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AUSTIN – The San Antonio Express-News reports that the Texas Legislature spent the past three sessions chipping away at the soaring property taxes that have strained homeowners and businesses across the state. And this year is no different: the House and Senate have already laid out their dueling plans to bring another round of relief. But as the debate picks up again, tax experts and some lawmakers caution that leaders might already be committing to unsustainable tax cuts — threatening public school funding and other essential services. On top of the $12.7 billion in new property tax cuts lawmakers agreed to in 2023, both chambers now want to spend another $3.5 billion of the state’s surplus to cut school property taxes and reimburse school districts for lost revenue.

If the increase passes, the state would be on the hook for a whopping $51 billion to pay for past cuts and fund new ones. That includes increasing the homestead exemption, which reduces the taxable value of a primary residence, and compressing tax rates for all properties. The ongoing cost of previous tax cuts has ballooned so much that it now represents 22% of the state’s total spending, according to estimates from the Legislative Budget Board. That amount will only continue to grow, even if no further cuts are enacted. That’s because of provisions written into state law in 2019 that automatically reduce tax rates as property values grow. Property taxes in Texas are among the highest in the nation, largely because the state doesn’t have an income tax to help fund basic services. “We are mindful of how much this is costing, because you have to pay for it and continue to pay for it,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who has led the chamber in property tax relief. “And that’s why you can’t overdo it.” Local property taxes fund public school districts, and lowering them means districts collect less money. To make up the difference, the state promises to reimburse districts for any lost tax revenue.

AUSTIN – The Lufkin Daily News reports State Rep. Trent Ashby laid out his priorities for the current legislative session and shared his thoughts on the controversial school choice program in an interview with The Lufkin Daily News this week. After long publicly opposing school vouchers alongside other rural representatives, Ashby voted against stripping them from House Bill 1 in December 2023. “In 2023, after four special sessions, the governor repeatedly promised to veto any legislation related to public school funding or teacher pay raises without the establishment of an education savings account (ESA) program,” he said. Ashby said given the circumstances, his assessment was twofold: either continue to oppose ESAs and kill funding for public schools and teachers, or work to mitigate the impact of ESAs on local schools by incorporating guardrails while also providing funding to outweigh ESAs’ potential drawbacks.

“I firmly believed then, as I do now, that the only way to deliver much-needed and long-overdue support for Texas students, teachers and schools was to advance House Bill 1,” he said. “While no bill is perfect, House Bill 1 contained provisions that greatly benefited students, teachers, parents and education as a whole in Texas.” Ashby said all but one of 16 school superintendents he consulted agreed with his support of the 2023 bill. 2025’s House Bill 3 concerns school choice and if passed, will create education savings accounts, a form of school vouchers. Ashby, a cosponsor of the bill, said much of the funding is targeted toward special education children and low-income families in failing school districts. “HB 3 really attempts to target those students that are in the most need,” Ashby said. Ashby said he will have a front row seat to deliberations on HB 3, as he is a member of the house public education committee in the current session. He added he believes HB 3 is a better bill than Senate Bill 2, which passed the state Senate 19-12 in February. Sen. Robert Nichols, who represents Angelina County, was the only Republican state senator to vote against SB 2. Critics of school choice measures say they will withhold funding from the public school system.

AUSTIN (AP)- The CIA is headed to the South By Southwest festival to share tips on finding innovative solutions to complex challenges.

America’s preeminent spy agency will deliver a presentation Sunday on creative problem solving at the annual SXSW music festival and tech conference held in Austin, Texas, the CIA announced Monday.

The typically tight-lipped agency said a CIA historian and one of the agency’s public affairs officers will deliver the talk, entitled “Mission Possible: The Spies’ Guide to Creative Problem Solving.”

Sunday’s presentation from the CIA comes during the first weekend of the event, which brings together thousands of artists, technology experts, business leaders and entrepreneurs.

The agency said its tips on creative problem solving are designed to be helpful to anyone, even if their particular challenges don’t include running covert surveillance, organizing clandestine meetups or sniffing out double agents.

“Come learn how creative problem-solving has helped resolve complex challenges we’ve faced in protecting national security, and how you can apply creative thinking to your own seemingly impossible missions,” the agency wrote in a social media post promoting the talk.

This month’s presentation comes at a tumultuous time for America’s intelligence community. The agency recently offered buyout offers to employees as part of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink and reshape the federal government.

Trump has long criticized America’s intelligence agencies, and his CIA director, John Ratcliffe, has promised big changes, claiming the agency has strayed from its original focus on human-collected intelligence.

Ratcliffe is a former congressman and one-time director of national intelligence.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Friday passed a resolution banning all drag performances from taking place on its 11 university campuses.

This means that Draggieland, a beloved annual event scheduled for March 27 at the Rudder Theatre on the College Station campus, will have to find a new venue. Students have also held drag shows at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi and East Texas A&M University.

The move potentially sets up another First Amendment fight between students and university administrators.

The resolution says the board recognizes the need for universities to foster a sense of community and belonging among students but adds that drag shows are “inconsistent with [the system’s] mission and core values, including the value of respect for others.”

The resolution also says drag shows are “likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women,” contrary to university and federal anti discrimination policies.

“These events often involve unwelcome and objectively offensive conduct based on sex for many members of the respective communities of the universities, particularly when they involve the mockery or objectification of women,” the resolution says.

The resolution says having on-campus drag shows may be seen as promoting gender ideology and that both President Donald J. Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott have said federal and state funds may not be used for that purpose. It directs the system’s chancellor and the president of each institution to implement the policy, including canceling any upcoming drag shows.

The vote was unanimous. Regent Mike Hernandez III was absent.

The Queer Empowerment Council, a student group that hosts Draggieland and other LGBTQ+ events at Texas A&M University, said in a statement Friday evening that it was “profoundly disheartened” by the decision.

“The power of drag as a medium of art is undeniable, serving as a platform for self-discovery, inclusivity, and celebration of diversity. QEC firmly believes that the Board of Regents’ decision undermines these values, which are vital to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for all students,” the council said.

It is exploring whether it can hold Draggieland on the same or a different date at a different venue.

“We are committed to ensuring that our voices are heard, and that Draggieland will go on, no matter the obstacles we face,” the group said.

In 2023, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler canceled an on-campus drag show, similarly arguing such performances degrade women.

The students said his comments were off base and sued him for violating their First Amendment rights as well as a state law that prohibits universities from barring student organizations from using their facilities on the basis of the political, religious, philosophical, ideological or academic viewpoints the organizations express. The court has allowed Wendler’s cancellation to stand while it makes a decision.

“They are imposing a restraint on an entire category of protected speech under the First Amendment and in no public college campus should that ever occur per our Constitution,” said JT Morris, senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, of the regent’s decision Friday. Morris is representing the students in the West Texas A&M case.

Civil rights groups also condemned the resolution. Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQIA+ rights at the ACLU of Texas, said the West Texas A&M lawsuit plus one their organization spearheaded and ultimately blocked a statewide ban on drag shows “makes this kind of absurd.”

“To do this now, while that’s already happening, is a waste of time and resources and makes it seem like the Board of Regents is more focused on culture wars than educating their students,” they said.

Sofia Sepulveda, field director for Equality Texas, noted that not all drag is performed by men.

“Women performers also delight in a chance to poke fun at stereotypes that have held women back for generations,” she said.

She also criticized the gender disparities among the flagship’s faculty.

“If A&M is worried about creating a hostile environment for women, then why don’t they hire more women?” Sepulveda said. “Right now, only 40% of the faculty at Texas A&M are women, 60% are men. That’s a serious issue.”

Draggieland organizers have said the event is an important outlet for the LGBTQ+ community at a time when it has come under attack from conservative policymakers in Texas and across the nation.

Students raised funds to keep the show going when the university stopped sponsoring it in 2022. In the years since, they’ve seen LGBTQ+ representation and resources on campus diminish.

Last year, Texas A&M University cut an LGBTQ+ studies minor and stopped offering gender-affirming care at the Beutel Student Health Center. In a statement Friday afternoon, the university said it had begun coordinating with the division of student affairs to notify student organizations about the board’s decision.

Regents were also expected to discuss Friday who should be the system’s next leader after Chancellor John Sharp retires this year. Regents met in Houston earlier this week to interview candidates. They did not make a decision on a finalist Friday.

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

Since starting their beekeeping business southwest of San Antonio in late 2019, the Wheeler family has aimed to produce about 3,000 bee colonies each year, many of which are used to pollinate crops like watermelons and pumpkins.

In the last 15 years, bee colony collapses have become more common. It’s typical for the Wheelers’ Frio Country Farms to lose about half of their bees each year. But last year, that trend worsened and the growing number of dead bees is hurting their financial bottom line.

The losses have gotten so bad that the Wheelers are considering pivoting away from pollination services toward honey production, said co-owner Ryan Wheeler, 36, in the hopes that it will help the bees stay “healthy and strong.” Farmers throughout the country rely on beekeepers like the Wheelers to grow bees to pollinate more than 100 types of fruits and vegetables.

“I just don’t really know why, but [the number of bee deaths] was definitely elevated this year,” Wheeler said. “I’m hoping that it’s nothing terrible, but it sounds scary when you hear all of the reports.”

The Wheeler family’s operation is one of the thousands experiencing what experts are calling some of the heaviest bee losses in recent memory. Since June, commercial beekeepers in Texas have lost about two thirds of their bee colonies on average, according to a survey published last month that was administered by Project Apis m., a honey bee research nonprofit. Commercial beekeepers across the nation lost about 62% of their bees — with no apparent reason — in the same period, the survey also said.

The financial losses to beekeepers nationwide go up to $635 million, the survey added. Experts worry the colony collapses are unsustainable and will have a chain effect on fruit and vegetable growth that will impact consumers. They say having fewer bees to pollinate this year can lessen the quality and quantity of foods that rely on pollination like watermelon, berries and, especially, almonds.

Heavy bee losses in one season can also impact the beekeepers’ ability to grow more in the next, causing a “trickle-down effect,” said Geoffrey Williams, an agriculture professor at Auburn University who co-authors a yearly survey on bee losses each year.

“This is one of the years where, from what I’ve heard through the grapevine, these beekeepers may not even recover,” Williams said. “In some cases, I think we’re going to lose beekeeping companies because they had to essentially just throw in the towel.”

The heavy losses in the past year are expected to have an outsized impact on Texas, which is one of the nation’s top beekeeping states. Texas has had somewhat of a beekeeping renaissance in recent decades, with the number of beekeeping companies in the state more than quadrupling from 1,851 to 8,939 from 2012 to 2022, according to a Washington Post analysis of census data.

In addition to having a relatively mild climate ideal for growing bees, the state became an attractive location for the industry thanks to a 2012 law that gives tax breaks to those who keep bees on at least five of their acres.

But heavy losses in recent years threaten some of the beekeeping gains the state has made. The colony collapses have impacted even some of the largest honey bee outfits in Texas, hurting their revenue and ability to provide enough bees to their partners in California for almond pollination. Almond crops are fully dependent on bee pollination.

For many beekeeping companies in Texas, sending bees to pollinate almonds in California represents a high portion of their income early in the year. Some companies, like the Wheelers’ Frio Country Farms, weren’t able to send bees to pollinate in California this year. Others, like Tim Hollmann’s more than 40-year-old beekeeping business, had to send over a much smaller supply than usual.

Hollmann, 62, has operated Hollmann Apiaries since 1984, but bees have been a part of his life for even longer. In running a small bee outfit with his father during his teenage years, Hollmann said he was able to put himself through college at the University of South Dakota.

Today, he’s responsible for growing thousands of bee colonies each year. Though his business is based in South Dakota, about half of its operations are in Texas. Before Hollmann’s bees are shipped off to California in early February to pollinate almonds, they are nurtured in Texas for several months. But Hollmann has struggled to meet his quota over the past few years, and it’s unclear why that has been the case.

“We’ve lost some serious ground here last year that certainly we’re not going to make up for this year,” Hollmann said. “In fact, we’re going to fall further behind.”

While he brought about 6,750 bee colonies to Texas late last fall, he was only able to send about 1,800 to California for almond pollination earlier this month. With about 124 colonies remaining in Texas, Hollmann said more than 70% of his bees died in the past year, exceeding the national average. He can’t remember experiencing losses ever that high before.

Beekeepers and experts in the field have compared recent losses to a phenomenon that occurred heavily in the late 2000s called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. First reported in 2006, CCD occurs when a majority of worker bees in a colony suddenly disappear. In the late 2000s, honeybee colony losses jumped from about 10-15% on average to 30-50% each year. Loss averages haven’t improved since.

“The beekeeping industry has been warning for almost 20 years that we’re going to pass a point of no return at some point,” said Blake Shook, a Texas beekeeper who co-founded a business that supports others in the bee business.

The high losses over the past year, Shook said, could impact the price of fruits, vegetables and other foods reliant on bee pollination for growth. Fruits and vegetables like apples, blueberries, pumpkins and watermelons, could have their quality “greatly diminished” by heavy bee losses, he added. Texas is one of the four largest watermelon-producing states in the country, coming behind Florida, Georgia and California.

“Bees are the backbone of agriculture,” he added. “All things that make food delicious and nutritious come from honey bees. ”

While the heavier bee losses are putting beekeeping operations and producers at risk, it is still unclear what the underlying causes are or how they can be reversed. But bee experts say there are a few potential culprits.

According to Garett Slater, one of the state’s leading honey bee specialists at Texas A&M University, there are often five key reasons why honey bee colonies collapse: parasites like the Varroa mite, pathogens, pesticides, poor nutrition among the bees and weak queen bees, who are responsible for keeping bee colonies unified and laying eggs. The cause of recent losses is likely a combination of these factors, said Slater, who works directly with beekeepers to help prevent colony collapse.

rroa mites in particular have been a common pest for honey bees, Slater added. The mites are often able to spread viruses that honey bees are not immune to, he said, making it difficult to address the problem. Slater added that Texas A&M is currently working with the United States Department of Agriculture to help breed bees that are resistant to varroa mites.

Unlike the mid-to-late 2000s, Texas and the U.S. are better prepared to address the heavier bee losses today and discover why they are happening. Slater said. His position at Texas A&M is relatively new and began in June. In the role, he supervises specialists throughout the state who promote sustainable beekeeping practices.

Even prior to this past year, the losses beekeepers were facing was “already unsustainable,” Slater said. More frequent and consistent losses moving forward would already heighten the problems beekeepers are already facing, he added.

“If 70% losses become the new norm, that could directly impact pollination, that could directly impact honey production, [and] that could directly impact bee sales to local beekeepers and groups across the state,” Slater said. “So it could have a huge impact locally in Texas but even across the nation.”

Juliana Rangel, a professor of entomology at Texas A&M, said the losses beekeepers are seeing are likely not due to any human error. The beekeepers she’s engaged with haven’t changed their practices all that much since last year, she said, suggesting that another factor is likely at play.

Hollmann, who has been in the industry for more than 40 years, is also at a loss about what is causing the colony losses. He has his suspicions, namely that the Varroa mite might be causing havoc or colonies aren’t adequately supporting their queen bees.

But he also has bigger picture worries. Hollmann feels that continued high losses may dissuade people from joining the industry, which plays a crucial role in maintaining the food ecosystem and helping to grow nutritional foods in the U.S. and across the globe.

“I’m just not sure we’re going to get the young, talented individuals to want to carry on this industry for the next generation and generations beyond,” he said. “I’m seriously worried about that.”

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

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth’s celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge of the near side.

Confirmation of successful touchdown came from the company’s Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 225,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) away.

“You all stuck the landing. We’re on the moon,” Firefly’s Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, reported.

An upright and stable landing makes Firefly — a startup founded a decade ago — the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Even countries have faltered, with only five claiming success: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan.

A half hour after landing, Blue Ghost started to send back pictures from the surface, the first one a selfie somewhat obscured by the sun’s glare. The second shot included the home planet, a blue dot glimmering in the blackness of space.

Two other companies’ landers are hot on Blue Ghost’s heels, with the next one expected to join it on the moon later this week.

Blue Ghost — named after a rare U.S. species of fireflies — had its size and shape going for it. The squat four-legged lander stands 6-foot-6 (2 meters) tall and 11 feet (3.5 meters) wide, providing extra stability, according to the company.

Launched in mid-January from Florida, the lander carried 10 experiments to the moon for NASA. The space agency paid $101 million for the delivery, plus $44 million for the science and tech on board. It’s the third mission under NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program, intended to ignite a lunar economy of competing private businesses while scouting around before astronauts show up later this decade.

Firefly’s Ray Allensworth said the lander skipped over hazards including boulders to land safely. Allensworth said the team continued to analyze the data to figure out the lander’s exact position, but all indications suggest it landed within the 328-foot (100-meter) target zone in Mare Crisium.

The demos should get two weeks of run time, before lunar daytime ends and the lander shuts down.

It carried a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperature as deep as 10 feet (3 meters) below the surface. Also on board: a device for eliminating abrasive lunar dust — a scourge for NASA’s long-ago Apollo moonwalkers, who got it caked all over their spacesuits and equipment.

On its way to the moon, Blue Ghost beamed back exquisite pictures of the home planet. The lander continued to stun once in orbit around the moon, with detailed shots of the moon’s gray pockmarked surface. At the same time, an on-board receiver tracked and acquired signals from the U.S. GPS and European Galileo constellations, an encouraging step forward in navigation for future explorers.

The landing set the stage for a fresh crush of visitors angling for a piece of lunar business.

Another lander — a tall and skinny 15-footer (4 meters tall) built and operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines — is due to land on the moon Thursday. It’s aiming for the bottom of the moon, just 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the south pole. That’s closer to the pole than the company got last year with its first lander, which broke a leg and tipped over.

Despite the tumble, Intuitive Machines’ lander put the U.S. back on the moon for the first time since NASA astronauts closed out the Apollo program in 1972.

A third lander from the Japanese company ispace is still three months from landing. It shared a rocket ride with Blue Ghost from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 15, taking a longer, windier route. Like Intuitive Machines, ispace is also attempting to land on the moon for the second time. Its first lander crashed in 2023.

The moon is littered with wreckage not only from ispace, but dozens of other failed attempts over the decades.

NASA wants to keep up a pace of two private lunar landers a year, realizing some missions will fail, said the space agency’s top science officer Nicky Fox.

“It really does open up a whole new way for us to get more science to space and to the moon,” Fox said.

Unlike NASA’s successful Apollo moon landings that had billions of dollars behind them and ace astronauts at the helm, private companies operate on a limited budget with robotic craft that must land on their own, said Firefly CEO Jason Kim.

Kim said everything went like clockwork.

“We got some moon dust on our boots,” Kim said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.