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DALLAS (AP) — A former pastor of a Texas megachurch who resigned after a woman accused him of sexually abusing her in the 1980s has been indicted in Oklahoma on child sexual abuse charges, that state’s attorney general’s office said Wednesday.

Robert Preston Morris, 63, has been charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.

The alleged abuse started in 1982 when the victim, referred to in the indictment as C.C., was 12 years old and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family, according to the attorney general’s office. The abuse allegedly continued for four years.

Cindy Clemishire, Morris’ accuser, said in a statement that she is very grateful to the authorities who have worked to make the indictment possible and is hopeful “justice will ultimately prevail.”

“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” said Clemishire, now 55. “Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable.”

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but Clemishire said she would like her name included.

Phone numbers associated with Morris were either disconnected or messages were not immediately returned Wednesday. It was unclear whether he has an attorney.

“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement. “This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”

The Gateway Church, based in the Dallas suburb of Southlake, was founded by Morris in 2000. It said in a statement Wednesday that its members are praying for Clemishire and “all of those impacted by this terrible situation.”

“We are aware of the actions being taken by the legal authorities in Oklahoma and are grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions,” the statement said.

Morris resigned last year from the church after allegations came to light on the religious watchdog blog The Wartburg Watch.

Clemishire told The Dallas Morning News last year that she met Morris in 1981, when he was a traveling preacher and began preaching at her family’s church in Oklahoma. She said Morris and his wife and young son became close to her family. She said he was staying at her house in 1982 when the abuse began.

The church has multiple locations in the area. It is among the largest in the United States, according to the attorney general’s office.

Morris was known to be politically active. The church hosted President Donald Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 for a discussion on race relations and the economy.

Morris could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the five charges, according to the attorney general’s office. He was not in custody as of Wednesday.

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration has launched a review of organizations that provide temporary housing and other aid to migrants, suggesting they may have violated a law used to prosecute smugglers.

The Department of Homeland Security has “significant concerns” that federal grants used to address a surge of migration under former President Joe Biden were used for illegal activities, wrote Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

His letter, dated Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press, asks recipients of grants from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program to provide names and contact information for migrants served and “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided” within 30 days. The letter says funding will be withheld during the review.

While it doesn’t explicitly threaten criminal prosecution, it raises concerns that recipients may have violated U.S. Criminal Code Section 1324, a felony offense against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States. It also says executive officers must sign sworn statements that they have no knowledge or suspicions of anyone in their organizations violating the smuggling law.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.

The demand appears to be a new salvo against organizations that provide food, housing and travel aid to people who cross the border. Migrants often arrive exhausted, low on money and unsure how to navigate on their own through bus stations and airports.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who was at odds with the Biden administration over immigration and is closely aligned with the Trump White House, took a similar tack against migrant aid groups but was blocked in court.

FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program awarded $641 million to dozens of state and local governments and organizations across the country in the 2024 fiscal year to help them deal with large numbers of migrants who crossed the border from Mexico. They include the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Denver, as well as the United Way of Miami, the San Antonio Food Bank and several branches of Catholic Charities.

It was unclear if any any governments received the letters, but the Trump administration has fiercely criticized states, counties and cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Last month, it sued Chicago over laws that it said thwarted federal law enforcement.

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — An explosion on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock set off fires and power outages Wednesday, leading school officials to issue evacuation orders for several buildings and cancel classes for the rest of the week.

An alert sent to the campus community around 8:45 p.m. described the explosion as occurring at a substation but a later update said it was at a manhole. No injuries were reported, Lubbock Fire Rescue Capt. Jon Tunnell said.

Videos circulating on social media and local TV stations showed a heavy presence of firefighters on campus and fire and smoke coming out of at least one manhole cover.

It wasn’t clear what might have caused the explosion.

Power will be shut down to the entire campus in Lubbock, Texas, while repairs are underway, said Caitlynn Jeffries, a spokesperson for the university’s police department.

“You can go ahead and go home for Spring break. We are closing school down for the next couple days,” Jeffries said.

The school also instructed faculty and staff to work remotely if possible until further notice.

Lubbock Fire Rescue responded to a possible gas leak around 7 p.m. local time and found “multiple manhole covers with smoke and fire issuing from them,” Tunnell said.

“This remains a very active scene as crews continue to assist Texas Tech University in mitigating this emergency,” he said.

There are more than 40,000 students at Texas Tech and the school sits on 1,800 acres in West Texas.

AUSTIN – With unanimous Republican support, the Texas Senate appears poised to pass a priority bill requiring Texans to prove their citizenship before they could vote in state, local, and presidential elections.

Senate Bill 16, which would apply to new registrants as well as existing registered voters who did not provide proof of citizenship when they registered. That would include voters who registered through a voter registration drive or by mail, rather than while obtaining a Texas drivers license or state ID through the Department of Public Safety.

Voters who don’t provide proof of citizenship would be placed on a separate voter roll and could cast ballots only in U.S. House and Senate races. Voters on that list wouldn’t be allowed to vote for president under the bill, which experts say could invite a legal challenge.

The bill would create a new barrier to voting for some of Texas’ more than 18 million registered voters, and could diminish the rights of eligible voters who are not able to provide documents proving their U.S. citizenship.

It would subject election officials to potential criminal penalties, making it a felony punishable by jail time to knowingly register an applicant without first verifying that they are citizens. .

It would also require election officials to provide the state attorney general’s office a list of voters who have not provided proof of citizenship, and calls for the attorney general to prosecute any offenses if local officials do not.

The bill is part of an accelerating campaign by Republicans in Texas and nationwide to draw attention to the potential threat of noncitizen voting, which is already illegal and which rarely occurs in any significant numbers. Republicans control the Texas Legislature. All 20 GOP senators signed on as authors to SB 16. Similar bills have been filed in the House.

Last summer, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a press release boasting that the state had removed more than potential 6,500 noncitizens from its voter rolls. In October, an investigation by Votebeat, ProPublica and the Texas Tribune found that Abbott’s numbers were inflated and in some cases, wrong.

Most states currently do not require proof of citizenship for voters, but anyone registering to vote must attest under penalty of perjury that they are a citizen. A noncitizen who tries to vote faces severe penalties, including felony charges and loss of residency status. Voter registrars in counties across the country have processes in place to check that only eligible citizens make it onto the voter rolls.

Arizona is the only state with a long history of enforcing a proof-of-citizenship requirement. Other states have passed similar requirements, but their provisions vary, and some aren’t enforced pending the outcome of legal challenges. Republican lawmakers in other states, including Michigan, are considering amending their state constitutions to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote.

In Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in January added citizenship-proof legislation to his list of priorities for the Senate this session.

SB 16 is co-authored by Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican from Central Texas who championed Texas’ sweeping 2021 voting bill. It would replicate the split voter registration system used in Arizona, where people who do not show proof of citizenship to register to vote are placed on a “federal only” voter list and allowed to vote only in federal elections.

The Texas bill would exclude the federal-only voters from presidential elections, specifically saying voters’ choices would be counted only in races for U.S. senator or representative. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February ruled unconstitutional a similar provision in an Arizona law, a decision state lawmakers there said they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arizona’s law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote was passed in 2004. It also prompted lengthy legal fights that continue even now. The “federal only” list emerged after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that under federal law, Arizona must allow residents who do not provide such proof to cast ballots in federal elections.

This system has disproportionately affected voters from historically marginalized groups in Arizona.

Arizona had 34,933 federal-only voters, who made up less than 1% of the roughly 4.4 million active voters eligible for the November 2024 election. A Votebeat analysis found that the list includes disproportionately high numbers of voters who live on Native land, on college campuses, and at the state’s main campus for homeless people. Such voters also were generally younger than the overall voting-age population in the state, and were less likely to vote this past November than voters who had provided proof of citizenship, the analysis found.

Arizona officials discovered last summer that for decades, the state mistakenly labeled some voters as having provided proof of U.S. citizenship, when in fact they had never been asked to do so.

The Texas legislative proposal is the latest of at least five bills requiring documented proof of citizenship that were filed in December. This one, however, is backed by 20 influential Republican senators, including some members of the State Affairs Committee, which reviews legislation and decides whether it moves forward in the Senate. The committee has in recent years voted to approve laws that would tighten voting access. This bill would require Texans registering to vote to provide — along with their paper application — documented proof of citizenship, in person or by mail, to their county voter registrar or to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which issues driver’s licenses.

The proposal says the following documents would be accepted as documented proof of citizenship: a U.S. passport; a passport card; a certified copy of a birth certificate issued by a U.S. state or territory; “United States citizenship papers”; identification issued by the U.S. agency responsible for citizenship and immigration; and for citizens born outside the U.S., a consular report of birth abroad. The list does not include tribal documents, which Arizona does accept.

As for Texans who are already registered to vote, the bill directs the Texas Secretary of State’s Office to by the end of the year, send all counties data of voters who had not provided proof of citizenship prior to September 2025. It directs election officials to document every effort made to check for such proof. If election officials aren’t able to find information about whether a voter is a U.S. citizen, the bill requires that they notify the person that they are qualified to vote only a “federal limited ballot” unless they’re able to provide proof.

The bill means that “everyone, whether you’re registered now or whether you want to register, has to comply” with the proof-of-citizenship requirement, said Daniel Griffith, senior director of policy at Secure Democracy Foundation. “So if you haven’t already, you have to provide this information, and you have to make sure that DPS or [a voter registrar] has noted that you have this information.”

A voter who has previously provided proof or has been verified as a U.S. citizen is not required to provide proof when submitting an update, change, or correction to the voter registrar, the bill says.

The provision could affect voters who registered prior to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which created voter identification procedures, and the 2005 Real ID Act, which requires people obtaining a state-issued ID or driver’s license to provide proof of citizenship or proof of lawful presence in the U.S.

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

McALLEN (AP) — The Trump administration is dropping a civil lawsuit against the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children over allegations of repeated sexual abuse and harassment of minors in its facilities.

The dismissal was filed on Wednesday after the federal government announced they would no longer use services by Southwest Key Programs. The complaint, filed last year during the Biden administration, alleged a litany of offenses between 2015 and 2023 as Southwest Key Programs, which operates migrant shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, amassed nearly $3 billion in contracts from the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Out of continuing concerns relating to these placements, HHS has decided to stop placement of unaccompanied alien children in Southwest Key facilities, and to review its grants with the organization. In view of HHS’ action, the Department of Justice has dismissed its lawsuit against Southwest Key,” the HHS said in a statement.

Children who were still in shelters operated by the provider were moved to other housing.

Southwest Key Programs furloughed employees across the country. “Due to the unforeseen federal funding freeze and the stop placement order on our unaccompanied minor shelters and Home Study Post Release programs by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, we have made the difficult decision to furlough approximately 5,000 Southwest Key Programs’ employees,” the company said in a statement shared Tuesday.

According to allegations in the 2024 lawsuit, Southwest Key employees, including supervisors, raped, inappropriately touched or solicited sex and nude images of children beginning in 2015 and possibly earlier.

Among the accusations: One employee “repeatedly sexually abused” three girls ages 5, 8 and 11 at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas, with the 8-year-old telling investigators the worker “entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area.’”

The lawsuit also alleged that another employee, at a shelter in Mesa, Arizona, took a 15-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts for several days in 2020.

Children were warned not to report the alleged abuse and threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they did, according to the lawsuit. Victims testified that in some instances, other workers knew about the abuse but failed to report or concealed it, the complaint said.

“DOJ’s lawsuit revealed horrific sexual abuse and inhumane treatment of children detained in Southwest Key shelters,” said Leecia Welch, an attorney who represents unaccompanied children in a separate case. “It’s shocking to me that the government now turns a blind eye to their own contractor’s actions. I hope the impacted children will have other legal recourse and support in healing from their abuse.”

At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges related to the allegations since 2020.

The civil lawsuit had sought a jury trial and monetary damages for the victims.

AUSTIN – The Texas Observer reports that in August 2024, the business magazine Inc. released its annual list of the top 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States. At 815th, a burgeoning upstart called ClassWallet cracked the list’s top 20 percent for the third straight year. By expanding its operations managing school voucher programs for states across the country, earnings for the Florida company grew by 610 percent over the previous three years. Founded in 2014, ClassWallet now has more than 200 employees and has contracts to administer school vouchers and other educational programs in 18 states through its “digital wallet” platform. Indeed, managing school vouchers has become a big business. And, as Governor Greg Abbott and the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature gear up to pass their own program this session, private companies like ClassWallet are descending on the Capitol to lobby for the vouchers legislation and the lucrative contracts it could generate. This comes as other states have drawn scrutiny over myriad problems with the private contractors, including ClassWallet, they’ve hired to administer their voucher programs.

Senate Bill 2, which sailed through the upper chamber early last month, is a universal school voucher proposal that would give students $10,000 a year to attend private school or $2,000 for homeschooling. Lawmakers have initially set aside $1 billion in funding for the Texas school voucher program in 2027, though the Senate bill’s fiscal analysis says the program’s net cost could balloon to $3.8 billion by 2030. The bill stipulates that up to 5 percent of appropriated funds may go to pay up to five outside vendors like ClassWallet, which the legislation calls “certified educational assistance organizations” (CEAOs), to act as middlemen between the state, parents, and private schools by processing program applications and voucher payments. If the bill were to pass, these private companies could soon be reeling in tens and even hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars per year. These private vendors could, under the bill, be tasked with managing a complex application process, connecting parents with private schools and education vendors, accepting payments, and “verify[ing] that program funding is used only for approved education-related expenses.” “They’re a for-profit pass-through, which just means the state appropriates dollars, the vendor holds it, they reserve a small fee for themselves, and then they pass it on to the consumer,” Josh Cowen, education policy professor at Michigan State University and author of the book The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, told the Texas Observer.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that the future of Army Corps projects along the Texas Gulf Coast, like the overhaul of flood control systems around Houston and the widening of the Houston Ship Channel, are in question after House Republicans on Tuesday passed a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open through September. Their bill calls for reducing the Army Corps of Engineers’ construction budget by $1.4 billion, a 44% cut. In addition, the White House would assume control over which projects get funded, decisions that are currently made by Congress. The bill nows moves to the U.S. Senate, where Republicans must win over at least seven Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to consider the measure. To avoid a government shutdown, Congress must pass a spending bill by the end of Friday.

Public officials and contractors in Texas are scrambling to figure out what the possible Army Corps cuts could mean for their projects, said Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston. “It’s anyones guess what the Trump administration will do, but that’s a huge part of the problem. It’s the chaos and uncertainty continuously coming out of this administration,” she said. “The port project is hugely important not only to our regional economy but our national security.” A spokeswoman for Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, denied the $1.4 billion reduction in Army Corps spending was a “cut,” saying the department’s previous year’s budget had been inflated due to the injection of funds from other legislation. “These funds were expended for a one-time purpose. So, no, House Republicans are not cutting any funds for the Army Corps of Engineers,” he said. The continuing resolution passed by House Republicans on Tuesday calls for a $13 billion reduction in non-defense spending and a $6 billion increase in defense spending — relatively small amounts considering the $6.8 trillion federal budget. It passed in a narrow 217-213 vote, with the Texas delegation split along party lines.

AUSTIN – The Houston Chronicle reports that as state House members began debating a school voucher plan on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott appeared more optimistic than ever that his signature legislation would finally pass the chamber where it has died repeatedly. The difference from past sessions — when a coalition of House Democrats and rural Republicans blocked the bill — is the new speaker now leading the House, Dustin Burrows, Abbott said. “We’ve been down this pathway before, but have never been so close to getting this passed,” the governor told a crowd of supporters in Austin. “And the reason is, because we have not had a speaker willing to step up and stand for school choice.”

For the first time in years, Abbott and a Texas House speaker are aligned, at least publicly, on his vision to send public dollars to families for private education. Burrows took over this year for former House Speaker Dade Phelan, who declined in 2023 to publicly back a voucher plan and later dropped his bid for reelection after Abbott helped unseat several of his former supporters. Burrows, a Lubbock Republican and former Phelan ally, appeared alongside Abbott last month in San Antonio, and he joined the governor again on Tuesday to address a crowd of supporters at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank in Austin. “These are your elected representatives who are about to make school choice a reality in Texas, something that’s been fought for for 30, 40, 50 years — and it’s going to happen,” Burrows said. “It’s a big day, a monumental day.”

McALLEN (AP) — The Trump administration is dropping a civil lawsuit against the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children over allegations of repeated sexual abuse and harassment of minors in its facilities.

The dismissal was filed on Wednesday after the federal government announced they would no longer use services by Southwest Key Programs. The complaint, filed last year during the Biden administration, alleged a litany of offenses between 2015 and 2023 as Southwest Key Programs, which operates migrant shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, amassed nearly $3 billion in contracts from the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Out of continuing concerns relating to these placements, HHS has decided to stop placement of unaccompanied alien children in Southwest Key facilities, and to review its grants with the organization. In view of HHS’ action, the Department of Justice has dismissed its lawsuit against Southwest Key,” the HHS said in a statement.

Children who were still in shelters operated by the provider were moved to other housing.

Southwest Key Programs furloughed employees across the country. “Due to the unforeseen federal funding freeze and the stop placement order on our unaccompanied minor shelters and Home Study Post Release programs by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, we have made the difficult decision to furlough approximately 5,000 Southwest Key Programs’ employees,” the company said in a statement shared Tuesday.

According to allegations in the 2024 lawsuit, Southwest Key employees, including supervisors, raped, inappropriately touched or solicited sex and nude images of children beginning in 2015 and possibly earlier.

Among the accusations: One employee “repeatedly sexually abused” three girls ages 5, 8 and 11 at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas, with the 8-year-old telling investigators the worker “entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area.’”

The lawsuit also alleged that another employee, at a shelter in Mesa, Arizona, took a 15-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts for several days in 2020.

Children were warned not to report the alleged abuse and threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they did, according to the lawsuit. Victims testified that in some instances, other workers knew about the abuse but failed to report or concealed it, the complaint said.

“DOJ’s lawsuit revealed horrific sexual abuse and inhumane treatment of children detained in Southwest Key shelters,” said Leecia Welch, an attorney who represents unaccompanied children in a separate case. “It’s shocking to me that the government now turns a blind eye to their own contractor’s actions. I hope the impacted children will have other legal recourse and support in healing from their abuse.”

At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges related to the allegations since 2020.

The civil lawsuit had sought a jury trial and monetary damages for the victims.