(NEW YORK) -- Nearly half of U.S. states are set to raise their minimum wage at the outset of 2025, boosting pay for millions of workers stretching from California to Maine.
In all, 21 states will raise their wage floors on Jan. 1 in keeping with inflation-adjusted increases or as part of scheduled hikes that take effect at the beginning of each calendar year.
The pay increases will affect about 9.2 million workers, who will gain a combined $5.7 billion over the course of 2025, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, or EPI.
After the wave of wage hikes, Washington will become the state with the highest minimum wage, offering workers $16.66 per hour. Workers in California and New York will enjoy the second-highest wage floor, as both states implement a minimum hourly wage of $16.50.
Pay increases set to take hold in the new year will bring the wage floor to $15 an hour or higher in Washington, D.C., as well as 10 states, among them Delaware, Illinois and Rhode Island. Those areas play host to one of every three U.S. workers, EPI found.
Overall, the states set to raise their minimum wage on Wednesday include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The nation's highest wage floors will take effect in some of the nearly 50 cities and other localities that will impose minimum pay hikes.
Twenty-nine cities in California will see pay hikes, including a $17-an-hour wage floor that will take effect in Oakland. Seven localities in Washington will increase their minimum wage, among them the country's highest wage floor: $21.10 an hour in Tukwila.
The latest round of pay increases, however, will not affect more than a dozen states concentrated in the South that lack a minimum wage or offer a minimum wage that does not exceed the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.
The last federal minimum wage hike took place in 2009, when Congress raised the pay floor to its current level. When adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage stands at its lowest level since February 1956, nearly 70 years ago, EPI found.
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(NEW YORK) -- As world leaders mourn the death of former President Jimmy Carter and remark on his political and policy legacy, doctors are remembering his efforts to prevent disease, and his legacy in furthering global public health.
The 39th president spent five decades working to eradicate a parasitic disease, helped organize a major-drug donation program, and made advancements addressing the mental health crisis in the U.S.
Dr. Julie Jacobson, currently a managing partner of the nonprofit Bridges to Development, helped to provide funding for the Carter Center's work in the Americas, Nigeria and Ethiopia while she worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for over a decade.
"He was hugely influential, I think particularly for the diseases that most of the world doesn't appreciate even exist," Jacobson told ABC News of Jimmy Carter's work. "He was a true champion for the neglected tropical diseases, which are some of the most common infections of people who live with the least resources. And he found these diseases and then really wanted to do something about them, and used his voice, his influence, his passion, to continue to push forward where others were really not interested."
Near-eradication of Guinea worm disease
Following his loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election, Carter founded the Carter Center in 1982, a non-profit organization that "seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health," according to the Center's website.
Among the organization's many efforts, the Carter Center helped spearhead a successful international campaign with the goal of eradicating dracunculiasis, also known as Guinea worm disease, a parasitic infection caused by consuming contaminated drinking water.
Water from ponds or other stagnant bodies of water can contain tiny crustaceans commonly known as water fleas, which in turn can be infected with Guinea worm larvae, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
About one year after infecting a human host, the Guinea worm creates a blister on the skin and emerges from it, which can cause burning pain, fever and swelling, according to the CDC and the World Health Organization.
"Nobody else wanted to take it on," Jimmy Carter told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos during a 2015 interview on "Good Morning America". "So, I decided to take it on."
In 1986, Guinea worm disease afflicted 3.5 million people every year in 21 African and Asian countries. Disease incidence has since been reduced by 99.99%, to just 14 "provisional" human cases in 2023, according to the Carter Center.
Jacobson said that success is even more remarkable because there are no vaccines available to prevent Guinea worm disease and no drugs to treat it. Tracking Guinea worm disease, according to Jacobson, involves following possible cases for a year to determine if they are infected, checking to see if infected humans have any infected water sources near them, and monitoring the community as a whole.
"To think that you could eradicate a disease without any tools is really still just a crazy idea, but he did it with perseverance and working with people in the grassroots within communities and putting together teams of people to go and work with people in those communities and empower the communities," Jacobson said.
The Carter Center says if efforts are successful, Guinea worm disease could become the second human disease in history to be completely eradicated, after smallpox, and the first to be done without the use of a vaccine or medicine.
Carter told ABC News during the 2015 interview that eradicating the disease entirely was his goal: "I think this is going to be a great achievement for, not for me, but for the people that have been afflicted and for the entire world to see diseases like this eradicated."
Mass drug distribution for river blindness
The Carter Center also works to fight other preventable diseases, including the parasitic infections schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis â more commonly known as snail fever and elephantiasis, respectively â as well as trachoma, which is one of the world's leading causes of preventable blindness. It's also working with the governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to eliminate lymphatic filariasis and malaria from the island of Hispaniola, which both countries share and which is "the last reservoir in the Caribbean for both diseases," according to the Carter Center.
Carter and his organization also played a part in organizing a major drug-donation program to help eliminate onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, which is transmitted to human through repeated bites of infected blackflies, according to the CDC.
Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. had been implementing field studies in Africa which showed that the drug ivermectin was effective at treating river blindness in humans. The Carter Center partnered with Merck to mass-distribute ivermectin, brand name Mectizan, "as much as needed for as long as needed" in Africa and Latin America. To date, the Carter Center has assisted in distributing more than 500 million treatments of Mectizan, according to Merck.
In 1995, Carter negotiated a two-month cease-fire in Sudan to allow health care workers there to more safely help eradicate Guinea worm disease, prevent river blindness, and vaccinate children against polio.
"When we have known solutions, it is ethical to make sure they're available to the people who need it most," Dr. Usha Ramakrishnan, chair of the Department of Global Health at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, told ABC News. "And that's where we were with river blindness. There was a treatment, but improving access to medications, making it affordable, reaching the people they need was very much along the lines of the work [the Carter Center] was doing."
Addressing mental health
Carter was also committed to tackling mental health issues. During his presidency, he created the Presidential Commission on Mental Health, which recommended a national plan to care for people with chronic mental illness.
Although it was never adopted as policy by the Reagan administration, the plan's recommended strategies were adopted by some mental health advocacy groups to "make gains in the 1980s," according to one study.
Carter also signed into law the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, which provided funding to community mental health centers.
After his presidency, Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter continued working to improve access to mental health.
Ramakrishnan said the Carters' work helped to reduce some of the stigma associated with mental health.
"There continues to be a lot of stigma, but they truly got it out [in] the conversation and mainstreaming mental health as an important aspect of health and well-being," Ramakrishnan said. "There's still a lot of challenges, and there are many capable people that they have mentored and trained who are carrying that mantle forward."
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The House Ethics Committee on Monday cleared two Texas Republican congressmen â Wesley Hunt of Houston and Ronny Jackson of Amarillo â for violating campaign finance law by allegedly spending campaign money for personal use.
In a statement, the committee said it unanimously decided to close the investigations, including ones against two other representatives for the same accusations. The committee said in several investigations it resolved Monday, there was evidence that the memberâs campaigns did not fully comply with campaign finance standards, as well as reporting or recordkeeping requirements for campaign spending.
âHowever, there was no evidence that any member intentionally misused campaign funds for their personal benefit,â the committee said in a statement.
The investigation began in March when the Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan group of professional staffers, sent campaign finance reports from the two representatives to the committee for investigation. They were accused of using campaign funds for private club memberships. Jackson spent nearly $12,000 since 2020 on membership at the Amarillo Club, and Hunt spent over $74,000 between April 2022 and January 2024 at the Post Oak Hotel, including membership fees at its exclusive Oak Room club.
The committee opened an identical investigation in 2022 into Jackonâs use of campaign funds to pay club dues. Then, Jacksonâs lawyers said in an email to the committee that the membership included event space for fundraising.
In a written response to the ethics office regarding the 2024 investigation, Jackson said that he did not violate ethics rules. According to the ethics office report, the Amarillo Club declined to give information that could confirm Jackson used the club for strictly campaign reasons.
Hunt provided documents related to his Oak Room expenses, but they were heavily redacted, according to the office. He declined to sit for an interview by the office, but his lawyers said he did nothing wrong.
“I commend the House Ethics Committee for their swift resolution of this matter and extend my gratitude for their thorough and diligent work,” Hunt said in a statement. “From the outset, I have maintained confidence that this issue would be resolved in our favor.â
Jackson echoed Hunt in a statement.
“I did everything by the book and have fully complied with the committee since these false allegations were first referred by the OCE in 2021,” he said. “I am glad to put this ridiculous, partisan, and politically motivated matter behind me, and I am looking forward to working alongside President Trump to improve the lives of my constituents and all Americans.”
The ethics committee also said the existing law and guidance from the Federal Election Commission is âoften ambiguousâ and provides gray areas of spending. The committee updated guidance on personal use of campaign funds and related recordkeeping requirements. In the statement, the committee said it provided relevant members with a copy of the updated guidance, as well as specific findings and recommendations for their campaign activity.
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Most Texas drivers will no longer be required to have their cars pass an annual safety exam after state lawmakers removed the rule from Texas code.
Texas is one of 15 states that mandate annual inspections for noncommercialcars. That will change on Jan. 1becausethe Texas Legislature approvedHouse Bill 3297, which eliminates most vehicle safety inspections, in 2023.
Supporters of the bill called the safety inspections time consuming and inconvenient. Opponents of the bill say it could set Texas drivers, and future Texans, on a dangerous path.
âThe majority of our business is centered around making sure peopleâs vehicles are safe,â said Charissa Barnes, owner of the Official Inspection Station in San Antonio, to lawmakers earlier this year. âWe need to make sure that their cars, the people joining us in Texas, are safe.â
What did the Legislature change?
The Legislature repealed provisions in state law that mandate annual vehicle inspections. However, the $7.50 fee remains intact under a new name: the inspection program replacement fee. That fee will be paid at the time the vehicle is registered with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.
The 17 Texas counties that require emissions inspections will still mandate annual emissionstests regardless of the bill becoming law. They are Brazoria, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, El Paso, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Johnson, Kaufman, Montgomery, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis and Williamson counties.
Who is affected?Â
All Texas noncommercialdrivers outside of the exempted counties stand to be affected by the legislation. According to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, there are 26 million registered cars in the state. Annual inspections are used to determine if certain features of a car, such as the tires, seat belts or brakes, are safe to drive with.
A study mandated by the Texas Legislature in 2017 shows that cars with defects, such as bald tires or bad brakes, were three years older than the average registered vehicle, which is nine years old.
Almost a quarter of the people surveyed in the study were asked by a mechanic to fix slick or defective tires during an inspection, potentially preventing more accidents. Another report found that defective cars in Texas were more than three times as likely to be involved in a crash that resulted in a fatality.
Texas roadways are notoriously dangerous. At least one person dies on a Texas road each day. According to the most recent state data, 4,283 people were killed in auto crashes in Texas during 2023. Based on the reported crashes in 2023, one person was killed on a Texas roadway about every two hours.
Who influenced the billâs outcome?Â
Republican Rep. Cody Harris of Palestine and Sens. Mayes Middleton of Galveston and Bob Hall of Edgewood sponsored the bill to do away with annual vehicle inspections.
âThese inspections are a waste of time for Texas citizens and a money-making Ponzi scheme used by some shady dealerships to upsell consumers with unnecessary repairs,â Harris said in a statement to ABC 13 in Houston. âTexans are responsible, fiercely independent, and I trust them to keep their cars and trucks safe while on the road.â
Other groups and businesses â such as former Texas Sen. Don Huffinesâ Liberty Foundation, Continental Automotive Group, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Texas Conservative Coalition and Tesla â were all witnesses in favor of the bill. Huffines, whose family owns a car dealership empire in North Texas, has been a vocal supporter of the bill.
Representatives with the Sheriffsâ Association of Texas, the Dallas Police Association, the Houston Police Officersâ Union, the Texas State Inspection Association, Toyota Motor North America and more spoke against the bill.
How much will it cost Texans?Â
Drivers will still be paying the annual $7.50 when they register their vehicles. The money will go toward the Texas mobility fund, general revenue fund and the clean air account.
For drivers with new cars â either the current model or preceding model year that has not been previously registered in Texas or another state â there will instead be an initial fee of $16.75 to cover two years.
All commercial vehicles in all of the state’s 254 counties will still be required to pass an annual vehicle safety inspection and pay the safety inspection fee.
The Texas transportation department estimates that the stateâs economy lost $51.4 billion due to car crashes in 2021.
What alternatives were considered?Â
No alternatives were considered for the bill, but there was some pushback from other lawmakers. Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas Democrat, spoke against the bill on the Senate floor before it passed.
âItâs really not going to take any time, and if they want to sell me a windshield wiper while Iâm there, Iâm OK,â Johnson said. âI would at least vote this bill down until one of you brings out a study that says theyâre not effective. The evidence Iâve seen says they are.â
Johnson urged fellow members to vote the bill down, saying peopleâs lives are at stake.
The bill passed on a 109-32 vote in the House chamber and a 20-11 vote in the Senate. Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law in June 2023.
Whatâs next?Â
The legislation goes into effect Jan. 1.
Disclosure: The Texas Public Policy Foundation, Tesla and Toyota Motor North America have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Don Huffines owns a network of car dealerships. His brother owns and operates the dealerships.
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Texans who worked with Jimmy Carter remembered him as a principled and compassionate leader â the last Democrat to win the state in a presidential election. Carter died Sunday afternoon at his Georgia home at age 100.
The peanut farmer turned politician was praised for philanthropic efforts that continued well into his ninth decade after a single-term presidency that began with his 1976 defeat of Republican President Gerald Ford.
âHeâs exactly the kind of human being that needs to be president,â John Pouland, Carterâs state coordinator for the 1976 Democratic primary, said soon after learning that Carter would receive hospice care. âHe lived the life that he felt was the right way to live as a Christian.â
Born and raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter actively served in the Navy for eight years before returning to his home state to take over the familyâs peanut-growing business after his fatherâs death in 1953.
Carter went on to serve in the Georgia Senate and as governor before winning the 1976 presidential election. Texasâ 26 electoral votes helped put Carter over the top, a victory he couldnât repeat in his landslide loss to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Carter became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Brownsville during a campaign stop in the closing days of the 1980 election season.
He praised the areaâs farmland, viewed during a low-altitude plane trip from Houston; extolled his record on education; and boasted about appointing more than 200 Hispanic Americans to senior positions, âmore than any other previous administration in history.â
With the polls pointing toward defeat, his speech in Brownsville also veered into the philosophical, with Carter speaking about the burden of making âthe final judgment in the loneliness of the Oval Office.â
âSometimes it has been a lonely job, but with the involvement of the American people, itâs also a gratifying job,â he said in the Nov. 1, 1980, speech.
He ended up losing Texas by nearly 14 percentage points, starting a losing streak for Democratic nominees that has lasted through the next 10 presidential elections.
A pair of Texans may have played a part in that defeat. In 1980, former Texas Gov. John B. Connally Jr., ran for the Republican nomination to challenge Carter. When Connally lost, he threw his support behind GOP nominee Ronald Reagan.
That summer, Connally and former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes took a trip to the Middle East, meeting with heads of state in various capitals. In the midst of the campaign, the Carter administration was embroiled in the Iranian Hostage Crisis, in which 52 Americans were held captive in Iran. Nightly news of the crisis strained Carter’s support and left him vulnerable to charges of ineptitude. During the trip, according to Barnes, Connally told the Middle Eastern leaders to deliver a message to Iran that Reagan would give them a better deal if they waited to release the hostages until after the election.
Barnes kept silent about the trip for decades, only revealing it to the New York Times in March after it was announced that Carter had entered hospice care. Connally died in 1993.
Connally told an Arab leader in their first meeting, ââLook, Ronald Reaganâs going to be elected president and you need to get the word to Iran that theyâre going to make a better deal with Reagan than they are Carter,ââ Barnes told the Times. âHe said, âIt would be very smart for you to pass the word to the Iranians to wait until after this general election is over.â And boy, I tell you, Iâm sitting there and I heard it and so now it dawns on me, I realize why weâre there.â
Former Carter aides have speculated that they might have won if they had returned the hostages before the election. The 52 Americans were released on the day Reagan took office.
Former President Jimmy Carter speaks at a dedication for the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on April 25, 2013. Credit: REUTERS/Mike Stone
Texans were introduced to Carter in the 1976 Democratic primary, when he faced U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a politically established Texan.
âThe âJimmy who?â line was not made up,â Pouland said. âWe probably heard that refrain more than anything.â
Carter defeated Bentsen â the Georgian was established as the partyâs standard bearer by the time Texas held its primary â and Pouland attributed Carterâs success to his Navy service and Christian values, characteristics that appealed to Texas voters.
At the time, Texas was at the tail end of a century-long, post-Civil War era of domination by Democrats in state politics. There were 133 Democrats in the 150-member state House, and 28 in the 31-member state Senate. The most significant political divides were among liberal and conservative Democrats, not Democrats and Republicans. But in presidential politics, Republicans had made inroads. Richard Nixon had won the state by 33 percentage points four years earlier, breaking a streak for three straight Democratic victories. Carter won the state with 51% of the vote.
But the state was changing fast as conservatives flocked to the GOP. The state elected its first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Bill Clements, two years after Carter was elected. Pouland said Carter served as a model for attracting moderate Southern Democrats, something former President Bill Clinton tried but failed to replicate.
Garry Mauro, a former Texas land commissioner who worked for Carterâs 1976 presidential bid, remembered the candidate as genuine and earnest.
Mauro said it never occurred to Carter to filter people out, and he didnât restrict access to himself even as his campaign built momentum. Mauro recalled numerous occasions when he dialed a campaign number, only to have the candidateâs wife, Rosalynn Carter, answer the phone.
âHe really was the peopleâs president,â Mauro said.
Carterâs influence on Texas Democrats was immense, reshaping the state partyâs power base to accommodate new faces on his team, Mauro said.
âJimmy Carter empowered a whole new generation of leadership in Texas,â Mauro said.
His many years in politics did not change Carterâs altruistic outlook, Pouland added, and Carter took an active role in advancing human rights through his nonprofit organization, the Carter Center, after leaving office.
Carter, Pouland said, âwent to his same church, worked on his same farm, kept his same friends and continued to live his life as an example for the very thing that he was an advocate of, and that was compassion.â
Though Carter was the last Democrat presidential candidate to win Texas, his legacy is still evident in the party, said state Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas.
âHe was committed to human rights and gave Democrats the confidence to be for human rights and for peace and for honesty in government,â said Bryant, who served as Carterâs campaign manager in Dallas County during Carterâs first presidential campaign.
Bryant points to Carterâs post-presidential years as some of his most impactful.
âInstead of serving on corporate boards, or making big speaking fees, or playing golf, he was going to Habitat for Humanity. He was at the [Carter Center]. And he wrote 30 books, the proceeds of which went to nonprofits,â Bryant said, adding that Carter was âjust a great example for how to live a life devoted to the public interest.
âHe lived his faith. He practiced what he preached,â Bryant said. âThatâs very important for the country to see that.â
In August 2007, Carter joined South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu in calling Texas to stop the execution of Kenneth Foster, an inmate who was on death row for acting as the getaway driver during a killing. Then-Gov. Rick Perry commuted Fosterâs sentence to life in prison hours before the execution was scheduled.
After the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Carter joined four other former presidents â Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton and George H.W. Bush â in appealing for donations to help in the recovery. The effort raised more than $41 million in response to the costliest natural disaster of 2017, when extreme flooding in Houston and the surrounding area caused more than $125 billion in damage.
Carter maintained his commitment to service through his life, helping to build and repair Dallas homes for Habitat for Humanity as a 90-year-old in 2014.
âNo matter what your faith may be, we are taught to share what we have with poor people,â he told The Dallas Morning News at the time. âItâs very difficult to cross that divide between people that have everything and people that have never had a decent house. Habitat makes it easy to cross that line.â
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
Cedar Park (Yahoo) – A disturbing case of competition gone wrong has emerged from Cedar Park, Texas, where a high school cheerleader has been charged with felony animal cruelty after allegedly poisoning a classmateâs show goat.
Aubrey Vanlandingham, 17, a senior at Vista Ridge High School, was arrested on November 22 following an investigation into the death of a show goat named Willie. She was released the same day after posting a $5,000 bond.
According to police, security footage from October 23 at the schoolâs barn facility captured a female student using a drench gun to administer toxic pesticide to the six-month-old goat. The animal died approximately 21 hours later, suffering through convulsions and respiratory distress before succumbing to the poison.
Initially denying any involvement, Vanlandingham later confessed when confronted with surveillance footage. The arrest affidavit reveals a particularly cruel sequence of events, with the suspect returning to the scene twice to photograph and video record the suffering animal. The goat ultimately died in the arms of its ownerâs daughter, who was reportedly Vanlandinghamâs classmate.
During police questioning, Vanlandingham claimed she âdoesnât like cheaters,â referring to the family who owned the goat, her competitors in a local Future Farmers of America (FFA) livestock show. She also admitted to beginning her poisoning campaign three days before the goatâs death.
Laboratory tests conducted on November 6 confirmed the presence of phosmet, a common agricultural pesticide, in the goatâs stomach contents.
The case has sent shockwaves through the FFA community, where students compete for substantial rewards. These competitions offer scholarship opportunities worth thousands of dollars and cash prizes ranging from $50 at local events to $30,000 at larger state fairs.
NEW CANEY (AP) â Cleanup was underway Monday after a strong storm system spawned hail, rain, high winds and tornadoes across the southern U.S. over the weekend, killing at least four people.
As of Monday afternoon, over 30 tornadoes had been confirmed as crews worked through about 50 reports of tornado damage spanning from Texas to South Carolina, said Mark Wiley, an emergency response specialist with the National Weather Serviceâs Southern Region Headquarters.
The storms came over a busy holiday travel weekend, causing some treacherous road conditions along with delays or cancellations at some of the busiest U.S. airports.
The storms first hit Saturday around the Houston area, where the National Weather Service by Monday had confirmed six tornadoes. Two of the twisters were rated EF3, with peak winds of about 140 mph (225 kpm), including one that hit Montgomery County in the Porter and New Caney areas.
âSome of the damage was pretty substantial, some cases leveling homes, some producing quite a bit of roof damage,â said Brian Kyle, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Houston.
About 50 homes in Montgomery County sustained major damage and 30 were destroyed, county official Jason Smith said. A couple hundred more homes sustained minor or cosmetic damage, he said.
Cleanup crews labored over the weekend and were continuing to pick up debris Monday.
Carlos Benitez, 41, was already working to rebuild his auto repair shop in the New Caney area. He said he closed his eyes as the storm blew through and when he opened them, âeverythingâs down.â
Sasha Zamora, 39, lives nearby, and was trying to put her baby to sleep when she realized how serious the storm was. âImmediately, the wind picked up so fast that things were hitting the window,â she said, recounting how she rushed her children to the center of the house. Though her family and her property came through the storm OK, her neighborâs mobile home flipped over, Zamora said.
Officials in Mississippi said two people were killed in storms there, including an 18-year-old who died after a tree fell on her home Saturday night in Natchez in Adams County. About 22,000 Mississippians remained without power Monday afternoon, according to the website PowerOutage.us. In Texas, a 48-year-old woman died in the Liverpool area south of Houston, said Madison Polston of the Brazoria County Sheriffâs Office. She said the woman was found about 100 feet (30 meters) from her home.
Dozens of homes and buildings were significantly damaged in Brazoria County, including an elementary school.
In North Carolina, a 70-year-old man was killed Sunday in Statesville, just north of Charlotte, when a tree landed on the pickup truck he was driving. Highway Patrol Trooper DJ Maffucci said âit was just a freak accidentâ and he believed Matthew Teeple, of Cleveland, North Carolina, was killed instantly.
Maffucci said that the storms were responsible for a number of downed trees and âquite a few wrecks.”
In the Alabama city of Athens, northwest of Huntsville, storm damaged the downtown area, said city spokeswoman Holly Hollman. Large HVAC units were hurled from the tops of building and the roof was ripped off a bookstore. A full-sized, stripped-down military helicopter was toppled from a pole where it was on display, she added.
âI stepped out on my porch and I could hear it roar,â she said of the storm.
Although somewhat uncommon for the season, weather officials say even December can bring severe weather under the right circumstances, as warm temperatures from the Gulf of Mexico combine with a cold front.
âYou can still have the right ingredients that lead to these severe events even in the dead of winter in the Deep South,â said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the National Weather Servicesâ Weather Prediction Center.
Still, it’s rare for a system to start in Texas and make its way all the way to the Atlantic Coast this time of year, Wiley said.
Meanwhile, in western Pennsylvania, high winds overnight Sunday caused power outages early Monday, most of them in Pittsburgh and other parts of Allegheny County. Wind speeds of more than 60 miles per hour (97 kph) were reported in Pennsylvania as high winds also blew across Ohio and northern West Virginia.
AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva in State College, Pennsylvania, said a strengthening low-pressure system ushered in the winds that downed trees and utility poles Sunday evening and into the night. Some 60,000 Pennsylvania utility customers were without power Monday morning. That number had dropped to about 13,000 by Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.
___
Stengle contributed from Dallas. Associated Press reporters Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg and Julie Walker in New York also contributed to this report.
TYLER â The passing of former President Jimmy Carter has stirred up some memories for the TJC Apache Belles according to our news partner KETK.
In the spring of 1980, they marched in the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington D.C. and were invited to tour the White House. Alumnae of the drill team remember standing in the Rose Garden and Carter appeared with a big smile on his face, ready to greet them.
âIt was so exciting. Who gets a chance to meet a president? Itâs not very often and once in a lifetime experience,â Dyann Kemp, 32nd line of the Apache Belles, said.
The sixty Apache Belles didnât think that they were going to have the opportunity to meet Carter.
âHe came out and he was larger than life, you know, is everything that you would ever read about him. He was all smiles and happy and joking with us and just being very genuine and personable with us,â Janis Johns, 33rd line of the Apache Belles, said. Continue reading TJC Apache Belles remember Jimmy Carter
TYLER â As 2025 approaches, our news partner KETK has compiled a list of festivities in East Texas to ring in the new year. Please see below for New Years Eve activities in our area.
Tyler
True Vine Brewing Company: From 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., True Vine will have live music all night, a complimentary champagne toast at midnight and a breakfast food truck from Juicy J Wings.
Texas Music City Grill & Smokehouse: The NYE party starting at 8 p.m. until 12 a.m. will have a $10 cover fee and live performance with Rick Dudley.
Javis: Join them at 8 p.m. for great food, drinks, mariachi band and a fireworks show over the pond.
Tyler Bingo: Say goodbye to 2024 with some bingo. The doors open at 5 p.m. with only one session. There will be a $700 game payouts and a $1,000 grand payout for one lucky winner. Continue reading Whatâs happening in East Texas this New Years Eve?
Happy New Year from all of us at KTBB 97.5FM and 92.1 The TEAM FM! – May this new year bring you a peace filled life, warmth and togetherness in your family and much prosperity! May all your expectations and goals be fulfilled!
The FBI is warning sports leagues about crime organizations targeting professional athletes following a string of burglaries at the homes of prominent NFL and NBA players.
The athletes’ homes are targeted due to the perception they may contain high-end goods like designer handbags, jewelry, watches and cash, the FBI said in a Liaison Information Report obtained by ABC News.
The NFL and NBA already have issued security alerts to their players after the break-ins, some of which have come when players were away with their teams for road games. The NFLâs alert says homes of professional athletes across multiple sports have become âincreasingly targeted for burglaries by organized and skilled groups.â
Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is the latest professional athlete whose home has been burglarized. Lara Beth Seager, the star guardâs business manager, told multiple media outlets Saturday there was a break-in at Doncicâs home. Seager said nobody was home at the time of the incident Friday night, and Doncic filed a police report.
Star NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City and Joe Burrow of Cincinnati, along with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, have been victims, as have NBA players Bobby Portis of Milwaukee and Mike Conley Jr. of Minnesota.
Organized theft groups from South America use publicly available information and social media to identify athletes’ habits and track their comings and goings, the FBI report said. The groups use technology allowing them to bypass alarm systems, block wireless internet connections and disable devices, cover security cameras and hide their identities.
Athletes are encouraged to report suspicious activity, keep records of valuables and where they are kept, employ extra security and use caution on social media. The FBI also suggested athletes avoid posting pictures of valuables, the interior of their homes and real-time posts when on vacation.
(NEW YORK) -- Respiratory illness activity â a measure of how often conditions like the common cold, flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus are diagnosed â is currently "high" in the United States, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, New Hampshire is listed as having "very high" respiratory virus activity, and 11 states â Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin â are listed as having "high" activity, CDC data shows.
Meanwhile, 29 states are listed as having "moderate" activity, and the remaining states are listed as having "low" activity.
Particularly, COVID-19, seasonal flu and RSV activity are increasing across the country with a rising number of people visiting emergency departments and the number of tests coming back positive for one of the three conditions, the CDC said.
The CDC estimates that there have been at least 3.1 million illnesses, 37,000 hospitalizations and 1,500 deaths from flu so far this season; these figures are based on the latest date for which data is available, which is the week ending Dec. 21.
Five pediatric deaths were reported during the week of Dec. 21, bringing the total number to nine so far during the 2024-25 season.
The CDC says levels of the COVID-19 virus being detected in wastewater are increasing, as are the number of emergency department visits and laboratory test positivity rates.
"Based on CDC modeled estimates of epidemic growth, we predict COVID-19 illness will continue to increase in the coming weeks as it usually does in the winter," the CDC said in a statement.
For RSV, the CDC said emergency department visits and hospitalizations are increasing among children and hospitalizations are increasing among older adults in some areas.
Flu and COVID-19 vaccines are available for both children and adults, and RSV vaccines are available for certain groups of adults. However, vaccination coverage remains low, meaning "many children and adults lack protection from respiratory virus infections provided by vaccines," according to the CDC.
As of Dec. 21, only 41.9% of adults were vaccinated against the flu and 21.4% were vaccinated with the updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, just 43.7% of adults ages 75 and older have received the RSV vaccine, according to CDC data.
Nearly half of all children are vaccinated against the flu at 42.5%, but just 10.3% have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine.
NEW CANEY, Texas (AP) â Cleanup was underway Monday after a strong storm system spawned hail, rain, high winds and tornadoes across the southern U.S. over the weekend, killing at least four people.
As of Monday afternoon, over 30 tornadoes had been confirmed as crews worked through about 50 reports of tornado damage spanning from Texas to South Carolina, said Mark Wiley, an emergency response specialist with the National Weather Serviceâs Southern Region Headquarters.
The storms came over a busy holiday travel weekend, causing some treacherous road conditions along with delays or cancellations at some of the busiest U.S. airports.
The storms first hit Saturday around the Houston area, where the National Weather Service by Monday had confirmed six tornadoes. Two of the twisters were rated EF3, with peak winds of about 140 mph, including one that hit Montgomery County in the Porter and New Caney areas.
âSome of the damage was pretty substantial, some cases leveling homes, some producing quite a bit of roof damage,â said Brian Kyle, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Houston.
Around 50 homes in Montgomery County sustained major damage and 30 were destroyed, county official Jason Smith said. A couple hundred more homes sustained minor or cosmetic damage, he said.
Smith said crews, which have been working since the weekend, were continuing to pick up debris Monday.
Officials in Mississippi said two people were killed in storms there, including an 18-year-old who died after a tree fell on her home Saturday night in Natchez in Adams County. In Texas, a 48-year-old woman died in the Liverpool area south of Houston, said Madison Polston of the Brazoria County Sheriffâs Office. She said the woman was found about 100 feet (30 meters) from her home.
Dozens of homes and buildings were significantly damaged in Brazoria County.
In North Carolina, a 70-year-old man was killed Sunday in Statesville, just north of Charlotte, when a tree landed on the pickup truck he was driving. Highway Patrol Trooper DJ Maffucci said âit was just a freak accidentâ and he believed Matthew Teeple, of Cleveland, North Carolina, was killed instantly.
Maffucci said that the storms were responsible for a number of downed trees and âquite a few wrecks.”
In the Alabama city of Athens, northwest of Huntsville, storm damaged the downtown area, said city spokeswoman Holly Hollman. Large HVAC units were hurled from the tops of building and the roof was ripped off a bookstore. A full-sized, stripped-down military helicopter was toppled from a pole where it was on display, she added.
âI stepped out on my porch and I could hear it roar,â she said of the storm.
Although somewhat uncommon for the season, weather officials say even in December can see severe weather under the right circumstances, as warm temperatures from the Gulf of Mexico combine with a cold front.
âYou can still have the right ingredients that lead to these severe events even in the dead of winter in the Deep South,â said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the National Weather Servicesâ Weather Prediction Center.
Still, it’s rare for a system to start in Texas and make its way all the way to the Atlantic Coast this time of year, Wiley said.
Meanwhile, in western Pennsylvania, high winds overnight Sunday caused power outages early Monday, most of them in Pittsburgh and other parts of Allegheny County. Wind speeds of more than 60 miles per hour (97 kph) were reported in Pennsylvania as high winds also blew across Ohio and northern West Virginia.
AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva in State College, Pennsylvania, said a strengthening low-pressure system ushered in the winds that downed trees and utility poles Sunday evening and into the night. Some 60,000 Pennsylvania utility customers were without power Monday morning.
(NEW YORK) -- The fund disbursing money to the victims of Bernie Madoffâs legendary Ponzi scheme began its 10th and final distribution on Monday, putting another $131 million in the pockets of swindled investors.
Twenty-three thousand victims worldwide are receiving payments, bringing their total recoveries to 94% of their losses. Most of these victims were small investors who lost less than $500,000 in the fraud, according to federal prosecutors.
Since the collapse of Madoffâs investment house and his 2009 guilty plea, the Madoff Victim Fund has paid more than $4 billion to nearly 41,000 victims in 127 countries.
âThis office has never stopped pursuing justice for victims of historyâs largest Ponzi scheme,â acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim said.
For decades, Madoff used the investment advisory business he founded in 1960 to steal billions from his clients, turning his wealth management firm into the worldâs largest Ponzi scheme to benefit himself, his family and select members of his inner circle.
He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021.
"The unprecedented scope and complexity of the Madoff remission process shows the power of forfeiture to recover assets and to compensate victims," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Wible said in a statement on Monday.
ATHENS â Records reveal an Athens man has been arrested after authorities said they found numerous photos and videos of child pornography on his laptop.
Kevin Eugene Jones, 61 of Athens, was arrested following a search warrant conducted at his residence on Parsons Parkway in Athens on Dec. 19. According to an affidavit, authorities found 35 images and graphic videos of child pornography of children under the age of 10. Jones admitted he lived in the residence alone and has looked at child pornography for several years, the affidavit said. He has since been arrested on three counts of possession of child pornography and is being held at the Henderson County Jail on a $450,000 bond.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/2df936abd2586a157500427eced1d998/Jimmy%20Carter%20REUTERS%2002.jpg "Texans remember Jimmy Carter, the last Democrat to take the stateâs presidential election")
