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HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Port Aransas Independent School District when it hit in 2017, damaging every classroom and prompting weeks-long school closures. The district is still facing ripple effects today, but in a new form: its insurance costs have skyrocketed, forcing superintendent Sharon McKinney to choose between giving teachers raises and insuring school buildings. School districts across Texas have struggled to keep up with rising property insurance costs as severe weather batters school buildings. Insurance costs for districts have increased by 44% statewide since 2020, according to financial data from the Texas Education Agency. Now, state lawmakers are considering two proposals to help offset these costs – at least in coastal counties, where the crisis is particularly acute. A provision in House Bill 2, the major school finance package that passed the House last week, would reimburse school districts in the 14 coastal counties covered by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, the safety net insurance plan, for property insurance increases above the state average.

And a bill filed by state Rep. Todd Hunter, a Corpus Christi Republican, would give districts in coastal counties a credit against recapture payments for wind and hail coverage. Hunter’s bill covers Tier 1 and 2 counties, which would include Harris County and Houston ISD. (Because it includes Tier 1 only, the provision in HB 2 excludes Harris County.) “You don’t want education to suffer because you’re worried about getting money to cover buildings for the kids,” Hunter said in an interview. At the hearing on Hunter’s bill, school superintendents from three districts near Corpus Christi told lawmakers that high insurance costs have restricted funds that could be used to pay teachers and provide services for students. In Port Aransas, McKinney said, the school district now spends 10% of its $10 million annual budget paying for property insurance. In Rockport, the cost to insure school buildings has nearly tripled from $1 million in 2019 to $2.8 million in 2024, said Rockport-Fulton ISD superintendent Lesley Austin.

McALLEN — Nearly 10 years after SpaceX, Elon Musk’s effort to colonize Mars, began operating in a small community in Cameron County just a few miles inland of the Gulf Coast, employees who live there and other residents will vote next month to incorporate their Starbase community as Texas’ newest city.

If the majority of them vote yes on May 3, the leaders they elect at the same time will have the responsibility of creating a city from the ground up.

What does it take to have a fully functioning city?

A few of Starbase’s first steps as a newborn city can be anticipated because state law sets certain requirements for raising and spending public money and how governing bodies can operate.

Texas generally gives municipalities a lot of discretion on how to manage and govern themselves, according to Alan Bojorquez, an attorney who specializes in city governance.

“The reality is, Texas cities under the law are not required to do much,” Bojorquez said.

He emphasized that much of what the new city of Starbase will do will ultimately depend on what services and programs city officials and residents want the city to provide.

Before Starbase can officially incorporate, the election results must be certified by Cameron County. Incorporation will be effective on the day that Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño enters an order stating the community has incorporated, according to the Texas law.

As a Type C municipality, Starbase will have a commission form of government — a mayor and two commissioners — who will be elected by the voters on the same day they vote to incorporate. Their terms in office last two years unlike the typical four-year terms held by officials in larger cities.

City leaders are required under Texas law to hold elections and public meetings at least once a month. The city is also required to archive records and provide them for public inspection under the Texas Public Information Act.

The mayor will be tasked with running the city’s daily operations, unless voters later approve hiring a city manager. Many Texas cities and towns have a city manager who reports to elected leaders. They have broad responsibilities including hiring and firing other leaders like police and fire chiefs.

Leonardo Olivares, a former city manager to multiple cities in the Rio Grande Valley, including Rio Grande City, Weslaco, La Joya and Palmview, said the city commissioners must set priorities quickly.

“What are the needs of the community in terms of development, commercial, industrial development?” Olivares said.

Cities also need a budget if they want to spend money, which they will have to do if they provide services such as water, sewer, police or fire.

“I think the initial challenge for the first commission of Starbase is going to be to share with the electorate what they are going to be doing,” Bojorquez said.

SpaceX leaders have made no secret of their plans to grow Starbase.

In a letter to Treviño, the county’s top elected official, submitted with the petition to incorporate, Starbase Manager Kathryn Lueders wrote that the community wished to incorporate so it could continue to grow.

“Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live—for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity’s future in space,” Lueders wrote.

She added that through agreements with the county, SpaceX performs several civil functions such as management of the roads and utilities. They have also established a school and a medical clinic.

Incorporation would allow SpaceX to take over the management of those functions.

The company has already made moves to commercially develop the area as well. SpaceX is building a $15 million shopping center and restaurant there and a $100 million office facility and industrial factory.

The city has to figure out how to pay for the services it plans to offer.

The major sources of revenue for cities are property taxes and sales taxes. City leaders can approve an initial assessment of property taxes but sales and use taxes must be approved by voters through another election.

There are limits. For property taxes, a Type C city is limited to $1.50 per $100 of valuation, depending on population.

For sales tax, cities are capped at two cents per dollar. They may allocate one cent toward general revenue, up to half a cent may go toward economic development and they could dedicate up to half a cent toward property tax relief.

“There’s going to be continual activity out there so I think it’s a responsible thing to do — plan for that continued growth,” Olivares said. “You’ve just got to manage it right. You’ve got to get some good people out there who know what they’re doing.”

In essence, Starbase will be a company town — an idea that evokes the image of early 20th century workers settling down around the coal companies or mills that employ them.

One of the most well-known in Texas is Sugar Land, which was home to sugar plantations beginning in the mid-1800s that later became the Imperial Sugar Company. The city was incorporated in 1959.

Company towns have persisted and the SpaceX employees living in Starbase appear poised to establish the newest one. What they hope to accomplish through incorporation will likely have a lot to do with the company’s activities, Bojorquez said.

“Because this is a project that is closely affiliated with SpaceX, you can imagine that the goals for the municipality are probably in pretty close alignment with the needs of SpaceX,” Bojorquez said.

There have already been signs of that, and, at times, those goals were incompatible with the regulations of the county.

While Cameron County officials have welcomed SpaceX — touting investment and job creation — and allowed the company to conduct its operations with seemingly little pushback, there have been instances where the two have been at odds.

In November, SpaceX requested a variance for the county’s lot frontage requirements to maximize what Starbase could build on four available lots at Boca Chica Village, a small residential neighborhood near the SpaceX offices where Elon Musk owns a home.

The hope, a SpaceX engineer told the county commissioners, is that they would be able to recruit more employees to live there. The county, however, denied their request.

In addition to being able to adopt more permissive rules, the city could also gain control over the closure of Boca Chica beach on weekdays for launches.

The Texas Senate approved a bill that would transfer that authority to them from the county, a move that the county judge and the commissioners publicly opposed. The Texas House has yet to vote on the bill, which is needed for the proposal to become law.

Other benefits to becoming a city include the ability to acquire real estate through eminent domain, a process by which governmental bodies can force the transfer of property, for fair market value, if it’s for a public purpose.

Bojorquez said the process is often used to build roads, water infrastructure and drainage.

“I think it’s clear in this example that most of the reasons are being provided by SpaceX,” Bojorquez said of the possible motivations behind seeking incorporation. “I have no opinion about whether it’s right or wrong. It’s just unique.”

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

AUSTIN (AP) — City leaders in Uvalde, Texas, approved a $2 million settlement for families of the victims of the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, marking the first time one of the myriad lawsuits has led to financial compensation.

Attorneys for the families first announced the terms of the settlement with the city in May 2024, and it was approved by the Uvalde city council Tuesday night.

The settlement with the city will spread the $2 million among the 21 families of the victims killed in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, said Javier Cazares, whose daughter Jackie was one of 19 fourth-graders killed by the gunman. Two teachers were also killed.

The suit addresses the botched law enforcement response by requiring enhanced training for city police officers. It also expands mental health services available to the families and the greater Uvalde area, sets May 24 as an annual day of remembrance, and establishes a permanent memorial in the city plaza.

“This is a small win in a larger battle and a lot of injustice we are still going through,” Cazares told The Associated Press. “I couldn’t care less about the money.”

Uvalde is a city of about 15,000 people about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Uvalde Mayor Hector Luevano said the city’s settlement included “restorative justice initiatives for the families” but declined to discuss details. He did not say why it took nearly a year to approve the previously announced deal.

“The City of Uvalde is committed to honoring the memories of the lives lost, families of the victims, survivors and those affected by this tragedy,” Luevano said.

The families have several other lawsuits pending in federal and state courts, including a $500 million lawsuit against Texas state police officials and officers. There’s also a suit against social media company Meta Platforms and the company that made video game ”Call of Duty,” as well as Daniel Defense, the maker of the rifle used in the attack.

Multiple reports from state and federal officials have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.

More than 370 responding officers from multiple local, state and federal agencies waited more than an hour to confront and kill the gunman.

Two former Uvalde schools police officers, Pete Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, face criminal charges of child endangerment and abandonment and are scheduled for trial later this year, but they remain the only two officers charged. They have pleaded not guilty.

The track record for lawsuits following mass shootings is mixed. Over the past decade, courts have tossed numerous attempts, many of which brought negligence claims against the government or the places where the attacks took place. But some get results for victims and their families.

In 2020, the casino company MGM Resorts International and its insurers agreed to an $800 million settlement over a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.

In April 2023, the Justice Department announced a $144 million settlement with relatives and families of a 2017 Texas church attack, which was carried out by a former U.S. airman with a criminal history.

An attorney for the Uvalde families in the recent settlement with the city said they did not want to bankrupt their community — and that the settlement will be paid through the city’s insurance coverage.

“Faced with a difficult decision, these families worked with the community they love to make things right without creating deeper economic hardship,” attorney Josh Koskoff said. “The road to healing is long and painful, but we are hopeful that this agreement enables families who lost so much and the city they call home to continue that process.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged an alleged high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua in Colombia with terrorism offenses, making the first case of its kind against a member of the gang the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization, officials said Wednesday.

The case is part of a broad push to target Tren de Aragua or TdA, a Venezuelan gang that has been blamed for drug smuggling and violence in the United States. President Donald Trump has labeled the gang an invading force under an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison as part of Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

The Justice Department’s application of a criminal statute primarily reserved in recent years for extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida underscores the extent to which the administration is relying on a strikingly expansive definition of terrorism as it pursues a national security agenda focused on drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

“TdA is not a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.”

Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, 24, was charged in Texas federal court with drug offenses as well as conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors described him as part of the “inner circle of TdA leadership,” and accuse him of playing a role in the international distribution of cocaine.

He is in custody in Colombia awaiting further proceedings. The Justice Department said he faces up to life in prison.

The material support statute has long been a favored tool of the Justice Department to build prosecutions against people who are suspected of facilitating the operations of a militant group but not always carrying out violence themselves.

The addition of TdA to the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations enables the Justice Department to wield the statute against individuals suspected of supporting that group.

The announcement comes days after prosecutors announced what they said was the first case to bring federal racketeering charges, which were famously used to bring down the Mafia, against the Venezuelan street gang.

HOUSTON (AP) — The State Bar of Texas rescinded a speaking invitation to the NAACP’s president after the civil rights group challenged the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Education Department, citing new rules over speaking topics the bar says could be deemed political.

Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president and CEO, had been set to speak during the state bar’s annual meeting in June in San Antonio. He said Wednesday he was shocked his invitation to speak was taken away.

“They have decided to censure free speech on notions of being political when it’s not political,” Johnson told The Associated Press. “This is the State Bar of Texas. These are lawyers who are sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And nothing about our actions is contrary to the very principles that they have sworn to uphold. And so, I find it ironic to say the least that a lawsuit would generate a rescission of the invitation.”

Johnson was set to speak on the Juneteenth holiday, which marks the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the U.S. learned they were free.

At issue is a lawsuit the NAACP and other civil rights and education groups filed in March against President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department. The lawsuit argues the administration’s cuts will hobble mandated functions like protecting students from discrimination or funding educational programs.

Trey Apffel, the executive director of the state bar, said his organization rescinded the speaking invitation because the NAACP’s lawsuit violated state bar rules that call for it to be politically neutral. He said the bar had been unaware of the lawsuit until learning about it in the press.

The bar is required by law, including a November 2023 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, to limit what information it can communicate to issues related to the practice of law.

The bar, which regulates the legal profession in Texas, is also mandated by the Texas Supreme Court, which has administrative control over the group, to stay clear of anything “even having the perception of being political or ideological,” Apffel said.

The bar views the NAACP’s lawsuit as “political because it is taking on the federal government on an executive order of the president,” Apffel said.

Johnson said he disagrees with Apffel’s view of the lawsuit.

“It is a case questioning whether or not there is constitutional authority for the president to take a certain action. That’s not political. That’s the job of lawyers. That is the job of the NAACP,” Johnson said.

During a phone call in February with Apffel and other state bar leaders, Johnson said, he was asked to not make his speech political in any way and he agreed.

In a letter sent to Apffel and the bar earlier Wednesday, Johnson said there was a “glaring inconsistency” in the group’s decision to rescind his invitation but to allow former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to speak at the 2023 annual meeting.

The bar was criticized by some of its members for inviting Barr to speak, citing his actions during the first Trump administration, including authorizing federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue allegations of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election had been certified despite no evidence of widespread fraud.

Apffel said when Barr spoke in 2023 he was a former officeholder “whose role as the attorney general and thoughts on legal matters, both pro- and anti-Trump, were relevant to a legal audience.”

In a column written before Barr’s appearance, Laura Gibson, a former president of the state bar, defended the decision to have Barr speak.

“It is easy to defend the rights of speakers we agree with, but it is essential to the rule of law that we also defend the rights of speakers with whom we disagree,” Gibson said. “In these polarized times, it seems we’re in danger of losing that. As lawyers, we should be in the forefront of protecting unpopular or controversial speech.”

With tighter restrictions in place today by the bar on what can be said, Barr would not have been allowed to speak, Apffel said.

“I have great respect for Derrick Johnson and his position as president of the NAACP,” Apffel said. “And I have great respect for the NAACP and what they do and what they stand for.”

He said Johnson’s replacement, former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson, who is Black, will speak on the significance of Juneteenth.

“We are in an intersection point in our democracy,” Johnson said. “Are we going to uphold the Constitution and ensure that this speech is something that we value, or are we going to take a different approach?”

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

AUSTIN (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Wednesday creating an office inspired by the Department of Government Efficiency and aimed at reducing state regulations, joining other Republican governors who have pledged their own versions of billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting group.

In establishing the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office, Abbott welcomed cutting regulations and putting stricter standards on new ones. He made no mention during a ceremonial bill signing at the state Capitol of intentions to slash jobs like DOGE, which has divided the country.

“The regulatory environment in Texas is getting too burdensome,” said Abbott, who made the bill the first he has signed this year. “It will put a check on the growth of the administrative state in Texas.”

The law also states that courts are not required to comply with a state agency’s interpretation of its rules or regulations in legal challenges.

More than 20 states have initiated DOGE-style efforts to varying degrees. Most have done so by introducing legislation to create DOGE offices or have created their own legislative committees. Some, such as Texas, have done both; in January, Texas House lawmakers created a DOGE legislative committee, which has primarily worked to audit and modernize dated technology in state agencies.

The governors of Montana, Oklahoma, Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and Louisiana have issued executive orders to create state DOGE departments.

In Texas, leaders of the state’s employee union dismissed the bill as adding a layer of bureaucracy instead of eliminating one.

“The definition of ‘efficiency’ is being stretched beyond recognition,” Myko Gedutis, vice president of the Texas State Employees Union, said in a statement.

Abbott’s signing comes days after protests popped up across the country in opposition to Musk and the thousands of job cuts DOGE has initiated across the federal government. The measures have set off multiple court challenges and come under criticism for cutting essential services.

In Wisconsin, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who created a bipartisan DOGE committee, has said its purpose is to rid of government fraud and waste. Texas lawmakers’ focus — whose committee holds eight Republicans and five Democrats — has been to audit state agencies.

More than 10 states, including Georgia, Connecticut and Arizona, have only introduced bills on the matter. The “Red Tape Rollback Act of 2025” in Georgia would require state agencies to review the economic impact of their rules and regulations.

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Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

HUNTSVILLE (AP) — A Texas man convicted of fatally strangling and stabbing a young mother more than 20 years ago was executed Wednesday evening as the victim’s mother and other relatives looked on.

Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 41, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. He was sentenced to death for his conviction in the March 2004 killing of 20-year-old Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson.

After a spiritual adviser prayed over him for about two minutes, Mendoza apologized repeatedly to the victim’s two parents and other relatives present, calling to each by name. “I am sorry for having robbed you of Rachelle’s life,” he said, addressing the parents, one of her brothers, a cousin and an uncle watching through a window from an adjoining room.

Mendoza also said he had robbed Tolleson’s daughter of her mother, adding, “I’m sorry for that. I know nothing that I could ever say or do would ever make up for that. I want you to know that I am sincere. I apologize.” The daughter wasn’t present for the execution.

He then spoke briefly in Spanish, addressing his wife, his sister and two friends watching through a window from another witness room. “I love you, I am with you, I am well and at peace,” he said in Spanish, his words provided in a transcript in English translation. “You know that I’m well, and everything is love.”

As the injection began, he could be heard making two loud gasps and then began snoring. After about 10 snores, all movement ceased and he was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.

Prosecutors say Mendoza, 41, took Tolleson from her north Texas home, leaving her 6-month-old daughter alone. The infant was found cold and wet but safe the next day by Tolleson’s mother. Tolleson’s body was discovered six days later, left in a field near a creek.

Evidence in Mendoza’s case showed he also had burned Tolleson’s body to hide his fingerprints. Dental records were used to identify her, according to investigators.

Pam O’Neil, the victim’s mother, told reporters after witnessing Mendoza’s execution that it could not undo the loss of her daughter. Reading from a statement, she said of Mendoza: “He’s been on death row 20 years. That ended today. He was put to sleep. He felt no pain. I wish I could say the same about my daughter’s death.”

As Mendoza’s relatives and friends left the prison, they appeared distraught and embraced one another.

Hours earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a final request by Mendoza’s attorneys to stop his execution. Mendoza’s attorneys told the justices in a filing that he had been prevented by lower courts from arguing that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel earlier in the appeals process.

But the Texas Attorney General’s Office told the Supreme Court that Mendoza’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel had previously been found “meritless and insubstantial” by a lower federal court.

Lower courts also had previously rejected his petitions for a stay. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Mendoza’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

Authorities said that in the days before the killing, Mendoza had attended a party at Tolleson’s home in Farmersville, located about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Dallas. On the day her body was found, Mendoza told a friend about the killing. The friend called police, and Mendoza was arrested.

Mendoza confessed to police but couldn’t give detectives a reason for the killing, authorities said. He told investigators he repeatedly choked Tolleson, sexually assaulted her and dragged her body to a field, where he choked her again and then stabbed her in the throat. He later moved her body to a more remote location and burned it, they said.

Mendoza was the third inmate put to death this year in Texas, historically the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, and the 13th in the U.S.

On Thursday, Alabama plans to execute James Osgood for the 2010 rape and murder of a woman.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that it’s getting more expensive to protect your home in North Texas. Homeowners insurance premiums increased 22% in 2024, according to the Texas Department of Insurance, and insurance companies have had to pay out more claims because there have been more severe storms. The state has had more disasters causing $1 billion in damages in the last five years than the previous decade, according the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration. While legislators in Austin are working to lower residential property taxes, insurance brokers, Realtors, and industry experts say not much can be done when it comes to insurance — the other major cost of a monthly mortgage payment. More storms and inflation have pushed rates higher. It’s making housing more expensive, and causing some to fear losing their homes.

The biggest cost driver in North Texas has been wind and hail, said Chandler Crouch, a Realtor known for helping his clients lower their property tax bills. Crouch even tried his hand at offering homeowners insurance a few years ago, but found many carriers were avoiding new business in North Texas because of storm losses. “I’ve been in the business since 2002 and I’ve seen a lot of market changes, and I’ve never seen insurance rates this bad,” he said. “It’s pretty bleak out there.” Texas ranks at or near the top of states that experience weather catastrophes, including hurricanes, hail, flooding, fire, wind, and tornadoes, said Richard Johnson, a spokesperson for the Insurance Council of Texas. The cost of materials is also going up, said Frank McArthur, a Tarrant County roofing contractor who primarily works on insurance claims. It’s not unusual to get a notice from suppliers twice a year that materials are going up 2% or 3%, but about a month ago, McArthur said one of his suppliers told him prices were going up 10%. He used to not think much of it, because insurance companies were always going to pay, but now McArthur is seeing how rising prices are having an impact on the broader market.

AUSTIN – The Dallas Morning News reports that the Texas House approved a bill that would create a nuclear power incentive program designed to jump-start a long-dormant energy industry. Its passage is a step forward in an energy arms race against China and Russia, the bill’s author said. The proposal would create a grant program for the development of a nuclear industry in Texas that could cost taxpayers as much as $2.75 billion if voters approve a related amendment to the Texas Constitution. “Investment in nuclear technology has now become a strategic and moral imperative for our country,” Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, said. “The global race for energy dominance is not just an economic competition. It is a geopolitical contest with immense national security implications.” The proposal was approved with bipartisan support on a voice vote.

House Bill 14 would create a Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office overseen by the governor. The office would manage the state’s grant program and assist nuclear development organizations in navigating the federal permitting process. The House budgeted $750 million for the program. Harris has a proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution that could increase its budget by $2 billion. Lawmakers haven’t voted on the amendment. Eligible projects could receive grants of up to $200 million for those that produce electricity. Businesses and universities researching and developing nuclear technology would be eligible for $12.5 million grants. Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, opposed the bill. He said he supports the nuclear industry but creating a new state office and an incentive program was not the way forward. “It creates more government. It creates more bureaucracy,” Harrison said. “It adds more bureaucrats and, guys, this is pure crony corporatism and corporate welfare.” The bill requires passage from the Senate before it can become law. A Senate companion to the bill has yet to advance in that chamber. Gov. Greg Abbott signaled he would approve a nuclear fund as large as $5 billion last year after a regulatory task force recommended creating similar incentive programs.