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LA PRYOR (AP) – U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins watched sterile flies being released to fight the New World screwworm on Thursday and visited the Texas ranch where one of the first cases of the pest was detected. The screwworm could devastate the nation’s cattle industry.

Later, she repeated her assertion that former President Joe Biden’s administration is responsible for the parasite’s return to the U.S. six decades after it was eradicated. Democratic leaders say cuts to the nation’s agriculture agency under President Donald Trump are to blame.

Screwworms are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar international problem, but can be contained if ranchers are vigilant, watch their herds and other wildlife, and quickly treat any infestations, Rollins said. She pointed to the calf where screwworms were found six days earlier in a wound where its umbilical cord had been attached.

“He couldn’t be happier. He’s bouncing around the pasture,” Rollins said.

Screwworms are flies that lay their eggs in the wounds of warm-blooded animals and feed on living flesh rather than dead tissues. Scientists say releasing sterile flies to mate with females is the most effective way to control the population, a strategy that has worked for decades. A warming planet is complicating efforts by giving screwworms, which thrive in hot, humid weather, more places to spread.

Billion-dollar response planned to fight screwworms

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is preparing an all-out assault on the screwworm, which had been contained in the narrow isthmus of Panama for decades.

No matter the cause, driving screwworms back south and keeping them out of the U.S. will be expensive. The USDA estimated it would spend over $1 billion on efforts to save cattle herds and other livestock.

About $750 million will go toward building and operating a plant capable of producing up to 300 million sterile flies a week. The technique has been used for decades, as female screwworms mate just once, and if they choose a sterile mate, their eggs don’t hatch, and the fly population dwindles.

The goal is to protect the U.S. cattle industry. Experts think the parasite shouldn’t cause an immediate increase in near-record-high beef prices as long as it doesn’t turn into an outbreak and large groups of cattle die. Screwworms don’t affect food safety.

The parasite has already disrupted the Mexican beef industry. The U.S. closed its southern ports to Mexican livestock last summer.

Mexico has had more than 28,000 cases of screwworms since the flies returned two years ago, mostly confined to its southern states. The Mexican government stopped the importation of almost all live animals from the U.S. after screwworms were discovered here.

Scientists aren’t sure how screwworms emerged again

The U.S. had been almost entirely rid of screwworms for 60 years, with scientists in North and Central America eventually driving it down to the containment zone in Panama. But in 2023, the flies emerged and began heading back north.

Experts say screwworms are here to stay at least for this summer. Seven cases have already been detected in Texas and New Mexico. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone goes up around every place a case is found.

As they work toward a solution, scientists say they aren’t sure exactly what led to screwworms leaving the area in Panama where they were boxed in.

“I don’t have the answer to that one, and I don’t know if anyone does. It doesn’t help us to speculate,” said Jonathan Cammack, a professor of livestock entomology and parasitology at Oklahoma State University.

The key now is to ramp up the sterile fly program and get international cooperation to get the pests back down to Panama, he said.

Climate change is also helping drive the spread of screwworms, said Lee Haines, an associate research professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame.

“The fly is a creature of warmth as its entire life cycle, from egg to adult, can complete in as little as three weeks under tropical conditions,” Haines said.

Even Canada has temporarily stopped importing cattle, horses or other livestock from Texas. The parasites prefer humid areas where temperatures are at least 77 F (25 C), and those days are increasing further north.

Democrats question cuts; Republicans blame immigration

As Rollins moves quickly to implement a billion-dollar response to the screwworm outbreak, she has also blamed the Biden administration, noting that it was in office as the parasite began moving north again.

She said without showing any evidence the flies were with animals that followed immigrants north as well as hitching rides with cattle and other animals being sold by Mexican cartels outside of regular markets.

“People moving north to America, bringing their livestock with them, the Mexican cartels with the illicit cattle traffic, we knew it was coming,” Rollins told the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.

Nearly a dozen Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to Rollins this week questioning whether job losses at the USDA have hurt food inspections and livestock safety programs.

Nearly 20% of the counties in the U.S. that started 2025 with at least one employee from the federal Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service ended the year with none, the letter said.

Rollins said she has moved over 100 USDA employees into the screwworm response. She said it has been one of her top priorities since Trump picked her to lead the USDA.

But Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu of California said blaming Biden is shortsighted and again shows the Trump administration creates problems through reckless spending cuts.

“The life cycle of a screwworm is about 14 to 54 days, depending on temperature and humidity. The Trump administration has been in office for over 500 days,” Lieu said earlier this week. “This is on the Trump administration. They need to own up to it, and they need to apologize.”

POLK COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — The discovery of an indoor marijuana farm in Polk County has led to the arrest of a man, and several others to follow, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday.

While conducting a search warrant at a Livingston residence off of FM 943 on Wednesday, investigators located a “sophisticated indoor marijuana grow operation” on the property. Investigators were able to recover over 50 but less than 2,000 pounds of marijuana from the farm, amounting to an estimated worth of $100,000.

At the home, one resident was identified as Alexander Vega, who admitted to growing the marijuana. He was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, a second-degree felony, the sheriff’s office said. Currently at the Polk County Jail, his bond has been set at $100,000.

Several other names connected to the farm were discovered during the investigation, and more suspects may be charged in the future.

“Due to the potential risks associated with chemicals and materials commonly used in indoor marijuana grow operations, members of the State’s Methamphetamine Initiative Group (MIG), a Houston HIDTA initiative, responded to assist with the removal of the marijuana plants and to help identify chemicals located on the property,” the sheriff’s office said.

As for the land, residences and two vehicles, the sheriff’s office looks to seek seizure through forfeiture proceedings.

“This investigation is another example of the dedication and persistence of our Narcotics Division and our law enforcement partners. Indoor grow operations are not simple marijuana cases,” Sheriff Byron Lyons said. “These operations can involve large amounts of drugs, dangerous chemicals, electrical hazards, and organized criminal activity. Our office will continue to aggressively investigate narcotics trafficking in Polk County and hold those responsible accountable.”

LUFKIN — A man is in custody after a shots-fired call escalated into an hours-long standoff at a home in the 500 block of Hemlock Street, according to Lufkin police. A’Mario Gerbrekidan, 34, is charged with possession of body armor by a felon, felony possession of a controlled substance, possession of controlled substance, and an illegal weapon offense, according Police Chief Travis Brazil.

The serial number had been removed from the weapon, police said. Officers responded to the call at 5:30 a.m. Thursday to a report of shots fired. When officers heard a gunshot, that is when Gerbrekidan barricaded himself in the home. Lufkin SWAT team was called to assist, and began negotiations.

“Extensive negotiations were attempted, but were unsuccessful,” Brazil said.

Several gas canisters were deployed into the home, after several hours of failed negotiations. Gerbrekidan finally exited the residence, and surrendered without injury to himself or law enforcement, according to police. The SWAT team was assisted by the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Highway Patrol, and Texas Rangers.

“The Lufkin Police Department took this situation slow and methodical,” Brazil said. “Every step in these situations has to be well thought through to ensure the safety of citizens, officers and the suspects.

“Loss of life is never the answer, and we want to avoid that outcome if at all possible,” he said. “The officers of the Lufkin Police Department train for these situations, and it definitely paid off today.”

COLLIN COUNTY (ABC NEWS) – Karmelo Anthony, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday. In a one-page document filed with the court in Collin County, Texas, Anthony said he could not afford an attorney for the appeal and asked the court to appoint one.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice also released a new photo of Anthony, 19, in which he’s seen sporting a shaven head and wearing a sleeveless tunic.

He was transferred to the Wallace Pack Unit, a prison near Navasota, just outside of Houston, according to Texas officials, where he will begin his 35-year imprisonment sentence, as he is now in state custody.

Anthony was found guilty of murder over the fatal stabbing of Metcalf, another teen, at a high school track meet last year.

The deadly stabbing occurred at a Frisco Independent School District stadium on April 2, 2025, during a track and field competition involving multiple schools in the district.

Police said Metcalf, an 11th grader at Frisco Memorial High School, was stabbed during an altercation under his school’s tent in the stadium bleachers.

Witnesses told officers that the two got into an argument over Anthony, a then-17-year-old student at Frisco Centennial High School, being under Metcalf’s school tent during the rainy track meet, according to the arrest report.

Multiple current and former students recounted the incident during the trial. One witness testified that Anthony was asked to leave the tent about 15 times. Some witnesses recalled Anthony saying, “Touch me and see what happens,” during the altercation. Another witness quoted Metcalf as telling Anthony, “I’m not going to fight you.”

Witnesses recounted that Metcalf shoved or nudged Anthony, who was sitting on the bleachers, before Anthony stabbed him with a pocket knife. The blade perforated Metcalf’s right ventricle, and he was pronounced dead after being transported to an area hospital.

Prosecutors called the stabbing “senseless” and “plain and simple murder,” while the defense argued that Anthony acted in self-defense.

The jury began deliberating midday Tuesday before reaching the guilty murder verdict in three hours, according to a court spokesperson. The jurors also could have considered manslaughter, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years.

The same jury reached a decision on the sentence after several more hours of deliberation on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — A Texas couple was sentenced to 40 years each in prison for running a fraudulent chain-referral pyramid scheme, following their convictions by a jury on conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges in January 2026. The sentencing was handed down Tuesday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“At the peak of the pandemic, LaShonda and Marlon Moore launched an investment fraud scheme and cheated struggling Americans out of $30 million,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This fraud scheme exploited people out of their hard-earned money at a time when they needed it most. Opportunistic fraudsters like the Moores belong in prison.”

“The Moores’ get rich quick scheme has earned them a well-deserved stay in federal prison,” said U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs for the Eastern District of Texas. “Playing games with other peoples’ money while promising unrealistic returns is stealing and will be prosecuted and punished.”

“The harm caused by greed-driven, deceptive investments promising returns too good to be true cannot be overstated,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group. “The mission of the USPIS continues, to aggressively investigate such schemes and hold fraudsters fully accountable.”

“Those who exploit uncertainty and hardship for personal profit undermine the safety and security of our communities,” said Special Agent in Charge Christina Foley of the U.S. Secret Service Dallas Field Office. “The Moores took advantage of trust and hope during a time of national crisis, causing significant harm to thousands of victims. Today’s sentencing sends a clear message: the Secret Service remains steadfast in our mission to investigate and disrupt these schemes, and those who prey on vulnerable communities for personal gain will be held fully accountable.”

“The Moores used a polished image and a reality TV appearance to build trust, but behind the scenes, they orchestrated a deceptive pyramid scheme built on fake ‘playing boards’ and false promises of 800% returns,” said Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) Dallas Field Office. “This scheme deliberately targeted the African American community, exploiting cultural trust and community ties. These sentences make it clear: if you abuse trust and exploit communities, you will face justice.”

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, LaShonda Moore, 38, and Marlon Moore, 39, of Frisco, Texas, co-founded and ran “Blessings in No Time,” known as “BINT,” an illegal chain-referral pyramid scheme that targeted victims during the COVID?19 pandemic from June 2020 to June 2021. BINT targeted and recruited victims with false and misleading promises through weekly live-stream video broadcasts to thousands of participants across the United States during the COVID-19 shutdown. Victims were falsely promised that they would earn 800% returns on each $1,400 investment and were guaranteed a refund if they were unsatisfied. The Moores falsely held out BINT as a way for people to help their own community by paying “blessings” of at least $1,400 to participants who had already joined. The Moores falsely promised that new participants’ “blessing” payments would be paid back eight-fold within a few weeks. BINT was falsely presented as an altruistic invitation-only community to help others during the economic downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The defendants structured BINT to operate on “playing boards” that had positions for participants on four levels: eight Fires, four Winds, two Earths, and one Water. Once eight new participants were recruited to fill all eight Fire positions on the playing board, each Fire was directed to “bless” or pay at least $1,400 to the participant in the Water position. A Water participant then received eight payments totaling more than $11,000. After a Water participant received his or her payment, other participants at lower levels would move up one level on the playing board and then be required to recruit new participants into the Fire positions to perpetuate the scheme. To profit from the investment scheme, the defendants placed themselves in positions on the playing boards so that they received many of the ultimate payments, and they otherwise diverted substantial money to themselves that was paid by the participants. The defendants’ pyramid scheme victimized more than 10,000 people across the country and inflicted more than $30 million in victim losses.

USPIS, USSS, and IRS-CI investigated the case.

(NEW YORK) — The detection of New World screwworm in cattle does not pose a risk to beef consumers, and humans are unlikely to become infected by the parasite themselves, experts told ABC News.

There have been a total of six cases of New World screwworm (NWS) detected among animals in the U.S. since the beginning of the month — in four cattle, one goat and a dog, according to the latest update from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The goat was newly confirmed as the latest case to be infested with New World screwworm, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a press conference Monday.

The screwworm likely migrated from Mexico and Central America, Ben Weinheimer, president and CEO of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, told ABC News. The U.S. closed the border to Mexican cattle coming into the country in 2024 as a result of the screwworm outbreak in the region, Derrell Peele, a livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University, told ABC News.

Officials continue to investigate the case of the dog that they believe likely may have been infected in Mexico, Rollins said. The screwworm typically spreads by transport of either livestock or pets, Peele said.

The screwworm does not currently present a food safety issue, Rollins said, adding that there is “no need to panic.” A screwworm infection does not affect the meat, Peele said.

“These developments obviously represent a serious threat to our livestock and wildlife, but they haven’t caught us off guard,” Rollins said. “We have been tracking this pest for a long time, and we have fought before, and we will do so again.”

Americans can continue to feel confident about consuming beef safely, Dustin Pendell, a professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University and director of the Collaborating Center for the Economics of Animal Health, told ABC News.

The outbreak marks the first time the screwworm has been detected in the U.S. in decades. The USDA officially declared the screwworm eradicated from the U.S. in 1966 and successfully eliminated a small outbreak in the Florida Keys in 2017, which occurred primarily among endangered Key deer.

Screwworms infestations begin when a female fly lays eggs on open wounds or other parts of the body in live-warm-blooded animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The screwworm is “very treatable” if caught early, which allows the animals to be minimally impacted, Weinheimer said.

The USDA uses the sterile insect technique to treat for screwworm. The highly effective treatment involves sterilizing screwworm pupae — the immobile stage of the screwworm before metamorphosis — by exposing them to gamma radiation and then releasing them into the wild to mate with fertile females. The females then lay unfertilized eggs that never hatch, ending the reproductive cycle.

Millions of sterile flies have already been released in the affected area, USDA officials said.

State officials also apply containment protocols, including establishing quarantine zones, in order to contain infestations, Weinheimer said.

“You’ve seen this huge surge in response by the federal and state officials to stay on top of it as much as possible,” Weinheimer said.

Construction of a new sterile fly production facility is underway at Moore Air Base in Texas and is expected to be completed by November 2027, Rollins said. Once completed, along with other facilities, an estimated 500 million sterile flies will be released on a weekly basis.

Screwworms are actually a fly larva that burrows into and eats living flesh, unlike regular maggots that only feed on dead and decaying matter, according to the CDC.

Symptoms in animals could include a wound that has not healed or a wound that smells foul, Ann Hohenhaus, senior veterinarian and director of pet health information at Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, told ABC News last week. White larva may also be visible within the skin lesions, Hohenhaus said.

Infected cattle may not feel well and may stop producing milk and gaining weight, Hohenhaus said. The parasite can also infect a herd quickly if treatment does not begin early enough, she added.

Infection in humans is not common, Hohenhaus said.

People who have open wounds or small breaks in the skin — such as a scratch, insect bite or recent surgery scar — could be at increased risk of screwworm infection if they are in areas where the flies are present, according to the CDC.

Those who have open or unhealed wounds should see a physician should they believe they were exposed to the parasite, Hohenhaus said.

The outbreak is not expected to cause beef prices — which are already at an all-time high — to increase, the experts said.

The current drought conditions in the U.S. is making it difficult to expand herds because there isn’t enough grass available to feed on, Pendell said, adding that hay and other supplemental feeds increase costs even more.

In addition, geopolitical issues, such as the war in Iran, are causing fertilizer and fuel costs to increase, William Secor, a livestock economist at the University of Georgia, told ABC News.

“Cattle prices are going to continue to be high for quite a while because of these issues,” Pendell said.

However, the costs from the screwworm will be absorbed by producers, and consumers will likely not see any further price increases from the outbreak alone, Secor said.

ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration is once again bypassing federal environmental laws to speed up work on border barriers and related infrastructure in the Big Bend region of West Texas, this time for a project in and around the region’s namesake national and state parks.

According to a preliminary federal notice released Monday, the latest regulatory waiver will apply to more than 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in the region, from near the Closed Canyon trail in Big Bend Ranch State Park through the entirety of Big Bend National Park and into remote parts of southeastern Brewster County.

In the notice, Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin wrote that the administration is bypassing a wide range of laws “to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads” along the southern border.

While U.S. Customs and Border Protection continues to insist it will not build a 30-foot-tall steel border wall in either the state or national park, the agency’s current plans call for a mix of vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and patrol road upgrades in the parks as part of a project dubbed “Big Bend 4.” A CBP spokesperson confirmed that the latest waiver is intended for that project.

This week’s waiver comes after six former superintendents of Big Bend National Park penned a letter to Mullin urging him to not take such a step.

“This is devastating news, giving CBP unfettered authority to do anything they want within the national park,” said Bob Krumenaker, the park’s most recent former superintendent who now chairs the Keep Big Bend Wild advocacy group .

Technically, this latest regulatory waiver isn’t new: It’s a revision of a similar one issued in May for a different stretch of the border.

In Monday’s notice, Mullin wrote that last month’s filing – which initially applied to part of the Rio Grande east of Big Bend National Park – contained an “incorrect” description of the area covered by the waiver. The new filing contains updated GPS coordinates, changing the area of the border where federal laws will be bypassed.

The stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border covered by the Trump administration’s latest regulatory waiver for border security infrastructure is located between these two points on the map, according to GPS coordinates in a preliminary federal notice released Monday.

Park supporters have been particularly concerned about the potential for new road building along the Rio Grande, which Krumenaker said in a statement advocates will “continue to do everything possible to deter.”

“Their utter disregard for the will of the people, the taxpayers’ money, the actual data showing minimal numbers of border crossings inside the park, and the values that Texans and all Americans hold dear as represented by the National Parks leave us without sufficient words to express,” he said.

In a statement, a CBP spokesperson said the agency is coordinating with the National Park Service, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and other agencies.

“While there are priorities for new border wall and detection technology in (the Border Patrol’s) Big Bend Sector, the combination of barriers, roads, and technology (cameras, infrared illuminators, and other detection technology) in the areas adjacent to the Big Bend National Park and State Park are still in the planning stages, while CBP focuses on other higher priority locations,” the agency said.

The latest waiver will allow CBP to ignore a wide range of federal laws as it moves to install or upgrade a mix of surveillance technology, vehicle barriers and patrol roads in the parks, as the agency’s latest map of the Big Bend 4 project calls for.

“These horrific plans are an affront to the millions of Americans who treasure Big Bend,” Laiken Jordahl, an advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Politicians who’ve never set foot here are signing a death warrant for this wild and beautiful place.”

The Center noted that the latest waiver notice, as written, allows for the installation of new border fencing, barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors.

The latest development comes as Customs and Border Protection is gearing up to begin construction on an actual 30-foot steel border wall through other parts of the Big Bend region outside the parks within weeks.

Amid months of shifting plans and public confusion about what exactly the administration is seeking to build in the region, anti-wall advocates have continued to sound the alarm about the physical wall plan, saying the approximately 175-mile border wall through Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties is still a threat.

Jordahl’s group, along with West Texas residents, has already sued the Trump administration over an earlier federal regulatory waiver intended to speed up the steel border wall. He said the Center for Biological Diversity will fight the new waiver “with everything we’ve got.”

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This story was originally published by Marfa Public Radio and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Environmental groups on Wednesday sued attempting to stop the Trump administration from giving SpaceX more than 700 acres (280 hectares) of wildlife refuge in Texas, claiming it would worsen ecological risks to a Gulf Coast region already transformed by billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket operations.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this month approved moving forward with the deal with SpaceX, which would surrender 683 acres (276 hectares) the company owns in exchange for federal land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The 103,000-acre (41,700-hectare) refuge spans four counties along the Texas border and is home to animal habitats and historical landmarks.

Maps show the land SpaceX would acquire would be closer to the company’s launchpad near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The exchange would be the first time the U.S. government has swapped land in the area with SpaceX, said Laiken Jordahl, a spokesperson with the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit alongside other opponents.

The lawsuit asks a federal court in Washington to halt the exchange, which has worried SpaceX opponents in the area who have long criticized the company’s expanding footprint over lost access to beaches and concerns over exploding rockets.

“Rather than exercising its enforcement authority to protect the Refuge from SpaceX’s activities and to require mitigation to address the harm SpaceX has caused, the Service seeks to give SpaceX over 700 acres within the Refuge,” states the lawsuit, which was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups.

A spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.

Earlier this month, the agency issued a final environmental assessment report that determined the exchange would cause no significant impact to the area. The report said the federal government believed the acquisition would represent a “net conservation benefit” and provide “substantial long-term conservation value and improving landscape-scale habitat connectivity across refuges in South Texas.”

SpaceX did not return an email seeking comment.

The lawsuit was filed as the company is preparing to go public, putting Musk on the path to become the world’s first trillionaire.

The space exploration company first broke ground in Texas more than a decade ago and has expanded rapidly, so much that SpaceX employees last year voted to incorporate their own local government called Starbase.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While millions of soccer fans cheer or groan over World Cup matches spanning North America, health officials will be on high alert for germs.

A heat wave may be the most obvious health threat. But infectious diseases can spread in a crowd, and experts are set to scrutinize wastewater, hospital visits, even social media for any signs that an outbreak might be brewing.

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases, is among the top concerns, sparking a warning this week from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO. With a nearly six-week stretch of packed stadiums, bars and tourist sites in 16 cities, officials are on the lookout for a long list of infections, from the stomach bug norovirus to mosquito-borne dengue fever.

“This is truly a marathon,” said Palak Raval-Nelson, Philadelphia’s health commissioner.

The mass gatherings come at a tense moment for budget-strapped health agencies in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hit hard by Trump administration staffing cuts, already was grappling with a growing Ebola outbreak in central Africa and a cruise ship hantavirus outbreak. While CDC officials have advised state and local health departments behind the scenes, its expected World Cup disease surveillance dashboard still was “in final development” days before games began, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Our public health professionals are pretty stretched,” said global health specialist Rebecca Katz of Georgetown University, who is leading an unusual new hub to help.

At the Health Security Operations Center, a joint effort between Georgetown and MedStar Health, workers are analyzing data from around the country so they can alert health authorities, even emergency rooms, to any early signs of trouble. The center is issuing daily “situation reports” about disease trends around World Cup host cities and team base camps to several hundred local and federal public health groups, emergency management and hospital officials and others who’ve signed up.

“It’s important that we don’t become alarmist,” said MedStar emergency medicine specialist Dr. Shane Kappler. “We’re trying to be the insurance policy.”

Measles is a top concern for potential World Cup spread

Already more than 2,000 people in the U.S. have come down with measles this year, nearly as many as during all of last year, according to the CDC. Patients can spread measles before the rash appears and they realize they’re sick. Not too long ago, the U.S. seldom saw measles except from international travel by unvaccinated people.

Now with frequent U.S. outbreaks, “actually a lot of our international partners are worried about measles being exported to them after the games,” said Georgetown’s Katz.

Measles is spreading in Canada, too, and has exceeded 11,000 cases in Mexico, according to PAHO. It’s urging soccer fans to be sure they’re vaccinated, with a health campaign saying a single measles patient can spread the virus to up to 18 unprotected people.

Is Ebola a concern at the World Cup?

Brown University’s Dr. Craig Spencer, who survived Ebola while working in the West Africa outbreak over a decade ago, said he’s repeatedly asked about the risk of Ebola during the World Cup — but “for me, Ebola is not the No. 1 or No. 2 or even No. 3 threat.”

“I am concerned about importation of measles, I am much more concerned about the importation of other infectious threats that may not seem as scary to us as Ebola,” Spencer said.

Many health experts agree that the risk of Ebola spreading in the U.S. is very low. That’s partly because of government travel screenings and restrictions on people recently in outbreak-affected areas. Moreover, Ebola spreads by contact with bodily fluids from someone showing symptoms, not through the air like measles or respiratory viruses.

“One fortunate thing about this virus is you’re most contagious when you’re really quite ill. It’s not like COVID, where you could be sitting next to someone who doesn’t even know they’re infected and perhaps contract the virus,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown’s Pandemic Center.

How to spot brewing diseases

There’s precedent for germs invading major sporting events. Canadian scientists linked a community measles outbreak to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and clusters of norovirus had to be contained during the Olympics this year in Milan and in 2018 in South Korea.

One way to detect signs of trouble: People with certain viral or bacterial infections shed genetic material that sophisticated testing of wastewater can spot. For example, measles can appear in wastewater days before an emergency room sees its first patients.

This week’s surveillance reports from Katz’s center note that wastewater testing recently found diarrhea-causing rotavirus, hepatitis A and norovirus in some parts of the U.S., something to watch as soccer crowds arrive.

In Dallas, officials ramped up wastewater screening including at the international airport, casting a wide net rather than looking for specific illnesses, said Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.

His team also is enhancing the usual mosquito testing, checking not just for West Nile virus that regularly spreads in the U.S. but for viruses more common in other countries like dengue and chikungunya.

Public health officials have been preparing for months, said Philadelphia’s Raval-Nelson, including with mock emergency drills and communications with counterparts around the country.

“I don’t want to send a message that there’s one key thing,” she said. “We have the frameworks in place to carry out what we need to.”

AUSTIN, Texas (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) — Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday released sweeping regulatory recommendations on data centers for the Legislature to pass in the 2027 session, as Texas grapples with an explosion of artificial intelligence-driven development and soaring power demands.

In a letter to state regulators, Abbott outlined a series of proposals designed to ensure data centers shoulder the costs of their growth rather than Texas ratepayers.
Angelina County residents call for action against AI data centers

Among his legislative priorities:

Requiring new facilities to add power generation to the state’s power grid
Requiring data centers pay for their own grid interconnection and infrastructure costs
Mandating the use of “closed-loop” water systems, which draw a large amount of water at the start but reuse it over some period of years
Require annual reporting by all data centers on electricity and water use
Establishing best-practice standards to address community concerns like noise
Repealing data center sales tax exemptions and “other outdated or unnecessary incentives for data centers”

The Texas Tribune reported earlier this year that the state is poised to lose $3.2 billion in sales tax revenue over the next two years because of a sales tax exemption.

“The rapid scale of data center development requires oversight to ensure everyday Texans are not burdened with the costs of infrastructure driven by data center expansion, and to ensure that as data centers interconnect to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid, residential electric bills are not negatively affected,” Abbott wrote in the letter first obtained by the Texas Bullpen.

It’s a striking call for industry regulation by the Republican governor in a state that has long prided itself on being a favorable environment for business. In recent months, Abbott has toed the line of championing the industry, declaring Texas the “epicenter” of AI development, and issuing statements about how his office was sensitive to the concerns about strain on resources and quality of life.

The Data Center Coalition welcomed the governor’s proposals saying the industry already follows many of the recommended practices and is committed to working with agencies to support “responsible infrastructure growth.”
Locals sound alarm over data center planned near Henderson County water source

“It’s important to recognize that data centers are a diverse industry serving a wide range of needs, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to facility design, cooling technology, or regulation. The right approach in one community may not be the right approach in another, which is why siting and operational decisions are made in close coordination with local utilities, water providers, and management districts,” said Dan Diorio, the organization’s vice president of state policy.

In the immediate, the governor directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas to “initiate action to reduce residential transmission costs” by July 31 and start requiring data centers to pay for all of their costs associated with building power infrastructure for their operations, to ensure residential ratepayers bear none of it.

He’s also asked the PUC and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main grid operator, to submit a joint memorandum by July 17 summarizing what they’ve done to prevent that data center development have caused risks and added costs onto Texans.

The move comes as opposition to large-scale data center projects grows across Texas. Community groups have organized against proposed developments over concerns about water use, noise, land impacts, and strain on local infrastructure. A March Quinnipiac poll found that 65% of Americans oppose the building of an AI data center in their community.

A Texas Tribune analysis found that nearly 60% of data centers that are planned or under construction would be in red state House districts that voted for President Donald Trump.

As of May, ERCOT reported that large projects requesting to connect to the grid totaled 439 gigawatts of power capacity — five times larger than the all-time peak demand on the state’s grid. Of those projects, about 89% are data centers, though energy experts say it’s unlikely that all of them will be built.

ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas previously described the influx of requests as “an unprecedented change in the pace of growth.”