Today is
Tuesday May 21, 2024
GALVESTON (AP) â Early estimates indicate up to 2,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into surrounding waters when a barge carrying fuel broke free from a tugboat and slammed into a bridge near Galveston, Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
The barge crashed into a pillar supporting the Pelican Island Causeway span on Wednesday. The impact caused the bridge to partially collapse and cut off the only road connecting Galveston to Pelican Island, the Coast Guard said.
Video shows splotches of oil had spilled from the barge into Galveston Bay. Jeff Davis of the Texas General Land Office said during a news conference Thursday that early cleanup efforts have not identified any impacted wildlife.
The barge has the capacity to hold 30,000 barrels, but was holding 23,000 barrels â approximately 966,000 gallons â when it struck the bridge, Rick Freed, the vice president of barge operator Martin Marine, said at the news conference. Freed said the only tank that was compromised in the crash was holding approximately 160,000 gallons, which is the âcomplete risk.â
âWeâre pretty confident there was much less oil introduced to the water than we initially estimated,â Coast Guard Capt. Keith Donohue said.
âWeâve recovered over 605 gallons of oily water mixture from the environment, as well as an additional 5,640 gallons of oil product from the top of the barge that did not go into the water,â Donohue said.
The Coast Guard said earlier that it had deployed a boom, or barrier, to contain the spill, which forced the closure of about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) of the waterway.
A tugboat lost control of the 321-foot barge âdue to a break in the couplingâ that had connected the two vessels, the Coast Guard said.
âWeather was not a factor, at all, during the coupling issue,â Freed said. When pressed for more details on how the two vessels became disconnected, he said: âItâs under investigation right now, and I really canât disclose anything further until the investigation is through.â
On Thursday, the barge remained beside the bridge, weighed in place by debris including rail lines that fell onto it after the crash.
The bridge, which provides the only road access between Galveston and Pelican Island, remained closed to incoming traffic, but vehicles leaving Pelican Island and pedestrians in both directions were able to cross.
Texas A&M University at Galveston, which has a campus on Pelican Island, urged staff and faculty to leave and said it was closing the campus, although essential personnel would remain.
âGiven the rapidly changing conditions and uncertainty regarding the outage of the Pelican Island Bridge, the Galveston Campus administration will be relocating all Texas A&M Pelican Island residents,” through at least Sunday, it said in a statement late Wednesday.
Fewer than 200 people related to the school were on the island when the barge hit the bridge. Spokesperson Shantelle Patterson-Swanson said the university would provide transportation and cover the housing costs of those who choose to leave, but underlined that the school has not issued a mandatory evacuation.
Aside from the environmental impact of the oil spill, the region is unlikely to see large economic disruption as a result of the accident, said Maria Burns, a maritime transportation expert at the University of Houston.
The affected area is miles from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which sees frequent barge traffic, and the Houston Ship Channel, a large shipping channel for ocean-going vessels.
The accident came weeks after a cargo ship crashed into a support column of the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.
LUBBOCK â The Texas Tribune reports that the Amarillo City Council must consider a policy that outlaws using local streets to access an abortion in other states after the city verified supporters of the policy gathered enough signatures to advance the issue.
The five-member council in the heart of the Texas Panhandle had been reluctant to follow other conservative cities and counties that have put the largely symbolic policy in place.
According to City Secretary Stephanie Coggins, the city validated 6,300 signatures out of the 10,300 submitted last month. The petition will be presented to the council on May 28. The council may then hold a public meeting on the same day to consider the ordinance or schedule the discussion for a future date. The council must vote on the petition within 30 days of it being presented.
Depending on the councilâs decision â the committee behind the “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance is unwilling to budge on certain provisions â the final say could be up to Amarillo voters in November.
During a press conference, Mayor Cole Stanley said most citizens are ready to have the issue in the rearview mirror and focus on other city business. He added that Texas is a âsanctuary state,â and wondered what would be accomplished by passing the ordinance.
âI donât feel the council has three votes that would be in favor of this ordinance as itâs written,â Stanley said.
He added, âI donât believe it would be necessary for the council to reject this. It has the signatures, it has been validated, itâs earned the right to go forward to the ballot if the committee decides to do that.â
The council asked the city attorney to draft a version of the ordinance that is in line with state law. Stanley previously told the Tribune their version would not have any provisions that âoversteps on civil liberties.â He believes this version will be ready for discussion at their next meeting. If it passes, the group behind the petition could still put the ordinance on the ballot.
âIt doesnât prevent this from going forward in November,â Stanley said. âIf something were to fail then, it wouldnât negate what the council would do here.â
On social media, Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas who is leading the charge, said he is looking forward to the next step of the process.
Lindsay London, co-founder of the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance, said the group is preparing for whatever comes next.
âWe are continuing to meet with the mayor and City Council,â London said, âto work to ensure that extremist rhetoric does not overshadow the diverse needs and perspectives in our community.â
Amarilloâs City Council first took up the issue in October, but did not immediately approve the ordinance. In December, the council signaled it was willing to pass a version of the proposed policy that focused on restricting access to abortion-inducing medication for medical abortions, and regulating the disposal of human remains.
The travel ban was removed entirely from that version â a key component for anti-abortion activists, as Interstates 40 and 27 run through the city. A group of residents, who Dickson said were âuncomfortableâ with the direction the council was taking, then began circulating the petition.
Dickson said the ordinance is about banning âabortion trafficking,â and neither he nor the committee behind the petition see the ordinance as a travel ban.
âWe do not see prohibitions on abortion trafficking, child trafficking, or sex trafficking as violations of peopleâs âcivil libertiesâ or the âright to travel,ââ Dickson said.
The original ordinance supporters want to see passed in the city does not call for pregnant women to be punished for having an abortion out of state. However, anti-abortion legal crusader Jonathan Mitchell has filed legal petitions seeking to depose women he claims traveled out of state for abortions. Mitchell is working with anti-abortion activists pushing the travel ban on a municipal level.
The proposed policy makes anyone who âaids and abetâ the procedure vulnerable to a private lawsuit from other citizens. The enforcement is similar to Senate Bill 8, the Texas bill that banned almost all abortions in 2021, prior to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. This is the only enforcement mechanism for the ordinance, which some council members have criticized as creating a system for neighbors to turn on each other to collect reward money.
Recently, city leaders in Clarendon, about 60 miles southeast of Amarillo, rejected passing the âsanctuary city for the unbornâ ordinance. The cities of Llano and Chandler held off on making decisions to approve or reject the travel ban.
Other cities and counties in Texas have passed ordinances to prohibit traveling through their jurisdictions for an abortion outside the state. This includes the cities of Athens, Abilene, Plainview, San Angelo, Odessa, Muenster and Little River-Academy, and Mitchell, Goliad, Lubbock, Dawson, Cochran and Jack counties.
AUSTIN (AP) – Arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico fell more than 6% in April to the fourth lowest month of the Biden administration, authorities said Wednesday, bucking the usual spring increase. U.S. officials have largely attributed the decline to more enforcement in Mexico, including in yards where migrants are known to board freight trains. Mexico wonât allow more than 4,000 illegal crossings a day to the U.S., Alicia Barcena, Mexicoâs foreign relations secretary, told reporters Tuesday, down from more than 10,000 Border Patrol arrests on some days in December. Migrants were arrested 128,900 times in April, down from 137,480 in March and barely half a record-high of 249,737 in December, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
While still historically high, the sharp decline in arrests since late December is welcome news for President Joe Biden on a key issue that has nagged him in election-year polls. Troy Miller, Customs and Border Protectionâs acting commissioner, said more enforcement, including deportations, and cooperation with other countries resulted in lower numbers. âAs a result of this increased enforcement, southwest border encounters have not increased, bucking previous trends. We will remain vigilant to continually shifting migration patterns,â he said. Authorities granted entry to 41,400 people in April at land crossings with Mexico through an online appointment app called CBP One, bringing the total to more than 591,000 since it was introduced in January 2023. The U.S. also allows up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuela if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive on commercial flights. About 435,000 entered the country that way through April, including 91,000 Cubans, 166,700 Haitians, 75,700 Nicaraguans and 101,200 Venezuelans.
TRINITY COUNTY â For nearly a month, Trinity County has been slammed with non-stop rain.
âI have never ever seen it like this before,â Trinity County Resident Frank Phifer said.
The constant flooding from the Trinity River has overwhelmed members of the community.
âThe rain today is going to throw water back on top of what we already have in low lying areas that are still flooded and itâs just going to make that worse,â Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said.
Some residents nearby worry the worst is yet to come.
âWe must respect Godâs weather first of all. All of the water in Trinity if it rise above what it is now and it comes down here in the neighborhood, all of people who are less fortunate than us could very well be in trouble,â Phifer said.
The Doug Bell Road subdivision has been flooded as the Trinity River rises to record high levels. Although the water in the subdivision has since receded, the Thursday rain could flood it again.
âMy heart goes out to them, they are really stuck between a rock and hard place,â Wallace said.
The rising water has pushed many people out of their homes and caused road damage in the area.
âA lot of our roads have washed out in the last couple of weeks. Our county roads and dirt roads are horrible. Weâve had lots of potholes, new potholes forming on major roads. People need to be really careful when driving no matter how low the water is because there may not be a bottom,â Wallace said.
Wallace said the county has met criteria to apply for FEMA.
âBad news in one way because the amount of damage, but good news if we are gonna have damage we might as well have enough to get some funding in here,â Wallace said.
Residents said they will continue to pray for sunshine and aid to be handed down as they continue recovery efforts.
âGod has brought me safety through the storm and the wind so Iâm grateful,â Phifer said.
CAMP COUNTY â 
Our news partners at KETK report the Camp County Sheriffâs Office said a 37-year-old man has been arrested for possession of child pornography. Sheriff John Cortelyou said a search warrant was obtained for Christopher Joseph Daigreâs residence. Cortelyou said Daigre is a registered sex offender. During a non-custodial interrogation, a type of police questioning where the individual is not in police custody, officials said Daigre admitted to possession of child pornography on his cell phone, and showed officers âfiles containing child sexual abuse material.â The sheriffâs office said in a release they have obtained Daigreâs computer equipment for further investigation.
NACOGDOCHES â Authorities in Nacogdoches said they are searching for a suspect after a child was struck Thursday morning in a hit-and-run crash according to our news partners at KETK.
Officers were still at the scene in the 2100 block of Looneyville Street, as of 8 a.m., and said preliminary information shows a white SUV struck the child and fled the scene.
âThe child is believed to be in stable condition and is being treated,â officials with Nacogdoches PD said. âOur officers are still looking for the suspect and vehicle.â
LINDEN â 
Our news colleagues at KETK report an arrest warrant has been issued for a man after a shooting Monday night at a ballpark in Linden and authorities said he is considered armed and dangerous. According to Linden PD, no one was struck in the shooting but damage was done to a car. An arrest warrant for felony deadly conduct was issued for 37-year-old Caradarow Hill, of Hughes Springs. He is believed to drive a blue Chevy Tahoe. Anyone with information on his location is asked to contact law enforcement. The investigation was conducted by the Cass County Sheriffâs Office, Hughes Springs Police Department and the Linden Police Department.
HOPKINS COUNTY â
The Hopkins County Sheriffâs Office arrested two Sulphur Springs ISD employees accused of unlawful restraint of a student on Friday according to our news partners at KETK. According to a release, Marcie Nordin Stewart, 55, and Kristy Denee Williams, 47, were arrested for unlawful restraint, a state jail felony offense after police and school administration were alerted to the incident. The sheriffâs office said the investigationâs ongoing and other arrests are likely. Read the rest of this entry »
HOPKINS COUNTY â Our news partners at KETK report that a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general has been arrested for continuous sexual assault of a minor under the age of 14. According to a probable cause affidavit, deputies conducted a traffic stop on Saturday and identified the driver as Mike McClendon, 69, who was ânamed to be a person of interest in a sexual assault investigation.â Officials said McClendon was then asked to drive to the Hopkins County Sheriffâs Office to speak with investigators, later arrested and taken to the Hopkins County Jail. Records show that the offense date was January 1, 2014. Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) â An Air Force instructor pilot was killed when the ejection seat activated while the jet was still on the ground at a Texas military base, the Air Force said Tuesday.
The instructor pilot was in a T-6A Texan II at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, when the seat activated during ground operations on Monday. The pilot was taken to a hospital and died Tuesday, the Air Force said. The pilot’s name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The T-6A Texan II is a single-engine two-seater aircraft that serves as a primary trainer for Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps pilots. In a training flight an instructor can sit in the front or back seat; both have lightweight Martin-Baker ejection seats that are activated by a handle on the seat.
In 2022, the T-6 fleet and hundreds of other Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps jets were grounded after inspections revealed a potential defect with one component of the ejection seat’s cartridge actuated devices, or CADs. The fleet was inspected and in some instances the CADs were replaced.
When activated the cartridge explodes and starts the ejection sequence.
Ejection seats have been credited with saving pilots’ lives, but they also have failed at critical moments in aircraft accidents. Investigators identified ejection seat failure as a partial cause of an F-16 crash that killed 1st Lt. David Schmitz, 32, in June 2020.
In 2018, four members of a B-1 bomber crew earned the Distinguished Flying Cross when, with their aircraft on fire, they discovered one of the four ejection seats was indicating failure. Instead of bailing out, all of the crew decided to remain in the burning aircraft and land it so they all would have the best chance of surviving. All of the crew survived.
TYLER â 
Chapel Hill Independent School District proudly announces Regnal McGowan as the new Principal of Chapel Hill High School, effective July 1, 2024. With five years of dedicated service to the district and 18 years in education, Mr. McGowan was formerly the Assistant Principal and Freshman Academy Principal at the High School. He is a graduate of Rusk High School and after completing his undergraduate degree at Sam Houston State University, he later pursued a degree in educational leadership from Lamar University. Mr. McGowan has served at Lufkin ISD and Tyler ISD prior to coming to Chapel Hill ISD where he was the Assistant Principal at the Junior High before transitioning over to the High School.
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle says that Houston is among the worldâs wealthiest cities, with the number of millionaire residents here soaring during the past 10 years, according to a new analysis. There are 90,900 millionaire residents in Houston, according to an annual report from Henley & Partners, a London-based investment migration consultancy. According to that metric, Houston is the fifth-wealthiest city in the United States and 17th in the world, just above the canton of Zurich, in Switzerland. Houston is also home to 258 centimillionaires â those with a net worth of at least $100 million â and 18 billionaires, according to Henley & Partners. The consultancy advises wealthy individuals on migration decisions.
New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area lead the world when it comes to collecting millionaires, with about 350,000 in New York and 306,000 in the Bay Area. Tokyo ranks third, with about 298,000 millionaires. Tokyo is among several world cities where the number of millionaires has declined over the past 10 years, the report notes. But the number of has soared in many cities across the Sun Belt. Houston saw a 70% increase in local millionaires from 2013 to 2023, Dallas saw a 75% increase, and in Austin the number of millionaires has more than doubled to 32,700, according to the report. The Texas capital is Americaâs top city in terms of millionaire growth. âTaxes are quite low in states such as Texas and Florida, so thatâs probably a major driver of the recent millionaire growth in these states,â said Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth and a contributor to the report. He added that Houston could continue to attract and create more millionaires within city limits. âStrong growth in high-value sectors sector such as high tech, tourism, green tech, fintech, wealth management, and family offices and engineering will be key,â he said. âAlso, if Houston is able to get more Fortune 500 companies to move their headquarters to the city, that would significantly boost wealth held in the city.â
DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that every day, thousands of drivers jump on toll roads to ease their commutes to work and school. Toll roads overlook international bridges and crossings on the Texas-Mexico border, they connect drivers to airports all over the state and they circumnavigate urban cores by way of loops and tunnels. Texas has so many toll roads that it has earned the distinction of building more miles than nearly all other states combined. Picture this: If you stretched the stateâs 852 miles of toll roads across the eastern U.S., they would pass through 13 states â from Maine to South Carolina, a yearlong Dallas Morning News investigation has found.
The high concentration of toll roads came about because state leaders disdained higher taxes but needed a way to prepare for an influx of new residents. But now those same roads are adversely affecting drivers all over Texas and are being denounced by some of those same elected officials at the state Capitol, The Newsâ investigation found. Toll roads have engulfed some communities, the examination found, making it difficult for residents â especially those who live in middle- to low-income neighborhoods â to avoid them or travel easily without them. They have also brought complaints from motorists and some local judges about excessive fees and unfair treatment by some of the stateâs largest toll operators. Each year, thousands of drivers are hauled into court for unpaid fees. Some have their car registrations yanked and others are sent to jail even when they have proof the fees they were charged are incorrect. These practices make Texas one of the countryâs harshest and most unforgiving states for unpaid toll fines, the investigation revealed. Even more troubling is that the evidence most often used to convict drivers for unpaid toll fees may not hold up in court, several national legal and transportation analysts told The News. Thatâs because the penalties are based on an image of a vehicleâs license plate and not proof that shows the identity of a carâs driver. âYou have to prove in a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt that a person drove a vehicle through without paying a toll,â said Lisa Foster, a retired California superior court judge who is now co-director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, an organization that works to ensure fines are equitably imposed and enforced. âYou canât prosecute a car, you have to prosecute people for doing things illegally.â
HOUSTON – A wave of corporations, from oil companies to tech giants, are struggling to meet their climate goals amid societyâs continued reliance on oil and other fossil fuels, putting efforts to shift the world almost entirely to clean energy by 2050 into increasing question according to the Houston Chronicle. European oil giant Shell this year pulled back its emissions reductions targets, citing âuncertainty in the pace of change in the energy transition.â And companies including Microsoft, Walmart and United Airlines have had their climate goals decertified by the United Nations’ Science Based Targets initiative, following concern the plans to achieve emissions reductions were too vague. Underlying the examination of corporate climate targets is a global economy that continues to remain hugely reliant on fossil fuels, even as wind and solar energy continue to grow at a rapid pace, said Andrew Logan, oil and gas director at the nonprofit climate group Ceres.
âWeâre seeing the rubber hit the road between companies’ net zero aspirations and whether they have a coherent and defensible plan to get there,â he said. âThere are companies that thought this was going to be simpler and you could just convert to 100% renewable or rely on efficiency to drive down emissions more than was realistic.â After years of stagnant crude demand in the United States, oil consumption is rising again, up 1.5% last year from 2021. And natural gas demand continues to rise, up 4.5% over the past five years, with Goldman Sachs projecting an even larger surge in gas demand coming this decade as power grids try to keep up with boom in new data centers. Oil and gas companies dominate the Texas economy and have struggled in recent years to convince investors of their long-term viability amid global decarbonization efforts. Now, the years ahead are suddenly looking bright.
LUFKIN â The City of Lufkin has announced that a major crash in the 3500 block of South First Street left two people dead on Sunday according to our news partners at KETK.
Officials said the crash happened in front of the Crown Colony Food Mart when a Honda sedan going south crossed in front of an 18-wheeler that was heading south in the center lane. The 18-wheeler then also reportedly hit a Toyota 4-Runner before stopping.
The two men in the Honda died from the crash, according to a press release. One of the men died at the scene and the other later died at a local hospital. The driver of the Toyota was taken by ambulance to be checked out and the 18-wheelerâs driver was uninjured.
Lufkin officials said they would release the names of those involved on Monday.
The city asked drivers to avoid the area and to slow down on wet roads.