KTBB News, Weather, Talk

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports that in the Baird school district — a rural, two-campus system about 20 miles east of Abilene in West Texas — faith is a big part of the community. The two main churches host welcome dinners for faculty members at the beginning of each school year. The church youth programs are involved with the 350-student district. “It’s a very natural relationship,” Superintendent Tim Little said. Yet, while most residents in the communities the Baird district serves share similar faiths, there’s a line that the superintendent said shouldn’t be crossed. “We would frown on anyone who was coming in and trying to proselytize to our kids,” Little said. To Little and the faith leaders he works with, the relationship to support student and faculty life is separate from students’ counseling needs.

Two years ago, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 763, which required Baird and all other school districts in Texas to decide by March 1, 2024, whether they would create a program in which chaplains could “provide support, services, and programs for students,” similar to the way counselors do. Baird was one among hundreds of Texas districts that voted to uphold existing practices to allow chaplains to volunteer like any other person. SB 763 doesn’t require a chaplain to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification. “It’s not something that we need pushed on us legislatively,” Little said. “We also realize, and our preachers in the community would tell you, they’re not qualified to be a school counselor. That’s not their calling. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to work with kids, but we want to clearly distinguish those two roles.” The American-Statesman surveyed all 1,019 Texas school districts on their votes dealing with SB 763. Of the more than half that responded, about 36% declined to create a school chaplain program. Most districts — 39% — resolved to uphold their existing volunteer policies, with some noting that chaplains were welcome to volunteer in schools just as any other community member is. About 19% of the districts that responded to the Statesman’s inquiries had agreed to create a chaplain volunteer or employment program. However, about 18 months since the law went into effect, the Statesman found that only two districts had hired, or had immediate plans to hire, a chaplain. Instead, most districts said they wanted the option to bring chaplains to campuses in times of tragedy.

ALAMO (AP) — South Texas worked to dry out on Friday after severe thunderstorms a day earlier flooded streets and compelled dozens of water rescues as many drivers were forced to abandon their vehicles on roads and parking lots, and some areas were inundated with a foot of rain.

“We’re just getting like a bucket of water poured on us and it’s too much for the drainage system,” Alamo Fire Department Chief R.C. Flores told KRGV in Weslaco, Texas. “A lot of these are stranded motorists with no immediate danger, but we do want to make sure we are prioritizing the medical calls first.”

Flores said Alamo’s fire and police departments had responded to more than 50 water rescues on Thursday.

Television news footage from flooded communities in South Texas showed multiple water-logged cars abandoned on streets on Thursday and drivers waiting on sidewalks for the flood waters to recede.

Between 6 inches (15 centimeters) and 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of South Texas in the past 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service. Palmview, located west of McAllen, received more than 18 inches (45 centimeters) of rain over the past two days.

A flood warning was still in effect for portions of South Texas, including Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties, through early Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

“There’s a break from the rain this morning, which will allow flood waters to gradually recede, but we’ll still need to keep an eye on the development of isolated showers and thunderstorms once again this afternoon,” the National Weather said on social media. “Any additional rainfall will be quick to cause flooding issues given the heavy rainfall that has already fallen.”

The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district opened two shelter locations on Thursday night for residents.

More than 20 South Texas school districts and college campuses canceled classes on Friday due to the severe weather and flooding.

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.