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AUSTIN – Texas Public Radio reports that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) announced on Friday that agency employees may have improperly accessed the data of 61,000 people. HHSC said it terminated those involved with the breach. The incident was also referred to the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) for investigation to pursue criminal charges. Information inappropriately obtained or disclosed includes Social Security numbers, full names, home addresses, and Medicaid and Medicare Identification Numbers. HHSC recommends recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to monitor their Lone Star Card transactions for any fraudulent activity.

Affected individuals should carefully review their accounts and report any questionable charges to a provider or company. The agency is still determining the impact of the breach on other programs. Anyone else impacted by the breach will be notified as HHSC conducts its review. “HHSC understands the impact this privacy breach may have and is committed to protecting the confidential information of those we serve,” the agency said in the release. The agency said it is strengthening internal security control and will implement additional fraud prevention measures. It will also offer two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protections to those impacted.

SAN ANTONIO – The Dallas Morning News reports that a Texas jury has ordered a barbecue restaurant to pay $2.8 million to a woman who was badly burned by its barbecue sauce. The woman, 19-year-old Genesis Monita, sued Bill Miller Bar-B-Q in San Antonio after spilling sauce on her right leg, resulting in second-degree burns. The incident unfolded in May 2023, after Monita ordered breakfast tacos with barbecue sauce from the drive-through. She then pulled into a nearby parking spot to eat, according to the lawsuit. When she removed the sauce from the brown paper bag, Monita dropped it on her leg because it was so hot. Bill Miller B-B-Q’s policy says sauce should be heated to a minimum of 165 degree. That day, the sauce was 189 degrees. Monita’s attorney Lawrence Morales II said the restaurant should have warned her about the temperature of the sauce, and placed it in an adequate styrofoam container rather than plastic, and provided better training to employees.

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports several months after more than 110 Texas OB-GYNs said the state’s abortion ban must change, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Sunday said the law should be amended to protect doctors and pregnant patients at risk of death. “I do think that we need to clarify any language so that doctors are not in fear of being penalized if they think the life of the mother is at risk,” Patrick said on WFAA’s “Inside Texas Politics” after he was asked whether he expected “any significant abortion legislation, either to clarify current statute or to strengthen it.” Patrick, who runs the Senate and has established significant influence over what bills are passed, is the first major Republican official in Texas to say he supports clarifying the state’s near-total abortion ban this legislative session. Soon after Patrick’s remarks, two senior Republican lawmakers in the House and the Senate confirmed that some within the Legislature have already begun brainstorming on a potential tweak to the ban.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, who penned one of the state’s two recent abortion bans, confirmed to the American-Statesman on Monday that he agreed with Patrick and said “we’ve been working on language.” Seven-term Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, of Plano, also indicated there is support in the House for such a change. “The Lt. Gov is (100%) right about this,” Leach wrote in a post on X quoting a Texas Tribune story about Patrick’s remarks. “Plans and work are already underway to try to get it done this #txlege session.” Texas currently prohibits abortion except when a pregnant person risks death without one, with no exceptions for rape, incest or fatal fetal anomalies. For several years, OB-GYNs and patient advocates have said the ban’s life-of-the-mother exception is too vague and too narrow to allow doctors to take preventive action before a patient reaches the point of no return. They have also argued that the threat of severe penalties for physicians — up to 99 years in prison, fines of at least $100,000 and loss of medical license — further increases doctors’ hesitancy to act, increasing the risk that a patient would not be cared for. The letter signed by 111 OB-GYNs in November reiterated this case and also said the deaths of two Texas women who were denied abortion care during miscarriages— Josseli Barnaca and Nevaeh Crain— were evidence that “the law does not allow Texas women to get the lifesaving care they need.”

ODESSA — Less methane escaped into the atmosphere from certain oil and gas equipment and oil wells in 2023, according to a report released earlier this month by an energy analytics firm that industry leaders promoted. Environmental experts said more information was needed.

Equipment used to find and produce crude oil, including those that control the pressure and flow of natural gas, pumps and pipes, leaked 25% less methane than in 2022. The report’s findings, published by S&P Global, a New York-based company, also included information on the methane leaking from the 162,000 oil wells, from which emissions also decreased.

The report focused only on the stage of oil production where companies search, drill and draw crude oil, known as upstream. Continue reading New report says West Texas Oil companies leaked less methane. Environmentalists are skeptical.

HOUSTON (AP) – A rare winter storm charging through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday has closed highways and airports and prompted the first blizzard warning for southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana.

The storm is expected to scatter heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain around the Deep South as a blast of Arctic air plunges much of the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.

Nearly 2,000 flights within the U.S. or entering or leaving the country were canceled Tuesday with about 10,000 more flights delayed, according to online tracker FlightAware.com. In Texas, both Houston airports said that flight operations would be suspended starting Tuesday in expectation of hazardous conditions.

The East Coast endured a thick blanket of snow while people from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine shivered in bitterly cold temperatures from the frigid arctic air mass that sent temperatures plunging well below normal. Dangerously cold wind chills were expected to persist through Tuesday morning.

Lakesha Reed, manager of Beaucoup Eats catering in New Orleans, had plans to fly out Tuesday to cook for a Mardi Gras-style event in the nation’s capital, but flights were canceled amid extreme cold. The 47-year-old New Orleans native said it was in the 30s early Monday afternoon in her port city, where near-freezing temperatures are rare.

“We can barely drive in the rain,” she said. “Last year, we wore shorts for Mardi Gras.”

Winter storm warnings extended from Texas to North Carolina on Tuesday, with heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain expected to move eastward through the region into Wednesday. Meanwhile, a state of emergency was declared Monday night across at least a dozen counties in New York as heavy lake-effect snow was expected around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through Wednesday — with 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) possible — along with extreme cold temperatures.

Snow on the Gulf Coast

Ahead of the storm, governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, declared states of emergency and many school systems canceled classes Tuesday.

The blizzard warning in effect until midday Tuesday was the first issued by the office in Lake Charles, Louisiana, according to meteorologist Donald Jones. Strong winds with heavier snow bands were reducing visibility, and areas across the Gulf South that rarely see snow are expecting near-record or record snowfall, Jones said.

“The last time we saw snow of this magnitude was way back in 1960, and prior to that, the previous snowfall record that even stands to this day was way back in 1895,” Jones said. “By modern standards this is going to be a historic and very memorable storm for this part of the world.”

In Harahan, a suburb of New Orleans, as a rare snowstorm began to cover the roads, a Harahan police officer without gloves rubbed his hands to warm them, after responding to a church security alarm. Sleet changed to snow as the sun rose, with scarcely a car on the road.

Before snow and sleet began falling Monday night, Houston Mayor John Whitmire asked residents to stay off the roads.

“Get prepared to be in your house, in your residence, in your warming place for the next 48 hours,” he said noting that temperatures weren’t expected to get above freezing until Thursday. “So don’t let even clear skies on Wednesday and other days fool you. This is a serious arctic blast.”

Snowfall rates of 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) per hour or more were possible from eastern Texas to the western Florida panhandle and historic snowfall of 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) was forecast along the Interstate 10 corridor including Houston; New Orleans; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain are expected across Georgia, northern Florida and the eastern Carolinas from Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Forecasters warned the subfreezing morning lows could threaten sensitive vegetation and exposed plumbing in areas unaccustomed to bitter cold.

Return of the Arctic blast

Much of the Eastern Seaboard is enduring some of the coldest temperatures this winter. Frigid temperatures persisted across the eastern two-thirds of the country with multiple record lows possible through midweek, especially across the Gulf Coast and portions of the Southeast, the weather service said. Normal temperatures were only expected to return slowly by the end of the week.

The cold weather prompted Donald Trump to take the oath as president Monday from inside the Capitol Rotunda, upending months of meticulous planning for an outdoor inauguration. The last time an inaugural ceremony was held indoors was Ronald Reagan’s in 1985.

Wind chills were expected to reach minus 30 degrees to minus 50 (minus 34 C to minus 46 C) at times across portions of the Dakotas and into the Upper Midwest, posing an extreme risk of hypothermia and frostbite. Subzero wind chills were forecast to continue from the central plains eastward through Wednesday night.

The extreme cold prompted school districts across the upper Midwest to close schools Tuesday, so students wouldn’t have to endure the severe wind chills. Some schools were still holding online classes.

The weather service issued cold weather advisories across the Great Lakes region.

Like earlier this month, this latest cold snap comes from a disruption in the polar vortex, the ring of cold air usually trapped about the North Pole.

In Texas, Jonathan LeBron, plumbing manager at Nick’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning in the Houston area, said the company began fielding calls Monday from homeowners worried about frozen pipes.

Houston’s low temperature Tuesday will be about 18 (minus 8 C), according to the weather service, or low enough for water to freeze in pipes, expand and then cause the pipes to burst. Several inches of snow were also possible.

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — They came from Haiti, Venezuela and around the world, pulling small rolling suitcases crammed with clothing and stuffed animals to occupy their children. They clutched cellphones showing that after months of waiting they had appointments — finally — to legally enter the United States.

Now outside a series of north Mexico border crossings where mazes of concrete barriers and thick fencing eventually spill into the United States, hope and excitement evaporated into despair and disbelief moments after President Donald Trump took office. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday that the CBP One app that worked as recently as that morning would no longer be used to admit migrants after facilitating entry for nearly 1 million people since January 2023.

Tens of thousands of appointments that were scheduled into February were canceled, applicants were told.

That was it. There was no way to appeal, and no one to talk to.

In Tijuana, where 400 people were admitted daily on the app at a border crossing with San Diego, Maria Mercado had to work up the courage to check her phone.

Tears ran down her cheeks after she finally looked. Her family’s appointment was for 1 p.m., four hours too late.

“We don’t know what we are going to do,” she said, standing with her family within view of the United States.

She left Colombia decades ago after it was overrun by drug cartel violence, heading to Ecuador. When cartels besieged her new homeland, the family fled again, in June, this time to Mexico, hoping to reach the U.S.

“I’m not asking the world for anything — only God. I’m asking God to please let us get in,” she said.

Immigrants around her hugged or cried quietly. Many stared ahead blankly, not knowing what do. A nearby sign urged people to get the CBP One app. “This will facilitate your processing,” it said.

CBP One has been wildly popular, especially with Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Mexicans. Now, they were stranded at the U.S. border or deeper in Mexico.

Jairol Polo, 38, tried getting an appointment for six months from Mexico City before snagging one for Wednesday in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. The Cuban man flew Monday from Mexico’s capital to learn at the Matamoros-Brownsville border crossing that his appointment was canceled.

“Imagine how we feel,” he said dejectedly while smoking a cigarette.

People with morning appointments got through on schedule. Andrum Roman, a 28-year-old Venezuelan, was in the last group to cross the border with the CBP One in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.

“We are a little safer now because we are here,” he said just before handing over his documents to U.S. authorities. “But you still don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Another Venezuelan, Rober Caruzi, entered El Paso right behind him. “I reached the border twice and I was returned twice, but I didn’t lose hope,” he said.

By afternoon, the app was down.

CBP One is effectively a lottery system that give appointments to 1,450 people a day at one of eight border crossings. People enter the U.S. on immigration “parole,” a presidential authority that former President Joe Biden used more than any other president since it was introduced in 1952.

Its demise follows Trump’s campaign promises, and will please its critics, who see it as an overly generous magnet attracting people to Mexico’s border with the United States.

Despite a glitchy launch in January 2023, it quickly became a critical piece of the Biden administration’s border strategy to expand legal pathways while cracking down on asylum for people who enter illegally. Supporters say it brought order amid the tumult of illegal crossings.

Many migrant shelters in Mexico are now occupied largely by people who tapped their phones daily hoping for an appointment. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says about 280,000 people try daily for the 1,450 slots.

The demise of CBP One will be coupled with the return of “Remain in Mexico,” a remnant of Trump’s first term that forced about 70,000 asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

Matthew Hudak, who retired last year as deputy chief of the Border Patrol, said the demise of CBP One could encourage people to cross illegally. To be effective, it must be coupled with something like “Remain in Mexico,” he said.

“The message with CBP One being shut down is basically, ‘Hey we’re not going to allow you to show up; the doors are not going to be open.’ For that to be meaningful, there has to be some level of consequence if you bypass any lawful means and you’re doing it illegally,” he said.

News of CBP One’s abrupt end shocked migrants across Mexico.

Juan Andrés Rincón Ramos, a 19-year-old Venezuelan, cried with joy in early January when he got an asylum appointment through CBP One after months of trying. It was a lurch of hope after five years living in Peru and seven months in Mexico struggling to reach the U.S., where his brother lives in Pittsburgh.

In the makeshift Mexico City migrant camp where he lives, the fantasy of a life he dreamed for himself evaporated when he got the notification that his appointment had been canceled.

“It was a moment of hope, but it didn’t last,” he said. “Everyone trusted in the American dream, but we were all wrong.”