RUSK – The Rusk City Council is currently considering who will serve as its next city manager after Bob Goldsberry resigned from the position last week, according to our news partner KETK.
Rusk City Council member for district 4, Martha Neely said Goldsberry submitted his resignation last week as he’s retiring from a long career in public leadership. Before serving as Rusk city manager, Goldsberry also served as executive director of the Rusk Economic Development Corporation.
(MIAMI) -- A man, woman and two girls were found stabbed to death in what investigators believe is a murder-suicide in Miami.
Investigators said they believe 42-year-old Ryan Charles Whiten killed 46-year-old Melanie Lauren Hyer, 11-year-old Savannah Whiten and 8-year-old Sienna Whiten before taking his own life, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
Ryan Charles Whiten was the biological father of Savannah Whiten and Sienna Whiten, and Hyer was the girls' mother, according to the sheriff's office.
Doral Police Officers responded to a residence in Miami-Dade for a welfare check on Tuesday at around 7:30 p.m., according to the sheriff's office.
Officers entered the residence when they arrived on the scene to find a woman, man and two girls all unresponsive, according to the sheriff's office. All four individuals suffered stab wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene.
"The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Homicide Bureau investigation is currently leading detectives to believe this incident was a murder-suicide. Investigators are continuing to work closely with the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office as the investigation remains active," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
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AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into Celsius Holdings, Inc. (“Celsius”) based on the company’s representations and practices regarding its energy drinks marketed to teens and children. Celsius owns Alani Nutrition, LLC (“Alani”), which sells the popular energy drink commonly known as Alani Nu.
Alani Nu is a popular, low calorie, caffeine energy drink marketed toward young adults. Each 12-oz can contains 200 mg of caffeine. This is a level medical professionals consider dangerous for children and adolescents. Despite this, the brand employs colorful packaging, playful design elements, and youth-oriented branding strategies that appeal directly to younger consumers, raising serious questions about whether the company is deliberately marketing a potentially harmful product to an at-risk population.
The National Institutes of Health strongly advises against energy drink consumption by children and teens, citing documented risks including elevated heart rate, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, anxiety, and dehydration. Despite these concerns, Alani Nu’s packaging typically only lists the caffeine amount and does not provide any additional warnings related to age or potential heart-health risks. These are not hypothetical risks. Multiple children and young adults across the country have reported adverse health effects following consumption of high-caffeine energy drinks. For example, the family of a 17-year-old from Weslaco, Texas, is suing the distributor of the energy drink Alani Nu after the teen died from an enlarged heart allegedly caused by excessive caffeine consumption. The lawsuit claims the product failed to provide adequate warnings about its caffeine content—a failure that may have cost a young Texan her life.
“Texas families deserve to know that the products marketed to their children are safe and not filled with dangerous levels of certain ingredients,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The tragic death of a 17-year-old Texas girl allegedly caused by consuming a highly caffeinated energy drink is a sobering reminder of what is at stake when companies prioritize profit over the safety and wellbeing of our children. I am looking into Celsius and Alani Nu to prevent more cases like this one and to ensure Texans are made aware of the any risks that come with consuming certain energy drink products.”
The Office of the Attorney General will investigate whether Celsius and Alani mislead Consumers regarding the safety of its product for teens and children in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“DTPA”).
(WASHINGTON) -- Senior Justice Department leaders on Thursday announced a number of cases against those who they say perpetrated fraud in Ohio.
Four people, including two state of Ohio employees, were charged with a $30 million fraud scheme targeting the state's behavioral health department.
Two of the defendants owned businesses which claimed to provide behavioral health services for young adults that attend summer camps, church groups and recreational programs, according to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department alleges the two businesses submitted fraudulent claims for services that were never rendered. After the claims were not submitted because one of the behavioral health organizations' accreditation was invalid, the two allegedly conspired with another individual to submit claims.
The funds were used to fund a lavish lifestyle, according to DOJ, including purchasing 14 vehicles worth $800,000.
"The days of the brazen theft that we've seen of taxpayer dollars, abusing the generosity of the American taxpayer is over," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference in Columbus, Ohio. "Our message to fraudsters is simple: With our state and local partners, the Department of Justice will be working day and night to identify you, arrest you and imprison you."
Blanche and other federal leaders, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, were in Ohio to not only announce charges against alleged fraudsters, but to also announce a Top 10 fraudsters list and tout the cooperation between Ohio authorities and the federal government on fraud issues.
"Our best form of information is the American public," Patel said. "Take a look at this Top 10 most wanted. Let us know any information. There is no bad piece of information. The only bad piece of information is the one you don't give us."
Earlier this week, the Justice Department charged five individuals with scamming older Americans in romance fraud schemes totaling $15 million. The five -- mostly from Ghana -- allegedly used AI to create false stories and indicate to people they were interested in them romantically to get them to send them money.
"Once they establish trust, they use false pretenses and stories about vast inheritances of money, gold, or diamonds, and then convince these elderly Americans to help finance bogus legal proceedings in the nation of Ghana," U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio David M. Toepfer said at the press conference.
The scheme allegedly went on for almost two years and impacted more than 100 people.
"They then use this stolen money to buy a mansion in Ghana. Diamond-encrusted jewelry, a Lamborghini and other high-end luxury vehicles. All of those assets have now been seized and are going through the forfeiture proceedings so that they will not profit from their fraudulent efforts," Toepfer said.
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(NEW YORK) -- As residents of the Great Plains brace for more severe weather stretching into the weekend, summer-like temperatures are heating up the Northeast.
From New York City to Raleigh, North Carolina, temperatures are expected to be in the 90s on Friday and Saturday before a cold front arrives on Sunday.
The temperature in Raleigh is expected to hit 100 this weekend. Washington, D.C., is also forecast to see 90-degree temperatures through Saturday.
Humidity is not expected to be much of a factor in the Northeast as dew points remain low, meaning the "feels-like" temperatures will be nearly identical to the actual temperatures.
Some areas of the West are expected to see triple-digit temperatures. Phoenix, Arizona, could reach 110 degrees on Thursday.
Damaging winds and hail expected in the Great Plains
Severe weather is expected to continue in the Great Plains through the end of the week, with damaging winds and large hail forecast to be the main threats.
An isolated tornado or two and some instances of flash flooding are also possible on Thursday across the Great Plains, including South Dakota, southeast Montana, northeast Wyoming and northern Nebraska.
On Friday, severe weather, including damaging winds and large hail, is expected from Nebraska to Iowa and into southern Minnesota, including the cities of Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Rochester, Minnesota; and Des Moines, Iowa.
On Saturday, severe weather is expected to move into the Great Lakes region and bring rain to parts of the Northeast on Sunday.
The foul weather in the Great Plains comes after the region was hit by severe thunderstorms and damaging winds on Wednesday. Thunderstorms and wind gusts of more than 80 mph were reported in Frederick, South Dakota, on Wednesday, leaving buildings damaged, a radio tower and power lines toppled, and trees uprooted.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied Thursday after falling oil prices and yields in the bond market eased the pressure on U.S. stocks. Banks, small companies and other stocks that had earlier been left behind by the euphoria around artificial-intelligence technology led the way.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% for its 10th gain in the last 11 days, a day after dropping from its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 874 points, or 1.7%, to a record, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%.
Stocks got a lift from a 2.8% drop for the price of Brent crude oil to $95.03 per barrel. That gave back a chunk of its rise from this week caused by the latest flare-ups of fighting between Iran and the United States and its allies.
The expectation on Wall Street seems to be that the United States and Iran will ultimately agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. That would hopefully improve the flow of crude, lower oil’s price and remove some of the upward pressure on inflation that’s hurting the world. Such hopes, along with strong profit reports from U.S. companies, helped launch the S&P 500 on a nine-day winning streak that ended Wednesday, a day short of its longest run in three decades.
Stocks of smaller companies helped lead the way, and the Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 1.4%. They can reap the biggest benefits of falling interest rates, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.47% from 4.49% late Wednesday as oil prices sank.
Lower yields can make it less expensive for companies to borrow cash, which many smaller companies need to do to grow.
Banks also helped lead the market, including gains of 5% for Goldman Sachs, 4.7% for Fifth Third Bancorp and 4.4% for U.S. Bancorp.
They helped to more than make up for losses by some AI stocks, which took a sudden back seat after dominating the market.
Broadcom sank 12.6%, even though both profit and revenue for the chip company surpassed analysts’ expectations. CEO Hock Tan said its AI semiconductor revenue more than doubled to $10.8 billion during the quarter and that demand is only getting bigger. He is forecasting AI semiconductor growth to top 200% in the current quarter.
Investors, though, may have wanted even more after Broadcom’s stock came into the day with a 38.5% surge for the year so far. That towered over the already strong 10.3% rise for the S&P 500 index, and Broadcom has grown to become one of Wall Street’s largest and most influential stocks.
Analysts have been saying AI stocks may have run too high, becoming too expensive, and that the broad U.S. stock market may be set for a slowdown following an unrelenting streak of nine straight winning weeks for the S&P 500, its longest since 2023.
Other AI winners likewise gave back some of their big gains. Micron Technology, the latest company to see its total value top $1 trillion because of AI euphoria, fell 7.7%.
CrowdStrike Holdings dropped 3.8% even though the cybersecurity company’s profit and revenue for the latest quarter topped analysts’ expectations. CEO George Kurtz said the latest quarter was when “the worlds of cybersecurity and frontier AI collided,” and the company said it’s splitting its stock to make its share price more affordable.
But its stock came into the day with a 59.5% surge for the year so far. And analysts said it beat forecasts for some financial measures by less than it usually does.
Outside of tech, PVH Corp., the company behind the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, tumbled 20.2% even though it also beat Wall Street’s first-quarter sales and profit targets. CEO Stefan Larsson warned that it’s feeling “the prolonged effects of the Middle East conflict, which is putting pressure on” customers in the region.
All told, the S&P 500 climbed 30.63 points to 7,584.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 874.86 to 51,561.93, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 23.02 to 26,830.96.
Reports on the U.S. economy, meanwhile, came in mixed. One said that slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could indicate a slowdown in the relatively solid U.S. job market.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.8%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.5% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.4% for some of the larger losses.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) – The New World screwworm fly is threatening the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry for the first time in more than a half century, with an infestation from its flesh-eating larvae confirmed in south Texas.
The infestation was discovered in a single 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio and 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal and state officials had been working to keep the parasite from reaching Texas, home to $17 billion worth of the nation’s cattle, making it the industry’s No. 1 state.
The deadly flies were detected in Mexico in late 2024 after years of being contained in Panama.
The fly was an annual warm-weather scourge of cattle ranchers from at least the 1930s through the 1960s, until the U.S. eradicated the pest by breeding sterile male flies and dropping swarms of them from planes to mate with wild females. The USDA said the most recent case was the first in Texas since 1966.
Here is what to know about the fly, the threat it poses and the response:
Being unusual makes the flies a threat
The New World screwworm fly in the Western Hemisphere and its Old World cousin in Africa and Asia are unusual among flies because their larvae, or maggots, eat live flesh and fluids instead of dead material. Females lay their eggs in open wounds and mucous membranes after mating only once in their monthslong lives.
Any warm-blooded animal, including wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans, can be infested.
Livestock are vulnerable because of how they’re handled, Lee Haines, an associate research professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, said in an email Thursday. Standard practices with cattle can break the skin, including shearing and de-horning, or even moving them in and out of corrals can cause scrapes and cuts. Birth would also make a mother and calf vulnerable, she said.
Stephen Diebel, a Texas rancher and president of the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, added that even wounds “as small as a tick bite,” can put cattle at risk.
“These flies can lay eggs in very, very small places,” he said.
Scientists and cattle groups say that infested wounds become foul-smelling and cause animals great pain or death if an infestation is not treated. In decades past, ranchers had tens of millions of dollars in losses — potentially billions in today’s dollars.
But agriculture officials were quick to note that the fly does not infest food.
Officials sounded alarms for nearly 2 years
Federal and state officials and cattle industry leaders have been sounding public alarms about the fly’s movement through Mexico and toward the U.S. since a case was confirmed in southern Mexico in November 2024.
The spread has hit Mexico’s beef industry hard, particularly after U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins closed ports of entry along the border to livestock imports in July 2025 to prevent the fly from reaching Texas.
Mexico has confirmed thousands of infestations, and Rollins has argued that the government there has not done enough to control animals moving within the country, a suggestion Mexican authorities have rejected. Rollins also has blamed former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, arguing that weak border security has been a factor in the flies’ migration.
But Haines said climate change is a key element in the spread of a tropical species that thrives in warm weather and disappeared after cold snaps in the U.S.
“The cold snaps that once suppressed stray populations in marginal northern regions are becoming rarer and less severe, thus removing a natural biological check on the flies’ migration north,” she said. “ Warmer temperatures are also expanding the geographical band of suitable habitat northward.”
Officials quarantine a swath of Texas
Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges imposed a 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone covering much of Zavala County, home to La Pryor, and a small part of neighboring Uvalde County. Animals cannot leave that zone without being inspected. Dinges has urged people to check their animals — including pets — and to “stay put.”
Rollins said the fly doesn’t travel hundreds or even tens of miles on its own. “The only way this spreads is through animal movement,” she said.
Local ranchers are concerned that the fly will spread among wildlife, particularly deer. The last U.S. outbreak was largely among deer in the the Florida Keys in 2016, though one case was confirmed last year in a Maryland man who had traveled to El Salvador and recovered. In the 2016 Florida instance, the fly was eradicated within six months by releasing sterile male flies to mate with the females.
In Texas, Haines predicted, “Their numbers will continue to expand in wildlife populations.”
In Texas, shots and fly drops
Rollins said that the USDA has been dropping millions of sterile male flies in south Texas since February in hopes of blocking the insects’ spread. The plan is to continue doing so.
The USDA opened a center in south Texas in February to disperse flies bred in Panama, and it invested $21 million in a new fly-breeding facility in southern Mexico that is expect to start operations next month.
Diebel, whose family ranch is about 200 miles (322 kilometers) east of the quarantine zone, said ranchers are proactively giving injections that prevent screwworm infestation. They’re also taking extra care to treat wounds from ear tagging and other practices and keeping a close eye for signs of illness.
“Surveillance is one of the biggest things — just constantly monitoring those cattle,” Diebel said.
He said he wouldn’t be surprised to see other isolated cases confirmed, but added, “I’m very confident we can keep this at bay.”
Officials rely on time-tested science
Government and industry officials are confident that they contain the fly in the U.S. because the best method for eradicating the pest is both time-tested and highly effective: releasing sterile male flies into the wild. While males are “promiscuous,” in the scientific sense, females are not, and if their one mating hookup is with a sterile male, no eggs from that female will hatch.
Once sterile males are prevalent enough — and millions a week can be released — the fly’s population declines and then dies out.
The U.S. shut down its own fly factories after the pest was eradicated decades ago, leaving only an international breeding facility in Panama in the Western Hemisphere until the new one in Mexico opens. However, the USDA also is spending $750 million to build a fly factory in southern Texas that can produce up to 300 million sterile flies a week.
“The sterile insect is not only the most effective tool we have, but it is also considered one of the most environmental friendly insect pest control methods ever developed,” Rollins said.
Sadie Sink has found her next TV project.
The Stranger Things actress is set to star in and executive produce The Marriage Plot for FX. It will be a limited series based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ 2011 novel of the same name.
The Marriage Plot tells the story of three recent college graduates who are "caught in an all-consuming love triangle as they reconcile their youthful romantic aspirations with looming adulthood and make life-altering choices about love and identity," according to an official description from FX.
Succession's Will Arbery is writing the project while Widow's Bay director Hiro Murai is helming. The series will stream on Hulu.
“The Marriage Plot is a perfect fit for FX: ambitious, character-driven storytelling that offers another great opportunity to partner with exceptional artists,” Gina Balian, the president of FX Entertainment, said. “We look forward to building on our partnerships with Will and Hiro, both of whom are extraordinary talents who we are proud to work with again.”
This marks Arbery's second FX series order in less than a year. His original show Seven Sisters was picked up by the network in December.
Next up for Sink is an appearance in this summer's Spider-Man: Brand New Day. She is also set to executive produce the film adaptation of the play John Proctor Is The Villain for Universal Pictures.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Hulu.
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President Joe Biden, left, walks off stage with first lady Jill Biden, right, following the presidential debate with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Former First Lady Jill Biden is on TV and out on the interview circuit promoting her book titled, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir.”
In the book and in interviews, she tells us that she was just gobsmacked by her husband’s shocking performance during his debate with Donald Trump last June. We all remember it. It was that debate at the CNN Studios in Atlanta on June 27, 2024 that brought Joe Biden’s reelection bid, along with his nearly five-decade career in politics, to an ignominious end.
In a CBS Sunday Morning interview that aired this week the former First Lady said that she was afraid that her husband – the President of the United States – was having a stroke. She went on to say, “I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since.”
I have questions.
First, if you truly feared that your spouse was having a stroke, would you just sit there? It has been drilled into us – time is the enemy on strokes. If Jill Biden thought her husband was having a stroke, she should have taken immediate action to get him medical attention.
But we all know she didn’t think he was having a stroke. She thought it was Thursday. That is to say, she had, “…seen Joe like that before,” because we had all seen Joe like that before. We had all seen the shaking hands with invisible people, and his inability to exit a stage, and the garbled sentences, and the vacant stare and the inability to complete a thought.
That sets up my second question. Will the country ever get to a tipping point on being lied to? The HBO mini-series “Chernobyl,” has a great line that I have appropriated. A Soviet nuclear scientist says at a state inquiry on the disaster:
Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Eventually, that debt comes due.”
When will that happen in our politics? Politicians have always “gilded the lily.” But today’s politicians – particularly Democrats protected by the media – lie with shocking boldness.
Will that rapidly increasing ‘debt to the truth’ ever reach critical mass after which a political tsunami ensues, washing the entire scurrilous lot of lying politicians and their lying apologists out of our lives? And will the legacy media ever stop enabling the lying and start realizing that their very continued existence depends on finding a way to regain the trust of the American heartland?
There’s no way that Jill Biden didn’t know that the president was a cognitive mess. Any of us who have ever had a relative sink into the abyss of dementia – and most of us have – knew exactly what we were seeing.
We could see that the President of the United States was mentally unfit.
But all that time the administration, the media and the lefty pundit class were in unison. ‘Sharp as a tack,” they said. ‘Outrunning us all.’
They were all lying then. Jill Biden is lying now.
And the debt to the truth remains unpaid – while interest accrues.
LINDALE – The cause of death for 8-year-old Adrian Thompson, who had a medical emergency at Velma Penny Elementary School in Lindale in April, has been announced by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. Adrian Sue Thompson died in a pediatric intensive care unit on April 16 at around one in the morning. According to a recent report from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, her death was determined to be accidental and to have been caused by choking. Continue reading Student cause of death revealed
TYLER — Bass Pro Way is now officially open as of Thursday morning, improving access in and around South Tyler.
According to our news partner KETK, Bass Pro Way, previously Settlers Landing, links South Broadway Avenue to the popular shopping center, Cumberland Village and later Centennial Drive creating easier access to local shops, businesses and neighborhoods.
The city plans on continuing renovations to roads in the area by extending Centennial Drive to Paluxy Way to create an additional Route for travelers coming in and out of Tyler.
FRISCO, Texas (AP) — George Pickens isn’t with the Dallas Cowboys during the opening week of voluntary offseason practices, while coach Brian Schottenheimer says the receiver is “taking care of his business” and their communication has been good.
Pickens signed his $27.3 million franchise tag a little more than a month ago but has stayed away from the team. The Pro Bowler isn’t required to show up until mandatory minicamp June 16-18.
“Communicated with (Pickens) yesterday,” Schottenheimer said Thursday. “He’s got a football camp this weekend that he’s doing. So communication is good, and as you guys know it’s voluntary and he’s taking care of his business.”
Pickens waited two months before signing the one-year contract that’s worth three times what the 25-year-old earned on his four-year rookie contract.
Pickens told the Cowboys before the draft in April that he intended to sign the franchise tag, prompting speculation that Dallas might try to trade him. The Cowboys made it clear they had no such plans. He signed the tag about a week later.
Acquired last year in a trade with Pittsburgh, Pickens thrived alongside CeeDee Lamb, finishing with career highs in catches (93), yards receiving (1,429) and touchdowns
Lamb is going into the second year of a $136 million, four-year contract that ranks him fourth among NFL receivers with an average annual value of $34 million.
Owner and general manager Jerry Jones has said the club has long-term plans for Pickens, who has spent time in the offseason with quarterback Dak Prescott.
“I’m not sure exactly what they do,” Schottenheimer said. “You guys know Dak does a great job working with all the guys, whether they’re here, whether it’s this time of year, whether it is in the summer, they always go someplace. They’ll go someplace this summer and train and throw, and it’s a chance for them to develop their timing.”
GREENY BAY, Wi (AP) – Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson agreed to terms on a four-year, $110.5 million contract extension through 2030 with a $31 million signing bonus, according to a person with knowledge of the contract.
The person spoke Thursday to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the deal hasn’t been finalized. ESPN first reported the extension.
Watson, 27, tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in Green Bay’s 2024 regular-season finale, but came back last season to catch 35 passes for 611 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games. He tied for the team lead in touchdown catches and ranked second in yards receiving despite missing much of the season.
He had been asked Wednesday about the possibility of an extension.
“Yeah, that’s the hope,” Watson said amid the Packers’ organized team activities. “I mean, I kind of just put it all in my agent’s hands, and you know, when it’s getting to that point down the wire, he’ll obviously let me in on it. But for now, I’m just worried about what I can worry about, and just let him do his job.”
While recovering from his torn ACL, Watson signed a one-year, $13.25 million extension last fall that enabled his contract to run through 2026. Now he has a longer-term commitment.
Watson becomes the second Packers receiver to get an extension this offseason. Jayden Reed agreed in April to a three-year extension that includes $50.25 million in new money and $20 million guaranteed.
Those two players are expected to lead a receiving unit that lost a couple of notable performers when Romeo Doubs signed with the New England Patriots and Dontayvion Wicks was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles.
“It was definitely tough to see those guys go because they’re great friends of mine, great teammates,” Watson said this week. “This thing always keeps on moving. I definitely think they’ll be a lot more opportunities for the guys who are out there this year, myself included. Just got to embrace that and continue to make plays when our numbers are called.”
Watson, a 2022 second-round pick from North Dakota State, has been a quality deep threat for the Packers when available. Injuries have limited him to 48 games over his first four seasons.
He spoke this week about how much he should benefit from having a full offseason in which he’s feeling healthy rather than recovering from an injury.
“It makes a big difference between just finding a rhythm and building that confidence with the whole offense and personally just being able to work on my craft and get a feel for things,” Watson said. “It’s definitely a lot smoother of an offseason for me this year, being able to do everything.”
Watson has 133 catches for 2,264 yards — an average of 17 yards per reception — and 20 touchdowns. He also has run for two touchdowns.
Billy Howton and James Lofton are the only other players in Packers history to average at least 17 yards per catch while having at least 125 receptions in their first four seasons.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans cleared a first hurdle on Thursday as they are trying to pass legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies, narrowly rejecting a Democratic effort to permanently block Trump from creating a $1.776 billion settlement fund for allies who claim they were persecuted by the government.
Republicans still face a gauntlet of Democratic amendments before the bill can advance, setting up a daylong test of party unity. More votes on the settlement fund are planned, including proposals from Republicans, and it was unclear if GOP leaders would be able to beat them all back and pass the legislation.
“I can’t predict how it comes out,” Thune told reporters between discussions with some of the holdouts off the Senate floor.
After defeating the first amendment, senators began voting on a second amendment from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina that would also ban the settlement fund but would move the money to a separate anti-fraud fund at the Department of Justice.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats also plan to force votes on the tax immunity granted to Trump as part of the settlement and a host of other issues — including Trump’s East Wing ballroom project, his tariffs, his war with Iran and his immigration enforcement campaign.
“Amendment after amendment, vote after vote, Republicans are going to have to answer to the American people,” Schumer said.
Settlement fund roils Senate GOP conference
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said this week that the fund would not move forward, and many GOP senators said Wednesday that they were satisfied with his remarks.
Yet Trump, who has been at odds with Senate Republicans in recent weeks, raised new doubts about the settlement’s future on Wednesday afternoon when he told reporters that the settlement is “very important” and said “I don’t know” whether it is dead or on hold.
“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” he said.
Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska held out for around three hours on the Democratic amendment amid discussions over whether to vote for it. Cassidy lost re-election in a GOP primary two weeks ago after Trump endorsed his opponent and Husted and Sullivan are both up for re-election in November.
It was unclear how they would vote on additional amendments.
Immigration enforcement funding delayed
Passage of the roughly $70 billion bill to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol would end the blockade by Democrats who demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents in January. The bill would fund the agencies for three years, through the end of Trump’s term.
Senate Republicans are using a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it has taken weeks to get the bill to the Senate floor as Republicans navigated various obstacles to passage created by Trump and the White House — including a $1 billion proposal for White House security that they eventually scrapped and fierce bipartisan backlash to the settlement fund.
“The thing we’re trying to do here is to keep the focus on funding for ICE and CBP,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday evening, after the Senate voted to start debating the legislation. “This was narrow and targeted from the very beginning and clean, and we’re trying to maintain it that way.”
ICE and Border Patrol money has been long fight
Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.
After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the DHS funding lapsed in mid-February with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Congress eventually funded the rest of the Homeland Security Department at the end of April with Democratic support. But ICE and Border Patrol remained without regular funding, and Republicans launched a new effort to pass three years of funding for those agencies with no Democratic votes.
Security money for Trump’s ballroom dropped
Work on the legislation was also delayed by Republican opposition to $1 billion in security funding for the White House, including for Trump’s new ballroom, that was added to the original bill.
Democrats and some Republicans questioned using taxpayer money for the massive project, and Republicans did not include it in the final bill when it was released on Wednesday.
Thune said he was working with his GOP conference to try and fight off any amendments and ensure he has enough votes for a simple majority to pass the bill in the 53-47 Senate.
“Keep in mind, we’ve got to keep them all together, make sure we’ve got 50 votes for it,” he said.
Republican House leaders said Wednesday they would like to clear the legislation before the end of the week, if the Senate can finish it. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said that House leaders were having internal conversations about the schedule.
“We just need to make sure everybody’s there,” Scalise said.
POLK COUNTY (KETK) — Authorities are actively searching for a man wanted on a deadly conduct charge in the Onalaska area, police announced Thursday morning.
The Onalaska Police Department is looking for 35?year?old Bryant Todd Arnold, who is accused of firing shots near occupied homes in the Canyon Park area. Officers launched an investigation on April 18 after receiving reports that two suspects were driving through the neighborhood and shooting near residences.
“The safety of our citizens remains our highest priority. Reckless and dangerous behavior that threatens our neighborhoods will not be tolerated,” the police department said. “We are grateful for the continued support and partnership of our residents, whose vigilance and cooperation play a vital role in keeping Onalaska safe.”
Anyone with information about Arnold’s location is urged to contact the Onalaska Police Department at 936-646-5676. Anonymous tips can be submitted through P3 Tips, the P3 App or by calling Polk County Crime Stoppers at 936?327?STOP.
