SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Paige Meyer scored 26 point, Haleigh Timmer added 21 and Madison Mathiowetz had 20 and No. 25 South Dakota State continued its dominance in the Summit League with an 84-68 win over Oral Roberts on Sunday, the Jackrabbits’ third-straight title and 13th NCAA appearance.
The Jackrabbits have won 19 games in a row, 59-straight against league opponents and are 41-5 all-time in the Summit League tourney they have won 12 times since becoming eligible in 2009.
Top-seeded South Dakota State (29-3) won despite leading scorer Brooklyn Meyer (17.5 points a game) being held to 10 points, six in the fourth quarter. However, Meyer hauled down 15 rebounds and Mesa Byom had 13, both career highs. Paige Meyer had nine assists.
Taleyah Jones and Emily Robinson had 17 points apiece for the second-seeded Golden Eagles (24-8), who lost the regular-season matchups by five and 18 points. Jalei Oglesby and Ruthie Udoumoh both added 11. Oral Roberts was trying to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first in a dozen years.
The Jackrabbits hit 5 of 8 3-point attempts in the first quarter, two by Timmer who had 10 points, and took a 19-10 lead.
Makyra Tramble hit a 3-pointer early in the second quarter to start an 11-0 run to give the Golden Eagles their only lead at 23-21. Mathiowetz answered with a 3 and the Jackrabbits pulled away to lead 46-36 at the half.
Mathiowetz and Paige Meyer opened the third quarter with 3-pointers to push the lead to 16 but the Golden Eagles cut that to five. SDSU went about six minutes without a field goal but made 7 of 9 free throws to take a 65-55 lead into the fourth quarter.
(NEW YORK) -- A federal judge has blocked the removal of a Palestinian activist from the United States while weighing a petition challenging his arrest, court documents show.
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Columbia University over the weekend, despite having a green card, his attorney told ABC News, sparking an outcry from civil rights groups.
ICE agents arrested Khalil -- a leader in the Manhattan university's encampment movement -- on Saturday night, claiming that his student visa had been revoked, his attorney, Amy Greer, said in a statement to ABC News.
However, Khalil is in the United States on a green card and not on a student visa, Greer said Sunday. Despite informing agents about his legal status, ICE detained him, she said.
President Donald Trump claimed Khalil was a "Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student" and said this is the "first arrest of many to come" in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
"We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country -- never to return again," he added.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil is a former Columbia University graduate student and was arrested by ICE "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism."
"Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization," McLaughlin said in a statement Sunday night. "ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump's executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also shared an article about Khalil on Sunday night and posted on X, "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."
Baher Azmy, one of the lawyers representing Khalil, called his client's alleged alignment with Hamas "false and preposterous."
"So setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they're engaged in," Azmy told ABC News on Monday.
Greer said she is challenging Khalil's arrest, which occurred at his university residence.
"Overnight we filed a habeas corpus petition on Mahmoud's behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention," she said Sunday.
At one point during a phone call with agents, they hung up on Greer, a representative of her law firm told ABC News.
Greer said they initially did not know Khalil's whereabouts following his arrest. His wife, who is eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen, was unable to find him at an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was purportedly transferred, Greer said -- adding that he might have been transferred to Louisiana.
An attorney for Khalil confirmed to ABC News on Monday that he's currently being held at a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.
"ICE's arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government's open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza," the lawyer said. "The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, called for Khalil's release.
"The Department of Homeland Security's lawless decision to arrest him solely because of his peaceful anti-genocide activism represents a blatant attack on the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, immigration laws, and the very humanity of Palestinians," the group said in a statement on Monday. "We and other civil rights groups are in communication with Mahmoud's legal counsel. This fight is just starting."
Several hundred protesters massed Monday in lower Manhattan to demand his release, carrying signs that said "No political prisoners in the United States" and "Release Mahmoud Khalil."
"He was arrested for speaking out against genocide," said Marian Osman, one of the organizers. "We have a right to free speech. Political speech is protected speech in this country."
After Trump posted that Khalil would not be the last pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested, Osman pledged protesters would not be intimidated.
"We are just getting started," she said. "I don't think protesters should be scared. I think protesters should be upset and angry."
The arrest occurred just days after Trump took to social media threatening to defund universities that allowed "illegal protests" and claiming "agitators" will be sent back to their home countries.
"All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on [sic] the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter," Trump posted on Truth Social on March 4.
Columbia released the following statement on Sunday: "There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings."
"Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community," the statement continued.
(SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINCAN REPUBLIC) -- A University of Pittsburgh student who was reported missing after traveling to the Dominican Republic last week is believed to have died by drowning, officials confirmed to ABC News on Sunday.
The student has been identified as Sudiksha Konanki, a legal permanent resident of the United States and an Indian citizen. She was one of six female students traveling in Punta Cana, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.
Konanki and one of the other students were Loudoun County, Virginia, residents, the sheriff's office said.
Three Dominican officials involved in the investigation told ABC News that Konanki was walking on the beach with six people on March 5 before she is believed to have drowned in the ocean.
At some point, most of the group went back to the hotel during the night, but one person stayed with her on the beach, according to a Dominican Republic investigative police report.
She and this person went for a swim and were caught by a big wave, the police report said.
The last time Konanki was seen on the beach on security camera footage was around 4:15 a.m. on March 6, the Dominican Republic Public Ministry told ABC News.
The Public Ministry was first contacted by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic the next day, on March 7, the Ministry said.
Officials said the missing student’s friends with her close to the time of her disappearance have been questioned by police and have not been charged with anything.
Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(SEOUL and LONDON) -- North Korea fired "multiple" ballistic missiles on Monday, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, as U.S.-South Korea war games began nearby.
The missiles, which were "unidentified," were fired from the North's Hwanghae Province at about 1:50 p.m. local time, the South Korean military said. They were aimed inland, toward the West Sea.
The South Korean military "has increased surveillance and maintaining readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S.," the Joint Chiefs said.
The annual U.S.-South Korea joint exercises, which are known as "Freedom Shield," were scheduled to begin Monday and run through March 21, according to the U.S. Army.
The training alongside South Korean soldiers will include urban combat, field hospital operations, field artillery exercises, air assault training and air defenses, the Army said in a statement on Monday. The U.S. Marine Corps is also expected to take part in a joint assault exercise.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry described the planned exercises as "aggressive," with officials telling state media on Sunday that the "U.S. random exercise of strength will result in aggravated security crisis."
"This is a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point," the ministry said in a statement to the Korean Central New Agency on Sunday.
ABC News' Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
(LONDON) -- The U.S. is "just about" ready to lift its freeze on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, President Donald Trump said Sunday, as American and Ukrainian negotiators prepare for bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia intended to move toward a peace deal to end Russia's three-year-old invasion.
"Well, we just about have," Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked if he would consider resuming intelligence sharing. "We want to do anything we can to get Ukraine serious about getting something done," he added.
Trump's administration has embarked on a dramatic pivot away from the "ironclad" backing of Ukraine practiced by former President Joe Biden's administration.
Trump has falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war, tried to undermine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's legitimacy, sought to strong-arm Kyiv into a controversial minerals sharing deal and froze military aid and intelligence support in a bid to force Ukraine into making concessions to Russia.
Tuesday's talks in Jeddah are intended to revitalize bilateral relations following weeks of tense exchanges between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, which culminated in an explosive Oval Office confrontation between Trump, Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance.
The U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian team will be led by Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy's presidential office. The U.S. side is expecting Ukraine to show willingness to make peace, Trump suggested on Sunday.
"We'll be looking at a lot of things," he said. "We have big meetings coming up. As you know, it's Saudi Arabia that's going to include Russia. It'll be Ukraine. We'll see if we can get something done."
"I think everybody wants to see it get done," the president added. "We're going to make a lot of progress."
"I think they will sign the minerals deal," Trump said when asked about progress on the controversial agreement. "I want them to want peace." Trump claimed that Ukraine has not yet shown that willingness.
Trump avoided answering whether he would place sanctions or tariffs on Russia and pointed to White House officials' upcoming meetings in Saudi Arabia. The president also avoided giving a definitive answer when asked if the U.S. would resume aid to Ukraine if the minerals deal is signed.
Zelenskyy will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with the kingdom's crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.
"Tomorrow, we will continue working to bring peace closer -- there will be my visit to Saudi Arabia," the Ukrainian president wrote on social media Sunday. "Also, today, the meeting of our teams -- Ukraine and the United States -- in Saudi Arabia has been further prepared. We hope for results -- both in bringing peace closer and in continuing support."
On Monday morning, Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram, "Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first second of the war and we have always said that the only reason the war continues is Russia."
A source close to Zelenskyy confirmed to ABC News that Ukraine will propose a partial ceasefire in its talks with the U.S.. The partial ceasefire would apply to long-range air strikes and attacks at sea, the source said.
The timeframe for the truce remains unclear.
"We want to propose a partial ceasefire that can be monitored and then see how the Russians respond to determine the next steps," the source added.
The public U.S.-Ukraine break has prompted concern among European leaders, with leaders both rallying around Zelenskyy and urging him to repair his fraying relations with Trump. Officials in Russia appeared jubilant, openly suggesting that the Trump administration had aligned its views with the Kremlin's.
Trump and his top officials have said that both Ukraine and Russia will be expected to make concessions in pursuit of a peace deal to end Moscow's invasion, which itself is only the latest chapter in more than a decade of cross-border aggression. Trump last week suggested in a post to Truth Social that he was "strongly considering large-scale sanctions" and tariffs on Russia until a deal is reached, adding that Moscow "is absolutely 'pounding' Ukraine on the battlefield right now." Trump also told a joint session of Congress he had received "strong signals" that Russia is ready to make peace.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last week that the U.S.-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia are a "positive" development, though stressed there are unresolved "nuances."
"The question is who to negotiate with?" Peskov told reporters. Russia has repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as an illegitimate president, citing the delay to planned 2024 presidential elections in Ukraine necessitated by the imposition of martial law.
The Kremlin has also cited a September 2022 Ukrainian decree in which Zelenskyy declared negotiations with Putin "impossible," after Moscow claimed to have annexed four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions.
On Monday, Peskov told journalists that Russia's read on this week's meeting "is not important."
"What is important here is what the United States expects at various levels," he continued. "We have repeatedly heard statements that the U.S. expects the Ukrainians to demonstrate their desire for peace. That's probably what everybody is waiting for. Whether the members of the Zelenskyy regime really want peace or not. Of course, this is very important and it is necessary to decide."
Peskov also dismissed reports that U.S. and Russian officials would meet again in Saudi Arabia this week. "It is not true," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are continuing their long-range missile and drone strike campaigns. Deadly weekend strikes by Russia prompted condemnation from several European nations.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for example, wrote on X, "This is what happens when someone appeases barbarians. More bombs, more aggression, more victims."
Sunday night saw Russia launch 176 attack drones into Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force, of which 130 were shot down and 42 lost in flight without causing damage. The air force reported impacts in Kharkiv, Poltava and Kyiv regions.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it shot down nine Ukrainian drones overnight.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said drones attacked the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Samara Oblast. Kovalenko said the refinery has an annual capacity of 8.8 million tons of oil, putting it among the country's ten largest refineries.
Kovalenko said the plant produces a wide range of petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel and fuel oil, which are used by transport and military equipment. "For the Russian army, this refinery has strategic significance, as it ensures stable fuel supplies for military operations," he said.
The city of Novokuybyshevsk sits around 560 miles from Ukrainian-held territory. The refining facility there was attacked by drones twice in March 2024.
The governor of the Samara region confirmed reports of an attack.
"Tonight, the enemy made another attempt to attack our enterprises," wrote Vyacheslav Fedorishchev without specifying the target of the strike. "It was unsuccessful."
"Three drones were neutralized in Novokuybyshevsk," the governor added. "There were no fires or damages, everything is operating as usual."
ABC News' Kelsey Walsh, Joe Simonetti and Oleskiy Pshemyskiy contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) -- Democrats want to force President Donald Trump's administration to rehire veterans who were laid off as part of large-scale efforts by Trump and Elon Musk to reshape the federal government and its workforce, according to information exclusive to ABC News.
Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Andy Kim of New Jersey plan to introduce the Protect Veteran Jobs Act in the Senate on Monday. The bill would compel the Trump administration to reinstate veterans impacted by recent mass layoffs, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by ABC News.
It would also require the Trump administration to provide a quarterly report to Congress on the number of veterans removed from the federal workforce -- and the justification for their firing.
"Veterans who choose to continue their service to our country in the federal workforce deserve our utmost gratitude, but instead this Administration has kicked thousands of our heroes to the curb and left them without a paycheck," Duckworth said in a statement. "The message of our bill is simple: Give our heroes their jobs back. If Republicans really care about our Veterans, they should stop enabling Trump and Musk's chaos and support our legislation."
In the coming weeks of floor activity and ahead of government funding votes, Democrats hope to get Republicans on the record over layoffs impacting a reliably Republican -- and Trump-supporting -- group of voters.
The party also attempted to draw attention to the firings by inviting veterans who lost their government jobs to Trump's joint address to Congress on March 3.
Veterans make up roughly 30% of the federal workforce of more than 2 million civilian government employees, according to September data from the Office of Personnel Management.
Roughly 75,000 federal workers have accepted offers for deferred buyouts, and another roughly 20,000 government employees have been fired in the first months of Trump's second term.
The Trump administration has not said how many veterans have been impacted by the cuts, though Democrats have estimated that several thousand veterans have been fired across the administration.
OPM has since directed some agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to rehire veteran workers and to exempt veterans and military spouses from other workforce policy changes.
But many veterans have still lost their jobs in recent weeks.
"You spend 10 years trying to defend your country in terms of honesty, integrity and justice, and then you come back and get copy-and-pasted the same email as 10,000 other people about your performance," Andrew Lennox, a fired Department of Veterans Affairs worker who served as a Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, told ABC News.
Lennox was one of the veterans who attended Trump's joint address to Congress last week. He was a guest of Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who delivered the Democratic rebuttal to the speech.
The Department of Veterans Affairs also plans to cut up to 80,000 workers from the agency, which has drawn some criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
Democratic Rep. Derek Tran of California has introduced similar legislation in the House.
The Robert Pattinson sci-fi flick Mickey 17 took the number one spot at the box office this weekend – but it didn’t exactly turn a profit.
Variety reports the Warner Bros. film, director Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning Parasite, had a budget of $118 million but brought in just $19.1 million in its debut weekend.
It was a weak box office overall for new releases, with the drama Rule Breakers coming in ninth place with $1.6 million and the animated Night of the Zoopocalypse in tenth with just over $1 million. It was a good weekend for recent best picture winner Anora, though, which saw one of its biggest weekend grosses to date with $1.86 million for a seventh place finish.
1. Mickey 17 – $19.1 million 2. Captain America: Brave New World – $8.5 million 3. Last Breath – $4.2 million 4. The Monkey – $3.9 million 5. Paddington in Peru – $3.85 million 6. Dog Man – $3.5 million 7. Anora – $1.86 million 8. Mufasa: the Lion King - $1.7 million 9. Rule Breakers – $1.6 million 10. Night of the Zoopocalypse – $1.1 million
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — The cries of Liliana Olivero watching from Venezuela through a cellphone pierced through the somber Christian music and gusts of wind as her son’s casket was lowered into the ground.
Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Olivares died at 24, drowning in the Rio Grande not far from where he was buried Thursday at the Maverick County Cemetery in Eagle Pass, a Texas border town of about 30,000 people. About 10 people attended the service, which was streamed live to his parents in Venezuela.
It was the first funeral service for a migrant by Border Vigil, a human rights organization on the U.S.-Mexico border, one of the world’s deadliest.
“Today we’re trying to bring back some of that humanity not just by giving his name but also by having his photo and having his family in the service,” said Amerika Garcia Grewal with Border Vigil, which is supported by Frontera Federation.
It came a day after Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Eagle Pass, which became a flashpoint between the Biden administration and Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, over who polices the border and how. The Trump administration and Abbott are closely aligned on border policy.
Border Vigil started in 2023 amid an increase in border crossings that led to many migrant deaths. The International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project has tallied 6,438 dead and missing on the U.S.-Mexico border since 2014.
The U.S. Border Patrol’s published data goes through the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2022, when 895 bodies were discovered by its own agents and other government agencies.
Garcia Olivares’ parents last saw their son alive in a video shared by a friend showing him crouched in a corner of a fast-moving train heading to Mexico’s northern border in 2023.
Victor Garcia recalled their last conversation: “Dad, I’m going to make it, Dad. Don’t worry because you won’t be in need anymore. I’ll buy Mom a house and I’ll help improve your business.”
He described his son as brave and ambitious, having learned to become a barber at 14. He encouraged his son to go to college, but he decided to seek a life in the United States. His mother never had a chance to say goodbye. Not until Thursday.
The ceremony “was very sentimental, sad, but at the same time we are able to breathe a sigh of relief,” the father said.
Garcia Olivares’ body was swept up in the river and identified through Operation ID, an academic organization that partners with state, federal and international agencies. Although his family preferred to have him buried back home, they could not afford the nearly $9,000 cost.
A church volunteer built the white pine paneled coffin. As the ceremony closed, a backhoe shoveled dirt into the grave and a placard was placed by a simple, white cross near two dozen similar crosses laying nearby in a corner lot of the cemetery near a maintenance shed.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of the organization that supports Border Vigil. It is Frontera Federation, not Fronteras Fund.
ENNIS, Texas (AP) — One man died and three of his family members were injured when their RV flipped over several times at the Texas Motorplex during a strong thunderstorm that caused widespread damage in an area about 25 minutes south of Dallas on Saturday.
Strong winds of up to 90 mph (145 kph) ripped the roof off a Days Inn along Interstate 45, damaged homes throughout Ellis County and toppled at least seven semitractor-trailer trucks on Interstate 35. The strong storms also knocked out power to nearly 20,000 people, but didn’t generate any tornadoes. Fewer than 300 customers remained without power Sunday evening, but service was expected to be restored by the end of the day. Some quarter-sized hail also fell in the area.
Becky Hogle, who works the front desk at the damaged hotel, told the Dallas Morning News that she and the owner moved quickly to evacuate everyone after the storm hit and opened up many of the second-floor rooms to the sky.
“So I pulled my hair up in a scrunchie, ran over and we started knocking on doors telling people they had to vacate,” she said Sunday.
The 42-year-old man who died was T.J. Bailey from Midlothian, Texas. His wife and two sons were inside an RV that rolled over at the racetrack, Ellis County Justice of the Peace Chris Macon told The Dallas Morning News. Bailey’s family members were treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The boys were released, but their mother remained under observation at the hospital Sunday.
Macon said he’d never seen such strong and sustained winds in his lifetime of living in Ellis County.
“I can honestly say, I’ve known the wind to blow, but never like that for that long of a period of time,” he said.
Ennis Mayor Kameron Raburn said in a statement Saturday that the city is beginning to pick up debris and work on recovering from the storm.
“The safety of our residents is our top priority,” Roburn said.
Oncor, the power company, said some of the power restoration work was slowed by fallen trees and other debris that had to be cleared by bulldozers before the utility’s workers could get into the area.
The nearby city of Waxahachie had to cancel the weekend events for its Tulipalooza festival because of the storm damage.
GALVESTON – The Houston Chronicle reports the Battleship Texas, a staple Houston-area tourist attraction and the last still-floating ship to serve in both World Wars, has finally found a home. Tony Gregory, president and CEO of the Battleship Texas Foundation, said the warship will likely arrive at its permanent home at Galveston Island’s Pier 15 sometime between late fall 2025 to early 2026. Pier 15 is located on the east side of the island near the crossing to Bolivar Peninsula. “We have a tentative timeline of sometime around Fall 2025, but it might not be until 2026 that people actually get the opportunity to purchase tickets and climb aboard,” Gregory said.
HONDO – The Washington Post reports that Jaylee Williams needed to find somewhere to deliver her son. The 19-year-old knew more about barrel racing on her horse Bet-n-pep than the complicated metrics of who takes what health insurance. But relief for Williams and her boyfriend, Xander Lopez, came when they realized Medina Regional Hospital — just 15 minutes from their home — accepted Medicaid, the federal-state program that covers medical costs for lower-income Americans. Provider groups an hour away in San Antonio had refused to take the insurance, she recalled while cradling little Ryker. “You never know when something could happen,” Williams said, with Lopez adding, “I have no idea where we would have gone” without Medina Regional Hospital. But the lifeline that the 25-bed critical-access hospital offered to Williams and Lopez could disappear in Hondo and other communities like it.
Rural hospitals across the United States fear massive Medicaid cuts favored by the Republican Party could decimate maternity services or shutter already struggling medical facilities in communities that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump. Nearly half of all rural hospitals nationwide operate at a deficit, with Medicaid barely keeping them afloat. Already, almost 200 rural hospitals have closed in the past two decades, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rural hospital leaders in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas who spoke to The Washington Post warned that the enormous cuts congressional Republicans are weighing could further destroy limited health-care access in rural America. Proposals to slash up to $880 billion over 10 years — which is expected to be accomplished largely by scaling back on Medicaid — would also impact those who do not rely on the program but do rely on the medical facilities that are financially dependent on the program’s reimbursements.
ECTOR COUNTY – The Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating a weekend crash that left two people dead in Ector County, including one man from Longview, according to our news partners at KETK. According to a crash report, around 11:37 p.m. on March 8, troopers responded to a two-vehicle crash near Goldenrod Drive and Alfalfa Avenue. Investigators said the driver of a Chevrolet Silverado, identified as Nicholas Matthew Gonzalez, 34 of Miles, was traveling westbound on Goldenrod while the driver of a Dodge Ram, identified as Juan Jesus Vasquez, 42 of Longview, was traveling eastbound on Goldenrod. Continue reading Longview man killed in Ector County crash
LAREDO – KSAT reports that a private prison company has signed an agreement to reopen an immigrant detention facility in Texas that previously held families with children for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the business said Wednesday. Nashville-based CoreCivic announced the contract with ICE and the city of Dilley regarding the 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center, located about 85 miles (135 kilometers) north of Laredo and the Mexico border. The center was used during the administration of President Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s first presidency. But President Joe Biden phased out family detention in 2021, and CoreCivic said the facility was idled in 2024. “We do acknowledge that we anticipate housing families” at Dilley, CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin told The Associated Press.
CoreCivic said in a statement that the facility “was purpose-built for ICE in 2014 to provide an appropriate setting for a family population.” The new contract runs through at least March 2030. ICE officials did not immediately respond to messages seeking information about who will be held at Dilley and how soon. The agency — which mostly detains immigrants at privately operated detention facilities, its own processing centers and local prisons and jails — entered this year with zero facilities geared toward families, who last year accounted for about one-third of arrivals on the southern border. The Trump administration has expanded the detention of migrants to military bases including Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba, via flights out of Army installations at El Paso, Texas, as it promises to ramp up mass deportations.
AUSTIN – The Dallas Observer reports Texas is one of 13 states that does not require air conditioning in its state prisons, but a new bill that would enforce humane treatment for the incarcerated has been filed for this legislative session. House Bill 2997, filed by Rep. John Bryant, a Democrat from Dallas County, would require Texas to keep prisons between 65 and 85 degrees. A similar bill failed to pass the Senate last session, with critics claiming that installing HVAC systems would be too costly. The previous bill asked the state for half a billion dollars to install and repair air conditioning units within prisons. Two-thirds of state prisons do not have air conditioning, and the temperatures within those prisons can easily exceed 100 degrees. A 2022 study from Texas A&M University found that one had topped out at 149 degrees. When the heat index is above 125 degrees, there is an extreme risk of heat stroke.
“We have the resources. We just seem to not have the compassion to do it,” a former state representative, Carl Sherman from DeSoto, said during a press conference after last year’s bill failed at the Senate. The bill comes as a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice moves through the legal system. The lawsuit was originally filed by Texas inmate Bernie Tiede. His criminal case has caught media attention and was even the inspiration for an eponymous film directed by Austin filmmaker, Richard Linklater. Tiede, convicted of murder in 1999, has been considered a model prisoner and now stands at the forefront of this branch of criminal justice reform. Now he has been joined by a group of criminal justice activist organizations that say the lack of proper temperature regulation creates inhumane conditions. “If cooking someone to death does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment, then nothing does,” the complaint said. Prison conditions don’t just affect the incarcerated, the guards and administrators working the prisons are also subject to the same conditions. “[Guards are] in the same conditions for maybe 16 hours that someone who’s incarcerated is in. It’s not fair for either one, by the way,” Andy Potter, founder of One Voice United, an advocacy group for correctional officers, said to the Observer. Aside from the death and debilitation that comes from prolonged exposure to high temperatures, an increase in heat has been linked to interpersonal violence, further perpetuating the tensions that already exist within prisons. The bill from Bryant is modeled after an existing rule within the Texas Administration Code that requires county jails to keep their facilities between 65 and 85 degrees. The law has stood since 1994. A night’s rest on the metal cot of the drunk tank is hospitable compared to the life-threatening conditions of a summer weekend spent in solitary.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on Sunday that he took issue with the Democratic response in the chamber to President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging address to Congress last week.
"I think the lack of a coordinated response in the State of the Union was a mistake, and frankly, it took the focus off of where it should have been, which is on the fact that the president spoke for an hour and 40 minutes and had nothing to say about what he would do to bring down costs for American families that were watching that lengthy address sitting at the kitchen table, hoping that he would offer something to help them afford a new home or pay the rent to afford health care or child care," Schiff said on “This Week."
Democratic lawmakers participated in various protests during Trump’s speech. Some female members of Congress wore hot pink to show resistance. Other Democratic members held signs that called out Elon Musk. Some decided to boycott the speech or leave early.
Schiff refuted Democratic strategist James Carville's recent proposal in a New York Times op-ed that Democrats should “roll over and play dead” and wait for Republicans "to crumble beneath their own weight," with the California senator instead saying that the right approach is focusing on "the economic well-being of Americans."
"We need to have our own broad, bold agenda ... to answer really the central question which is, if you're working hard in America, can you still earn a good living?" said Schiff. "We need to be advancing policies and making the arguments about what we have to offer, not simply standing back and letting them collapse of our own corrupt weight. We need to effectively use litigation as we are. We need to effectively use communication to talk to new people in new ways as we are."
Schiff also expressed frustration and disapproval of Trump’s whiplash tariff agenda.
Trump on Tuesday imposed a 25% tariff on goods coming from Canada or Mexico. The following day, he issued a one-month delay for auto parts. By Friday, Trump signed an executive order that extended the delay to all products under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, USMCA, which is a free trade agreement signed during Trump’s first term. Roughly half of Mexican imports fall under USMCA and about 38% of imports from Canada fall under the agreement.
Schiff said that Democrats have to start responding to Trump’s tariffs and economic policies more effectively.
"This is deeply destructive, what they're doing," he said. "We need to make that case to the American people, because they're going to feel it. But, you know, taking our eye off the ball, I think, is very dangerous, and so let's be focused on what matters most to Americans. Let's point out all the destructive harms they're doing with you know, the cutting of services, the slashing of Medicaid, and what that's going to mean for increased health costs and less access for people."
