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HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that while Texas has long been considered one of the nation’s top states for business, workers in the state are among the nation’s most miserable, a new study finds. The state’s workforce is the 12th-most miserable in the nation, according to a ranking from Final Round AI, maker of an AI interview virtual assistant, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The analysis focused on four factors: average hours worked, average wages, fatal work injury rates and the rate of nonfatal work injuries and illnesses causing missed workdays. “Not all factors that contribute to a worker’s happiness can be quantified, but paying workers well, providing a good work-life balance and making sure their health is prioritized goes a long way to alleviating a lot of the stress in their lives, allowing them to perform their best when they are at work,” said Michael Guan, CEO of Final Round AI.

Mississippi has the most miserable workers in the nation, the company concluded, standing out for having the lowest average wage in the nation, at $47,570 per year, and the 6th-highest rate of workplace fatalities. Wyoming had the second-unhappiest workforce, with 15.14 fatal injuries per 100,000 employees in 2023, according to BLS data. West Virginia ranked third in this context. By contrast, New York has the happiest workforce in the nation, thanks to a combination of relatively high wages, relatively low hours worked and relatively few workplace fatalities. Texas scored second-worst in the nation, the study found, when it came to workload. On average, workers in the state put in 36.5 hours a week. Texas also has middling wages, with an annual average of $61,240. And in 2023, the most recent data available, the state saw 3.94 fatalities for every 100,000 workers, according to the BLS data. The state’s overall score in Final Round AI’s ranking was 42.8 out of 100, compared to 30.2 for Mississippi and 79.7 for New York. Guan suggested that when workers are unhappy, that can take a toll on the overall business climate. “Happy workers are better workers as they will work harder, smarter, and make fewer mistakes while working,” he said. “Having happy workers is also a glowing recommendation for your company.”

TEXARKANA – A 10-year-old girl and her mother were shot in their sleep around 12:30 Friday morning in the 3000 block of Mason St. according to the Texarkana Police Department.

According to our news partner, KETK, police said they were alerted to the incident by neighbors who reported hearing several shots. When officers arrived, they learned both were injured and another house had been caught in the crossfire after several rounds were fired. The mother and daughter were taken to a Texarkana hospital, but the girl was then transferred to Arkansas Children’s Hospital later on for additional treatment.

As police investigate this case, if anyone has more information on this shooting they’re ask to contact Texarkana Police Department, or Texarkana Area Crime Stoppers.

TEXAS – Newsweek reports that immigration was the sole driver of the United States’ population growth in a single year for the first time since records began, a new study released Wednesday said. The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute (MPI) looked at U.S. Census Bureau data for 2022-2023, the latest available, finding that falling American birthrates factored into the change. The findings come at a time when immigration, particularly illegal immigration, is a key focus of the current White House administration. While plans for mass deportations are being carried out, the other obstacle — a collapsing fertility rate — has been far more vexing for officials, both in the U.S. and other developed nations suffering from the same dynamic. The U.S. immigrant population grew by 1.6 million between 2022 and 2023 to 47.8 million, according to the MPI analysis, with immigrants now representing a 14.3 percent share of the overall population—the highest ever. The Census Bureau started collecting data in 1850 and has tracked immigrant arrivals through the boom in the early 1900s, the bust in middle of the century, and then a steady rise from the 1970s onward.

In 2023, birth rates among American women reached a record low for those aged between 20 and 24, while the rate also dropped overall for the larger group of 20-39 year olds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The shift has been noted in other reporting in recent months, including from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), which found that more immigrants were entering the workforce than American-born workers because of an aging population and the declining birthrate. Immigrants made up around 18 percent of the total workforce in 2023, the last year for which complete data is available. In a separate study, the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) looked at estimates from January 2025, finding an even larger rise in the immigrant population. It now stands at around 15.8 percent, according to the CIS analysis. Among the largest nationalities represented in the U.S. immigrant population in 2023 were Mexicans at 23 percent, followed by Indians (6 percent) and Chinese (5 percent).

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday resurrected debunked rumors that public schools were putting litter boxes in classrooms for students dressed as cats, amplifying right-wing criticism of some educators as he pushes for a statewide private school voucher program. The Texas Republican told a gathering of pastors at a Baptist church in Austin that the so-called furries trend is “alive and well” in communities across the state, and that lawmakers needed to ban it. He endorsed newly filed legislation by state Rep. Stan Gerdes called the “Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education (F.U.R.R.I.E.S) Act,” which would prohibit any “non-human behavior” by a student, “including presenting himself or herself … as anything other than a human being” by wearing animal ears or barking, meowing or hissing. The bill includes exceptions for sports mascots or kids in school plays.

Gerdes’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bill didn’t have any immediate cosponsors. Abbott’s remarks appeared to call back unfounded rumors from 2022 that public schools across the country were catering to students who identified as animals. In one instance, the GOP chair in Williamson County falsely claimed Round Rock schools were lowering cafeteria tables for furries. “In some small rural sections of school districts in the state of Texas, they have in their schools, what are called furries. Y’all know what this is?” Abbott asked the crowd, which responded with a smattering of “yeahs.” “Kids go to school dressed up as cats with litter boxes in their classrooms,” Abbott said. Abbott referenced two rural school districts but did not name them in his address to the Texas Pastors Policy Conference. When asked about the claims, his office sent a statement saying he has “heard from countless parents growing frustrated at the quality of schools, the substance of what is taught, and failures of ISDs leading to an unwelcoming learning environment for their children. “The Governor recommends concerned parents report any potential issues to the Texas Education Agency for investigation,” said Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for the governor. The governor has ratcheted up his criticism of public schools in recent weeks as he pitches a program allowing public money to be spent on private education, which the governor has made his signature policy push this session. The governor has cast private school vouchers as an option for parents turned off by what he called “the pervasive woke leftist agenda that’s being forced on our kids in our public schools.”

(GAINES COUNTY) ABC — The number of measles cases associated with an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 259, with 36 cases reported over the last three days, according to new data released Friday.

Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown. Two cases have occurred in persons vaccinated with two doses, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Breakthrough infections, when a vaccinated person is infected are rare, as the measles vaccine provides up to 97% protection after 2 doses.

At least 34 people have been hospitalized so far.

In the Texas outbreak, children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases, with 115, followed by children ages 4 and under comprising 86 cases, according to the data.

DSHS said in its update that it expects more cases to be confirmed in the area and in surrounding communities.

Two likely measles deaths have been reported so far in the U.S. One is a confirmed death associated with measles, while the other has been definitively linked to the measles virus but the cause of death officially remains under investigation.

The first reported death was an unvaccinated school-aged child in Texas, according to the DSHS. The child did not have any known underlying conditions, according to the department.

The Texas death was the first measles death recorded in the U.S. in a decade, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another probable measles death was recorded last week after an unvaccinated New Mexico resident tested positive for the virus.

Gaines County is the epicenter of the Texas outbreak, with 174 cases confirmed among residents, according to the DSHS. State health data shows the number of vaccine exemptions in Gaines County has grown dramatically in the last dozen years.

In 2013, roughly 7.5% of kindergartners in the county had parents or guardians who filed for an exemption for at least one vaccine. Ten years later, that number rose to more than 17.5% – one of the highest in all of Texas, according to state health data.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed hundreds of cases in at least 12 states so far this year, including Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington

The majority of nationally confirmed cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Of those cases, 4% are among those who received just one dose of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) inoculation and 2% are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC.

Health officials have been urging anyone who isn’t vaccinated to receive the MMR vaccine.

The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.

Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to the highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.

ABC News Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.

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LUBBOCK – Lubbock fire officials said Thursday that they are still uncertain about what caused at least one underground explosion and several fires at Texas Tech University the night before that took out power and forced an emergency shutdown of the campus.

Emergency officials said they received several calls regarding a potential gas leak just before 7 p.m. on campus. Upon arrival, firefighters found flames shooting out of manholes, a Lubbock Fire official said during a press conference Wednesday. Video from the Texas Tech campus posted by local news station KCBD shows green flames spewing from one manhole. Officials at a second press conference Thursday said the discoloration was likely caused by copper and other electronic material underground.

Texas Tech Fire Marshal Mike Kennon said teams initially responded to three different fires on campus, but later determined that there were five fires in underground vaults. Officials also said natural gas is being removed from underground, but could not confirm whether it was what caused the fires.

“Was that a result of an explosion, or electrical or a fire, or was it the other way around?” Lubbock Assistant Fire Chief Nick Wilson said. “We know it was present. We don’t necessarily know why.”

Officials on Thursday did not confirm whether there was a single explosion or several, but said on Wednesday there was at least one underground explosion inside a manhole on campus near Engineering Key, a central portion of the campus.

Evacuations began in that area shortly after firefighters arrived, and power was either automatically or intentionally shut off to avoid exacerbating the fires and prevent any further damage. No injuries have been reported.

“An event like this can obviously cascade and cause a lot worse damage than we saw,” said Matt Rose, chief public affairs officer for Lubbock Power & Light. “That being said, we’re taking this very, very seriously.”

About 40% of the campus is still without power as of Thursday afternoon, officials said, and the explosion initially caused outages across campus and at the nearby Texas Tech Health and Sciences Center. Because a bulk of the damaged systems are underground, it is unclear how long repairs may take as officials wait for portions of the tunnels to be deemed safe for repairs.

Spring break for Texas Tech students was set to start Monday, however the university announced it will be closed for the remainder of the week. For students who had chosen to remain on campus during spring break but are now without power, Texas Tech has provided housing accommodations, and food was donated by H-E-B and other groups, as well.

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

AUSTIN – Texas lawmakers are pushing more than 100 bills to clamp down on crime, threatening to overcrowd the state’s jails and prisons whose populations have continued to grow after dipping significantly during the pandemic.

Lawmakers have proposed at least 121 bills that seek to increase criminal penalties by either creating mandatory minimum sentences or by elevating punishment, according to the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. That nonprofit organization has also tracked 90 bills that would create new felonies and 96 bills that would create new misdemeanors.

Those figures only include bills filed through Monday and are expected to increase once they account for the hundreds of bills lawmakers have filed this week in advance of Friday’s bill filing deadline. Still, the estimates show the state’s growing push towards more punishment.

“Ever since 2015 there has been a pretty steady, incremental growth in the number of crimes [lawmakers] create every session,” said Shannon Edmonds, president of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. That growth signals a “return to the law and order sentiment of previous decades,” he added.

Proposals include bills to crack down on organized retail theft, impose prison time on people who burglarize vehicles more than once and ban the possession of AI-generated child pornography.

Some proposals would provide local law enforcement officers with more tools to crack down on threats from new technology, including artificial intelligence, while other legislation would do little to deter crime and could strain the state’s already overwrought prisons and jails, experts said.

Texas’ prison population is projected to increase by about 10% over the next five years, according to the Legislative Budget Board, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice continues to contend with a staffing shortage.

County jails’ population is also increasing. As of February, their population was about 2.5% higher than the same time last year, according to data collected by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

Some facilities are so short staffed that inmates are sent out of state to Mississippi and Louisiana. About 4,100 Texas jail inmates were housed outside their county of arrest, as of February, according to commission data.

“It’s important to take into account the costs these bills bear on county jails because many of them are already stretched very thin,” said Marc Levin, chief policy counsel at the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice “If you raise things within the misdemeanor level, to a Class A misdemeanor instead of a Class B misdemeanor… you’re going to have more people sitting in county jail.”

Class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to one year in jail while Class B misdemeanors carry up to 180 days in jail. People convicted of felonies are usually held in state prisons, which currently house about 136,000 offenders.

Texas’ prison population decreased during the coronavirus pandemic to lows of about 117,000 people in January 2021. The number of people in state prisons has since grown, contributing to about 31% of the nationwide growth in the prison population over 2022 and 2023, according to a report published this week by the Prison Policy Initiative.

Session after session, Texas lawmakers introduce a slew of bills that increase criminal penalties, often in response to concerns from the public about crimes they have witnessed in their communities. It hasn’t always been that way. The late aughts saw efforts to reduce the state’s prison population by reducing sentences and diverting people away from incarceration. They fizzled around 2015, and since then, the number of new crimes that lawmakers create each session has increased, Edmonds said.In 2023, lawmakers created 58 new criminal offenses and 26 new punishments, a number higher than any of the legislative sessions over the previous 10 years, according to the prosecutors association.

This year, a handful of bills creating criminal enhancements or new crimes are in response to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s interim charges. At Patrick’s behest, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee studied the effects of organized retail crime — where a network of thieves steal large quantities of merchandise that they sell for cash, a growing concern nationally — and also identified ways to strengthen financial crime investigations.

Senate Bill 1300, filed by Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, aims to address the $422 million in stolen goods and approximately $21 million in sales tax revenue Texas lost to organized retail crime in 2022.

The bill would increase the penalty for such crimes, based on the value of property stolen. Current law designates organized retail theft as a Class C misdemeanor — which does not allow for jail time — when the property taken is worth less than $100. The bill would increase that to a Class B misdemeanor. As the value of property stolen increases, the punishment would rise, up to a first degree felony punishable by life in prison if the total value of goods stolen exceeds $300,000.

The committee advanced the bill to the full Senate this week, even though Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, expressed concern that the bill would allow prosecutors to incarcerate impoverished families. A husband-wife couple in poverty could face jail time for stealing formula for their baby, even though the bill seeks to target organized retail theft rings, he asserted to lawmakers. Flores countered that prosecutors need discretion to determine whether to press charges.

Three other bills approved by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee this week target bank and credit card fraud, which bank executives said are occuring at alarming rates. And a bill by Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, creates a specific offense for stealing mail receptacle keys or locks, with stronger penalties for those who target elderly communities.

Other bills address auto theft, an issue Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told lawmakers has hit San Antonio particularly hard.

House Bill 727 heightens the punishment for burglarizing a vehicle when the person carrying it out has a firearm, burglarizes two or more vehicles, or uses a stolen vehicle to carry out the offense. Such crimes would be designated a state jail felony, which could lead to 180 days to two years in state jail. The bill was left pending in committee this week. Also discussed — but left pending in committee — was House Bill 548, which establishes a mandatory minimum of a year in confinement for a second auto burglary offense.

But property crimes are difficult to solve and increasing the punishment would not result in more car burglary cases getting solved, said Staley Heatly, county attorney in Wilbarger County. “It doesn’t necessarily seem like an effective tool to stop burglaries from happening,” Heatly said. “They’re difficult because people leave their cars unlocked, somebody comes by at night and rifles through the car and takes what they can. There’s going to be no witnesses, so they’re just exceedingly difficult to solve.”

Critics who spoke against the bill said burglaries are often carried out by youth who would not be deterred by an increased penalty.

Research shows that juvenile incarceration rarely produces positive results and that investing in intensive juvenile probation programs would be more successful, Levin said.

That argument was echoed during discussion of House Bill 268, which would increase the criminal penalty for making certain false reports, such as hoax calls threatening a call for mass violence against schools.

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

KARNES COUNTY – After watching news reports of seemingly random immigration raids and hearing White House officials encourage undocumented immigrants to self-deport, a Venezuelan family decided to heed the government’s advice and leave the United States for Canada a few weeks ago.

They were arrested trying to enter Canada, said their San Antonio lawyer, Laura Flores-Dixit.

Now the parents, who are in their 30s, and their two children, ages 6 and 8 — who through Flores-Dixit declined to be identified or interviewed — are among the first families to be jailed at a South Texas immigration detention facility that the Trump administration has repurposed to hold families after former President Joe Biden greatly reduced the practice.

The change at the Karnes County Detention Facility, about 50 miles southeast of San Antonio, is just one of a flurry of developments in recent weeks that’s drawing attention to privately-run immigration detention facilities that have long been criticized for poor conditions, weak standards and even weaker oversight.

When President Donald Trump vowed to deport a record number of undocumented immigrants, it was clear he would face a number of logistical challenges, starting with a limited number of federal agents to search for and arrest people — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency charged with the job, has just an estimated 6,000 officers tasked with monitoring and finding undocumented immigrants. ICE has received help from federal drug agents, Texas state troopers and other law enforcement agencies as it searches for undocumented immigrants.

The second challenge is where to hold the people they apprehend.

Texas is likely to play an outsized role in detaining immigrants because it already has 21 detention facilities that as of late February held 12,186 undocumented immigrants — reportedly the most in any state.

“Texas is the state that has had the largest number of immigrant detainees in the country for quite some time,” said Eunice Cho, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. “Texas is really the epicenter with respect to immigration detention in the United States.”

More facilities may be opening in Texas soon. The Trump administration plans to reopen a facility in Dilley to hold families as well — which would add space for up to 2,400 people.

Public records obtained by the ACLU through a lawsuit show that ICE has been contemplating expansion of a detention facility in Laredo and considering opening another in Henderson, near the Louisiana border.

Last year, Trump’s top immigration adviser, Tom Homan, said he would accept an offer from Texas state leaders to use a 1,400-acre Starr County ranch as a staging area for mass deportations. Since then, key parties have been largely mum about plans for the property, which the Texas General Land office purchased last fall.

Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who made the initial offer to the Trump administration, said in a statement to the Tribune this week that Gov. Greg Abbott was leading conversations with the Trump administration about the property.

Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris told the Tribune that the governor looked forward to working with the president but did not offer additional details.

“The Governor’s Office remains in regular communication with the Trump Administration on effective strategies to secure the border,” Mahaleris said. “Under the Texas Constitution, any effort to lease or donate Texas land to the federal government must be conducted through the Governor’s Office and these conversations remain ongoing.”

Immigrants rights advocates are alarmed by the expansion of detention facilities and the resumption of detaining families. They say the private prison companies that run the facilities have an assortment of reasons to minimize costs and maximize profits — which for migrants can mean medical neglect and poor living conditions.

Employees at privately-run detention facilities have been accused of sexually assaulting migrants, violating their religious freedom and using punitive forms of incarceration like solitary confinement.

Immigration charges are civil offenses that don’t carry the same protections as those granted to people charged with a crime, said Edna Yang, the co-executive director of immigration advocacy group American Gateways.

“It’s really problematic,” Yang said. “With the jail facilities, there are several constitutional protections because you’re in a criminal process and criminal proceedings that aren’t the same in the civil context. Also a lot of the kinds of protections for individuals in criminal proceedings are enforceable whereas the civil detention standards are not enforceable — they are guidelines.”

No aspect of immigration detention draws as much condemnation as holding children.

The Trump administration resumed the practice last week when it sent 12 to 15 families to the center in Karnes, according to lawyers who began communicating with detainees this week.

The families detained at Karnes are a mix of nationalities and have been in the country for varying periods of time, said Javier Hidalgo, a lawyer with Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, known as RAICES, which is representing numerous families.

The families came from Colombia, Romania, Iran, Angola, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Brazil, according to RAICES.

“It’s not just folks who recently arrived and are being put through expedited removal,” Hidalgo said. “It seems like the intent is more punitive, which runs exactly against the whole notion that immigration detention isn’t [the same as criminal incarceration] … Immigration detention is supposed to be civil detention — if there really is such a thing — and it can’t be punitive for deterrence.”

The Biden administration greatly reduced family detention but did not stop it entirely. Now advocates are worried the Trump administration will ramp it up to new levels, with Texas facilities becoming the hubs.

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