DENVER (AP) — Twelve people were taken to hospitals after an American Airlines plane landed at Denver International Airport on Thursday and caught fire, prompting slides to be deployed so passengers could evacuate quickly. All of the people transported to hospitals had minor injuries, according to a post on the social platform X by Denver International Airport.
Flight 1006, which was headed from the Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas Fort Worth, diverted to Denver and landed safely around 5:15 p.m. after the crew reported engine vibrations, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
While taxiing to the gate, an engine on the Boeing 737-800 caught fire, the FAA added.
Photos and videos posted by news outlets showed passengers standing on a plane’s wing as smoke surrounded the aircraft. The FAA said passengers exited using the slides.
American said in a statement that the flight experienced an engine-related issue after taxiing to the gate. There was no immediate clarification on exactly when the plane caught fire.
The 172 passengers and six crew members were taken to the terminal, airline officials said.
“We thank our crew members, DEN team and first responders for their quick and decisive action with the safety of everyone on board and on the ground as the priority,” American said.
Firefighters put out the blaze by the evening, an airport spokesperson told media outlets.
Recent on-the-ground incidents have included a plane that crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto and a Japan Airlines plane that clipped a parked Delta plane while it was taxiing at the Seattle airport.
LUFKIN — A former Lufkin ISD superintendent spoke against House Bill 3 during a House Committee meeting on Wednesday. According to our news partner KETK, Roy Knight, who was in the education industry for over 40 years, testified against HB 3 that would use state funds to pay for private schools, homeschooling and other educational services. The bill would also create more flexibility for parents to choose their child’s education.
“This bill is a skunk that we’re trying to pass off as a kitty cat,” Knight said.
The bill argues that directing funds toward private schools will enable competitive pay for public school teachers. However, Knight contends that Lufkin has remained competitive with other schools for years. He also stated that public school teachers are frustrated by the implication that they have not been working hard until private schools became more popular. Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump openly challenged U.S. allies on Wednesday by increasing tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25% as he vowed to take back wealth “stolen” by other countries, drawing quick retaliation from Europe and Canada.
The Republican president’s use of tariffs to extract concessions from other nations points toward a possibly destructive trade war and a stark change in America’s approach to global leadership. It also has destabilized the stock market and stoked anxiety about an economic downturn.
“The United States of America is going to take back a lot of what was stolen from it by other countries and, frankly, by incompetent U.S. leadership,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going to take back our wealth, and we’re going to take back a lot of the companies that left.”
He has separate tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, with plans to also tax imports from the European Union, Brazil and South Korea by charging “reciprocal” rates starting on April 2.
The EU announced its own countermeasures on Wednesday. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that as the United States was “applying tariffs worth 28 billion dollars, we are responding with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros,” or about $28 billion. Those measures, which cover not just steel and aluminum products but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods, are due to take effect on April 1.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer responded by saying that the EU was punishing America instead of fixing what he viewed as excess capacity in steel and aluminum production.
“The EU’s punitive action completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States – and indeed international security – and is yet another indicator that the EU’s trade and economic policies are out of step with reality,” he said in a statement.
Meeting on Wednesday with Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Trump said “of course” he wants to respond to EU’s retaliations and “of course” Ireland is taking advantage of the United States.
“The EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States,” Trump said.
Last year, the United States ran a $87 billion trade imbalance with Ireland. That’s partially because of the tax structure created by Trump’s 2017 overhaul, which incentivized U.S. pharmaceutical companies to record their sales abroad, Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, said on X.
Canada sees itself as locked in a trade war because of White House claims about fentanyl smuggling and that its natural resources and factories subtract from the U.S. economy instead of supporting it.
“This is going to be a day to day fight. This is now the second round of unjustified tariffs leveled against Canada,” said Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign affairs minister. “The latest excuse is national security despite the fact that Canada’s steel and aluminum adds to America’s security. All the while there is a threat of further and broader tariffs on April 2 still looming. The excuse for those tariffs shifts every day.”
Canada is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States and plans to impose retaliatory tariffs of Canadian $29.8 billion ($20.7 billion) starting Thursday in response to the U.S. taxes on the metals.
Canada’s new tariffs would be on steel and aluminum products, as well as U.S. goods including computers, sports equipment and water heaters worth $14.2 billion Canadian ($9.9 billion). That’s in addition to the 25% counter tariffs on $30 billion Canadian (US$20.8 billion) of imports from the U.S. that were put in place on March 4 in response to other Trump import taxes that he’s partially delayed by a month.
Trump told CEOs in the Business Roundtable a day earlier that the tariffs were causing companies to invest in U.S. factories. The 7.5% drop in the S&P 500 stock index over the past month on fears of deteriorating growth appears unlikely to dissuade him, as Trump argued that higher tariff rates would be more effective at bringing back factories.
“The higher it goes, the more likely it is they’re going to build,” Trump told the group. “The biggest win is if they move into our country and produce jobs. That’s a bigger win than the tariffs themselves, but the tariffs are going to be throwing off a lot of money to this country.”
Democratic lawmakers dismissed Trump’s claims that his tariffs are about national security and drug smuggling, saying they’re actually about generating revenues to help cover the cost of his planned income tax cuts for the wealthy.
“Donald Trump knows his policies could wreck the economy, but he’s doing it anyway,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “Why are they doing all these crazy things that Americans don’t like? One reason, and one reason alone: tax breaks for billionaires, the north star of the Republican party’s goals.
In many ways, the president is addressing what he perceives as unfinished business from his first term. Trump meaningfully increased tariffs, but the revenues collected by the federal government were too small to significantly increase overall inflationary pressures.
Outside forecasts by the Budget Lab at Yale University, Tax Policy Center and others suggest that U.S. families would have the costs of the taxes passed onto them in the form of higher prices.
With Wednesday’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, Trump is seeking to remedy his original 2018 import taxes that were eroded by exemptions.
After Canada and Mexico agreed to his demand for a revamped North American trade deal in 2020, they avoided the import taxes on the metals. Other U.S. trading partners had import quotas supplant the tariffs. And the first Trump administration also allowed U.S. companies to request exemptions from the tariffs if, for instance, they couldn’t find the steel they needed from domestic producers.
While Trump’s tariffs could help steel and aluminum plants in the United States, they could raise prices for the manufacturers that use the metals as raw materials.
Moreover, economists have found, the gains to the steel and aluminum industries were more than offset by the cost they imposed on “downstream’’ manufacturers that use their products.
At these downstream companies, production fell by nearly $3.5 billion because of the tariffs in 2021, a loss that exceeded the $2.3 billion uptick in production that year by aluminum producers and steelmakers, the U.S. International Trade Commission found in 2023.
Trump sees the tariffs as leading to more domestic factories, and the White House has noted that Volvo, Volkswagen and Honda are all exploring an increase to their U.S. footprint. But the prospect of higher prices, fewer sales and lower profits might cause some companies to refrain from investing in new facilities.
“If you’re an executive in the boardroom, are you really going to tell your board it’s the time to expand that assembly line?” said John Murphy, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The top steel exporters to the U.S. are Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea and Japan, with exports from Taiwan and Vietnam growing at a fast pace, according to the International Trade Administration. Imports from China, the world’s largest steel producer, account for only a small fraction of what the U.S. buys.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Vaccines could be a key means of suppressing bird flu and avoiding the slaughter of millions of chickens, which is blamed for egg prices averaging nearly $6 a dozen. But the move has been delayed in part because of concerns it could jeopardize chicken exports worth billions of dollars a year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to spend $100 million to study bird flu vaccines to fight the disease in concert with meat chicken, egg and turkey groups. That’s part of a larger $1 billion effort to invest in more protections to keep the virus off farms that President Donald Trump believes will help lower egg prices.
Chicken meat producers remain the most resistant to vaccines because of concerns they could harm meat exports, which totaled nearly $4.7 billion last year. Egg and turkey producers sell most of their products in the U.S. and have been hit hardest by the virus.
Why is a vaccine needed?
Without a new policy including vaccines, the government will continue to slaughter every flock with a bird flu infection to limit the spread of the disease. Those deaths have totaled over 166 million birds in the U.S. since 2022.
Most birds killed are egg-laying chickens, and the death of so many hens is the main reason egg prices keep rising. The average price per dozen has hit $5.90, and in some part of the country, it is far higher.
Poultry veterinarian Simon Shane, who runs http://www.Egg-News.com, said the government is hesitant to use vaccines and change its policy of killing birds largely because of the meat chicken industry’s opposition.
“Basically this is a political issue, and this only came to a head because eggs are at $8 to $9 a dozen, and it’s embarrassing the government — embarrassing the present administration,” Shane said.
Why doesn’t the US use a bird flu vaccine?
Before using vaccinations, the government must decide how to devise an effective system and monitor for outbreaks within vaccinated flocks that might not show any symptoms, said John Clifford, the USDA’s former longtime chief veterinary officer, who now works with a poultry industry export group. Once that is figured out, the industry can negotiate with countries to minimize trade problems.
“What the industry wants is the ability to develop the strategic plan to share that with the trading partners and then find out what kind of impact that that will have on trade,” Clifford said.
There are fears that vaccinating could allow the virus to linger undetected in flocks and mutate in ways that could make it more of a threat to humans and allow sick birds to get into the food supply. Like with other diseases, properly cooking chicken to 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) will kill bird flu, but the industry and chicken buyers don’t want it there at all.
For meat chicken, known as broilers, the virus isn’t as significant because those birds are slaughtered at 6 to 8 weeks old and thus have less chance of being infected compared with egg-laying hens, which live to 2 years or older. Also most broilers are raised in the Southeast, which hasn’t had as many outbreaks as the Midwest and West.
Another delay to vaccinating concerns distribution. Egg farmers want to administer it through chicken feed or water, saying it’s not practical to give shots to millions of birds in a single barn.
It can also be difficult to tell the difference between a vaccinated bird and one that has been sick with the virus. That would make other countries nervous about importing meat.
“People have talked about how expensive it would be to monitor vaccinated populations. And it would be. But where do we want to spend our money?” said Dr. Carol Cardona, a bird flu expert at the University of Minnesota. “We’re spending our money hand over fist right now in depopulation and to buy eggs for breakfast.”
What does the experience in other countries show?
China and Mexico have been vaccinating their poultry for years, but they take different approaches.
In Mexico chicken are vaccinated, but Clifford said the country doesn’t slaughter flocks when infections are found. That basically ensures the virus is present in poultry.
China still slaughters vaccinated flocks when infections are found, which has proven more effective at limiting the spread of the virus and reigning in outbreaks.
Clifford said the U.S. would need to continue culling flocks with outbreaks even after vaccinating, and it might make sense to give shots only to egg layers and turkeys, not broilers.
Will it help egg prices?
Don’t expect big relief anytime soon.
The USDA, which did not respond to a request for comment for this article sent last week, clearly isn’t moving to vaccinate immediately. And, regardless, it will take time to raise new hens.
“We’re going to have to wait to replace those with new hatched chicks, and it takes 20 weeks before they even start laying,” Shane said. “So I don’t know where they’re going to get the eggs from.”
Prices may ease somewhat later this year after peak demand, which happens around Easter, if massive egg farms in Iowa, Ohio, California and elsewhere can avoid more outbreaks.
The USDA has predicted that average egg prices will be 41% higher than the 2024 average of $3.17 per dozen. That would mean $4.47 per dozen, slightly below the current average.
WEST TEXAS (AP) – Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to more than 250 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?
Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 25 new cases of measles since the end of last week, bringing Texas’ total to 223. Twenty-nine people in Texas are hospitalized.
New Mexico health officials announced three new cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 33. The outbreak has spread from Lea County, which neighbors the West Texas communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, to include one case in Eddy County.
Oklahoma’s state health department reported two probable cases of measles Tuesday, saying they are “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
Measles cases have been reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases — and there have been three clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025.
In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates.
Do you need an MMR booster?
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.
Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.
A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.
Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.
People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.
What are the symptoms of measles?
Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.
The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.
How can you treat measles?
There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates matter?
In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”
But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.
AUSTIN (AP) — A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso.
It was the second scheduled execution in the U.S. halted on Tuesday after a federal judge stopped Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was to take place next week.
In Texas, the order was another reprieve for David Leonard Wood, who in 2009 was about 24 hours away from execution when it was halted over claims he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.
Those claims were later rejected by a judge and Wood, 67, had been set to die Thursday. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, issued a stay of execution after his latest appeal, which renewed his claims of innocence.
The court put Wood’s execution on pause “until further order.” It did not elaborate on the decision in a brief three-page order.
Had Wood been executed this week, he would have spent 32 years and two months on Texas’ death row, the longest time a Texas inmate has waited before being put to death.
The 1987 murders remained unsolved for several years until authorities say Wood bragged to a cellmate that he was the so-called “Desert Killer.” The victims’ bodies were found buried in shallow graves in the same desert area northeast of El Paso.
Authorities said Wood gave rides to the victims and then drove them into the desert, where he sexually assaulted and killed them. The victims were Rosa Casio and Ivy Williams, both 23; Karen Baker, 21; Angelica Frausto, 17; Desiree Wheatley, 15; and Dawn Smith, 14.
Two other girls and a young woman were also reported missing but were never found.
Wood, a repeat convicted sex offender who had worked as a mechanic, has long maintained his innocence.
“I did not do it. I am innocent of this case. I’ll fight it,” Wood said in recent documents filed in his appeals.
On March 4, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined a request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty or grant him a 90-day reprieve.
His lawyers have for years sought to have hundreds of pieces of evidence tested for DNA after testing in 2011 of bloodstains on the clothing Smith wore found a male DNA profile that was not Wood. The Texas Attorney General’s Office has fought against new DNA tests and various courts have denied Wood’s request for it.
Prior to the court’s decision Tuesday, Gregory Wiercioch, one of Wood’s attorneys, said that when authorities identified Wood as a suspect, they focused on him and not on the evidence they had.
“We’ve tried to make it clear to the courts that he’s innocent, and we’ll see if anyone listens,” Wiercioch said.
AUSTIN (AP) -After one of the worst single day sell-offs in Tesla’s history, President Donald Trump threw his support behind his advisor, billionaire Elon Musk, vowing to buy one of his cars on Tuesday.
Tesla has been pummeled this year under competition from rival electric vehicles, particularly out of China, as well as his close association with Trump and with far right causes globally.
Shares have plummeted 45% in 2025 and on Monday tumbled more than 15% to $222.15, the lowest since late October, reflecting newfound pessimism as sales crater around the globe.
In an overnight post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Musk is “putting it on the line” to help the country. Trump claimed in the post that “Radical Left Lunatics” were attempting to “illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby.”
The stock climbed more than 3% before the market open on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors charged a woman in connection with a string of vandalism against a Colorado Tesla dealership, which included Molotov cocktails being thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray painted on the building.
Musk pumped $270 million into Trump’s campaign heading into the 2024 election, appeared on stage with him and cheered Trump’s victory over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November. Tesla stock soared to $479 per share by mid-December, but have since lost 45% of their value.
Musk has become the face of the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn government downsizing efforts, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The department has promised massive federal worker layoffs and aims to drastically reduce government spending.
Analysts have said Musk’s shift to right-wing politics doesn’t appear to sit well with potential Tesla buyers, generally perceived to be wealthy and progressive consumers.
Tesla sales are falling precipitously in California, the company’s biggest U.S. market, and the company recorded its first annual global sales decline last year. Similarly, Tesla sales plunged 45% in Europe in January, according to research firm Jato Dynamics, even as overall electric vehicle sales rose. The sales numbers were particularly bad in Germany and France.
The latest auto sales figure from China show that Tesla sales there have been nearly halved from February a year ago, although the decline is largely due increased competition from domestic EV companies.
But sales in the U.S. have fallen due to competition, and a country sharply divided about Trump.
U.S. Analysts at UBS Global Research expect deliveries to fall 5% in the first quarter and full year compared to the same periods for 2024.
“Our UBS Evidence Lab data shows low delivery times for the Model 3 and Model Y (generally within two weeks) in key markets which we believe is indicative of softer demand,” they wrote.
Tesla is not the only Musk-led company to run into trouble recently. His X social media platform crashed several times on Monday, which Musk claimed was a “massive” cyberattack. But like the clear-cutting he’s done with federal jobs, Musk slashed the number of employees at X and technology experts warned of increased vulnerability.
Last week, a rocket launched by Musk’s SpaceX exploded and broke apart over Florida, about two months after another of the company’s rockets failed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is dismissing business concerns over the uncertainty caused by his planned tariffs on a range of American trading partners and the prospect of higher prices and isn’t ruling out the possibility of a recession this year. Also, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development, and said he would move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday announced new leadership at the agency tasked with immigration enforcement as she also pledged to step up lie detector tests on employees to identify those who may be leaking information about operations to the media.
“The authorities that I have under the Department of Homeland Security are broad and extensive and I plan to use every single one of them to make sure that we’re following the law, that we are following the procedures in place to keep people safe and that we’re making sure we’re following through on what President Trump has promised,” Noem told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
While these polygraph exams are typically not admissible in court proceedings, they are frequently used by federal law enforcement agencies and for national security clearances.
“The Department of Homeland Security is a national security agency,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We can, should, and will polygraph personnel.”
White House officials have previously expressed frustration with the pace of deportations, blaming it in part on recent leaks revealing cities where authorities planned to conduct operations.
Noem announcement of two new leadership appointments within the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement comes less than two months into the Trump administration and demonstrates the importance that the administration places on carrying out the president’s deportation agenda.
Todd Lyons, the former assistant director of field operations for the agency’s enforcement arm, will serve as acting ICE director. Madison Sheahan, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Noem’s former aide when she was governor of South Dakota, has been tapped to be the agency’s deputy director.
The leadership changes come after ICE’s acting director was reassigned on Feb. 21. Two other top immigration enforcement officials were reassigned Feb. 11. Those staffing changes came amid frustrations in the Trump administration about the pace of immigration arrests.
Noem also announced on Friday that the agency has identified and planned to prosecute two “leakers of information.”
On Sunday, she said these two people “were leaking our enforcement operations that we had planned and were going to conduct in several cities and exposed vulnerabilities.” She said they could face up to 10 years in federal prison.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and some imports from Canada for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. The White House insists its tariffs are about stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, but the taxes proposed by Trump have caused a gaping wound in the decades-old North American trade partnership. Trump’s tariff plans have also caused the stock market to sink and alarmed U.S. consumers.
TYLER — The 37th Annual Cattle Baron’s Ball, Stars Over Texas, is scheduled for June 7, 2025, at the Texas Rose Horse Park, home of the event for the past seven years. Whitney Cain and Kimberly Taylor, 2025 Cattle Baron’s Ball Co-Chairs, announced the headliner entertainer is Wade Bowen. Tickets go on sale at the end of March.
“We are so thrilled to have Wade Bowen performing at the Ball, said Kimberly Taylor. “We invite you to join us on June 7h at the Texas Rose Horse Park.” “Our East Texas Community has united to raise over $18 million for the American Cancer Society. This incredible achievement is a direct result of the generosity of our donors, supporters, and volunteers,” said Whitney Cain.
The Tyler Cattle Baron’s Ball is the primary fundraiser for the American Cancer Society-Tyler. To support the Tyler Cattle Baron’s Ball, click here or call 903-570-8126. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER — A former accountant at a Tyler nonprofit has been accused of stealing nearly $100,000. According to our news partner KETK and an arrest affidavit, a manager at Hand Up Network alerted officials to a fraud alert from their work bank after a debit card for the organization was used twice at a casino in Lake Charles, La. The manager told officials that the card was used by their accountant, Dawn Pitcock. When confronted by the manager, she reportedly said she had used the card by mistake and paid the organization back.
However, the manager then became suspicious and began reviewing the bank account where he found 283 transactions to Apple.com since March 2024 totaling $96,826.58. When confronted, Pitcock said she believed that he was the person making those transactions, hence why she never questioned them. Read the rest of this entry »
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Powerful storms killed two people in Mississippi, tore the roofs off an apartment building and a nursing home in a small town in Oklahoma and threatened more communities across the nation Tuesday with wide-ranging weather.
The large storm system also brought blinding dust storms to the Southwest, blizzards with whiteout conditions to the Midwest and fears of wildfires elsewhere.
In Irving, Texas, a tornado with winds up to 110 mph (177 kph) struck, while another touched down in the 16,000-resident city of Ada, Oklahoma, according to preliminary information from the National Weather Service. There were also two tornadoes in Louisiana’s northern Caddo Parish and at least five in eastern Oklahoma.
High winds forced some changes to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which moved up and shortened the two biggest parades to wrap them up before the bad weather moved in.
The weather didn’t stop Shalaska Jones and her 2-year-old daughter from waving at passing Mardi Gras floats and hoping to catch one of the coveted coconuts thrown to the crowd.
“We was coming out, rain, sleet or snow,” Jones said.
The alarming weather could be one of the first big tests for the National Weather Service after hundreds of forecasters were fired last week as part of President Donald Trump’s moves to slash the size of the federal government. Former employees said the firing of meteorologists who make crucial local forecasts nationwide could put lives at risk, though it was too soon to know the impact on forecasts and warnings for this storm.
Deaths from storms in Mississippi
Two people died due to the severe weather, Gov. Tate Reeves posted on the social platform X, without going into detail.
WAPT-TV reported that one person died from a falling power line in Madison County, while a driver in the same county was killed by a tree falling on his car.
Hundreds of thousands left without power
Storms that swept through Texas and Oklahoma brought high winds and rain, overturning tractor-trailers and damaging roofs. More than 178,000 customers were without power in Texas, about 23,000 in Louisiana, another 18,000 in Mississippi, about 88,000 in Alabama, more than 16,000 in Oklahoma and more than 23,000 in Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.us.
More outages were expected as a line of storms raced across Mississippi and Louisiana and headed for Alabama, producing gusts of 70 mph (113 kph), the weather service said.
Strong winds lead to fires and damage in Texas
In San Antonio, high winds caused at least two grass fires that damaged several structures and prompted officials to order mandatory evacuations in two areas south of the city. One fire prompted officials to call for the evacuation of about 30 homes, San Antonio Fire Chief Valerie Frausto told reporters.
By late Tuesday afternoon, the Texas A&M Forest Service was responding to 13 active wildfires across the state, service spokesperson Adam Turner said.
In North Texas, strong thunderstorms with gusts over 70 mph (113 kph) damaged apartments, schools and RVs. At the Las Haciendas Apartments in Irving, northwest of Dallas, winds blew out windows and damaged brick siding along the walls of a building.
Power was knocked out to several Irving schools. In Plano, north of Dallas, winds tore off parts of a high school’s metal roof. In Parker County, west of Fort Worth, at least three RV trailers were overturned by strong winds.
Central Plains and Midwest brace for blizzard conditions
Blizzard conditions were forecast that could make travel treacherous.
Schools will be closed Wednesday in several southern Minnesota districts with 5 to 11 inches (about 13 to 28 centimeters) of snow expected. More concerning were winds forecasted to gust over 50 mph (80 kph) and stay high.
The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities said on X Tuesday night that travel was not advised over a large portion of southern Minnesota.
“It’s tough to find a @MnDOT road camera that isn’t covered in ice or blocked completely by blowing snow,” the post said.
South Dakota was expected to receive up to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of snow in some areas, and by Tuesday evening, high winds had already deteriorated road conditions.
Jay Jones, who works at Love’s Truck Stop in Sioux Falls, said he saw garbage cans flying around as winds gusted around 50 mph (80.5 kph). Parts of Interstate 29 heading north to North Dakota were shut down.
“It looks really bad out there,” Jones said, adding that he walked to work and would have to “have to tough it out” on his way home.
In Des Moines, Iowa, gusts up to 65 mph (105 kph) were expected Tuesday night — a rare occurrence, forecasters said.
Strong winds and snowfall were making travel hazardous Tuesday night in eastern Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service. Part of Interstate 80 was temporarily closed and the agency recommended staying off the roads if possible.
Nationwide, more than 500 flights were canceled, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks delays and cancellations. Airports in Dallas canceled the most flights.
Severe weather threatens during Mardi Gras
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick ordered parade-goers to not bring umbrellas, tents or “anything that could fly in the wind and cause mayhem.” In neighboring Jefferson Parish, officials canceled planned parades due to anticipated high winds and thunderstorms.
Even with winds sweeping through New Orleans, the city’s festive Bourbon Street was packed with revelers clad in purple, gold and yellow, shouting for bead necklaces tossed from balconies.
Ashley Luna and her aunt danced and skipped down the street holding beverages beneath the darkening sky, unconcerned about the evening’s prospects.
“The weather can always change. I’m not really worried about it,” Luna said. “I am just going with the flow.”
ATLANTA (AP) — As Donald Trump prepared Tuesday to address a joint session of Congress, protest groups gathered at parks, statehouses and other public grounds across the country to assail his presidency as dangerous and un-American.
The rallies and marches — set in motion by the fledgling 50501 Movement, a volunteer-driven group organized in the weeks after Trump’s inauguration — mark the latest attempt at national resistance to the hardened support of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base and the success it has had in reshaping the Republican Party in the president’s populist image.
Yet some early scenes Tuesday vividly demonstrated the difficulty Democrats, progressives and everyday citizens face in marshaling a tangible response to Trump and the swift, sweeping actions of his second administration. Protesters have so many things to push back against — from tariffs to Trump’s reset on the war in Ukraine to the aggressive and sometimes legally dubious actions of the Department of Government Efficiency and its leader, billionaire Elon Musk, that it’s hard to know what to focus on.
“There are so many things to fight, but I hope by being here we are starting some conversations,” said Sara Grummer-Strawn, who held a sign declaring “So Much Wrong, So Little Space,” followed by a small-print litany of topics from Ukraine and tariffs to potential education cuts to the denial of climate and vaccine science.
Around her in Atlanta were hundreds of people marching and chanting about a range of Trump initiatives. There were Palestinian flags and Ukrainian flags, along with signs bemoaning Trump ending military aid to Ukraine as it fights off the invading Russian troops of Vladimir Putin.
Trump was called a fascist, a “Russian asset,” “Putin’s Puppet” and “Wannabe King,” among other, more profane monikers. One signed implored “Punch Nazis,” reflecting an increasingly common effort to compare Trump’s presidency to Nazi Germany. Musk was a frequent target of mockery and ire. But there were also appeals for transgender rights, abortion rights and diversity. One understated sign appealed simply, “Save Our Parks.”
Events were scheduled throughout the day in all 50 states, ending late Tuesday in Hawaii.
In Austin, Texas, those gathered at the statehouse leaned in to support Ukraine. Pops of yellow — a nod to the colors of Ukraine’s national flag — dotted the crowd as protesters affixed sunflowers to their hair, hats and clothing. The Texas crowd, which numbered in the hundreds, eventually made its way through downtown, chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
“I think protests can be impactful,” said Carol Goodwin, an Austin resident active in the local advocacy scene. “I think these smaller protests are valuable for the people who come to express their frustrations, and I think this movement will grow over time.”
For some participants, Tuesday recalled 50501’s first day of national action on Feb. 5 — or the many women’s marches in 2017, at the outset of Trump’s first term. But for many others, it was a new step in their engagement.
Goodwin cited Trump’s tariffs against Canada and Mexico and the Oval Office exchange between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week as her reasons for attending.
In San Francisco, Michael Gray also pointed to that White House exchange with the Ukrainian leader. “The meeting with Zelenskyy … just made us so disgusted to see an American president act that way on the world stage,” said the Santa Rosa, California, resident.
Grayson Taylor, a 33-year-old who came to the Atlanta event, had not protested until this year. He described the actions of Trump, his Cabinet and Musk as a “billionaire coup” leading a government that “will be serving the ultra-rich.”
At the same rally, Sherri Frias, 58, said her concerns about the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans — in conjunction with GOP proposals to roll back Medicaid and other aid programs — drew her to her first protest. Trump has urged Congress to renew the tax cuts, which are set to expire.
Another Atlanta attendee, 67-year-old Phyllis Bedford, said she came to her first political protest because she felt overwhelmed by the breadth of Trump’s actions.
“I was thinking on my way here what I want to say about the situation,” said Bedford, who drove from Republican-leaning Snellville, on the outer edges of metro Atlanta. “All I could come up with is, ‘I’m sorry.’ I am sorry to Canada. I’m sorry, Mexico. I’m sorry, Greenland. I’m so, so sorry, Ukraine and President Zelensky. … We’re just so wrong. And we don’t all support this man.”
“For my own mental health, because it makes me feel like I’m doing something other than just the screaming inside of my head, right? That goes on every day, And I want to be heard.”
The protests come after some Republican members of Congress met angry town hall crowds during a recent congressional recess and as Democrats on Capitol Hill face pressure from voters on the left to be more outspoken.
Taylor wants Democrats to be “rude and aggressive” like Republicans “have been for years.”
“The Republican Party right now is so much more organized, and not divisive,” Smith said. “The Democratic Party, they have individual issues, but in my observation it’s hard for them to come together to deal with the real issues they want.”
Multiple demonstrators said they want to see Democrats relentlessly highlight the real-world impact of Trump’s executive orders, Musk’s commission and the pending Republican budget plan.
Bedford worked in the financial aid office at Georgia State University. “Most of the kids I dealt with would not have been enrolled without Pell Grants and the (federal) financial aid system,” she said. “And now there’s just a war on education, and higher education especially.”
Grummer-Strawn divides her time between Atlanta and Geneva, where her husband works for the World Health Organization after having spent 24 years at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from supporting WHO and clamped down on the CDC’s research and public health advocacy.
“We need to get people to stop and pause and see what each of his actions is leading to, connecting the dots,” Grummer-Strawn said, “even if people don’t think Ukraine and tariffs and public health policy affect them directly.”
Frias, meanwhile, thinks Democrats are doing everything they can given GOP control on Capitol Hill and in the White House. The ultimate responsibility for action, she said, rests with “the people of the U.S.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas wasn’t the first lawmaker ever to blurt out a shout of protest during a presidential address to Congress.
But he’s perhaps the only one in recent memory to actually be ejected from the hall Tuesday night by the Speaker of the House.
Green said afterward it was worth it to make his point — even if he is punished by House leaders, who later called for the congressman to be censured.
“The president was saying he had a mandate, and I was making it clear that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green told reporters, referring to the health care program used by 80 million Americans.
“It’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president.”
Green’s outburst came at the start of President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress and immediately set the tone. The night was already uneasy. Stone-faced Democrats, now the minority party, had been sitting silently on one side of the chamber, rambunctious Republicans on the other.
As Green rose to speak, shaking his walking cane at the president, the Republicans drowned him out with muscular chants of “USA! USA!”
Johnson eyed the situation from his perch on the dais behind Trump, appearing hesitant to interrupt the president’s address. But the speaker was shaking his head and clearly desiring decorum in the chamber. Vice President JD Vance motioned with his thumb to throw Green out.
The speaker issued a warning for order, banging the gavel. “Take your seat, sir!” But the long-serving congressman remained standing. And then Johnson ordered the Sergeant at Arms to restore order by removing Green from the chamber.
Rarely has a lawmaker been so swiftly and severely disciplined for improper behavior.
Johnson said afterward that Green should be censured by the House — among the more severe reprimands his colleagues could mete out.
“He’s made history in a terrible way,” Johnson told reporters afterward.
“If they want to make a 77-year-old heckling congressman the face of their resistance, if that’s the Democrat Party, so be it,” Johnson said. “But we will not tolerate it on the House floor.”
In past years, several lawmakers have raised their voices to shout at presidents – from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s shouts against President Joe Biden and the “You lie!” outburst from Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. against President Barack Obama.
Of course, during Trump’s first term, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not raise her voice, but silently ripped up the president’s speech on the dais, once he had finished delivering it.
Green has been a pivotal lawmaker since he was first elected to Congress in 2004, often standing as he did Tuesday night, alone.
He introduced articles of impeachment against Trump in 2017, maneuvering around party leadership. And he did it again in 2019, shortly before the House led by Pelosi actually did move forward with separate impeachment proceedings over Trump withholding funding for Ukraine as it battled Russia.
Last year, Green stunned his own colleagues when he dashed from his hospital bed where he was recovering from surgery to vote against the Republican effort to impeach Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. With his arrival, the vote failed, though Republicans recouped and impeached Mayorkas days later.
Green warned Tuesday against Republican efforts in their budget proposal to change Medicaid, which is the program he said many people in his Houston-area district rely on for health care. He also warned against cuts to Medicare, the program for seniors, and the Social Security retirement program.
“This is about the people being punished by virtue of losing their health care,” Green said.
“This is the richest country in the world,” he said. “And health care is about to become wealth care, and we can’t let that happen.”
Green has said he is working on new articles of impeachment against Trump.
“This president is unfit,” Green said. “He should not hold the office.”
American Airlines Boeing 737 catches fire at Denver airport
Posted/updated on:
March 16, 2025 at
9:13 pm
DENVER (AP) — Twelve people were taken to hospitals after an American Airlines plane landed at Denver International Airport on Thursday and caught fire, prompting slides to be deployed so passengers could evacuate quickly. All of the people transported to hospitals had minor injuries, according to a post on the social platform X by Denver International Airport.
Flight 1006, which was headed from the Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas Fort Worth, diverted to Denver and landed safely around 5:15 p.m. after the crew reported engine vibrations, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
While taxiing to the gate, an engine on the Boeing 737-800 caught fire, the FAA added.
Photos and videos posted by news outlets showed passengers standing on a plane’s wing as smoke surrounded the aircraft. The FAA said passengers exited using the slides.
American said in a statement that the flight experienced an engine-related issue after taxiing to the gate. There was no immediate clarification on exactly when the plane caught fire.
The 172 passengers and six crew members were taken to the terminal, airline officials said.
“We thank our crew members, DEN team and first responders for their quick and decisive action with the safety of everyone on board and on the ground as the priority,” American said.
Firefighters put out the blaze by the evening, an airport spokesperson told media outlets.
Recent on-the-ground incidents have included a plane that crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto and a Japan Airlines plane that clipped a parked Delta plane while it was taxiing at the Seattle airport.
Former superintendent speaks out against school choice bill
Posted/updated on:
March 15, 2025 at
4:47 am
LUFKIN — A former Lufkin ISD superintendent spoke against House Bill 3 during a House Committee meeting on Wednesday. According to our news partner KETK, Roy Knight, who was in the education industry for over 40 years, testified against HB 3 that would use state funds to pay for private schools, homeschooling and other educational services. The bill would also create more flexibility for parents to choose their child’s education.
“This bill is a skunk that we’re trying to pass off as a kitty cat,” Knight said.
The bill argues that directing funds toward private schools will enable competitive pay for public school teachers. However, Knight contends that Lufkin has remained competitive with other schools for years. He also stated that public school teachers are frustrated by the implication that they have not been working hard until private schools became more popular. (more…)
Trump vows to take back ‘stolen’ wealth as tariffs go into effect
Posted/updated on:
March 15, 2025 at
4:52 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump openly challenged U.S. allies on Wednesday by increasing tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25% as he vowed to take back wealth “stolen” by other countries, drawing quick retaliation from Europe and Canada.
The Republican president’s use of tariffs to extract concessions from other nations points toward a possibly destructive trade war and a stark change in America’s approach to global leadership. It also has destabilized the stock market and stoked anxiety about an economic downturn.
“The United States of America is going to take back a lot of what was stolen from it by other countries and, frankly, by incompetent U.S. leadership,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going to take back our wealth, and we’re going to take back a lot of the companies that left.”
He has separate tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, with plans to also tax imports from the European Union, Brazil and South Korea by charging “reciprocal” rates starting on April 2.
The EU announced its own countermeasures on Wednesday. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that as the United States was “applying tariffs worth 28 billion dollars, we are responding with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros,” or about $28 billion. Those measures, which cover not just steel and aluminum products but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods, are due to take effect on April 1.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer responded by saying that the EU was punishing America instead of fixing what he viewed as excess capacity in steel and aluminum production.
“The EU’s punitive action completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States – and indeed international security – and is yet another indicator that the EU’s trade and economic policies are out of step with reality,” he said in a statement.
Meeting on Wednesday with Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Trump said “of course” he wants to respond to EU’s retaliations and “of course” Ireland is taking advantage of the United States.
“The EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States,” Trump said.
Last year, the United States ran a $87 billion trade imbalance with Ireland. That’s partially because of the tax structure created by Trump’s 2017 overhaul, which incentivized U.S. pharmaceutical companies to record their sales abroad, Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, said on X.
Canada sees itself as locked in a trade war because of White House claims about fentanyl smuggling and that its natural resources and factories subtract from the U.S. economy instead of supporting it.
“This is going to be a day to day fight. This is now the second round of unjustified tariffs leveled against Canada,” said Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign affairs minister. “The latest excuse is national security despite the fact that Canada’s steel and aluminum adds to America’s security. All the while there is a threat of further and broader tariffs on April 2 still looming. The excuse for those tariffs shifts every day.”
Canada is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States and plans to impose retaliatory tariffs of Canadian $29.8 billion ($20.7 billion) starting Thursday in response to the U.S. taxes on the metals.
Canada’s new tariffs would be on steel and aluminum products, as well as U.S. goods including computers, sports equipment and water heaters worth $14.2 billion Canadian ($9.9 billion). That’s in addition to the 25% counter tariffs on $30 billion Canadian (US$20.8 billion) of imports from the U.S. that were put in place on March 4 in response to other Trump import taxes that he’s partially delayed by a month.
Trump told CEOs in the Business Roundtable a day earlier that the tariffs were causing companies to invest in U.S. factories. The 7.5% drop in the S&P 500 stock index over the past month on fears of deteriorating growth appears unlikely to dissuade him, as Trump argued that higher tariff rates would be more effective at bringing back factories.
“The higher it goes, the more likely it is they’re going to build,” Trump told the group. “The biggest win is if they move into our country and produce jobs. That’s a bigger win than the tariffs themselves, but the tariffs are going to be throwing off a lot of money to this country.”
Democratic lawmakers dismissed Trump’s claims that his tariffs are about national security and drug smuggling, saying they’re actually about generating revenues to help cover the cost of his planned income tax cuts for the wealthy.
“Donald Trump knows his policies could wreck the economy, but he’s doing it anyway,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “Why are they doing all these crazy things that Americans don’t like? One reason, and one reason alone: tax breaks for billionaires, the north star of the Republican party’s goals.
In many ways, the president is addressing what he perceives as unfinished business from his first term. Trump meaningfully increased tariffs, but the revenues collected by the federal government were too small to significantly increase overall inflationary pressures.
Outside forecasts by the Budget Lab at Yale University, Tax Policy Center and others suggest that U.S. families would have the costs of the taxes passed onto them in the form of higher prices.
With Wednesday’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, Trump is seeking to remedy his original 2018 import taxes that were eroded by exemptions.
After Canada and Mexico agreed to his demand for a revamped North American trade deal in 2020, they avoided the import taxes on the metals. Other U.S. trading partners had import quotas supplant the tariffs. And the first Trump administration also allowed U.S. companies to request exemptions from the tariffs if, for instance, they couldn’t find the steel they needed from domestic producers.
While Trump’s tariffs could help steel and aluminum plants in the United States, they could raise prices for the manufacturers that use the metals as raw materials.
Moreover, economists have found, the gains to the steel and aluminum industries were more than offset by the cost they imposed on “downstream’’ manufacturers that use their products.
At these downstream companies, production fell by nearly $3.5 billion because of the tariffs in 2021, a loss that exceeded the $2.3 billion uptick in production that year by aluminum producers and steelmakers, the U.S. International Trade Commission found in 2023.
Trump sees the tariffs as leading to more domestic factories, and the White House has noted that Volvo, Volkswagen and Honda are all exploring an increase to their U.S. footprint. But the prospect of higher prices, fewer sales and lower profits might cause some companies to refrain from investing in new facilities.
“If you’re an executive in the boardroom, are you really going to tell your board it’s the time to expand that assembly line?” said John Murphy, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The top steel exporters to the U.S. are Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea and Japan, with exports from Taiwan and Vietnam growing at a fast pace, according to the International Trade Administration. Imports from China, the world’s largest steel producer, account for only a small fraction of what the U.S. buys.
Vaccinating poultry could help cut soaring egg prices
Posted/updated on:
March 15, 2025 at
4:51 am
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Vaccines could be a key means of suppressing bird flu and avoiding the slaughter of millions of chickens, which is blamed for egg prices averaging nearly $6 a dozen. But the move has been delayed in part because of concerns it could jeopardize chicken exports worth billions of dollars a year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to spend $100 million to study bird flu vaccines to fight the disease in concert with meat chicken, egg and turkey groups. That’s part of a larger $1 billion effort to invest in more protections to keep the virus off farms that President Donald Trump believes will help lower egg prices.
Chicken meat producers remain the most resistant to vaccines because of concerns they could harm meat exports, which totaled nearly $4.7 billion last year. Egg and turkey producers sell most of their products in the U.S. and have been hit hardest by the virus.
Why is a vaccine needed?
Without a new policy including vaccines, the government will continue to slaughter every flock with a bird flu infection to limit the spread of the disease. Those deaths have totaled over 166 million birds in the U.S. since 2022.
Most birds killed are egg-laying chickens, and the death of so many hens is the main reason egg prices keep rising. The average price per dozen has hit $5.90, and in some part of the country, it is far higher.
Poultry veterinarian Simon Shane, who runs http://www.Egg-News.com, said the government is hesitant to use vaccines and change its policy of killing birds largely because of the meat chicken industry’s opposition.
“Basically this is a political issue, and this only came to a head because eggs are at $8 to $9 a dozen, and it’s embarrassing the government — embarrassing the present administration,” Shane said.
Why doesn’t the US use a bird flu vaccine?
Before using vaccinations, the government must decide how to devise an effective system and monitor for outbreaks within vaccinated flocks that might not show any symptoms, said John Clifford, the USDA’s former longtime chief veterinary officer, who now works with a poultry industry export group. Once that is figured out, the industry can negotiate with countries to minimize trade problems.
“What the industry wants is the ability to develop the strategic plan to share that with the trading partners and then find out what kind of impact that that will have on trade,” Clifford said.
There are fears that vaccinating could allow the virus to linger undetected in flocks and mutate in ways that could make it more of a threat to humans and allow sick birds to get into the food supply. Like with other diseases, properly cooking chicken to 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) will kill bird flu, but the industry and chicken buyers don’t want it there at all.
For meat chicken, known as broilers, the virus isn’t as significant because those birds are slaughtered at 6 to 8 weeks old and thus have less chance of being infected compared with egg-laying hens, which live to 2 years or older. Also most broilers are raised in the Southeast, which hasn’t had as many outbreaks as the Midwest and West.
Another delay to vaccinating concerns distribution. Egg farmers want to administer it through chicken feed or water, saying it’s not practical to give shots to millions of birds in a single barn.
It can also be difficult to tell the difference between a vaccinated bird and one that has been sick with the virus. That would make other countries nervous about importing meat.
“People have talked about how expensive it would be to monitor vaccinated populations. And it would be. But where do we want to spend our money?” said Dr. Carol Cardona, a bird flu expert at the University of Minnesota. “We’re spending our money hand over fist right now in depopulation and to buy eggs for breakfast.”
What does the experience in other countries show?
China and Mexico have been vaccinating their poultry for years, but they take different approaches.
In Mexico chicken are vaccinated, but Clifford said the country doesn’t slaughter flocks when infections are found. That basically ensures the virus is present in poultry.
China still slaughters vaccinated flocks when infections are found, which has proven more effective at limiting the spread of the virus and reigning in outbreaks.
Clifford said the U.S. would need to continue culling flocks with outbreaks even after vaccinating, and it might make sense to give shots only to egg layers and turkeys, not broilers.
Will it help egg prices?
Don’t expect big relief anytime soon.
The USDA, which did not respond to a request for comment for this article sent last week, clearly isn’t moving to vaccinate immediately. And, regardless, it will take time to raise new hens.
“We’re going to have to wait to replace those with new hatched chicks, and it takes 20 weeks before they even start laying,” Shane said. “So I don’t know where they’re going to get the eggs from.”
Prices may ease somewhat later this year after peak demand, which happens around Easter, if massive egg farms in Iowa, Ohio, California and elsewhere can avoid more outbreaks.
The USDA has predicted that average egg prices will be 41% higher than the 2024 average of $3.17 per dozen. That would mean $4.47 per dozen, slightly below the current average.
Measles cases are still rising in Texas
Posted/updated on:
March 13, 2025 at
7:27 am
WEST TEXAS (AP) – Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to more than 250 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?
Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 25 new cases of measles since the end of last week, bringing Texas’ total to 223. Twenty-nine people in Texas are hospitalized.
New Mexico health officials announced three new cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 33. The outbreak has spread from Lea County, which neighbors the West Texas communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, to include one case in Eddy County.
Oklahoma’s state health department reported two probable cases of measles Tuesday, saying they are “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
Measles cases have been reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases — and there have been three clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025.
In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates.
Do you need an MMR booster?
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.
Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.
A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.
Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.
People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.
What are the symptoms of measles?
Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.
The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.
How can you treat measles?
There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates matter?
In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”
But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.
Court stays execution of Texas man days before he was set to die
Posted/updated on:
March 13, 2025 at
7:24 am
AUSTIN (AP) — A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso.
It was the second scheduled execution in the U.S. halted on Tuesday after a federal judge stopped Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was to take place next week.
In Texas, the order was another reprieve for David Leonard Wood, who in 2009 was about 24 hours away from execution when it was halted over claims he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.
Those claims were later rejected by a judge and Wood, 67, had been set to die Thursday. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, issued a stay of execution after his latest appeal, which renewed his claims of innocence.
The court put Wood’s execution on pause “until further order.” It did not elaborate on the decision in a brief three-page order.
Had Wood been executed this week, he would have spent 32 years and two months on Texas’ death row, the longest time a Texas inmate has waited before being put to death.
The 1987 murders remained unsolved for several years until authorities say Wood bragged to a cellmate that he was the so-called “Desert Killer.” The victims’ bodies were found buried in shallow graves in the same desert area northeast of El Paso.
Authorities said Wood gave rides to the victims and then drove them into the desert, where he sexually assaulted and killed them. The victims were Rosa Casio and Ivy Williams, both 23; Karen Baker, 21; Angelica Frausto, 17; Desiree Wheatley, 15; and Dawn Smith, 14.
Two other girls and a young woman were also reported missing but were never found.
Wood, a repeat convicted sex offender who had worked as a mechanic, has long maintained his innocence.
“I did not do it. I am innocent of this case. I’ll fight it,” Wood said in recent documents filed in his appeals.
On March 4, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined a request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty or grant him a 90-day reprieve.
His lawyers have for years sought to have hundreds of pieces of evidence tested for DNA after testing in 2011 of bloodstains on the clothing Smith wore found a male DNA profile that was not Wood. The Texas Attorney General’s Office has fought against new DNA tests and various courts have denied Wood’s request for it.
Prior to the court’s decision Tuesday, Gregory Wiercioch, one of Wood’s attorneys, said that when authorities identified Wood as a suspect, they focused on him and not on the evidence they had.
“We’ve tried to make it clear to the courts that he’s innocent, and we’ll see if anyone listens,” Wiercioch said.
Trump says he’s going to buy a Tesla as more Americans say they won’t
Posted/updated on:
March 13, 2025 at
12:04 am
AUSTIN (AP) -After one of the worst single day sell-offs in Tesla’s history, President Donald Trump threw his support behind his advisor, billionaire Elon Musk, vowing to buy one of his cars on Tuesday.
Tesla has been pummeled this year under competition from rival electric vehicles, particularly out of China, as well as his close association with Trump and with far right causes globally.
Shares have plummeted 45% in 2025 and on Monday tumbled more than 15% to $222.15, the lowest since late October, reflecting newfound pessimism as sales crater around the globe.
In an overnight post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Musk is “putting it on the line” to help the country. Trump claimed in the post that “Radical Left Lunatics” were attempting to “illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby.”
The stock climbed more than 3% before the market open on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors charged a woman in connection with a string of vandalism against a Colorado Tesla dealership, which included Molotov cocktails being thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray painted on the building.
Musk pumped $270 million into Trump’s campaign heading into the 2024 election, appeared on stage with him and cheered Trump’s victory over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November. Tesla stock soared to $479 per share by mid-December, but have since lost 45% of their value.
Musk has become the face of the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn government downsizing efforts, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The department has promised massive federal worker layoffs and aims to drastically reduce government spending.
Analysts have said Musk’s shift to right-wing politics doesn’t appear to sit well with potential Tesla buyers, generally perceived to be wealthy and progressive consumers.
Tesla sales are falling precipitously in California, the company’s biggest U.S. market, and the company recorded its first annual global sales decline last year. Similarly, Tesla sales plunged 45% in Europe in January, according to research firm Jato Dynamics, even as overall electric vehicle sales rose. The sales numbers were particularly bad in Germany and France.
The latest auto sales figure from China show that Tesla sales there have been nearly halved from February a year ago, although the decline is largely due increased competition from domestic EV companies.
But sales in the U.S. have fallen due to competition, and a country sharply divided about Trump.
U.S. Analysts at UBS Global Research expect deliveries to fall 5% in the first quarter and full year compared to the same periods for 2024.
“Our UBS Evidence Lab data shows low delivery times for the Model 3 and Model Y (generally within two weeks) in key markets which we believe is indicative of softer demand,” they wrote.
Tesla is not the only Musk-led company to run into trouble recently. His X social media platform crashed several times on Monday, which Musk claimed was a “massive” cyberattack. But like the clear-cutting he’s done with federal jobs, Musk slashed the number of employees at X and technology experts warned of increased vulnerability.
Last week, a rocket launched by Musk’s SpaceX exploded and broke apart over Florida, about two months after another of the company’s rockets failed.
Trump downplays business concerns about uncertainty from his tariffs
Posted/updated on:
March 12, 2025 at
4:36 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is dismissing business concerns over the uncertainty caused by his planned tariffs on a range of American trading partners and the prospect of higher prices and isn’t ruling out the possibility of a recession this year. Also, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development, and said he would move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department.
Noem taps new ICE leaders and moves to identify leakers
Posted/updated on:
March 12, 2025 at
4:36 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday announced new leadership at the agency tasked with immigration enforcement as she also pledged to step up lie detector tests on employees to identify those who may be leaking information about operations to the media.
“The authorities that I have under the Department of Homeland Security are broad and extensive and I plan to use every single one of them to make sure that we’re following the law, that we are following the procedures in place to keep people safe and that we’re making sure we’re following through on what President Trump has promised,” Noem told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
While these polygraph exams are typically not admissible in court proceedings, they are frequently used by federal law enforcement agencies and for national security clearances.
“The Department of Homeland Security is a national security agency,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We can, should, and will polygraph personnel.”
White House officials have previously expressed frustration with the pace of deportations, blaming it in part on recent leaks revealing cities where authorities planned to conduct operations.
Noem announcement of two new leadership appointments within the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement comes less than two months into the Trump administration and demonstrates the importance that the administration places on carrying out the president’s deportation agenda.
Todd Lyons, the former assistant director of field operations for the agency’s enforcement arm, will serve as acting ICE director. Madison Sheahan, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Noem’s former aide when she was governor of South Dakota, has been tapped to be the agency’s deputy director.
The leadership changes come after ICE’s acting director was reassigned on Feb. 21. Two other top immigration enforcement officials were reassigned Feb. 11. Those staffing changes came amid frustrations in the Trump administration about the pace of immigration arrests.
Noem also announced on Friday that the agency has identified and planned to prosecute two “leakers of information.”
On Sunday, she said these two people “were leaking our enforcement operations that we had planned and were going to conduct in several cities and exposed vulnerabilities.” She said they could face up to 10 years in federal prison.
Trump changes course and delays some tariffs on Mexico and Canada
Posted/updated on:
March 10, 2025 at
3:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and some imports from Canada for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. The White House insists its tariffs are about stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, but the taxes proposed by Trump have caused a gaping wound in the decades-old North American trade partnership. Trump’s tariff plans have also caused the stock market to sink and alarmed U.S. consumers.
Tyler Cattle Baron’s Ball headliner announced
Posted/updated on:
March 8, 2025 at
10:03 am
TYLER — The 37th Annual Cattle Baron’s Ball, Stars Over Texas, is scheduled for June 7, 2025, at the Texas Rose Horse Park, home of the event for the past seven years. Whitney Cain and Kimberly Taylor, 2025 Cattle Baron’s Ball Co-Chairs, announced the headliner entertainer is Wade Bowen. Tickets go on sale at the end of March.
“We are so thrilled to have Wade Bowen performing at the Ball, said Kimberly Taylor. “We invite you to join us on June 7h at the Texas Rose Horse Park.” “Our East Texas Community has united to raise over $18 million for the American Cancer Society. This incredible achievement is a direct result of the generosity of our donors, supporters, and volunteers,” said Whitney Cain.
The Tyler Cattle Baron’s Ball is the primary fundraiser for the American Cancer Society-Tyler. To support the Tyler Cattle Baron’s Ball, click here or call 903-570-8126. (more…)
Former accountant admits to stealing $100K from Tyler nonprofit
Posted/updated on:
March 7, 2025 at
3:28 am
TYLER — A former accountant at a Tyler nonprofit has been accused of stealing nearly $100,000. According to our news partner KETK and an arrest affidavit, a manager at Hand Up Network alerted officials to a fraud alert from their work bank after a debit card for the organization was used twice at a casino in Lake Charles, La. The manager told officials that the card was used by their accountant, Dawn Pitcock. When confronted by the manager, she reportedly said she had used the card by mistake and paid the organization back.
However, the manager then became suspicious and began reviewing the bank account where he found 283 transactions to Apple.com since March 2024 totaling $96,826.58. When confronted, Pitcock said she believed that he was the person making those transactions, hence why she never questioned them. (more…)
Powerful US storms kill 2 and bring threats from critical fire weather to blizzard conditions
Posted/updated on:
March 6, 2025 at
3:24 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Powerful storms killed two people in Mississippi, tore the roofs off an apartment building and a nursing home in a small town in Oklahoma and threatened more communities across the nation Tuesday with wide-ranging weather.
The large storm system also brought blinding dust storms to the Southwest, blizzards with whiteout conditions to the Midwest and fears of wildfires elsewhere.
In Irving, Texas, a tornado with winds up to 110 mph (177 kph) struck, while another touched down in the 16,000-resident city of Ada, Oklahoma, according to preliminary information from the National Weather Service. There were also two tornadoes in Louisiana’s northern Caddo Parish and at least five in eastern Oklahoma.
High winds forced some changes to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which moved up and shortened the two biggest parades to wrap them up before the bad weather moved in.
The weather didn’t stop Shalaska Jones and her 2-year-old daughter from waving at passing Mardi Gras floats and hoping to catch one of the coveted coconuts thrown to the crowd.
“We was coming out, rain, sleet or snow,” Jones said.
The alarming weather could be one of the first big tests for the National Weather Service after hundreds of forecasters were fired last week as part of President Donald Trump’s moves to slash the size of the federal government. Former employees said the firing of meteorologists who make crucial local forecasts nationwide could put lives at risk, though it was too soon to know the impact on forecasts and warnings for this storm.
Deaths from storms in Mississippi
Two people died due to the severe weather, Gov. Tate Reeves posted on the social platform X, without going into detail.
WAPT-TV reported that one person died from a falling power line in Madison County, while a driver in the same county was killed by a tree falling on his car.
Hundreds of thousands left without power
Storms that swept through Texas and Oklahoma brought high winds and rain, overturning tractor-trailers and damaging roofs. More than 178,000 customers were without power in Texas, about 23,000 in Louisiana, another 18,000 in Mississippi, about 88,000 in Alabama, more than 16,000 in Oklahoma and more than 23,000 in Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.us.
More outages were expected as a line of storms raced across Mississippi and Louisiana and headed for Alabama, producing gusts of 70 mph (113 kph), the weather service said.
Strong winds lead to fires and damage in Texas
In San Antonio, high winds caused at least two grass fires that damaged several structures and prompted officials to order mandatory evacuations in two areas south of the city. One fire prompted officials to call for the evacuation of about 30 homes, San Antonio Fire Chief Valerie Frausto told reporters.
By late Tuesday afternoon, the Texas A&M Forest Service was responding to 13 active wildfires across the state, service spokesperson Adam Turner said.
In North Texas, strong thunderstorms with gusts over 70 mph (113 kph) damaged apartments, schools and RVs. At the Las Haciendas Apartments in Irving, northwest of Dallas, winds blew out windows and damaged brick siding along the walls of a building.
Power was knocked out to several Irving schools. In Plano, north of Dallas, winds tore off parts of a high school’s metal roof. In Parker County, west of Fort Worth, at least three RV trailers were overturned by strong winds.
Central Plains and Midwest brace for blizzard conditions
Blizzard conditions were forecast that could make travel treacherous.
Schools will be closed Wednesday in several southern Minnesota districts with 5 to 11 inches (about 13 to 28 centimeters) of snow expected. More concerning were winds forecasted to gust over 50 mph (80 kph) and stay high.
The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities said on X Tuesday night that travel was not advised over a large portion of southern Minnesota.
“It’s tough to find a @MnDOT road camera that isn’t covered in ice or blocked completely by blowing snow,” the post said.
South Dakota was expected to receive up to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of snow in some areas, and by Tuesday evening, high winds had already deteriorated road conditions.
Jay Jones, who works at Love’s Truck Stop in Sioux Falls, said he saw garbage cans flying around as winds gusted around 50 mph (80.5 kph). Parts of Interstate 29 heading north to North Dakota were shut down.
“It looks really bad out there,” Jones said, adding that he walked to work and would have to “have to tough it out” on his way home.
In Des Moines, Iowa, gusts up to 65 mph (105 kph) were expected Tuesday night — a rare occurrence, forecasters said.
Strong winds and snowfall were making travel hazardous Tuesday night in eastern Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service. Part of Interstate 80 was temporarily closed and the agency recommended staying off the roads if possible.
Nationwide, more than 500 flights were canceled, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks delays and cancellations. Airports in Dallas canceled the most flights.
Severe weather threatens during Mardi Gras
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick ordered parade-goers to not bring umbrellas, tents or “anything that could fly in the wind and cause mayhem.” In neighboring Jefferson Parish, officials canceled planned parades due to anticipated high winds and thunderstorms.
Even with winds sweeping through New Orleans, the city’s festive Bourbon Street was packed with revelers clad in purple, gold and yellow, shouting for bead necklaces tossed from balconies.
Ashley Luna and her aunt danced and skipped down the street holding beverages beneath the darkening sky, unconcerned about the evening’s prospects.
“The weather can always change. I’m not really worried about it,” Luna said. “I am just going with the flow.”
Demonstrators across 50 states look to unify a disparate opposition to Trump
Posted/updated on:
March 6, 2025 at
8:51 am
ATLANTA (AP) — As Donald Trump prepared Tuesday to address a joint session of Congress, protest groups gathered at parks, statehouses and other public grounds across the country to assail his presidency as dangerous and un-American.
The rallies and marches — set in motion by the fledgling 50501 Movement, a volunteer-driven group organized in the weeks after Trump’s inauguration — mark the latest attempt at national resistance to the hardened support of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base and the success it has had in reshaping the Republican Party in the president’s populist image.
Yet some early scenes Tuesday vividly demonstrated the difficulty Democrats, progressives and everyday citizens face in marshaling a tangible response to Trump and the swift, sweeping actions of his second administration. Protesters have so many things to push back against — from tariffs to Trump’s reset on the war in Ukraine to the aggressive and sometimes legally dubious actions of the Department of Government Efficiency and its leader, billionaire Elon Musk, that it’s hard to know what to focus on.
“There are so many things to fight, but I hope by being here we are starting some conversations,” said Sara Grummer-Strawn, who held a sign declaring “So Much Wrong, So Little Space,” followed by a small-print litany of topics from Ukraine and tariffs to potential education cuts to the denial of climate and vaccine science.
Around her in Atlanta were hundreds of people marching and chanting about a range of Trump initiatives. There were Palestinian flags and Ukrainian flags, along with signs bemoaning Trump ending military aid to Ukraine as it fights off the invading Russian troops of Vladimir Putin.
Trump was called a fascist, a “Russian asset,” “Putin’s Puppet” and “Wannabe King,” among other, more profane monikers. One signed implored “Punch Nazis,” reflecting an increasingly common effort to compare Trump’s presidency to Nazi Germany. Musk was a frequent target of mockery and ire. But there were also appeals for transgender rights, abortion rights and diversity. One understated sign appealed simply, “Save Our Parks.”
Events were scheduled throughout the day in all 50 states, ending late Tuesday in Hawaii.
In Austin, Texas, those gathered at the statehouse leaned in to support Ukraine. Pops of yellow — a nod to the colors of Ukraine’s national flag — dotted the crowd as protesters affixed sunflowers to their hair, hats and clothing. The Texas crowd, which numbered in the hundreds, eventually made its way through downtown, chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
“I think protests can be impactful,” said Carol Goodwin, an Austin resident active in the local advocacy scene. “I think these smaller protests are valuable for the people who come to express their frustrations, and I think this movement will grow over time.”
For some participants, Tuesday recalled 50501’s first day of national action on Feb. 5 — or the many women’s marches in 2017, at the outset of Trump’s first term. But for many others, it was a new step in their engagement.
Goodwin cited Trump’s tariffs against Canada and Mexico and the Oval Office exchange between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week as her reasons for attending.
In San Francisco, Michael Gray also pointed to that White House exchange with the Ukrainian leader. “The meeting with Zelenskyy … just made us so disgusted to see an American president act that way on the world stage,” said the Santa Rosa, California, resident.
Grayson Taylor, a 33-year-old who came to the Atlanta event, had not protested until this year. He described the actions of Trump, his Cabinet and Musk as a “billionaire coup” leading a government that “will be serving the ultra-rich.”
At the same rally, Sherri Frias, 58, said her concerns about the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans — in conjunction with GOP proposals to roll back Medicaid and other aid programs — drew her to her first protest. Trump has urged Congress to renew the tax cuts, which are set to expire.
Another Atlanta attendee, 67-year-old Phyllis Bedford, said she came to her first political protest because she felt overwhelmed by the breadth of Trump’s actions.
“I was thinking on my way here what I want to say about the situation,” said Bedford, who drove from Republican-leaning Snellville, on the outer edges of metro Atlanta. “All I could come up with is, ‘I’m sorry.’ I am sorry to Canada. I’m sorry, Mexico. I’m sorry, Greenland. I’m so, so sorry, Ukraine and President Zelensky. … We’re just so wrong. And we don’t all support this man.”
“For my own mental health, because it makes me feel like I’m doing something other than just the screaming inside of my head, right? That goes on every day, And I want to be heard.”
The protests come after some Republican members of Congress met angry town hall crowds during a recent congressional recess and as Democrats on Capitol Hill face pressure from voters on the left to be more outspoken.
Taylor wants Democrats to be “rude and aggressive” like Republicans “have been for years.”
“The Republican Party right now is so much more organized, and not divisive,” Smith said. “The Democratic Party, they have individual issues, but in my observation it’s hard for them to come together to deal with the real issues they want.”
Multiple demonstrators said they want to see Democrats relentlessly highlight the real-world impact of Trump’s executive orders, Musk’s commission and the pending Republican budget plan.
Bedford worked in the financial aid office at Georgia State University. “Most of the kids I dealt with would not have been enrolled without Pell Grants and the (federal) financial aid system,” she said. “And now there’s just a war on education, and higher education especially.”
Grummer-Strawn divides her time between Atlanta and Geneva, where her husband works for the World Health Organization after having spent 24 years at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from supporting WHO and clamped down on the CDC’s research and public health advocacy.
“We need to get people to stop and pause and see what each of his actions is leading to, connecting the dots,” Grummer-Strawn said, “even if people don’t think Ukraine and tariffs and public health policy affect them directly.”
Frias, meanwhile, thinks Democrats are doing everything they can given GOP control on Capitol Hill and in the White House. The ultimate responsibility for action, she said, rests with “the people of the U.S.”
Rep. Al Green shouts down Trump and may face censure by the House
Posted/updated on:
March 6, 2025 at
3:24 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas wasn’t the first lawmaker ever to blurt out a shout of protest during a presidential address to Congress.
But he’s perhaps the only one in recent memory to actually be ejected from the hall Tuesday night by the Speaker of the House.
Green said afterward it was worth it to make his point — even if he is punished by House leaders, who later called for the congressman to be censured.
“The president was saying he had a mandate, and I was making it clear that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green told reporters, referring to the health care program used by 80 million Americans.
“It’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president.”
Green’s outburst came at the start of President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress and immediately set the tone. The night was already uneasy. Stone-faced Democrats, now the minority party, had been sitting silently on one side of the chamber, rambunctious Republicans on the other.
As Green rose to speak, shaking his walking cane at the president, the Republicans drowned him out with muscular chants of “USA! USA!”
Johnson eyed the situation from his perch on the dais behind Trump, appearing hesitant to interrupt the president’s address. But the speaker was shaking his head and clearly desiring decorum in the chamber. Vice President JD Vance motioned with his thumb to throw Green out.
The speaker issued a warning for order, banging the gavel. “Take your seat, sir!” But the long-serving congressman remained standing. And then Johnson ordered the Sergeant at Arms to restore order by removing Green from the chamber.
Rarely has a lawmaker been so swiftly and severely disciplined for improper behavior.
Johnson said afterward that Green should be censured by the House — among the more severe reprimands his colleagues could mete out.
“He’s made history in a terrible way,” Johnson told reporters afterward.
“If they want to make a 77-year-old heckling congressman the face of their resistance, if that’s the Democrat Party, so be it,” Johnson said. “But we will not tolerate it on the House floor.”
In past years, several lawmakers have raised their voices to shout at presidents – from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s shouts against President Joe Biden and the “You lie!” outburst from Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. against President Barack Obama.
Of course, during Trump’s first term, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not raise her voice, but silently ripped up the president’s speech on the dais, once he had finished delivering it.
Green has been a pivotal lawmaker since he was first elected to Congress in 2004, often standing as he did Tuesday night, alone.
He introduced articles of impeachment against Trump in 2017, maneuvering around party leadership. And he did it again in 2019, shortly before the House led by Pelosi actually did move forward with separate impeachment proceedings over Trump withholding funding for Ukraine as it battled Russia.
Last year, Green stunned his own colleagues when he dashed from his hospital bed where he was recovering from surgery to vote against the Republican effort to impeach Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. With his arrival, the vote failed, though Republicans recouped and impeached Mayorkas days later.
Green warned Tuesday against Republican efforts in their budget proposal to change Medicaid, which is the program he said many people in his Houston-area district rely on for health care. He also warned against cuts to Medicare, the program for seniors, and the Social Security retirement program.
“This is about the people being punished by virtue of losing their health care,” Green said.
“This is the richest country in the world,” he said. “And health care is about to become wealth care, and we can’t let that happen.”
Green has said he is working on new articles of impeachment against Trump.
“This president is unfit,” Green said. “He should not hold the office.”
LUFKIN — A former Lufkin ISD superintendent spoke against House Bill 3 during a House Committee meeting on Wednesday. According to our news partner KETK, Roy Knight, who was in the education industry for over 40 years, testified against HB 3 that would use state funds to pay for private schools, homeschooling and other educational services. The bill would also create more flexibility for parents to choose their child’s education.
TYLER — The 37th Annual Cattle Baron’s Ball, Stars Over Texas, is scheduled for June 7, 2025, at the Texas Rose Horse Park, home of the event for the past seven years. Whitney Cain and Kimberly Taylor, 2025 Cattle Baron’s Ball Co-Chairs, announced the headliner entertainer is Wade Bowen. Tickets go on sale at the end of March.
TYLER — A former accountant at a Tyler nonprofit has been accused of stealing nearly $100,000. According to our news partner KETK and an arrest affidavit, a manager at Hand Up Network alerted officials to a fraud alert from their work bank after a debit card for the organization was used twice at a casino in Lake Charles, La. The manager told officials that the card was used by their accountant, Dawn Pitcock. When confronted by the manager, she reportedly said she had used the card by mistake and paid the organization back.