KTBB News, Weather, Talk – Page 4 – KTBB News, Weather, Talk

Texas business leaders are apprehensive about Trump’s pledged deportations

“We wouldn’t survive” without undocumented workers, one South Texas produce business owner said. By one estimate, 8% of Texas’ workforce lacks legal status.

In Texas, undocumented people have built apartment complexes and skyscrapers that changed skylines. They have picked fruits and vegetable in fields, cooked in restaurant kitchens, cleaned hospitals and started small businesses. They have become stitched into communities from El Paso to Beaumont.

Now some of their employers worry that many of them could get deported when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

A number of Texas business leaders interviewed by the Tribune describe a sort of wait-and-see apprehension about Trump’s pledged mass deportations. The impact any deportations could have on Texas’ economy will largely depend on the specifics of what Trump does, business leaders say. But those specifics are not yet clear.

“I don’t think any of us know exactly what’s coming as far as policy — we’ve heard all of the rhetoric,” said Andrea Coker of the North Texas Commission, a nonprofit that promotes the Dallas region.

The owner of a Rio Grande Valley agriculture import-export business who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of legal repercussions said four of his seven employees are undocumented. A majority of similar businesses would take a hit should the government deport undocumented people en masse, the business owner estimated.

Without undocumented workers, he said, “We wouldn’t survive and we’ll have to close.”

He said he hired undocumented workers because he struggled to find U.S. citizens and legal residents willing to do the grueling work.

“The people who are here legally don’t want to work here. They’d rather collect unemployment,” he said. “We’ve hired people who were documented, but they don’t last.”

In speaking about mass deportations, Trump and his incoming aides have said they will prioritize deporting people with a criminal history, while also noting that anyone who has entered the country illegally has committed a crime. Any large-scale deportation plans are sure to face legal and logistical challenges.

But Texas’ state leaders are eager to help Trump, and the state is a target-rich environment. The Pew Research Center estimates that unauthorized immigrants make up approximately 8% of the state’s workforce, including a large presence in the hospitality, restaurants, energy and construction industries.

The state comptroller’s office did a study in 2006 to find out how the state economy would look without the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants living in Texas in 2005. The study said their absence would cost the state about $17.7 billion in gross state product — a measure of the value of goods and services produced in Texas. The state has not updated the study since; analysis replicated by universities and think tanks have reached similar conclusions that undocumented Texans contribute more to the economy than they cost the state.

“We know that immigrants are punching above their weight,” said Jaime Puente, director of economic opportunity at the left-leaning nonprofit Every Texan. “We are looking at a significant loss of productivity.”

Among major Texas industries, construction has the highest proportion of undocumented workers, according to the Pew Research Center. Mass deportations could disrupt the state’s homebuilding industry in the midst of a housing shortage, which could lead to fewer new homes built and even higher home prices and rents, according to housing experts.

A recent paper from researchers at the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin-Madison explored the aftermath of the deportation of more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants nationwide from 2008 to 2013. In the places where deportations happened, the study found, homebuilding contracted because the local construction workforce shrank and home prices rose. The researchers discovered that other construction workers lost work too because homebuilders cut back on new developments.

“We really find ourselves in the situation where anything that kind of disrupts the process of [adding] housing supply would be detrimental to the housing affordability crisis,” said Riordan Frost, a senior research analyst at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Stan Marek’s Czech grandfather arrived in Houston in 1938 and began hanging sheetrock. Nearly 100 years later, Marek’s family owns a large Houston-based construction firm with roughly 1,000 employees.

“I have watched the stages of immigration,” said Marek, 77. “Eighty-five years later and our immigrants are here, and like they’ve always been, to do the work that no one else wants to do or can do.”

Marek sees a long overdue opportunity to fix a lingering mess — the country’s immigration laws. He said deportations “will be terribly expensive and terribly nonproductive” but granting widespread amnesty to undocumented people would not work either.

Marek believes giving a path to citizenship to people who arrived in the country as children and received deportation protection through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, could help the state reduce its workforce shortage. He also believes in the creation of a similar program for adults to gain legal status — which he calls “Adult DACA” — so that they can work legally.

“It’s not just construction. Who’s picking all the fruit and all the vegetables? Who’s milking all those cows? Every job you look at all over the United States, there are immigrants,” Marek said. “We gotta have the business community step up. That’s the key because the business community, more than anybody, is responsible for the labor.”

In the oil-rich Permian Basin, mass deportations could reduce populations in cities and in turn result in closed businesses and the disappearance of sales tax dollars, said Virginia Bellew, executive director of the Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission.

“I think you’ve seen communities just waiting [to see what Trump does], don’t want to take any steps to predict, discuss, or make decisions,” Bellew said.

In Austin, a 43-year-old man who arrived from Mexico 25 years ago said his first job involved sweeping up debris at a construction site for less than $8 an hour. Today he is a foreman for a general contractor, supervising projects and coordinating crews. He asked his name not be published for fear of jeopardizing his pending residency application.

He said he is not letting himself be consumed by the fear of Trump’s promises of mass deportations. He has deep roots in Texas now. He and his wife have raised their three kids in Austin in a house they built themselves.

His kids are U.S. citizens and his wife has legal status through DACA. He’s in the process of applying for legal residency through his eldest daughter, a student at St. Edward’s University in Austin.

“I try to be a great citizen,” he said in Spanish. “[Trump] can not deport everyone because there are so many of us who are indispensable to this country.”

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

Winter Storm Watch issued for portion of East Texas

EAST TEXAS — According to our news partner KETK’s Chief Meteorologist Carson Vickroy, “We’ve got one more day before our first, and hopefully only wintry event of the year. We’ll observe our third consecutive hard freeze tomorrow morning followed by temperatures being well below average tomorrow afternoon. (Highs in the low to middle 40s). The storm system is over the Rockies right now and will be making it in to Texas tomorrow night with the first bouts of precipitation arriving Thursday morning.

Precipitation will gradually increase throughout the day Thursday. I expect we’ll mostly snow/sleet north of highway 80 (1?-2?), with the highest amounts along and north of Interstate 30 (2?-4?+). Further south it gets more interesting. I’ve said over the last couple of days that places like Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville, & Henderson are in the wintry “Battlezone.” This means that precipitation type is unclear and could change several times during this event. Continue reading Winter Storm Watch issued for portion of East Texas

Medical board suspends Tyler professional following murder charge

TYLER — The Texas Medical Board has suspended a Tyler medical professional after determining he poses “a continuing threat to public welfare” following his arrest for murder. According to our news partner KETK, the board announced Monday that Scott Lee Goble’s respiratory care practitioner certificate was temporarily suspended following his arrest. A temporary suspension hearing will be held soon, however his suspension remains in place until the Board takes further action.

According to an arrest affidavit, the Tyler Police Department was dispatched to Junior’s Taco on 3815 South Southwest Loop 323 at around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, after receiving calls from someone claiming their father had just shot someone at the restaurant. When officers arrived, they located a gunshot victim, later identified as Heriberto Ramirez, who had sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Records show Ramirez was taken to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries. Continue reading Medical board suspends Tyler professional following murder charge

In brief: Jacob Elordi to replace Paul Mescal in ‘The Dog Stars’ and more

Oh, lordy. Jacob Elordi is in talks to replace Paul Mescal in Ridley Scott's upcoming thriller, The Dog Stars. Variety first reported that Elordi is in early negotiations to take over the starring role in the post-apocalyptic film after Mescal ran into scheduling issues. Mescal was forced to drop the part due to filming for his role as Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes' The Beatles anthology films. If the deal closes, Elordi will play a pilot named Hig who befriends a gunman in a world where a flu virus has nearly wiped out all of humanity ...

Florence Pugh says she's learned how to protect herself from giving too much to her acting roles. While guesting on a recent episode of the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Pugh said she has previously been broken for a long time after playing certain characters. "Like when I did Midsommar, I definitely felt like I abused myself in the places that I got myself to go to," Pugh said, "which is the nature of figuring these things out is you need to go, 'All right, well, I can't do that again, cause that was too much.'" ...

Amy Schumer pretends to be pregnant in the new trailer for Netflix's Kinda Pregnant. The film, which will debut on the streamer on Feb. 5, follows Lainy, played by Schumer, a woman who is so jealous of her best friend's pregnancy she wears a fake baby bump. Jillian Bell, Will Forte, Damon Wayans Jr. and Alex Moffat also star in the comedy, which was produced by Adam Sandler and Schumer ...

The new season of Squid Game is a hit. The sequel to the Emmy-winning Korean drama series racked up more than 126 million views in just 11 days — a new record for Netflix ...

Trump asks Supreme Court to block his criminal hush money sentencing

(WASHINGTON) -- President-elect Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent Friday's sentencing in his New York criminal hush money case.

In a filing Wednesday, defense lawyers argued that a New York judge lacks the authority to sentence the president-elect until Trump exhausts his appeal based on presidential immunity.

"This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government," Trump's lawyers wrote.

The move came after a New York appeals court earlier Tuesday denied Trump's request to delay the Jan. 10 sentencing.

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

In asking the Supreme Court to intervene, Trump has presented the court with an unprecedented situation of a former president -- whose appointment of three justices cemented the court's conservative majority -- asking the country's highest court to effectively toss his criminal conviction less than two weeks ahead of his inauguration.

Trump asked the Supreme Court to consider whether he is entitled to a stay of the proceedings during his appeal; whether presidential immunity prevents the use of evidence related to official acts; and whether a president-elect is entitled to the same immunity as a sitting president.

If adopted by the justices, Trump's argument about immunity for a president-elect could expand the breadth of presidential authority, temporarily providing a private citizen with the absolute immunity reserved for a sitting president.

In a 6-3 decision last year, the Supreme Court broadened the limits of presidential immunity, finding that a former president is presumptively immune from criminal liability for any official acts and absolutely immune related to his core duties. The decision not only expanded the limits of presidential power but also upended the criminal cases faced by Trump.

Despite that favorable opinion, Trump faces uncertainty in convincing the justices to halt his sentencing. The Supreme Court does not typically take on random interlocutory appeals, even by a president-elect.

Trump's lawyers also argued that the former president's conviction relied on evidence of official acts, including his social media posts as president and testimony from his close White House advisers. The New York judge in the case, Juan Merchan, ruled that Trump's conviction related "entirely to unofficial conduct" and "poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch."

"This appeal will ultimately result in the dismissal of the District Attorney's politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning, centered around the wrongful actions and false claims of a disgraced, disbarred serial-liar former attorney, violated President Trump's due process rights, and had no merit," Trump's filing to the Supreme Court said.

Former Longview ISD employee sentenced to prison

GREGG COUNTY — A former Longview ISD employee was sentenced for the abuse against special education students at J.L Everhart Elementary. According to our news partner KETK, Cynthia Denise Talley was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for seven counts of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury and one count of unlawful restraint of a minor. Talley is one of six women arrested in 2022 after Longview ISD officials reportedly saw video footage of employees and campus administration mistreating special education students.

The other former J.L. Everhart employees also charged for mistreatment of students are Paula Hawkins Dixon, Cassandra Renee James, Linda Kaye Brown Lister, Priscilla Johnson and Cecilia Gregg.

Gregg, Dixon and Talley were “released from employment” from the district in October 2021“ immediately upon the district’s discovery of their alleged actions,” according to a statement from the district. Continue reading Former Longview ISD employee sentenced to prison

What are Linda McMahon’s chances to be education secretary?

(WASHINGTON) -- World Wresting Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon has been getting high marks from her meetings with the Republican senators who could decide whether she'll be the next secretary of education.

McMahon has run a large government organization before -- she led the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019 in President-elect Donald Trump's first term -- but critics say she has little professional education experience beyond earning a teaching certificate from East Carolina University.

Since then, McMahon has primarily focused her time as a WWE executive, serving on the boards of colleges and state education agencies, and as chair of the board for think tank America First Policy Institute.

McMahon allies suggest her business experience will not only disrupt but also help reshape a federal agency that's long been criticized by Republicans. As a confidant to the president-elect who co-chaired his transition, McMahon is uniquely positioned to carry out his promises to close the education department, restore power to parents, and inject choice in schools, they say.

"Linda McMahon is a win for parents and will root out radical ideology and get DEI out of America's education system," Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote in a post on X after their meeting on Tuesday.

McMahon said she will carry out Trump’s platform if confirmed by the Senate. When asked if she would dismantle the Department of Education like Trump campaigned on in her new role, she told ABC News, “If I am secretary of education, I will certainly fall in with what the president's policy is.” However, it would take 60 votes in the Senate to dissolve the department, which is highly unlikely with just a 53-47 Republican majority.

The slim majority may not be enough to create immediate changes at the department, but senators who talked to ABC News expect her to be the department’s next leader.

What are senators saying?

Ultimately, McMahon’s nomination rests with the 100 senators who will vote on whether to confirm Trump's Cabinet picks. The Senate hasn’t yet formally set a date for a confirmation hearing for McMahon, but she told ABC News she is looking forward to it.

Like Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees, McMahon has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill in advise and consent meetings with everyone from newly elected Senate Majority Leader John Thune to freshman Republican Sen. Jim Banks. The GOP senators McMahon has met with have signaled a smooth process ahead.

“She's awesome,” Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin told ABC News. “I'm looking forward to getting her over to be the secretary of education. She's going to do the reform that needs to be done there.”

Mullin added, “I think she's going to get through pretty easy. She's really good.”

McMahon first met with Mullin and most of his colleagues on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). This committee is expected to hold hearings for the nominees to lead the departments of Education, Labor and Health. Mullin explained that he and McMahon discussed reforming Washington, not outright dismantling agencies such as the DOE.

“I think all these federal agencies need to have a hard look at,” Mullin said. “The American people were very clear about that in the election, they gave President Trump and they gave the Republicans a mandate that they want the government to start working for them and not working for a party.”

McMahon and her team have been marching through the Senate halls for weeks. The meetings typically last between 30 to 45 minutes. After his meeting, HELP Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he and McMahon “speak the same language” on education issues.

Tuberville, R-Ala., also stressed that McMahon is the right leader to execute Trump’s goal of closing the education department, arguing states already have their own departments of education so Washington doesn’t need one.

“I've seen the downgrade of our curriculum, of the discipline, you know, between the students and the parents and the teachers,” Tuberville said. “We need to be more of a family when it comes to education, instead of an individual agency. We need to make it more personal, and I think that she'll have a great opportunity to do that. She knows a lot about it.”

Tuberville is one of five current or former GOP members on the HELP committee who told ABC News the closed-door meetings with McMahon have been going “great.” McMahon has not told ABC News if her meetings will include Democrats.

HELP Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told ABC News she wants to see full vetting of Trump’s nominees including FBI background checks. Baldwin said she hopes McMahon is going to be a “good steward” of the education department and looks forward to reviewing her case to be its next secretary.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., struck a different tone condemning Trump’s nominees.

“[McMahon] definitely wouldn't be my first choice or my second choice, or third choice, or fourth choice, or fifth choice, or sixth or seventh,” Fetterman said, then added, “But I forgot they won, so, they can pick these kinds of things.”

Court reissues warrant for impeached South Korean president, who remains at residence

(SEOUL, South Korea) -- Seoul Western District Court on Tuesday night reissued a warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The Corruption Investigation Office chief, Oh Dong-woon, said during a parliament hearing that they would “thoroughly prepare for the execution of arrest, as if it was the last chance.”

The effort to detain Yoon came after a South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 31 over his short-lived imposition of martial law, ABC News confirmed. Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14.

Yoon's attorney told reporters Wednesday that he is still at his residence and is greatly disappointed to hear rumors saying he had fled. Opposition lawmakers had spread those rumors, the attorney said.

To prepare for another arrest attempt, the President's Secret Service heightened surveillance near the Presidential residence, adding more chains to the barbed wire fence and blocking vehicles.

Yoon's lawyer said he still strongly believes that the CIO’s execution of the arrest warrant is illegitimate, as the CIO lacks the authority to investigate insurrection. He also pointed out that the Seoul Western District Court, which reissued the arrest warrant, has no jurisdiction. Nevertheless, he told reporters, the impeached president would stand trial if he were to be indicted.

Thousands had gathering on Sunday, a day before another arrest warrant for Yoon expired, near impeached the presidential residence

Protesters from both sides -- one calling the warrant invalid or illegal and the other shouting for arrest -- have occupied the wide four-lane road in a normally quiet neighborhood, blocking all traffic, in freezing temperatures and snow.

Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country's liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.

Animosity has been sky-high between the two sides, after over 100 investigators from the CIO anti-corruption agency and the police retreated from the residence after a tense standoff with the presidential security service.

Yoon's die-hard supporters have been camping on the street vowing to protect him from "pro-North Korean forces about to steal away the presidency." Anti-Yoon protesters who are backing of the opposition party claim that Yoon must be jailed for insurrection.

ABC News' Joohee Cho and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

Wind speeds remain high as Southern California wildfires rage

An ABC News graphic shows the fire risk forecast in Southern California on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. Via ABC News.

(LOS ANGELES) -- A damaging Santa Ana wind event was peaking early Wednesday and winds were expected to stay strong through early afternoon in Southern California, fueling three wildfires that were quickly expanding early Wednesday around the Los Angeles metro area.

The Palisades Fire had grown to at about 2,921 acres, the Eaton Fire was about 1,000 acres and the Hurst Fire was about 500 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. All were zero percent contained.

Wind gusts were recorded at 99 mph on Mt. Lukens in the Eastern San Gabriel Mountains, at 98 mph on Saddle Peak in the Santa Monica Mountains and at 84 mph at Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Relative humidity in the area is very low, less than 10%. It has been very dry in Los Angeles, in fact October through December period was the sixth driest on record last year.

Downtown Los Angeles only saw about 0.16 inches of rain since Oct. 1, where it usually sees as much as about 4.53 inches.

An ABC News graphic shows the fire forecast in Southern California on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.

An extreme fire risk warning was issued from Malibu to Burbank, along with Simi Valley and San Fernando.

A "Particularly Dangerous Situation" red flag warning was set to continue for Los Angeles until 4 p.m. PST on Wednesday.

The same type of warning was also issued for Orange County, and the damaging winds are expected to extend all the way to San Diego county.

A warning of critical fire danger was extended all the way to east of San Diego.

On Thursday and Friday, winds will begin to relax and relative humidity will begin to climb.

As 1st bird flu death reported in US, what could happen with virus in 2025?

Human Bird Flu Cases in the U.S. as of January 6, 2025. Image by ABC News. Data via CDC.

(NEW YORK) -- In the nearly nine months since the first human case of bird flu was detected in the United States, the virus has continued to spread.

The outbreak infected hundreds of herds and millions of birds before it spread to humans. As of Jan. 6, there have been 66 human cases of bird flu reported in 10 states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Almost all confirmed cases involve direct contact with infected cattle or infected livestock.

On Tuesday, the first death of a human bird flu patient was reported in Louisiana. The patient was over the age of 65 and had underlying medical conditions, according to health officials.

The CDC says there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission and the risk to the general public is low.

However, public health experts say they are worried the virus could mutate and become more transmissible, amplifying the need to ramp up testing and to stockpile vaccines.

Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases specialist at Duke University, said the fact that cases have yet to pass from human to human is "both reassuring, but not completely reassuring."

He told ABC News, "What we're concerned about is that, eventually, we might get a variation of this strain that could pass from person to person. That's really what we're going to need to see, I think, to get substantial human cases and the potential for a new pandemic strain."

He added, "So, in terms of peering into the crystal ball for 2025…I think the concern is whether or not we're going to see something change that will turn it into a pandemic strain that could then really be a problem," he added.

Fears of mutation or a combination virus

One fear experts have is that the virus will continue to mutate in a way that will cause more human-to-human transmissibility. The experts say that every new human case of bird flu allows the virus an opportunity to mutate.

Recent CDC data found mutations in samples of bird flu collected from the Louisiana patient. What's more, the mutations were not found in poultry samples collected on the patient's property, suggesting the changes appeared after the patient became infected.

Moody said that because the virus has not yet mutated in a way to spread more easily between humans, he's not sure if or when it will happen.

"Given the number of cows that have been infected, the number of birds that have been infected and the fact that the virus essentially mutates every time it replicates, I'm kind of surprised that the mutations that they're talking about haven't happened yet," he said. "So, I actually think there's a bigger barrier to it becoming a real problem."

Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said he believes there is a more likely scenario of the virus becoming more transmissible: an individual getting infected with bird flu and seasonal influenza at the same time.

He said this could lead to the virus "reassorting" to produce a hybrid, or recombinant, virus that could then transmit more easily from person to person.

"Everyone's focusing on the potential for mutation; that is a serious concern for some," he told ABC News. "The greater probability is that there could be a reassortment, what could ignite the pandemic or an epidemic."

The experts say there is no evidence the virus is currently heading towards an epidemic or pandemic, but there has already been one case of severe disease.

Different genotypes, or genetic makeup of the virus, means there could more severe cases.

"What we've seen with [bird flu] in the United States is that the particular genotype that's associated with dairy cows has primarily caused more mild disease in people," Dr. Meghan Davis, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.

"What we've seen with the case in Louisiana … is caused by a different genotype, one that has been circulating in the wild birds, and these are much more severe cases," she continued. "This highlights the ability of avian influenzas to cause a wide variety of disease … and I think it is possible that we're going to see that moving forward."

Making testing more available

The U.S. has begun ramping up testing with the U.S. Department of Agriculture issuing a federal order for raw milk samples nationwide to be collected and tested and the Food and Drug Administration announcing it is collecting samples of aged raw cow's milk cheese to be tested.

However, for 2025, Hotez said he believes testing needs to be made more readily available to physicians, especially during flu season.

He said there are likely cases of bird flu going undiagnosed, and testing made more available in health care settings would catch those flying under the radar.

"I think one of the problems that we have, especially as we move into influenza season, there's the risk that, if you're a physician, if they want to do influenza testing, they're only really testing for the usual seasonal influenza, they're not testing for [bird flu]," he said. "Otherwise, we're never going to fully know the actual extent of the problem."

Stockpiling bird flu vaccines

In early July, the U.S. government awarded Moderna $176 million to develop and test a bird flu vaccine using mRNA technology, which is the same technology used for the COVID vaccine.

In October, federal health officials announced they were providing $72 million to vaccine manufacturers to help ensure currently available bird flu vaccines are ready to use, if needed.

There are currently no recommendations for anyone in the U.S. to be vaccinated against bird flu, but experts say that could change if the virus becomes more transmissible.

Moody said clinical trials for new vaccines are being conducted and there are already bird flu vaccines in a stockpile maintained by the U.S. government that have previously been licensed by the FDA.

However, these three vaccines were formulated to protect against older strains of bird flu so there are questions about their protectiveness.

"One of the difficulties in making a stockpile is you're trying to predict the future. Picking which influenza is going to be a problem is always the difficult bit," Moody said. "So, I think that those vaccines that are in the stockpile, based on the data that I've seen, have a pretty good chance of being helpful. Whether or not they'll be the answer that's a that's a tougher question to address."

He said the U.S. is in a better position currently to address bird flu if it becomes an epidemic or pandemic than the country was to address COVID in 2020.

"We know how to do this. We know how to make these vaccines. We know how to get everything rolled out, and so I think we are in a better position today," Moody said.

Gender-swapped ‘Holes’ TV show pilot ordered for Disney+

A gender-swapped reimagining of the beloved Louis Sachar book Holes is headed to Disney+.

The streamer has ordered a Holes TV series to pilot, over 20 years after it was adapted to a film. Shia LaBeouf starred in the 2003 Holes movie as Stanley Yelnats, the unlucky boy who is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, for a crime he didn't commit.

The official logline for the new TV show reads, “In this reimagining of the beloved 1998 book from Louis Sachar, a teenage girl is sent to a detention camp where the ruthless Warden forces the campers to dig holes for a mysterious purpose.”

Alina Mankin will write and executive produce the show, while Liz Phang will be its showrunner and also executive produce. Drew Goddard will also executive produce through Goddard Textiles along with Sarah Esberg.

“My mom’s been a schoolteacher for her whole life and, as such, she’s served as a de facto book scout for Goddard Textiles,” Goddard told Variety, who broke the story. “She always knows what ‘the kids’ are into long before everyone else does. ‘Holes’ was the first book she suggested to me – this was back in the late ‘90s – and she was positive it was going to be a phenomenon. It feels good to bring it full circle for Mrs. Goddard and her sixth grade class.”

Exxon Mobil Corp. sues California attorney general for defamation

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, months after Bonta sued the oil and gas giant alleging that it deceived the public for half a century by promising the plastics it produced would be recycled.

The Texas-based company said in its lawsuit, filed Monday in that state’s Eastern District, that Bonta, the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay and the Surfrider Foundation conspired to defame it with statements regarding the efficacy of its plastic recycling technology.

“Together, Bonta and the US Proxies — the former for political gain and the latter pawns for the Foreign Interests — have engaged in a deliberate smear campaign against ExxonMobil, falsely claiming that ExxonMobil’s effective and innovative advanced recycling technology is a ‘false promise’ and ‘not based on truth,’” the company said in its lawsuit.

It seeks unspecified damages and retractions of “defamatory statements” from Bonta and the groups.

A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice called the lawsuit “another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception” and said Bonta looks forward to “vigorously litigating” the case.

In its lawsuit filed in September, Bonta’s office said that less than 5% of plastic is recycled into another plastic product in the U.S. even though the items are labeled as “recyclable.”

As a result landfills and oceans are filled with plastic waste, creating a global pollution crisis, while consumers diligently place plastic water bottles and other containers into recycling bins, the lawsuit alleges.

New winter storm threatens snow for Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A developing winter storm threatens to drop snow, sleet and freezing rain on parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas as frigid air that escaped the Arctic plunges temperatures to subfreezing levels in some of the southernmost points of the U.S.

National Weather Service meteorologists predicted wintry precipitation across the southern Plains region starting Wednesday night, with snow likely in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Farther south, snow could transition to sleet and freezing rain, which meteorologists warn could result in hazardous driving conditions.

An arctic blast descended on much of the U.S. east of the Rockies over the weekend, causing hundreds of car accidents and thousands of flight cancellations and delays. Several communities set up warming shelters this week, including one at a roller rink in Cincinnati and another in the Providence, Rhode Island, City Council chambers.

As the cold front moved south, a cold weather advisory was issued for the Gulf Coast and pushed the low temperature in El Paso, along the Texas border with Mexico, to 31 degrees (minus 0.5 Celsius). The National Weather Service predicted a wind chill factor ranging from 0 to 15 degrees (minus 18 to minus 9 Celsius) early Wednesday.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes ventures south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Some experts say such cold air outbreaks are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of a warming world.

As points north and east dug out of snow and ice Tuesday, communities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas were preparing. In Texas, crews treated the roads in the Dallas area amid forecasts of 1 to 3 inches (about 3 to 8 centimeters) of snow on Thursday, along with sleet and rain. National Weather Service meteorologist Sam Shamburger said up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) of snow was expected farther north near the Oklahoma line.

Kevin Oden, Dallas’ director of emergency management and crisis response, said Tuesday, “Our city is in a preparedness phase.”

The storm could make roads slick Friday as 75,000 fans head to AT&T Stadium in Arlington to see Texas play Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Arlington spokesperson Susan Shrock said crews are ready to address any hazardous road conditions around the stadium.

“They’re going to have the salt brine, they’ll have sand and they’ll have equipment on standby,” she said.

A Tuesday night statement from AT&T Stadium and the Cotton Bowl said officials have been meeting with city and transportation officials and that “plans are in place to assure a safe environment for everyone in and around AT&T Stadium on game day.”

Parts of southeastern Georgia and northern Florida endured unusually frigid temperatures overnight into Tuesday and were under freeze warnings into Wednesday.

In northern Florida, with Valentine’s Day just a month away, the main concern for growers fearful of cold weather is the fern crop used for floral arrangements.

Major damage to citrus trees, which typically occurs when temperatures drop to 28 degrees (minus 2 degrees Celsius) or below for several hours, was less likely. Florida’s commercial citrus groves are primarily south of the central part of the peninsula.

An area stretching from the central Plains through the Ohio Valley into the mid-Atlantic region is likely to receive more snow and ice for a few days, which could cause the ground covering to melt and refreeze to form treacherous black ice on roadways, forecasters said.

Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky earlier this week, and a state trooper was treated for injuries after his patrol car was hit.

Three people died in vehicle crashes in Virginia, according to state police. Other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas, where over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in places, had two deadly weekend crashes.

Nearly 100,000 customers remained without power Tuesday night in states to the east of Kansas including Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us. That was down from more than 200,000 earlier in the day.

More than 5,000 flights into or out of the U.S. were delayed Tuesday, according to tracking platform FlightAware. On Monday, more than 2,300 flights were canceled and at least 9,100 more were delayed.

Virginia’s state Capitol and General Assembly buildings will stay closed Wednesday after a weather-related power outage caused a malfunction in the water system, officials said Monday. The closure postponed lawmakers’ first working day of the legislative session. A boil-water notice that was issued for Richmond’s 200,000 residents could be lifted Wednesday, Mayor Danny Avula said.

What’s in Jack Smith’s final report on the Trump probes? Recent filings provide some clues

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) -- Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump and his allies unleashed a legal blitz this week to prevent the release of special counsel Jack Smith's final report on his classified documents and election interference investigations, successfully convincing the federal judge who dismissed Trump's documents case to issue an emergency injunction temporarily blocking the report's release.

While Smith has released many of his findings already -- through four indictments and a lengthy filing outlining the evidence against Trump -- recent disclosures made by attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants suggest that the special counsel's final report could contain previously undisclosed details that are potentially damaging to the president elect.

Trump's lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who reviewed a draft version of the report over the weekend, argued in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Monday that the report's release would be a "partisan weapon" and "lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm" President-elect Trump and his allies.

According to Trump's lawyers, a draft of the report included multiple "baseless attacks" on members of Trump's incoming presidential administration that could "interfere with upcoming confirmation hearings."

The letter did not provide any additional information about which, if any, of Trump's nominees or appointees were mentioned in the report.

According to a court filing from Trump's defense lawyers Monday, a draft version of the report asserts that Trump "engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort," violated multiple federal laws, and served as the "head" of multiple criminal conspiracies.

Trump pleaded not guilty in 2023 to charges of unlawfully retaining classified materials after leaving the White House, and, in a separate case, pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a "criminal scheme" to overturn the results of the 2020 election. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case this past July after deeming Smith's appointment unconstitutional, leading Smith to appeal that decision.

Smith, who is now winding down both his cases against the president-elect due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president, has not provided any details about the contents of his report. Smith's team has accused Trump's attorneys of violating a confidentiality agreement by making portions of their findings public in their filings.

Special counsels are mandated by internal Justice Department regulations to prepare confidential reports at the conclusion of their investigations to summarize their findings, and the attorney general can determine whether to release the report publicly. Smith's report includes two volumes, covering his investigation into Trump's alleged retention of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump's lawyers argued that the report's release would disrupt the ongoing presidential transition process and "exacerbate stigma and public opprobrium surrounding the Chief Executive," suggesting that the report -- which is being prepared by a prosecutor independent from the president -- contradicts the Biden administration's vow to "facilitate an orderly and collegial transition process."

"It'll be a fake report, just like it was a fake investigation," Trump said at a news conference Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Trump's lawyers also suggested that the report included a "pathetically transparent tirade" about social media platform X's effort to "protect civil liberties."

ABC News previously reported that X -- then known as Twitter -- was held in contempt and fined $350,000 for failing to comply with a search warrant for records and data from former President Trump's social media account. X's owner, Elon Musk, is now one of Trump's most vocal supporters and advisers, and spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump.

Blanche and Bove -- both of whom Trump has picked for top Justice Department posts in the incoming administration -- have argued that the report's release would only offer a single-sided view of the case and give "rise to a media storm of false and unfair criticism" that Trump would need to address during the transition period.

While Trump is no longer being prosecuted by Smith, his two former co-defendants in the classified documents case have argued they would be unable to have a fair trial if the findings are released publicly. Lawyers for Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira have claimed that the report would reveal sensitive grand jury material -- such as communications obtained via a subpoena -- and support the finding that "everyone Smith charged is guilty of the crimes charged."

Describing Smith as a "rogue actor with a personal and political vendetta," lawyers for Trump's co-defendants argued in a filing that the report would irreparably bias the public by amplifying the government's "narrative" without providing Trump and his co-defendants the ability to respond.

"Smith's planned Final Report -- now that he is unshackled from due process requirements that restrained him as a government actor -- would engender the very prejudice, passion, and excitement and be an exercise of the tyrannical power that our court system is designed to insulate against," the filing said.

In a brief filing Tuesday, a lawyer on Smith's staff confirmed that the special counsel's office is "working to finalize" its report, and said that Garland will have the final say over what material will be made public.

Here’s why Meta ended fact-checking, according to experts

(NEW YORK) -- Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced plans Tuesday to replace fact-checkers with a user-based system known as "community notes."

Fact-checkers who were put in place in the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 election have proven to be "too politically biased" and have destroyed "more trust than they've created," particularly in the United States, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video posted by the company.

"The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech," Zuckerberg added.

The policy shift will make the platform more generally permissive toward user posts, especially on some controversial subjects such as immigration and gender, the company said. Zuckerberg also acknowledged that the change may mean "we're going to catch less bad stuff."

The decision will impact content moderation on Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, which count nearly 4 billion users worldwide.

Critics of the move said it reflected a partisan effort to align Meta with President-elect Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the company for alleged anti-conservative bias. Proponents, meanwhile, praised the decision as a sign of renewed emphasis on free speech rather than content policing.

Experts who spoke to ABC News said it's difficult to know exactly what motivated the company, but they said both explanations are plausible.

Meta may view the decision as an opportunity to jettison a policy targeted by conservatives and curry favor with Trump, while shifting the company toward a permissive stance on speech that Zuckerberg has previously avowed, the experts said.

"Zuckerberg knew he'd have a fight on his hands to change the basic tenets of Facebook," Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law who studies content moderation, told ABC News. "The question is: Why now?"

Meta did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Meta launched the fact-checking program in the heat of intense scrutiny leveled at the company regarding the spread of misinformation on the platform during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The initiative came under criticism from prominent Republicans, including Trump, who accused the company of anti-conservative bias in its evaluation of user posts.

Tension between Meta and Trump intensified in early 2021, when the company banned Trump's accounts from its platforms in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. At the time, Zuckerberg called the risks of allowing Trump on the platform "simply too great."

In recent years, however, the social media platforms have shifted toward a conservative-friendly, laissez-faire approach to speech, Sol Messing, a research associate professor at New York University's Center for Social Media and Politics and a former research scientist at Facebook, told ABC News.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk acquired then-Twitter, now X, in October 2022, moving soon afterward to weaken the platform's content moderation rules and emphasize a "community notes" approach. Last year, Meta reinstated Trump's accounts.

"There's been a shift rightward in terms of attitudes toward free speech in Silicon Valley and perhaps this decision is part of that," Messing added.

Lately, Meta and Zuckerberg have appeared to warm toward Trump. Meta donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration last month, after having foregone a donation to Trump's inauguration in 2017.

On Monday, Meta appointed Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, a Trump ally, to the company's board of directors. The move came days after Meta named former Republican lobbyist Joel Kaplan as its new chief global affairs officer.

"It's very difficult to ignore this [fact-checking] announcement in terms of the timing of those moves, as well," Messing said, noting other potential reasons for the move such as cost-cutting or skepticism about the role of experts in policing content.

For his part, Trump appears to believe he influenced the policy change. When asked at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday whether Meta's new content moderation policy came in response to his previous criticism of the company, Trump said, "Probably."

Still, there is reason to believe the policy change brings Meta's content moderation approach into closer alignment with views previously expressed by Zuckerberg, some experts said.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Meta referred to a graduation speech delivered by Zuckerberg at Georgetown University in 2019 in which he advocated for loose restrictions on speech.

"Some people believe giving more people a voice is driving division rather than bringing us together. More people across the spectrum believe that achieving the political outcomes they think matter is more important than every person having a voice. I think that's dangerous," Zuckerberg said at the time.

Goldman, of Santa Clara University, said Zuckerberg may be seizing upon Trump-era opposition toward content moderation.

"It's plausible that Zuckerberg all along has felt Facebook was doing too much content moderation, and he has finally decided to express that view more forcefully," Goldman said. "It's not a new view for Zuckerberg to be questioning the value of content moderation."