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AUSTIN – KVUE reports that with the Texas legislative session starting in less than 50 days, one Texas lawmaker hopes a new bill will finally connect the state through a high-speed rail line. Texas Rep. John Bucy, a Democrat who represents parts of North Austin and Williamson County, filed House Bill 483, which would propose an agreement between the Texas Department of Transportation and a private partner to create this rail line that would connect Dallas to Austin to San Antonio. “Connecting these major hubs of the most trafficked road in the state of I-35 with another means to get up and down, it makes just a ton of sense,” Bucy said. There is no direct funding attached to the bill to construct the high-speed rail, just an order for TxDOT to find a vendor to start construction on what Bucy says will be a long process.

Conversations about a rail line like this have emerged before, but nothing has ever come of it. “You look at the 80s and 90s, Texas was a leader in infrastructure, especially road infrastructure,” Bucy said. “We’ve really lost our focus on doing that, and as Texas continues to grow, Texans are suffering for it.” In addition to connecting these major business hubs and making commuting easier for those who work and live in two different Texas hubs, Bucy is hopeful the rail will lead to decreased crashes on the highway. “What should be six hours round trip turns into seven, eight, nine because of all the traffic, all the construction and the projects that are constantly happening on I-35, and that’s going to lead to tired, frustrated, distracted drivers,” Bucy said. “This would be a safe way to move people up and down I-35.” Since filing the bill, Bucy said he’s been overwhelmed with support from commissioners and other Texas lawmakers wanting to make this high-speed rail happen. Now the major endorsement he’ll be looking for this upcoming January is Gov. Greg Abbott. “If the governor got behind it as a leader in innovation with the state, having a high-speed rail would be a next big step in that,” Bucy said.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports that after a Houston doctor went viral on TikTok for advising patients to skip a U.S. citizenship question on certain patient intake forms, Gov. Greg Abbott appeared to threaten to rescind government funding for hospitals that fail to “follow the law.” Abbott issued an executive order on Aug. 8 requiring hospitals that accept Medicaid, or Children’s Health Insurance Plan, to ask patients: “Are you a U.S. citizen?” On Nov. 11, Tony Pastor, a cardiologist at Texas Children’s Hospital and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, posted a video on TikTok telling viewers, “We were told today that people do not actually have to answer the question.” The governor lashed out at Pastor’s employers in a Nov. 24 post on X, though his comments seemed to apply to all Texas hospitals that receive Medicaid funding.

“Hey Texas Children’s Hospital & Baylor College of Medicine this doctor is putting your Medicaid & Medicare funding at risk,” Abbott said in the post. “(You) better think twice & have crystal clear records. There will be consequences for failing to follow the law in the Order.” Pastor’s original post had been removed from his account as of Nov. 30. But he posted a video on TikTok on Nov. 26 in response to Abbott’s X post. “When the gov of Texas threatens you on twitter because he is mad you exercised freedom of speech,” Pastor captioned within the video clip. Several advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have said hospitals are legally required to ask the question — but patients are not legally obligated to answer it. The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District also released a flyer mirroring Pastor’s Nov. 11 statement. “You do not have to answer the citizenship question if you don’t want to. Your answer will not affect your care — you will not be turned away,” the flyer said. “You have a right to life-saving care, regardless of citizenship or immigration status.” Abbott did not immediately respond to Express-News’ request for comment.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports that Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller wants to see raw milk on grocery store shelves. Raw milk has not been pasteurized — the process of heating milk to a certain temperature to kill illness-causing bacteria. Miller said in an editorial on the state agency’s website that he grew up on a farm drinking milk straight from the cow, and he thinks others should be able to exercise their freedom to drink raw milk by making it more widely available. In Texas, people can currently buy raw milk from farms, farmers markets and the internet, but federal law prohibits its interstate sale, the editorial says. “Raw milk isn’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be available,” Miller said. “Just as we shouldn’t force people to consume something they don’t want, the government should allow people the right to choose what is best for their personal nutrition.”

Raw milk has been rising in consumer interest recently as a supposedly more natural alternative to pasteurized, homogenized milk with some health benefits. But raw milk can carry bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria and Campylobacter, and consuming it can cause serious illness, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both agencies say pasteurization does not reduce milk’s nutritional value. Last month, a child got bird flu virus after drinking raw milk from California. “While raw milk contains the same number of amino acids, antimicrobials, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids as pasteurized milk; for some, it’s about taking the calculated risk to reap the benefits of milk in its purest form,” Miller said. The commissioner — whose job it is to over see the state’s agriculture, consumer protection, economic development and healthy living — acknowledged the health risks, but said they are risks worth taking. “It takes knowledge, care, and some good cowboy logic to handle raw milk safely,” he said. “Just because it’s risky doesn’t mean the option should be removed from the people either. I believe in personal choice and the freedom to decide what’s best for you and your family.”

PHOENIX (AP) — Reyna Montoya was 10 when she and her family fled violence in Tijuana and illegally immigrated to the U.S. Growing up in Arizona, she worried even a minor traffic violation could lead to her deportation.

She didn’t feel relief until 11 years later in 2012, when she received a letter confirming she had been accepted to a new program for immigrants who came to the country illegally as children.

“All of the sudden, all these possibilities opened up,” Montoya said, fighting back tears. The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program granted her and hundreds of thousands of others two-year, renewable permits to live and work in the U.S. legally.

But as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, after an unsuccessful bid to end DACA in his first term, the roughly 535,000 current recipients are bracing yet again for a whirlwind of uncertainty. Meanwhile, a years-long challenge to DACA could ultimately render it illegal, leaving people like Montoya without a shield from deportation.

“I have to take his (Trump’s) words very seriously, that when they say ‘mass deportation,’ it also includes people like me,” said Montoya, who runs Aliento, an Arizona-based advocacy organization for immigrant rights.

Uncertainty is nothing new for DACA recipients. As many matured from school age to adulthood, they have witnessed a barrage of legal threats to the program.

DACA hasn’t accepted new applicants since 2021, when a federal judge deemed it illegal and ordered that new applications not be processed, though current recipients could still renew their permits. The Biden administration appealed the ruling, and the case is currently pending.

For those who secured and renewed DACA permits, the benefits have been life-changing. With DACA, Montoya for the first time was able to work legally, get health and dental care, and obtain a driver’s license.

Many recipients had hoped Vice President Kamala Harris would win the presidency and continue fighting for them. But the reelection of Trump, who has repeatedly accused immigrants of fueling violent crime and “poisoning the blood” of the United States, has heightened their fears that DACA could end and they could face deportation.

Out of caution, some are rushing to renew their permits, according to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, which has been providing free legal aid to help them through the extensive process.

Others are preparing for potential family separations. Phoenix native and DACA recipient Pedro Gonzalez-Aboyte said he and his immigrant parents, along with his two U.S.-born brothers, recently discussed the possibility of being split.

Gonzalez-Aboyte recalled his parents, who immigrated from Mexico, saying that even if they were unable to stay in the country, “as long as the three of you are here and you’re OK, then that’s what we want.”

“That was a very real conversation we had,” Gonzalez-Aboyte said.

Officials for the Trump transition team did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

While it is unclear how Trump could impact DACA this time, he has suggested scaling back other programs that offer temporary protection for immigrants and is staffing his incoming administration with immigration hardliners, including Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan.

During his first term, Trump tried to rescind DACA. But in 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded his administration ended the program improperly, though it didn’t rule on the program’s legality.

But DACA’s fate won’t be immediately left up to Trump, if at all.

A three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — regarded as the country’s most conservative appeals court — heard arguments in October concerning the legality of DACA. The case, initially filed by Texas and other Republican-led states in 2018, now focuses on a Biden administration rule intended to preserve and fortify DACA.

Attorneys for DACA opponents argued that immigrants in the country illegally are a financial burden on states. Meanwhile, the Biden administration, along with intervenors, contend that Texas has not shown the costs it cites are traceable to the policy and, therefore, lacks standing.

The panel doesn’t have a deadline to issue a ruling. Regardless, its ruling will likely be appealed, potentially elevating the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell University, said the most likely scenario is the panel affirming that DACA is illegal and that the case goes before the Supreme Court. He doesn’t anticipate Trump immediately trying to end DACA but didn’t rule out the possibility.

“I don’t know that they could actually terminate the program any faster than the current ligation is going,” he said. “They could still do it, but they’ve got an awful lot of immigration policy matters on their plate.”

Yale-Loehr said the Biden administration is limited in how it could help DACA recipients at this stage, but it could enable recipients to renew their permits early and process them as quickly as possible.

Greisa Martinez Rosas is a DACA recipient and executive director of United We Dream, a youth-led advocacy network for immigrants that boasts more than a million members nationwide. She said the immigrant rights movement has grown so much since Trump’s first term, and it’s been preparing for this moment for years, “building a nimble and responsive infrastructure so that we will make shifts as threats emerge.”

She said they’re calling on Americans to offer immigrants sanctuary, preparing to ensure people’s physical and psychological safety in case of mass deportations, planning demonstrations and asking for help from the current administration.

“We still have a couple of months for the Biden administration to use every single tool at its disposal to protect and defend as many people as possible,” Martinez Rosas said at a recent press briefing. “We’re expecting for them to do that now more than ever.”

HOUSTON (AP) — A dog has been reunited with its owner after being rescued by firefighters from the chilly waters of a Houston bayou.

The little dog was spotted Friday stranded on a bridge pier in the Sims Bayou in southwest Houston by an employee of the Houston Botanic Garden. Houston firefighters were called, and a member of the department’s swift-water rescue team made his way to the pier.

Video of the rescue shows that as the firefighter approached, the dog barked at him and nipped at his hands before jumping in the water. The firefighter eventually caught the dog and brought him safely to shore.

Television station KHOU-11 reports the dog named Burbie was reunited with its owner on Saturday.

DALLAS – KERA reports that Education Savings Accounts were a top focus for Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2023 session and four special sessions. But the voucher-like program failed, as did additional funding for public schools statewide after Abbott vowed to withhold his signature from any education bill that lacked ESAs. Now, with the next session just weeks away, Abbott is once again making ESAs a top focus of the session — and he’s confident lawmakers will pass a bill that’ll send public dollars to private schools. “We are ensuring,” Abbott said at a recent visit to the private, religious Kingdom Life Academy in Tyler, “that students who may have fallen through the cracks in their public school, they’re going to have a new chance, a new opportunity to be able to, to learn, to achieve, to succeed.” With assurances he’ll soon get some kind of voucher plan, Abbott is also again backing teacher pay hikes as he did last session — and districts around the state are desperate for funding.

After opposing vouchers last session, Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said that fight is over. “The primary thing we are focused on right now this session [is] different from last session,” she said. “Some people will criticize us for it, but I’m not going to relive Groundhog Day.” She admits it’s a lesson learned the hard way after the last legislative session. Elizalde said her district — the second-largest in the state — is facing a $186 million shortfall. “I certainly hope that as leaders of learning organizations, we’re learners first,” she said. “And we learned that right now our priority must be getting school funding.” Small, rural districts are largely saying the same, especially with several new Abbott-backed legislators in office who say they’ll approve some voucher plan. Randy Willis, who leads the Texas Association of Rural Schools, said teacher pay is a priority for his several hundred members, whose teachers make $35,000 or $36,000 a year. He said urban educators earn at least $20,000 more.