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AUSTIN (AP) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he has launched an investigation into one of the state’s Medicaid insurance providers after allegations that the company illegally spied on Texans.

The state is investigating Superior HealthPlan, an insurance company that provides Medicaid coverage to adults, children, and coverage for the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Texas, for allegedly using private investigators to perform surveillance and gather potentially confidential information on lawmakers, journalists and other Texans.

“The allegations concerning Superior’s actions, such as actions that were characterized as potentially blackmailing lawmakers to secure state contracts and surveilling private citizens to avoid paying legitimate claims, are deeply troubling,” Paxton said in a statement.

Superior HealthPlan CEO Mark Sanders was questioned Wednesday by members of the Texas House Committee on the Delivery of Government Efficiency about his company’s use of private investigators. The topic surfaced as lawmakers questioned company representatives about potential fraud and waste of taxpayer funds connected to its Medicaid contracts, and Sanders told the committee members that the company used private investigators in the past, but hasn’t done so for the past few years.

On Thursday, Superior fired Sanders, the Dallas Morning News reported.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Sanders defended his company’s actions at the hearing by saying that the information gathered was nothing beyond what was publicly available.

“It was just understanding (what interests people), so we could have been knowledgeable of when we’re meeting with different individuals. That’s really it,” Sanders replied.

Lawmakers expressed concern that the actions aimed to secure leverage to help the company win future state contracts, discredit legitimate insurance claims by individuals, and track journalists reporting on allegations against Superior HealthPlan.

“I disagree. You wanted leverage, and you felt that you were going to use it. Just disgusting,” said state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington.

State Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, asked Sanders that if there was no intent to gain leverage over people, why did private investigators working for Superior HealthPlan look into legislators’ divorce records?

“I don’t recall at the time,” Sanders told lawmakers.

House Bill 5061, filed by state Rep. Jeff Leach earlier this month, addresses some of the lawmaker’s concerns by prohibiting any contractor that works with the state from engaging in surveillance.

“We’re up here talking to a company who has received millions, billions of dollars in taxpayer funds through Medicaid contracts, who has used that money to hire private investigators to follow around patients and legislators that are [now] asking questions about what the heck is going on,” said state Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway. “It’s ridiculous.”

Tiffany Young, spokesperson for Texas Health and Human Services, referred questions on how the investigation could affect Texans’ Medicaid coverage to Paxton’s office. The attorney general’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

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

A wide-ranging crackdown on abortion pills, out-of-state travel and other ways Texans are evading the state’s near-total abortion ban drew zealous support from abortion opponents who said during a Senate committee meeting on Thursday that illegal trafficking of abortion pills harms women.

Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, authored Senate Bill 2880, which legal experts say is the most comprehensive attempt yet to stop Texans from accessing abortion pills or out-of-state abortions.

The bill would target online pill providers and tech companies that host abortion-related websites, and make it a felony, punishable by up to life in prison, to pay or reimburse the costs of an abortion, a direct hit on abortion funds, which help cover the costs of out-of-state abortions. It would also expand the ability of private citizens to bring wrongful death lawsuits against pill providers after an abortion and empower the attorney general’s office to more easily prosecute abortion offenses.

By going after the internet service providers, social media sites and search engines that power these websites, Texas could potentially undermine the entire network of pills and providers serving abortion-ban states.

“Senate Bill 2880 is a big toolbox of policies for Texas to fight back against these websites,” said John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, during Thursday’s hearing of the Senate State Affairs Committee. “Texas will be leading other states on how we can fight this concerning trend.”

A large body of research has shown abortion drug mifepristone, first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000, to be safe and effective. But anti-abortion groups have been actively pushing to get the medications restricted or even moved off the market through lawsuits and legislation. Anti-abortion groups told lawmakers during the hearing that pregnant women in Texas are receiving pills such as mifepristone and misoprostol in the mail without any information about how to take them, or guidelines on follow-up care. Providers shared stories about women hemorrhaging at home or struggling to dispose of the remains of an aborted fetus.

“I see women suffering daily from the effects of incomplete chemical abortions,” said Whitney Freeman, director of medical services at Prestonwood Pregnancy Center in the Dallas area.

Freeman said sometimes women receive pills in the mail with no medical instructions, or with instructions in a foreign language such as Russian. Patients are told not to tell medical providers that they are in the process of a chemical abortion, which can then prevent them from receiving the care they need, Freeman said

SB 2880, called the Woman and Child Protection Act, would allow private citizens to sue for up to $100,000 per violation of the law. This is an escalation of the legal framework that allowed Texas to ban nearly all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy in 2021.

Critics of the bill told lawmakers on Thursday that the legislation demonstrates government overreach and would infringe upon constitutional free speech. Austin Kaplan, an Austin attorney who sued over the 2021 law, told The Texas Tribune that it was inevitable that lawmakers would keep pushing to expand the use of this private enforcement mechanism. He said this bill, as written, would likely be challenged in court, although he noted that hasn’t stopped Texas lawmakers before.

“Looking at this, it looks just completely impossible,” he said. “But what’s the penalty for the Legislature? The legislator gets reelected. They don’t pay out of pocket for this litigation.”

The committee also signaled its support of a priority bill for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, which would prohibit cities and counties from using taxpayer dollars to pay for out-of-state abortions and travel. Senate Bill 33 targets Austin and San Antonio, which have designated $400,000 and $500,000, respectively, to assist residents with costs associated with navigating abortion bans.

“State law already prevents taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions, but some cities have “worked to exploit a loophole,” said bill author Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, “by using taxpayer funds to pay for travel accommodations, child care and other expenses women incur when they seek out-of-state abortions.”

“We have so many things we need to be spending our taxpayer dollars on,” said San Antonio City Council Member Marc Whyte, who testified in favor of the bill. “Not once have I heard the residents of San Antonio saying they want their tax dollars spent on sending women to other states to receive abortions.”

Under SB 33, the attorney general or any Texas resident could bring a civil legal action against cities that misuse funds by paying to facilitate abortions.

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

HOUSTON (AP) — The woman convicted of killing Tejano music legend Selena Quintanilla-Perez has been denied parole after spending decades behind bars for fatally shooting the young singer at a Texas motel in 1995, the state’s parole board announced Thursday.

Yolanda Saldívar will continue serving a life sentence at a prison in Gatesville, Texas, after a three-member panel of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to not release her. In a statement explaining the denial, the board said the panel found that Saldívar continues to pose a threat to public safety and that the nature of the crime indicated “a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others.”

Her case will be eligible to be reviewed again for parole in 2030.

The singer known to her fans as simply Selena was one of the first Mexican-Americans to make it into the mainstream music scene and was on the verge of crossing over into the English-language pop market when she was killed.

Saldívar founded Selena’s fan club and had been the manager of the singer’s clothing boutiques, Selena Etc., until she was fired in early March 1995 after money was discovered missing.

Selena a Corpus Christi native, was 23 years old when she was shot in the back with a .38-caliber revolver at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995. She was able to run to the motel lobby where she collapsed, and she was pronounced dead at a hospital an hour later.

Motel employees testified that Selena named “Yolanda” in “room 158” as her attacker.

“I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean to kill anybody,” a sobbing Saldívar said during a nine-hour standoff with police. She told police she had bought the .38-caliber revolver to kill herself.

More than 50,000 people lined up to view Selena’s body the day before she was laid to rest in Seaside Memorial Park on April 3, 1995, just 13 days before her 24th birthday.

Saldívar’s trial was moved to Houston because of the publicity surrounding the case. Saldívar testified that she had intended to kill herself during the confrontation with Selena, but that the gun misfired.

On October 23, 1995, a jury in Houston convicted Saldívar of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

While in prison, Saldívar — a former nurse — obtained her paralegal and associate degree in criminal justice and has filed several civil rights complaints alleging mistreatment by the state’s prison system, according to court records. She also helped other inmates to file petitions.

In court documents filed in 2016, Saldívar said she was being held in protective custody — meaning she was segregated from other inmates — because prison officials were concerned for her safety due to the “high profile” nature of her case. She filed several appeals of her conviction but all were rejected.

Selena — “the Queen of Tejano” — rose to stardom and won a Grammy during a Tejano music boom in the early 1990s. Her hits include “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” “Como la Flor,” “Amor Prohibido,” “No Me Queda Mas” and “Tu Solo Tu.”

“Dreaming of You,” her English-language crossover album released a few months after her death, topped the Billboard 200, and featured hits “I Could Fall in Love” and “Dreaming of You.” Jennifer Lopez played the singer in “Selena,” a 1997 biopic.

The Grammys awarded Selena a posthumous lifetime achievement award in 2021.

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports that Trailblazing former Austin Mayor and Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton died around noon Wednesday at her home in Tarrytown, her son Brad McClellan confirmed to the American-Statesman. She was 85. “Mom was first in a lot of things — first woman mayor of Austin, first woman comptroller, but first of all she was a mom and a grandma,” said McClellan, an Austin lawyer. “Always the most important things were her sons — my brothers — and her grandkids. There’s no question about that.” Mayor Kirk Watson said Keeton’s imprint on Austin and on Texas is lasting and genuine. “Carole Keeton was a historic figure in Austin and the state,” said Watson, whose first stint as mayor came after Keeton was the first woman to hold that office. “Importantly, she gave so much of herself to the city and state she loved and to the people both as a community and individually.”

Before serving as Austin’s mayor from 1977 to1983, Keeton was the first woman to preside over the Austin school board. And after her city service, she was three times elected to statewide office. “She was a powerful personality that filled a room and pushed people to think about the future but also made you laugh at the drop of a hat,” Watson said. Keeton, who also was known as Carole Keeton, Carole Keeton McClellan, Carole Keeton Rylander and Carole Keeton Strayhorn during her long public service career, died in the home that her grandparents built, her son said. “She was born in Austin, Texas, and died in Austin, Texas,” McClellan said. “She loved this city and this state more than anything besides the family.” After serving as mayor, Keeton made an unsuccessful bid in 1986 to unseat longtime U.S. Rep. J.J. “Jake” Pickle, running as a Republican in the heavily Democratic district. Eight years later, she was elected to one of three seats on the Texas Railroad Commission. She won a razor-close race to be the state’s top financial officer in 1998.

WASHINGTON – The Austin American-Statesman reports that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn made official Wednesday what he has been saying for weeks: He will seek a fifth six-year term in Washington in 2026, leaning into his support of President Donald Trump and relitigating his complaints about the policies of former President Joe Biden. “President Trump needs a partner who’s battled-tested to restore law and order, cut taxes and spending, and take back our jobs and supply chain,” Cornyn says in the video announcing his campaign, in which he also criticizes the spike in illegal immigration under Biden after Trump’s first term ended. The announcement drew an almost immediate rebuke from Cornyn’s potential chief rival in the Republican primary — Attorney General Ken Paxton, who in a social post of his own suggested that the incumbent is cozying up to Trump more out of expedience than conviction.

“Are you delusional?” Paxton posted as a direct reply to Cornyn on his personal page on X. “You’ve constantly turned your back on Texans and President Trump, including trying to stop his campaign in 2024 and saying his ‘time has passed him by.’ Texans won’t believe your lies or forget how you’ve consistently worked to undermine the President.” A primary battle between Cornyn — who by the time his current term ends will be tied for the second-longest time ofr a Texan to serve in the Senate — and Paxton could set the stage for one of the most heated statewide GOP primaries since Republicans began their full dominance of Texas politics in 2002. Texas Republicans have largely avoided bloody primary battles in statewide elections, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor. Paxton, a three-term attorney general, was forced into a runoff in 2022 against then-Land Commissioner George P. Bush, but the incumbent then trounced Bush 68% to 32%. A Cornyn-Paxton matchup would likely be more dramatic, Rottinghaus said. “It will be very bitter, and very expensive,” Rottinghaus said. “We’re talking around $40 million to $50 million, maybe more, for a primary.” And Trump will be a factor, regardless of whether he chooses to make an endorsement, Rottinghaus said.

NEW YORK (AP) -A county clerk in New York refused Thursday to file a more than $100,000 judgment from Texas against a doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas, setting up a potential challenge to laws designed to shield abortion providers who serve patients in states with abortion bans.

A Texas judge last month ordered Dr. Margaret Carpenter, who practices north of New York City, to pay the penalty for allegedly breaking that state’s law by prescribing abortion medication via telemedicine. The Texas attorney general’s office followed up last week by asking a New York court to enforce the default civil judgment, which is $113,000 with attorney and filing fees.

The acting Ulster County clerk refused.

“In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office. Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation,” Acting Clerk Taylor Bruck said in a prepared statement.

New York is among eight states with telemedicine shield laws, which were considered a target for abortion opponents even before the standoff between officials New York and Texas.

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last month invoked her state’s shield law in rejecting Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s request to extradite Carpenter to Louisiana, where the doctor was charged with prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant minor.

Hochul on Thursday praised Bruck’s refusal and said “New York is grateful for his courage and common sense.”

An email seeking comment was sent to the office of Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton.

A call seeking comment was made to Carpenter, who is the co-medical director and founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine. Carpenter did not show up for a hearing in the case in Texas.

DALLAS — Oil and gas activity edged up slightly in first quarter 2025, according to oil and gas executives responding to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Energy Survey.

The business activity index—the survey’s broadest measure of conditions facing Eleventh District energy firms—came in at 3.8, suggesting slight growth since the last survey.

“Business activity showed little growth this quarter while respondents noted a heightened level of uncertainty due to geopolitical risk, trade policy and other factors,” said Michael Plante, an assistant vice president at the Dallas Fed.

Key takeaways:

The company outlook index fell to -4.9 this quarter, a decline of 12, indicating slight pessimism about the outlook.

The uncertainty index jumped 21 points to reach 43.1 this quarter, pointing to increased uncertainty about the outlook.

Oil and natural gas production both grew slightly this quarter. The oil production index was 5.6 vs. 1.1 last quarter while the natural gas production index was 4.8, an increase of 8.

Employment and employee hours both remained close to last quarter’s level. The employment index was 0, down slightly from 2.2 in the fourth quarter of 2024. Employee hours was 0.7, suggesting little change from last quarter.

Costs rose at a faster pace. The lease operating expenses index increased to 38.7 from 25.6, the finding and development costs index rose 6 points to reach 17.1, and the input costs index for oilfield support service firms was 30.9 vs. 23.9.

Breakeven Prices Up Slightly; Smaller Firms See Higher Breakevens Compared to Larger Firms

“Average breakeven prices to profitably drill a new well increased just a little bit this year. Across all responses, the average was $65 per barrel, up $1 from last year’s average. Larger firms had an average breakeven of $61 per barrel compared to $66 for smaller companies,” Plante said.

Additional takeaways from the special questions:

The average price needed to cover operating expenses for existing wells was $41 per barrel, up $2 from last year’s survey.

Executives from E&P firms reported on the cost of regulatory compliance for their firm this survey. The most selected response was $0 to $1.99 on a per-barrel basis, chosen by 49 percent of respondents. 28 percent selected $2 to $3.99 per barrel, 15 percent selected $4 to $5.99 per barrel and the remainder chose greater than or equal to $6 per barrel.

60 percent of executives reported that administrative and legal costs were the main cost component of their firm’s regulatory costs. Monitoring costs were the next most selected response, chosen by 21 percent of executives. Eleven percent chose abatement costs while 8 percent selected other costs.

Opinions are mixed on how the cost of regulatory compliance will change in 2025 vs 2024. The most selected response was “remain close to 2024 levels,” chosen by 40 percent of executives. Another 21 percent chose “increase slightly” while 13 percent chose “increase significantly.” And 20 percent expect a slight decrease while 6 percent expect a significant decrease.

55 percent of oilfield support service executives expect steel import tariffs to slightly decrease customer demand. The next most selected response was “no change,” picked by 28 percent of respondents. Another 8 percent expect a significant decrease, 8 percent a slight increase and 3 percent a significant increase.

Many executives expect the number of employees to remain the same when comparing December 2025 to December 2024. 57 percent of respondents selected “remain the same.” 21 percent selected “increase slightly” while 14 percent selected “decrease slightly.” Only a small percentage selected “increase significantly” or “decrease significantly.”

37 percent of executives expect total merger and acquisition deal value for the U.S. upstream oil and gas sector to increase slightly this year. Another 22 percent of executives expect the deal value to decrease slightly in 2025, and an additional 18 percent each selected “remain close to 2024 levels” and “decrease significantly.”

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 March 12–20, 2025, and 130 energy firms responded. Of the respondents, 88 were exploration and production firms, and 42 were oilfield services firms.

For more information, visit dallasfed.org.