a showcase for today’s most talented young performers, where music, innovation, and self-expression take center stage." The 11 new cast members boast credits including The Lion King, Camp Rock 3, Young Rock, Elio and Black Rabbit.
Sophie Nélisse is ready to take on another romance series.
The French-Canadian actress will star as Lucy in Netflix's TV adaptation of author Carley Fortune's bestselling romance novel This Summer Will Be Different.
It will be "a simmering, sun-soaked romance set across multiple summers on Prince Edward Island about Lucy, a young woman navigating her 20s and her first real love with her best friend’s brother, the one person she was never supposed to fall for," according to the show's logline.
Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart serve as the adaptation's creators and showrunners. They also both executive produce the show alongside Fortune.
This Summer Will Be Different will film on location in Prince Edward Island and in Toronto. It will span 10 episodes.
“I fell in love with Prince Edward Island first in the pages of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and again when I visited with my best friend in my early 20s,” Fortune told Netflix. “That vacation, the beauty of the island, the warmth of its people, and the friendships that sustain us are the foundation of This Summer Will Be Different. I’m thrilled to bring this sweeping love story to the screen with Netflix and to transport audiences to the glittering shores and windswept beaches of PEI.”
Nélisse is known for her role as young Shauna in Yellowjackets. She's also the fan-favorite character Rose Landry in Heated Rivalry.
UVALDE (AP) — Rescuers saved dozens of stranded drivers and people trapped in homes from catastrophic flooding in Texas while many more fled to higher ground Thursday across a region still recovering from devastating floods just a year ago.
So far, at least one person has died, said Gov. Greg Abbott, who added that it appeared that many of summer camps hit hard last year were not facing any danger. “Our number one focus is saving lives,” he said.
After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a “large and deadly flood wave” was barreling down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors were killed at Camp Mystic.
Forecasters urgently warned “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour, turning them into fast-moving seas of white water. Several tornado warnings were also issued.
The Texas Hill Country floods over the July Fourth holiday last year killed more than 100 people.
The governor said there was “one loss of life” so far but did not specify where or when. More than 1,300 personnel were responding and have rescued well over 70 people, he said Thursday.
The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer’s unimaginable floods for many.
“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who woke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.
“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”
Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe River. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.
The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the border with Mexico and in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio. City officials in Kerrville urged people to shelter at the highest levels of their homes.
Images along a creek in Kerr County showed propane tanks that had been pushed onto a bridge and a mess of tangled trees. Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters
Floodwaters overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off outside access. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.
“People really can’t get anywhere” said Carmen Rodriguez, who was nervously watching water engulf her neighborhood Thursday morning as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”
Phones buzzed with warnings throughout the night warning of flash floods in the morning. Rodriguez said it seemed that authorities were well prepared. By Wednesday, Uvalde police had ordered some mandatory evacuations, with first responders notifying people directly.
Uvalde officials sent out rescue boats and found multiple people trapped in vehicles overnight, said Juli Alvarado, a spokesperson for Uvalde police.
“There’s no way into the city at this point,” she said.
Texas Game Wardens rescued more than 40 people and evacuated about a dozen others, mostly in the Uvalde County area, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson. Flooding could reach last year’s deadly high
The floodwaters were expected to reach a crest similar to last year’s flood, the weather service said.
Gauges in some spots along the Guadalupe River showed it rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters) in just hours overnight. One gauge outside Kerrville showed the river had risen 32 feet (9.7 meters) in four hours.
Close to Camp Mystic, which remains shut, the Guadalupe River near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), according to a U.S. Geological Survey gauge, which is just under the level expected to inundate structures and roads.
Flooding hits towns still rebuilding
Volunteer firefighters spent the night helping people evacuate their homes and answering calls about rising water in Ingram, just up river from Hunt, where summer camps dot the shores of the Guadalupe, Ingram Mayor Claud Jordan said Thursday morning.
While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago, he believes this round of flooding was more widespread and “worse” in his city. “The rural part of Ingram, all the roads are just trashed,” he said.
“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year. They’re still trying to rebuild from the July 4 floods,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.” A rush to higher ground
Residents at an RV park in Comfort, Texas, near the Guadalupe River moved their trailers as local fire department sirens sounded, manager Duke Earwood said Thursday.
Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked closest to the river.
While the water started to recede, another surge was expected, Earwood said at the Comfort RV Resort, which has about 200 residents. “People need to know to just kind of stay put for now,” he said.
Markers showed the flooding already matched the level from the big flood last July.
“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said. Another test for Texas Hill Country after the Camp Mystic disaster
The Texas Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before quickly filling the narrow river basins.
The weather service said 10 to 20 inches of rain (25 to 50 centimeters) had fallen in the past two days, with 8 inches (20 centimeters) in just two hours early Thursday.
The deluge dumped nearly a foot of rain in some counties and put people in multiple counties under flood watches, with some were expected to remain in effect through Friday evening.
The governor issued disaster declarations for dozens of counties. As of late Wednesday, six million residents in 57 counties were under a National Weather Service flood watch.
Focus Features released the new trailer for the upcoming film on Thursday.
Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass wrote and directed the movie, which finds Garfield playing the leader of a ferocious rebellion against King Richard II's tyranny.
"As war burns across England, he forms an army of the people to face the King’s might in a fight for justice and survival," according to the film's official synopsis.
Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman, Katherine Waterston and Sky Yang also star in the film.
The trailer finds Garfield's character gathering support for a rebellion against the king.
"I am no soldier. I am no priest. I'm just a farmer. The land is broken. We are forced to work beyond what our souls can take," he says. "There will be no peace until we are free."
In addition to writing and directing the film, Greengrass produces alongside Jason Blum.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. government has designated two new Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the U.S. government’s gazette, published the designation on Thursday.
They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations that the U.S. considers terrorist groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, also have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump began to extend the terrorist label to Latin American cartels in February 2025 to allow U.S. authorities to take more aggressive action against them or against anyone who the U.S. sees as aiding the groups.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both criminal groups either have committed terrorist acts or pose a serious risk of committing acts that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.
The measure represents a further increase in pressure on Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration following the indictment of 10 current and former officials from the state of Sinaloa for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the controversies about U.S. operations in Mexico. Higher pressure on the Texas border
Juarez Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest drug trafficking organizations, which for decades has controlled a key crossing point in the central part of the Mexico-U.S. border: Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas.
Both its founder, Amado Carrillo Fuentes — known as “El Señor de los Cielos” for smuggling massive drug shipments by light aircraft in the 1990s — and the brothers and sons who succeeded him, turned the trafficking of tons of drugs into a multimillion-dollar business. Despite the arrests of many of its leaders, the cartel and its allied gangs maintained control of a vast infrastructure for smuggling illegal shipments into the U.S..
According to Mexican analyst David Saucedo, the designation is key to enabling the United States to take more decisive action along the border, where two other groups both located at the eastern end of the border with Texas — the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel — were declared terrorist organizations in February 2025.
The US again targets Michoacan
Los Viagras is a local cartel in the western state of Michoacan, which is already home to two other criminal groups designated as terrorist organizations: Cárteles Unidos and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.
Los Viagras emerged following the 2013–2014 armed uprising led by farmers who succeeded in driving out many of the old cartels, only to see them replaced by new ones.
The cartel is led by Nicolás Sierra Santana, who faces a formal indictment in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to traffic drugs, filed in June 2025. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The group has shifted its loyalties and alliances to consolidate its regional control of the territory through extortion. It also produces synthetic drugs, which sells to other cartels that traffic them into the United States.
Brandy Norwood and Rita Ora attend the premiere of Disney Channel Original Movie 'Descendants: Wicked Wonderland' on July 14, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Brandy and Rita Ora are returning to the world of Descendants.
The actresses reprise their roles as Cinderella and the Queen of Hearts in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, the next chapter following the success of Descendants: The Rise of Red.
Speaking with ABC News entertainment contributor Kelley Carter in an interview aired on Good Morning America Thursday, the stars shared how the new film reimagines familiar Disney characters while bringing their own friendship to the screen.
Ora said she was drawn to the complexity of playing her role.
"I did love the idea of the Queen of Hearts, you never really know if she's pretending or if it's real," Ora said. "You've got obviously Cinderella, who is always that anchor within the movies."
Meanwhile, Brandy added, "I did have my villain pants on ... that's new for Cinderella."
The pair also teased a new duet, which they said is one of the moments they're most excited for fans to see.
"It was magical. The song is called 'The Girl I Used to Be.' I think people are gonna love it," Brandy said.
Ora agreed, saying, "It was my dream to be not only on a song with her, but also just in anything with her because I've been looking up to her since I can remember."
Their collaboration was years in the making.
"What people don't really know is that I met Rita when she got her start," Brandy said. "I saw this beautiful light in her then and I see it now. And when we got a chance to do this movie together, I mean, our chemistry was just unmatched."
Descendants: Wicked Wonderland premieres Wednesday on Disney Channel and begins streaming Friday on Disney+.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Disney Channel.
Giving the gift of life is as simple as rolling up your sleeve. To make it easier, find David Rancken’s App Of The Day. It’s called American Red Cross Blood Donor. You can find American Red Cross Blood Donor in the Apple Store and Google Play below.
Texas State Troopers arrive in a Dilley I.S.D. school bus before dispersing a crowd protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the South Texas Family Residential Center on January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas. (Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) -- Rep. Joaquin Castro, along with more than 110 Democratic members of Congress, has sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin urging the shutdown of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
The facility, which is the only family detention center in the country, was closed during the Biden administration but was reopened last year as part of the Trump administration's ongoing immigration crackdown.
In the letter, which was first obtained by ABC News, they write, "There is no humane way to imprison a child and their family. It is nothing more than a trailer prison that detains families. In fact, the Dilley facility is the only place in the United States dedicated to detaining families with children who have not been charged with a crime."
"Former and current detained families describe horrific conditions perpetuated by CoreCivic and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that are meant to strip them of their dignity and make them feel hopeless," the letter says.
The letter outlines how parents have described "horrendous conditions at Dilley," including allegations of food "contaminated with worms and mold," drinking water that leaves detainees feeling sick, lights that stay on through the night and inadequate education and medical care that has led to "severe depression, hopelessness and suicidal ideation amongst their children," according to the letter.
Medical care "is delayed, denied, and in many cases outright dismissed, even when children are suffering life threatening medical emergencies," the letter says, describing an alleged incident in which a young boy was not taken to the hospital until after several days of "severe stomach pain," after which he was diagnosed with appendicitis and required surgery.
Immigrant advocates, medical professionals and lawmakers have previously raised concerns about conditions at the South Texas facility.
ABC News in February interviewed a couple who said their 1-year-old daughter contracted COVID-19 and RSV during their 60-day detention. The family alleged that medical staff at Dilley dismissed their daughter's symptoms.
Rep. Castro raised his own concerns about a 2-month old he encountered while visiting another family at the facility in February.
At the time, the top medical official at the Department of Homeland Security, which operates the nation's migrant detention centers, disputed any suggestion that detainees are being denied proper care.
"These allegations of illegal aliens being denied proper medical care in ICE custody are FALSE," DHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Conley told ABC News in a statement. "It is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, women's health, mental health services, any needed follow up medical appointments, as well as 24-hour emergency care."
"This is better, more responsive health care than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives," Conley's statement said.
"These representatives remain quiet about the humanitarian crisis that was manufactured by the Biden Administration's open border policies over the last four years and the scores of children exploited, trafficked and missing," a DHS spokesperson said. "Do they plan to mention the psychiatric impact on the tens of thousands of children who were smuggled across the border -- many by human and sex traffickers?"
"We've jumpstarted our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children. President Trump and DHS are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families," the spokesperson said.
The Democrats' letter also claims that children are held at the Dilley facility beyond the general 20-day limit established under the Flores Settlement Agreement, a legal settlement from the 1990s that outlines appropriate protections and conditions for detaining minors.
"Families at Dilley report being held well beyond that limit with no clear timeline or explanation," the letter says. "In February and March 2026, the government has stated that children's average time in custody at Dilley was approximately 57 days, and the median time in custody was approximately 44 days, with 92 children being detained for 61-90 days, and 80 children detained for more than 91 days."
A DHS spokesperson, responding to a February ABC News report about the extended custody times, said, "For years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left to promote an open borders agenda. It is long overdue for a single district in California to stop managing the Executive Branch's immigration functions. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our immigration system."
"No child should be in a place like the Dilley Trailer Prison," Castro said in a statement. "Under Trump, ICE is ripping children away from their families, school, and lives. They should be treated like kids -- not criminals. I am grateful that over 100 of my colleagues in Congress are joining the fight to shut down the Dilley Trailer Prison."
In addition to shuttering Dilley, the letter demands that DHS terminates the contract it has with CoreCivic, the private prison contractor that operates the Dilley facility. The letter alleges that "CoreCivic is prioritizing profits over humane treatment of its detainees."
"No child and family should be imprisoned for seeking safety by legitimately following United States immigration laws," the letter says. "The United States has the tools, the resources, and the legal framework to process these families without detention."
New York Knicks win best team at the 34th annual ESPY Awards. (Disney/Frank Micelotta)
(NEW YORK) -- It was a night to remember for some of the sports world's biggest stars at the 34th annual ESPY Awards on Wednesday.
The best sports moments, winning plays, and superstar players were celebrated at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Olympian Simone Biles presented the ESPY Award for best team to the New York Knicks, one month after the NBA team secured this year's championship title in five games against the San Antonio Spurs.
"I hope this trophy, especially here in New York, getting this trophy shows the word love. The love of each other and this team is what got us through the humps in December when we were not playing our best basketball. The love of the fans is what got us back [when we were] down 29 at home," Knicks center-forward Karl-Anthony Towns said in a speech, as the team accepted the award.
Knicks guard Jose Alvarado added, "We've got the best fans in the world."
Knicks captain Jalen Brunson also won multiple ESPYs on Wednesday, including best championship performance and best athlete - men's sports.
"I'm at a loss of words. It has been a hell of a run to say the least," Brunson said.
Brunson's teammate OG Anunoby also took home the ESPY for best play for his now-famous tip-in that cemented the Knicks' eventual win of game 4 during the NBA Finals.
"I think it's pretty exciting for everyone," Anunoby said of his ESPYs experience last night. "I mean I grew up watching this award show, so full circle, crazy to be here."
The ESPYs also honored athletes on the rise, including 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist figure skater Alysa Liu, who earned the ESPY for best breakthrough athlete.
"The past six months have been really crazy, but I've been enjoying it," Liu said. "And once it's all kind of slowing down, I'm gonna journal about it, so I can remember everything."
"Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts delivered the Arthur Ashe Courage Award honoring late NBA trailblazer Jason Collins, the first openly gay player in league history.
Collins died of a brain tumor in May, so Roberts presented the award to his twin brother Jarron Collins, who accepted it on his behalf.
"It really does make all the difference in the world. Representation matters," Jaron Collins said.
"When you see someone of the LGBTQ community following their passions, following their dreams, living their life, being their authentic self -- it inspires other people," he added. "So, my brother, being a professional NBA basketball player and being openly gay, lived his life, lived his dream, lived his truth."
SMITH COUNTY — The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles online system is down statewide, so the Smith County Tax Office cannot process auto registration renewals or title work at this time, according to the county’s Facebook page.
TRINIDAD – Trinidad City Administrator Cynthia Dosier resigned from her position on Wednesday as the city continues to deal with their ongoing water system issues. Trinidad Mayor Dennis Haws announced both Dossier’s resignation and the resignation of city employee Sandra Rojas on Wednesday. In a social media post, Haws said that he’s contacted the Texas Municipal League (TML) for advice on how to work through these resignations.
ANDERSON COUNTY – The Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District took no action during a public hearing today on proposed rule changes to drilling permits. The proposed changes are being considered as Dallas investor Kyle Bass is suing the District for access to drill in Anderson County.
UPSHUR COUNTY – The County Commissioners’ Court unanimously voted to join the future Northeast Texas Groundwater Conservation District on Wednesday, according to our news partner KETK. Upshur County Precinct 1 Commissioner Gene Dolle said they voted to join the planned district as part of a growing effort to conserve the area’s underground water resources. 
GREGG COUNTY – A man has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of his seventh DWI conviction on Wednesday. According to our news partner KETK, Jeffry Scott Web was found guilty of driving while intoxicated three or more times. The jury deliberated only 45 minutes on the sentence, according to the Gregg County District Attorney’s Office. 
SMITH COUNTY – Beginning Saturday, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office will increase traffic enforcement along I-20 and Toll 49 in partnership with TxDOT for Operation Slow Down, which looks to keep roads safer. According to our news partner KETK, the sheriff’s office said increased stops will take place around portions of I-20 and Toll 49, to curb speeding, deter aggressive driving and to protect everyone on the road. 
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett said Wednesday that his decision to cut the Gates Foundation out of his charitable giving is more about believing his three kids are ready to handle giving away his entire fortune than it is about Bill Gates ‘ ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
