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Duke’s Isaiah Evans among top talent still available after sitting through Round 1 of the NBA draft

Isaiah Evans arrived at the NBA draft expecting to become a first-round pick after a two-year stay at Duke. Instead, he sat through a difficult Tuesday night in the green room without hearing his name called by the league commissioner to join him on the stage in New York.

That means the floor-spacing guard will join Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas and North Carolina big man Henri Veesaar on the list of top talents still available entering Wednesday night’s second round.

Evans had a seat in the green room — an honor designated for likely first-round picks — and was shown on the ESPN broadcast at a table featuring a gold basketball sporting his name. He wore a dark double-breasted suit featuring millions of dollars in diamonds between a broach and a chain, according to the New York Post.

He was considered a first-round prospect before he elevated his game last year, averaging 15 points while shooting 38% on 3s in two seasons. He had a highlight moment with a clutch final-minute winner to beat reigning national champion Florida, and the most pressing concern was a need to add strength to a 6-foot-6, 186-pound frame to handle physical play.

Unfortunately, Evans was left waiting.

Here’s a look at other top prospects available when the two-day draft resumes with the NBA champion New York Knicks on the clock:
Meleek Thomas, Arkansas

Thomas was the No. 2 scorer (15.6) for the Razorbacks as wingman to eventual No. 7 overall pick Darius Acuff Jr.

Notably, the 6-3, 190-pound freshman guard shook off a slow start from outside to shoot 47.9% from 3-point range (56 of 117) after Christmas, a 25-game stretch spanning the Razorbacks’ run to the SEC Tournament title and the Sweet 16.
Henri Veesaar, North Carolina

The fourth-year junior from Estonia had a breakout year (17.0 points, 8.7 rebounds) for the Tar Heels after transferring from Arizona.

Veesaar has a desired skillset by NBA execs: a big man (6-11, 227) with range. He shot 42.6% on 3s (40 of 94) at UNC, coming after shooting just 31.6% (19 of 60) from behind the arc in two seasons at Arizona. He earned “Excellent” rating from Synergy for his catch-and-shoot jumper and runs the floor well.
Richie Saunders, BYU

The 6-5, 205-pound senior wing is known for his outside shot after shooting 37.6% on 3s last year and 43.2% as a junior. Synergy rates his jumper as “Excellent” (89th percentile), with spot-ups accounting for 35.2% of his possessions last year.

The most pressing concern for Saunders has been his recovery from a knee injury (torn ACL) suffered in February.
Baba Miller, Cincinnati

The senior forward from Spain has intriguing length with a 6-11, 208-pound frame featuring a nearly 7-2 wingspan. He was one of eight combine players with a standing reach of 9-3 or better.

Miller played at Florida State and Florida Atlantic before averaging 13.0 points and ranking ninth nationally in rebounding (10.3) with the Bearcats.
Emanuel Sharp, Houston

The 6-3, 208-pound redshirt senior thrived in a system built around defense and toughness under veteran coach Kelvin Sampson. The guard averaged a career-best 15.5 points and made the Big 12’s all-defensive team last year.

He also shot 38.1% on 3s over the past three seasons as a full-time starter.
Jack Kayil, Alba Berlin (Germany)

The 6-5, 185-pound combo guard is an international prospect who originally signed with Gonzaga.

He averaged 12.5 points and 3.4 assists in Germany’s Bundesliga top league last season. He worked as the ballhandler in pick-and-rolls on 33.9% of his possessions last season, according to Synergy.
Braden Smith, Purdue

The senior is an elite playmaker who was a second-team AP All-American and broke the Division I career assists record held by former Duke star Bobby Hurley since 1993.

Smith ranked second nationally in assists as a sophomore (7.5), junior (8.7) and senior (8.8). And he’s a career 38.5% 3-point shooter. The major concern with Smith is size; he was the shortest (5-10) and lightest (167) player measured at the combine.
Others of note:

— Ryan Conwell: The 6-4, 215-pound senior guard averaged 17.3 points over his last three seasons, including a career-best scoring average (18.8) last year as a second-team AP all-ACC pick at Louisville. He has 347 career 3-pointers made.

— Bruce Thornton: The 6-0, 223-pound senior guard is Ohio State’s all-time scoring leader. He averaged 19.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists while shooting 55.4% last year, and he shot 41.2% on 3s over the last two seasons.

— Felix Okpara: The 6-10, 237-pound senior from Tennessee projects as a rim-running lob threat and defender. He was named to the SEC’s all-defensive team, has a 7-2 wingspan and ranked fourth at the combine for standing reach (9-4).

— Trevon Brazile: The 6-10, 226-pound fifth-year senior from Arkansas also projects as a rim runner and lob threat. He averaged 13.0 points, 1.6 blocks and 1.5 steals last year. He also ranked third at the combine in standing vertical leap (36.0 inches) and tied for fifth in max vertical (41.5) to go with a nearly 7-4 wingspan.

— Ugonna Onyenso: The 6-11, 237-pound senior center from Virginia could be worth a flier as an elite rim protector with a nearly 7-5 wingspan. Notably, he hounded top pro prospect Cameron Boozer of Duke to 13 points on 3-for-17 shooting while blocking four of his shots in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title game.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Why Texas? Explaining the ins and outs of the NHL exploring a team for Houston or Austin

NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL took the first step toward expansion in Texas earlier this week, agreeing to terms with billionaire Dan Friedkin and his family to explore the feasibility of putting a franchise in Houston or Austin.

Far enough from the Dallas Stars, who relocated from Minnesota in 1993, a new team would not interfere with their territorial rights. And the league has shown no fear of adding one team at a time, so No. 33 does not have to come with No. 34.

“Symmetry I don’t think should necessarily govern expansion,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday. “You expand if you think it makes sense and enhances what the league has.”
What is behind the NHL’s interest in Texas

Money is the obvious answer. Bettman said the total investment of the project would be some $3.5 billion, which would include expansion fees paid to established owners along with the cost of building a new arena.

The Houston Rockets’ arena downtown is publicly owned but controlled by team owner Tilman Fertitta’s Clutch City Sports and Entertainment group. The home of the American Hockey League’s Texas Stars, in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park, has a capacity of 8,000 that is a little over half the size of the NHL’s smallest current rink (Winnipeg).

“I would be surprised if the NHL would be OK with an expansion team that does not have a new arena,” said Brian Mills, an associate professor at the University of Texas who teaches courses on sports economics and strategy. “The revenue potential with the luxury boxes and the way that they set those up and the money that they like to extract from the local cities is way too large to pass up.”

They are also huge markets. Houston at nearly 2.4 million is the fourth-most-populated U.S. city; Austin at just over 1 million is in the top 12.

“Obviously it makes sense if you’re a sports league to have a franchise in the nation’s fifth-largest metro area and one that is growing rapidly,” said Holy Cross professor Victor Matheson, an expert in sports economics. “Houston obviously makes sense in general as a destination for any league.”

Austin is smaller but has doubled its population since the mid-1990s and has seen an infusion of people over the past five years. Only eight of the NHL’s existing markets are bigger.

“It’s becoming more and more of a tech city, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more hockey fans here than there used to be,” Mills said. “I would imagine there’s some market for the NHL here in Austin, particularly more than when it was a sleepy, small town capital of Texas 30 years ago.”
History of hockey in Houston and Austin

When hockey was picking up in popularity in the 1960s and ‘70s and the NHL went from six teams to 18, the rival World Hockey Association was founded and Houston got a franchise when the one in Dayton, Ohio, failed to get off the ground.

The Aeros’ inaugural season was in 1972-78, and they were best known for “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe playing for them along with sons Mark and Marty. They won four Avco World Trophies as WHA champions before folding.

An AHL team using the same name existed in Houston from 1994-2013. The Texas Stars have played in Austin since ’09.

“There’s some interest of hockey,” University of Houston economics professor Steven G. Craig said. “Houston is full of immigrants from around the country and around the world. And Austin is sort of similar in the sense of a pretty heterogeneous population.”
Pros and cons of a Houston or Austin NHL franchise

Growing the sport in another so-called non-traditional spot is a big benefit. Smashing successes in places like Las Vegas and Tampa, Florida, show what hockey can do across the Sun Belt when strong ownership is involved.

“Southern cities have been doing pretty well now these days in the NHL: the Lightning and the Panthers,” Mills said of the two teams in Florida. “You’ve got some pretty good hockey teams after some pretty miserable failures with some earlier expansion to the South.”

Abandoning the second try in Atlanta (the Thrashers from 2000-11) was more a failure of ownership than the market. The same could be said in Arizona, where a revolving door of owners led to arena miscues and eventually the Coyotes being sold and moved to Salt Lake City in 2024 to become the Utah Mammoth.

A 33rd team also means 20-23 more NHL players and hopefuls in the minors. The changing landscape of hockey development at the junior and college levels has the potential to churn more talent through the pipeline in North America than ever before, along with players coming from Europe.

“You do have a pretty big pool of players,” Matheson said. “I’m not particularly worried about diluting the talent there because I think there’s a lot of skill.”
What’s next and where the 34th team may be

After this six-month exploratory phase is complete, recent history suggests a season-ticket drive would be one of the subsequent steps. Ticket drives validated interest that led to the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken.

The Board of Governors would need to approve moving forward in the process. No vote has yet been held, though the executive committee supported exploring Houston and Austin.

And while the NHL is comfortable with unbalanced Eastern and Western conferences, getting to 34 teams seems inevitable if it goes to 33. Bettman said the board on Tuesday was updated on situations in Atlanta and Arizona, and it would be no surprise if one of those places got another crack at it.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

An oil tanker navigates the Strait of Hormuz despite threats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Liberian oil tanker made its way out of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday despite threats to shipping from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and using a new route close to Oman’s shore that has been promoted by a U.N. maritime agency.

The transit of the Stoic Warrior and the threats come as tensions rise between Iran and the United States over the terms of their interim accord aimed at permanently ending the Iran war.

From getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf to the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the two nations are increasingly debating the terms of the deal signed last week.

Through the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the U.S. and Iran agreed to a 60-day period to iron out these and other details. Until that happens — during private talks — leaders from both countries will also continue to negotiate in public, raising the risks of derailing the shaky ceasefire in the region.

On a trip to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Thursday with Gulf Arab officials in Bahrain, the island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the Navy’s 5th Fleet, trying to assuage their concerns.

The flareup of fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah has threatened the deal. On Wednesday, Israel launched an airstrike that killed two people in southern Lebanon, the country’s state-run news agency said. It was Israel’s first airstrike on Lebanon since the latest ceasefire took effect on Saturday.

Tanker sails through Strait of Hormuz

The Stoic Warrior — signaling that it planned to transit the Strait of Hormuz — took off early Thursday morning along the coast of the United Arab Emirates and then Oman.

The vessel then traveled around Oman’s Musandam Peninsula fairly close to the shore, part of a route that Oman laid out alongside the International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations that oversees shipping at sea.

North of the route is the Traffic Separation Scheme, the route in the center of the strait that for decades ships moved through freely. The route is used for transport of about a fifth of all the world’s oil and natural gas.

However, there has been the report of at least one mine sighted in the water after the Guard said that it mined the passage during the war that started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. The threat of mines shut off the route.

The naval arm of the Revolutionary Guard, apparently reacting to the new IMO’s route, issued an angry warning Thursday, carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

“A few hours ago, without notice or coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, some authorities announced a new route for ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which is unacceptable and completely dangerous,” the Guard said.

“It is hereby notified to all that the only authorized route for passing through the Strait of Hormuz is the one declared by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian force said. “Vessel traffic outside these routes is extremely dangerous and prohibited.”

“Violators will be dealt with,” it added, without elaborating.

There were no immediate reports of any incidents in the strait as the Stoic Warrior passed. Several ships trailed behind it, according to ship-tracking data.

Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, warned Iran on Thursday over trying to impede the strait or put fees on vessels plying its waters.

“New geopolitical facts cannot be imposed on the Arab Gulf states as a result of a treacherous aggression against them,” Gargash wrote on X. “It sows new seeds of discord and conflict for the future. And this is precisely what applies to the Strait of Hormuz.”

Rubio holds talks in Bahrain

The U.S. secretary of state met with foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, trying to assure them their interests would be protected in any agreement reached with Iran, including when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz.

“We want to ensure that in any decisions that are made throughout this negotiating process, the interest of our partners and our allies in the region are always taken into account,” Rubio said. “There is no part in this deal that’s undertaken that in any way undermines the security, the stability of the prosperity of any of our partners in the Gulf region.”

The GCC countries have expressed reservations about the limitation of the U.S.-Iran deal signed last week, including conflicting claims over the strait and the fact that the memorandum of understanding does not specifically cover Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

Thursday’s meeting in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, came ahead of an expected meeting in Oman between the GCC and Iran to discuss maritime security and safety in the strait.

Speaking on behalf of the GCC, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani thanked the U.S. for its support, saying that because of the agreement, “today we see a glimmer of hope for our region” but stressed that Iran must comply with its commitments.

“While this progress is encouraging, it is critically important that Iran adheres to its obligations,” al-Zayani said.
Lebanon remains a flashpoint

Israel’s military said on Thursday that a reservist soldier was killed and another hurt in southern Lebanon, where troops are occupying swaths of the country. At least 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon or northern Israel during the fighting, as well one civilian defense contractor. Two civilians in northern Israel have also been killed.

Over 4,000 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes since this latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in March, two days after the Iran war started and when the Lebanese militant group fired at Israel.

Iran has insisted that fighting in Lebanon be stopped and that Israel give up the land it occupies there to reach a permanent deal with the U.S. on the Mideast war. Israel insists it must maintain a freehand to counter Hezbollah attacks as pressure from the U.S. on its campaign grows.

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Lee reported from Manama, Bahrain. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Rebound in tech shares pushes world markets higher, while oil prices fall

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were mostly higher Thursday, led by tech-driven gains in Japan and South Korea as major computer chipmakers’ stocks surged following upbeat earnings reports from U.S. giants like Qualcomm and Micron Technology.

Oil prices slipped closer to where they were before the war with Iran began.

Qualcomm’s share price surged nearly 7% in afterhours trading after the company announced it had raised its forecast for revenue this year to $40 billion from $22 billion. It also announced a new computer chip for data centers called Dragonfly C1000 CPU that Meta plans to use.

Micron Technology’s shares jumped 18.5% in afterhours trading after it upgraded its forecast and exceeded analysts’ estimates.

The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.8%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.

Germany’s DAX advanced 0.5% to 24,859.99. The CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.2% to 8,398.21 and Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.1% to 10,473.69.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index surged 4.6% to a record close of 72,366.34 as traders snapped up shares in technology companies. Chipmaker Tokyo Electron’s shares gained 7.8%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest’s shares soared 15%.

South Korea’s benchmark, the Kospi, hit a new record, surging 5.4% to 8,930.30 after briefly topping 9,000. Samsung Electronics’ shares gained 5.3% and SK Hynix leaped 13%.

Elsewhere in Asia, gains were more modest.

Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.5% and the Sensex in India was up 0.7%.

The Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.2% to 4,120.28, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.4% to 23,090.27.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.7% to 8,748.70.

On Wednesday, stocks wavered to a mixed close on Wall Street as losses for several tech giants including Microsoft weighed on the market. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is less weighted with tech stocks, rose 10.4%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.4%.

Microsoft lost 2.3% and Oracle slumped 4.6%.

Many large tech companies have been behind Wall Street’s record-setting run throughout the year, but analysts have warned their valuations may have become stretched.

Google’s parent company Alphabet slipped 0.2%. The company is replacing Verizon in the Dow on Monday. Its inclusion in the S&P 500 means more to investors, however, because 401(k) accounts are much more likely to include an S&P 500 index fund than anything tied to the Dow.

Alphabet will become the fifth Magnificent 7 tech company to join the Dow. The others are Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia.

Oil companies had some of the biggest losses as prices fell while the U.S. and Iran negotiate a possible end to their war. Exxon Mobil fell 2% and Chevron lost 2.6%. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.8% to $73.87 a barrel. It has been trading below $80 in recent days but is still above the roughly $70 per barrel it was trading at in late February before the war began.

U.S. crude prices fell 3.9% to $70.34 a barrel.

Early Thursday, Brent was down 0.8% at $73.32 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude lost 0.5% to $69.88 a barrel.

Some of the bigger winners on Wall Street included homebuilders following approval of legislation beneficial to the industry. KB Home surged 16.7% and D.R. Horton jumped 6.7%.

The Federal Reserve will get an update on inflation later Thursday, when its preferred measure for prices is released. Economists expect the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, to show that prices rose 4.1% in May. That would be the highest level in three years.

Inflation has been rising as tariffs raise costs for many goods. It worsened as the war pushed energy and shipping prices higher and that impact is expected to linger even as oil and gasoline prices fall.

In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 161.81 Japanese yen from 161.79 yen. The euro rose to $1.1362 from $1.1359.

A giraffe named Gracie escaped in Texas, authorities on the hunt

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – A giraffe named Gracie is missing in Texas, and the search for her has become a tall order.

Gracie, who is about 3 years old, has been missing for nearly two weeks after escaping her enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in the Texas Hill Country, said Vic Jones, who owns the remote property about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of San Antonio. He said Wednesday that Gracie had wandered into a part of the privately owned preserve that other giraffes previously avoided.

Jones said he has sent up helicopters to look for Gracie, a few sightings have trickled in, and a $5,000 reward is on the table.

But the giraffe, which stands roughly the height of a tree, hasn’t turned up.

“She wound up going up and feeding in an area on the hillside and the rocky ledges that none of the other giraffes had ever gone on before,” Jones said. “And when she came down off of there, she came down on the wrong side of the gate.”

The ranch is in rural Real County, where its roughly 2,700 residents were put on alert to be on the lookout for a missing giraffe. Jones said the search area is extremely remote, and the likelihood of Gracie encountering any humans is low.

“People are not in danger of her because she’s not around people,” Jones said. ‘She’s out in very, very rough, heavily wooded lands.”

The Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of exotic captive animals in the country. Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said the mild climate and rugged terrain seems to serve as a good stand-in for most of the animals’ native African environments.

He rattled off a list of animals that have gone missing over the years, especially after floods, but said this was his first giraffe.

“I’ve had wildebeests, I’ve had water buffalo, I’ve had monkeys, I’ve had zebras, all go missing,” Johnson said. “Sometimes we recover them, and sometimes we don’t.”

While the middle of Texas is not a giraffe’s native environment, Jones said Gracie should be able to find plenty of leaves and other vegetation to eat. He said other animals were not likely to bother her.

Jones said he initially had helicopters searching an area of about 7,500 acres (3,000 hectares) with no luck. A few days later, there was a report that Gracie was spotted to the south.

But by the time they could search the area, Jones said, she was already gone.

“We’re always two three days late for where the information is coming from, so that makes it tough,” Jones said.

What to know about the push to make Bible stories required reading in Texas public schools

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas would make Bible stories required reading for more than 5 million public school students under a proposal that has reignited debate over widening efforts in the U.S. to put more religion in classrooms.

A final vote by the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education on whether to approve the plan is set for Friday. Last year Texas became the largest state to require every classroom to display the Ten Commandments.

The proposed list has drawn fierce opposition. Critics argue that it violates the constitutional separation of church, lacks diversity and favors Christianity over other religions. Supporters say Judeo-Christian traditions were fundamental to the nation’s founding and that should be reflected in the public school curriculum.

Here’s what to know about the proposal and the broader fight over religion in public schools:
Republicans and Trump have pushed more religion into classrooms

President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and expand religious expression in public schools nationwide, and Texas — a red state that is home to about one in 10 of all U.S. public school students — often sets the agenda.

In 2023, Texas became the first state to allow the hiring of chaplains to counsel students, and the following year, the board narrowly approved an optional Bible-infused curriculum for elementary schools. Last year, Republican lawmakers required public schools to display the Ten Commandments, a measure recently upheld by a federal appeals court.

Texas has about 5.5 million public school students from kindergarten through high school. If approved by the board, the required reading list would take effect in 2030.

“We need to focus on what our nation was founded on and not apologize for that,” Susan Perez, founder of Citizens for Education Reform, told the education board during testimony this week. “It is the truth and we should not be afraid.”

List requires Bible readings from elementary to high school

Picture-book stories for elementary students including “Noah’s Ark,” “David and Goliath” and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” are on the required reading list. By fourth grade, students would encounter passages about Jesus in the New Testament.

By middle school, students would be expected to read several passages about Jesus, including passages from his most famous sermon, and another where he instructs people to cast aside earthly anxiety and seek the kingdom of God. Another would connect a reading from the Book of Lamentations and its themes of the destruction of Jerusalem with readings about the Holocaust.

In high school, students would read the parable of the prodigal son, portions of the Book of Job, and the story of Adam and Eve.

Some education observers said Texas may be the first state to enact a required reading list, with the added layer of mandated religious text.

Antero Garcia, president of the National Council of Teachers of English and a Stanford University professor, said he doesn’t know of any other state that has such a list. Educators at the district and school level usually choose what texts their students will read, Garcia said.

Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said she believes such a mandated reading list would be “unique” to Texas.

“I think there’s lots of state lists that exist that are like advised readings, suggested readings,” she said.
Critics say the proposal favors Christianity over other religions

The required readings rely heavily on the King James Bible, one of the most popular translations, and more recent evangelical translations that critics argue lean too heavily on Christian interpretations of the texts.

Other critics question whether religious stories should be taught at all in schools attended by thousands of children of Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and other faiths, and others who identify as atheist or agnostic.

“I do think that it’s disturbing that there are no texts from other religious traditions that are included,” said Frank Strong, an English and journalism teacher and co-founder of the student advocacy group Texas Freedom to Read.

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Stengle reported from Dallas.

Lufkin man dead after vehicle drives into Neches River on Monday

ANGELINA COUNTY (KETK) — A Lufkin man was pronounced dead on Monday afternoon after his vehicle reportedly drove off U.S. Highway 59 and into the Neches River, officials said.

According to a preliminary report from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the crash occurred at around 1:43 p.m. near the Polk and Angelina County line. A 2022 Ford Bronco was traveling north on the highway before reportedly traveling off the road, down an embankment and into the Neches River.
Mount Pleasant ISD mourns 2 students killed in car crash

DPS identified the driver as 71-year-old Theodore Fajen III of Lufkin, who was pronounced dead on the scene by a justice of the peace.

The investigation remains ongoing and no information is available at this time, DPS said.

Police update on Whiskey J’s assault

UPDATE: Dejae Brown and Alana Mumphrey voluntarily surrendered to law enforcement sometime Thursday. This according to Longview Police Department Public Information Officer LaDarian Brown. The investigation is ongoing.

LONGVIEW – An ongoing assault investigation is underway by the Longview Police Department after one woman was left seriously injured early Sunday morning. The incident took place outside of Whiskey J’s, a local bar in Longview, early on Sunday morning and led to the arrest of Ciarrianne Fuller, who was taken into custody on Tuesday after being charged with assault causing bodily injury. Continue reading Police update on Whiskey J’s assault

Watermelon season struggles in wet weather

TYLER — A fresh watermelon is a Texas Fourth of July staple, but growers across South Texas are facing a tough season as persistent rain and cooler temperatures slow production. Texas A&M AgriLife reports that the unusually wet weather has fueled weeds, insects and crop diseases, all of which make growing and harvesting far more difficult in one of the state’s most important watermelon?producing regions.

According to our news partner KETK, in East Texas the ripple effects are already being felt. Sparks Enterprise Stand, located off Highway 155 in Tyler, has sourced its melons from Grapeland for eight years and says supply?chain prices have climbed. Even so, owner Bianca Woods says they’re keeping customer prices steady, topping out at $15 per melon, because “we’re in business for the people.”

Despite the challenges in South Texas, Woods says crops across the Pineywoods have remained steady. Early?season melons may not be as sweet due to the lack of sunshine, but growers expect flavor to improve as sunny days return and fields begin to dry out.

Texas officials say rodents and other small wildlife could be to blame for New World Screwworm infestations

McALLEN (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) — As the New World screwworm continues to infiltrate livestock and other animals in Texas, many have been asking how the parasitic fly landed here to begin with.

Last week, the Texas Animal Health Commission identified a potential cause: small wildlife and rodents like armadillos, opossums and rabbits.
MAP: Where have New World screwworm cases been reported in Texas?

Until now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has pointed to multiple factors, including border policies under President Joe Biden to the illicit movement of cattle at the hands of drug cartels.

The new finding is based on conversations with entomologists, Lewis R. “Bud” Dinges, executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission, told the Texas House Committee on Agriculture and Livestock.

However, the source of the first case of New World Screwworm remains under investigation, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Other health experts say it’s still undetermined what allowed the invasive pest to finally breach the Texas-Mexico border.

Tracing the source

During last week’s committee hearing, Dinges said epidemiological investigators have found no evidence so far linking Texas cases to the illicit movement of cattle from Mexico.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said it is still investigating to determine how screwworm spread.

“That’s very much an unknown, still, at this time. But wildlife is susceptible to New World Screwworm in the same manner that livestock and other warm-blooded animals are,” said a spokesperson for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

However, the spokesperson added that small mammals don’t travel long distances such as the distance between the last known detection in Mexico at the time to the location of the first case in Texas, which was detected in LaPryor on June 3.

Moving north

The USDA has repeatedly mentioned that models predicted that screwworm would inevitably arrive in the U.S. after the parasitic fly began moving north from South America in 2023.

The pest began trickling up through Panama after it broke through the Darien Gap, which had served as a barrier for screwworm for decades.

It then slowly moved through Costa Rica until it reached Nicaragua where it traveled quickly, said Jeremy Radachowsky, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean regional director for the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“Not only was it moving very quickly, but it was moving exactly along these paths of cattle trafficking and cattle contraband that we’ve been able to identify earlier,” Radachowsky said.

Screwworm detections followed those cattle-trafficking paths into Honduras and Guatemala. A few weeks later, Mexican officials detected their first case in November 2024.

Screwworm was predicted to have arrived in the U.S. last summer, USDA officials said, but efforts to stop it delayed it for a year.

“We’ve been actively and vocally warning that in order to stop screwworm, you have to stop this illegal and unregulated movement of cattle from south to north,” Radachowsky said. “That is definitely the driver.”

But how it crossed from Mexico into the U.S. remains unclear, he said.

The USDA closed all southern ports of entry to livestock imports from Mexico in May 2025 and have kept them closed since then, preventing cattle from legally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

The Wildlife Conservation Society does not have clear information on how screwworm crossed into Texas, Radachowsky said, but noted that it can infest and travel with other warm-blooded animals like pets and wildlife.

Governor Abbott launches New World Screwworm tracker website

“At the Texas-Mexico border, you’ve got feral pigs, white tailed deer, other wildlife, basically moving back and forth as well,” he said.
The unknown

There are 13 active cases of New World Screwworm in Texas as of Tuesday. An average of 15 suspected cases are reported to the Texas Animal Health Commission every day, Dinges said during the committee hearing last week.

State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Republican from Rio Grande City who chairs the committee, asked whether it would be logical to assume there are more cases between the Texas-Mexico border and the location of the confirmed infestations that just haven’t been reported.

Dinges replied that testing for screwworm has been ongoing for over a year and cases had not been detected until now.“We’ve been submitting anywhere from two to six larvae samples a week since last May and we have not detected any New World Screwworm larvae until June 3,” Dinges said.

Despite those assurances, farmers and ranchers throughout Texas are operating under the assumption that screwworm is present in their area.

“There’s just so much country that’s unsurveilled,” said John Sewell, a rancher from Kinney and Uvalde County said during the hearing. “I’m in between two — one south of me and one north of me. Do I think I don’t have it? I would be a fool to think I didn’t have it.”

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

New exhibit explores WW2 veteran

KILGORE – The East Texas Oil Museum will open a new exhibit July 3, “One Texan’s Improbable and Unimaginable Journey: Albert ‘Pappy’ DeHart’s Best-Worst Seat in History,” highlighting the life and military service of an East Texas native whose experiences placed him at the center of one of World War II’s most significant events.

The exhibit chronicles the journey of Albert “Pappy” DeHart, who was born in Jacksonville and raised in Marshall. During World War II, DeHart served with the 509th Composite Group, the unit responsible for carrying out the atomic bomb missions over Japan in August 1945. Continue reading New exhibit explores WW2 veteran

Father, son missing off Oahu coast, search underway

In this screen grab from a video released by the Honolulu Fire Department, HFD responded to a report of a missing swimmer reported at Hanauma Bay Ridge Trail, on June 24, 2026. (Honolulu Fire Department)

(OAHU, Hawaii) -- The United States Coast Guard and local officials are conducting a search for a 49-year-old man and his 16-year-old son who went missing Tuesday morning after leaving for a hike on the eastern coast of Oahu, a Coast Guard press release said.

Family members said the pair left their hotel at around 7 a.m. Tuesday to hike the Hanauma Bay Rock Bridge Trail, according to officials. Passersby found a backpack containing the man's belongings near the trail at 8:45 a.m. and notified the Honolulu Police Department, the release said.

Police, the Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Ocean Safety Department and the Coast Guard launched a joint search operation late Tuesday morning after confirmation that the father and son were missing, ABC News Honolulu affiliate KITV reported.

The names of the father and son have not been released.

The agencies searched along the trail and surrounding areas, and deployed fire department helicopters and rescue boat, safety department jet skis and Coast Guard resources, the fire department said.

The mission was suspended at 5:30 p.m. local time Tuesday due to adverse weather conditions and was scheduled to resume Wednesday morning, fire officials said.

Top Oversight Dem demands info from Reflecting Pool contractors overseeing renovation

A U.S. Army National Guard troop stands watch at the Lincoln Memorial on June 08, 2026, in Washington, DC. Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been partially re-filled after the bottom of it was repainted as part of President Donald Trump's effort to repair Washington landmarks in for preparation the country’s 250th birthday this summer. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) -- The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee sent letters Wednesday to the contractors overseeing the renovation at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, requesting information such as contracts and water quality records.

The Reflecting Pool has been plagued with algae and peeling paint in the days since the Trump administration completed its renovation, which cost taxpayers more than $16 million.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., sent separate letters to the company hired to paint the reflecting pool and the company hired to remove the algae that later appeared in the pool.

"Donald Trump's disastrous renovation of our national reflecting pool is his latest failed vanity project," Garcia said in a statement. "The President should be focused on making life more affordable for the American people, not rewarding his loyalists with government contracts and wasting taxpayer money on failing projects. We're demanding answers straight from the contractors about the project's failures."

The ranking member requested information by July 8, 2026, including the scope of the work, contract performance standards, communications with the National Park Service and amounts invoiced or paid.

Democrats, who are in the minority, do not have subpoena power to compel these contractors to hand over information or even respond.

Trump said this week the Reflecting Pool will be drained again for "permanent repair" around the Fourth of July and said that six people have now been arrested for alleged damage to the site. No charges had been filed in the alleged arrests.

The Interior Department and the U.S. Park Police have not responded to multiple outreaches for evidence of the alleged vandalism.

Lakers will re-sign Austin Reaves to a 4-year, $185 million deal, AP source says

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Austin Reaves is re-signing with the Los Angeles Lakers on a four-year contract worth $185 million, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal is not yet official for Reaves, who cements his status as one of the most successful undrafted players in recent NBA history with this contract.

Reaves is declining his $14.9 million player option for the upcoming season to reach this deal with the team that signed him out of Oklahoma after the draft in 2021. The shifty guard has grown into one of the NBA’s most effective scorers and playmakers, increasing his scoring average in every season of his five-year career.

The 28-year-old Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds last season despite missing two significant chunks of the year with injuries that followed him into the postseason. He has also developed a close bond with his Lakers backcourt partner, NBA scoring champion Luka Doncic.

Reaves would have been one of the NBA’s top free agents on the open market this summer. Instead, he remains firmly alongside Doncic while the Lakers and LeBron James determine their next steps. Los Angeles also has been discussing the future with impending free agents Rui Hachimura, Luke Kennard and Jaxson Hayes during the exclusive negotiating window with a team’s own free agents.

After the Pacific Division champion Lakers’ season ended with a second-round loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder while Doncic was sidelined by a hamstring injury, general manager Rob Pelinka made it clear Reaves likely wasn’t going anywhere, saying the team and Reaves had both already essentially decided to work out an extension. Reaves grew up in Arkansas as a Lakers fan, and he is a fan favorite in Los Angeles.

“He started his journey here as a Laker, and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a Laker,” Pelinka said. “And we feel the same way.”

The Lakers also formalized their draft-night trade on Wednesday, acquiring the rights to 24th overall pick Cameron Carr in a deal with the New York Knicks. Los Angeles gave up cash considerations and the draft rights to Spain’s Sergio De Larrea, who was picked by the Lakers with the 25th selection Tuesday night.

Carr, a 6-foot-5 wing who scored 18.9 points per game for Baylor last season, will wear No. 43 with the Lakers.

US stocks end mixed, weighed down by more losses for tech giants

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks wavered to a mixed close on Wall Street Wednesday as technology stocks once again weighed down the market.

Declines for several influential tech heavyweights, including Microsoft, pulled the broader market lower even though most stocks in the S&P 500 gained ground. That was also the case on Tuesday, when tech stocks pulled the market lower despite broader gains elsewhere.

The S&P 500 fell 7.24 points, or 0.1%, to 7,358.22, despite nearly 2 out of every 3 stocks gaining ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is less weighted with tech stocks, rose 182.06 points, or 0.4%, to 51,848.90.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 110.40 points, or 0.4%, to 25,476.64.

A 2.3% drop in Microsoft was the heaviest weight on the market. Oracle slumped 4.6%.

Many large tech companies have been behind Wall Street’s record-setting run throughout the year, but analysts have warned their valuations may have become stretched.

Stocks edge higher as falling oil prices help take pressure off the market.

“The next phase of the AI investment cycle is beginning to collide with market discipline,” said Jason Vaillancourt, chief portfolio strategist at Columbia Threadneedle, in a research note.

Google’s parent company Alphabet slipped 0.2%. The company is replacing Verizon in the Dow on Monday. The company’s inclusion in the S&P 500 means more to investors, however, because 401(k) accounts are much more likely to include an S&P 500 index fund than anything tied to the Dow.

Alphabet will become the fifth Magnificent 7 company to join the Dow. The others are Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia.

Oil prices continued slipping as the U.S. and Iran negotiate a possible end to their war. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.8% to $73.87 a barrel. It has been trading below $80 in recent days but is still above the roughly $70 per barrel it was trading at in late February before the war began. U.S. crude prices fell 3.9% to $70.34 a barrel.

Oil companies had some of the biggest losses. Exxon Mobil fell 2% and Chevron lost 2.6%.

Some of the bigger winners on Wall Street included homebuilders following approval of legislation beneficial to the industry. KB Home surged 16.7% and D.R. Horton jumped 6.7%.
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Treasury yields mostly fell, removing some pressure from stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.40% from 4.50% late Tuesday. The yield on the 2-year Treasury eased to 4.15% from 4.16%.

Treasury yields are still elevated from earlier in the year, especially the 2-year Treasury, which more closely tracks anticipated action from the Federal Reserve. The central bank has signaled that it is considering raising its benchmark interest rate by the end of the year. Wall Street is forecasting at least one hike to interest rates by December, according to data from CME Group.

The Fed is worried about stubborn inflation, which had been rising throughout the year as tariffs raised the costs for a wide range of goods. A shock to energy prices because of the U.S. war with Iran worsened inflation. Gasoline prices surged and shipping costs rose. The impact is expected to linger even as oil and gasoline prices fall.

The central bank will get an update on inflation Thursday, when its preferred measure for prices is released. Economists expect the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, to show that prices rose 4.1% in May. That would be the highest level in three years.

“Thursday’s PCE is set to take on greater importance for markets, especially since Federal Reserve Chair (Kevin) Warsh was emphatic in last week’s meeting about the central bank’s desire to achieve price stability,” wrote Rick Gardner, chief investment officer at RGA Investments, in a research note.

Gold prices fell 3.4% to settle at $4,008.80 an ounce. Earlier in the day, gold briefly traded below $4,000, and hasn’t settled below that level since November. Gold was above $5,000 an ounce earlier in the year. The precious metal is often seen as a barometer of the appetite for risk among investors, with more buying at times of increased anxiety and more selling as anxiety eases.

Markets were mixed in Europe.

‘Dutton Ranch’ renewed for season 2 at Paramount+

Cole Hauser as Rip Wheeler and Kelly Reilly as Beth Dutton in the second episode of 'Dutton Ranch' season 1. (Emerson Miller/Paramount+)

It's time to go back to Texas.

Dutton Ranch has been renewed for season 2 at Paramount+. This renewal comes ahead of the release of the first season's final two episodes.

Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser return to their Yellowstone roles of Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler in the spinoff series. Also starring are Oscar nominees Ed Harris and Annette Bening.

The ensemble cast also includes Finn Little, Juan Pablo Raba, Jai Courtney, J.R. Villarreal, Marc Menchaca and Natalie Alyn Lind.

Dutton Ranch follows Beth and Rip, who "are grateful for the peace they sought, fought, and nearly died for with their 7,000-acre Dutton Ranch," according to a press release. "With tough times and stiff competition, Beth and Rip do what they must to survive, all while ensuring Carter becomes the man he's supposed to be."

As Beth and Rip fight to build their future far away from Yellowstone and all its ghosts, "they collide with brutal new realities and a ruthless rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire. In South Texas, blood runs deeper, forgiveness is fleeting, and the cost of survival might just be your soul," an official synopsis reads.

The spinoff garnered the biggest original series launch in the streaming service's history, according to numbers from the company. It generated 12.9 million global streaming views in the seven days following its premiere.

Chad Feehan serves as showrunner on Dutton Ranch. Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan executive produces, as do stars Hauser and Reilly.

“Dutton Ranch has resonated with audiences in a powerful way, building on the legacy of beloved characters, while establishing its own identity,” Matt Thunell, president of Paramount Television Studios, said in a press release. “We look forward to bringing fans more stories from these unforgettable characters in season 2.”

Olympian skier Bode Miller pleads not guilty to Idaho misdemeanor drug charges

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Olympic gold medalist skier Bode Miller has pleaded not guilty to a pair of misdemeanor drug charges after he was arrested on a charge of possessing psilocybin mushrooms.

Miller was arrested June 6 in eastern Idaho, according to court records, and pleaded not guilty to possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia the following week.

Miller said in a post on Instagram that he was pulled over after accelerating to pass a vehicle on the highway. His friend had a small amount of cannabis and a cannabis pipe, which Miller said he didn’t know about.

“We fully cooperated with the officer,” he said. “I am hopeful the misdemeanor charges will be dropped once the facts are reviewed.”

The court documents don’t include any details about the circumstances surrounding Miller’s arrest. But in a probable cause statement, Fremont County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Hurt wrote that he found Miller with a white dispensary bag containing 4.1 grams of the psychedelic mushrooms.

Idaho has some of the strictest drug laws in the nation. But Colorado and Oregon have both legalized the use of psilocybin for therapeutic treatments, and the substance has become increasingly popular with some health advocates who believe that microdosing it or using it in therapeutic settings can help ease anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies to speed up research and loosen restrictions on psychedelics, and in response the FDA said it would offer ultra-fast review to three psychedelic drugs being developed to treat mental health conditions.

The 48-year-old Miller took a gambler’s approach to ski racing. His high-risk, high-reward style resulted in six Olympic medals, including gold in the super-combined at the 2010 Vancouver Games, and numerous crashes.

His last major race was at the 2015 world championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado, when a bad wipeout knocked him out of the super-G. He cut a gate too close and hooked his left arm, sending him spiraling out of control. His skis popped off, and he began to somersault down the slope before righting himself. He slowly got up and waited for someone to bring him his skis. Once he clicked back into the skis, he went down the slope and waved to the fans. Miller later underwent surgery to fix a torn right hamstring tendon caused when his ski sliced him.

Miller won 33 World Cup races and a pair of World Cup overall titles. He also captured four gold medals at world championships.

Woman killed in Longview crash, driver arrested

LONGVIEW – A man was arrested in Longview on Monday after he was involved in a crash on Mobberly Avenue that left a 44-year-old woman dead, according to Longview Police, and our news partner, KETK.

Police say officers responded to a report of suspicious activity when they found a vehicle that was allegedly in a crash at around 12:30 a.m. When officers tried to make contact with the driver, he fled in the vehicle. Police said he was later stopped and arrested for evading arrest with a vehicle. Continue reading Woman killed in Longview crash, driver arrested

Chamber talks water rule changes

TYLER – The Tyler Chamber of Commerce convened local developers, engineers and government officials on Tuesday for a briefing on proposed revisions to the federal Waters of the United States regulations that could significantly reshape how water resources are managed across Texas.

The session focused on emerging federal guidance and the potential ripple effects for water quality, permitting and land-use planning at the state and municipal levels.

The proposed updates follow a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the definition of federally protected waters. In response, federal agencies are revising their rules, a move that could transfer substantial regulatory authority from Washington to state and local governments.

Judge permanently blocks Trump EO requiring proof of citizenship to vote

President Donald Trump holds an executive order he signed during an Ambassador Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 25, 2025.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) -- A federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order signed last year that required proof of citizenship to register to vote and demanded mail-in ballots be received by Election Day.

Judge Denise Casper ruled that the president lacks the authority to oversee elections and rejected the Trump administration's unsupported claims of "widespread illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error."

"While the Constitution vests the President with 'executive Power' and commands him to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' it does not grant the President any specific powers over elections," Judge Casper wrote.

The decision is more than a year in the making, with a group of state attorneys general last April filing a lawsuit in Boston to block Trump's first executive order on voting. That order sought to require proof of citizenship to register to vote as well as impose an Election Day deadline for mail-in ballots, and Judge Casper last June issued a preliminary injunction blocking the policy.

In a 59-page ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Casper made that decision permanent on largely the same legal basis as her decision last year. In addition to finding that Trump overstepped his authority with the order, the judge said the Department of Justice failed to demonstrate the alleged fraud that purportedly justified the order, and the policy would have disenfranchised thousands.

"There is no evidence in this record of widespread 'illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error' within American elections, which the Executive Order purports to safeguard against," she wrote.

The ruling is the latest setback in the Trump administration's attempt to reshape federal elections, with courts blocking multiple efforts to impose federal oversight on elections.

Multiple lawsuits are challenging Trump’s second executive order on voting that attempted to create a national database of approved voters, and earlier this week, a judge blocked an attempt to use an immigration database to check voter rolls. Judges across the country have also rejected the Department of Justice's attempt to obtain state voter rolls.

Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman star in ‘Practical Magic 2’ official trailer

Nicole Kidman as Gillian Owens and Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens in 'Practical Magic 2.' (Warner Bros. Pictures)

We come to this official trailer for magic.

Warner Bros. Pictures has released the official trailer for Practical Magic 2. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman once again star as the magical Owens sisters in this highly anticipated sequel to the 1998 film Practical Magic.

Along with Bullock and Kidman, who are both producing the project, the film stars Joey King, Lee Pace, Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest.

Practical Magic 2 follows the Owens sisters as they "must confront the dark curse that threatens to unravel their family once and for all in a must-see cinematic event of fun, magic and mayhem," according to an official description from Warner Bros.

The trailer finds all of the Owens women living in the same picturesque white home by the water from the first film.

"No magic is stronger than sisterhood," Channing's Franny says in the trailer. "Cast by fate, tested by time and never broken."

We also see the daughters of Bullock's Sally Owens and Kidman's Gillian Owens dreaming about romantic love — and doubting the family curse. That doubt causes heartbreak when Kylie (King) finds her boyfriend dead.

"Kylie said she's gonna go fix the curse," Gillian says later in the trailer.

"This will lead her into the dark path," Franny responds. "If you want to find her, you have to work together."

Susanne Bier directed the film from a script by Akiva Goldsman and Georgia Pritchett. It's based on the novel The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman.

Practical Magic 2 debuts to theaters on Sept. 11.

Jacob Elordi, Teyana Taylor among those invited to join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Teyana Taylor attends the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026, in Hollywood, California. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images) | Jacob Elordi attends the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026, in Hollywood, California. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Jacob Elordi, Teyana Taylor and Josh O'Connor are among the 529 people The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited to join its ranks as members.

Other actors invited to join the academy include Jon Bernthal, Josh Gad, Julia Garner, Mia Goth, Simu Liu, Jenna Ortega, Bill Skarsgård and Jenny Slate.

Along with Elordi and Taylor, 2026 Oscar acting nominee Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas also received an invitation to join the academy's ranks.

“We are delighted to invite this remarkable group of film artists and professionals from around the world to join the Academy,” academy CEO Bill Kramer and academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said in a press release. “Through their commitment to filmmaking, this year’s exceptionally talented class has made significant contributions to our global movie industry.”

The rest of the actors who have received invitations to join the academy are Mathieu Amalric, Raúl Briones, Kenneth Choi, Jemaine Clement, Paddy Considine, David Dastmalchian, S?o?pe?? Di?ri?su?, Veronica Ferres, Stephen Fry, Wood Harris, Suzy Eddie Izzard, Scoot McNairy, Tig Notaro, Daniella Pineda, Lily Rabe, Anthony Ramos and Miguel Sandoval.

If all of the people invited decide to accept their membership, the total amount of academy members will increase to 11,319, including emeritus. The number of voting members will stand at 10,338.

With the new additions of the 2025 member class, the academy would consist of 36% women, with 25% of them from underrepresented communities and 22% international.

Suspect arrested in back-to-back blowgun dart shootings in Cleveland

Police in Cleveland, Ohio, are investigating back-to-back attacks, June 22, 2026, in which victims were shot with blowgun darts similar to one in this photo. (The Washington Post via Getty Images)

(CLEVELAND) -- A man suspected of shooting two people with blowgun darts in back-to-back broad daylight attacks this week in the same Cleveland, Ohio, neighborhood, has been arrested, police said on Wednesday.

The 42-year-old suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of felony assault following a two-day manhunt, according to the Cleveland Police Department.

One of the victims was shot multiple times with blow darts and had to undergo surgery, according to police.

The bizarre attacks unfolded around 4 p.m. local time on Monday in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood of west Cleveland, police said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday morning.

A woman targeted in the first incident alleged the suspect, whom she recognized from the neighborhood, verbally insulted her and struck her in the face with his hand in an unprovoked attack, according to the police statement.

The victim alleged that a short time later, the suspect confronted her again in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store, according to the police report. The man allegedly pulled out a blow-dart gun and fired it repeatedly at the woman, striking her with needle-like darts at least five times, according to police.

"Upon arrival, officers located a 56-year-old woman who had been struck with several long-needle darts," police said.

She was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, where she underwent surgery to remove one of the darts that pierced her liver, according to police.

While at the hospital with the first victim, police received a report that a second person had been shot with a blowdart gun in the same Clark-Fulton neighborhood near the busy intersection of West 25th Street and Clark Ave., according to police.

Officers who responded to the scene in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood discovered a 40-year-old man suffering from wounds in the blowgun dart attack, police said.

"The victim stated that he was in the area of West 25th Street when an unknown male shot him with a blow dart. He reported running from the area and calling 911," according to the police report.

The victim was treated at a hospital for his injuries, police said.

A search was immediately launched, according to police. On Wednesday, officers arrested the suspect after spotting him in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood, according to the police statement.

During the arrest, officers recovered a blowgun as evidence, police said.

Dallas man arrested for assaulting officer

SMITH COUNTY – According to arrest records, a man from the Dallas area assaulted a Smith County deputy on Sunday morning while attempting to take the deputy’s gun and repeatedly resisting arrest. Members of a nearby church allegedly intervened to assist, according to the documents. Delano Davis is accused of resisting arrest, assaulting a peace officer, trying to steal a weapon from an officer, and interfering with public duties. Since Sunday, he has been detained at the Smith County Jail. Around 11:20 a.m. on Sunday, a Smith County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to a call regarding a man stepping in front of moving cars close to County Roads 165 and 168 in the Flint-Gresham area, according to an arrest affidavit. Continue reading Dallas man arrested for assaulting officer

Lufkin man dead after vehicle drives into Neches River on Monday

ANGELINA COUNTY (KETK) — A Lufkin man was pronounced dead on Monday afternoon after his vehicle reportedly drove off U.S. Highway 59 and into the Neches River, officials said.

DPS identified the driver as 71-year-old Theodore Fajen III of Lufkin, who was pronounced dead on the scene by a justice of the peace.

The investigation remains ongoing and no information is available at this time, DPS said.

Suspect in custody in weekend shooting

UPDATE: Emiliano Lorenzo Alonzo Ebanez was taken into custody at around 5:41 p.m. on Wednesday, the Jacksonville Police Department said. He will be transported to the Cherokee County Jail, where he will be processed for booking.

JACKSONVILLE – An 18-year-old Rusk man was identified by the Jacksonville Police Department as a suspect in the Lincoln Park shooting. According to Jacksonville police spokesperson Amanda Bragg, Emiliano Lorenzo Ebanez is regarded as armed and dangerous. In a press release, she stated that if Ebanez is spotted, the public is “strongly advised” to stay away and to call the police. Jacksonville police received several 911 calls about a shooting near Lincoln Park, close to Davis Avenue and Holloway Avenue, at approximately 9:35 p.m. on Sunday.

According to a press release, officers found three adult males who had been shot, and private vehicles transported them to nearby hospitals. According to reports, their condition is stable.

A sizable crowd gathered in the 7-Eleven North parking lot while responding officers tried to disperse them. Around 10:10 p.m., more gunfire was reported in the area. According to Bragg, the reports of the shootings are being looked into. Call Jacksonville police at 903-586-2546 if you have any information.

New Tyler utility pay system

TYLER – The push to modernize the Water Business Office came from our customers. Over the past several years, utility customers have asked for more payment options, better account information, and tools that make managing utility accounts easier. On Wednesday, June 24, the City of Tyler took another step toward those goals when the new utility payment system went live.

The new payment provider, Invoice Cloud, introduces several expanded features designed to give people more flexibility in how they pay and manage their accounts.

Anyone currently enrolled in autopay will need to re-enroll in the new system. Continue reading New Tyler utility pay system

‘My Life with the Walter Boys’ gets season 3 release date

Noah LaLonde as Cole Walter and Nikki Rodriguez as Jackie Howard in episode 1 of 'My Life with the Walter Boys' season 3. (Netflix)

My Life with the Walter Boys is getting ready to return.

Netflix has announced that the third season of the romance series is set to debut on Aug. 6.

The streaming service also released first-look photos from season 3 to tide fans over before they get to see the fallout of Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) and Cole's (Noah LaLonde) overheard love confessions.

"The path of true love never runs smooth, especially in Silver Falls. The last time we saw the Walters, Jackie and Cole finally confessed their love for each other, only for Jackie’s boyfriend — and Cole’s brother — Alex (Ashby Gentry) to overhear," according to an official description from Netflix. "But their conversation was interrupted when Walter patriarch George was rushed to the hospital. Season 3 sees the Walters realize what’s important in the fallout from this – and discover that it’s okay to go after what you want."

Season 3 finds Alex turning toward his new rodeo racing team while Cole is discovered by a race car driver.

"Meanwhile, Jackie pours her heart into developing the town’s community space. But when a childhood friend arrives from New York, the life she left behind proves harder to forget than she expected," the description concludes.

Also starring in season 3 are Sarah Rafferty, Marc Blucas, Connor Stanhope, Jaylan Evans, Corey Fogelmanis, Zoë Soul, Ashley Tavares, Dean Petriw and Johnny Link.

My Life with the Walter Boys has already been renewed for season 4. Season 3 will consists of 10 episodes. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Ali Novak.

‘Canary in the coal mine’: States threaten crackdown on election betting

Booths await Maine residents to cast their ballots at a polling station inside the Portland Exposition Building on June 9, 2026 in Bangor, Maine. (CJ Gunther/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) -- On prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, bettors can put money on dozens of election-related bets in Maryland, from the winner of the upcoming gubernatorial race to the margin of victory in the state's 6th Congressional District.

For most Americans, the Maryland elections are fair game -- races in the state are already generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in trading volume on the major prediction markets. But not for residents of Maryland, which is one of a handful of states that ban election betting. And Jared DeMaranis, the state's election administrator, plans to enforce it.

"If we have credible information about illegalities and it's not within our civil citation authorities, we will of course refer those matters to the office of the state prosecutor for enforcement," DeMaranis told ABC News. "This is going to be a growing issue and something that we need to stop in its infancy."

Federal regulators and the courts have given Americans the green light to wager on elections, prompting a frenzy of wagering on the outcomes of races, the likelihood of candidates dropping out, the amount of voter turnout, and more. But more than half of U.S. states have existing laws on the books that limit or restrict the practice, according to research from the Pew Research Center -- and now state leaders are sorting out how exactly to enforce those rules.

Maryland, Texas and Arizona are among those states with laws explicitly banning election betting. And in Wisconsin, residents cannot cast ballots in elections in which they have placed a "bet or wager depending upon the result of the election," according to state law.

Ann Jacobs, the chair of the Wisconsin Election Commission, said Wisconsinites who bet on an election and then vote in it could have their vote challenged or face voter fraud charges. Jacobs acknowledged that it would be a difficult rule to enforce, but stood by the spirit of the law.

"The policy behind saying, 'You can bet or you can vote, but you can't do both,' is 100% a sound policy," Jacobs said. "We want people to vote based on their belief that the person they are voting for is going to be the best for their community ... it just makes sense."

Arizona officials have focused their efforts on the platforms themselves. The state's attorney general filed criminal charges against Kalshi earlier this year claiming the platform operated an illegal, unlicensed gambling business and accepted unlawful wagers from Arizona residents.

In April, a federal judge blocked Arizona from continuing its criminal case. The injunction followed a lawsuit against the state by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission -- the federal regulator overseeing prediction markets -- which argued that prediction markets fall under federal oversight rather than state gambling regulations.

The Arizona attorney general's office declined to comment on the active case or how it will address potential election betting this season.

Officials in Texas, another state with a law banning election betting, did not respond to inquiries from ABC News. But Christopher McGinn, the executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said he and other administrators are engaged in early discussions about how to handle prediction markets, particularly the likelihood that individuals with a financial stake in the outcome of an election may have "more incentive to attempt to manipulate [elections], or spread misinformation."

Prediction market advocates believe election-related event contracts strengthen political forecasting and can predict outcomes with greater accuracy than traditional polls. But many election experts warn that election wagering could threaten to compromise the integrity of elections or incentivize offenders to profit from insider information.

"I can't think of all of the ways that people might try to make money off of election outcomes, but I'm sure there are enterprising people who will come up with all kinds of things," said Rick Hasen, an expert in election law at the University of California-Los Angeles. "We don't want to start thinking of elections as a financial incentive. The potential for manipulation is too great."

Legalized election betting in the U.S. is a new phenomenon. In 2024, Kalshi prevailed in a lawsuit that allowed it to offer event contracts for politics and elections. More recently, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed new rules that classified elections "as contests, not gaming," further clearing the way for platforms to offer election-related wagers.

Those developments present state officials with a challenge: How can they enforce state-level bans on election betting without support from federal regulators or the platforms themselves? The answer for some, including Maryland, is to pursue the individuals.

"Right now, it's on the person. The person that places the wager on the platform is doing the illegality," said DeMaranis, the Maryland elections chief, adding that lawmakers will eventually "need to clarify the role of those platforms to make sure they're liable for offering monetary incentives on elections."

Matthew Wein, a former Homeland Security official, said a similar dynamic emerged with social media giants over the past decade. In the absence of a crackdown on platforms, authorities were left to pursue users "for doing things they shouldn't have been doing on the platforms, but not against the platforms themselves."

"And this seems to be heading in the same direction with prediction markets," said Wein, who now authors a gambling newsletter called "Secure Stakes."

A Polymarket spokesperson said states with election betting bans "run counter to the established framework for regulating prediction markets."

"We look forward to addressing these claims through the appropriate legal process," the spokesperson said.

A Kalshi spokesperson said the company's services are "federally regulated and have stock-market-grade systems for identifying and addressing market manipulation."

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., lawmakers continue to scrutinize prediction market platforms. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., have introduced legislation that would prohibit event contracts on election outcomes, which they said "spreads civic cynicism and distrust in our democratic institutions."

DeMaranis said he has struggled to instill a sense of urgency among the nation's election officials, many of whom he said have never heard of prediction markets.

The effort, he said, has left him feeling like the "canary in the coal mine."

"It's about the integrity and public trust of the electoral process," DeMaranis said. "When you have people that are engaging in election-related wagering, the integrity of the entire process now comes into question."

Global oil prices fall to lowest level since before the Iran War

A cargo ship remains anchored on May 16, 2026 in the Strait of Hormuz near Larak Island, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) -- Global oil prices on Wednesday fell to their lowest level since before the outbreak of the Iran war.

Brent crude futures, the benchmark index for worldwide trading, dropped to $73.50 a barrel. That figure, which amounted to a nearly 5% decline on Wednesday, marked the lowest price since Feb. 27, the day before the Middle East conflict began.

Stock prices, meanwhile, ticked higher Wednesday after a down day Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 105 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 increased 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.2%. Gas prices fell below $4 per gallon last week, crossing the milestone as oil costs eased in response to negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to end the war.

The national average price of a gallon of gas stands at $3.92, marking a decline of 58 cents, or 13%, over the past month, AAA data showed. Gas prices, however, remain 94 cents higher than where they stood before the Iran war.

The Middle East conflict prompted the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of the global oil supply. The standoff triggered one of the largest oil shocks ever recorded, sending gasoline prices higher.

Delegations from the United States and Iran arrived over the weekend at the Bürgenstock resort in Switzerland, where they began negotiations aimed at a war-ending deal based on a memorandum of understanding signed last week by both countries.

The memorandum in part called on Iran to allow commercial shipping to resume through the strait, and to do so toll-free for the next 60 days.

In a social media post on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said Iran told him that there would be "no tolls, no insurance costs" and "no other charges of any kind" for ships traveling through the strait.

Claims to the contrary are "troublemaking" false reports, Trump said in the post.