HENDERSON COUNTY – According to reports from our news partner, KETK, a sting operation in Henderson County has led to the arrest of a man who was attempting to solicit a minor.
During the sting operation on Monday, an officer utilized an online dating messaging platform to target individuals who were seeking to have sexual relationships with minors. The officer created an undercover persona, portraying himself as a 15-year-old girl living in Henderson County. The officer’s profile on the website received direct messages from an account with the username “Rob.” During their conversations on the platform, the user believed that the officer was a minor living in East Texas. Continue reading Man arrested for soliciting minor in Henderson County sting operation
TERREL — A Wills Point teenager was killed during a car crash in Terrell on Tuesday.
According to our news partner, KETK, the Terrell Police Department received a 911 call at around 2:49 a.m. in regards to a crash detection notification from a cell phone in the area of State Highway 205 and Colquitt Road. When officers arrived, they found an orange 2020 Chevrolet Equinox that had struck a traffic light pole on the right side of the roadway.
The passenger of the vehicle, 19-year-old Bryson Malachi Barnes of Wills Point, was pronounced dead at the scene, Terrell PD said. The driver, Preston David Grosvenor-Reed, 18 of Royse City, was taken to a hospital for minor injuries. Continue reading East Texas teen dies in Terrell car crash, driver arrested
(NEW YORK) -- Hamas announced it will release American hostage Edan Alexander and "the bodies of four other dual nationals" after receiving a a proposal from mediators to resume negotiations.
The group said in a statement Friday it responded "responsibly and positively" to the latest ceasefire extension proposal.
The White House said on Friday that it presented a bridge proposal to Hamas on Wednesday to extend the ceasefire beyond Ramadan and Passover to allow time to negotiate a permanent ceasefire. The White House said the bridge proposal "would have to be implemented soon -- and that dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander would have to be released immediately," the White House said in a statement.
Under the bridge proposal, hostages would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, Israel would allow humanitarian assistance to flow into Gaza, and the U.S. would work toward a durable solution to permanently end the conflict, according to the White House.
"Unfortunately, Hamas has chosen to respond by publicly claiming flexibility while privately making demands that are entirely impractical without a permanent ceasefire. Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not. Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes," the White House said in a statement.
The parents of two of the U.S. hostages being held told ABC News they have not heard anything so far from the Israeli government or the Trump administration.
"Well, I think our priority always as government is always that we care about all the hostages," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday in comments at the G7. "We want all the hostages. We believe they should all be released."
Israel accused Hamas of "manipulation and psychological warfare."
"While Israel has accepted the Witkoff outline, Hamas remains steadfast in its refusal and has not budged a millimeter," the Israeli Prime Minister's office said. "At the same time, it continues to engage in manipulation and psychological warfare. The Prime Minister will convene the ministerial team on Saturday night to receive a detailed report from the negotiating team, and to decide on the next steps for the release of the hostages."
President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, proposed a new agreement which would last until April 20. On the first day of his outline, half of the hostages will be released in one fell swoop of the hostages. At the end of the outline – if an agreement is reached – the remaining hostages will also be released, all at once.
Hamas has refused this proposal, saying it already agreed to a ceasefire agreement. Israel has agreed to the Witkoff proposal after stalling negotiations on the second phase of the signed ceasefire agreement.
Due to Hamas' refusal of the Witkoff proposal, Israel said it will block all aid goods and supplies from entering Gaza, a move that violates international law.
Hamas condemned Israel's decision to halt entry of aid into Gaza and described it as a "cheap blackmail," "war crime" and a "blatant coup against the agreement."
Hamas said that "the only way" to return Israeli hostages is to adhere to the ceasefire and "immediately enter into negotiations to begin the second stage," in a statement earlier this month.
The second phase of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel has not begun, with ceasefire negotiations ongoing in Doha, Qatar, despite a nearly two-week blockade of aid into Gaza.
In the ceasefire agreement signed earlier this year, Hamas and Israel had agreed to sustain calm, permanent cessation of military operations and all hostilities to be implemented before the exchange of remaining Israeli male hostages, civilians and soldiers for an agreed-upon number of prisoners in Israeli jails and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
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.
(WASHINGTON) -- Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, faces a confirmation hearing Friday before the Senate Finance Committee.
Oz, a doctor and former television host whose nomination to lead CMS has put him in the political spotlight for the first time since his unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Senate seat three years ago, is expected to have to deal with tough questions from Democrats on the 27-member committee, which will vote whether to move his nomination to a floor vote in front of the entire Senate.
Oz talked about his accomplishments as a physician and TV host during his opening statement, noting the 10 Emmys his show won, and contended Trump "wants to love and cherish Medicare and Medicaid."
"We have a generational opportunity to fix our health care system and help people stay healthy for longer," he said Friday.
Oz said his main goals as the head of CMS deal with more transparency and eliminating waste, echoing Trump's goals.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking member on the committee, however, slammed Oz during his introduction, calling him out over his past comments and actions. Wyden, D-Ore., noted Oz has had a history of promoting Medicare Advantage companies and baseless wellness remedies and claimed if confirmed the nominee would "coddle the for profit insurance companies."
"Dr. Oz will be calling the shots of what gets cuts, or what stays," he said.
Oz did not commit to preventing cuts to Medicaid or Medicare.
Wyden grew frustrated when Oz failed to answer "yes" or "no" when he asked whether Oz would oppose any cuts to the program.
"I cherish Medicaid," Oz responded, saying he's "worked within the Medicaid environment quite extensively."
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., later asked, "How many children losing health insurance would be acceptable to you?"
"I don't want children to lose health insurance," Oz said.
"Well, then, you're going to need to reject the Republican budget," Hassan responded.
Hassan challenged Oz, in particular, on his past promotion of green coffee extract as a possible weight-loss supplement.
"You may think magic is make-believe, but this little bean has scientists saying they've found the magic weight-loss cure for every body type — it's green coffee extract," Oz said on a 2012 episode of his show.
A study Oz cited at the time was later retracted, and an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission found the data behind the product was "deeply flawed."
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in particular, has been increasingly vocal ahead of the hearing about Oz's financial ties to health care companies that he will now oversee in his role at CMS and his past comments about privatizing Medicare, one of the programs he'll manage.
She also criticized what she calls his "hostile record" on abortion rights, referring to Oz's comments on the campaign trail that a woman's decision to get an abortion should be made by her, her doctor and "local political leaders."
"The implication that elected officials should be involved in a woman's personal health treatment decision is terrifying and antithetical to patient health," Warren wrote to Oz on Thursday.
Republicans came to Oz's defense and also pushed their agenda for the agency, specifically in upholding the Hyde Amendment.
The amendment has banned the use of any federal funds for abortion, only allowing exceptions to pay for the procedure when the life of the mother is at risk or the pregnancy results from rape or incest. Medicaid, for example, does not cover abortion services beyond those exceptions — though some states use their own funds to do so.
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, argued that Biden took action to expand abortion access in ways that were "explicitly in violation of the Hyde Amendment."
"If you're confirmed, will you commit to upholding the Hyde Amendment and ensuring that our federal health care programs are not providing abortions on the taxpayers' dime?" he asked Oz.
The nominee said he would.
"The implication that elected officials should be involved in a woman's personal health treatment decision is terrifying and antithetical to patient health," Warren wrote to Oz on Thursday.
Oz also came under fire over his tax returns after Democrats said that he underpaid on Social Security and Medicare taxes by using a limited liability loophole.
"Dr. Oz's position is counter to the position of the Department of Treasury and results in him not paying into Social Security and Medicare, the very healthcare program he hopes to manage," Democratic Senate Finance Committee staff wrote in the memo, circulated to the committee.
"He avoided hundreds of thousands of dollars in Social Security and Medicare taxes in the years reviewed," the staff wrote. They reviewed Oz's taxes from 2021 to 2023.
The committee staff reviewed Oz's tax returns and met with the nominee, his accountant and his lawyers earlier in March. Oz and his team maintained that he was not liable for the taxes the Democrats said he owed, according to the memo.
Oz in the past has expressed support for Medicare Advantage, a Medicare-approved plan run by private insurance companies. The plan must follow rules set by Medicare, such as limiting out-of-pocket expenses and covering all services covered by traditional Medicare.
"Medicare Advantage has definitely become a much more important part of the Medicare program. It's now the most popular coverage option within the program," Joe Albanese, a senior policy analyst at the right-leaning think tank Paragon Health Institute, told ABC News.
"It's grown very rapidly in popularity over the past decade," he continued. "And that's going change the way that the government interacts with Medicare and Medicare beneficiaries."
In an op-ed co-written for Forbes in June 2020, Oz said Medicare Advantage offers better care due to there being competing plans. He said Medicare Advantage could also be expanded to all Americans who are not on Medicaid, which would be funded by a 20% payroll tax. He has also promoted Medicare Advantage on his show, "The Dr. Oz Show."
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.
(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump administration is removing the Internal Revenue Service's top attorney, according to two sources familiar with the move, amid an internal debate over sharing confidential taxpayer information with other government agencies.
Acting IRS chief counsel William Paul is set to be demoted to his previous role, and replaced by Andrew De Mello, another IRS attorney who was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the inspector general of the Department of Education during his first term, the sources said.
Paul was promoted to replace outgoing chief counsel Marjorie Rollinson in January.
His demotion at IRS headquarters comes as representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency have been working to secure agreements with other agencies to use and share taxpayer information across the government, to help with issues including the vetting of federal benefit payments and immigration information.
Section 6103 of the federal tax code requires the IRS keep individual taxpayer information confidential with certain exceptions, and some within the agency have raised privacy concerns about the proposals pushed by DOGE representatives for access to and the sharing of IRS data.
The Treasury Department and a spokesperson for the IRS did not respond to requests for comment.
The IRS is also expected to lose approximately 20% of its workforce -- or roughly 18,000 jobs -- by May 15 as part of staff cuts directed by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, two sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.
That figure includes the probationary workers already dismissed and IRS workers who accepted the administration's 'buyout' offer over email.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to rehire the fired workers at the IRS and five other agencies, though the administration has filed a notice to appeal the ruling.
The agency's taxpayer services and compliance departments are expected to lose thousands of workers in what could be the first of several waves of firings, one of the sources said.
(NEW YORK) -- The arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was a "targeted, retaliatory detention and attempted removal of a student protestor because of his constitutionally protected speech," his attorneys said Thursday in a new petition seeking his immediate release.
Khalil, a leader of the Columbia University encampment protests last spring, was detained on March 8 and is being held in Louisiana as of Thursday.
He possesses a green card and has not been charged with a crime.
Officials from President Donald Trump's administration have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas. But Baher Azmy, one of Khalil's lawyers, called his client's alleged alignment with Hamas "false and preposterous."
His lawyers argued in their petition that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had determined that Khalil's presence in the United States would have potentially serious foreign policy consequences based on lawful activity -- namely his participation in protests and his statements about Israel.
"Neither Secretary Rubio nor any other government official has alleged that Mr. Khalil has committed any crime or, indeed, broken any law whatsoever," the amended petition said.
"The Rubio Determination and the government's subsequent actions, including its ongoing detention of Mr. Khalil in rural Louisiana, isolating him from his wife, community, and legal team, are plainly intended as retaliation and punishment for Mr. Khalil's protected speech and intended to silence, or at the very least restrict and chill, his speech now and in the future, all in violation of the First Amendment," it continued.
His lawyers conceded Khalil is "an outspoken student activist" who called Israel's actions in Gaza "genocide," but they also said he has been "committed to peaceful protest."
Khalil was taken from New York to New Jersey following his arrest. He was later transferred to Louisiana. The complaint described a process in which "Mr. Khalil felt as though he was being kidnapped. He was reminded of prior experience fleeing arbitrary detention in Syria."
The petition claims that the arrest violated Khalil's First and Fifth Amendment rights, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.
At least 98 people were arrested at a protest in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City calling for Khalil's release earlier in the day on Thursday.
Separately, Columbia University announced Thursday that students who occupied the campus' Hamilton Hall during pro-Palestinian protests last spring have been expelled, been suspended for several years or had their degrees temporarily revoked.
Khalil is set to appear before an immigration judge on March 27.
A man shouts at Rep. Chuck Edwards during a congressional town hall meeting on March 13, 2025 in Asheville, North Carolina/Sean Rayford/Getty Images
(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) -- Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., was confronted by angry constituents during a town hall meeting on Thursday night about President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s sweeping cuts across the government.
“How do you justify cuts to staff of the VA helping veterans, especially those with long term care needs,” asked one constituent who was met with a standing ovation from the raucous crowd in Asheville, North Carolina.
“So first of all, there have been no cuts to the staff at VA as of this point. Like him or not, Elon Musk has brought a lot of really smart people,” Edwards responded as he was met with a round of boos. Earlier this month, an internal VA memo indicated that the agency was preparing to lay off 80,000 from its workforce.
The interaction turned so contentious and hostile that Edwards had to be escorted out of the building.
“You don’t get to do this to us,” yelled another constituent.
Republican leadership has told their members to avoid in-person town halls like these after several members were grilled in their home districts.
Edwards, however, went against their advice on Thursday.
“"You see a lot of advice in Washington, D.C. from different folks saying, you know, ‘Republicans shouldn't be out there doing town halls,’ and I'm thinking 'why not?' I love the people,” said Edwards.
The Trump administration is pushing forward with sweeping cuts with thousands of workers already having been laid off across the federal workforce – including Veteran Affairs, the IRS and the Department of Education.
Elon Musk split with the White House this week, suggesting that entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security could be on the chopping block next.
"The waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is all of the, which is most of the federal spending is entitlements, so that's like the big one to eliminate,” Musk said earlier this week.
Those words have left some voters very concerned, with Edwards taking the brunt end of the attacks Thursday night.
“What are you doing to ensure the protection of our Social Security benefits,” asked on constituent to a round of applause.
Replied Edwards: “I'm not going to vote to dissolve your Social Security. I'm not looking to disrupt Social Security at all.”
TYLER – Congressman Nathaniel Moran, who represents Tyler in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been appointed to the House Committee on Ethics by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The committee has jurisdiction over the House Code of Official Conduct within the house, and is tasked with upholding integrity and accountability in Congress. According to reports from our news partner, KETK, Congressman Moran has been selected as one of the five Republicans to serve on the the bipartisan, ten-member panel.
“It is my honor to appoint Congressman Nathaniel Moran to the House Ethics Committee,” said Johnson. “His impeccable character, commitment to upholding the highest standards of Congress, and his unwavering dedication to public service make him perfectly suited for this role. I have full confidence that he will serve with integrity as we work to improve the American people’s trust in Congress.” Continue reading East Texas Congressman Moran appointed to House Committee on Ethics
When Michael Fassbender auditioned to play James Bond, he ended up promoting a different actor for the role.
In a recent appearance on theHappy Sad Confused podcast, Fassbender said he suggested Daniel Craig might make a good James Bond during his own audition for the film Casino Royale.
“I met with Barbara Broccoli just, you know, through passing, and I actually went in to an audition phase before Daniel [Craig] was cast, but I don’t think I was ever in the mix,” Fassbender said. “But I remember going into that room and meeting with her and [Michael G.] Wilson, and I think I was like, ‘Daniel Craig is ...’ — I don’t know why I was promoting him, I should have been promoting myself.”
Fassbender said the flub is par for the course, admitting he was an hour late to his Mad Max: Fury Road audition. “This is what I was saying, I was terrible at auditions,” Fassbender said.
Even though he ended up not getting the role, Fassbender still gave Craig his flowers.
“Obviously Daniel did a fantastic job and went on to be I think the most successful Bond in history, but that was it really, there was never a conversation after that,” Fassbender said.
(WASHINGTON) -- Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday night that he plans to vote to keep the government open, signaling that there will almost certainly be enough Democratic votes to advance a House GOP funding bill before a shutdown deadline at the end of the day Friday.
In remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer conceded a government shutdown is the worse outcome.
"While the Republican bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much much worse. For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option," he said. "It is not a clean CR" or continuing resolution, he said. "It is deeply partisan. It doesn't address far too many of this country's needs, but I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power in a government shutdown is a far worse option."
Schumer's announcement amounted to a major break from House Democrats who voted nearly unanimously against the GOP funding bill earlier this week. Following Schumer's remarks, top House Democrats released a joint statement reiterating that they remain "strongly opposed" to the GOP funding bill and say instead they support a four-week spending bill that would allow lawmakers to continue negotiating.
In his remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer argued Republicans are to blame for a "Hobson's choice" that "brought us to the brink of disaster."
"Unless Congress acts, the federal government will shut down tomorrow at midnight. I have said many times there are no winners in a government shutdown. But there are certainly victims: the most vulnerable Americans who rely on federal programs to feed their families to access medical care and to stay financially afloat," Schumer said.
A decision to shut down the government would give President Donald Donald Trump and his senior adviser Elon Musk too much power to continue their federal worker cuts without discretion, he asserted.
"A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now. Under as shutdown the Trump administration would have full authority to deem whole agencies programs an personnel nonessential, furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired," Schumer said. "In short: a shut down would give Donald Trump Elon musk and DOGE the keys to the city state and country."
Earlier Thursday, Schumer told his Democratic colleagues during a closed-door lunch that he would vote to clear a path for final passage of a House-GOP funding bill, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
That move would clear the way for Republicans to pass the bill with a simple majority.
Senate Democrats remained tight-lipped after huddling behind closed doors ahead of the fast-approaching government funding deadline.
"What happens in caucus, stays in caucus," Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin said as she left the weekly lunch.
"Ask somebody else," Democratic Sen. Cory Booker grumbled.
"I don't have any comment," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Several Democrats have privately admitted they likely don't have the votes to block a Republican proposal to keep the government funded through September, multiple sources told ABC News.
Tensions were on full display at the private meeting. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was yelling so loudly about the impact of a shutdown that reporters could hear her through the walls.
One Democrat who spoke on the condition of anonymity told ABC News, "We lost this two weeks ago ... we should've been beating this drum for a month."
At that point, only Democratic Sen. John Fetterman had publicly signaled he would vote to keep the government open.
Fetterman insisted that he won't succumb to the posturing he sees from party leaders after he urged Republicans to keep government open in the past when Democrats controlled the upper chamber.
"Never, ever, ever, ever, ever shut the government down," Fetterman told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon. "Democrat, Republican, independents, anyone. Never shut the government down. That's one of our core responsibilities."
Fetterman called the political pressure "spicy" -- telling reporters that he's remaining "consistent" in his principled belief not to vote for a shutdown.
Fetterman acknowledged that Republicans "are daring" Democrats to shut down the government, but the freshman Democrat worried that furloughed workers and people depending on federal services are the ones who are "really going to hurt."
Now that Republicans cleared their bill through the House, Fetterman said he believes the battle is over.
Fetterman said the only time Democrats have leverage is if the Republicans need the votes in the House.
"The GOP delivered, and that effectively iced this out. And that forces us to say, 'Are you going to shut the government down, or you are going to vote for a flawed CR?' And now for me, I refuse to shut the government down."
Schumer on Wednesday said Senate Democrats would not provide the votes needed for Republicans to advance the House-approved deal to fund the government through September. Instead, Schumer proposed a one-month stopgap measure to allow more time for appropriators to negotiate and complete full-year funding bills.
Republicans and the White House, meanwhile, are preemptively pointing the finger at Democrats if a shutdown ensues.
"If it closes, it's purely on the Democrats," President Donald Trump said as he took reporter questions while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Trump was asked whether he's step in to negotiate with Democrats and he said he would if Republicans requested it: "If they need me, I'm there 100%."
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox will miss the rest of the season with a finger injury.
The Spurs said Fox will have surgery on Tuesday to repair a tendon on his left hand.
Fox was injured during training camp in October while he was still with the Sacramento Kings. He still averaged 23.5 points, 6.3 assists, and 4.8 rebounds in 62 games total this season. The Spurs acquired him on Feb. 3, and he averaged 19.7 points, 6.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 17 games for San Antonio.
Fox had his highest-scoring game with the Spurs on Wednesday, finishing with 32 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds in a 126-116 victory over Dallas.
The Spurs expect him to make a full recovery and be ready for the start of next season.
Fox was an All-Star and an All-NBA third-team selection in 2022-23 for the Kings. The next season, also with the Kings, he averaged a career-high 26.6 points and led the league in steals.
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Mavericks forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper has undergone season-ending surgery on his right wrist, one of many injuries that have plagued the defending Western Conference championship since they traded Luka Doncic.
The team announced the surgery Thursday night, a day after the procedure, and said Prosper would miss the rest of the season.
Prosper’s playing time surged in his second season as the injuries piled up for Dallas. He made his second start of the season in the first game after Doncic was sent to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.
Davis injured his groin in his Dallas debut, and the setbacks just kept coming for Dallas. Prosper was among the eight players listed as out in the Mavericks’ most recent game, a 126-116 loss at San Antonio on Wednesday.
Prosper was shut down after playing 25 minutes in a 30-point loss at Milwaukee on March 5. The 2023 first-round pick averaged 3.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11 minutes this season.
Davis still hasn’t returned, and the Mavs are 10th in the West, the final spot in the play-in tournament. Dallas lost to Boston in the NBA Finals last season.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers made a long snapper switch Thursday, cutting Taybor Pepper after five seasons in the role and signing free agent Jon Weeks from Houston.
Pepper took over the long snapping role early in the 2020 season in San Francisco and missed only one game in that span when he was on the COVID list for the 2020 finale.
The Niners overhauled their special teams operation this offseason, firing coordinator Brian Schneider and hiring Brant Boyer. San Francisco has targeted several special teams players early in free agency and now have made a switch at long snapper.
The 39-year-old Weeks spent the past 15 seasons in Houston and never missed a game. He appeared in all 244 regular-season contests for the Texans and 14 playoff games. He made the Pro Bowl following the 2015 season.
HENDERSON COUNTY – According to reports from our news partner, KETK, a sting operation in Henderson County has led to the arrest of a man who was attempting to solicit a minor.
