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WEST TEXAS (AP) – A historic measles outbreak in West Texas is just short of 200 cases, Texas state health officials said Friday, while the number of cases in neighboring New Mexico tripled in a day to 30.

Most of the cases across both states are in people younger than 18 and people who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

Texas health officials identified 39 new infections of the highly contagious disease, bringing the total count in the West Texas outbreak to 198 people since it began in late January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far.

Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas, the nation’s first measles death in a decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that they were sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the outbreak.

Across the state border from the epicenter of the outbreak, Lea County, New Mexico, had 10 cases Thursday after health officials confirmed an unvaccinated adult who died without seeking medical care had the virus, though as of Friday, measles has not been confirmed as the cause.

But in an update on the state health department’s website, the number of cases in Lea County shot up Friday to 30. The department has said it hasn’t been able to prove a clear connection to the Texas outbreak; on Feb. 14, it said a link is “suspected.”

The CDC said Friday it has also confirmed measles cases in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington.

But the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks make up for most of the nation’s case count.

The rise in measles cases has been a major test for U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has questioned the safety of childhood vaccines. Recently, he has stopped short of recommending people get the vaccine, and has promoted unproven treatments for the virus, like cod liver oil.

Kennedy dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual,” though most local doctors in the West Texas region told The Associated Press that they have never seen a case of measles in their careers until this outbreak.

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.

Childhood vaccination rates across the country have declined as an increasing number of parents seek exemptions from public school requirements for personal or religious reasons. In Gaines County, Texas, which has the majority of cases, the kindergarten measles vaccination rate is 82% – far below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks.

Many of Gaines County’s cases are in the county’s “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, a diverse group that has historically had lower vaccination rates and whose members can be distrusting of government mandates and intervention.

Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the CDC. Owing to the success of the vaccine, the U.S. considered measles eliminated in 2000.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private lunar lander is no longer working after landing sideways in a crater near the moon’s south pole and its mission is over, officials said Friday.

The news came less than 24 hours after the botched landing attempt by Texas-based Intuitive Machines.

Launched last week, the lander named Athena missed its mark by more than 800 feet (250 meters) and ended up in a frigid crater, the company said in declaring it dead.

Athena managed to send back pictures confirming its position and activate a few experiments before going silent. NASA and other customers had packed the lander with tens of millions of dollars’ worth of experiments including an ice drill, drone and pair of rovers to roam the unexplored terrain ahead of astronauts’ planned arrival later this decade.

It’s unlikely Athena’s batteries can be recharged given the way the lander’s solar panels are pointed and the extreme cold in the crater.

“The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission,” the company said in a statement.

This was the second landing attempt for Intuitive Machines. The first, a year ago, also ended with a sideways landing, but the company was able to keep it going for longer than this time. Despite all the problems, the company’s first lander managed to put the U.S. back on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

Earlier in the week, another Texas company scored a successful landing under NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program, intended to jumpstart business on the moon while preparing for astronauts’ return. Firefly Aerospace put its Blue Ghost lander down in the far northern latitudes of the moon’s near side.

Firefly CEO Jason Kim reported Friday that eight of the 10 NASA experiments on Blue Ghost already have met their mission objectives. It’s expected to operate for another week until lunar daytime ends and solar power is no longer available.

The south polar region of the moon is particularly difficult to reach and operate on given the harsh sun angles, limited communications with Earth and uncharted, rugged terrain. Athena’s landing was the closest a spacecraft has come to the south pole, just 100 miles (160 kilometers) away.

That’s where NASA is targeting for its first landing by astronauts since the 1960s and 1970s Apollo program, no earlier than 2027. The craters are believed to hold tons of frozen water that could be used by future crews to drink and turn into rocket fuel.

Intuitive Machines has contracts with NASA for two more moon landing deliveries. The company said it will need to determine exactly what went wrong this time before launching the next mission. After the 15-foot (4.7-meter) Athena landed, controllers rushed to turn off some of the lander’s equipment to conserve power while trying to salvage what they could.

In both landings by Intuitive Machines, problems arose at the last minute with the prime laser navigation system.

Intuitive Machines’ rocket-propelled drone, Grace, was supposed to hop across the lunar surface before jumping into a crater to look for frozen water. The two rovers from two other companies, one American and one Japanese, were going to scout around the area as well.

NASA’s ice drill experiment was activated before the lander’s batteries died. How much could be accomplished was not immediately known. Several other objectives were accelerated and milestones met, according to the company.

NASA paid $62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its three experiments to the moon.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar will be the next chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, overseeing 11 universities that educate more than 157,000 students and eight state agencies, including the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

The Board of Regents selected Hegar on Friday to succeed Chancellor John Sharp, who has held the job since 2011 and is slated to retire in June. The vote was unanimous.

Hegar is inheriting the system’s reins at an inflection point as Republican leaders scrutinize what they see as progressive policies and curriculum in higher education. He’ll have to contend with continued accusations that public universities are violating the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and navigate intensifying threats to academic freedom.

Hegar, a Republican from Katy, was first elected comptroller in 2015. He previously served as a state representative and then as a state senator, from 2003 to 2014.

The comptroller serves as the state’s chief financial officer, accountant, revenue estimator and treasurer.

As comptroller, Hegar has brought attention to problems that have plagued other states like infrastructure maintenance and state employee pensions. He worked with the Texas Legislature to pay down pension debt. He also helped create the first state-administered precious metals depository and the Texas Bullion Depository.

The Texas Broadband Development Office and how the settlement funds from a lawsuit stemming from the opioid crisis are under the comptroller’s purview. If a school voucher proposal to let families use public funds for their children’s private schooling passes this session, the office could also be responsible for overseeing how the program works.

Hegar infused some conservative politicking into the role when he ran for reelection in 2022 as “a true conservative defending the values of faith, family and freedom.” At the time, his office released a list of financial companies that Hegar said were anti-oil and gas. He also threatened to sanction Harris County for cutting its budget for law enforcement.

In the Legislature, Hegar chaired the Sunset Advisory Commission and has said he eliminated inefficiencies in government and abolished six state agencies, saving taxpayers more than $160 million.

During his last session in the Senate, he chaired the finance subcommittee on state and local revenue matters and has said he helped cut $1 billion worth of taxes.

That year he also sponsored a bill in 2013 that placed additional restrictions on abortion before the Supreme Court outlawed it entirely in 2022. (That bill was the one that launched Democrat Wendy Davis into fame for her 11-hour filibuster). He also authored a bill that allowed students with concealed handgun licenses to store firearms in their vehicles on campus. Now, Texans don’t have to have a concealed handgun license to carry.

Hegar is himself an Aggie, graduating from Texas A&M University in 1993. He later got his master’s and law degrees from St. Mary’s University, a private school in San Antonio, and a master of laws degree from the University of Arkansas.

He has three children with his wife, Dara.

Texas A&M University System Board of Regents also considered other candidates for chancellor, according to a source familiar with the process: Texas A&M Foundation President Tyson Voelkel; University of Alabama President Stuart Bell; State Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin; and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin. A second source confirmed four of the five names. Regents met all day Monday in Houston to interview the candidates, mostly behind closed doors.

Hegar’s political trajectory is similar to Sharp’s, who also served as comptroller before he became chancellor in 2011.

Sharp, who ran as a Democrat, also served stints as a state representative, state senator and railroad commissioner. As chancellor, he ushered in an era of prosperity for the system while navigating the changing environment in higher education as campuses became increasingly polarized.

He secured an all-time high of $1 billion in new funding for the system during the same session lawmakers banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices, programs and training and threatened to eliminate tenure. He is credited with proposing that lawmakers codify the practice instead. Tenure, which offers faculty employment and academic freedom protections, has been instrumental in the state’s rise in the ranks of research.

Earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III should lose his job if he continued allowing faculty to recruit doctoral students at a conference that limited participation to people who are Black, Hispanic or Native American. Welsh was named president after his predecessor, Katherine Banks, resigned over the botched hiring of Kathleen McElroy, a Black journalism professor who some of the university system’s regents worried had a liberal bias. The university also came under fire at that time from faculty and alumni after The Texas Tribune reported a professor was suspended with pay after she was accused by a politically connected student of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during a lecture.

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

AUSTIN – The Dallas Morning News reports that st a Thursday hearing at the Capitol, dozens of public school teachers and officials testified that a bill proposing $7.5 billion in school funding does not go far enough. House Bill 2 proposes raising the per-student allotment by $220 to $6,360 a year, but teachers, administrators and advocates told the House Public Education Committee the increase falls short of meeting the needs of the state’s school districts. HB 2’s proposed pay raises for teachers also were panned as inadequate. “The pay teachers receive demonstrates the level of respect afforded to our children,” said Megan Holden, a 10th grade English teacher at an Austin-area high school. “They are getting the message that Texas doesn’t value them or their future.” HB 2 would devote 40% of the basic allotment to teacher pay.

The basic allotment would need to rise by $1,300 to keep up with inflation since 2019, when the Legislature last increased the payment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The proposed $220 increase is also less than half of the $500 increase that was proposed in 2023 but died after Gov. Greg Abbott said he would veto any bill increasing school funding that did not create a program allowing public money to be spent on private schools. HB 2 includes other mechanisms that provide money to public schools but in more targeted fashions aimed at special education and pay boosts for high-performing teachers. The House’s proposal to raise teacher pay is part of a “Texas two step” Republicans have proposed in tandem with a voucher-style school choice proposal. Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, is the author of the school funding bill, the voucher proposal and another bill that would scale back the STAAR test and replace it with a different standardized testing system.

BROWNSVILLE (AP) – Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.

This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.

The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost less than 10 minutes into the flight as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.

Starship reached nearly 90 miles (150 kilometers) in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed. It was not immediately clear where it came down, but images of flaming debris were captured from Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.

The space-skimming flight was supposed to last an hour. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would require SpaceX to investigate the accident.

“Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the launch site.

SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent engine firing and said it alerted safety officials.

Flights were briefly grounded at Orlando International Airport “due to space launch debris in the area,” the airport posted on X.

Starship didn’t make it quite as high or as far as last time.

NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

Like last time, Starship had mock satellites to release once the craft reached space on this eighth test flight as a practice for future missions. They resembled SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, thousands of which currently orbit Earth, and were meant to fall back down following their brief taste of space.

Starship’s flaps, computers and fuel system were redesigned in preparation for the next big step: returning the spacecraft to the launch site just like the booster.

During the last demo, SpaceX captured the booster at the launch pad, but the spacecraft blew up several minutes later over the Atlantic. No injuries or major damage were reported.

According to an investigation that remains ongoing, leaking fuel triggered a series of fires that shut down the spacecraft’s engines. The on-board self-destruct system kicked in as planned.

SpaceX said it made several improvements to the spacecraft following the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration recently cleared Starship once more for launch.

Starships soar out of the southernmost tip of Texas near the Mexican border. SpaceX is building another Starship complex at Cape Canaveral, home to the company’s smaller Falcon rockets that ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit.

AUSTIN – The Texas Senate on Wednesday advanced to the House a bill that would create America’s largest brain health research center.

Senate Bill 5, by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would create the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Senate Joint Resolution 3, which would require voter approval if passed by the Legislature, would fund it with $3 billion in surplus revenue. This funding is intended to attract physicians, researchers, and experts in the field of dementia to Texas. This institute would research all brain diseases, not just dementia.

Under the bill, the institute would be governed by a board of physicians and scientists with expertise in dementia research. Grants could be awarded for projects addressing the causes, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of dementia patients, as well as new medicines and facilities to help treat patients. Following the initial $3 billion in general revenue, future appropriations into the institute would be capped at $300 million annually.

“I can’t think as a body, as a Legislature, that we could make a wiser, more prudent, better investment for the people of Texas and future generations,” Huffman said from the Senate floor prior to the vote.

One of the institute’s primary duties will be awarding grants. All grant proposals must undergo a peer review, and the oversight committee must approve final grant awards to ensure fairness in the grant-making process.

Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, during the discussion of the bill on Wednesday, shared that his father lived eight years with dementia before passing away last year, and it’s a disease he wouldn’t wish on anyone. He said that despite his personal experience, he didn’t believe funding a dementia center was the government’s role.

“My vote is not a vote of support. It’s just a vote of recognizing that we need to focus on other things as a government, and it concerns me as we add some of these on,” said Hancock, who joined Sen. Bob Hall, R-Galveston, in voting against the legislation.

Huffman responded by saying she understood his point, but she believes the fund is worthy of investment from the state’s surplus of dollars.

“There are people living today because of some of the research breakthroughs in cancer. If we can do the same thing with this and help prevention and research, it seems like it could be the best money we’re spending,” she said.

Government spending has become a hot topic in the state and the nation as President Donald Trump’s administration has attempted to cut medical research funding.

In February, the National Institute of Health released a notice of an updated policy that would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars and place a 15% indirect cost rate on all new and existing grant awards received by research institutions.

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from cutting medical research after a litany of lawsuits, including one filed by 22 state attorneys general along with universities, hospitals, and research institutions nationwide to stop the cuts, saying they would endanger patients. Texas was not among the plaintiffs.

“While other research opportunities may diminish, the creation and funding of (the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas) will position Texas to be a leader in dementia-related research,” Huffman said in an emailed statement to The Texas Tribune on Thursday.

The dementia program is modeled after the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas which voters approved in 2009 with $3.7 billion and voters again approved in 2019 an additional $3 billion. The $6 billion cancer research institute is the largest cancer research organization in the country and the second largest worldwide.

The institute issues up to $300 million annually for cancer research and prevention projects, according to Kristen Doyle, CEO of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute. It has recruited 324 researchers to Texas; supported the establishment, expansion, or relocation of 74 companies to Texas; and has provided 10 million prevention services, reaching all Texas counties.

“I believe we can follow this success and position Texas as a national leader in combating dementia and related disorders, accelerating groundbreaking research and improving the lives of millions of Texans,” Huffman told fellow lawmakers.

In 2012, allegations arose that millions of taxpayer dollars were distributed in grants without proper peer review, briefly engulfing the cancer institute in scandal.

Huffman said lawmakers have learned lessons from creating the cancer research institute, which should make creating a dementia institute much smoother.

“Everyone who was around will admit that the (cancer institute) had a rocky start, but those problems were resolved with legislation and oversight, and all of that has been incorporated in this legislation,” she said. “We worked closely with the (cancer institute) as we wrote this bill and took suggestions from them so we can go full speed right off the starting gate.”

Doyle said the merit-based, peer-reviewed grant process is central to their national reputation for integrity and transparency in funding groundbreaking projects.

Huffman said that Texas already has the third-most dementia patients in the country, almost half a million, and last year, state Medicare costs for dementia care alone topped $4 billion.

“There is no better place than Texas to take on this challenge,” Huffman said.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made the research institute a top bill for the session. He says that Texas’ size and economic strength allow it to take on big projects like this.

“Texas, with our vast resources, has an opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of millions,” he said in a news release.

Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disease, is the most common form of dementia, accounting for about 80% of cases, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Alzheimer’s symptoms — memory loss and the inability to perform simple tasks — tend to develop in the mid-to-late 60s and occur when clumps of abnormal proteins block the communication of brain cells. Symptoms can be mild at first and worsen over time.

The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that 459,000 Texans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, about 12% of the state’s population over the age of 65. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, this has cost the state approximately $24 billion in caregiver time.

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

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and some imports from Canada for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. The White House insists its tariffs are about stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, but the taxes proposed by Trump have caused a gaping wound in the decades-old North American trade partnership. Trump’s tariff plans have also caused the stock market to sink and alarmed U.S. consumers.

AUSTIN – A few weeks after Elon Musk waved a chainsaw at a conservative gathering touting the Department of Government Efficiency’s federal cost cutting efforts, the Texas House kicked off the first meeting for its own version of DOGE.

Leaders of the Delivery of Government Efficiency committee in the House are following in Musk’s footsteps, promising sweeping changes and reductions to the size of state government. Committee Chair Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, told The Texas Tribune that DOGE in Texas share’s goals with its federal namesake in trying to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in government.

“We’re going to make long-term changes in how we operate here for the state,” Capriglione said. “This is about, ‘How do we fundamentally change the way the state operates so you can do it in a much more efficient way?’”

So far, Musk’s operation in the nation’s capital has fired more than 30,000 federal employees with more layoffs to come, drawing sharp pushback from Democrats and some concerns from Republicans. DOGE’s website has claimed to cut about $105 billion as of Monday, though that amount is unverifiable and is expected to be much lower.

Asked about statewide layoffs, Capriglione said the committee “doesn’t have the authority to go and terminate employees,” though members may recommend funding reductions to agencies that yield staffing cuts.

Democrats on the committee say they’re optimistic about the opportunity to find inefficiencies, but are wary of their colleagues trying to emulate the rapidfire layoffs and cuts happening at the federal level. What Musk’s DOGE has done is “completely terrifying,” and is putting the health and safety of millions of Americans at risk, said Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, one of the five Democrats on the committee. She doesn’t want Texas to replicate what DOGE is doing in Washington, D.C.

“I would be the fiercest fighter against that, because what they’re doing at the federal level is just outrageous and the consequences are going to be harmful for decades,” said Rodríguez Ramos, who is the chair of the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus.

DOGE committee Vice Chair Salman Bhojani, D-Euless, said during DOGE’s first hearing Wednesday that the committee must avoid “partisan rhetoric.” He said that unlike Congress, members of the Texas legislature work in a bipartisan manner and he expects that will be the case with the state’s version of DOGE.

“Texas can lead the way with responsible and efficient government,” Bhojani said during the hearing. “But let me be clear, my focus is not about cutting essential services or devaluing hardworking public servants. I’m here to work with you, not against you, to improve how we serve Texans.”

Some of Musk’s efforts with DOGE have sparked chaos in federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently fired some employees who were working to address bird flu, only to since request those employees come back. The Trump administration has also had to reverse the layoffs of hundreds of federal employees who work on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs.

As a legislative committee, there’s a “fundamental difference” between what the Texas and federal versions of DOGE are capable of doing, Capriglione said. Rather than focusing on public staffing cuts, in its early days, committee leaders will focus on finding areas to recommend for modernizing outdated state technology systems and auditing government agencies.

According to the House resolution that created Texas’ DOGE, the committee’s jurisdiction includes topics like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and “emerging technology.” The committee will also likely hear bills on similar topics, Capriglione said. So far, 27 bills have been referred to the committee, including proposals related to auditing state agencies and increasing government pay transparency.

He added that Texas’ DOGE aims to be a “one-stop shop” for Texans to bring forward their grievances about state government services. In an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News published last week, Capriglione said that reducing government spending is a “central part of [his] political career.”

“This committee will operate with precision,” Capriglione said during Wednesday’s hearing. “At times, we will use a scalpel, carefully dissecting inefficiencies to make government work smarter. At other times, we will wield a sledgehammer, tearing down systemic waste and corruption that may have gone unchallenged.”

The committee has 13 members, including Capriglione, with eight Republicans and five Democrats. Like other committees, DOGE will hear public testimony on proposed legislation and vote those bills out of committee so they can receive a vote on the House floor.

Texas isn’t the only state that has followed in the federal government’s footsteps by creating its own DOGE. Some other Republican-led states, including Florida and Iowa, have created their own versions, with some in the form of legislative committees and others created as additional government divisions.

Rep. David Cook, a Mansfield Republican, said the bipartisan nature of the committee and its inclusion of elected officials represent the biggest difference between the Texas DOGE and the Washington, D.C. operation. But he added that the “goals will be similar” between the two.

“This is an example of where the federal government came up with a really good idea,” Cook said. “[Texans] want their government to be efficient and implement good, common sense policies.”

Texas already has another legislative commission that is responsible for reviewing waste and inefficiency in state government. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission — made up of two members of the public, and five members of the House and Senate alike — has abolished 95 state agencies since its inception in 1977. According to the commission’s website, it will review about 130 agencies over the next 12 years.

Poncho Nevárez, a former Democratic state representative and past member of the commission, said since the Sunset Advisory Commission does not review each agency every legislative session, the DOGE committee could help fill that gap. If an agency is not scheduled to be reviewed by the commission during a particular session, then the DOGE committee might have the ability to look into that agency, he added. But Nevárez is still wary that the Texas DOGE will try to “slash and burn” funding like Musk is doing in Washington.

He noted the irony of Republicans railing about waste when they have had control of every statewide office and the Legislature for decades. The last time a Democrat won statewide office in Texas was 1994.

“Well… who’s been running that government for almost 30 years?” Nevárez said. “They act like all of these agencies have been running on their own. But all those are Republican appointees.”

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