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NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street and oil prices are holding steadier following their sharp swings the day before in the wait to see what will come next after President Donald Trump raised doubts about the temporary truce in the war with Iran. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% early Thursday, even though the United States launched new airstrikes against Iran, which responded by targeting U.S. allies in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 33 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. The price of Brent crude slipped 0.3% after rising sharply a day earlier. Indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) – Texans lost more than $1 billion to scams involving cryptocurrency in 2025, according to the FBI, second only to California in the amount siphoned away by fraudsters.

Scams using crypto often involve fraudulent investment opportunities, but criminals are increasingly turning to the digital currency as a fast payoff that is difficult for law enforcement to track.

With cryptocurrency scams on the rise, here’s what to look for and what to do if targeted by scammers.

What are the most common cryptocurrency scams in Texas?

Scams generally fall into two categories, said Michael Levine, chief felony prosecutor for the Cyber and Financial Crimes Division of the Harris County district attorney’s office.

The most common are investment schemes where victims buy fraudulent cryptocurrencies or use crypto to invest in fake businesses.

Even legitimate-looking websites can be a front for a fraudulent operation, Levine said, which is why it’s important to vet sites by seeing if the company has been written about in reputable publications or approved by certain banks.

“The software in these things is wonderful, it looks just like an Ameritrade or E-Trade,” Levine said. “It looks just like a legitimate trading platform to the victim, and because it’s all fake, it looks like they’re making a lot of money.”

The best way to ensure your money is safely invested in cryptocurrency is to use verified, known exchanges. Be sure to do research beforehand or ask your banking institution for guidance.

Another common technique — known as romance scams or “pig butchering,” playing on the image of fattening a hog for slaughter — entices would-be victims through flattery and kindness. Once a relationship is established, the victim is directed to invest through a website or app, or directly asked for money through cryptocurrency.

Scammers are also impersonating law enforcement or state agencies, sometimes providing names of real people who work at the departments they are impersonating. Common tactics include telling victims they missed jury duty and now owe fines, or that someone falsified their signature on a legal document.

To bolster the illusion, scammers can “spoof” phone numbers, allowing them to call victims from numbers of reputable sources like a sheriff’s department or city clerk. The easiest way to determine whether you’re speaking to someone from the agency is to simply hang up and call back, or visit in person.

Texas has also seen a spike in cryptocurrency kiosk scams, ATM-like machines that convert cash to digital currency. Scammers impersonating bank employees or law enforcement direct people to pay bail money or transfer “vulnerable” account funds into these machines, which then send crypto directly to the scammer.

No bank or government agency, including a court, police department or licensing board, will ask for cryptocurrency or request payment through a crypto kiosk. If asked to do so, contact your local authorities.

How can I tell if I’m being scammed?

Whether receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be with law enforcement or a text message about a quick investment opportunity, watch out for:

• Strangers offering business opportunities over social media or text.

• Phone numbers that don’t match the official contact info of an agency or business.

• Conversations directed to a third-party app like WhatsApp or Telegram.

• Being discouraged from sharing your situation or the conversation with others, sometimes under threat of financial or legal consequences.

• Being sent official looking legal documents by text message.

• Being provided a callback number that doesn’t match the original caller’s number.

What if I’m scammed or know someone who was swindled?

After ensuring those involved in a scam are safe, immediately contact your banking institution and local law enforcement to file a police report. Be sure to keep all records, documents and messages involved in the scam.

You should also submit complaints and reports to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, also known as IC3, and the Texas attorney general’s office. IC3 gathers data and complaints to help track scammers, and the attorney general can take action against businesses that falsely advertise services.

Because cryptocurrency is able to move so quickly once deposited into a digital wallet, most law enforcement agencies have roughly 36 to 48 hours to secure stolen funds. Most victims do not recover stolen money — but officials stress that reporting the scam is still important.

Scamming victims often feel shame or guilt about being tricked — a side effect that can deter reporting and hurt victims long after the fraud. Yet being victimized by fraud is not uncommon: one in four U.S. adults have been scammed in their lifetime, according to a 2025 Gallup poll, and one in 10 report being scammed more than once.

“There’s a saying in the [scam] world that no one is unscammable, you just haven’t tried the right script yet,” Levine said. “Please don’t feel like you must be a fool if you fall for one of these scams.”

Who is most at risk for cryptocurrency scams?

Those 60 or older are the most frequently targeted for cryptocurrency scams and who lose the most money, according to FBI data, but anyone is susceptible to scams. Those over 60 lost more than $396 million in 2025 in Texas.

For those with family members who are older or less technologically savvy, it can be helpful to walk them through how to identify spam texts or calls and ask them to inform you whenever strangers ask for money.

How is Texas responding to crypto scams?

Texas has a Financial Crimes Intelligence Center based in Smith County that helps law enforcement statewide investigate financial crimes, including cryptocurrency scams. The Texas State Securities Board also investigates fraudulent cryptocurrency activity.

Before the start of the next legislative session in January, state lawmakers are holding committee hearings on a list of issues designated by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in the Senate and House Speaker Dustin Burrows. Those topics include reducing elder fraud and regulating cryptocurrency and associated technologies, including crypto kiosks.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

LUBBOCK (The Texas Tribune) – Faculty groups sued Texas Tech Chancellor Brandon Creighton and the university system’s regents Wednesday, asking a federal judge in El Paso to block classroom restrictions they say have censored professors who teach about race, gender identity and sexual orientation and intentionally discriminated against Black faculty.

The lawsuit, brought by the Texas American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers and the national American Association of University Professors, challenges two memos Creighton issued after becoming chancellor last year.

The groups argue the restrictions outlined in the memos violate the First Amendment by allowing Texas Tech officials to suppress viewpoints they dislike, violate the Fourteenth Amendment by leaving professors unsure what they can teach without being disciplined and discriminate against Black faculty by singling out instruction about Black history, racial inequality and efforts to remedy it.

Creighton’s first memo, issued Dec. 1, told faculty they could face discipline if they did not comply with new limits on course content involving race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. It required faculty to submit course material related to those topics for regents to review and approve. 

A second memo, issued April 9, went further, ordering the phase-out of academic programs centered on sexual orientation and gender identity and requiring professors in core and lower-level undergraduate courses to use alternate materials if readings, assignments or lectures included those topics. 

The memo said some material could still be taught if needed for patient care, professional credentials or advanced coursework, but the lawsuit argues those exceptions were applied inconsistently.

The policies apply across the five-institution system, which includes Texas Tech University, two health sciences centers, Angelo State University and Midwestern State University.

The complaint includes new accounts of how the restrictions have been applied. It alleges a Texas Tech Health Sciences Center professor in Lubbock was told medical students could not participate in or observe care for transgender patients, even when those patients sought treatment for unrelated conditions such as hypertension, migraines or cancer. It also says a professor was told a Holocaust course would have to leave the core curriculum if it included instruction on gay and bisexual victims of the Nazis, and that regents barred professors from teaching Plato’s Republic and Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ National Book Award-winning book about racism in America.

The complaint also alleges an instructor at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso was told to not use the word “disparity” in class, affecting their ability to adequately teach students because El Paso County residents have a higher prevalence of diabetes. In addition, women along the Texas-Mexico border have a higher rate of cervical cancer mortality, children are hospitalized more for asthma in border counties, and the pregnancy-related mortality rate among Black women in Texas is 2.5 times higher than that of white women, according to the complaint.

One of the medical-training allegations underscores the lawsuit’s claim that Texas Tech’s stated exceptions were confusing and inconsistently applied. Creighton’s memos said some material could still be taught when needed for patient care or professional credentials. But the complaint says the Lubbock professor was initially required to remove material about transgender and intersex patients from a medical school course, even though the professor considered it vital to the course and necessary for medical certification exams. The professor was later told medical students could treat transgender patients during third- and fourth-year clinical rotations, according to the complaint, but only after some students’ rotations had already passed.

The groups are asking a judge to declare Creighton’s memos unconstitutional and block the system from enforcing them or any similar policy. The lawsuit, saying faculty members have already had to certify compliance for summer and fall courses, argues the restrictions will continue to harm them as well as deprive students of instruction they would otherwise receive.

A Texas Tech System spokeswoman rejected the lawsuit’s allegations.

“Our commitment to academic integrity and the First Amendment rights of our students will not be distracted by lawsuits as we continue to deliver rigorous academic programs, relevant coursework and groundbreaking research,” spokeswoman Erin Wilson said in a statement.  

Wilson also pushed back on several allegations in the complaint. Teaching about civil rights and historical events, including Nazi crimes, is permitted and instructors are not required to redact or remove works when sexual orientation or gender identity appears in adopted, industry-standard text or as an incidental reference, she said. 

The board of regents also has not altered or rejected any course at Texas Tech’s health sciences centers, she said.

Creighton has previously defended the restrictions as necessary to comply with state and federal law and ensure students are provided with “degrees of value.” 

In a December interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education cited in the complaint, Creighton said Texas Tech works to send a message that its “door is open to every walk of life” and said the restrictions were meant to foster “diversity of viewpoint.” Asked whether restricting teaching on gender identity, sexuality and race helped achieve that, Creighton said yes and described the guidance as a “continuum of common sense.”

Creighton, a former Republican state senator, became chancellor in November. In the Senate, he chaired the Higher Education Committee and authored Senate Bill 37, a 2025 law that gave governor-appointed regents more authority over curriculum. Creighton’s Dec. 1 memo described Texas Tech’s course review as the “first step” in implementing that law.

The lawsuit argues Creighton’s memos go beyond what lawmakers ultimately passed. An earlier version of SB 37 would have required regents to eliminate curriculum that taught “identity politics” or was based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression or privilege are inherent in the U.S. or Texas institutions. That language did not become part of the law, but the faculty groups argue Creighton later imposed those restrictions after becoming chancellor.

The complaint points to his broader record as a lawmaker to support its claim that the memos were motivated, at least in part, by racial discrimination. It says that after the George Floyd protests, Creighton opposed efforts to remove Confederate monuments and symbols, backed unsuccessful restrictions on teaching called critical race theory at public universities and colleges and authored Senate Bill 17, the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs in higher education.

“Chancellor Creighton is trying to do through fiat what he couldn’t accomplish in the Texas legislature: erase the history, identities and lived experiences of LGBTQ people and people of color from the classroom,” said Nicholas Hite, senior attorney at Lambda Legal.

The faculty groups are represented by Lambda Legal, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.

Texas Tech is not the only Texas university system to restrict course content involving race, gender identity or sexual orientation. Texas A&M University System regents approved a similar policy in November, after a viral recording showed a student confronting a Texas A&M professor over gender identity content in a children’s literature class. That controversy led to the professor’s firing, the removal of two college leaders from their administrative roles and the resignation of the university president as well as a systemwide course audit.

The A&M policy, which was approved before Creighton’s memos, says no system academic course may advocate “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” unless the course and relevant materials are approved in advance by the university president. It also says faculty may not teach material inconsistent with a course’s approved syllabus.

Asked why the groups sued Texas Tech and not Texas A&M, Texas AAUP-AFT President Teresa Klein said the organizations are focused on Texas Tech for now but “will be exploring everything.” 

Antonio Ingram II, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said Texas Tech represents “one of the most egregious forms of censorship we’ve seen nationwide,” pointing to restrictions on graduate student research and the closure of entire departments. A favorable ruling could affect other systems, including Texas A&M and the University of Texas System, though additional lawsuits might still be needed, he said.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Chronicle of Higher Education, Open Campus, Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) – State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, raised a staggering $30 million from April through June, his campaign announced Wednesday — more than triple the amount brought in by his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The haul is a record total for a U.S. Senate candidate in the second quarter of an election year, Talarico’s campaign said, noting he has now raised more than $70 million from over 1.5 million donations, including 780,000 individual contributors, since launching his bid in September.

“I’m honored to stand alongside more than 780,000 neighbors who are tired of being divided into teams — red versus blue, left versus right, rural versus urban,” Talarico, D-Austin, said in a statement. “We are uniting Texans onto one team to change this broken, corrupt political system and bring down costs for working families.”

Earlier Wednesday, Paxton’s campaign said he had raised over $9 million in the second quarter of the year — a personal best and the largest amount announced by any non-incumbent Senate GOP candidate this cycle, per his campaign. Both campaigns had yet to file their second-quarter reports, due July 15 to the Federal Election Commission, identifying their donors and how much cash they have on hand.

Talarico’s mammoth fundraising has boosted Democratic hopes that he could become the first Democrat to turn a Senate seat blue since 1988, particularly against Paxton, the Republican nominee who has historically posted relatively weak fundraising totals. Some of Talarico’s fundraising edge could be neutralized, however, by a recent Supreme Court ruling that empowers Paxton to tap into the national GOP’s deep coffers.

Recent public polling has found the race essentially tied.

Talarico’s second-quarter haul easily outpaced those of Texas’ recent Democratic Senate nominees, including the $10.4 million raised by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke in the same period in 2018. Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred raised $7.9 million from April through June 2024 on his way to besting O’Rourke’s then-record fundraising.

Talarico broke records in the first three months of this year, too, when he took in a whopping $27 million — more than any other federal candidate in the country over that stretch.

“Running a truly competitive campaign in a state with nearly three times the population of any other battleground state will take unprecedented resources,” Talarico campaign manager Seth Krasne said in a statement. “While the Supreme Court creates new loopholes for billionaires and special interests to prop up their puppets, we’re going to continue building a movement to take back power for working people. Because Big Money is nothing compared to People Power.”

Talarico has sworn off corporate PAC donations, and his campaign said 97% of donations to his bid were $100 or less. The most common profession among his contributors, his campaign added, was teachers.

Texas did not land on national Democrats’ initial list of top Senate targets this cycle, with Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio seen as the party’s prime pickup opportunities. But turmoil surrounding Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee in Maine, this week has sharpened the importance of Talarico’s campaign to Democrats’ quest to retake the Senate.

Platner ended his bid Wednesday after a woman who dated him told Politico he raped her nearly five years ago and numerous Democrats called on him to drop out of the race. He has denied the allegation.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KETK)– Stephen F. Austin State University announced earlier this week that it has approved a plan to phase out its Early Childhood Laboratory (ECHL) over the next five years.

According to the university, under the new plan, the ECHL will no longer allow infants to enroll in the program starting at the beginning of the 2027-2028 school year. Additionally, children already enrolled in the program will be able to remain through completion.

A part of the university’s decision to phase out the ECHL, which once provided valuable learning opportunities, was due to fewer SFA students completing observations and clinical experiences there. The university said the decline was due to changes in the academic program landscape.

Financial concerns moving forward also forced the university to phase out the ECHL, after it claimed it had put $750,000 into the program over the past five years without receiving any revenue in return.

“This decision reflects the university’s responsibility to balance rising operating costs with available resources while continuing to invest in its academic mission,” the university said. “It is not a reflection of the quality of the ECHL or the dedication of its faculty and staff.”

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Two New World screwworm cases in dogs are among more than 30 confirmed instances in Texas and New Mexico, prompting warnings Wednesday from veterinarians and humane societies that pet owners need to remain vigilant to protect their animals.

The parasite reappeared in cattle the U.S. in June, more than 50 years after it had been largely eradicated from the country. The pest is actually the larvae of the New World screwworm fly. It eats live flesh and fluids rather than dead material, as the larvae of most fly species do.

Here is what to know about the parasite, the threat it poses to pets and how to protect them:
Screwworm fly larvae can infest any mammal

The fly’s migration north from Panama starting in 2024, and through Mexico in 2025, has agriculture officials warning that it poses a threat to the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry, but the larvae can hatch and breed in any mammal, including wildlife, dogs, cats and occasionally humans.

The problem develops when a female fly lays its eggs in open wounds and mucous. After the eggs hatch, the larvae feed for about a week before maturing, dropping to the ground and continuing to develop into an adult fly.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says newborn animals and animals with open wounds or who have undergone surgery or other medical procedures recently are especially vulnerable. Even a tick bite can host an infestation, Aaron Grady, executive director of the Houston Humane Society shelter, said during a webinar on the screwworm.
Infestation signs include restlessness and bad smell

Animal health experts say pet owners in areas where the screwworm is present — southern and southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico so far — should watch their animals closely and examine them for wounds, cuts and bites regularly.

Pet owners should look for any maggots or movement in a wound. Other signs include a foul smell and restlessness or anxiety in an animal, or an animal “hyper-fixating on looking or chewing in a certain area of the body,” said Melissa Stansell, a veterinarian at the shelter Austin Pets Alive!

Any of those signs are reason to contact a veterinarian for possible treatment. The affected animal is likely in a great deal of pain, and that can cause death from shock. The larvae also can cause death if they move into vital organs or by causing infections that turn deadly.
Flea, tick medications can stop an infestation

Humane society officials and veterinarians said shelters across Texas are trying to prevent infestations in animals by giving them prescription flea and tick medications. They recommend that pet owners do the same.

“It will kill the larvae as they ingest the blood and tissue,” Stansell said. “The chemical compositions of those products are what kill the actual larval stages of these flies.”

Veterinarians also can treat infestations and animals can recover if pet owners contact them quickly. Stansell said the treatment could include antibiotics.

“It is only fatal if left untreated,” she said.
An effort to eradicate the fly again is underway

The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species and decades ago would disappear each year when colder weather arrived with the fall or winter.

But state and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials aren’t waiting for the weather to turn. They’ve returned to an eradication method that worked decades ago, breeding sterile male flies and releasing them into the wild. The female New World screwworm fly mates once in her monthslong life, and if her partner is sterile, her eggs won’t hatch — causing the population in an area to drop and then disappear.

For years, the only factory breeding sterile flies in the Western Hemisphere was in Panama, but the USDA invested $21 million to convert a site in southern Mexico from breeding fruit flies to recently start breeding screwworm flies. The agency also plans to spend $750 million on a new fly factory in Texas, set to open next year.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Mexican national fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston had no criminal convictions during his decades living in the U.S. and was driving a crew to a homebuilding site when he was killed, his family and a Texas congresswoman said Wednesday.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was working toward securing legal status in the U.S. and knew what to do if stopped by ICE, his son said.

Ronaldo Salgado said his father may have been scared that the people in unmarked vehicles were coming to steal the tools he used for 35 years to build homes, from sunrise to sunset, so he could send his three American sons to college.

“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream,” Salgado said during a news conference.

The shooting happened Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has been a hub for Houston’s Mexican American community for a century.
Federal officials say their vehicle was rammed but don’t provide evidence

Salgado Araujo was shot after he ignored commands and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday in a statement. ICE officers were targeting him because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions.

Houston firefighters said he was shot in the abdomen. He died at a hospital.

Three other men appeared to be detained as Salgado Araujo lay moaning on the ground, according to his son, who said one of them was his uncle and that no one has heard from any of them since.

Federal officials have not released video or images of the shooting or the alleged damage to the vehicles. Salgado on Tuesday joined civil rights groups and Democratic officials in urging federal authorities to release all the footage and other information it has on the shooting.

In several other shootings involving federal officers, initial descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been contradicted later by video evidence.

A video shot by bystander Juliet Martinez shows a black vehicle angled towards a white van, their doors wide open. A bleeding and handcuffed man groans loudly on the ground and his leg shakes. Other federal officers stand over at least three other handcuffed men.
Civil rights groups say ICE can’t be trusted with the investigation

The federal crackdown has created a country where it is “open season on Latinos” by officers who think they can “shoot and explain later,” League of United Latin American Citizens President Roman Palomares said during the news conference.

The way ICE has handled previous investigations shows they have not earned the trust of taking their statements as facts without evidence like video to back it up, he said.

“Your pattern has been one of inaccuracies of prejudicial leaks before the facts are known, of twisting the narrative to fit your version of events,” Palomares said.

The league offered a $5,000 reward for information and videos from witnesses as it calls for an independent investigation. Other civil rights leaders begged anyone with videos to not turn them over to ICE, which they said could destroy them.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Salgado Araujo’s family and the community deserve the truth but federal authorities are exclusively handling the investigation at this time.
There’s been an uptick in arrests in recent weeks

Representatives of ICE and DHS have not responded to repeated requests for comment Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department in March with the aim of keeping it away from the controversies that had marked the tenure of his predecessor, Kristi Noem.

In the months after two fatal shootings in Minnesota sparked a fierce backlash, the number of immigration arrests across the country fell and ICE appeared to recalibrate its tactics. But in late June, arrests around the country surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.

The shooting was at least the eighth death resulting from an encounter with federal immigration officers since the start of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Son says his father worked hard for decades

Ronaldo Salgado said his mother was told something bad had happened to his dad around 7 a.m. Tuesday. After frantically looking for him at his job site and finding his empty van, he saw a video.

“I recognized him, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street,” Salgado said.

Salgado Araujo met his wife as a teenager in Mexico. They came to America and built their own home in Houston with help from friends and family who worked on his crew. His wife made his lunch before he left for the day and had a hearty meal ready when he came home. He would listen to music and pet his dog on his porch, Salgado said.

“After nearly 35 years of working to give us the American dream, he made the choice to begin the process of obtaining his American dream through a work permit,” Salgado said. “We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.”

Salgado Araujo had biometric scan and fingerprints done earlier this year, his son said, and had carefully studied what to do if ICE pulled him over. If he was speeding away, it was probably because he feared having his tools stolen, his son said.

“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied,” his son said.
Mexico’s president criticizes the latest killing

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is considering legal measures or may ask the United Nations to step in to stop the violence against Mexicans in the United States.

“There has been another tragic death of one of our compatriots in the United States due to detention issues, even though their only ‘offense’ is not yet having proper documentation,” Sheinbaum said.

Texas’ largest city has experienced heightened enforcement operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.