Today is
Monday March 31, 2025
TEXAS BORDER – Texas Public Radio reports that facing worsening drought conditions and a dwindling water supply, South Texas farmers have been caught in the middle of a growing water dispute between the U.S. and Mexico. The United States denied Mexico’s request for a special delivery of Colorado River water on Thursday, citing Mexico’s ongoing failure to meet its obligations under an 80-year-old water-sharing treaty between the two countries. This marks the first time the U.S. has formally refused a non-treaty water request from Mexico, according to the Western Hemisphere Affairs division of the U.S Department of State. “Mexico’s continued shortfalls in its water deliveries under the 1944 water-sharing treaty are decimating American agriculture – particularly farmers in the Rio Grande valley,” the federal agency said via a social media post on Thursday.
The lack of water in the Rio Grande Valley has already had serious consequences for Texas agriculture, with irrigation cutbacks threatening crops, livestock and livelihoods. The region suffered an economic impact of nearly $1 billion in 2023 due to the ongoing water shortage, according to Texas A&M AgriLife. This eventually led to the 2024 closure of Texas’ last sugar mill, which operated in the RGV for more than 50 years. Under the 1944 Water Treaty, Mexico delivers the U.S. water from the Rio Grande, while the U.S. gives water to Mexico from the Colorado River. But Mexico, like Texas, is also grappling with severe drought conditions. By the end of 2024, more than half the Rio Grande and Bravo River Basin was in moderate to exceptional drought, according to data from the North American Drought Monitor (NADM). Mexican officials argue that they simply don’t have the water to spare. “There’s been less water. That’s part of the problem,” Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters on Thursday. For years now, Mexico has failed to hold up its end of the agreement. Mexico is required to deliver 1,750,000 acre-feet (AF) of water over a five-year cycle, at an average of 350,000 AF annually.
SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Report says that Texas lawmakers are proposing a host of ideas to make it tougher for local governments to borrow money — the natural next step in a yearslong effort to take greater control of spending at the municipal level. If successful, bond elections like the ones San Antonio has used to finance hundreds of major projects in recent years will require two-thirds support from voters instead of a simple majority. They would also have to appear on a November ballot, instead of May, as the city has done in recent years. Gov. Greg Abbott set the wheels in motion for such changes in this year’s State of the State address, which are now laid out in House Bill 2736. Unlike some other revenue-limiting measures the state has approved in recent years, it would apply to all political subdivisions, including cities and counties of all sizes, as well as school districts.
“This is a very important taxpayer protection that ensures that a small minority of voters are not responsible for massive tax increases,” said James Quintero, policy director for the right-leaning Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Taxpayer Protection Project, which is supporting the bill. A bond program allows a municipal government to issue debt to finance large projects, using just a portion of their property tax revenues to repay the loan over time. Often, cities are leveraging their future growth, since tax revenues rise as more people move into the community and home values increase. In a city like San Antonio, where the average resident’s income is relatively low compared to other cities, city leaders say bond programs have been a helpful tool to finance community priorities while keeping the individual tax burden relatively low. The city’s 2022 bond program, for example, is expected to finance 183 projects totaling $1.2 billion, while keeping the debt service portion of residents’ tax bills the same as they were before.
TEXAS – When it comes to gas prices, it’s that time of year. The nation’s average price of gasoline has risen for the first time in over a month, increasing 6.3 cents compared to a week ago and stands at $3.08 per gallon, according to GasBuddy® data compiled from more than 12 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country. The national average is down 1.6 cents from a month ago and is 42.5 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has decreased 0.9 cents in the last week and stands at $3.549 per gallon.
“For the first time in over a month, the national average price of gasoline has risen, driven by the final step in the transition to summer gasoline across wide portions of the country,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “This increase has nothing to do with politics or tariffs — which remain paused for now — but is instead the result of seasonality, and is something that happens almost every year. Concerns over refinery maintenance have been muted so far this year, largely due to broader concerns about the U.S. economy, and demand remains soft. However, for those in the Northeastern U.S. who have enjoyed relatively low gas prices compared to the national average, the final step in the transition to summer gasoline is still a few weeks away. Once it occurs, they too will likely see prices rise. For areas that have already completed the switch, ongoing economic uncertainty will likely prevent further major increases — for now.”
TEXAS (AP) – As measles cases in West Texas are still on the rise two months after the outbreak began, local public health officials say they expect the virus to keep spreading for at least several more months and that the official case number is likely an undercount.
But there’s a silver lining, officials say: More people have received a measles, mumps and rubella vaccination this year in Texas and New Mexico, which also has an outbreak, compared to last year — even if it’s not as high as they would like. And pharmacies across the U.S., especially in Texas, are seeing more demand for MMR shots.
As of Friday, the outbreak in Texas was up to 309 cases and one measles-related death, while New Mexico’s case count was up to 42 and also one measles-related death. Forty-two people have been hospitalized across the two states.
Texas’ outbreak, which has largely spread in undervaccinated Mennonite communities, could last a year based on studies of how measles previously spread in Amish communities in the U.S. Those studies showed outbreaks lasted six to seven months, said Katherine Wells, director of the public health department in Lubbock, Texas. Lubbock’s hospitals have treated most of the outbreak’s patients and the public health department is closely assisting with the response.
“It being so rural, now multistate, it’s just going to take a lot more boots on the ground, a lot more work, to get things under control,” Wells said during a media briefing this week. “It’s not an isolated population.”
The outbreak includes 14 Texas counties, two New Mexico counties and four probable cases in Oklahoma, where health officials said the first two were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases. Its slow way of spreading makes it especially hard to contain and outbreaks can have multiple peaks, said Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Many people spread the measles virus unknowingly for days before the telltale rash appears. The virus also can hang in the air for up to two hours after a sick person has left a room.
“Within this community, it’d be perfectly reasonable to think probably another couple months before things die out,” Lessler said. “But if it gets into another community, you just potentially start that clock over again.”
If the outbreak goes on until next January, it would end the United States’ status of having eliminated measles, which is defined as 12 months without local virus transmission, said Dr. William Moss, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University and executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center.
“We’re only three months in. I think if we had a strong response where the messaging was clear that measles vaccination is the way to stop this outbreak, I would be surprised if it went for 12 months or more,” said Moss, who has worked on measles for 25 years, mostly in Africa. “But we’re not seeing that type of response, at least from the federal government.”
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. instead has sown doubt about the measles vaccine, which has been safely used for more than 60 years and is 97% effective after two doses. In an interview with Fox News last week, Kennedy said MMR shots cause “deaths every year,” although he later added that vaccinations should be encouraged.
Vaccinations are up in Texas and New Mexico
Still, there are signs the outbreak has had an effect on vaccinations, especially locally.
Between Feb. 1 and March 18 last year, New Mexico Department of Health registered 6,500 measles vaccines. During that timeframe this year, more than 11,600 measles vaccines were administered in New Mexico — about half given to adults and half to children.
Southeast New Mexico, where the outbreak is located, represents a large portion of the count, with 2,369 doses administered.
In Texas, at least 173,000 measles doses were given from Jan. 1 to March 16, compared to at least 158,000 over the same timeframe last year, according to the state health department. That includes more than 340 doses in given by public health in the West Texas outbreak area as of March 11.
Texans must opt-in to the state’s immunization registry, so most people’s vaccinations are not captured in the Texas Department of State Health Services numbers, department spokeswoman Lara Anton said.
“We don’t know if more people are opting in or if this is a true reflection of an increase in vaccinations,” Anton wrote in an email. “It may be both.”
Pharmacy chains Walgreens and CVS told The Associated Press that they’re seeing higher demand for MMR vaccines across the U.S., especially in the outbreak areas.
Texas health officials say they’d like to see more uptake in the communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, especially in Gaines County — where the childhood vaccination rate against measles is 82%. That’s far below the 95% level needed to prevent community spread, and likely lower in the small religious schools and homeschooling groups where the early cases were identified.
Prasad Ganji is a pharmacist in Seminole, the biggest town in Gaines County. He said he ordered a 10-dose box of the MMR vaccine as cases started to spread.
He can give vaccines to people older than 14. But he still has doses left.
“The uptake for vaccines been definitely been a struggle,” Wells said of Gaines County, “I want to be honest with that.”
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago.
Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.
The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.
Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.
Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn’t provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search.
“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,” he said in a statement.
SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports South San Antonio Independent School District is switching to a controversial, Bible-infused curriculum next year — but not before setting up a committee to vet the learning materials for “inappropriate” content. The South San ISD board of managers unanimously approved the purchase of the state-written lessons and textbooks known collectively as Bluebonnet Learning on Monday, at the district’s second meeting since being taken over by the Texas Education Agency. South San’s new superintendent, Saul Hinojosa, recommended adopting the curriculum to address the district’s historically poor performance on standardized testing compared to the rest of the state, region and city. He said Bluebonnet Learning will help close those gaps in academic outcomes.
“I know there’s some concern as you read out there of this particular curriculum, but we are going to have some safeguards by formulating a committee that’s going to consist of teachers, parents and board members that will audit the curriculum,” he said. “If there’s anything we feel is inappropriate, we will have the ability to pull that out and change that little piece.” South San is one of the few San Antonio school systems to approve the widely debated curriculum since it was narrowly approved by eight of the 15 members of the State Board of Education in November. Harlandale ISD voted to adopt it at a December board meeting. Other local school districts, including East Central, Edgewood, Judson and Southwest ISDs, have approved portions of the curriculum. Bluebonnet Learning was created through House Bill 1605, which directed the Texas Education Agency to develop textbooks that align with state standards. The curriculum is free to access online, and school district are paid $60 per student to adopt it — $40 for using its instructional materials and $20 to cover printing the Bluebonnet textbooks.
AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports that the person who purchased the winning ticket for the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot in the Feb. 17 drawing came forward to collect her prize Tuesday but was sent away empty-handed because of the mushrooming controversy over the use of third-party vendors who broker ticket sales through smartphone apps. The person, who spoke with the American-Statesman on the condition that her name not be used because of privacy concern, said she did nothing illegal or wrong when she purchased $20 worth of tickets using a phone app she has used on and off to buy Lotto and scratch-off tickets. Still, her payment is being held up pending the outcome of an investigation by the Texas Rangers. “I’ve gone through frustration and being sad and stressed,” she said in an interview that included her lawyer, Randy Howry of Austin. “And now I’m just angry.”
Just days before the drawing that would change the winner’s life, lottery Executive Director Ryan Mindell and members of the lottery’s governing board were excoriated during a Texas Senate Finance Committee hearing because third-party operators, called courier companies, had bypassed the state’s prohibition of selling game tickets by telephone. Mindell at the time told the Senate panel that he had no authority over the companies, because they were legally making in-person purchases from licensed lottery retailers. Still, several committee members said the companies could be used by unscrupulous buyers who might be underage or otherwise ineligible to play the Texas Lottery. The members were especially upset that a courier company was used to make a bulk purchase totaling more than $25 million to buy up more than 99% of the possible number combinations to win a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot in April 2023. Although the bulk purchase did not go through an app, Mindell was told that he should have suspected that the massive purchase of tickets could have involved a money launderer who was using the state-run lottery to legitimize profits from illicit enterprises.
FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that statewide and national child advocates are sounding the alarm on impacts to emergent bilingual students, one group among many who have been left with less academic support and resources after mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education. Almost half of staff at the federal department were recently cut as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce staff across multiple federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Education cuts have resulted in the disbandment of the department’s Office of Language Acquisition, which provides support to English-learning, emergent bilingual students. This student population is among the fastest-growing in Texas with 20% of students statewide — about 1.2 million — identified as emergent bilingual, according to the Texas Education Agency. The apparent elimination of federal oversight for these students, advocates say, could prompt them to fall behind academically, disengage from school and face lower graduation rates.
“One of the things that a lot of people don’t understand is that while immigration may have partly something to do with this, we are a Latino state in many ways. We are a legal immigration hub in many ways. We have a lot of children here that are American citizens, that are still bi-language learners,” said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, during a virtual press conference on Wednesday, March 19. “This decision effectively eliminates federal leadership, educator support and resources designed to help emergent bilingual kids succeed in school,” he added. According to Children at Risk, a Texas research and advocacy nonprofit focused on improving children’s quality of life, Texas’ emergent bilingual student population grew by 49% from 2013 to 2023. The Texas state director of Emgage, a group of organizations dedicated to politically empowering Muslim American communities, shared a story of an emergent bilingual student who received support through middle and high school and graduated speaking fluent English. He is now working full-time and attending college to obtain his bachelor’s degree. Jida Nabulsi, the state director, said many emergent bilingual students don’t realize they have the same opportunities as this student to open doors for themselves.
AUSTIN (AP) – The Texas Senate on Tuesday advanced bills that would require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments and allow districts to provide students with time to pray during school hours.
Senators gave final approval to Senate Bill 11, the school prayer bill, on a 23-7 vote. It now heads to the Texas House for consideration. All Republican senators and three Democrats — Royce West of Dallas, Judith Zaffirini of Laredo and Juan Hinojosa of McAllen — voted for the bill.
Lawmakers also gave initial approval to Senate Bill 10, the Ten Commandments bill, on a 20-10 vote. Both proposals are on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s list of priority bills this session.
The votes are the latest sign of confidence by conservative Christians that courts will codify their opposition to church-state separation into federal law and spark a revitalization of faith in America.
That much was clear during the debate on the Senate floor Tuesday. Several Democrats criticized both bills, saying they would infringe on the religious freedoms of Texans who are not Christian.
“I think you’re expanding the role of our public education system to include matters that particularly conservatives have previously said is a private matter,” Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, said of the school prayer bill. The proposal references the Bible but does not specifically name any other religious texts.
Republican Sens. Mayes Middleton of Galveston and Phil King of Weatherford, who authored the bills, expressed confidence that their legislation would survive in the courts. Religious conservatives see recent court rulings as a sign that legislation putting more religion in public schools will survive legal challenges — though critics of these proposals aren’t so convinced.
“Our schools are not God-free zones. We are a state and nation built on ‘In God We Trust,’” Middleton said in a news release following Tuesday’s vote. “Litigious atheists are no longer going to get to decide for everyone else if students and educators exercise their religious liberties during school hours.”
Middleton also thanked President Donald Trump for “making prayer in public schools a top priority.”
Some Texas faith groups have expressed sharp opposition to both bills. In a letter directed to the Texas Legislature on Tuesday, 166 faith leaders in the state — including those from Sikh, Baptist, Jewish and Buddhist communities — called on lawmakers to reject the school prayer bill and similar legislation.
“We do not need to — and indeed should not — turn public schools into Sunday schools,” the letter wrote.
Similar arguments to those made on the Senate floor Tuesday were also echoed during a Senate committee hearing on March 4, as supporters and some lawmakers argued that the legislation would reverse what they see as decades of national, moral decline.
The vote comes amid a broader push by conservative Christians to infuse more religion into public schools and life. In just the last few years, state Republicans have required classrooms to hang donated signs that say “In God We Trust”; allowed unlicensed religious chaplains to supplant mental health counselors in public schools; and approved new curriculum materials that teach the Bible and other religious texts alongside grade-school lessons.
Last month, Texas senators also approved legislation that would allow public taxpayer money to be redirected to private schools, including parochial schools.
Those efforts have come as the Texas GOP increasingly embraces ideologies that argue America’s founding was God-ordained, and its institutions and laws should thus reflect fundamentalist Christians views. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers and leaders have continually elevated once-fringe claims that the wall between church and state is a myth meant to obscure America’s true, Christian roots. The argument has been popularized by figures such as David Barton, a Texas pastor and self-styled “ amateur historian ” whose work has been frequently debunked by trained historians, many of them also conservative Christians.
Barton and his son, Timothy Barton, were both invited to testify in favor of the bills on the March 4 hearing. Citing old documents and textbooks that mention the Ten Commandments, they argued that Christianity is the basis for American law and morality, and that their inclusion in classrooms would prevent societal ill such as gun violence.
“It used to be there was a very clear moral standard that we could point to,” Timothy Barton testified, calling it “ironic” that children can be arrested for breaking the law — and thus, he said, the Ten Commandments — but that they should not be able to read them in schools.
Other bill supporters and lawmakers said that there was a moral and spiritual imperative to introduce children to Christianity. Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, cited a study that found around 25% of children have been to church.
“It’s absolutely horrific, and something we all need to work on to address,” he said.
Other lawmakers similarly invoked declining Christian participation as a reason to support the bills. “There is eternal life,” said Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels. “And if we don’t expose or introduce our children and others to that, then when they die, they’ll have one birth and two deaths.”
Texas is one of 16 states where lawmakers are pursuing bills to require the Ten Commandments in classrooms — pushes that supporters say have been enabled by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In 2019’s Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, for instance, the court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach, Joe Kennedy, who argued that his employer, a public high school, was violating his religious rights by prohibiting him from leading prayers on the field after games.
Kennedy was among those who testified in support of the Texas bills on March 4. He was joined by Matt Krause, a former state House representative and current lawyer at First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based law firm that represented Kennedy and other high-profile plaintiffs in lawsuits that have allowed for more Christianity in public life.
The Kennedy case, Krause testified, was a “ huge paradigm shift ” that allowed for the Ten Commandments to be in classrooms because of its historical significance to American law and history. Asked about the recent court decision that blocked a similar Louisiana law, Krause said he expected the Texas bill would be upheld if it were taken to the ultraconservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, after that, the U.S. Supreme Court.
The bills have been strongly opposed by religious history scholars and some Christian groups, who argue that they are based on mischaracterizations of early American history and amount to a coercion of religion upon students. Opponents also say that the Ten Commandments bill diminishes a sacred text by stripping it of its religious nature, and that introducing more Christianity into schools will exacerbate tensions and isolate Texas’ growing number of non-Christian students.
“Since 2021, this Legislature has used its authority to impose increasingly divisive policies onto school districts, banning culturally relevant curriculum, forcing libraries to purge undesirable books and putting teachers into the crosshairs of overzealous critics,” said Jaime Puente of the nonprofit Every Texan. The bills “are two giant pieces of red meat that will further harm our schools.”
Christian opponents also testified that the bills would erode church-state separations — a cause that has historically been championed by Baptists and other denominations that faced intense religious persecution in early America.
“All Baptists are called to protect the separation of church and state,” said Jody Harrison, an ordained minister and leader of Baptist Women in Ministry. “Is it really justice to promote one type of Christianity over all schoolchildren?”
Harrison’s comments were strongly opposed by Campbell, the senator. “The Baptist doctrine is Christ-centered,” she said. “Its purpose is not to go around trying to defend this or that. It is to be a disciple and a witness for Christ. That includes the Ten Commandments. That’s prayer in schools. It is not a fight for separation between church and state.”
LUBBOCK (AP) — A Texas lawmaker is laying the groundwork to create a statewide system that connects all first responders and government agencies to the same network. The proposal comes as a possible solution to fix communication issues the agencies have encountered during emergencies and amid a rash of new wildfires in the state.
State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, filed House Bill 13 this month. The bill would create The Texas Interoperability Council, which would be tasked with creating a statewide strategic plan for governing the use of emergency equipment and infrastructure. King filed the bill in response to the devastating wildfires last year that engulfed the Panhandle, when more than 1 million acres burned and three people died. King, who lost part of his property in the fires, said he found communication problems as he led the investigative committee last year.
“The first responder community will tell you it takes three meetings in the middle of a disaster before everybody starts moving in the same direction,” King said in a House committee meeting last week. “When that wildfire is moving 60 miles-per-hour, that’s too long.”
Since the wildfires last year, lawmakers seem ready to mitigate wildfire risk. King and state Sen. Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, filed a package of bills that address the problems uncovered last year. Their bills would put more oversight on unregulated power lines, increase funding for rural volunteer fire departments and create a database of readily available firefighting equipment.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also signaled that wildfire response is one of his priorities for the session. Last week, Sparks filed Senate Bill 34, which now includes his previous bills about wildfire response and creating the Texas Interoperability Council.
In both bills, the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the Texas House of Representatives each would appoint two members to the council, which would be led by the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The members would serve staggered six-year terms, with the last term ending on Sept. 1, 2031.
TDEM Chief Nim Kidd called the bill the boldest move he has seen in his career. Kidd, who started his career 33 years ago when he joined the volunteer fire department in La Vernia, told lawmakers he often paid for his own equipment and training. He mentioned that when he worked for the San Antonio Fire Department, the police, fire and EMS crews were responding to the same incident on three different radio channels that were all labeled the same.
A network that connects all first responders and state agencies is important, he said, as several agencies respond to the same incident but aren’t able to talk to each other.
“This council will set up an organization structure to bring in over 50 independent operators of radio systems on to the same place,” Kidd said.
This month has been a test of preparedness. As the committee discussed the bills, most of Texas was under wildfire risk. A combination of weather conditions — including hurricane-force winds and drought — hit the Panhandle and South Plains. Gov. Greg Abbott directed the TDEM to ready state emergency response resources.
Jordan Ghawi, a reserve firefighter and a leader for the state emergency medical task force, testified in favor of HB 13. Ghawi told lawmakers he has been deployed to numerous disasters, including the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde and hurricanes. He said in every response, the lack of communication and interoperability has been a problem.
“When seconds matter,” Gwahi said, “the ability for our first responders, whether its law enforcement, fire, EMS or state agencies to communicate seamlessly can mean the difference between life and death, or property preservation or property loss.
The bill states the strategic plan must include plans to develop any necessary communication infrastructure and training programs. It must also have a plan to make sure first responders have communication equipment that is interoperable with other equipment, and another plan to ensure any new emergency equipment and infrastructure can be integrated into the existing equipment.
The council would also administer a grant program to assist local governments in getting emergency communication equipment that connects them with other emergency responders and the emergency infrastructure in the state. The grant also would go toward building more emergency communication infrastructure in the state.
Two wildfires erupted in the Panhandle over the weekend. The Windmill Fire in Roberts County was still active Tuesday, but firefighters had it almost completely contained after burning more than 23,000 acres. Several small fires popped up around the state, as well, including the Crabapple Fire outside Fredericksburg. After burning nearly 10,000 acres, firefighters had the fire 90% contained Tuesday night. Firefighters also were battling another blaze late Tuesday night that started in Dallam County, which is near the Texas-Oklahoma border. Texas A&M Forest Service reported it had burned 15,000 acres and was 50% contained. The fire’s forward progression also had stopped.
A Texas 2036 study with state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon found that the wildfire season — late winter and early spring — is expected to get longer. The study also states that while almost all of the wildfires occur in the western half of the state, other portions of the state will likely be susceptible to wildfire risk.
TYLER – 
A Canton man has been sentenced to federal prison for his role in a wire fraud conspiracy in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin, Jr. James Derr, 55, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle on March 18, 2025. Derr was also ordered to pay $2,615,585.93 in restitution.According to information presented in court, Derr, an electrical contractor with J&D Electric, was involved in a conspiracy with Rebekah Mitchell and Brittany Burton to divert equipment for their own financial gain. Read the rest of this entry »
FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the federal government has until March 18 to pay Catholic Charities Fort Worth millions in grant funds that have been withheld since January. A federal judge on March 14 ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to release $47 million that became entangled in the Trump administration’s restructuring of federal programs. The grants were allocated to pay for organizations that partner with Catholic Charities Fort Worth, such as the Texas Office for Refugees, which provides resettlement services to people fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries. Catholic Charities Fort Worth sued HHS and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy earlier this month, alleging the federal government had unlawfully frozen the funding. The pause led to thousands of refugees losing their cash payment benefits, which resulted in evictions and other hardships, the organization said, as well as the possibility of having to lay off almost almost half of its staff across Texas.
On March 10, Catholic Charities Fort Worth filed a WARN Act notice that it would lay off 169 of its approximately 400 employees in Texas effective Friday. The 1989 Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act is meant to protect workers and their families by requiring employers to give 60-day notice of mass layoffs and plant closings. In a joint statement on Friday, Michael Iglio, CEO of Catholic Charities Fort Worth, and Jeff Demers, state refugee coordinator of Texas Office of Refugees, said the U.S. District Court in Washington ordered the funds to be released during a status conference on the lawsuit on Friday. “The withholding of these essential funds led to significant challenges, including widespread layoffs and the disruption of vital services for more than 100,000 across 29 partner agencies throughout Texas,” they said. “The anticipated release of these funds marks a pivotal step toward restoring and enhancing the support systems that empower individuals and families to achieve self-sufficiency and build successful lives within our communities.” HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Catholic Charities Fort Worth has administered the state’s refugee resettlement services since 2016, when Gov. Greg Abbott pulled Texas from the federal program.
FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Hollie Plemons took her seat before a panel of lawmakers in Austin to make her conservative case against school vouchers. “This is going against everything that a Texas Republican is,” said Plemons, a mother of three and Tarrant County GOP precinct chair from Fort Worth who has been outspoken in her opposition. She was one of hundreds in a marathon hearing on March 11 to testify before the House Public Education committee as they considered House Bill 3, the House’s version of an education savings accounts program, a voucher-of-sort that supporters say would give parents more choice in their child’s education. A similar proposal passed in the Texas Senate on Feb. 5. The details are different, but both would let parents use state dollars for their child’s private or home schooled education.
The issue has historically been a tension point for Texas Republicans, facing opposition from some within the party, particularly among rural House members who have feared for their local public schools. As the legislation is debated there are also Republicans — like Plemons — whose opposition stems from what they see as a breach of traditional Republican principles opposing government subsidies and supporting small government. This is despite support for vouchers from many in the Republican Party’s upper-most ranks. “In a way, for these conservatives, vouchers are big government,” said University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus. “Vouchers are basically setting the table for winners and losers. That’s something that many conservatives, fiscal conservatives, are adamantly against.” Plemons said she’s been attacked by Republican groups and called a Democrat, communist and Marxist for her stance. “I’m none of those, but the bill is,” she said. Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West mulled the idea of “school choice” in a recent post on the local party’s website. The former Texas GOP chair ran against Abbott for governor in 2021, challenging him from the right. “I do not think we have a very clear understanding of what ‘school choice’ means,” the post reads. “When I hear people use language such as ‘universal school choice,’ well, it sends chills down my spine because of the word ‘universal,’ which was also used to describe Obamacare as “universal healthcare.” West addresses the Senate’s proposal, saying it goes against a party platform item that calls for funding that follows a child with “no strings attached” and opposes “regulations on homeschooling or the curriculum of private or religious schools.” “Instead of issuing a voucher, why not enable Flexible Education Savings Accounts that are tax credits, not vouchers?” West said in the post.
DALLAS — The Texas Employment Forecast released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicates jobs will increase 1.9 percent in 2025, with an 80 percent confidence band of 1.2 to 2.6 percent.
This is an increase from the previous month’s forecast of 1.6 percent for 2025.
The forecast is based on an average of four models that include projected national GDP, oil futures prices,?and the Texas and U.S. leading indexes. In addition, this forecast utilizes Texas employment data that have been adjusted to include anticipated downward revisions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“January job growth was strong and broad based, led by increases in the energy and education and health sectors. Only employment in the information sector dropped,” said Jesus Cañas, Dallas Fed senior business economist. “Additionally, employment rose in all major metropolitan areas of the state, with Houston outpacing the other major metros.”
Additional key takeaways from the latest Dallas Fed report:
The forecast suggests 275,000 jobs will be added in the state this year, and employment in December 2025 will be 14.5 million.
Texas employment increased by an annualized 3.4 percent month over month in January, an increase from December’s growth of 2.9 percent.
The unemployment rate, which takes into account changes in the total labor force along with other factors, decreased in Austin–Round Rock, Brownsville–Harlingen, El Paso, Fort Worth–Arlington, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, Laredo and San Antonio–New Braunfels, according to?seasonally adjusted numbers?from the Dallas Fed.
The rate remained flat in Dallas–Plano–Irving for the month.
The Texas statewide unemployment rate decreased slightly to 4.1 percent in January.
TYLER – 
On Thursday, March 20, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Tyler Water Utilities (TWU) will conduct a come-and-go community meeting in District 1 at the South Tyler Police Station, Meeting Room, 574 W. Cumberland Rd. This come-and-go event will feature information stations staffed by Department Directors and the opportunity for individuals to speak directly with Councilmember Stuart Hene. Water Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) will also be available to assist with individual account questions. Customers are encouraged to attend the event in their district and speak one-on-one with subject matter experts to learn more about TWU, utility billing, and improvement projects, voice questions or concerns, and provide feedback on these topics. Residents should bring a copy of their water bill for specific billing questions. Read the rest of this entry »