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CARTHAGE — Panola College was recently awarded a $196,000 state grant to support the development of an innovative pathway for students entering the healthcare industry.

According to Panola College, the Texas Reskilling and Upskilling through Education Pathways Design and Planning Grant helps public colleges create and expand workforce education programs in high-demand careers.

For Panola College, the money will be used to design a flexible pathway for healthcare students to pursue a career in phlebotomy, as a CNA, EKG technician or patient care technician.

“This grant reflects Panola College’s commitment to providing innovative educational opportunities that respond directly to the needs of our students, employers, and communities,” Vice President of Instruction at Panola College Natalie Oswalt said. “By creating seamless pathways from workforce training to college credentials, we are opening more doors for students while helping address critical healthcare workforce shortages across East Texas.”

The grant allows the college to develop a plan and roadmap to implement program expansions and support the growth of the healthcare industry in the area, the college added.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of Democratic U.S. senators and the Independent senator from Maine pushed for more details Monday from Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the agency’s vetting practices for new agents and how officers conduct vehicle pursuits, even as they demanded that body cameras be swiftly rolled out to all officers.

The demands came in a letter spearheaded by Maine’s Independent Sen. Angus King, signed by 38 Democratic senators and sent to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. The demands follow two deadly shootings in which ICE officers shot and killed immigrants in Houston and Maine.

The Associated Press reported last week that the ICE officer in Maine who opened fire and killed a man from Colombia had a history of violent behavior toward family members that was detailed in family court records.

His first ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, told AP he was physically violent with her, including once throwing boiling water at her while she was holding their child.

His second ex-wife, Lucinda Brouillette, sent a statement over the weekend alleging “a persistent pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, fear, and control.”

“Throughout our marriage and in the years that followed, I have feared for a long time that his anger, aggression, and escalating behavior would eventually result in severe, life threatening violence, and I often believed I would be the one on the receiving end of it,” she wrote.

Hundreds of pages of family court documents describe their turbulent marriage, and the years after. Lucinda Brouillette told the court he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.

“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter which a judge granted in 2021.

In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.

Multiple family members told the AP the government should have never given him a gun, badge and the authority to patrol city streets as the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation agenda.

The senators’ letter on Monday listed new measures to increase accountability at the agency, including transparency about whether ICE considers records from family court of domestic violence or abuse when vetting new recruits.

“We remain supportive of removing dangerous convicted criminals from our communities, but this goal can and must be achieved without endangering these very communities in the process. By no stretch could either of the victims in Texas and Maine be characterized as ‘the worst of the worst,’ making these tragic deaths even more egregious,” the senators wrote. “The American people deserve clarity and accountability.”

They said ICE should immediately start wearing uniforms or vests that clearly identify them as “ICE” instead of the more generic “POLICE” or “POLICE ICE.” Civil rights groups and advocates have often criticized ICE for not wearing uniforms or clear identification on their ballistics vests identifying them as deportation officers.

Senators also demanded to know what changes were being made to how officers conduct traffic stops and vehicle pursuits.

The shootings in Maine and Houston both involved ICE officers shooting at people who were in vehicles at the time. In the wake of the Maine shooting, Homeland Security temporarily stopped officers from conducting vehicle stops except in specific situations. But just a day later, after fierce criticism from some MAGA supporters, President Donald Trump said on social media that traffic stops should continue.

Homeland Security said last week that it was adding new training in crowd-control measures, high-risk vehicle stops, live-fire exercises and medical training, in response to what they called coordinated attacks against their officers and ICE facilities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. soldiers killed in Jordan by Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks were identified on Monday, the first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war.

The Defense Department said in a statement that 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, were killed in Jordan. They were deployed to support a U.S. mission against the Islamic State group, the statement said.

The U.S. military says 17 service members have been killed in the war with Iran.

The deaths reflect the complicated reality that American soldiers don’t need to be on the ground in Iran for there to be lethal risks in a conflict that involves drones, missiles and airplanes. American forces are arrayed across the Middle East, making other nations targets of Iran and its allies as the fighting has escalated after a breakdown in peace talks.

President Donald Trump has said the war is necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Trump, a Republican, now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.
Drones and missiles are claiming lives on both sides

An American service member was also killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. A second service member was wounded and was receiving medical treatment for a minor injury.

The military said it was withholding additional information until 24 hours after families had been notified.

Iranian authorities said U.S. strikes in just the past three weeks have killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 500 others, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday.

Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people. Workers on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also died in the conflict.
The first US military fatalities came soon after the war started

Shortly after the U.S. and Israel began the war on Feb. 28, an Iranian drone strike at a civilian port in Kuwait killed six American soldiers. The soldiers were part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa who were working at a shipping container-style building that had no defenses.

A seventh soldier died more than a week after being wounded during a March 1 attack by Iran on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

Later in March, six service members were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting U.S. military operations against Iran crashed in Iraq. The aircraft was in “friendly” airspace when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft took place, according to U.S. Central Command.

On Monday, the U.S. military said a Navy pilot died in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea. The Navy initially described the July 1 crash as an emergency landing and said there was “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.” The remaining three sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued.

BRYAN (AP) — A rising professional boxer who was riding her bicycle along a rural Texas road died after officials say a motorist drove by her, stopped and then reversed into her.

Hannah Rapp, 26, was riding with another person Saturday morning when she was hit, the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Rescue workers responded and took her to a nearby hospital, where she died, officials said. The area is located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Houston.

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaimán Saldivar said in a statement that the entire international boxing community is mourning Rapp’s loss.

“She was an exceptional fighter, but above all, an invaluable member of our boxing family,” Sulaimán said. “We join in the grief that overwhelms her loved ones, her team, and all those who had the privilege of knowing and supporting her throughout her brilliant career.”

Rapp grew up in Yorktown, Indiana, and graduated from Purdue University in 2022. She moved to Texas in 2024 to take a job as a fire and life safety inspector at Texas A&M. At the same time, Rapp was training to be a professional boxer, achieving a record of 8-0-1. Rapp challenged Tiara Brown last month in Orlando, Florida, for the WBC women’s featherweight title but lost by unanimous decision.

According to the sheriff’s office, Charles Medina, 31, had passed Rapp and the other cyclist in his vehicle before stopping, reversing and striking Rapp. Investigators didn’t immediately offer a motive.

Medina was arrested and charged with manslaughter. He was being held Sunday on $250,000 bail. Jail and court records didn’t list an attorney for him.

AUSTIN (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) – The family of the victim in a child sex abuse case prosecuted by the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office is speaking out against the use of the case by politicians, saying they are “tired of being used.”

Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, in the U.S. Senate race has zeroed in on the case as a major line of attack against the attorney general. Talarico has held at least two press conferences in recent weeks raising questions about Paxton’s handling of the case in which his office offered an initial plea deal of one day in jail to a Waco man charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy.

“We have not given any statement to Talarico. We have not spoke to him. We are tired of being used in this election. We are tired of lies being told by both Paxton & Talarico, tired of the divide and just tired,” the family said in a statement posted on social media by family spokesperson Melissa Dieterich.

Talarico’s campaign in a statement Friday said he is joining the voices of many others who are calling for “justice.”

“This family has gone through hell. They have experienced something unimaginable and deserve our care and respect,” said spokesperson JT Ennis. “Our team has facilitated outreach to offer our support and ensure the family has a way to get in touch at any time, for any reason.”

“Elected officials on both sides of the aisle have called out this plea deal,” he added. “The judge presiding over the case has called out this plea deal. Residents of Waco have protested this plea deal. Texans have demanded justice to ensure this never happens to another family.”

The case involved a 49-year-old lawyer, Adam Dean Hoffman, who was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy for years. As The Texas Tribune, The Texas Newsroom and KWBU reported in May, court records showed that the case ended in a mistrial, and the victim refused to testify for a second time, severely curtailing prosecutors’ options.

Hoffman, as part of the plea deal, admitted to molesting the victim and surrendered his law license. The details of the deal sparked a public outcry, prompting protests outside the local courthouse, and gaining national attention.

The deal has attracted criticism from local officials in Waco, including the McLennan County district attorney, Republican state representatives and even the judge presiding over the matter. That visiting judge, Roy Sparkman, who previously served on the bench as a Republican, had rejected an earlier version of the deal that would have allowed Hoffman to serve just one day in jail.

Paxton’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. A campaign spokesperson has previously said Talarico is “intentionally re-traumatizing the child victim for personal gain.”

“OAG prosecutors have already released information on this, but Talarico cares more about turning a child victim into a political pawn than the truth,” Madison Cercy said. The bottom line is that we stand with the child victim.”

The prosecutors for the attorney general’s office in May issued a letter to a state lawmaker who was publicly raising questions about the deal, saying they were prepared to move forward with a second trial, but the victim was not.

“The child emphasized that he preferred to move on with his life and prioritize his mental and emotional health,” wrote the prosecutors, Brenda Cantu and Dorian Cotlar.

Talarico was not the first to make political hay out of the case. Republican John Cornyn, the four-term incumbent who lost the May 26 runoff to Paxton, had also capitalized on the controversy and published several campaign advertisements criticizing Paxton as a weak top lawyer, citing the Hoffman case and others.

The family, for their part, has also spoken publicly about the case, through spokespeople, and joined state Rep. Jeff Leach and Pat Curry in a May news conference, also outside the McLennan County Courthouse.

Leach read a statement from the mother of the victim who called the agreement with Hoffman a “sweetheart deal” and said “Ken Paxton must be held accountable.” She did not explicitly call on voters to support Cornyn. Dieterich that day said Paxton “does not deserve a promotion to the U.S. Senate.”

To see this article in its original form go to The Texas Tribune.

LUFKIN (KETK) – Lufkin ISD announced this week that they’re no longer hosting their ACE after-school care program after they weren’t selected for a needed state grant this year.

The Texas ACE (Afterschool Centers on Education) program is a free after-school and summer program that provides after school care for around 130,000 students at schools across the state.

Lufkin ISD has been a part of that program for the past five years and has received state grants from the Texas Education Agency in order to pay staff that take care of students after school. Now the district says they haven’t been selected for the 2026-2027 school year ACE grant, leaving students and parents with one less option for after-school care.

“We understand that this news may be disappointing and may create challenges for families who have relied on Texas ACE for academic support, enrichment, summer learning, and family engagement opportunities,” Lufkin ISD Texas ACE Project Director Tamara Anguiano said.

Anguiano thanked ACE staff for all the meaningful work they put in throughout the program’s five years at Lufkin ISD.

“For the past five years, Texas ACE has provided meaningful experiences that helped students learn, grow, and connect,” Anguiano said. “We are deeply grateful to our dedicated Texas ACE staff, participating campuses, principals, teachers, support staff, district administration, and district leadership for their commitment and continued support.”

She also thanked students and parents for trusting and participating in the program while it lasted.

“Most importantly, we thank our students and families for your trust, participation, and enthusiasm. The relationships formed, memories created, and experiences shared will remain an important part of the Texas ACE legacy in Lufkin ISD,” Anguiano said. “Although we are deeply disappointed that the program will not continue, we are proud of what was built together and grateful to everyone who helped make the past five years possible.”

SALINAS, Ca, (AP) – Taylor Farms has expanded a voluntary recall of its iceberg lettuce products sourced from central Mexico because of a potential link to the multistate cyclospora outbreak that has sickened people across the U.S.

Products with the potential to be contaminated with the diarrhea-causing parasite were shipped to 27 states including Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New Jersey, the California-based company said in a statement Friday.

“We are actively removing the implicated products,” the statement said, adding that the company has stopped sourcing lettuce from an implicated lot in central Mexico.

U.S. health officials earlier this week identified lettuce from a supplier in Mexico as a source of cyclospora contamination in food served at Taco Bell restaurants in five Midwestern states.

The Taylor Farms recall announcement listed 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight different brand codes. Taylor Farms did not respond to an emailed request for the full names of those brands or retailers. The recalled products were shipped as recently as Thursday and have “best by” dates as late as Aug. 3.

Sysco, the nation’s largest food distributor, has halted distribution of all Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce products sourced from Mexico and instructed customers to destroy them.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that infects food that has come into contact with human feces, most commonly when produce is irrigated or washed with contaminated water. When ingested, the parasite causes intestinal illness marked by “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC.

In 2026, cyclospora has sickened at least 1,645 people in the U.S. and hospitalized 141, according to the CDC, which is investigating more than 5,000 additional illnesses that may be linked to the parasite. This time last year, only 249 cases had been reported.

The CDC initially warned consumers to avoid eating shredded lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

UVALDE (AP) – After deadly floods killed more than 100 people in Texas’ Hill Country last July, officials vowed major changes in hopes of preventing the failures that contributed to the high death toll. They promised better flood warning systems, tighter safety rules for children’s camps and improvements to the state’s water infrastructure.

That work was far from done when a new round of storms began pummeling the state this week, triggering catastrophic flash floods in some of the same areas devastated in 2025. At least two people died. Hundreds needed rescue.

But residents in some hard-hit areas said a year of preparation did make a difference. Newly installed flood sirens sounded in the darkness, warning people to get out. Phones buzzed with alerts that weren’t sent out in last year’s disaster.

Still, stories of people surprised to find their homes inundated by rising rivers illustrate the challenges of trying to bolster early warning systems in a vast, rural area known as Flash Flood Alley.
Some agencies were more proactive about sending wireless alerts

Over the last decade, a variety of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to implement flood warning systems along the Guadalupe River, the AP reported after last summer’s floods killed 136 people, including 28 at a sleepaway camp for girls.

That changed after the tragedy as lawmakers and others scrutinized a lack of preparedness by government agencies and riverside camps.

Unlike last summer, when local officials in Kerr County said they had been reluctant to “cry wolf” and order evacuations and failed to send out wireless alerts to warn of flash floods, Kerr County issued four alerts and the city of Kerrville issued one early on Thursday as the risk for flooding became apparent, according to an Associated Press review of available data.

They warned residents along Quinlan Creek to evacuate to higher ground, and of “extremely dangerous” flash flooding. Those alerts came alongside flood watches, warnings and emergencies sent to broadcast outlets, weather radios and mobile phones by the National Weather Service. People who signed up for the CodeRED notification emergency system in Kerr County also received text message warnings.

“Last year, we got no alarms. We had no idea what was going on,” said Suzanne Sutphin Gschwind, of Kerrville.

“This year, very different,” she said, with multiple texts and calls coming in from local authorities, a weather channel and her doorbell camera. One night the warnings arrived “about every two hours.”

“I think we would all like to err on the side of too much,” she said.

The warnings didn’t reach everyone

Between the early morning hours of Tuesday and about 9 a.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service sent 38 alerts to people in certain southwest Texas communities, including 14 tornado warnings and 24 warnings that flooding was occurring or imminent and could be “life threatening.”

Those Weather Service notifications, though, often don’t contain the highly localized information put in alerts sometimes sent by municipal and county emergency agencies — and people in some places may not have gotten any of those local alerts, which can be more decisive for people considering whether to seek high ground.

An Associated Press review of wireless emergency alert data did not find any listed as sent by agencies in Uvalde County, which was hit hard by flooding, though agencies in that county might have used other means to alert the public.

Jaclyn Gonzales was awakened at 2 a.m. Wednesday by a friend who called to warn that a tornado might be headed toward her Uvalde-area home. When she jumped out of bed, the floor was wet.

“It was the shock of the water to my feet that made me really wake up,” she said.

Kat Sprawls only learned floodwaters were nearing her Batesville home when a friend called her at 3:30 a.m. Friday. It took five or six calls before she woke up, because she had her phone on do-not-disturb mode.

“There’s no warning system at all. It’s just like the flood in Kerrville last year — we had no warnings,” Sprawls said. “Over half of Batesville is under water now.”

Zavala County Sheriff’s Department secretary Jessica Belmarez said the department is updating its Facebook page with evacuation information and that law enforcement officers were going door-to-door in affected areas, including Batesville.
The network of flood sirens is expanding

Newly installed sirens in Ingram and in Kerr and Kendall counties were used this week to warn residents, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who authored legislation in 2025 to help fund the sirens. Twenty-eight additional counties are also eligible for flood warning funding. Most are in the process of putting together implementation plans for review by the Texas Water Development Board.

“Between the outdoor sirens, and the cellphone alerts, the response was very positive in getting people out of the way and to higher ground,” Bettencourt said. “It’s an enormous improvement over a year ago.”

Three of six new sirens installed in Kerr County were used to warn people to seek high ground, said Tara Bushnoe, manager of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority. The other three were in areas with only minor flooding, Bushnoe said.

The small town of Comfort had one warning siren for years. The volunteer fire department recently installed two more.

“Some people just don’t want to leave — that’s our problem here,” said Danny Morales, the assistant fire chief. “But we did set them off twice, probably an hour from one to another, just because we had people just lingering, and not wanting to move.”
Private companies are working to fill the gaps

Ian Cunningham founded River Sentry after the 2025 floods, building flood siren towers for privately owned sites like RV parks, camps and hotels. The sirens are triggered by rising water levels.

So far, the company has installed 104 sirens along the Guadalupe River, Cunningham said, including several near the site of an RV park where more than three dozen people died in 2025.

“We installed them about three months ago and did not expect them to be used so soon,” Cunningham said.

Hononu, which has developed water-level sensor technology and a real-time data network, received a state contract that will make it easier for agencies to purchase its flood warning technology.

Watch Duty, a fire-tracking app used by millions, expanded earlier this year to help monitor floods.
Officials say the changes saved lives

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the lessons of 2025 led to a better emergency response this time.

“Everybody in Texas has been far more prepared to deal with what has happened this year,” Abbott said during a news conference in Uvalde. “Lives have been saved.”