KTBB News, Weather, Talk

SEMINOLE — Measles had struck this West Texas town, sickening dozens of children, but at the Community Church of Seminole, more than 350 worshippers gathered for a Sunday service. Sitting elbow-to-elbow, they filled the pews, siblings in matching button-down shirts and dresses, little girls’ hair tied neatly into pink bows.

Fathers shushed babbling toddlers as their wives snuck out to change infants’ diapers.

A little girl in this mostly Mennonite congregation was among those who’d fallen ill with the highly contagious respiratory disease, senior pastor Dave Klassen said — but she’s doing fine, and she happily played through her quarantine. He heard that at least two Mennonite schools shut down for a bit to disinfect.

What he hasn’t heard: Any direct outreach from public health officials on what to do as the number of those sickened with measles has grown to 146 and a school-age child has died. And though Klassen is a trusted church and community leader, his congregants haven’t asked about whether they should vaccinate their kids – and he wouldn’t want to weigh in.

“With this measles situation, I can honestly just tell you we haven’t taken any steps as a church,” he said. “We did leave it up to the mothers.”

As measles — a preventable disease the U.S. considered eliminated in 2000 — spreads through West Texas’ rural expanse, Klassen is sticking to an approach on vaccines that is a key tenet for Mennonites. Family leaders are the top decision-making authority — not outside recommendations, certainly not government mandates.

Alongside measles in this region, where voters overwhelmingly supported President Donald J. Trump, there’s another outbreak: one of misinformation about vaccines, distrust of local public health officials and a fear of governmental authority overruling family autonomy. And on the national stage, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the country’s top health official and an anti-vaccine activist, dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual.”

“Do I trust all the vaccines? No,” Klassen said. “And I get from (Kennedy) that he doesn’t trust all the vaccines, either. And he is very well educated in that; I’m not.”

In an opinion piece for Fox News Digital, Kennedy wrote about the value of the measles vaccine but stopped short of calling on families to get it, saying the decision is “a personal one.” He urged parents to speak to their health care providers about options.

Vaccine skepticism has also been spurred by state lawmakers who this year filed more than a dozen bills that would strengthen or expand vaccine exemptions, which Texas already allows for “reasons of conscience, including a religious belief.”

At hospitals in Lubbock, 80 miles to the north and on the front lines of the outbreak, babies with measles are struggling to breathe.

Dr. Summer Davies, a Texas Tech Physicians pediatrician, said she has treated about 10 of the outbreak’s patients, most very young or teens. She said children have had to be intubated, including one younger than 6 months old. Others come in with such high fevers or severe sore throats that they refuse to eat or drink to the point of dehydration.

“It’s hard as a pediatrician, knowing that we have a way to prevent this and prevent kids from suffering and even death,” she said. “But I do agree that the herd immunity that we have established in the past isn’t the same now. And I think kids are suffering because of that.”

In Lubbock County, 92% of kindergarteners are up to date on their measles, mumps and rubella shots, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That’s lower than the 95% threshold experts say is needed to prevent measles from spreading. Gaines County, which includes Seminole, has an 82% MMR vaccination rate, though rates for homeschooled or private school students may be much lower. The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide. Many Mennonite families don’t send children to public schools.

All of the children admitted with measles to Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock were unvaccinated, officials said last week. Dr. Lara Johnson, the hospital’s chief medical officer, told The Associated Press that Covenant has seen more than 20 patients, including children, teens and pregnant mothers, since the outbreak began in late January.

News of a measles case in Seminole, population 7,200, put doctors on a “shared high alert,” said Dr. Martin Ortega, a family physician for Texas Tech Physicians in Odessa, about an hour away. The small towns of West Texas may look completely isolated on a map, with little between them beyond oil and gas facilities and sprawling desert. But the region is connected by its people, who regularly travel long distances to grocery stores, hospitals and houses of worship.

Many doctors are seeing measles cases for the first time in their careers. In Lea County, New Mexico, 30 minutes west of Seminole, nine measles cases with no clear connection to the Texas outbreak, rattled doctors and parents. An unvaccinated infant in Austin also tested positive for measles after an overseas vacation.

It’s “a little bit surreal,” said Dr. Rumbidzai Mutikani, a pediatrician at Nor-Lea Hospital District’s Hobbs Medical Clinic. Parents were so concerned “our phones were just ringing,” Mutikani said.

Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock’s public health department, said West Texas’ rural landscape is a major challenge, not just in getting to patients and transporting test samples, but also in getting the word out.

A lot of the messaging is word of mouth, she said, but they are working on public-service announcements featuring trusted Gaines County residents, putting up billboards about measles, handing out flyers and posting in WhatsApp groups.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused “a lot of distrust in public health” and government requirements, Wells said. On Facebook, people have accused her of making up the measles outbreak. They hope her department loses its funding.

It’s “really hurtful stuff,” she said. “We’re really working to help encourage vaccines for our community and help those kids that are infected to make sure they get medical treatment so that we don’t end up with another death.”

The reality on the ground can be nuanced, however.

Brownfield Mayor Eric Horton is pro-Trump, he said, but also pro-MMR vaccine.

His county was hard-hit by COVID-19, Horton said, with nearly 90 deaths. So when measles cases came to his town of 8,600, Horton feared for his community. He said the local hospital has been busy administering vaccines since the outbreak started.

“Out here on the south plains of Texas, we are conservative people, but we also are not anti-vaxxers,” he said.

Across the region, people echoed this sentiment about routine childhood vaccinations in interviews with the AP and The Texas Tribune. Often, though, they are less supportive of COVID-19 and flu shots.

“It’s frustrating that (Mennonites) don’t vaccinate, and they put other people’s families and children at exposure for it,” said Stephen Spruill, a 36-year-old trucker from Seminole.

But “this is America. People have the right to choose.”

Macey Lane, 31, of Hobbs, said: “I do support Donald Trump. I don’t support not requiring vaccines.”

All of Lane’s kids are vaccinated. Praising Sen. Mitch McConnell’s vote against Kennedy’s nomination, she said the fact that “the only Republican that went against RFK was a polio survivor says a lot.” But she said she voted off other issues: her religious beliefs, stance on abortion and who would be best for the region’s oil and gas industry.

“As far as RFK being an anti-vaxxer, this is the most important thing: People have to make a decision for themselves and be as informed as they possibly can,” Horton said.

But in doctors’ offices throughout the region, pediatricians see the consequences of that stance.

Mutikani, the Hobbs pediatrician, said she’s seen vaccine hesitancy increase in recent years as parents come to her with worries that line up with what’s trending on social media. “Virulent” misinformation is especially worrisome in rural areas with few news sources or where many people who don’t regularly see doctors live, she said.

And having “these really big, respected public figures openly going against the grain, going against research and what we know, it makes it really, really difficult,” she said.

Most Texans are still vaccinating their kids, including Jennifer Sanchez, a 26-year-old Odessa resident. She took her 6-year-old and 1-year-old to the local public health department on Monday to get the measles vaccine.

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

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to invest $100 billion in the United States, President Donald Trump said Monday, on top of $65 billion in investments the company had previously announced.

TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer, produces chips for companies including Apple, Intel and Nvidia. The company had already begun constructing three plants in Arizona after the Biden administration offered billions in subsidies. Its first factory in Arizona has started mass production of its 4-nanometer chips.

Trump, who appeared with TSMC’s chief executive officer C. C. Wei at the White House, called it a “tremendous move” and “a matter of economic security.”

“Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy. And really, without the semiconductors, there is no economy,” the president said. “Powering everything from AI to automobiles to advanced manufacturing, we must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories with Americans skill and American labor.”

Wei said the investment will be for three more chip manufacturing plants, along with two packaging facilities, in Arizona.

The $165 billion investment “is going to create thousands of high-paying jobs,” Wei said.

Former President Joe Biden in 2022 signed a sweeping $280 billion law, the CHIPS and Science Act, to try to reinvigorate chip manufacturing in the U.S., especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the pandemic, chip factories, especially those overseas making the majority of processors, shut down. It had a ripple effect that led to wider problems, such as automobile factory assembly lines shutting down and fueled inflation.

Trump has criticized the law and taken a different approach, instead threatening to impose high tariffs on imported chips to bring chip manufacturing back to the U.S.

Trump also has said companies like TSMC do not need federal tax incentives.

At the Commerce Department, 40 people who worked on the implementation of the Chips Act were fired Monday as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping moves to cut the size of the federal workforce, according to a person familiar with the move who was not authorized to speak publicly.

When asked if the new investment could minimize impact on the U.S. should China either isolate or seize Taiwan, Trump said he couldn’t say “minimize” because “that would be a catastrophic event obviously.”

Taiwan is an island that broke away from mainland China in 1949 following a civil war. Beijing claims sovereignty over the island and has ratcheted up military and diplomatic pressure on its leaders.

“It will at least give us a position where we have, in this very, very important business, we would have a very big part of it in the United States,” Trump said of the chip manufacturing.

He did not say if the investment would provide security for the self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory.

Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, the island’s de-facto embassy in the United States, said investments by Taiwanese businesses in the U.S. have exceeded 40% of the island’s total foreign investments and that the Taiwanese government is “glad” to see Taiwanese businesses to expand investments in the U.S. and to deep cooperation on supply chain between the two sides.

“It also brings the economic and trade relations closer,” the office said.

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at German Marshall Fund of the U.S., said Taipei is hoping the increased investment pledge will help keep the U.S.-Taiwan relationship strong. “Taiwan is evidently stepping up in a way that supports and advanced President Trump’s priorities,” she said. “The US will benefit greatly from TSMC’s investment.”

Trump has yet to indicate his stance on U.S. support for Taiwan’s security since he took office, and he has said Taiwan should pay the U.S. for its military defense.

Trump has hosted multiple business leaders at the White House since he took office in January to tout a series of investments that aim to demonstrate his leadership is a boon for the U.S. economy. He’s also pointed to the tariff threats as prodding the investments.

“It’s the incentive we’ve created. Or the negative incentive,” Trump said.

In January, he appeared with the heads of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank at the White House as they announced plans for a new partnership to invest up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence. He also announced in January a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates to build data centers tied to AI.

Last week, after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Trump at the White House, the company announced plans to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, including plans for a new server factory in Texas. Trump said after their meeting that Cook promised him Apple’s manufacturing would shift from Mexico to the U.S.

“I don’t have time to do all of these announcements,” Trump joked Monday as he listed some of the other investments.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the planned announcement Monday.

___

Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Chris Megerian contributed to this report. Price reported from New York.

Last-minute problems forced a launch delay Monday for SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship, attempting a comeback following an explosion on the last test flight.

The countdown got down to the 40-second mark, but it was halted because of issues with the 403-foot (123-meter) rocket, the world’s largest and most powerful.

Starship was supposed to blast off from the southern tip of Texas with four mock satellites on board for a space-skimming test flight. If the problems can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt could come Tuesday, according to SpaceX.

The last Starship demo ended in an explosion over the Atlantic in January, with flaming debris streaming over the Turks and Caicos.

Starship has already been booked by NASA for astronaut moon landings later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk intends to use the mammoth rockets to settle Mars.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officials rushed to reschedule Mardi Gras celebrations and warned revelers against brining umbrellas and tents as powerful storms with a threat of tornadoes were expected to strike Louisiana and other parts of the South on Tuesday.

New Orleans moved up its two biggest Mardi Gras Day parades and cut down their routes to try to avoid the potentially destructive weather. Police were also expected to keep the hundreds of participants and dozens of floats moving quickly so they finished before winds were predicted to pick up, according to New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick.

The alarming forecast was one of the first big tests for the National Weather Service after hundreds of forecasters were fired last week as part of President Donald Trump’s moves to slash the size of the federal government. Former employees said the firing of meteorologists who make crucial local forecasts across the U.S. could put lives at risk.
Country faces a number of weather threats

The U.S. was facing multiple weather threats, including dust storms that brought near-zero visibility to parts of New Mexico and west Texas on Monday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue Dust Storm Warnings. “Widespread blowing dust” was expected Tuesday, said the weather service office covering Midland and Odessa, Texas.

The week’s strong weather system will bring “a threat of blizzard conditions, high winds, flash flooding, severe weather, dust storms, and critical to extreme fire weather conditions to the nation’s heartland,” according to a weather service update Monday.

On Tuesday, twisters, damaging winds and large hail were all possible as a strong storm system was set to move across the nation’s midsection into Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the federal Storm Prediction Center warned.

The bullseye for a heightened risk of severe weather was an area stretching from east Texas to Alabama that’s home to more than 7 million people. Cities under threat included Baton Rouge and Shreveport in Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Mobile, Alabama.
New Orleans braces for severe weather during Mardi Gras

The New Orleans area was also preparing for strong storms, though Fat Tuesday’s traditionally raucous annual rite of parades of floats and costumed merrymakers remained scheduled to hit the streets, with some changes still being worked out by authorities and leaders of “krewes” — social clubs that organize the parades.

Kirkpatrick ordered parade-goers to not bring umbrellas, tents or “anything that could fly in the wind and cause mayhem.” She warned that she may need to cancel the parades at the last minute if the weather gets worse.

“I hold that trump card in which I will not hesitate to cancel — I won’t do it lightly, but I will do it,” she said.

Two other parades that had been scheduled to roll through the city later on Tuesday with nearly 200 truck floats were postponed, Kirkpatrick said.

Just outside New Orleans in neighboring Jefferson Parish, officials canceled planned Mardi Gras Day parades due to anticipated high winds and thunderstorms.

“This is disappointing, but our top priority is ensuring the well-being of everyone in our community, and we must always prioritize safety above all else,” Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said in a statement.

Mardi Gras floats “could become unstable” and heavy winds could “blow down trees and power lines,” the National Weather Service warned, adding gusts of up to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected Tuesday afternoon.

In Pointe Coupee Parish, near Louisiana’s capital city of Baton Rouge, the incoming weather forced drastic changes to one of the oldest Mardi Gras celebrations in the state. The parade there was scheduled to roll without any bands, marching teams or dance groups — a staple of Carnival Season parades.

Officials also moved the parade start time up and urged residents to immediately remove all tents and trash after the parade ends “due to the dangers they can present during weather.”
Other cities with Mardi Gras parades watching forecasts

Elsewhere, large crowds were expected Tuesday for Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama. Police there said they were continuing to monitor the forecast and would let the public know if plans for the celebration changed.

Other cities hosting large Mardi Gras events included Biloxi, Mississippi, where an annual Mardi Gras parade was scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

In downtown Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle, organizers were planning a Big Easy-style Mardi Gras festival that included food trucks, dancing, live entertainment and a low country seafood boil.

_____

Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Freida Frisaro in Miami and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed.