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TRINITY – Our news partners at KETK report that the Mid Coast Health System has announced that Mid Coast Medical Center in Trinity will cease operations starting on April 25 following months of financial instability.

“Despite our team’s tireless work to restore services in Trinity, we are simply unable to continue operations under the current financial circumstances,” CEO of Mid Coast Health System, Brett Kirkham said. “This is a deeply painful decision for all of us especially in consideration of the local commitment from the staff to serve patients in the Trinity community.”

According to Trinity Memorial Hospital District board president Marjory Pulvino, Mid Coast Medical Center is Trinity County’s only hospital. Pulvino said that once the hospital closes, the next nearest hospital will be in Huntsville, which is over 20 miles away in Walker County.

According to a Friday press release from Mid Coast Health System, their Trinity center is facing the same problems that many rural hospitals are. Mid Coast cited delays in Medicare and Medicare billing, commercial insurance contract delays, lower than expected revenue from patient co-pays, increasing costs of supplies and insufficient local tax revenue as setbacks their hospital faced.

Mid Coast Health System said the hospital had closed before in 2017 and they had hoped to receive the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) designation, which would secure additional funding for the hospital from the federal government. However, the hospital was reportedly not operational by the time the REH eligibility cutoff happened in Dec. 2020.

“We strongly believe that if Mid Coast Medical Center Trinity were eligible for REH status, it would thrive and continue to meet the community’s emergency and outpatient healthcare needs,” Kirkham said. “We are urging our elected officials to support a waiver that would allow the Trinity hospital to access this critical support for a potential reopening in the future.”

Mid Coast encouraged the community to contact U.S. Senators for Texas John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, along with U.S. Representative Pete Sessions, in order to advocate for the hospital to get a waiver allowing them to qualify for the REH designation.

“This is a call to action for the Trinity community, our leader and our nation to recognize the unique challenges rural hospitals face and to fight for solutions that keep care close to home,” Kirkham concluded.

Pulvino said the Trinity Memorial Hospital District Board of Directors was “very disappointed” to learn about the closure but reassured the community that they’re working to find a new hospital system to take over the hospital and emergency room.

“The board wants the community to know that the Board is working diligently to find a quality hospital system to take over the hospital and ER operations, and at this time is in discussion with a reputable hospital system,” Pulvino said. “In addition we are in discussion with other groups to continue high quality services at the clinic. We agree that the Rural Emergency Hospital designation would be the ideal solution.”

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge on Tuesday threw out a federal rule that would have capped credit card late fees after officials with President Donald Trump’s administration and a coalition of major banking groups agreed that the rule was illegal.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth came a day after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a collection of major industry groups that had filed a lawsuit last year to stop the rule announced they had come to an agreement to throw out the rule. The groups that sued included the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The banks and other groups had alleged the new rule — proposed last year under the administration of President Joe Biden — violated the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure or CARD Act of 2009, which was enacted to protect consumers from unfair practices by credit card companies. The groups claimed the new rule did not allow credit card issuers “to charge fees that sufficiently account for deterrence or consumer conduct, including with respect to repeat violations.”

“The parties agree that, in the Late Fee Rule, the Bureau violated the CARD Act by failing to allow card issuers to ‘charge penalty fees reasonable and proportional to violations,’” attorneys with the CFPB wrote in a joint motion on Monday with the banking groups to vacate the rule.

“This is a win for consumers and common sense. If the CFPB’s rule had gone into effect, it would have resulted in more late payments, lower credit scores, higher interest rates and reduced credit access for those who need it most. It would have also penalized the millions of Americans who pay their credit card bills on time and reduced important incentives for consumers to manage their finances,” the banking groups and others said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Even if the lawsuit had gone forward, the banking groups had a good chance of winning as Pittman in a December ruling had said they would have likely prevailed as he found that the new rule violated the CARD Act by not allowing credit card issuers to charge penalty fees that are reasonable and proportional to violations.

The CFPB has been in turmoil since the Trump administration earlier this year began dismantling it, targeting it for mass firings and dropping various enforcement actions against companies like Capital One and Rocket Homes. A federal judge last month issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily stopped the agency’s demise.

The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices by a wide range of financial institutions and businesses.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As measles outbreaks popped up across the U.S. this winter, pediatricians waited for the nation’s public health agency to send a routine, but important, letter that outlines how they could help stop the spread of the illness.

It wasn’t until last week — after the number of cases grew to more than 700, and a second young child in Texas had died from a measles infection — that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally issued its correspondence.

The delay of that letter may seem minor. But it is one in a string of missteps that more than a dozen doctors, nurses and public health officials interviewed by The Associated Press identified in the Trump administration’s response to the outbreak.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to contain an epidemic in a tight-knit, religious community in West Texas have run counter to established public health strategies deployed to end past epidemics.

“What we are lacking now is one, clear strong voice — from the federal to the state to the local — saying that the vaccine is the only thing that will prevent measles,” said Patricia Stinchfield, a nurse practitioner and infectious disease expert who helped stop a 2017 measles outbreak in Minnesota’s Somali community.

An ‘extremely unusual’ approach to the outbreak
Behind the scenes, Kennedy has not been regularly briefed in person on the outbreak by his own infectious disease experts at the CDC at least through March 21, according to Kevin Griffis, a career staffer who worked as the agency’s communications director until he resigned that day.

Even after the measles claimed its first young Texas victim in late February, Kennedy had still not been briefed by CDC staff, Griffis said. His account was confirmed by a second former federal health official, who resigned at the end of February.

A spokesperson for Kennedy did not answer specific written questions about how he had been briefed or his communications with CDC staff.

The spokesperson said the CDC activated an Atlanta-based response in early February to provide overall guidance on measles testing and vaccination strategy. An on-the-ground team was deployed to West Texas throughout most of March and withdrawn on April 1.

It was a “joint decision” between state and federal officials to send the team home, CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said. Another team of seven was dispatched back to the region this week.

In previous administrations, health secretaries held weekly briefings with CDC staff, lasting between 25 and 30 minutes, during infectious disease outbreaks, both former HHS officials said. Kennedy, instead, received updates on paper or through email, Griffis said.

“That is extremely unusual,” said Griffis, who sat in on such briefings with the previous health secretary and said that none were held for Kennedy during his first month on the job. “I’ve never seen that before.”

In another irregularity, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s largest network of pediatricians, has not been tapped to work with the CDC on the outbreak, according to the organization’s officials. Historically, the CDC and AAP have convened for monthly or biweekly briefings during outbreaks to share updates, which include details about what doctors are seeing and questions they’re fielding from parents in exam rooms. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the health department’s response.

The only updates provided widely to pediatricians by the CDC have come from a health alert network update sent on March 7, a week after the first U.S. measles death in a decade, and the letter sent to providers last week, which, according to the pediatric academy officials, was late in the outbreak.

Kennedy praised the CDC on Tuesday during an event in Indianapolis, saying it “had done a very good job controlling the measles outbreak.”

Kennedy endorses vaccines, but still raises safety doubts
Kennedy’s inconsistent and unclear message on the measles vaccines has also made the outbreaks difficult to contain, experts say.

He has occasionally endorsed the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine as “effective,” but also continues to raise safety concerns about the shots in other statements. In a CBS interview last week, he claimed the vaccines were “not safety tested.”

That approach has been the biggest flaw of the government’s response, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“Imagine if the captain of the Titanic had told you that you need to be careful about lifeboats and think about other opportunities,” del Rio said.

Trials were conducted on thousands of children before the vaccine was approved for use in the 1960s. The federal government has since used medical records to continue to monitor for side effects from use in millions of people since.

Health secretaries have typically delivered a clear message urging the public to get vaccinated during outbreaks, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former deputy director at the CDC who retired after 33 years at the agency in 2021.

President Donald Trump and his first-term health secretary, Alex Azar, urged people to get shots during news conferences in 2019, when measles ripped through Brooklyn and infected more than 1,200 nationwide.

“You don’t necessarily need the secretary of health to attend a funeral, OK, but you don’t want to have mixed messages on vaccines,” Schuchat said. “Someone in a federal building in Washington can do a lot of harm from the way that they are messaging.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also quiet on vaccines
Local leaders have largely been left alone to urge the public to take up vaccinations.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has not urged the public to get vaccinated, either. He has not held any news conferences about the outbreak and posted just once on social media about measles since January. Any statements about the illnesses, which have also put 56 people in the hospital at some point, have been left to his aides.

Abbott’s office did not respond to questions about his response to the outbreak.

Governors in other states have responded more forcefully to the growing measles case count. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat and a doctor, made front page news last week after urging Hawaiians to take up vaccines when the state recorded its first measles case in a year.

Ahead of a busy travel week for the Easter holiday, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, unequivocally called on people to vaccinate themselves and their children. There are no known measles cases in Nebraska, but an outbreak is active in neighboring Kansas.

“If you’re not vaccinated, you’re going to get measles,” Pillen said last week.

Those types of statements are important for the public to hear leaders say from the top down, said Dr. Oxiris Barbot, who was New York City’s health commissioner during the 2019 measles outbreak.

Barbot worked with local rabbis, as well as doctors and nurses in the Jewish community, to send messages that encouraged vaccine uptake. Calls from Trump and Azar, who urged the public to vaccinate, helped her make the case, too.

When national leaders distance themselves from that message, she said it “starts to erode the effectiveness of people who are trying to convey those messages at the local level.”

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that after vowing to fight a ban on firearms at the State Fair of Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton has two other Dallas facilities in his sights: the Majestic Theater and the Music Hall at Fair Park. “The law is clear. Cities like Dallas have no authority to override state statutes that enable license holders to lawfully carry their handguns and protect themselves from potential threats,” Paxton said in a news release. “I will always do everything in my power to defend Texans’ gun rights from cities that would strip us of our legal rights.” Nick Starling, the city’s spokesperson, said the city declined to comment due to the pending litigation. Broadway Dallas, the tenant overseeing Music Hall, also declined to comment. Paxton had sued the city last year after the State Fair of Texas banned attendees from carrying firearms. The ban did not include elected, appointed or employed peace officers.

The change was sparked by a shooting during the fair in 2023 when a man shot three people. In his latest lawsuit against the Majestic Theater, Paxton has cited the experiences of one resident, Grant Walsh, who first complained about the policy in 2023. Residents Heath Garner, Grant Walsh and Joshua Clark also filed similar complaints against Music Hall between 2023 and 2024. Paxton is seeking penalties that could cost millions of dollars. “Plaintiff should be awarded $1,500 in civil penalties for the first day of the City’s violation,” the filings said, as well as additional penalties of $10,500 per day for each subsequent the alleged violation has continued to the present day. State lawmakers are already working through a bill that would remove the recent gun ban policy at the State Fair of Texas. A Senate bill mandates that contracts between a municipality and contractors allow licensed handgun holders to carry handguns on such properties, except where state law explicitly prohibits firearms.

AUSTIN – The Dallas Morning News reports that a resolution honoring the late Cecile Richards — president of the nonprofit women’s health organization Planned Parenthood and daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards — was derailed Thursday in the GOP-dominated Texas House. House Resolution 236, by Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, was on a list of bills that were set to be approved with a single vote — standard procedure for the typically innocuous resolutions sponsored by members from both parties. It ended up in a legislative waiting room, unlikely to get passed by a decidedly anti-Planned Parenthood chamber. “We all deserve the opportunity to come before this chamber to recognize [and] celebrate … our constituents and know that we and they will be given the utmost respect,” Howard said in remarks to the chamber after her resolution was pulled down without a vote. “That is what I expected when I filed HR 236. I expected to have the opportunity to honor my former constituent and be met with the respect that moment commands.

“Our political backgrounds and beliefs may differ, but we cannot allow those differences to cross the line of common decency, especially when it comes to honoring the lives of those we have lost.” The political backlash to the resolution was so strong, Howard said, that Richards’ family didn’t feel welcome in the House Gallery that day to watch, as the families and loved ones of other honorees typically do. Resolutions don’t carry the weight of law, but they enshrine the chamber’s support for those who want to memorialize deceased Americans and celebrate living people who have made contributions to Texas and to the nation. A handful of Republicans objected to going on record with a “yes” vote to honor Richards — who died in January at age 67 — saying she symbolized the deaths of unborn babies. “We are a pro-life state that has passed legislation that lines up with our Biblical values, that says life begins at conception, and that is why we protect the unborn in this state,” said Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth. “And yet we have the audacity, as the Texas House, to bring forth a resolution that honors a woman that perpetuates the murder of children.”

AUSTIN – The San Antonio Express-News reports that Pearland Republican Jeff Barry has long been skeptical of school vouchers, but on Thursday morning he voted to create what could become the largest voucher program in the nation. Barry, a freshman House lawmaker, said it felt like he had no choice. “If I voted against it I would have had every statewide and national political…figure against me – not to mention all of my bills vetoed,” Barry wrote in a post responding to one user who called his support for the measure a “betrayal.” He added: “The consequences were dire with no upside at all.” Barry wasn’t the only Republican House member who felt cornered after an unprecedented, years-long pressure campaign by Gov. Greg Abbott to bend the chamber to his will.

Only two GOP members joined Democrats in opposing the measure on Thursday, a remarkable turnaround from their widespread opposition to vouchers just a few years ago. It was a major vindication of Abbott’s governing approach of strong-arming lawmakers into submission. Where his predecessors, including Gov. Rick Perry, often cozied up to members of the Legislature, Abbott has looked to exploit their weaknesses. His success on what was once seen as an impossible issue marks a potentially major power shift in state leadership, where lieutenant governors have long been seen to hold as much or more power than the governor, because of their control over the Senate. “What Perry got by finesse, Abbott gets by force — and that definitely matters for the power structure,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston. “He, through expending a tremendous amount of political capital and money, was able to reshape the Republican party in his image. That’s something very few governors have been able to do.”