KTBB News, Weather, Talk

WASHINGTON (AP) — When U.S. health officials meet next month to reconsider a list of controversial peptide drugs, they will hear from a new set of voices: doctors and pharmacists with deep financial ties to the burgeoning industry of unproven chemicals.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday released its list of participants for an upcoming meeting to reconsider the safety and effectiveness of several popular peptide injections, including some that have been praised by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Previous FDA panels on the topic have been composed of academics and researchers. The agency’s new group mainly includes health professionals who prescribe, produce or promote peptides, which have become a wellness trend among athletes, influencers and celebrities.

The two-day meeting is the latest example of how Kennedy and his deputies are trying to reshape U.S. health policy in the mold of the Make America Healthy Again movement. Some of the biggest supporters of the movement sell peptide formulas, though many pharmaceutical industry experts consider them illegal, unapproved drugs.

The substances are sold online and promoted by wellness clinics as a means to build muscle, heal injuries and look younger, though there’s little evidence behind those claims. Peptide sellers often skirt U.S. regulations by labeling their products as “for research use only,” since the FDA doesn’t regulate research chemicals.

FDA has raised safety concerns about peptides

Many of the injectable peptides sold in the U.S. are produced by compounding pharmacies, which mix custom medications that aren’t available from traditional drug manufacturers.

For several years, the FDA has warned Americans about the risks of injecting chemicals with names like BPC-157 and TB-500, which have not been extensively studied in humans. Both drugs are considered doping substances by international sports authorities. They are among seven peptides set for review in July.

Previous versions of the FDA’s panel on drug compounding — the group that will meet next month — have voted against a string of peptide ingredients brought forward by compounding pharmacies, declaring all of them too risky to be offered to patients. Those panels were mostly composed of experts from universities including Duke, Harvard and Johns Hopkins.

New FDA panel includes peptide proponents

The FDA’s new group includes more than a half-dozen panelists who run clinics, online businesses or pharmacies specializing in peptides, which are often given alongside other unapproved therapies, including vitamin infusions.

For example, panel member Dr. Haleem Mohammed runs clinics in Florida that sell injections of peptides, vitamins, testosterone and weight loss medications. The business is part of a national chain of clinics dubbed Gameday Men’s Health. The company’s website states, “compounded medications offered through our services are not FDA-approved, and the FDA does not verify their safety.”

Another panelist, Dr. Gabriel Alizaidy, charges $500 for “peptide and hormone” consultations, including advice on “where to safely get each peptide or compound.” Alizaidy promotes BPC-157, GHK-Cu and other peptides to thousands of followers through his accounts on Instagram and TikTok.

His website contains the disclaimer that each consultation “is educational in nature and does not constitute medical care, diagnosis, or treatment.”

Another member is Bobby Harshbarger, a Tennessee state senator who has multiple connections to the industry. Harshbarger is a pharmacist at his family’s business, Premiere Pharmacy, which sells compounded medications for weight loss, longevity, pain and other conditions.

His mother, Rep. Diana Harshbarger, is also a pharmacist and a Republican member of U.S. Congress from Tennessee. Last year she sent a letter to Kennedy calling on him to relax FDA restrictions on a half-dozen peptides.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly praised Harshbarger’s support of his “Make America Great Again” agenda. Last year, the president pardoned her husband, Robert Harshbarger Jr., who pleaded guilty more than a decade ago to substituting an unapproved drug from China for one used by patients on kidney dialysis. He was stripped of his pharmacy license and sentenced to four years in prison, which he served.

Mohammed and Alizaidy did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press Monday afternoon. A spokesperson for Harshbarger could not immediately provide comment when reached by phone.

Kennedy and his allies previously criticized government panels

The FDA has more than 30 panels of experts who advise the agency on various drugs, vaccines, food ingredients and other products.

Advisory meetings are subject to strict government transparency rules in terms of panel composition and financial disclosures. Experts who have a financial stake in a company or industry are permitted to serve on the panels, but the relationship must be disclosed and regulators are supposed to explain why the person’s expertise outweighs their potential conflict of interest.

Kennedy and his allies have been highly critical of federal expert panels, often alleging that they are riven with conflicts of interest, despite federal data showing otherwise.

Last year, Kennedy fired the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s entire 17-member vaccine panel and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices. A federal judge later said that action likely violated federal rules.

Kennedy told podcast host Joe Rogan earlier this year that he is “a big fan of peptides,” and described using them to recover from injuries.

Former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary — who resigned in May — was also highly critical of FDA advisory panels, complaining that they were expensive, time-consuming and subject to too many financial conflicts.

The number of such meetings plummeted during Makary’s tenure. Instead, the FDA held a number of ad hoc meetings with handpicked experts on topics favored by Kennedy, including the risks of talc powder and antidepressants.

McALLEN (AP) — A nun was released from immigration custody after she was arrested walking to Mass in her habit in South Texas.

Sister Leticia Ugboaja was walking to Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, Texas, just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday when she was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not responded to a request for comment since Sunday.

Parish officials posted a message on social media shortly after the arrest that gained traction in the news and led to Congress members including U.S. Rep. Monica de la Cruz intervening on Ugboaja’s behalf.

The nun is part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy and volunteered as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, according to Brenda Riojas, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Brownsville.

Ugboaja is also a registered nurse at South Texas Health System and worked previously for 10 years as a certified nursing assistant at DHR Health in Edinburg, Riojas confirmed.

Members of congress representing south Texas intervened with federal officials. As of Monday, Ugboaja was back in her home.

“We are grateful for the quick response of local representatives who reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to get her released from custody,” Riojas added in her statement.

President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown — including at sensitive sites such as houses of worship — has prompted faith leaders to adjust their response to church members who have become too afraid to attend. Some have encouraged online attendance, while others have offered help doing errands such as grocery shopping for people too fearful to leave their homes.

DALLAS (AP) — Drop thousands of Argentina fans into Texas for the World Cup and the debate is inevitable. It’s not about who has the best team or whether Lionel Messi is the best player at the tournament. It’s about who produces the best, most succulent steaks, and how to prepare the meat.

That’s right: There’s a beef about beef between two of the top cattle-raising areas of the world, where steak is deeply ingrained in diet and culture. Texas ranks No. 1 in the United States in beef production and the U.S. is second only to Brazil globally, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Argentina ranks sixth.

It’s a high-steaks question: Who does do it best?

The case for Argentine beef

“Argentine beef is simply unbeatable. The savory texture, the style of the cut — there is no competing with it,” said Carlos Eduardo Barahona, 64, an Argentine chef who’s lived in Texas since 1998.

From the cheapest cuts to the most expensive, Argentina is tops, asserts Barahona, who has worked in restaurants across Argentina, Uruguay, and Texas.

“You can make an (Argentine) asado with the cheapest cut in our country and you will enjoy it. Here, you can use the best meat, like tenderloin, and depending on its source, it can turn out tough, inedible or tender. But our beef has a completely different flavor profile,” Barahona said.

Argentine beef cattle is mostly grass-fed on open pastures, taking longer to reach the point it is ready for market. The result is leaner meat with intense earthy flavors.
The case for Texan beef

Predominantly grain-fed beef in Texas and the U.S. will have more marbling — the streaks of intramuscular fat that act as internal baster and make the meat juicy and tender — and a sweeter flavor.

“There’s no better beef than U.S. beef, particularly Texas beef,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

But Argentine beef is very good too, Miller said. Thanks to Texas.

Miller said his agency opened a marketing office more than a decade ago to connect Texas’ cattle raisers with ranchers in South America, notably in Argentina.

“I don’t want to disparage our friends in Argentina, but we have helped them improve,” he said.

“Their genetics were lacking. We do have them up to pretty high quality. We sold them a lot of semen, embryos, and breeding stock,” Miller added.

Miller congratulated Argentine farmers on improving the quality of their cows.

“Their herds have American genetics in them, so they should be good,” Miller said.
The verdict is in the eye of the beefholder

Argentine fan Gonzalo Herrera browsed packaged meat at a Walmart in Arlington, Texas, after watching Messi score two goals in a win over Austria. He shrugged at the whose-beef-is-better debate.

“Honestly, I don’t see a massive difference,” Herrera said as he packed four T-bone steaks into his shopping cart.

“The key is knowing exactly which cuts to buy and finding the equivalent of what we eat in Argentina,” he said, shaking his head at the $45 price.

“Prices are higher here,” Herrera said.

The beef banter just as easily boils down to recipes and preferences in style and thickness of cuts. It’s a matter of taste, quite literally, when it comes to seasoning, searing, smoking, butter, pepper, sauces and so forth.

At Corrientes 348 Argentinian Steakhouse in Dallas, steaks are prepared with just salt and mesquite charcoal, said assistant manager Emmanuel Tobon.

“There’s a big difference. Texans use a lot of pepper, they use butter, they use a little barbecue (sauce),” Tobon said. “(Argentines) like to bring all the flavor of the steak by only using salt.”

Argentina still has at least one more match to play in Dallas, on Saturday. Fans of the Albiceleste have been packing the restaurant, seeking a quick taste of home during the World Cup.

“They have been enjoying the Texas culture,” Tobon said. “(But) it has been a great pleasure to have all of them, to make them feel like home.”

Argentines are fiercely proud of their steak culture, recipes that have been passed down for generations, and the “sacred” work of the grill master at large family meals, he said.

For Fernando Garcia Morillo, an Argentine from Buenos Aires who now lives near Miami, the meat from both countries is great. But he longs for the traditions of home whenever he orders steak in the U.S.

“I order just salt, no pepper, just plain,” Morillo said. “Sometimes they use a lot of sauce.”

He dismissed any notion of a beef between the U.S and Argentina.

“Maybe there’s a rivalry as usual against Brazil, our neighbor,” he said. “I love the U.S. meat.”

___

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is nominating Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, as the next director of Immigration and Customs and Enforcement.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that his new pick for the immigration enforcement agency is a former U.S. Marine and a “PATRIOT with real operational experience.” He called Schroyer a “proven leader with DECADES of experience locking up the worst of the worst.”

Schroyer hails from the same home state as the new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former congressman. Earlier this month, Mullin brought Schroyer onstage at a National Sheriffs’ Association event, calling him a “good friend of mine” and noting DHS had recently hired him.

On Saturday, Mullin quickly praised Schroyer in a statement highlighting the former trooper’s 29-year career and his work with federal and state partners on a U.S. immigration enforcement program.

“President Trump made a great pick, and I’m confident Lance’s strong leadership and firsthand experience will empower the men and women of ICE to deport criminal illegal aliens, secure the homeland, and protect the American people,” Mullin said.

If confirmed, Schroyer will lead ICE at a time when the public mood has soured on Trump’s immigration crackdown, which sent surges of federal immigration officers into American cities to round up immigrants. Those raids sent tensions soaring and prompted clashes between protesters and law enforcement, leading to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Trump returned to the White House on a promise of mass deportations, and ICE has been a central executor of that vision. The agency is undergoing massive growth from a one-time injection of $75 billion last year, which has allowed for the hiring of 12,000 officers and increased detention capacity.

Mullin, who started in his role in March, has promised to keep his department out of the headlines and has indicated a softer tone on immigration, although he is expected to align with the president’s priorities on mass deportations.

Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official, said prior confirmed ICE directors have often been attorneys, though some state and local law enforcement officials have also been nominated. She said his background in Oklahoma suggests Mullin likely had influence over the pick.

“I think probably given the attention on ICE, he wants to feel like he has somebody he can trust in there,” she said in an interview.

John Torres, another senior ICE official, said Schroyer faces an uphill climb toward Senate confirmation but his experience being at the state and local level instead of the federal level might help.

“He won’t have any of that baggage, where they’re going to turn around and say, oh, well, he worked for this administration or that,” Torres said.

Schroyer’s nomination comes after former ICE director Todd Lyons resigned at the end of May. David Venturella, a former executive at a private prison operator, has been serving as the acting head of the agency. Venturella is expected to stay on as the acting director until Schroyer is Senate confirmed, according to a DHS official speaking on condition of anonymity.

ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration, a result of polarizing politics around the agency and immigration policy.

NEW YORK (AP) — Saks Global, the parent company of Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday with fewer stores, less debt, a more focused strategy to pamper the affluent — and a new name.

The company said Friday that the new entity will be called Exemplar Luxury Group, and with an improved balance sheet, including a nearly 75% debt reduction and $500 million in extra financing. Its CEO, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, said the New York-based company is ready for its next chapter after navigating several tumultuous years.

“Today is really a brand new day for the organization and a new day where these three iconic banners have the right funding, the right equity and a bright future ahead of them,” van Raemdonck told The Associated Press on Friday during a phone interview.

Van Raemdonck said that the new name signifies the company’s focus on having an exemplary shopping experience — the best merchandise, and better personalized service with customers, with help from its sales associates and the treasure trove of data it has on its customers. The company employs more than 1,500 sales associates who have sold more than $1 million of goods each, he said.

Saks Global had filed for bankruptcy protection in January of this year, buffeted by rising competition and the massive debt it took on to buy its rival in the luxury sector, Neiman Marcus, in July 2024.

Before the bankruptcy, there were 33 Saks stores and 36 Neiman Marcus locations, according to the company, as well as its Bergdorf Goodman store on Fifth Avenue and roughly 70 Saks Off 5th discount stores.

Now, there are a total of 49 stores — 15 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, 33 Neiman Marcus stores and its Bergdorf Goodman store. The company shuttered most of its Saks Off Fifth discount stores, and it now has 12 outlets, the company said.

Exemplar Luxury Group said it has been teaming up with Pentwater Capital Management and Bracebridge Capital throughout its restructuring process. Both firms will have two representatives on the seven-person board. In addition, van Raemdonck as well as former Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell and Philippe Schaus, who most recently served as Global CEO of Moët Hennessy, will serve on the board, the company said.

.

CROCKETT (KETK) – Three men were arrested in connection to a Royse City robbery on Friday after officials said a Flock AI camera spotted their vehicle heading through East Texas.

The Crockett Police Department put out a press release on Saturday stating that Houston County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers were notified that a vehicle involved with the robbery of $40,000 in Royse City was spotted by an artificial intelligence powered Flock camera in Anderson County.

The vehicle was reportedly spotted by the camera on Friday why traveling towards Houston County by way of Elkhart.

A deputy with the Houston County Sheriff’s Office saw the vehicle turn off of US Highway 297 North and onto Loop 304 before it continued onward towards FM 229. Crockett PD said one of their officers near FM 2076 then stopped the vehicle near Loop 304 and State Highway 7 West because it was reportedly speeding.

One of three people in the vehicle was reportedly arrested first because officers found out he had a warrant from Harris County. Crockett PD said the vehicle was then searched and around $40,000 in cash was found hidden along with a black mask and black gloves.

The officers continued to search the vehicle and found more masks, gloves and dark clothes that matched a description from the Royse City Police Department.

After the stop, Edward Davion Cannon of Houston, James Hoyd White of Houston and Aaron Oscar Carter of Houston were all arrested for engaging in organized criminal activity. They were booked into the Hunt County Jail where they’re currently being held on $75,000 bonds.

UVALDE COUNTY (AP) – Gracie the Giraffe, who went missing for about two weeks in Texas after wandering off a remote private ranch, was finally found Friday — and the open range appeared to have agreed with her.

The giraffe was spotted about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south of her enclosure during an aerial search in the Texas Hill Country, according to Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson. He said Gracie’s owner, Vick Jones, contacted a veterinarian and began putting together a team to bring the giraffe safely back to the ranch.

“She’s in good shape,” Jones said. “She’s standing there, swishing her tail.”

Gracie, who is about 3 years old and weighs at least 1,200 pounds, was found within a half-mile of a pond and creek and had plenty of vegetation to feed on, said Jones, adding that she appeared to have been in that area for about a week.

Getting the 10-foot-tall giraffe home to the Cedar Hollow Ranch, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of San Antonio, was taking some work.

Veterinarians needed time to sedate Gracie and put a hood over her eyes, Jones said. From there, Gracie will be moved with an open-pasture trailer to a taller, enclosed trailer made for giraffes for the trip back to the ranch.

Parts of the remote area cannot be reached by car, which prompted the search by helicopter. While Real County’s 2,700 residents were urged to keep an eye out for her, Gracie was found on private property where no one lives, Jones said.

“We didn’t bother her,” Jones said of the sighting. “She’s got water. She looked in really good shape.”

The Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of exotic captive animals in the U.S.

Johnson said this week he’s had reports of missing wildebeests, water buffalo, zebras and monkeys, though never a giraffe previously.

The area has a mild climate and rugged terrain — and plenty of vegetation for Gracie to eat. In Africa, giraffes thrive best in dry and semidry savannahs and grasslands.

Jones believes that Gracie, who arrived at the ranch in May, didn’t mean to leave it. She had been wandering up to a rocky area to feed on trees growing out of the rock and had always come back to the ranch’s giraffe enclosure.

Jones said Gracie wandered into the rocky area, fed, and came down on the wrong side of the gate. At that point, he said, it was easier for her to keep walking in the same direction than to try to go back.

The area wasn’t fenced because giraffes had not been going there until Gracie did — and building a fence requires jackhammering through rock to put up the posts. But Jones said he plans to have a fence put up now, and Gracie will stay in the ranch’s giraffe enclosure until it’s ready.

Despite Gracie’s size, she wouldn’t have harmed a person who encountered her off the ranch, Jones said.

“If you move toward her, she’s taking off,” he said.