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The Texas Department of State Health Services is lifting a new requirement for youth camps to install “end-to-end fiber optic facilities” in order to allow them to operate this summer, following a lawsuit from 19 camps that called the measure too challenging.

The state health agency announced on Thursday that it reached an agreement with the 19 operators, allowing camps that maintain a redundant broadband internet service to avoid any potential license denial or revocation for not having fiber service this summer, as long as they meet other safety requirements.

“This agreement will ensure that youth camps in Texas operate with the safety provisions envisioned by the Legislature while allowing camps and families to move forward with their summer plans,” said DSHS Commissioner Jennifer Shuford.

The deal came after leaders of the Texas Legislature, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, released statements supporting the removal of the requirement for fiber-optic internet infrastructure at all Texas camps, citing the difficulty of meeting this requirement.

“We also recognize that there may be means other than fiber to provide reliable, redundant internet access, which would satisfy the purpose and spirit of the law,” Patrick and Burrows said in the statement.

In exchange for setting aside the requirement, camps agree to maintain “redundant internet connectivity” through other means, including through cellular or satellite technology. The lawsuit will be set aside until March 1, 2027, according to the agreement.

“This agreement keeps camp doors open for children and families across Texas,” said Brian Anderson, executive director of Camp Peniel, one of the camps that filed the lawsuit. “Camps are places where kids grow, build confidence, and form lifelong friendships, and this outcome makes sure those experiences continue this summer. Camps and campers across Texas are grateful to the state for agreeing to this temporary solution.”

Summer camps in Texas can qualify for licensure through DSHS. To obtain a license, among the steps they must fulfill is submit a sufficient emergency action plan, meet all other safety requirements, and maintain a reliable communication system capable of operating during an emergency, lawmakers said on social media and in statements.

Lawmakers are expected to revisit the camp safety standards in the 90th Legislative session in 2027 while ensuring that camps operate in good faith under these new regulations.

State legislators passed the fiber optic requirement, in addition to mandating a second type of broadband connection, after the July 4 flood in the Texas Hill Country. That flood killed 25 campers, two counselors at Camp Mystic and the camp’s executive director Dick Eastland — information that emergency responders struggled to confirm as one official noted phone lines were down and there was no cell service at the camp.

In April, the group of 19 camps in Texas filed a lawsuit saying the requirement to install fiber optic internet does not make their properties safer, violates the state Constitution and state law regarding property rights, and could prevent them from opening.

The group of camps, which includes Camp Champions, Camp Longhorn and Tejas Ministries, said in the suit that companies advised them that the service either could not be supplied, could not be confirmed as “end-to-end” — a term the lawsuit said isn’t defined — or would cost an amount “that greatly exceeded their resources.”

The suit, filed in a Travis County state district court, offered examples: Camp Liberty, in one extreme, received a quote of $1 million in upfront costs plus a $3,500 monthly service fee over five years. Camp Longhorn received a quote of more than $1.2 million.

The original requirement made no exception for rural camps, where fiber optic internet might not be available or “is so costly as to make it economically infeasible or unreasonably burdensome,” the lawsuit states.

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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KETK)– For more than a century, Stephen F. Austin State University has served as a cornerstone of higher education in East Texas. Now, the university is undergoing what leaders describe as a once-in-a-generation transformation fueled by the University of Texas System.

SFA officials say a 10-year campus master plan carrying an estimated $1 billion price tag is designed to modernize facilities, improve the student experience and position the university for another century of growth and success.

Construction equipment has now taken over portions of the campus known for its towering pine trees and blooming azaleas, signaling the start of a major expansion effort.

“This institution has a really strong history of being resilient and able to weather storms and get through tough times,” SFA President Dr. Neal Weaver said. “When you take that resilience and match it with the power and resources of the University of Texas System, you see what is happening here right now.”

Since joining the UT System in 2023, at least $58 million has already been invested into SFA. The university recently opened a new cafeteria — the first built on campus since the 1960s — while at least $160 million in additional projects are currently under construction or in development.

One of the most visible projects is underway at SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, where construction crews are building a more than 100,000-square-foot facility aimed at expanding a nationally recognized academic program.

“We’re about to break ground on a brand-new entrepreneurship center, about a $45 million project that should open in 2027,” Weaver said. “Then this summer, we’re breaking ground on a brand-new $70 million residence facility that will add about 350 beds to campus.”

The growth comes as student enrollment continues to rise. SFA welcomed the largest first-time undergraduate class in school history for the Fall 2025 semester and recently recorded its largest spring enrollment increase in more than 15 years.

Weaver credits the university’s focus on affordability and workforce preparation for helping attract students.

“Being a part of the University of Texas System has allowed us to invest in the Purple Promise program,” Weaver said. “That allows students to come to school tuition- and fee-free if they come from a family that earns less than $100,000 a year.”

According to a 2025 economic report from SFA’s Center for Business and Economic Research, the university generates nearly $348 million in local economic activity and supports approximately 4,819 jobs.

“As we see more people coming to town because of SFA, we’re going to see more investment, more consumers, and more workforce candidates being generated through the university,” Kelly Augustine, President of the Nacogdoches Chamber of Commerce, said. “We’re very excited about that.”

The report also found that during the 2022 school year, SFA attracted more than 205,000 visitors to Nacogdoches — spending nearly $9 million at local hotels, restaurants and retail stores.

Students themselves spent nearly $102 million locally, directly supporting about 1,100 jobs. Nearly $40 million of that spending was recirculated throughout the Nacogdoches area economy, supporting hundreds more jobs.

Augustine believes the university’s impact goes beyond economics.

“We see students giving their free time to volunteer activities,” Augustine said. “We see faculty and staff applying their talents and knowledge with nonprofits and businesses across town.”

University officials expect enrollment to reach 15,000 students over the next decade, a number that could significantly reshape the future of Nacogdoches and the surrounding East Texas region.

“Just think about it — $1 billion being spent right here in Nacogdoches,” Weaver said. “That alone is a powerful economic driver for this region. We know there’s going to be a lot of money and jobs coming to Nacogdoches and East Texas.”

As cranes rise and construction continues across campus, university leaders say SFA is not simply expanding buildings — it is investing in the future of an entire community.

LIVINGSTON (KETK)– After being sentenced to death earlier this week, the man responsible for the murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand has been transported to a correctional facility in Livingston.

Former FedEx driver Tanner Horner received the death sentence on Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to murdering Strand in 2022. Horner was given the sentence by a jury in a Fort Worth courtroom that heard nearly a month of testimony and evidence, including audio from Strand’s final moments before her death.

Horner was arrested in December 2022 and charged with capital murder after Strand’s body was found in Wise County. It was later revealed that Horner had kidnapped Strand from her home while he was delivering a package and subsequently strangled her to death nearly an hour afterward.

Horner will now remain at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston for the foreseeable future until a date is scheduled for his execution.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections.

The court ruled 4-3 that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.

Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that the legislature submitted the proposed constitutional amendment to voters “in an unprecedented manner.”

“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” he wrote.

Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia’s redrawn U.S. House map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump. That ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision severely weakening the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged the Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year’s midterm elections.

Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee said the ruling was another sign of GOP momentum heading into the midterms.

“We’re on offense, and we’re going to win,” he said in a statement.

Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respect the court’s opinion but lamented that it overturned the will of the voters: “They voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab.”

Suzan DelBene, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized the court majority for what she said was a decision that “cast aside the will of the voters,” but she said the people will have the final say.

“In November, they will, and they’ll power Democrats to the House majority,” she said in a statement.
A flurry of mid-decade redistricting

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump started an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year when he encouraged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party’s narrow majority in the midterm elections.

California responded with new voter-approved districts drawn to Democrats’ advantage, and Utah’s top court imposed a new congressional map that also helps Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans stand to gain from new House districts passed in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. They could add even more after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Voting Rights Act case, which has prompted some other Republican states to consider redrawing their maps in time for this year’s elections.

Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts could have given Democrats an improved chance to win all but one of the state’s 11 congressional seats.

The Supreme Court’s majority was critical of the state’s redrawing of the congressional maps to benefit one political party. Those justices noted that 47% of the state’s voters supported GOP congressional candidates in 2024 but the new map could result in Democrats making up 91% of the state’s House delegation.
What was in Democrats’ map

Under the Democratic-drawn map, five districts would have been anchored in the Democratic stronghold of northern Virginia, including one stretching out like a lobster to consume Republican-leaning rural areas. Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads would have diluted the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia would have lumped together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.

The state Supreme Court’s seven justices are appointed by the state legislature, which has toggled back and forth between Democratic, Republican and split control over recent years. Legal experts say the body doesn’t have a set ideological profile.

The case before the court focused not on the shape of the new districts but rather on the process the General Assembly used to authorize them.

Because the state’s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw the districts. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place the amendment on the ballot.

The legislature’s initial approval of the amendment occurred last October — while early voting was underway but before it concluded on the day of the general election. The legislature’s second vote on the amendment occurred after a new legislative session began in January. Lawmakers also approved a separate bill in February laying out the new districts, subject to voter approval of the constitutional amendment.
Arguments over the definition of ‘election’

Judicial arguments focused on whether the legislature’s initial approval of the amendment came too late, because early voting already had begun for the 2025 general election.

Attorney Matthew Seligman, who defended the legislature, argued that the “election” should be defined narrowly to mean the Tuesday of the general election. In that case, the legislature’s first vote on the redistricting amendment occurred before the election and was constitutional, he told judges.

But, the Supreme Court said in its ruling, “this view appears to be wholly unprecedented in Virginia’s history.”

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas McCarthy, argued that an “election” should be interpreted to cover the entire period during which people can cast ballots, which lasts several weeks in Virginia. If that’s the case, he told justices, then the legislature’s initial endorsement of the redistricting amendment came too late to comply with the state constitution.

The Supreme Court agreed with that argument, writing: “The General Assembly passed the proposed constitutional amendment for the first time well after voters had begun casting ballots during the 2025 general election.”

By the time lawmakers initially endorsed the constitutional amendment, statewide voters already had cast more than 1.3 million ballots in the general election, about 40% of the total votes ultimately cast, the court said.

The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms a decision by a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia. The court had placed a hold on that ruling and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case.

In the dissent to Friday’s ruling, Chief Justice Cleo Powell said the election for the purpose of considering the amendment does not include the early voting period.

“The majority’s definition creates an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning,” she wrote, “only a definitive end: Election Day.”

DALLAS (AP) – Joni Lamb, who with her late husband founded the Daystar Television Network and guided it to become one of the world’s largest Christian TV networks, died Thursday. She was 65.

Lamb, the network’s president, had been suffering from serious health issues before sustaining a back injury that caused her health to deteriorate, the network said in a statement. A cause of death was not released.

“Joni’s love for the Lord and for the people we serve shaped this ministry from the beginning,” the network’s board of directors said in the statement.

The network said its ministry will continue on and that Lamb made sure a leadership team was in place.

She and her husband, Marcus Lamb, who died in 2021, began broadcasting in the Dallas area with a single station in 1993. Five years later, Joni Lamb began hosting her signature daily women’s show.

Based in Bedford, Texas, the Daystar Television Network grew to broadcast in more than 200 countries and has aired shows from many well-known evangelists, including Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes.

The network said it reaches 2.3 billion homes worldwide.

Its ministry was rooted in Pentecostalism, the Christian tradition known for its spirit-filled worship, and its belief in modern-day miracles and everyday battles with evil influences.

In addition to being the network’s president and working behind the scenes, Joni Lamb could be seen on the air hosting “Joni Table Talk” and discussing daily issues.

She stood beside her late husband in 2010 when he admitted on television to an affair with a woman years before. Marcus Lamb also alleged that three people tried to extort money from him to stay quiet.

Joni Lamb said at the time that when she learned of his infidelity she was devastated and prayed to the Holy Spirit, who told her, “He’s worth fighting for.”

The couple said they had healed their marriage and had hoped to keep the matter private.

“All you can do is tell the truth and take your pain and use it to try to help someone else,” Joni Lamb said.

Following her first husband’s death at age 64, she married Doug Weiss two years later. Together they hosted the show “Ministry Now.”