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HOUSTON (AP) – A company linked to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is now offering over $7 million to buy his Infowars platforms, more than double what it proposed when it lost to The Onion satirical news outlet in a bankruptcy auction that was later voided by a judge, a lawyer in the case said Monday.

First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements, submitted the new offer despite there being no official request to do so, Joshua Wolfshohl, an attorney for the trustee overseeing Jones’ bankruptcy, told a bankruptcy court judge at a brief hearing in Houston.

Wolfshohl said the trustee also is expecting a new offer soon from The Onion’s parent company, Chicago-based Global Tetrahedron.

The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas filed by relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Jones repeatedly called the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators a hoax staged by actors and aimed at increasing gun control.

Most of the proceeds from the sale of Infowars, as well as from many of Jones’ personal assets that are being sold, will go to the Sandy Hook families to help satisfy the defamation judgments. Some proceeds will go to Jones’ other creditors.

The future of Infowars, based in Jones’ hometown of Austin, Texas, remains up in the air after the failed auction, and it’s still not clear how the sale of its assets will proceed. Wolfshohl said the trustee, Christopher Murray, will evaluate the new offers and decide what to do next.

“I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like,” Wolfshohl said. “But I think we would come back to the court and say, ‘Judge, here’s what we’ve got. Let’s talk about a sale process, one that your honor’s comfortable with, possibly with an auction.’”

Representatives of The Onion and First American United did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez voided the auction and rejected the sale of Infowars to The Onion in December, saying the bidding process was flawed, not transparent and didn’t raise enough money for creditors. He also said there was too much confusion about The Onion’s bid and its actual value. The Onion and First United American were the only two bidders.

Global Tetrahedron had submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody. The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors.

First United American bid $3.5 million in cash and was expected to let Jones stay at Infowars. Despite the lower cash offer by The Onion, the trustee chose it as the auction winner, saying its offer would result in more money for creditors.

Jones and First United American had claimed fraud and collusion in the bidding process, but Lopez said there was no wrongdoing.

Also since the auction, the Sandy Hook families who won more than $1.4 billion in the Connecticut lawsuit and those awarded about $50 million in the Texas lawsuit have reached a deal on how to split the proceeds from the sales of Jones and Infowars’ assets. The two sides had been at odds over the issue for months.

Under the agreement, the families in the Texas suit would get at least $4 million and the Connecticut suit families would get at least $12 million. If the Connecticut suit families get more than $12 million, the families in the Texas lawsuit would get 25% of that extra amount. The deal needs to be approved by Lopez, the bankruptcy judge.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Authorities in Indianapolis have charged a 55-year-old Texas man with felony stalking of Indiana Fever star and WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark.

Michael Thomas Lewis is accused of repeated and continued harassment of the 22-year-old Clark beginning on Dec. 16, the Marion County prosecutor’s office wrote in a Saturday court filing. Jail records show Lewis is due in court on Tuesday.

Lewis posted numerous messages on Clark’s X account, according to an affidavit from a Marion County sheriff’s lieutenant.

In one, he said he had been driving by the Gainbridge Fieldhouse — one of the arenas where the Fever plays home games — three times day, and in another he said he had “one foot on a banana peel and the other on a stalking charge.” Other messages directed at Clark were sexually explicit.

The posts “actually caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened” and an implicit or explicit threat also was made “with the intent to place Caitlin Clark in reasonable fear of sexual battery,” prosecutors wrote in the Marion County Superior Court filing.

The FBI learned that the X account belonged to Lewis and that the messages were sent from IP addresses at an Indianapolis hotel and downtown public library.

Indianapolis police spoke with Lewis on Jan. 8 at his hotel room. He told officers he was in Indianapolis on vacation. When asked why he was making so many posts about Clark, Lewis replied: “Just the same reason everybody makes posts,” according to court documents.

He told police that he didn’t mean any harm and told them he fantasized about being in a relationship with Clark.

“It’s an imagination, fantasy type thing and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening,” he told police, according to the court documents.

In asking the court for a higher than standard bond, the prosecutor’s office included that Lewis traveled from his home in Texas to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in close proximity to the victim.”

The prosecutor’s office also sought a stay-away order as a specific condition if Lewis is released from jail ahead of trial. Prosecutors requested that Lewis be ordered to stay away from the Gainbridge and Hinkle fieldhouses where the Fever play home games.

The Associated Press was unable to determine Monday if he has a lawyer who can comment on his behalf.

The Associated Press named Clark the Female Athlete of the Year for 2024. After leading Iowa to last year’s national championship game, she was the top pick in the WNBA draft and went on to win rookie of the year honors in the league.

AUSTIN – Newsweek reports that Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered on Monday for the flags at the Texas Capitol and all state buildings to be raised to full-staff on January 20 in honor of Inauguration Day.

Newsweek reached out to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and the Biden administration for comment Monday morning via email.

Biden ordered the United States flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days following former President Jimmy Carter’s death on December 29. Because U.S. flag code requires flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from the death of a sitting or former president, the flags would remain lowered when Trump was sworn in for a second term on January 20.

The U.S. flag is flown at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol on January 12. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (L) has ordered flags to be flown at full-staff on President-elect Donald Trump’s (R) Inauguration Day.

Abbott’s press release on Monday noted that the federal statute declares that the flag “should be displayed ‘especially on…Inauguration Day, January 20.'”

“Texas continues to mourn with our fellow Americans across the country over the passing of former President Jimmy Carter,” Abbott said. “While we honor the service of a former President, we must also celebrate the service of an incoming President and the bright future ahead for the United States of America.”

Earlier this month, Trump complained on Truth Social about the flags being at half-staff “for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President.”

“Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it,” Trump posted. “Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

However, the sitting president made the proclamation to lower a flag, so Trump cannot do anything until he is fully sworn into office.

Other States’ Plans

Currently, all other states are honoring Biden’s ruling.

“No such orders have been issued at this time,” Ohio Governor Mark DeWine’s press secretary told Newsweek.

Newsweek reached out to the press offices of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming’s governors via phone call for comment.

Newsweek emailed the communications teams for Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota’s governors for comment.
What People Are Saying

Texas Governor Abbott, in a press release: “President Carter’s steadfast leadership left a lasting legacy that will be felt for generations to come, which together as a nation we honor by displaying flags at half-staff for 30 days. On January 20, our great nation will celebrate our democratic tradition of transferring power to a new President by inaugurating the 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

“As we unite our country and usher in this new era of leadership, I ordered all flags to be raised to full-staff at the Texas Capitol and all state buildings for the inauguration of President Trump.”

President-elect Donald Trump, on Truth Social: “The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half-mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves. Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess.”

What’s Next

Flags are meant to be flown at half-staff to honor Carter until Tuesday, January 28, meaning they will be lowered during Trump’s inauguration and through the first week of Trump’s second term.

Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on January 20.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News says that the number of million-dollar homes sold in Texas from November 2023 to October 2024 was the second highest on record, according to a new study. Released by Texas Realtors, the 2024 Texas Sales of Million-Dollar Homes Report found that Texas buyers snagged 12,888 million-dollar homes worth over $21 billion last year, a 10% increase over the previous year. While only 4% of all homes sold in Texas were $1 million or more, those properties represented 15.7% of all residential sales dollar volume statewide, up from 14.3%. “The high end of the Texas real estate market continues to evolve,” Texas Realtors Chairman Christy Gessler said in a news release. “As prices rise, more homes cross the million-dollar threshold. Some are highly valued for their size or amenities, but with many, the key factor is location.”

The report says that nearly 90% of the million-dollar homes sold in Texas last year were in one of the four largest metropolitan areas. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area had 39% of the luxury homes — 4,992 worth a combined $8.5 billion. The region saw the highest growth in million-dollar home sales at 14%. The Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land area had 26% of the home sales, rising 10% from the prior year. The Austin-Round Rock area had 19% and saw little change from the previous period. The San Antonio-New Braunfels area had the fourth-highest percentage of the state’s million-dollar homes with 5.1%, an increase of 4% from the previous year. The 656 properties were worth a combined $957 million.

AUSTIN – The San Antonio Express-News reports that Texas officials are asking residents to take down their bird feeders and baths due to a rise in bird flu cases across the state, including the recent detection of the contagious disease in the Austin area. The virus was confirmed in multiple domestic ducks found dead in a North Austin pond this month, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife. Austin Public Health issued a public health advisory last week urging community members to take proper precautions. “The best way to protect yourself and others from bird flu is to avoid sources of exposure,” the advisory states. “That means avoiding direct contact with wild birds and other animals.” Residents should avoid touching sick or dead animals or their droppings, bringing sick animals into their homes, letting pets interact with sick or dead animals and their feces, and ingesting uncooked food products such as unpasteurized raw milk or cheeses.

HOUSTON – The ;Houston Chronicle reports that funding is at the top of the agenda for Houston area school districts as the 89th session of the Texas Legislature begins on Jan. 14. After a few strained budget years for Texas school districts, amid the rise of inflation, an increase in special education services and a stagnant basic allotment, many districts had to make deep cuts this year, including eliminating librarians, closing schools and slashing transportation routes. Some area school boards are pleading with legislators to bolster funding this session. But funding isn’t the only ask from area ISDs. Districts are also hoping for a reduction in state-mandated assessments for students, changing discipline laws and at least one district asked the Legislature to reject school voucher legislation.

As hundreds of bills flood in from senators and representatives, a handful are already meeting these requests, including increasing the basic allotment, fully funding districts that provide a local optional homestead exemption and changing the funding formula from average daily attendance to average enrollment. But whether those bills will gain enough traction to become law is unknown. Conroe, Fort Bend, Katy and Spring Branch ISDs all included increasing the basic allotment in their legislative priorities. Cy-Fair ISD did not include increasing the basic allotment in its priorities, but listed other funding needs. The four districts and other statewide groups have advocated for an increase to the basic allotment of $6,160, which has not changed since 2019. These districts also asked for a funding model that includes automatic adjustments for inflation, so that the Legislature isn’t required to convene to increase funding. A Chronicle analysis of area shortfalls found that districts incurred $857 million in deficits during just last school year. Policy analyst Eva Deluna said in June that the basic allotment would have to be $7,500 to account for inflation. The total per-student funding in Texas is also $4,000 below the national average, according to National Education Association statistics. In Fort Bend ISD’s resolution, the board said the state has not done its job funding public education. “Key elements of school funding, such as the basic allotment, special education funding weights… school safety allotment, and pre-Kindergarten funding have not increased in over five years and have not kept pace with inflation, the actual cost to provide services, and fail to adequately fund Texas public school districts,” Board President Kristen Tassin wrote. Tassin also added that per-student funding has declined over the past decade and continues to do so.

A single cow in Mexico and a pest the size of a housefly have held up pens full of Texas-bound cattle worth millions of dollars for the past six weeks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has banned Mexican cattle imports since November after a parasite known as screwworm, which wriggles into the flesh of livestock and kills them if left untreated, was discovered on a cow near Mexico’s border with Guatemala. The ban on imports is a bigger problem than the screwworm itself, according to Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and some Texas cattle ranchers, who say closing cattle imports damages their livelihoods, bottlenecks beef production and could increase beef prices for consumers.

“I get calls every single day from people asking for cattle,” said Alvaro Bustillos, president of Vaquero Trading, a livestock procurement company in El Paso. “Key steps in the production value chain are being stopped because people cannot source cattle.”

Miller remembers a time when screwworm wreaked havoc in Texas — $132 million in damages in 1976 — but said the USDA prematurely closed imports and is hampering an industry still trying to recover from two years of widespread drought. “There’s no way we are going to get screwworm,” Miller told The Texas Tribune. “We have a very strict import process for these cattle.”

About 3% of U.S. cattle come from Mexico. But Mexican cattle play a disproportionate role in southern states’ beef production. Approximately two-thirds of Mexican cattle imports remain in Texas, New Mexico or Oklahoma, according to an estimate from Ben Weinheimer, the president and CEO of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, which represents the industry across those three states.

Cattle crossing between Mexico and the U.S. remains on hold while the USDA installs new inspection pins and enhanced safety protocols to ensure cattle are healthy. Keeping the U.S. free of screwworm saves livestock producers close to $1 billion a year, said Texas Animal Health Commission spokesperson Erin Robinson, pointing to a USDA estimate that accounts for costs of labor, treatment, veterinary care, eradication efforts and loss of production.

Shutting off Mexican cattle imports has contributed to a recent increase in cow prices, said David P. Anderson, a professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension. Prices of feeder steers, which make up a large portion of Mexican cattle imports, are forecast to rise by 8% in 2025, a USDA report states. If import restrictions continue for much longer, beef production could drop, pushing up prices for consumers.

“Fewer cattle mean higher beef prices, increasing inflation at the checkout line,” Miller wrote in a Dec. 23 editorial, adding that the ban “could send shockwaves through the beef market.”

Screwworm infestations occur when a female fly lays her eggs on an animal’s open wound or another area such as their eyes or mouth. The female can lay up to 300 eggs at a time, and any warm-blooded animal, including humans, although rare, can be affected. The eggs hatch into larvae that dig into the animal and feed on living flesh.

Screwworm was declared eradicated from the U.S. in 1966, but Texas experienced a more recent outbreak in 1976 that affected 20% of cattle.

When Bustillos found out the weekend before Thanksgiving that imports of Mexican cattle were to be halted because a single cow had screwworm, he was upset.

“Based on what is happening 3,000 kilometers down south, they are shutting us down,” Bustillos said. “I don’t think it’s fair.”

Bustillos has a stake in both exporting and importing cattle. He’s board chairman and president of the Chihuahua Cattlemen’s Association, which represents Mexican cattle producers. He also leads Vaquero Trading, which imports more than 200,000 Mexican cattle a year and supplies cows to feedlots in several states.

Bustillos says he has worked hard to build trust between the U.S. and Mexico, putting in place millions of dollars worth of sanitation practices that keep livestock safe and pest free on both sides of the border. Cattle entering the U.S. must have health certificates, vaccinations and testing to prevent diseases from entering the U.S, per requirements from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

November and December are typically when the U.S. imports the largest number of cattle from Mexico. Most of those imports are small cows headed to ranches or feedlots, where they are fattened up before getting sent to packing plants for beef production.

The U.S. has steadily increased Mexican cattle imports over the years. In 2023, about 1.1 million cattle entered from Mexico, up from about 870,000 the year prior. An extended drought coupled with higher U.S. cattle prices contributed to that increase, said Anderson, the economist.

“We have the smallest cow herd in the U.S. since 1961, so we have higher prices here,” Anderson said about Texas’ cattle industry. “That makes us an attractive market for Mexico to sell to.”

Federal officials have not specified when cattle shipments will resume, but a USDA spokesperson said in late December that shipments would resume “incrementally after the New Year, with full resumption sometime after that.”

“Protecting American livestock from foreign pests is our top priority,” the spokesperson said in an email. Anderson said he does not expect consumers to see significant increase in beef prices if trade resumes this month.

For Bustillos, the longer the shutdown continues, the more concerned he grows about the market. Cows are imported at certain times of year based on their weight and the availability of grass for them to graze. If the border does not reopen soon, he says, cattle could start to lose value.

For now industry leaders are hopeful trade opens up soon. “The hope is that in January we’ll start to see some semblance of normal trade,” Weinheimer said.

Anderson has heard enough stories about screwworm from his father to know the damage they can bring. “Every day they had to grab each pig and look for wounds and sores,” he said. “They’d clean them out and put medicine on…It was horrible.” So Anderson says it makes sense for the USDA to address screwworm before it’s anywhere near the U.S.

“It would cost more to eradicate them if you let the problem grow bigger,” he said.

The screwworm is eliminated by dropping sterile male flies from airplanes over large areas. Female screwworm flies mate only once in their lifetime, so the loads of sterile male flies caused the population to eventually die out. That method is the only way to eradicate the screwworm today, according to the USDA.

Jim Schwertner, who operates a ranch in Williamson County, was a young boy helping run his family business when the sterile fly technique was introduced in Texas. He said it was a game changer and eliminated the screwworm within a year. “When they finally eradicated it, life was a whole lot easier for my dad and his cowboys,” Schwertner said. Schwertner recalled treating cattle hit by screwworm. “You’d put insecticide on with a paintbrush to keep the screwworm off the cattle,” he said. “It was a lot of work and really expensive.”

The technique has been used to create a biological barrier against the screwworm in Panama. But the pest has exploded there and crept northward in recent years, spreading through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Texas and U.S. animal health officials attribute the spread to new areas of farming and increased cattle movement. Federal officials approved a $165 million emergency investment last month to stop screwworm from entering the U.S. and to help partners in Mexico and Central America eradicate it.

The eradication of screwworm has likely preserved Texas’ wildlife population. As recently as 2016, a resurgence of screwworm in the Florida Keys killed more than 130 deer before the pest was eliminated from the region the following year using the sterile fly technique.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has asked hunters and outdoor enthusiasts in South Texas to monitor for animals affected by screwworm. Any wildlife with signs of screwworm are to be reported to a local biologist. No cases have been confirmed in Texas, a spokesperson for the Texas Animal Health said.

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

Do you live in a red state, a blue state, or one where Republicans and Democrats share power?

Your answer might provide the best indicator of what to expect from your governor and state lawmakers as President-elect Donald Trump takes office and legislatures convene.

In many cases, political party identification has come to define public policy, percolating from the nation’s capital down to the 50 statehouses.

Many Republican state officials are aligning with Trump’s policies by pledging to help him crack down on illegal immigration, for example. Some Democratic state officials are mounting a resistance movement, looking for ways to shield their states from potential federal policies restricting abortion and transgender rights, among other things. Some prominent Democratic governors, meanwhile, have taken a more conciliatory approach in an effort to forge a working relationship with the new administration.

Here’s a look at what to expect in some policy areas:
Immigration

Governors and lawmakers in red states are lining up behind Trump’s pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and deport many who are living in the U.S. illegally. A joint statement from 26 Republican governors said they “stand ready to utilize every tool at our disposal — whether through state law enforcement or the National Guard — to support President Trump in this vital mission.”

Republican lawmakers in a growing number of states are proposing to give local law officers the power to arrest people who entered the country illegally, mirroring a recent Texas law that has been placed on hold while courts consider whether it unconstitutionally usurps federal authority. One bill in Missouri would offer a $1,000 reward to informants who tip off authorities about people in the country illegally and allow private bounty hunters to find and detain them.

Governors in some blue states are taking a wait-and-see approach to Trump’s immigration plans, willing to cooperate on deporting people who commit crimes but not in using the National Guard for widespread roundups of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Other Democratic-led jurisdictions are bracing for a showdown. The California Legislature has convened a special session to erect shields against Trump’s policies on immigration and other issues.
Abortion

Most U.S. abortions are carried out using drugs rather than through surgical procedures, and that is where the current abortion fight is focused.

At least four states — Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire and Tennessee — have bills introduced aimed at banning pills. None take the same approach as Louisiana, which last year classified the drugs as controlled dangerous substances.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a New York doctor, claiming she wrongly prescribed via telehealth and sent pills to a Texas woman, even though a New York law aims to protect such prescriptions.

And the Republican attorneys general of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri are in court trying to roll back federal approvals of one of the pills usually used in abortion.
Education

Several efforts to expand the use of public money to pay for kids to attend private school suffered high-profile defeats in the November elections, including in Nebraska, Kentucky and Colorado.

But Trump’s victory is seen as a boon for such efforts, which in recent years have exploded in popularity. A dozen states, almost all red, have programs allowing any student to apply for government funding for private education, including at religious schools.

With Trump in office, states could see more incentives such as block grants or tax benefits to adopt or expand models like vouchers, which subsidize private school tuition for families. Texas, for example, is expected to see momentum on the school choice front, with a number of voucher proponents winning seats in the Legislature.

Many conservative states also are pushing to bring Christianity into public K-12 education through moves such as requiring schools to teach the Bible and post the Ten Commandments. Trump has promised to promote prayer and Bible reading in schools, with current courts more amenable to religion in the public sphere, including schools.

In Texas, officials in November approved a curriculum that intertwines language arts with biblical lessons and the state education superintendent in Oklahoma has sought to require Bible-related lessons.
Diversity

Efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives are expected to expand in Republican-led states under Trump, who has vowed to get rid of perceived “wokeness” in education. More higher education institutions may join the ranks of those already dismantling diversity offices in states such as Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas.

Attorneys general and legislatures in red states also are likely to put pressure on the private sector to pare back DEI initiatives. A Tennessee law provides one model, forbidding financial institutions from considering a customer’s participation in “diversity, equity and inclusion training.”
Transgender issues

Republican lawmakers are expected to keep pushing for restrictions on the rights of transgender people, particularly transgender minors.

More than 30 such bills have been proposed in Texas. Although Texas and other states have bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, there are calls to go further, such as barring Medicaid and other state-funded government programs from spending on gender-affirming care for people of any age.

In his campaign last year, Trump leaned into attacks on transgender rights, suggesting a looming shift in federal policy.

The future of some of the measures could rest on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling expected this year on whether Tennessee had the right to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Most Republican-controlled states already have laws banning or limiting gender-affirming care for minors and participation in women’s and girls sports for transgender women and girls. Several also dictate which school restrooms transgender people may use.
Public health

With an incoming presidential administration that has indicated fluoride and vaccines might be in its crosshairs, lawmakers in a few states have filed bills that would end fluoridation programs and further restrict COVID-19 mandates.

Health and Human Services Secretary-nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer with no medical or public health degrees, has called fluoride an “industrial waste” and said in a Nov. 2 post on X that the Trump administration would “advise all U.S. water systems” to stop putting fluoride in the water. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century because it prevents tooth decay.

Arkansas lawmakers have filed bills to repeal a statewide fluoridation program and allow local public water systems to hold elections so residents can decide whether to put fluoride in the water. Montana also has a proposed bill to ” ban the use of fluoride,” though the full text of the bill isn’t available yet.

Vaccination laws and mandates are still in play in state governments, too. Alabama may consider changing its vaccination laws to require parental consent for any vaccine to be given to a minor age 14 or older; currently, children that age can decide whether they want medical services. Wyoming has a bill that would impose a civil penalty of up to $5,000 on a business or entity that gets state or federal money if found to discriminate based on whether someone is wearing a mask, has had a COVID-19 vaccination or has been tested for COVID-19.

It’s not clear whether these or other bills will get consideration.

___

Associated Press writers Jesse Bedayn, Erica Hunzinger, Andrew DeMillo and Alia Wong contributed to this report.