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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn released the following statement after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officially opened the Cornyn-created State Border Security Reinforcement Fund for applications from eligible states. The fund was authorized through a provision led by Sen. Cornyn as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to the senator’s office. The law, also known as the Working Families Tax Act, included $13.5 billion in funding to reimburse states like Texas for “stepping up during the Biden administration to try and secure the border.

“For four years, President Biden’s disastrous open-border policies wreaked havoc on our nation, and no state did more to fill in the gaps to protect and defend the southern border than Texas,” said Sen. Cornyn. “I’m glad the Department of Homeland Security has followed through on my reimbursement provision by opening the application process for the State Border Security Reinforcement Fund to reimburse states like Texas for the billions of dollars spent to try and secure the border after Joe Biden’s dereliction of this federal responsibility.

Background:

Senator Cornyn has led the fight in Washington to secure federal reimbursement for Texas by:

• Swiftly backing Governor Abbott’s request for Texas to be reimbursed for the taxpayer dollars spent on Operation Lone Star
• Calling attention to the ongoing reimbursement effort on the Senate floor
• Meeting with Governor Abbott and members of the Texas congressional delegation to discuss the legislative strategy for the reimbursement push
• Holding ongoing meetings and phone calls with Governor Abbott, Senate and House leadership, and congressional colleagues regarding the effort
• Leading legislation in the Senate to reimburse the State of Texas for the more than $11 billion dollars Texas taxpayers spent on Operation Lone Star
• Led a letter with members of the Texas congressional delegation to the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) urging them to prioritize the release of funds set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill to reimburse the State of Texas for the more than $11 billion spent on border security efforts.

AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into Celsius Holdings, Inc. (“Celsius”) based on the company’s representations and practices regarding its energy drinks marketed to teens and children. Celsius owns Alani Nutrition, LLC (“Alani”), which sells the popular energy drink commonly known as Alani Nu.

Alani Nu is a popular, low calorie, caffeine energy drink marketed toward young adults. Each 12-oz can contains 200 mg of caffeine. This is a level medical professionals consider dangerous for children and adolescents. Despite this, the brand employs colorful packaging, playful design elements, and youth-oriented branding strategies that appeal directly to younger consumers, raising serious questions about whether the company is deliberately marketing a potentially harmful product to an at-risk population.

The National Institutes of Health strongly advises against energy drink consumption by children and teens, citing documented risks including elevated heart rate, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, anxiety, and dehydration. Despite these concerns, Alani Nu’s packaging typically only lists the caffeine amount and does not provide any additional warnings related to age or potential heart-health risks. These are not hypothetical risks. Multiple children and young adults across the country have reported adverse health effects following consumption of high-caffeine energy drinks. For example, the family of a 17-year-old from Weslaco, Texas, is suing the distributor of the energy drink Alani Nu after the teen died from an enlarged heart allegedly caused by excessive caffeine consumption. The lawsuit claims the product failed to provide adequate warnings about its caffeine content—a failure that may have cost a young Texan her life.

“Texas families deserve to know that the products marketed to their children are safe and not filled with dangerous levels of certain ingredients,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The tragic death of a 17-year-old Texas girl allegedly caused by consuming a highly caffeinated energy drink is a sobering reminder of what is at stake when companies prioritize profit over the safety and wellbeing of our children. I am looking into Celsius and Alani Nu to prevent more cases like this one and to ensure Texans are made aware of the any risks that come with consuming certain energy drink products.”

The Office of the Attorney General will investigate whether Celsius and Alani mislead Consumers regarding the safety of its product for teens and children in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“DTPA”).

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – The New World screwworm fly is threatening the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry for the first time in more than a half century, with an infestation from its flesh-eating larvae confirmed in south Texas.

The infestation was discovered in a single 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio and 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal and state officials had been working to keep the parasite from reaching Texas, home to $17 billion worth of the nation’s cattle, making it the industry’s No. 1 state.

The deadly flies were detected in Mexico in late 2024 after years of being contained in Panama.

The fly was an annual warm-weather scourge of cattle ranchers from at least the 1930s through the 1960s, until the U.S. eradicated the pest by breeding sterile male flies and dropping swarms of them from planes to mate with wild females. The USDA said the most recent case was the first in Texas since 1966.

Here is what to know about the fly, the threat it poses and the response:
Being unusual makes the flies a threat

The New World screwworm fly in the Western Hemisphere and its Old World cousin in Africa and Asia are unusual among flies because their larvae, or maggots, eat live flesh and fluids instead of dead material. Females lay their eggs in open wounds and mucous membranes after mating only once in their monthslong lives.

Any warm-blooded animal, including wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans, can be infested.

Livestock are vulnerable because of how they’re handled, Lee Haines, an associate research professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, said in an email Thursday. Standard practices with cattle can break the skin, including shearing and de-horning, or even moving them in and out of corrals can cause scrapes and cuts. Birth would also make a mother and calf vulnerable, she said.

Stephen Diebel, a Texas rancher and president of the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, added that even wounds “as small as a tick bite,” can put cattle at risk.

“These flies can lay eggs in very, very small places,” he said.

Scientists and cattle groups say that infested wounds become foul-smelling and cause animals great pain or death if an infestation is not treated. In decades past, ranchers had tens of millions of dollars in losses — potentially billions in today’s dollars.

But agriculture officials were quick to note that the fly does not infest food.
Officials sounded alarms for nearly 2 years

Federal and state officials and cattle industry leaders have been sounding public alarms about the fly’s movement through Mexico and toward the U.S. since a case was confirmed in southern Mexico in November 2024.

The spread has hit Mexico’s beef industry hard, particularly after U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins closed ports of entry along the border to livestock imports in July 2025 to prevent the fly from reaching Texas.

Mexico has confirmed thousands of infestations, and Rollins has argued that the government there has not done enough to control animals moving within the country, a suggestion Mexican authorities have rejected. Rollins also has blamed former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, arguing that weak border security has been a factor in the flies’ migration.

But Haines said climate change is a key element in the spread of a tropical species that thrives in warm weather and disappeared after cold snaps in the U.S.

“The cold snaps that once suppressed stray populations in marginal northern regions are becoming rarer and less severe, thus removing a natural biological check on the flies’ migration north,” she said. “ Warmer temperatures are also expanding the geographical band of suitable habitat northward.”
Officials quarantine a swath of Texas

Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges imposed a 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone covering much of Zavala County, home to La Pryor, and a small part of neighboring Uvalde County. Animals cannot leave that zone without being inspected. Dinges has urged people to check their animals — including pets — and to “stay put.”

Rollins said the fly doesn’t travel hundreds or even tens of miles on its own. “The only way this spreads is through animal movement,” she said.

Local ranchers are concerned that the fly will spread among wildlife, particularly deer. The last U.S. outbreak was largely among deer in the the Florida Keys in 2016, though one case was confirmed last year in a Maryland man who had traveled to El Salvador and recovered. In the 2016 Florida instance, the fly was eradicated within six months by releasing sterile male flies to mate with the females.

In Texas, Haines predicted, “Their numbers will continue to expand in wildlife populations.”
In Texas, shots and fly drops

Rollins said that the USDA has been dropping millions of sterile male flies in south Texas since February in hopes of blocking the insects’ spread. The plan is to continue doing so.

The USDA opened a center in south Texas in February to disperse flies bred in Panama, and it invested $21 million in a new fly-breeding facility in southern Mexico that is expect to start operations next month.

Diebel, whose family ranch is about 200 miles (322 kilometers) east of the quarantine zone, said ranchers are proactively giving injections that prevent screwworm infestation. They’re also taking extra care to treat wounds from ear tagging and other practices and keeping a close eye for signs of illness.

“Surveillance is one of the biggest things — just constantly monitoring those cattle,” Diebel said.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised to see other isolated cases confirmed, but added, “I’m very confident we can keep this at bay.”
Officials rely on time-tested science

Government and industry officials are confident that they contain the fly in the U.S. because the best method for eradicating the pest is both time-tested and highly effective: releasing sterile male flies into the wild. While males are “promiscuous,” in the scientific sense, females are not, and if their one mating hookup is with a sterile male, no eggs from that female will hatch.

Once sterile males are prevalent enough — and millions a week can be released — the fly’s population declines and then dies out.

The U.S. shut down its own fly factories after the pest was eradicated decades ago, leaving only an international breeding facility in Panama in the Western Hemisphere until the new one in Mexico opens. However, the USDA also is spending $750 million to build a fly factory in southern Texas that can produce up to 300 million sterile flies a week.

“The sterile insect is not only the most effective tool we have, but it is also considered one of the most environmental friendly insect pest control methods ever developed,” Rollins said.

POLK COUNTY (KETK) — Authorities are actively searching for a man wanted on a deadly conduct charge in the Onalaska area, police announced Thursday morning.

The Onalaska Police Department is looking for 35?year?old Bryant Todd Arnold, who is accused of firing shots near occupied homes in the Canyon Park area. Officers launched an investigation on April 18 after receiving reports that two suspects were driving through the neighborhood and shooting near residences.

“The safety of our citizens remains our highest priority. Reckless and dangerous behavior that threatens our neighborhoods will not be tolerated,” the police department said. “We are grateful for the continued support and partnership of our residents, whose vigilance and cooperation play a vital role in keeping Onalaska safe.”

Anyone with information about Arnold’s location is urged to contact the Onalaska Police Department at 936-646-5676. Anonymous tips can be submitted through P3 Tips, the P3 App or by calling Polk County Crime Stoppers at 936?327?STOP.