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SAN ANTONIO (AP) – A giraffe named Gracie is missing in Texas, and the search for her has become a tall order.

Gracie, who is about 3 years old, has been missing for nearly two weeks after escaping her enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in the Texas Hill Country, said Vic Jones, who owns the remote property about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of San Antonio. He said Wednesday that Gracie had wandered into a part of the privately owned preserve that other giraffes previously avoided.

Jones said he has sent up helicopters to look for Gracie, a few sightings have trickled in, and a $5,000 reward is on the table.

But the giraffe, which stands roughly the height of a tree, hasn’t turned up.

“She wound up going up and feeding in an area on the hillside and the rocky ledges that none of the other giraffes had ever gone on before,” Jones said. “And when she came down off of there, she came down on the wrong side of the gate.”

The ranch is in rural Real County, where its roughly 2,700 residents were put on alert to be on the lookout for a missing giraffe. Jones said the search area is extremely remote, and the likelihood of Gracie encountering any humans is low.

“People are not in danger of her because she’s not around people,” Jones said. ‘She’s out in very, very rough, heavily wooded lands.”

The Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of exotic captive animals in the country. Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said the mild climate and rugged terrain seems to serve as a good stand-in for most of the animals’ native African environments.

He rattled off a list of animals that have gone missing over the years, especially after floods, but said this was his first giraffe.

“I’ve had wildebeests, I’ve had water buffalo, I’ve had monkeys, I’ve had zebras, all go missing,” Johnson said. “Sometimes we recover them, and sometimes we don’t.”

While the middle of Texas is not a giraffe’s native environment, Jones said Gracie should be able to find plenty of leaves and other vegetation to eat. He said other animals were not likely to bother her.

Jones said he initially had helicopters searching an area of about 7,500 acres (3,000 hectares) with no luck. A few days later, there was a report that Gracie was spotted to the south.

But by the time they could search the area, Jones said, she was already gone.

“We’re always two three days late for where the information is coming from, so that makes it tough,” Jones said.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas would make Bible stories required reading for more than 5 million public school students under a proposal that has reignited debate over widening efforts in the U.S. to put more religion in classrooms.

A final vote by the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education on whether to approve the plan is set for Friday. Last year Texas became the largest state to require every classroom to display the Ten Commandments.

The proposed list has drawn fierce opposition. Critics argue that it violates the constitutional separation of church, lacks diversity and favors Christianity over other religions. Supporters say Judeo-Christian traditions were fundamental to the nation’s founding and that should be reflected in the public school curriculum.

Here’s what to know about the proposal and the broader fight over religion in public schools:
Republicans and Trump have pushed more religion into classrooms

President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and expand religious expression in public schools nationwide, and Texas — a red state that is home to about one in 10 of all U.S. public school students — often sets the agenda.

In 2023, Texas became the first state to allow the hiring of chaplains to counsel students, and the following year, the board narrowly approved an optional Bible-infused curriculum for elementary schools. Last year, Republican lawmakers required public schools to display the Ten Commandments, a measure recently upheld by a federal appeals court.

Texas has about 5.5 million public school students from kindergarten through high school. If approved by the board, the required reading list would take effect in 2030.

“We need to focus on what our nation was founded on and not apologize for that,” Susan Perez, founder of Citizens for Education Reform, told the education board during testimony this week. “It is the truth and we should not be afraid.”

List requires Bible readings from elementary to high school

Picture-book stories for elementary students including “Noah’s Ark,” “David and Goliath” and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” are on the required reading list. By fourth grade, students would encounter passages about Jesus in the New Testament.

By middle school, students would be expected to read several passages about Jesus, including passages from his most famous sermon, and another where he instructs people to cast aside earthly anxiety and seek the kingdom of God. Another would connect a reading from the Book of Lamentations and its themes of the destruction of Jerusalem with readings about the Holocaust.

In high school, students would read the parable of the prodigal son, portions of the Book of Job, and the story of Adam and Eve.

Some education observers said Texas may be the first state to enact a required reading list, with the added layer of mandated religious text.

Antero Garcia, president of the National Council of Teachers of English and a Stanford University professor, said he doesn’t know of any other state that has such a list. Educators at the district and school level usually choose what texts their students will read, Garcia said.

Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said she believes such a mandated reading list would be “unique” to Texas.

“I think there’s lots of state lists that exist that are like advised readings, suggested readings,” she said.
Critics say the proposal favors Christianity over other religions

The required readings rely heavily on the King James Bible, one of the most popular translations, and more recent evangelical translations that critics argue lean too heavily on Christian interpretations of the texts.

Other critics question whether religious stories should be taught at all in schools attended by thousands of children of Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and other faiths, and others who identify as atheist or agnostic.

“I do think that it’s disturbing that there are no texts from other religious traditions that are included,” said Frank Strong, an English and journalism teacher and co-founder of the student advocacy group Texas Freedom to Read.

___

Stengle reported from Dallas.

ANGELINA COUNTY (KETK) — A Lufkin man was pronounced dead on Monday afternoon after his vehicle reportedly drove off U.S. Highway 59 and into the Neches River, officials said.

According to a preliminary report from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the crash occurred at around 1:43 p.m. near the Polk and Angelina County line. A 2022 Ford Bronco was traveling north on the highway before reportedly traveling off the road, down an embankment and into the Neches River.
Mount Pleasant ISD mourns 2 students killed in car crash

DPS identified the driver as 71-year-old Theodore Fajen III of Lufkin, who was pronounced dead on the scene by a justice of the peace.

The investigation remains ongoing and no information is available at this time, DPS said.

McALLEN (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) — As the New World screwworm continues to infiltrate livestock and other animals in Texas, many have been asking how the parasitic fly landed here to begin with.

Last week, the Texas Animal Health Commission identified a potential cause: small wildlife and rodents like armadillos, opossums and rabbits.
MAP: Where have New World screwworm cases been reported in Texas?

Until now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has pointed to multiple factors, including border policies under President Joe Biden to the illicit movement of cattle at the hands of drug cartels.

The new finding is based on conversations with entomologists, Lewis R. “Bud” Dinges, executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission, told the Texas House Committee on Agriculture and Livestock.

However, the source of the first case of New World Screwworm remains under investigation, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Other health experts say it’s still undetermined what allowed the invasive pest to finally breach the Texas-Mexico border.

Tracing the source

During last week’s committee hearing, Dinges said epidemiological investigators have found no evidence so far linking Texas cases to the illicit movement of cattle from Mexico.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said it is still investigating to determine how screwworm spread.

“That’s very much an unknown, still, at this time. But wildlife is susceptible to New World Screwworm in the same manner that livestock and other warm-blooded animals are,” said a spokesperson for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

However, the spokesperson added that small mammals don’t travel long distances such as the distance between the last known detection in Mexico at the time to the location of the first case in Texas, which was detected in LaPryor on June 3.

Moving north

The USDA has repeatedly mentioned that models predicted that screwworm would inevitably arrive in the U.S. after the parasitic fly began moving north from South America in 2023.

The pest began trickling up through Panama after it broke through the Darien Gap, which had served as a barrier for screwworm for decades.

It then slowly moved through Costa Rica until it reached Nicaragua where it traveled quickly, said Jeremy Radachowsky, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean regional director for the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“Not only was it moving very quickly, but it was moving exactly along these paths of cattle trafficking and cattle contraband that we’ve been able to identify earlier,” Radachowsky said.

Screwworm detections followed those cattle-trafficking paths into Honduras and Guatemala. A few weeks later, Mexican officials detected their first case in November 2024.

Screwworm was predicted to have arrived in the U.S. last summer, USDA officials said, but efforts to stop it delayed it for a year.

“We’ve been actively and vocally warning that in order to stop screwworm, you have to stop this illegal and unregulated movement of cattle from south to north,” Radachowsky said. “That is definitely the driver.”

But how it crossed from Mexico into the U.S. remains unclear, he said.

The USDA closed all southern ports of entry to livestock imports from Mexico in May 2025 and have kept them closed since then, preventing cattle from legally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

The Wildlife Conservation Society does not have clear information on how screwworm crossed into Texas, Radachowsky said, but noted that it can infest and travel with other warm-blooded animals like pets and wildlife.

Governor Abbott launches New World Screwworm tracker website

“At the Texas-Mexico border, you’ve got feral pigs, white tailed deer, other wildlife, basically moving back and forth as well,” he said.
The unknown

There are 13 active cases of New World Screwworm in Texas as of Tuesday. An average of 15 suspected cases are reported to the Texas Animal Health Commission every day, Dinges said during the committee hearing last week.

State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Republican from Rio Grande City who chairs the committee, asked whether it would be logical to assume there are more cases between the Texas-Mexico border and the location of the confirmed infestations that just haven’t been reported.

Dinges replied that testing for screwworm has been ongoing for over a year and cases had not been detected until now.“We’ve been submitting anywhere from two to six larvae samples a week since last May and we have not detected any New World Screwworm larvae until June 3,” Dinges said.

Despite those assurances, farmers and ranchers throughout Texas are operating under the assumption that screwworm is present in their area.

“There’s just so much country that’s unsurveilled,” said John Sewell, a rancher from Kinney and Uvalde County said during the hearing. “I’m in between two — one south of me and one north of me. Do I think I don’t have it? I would be a fool to think I didn’t have it.”

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

ANGELINA COUNTY (KETK) — A Lufkin man was pronounced dead on Monday afternoon after his vehicle reportedly drove off U.S. Highway 59 and into the Neches River, officials said.

According to a preliminary report from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the crash occurred at around 1:43 p.m. near the Polk and Angelina County line. A 2022 Ford Bronco was traveling north on the highway before reportedly traveling off the road, down an embankment and into the Neches River.

DPS identified the driver as 71-year-old Theodore Fajen III of Lufkin, who was pronounced dead on the scene by a justice of the peace.

The investigation remains ongoing and no information is available at this time, DPS said.

HOUSTON (AP) – Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp in Texas. In paperwork filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas in Houston, the camp listed its debt as exceeding $10 million. The camp along the Guadalupe River said it had assets in the range of 100,001 to $500,000.

Families of the victims filed a lawsuit in November saying the camp operators failed to take the necessary steps to protect the girls as life-threatening floodwaters approached on July 4. Camp owner Richard Eastland also died in the flood. All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

The bankruptcy filing comes weeks after Camp Mystic halted plans to reopen this summer in the face of outrage from victims’ families and lawmakers that the century-old camp intended to welcome girls back while lawsuits and investigations remained ongoing.

AUSTIN, Texas (KETK) — As Texas continues to attract major technology investments, state lawmakers are raising concerns about how the rapid growth of data centers could affect water supplies, particularly in rural parts of East Texas.

The Texas House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing Tuesday to examine the industry’s water demands as state officials work on the next Texas State Water Plan ahead of the 2027 legislative session.

Much of the discussion centered on whether the state has enough information to accurately predict future water needs as more data centers move into Texas.

Temple McKinnon, director of Water Supply Planning Divisions for the Texas Water Development Board, testified that the agency surveyed industrial facilities, including 341 data centers, earlier this year to better understand water usage in 2025. However, only about 17% of facilities responded.

That response rate drew criticism from lawmakers.

McKinnon acknowledged the low participation and said the agency relies on historical data and estimates when survey responses are unavailable.

“Many facilities, there’s low response rates across the board, there can be, and when we don’t get a response, we do whatever we can to estimate around it. We might roll that over depending on past use,” McKinnon said.

Lawmakers questioned whether those estimates are sufficient given the pace at which data centers are being developed across the state.

State Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, shifted the conversation toward East Texas, where he said some counties lack groundwater conservation districts that monitor and regulate groundwater use.

Ashby asked McKinnon whether a data center located in a county without a groundwater conservation district would face any restrictions on groundwater pumping:

“So if you’re in a county with a data center or proposed data center and there is no GCD (groundwater conservation district), there is no requirement or obstacle if you’re a data center to overcome to pump as much groundwater as you want, am I correct?” Ashby asked.

“There would be no entity in place to regulate that use, yes,” McKinnon responded.

The exchange highlighted concerns from some East Texas residents who worry that growing industrial water demands could strain local groundwater supplies in areas with limited oversight.

Ashby said he has heard from constituents concerned that future data center development could impact water availability for rural communities that depend on wells and aquifers.
Google announces $10M Texas water impact fund; makes data center water use pledges

Lawmakers emphasized that additional studies and more accurate reporting will be necessary to understand the long-term impact that data centers could have on Texas water resources and to determine whether current planning efforts adequately account for future growth.

Texans remain wary of the rapid growth of data centers, citing concerns like noise, water use, energy demand, and land impact. A UT Austin Texas Politics Project poll reflects that sentiment, showing 56% oppose local data?center construction while 29% support it. Still, lawmakers noted a competing pressure: the national?security risk of falling behind China in the race for advanced artificial intelligence.

Throughout the hearing, multiple county?level officials urged the Legislature to give local governments more authority to block or regulate data?center projects. They argued that communities should have a stronger voice in deciding whether these facilities fit their long?term development goals.

The hearing remained underway Tuesday afternoon. Committee Chairman State Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, said discussions could continue into the evening as lawmakers gather information to help shape future water policy and planning efforts across Texas.

DETROIT (AP) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is retreating from a plan to use warehouses to hold up to 10,000 people on a single site, jettisoning a key piece of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s $38-billion plan to rapidly expand detention capacity this year.

The federal government, which was sued by Michigan and a Detroit suburb, informed a judge Monday that a warehouse purchased in Romulus will be sold. Plans also are unraveling in Social Circle, Georgia, and the El Paso suburb of Socorro, local officials said.

The three cities are among 11 where the federal government spent a combined $1.074 billion on warehouses.

The New York Times first reported last week that federal immigration officials now plan to get rid of seven of the 11 warehouses — either giving them to other federal agencies or selling them outright.

DHS didn’t confirm the reports but said in a statement that it is “moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.”
Pushback to warehouse purchases was immediate

“Wildly foolhardy” is how Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former ICE official under the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations described the plans to convert the buildings into immigrant detention.

One issue was that Noem’s purchases were largely carried out of public view and angered communities that were caught by surprise. Some only learned about ICE’s ambitions after the agency bought or leased space for detainees.

After Noem was fired, her replacement, Markwayne Mullin, quickly paused the purchase of new warehouses.

Objections came from Republicans and Democrats alike

Some were opposed on moral grounds to ICE’s presence in their neighborhoods, while others questioned whether the facilities would be a drain on local resources, such as sewer and water systems.

Seven federal lawsuits were filed, and regulatory roadblocks created hassles elsewhere.

Meanwhile, questions about how much DHS paid for some warehouses triggered an internal audit. The agency shelled out double what the New Jersey warehouse was valued at in tax records and nearly five times more than the assessed value of the Social Circle warehouse.

Trickler-McNulty, the former ICE official, said ICE does have a few facilities that it owns that it inherited from its predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, but generally ICE has contracted out its detention needs.

“Facilities over 2,000 people just break down. It’s very hard to run a very big facility, to keep it staffed, to keep all of it moving,” she said.
Former head of plumbing business takes over for Noem

Mullin, who took over and expanded his family’s plumbing business before representing Oklahoma in the U.S House and Senate, acknowledged there had been issues at his confirmation hearing.

He noted that most municipalities don’t have the capacity in their infrastructure for waste and water.

Indeed the water issues were such a challenge that a federal lawsuit filed over the Salt Lake City warehouse, the costliest purchased at $145.4 million, said ICE officials told the mayor that they might need to truck water and sewage from the facility as an “interim solution.”

Plans begin to unravel

The New York Times story, which cited internal documents that the newspaper obtained, said the Salt Lake City warehouse is among those that federal immigration officials plans to hand off or sell. Also on the list is the Romulus warehouse, as well as one in New Jersey and two each in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said it would have been an “abomination” if the 249,000-square-foot Romulus warehouse was transformed into immigrant detention, as was planned when it was purchased for $34.7 million,

“The ICE warehouse proposal was every bit as ill-conceived as it was cruel and unnecessary, and I am relieved that this chapter is coming to a close,” Nessel, a Democrat, said.

Social Circle, Georgia, announced last week in a statement that it has received notification from U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican, that the Department of Homeland Security is no longer pursuing an ICE detention facility there.

Meanwhile, acting ICE Director David Venturella told officials in the El Paso area during a visit there earlier this month that the agency has changed its plans for three warehouses it purchased in nearby Socorro for $122 million, said Rep. Veronica Escobar, who was present for the visit.

Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso, said during a news conference that ICE no longer plans to detain up to 8,500 immigrants in the facilities as originally envisioned, and instead will convert the property into an ICE campus, she said. The site will include an unspecified smaller number of detainees but also ICE offices and training space, she said.
Frustrations persist as communities seek details

However, many of the communities remained frustrated, as they struggled to get information about possible sales.

In Pennsylvania, state and local officials said Tuesday that they hadn’t received any new information from DHS about two warehouses bought earlier this year by the department. Both are being held up by the state’s denial of permits over concerns that drinking water and sewer service are inadequate to handle thousands of inhabitants.

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, whose district includes both warehouses, said he met Friday with DHS personnel, but that the agency hadn’t made a decision whether to use them as detention centers or sell them.

In Georgia, the city manager in Oakwood, said Tuesday he is talking to his state congressional delegation, trying to confirm rumors that a warehouse there will be sold. “I have not heard anything yet,” B.R. White said.
Work appears to continue on other warehouses

In Maryland, where a judge extended a stoppage on transforming a sprawling warehouse into a processing facility for immigrants, ICE is currently collecting public comments about the environmental impacts of the facility. And an announcement earlier this month disclosed more details on plans for the facility, including six secure recreation yards.

Patrick Dattilio, the founder of Hagerstown Rapid Response, which formed in opposition to housing ICE detainees in the warehouse, said there has been little communication outside of the lawsuit. But he remains committed to keeping it from opening.

“It’s a big warehouse,” Dattilio said. “It’s not meant for people.”

POLK COUNTY (KETK) — After a two week trial, a Polk County jury has found David Stimmell guilty of murder on Friday in connection to a 2024 shooting in Onalaska that left one person dead and two injured.

On Jan. 2, 2024, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office responded to a shooting in the Kickapoo Marina subdivision. Upon arrival, detectives then located and identified a dead male at the residence, identified as 50-year-old James McClanahan.

Detectives later found and identified another person injured and Stimmell, who had gunshot wounds. Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives and Texas Rangers were able to locate several witnesses who identified many involved parties. Following an investigation, Stimmell was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with murder, tampering with evidence and violation of protective order with a bond totaling over $1 million.

During the trial this month, evidence presented established that a confrontation at the residence had occurred, which escalated into the deadly shooting, the Polk County District Attorney’s Office said.

“Multiple witnesses testified regarding the events leading up to the shooting and the actions that occurred during the incident,” the DA’s office said. “The jury heard testimony from eyewitnesses, law enforcement officers and other expert witnesses as the State presented evidence detailing the circumstances surrounding the offense.”

On Tuesday, the DA’s office announced that Stimmell had been convicted of murder in the death of McClanahan.

“The successful prosecution of this case reflects the teamwork, dedication, and professionalism of all law enforcement involved, including the investigators, prosecutors, paralegals, and victim assistance staff who worked tirelessly to seek justice for James McClanahan and his loved ones,” Polk County Criminal District Attorney Shelly Sitton said. “The District Attorney’s office joined by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to holding violent offenders accountable and ensuring the safety of our community.”