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SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports South San Antonio Independent School District is switching to a controversial, Bible-infused curriculum next year — but not before setting up a committee to vet the learning materials for “inappropriate” content. The South San ISD board of managers unanimously approved the purchase of the state-written lessons and textbooks known collectively as Bluebonnet Learning on Monday, at the district’s second meeting since being taken over by the Texas Education Agency. South San’s new superintendent, Saul Hinojosa, recommended adopting the curriculum to address the district’s historically poor performance on standardized testing compared to the rest of the state, region and city. He said Bluebonnet Learning will help close those gaps in academic outcomes.

“I know there’s some concern as you read out there of this particular curriculum, but we are going to have some safeguards by formulating a committee that’s going to consist of teachers, parents and board members that will audit the curriculum,” he said. “If there’s anything we feel is inappropriate, we will have the ability to pull that out and change that little piece.” South San is one of the few San Antonio school systems to approve the widely debated curriculum since it was narrowly approved by eight of the 15 members of the State Board of Education in November. Harlandale ISD voted to adopt it at a December board meeting. Other local school districts, including East Central, Edgewood, Judson and Southwest ISDs, have approved portions of the curriculum. Bluebonnet Learning was created through House Bill 1605, which directed the Texas Education Agency to develop textbooks that align with state standards. The curriculum is free to access online, and school district are paid $60 per student to adopt it — $40 for using its instructional materials and $20 to cover printing the Bluebonnet textbooks.

TOMBALL – Two people have been arrested and charged with performing illegal abortions at a Houston-area health clinic, the first criminal charges brought under the state’s near-total abortion ban.

Maria Margarita Rojas, 48, a licensed midwife, and Jose Ley, 29 and her employee, were charged with the illegal performance of an abortion, as well as practicing medicine without a license. The abortion charge is a second-degree felony, which comes with up to 20 years in prison.

Rojas, who identified herself as Dr. Maria, operates a network of clinics in Waller, Cypress and Spring, where she “unlawfully employed unlicensed individuals who falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals,” according to a press release from Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Rojas, with Ley’s assistance, attempted an abortion on a person identified as E.G. on two separate occasions in March, according to court records. In interviews with investigators, E.G. said Rojas’ employees portrayed her as a doctor, so when Rojas told E.G. that her pregnancy was likely non-viable, she agreed to take the abortion pills Rojas offered.

The woman told investigators that she would have continued the pregnancy, but “since the gynecologist informed her of medical complications that would arise should she continue with the pregnancy, she relied on that medical advice.”

In its bail motion, the state says Rojas also performed an abortion in Harris County earlier this year. Calls to Rojas’ clinics were not immediately answered Monday.

Court records show Rojas was first arrested on March 6, charged with practicing medicine without a license and given a $10,000 bond. She was again arrested Monday morning, alongside Ley, and charged with practicing medicine without a license and performing illegal abortions. A third person, Rubildo Labanino Matos, was arrested March 8 and charged with conspiracy to practice medicine without a license, Paxton said Tuesday.

On Thursday, a Waller County judge granted a temporary injunction effectively shutting down Rojas’ clinics by prohibiting them from providing medical services. The injunction expires after 14 days, but a hearing scheduled for next week will likely extend it.

The investigation into Rojas’ practices spanned more than a month and involved more than a dozen people with the Office of the Attorney General, the arrest affidavit shows.

It started with an anonymous complaint filed to the state Health and Human Services Commission, alleging two women had received abortions at the Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in Waller. K.P., 26, had an abortion at three months pregnant in September 2023, and D.V. had an abortion at eight weeks pregnant in January, the affidavit said.

The complaint was initially filed Jan. 17, and in a follow-up email a week later, the person who sent the complaint said the facility had been performing abortions “for some side money” for some time. They said the two abortions they were aware of were not due to medical complications and suggested the patients acted irresponsibly by “not wanting to protect themselves using birth control.”

Investigators with attorney general’s office and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office began surveilling Rojas’ clinics in late January and early February. They observed a man later identified as Ley working alone in one of the clinics as people came in and out, apparently seeking medical care.

Ley is not licensed to practice medicine in Texas. He was a licensed doctor in Cuba, but came to the United States illegally in 2022 and later was paroled and received a green card, according to the affidavit. Ley later told investigators that he was connected with Rojas after training with the global health nonprofit Doctors without Borders.

Ley told investigators that he saw patients as a medical assistant and would consult via tablet with someone he believed to be Labanino Matos, before signing forms with Labanino Matos’ name.

Labanino Matos, a licensed nurse practitioner, was under an agreed order from the Texas Board of Nursing for negligent treatment of a patient at another clinic. Texas law requires nurse practitioners to have a practice agreement with a licensed physician, which the affidavit says Labanino Matos did not have in place for these clinics.

In late February, the woman identified as D.V. confirmed that she received an abortion and identified Rojas as the person who performed the procedure, per the affidavit.

On March 3, an investigator was observing one of the clinics when a car pulled up and a young couple went inside. Only Ley was at the clinic, the investigator said, but after a time, Rojas arrived as well. When the couple left, it was clear the woman had undergone some sort of medical procedure, the investigator said.

On March 5, the attorney general’s office secured arrest warrants and search warrants for Rojas, Labanino Matos and Ley on charges of practicing medicine without a license. The search warrants found misoprostol, a common abortion-inducing drug that can also be used for other medical purposes, as well as ultrasound machines, forceps and other medical supplies.

Ley spoke to investigators, but Rojas declined.

While those arrests were unfolding, investigators tracked down and interviewed the woman who had been at the clinic on March 3. Identified as E.G. in the records, she said she had delivered twins by cesarean section six months prior and went to the clinic on the advice of her doctor in Mexico.

She said employees referred to Rojas as a gynecologist. Rojas told E.G. she was four weeks pregnant, but there was only an 18% chance of the pregnancy being successful. Lab results showed there was only a 9% chance of a successful pregnancy, E.G. said, which Rojas told her was insufficient to continue with the pregnancy.

Rojas gave her a pill orally, and Ley administered an IV and an iron injection. The next day, when she hadn’t had the expected bleeding, she returned to the clinic and was given an additional dose of the medication orally and vaginally. She later learned the medication was misoprostol.

E.G. paid $1,320 total for the consultations. She told investigators she was “shocked” to learn Rojas was not a gynecologist.

Based on this information, the attorney general’s office charged Rojas and Ley with performing an illegal abortion.

The state recommended Rojas and Ley each be held on a million dollar bond. On Monday, a Waller County judge ordered their bonds set at $500,000 for the abortion-related charges and $200,000 for the medical license charges.

Holly Shearman, a midwife who runs Tomball Birth Center, where Rojas worked part-time providing prenatal care, said she was “shocked” by the news of her arrest. She described Rojas as a devout Catholic and skilled midwife whose clinics provided health care to a primarily Spanish-speaking, low-income community.

“I don’t believe it for one second,” she said about the allegations. “I’ve known her for eight years and I’ve never heard her talk about anything like that. I just can’t picture Maria being involved in something like this.”

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

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports that the person who purchased the winning ticket for the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot in the Feb. 17 drawing came forward to collect her prize Tuesday but was sent away empty-handed because of the mushrooming controversy over the use of third-party vendors who broker ticket sales through smartphone apps. The person, who spoke with the American-Statesman on the condition that her name not be used because of privacy concern, said she did nothing illegal or wrong when she purchased $20 worth of tickets using a phone app she has used on and off to buy Lotto and scratch-off tickets. Still, her payment is being held up pending the outcome of an investigation by the Texas Rangers. “I’ve gone through frustration and being sad and stressed,” she said in an interview that included her lawyer, Randy Howry of Austin. “And now I’m just angry.”

Just days before the drawing that would change the winner’s life, lottery Executive Director Ryan Mindell and members of the lottery’s governing board were excoriated during a Texas Senate Finance Committee hearing because third-party operators, called courier companies, had bypassed the state’s prohibition of selling game tickets by telephone. Mindell at the time told the Senate panel that he had no authority over the companies, because they were legally making in-person purchases from licensed lottery retailers. Still, several committee members said the companies could be used by unscrupulous buyers who might be underage or otherwise ineligible to play the Texas Lottery. The members were especially upset that a courier company was used to make a bulk purchase totaling more than $25 million to buy up more than 99% of the possible number combinations to win a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot in April 2023. Although the bulk purchase did not go through an app, Mindell was told that he should have suspected that the massive purchase of tickets could have involved a money launderer who was using the state-run lottery to legitimize profits from illicit enterprises.

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — Environmental group Greenpeace must pay more than $660 million in damages for defamation and other claims brought by a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s construction in North Dakota, a jury found Wednesday.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access had accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts. Greenpeace USA was found liable for all counts, while the others were found liable for some. The damages owed will be spread out in different amounts over the three entities.

Greenpeace said earlier that a large award to the pipeline company would threaten to bankrupt the organization. Following the nine-person jury’s verdict, Greenpeace’s senior legal adviser said the group’s work “is never going to stop.”

“That’s the really important message today, and we’re just walking out and we’re going to get together and figure out what our next steps are,” Deepa Padmanabha told reporters outside the courthouse.

The organization later said it plans to appeal the decision.

“The fight against Big Oil is not over today,” Greenpeace International General Counsel Kristin Casper said. “We know that the law and the truth are on our side.”

She said the group will see Energy Transfer in court in July in Amsterdam in an anti-intimidation lawsuit filed there last month.

The damages total nearly $666.9 million. The jury found Greenpeace USA must pay the bulk of the damages, nearly $404 million, while Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace International would each pay roughly $131 million.

Energy Transfer called Wednesday’s verdict a “win” for “Americans who understand the difference between the right to free speech and breaking the law.”

“While we are pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us, this win is really for the people of Mandan and throughout North Dakota who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The company previously said the state court lawsuit was about Greenpeace not following the law, not free speech.

In a statement, Energy Transfer attorney Trey Cox said, “This verdict clearly conveys that when this right to peacefully protest is abused in a lawless and exploitative manner, such actions will be held accountable.”

The case reaches back to protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. For years the tribe has opposed the line as a risk to its water supply.

The multistate pipeline transports about 5% of the United States’ daily oil production. It started transporting oil in mid-2017.

Cox had said Greenpeace carried out a scheme to stop the pipeline’s construction. During opening statements, he alleged Greenpeace paid outsiders to come into the area and protest, sent blockade supplies, organized or led protester trainings, and made untrue statements about the project to stop it.

Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities had said there was no evidence to the claims and that Greenpeace employees had little or no involvement in the protests and the organizations had nothing to do with Energy Transfer’s delays in construction or refinancing.

AUSTIN(AP) — Wildfires fueled by dry conditions and gusting winds burned in a few Southern states Thursday, forcing evacuations in Texas and prompting Florida officials to close part of a major highway with spring break in high gear.

A wildfire in Sam Houston National Forest near Houston prompted the evacuation of about 900 homes and closed schools. The National Weather Service issued elevated fire warnings around the nation’s fourth-largest city.

The fire, which started Wednesday, had burned about 3.1 square miles (8 square kilometers) and was only about 10% contained Thursday morning, the Texas A&M Forest Service said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or property damage, but the Cleveland Independent School District, which has about 12,000 students, canceled classes as a precaution.

Firefighters and law enforcement “did an such unbelievable job yesterday in protecting homes, animals, livestock and people. We’ve lost basically nothing, which is hard to believe,” the county’s top elected official, Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough, said.

However, he said, expected wind gusts Thursday along with a drop in humidity could make the situation disastrous.

“We’re asking the people who evacuated last night to stay still away from their homes,” Keough said.

In the Florida Keys, a large brush fire that began Tuesday caused authorities to close one of the two roads leading in and out of the island chain, and intermittently shut down U.S. 1 so fire crews could move equipment.

Spring break is in full swing in Florida, and U.S. 1 is the major thoroughfare that connects the mainland to the islands. It is also a heavily traveled road for people who live on the mainland and work at many of the hotels and restaurants in Key Largo and beyond.

In Arkansas, crews responded to more than 50 fires Wednesday that were fueled by high winds.

The fires closed several highways, including a portion of Interstate 530 southeast of Little Rock due to heavy smoke.

Flames damaged structures in several cities, including Little Rock. The roof collapsed at St. Joseph’s, a 115-year-old building in North Little Rock that once served as an orphanage and is now the home of a nonprofit that provides urban farming resources.

The South has experienced recent cold and dry conditions, followed by gusting winds, that have fanned the flames.

Texas has seen fire hazards range from the far northern Panhandle, where ground vegetation froze and dried out, and push hundreds of miles east to the coast.

South Florida has seen every little rainfall over the past few weeks. The rainy season doesn’t start until sometime around mid-May. Another cold front with dry air is expected to push through South Florida on Thursday night, said meteorologist Donal Harrigan with the National Weather Service in Miami.
Red Flag warnings

The weather service issued Red Flag warnings for fire conditions in east Texas and South Florida and could extend them for several days.

Red flag warnings are issued by the National Weather Service when conditions are ripe for fires. In southeast Texas, weather service officials predicted wind gusts of 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour), combined with humidity as low as 18%. That combination will continue to dry out vegetation.

FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that statewide and national child advocates are sounding the alarm on impacts to emergent bilingual students, one group among many who have been left with less academic support and resources after mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education. Almost half of staff at the federal department were recently cut as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce staff across multiple federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Education cuts have resulted in the disbandment of the department’s Office of Language Acquisition, which provides support to English-learning, emergent bilingual students. This student population is among the fastest-growing in Texas with 20% of students statewide — about 1.2 million — identified as emergent bilingual, according to the Texas Education Agency. The apparent elimination of federal oversight for these students, advocates say, could prompt them to fall behind academically, disengage from school and face lower graduation rates.

“One of the things that a lot of people don’t understand is that while immigration may have partly something to do with this, we are a Latino state in many ways. We are a legal immigration hub in many ways. We have a lot of children here that are American citizens, that are still bi-language learners,” said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, during a virtual press conference on Wednesday, March 19. “This decision effectively eliminates federal leadership, educator support and resources designed to help emergent bilingual kids succeed in school,” he added. According to Children at Risk, a Texas research and advocacy nonprofit focused on improving children’s quality of life, Texas’ emergent bilingual student population grew by 49% from 2013 to 2023. The Texas state director of Emgage, a group of organizations dedicated to politically empowering Muslim American communities, shared a story of an emergent bilingual student who received support through middle and high school and graduated speaking fluent English. He is now working full-time and attending college to obtain his bachelor’s degree. Jida Nabulsi, the state director, said many emergent bilingual students don’t realize they have the same opportunities as this student to open doors for themselves.