AUSTIN – The Dallas Morning News reports a proposal targeting puppy mills â places that breed puppies for sale, often in inhumane conditions â is expected to come before the Texas Legislature next year for the third consecutive session. Animal advocates say thereâs a pipeline of puppy mills outside of Texas that ship pups across state lines to supply pet stores with young animals that are often transported in poor conditions, sometimes for thousands of miles. Dallas in 2022 became the 18th city in Texas to ban the sale of dogs and cats at pet stores, resulting in the closure of a local Petland, according to the Texas Humane Legislation Network, an advocacy group for the humane treatment of animals.
Gov. Greg Abbott last year signed into law a bill blocking cities and counties from passing ordinances inconsistent with state laws regulating business and commerce. With no state law regulating sales from pet stores, at least 10 new pet stores have since opened in Texas, with others set to open in Mansfield and North Richland Hills. âNow these stores are popping up everywhere, and that is why this legislation is critical,â said Shelby Bobosky, executive director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network. âIn Texas, you canât sell puppies in Dallas, but you can sell them next door in Carrollton.â California, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Washington have laws regulating humane pet sales, according to Best Friends Animal Society. Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, introduced legislation in 2021 that would have banned the sale of dogs and cats from pet stores unless the animals came from an animal control agency, animal shelter, animal rescue organization or licensed breeder. Like the Dallas ordinance, a violation of Pattersonâs bill would have been a civil penalty of up to $500 for each dog or cat unlawfully sold. Versions of Pattersonâs legislation passed the House in April 2021 and Senate a month later, but differences in the bills werenât reconciled in time to become law.
DALLAS â Oil and gas activity increased slightly in fourth quarter 2024, according to oil and gas executives responding to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Energy Survey.
The business activity indexâthe surveyâs broadest measure of conditions facing Eleventh District energy firmsâcame in at 6, suggesting a small increase in activity since the last survey.
âThe oil and gas sector is entering 2025 on a relatively quiet note, with business activity growing slightly compared to last quarter,â said Michael Plante, Dallas Fed principal research economist.
Key takeaways:
⢠Outlooks improved this quarter with the company outlook index jumping 19 points to reach 7.1.
⢠The oil production index was 1.1 this quarter, suggesting oil production was relatively flat compared to the third quarter.
⢠Conditions among oilfield service firms weakened but the pace of deterioration slowed, according to most indexes. The business activity index rose from -18.1 last quarter to 2.2. The equipment utilization index improved from -20.9 to -4.4. The operating margin index was -17.8 vs. last surveyâs read of -32.6.
⢠Both employment and employee hours remained close to last quarterâs level. The employment index was 2.2 while the employee hours index was zero.
Firms report on capital spending plans for 2025
âAbout half of large E&P companies responded that they expect their capital spending to decrease in 2025. This is going to weigh on overall capital spending for the industry given the relative size and importance of these companies for spending and production,â Plante said. [download audio clip]
Additional takeaways from the special questions:
⢠Among all firms, 43 percent of executives expect capital spending in 2025 to increase slightly compared to 2024 while 14 percent expect a significant increase. Another 19 percent expect capital spending to remain close to 2024 levels, while 12 percent reported they expect a slight decrease and 11 percent a significant decrease.
⢠Two-thirds of firms reported that they do not anticipate increasing their investment in 2025 relative to what they anticipated three months ago.
⢠Firms are, on average, using a West Texas Intermediate crude oil price of $68 for capital planning in 2025. This is down slightly from last yearâs average of $71.
⢠Most executives expect permitting times for drilling wells on federal lands to improve over the next four years. Thirty-five percent of executives expect a slight decrease in permitting times while 33 percent expect a significant increase. Twenty-six percent expect little change while only 6 percent anticipate permitting times to increase.
⢠Large E&P firms are more likely to report they have plans to reduce emissions, reduce flaring, and/or recycle/reuse water compared to small E&P companies.
⢠Only 5 percent of E&P companies noted they have plans to invest in renewables.
The survey samples oil and gas companies headquartered in the Eleventh Federal Reserve District, which includes Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Louisiana. Many have national and global operations.
Data were collected December 11â19, 2024, and 134 energy firms responded. Of the respondents, 87 were exploration and production firms, and 47 were oilfield services firms.
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MARSHALL â As the struggle to nominate a new speaker for the Texas House of Representatives continues, one East Texas State Representative has come under scrutiny.
The Republican Party of Harrison County passed a resolution on Dec. 20 that lays out how the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) has made it a âLegislative Priorityâ to have âNo Democrat Chairsâ in the 89th Legislative Session (2024-2025). The resolution continues by saying that they could censure their elected representative for violating that priority.
âThe Harrison County Republican Party may censure their elected representative should he deliberately violate the RPT priorities and the will of the voters, by voting to elect a Speaker of the House who appoints Democrats to chair committees in the Texas House,â according to the Dec. 20 Harrison County Republican Party resolution. Continue reading Harrison County Republican Party threatens to censure State Rep. Jay Dean
(NEW YORK) -- The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it's happening right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes intensified by a warming planet and drought-fueled wildfires are destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes. And record-breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life.
The good news is we know how to turn the tide and avoid the worst possible outcomes. However, understanding what needs to be done can be confusing due to a constant stream of climate updates, scientific findings, and critical decisions that are shaping our future.
That's why the ABC News Climate and Weather Unit is cutting through the noise by curating what you need to know to keep the people and places you care about safe. We are dedicated to providing clarity amid the chaos, giving you the facts and insights necessary to navigate the climate realities of today -- and tomorrow.
How global warming is making Earth's climate more volatile
Scientists know that human-amplified climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of many extreme weather events, but our changing climate could also be making wild weather swings more common and more extreme, according to new research published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment and the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
For example, moving from devastating drought to record-breaking precipitation, or vice versa.
Parts of the world, like the southwestern U.S., historically experience highly variable weather and climate conditions, typically shifting from periods of very dry to very wet weather. However, in recent years, the rapid succession of extreme droughts, wildfires and floods has significantly impacted these regions, prompting scientists to look closely at how global warming affects climate variability.
The new research, which involved UCLA and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, further investigated this variability, focusing specifically on hydroclimate volatility. Hydroclimate volatility is sudden, large and/or frequent transitions between arid and very wet conditions.
Researchers found that this volatility, also known as "hydroclimate whiplash," has become more frequent and will increase significantly as global temperatures rise.
The analysis found that since the mid-20th century, inter-annual hydroclimate volatility has increased by 8% to 31% over land areas, meaning more frequent shifts from dry to wet conditions in recent decades.
"This increase in hydroclimate volatility likely underpins a good portion of the societal perception that the impacts from climate change are accelerating," Daniel Swain, lead researcher and climate scientist with UCLA and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, said in a statement.
To better illustrate their findings, the authors formally introduced the analogy of an "expanding atmospheric sponge," saying that the underlying physical processes driving the increase in volatility can be compared to using a kitchen sponge.
With each degree of global temperature rise, the hypothetical sponge becomes 7% larger, and, therefore, can hold more water. -- just like a larger kitchen sponge can soak up more water from the countertop compared to a smaller one. And when you wring out the bigger sponge, more water will pour out. A larger sponge will also require more water to become fully saturated.
A warmer atmosphere will also want to soak up more water vapor to achieve this through processes like evaporation, which can enhance dry conditions. These changes in atmospheric water vapor capacity will not only increase the chances of moving from very dry to very wet conditions, but it could fuel droughts and more extreme rainfall.
And as hydroclimate volatility continues to increase, more rapid swings between extreme weather events will amplify many of the associated hazards and potentially require changes to how we manage them.
-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck
Biden bans offshore oil and gas drilling in 625 million acres of ocean
Just days before he leaves office, President Joe Biden is taking executive action to ban offshore oil and gas drilling in more than 625 million acres of ocean.
Using a provision in the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that gives the president the authority to ban drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf ocean zone, Biden declared the entire U.S. East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California and portions of the Northern Baring Sea in Alaska off limits to future oil and natural gas leasing.
"My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation's energy needs. It is not worth the risks," Biden said in a statement.
The decision is not unprecedented. President Barack Obama used the act to ban oil and gas production in parts of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. And President Donald Trump used it to prohibit drilling off both Florida coasts and the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. Trump also tried to overturn the Obama decision in 2019, but a U.S. District Court judge ruled that it would require an act of Congress to undo the ban. With that ruling, Trump may have difficulty ridding himself of the ban.
Environmental groups are praising the decision, and one senior administration official told ABC News that the ban is "one of the most significant climate actions the president could take" regarding climate protection and natural resource protection.
The American Petroleum Institute panned the move, saying, "American voters sent a clear message in support of domestic energy development, and yet the current administration is using its final days in office to cement a record of doing everything possible to restrict it."
The group, which represents America's natural gas and oil industry, is urging "policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing."
But Biden is pushing back on the criticism, and the White House says hundreds of municipalities and thousands of elected officials have formally opposed offshore drilling in these areas because of health, environmental and economic threats.
"We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low. Those are false choices," Biden added in his statement.
While the eastern Gulf of Mexico is considered a lucrative region for drilling, the oil and gas industry has not shown much interest in developing some of the other areas receiving the new protection. And there's been bipartisan pressure to protect many of these locations as many legislators don't want oil platforms near their beaches.
-ABC News Climate Unit's Matthew Glasser and ABC News White House Correspondent MaryAlice Parks
Could the UK be a model for clean electricity production?
When it comes to curbing climate change, scientists have been clear. The world needs to stop burning fossil fuels. However, much of the world still depends on significant amounts of oil, gas and coal for its energy needs.
England kicked off the coal power revolution in 1882 and, for the next 142 years, burned the greenhouse gas-emitting energy source. But last year, the U.K. became the first G7 country to phase out coal power plants. When the Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant in Nottinghamshire closed in September, it marked the end of an era for the most-polluting fossil fuel in that region.
A new analysis by Carbon Brief, a U.K.-based climate publication, found that by eliminating coal and adopting more clean energy sources, the U.K. has significantly cleaned up its electricity generation, meaning it's generating the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions in its history.
According to the analysis, in 2024, renewable energy sources reached a record-high 45% in the country, while fossil fuels made up 29%. Nuclear energy accounted for another 13%. Over the last decade, renewable energy sources have more than doubled. As a result, carbon emissions have plunged by two-thirds over that time.
While gas-fired power plants are still the U.K.'s single-largest source of electricity, wind power has almost caught up. However, the analysis found that when new wind projects come online in the coming months, the U.K. will likely generate more power from wind than gas in 2025.
While the incoming Trump administration calls for more drilling and fossil fuel use, including coal, in the United States, the U.K. just had its cleanest year ever for electricity generation. The combination of sunsetting coal power plants and increasing the amount of renewable energy is moving the country in the direction scientists say is crucial for stopping the worst impacts of human-amplified climate change.
-ABC News Climate Unit's Matthew Glasser
New York will make polluters pay for climate change damage
New York State is establishing a "Climate Superfund" that will make companies that release large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions financially responsible for some of the damage that climate change caused to the state's infrastructure, communities and ecosystems.
On Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul, signed a bill into law requiring large fossil fuel companies to "pay for critical projects that protect New Yorkers." Citing the hundreds of billions of dollars the state will have to spend on climate adaptation through 2050, the law requires that the companies responsible for most carbon emissions, more than a billion metric tons, between 2000-2018 pay nearly $3 billion annually for the next 25 years.
"With nearly every record rainfall, heatwave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment," Hochul said in a press statement.
The new law calls climate change "an immediate, grave threat to the state's communities, environment, and economy." According to NASA, 97% of climate scientists believe human activity, specifically burning fossil fuels, is the primary driver of climate change and global warming. And those changes to the climate have resulted in more intense and more frequent extreme weather events.
The New York legislature said the "Climate Superfund" was now possible because scientific research enables them "to determine with great accuracy the share of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by specific fossil fuel companies over the last 70 years or more, making it possible to assign liability to and require compensation from companies commensurate with their emissions during a given time period."
"The governor's approval of the Climate Change Superfund Act is a welcome holiday gift for New York taxpayers," said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, in a statement. "Until her approval, New York taxpayers were 100% on the financial hook for climate costs. Now Big Oil will pay for much of the damages that they helped cause."
The state anticipates collecting up to $75 billion over 25 years, and the law requires that at least 35% of the funds go to disadvantaged communities.
New York State Senator Liz Krueger said the new legislation was modeled after the federal Superfund law that requires polluters to pay for toxic waste cleanups.
But not everyone is cheering the new legislation. In a letter to Gov. Hochul, urging her to veto the bill, the Business Council of New York State, which represents more than 3,000 companies, chambers of commerce and associations, wrote, "The bill discriminates by targeting only the largest fossil fuel extraction and processing firms, including petroleum, natural gas, and coal."
The Council added, "This legislation ignores the near universal use and benefits associated with fossil fuel." They argued that the new law would do nothing to address what they said is the primary cause of carbon emissions: "consumption."
There are still a lot of specifics that have yet to be determined, and the state's Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for figuring out the program's details over the next few years. With legal challenges all but certain, it will be some time before the companies actually have to pay up.
-ABC News Climate Unit's Matthew Glasser
Could climate change bring more earthquakes?
Earthquakes are usually triggered by seismic activity deep beneath the Earth's surface and far beyond the influence of atmospheric conditions. However, according to new research, there may be instances where climate change can impact seismic activity.
A recent Colorado State University study suggests that melting glaciers could impact earthquake activity in some areas. Researchers analyzed southern Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Mountains during the last ice age. They found the active fault responsible for triggering earthquakes was held in place by the weight of glaciers sitting on top of it.
Thousands of years ago, as the last ice age ended and the planet began to naturally warm, glaciers in this region began to melt. The study found that as the ice melted, there was less pressure on the quake-prone fault, which triggered an increase in earthquake activity. Basically, the glacier was holding the fault in place -- less ice, less weight.
There is limited scientific evidence linking changes in Earth's climate to earthquake activity. Still, this study demonstrates that, in some cases, climate-related events, like melting glaciers, could influence seismic events.
Sean Gallen, Geosciences associate professor and senior author of the study, highlights that this research helps us better understand the factors that can drive earthquakes.
Even though the study focused on investigating links between Earth's natural climate variability (an ice age) and seismic activity, this research shows how other glacier-adjacent faults worldwide could respond as greenhouse gas emissions accelerate global warming.
As human-amplified climate change continues to drive global glacier melt, earthquake activity along these faults could increase as glaciers recede.
"We see this in the rapid mountain glacial retreats in Alaska, the Himalayas and the Alps," said Cece Hurtado, an author of the study. "In many of these regions, there are also active tectonics, and this work demonstrates that as climate change alters ice and water loads, tectonically active areas might see more frequent fault movements and earthquakes due to rapidly changing stress conditions."
-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck
Copyright Š 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
DALLAS – The Texas Tribune reported that a multi-year fight over whether Southern Methodist University can separate itself from the United Methodist Church is heading to Texasâ highest court this month. The Texas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit between the 12,000-student private university in Dallas and the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church on Jan. 15.
In 2019, SMU leadership changed its articles of incorporation and declared that its board of trustees was the âultimate authorityâ over the university, not the United Methodist Church. The university’s articles of incorporation detail how the university is governed and by whom.
The universityâs decision to update the documents and assert the boardâs sole control over the school came during a tumultuous time in the Methodist churchâs history. In 2019, members endorsed a ban on LGBTQ+ clergy and prohibited pastors from performing same-sex unions. It sparked a massive clash within the church, prompting thousands of conservative churches who were tired of the fight to disaffiliate and start their own more conservative church, now called the Globalist Methodist Church. Continue reading SMUâs bid to split from United Methodist Church over LGBTQ+ rights heads to Texas Supreme Court
TYLER — The Tyler Animal Shelter is offering free microchips and registration for any cat or dog this new year. The shelter says inserting a microchip is a quick process in which a tiny chip is inserted under a pet’s skin. The chip is a permanent, helpful tool that ensures a pet can be easily identified if lost.
According to a news release, Tyler Animal Services will insert and register pets’ microchips or confirm that an existing microchip is registered correctly, at no cost. Pet owners do not have to be residents of the City of Tyler to obtain this service, and vaccinations are not required.
Interested pet owners can bring their furry friends to the Tyler Animal Shelter located at 4218 Chandler Hwy. Â For more information, call (903) 535-0045.
(NEW YORK) -- Homebuyers eager to forget this year's housing market may ring in 2025 with an extra dash of zeal.
A rapid rise in home prices has coincided with stubbornly high mortgage rates, shutting out potential buyers with daunting costs.
A burst of supply could have eased prices, but no such relief was forthcoming. Instead, homeowners have balked at swapping out their current mortgage rates for higher ones, and construction has failed to make up for a long-standing shortage in new homes.
Unfortunately, next year's housing market will likely bring more of the same, experts told ABC News.
Home prices may rise at a slower pace, offering a glimmer of hope as high mortgage rates fall slightly but continue to weigh on consumer activity, they said.
Still, the market appears locked into a fundamental mismatch of supply and demand set to frustrate buyers, the experts added.
"I don't see much sunshine in the forecast," Ken Johnson, chief of real estate at the University of Mississippi, told ABC News. "It's going to be gloomy and overcast, but it's not going to be stormy."
An unusual trend has beguiled buyers: Home prices are soaring, despite a prolonged stretch of high mortgage rates that, in theory, should crimp demand and push down prices.
Market observers who spoke to ABC News said they expect both price increases and mortgage rates to ease in 2025 -- but only a smidge.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage stands at 6.85%, FreddieMac data last week showed. That figure has ticked up slightly since the start of the year, despite a series of interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve in recent months.
Earlier this month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said rate cuts may slow over the course of 2025. Such a policy would leave mortgage rates higher for longer, experts said.
Redfin, a Seattle, Washington-based real estate giant, forecasts average 30-year fixed mortgage rates will remain in the high 6% range over the duration of 2025. Online real estate marketplace Zillow says mortgage rates will fall, but only moderately.
Alongside persistently high mortgage rates, experts predicted a continued, albeit slower, rise in home prices.
In September, Goldman Sachs predicted a 4.4% rise in home prices in 2025, which would mark a slight decline from the 4.5% rise in 2024.
The persistence of high mortgage rates will put some downward pressure on prices, since demand will soften as many consumers forego expensive loans, experts said, but the high rates will also exacerbate a lack of supply that has kept prices soaring.
Current homeowners will want to remain locked into relatively low mortgage rates. Homebuilding will deliver much-needed supply of new homes, but it will fall well short of the amount required to meet demand, experts said.
"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but it doesn't feel like prices are going to moderate that much," Marc Norman, associate dean at the New York University School of Professional Studies and Schack Institute of Real Estate, told ABC News. "If you don't have a lot on the market, that's going to put pressure on prices."
Experts who spoke to ABC News acknowledged that economic forces could defy expectations, leaving the housing market in better or worse shape than anticipated.
Faster-than-expected progress in bringing inflation down to the Fed's target level could free up the central bank to slash interest rates, which in turn would lower mortgage rates, some experts said. An economic downturn would damage household finances and ease demand, likely leading to a drop in home prices, they added.
If inflation proves more stubborn than expected, however, interest rates may stay high for even longer, experts said, which could put the housing market into an even deeper freeze.
For now, the outlook for 2025 appears clear, Christopher Mayer, a real estate professor at the Columbia University Business School, told ABC News.
"My best guess is that next year is a lot like this year," Mayer said.
Copyright Š 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(NEW YORK) -- If youâre feeling hungover from New Yearâs Eve champagne or had one too many boozy eggnogs over the holidays, let January be a fresh start.
Taking the challenge of going dry in January, or Dry January, i.e. having no alcohol for the entire month, is one resolution that might actually make you healthier.
The Dry January campaign was started in 2013 by Alcohol Change U.K., a charity focused on reducing alcohol harm. For the past several years, the initiative has proved popular in the United States and other countries too.
What are the health benefits of Dry January?
While research on how quitting alcohol for a month affects your body is still limited, several studies have shown psychological and health benefits.
Over one dozen staff members at the magazine New Scientist teamed up with researchers at the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health at the University College London Medical School in 2013 to investigate the benefits of Dry January.
The staff members, who all considered themselves ânormalâ drinkers, underwent baseline testing with blood samples, liver ultrasound scans and questionnaires. For the next five weeks, 10 of them stopped drinking and four drank their normal amounts.
The people who stopped drinking had lower levels of liver fat (which can be a precursor to liver damage), improved blood sugars and lower cholesterol than they did at the beginning of the month. They also reported improved sleep and concentration. In contrast, the four people who kept drinking saw no benefit.
Another study out of the U.K. had nearly 100 participants abstain from drinking alcohol for a month and another nearly 50 participants continue drinking alcohol as normal.
They found that moderate-heavy drinkers who took a break from alcohol had improved insulin resistance, weight, blood pressure, and cancer-related growth factors.
The researchers do warn, however, that the study does not show that a short-term âdetoxâ period is all that is required to ârefreshâ the liver or achieve other health gains. Abstaining from alcohol for a month is only one part of addressing negative effects from longer-term alcohol consumption.
People who drink excessive amounts of alcohol are at higher risk of death and many medical conditions.
People who drink unhealthy amounts of alcohol are more likely to have high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, nerve damage, infections including pneumonia and even certain cancers like breast cancer.
Dr. Fulton Crews, director of the Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said attempting to stop drinking for Dry January is a good opportunity for people to see if they have an actual addiction to alcohol.
âMany people are in denial about their drinking and hazardous drinking, and if they try to stop and are not able to, it really points out to them their weakness," Crews told ABC News. "If they canât stop for a month, they would realize that they have a problem.
"Either that or they do it, and they realize it's not that hard for them," said Crews, who described Dry January as a "good idea."
Experts say Dry January may be especially helpful to those who consistently drink over the recommended amount of two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women.
Excessive drinking includes binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks for men in a single occasion and four or more drinks for women, and heavy drinking, defined as consuming 15 or more drinks per week for men or eight drinks or more for women). A standard drink is 12 ounces of a regular beer, 8 ounces of a malt liquor, 5 ounces of a glass of wine, and 1.5 ounces of a spirit, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For those individuals who drink alcohol within the recommended limits, Crews said he is "not sure there would be any observable benefits."
"I donât see any clear potential for a moderate drinking person to stop drinking," he said.
If you do choose to participate in Dry January, Crews shared his advice for sticking to the program.
âTry to avoid temptation by maybe putting all the alcohol out of the house," he said.
Does Dry January prompt bigger change for some?
Staying dry for January may also help jump-start people to give up alcohol for longer.
Although most people who participate in Dry January return to drinking, up to 8% stay dry six months later, according to Public Health England and the British Medical Journal.
And those who go back to drinking drink less. A 2015 study conducted in the U.K. and published in the journal Health Psychology found that people who participated in Dry January drank less often, had fewer drinks when they did drink and were drunk less often six months after Dry January was completed.
Dry January participants were also better able to refuse alcoholic drinks. These benefits were even seen in people who did not complete the whole month of Dry January.
It might seem daunting to stop drinking alcohol for a whole month. But a 2020 Alcohol and Alcoholism study found that nearly 70% of people completed the Dry January Challenge in 2019.
If you are concerned about yourself or a loved one, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMSA) confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). For information and resources about alcohol-related problems and health, visit the website of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) HERE.
Editor's note: This piece was originally published on Jan. 3, 2018.
Copyright Š 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) â An 18-year-old girl dreaming of becoming a nurse, a single mother, a father of two and a former Princeton football star suffered fatal injuries when the driver of a white pickup truck sped down Bourbon Street, packed with holiday revelers early Wednesday morning.
Officials have not yet released the names of the 15 people killed in the New Orleans New Year’s Day truck attack, but their families and friends have started sharing their stories. New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna said in a statement late Wednesday that they will release the names of the dead once autopsies are complete and they’ve talked with the next of kin. About 30 people were injured.
Nikyra Dedeaux
Zion Parsons of Gulfport, Mississippi, had been celebrating New Yearâs Eve at his first night on Bourbon Street when a vehicle appeared and plowed into his friend, 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux, who he said had dreamed of becoming a nurse.
âA truck hit the corner and comes barreling through throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air,â Parsons, 18, told The Associated Press. âIt hit her and flung her like at least 30 feet and I was just lucky to be alive.”
As the crowd scattered in the chaos he ran through a gruesome aftermath of bleeding and maimed victims, hearing gunshots and explosive sounds.
âBodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and holleringâ Parsons said. âPeople crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground. It was just insane, like the closest thing to a war zone that Iâve ever seen.â
Dedeaux was a responsible daughter — shorter than all her siblings but the one who helped take care of everyone, Parsons said. Dedeaux had a job at a hospital and was set to start college and begin working towards her goal of becoming a registered nurse.
âShe had her mindset — she didnât have everything figured out but she had the plan laid down,â Parsons said.
Reggie Hunter
A 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge was among the 15 people killed early Wednesday when a pickup truck careened down Bourbon Street in what officials called an act of terror.
Reggie Hunter had just left work and headed to celebrate New Yearâs with a cousin when the attack happened, his first cousin Shirell Jackson told Nola.com.
Hunter was killed and his cousin was injured, Jackson said.
Tiger Bech
A former high school and college football player from Louisiana was among those who died after a driver rammed a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleansâ French Quarter, according to an education official.
Tiger Bech, 27, died late Wednesday morning at a New Orleans hospital, according to local media outlets citing Kim Broussard, the athletic director at St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette. Bech attended the high school, where he played wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner and defensive back, NOLA.com reported.
Bech played football at Princeton University before graduating in 2021. Most recently he was working as an investment trader at a New York brokerage firm.
Princeton football coach Bob Surace said Wednesday that he had been texting with Bechâs father, sharing memories of the player, who was a school kick returner and receiver from 2017 to 2019. He earned All-Ivy League honors as a returner.
âHe might be the first Tiger to ever play for us, and that nickname kind of described him as a competitor,â Surace told ESPN. The schoolâs nickname is the Tigers. âHe was somebody that somehow, like in the key moments, just excelled and was full of energy, full of life.â
Bech has been working at Seaport Global, where company spokesperson Lisa Lieberman could not confirm his death. But she told The Associated Press that âhe was extremely well regarded by everybody who knew him.â
Bechâs younger brother, Jack, is a top wide receiver at Texas Christian University.
In a response to a KLFY-TV report posted on X about Tiger Bechâs death, a post from an account for a Jack Bech on the social media site said: âLove you always brother ! You inspired me everyday now you get to be with me in every moment. I got this family T, donât worry. This is for us.â
Nicole Perez
Nicole Perez was a single mother to a 4-year-old son working hard to make life better for her family when she was killed in the New Orleans truck attack, according to her employer.
Perez, who was in her late 20s, was recently promoted to manager at Kimmyâs Deli in Metarie, Louisiana and âwas really excited about it,â deli owner Kimberly Usher said in a phone interview with AP. Usher confirmed Perezâs death through her sister, who also works for her.
Usher said Perez would walk in the morning to the deli, which opened at breakfast time, and would ask lots of questions about the business side of the operations. She also was permitted to bring her son, Melo, to work, where during breaks she taught him basic learning skills.
âShe was a really good mom,â said Usher, who started a GoFundMe account to cover Perezâs burial costs and to help with expenses for her son that âhe will need to transition into a new living situation,â the donation request says.
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Jack Brook in New Orleans, Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed to this report.
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The story has been corrected to change Tiger Bech’s age from 28 to 27.
The suspect in a deadly attack on New Year’s revelers in New Orleans has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S.-born citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas, according to the FBI.
At least 15 people were killed and over two dozen injured after a rented Ford pickup truck was driven through a crowd on Bourbon Street at a high rate of speed early Wednesday, officials said.
Efforts continued late into the evening to learn more about the suspect and the incident.
Those efforts included the breach and search of two locations: an Airbnb in New Orleans that may be tied to the suspect and a residence in Houston that has been linked to Jabbar, sources told ABC News.
The Airbnb was involved in some kind of fire or detonation earlier in the day, the sources said, which raised concern about the possibility that there more explosives linked to the suspect that are yet to be recovered.
FBI Houston released a statement on X saying that it is working with the Harris County Sheriffâs Office to conduct a court-authorized search of an address near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive in Houston.
“At this time, no arrests have been made and FBI personnel will be at the scene for several more hours,” the statement said, while urging the public to stay away from the area.
Specialized teams focusing on the operation include “the FBI SWAT team, Crisis Negotiators, Special Agent Bomb Technicians, Tactical Operations Center, Evidence Response Team, and a group of counterterrorism investigators,” according to FBI Houston.
An ISIS flag was found on a pole on the truck’s trailer hitch, and authorities are working to determine whether the deceased suspect had any affiliation with terrorist organizations.
However, authorities do believe Jabbar was radicalized in the last few years, a senior official told ABC News late Wednesday, and that radicalization may have been exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas war.
Addressing the nation from Camp David on Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden said, “The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he’s inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”
“The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack,” Biden said. “Possible explosives were found in the vehicle as well, and more explosives were found nearby.”
However, he cautioned, “The situation is very fluid and the investigation is in its preliminary stage.”
The FBI is studying videos the suspect appears to have recorded while driving from Texas to Louisiana, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The suspect is not seen but is allegedly heard talking about his divorce and about a desire to kill members of his family before ultimately deciding to carry out the attack on Bourbon Street, the sources said.
The suspect is also heard talking about ISIS, the sources said.
After barreling through the crowd over a three-block stretch, the suspect allegedly got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident told ABC News.
Officers returned fire, killing the suspect, police said. At least two police officers were shot and wounded, authorities said.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said at a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.
She said the driver was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
Weapons and potential IEDs were located in the suspect’s vehicle and other potential IEDs were located in the French Quarter, according to the FBI, which is leading the investigation. As of now, two IEDs have been found and rendered safe, the FBI said.
Investigators found homemade pipe bombs at the scene of the Bourbon Street attack, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The crude devices contained coils and nails, the sources said. Authorities also found a grenade, which is among the items tested for viability, sources said.
In addition to the assault rifle, Jabbar was allegedly armed with a handgun, sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the horrific incident as a “terrorist attack” and the FBI said it was being investigated as an act of terror.
The suspect is not believed to be “solely responsible” for the attack, according to the FBI, which said it is pursuing leads to identify any of his associates.
“There are other potential suspects out there, as well,” said New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno on Wednesday. “So we do have really a multi-agency effort at this point to identify anyone else who may have had anything to do with this particular incident and make sure that justice does prevail and that these individuals are caught and targeted immediately.”
New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle ramming, leading the FBI to conclude the driver of the pickup truck did not act alone in the attack, law enforcement sources told ABC News early Wednesday.
Individuals appearing in one such video relating to the area where potential explosive devices were thought to have been planted are being considered unrelated passersby as of Wednesday evening, federal authorities said, though the investigation remains ongoing.
Investigators are urgently working to identify any individuals appearing on camera in potentially related areas and will take any potential persons of interest into custody, sources said.
“It’s all hands on deck to find anyone else who had any type of involvement in this,” Moreno said.
In his remarks on Wednesday evening, Biden confirmed that the law enforcement community was continuing to investigate any “connections, associations or co-conspirators.”
Additionally, Biden said, authorities were looking into any possible connection with the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
“Thus far there is nothing to report on that score,” Biden said, adding that law enforcement was working to “ensure that there is no remaining threat to the American people.”
The president added that, regardless of the suspect’s actions or intent, “the spirit of our New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated.”
Jabbar served in human resources and information technology roles in the Army from 2007 to 2015, during which he deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, an Army spokesperson confirmed to ABC News. He continued as an IT specialist in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, the spokesperson said. His listed jobs were not direct combat roles.
Jabbar is believed to have been discharged honorably from the Army, though investigators are still looking into his military record, the FBI said.
The suspect had earlier enlisted in the Navy, in August 2024, though he never went to boot camp and was discharged from the delayed entry program one month later, according to a Navy spokesperson.
In a YouTube video posted in 2020, Jabbar says he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and spent a decade working in the U.S. military before becoming a Realtor in the Houston area. His years in the military were spent working as a human resources and IT specialist, Jabbar says in the video, which has since been removed from YouTube.
The suspect has been living in the Houston area, according to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Authorities with the FBI and Harris County Sheriff’s Office were “conducting law enforcement activity” in an area of north Houston in connection with the New Orleans attack, FBI Houston said Wednesday afternoon.
The suspect worked for Deloitte, having served in a “staff-level role” since being hired in 2021, a spokesperson for the firm confirmed to ABC News.
“We are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation.”
His title at Deloitte was “senior solution specialist,” according to a source.
Used Turo to rent truck used in attack
The truck used in the attack had a Texas license plate, according to Carter.
The vehicle appeared to be a Ford F-150 Lightning, an electric vehicle. It appears the truck was rented through the Turo app — a carsharing company, according to Rodrigo Diaz, the owner of the truck.
Diaz told ABC News he rented the truck to an individual through the app and is currently talking to the FBI. He declined further comment.
Diaz’s wife, Dora Diaz, told ABC News that she and her husband are devastated by the incident.
“My husband rents cars through the Turo app. I canât tell you anything else. Iâm here with my kids, and this is devastating,” Dora Diaz said.
ABC News has reached out to Turo.
The suspect rented the truck on Monday, according to Patrick.
“[We] have learned he was driving the rented truck in Houston before heading to New Orleans,” Patrick said.
“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” a Turo spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday evening. “We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals.”
The company said it is actively cooperating with authorities and the investigation.
ABC News’ Matt Seyler and Jared Kofsky contributed to this report.
The man suspected of carrying out the New Year’s attack in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had a checkered marital history punctuated by multiple divorces and financial difficulty, according to court records reviewed by ABC News.
The records also show that after his military service, Jabbar worked for two of the nation’s largest professional services firms, Ernst & Young and Deloitte, as he aimed to grow his own fledgling real estate business.
Jabbar has been identified by the FBI as the suspect in the deadly attack on New Year’s revelers. At least 15 people were killed and over two dozen injured after a rented Ford pickup truck was driven through a crowd on Bourbon Street at a high rate of speed early Wednesday, officials said.
Jabbar, who police said was killed during the attack, was a 42-year-old U.S.-born citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas, according to the FBI.
As of 2022, while employed by Deloitte, documents show Jabbar was making close to $125,000 a year — a salary which was chipped away at by court-ordered payments for his children from a past marriage and weighed down by credit card and mortgage debt.
In 2012 in Harris County, Texas, ex-wife Nakedra Charrllee Jabbar successfully sued him for child support payments for the couple’s two girls, who were eight and three years old at the time, according to court records.
Four years later, in 2016, Jabbar filed for divorce from another wife, Tiera Symone Jabbar, in Dekalb County, Georgia. The complaint form, filled out in handwriting, says the two married in Sept. 2013 but separated less than two and a half years later in Feb. 2016. Under grounds for divorce, Jabbar checked the box on the form that read “our marriage is irretrievably broken,” adding that the pair “can no longer live together and there is no hope that we will get back together.”
In July 2020, in Fort Bend County, Texas, Jabbar filed for divorce from wife Shaneen Chantil Jabbar, whom he married in Nov. 2017, according to court filings. But the pair jointly sought to dismiss the suit only a month after it was filed, saying they “both no longer desire[d] to prosecute his/her respective suits against the other party” — a request that the court granted.
However, when Jabbar again filed for divorce a year later, his then-wife responded with a counterclaim that sparked a lengthy battle of briefs indicating apparent bad blood between them that may have at least in part stemmed from financial difficulties.
In one filing, Shaneen’s lawyer accused Jabbar of “flagrant disregard” of his financial duties to their household — alleging that during their marriage, Jabbar “was entrusted with the management, control, and disposition of substantially all community estate funds.”
Though Shaneen “trusted and believed” her husband “would faithfully execute” his management, he violated their “fiduciary relationship,” his soon-to-be ex’s lawyer alleged.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar “has intentionally and in flagrant disregard of the duties as manager and trustee of the community funds mismanaged the community estate, all in fraud of” his wife’s financial interest, she said.
Shaneen’s filings also claimed that Jabbar withheld important information from the court about his retirement savings, with one record from July 2022 alleging Jabbar had failed to produce statements showing his participation in the retirement plan at Ernst & Young, where the filing indicates Jabbar worked prior to joining Deloitte.
The acrimonious split from Shaneen also featured Jabbar breaking with his own laywer. Attorney Robert Tsai — who represented Jabbar in his 2012 divorce — withdrew from the case in Sept. 2021, citing an inability to “effectively communicate” with his client “in a manner consistent with good attorney-client relations.” Court records indicate Jabbar represented himself through the remainder of the divorce proceedings.
In court records Jabbar laid out some of his financial difficulties as he explained why he sought a divorce settlement that would have the couple selling their house and splitting the proceeds. The property management firm Jabbar founded, Blue Meadow Properties, was failing to produce any revenue and was in fact losing money, per his submissions to the court.
“Time is of the essence,” he wrote in an email to his wife’s lawyer on Jan 6, 2022. “l can not afford the house payment. It is past due in excess of $27,000 and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce. The home was not in default at the time we agreed to the temporary orders. l misunderstood the terms of the loan modification I had applied for at the time.”
Jabbar’s filings in the 2022 divorce from Shaneen show he was already responsible for paying $2,200 in child support per month following his divorce from Nakedra. Ultimately, Jabbar was ordered to pay an additional $1,353 a month in child support to help care for the son he shared with Shaneen, according to the documents.
The court ordered Deloitte to withhold the extra child support from his paychecks.
His ex-wife Shaneen got the house, despite Jabbar’s asking that the asset be sold and the proceeds split, court records show. She received primary custody of their son, though Jabbar got visitation rights, the records said.
During their divorce, court records show both Jabbard and Shaneen took four hours’ instruction on parenting from the “Texas Cooperative Parenting Course,” and each received a certificate indicating they had “successfully completed” the course and were “hereby committed to working with the other parent in the best interest of their child/children.” Jabbar’s is dated Aug. 20, 2021. Shaneen’s is dated Aug. 30, 2021.
ABC News attempted on Wednesday to contact Nakedra, Tiera and Shaneen. Phone calls or text messages were not returned.
Law enforcement agencies are expanding their investigation into the New Year’s ramming attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street which killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more in the early hours of Wednesday.
City and federal officials said an Army veteran — identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42 — was “hell-bent” on killing as many people as possible. The suspect drove a pickup truck around a parked police car serving as a barricade and plowed into crowds of revelers, officials said.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during a Wednesday news conference that security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.
The suspect mowed down dozens of people over a three-block stretch on the world-famous thoroughfare while firing into the crowd, police said.
The alleged attacker then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials said. Jabbar was also armed with a handgun, sources told ABC News.
Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, sources said. At least two police officers were injured, one by gunfire and the other when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities said.
Althea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans field office, said investigators do not believe Jabbar acted alone.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Duncan said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates. That’s why we need the public’s help. We are asking if anybody had any interaction with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us.”
Duncan also said improvised explosives devices and other weapons were found inside the pickup truck used in the attack. She said two additional IEDs were discovered in the French Quarter and rendered safe.
The IEDs found in and around the scene on Bourbon Street were apparently determined to be viable, and investigators were looking for more in the city’s French Quarter, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The FBI said two devices were found and rendered safe. Crude pipe bombs stuffed with coils and nails were found at the scene along with a grenade, sources said.
New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle attack, which led them to believe the suspect did not act alone, sources said. Investigators said they were urgently working to identify the individuals who were seen on camera and to take them into custody.
The FBI offices in New Orleans and Houston released statements late Wednesday announcing searches related to the attack.
“FBI special agents and our law enforcement partners are currently conducting a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states,” the FBI’s New Orleans field office said in a statement, adding that they planned to hand over the New Orleans crime scene to local authorities by Thursday morning.
Meanwhile the FBI in Houston posted on X that they and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office were “continuing a court-authorized search of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive.”
“At this time, no arrests have been made, and FBI personnel will be at the scene for several more hours,” the post continued.
Authorities are also working to determine whether there may be a link between the New Orleans attack and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion on Wednesday outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel in Nevada, which is being investigated as a possible act of terror, an official said.
The Cybertruck that exploded was rented via the Turo app, as was the truck used in the New Orleans attack, sources told ABC News.
On Wednesday afternoon, the FBI in Houston and the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office, posted a message on social media that they are “currently conducting law enforcement activity near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive in north Houston” related to the New Orleans attack.
“We have secured a perimeter in that area and are asking people to avoid the area,” the notice said. “FBI Houston personnel and specialized teams will be on-site for several hours. This activity is related to this morning’s New Orleans attack, but due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information can be provided.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, decried what he called a “heinous act” when addressing the New Orleans attack Wednesday night at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
Biden said that the FBI told him that “mere hours before the attack, [Jabbar] posted videos on social media indicating that he’s inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”
Biden also said “law enforcement and the intelligence community” were investigating whether there was “any possible connection” between the New Orleans attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas.
“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” Biden said.
Biden said that the New Orleans suspect was “an American citizen, born in Texas. He served in the United States Army on active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve, until a few years ago.”
The FBI is studying the videos Biden referenced in his remarks, which the suspect appears to have recorded while driving from Texas to Louisiana, law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News.
The videos are dark so the suspect isn’t seen but he can be heard talking about his divorce and a desire to kill members of his family before ultimately deciding to carry out the attack on Bourbon Street, according to the law enforcement sources.
The suspect is also heard talking about ISIS, the sources said.
New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna released a statement late Wednesday afternoon that said, “As of now, 15 people are deceased.”
“It will take several days to perform all autopsies. Once we complete the autopsies and talk with the next of kin, we will release the identifications of the victims,” McKenna’s statement continued.
Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, told ABC News earlier Wednesday afternoon that the number of people killed in the incident had risen from 10 to 15. He said another 25 people were hospitalized with injuries.
SMITH COUNTY â According to our news partner KETK, the Smith County Commissioners Court approved the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) on Dec. 31 that could bring many upgrades including a new location for the Smith County Animal & Control center.
The commissioners court approved CIP on Dec. 31 that supports the community and the countyâs mission. The CIP is a strategic management tool first created in 2011 that is evaluated and updated in its five-year plan each year.
âThis plan, like the prior ones, is intended to establish guidelines and procedures for planning purposes as well as to identify projects, outline costs associated with the projects and formalize the process of adopting and planning for the short-term and long-term capital needs of Smith County,â County Judge Neal Franklin said. Continue reading Smith County commissioners approve capital improvement plan
VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas (KETK) â According to our news partner KETK, Sheriff Kevin Bridger was sworn in as the newly elected sheriff of Van Zandt County on New Yearâs Day.
At the Van Zandt County Courthouse Wednesday morning, Sheriff Bridger was sworn in continuing on a tradition of dedicated service to the citizens of Van Zandt County.
âI am proud to represent the law enforcement professionals of Van Zandt County and to be your sheriff,â Bridger said. âVan Zandt County is my home, and I pledge to protect that which we all hold dearest, our homes, businesses and families.â
