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AUSTIN (AP) — Officials at Camp Mystic said Thursday they are withdrawing their application for a camp license to operate this summer, saying they want to give families of those who died there more time to grieve.

The decision comes after days of pointed questioning by Texas lawmakers who are investigating camp officials’ response to the devastating flood on July 4 that claimed the lives of 25 campers and two teenage counselors. The camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, also died in the flooding.

“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed Thursday that the camp withdrew its application.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A back-and-forth volley of congressional redistricting in states has changed the electoral battlefield ahead of the November midterm elections, as Republicans and Democrats each seek an edge in their push for control of the closely divided U.S. House.

Florida’s Republican-led Legislature is latest to act, approving new House districts on Wednesday that could help the GOP win several additional seats in this year’s elections. That could offset Democratic gains in Virginia, where voters recently approved a new U.S. House map designed to flip several seats to Democrats.

Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But President Donald Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.

Republicans believe they could win up to 13 additional seats from new congressional districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain up to 10 seats from new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But that presumes past voting patterns hold in November. And that’s uncertain, especially since the party in power typically loses seats in the midterms and Trump faces negative approval ratings in polls.

Democrats need to gain just a few seats in November to wrest control of the House from Republicans, potentially allowing them to obstruct Trump’s agenda.

Where new House districts were approved

New U.S. House districts have passed in eight states since last summer. Six took up redistricting voluntarily, one was required to by its state constitution and another did so under court order.

Texas

Current map: 13 Democrats, 25 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a revised House map into law last August that could help Republicans win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in December cleared the way for the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It has since overturned a lower-court ruling that blocked the new map because it was “racially gerrymandered.”

California

Current map: 43 Democrats, nine Republicans

New map: Voters in November approved revised House districts drawn by the Democratic-led Legislature that could help Democrats win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in February allowed the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It denied an appeal from Republicans and the Department of Justice, which claimed the districts impermissibly favor Hispanic voters.

Missouri

Current map: two Democrats, six Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House map into law last September that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A Cole County judge ruled the new map is in effect as election officials work to determine whether a referendum petition seeking a statewide vote complies with constitutional criteria and contains enough valid petition signatures. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit claiming mid-decade redistricting is illegal. It’s scheduled to hear arguments in May on claims the new districts violate compactness requirements and should be placed on hold pending the potential referendum.

North Carolina

Current map: four Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised districts that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A federal court panel in November denied a request to block the revised districts from being used in the midterm elections.

Ohio

Current map: five Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: A bipartisan panel composed primarily of Republicans voted in October to approve revised House districts that improve Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats.

Challenges: None. The state constitution required new districts before the 2026 election, because Republicans had approved the prior map without sufficient Democratic support after the last census.

Utah

Current map: no Democrats, four Republicans

New map: A judge in November imposed revised House districts that could help Democrats win a seat. The court ruled that lawmakers had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters when adopting the prior map.

Challenges: A federal court panel and the state Supreme Court, in February, each rejected Republican challenges to the judicial map selection.

Virginia

Current map: six Democrats, five Republicans

New map: Voters in April approved a constitutional amendment authorizing new U.S. House districts backed by Democrats that could help the party win up to four additional seats.

Challenges: The state Supreme Court allowed the referendum to proceed, but it has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a Tazewell County judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.

Florida

Current map: eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led Legislature in April passed revised House districts that could improve the GOP’s chances of winning four additional seats.

Challenges: The state constitution says districts cannot be drawn with intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.

Where redistricting efforts were denied

Governors, lawmakers or partisan officials pushed for congressional redistricting in numerous states. In at least five states, those efforts gained some initial traction but ultimately fell short in either the legislature or court.

Maryland

Current map: seven Democrats, one Republican

Proposed map: The Democratic-led House in February passed a redistricting plan backed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore that could help Democrats win an additional seat.

Challenges: The legislative session ended in April without the Democratic-led Senate voting on the redistricting plan. The state Senate president said there were concerns it could backfire on Democrats.

New York

Current map: 19 Democrats, seven Republicans

Proposed map: A judge in January ordered a state commission to draw new boundaries for the only congressional district in New York City represented by a Republican, ruling it unconstitutionally dilutes the votes of Black and Hispanic residents.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in March granted Republicans’ request to halt the judge’s order, leaving the existing district lines in place for the 2026 election.

Indiana

Current map: two Democrats, seven Republicans

Proposed map: The Republican-led House passed a redistricting plan in December that would have improved Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats.

Challenges: Despite pressure from Trump to adopt the new map, the Republican-led Senate rejected it in a bipartisan vote on Dec. 11.

Kansas

Current map: one Democrat, three Republicans

Proposed map: Some Republican lawmakers mounted an attempt to take up congressional redistricting.

Challenges: Lawmakers dropped a petition drive for a special session on congressional redistricting in November, after failing to gain enough support.

Illinois

Current map: 14 Democrats, three Republicans

Proposed map: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in October proposed a new U.S. House map that would improve Democrats’ chances of winning an additional seat.

Challenges: The Democratic-led General Assembly declined to take up redistricting, citing concerns about the effect on representation for Black residents.

HOUSTON (AP) — People who are wrongfully incarcerated then exonerated, sometimes after spending decades behind bars, face yet more challenges finding jobs and rebuilding their lives after their release. Advocates say exonerees lack work history, viable skills, training and references when seeking work. Advocates and exonerees say they also face bias and stigma, even though they have been found innocent. National nonprofits and local groups are working to provide employment opportunities and other assistance for exonerees. The National Registry of Exonerations reports that more than 3,800 people have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1989.

Richard Miles set out to find a job after his release from a Texas prison in 2009 with a collection of newspaper clippings about his wrongful murder conviction as his resume. No one would hire him, including warehouses and fast-food restaurants.

It was a period of painful rejection that is familiar to exonerees. Some see their own struggles reflected in Calvin Duncan, who won elected office in New Orleans after clearing his name but likely won’t serve. Louisiana lawmakers sent a bill to the governor’s desk Wednesday abolishing his job.

“We’re still kind of like looked at as an inmate that did a particular crime. It further deteriorates our ability to believe that the system can heal itself,” said Miles, who eventually found a job through a minister at his church. “When cases like in Louisiana occur, it just shows us that the system is not healing itself.”

The fight in Louisiana has touched a nerve among exonerees in the U.S. who see Duncan’s plight as reflective of the biases and stigmas they have to confront as they try to rebuild their lives.

Duncan served nearly 30 years in prison before his murder conviction was vacated in 2021 after evidence emerged that police officers had lied in court. He was elected to become the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court in November, vowing to fix the system that failed him. He had been set to take office May 4.

Louisiana Republicans who want to dissolve the office say it isn’t about Duncan’s past but a necessary step toward government efficiency.

“Even if they are seen as somebody who is exonerated, there is still a stigma as somebody who has been in prison,” said Jon Eldan, the founder and executive director of After Innocence, a California-based nonprofit.

 

HOUSTON (AP) — A North Texas man who claims he was not the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who says prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence faced execution Thursday evening.

James Broadnax was sentenced to death for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio. Prosecutors say Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, fatally shot and robbed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in the parking lot of Butler’s recording studio in Garland. Cummings was sentenced to life without parole.

Prosecutors say Broadnax, 37, confessed to the shooting, telling reporters during jailhouse interviews that “I pulled the trigger” and that he had no remorse.

Broadnax was scheduled to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Houston.

His attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, filing multiple final appeals after lower courts declined to stop the lethal injection.

His lawyers have focused his final appeals on two issues: Cummings has recently confessed to being the shooter; and Broadnax’s constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors eliminated potential jurors during his trial on the basis of race.

“I’m really gonna tell it like it’s supposed to be told, that it was me, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard, Steve Swann,” Cummings said recently from prison in a video created as part of the efforts to stop Broadnax’s execution.

Broadnax’s attorneys say in filings with the high court that Cummings’ confession is “corroborated by the fact that his DNA, and not Mr. Broadnax’s, was found on the murder weapon and in the pocket of one of the victims.”

In the video, Broadnax said his confession was false as at the time he didn’t care about his life. Broadnax’s lawyers say he was under the influence of drugs during the television interviews.

He also apologized to the families of Butler and Swan for taking part in the robbery.

“I wish I could show them my soul, so they could see just how sorry I am. I am very much remorseful for everything that happened,” Broadnax said.

His attorneys also allege prosecutors dismissed all seven potential Black jurors on the basis of their race, “utilizing a spreadsheet during jury selection that bolded only the names of every Black juror,” according to court documents. One Black juror was later reinstated to the jury. Broadnax is Black.

In a 1986 ruling known as Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that excluding jurors because of their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Broadnax’s attorneys had argued in an earlier appeal that prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights by using some of the rap lyrics he wrote to portray him as a violent and dangerous person in order to secure a death sentence. A number of A-list rappers, including Travis Scott,T.I. and Killer Mike, had filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax’s appeal.

But the high court rejected that appeal as well as another that focused on how forensic evidence was presented at his trial.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied Broadnax’s request for a 180-day reprieve or to commute his death sentence.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office has described Cummings’ confession as the shooter as “questionable new evidence.” It also said in court documents that Broadnax’s claims that potential Black jurors were targeted for removal are “entirely meritless” as these jurors were stricken not because of race but because of their answers during questioning, including that some opposed the death penalty.

Theresa Butler, Matthew Butler’s mother, has asked that the execution proceed.

“This so called confession from cummings is just a stall tactic by broadnax’s desperate defense team. Its all a lie,” Butler wrote in a post on social media.

If the execution is carried out, Broadnax would be the third person put to death this year in Texas, which has historically held more executions than any other state.

About an hour before Broadnax’s scheduled execution on Thursday, Florida is set to put to death James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, for beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70

LUFKIN (KETK) — Lufkin police are seeking suspects after a confrontation over loud music and parking spiraled into gunfire, damaging vehicles and blowing out apartment windows.

The Lufkin Police Department responded to multiple 911 calls on Tuesday at around 9:45 p.m. where they found residents in the area of the 200 block of Finley Street. The group reportedly told officers that an argument began over a parking space and loud music that escalated to gunfire.

Witnesses told the police department that suspects drove to the apartment and began shooting.

A man was detained but not arrested as he was suspected of being involved; other suspects had left before officers arrived.

“Bullet holes were found on the outside of the residence where one of the individuals in the argument is believed to live as well as bullet holes appearing to come from inside the residence,” the Lufkin Police Department said. “Numerous shell casings were found in the roadway and the grass.”

Windows of two vehicles and the window of an apartment had been shot. An AR-15 was identified as the weapon used in the altercation and has since been taken into evidence alongside other weapons found in one of the homes.

The Lufkin Police Department said no injuries were reported and the search for others involved is ongoing.