Today is
Sunday July 19, 2026
SMITH COUNTY — The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles online system is down statewide, so the Smith County Tax Office cannot process auto registration renewals or title work at this time, according to the county’s Facebook page.
Smith County Tax-Assessor Collector Gary Barber said the system went down Thursday afternoon and it was still down when they came to work Friday morning. He is not sure when it will be back up but we will alert the public when that happens.
UVALDE (AP) — Dangerous flooding in Texas has intensified after days of pounding rain, sending emergency crews scrambling to rescue people from high water before sunrise Thursday and setting off urgent warnings from forecasters: “Move to higher ground now!”
The National Weather Service in San Antonio said a “large and deadly flood wave” was barreling down the same river devastated by floods a year ago when two dozen children and counselors were killed at Camp Mystic.
The storms threatened multiple counties close to the border with Mexico and in the Texas Hill Country, where city officials in Kerrville urged people to shelter at the highest levels of their homes.
The Uvalde County Office of Emergency Management issued its own shelter-in-place message. “All major highways and many city streets are closed due to flooding and water over the roadway,” it said.
There was no immediate word of any deaths or injuries from the flooding. Several tornado warnings were also issued.
Texas Game Wardens have participated in rescues of more than 40 people so far from the flooding, mostly in the Uvalde County area, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson.
The weather service said 10 to 20 inches of rain (25 to 50 centimeters) had fallen in the past two days, with 8 inches (20 centimeters) in just two hours early Thursday.
One gauge less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Kerrville showed the river had risen 32 feet (9.7 meters) in four hours. It was expected to reach a crest similar to the July 4, 2025, catastrophic river flood, the weather service said.
Forecasters had warned that already dangerous conditions were likely to worsen in some hard-hit communities. The deluge dumped nearly a foot of rain in some counties and put people in multiple counties under flood watches. That included parts of the Texas Hill Country where last summer’s devastating floods killed more than 100 people.
Some of the flood watches were expected to remain in effect through Friday evening.
By Wednesday, Uvalde police had ordered mandatory evacuations for some parts, with first responders notifying people affected directly, the department said on Facebook. Others were asked to stay vigilant in case more evacuations are needed.
Some people walked out of their homes into the street to see the water growing closer every hour, their faces worried. People living along the Leona River scrambled to pack up their cars and head out, although many did not yet know where they should go. One man threw two kayaks into his truck bed, just in case.
Lightning flashed as clouds darkened the landscape, and brown water created large rapids in the typically calm river, which was pushing up against the town’s high bridge and into neighborhoods by Wednesday afternoon.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued disaster declarations for dozens of counties.
As of Wednesday evening, just over six million Texas residents in 57 counties were under a National Weather Service flood watch that was scheduled to continue through early Thursday night. Watches for 34 of those counties were scheduled to expire Friday evening.
Some of the highest rainfall totals so far have been in Uvalde County, where officials conducted dozens of rescues and said more people needed help as river levels rose. Highways and roads were closed across the region because of high water.
The county normally gets about 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain a year, according to the Uvalde County Extension Office.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of people held at a sprawling Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas say they were either beaten by guards or witnessed others being beaten, according to a new report issued by legal and human rights advocates.
The 84-page report issued jointly Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union also says men and women held at Camp East Montana, located at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss in El Paso, recounted being denied necessary medical care, forced to live in filthy conditions and fed inedible meals. Detainees also said they were prevented from contacting their lawyers or family members.
Of the 71 detainees contacted over a five month period, 64 — about 90% of those interviewed — said they had either personally been assaulted by the staff or had seen others physically abused, according to the report.
“ICE’s Camp East Montana is a human rights disaster,” said Angélica César, a fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU who was a lead researcher for the report. “The U.S. government should shut it down, conduct independent investigations into all abuses and deaths in custody, and put an end to mass deportations and mandatory immigration detention.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new accounts of violence and substandard living conditions inside Camp East Montana are consistent with earlier reports by The Associated Press and others. At least three detainees held at the facility since it opened in August have died, including a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who was handcuffed and stopped breathing earlier this year after being held down by guards.
A local medical examiner later ruled that death a homicide and a federal report issued last month said evidence in the case was “missing or destroyed.” That report by the Government Accountability Office found mismanagement by the Department of Homeland Security had created unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee deaths and suffering even as millions of wasted tax dollars enriched contractors.
In March, ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics, LLC, the prime contractor that had been awarded a deal last year worth up to $1.3 billion to build and manage the camp. The Virginia company had no prior experience running an ICE detention facility, had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million and lacked a functioning website.
The change came as an internal ICE review documented 49 deficiencies, which it defines as violations of detention standards or policies, in areas including the use of force and restraints, security and medical care.
Despite the change in contractors, interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU as recently as last month found serious problems at the camp have persisted.
Detainees recounted degrading and inhumane living conditions that included bathrooms covered in feces, flooded housing units and no access to soap or other basic hygiene supplies, according to the report. They also reported being held indoors for weeks without meaningful access to recreation, sunlight or fresh air.
People also described receiving spoiled food and inconsistent meal schedules, with delays of up to 12 hours between meals.
The report recounts detainees saying that guards beat detainees in response to hunger strikes, requests for medical attention and complaints regarding detention conditions. Several people said that guards imposed collective punishment, striking or assaulting multiple people after accusing one detainee of violating rules, according to the report.
Researchers found that staff pressured and coerced those held there into abandoning immigration claims and accepting removal to third countries if they could not be sent back to their own country. The detainees said they were threatened with violence, criminal prosecution, and indefinite detention if they refused deportation.
In some cases, the report concluded, the circumstances of ICE detention could amount to enforced disappearances, a potential violation of international human rights law.
Human Rights Watch and the ACLU called on the Trump administration to close Camp East Montana and to allow independent investigations into deaths in custody, excessive force, medical neglect and enforced disappearances.
“The abuses documented at Fort Bliss are the predictable outcome of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, its brutal expansion of immigration detention, and the erosion of federal oversight mechanisms,” said César, the lead researcher. “People at Camp East Montana are human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and protected from harm.”
MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge has awarded $314 million in damages to three Americans who were jailed and allegedly tortured by what he called a “criminal enterprise” led by former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro before the men were freed in a swap for a close Maduro ally imprisoned in the U.S.
Maduro’s government in 2023 freed Jerrel Kenemore, Jason Saad and Edgar Marval after months in prison as part of an exchange secretly negotiated with the Biden administration for Alex Saab, a businessman long described by U.S. officials as Maduro’s bag man and who had been awaiting trial in the U.S. on money laundering charges.
Last year, the three Americans sued several top Venezuelan officials, including now acting President Delcy Rodríguez, claiming they were subjected to physical and psychological torture — electrocution, stress positions and beatings — that continues to inflict anguish and trauma on them and their families today. Similar allegations of abuse are also being investigated by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.
Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Miami issued a default judgment Tuesday against Maduro, Saab and five other individual defendants as well as the “Cartel of the Suns,” a purported drug-smuggling ring involving top military officials, for failing to respond to the lawsuit. Rodríguez was not included in the ruling after lawyers for her entered an appearance in April seeking to dismiss the complaint, arguing that as the duly recognized head of state she is immune from civil action in the U.S., a contention plaintiffs dispute.
The case is the largest judgment to date amid a slew of lawsuits filed for Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. All sought damages under a little-used federal law, the Anti-Terrorism Act, that allows American victims of foreign terror groups to seize the assets of their victimizers.
“The kidnappings,” Judge Gayles wrote in his 19-page ruling, were just one of many crimes “committed in order to support Maduro’s dictatorial rule over Venezuela, which in turn allowed the Maduro Criminal Conspiracy to earn ill-gotten gains.”
A lawyer for Saab, who is once again in U.S. custody facing new charges after Rodríguez handed him over to U.S. authorities in May, declined to comment. Lawyers for Rodríguez didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Each of the plaintiffs arrived in Venezuela unsuspecting they would be accused of spying and used as bargaining chips in Venezuela’s negotiations with the U.S.
Kenemore, who spent 643 days in jail, was a computer professional from Fort Worth, Texas, who had been living in neighboring Colombia with a Venezuelan woman he met online when both were getting over divorces. In 2022, he was abducted by armed gunmen near the border and later handed over to Venezuelan authorities and immediately imprisoned, according to the complaint.
Saad, a native of Alabama, had been living in Venezuela working in construction for several years at the time of his arrest, according to the complaint. Together with Marval, who owned a company in Florida and did business Venezuela, all were held by Venezuela’s feared military intelligence police.
The Trump administration labeled the “ Cartel of the Suns” a foreign terrorist organization ahead of a massive military deployment in the Caribbean that resulted in Maduro’s capture in January to face drug trafficking charges in New York.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing and some observers doubt that corruption that has long festered inside Venezuela’s barracks has led to the creation of a cohesive drug smuggling group that functions like other Latin American cartels.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico formally requested that U.S. state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of migrants who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody or during raids, the Mexican government said Tuesday.
The request follows the death of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston. Since the beginning of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican migrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry had previously said it would make the request, which was formalized on Tuesday, according to the ministry. It said a similar request will be also sent to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The United States is not legally obliged to act on the requests.
Also, the Mexican government said it has started sending letters to U.S. detention centers where Mexican migrants have died, demanding they “immediately cease the actions or omissions that resulted in these deaths, such as preventing access to prompt and expedited medical care, as well as the application of policies incompatible with medical and penitentiary standards.”
The first center to receive the letter was Adelanto, in California, where four Mexican migrants died.
The letters are a first step toward “the eventual filing of civil lawsuits” against the companies that operate the detention centers to stop human rights violations, according to the ministry.
Last week, Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said his country would go directly to U.S. authorities to request criminal investigations in cases of Mexicans killed in ICE custody or enforcement operations.
Salgado Araujo, who had no criminal record and had lived in the U.S. for 35 years, was shot last Tuesday while driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston. His death sparked protests in Houston and demands for an independent investigation from Democrats and Salgado Araujo’s family.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the 52-year-old Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle, and that a federal agent fired a weapon in self-defense.
Velasco also sent a letter to Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, requesting that U.S. authorities gather information on the deaths of the Mexican migrants in ICE custody and analyze the “compatibility of these events with international human rights obligations.”
The foreign minister also asked Türk to seek the opinion of the Human Rights Council, a U.N. intergovernmental body that promotes human rights, on the cases and offer recommendations.
The developments mark an escalation in Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s response to Trump’s immigration crackdown. Sheinbaum earlier this year ordered Mexico’s diplomatic missions across the U.S. to regularly check in with ICE detainees, and her government even lodged a complaint with Türk.
UPDATE: The pilot of the deadly plane crash in Van Zandt County has been identified as a member of the Texas archery community on Wednesday.
According to the Texas Field Archery Association (TFAA), Steve Goode of Canton died in an airplane crash on Tuesday. Goode was a TFAA board member and the district 7 field governor, which is in the Canton area.
According to a preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane crashed “under unknown circumstances shortly after take off.”
CANTON — One person is dead following a plane crash Tuesday afternoon. According to the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office and our news partner KETK, the crash took place at around 1:50 p.m. on FM 3227, just outside of Canton. The sheriff’s office said a man died but did not release his identity.
An investigation has been launched by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Federal Aviation Administration.
AUSTIN (AP) – Heavy downpours in South Texas washed out highways and stranded motorists Tuesday as forecasters warned that a threat of more severe weather could bring dangerous flooding to already drenched counties near the border with Mexico.
Storms dumped up to a foot of rain in some rural areas of Texas, leading to dozens of high-water rescues across the region and officials shutting down portions of a busy highway for hours near Uvalde, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) west of San Antonio. A flood watch also included Kerr County, where catastrophic flooding last year along the Guadalupe River killed more than 100 people.
No deaths or injuries Tuesday were immediately reported.
The National Weather Service warned that storms overnight could dump more than a foot of additional rain to some places into Wednesday, creating potentially catastrophic impacts from flash flooding in areas west of San Antonio. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for dozens of counties.
“Intense rain rates and compounding effects from multiple rounds of storms will result in a dangerous flash flooding threat through Thursday,” the National Weather Service said.
Authorities on Tuesday posted videos of a rescue crew in a boat down flooded streets and one vehicle being swept away by fast-moving waters. Five people were rescued by members of the Texas Game Warden Search and Rescue Team and four were rescued by a local game warden, said Maggie Berger, a spokesperson for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
In Uvalde, officials said there had been at least two dozen water rescues. They opened a local event center for anyone displaced by flooding. In Sabinal, officials were also making plans for a shelter.
BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Trump administration officials told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday.
The policy change came after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Maine and a week after one shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
The suspension of vehicle stops allows room for exceptions when executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies, according to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations. Matthew Felling, a spokesperson for Maine Sen. Angus King, said the senator’s office was also told by the Department of Homeland Security that ICE was suspending stops.
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national.
DHS said Monday that an officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the person attempted to flee in the vehicle and the officer fired.
That was a shift from how King earlier described the encounter, when he said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the man who was shot.
DHS, which oversees ICE, didn’t respond to an email seeking clarity on what led to the shooting.
In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”
Petro, who has openly quarreled with U.S. President Donald Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”
The shooting also sparked outrage in Maine, where hundreds of protesters gathered Tuesday outside an ICE detention center in Scarborough, just up the coast between Biddeford and Portland.
“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the crowd.
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.”
Durán Guerrero’s shooting marked at least the ninth time ICE has used deadly force since Trump began his immigration crackdown.
Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car windshield, but the officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and why ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters Tuesday that the investigation needs to play out.
“If officers acted inappropriately or illegally, they’ll be held accountable,” he said.
Maine’s attorney general’s office, which noted that it’s working with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn’t been released and who was placed on leave.
The state’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Democrats seeking to unseat Collins in November sought Tuesday to connect her with ICE’s methods, which have drawn public scrutiny and derision. Collins later said in a statement that although ICE needs to improve, eliminating the agency would make the nation less safe.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is vying for Collins’ seat, called the ICE officers at the shooting “thugs” during a vigil Tuesday evening in Lewiston.
“That agency is broken and we need to go back to a time where the rule of law united all of us regardless of the politics,” she told the crowd.
According to neighbors and public records, Guerrero lived in an apartment about 150 feet (46 meters) from where his car came to a rest outside an apartment building across the street from a pawnshop and laundromat.
Video from a nearby business’ security camera obtained by the AP shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before making several circles. A law enforcement SUV blocks its path and two officers open the driver’s door and drag out a limp body.
It isn’t clear from the video when the shots were fired.
Daniel Boucher said he heard a “pop, pop, pop” and ran to the intersection.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
Boucher said the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked close to him.
“He looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S.
Neighbors say Durán Guerrero was a friendly and familiar face even though they rarely chatted because he didn’t appear to speak English.
Claudia Morton, who often waved to Durán Guerrero, was distraught.
“The whole world should be crying,” she said.
Dozens of Durán Guerrero’s relatives and neighbors gathered in Bucaramanga, his hometown in northeastern Colombia, to remember him on Tuesday. They stood outside his parents’ home, holding candles around a table where a photograph of him rested beside a statue of the Virgin Mary.
TYLER – The Tyler Junior College Police Department is hosting a fundraiser this Friday to raise money for one of their lieutenants who was recently diagnosed with cancer.
The fundraiser will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Downtown Tyler. During the fundraiser, lunch plates, which will include a BBQ sandwich, chips, dessert and a drink, will be sold for $10 a plate.
All the money raised from the fundraiser will go toward Lieutenant Brian Lintner, who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
“This is an opportunity for our community to come together and support him and his family during this difficult time,” the department said. “We hope you will stop by, enjoy lunch, and help support the Lintner family. Your generosity and support are greatly appreciated.”
FLINT — A multi-vehicle crash on Highway 155 has left four dead and one transported with major injuries early Thursday morning, according to Smith County ESD 2 and our news partner KETK. The Texas Department of Public Safety said a Toyota Highlander was driving in the wrong lane, which caused a head-on collision with a Cadillac.
DPS said three people in the Cadillac died and were not wearing a seat-belt at the time of the crash. The toddler was allegedly not in a child’s car seat. The toddler was taken to a children’s hospital in Dallas and remains in critical condition.
The driver of the Toyota Highlander also died in the crash. The victims have not been publicly identified at this time.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street and oil prices are holding steadier following their sharp swings the day before in the wait to see what will come next after President Donald Trump raised doubts about the temporary truce in the war with Iran. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% early Thursday, even though the United States launched new airstrikes against Iran, which responded by targeting U.S. allies in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 33 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. The price of Brent crude slipped 0.3% after rising sharply a day earlier. Indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
TYLER — UT Health East Texas patients who rely on UnitedHealthcare (UHC) could soon face higher health care costs if both parties don’t reach a new agreement before their contract expires in less than two months. UT Health East Texas released a letter to patients stating that an agreement must be met by Sept. 1 for their services to remain in-network with UHC, which would force those insured by UHC to pay out of pocket.
“We recognize the disruption this would create for patients and families across East Texas, and we do not take this situation lightly,” UT Health East Texas said. “If needed, we will work with patients to ensure a smooth transition of care.”
As both parties look to reach an agreement, UT Health stated that over 50,000 East Texans currently insured by UHC, including 25,000 seniors, rely on UT Health facilities for medical care and treatment. Read the rest of this entry »
HOUSTON (AP) – A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a man in Houston after he attempted to evade arrest in his vehicle during an operation Tuesday, the agency said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, ignored commands and attempted to ram an agent who fired his weapon in self-defense. The man was targeted in an operation because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.
Salgado Araujo died after being transported to a hospital, according to DHS.
The death drew immediate calls from some Democratic officials and immigrant rights groups for an independent investigation. Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who represents the neighborhood where the shooting took place, said the initial account released by federal authorities needs to be independently verified.
“All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation,” she said in a post on X.
The FBI’s Houston field office is investigating a potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer, said spokesperson Connor Hagan. In addition, representatives of the office’s evidence response team responded to the shooting at the request of DHS to process the scene, he said.
The shooting comes amid a newly intensified push by the Trump administration to carry out its mass deportations agenda. During the five-day period at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people. The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, the arrests continue and are surging.
Juliet Martinez said she was on her way to drop off her son at summer school early Tuesday morning in Houston when she spotted two federal officers leaning over a man on the ground. As she slowly drove by, she filmed the man bleeding and handcuffed, his leg shaking as loud groans can be heard.
The video shows a black vehicle angled towards a white van, their doors wide open, and the man lying between the two. One officer is on the phone, with his other hand on the man’s side. Nearby, other federal officers stand over at least three other men handcuffed.
Ronaldo Salgado, Salgado Araujo’s son, said in a post on Facebook that his father works in construction and was on his way to work, picking up his workers, when the shooting happened.
Salgado described his father as a hardworking Mexican man who has been in the U.S. for almost 35 years and was in the process of getting a work permit.
“My father did not deserve this,” he said.
The shooting was at least the eighth death from an encounter with federal immigration officials since the start of the Trump administration’s intense immigration enforcement campaign in the U.S.
Texas’ largest city has experienced heightened enforcement operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.
By Tuesday evening, a small group of protesters gathered in the neighborhood where the shooting happened and chanted against ICE.
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, called for a transparent investigation conducted by local authorities into the shooting. He said his organization is offering a $5,000 reward for information and videos from witnesses.
“We don’t take DHS at their word at all,” Proaño told The Associated Press. “There should be an independent investigation and they should release all the videos.”
Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, declined to comment on the shooting.
In other other shootings involving federal officers, initial descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been contradicted later by video evidence. In February, federal authorities launched an investigation into two federal immigration agents who appeared to have made untruthful statements under oath regarding a nonfatal shooting of an immigrant in Minneapolis in January.
Last year, a federal immigration agent shot and killed a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, during a late-night traffic encounter. A grand jury declined to file criminal charges against the agent. DHS said the agent had fired at the vehicle after the driver “intentionally ran over” his fellow agent. Video footage of the encounter released by authorities does not clearly show the vehicle striking the agent.
In January, 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good was shot in the head by a federal immigration agent during a crackdown in Minneapolis. DHS also said Good was trying to hit the agent with her vehicle, which local officials and witnesses disputed, saying she was only trying to drive away.
TYLER — A Michigan man has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison after admitting he conspired to illegally purchase firearms from a Tyler gun shop and planned to transport them to Mexico for sale, according to federal prosecutors and our news partner KETK.
Caleb Timothy Fox, 34, was sentenced Monday to 41 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to attempted firearms trafficking conspiracy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced. According to court records, on March 10, 2025, Fox recruited another person to act as a “straw purchaser” to buy six firearms on his behalf from a federally licensed gun dealer in Tyler.
Federal prosecutors said the purchase was delayed, and Fox later admitted to investigators that he knew he could not legally buy the firearms in Texas because he was not a Texas resident. Read the rest of this entry »
SMITH COUNTY — Tyler residents packed City Hall Tuesday as the city’s planning and zoning commission considered a proposed Bitcoin mining data center near downtown — and by the end of the meeting, neighbors got the decision they were hoping for. According to our news partner KETK, the commission voted 5-2 to deny a special use permit for the project proposed by Vulcan Core, which would have been built near West Erwin Street and North Ross Avenue.
For many residents who spoke against the project, the debate was less about new technology and more about protecting the character and quality of life of their neighborhood. During the meeting, opponents questioned how the facility could affect local resources and nearby residents.
Tyler homeowner Hannah Morris said she had concerns about the project’s water usage and the source of that water. “We were told that it’s a close-knit system, but water doesn’t magically appear. My question is, where is it coming from?” Read the rest of this entry »
LUFKIN — City Hall will be closed today due to a power outage caused by a failed electrical transformer, according to a city news release. Repairs are expected by 6:00 PM. Utility collections at City Hall will also be closed during the outage. Online services including Click2Gov are still available. ONCOR is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Watch the news feed here or social media sites for updates.
TYLER — One man has been arrested for murder after a 63-year-old was killed in a shooting at the Relax Inn on E. Gentry Parkway in Tyler on Saturday morning. According to the Tyler Police Department and our news partner KETK, officers were dispatched to the Relax Inn at 1812 E. Gentry Parkway at around 4 a.m. on Saturday because of a reported shooting. 63-year-old Rodney Houston was found shot at the scene and transported to a local hospital to be treated for injuries from the shooting.
Houston later died from his injuries at the hospital, according to Tyler PD. Detectives with Tyler PD interviewed 37-year-old Arthur McCain as a suspect in the shooting on Saturday.
Later on Saturday, McCain was booked into the Smith County Jail on a warrant for murder in connection to the shooting. He’s currently being held on a $1,500,000 bond. Read the rest of this entry »
ARLINGTON (AP) — Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said he considered the matter resolved after he and team director Ibrahim Hassan had a physical confrontation with a police officer at the team’s hotel in Dallas.
Video began circulating Thursday, a day before Egypt beat Australia in the round of the 32 at the World Cup, showing both men arguing with a Dallas police officer, apparently over a player preparing to take a picture with a young fan in the hotel lobby.
The officer approaches Hossam Hassan first, but his interaction with Ibrahim Hassan became a shoving match. Ibrahim Hassan appeared to be upset at the officer intervening.
Dallas police issued a statement saying officers were responding to a request from hotel security about an individual without event credentials attempting to gain access. The statement said the issue was resolved at the scene, and that police met with Egyptian representatives to address their concerns.
Hossam Hassan said through a translator the team had accepted an apology from police.
“We are really happy to be here at this tournament and we are satisfied with the security personnel that are accompanying us,” Hossam Hassan said. “I would like to point to the high-level organization we have with us and the level of security we have with us.”
Hassan is the first person to play and coach for Egypt at the World Cup. The victory over Australia came in Egypt’s debut in the knockout round of the tournament.
DALLAS (AP) — Prosecutors say a video shows rapper Pooh Shiesty pressing for his release from fellow rapper Gucci Mane’s record label while an armed man blocks a door during an alleged robbery at a Texas music studio in January.
A court record shows the video was submitted as evidence in federal court in Dallas, where Pooh Shiesty and eight others have been indicted on kidnapping and extortion charges. Prosecutors say the victims were robbed at gunpoint after traveling to the city to discuss Pooh Shiesty’s recording contract with Mane’s 1017 Records.
The victims have only been referred to by their initials in court documents. One, R.D., is described as the owner of 1017 Records. Mane’s legal name is Radric Delantic Davis. The song “Crash Dummy,” which Gucci Mane released this spring, includes the lyrics: “I thought it was a business meeting, but it was a set up.”
The court document was filed by prosecutors in response to a motion Pooh Shiesty filed last month proposing home confinement, arguing that the evidence against him did not warrant keeping him in custody pending trial, as was ordered by a judge in April.
But prosecutors said in their filing that the motion from Pooh Shiesty, whose legal name is Lontrell Williams Jr., should be denied and that evidence against him was “extraordinarily strong.”
Prosecutors said they have the cooperation of all five victims and witnesses in the case and cellphone location data. There is also surveillance video placing the defendants at the scene, according to prosecutors, in addition to the video of the owner of 1017 Records being forced to declare that Pooh Shiesty was “dropped” from his label.
Prosecutors said in the filing that just before that video was made, Pooh Shiesty produced a printed contractual release for the record label owner to sign. The man initially refused but signed after Pooh Shiesty allegedly pointed an AK-style pistol his head.
Prosecutors also said BIG30, whose legal name is Rodney Wright, recorded the video with his cellphone while another defendant blocked the door holding a firearm that resembled an AK-47 style rifle.
According to prosecutors, Pooh Shiesty robbed the record label owner of about $450,000 worth of items including his wedding band, a watch, a pair of earrings and cash.
Prosecutors have said that at the time of the alleged confrontation, Pooh Shiesty was on home confinement for a prior firearms conspiracy conviction out of Florida and was required to wear an electronic monitoring device.
Attorneys for Pooh Shiesty and BIG30 did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.
Gucci Mane is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of trap music alongside fellow Atlanta rappers T.I. and Jeezy. He emerged in the mid-2000s with his breakout single “Icy” and went on to build a vast catalog.
AUSTIN (AP) – The satirical news site The Onion isn’t waiting to take possession of Infowars to launch a parody of Alex Jones ’ conspiracy platform.
More than a year after first trying to buy Infowars, The Onion on Thursday will debut a send-up under its own website with plans to give some of the revenue to families of the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The families have still received no money from Jones since courts ordered him to pay more than $1 billion for falsely calling the 2012 shooting a hoax.
The Onion will start by sending the families $100,000 from merchandise sales that combine the conspiracy empire’s brand with the The Onion’s logo in rainbow colors, according to CEO Ben Collins, whose company is still in court trying to take control of Infowars.
“Don’t give comedy writers a grudge for 18 months,” Collins said.
The parody will include a series of shows and other content under Infowars branding that spoof Jones’ aggressive mashup of conspiracies linking major news events, dubious scientific claims, attacks on people suffering in tragedies and sales of supplements and survival gear.
Jones’ claims that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut is a hoax have no truth, but Jones continued to amplify them. His followers started to harass victims’ families, suggesting they were “crisis actors” and even making death threats.
Jones’ Infowars empire had 10 million visitors a month and generated more than $50 million in annual revenues at its peak, according to the company. But the $1.4 billion judgements in defamation cases in Connecticut and Texas, where Jones is based, forced him into bankruptcy and broke Infowars apart.
“All he’s been left with is an iPhone and a fancy microphone,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for nine of the Sandy Hook families.
Jones has moved his show to a different website. An email sent to an address to request interviews went unanswered.
The families knew they could never stop Jones from getting his message out, and he has managed to avoid paying the judgement so far. But they could expose what he said and assure he can never profit again, Mattei said.
“Every dime Alex Jones makes from here until the end of eternity is going to be claimed by the families,” Mattei said.
The Onion stepped in when Collins saw Infowars’ assets were going to be sold at auction.
Collins spoke to Sandy Hook families, who said they were briefly skeptical, but then saw how The Onion’s staff could use the Infowars style and branding to take the moral high ground and make fun of the people who not only caused them so much pain but they felt also poisoned society.
Collins didn’t want to give away too much of the new stuff before it goes live Thursday.
But the new Infowars will maintain The Onion’s sharp satire sprinkled with shock value. Collins said there will be a section selling a penis flattening device, a fake “pro oxygen” supplement pill that the host claims can replace breathing, as well as an extended debate on how many Bozo the Clowns there are.
“It’s old-fashioned Infowars — using the tricks that they use to get people addicted to outrage and, I would say, addicted to anticipation, trying to find the thing that’s around the corner that’s going to save your life,” Collins said.
The Onion will keep chasing Jones’ property. Collins thinks they will soon get control of the Austin, Texas, studio Infowars once used.
Some families can’t wait for that day. Collins said that Robbie Parker, whose daughter died at Sandy Hook, plans to read his book about fighting Jones while dealing with so much grief in the place Jones once sat.
The families at first wanted Infowars shut down forever and Jones never heard from again. But they are now looking forward to seeing what The Onion has planned, attorney Mattei said.
“The idea that it could be turned to some social good. I think it’s even better,” Mattei said. “So, yeah, I think the families are both pleased and amused with what they’ve been able to achieve here.”
PHOENIX (AP) — For decades, all that separated the U.S. from Mexico was barbed wire.
Now, after a massive infusion of cash from Congress, President Donald Trump’s administration is swiftly building what it has dubbed a “smart wall,” a combination of 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel fencing and an array of sophisticated technology like sensors, cameras and towers allowing Border Patrol to surveil the territory.
The wall is under heavy scrutiny for the billions of dollars being dedicated to it when border crossings are at their lowest in decades. Critics say the U.S. is militarizing the border as it increasingly deploys sophisticated surveillance technology to the area, impacting local communities.
“We are seeing a massive expansion of surveillance and surveillance technology across the borderlands,” said Ricky Garza, border policy counsel at the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an advocacy group. “The wall in all its forms is harmful to communities.”
Officials say the technology is complementary to the physical wall and frees up agents for other tasks.
“It’s a smart wall. It’s not just a barrier,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said during recent congressional testimony. “It maximizes the use of our most valuable resource, which is our agents.”
The wall has been a top priority for Trump, a Republican, since he first ran for president.
During the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, the border emerged as a flashpoint, with thousands of people seeking to cross into the country each day. Those numbers started to taper off shortly before Trump returned to office last year and then slowed to a trickle, with his broader immigration crackdown serving as a deterrent for would-be migrants.
Flush with $46 billion to finish the wall after an infusion by Congress for immigration enforcement, CBP is inking tens of billions of dollars in contracts to build the wall and push along the president’s signature project.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said recently that a preliminary part of the wall will be finished by “this time next year.” Scott said his agency is putting up 6 miles (10 kilometers) of wall a week.
Hundreds of miles had already been built before Trump returned to office. As of mid-June 2026, CBP has erected another 74 miles (119 kilometers) and aims to build hundreds more. There is no wall planned for roughly 535 miles (861 kilometers) of the roughly 2,000-mile-long (3,200-kilometer-long) border, because rugged terrain already serves as a barrier. Ground sensors and towers will be used instead.
CBP is also going back to hundreds of miles of already built wall and adding more technology, lights and roads. Along the long stretches of river in Texas that mark the border with Mexico, they’re deploying 12- to 15-foot-long (3.7- to 4.5-meter-long) cylinder-shaped buoys meant to keep migrants or smugglers from crossing the border.
Technology is playing a greater role in the Trump administration’s effort to make illegal crossings along the border more difficult, part of a broader transformation of CBP in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, into an intelligence operation with a mass surveillance network whose reach extends far beyond the nation’s frontiers, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
And critics say the border technology poses a threat.
The Southern Border Communities Coalition says surveillance technologies can push migrants into more dangerous routes to avoid being detected.
Garza, the group’s policy counsel, warned that surveillance technology infringes on the privacy rights of border residents and that locals have found ground sensors used to detect smuggler or migrant traffic placed on their property without their consent.
Nayda Alvarez and her relatives own land along the Rio Grande roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) inland from the Gulf of Mexico. She has found cameras placed on her family’s land, and just last week she spotted a surveillance tower about a quarter of a mile (almost half a kilometer) down the river from her house.
“Are we expecting a war or something?” she said. “It doesn’t make me feel safer.”
Dave Maass, director of investigations for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on civil liberties related to digital technology, said the technology has made the border area “a hostile environment” for locals and would-be migrants.
The foundation has published a guide on the various types of surveillance towers in use along the southern border designed to help local residents.
These can range from fixed towers with video, infrared and radar technologies that have a range of roughly 8 miles (13 kilometers) to remote video surveillance systems that have cameras and a spotlight fixed on top. Some are mounted on the backs of trucks so agents can drive them to different parts of the border.
Increasingly, these towers are autonomous. They can scan an area, analyze what they’re seeing using artificial intelligence and alert Border Patrol agents to something suspicious. Proponents say this helps keep Border Patrol agents out in the field instead of sitting in front of computer screens watching for activity. But it also increases AI decision-making along the border when experts have warned about the technology’s potential for bias or other problems.
The big GOP tax cuts and spending bill passed by Congress last summer requires that CBP buys only the autonomous towers, and the department is deploying an additional 95.
Underground, buried fiberoptic cables can sense movement, capturing data that is also then analyzed by AI.
“We follow the contour of the land. We go through trees. We go down into the river banks. We can go absolutely everywhere,” said Magnus McEwen-King, CEO of Sintela, which has a contract with CBP to install the cables. He spoke at a recent border security expo in Phoenix, where some of the technology was on display.
CBP also uses ground sensors and trail cameras to detect smuggling routes.
The nonpartisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has questioned both the huge amounts of money for the wall-building and whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.
In 2011, under Democratic President Barack Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pulled the plug on a project to build a “virtual wall” of integrated technology like radars, sensors and cameras across the entire border after it ran over budget, faced technological glitches and was behind schedule.
Josh Sewell, director of research and policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the organization would like to see more “robust evaluation” of the technologies being used to avoid similar scenarios. And he criticized the Trump administration for lack of oversight on how the money is being spent, a charge CBP has denied, citing “oversight mechanism.”
In the Big Bend area of southern Texas, opposition to the department’s wall-building plans gathered strong bipartisan support especially in the most sensitive areas that run through a state and national park and a wildlife area.
CBP now says it is not planning to build a 30-foot-high (9-meter-high) bollard wall in those areas. Its recently announced plans include installing patrol roads and some barriers designed to stop cars and using detection technologies.
Clara Benson, who is one of the founders of the No Big Bend Wall coalition, says bright lights in the area designed to illuminate the border could pollute the skies in an area renowned for having some of the best views of the stars. Even without a 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel wall running through the land, there is concern about CBP’s plans.
“There’s still a lot of fear and dread that the plan is still going to be quite damaging,” she said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury announced a series of sanctions and a new bank alert targeting the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexico’s most powerful criminal enterprise.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on two Mexican men and nine companies involved in transportation, financial services and real estate, accused of being tied to a cartel-linked fuel theft ring intended to evade Mexican taxes while generating tens of millions of dollars annually for the cartel.
Additionally, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network arm issued an alert to financial institutions that point out red flags of fuel smuggling from the U.S. into Mexico in schemes involving Mexican tax evasion.
“Today’s action highlights the extent to which Mexico’s cartels are expanding beyond traditional drug trafficking to generate revenue for their criminal organizations, which continue to traffic deadly drugs that kill Americans,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has acknowledged the New Generation Cartel’s presence in 21 of Mexico’s 32 states, surpassing the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which is estimated to operate in 19 states. Last year, President Donald Trump designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and five other Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Mexican authorities have in recent years seized million gallons of stolen diesel, gasoline and petroleum distillates from states bordering Texas. Organized crime taps pipelines and diverts fuel to service stations forced to buy from cartels or sell it directly in the streets.
U.S. authorities have even accused the Jalisco New Generation cartel of operating its own service stations.
DALLAS (AP) – President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Republicans will hold their first-ever national convention ahead of November’s midterm elections, an unusual event aimed at boosting turnout in races that will decide whether the party maintains control of Congress.
The convention will be held in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10.
Although both major parties traditionally hold blockbuster conventions during presidential campaigns, Trump has long floated the idea of a similar gathering this year to focus voters’ attention on a sprawling collection of House and Senate races.
If Democrats regain control of either chamber, they will be empowered to block Trump’s agenda and launch investigations into his administration for the final two years of his term.
Republicans have only slim majorities in Congress, and the party in power normally loses ground in the midterms. And without Trump on the ballot, Republican leaders worry that it could be hard to galvanize their voters.
Trump hopes the convention would help change that dynamic, and he’s been talking about it since last year. He floated in a social media post that Republicans would use the event “to show the great things we have done since the Presidential Election of 2024.”
“We will also have lots of Great Entertainment — It will be a RALLY like none other!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the convention details.
The Democratic National Committee considered hosting a similar midterm convention but ultimately rejected the idea. An expensive soiree could have strained the DNC’s finances, which are struggling with lackluster fundraising and millions in debt.
Democrats have said the GOP convention will be a chance for them to tie Republican House and Senate candidates to Trump, whose approval rating is underwater.
Locating the convention in Texas places a spotlight on the state’s Senate race, which pits Democratic nominee James Talarico against Republican nominee Ken Paxton.
Paxton is the state attorney general who, with Trump’s backing, defeated longtime Sen. John Cornyn in a primary earlier this year. Republican Senate leaders fear that Paxton’s history of scandals — including an extramarital affair, an impeachment and a securities fraud case that did not lead to a conviction — could undermine his candidacy and turn a winnable race into a drain on party resources.
It also highlights the aftereffects of Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push that began in Texas, an effort to secure more seats for Republicans in this fall’s elections.
The Republican National Committee began laying the groundwork earlier this year, voting at its winter meeting in January to make such an event possible by amending procedures centered around quadrennial presidential nominating conventions.
Democrats considered holding a similar gathering ahead of the midterms but tabled the idea. However, the party did hold such conferences in the 1970s and 1980s.
DALLAS (AP) — Six people who pleaded guilty to charges related to a demonstration and shooting outside a Texas immigrant detention center are set to be sentenced Wednesday. Other protesters have already been sentenced to decades behind bars, including a former Marine who was handed a 100-year prison term.
A police officer was shot and wounded in the neck during the protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown outside the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas last July 4. The U.S. Justice Department alleges the shooting was carried out by members of the leftist militant group antifa — a claim attorneys for the protesters have denied.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor called the protest an “assault on democracy” before he and another judge handed down lengthy prison sentences to eight demonstrators who were convicted on terrorism charges.
On Wednesday, six more defendants could be sentenced to as much as 15 years in prison after they pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists. One of them testified at the earlier trial that he spray-painted a guard shack and vehicles in the parking lot.
The case has been closely watched by critics who say the prosecution could have serious implications for protesters nationwide and First Amendment free-speech rights.
The protesters’ attorneys have insisted there was no planned ambush and that protesters who took firearms with them to the demonstration did so for their own protection. They argue the gathering was planned as a late-night demonstration with fireworks to show support for immigrants detained inside the facility.
Prosecutors told jurors at trial that the group’s actions — including bringing firearms, first aid kits and wearing body armor — signaled nefarious intent.
Benjamin Song, a former U.S. Marine reservist who was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting, was sentenced to 100 years in prison, and seven others received prison terms ranging from 30 to 70 years.
Another person who will be sentenced Wednesday was convicted at trial. Ines Soto, whose wife was also convicted, could be sentenced to 60 years in prison after being convicted of providing material support to terrorists, riot and explosives. At trial, attorneys for the couple said they arrived late and left the protest when confronted by guards.
SMITH COUNTY — Gov. Greg Abbott made a campaign stop at Milano’s in Bullard on Tuesday afternoon, pushing towards the November election. According to our news partner KETK, the main message, eliminating property taxes for Texans. Abbott is up for his fourth term and is now pushing for his new “Taxpayer Empowerment Pledge.”
“One thing I hear from every Texan is that we’ve got to do more to slash their property taxes,” Abbott said.
If reelected, Abbott says he will advance his five-step plan, which includes eliminating school property taxes, using a state budget surplus to fund academic programs, shifting appraisals from annual to every five years, and requiring voters to approve any increases with a 2/3 vote. Read the rest of this entry »
MARSHALL — The Marshall Police Department said in a news release Wednesday, Cortavian Tatum, 18, a third suspect sought in connection with the June 27 shooting at Whataburger on Victory Drive, turned himself in. He surrendered Tuesday night at the Marshall Police Department and was charged with murder. With his surrender, three suspects identified in connection with the incident are now in custody. Also arrested and in custody at the Harrison County Jail are Davion McDale Brown, 19, who was charged with capital murder, and Jamarrio Dominique Epps, 21, of Longview, charged with murder.
The shooting occurred in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 27. Two victims, James Morrow, 20, and Jassiah Hill, 18, were pronounced deceased at the scene. Two additional shooting victims, whose injuries were not life-threatening, were transported to a local medical facility. Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday erased limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president, striking down a federal election law that is more than 50 years old.
Prodded by a Republican-led lawsuit that includes Vice President JD Vance, the court’s conservative justices were again in the majority of the latest decision that upended congressionally enacted limits on raising and spending money to influence elections. The court’s 2010 Citizens United decision opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal elections.
The limits on party spending stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.
The Supreme Court had previously upheld the limits, in 2001.
The Republican committees for House and Senate candidates filed the lawsuit in Ohio in 2022, joined by Vance, then a senator from Ohio, and then-Rep. Steve Chabot.
After President Donald Trump took office for his second term, the Federal Election Commission dropped its defense of the law and joined with Republicans in urging that it be overturned.
Democrats had called on the court to uphold the law, even though there is wide agreement that the spending limits have hurt political parties in an era of unlimited spending by other organizations.
Last year, the coordinated party spending for Senate races ranged from $127,200 in several states with small populations to nearly $4 million in California, the most populous state. For House races, the limits were $127,200 in states with only one representative and $63,600 everywhere else.
Entrenched divisions between liberal and conservative justices over campaign finance restrictions were on display when the court heard arguments in December.
“Every time we interfere with the congressional design, we make matters worse,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a dissenter in Citizens United and the court’s other campaign money cases.
By contrast, Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the Citizens United majority, described the decision as “much maligned, I think unfairly maligned.” The effect of the decision was to ”level the playing field,” Alito said, by expanding the right to spend freely that had previously belonged only to media companies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.
The Republican president’s restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts and had not taken effect anywhere in the U.S.
During arguments in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the order’s legality in a momentous case that was magnified by Trump’s unprecedented attendance in the courtroom.
The case framed another test of Trump’s assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court with a conservative majority and a robust view of presidential power that has largely ruled in his favor. In the notable exceptions when the court has not, Trump has responded with starkly personal criticisms of the justices.
The justices ruled on Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling from New Hampshire that struck down the citizenship restrictions.
The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term, is part of his administration’s broad immigration crackdown.
Birthright citizenship was the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling. The justices previously struck down global tariffs Trump had imposed under an emergency powers law that had never been used that way.
Trump reacted furiously to the late February tariffs decision, saying he was ashamed of the justices who ruled against him and calling them unpatriotic.
He also seemed to recognize the court was likely to rule against him on birthright citizenship, too, using his Truth Social platform to criticize “dumb judges and justices” and wealthy pregnant women from China and elsewhere who come to the U.S. to give birth so their newborns will have American citizenship.
Trump’s order would have upended widely held views that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born in the U.S., excluding only the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.
The amendment was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, though the Citizenship Clause is written more broadly. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” it reads.
In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down Trump’s executive order as illegal. The decisions have invoked the high court’s 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.
The Trump administration argued that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.
More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would have been affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.
While Trump has largely focused on illegal immigration in his rhetoric and actions, the birthright citizenship restrictions also would have applied to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, in another setback for transgender people.
The court’s conservative majority, which has repeatedly ruled against transgender Americans in the past year, ruled that state bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution or the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.
More than two dozen other Republican-led states have adopted bans on female transgender athletes, and the decision seems certain to extend to them as well.
Left unresolved by the outcome are lawsuits challenging state laws and regulations in Connecticut, California and elsewhere that permit transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity.
Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 16-year-old high school sophomore in Bridgeport, West Virginia, has been taking puberty-blocking medication, has publicly identified as a girl since age 8 and has been issued a West Virginia birth certificate recognizing her as female. She is the only transgender person who has sought to compete in girls sports in West Virginia.
Pepper-Jackson has progressed from a back-of-the-pack cross-country runner in middle school to statewide champion in the shot put. She beat the second-place finisher by two feet in last month’s West Virginia championship meet.
In the Idaho case, Lindsay Hecox sued over the state’s first-in-the-nation ban for the chance to try out for the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University in Idaho. She didn’t make either squad because “she was too slow,” her lawyer, Kathleen Hartnett, told the court during arguments in January, but she competed in club-level soccer and running.
Prominent women in sports have weighed in on both sides. Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, swimmers Summer Sanders and Donna de Varona and beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings are supporting the state bans. Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn and basketball players Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart back the transgender athletes.
In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ people are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace, finding that “sex plays an unmistakable role” in employers’ decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate.
But last year, the six conservative justices on the nine-member court declined to apply the same sort of analysis when they upheld state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
The states supporting the prohibitions on transgender athletes argued there is no reason to extend the ruling barring workplace discrimination to Title IX.
Idaho’s law, state Solicitor General Alan Hurst said, is “necessary for fair competition because, where sports are concerned, men and women are obviously not the same.”
Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson argued that such distinctions generally make sense but that their client has none of those advantages because of the unique circumstances of her early transition. In Hecox’s case, her lawyers wanted the court to dismiss the case because she had forsworn trying to play on women’s teams.
NCAA president Charlie Baker told Congress in 2024 that he was aware of only 10 transgender athletes out of more than half a million students on college teams. But despite the small numbers, the issue has taken on outsize importance.
Baker’s NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women’s sports after President Donald Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.
The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to compete only on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.
About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people ages 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
EAST TEXAS — Mabank Fire Chief Charlie Woodard was fatally struck by a pickup truck while directing traffic after the Mabank Rodeo on Saturday.
According to the Mabank Police Department, of which Woodard was also a member, a procession was held Tuesday morning. It exited U.S. Highway 175 onto State Highway 198, traveling south to Mason Street.
Woodard had served with the City of Mabank since 2018. He also worked as the community’s Fire Marshal and as a Mabank Police Department officer. He was recognized as one of the city’s employees of the month in Feb. 2025.
“Thank you for the overwhelming love, prayers, and support you have shown the Woodard family, Mabank Fire & Rescue, and the Mabank Police Department during this difficult time,” the department said.
Funeral arrangements for Woodard will be announced in the near future, the department said.