Today is
Saturday April 19, 2025
McALLEN (AP) — The Trump administration is dropping a civil lawsuit against the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children over allegations of repeated sexual abuse and harassment of minors in its facilities.
The dismissal was filed on Wednesday after the federal government announced they would no longer use services by Southwest Key Programs. The complaint, filed last year during the Biden administration, alleged a litany of offenses between 2015 and 2023 as Southwest Key Programs, which operates migrant shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, amassed nearly $3 billion in contracts from the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Out of continuing concerns relating to these placements, HHS has decided to stop placement of unaccompanied alien children in Southwest Key facilities, and to review its grants with the organization. In view of HHS’ action, the Department of Justice has dismissed its lawsuit against Southwest Key,” the HHS said in a statement.
Children who were still in shelters operated by the provider were moved to other housing.
Southwest Key Programs furloughed employees across the country. “Due to the unforeseen federal funding freeze and the stop placement order on our unaccompanied minor shelters and Home Study Post Release programs by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, we have made the difficult decision to furlough approximately 5,000 Southwest Key Programs’ employees,” the company said in a statement shared Tuesday.
According to allegations in the 2024 lawsuit, Southwest Key employees, including supervisors, raped, inappropriately touched or solicited sex and nude images of children beginning in 2015 and possibly earlier.
Among the accusations: One employee “repeatedly sexually abused” three girls ages 5, 8 and 11 at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas, with the 8-year-old telling investigators the worker “entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area.’”
The lawsuit also alleged that another employee, at a shelter in Mesa, Arizona, took a 15-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts for several days in 2020.
Children were warned not to report the alleged abuse and threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they did, according to the lawsuit. Victims testified that in some instances, other workers knew about the abuse but failed to report or concealed it, the complaint said.
“DOJ’s lawsuit revealed horrific sexual abuse and inhumane treatment of children detained in Southwest Key shelters,” said Leecia Welch, an attorney who represents unaccompanied children in a separate case. “It’s shocking to me that the government now turns a blind eye to their own contractor’s actions. I hope the impacted children will have other legal recourse and support in healing from their abuse.”
At least two employees have been indicted on criminal charges related to the allegations since 2020.
The civil lawsuit had sought a jury trial and monetary damages for the victims.
JACKSONVILLE – Our news partner, KETK, reports that the City of Jacksonville has a new chief of police, however, he is no stranger to the department. Steven Markasky is a 12-year veteran of the Jacksonville Police Department and has been the assistant police chief since April of 2024.
Markasky was required to complete the multiple-step interview process, including written and oral portions, which involved the input of dozens of professionals. Every member of the police department was invited to help select the best candidate. Once the city narrowed the candidate selection, Markasky was among the finalists and moved on to the next portion of the interview process—an assessment conducted by the city manager and police chief from separate outside organizations. Read the rest of this entry »
AUSTIN – A dozen Texas House Republicans who replaced pro-gambling lawmakers said this week they would oppose “any attempt to expand gambling” this session — a setback for efforts to legalize casinos and sports betting in the state.
The 12 GOP freshmen were joined by three returning lawmakers who voted in 2023 to allow online sports betting, but now say they will reject any such proposal. That measure passed the 150-member House with 101 votes two years ago, narrowly clearing the two-thirds threshold needed to amend the Texas Constitution.
The net loss of more than a dozen votes jeopardizes the chances of recreating that tenuous coalition, unless supporters can find votes elsewhere to make up the difference.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Rep. Ken King, chair of the House State Affairs Committee, the lawmakers sought to deal a death blow to the latest proposals to legalize casinos and sports betting, both of which were filed in the House last month. Neither has been referred to a committee this session, though both went through State Affairs in 2023.
“We are confident this legislation does not have the votes necessary to pass the Texas House this session,” the letter reads. “Given the certainty of its failure, I urge you not to waste valuable committee time on an issue that is dead on arrival.”
A spokesperson for King, R-Canadian, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The effort to legalize casinos in Texas has even less wiggle room than the sports betting contingent. Two years ago, a constitutional amendment to authorize “destination resort” casinos received 92 votes in the House, eight shy of the two-thirds mark.
Of the 15 signatories on the letter to King, nine are GOP freshmen whose predecessors voted for the casino measure. A returning member who signed the letter, Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, also supported casino legalization — along with sports betting — and is now vowing to oppose both.
That represents a net loss of 10 votes from the 92 who backed the casino proposal in 2023.
Supporters have tried to sway skeptical lawmakers by arguing that a vote for the constitutional amendment would merely put the issue before voters on the statewide ballot and let them decide whether to allow gambling, taking the final call out of lawmakers’ hands. In contrast, regular bills become law without that extra hurdle, as long as they avoid a veto from the governor.
A statewide poll conducted in January by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs found that 60% of Texans support legalized sports betting and 73% support authorizing “destination resort casinos.”
Matt Hirsch, a spokesperson for the Texas Destination Resort Alliance — an initiative of the Las Vegas Sands casino empire — said it is “essential for elected officials to listen to their constituents and respect their right to vote.”
“Denying Texans the chance to vote on this matter not only undermines the democratic process, but also disregards the voices of the very people they represent,” Hirsch said in a statement. “The voters of Texas know that destination resorts have the potential to bring significant economic benefits, job creation, and increased tourism to Texas while eliminating the scourge of illegal gaming in Texas.”
Sands has deployed an army of lobbyists to push for casino legalization in Austin, and its owner, Miriam Adelson, has spent millions on statehouse elections in a bid to grow the ranks of gambling supporters in Texas’ lower chamber. Eight signatories of the anti-gambling letter accepted contributions last year from Adelson via the Texas Sands PAC — though Adelson-aligned PACs donated far more, collectively, to several of the signatories’ opponents.
In an apparent reference to the 2026 elections, Hirsch said his group “will make it perfectly clear to the voters in each of these districts where their representative stands.”
Karina Kling, a spokesperson for the Texas Sports Betting Alliance, said, “Poll after poll shows Texans overwhelmingly want the chance to vote on legalizing sports betting and we hope the Texas Legislature will give them that chance.” The group is a collection of the state’s pro sports teams, racetracks and betting platforms, such as FanDuel and DraftKings.
Efforts to loosen Texas’ gambling restrictions have repeatedly failed since they were first enacted in 1856 and further tightened in 1973. The House’s approval of the sports betting measure in 2023 was the furthest either chamber has gone toward expanding gambling, though the move was largely symbolic, because Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — a Republican who runs the Texas Senate — immediately quashed the measure in the upper chamber. Patrick has repeatedly claimed there is minimal support among the Senate’s GOP majority to expand gambling.
With the 74-year-old Patrick in office until January 2027 and vowing to seek another four-year term, the legislative battle over gambling has been centered almost entirely in the House. Supporters are aiming for incremental wins in the lower chamber that would, they hope, lay the groundwork for when the Senate is run by a more sympathetic lieutenant governor.
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
McALLEN — Texas senators advanced a resolution Monday that calls on the U.S. State Department to ensure Mexico meets its obligations to deliver water to the U.S. under a 1944 water treaty.
The Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee voted in favor of the resolution after hearing testimony from state and Rio Grande Valley officials on how Mexico’s failure to deliver water has impacted the local farmers and stalled growth.
“It’s really causing a lot of severe issues not only for the Valley but along the river from El Paso down to Brownsville,” state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said at the start of the hearing.
“The reality is that even commercially, the growth of the Valley is being stunned because we cannot issue any more builder’s permits because there’s no water” Hinojosa said. “Hopefully, the present Trump administration will be a lot more aggressive in trying to address the issue.”
Under the 1944 treaty, Mexico is required to deliver a total of 1.75 million-acre feet over a five-year cycle. The current cycle ends in October, yet Mexico is behind on its water deliveries by more than a million acre-feet.
The largely symbolic resolution is the latest push from Texas officials to push the federal government to pressure Mexico. Last year, Texas’ congressional delegation secured $280 million in disaster assistance for Valley farmers.
State Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who chairs the committee, praised the efforts of Maria-Elena Giner, the commissioner of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, a division of the U.S. State Department that oversees the water treaty.
Under Giner’s leadership, the IBWC secured an amendment to the treaty that provided Mexico more opportunities to deliver water.
However, Perry pointed out that the IBWC has no enforcement power and would like the Trump administration to include the water treaty in their tariff negotiations.
“It would be nice to include water release under the 1944 treaty in those tariff negotiations so that we could get some relief in the Valley,” Perry said.
The lack of water for farmers and ranchers has already had harmful effects on the industry. For example, the last sugar mill in Texas closed in 2024.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension estimated that the total economic value lost to South Texas because of the lack of irrigation water is about $993 million per year.
Brian Jones, who sits on the board of the Texas Farm Bureau, testified before the committee about his struggles as a farmer in the Valley.
Jones said he is in “survival mode,” planting only half of his crop for the last three years.
“What is crystal clear is that Mexico has no intention of sharing any amount of water they can capture for their own use,” Jones said.
In 2022, a tropical storm filled their reservoirs, but Mexico didn’t deliver any of that water to the U.S. despite already owing 350,000 acre-feet of water at the time.
However, the lack of water is not just because of Mexico’s noncompliance.
In the past, local farmers were able to rely on seasonal tropical storms to fill up the water reservoirs, but the rain missed those watersheds last year. Future rains would fail to make up the debt.
“It’s almost mathematically impossible for them to meet their obligations on this cycle,” Jones said.
The treaty allows Mexico to pay their outstanding water debt during the next five-year cycle but because there is no timeline, Mexico could theoretically wait until the end of the next five-year cycle to deliver the water it owes for this cycle.
David Dunmoyer with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that while the resolution is a critical starting point, the state can’t rely on Mexico alone for water.
“We need an ‘all of the above’ approach that’s desal-produced water and looking to the future of water infrastructure,” he said.
Cities and water districts across the Valley have been seeking different sources of water. But city and county leaders told the committee more money is needed to build the infrastructure to obtain and properly treat that water for public use.
While the major impacts have been limited to the agriculture industry, Mark Dombroski, assistant general manager and chief operating officer for the Brownsville Public Utilities, warned that drinking water for cities like Brownsville and McAllen will be at risk if water remains scarce.
“Invest in South Texas and help us secure alternative water solutions now,” Dombroski said. “Delaying action only makes the crisis worse and solutions more expensive.”
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
For four years while President Joe Biden was in office, Texas lawmakers passed a variety of state laws aimed at curbing illegal immigration into the state and approved spending billions of Texans’ taxpayer dollars in an effort to secure the border.
The Legislature created a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for people convicted of human smuggling. Lawmakers passed a law that gave state and local police the authority to arrest people suspected of being undocumented — it has not gone into effect while its constitutionality is litigated. And legislators have plowed $11 billion into Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s ongoing border crackdown that deployed state police and Texas National Guard along the state’s nearly 1,300 miles of border with Mexico.
Now with President Donald Trump back in office, lawmakers are not relenting. They have filed dozens of bills that could further cement the state’s role in immigration enforcement — long the sole responsibility of the federal government — should they become law.
The proposals range from trying to force cooperation with federal immigration authorities to giving property tax breaks to border landowners who allow the state to build border barriers on their property.
Lawmakers have filed at least nine similar bills that would require local law enforcement agencies enter into agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Under a 1996 federal immigration law, ICE can delegate local authorities to carry out certain types of immigration enforcement in local jails — where officers can be deputized to question inmates about their immigration status and to serve administrative warrants — and in the field, where officers can be permitted to question people about their immigration status through a model the Trump administration has revived after it fell into disuse following allegations it led to racial profiling.
Such programs serve as “force multipliers” for ICE, an agency of about 6,000 officers with limited resources, according to the federal agency, immigration lawyers and policing experts.
Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have called for Texas authorities to be required to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
While specifics vary, most of the proposed state laws share the same idea: Require local law enforcement to request entering into partnership agreements with ICE known as 287(g) agreements — a reference to the legal statute from which they originate.
Senate Bill 8, filed by Republican state Sen. Joan Huffman of Houston and Georgetown Republican Sen. Charles Schwertner, would require sheriffs in counties with more than 100,000 residents to request a 287(g) agreement with ICE.
Among the criticisms of 287(g) agreements is the potential extra costs for counties that devote resources to processing and jailing immigrants and face potential legal liabilities if an officer is accused of wrongdoing, such as violating a person’s civil rights. The bill would establish grants for sheriffs in counties with fewer than 1 million residents, but not for sheriffs of large Texas counties.
Patrick designated the bill a top priority of his for the legislative session even before it was filed.
As of early March, 43 Texas law enforcement agencies already had 287(g) agreements in place, the majority of which are for the jail programs. Only the attorney general’s office, Nixon Police Department and sheriffs in Goliad and Smith counties had signed 287(g) agreements for the “task force model” that grants police limited immigration enforcement authority while conducting their routine duties.
Lawmakers are also looking at ways to study the costs of illegal immigration.
State Sen. Mayes Middleton’s Senate Bill 825 would task the Texas Department of Public Safety with conducting a study on the economic, environmental and financial impact of illegal immigration. The state last performed such a study in 2006, when then-state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn found that undocumented immigrants contributed more to Texas than they cost the state.
Meanwhile, House Bill 2587 by state Rep. Mike Olcott, R-Fort Worth, seeks to study the cost of providing hospital services to undocumented immigrants. Last summer, Abbott ordered hospitals to start asking patients for their citizenship status. Hospitals can’t refuse to provide medical treatment based on a patient’s answer.
Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Republican from Rio Grande City, has proposed expanding a fund the state established in 2023 to reimburse homeowners in border counties whose property has been damaged by border crime — which can include everything from migrants cutting fences while passing through their land to damage from high-speed police pursuits of suspected migrants and smugglers that end in a crash.
House Bill 246 would expand the potential sources of revenue for the fund so the attorney general’s office, which administers it, could accept donations, gifts and other revenue designated by the Legislature, which appropriated $18 million in state money for the fund over the 2023-24 biennium.
Lawmakers also have introduced bills that would require companies to use E-Verify — a federal government website that helps businesses determine whether an immigrant is legally allowed to work in the U.S. — if they want to bid for state contracts.
House Bill 1308 would require state agencies to only award contracts to businesses that participate in E-Verify. The proposal would also apply to subcontractors hired by a company with a state contract.
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, would also suspend the business license of any business that contracts with the state if they stopped using E-Verify during their state contract.
As part of Tepper’s bill, people who suspect a state agency has hired an undocumented person can send information to the Texas Attorney General’s office for possible investigation.
Like Tepper’s proposal, House Bill 2744, sponsored by state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, would require all state contractors to use E-Verify, and would also impose a $10,000 fine for each undocumented worker a state contractor is caught employing.
For the past four years, the state has approached border landowners seeking permission to build barriers along the 1,200-mile-long Texas-Mexico border. But the state has faced a challenge in finding enough willing landowners to lease part of their land to the state.
House Bill 247, introduced by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, would give a property tax break to landowners who have allowed state or federal border barriers to be built on their property.
The proposal says the state tax break would be available to any landowners who allow the state or the federal government to install “a wall, barrier, fence, wire, road trench, technology” or any type of infrastructure “to surveil or impede the movement of persons or objects crossing the Texas-Mexico border.”
Another proposal, Senate Bill 316 by state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, would allow the state to use eminent domain to take private property for border wall construction. The proposal does not say how much money a private landowner would get if the government seizes their property. But under Texas law, the owner would “receive adequate compensation.”
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
PALESTINE — Our news partner, KETK, reports that an East Texas man was arrested for multiple drug and firearm charges after a homeowner reported a person was shining a flashlight near their home.
According to the Palestine Police Department, around 4:32 a.m. officers responded to a report of suspicious activity at 2102 Martin Luther King Blvd where they found Lucas Dane Stevens, 31 of Winona, who has multiple felony convictions.
Officials said during the investigation officers found multiple firearms, illegal narcotics and drug paraphernalia in Stevens’ truck. Officers discovered over 380 grams of suspected meth, 97 grams of suspected Oxycodone, marijuana, THC vape cartridges and multiple items commonly used for drug trafficking. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – Our news partner, KETK, reports that an East Texas State Representative filed a bill on Thursday to position Texas to become a “global leader in advanced nuclear energy”.
State Rep. Cody Harris (R-Palestine) filed House Bill 14 with hopes of it strengthening America’s position as a top exporter of nuclear technology. Harris spoke about the global implications that nuclear technology has on America, and how it is imperative that the U.S. continue to make advancements to avoid being surpassed by rival countries.
“The U.S. must win the nuclear renaissance, we cannot allow Russia or China to dominate the future of nuclear technology,” Harris said. “By stimulating advanced nuclear reactor deployment in Texas, we will deliver safe, reliable energy to Texans”
AUSTIN – Texas Railroad Commission Chair Christi Craddick and former GOP state Sen. Don Huffines announced Friday they are running for comptroller, minutes after the office’s current occupant, Glenn Hegar, was named chancellor of the Texas A&M University System.
Hegar’s impending departure from the comptroller’s seat creates a rare opening for one of Texas’ coveted statewide offices, most of which have remained occupied for the last decade.
Once Hegar leaves office, Gov. Greg Abbott will be tasked with appointing a replacement to serve out the remainder of his term, which runs through January 2027. The seat is up for reelection in 2026.
The comptroller serves as the state’s chief financial officer, accountant, revenue estimator and treasurer. Abbott has not revealed his pick to succeed Hegar.
Huffines, a businessman and GOP donor who challenged Abbott unsuccessfully in the 2022 gubernatorial primary, pledged to spend at least $10 million on his comptroller bid. If elected, he said, “I will DOGE Texas by exposing waste, fraud, and abuse in government to increase efficiency and put every penny we save into property tax relief.”
Craddick, a Republican, has served on the oil-and-gas-regulating Texas Railroad Commission since 2012. She easily cruised to reelection last year, winning another six-year term through the end of 2030. She will not have to give up her seat on the commission to run for comptroller.
Craddick, an attorney from Midland, is the daughter of Rep. Tom Craddick, a former House speaker.
“Serving for more than a decade as Railroad Commissioner has uniquely prepared me to help Texas build upon its momentum as the economic engine of the United States,” Christi Craddick said in a statement. She added that during her time on the commission, “we have managed our work with efficiency, transparency, and common sense, reflecting the bedrock principles the Texas economy has been built upon.”
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
TYLER — According to our news partner, KETK, a new bill has been introduced in Texas which will require public schools to charge tuition to undocumented students.
At the beginning of Trump’s term, the president signed an executive order that ensures that the federal government protects the American people by executing the immigration laws of the United States. Texas Sen. Bill Hall (R-D2) filed S.B. 1205 that coincides with this executive order and requires undocumented students to pay tuition.
S.B. 1205 will “charge a student…tuition to an amount equal to the districts average cost of providing educational services to students of the same grade level; and document the student’s immigration status in the district’s records, and report that information to the agency.” Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – Our news partner, KETK, reports that CHRISTUS Health has opened a new, multi-provider family medicine and internal medicine clinic in Tyler.
The clinic located at The Village at Cumberland Park in the former BuyBuy Baby building will provide “comprehensive primary care including preventative services, chronic disease management and physical exams for all ages.” The clinic has 30 exam rooms with full-service lab and onsite imaging.
“This is a growing area in Tyler and an area that we saw as an opportunity to expand our footprint and access to care for the community,” Chief Medical Officer for CHRISTUS Trinity Clinic Dr. Brent Wadle said. “This new location provides more visibility and accessibility to our providers, ensuring we reach as many people as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge has awarded nearly $2 million in damages as part of a civil lawsuit after concluding an FBI agent was negligent when he fatally shot a kidnapped Texas man during a botched rescue attempt in 2018.
The family of 47-year-old Ulises Valladares filed a lawsuit in Houston federal court alleging their loved one had been helpless as he was bound and blindfolded when FBI agent Gavin Lappe shot him shot in January 2018 as authorities entered a home where the man was being held.
The FBI agent had told investigators he only fired when he thought a kidnapper had grabbed his rifle after the agent broke a window to get inside and didn’t know he was shooting Valladares, who had lived in suburban Houston.
But in a 10-page judgment issued on Monday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt in Houston found that Lappe “was negligent, even grossly negligent, in his response” during the rescue attempt, and he was the sole cause of Valladares’ death.
Hoyt wrote that Lappe fired at a silhouette in the window without knowing who he was shooting at and did so when there was no direct threat to him or another agent who was nearby.
The judgement by Hoyt was first reported by the Houston Landing website.
Lappe was protected against the lawsuit through qualified immunity. But the case was allowed to proceed against the federal government.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston and an attorney for Lappe did not immediately return emails seeking comment.
Hoyt awarded nearly $2 million in damages to Valladares’ mother and son.
Former Houston police Chief Art Acevedo had previously said the agent’s explanation for why he shot the hostage “is not supported” by evidence reviewed by police investigators.
AUSTIN (AP) — Jonah Paul, a California state employee, says he’s lucky if he gets home by 7 p.m. when he takes the train two days a week to his Sacramento office — a lengthy commute that’s about to become more frequent.
He is among thousands of state employees across the U.S. being pushed back to the office this year — a trend in states led by Democrats as well as Republicans. It’s happening in both California and Texas, which together have more than 350,000 public-sector workers.
The roll-back of remote work mirrors the Trump administration’s mandate for federal workers and moves by some of the nation’s largest corporations including Amazon, JP MorganChase and AT&T.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order this week cites concerns about productivity and collaboration. Starting July 1, state workers must be in the office at least four days a week, with exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
“The governor’s executive order kind of blindsided everybody,” said Paul, who is also president of the downtown Sacramento chapter of SEIU Local 1000, the state’s largest public sector union. “People have been really upset.”
There’s some evidence that rigid in-office requirements actually make workers less productive, but Republican governors in Missouri, Ohio and Indiana, among others, cited efficiency to justify this pivot away from pandemic-era flexibility.
Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun issued his return-to-work mandate one week before President Trump’s executive order for the federal workforce.
In Texas, some state employees got emails this week telling them to return to the office full-time as soon as possible after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott instructed state agencies to end remote work.
“Any remote work policies must ensure taxpayer dollars are being utilized efficiently,” explained Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott. “With remote federal workers returning to the office where possible, it’s important that state agencies ensure they do the same.”
Other states vary. New York, which also has one of the country’s largest state workforces, allows each agency to set its own rules. And some legislatures, like Wisconsin, have introduced bills to require in-person work by law — an idea shot down by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
These return-to-office orders shouldn’t lead to massive quitting, but they usually result in top performers leaving first, and recruitment and retention suffer, according to economist Nicholas Bloom at Stanford University.
“States are going to have to increase salaries or fatten up the benefits package in other ways if they’re asking people to forgo this flexibility,” said Chris Tilly, a UCLA professor of urban planning who studies labor markets.
While many are anxious, others are already accustomed to the change. More than half of California’s 224,000 full-time employees, such as janitors and highway patrol officers, already report for duty in-person each workday.
Texas pivoted despite a legislative committee’s findings in February that remote work has had a positive impact, said Myko Gedutis, organizing coordinator of Texas State Employees Union CWA Local 6186. The survey found 80 out of 96 agencies reported improved recruitment and 46 saw improved productivity, while 40 agencies reported no improvement.
Texas state employee Rolf Straubhaar said many are concerned that people with medical needs won’t get exceptions.
“This can push out employees who, for medical reasons, need to work from home,” Straubhaar said.
Paul wakes up around 5 a.m. for the two-hour train ride from his home in Oakland to his employment development job in the state capital. His agency already staggers in-office days due to limited office space, and now his colleagues face more logistical challenges.
“There’s a physical space constraint that makes this order even more absurd,” Paul said. “It’s not really realistic to force everyone to come back.”
GAINES COUNTY – Five years ago, Melanie Richburg used a roll of duct tape, a HEPA filter and a portable fan to draw contaminated air out of a hospital room where patients were tested for the coronavirus.
Now, as the state’s largest measles outbreak in three decades sickens an increasing number of Texans in the South Plains region, the Lynn County Hospital District, where Richburg serves as the chief executive officer, is still without specialized isolation rooms to treat patients.
So, she’s prepared to bring out the duct tape again.
“If we see the volume of patients exceeds the number of beds available at children’s hospitals, we’re going to need a contingency plan,” said Richburg, whose county is 30 miles south of Lubbock and has had two measles cases. “The biggest struggle we have is the same struggle we had during COVID.”
The coronavirus pandemic underscored the need for robust public health infrastructure. And it brought to light a remarkable urban-rural divide in access to basic health services. In the months after the virus ravaged the country, federal dollars flowed to local public health districts, and policies targeting health care deserts saw a renewed push.
Yet as a disease that had been declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 makes a resurgence, rural West Texas communities and state officials are scrambling to respond. Aging infrastructure, a dearth of primary care providers and long distances between testing sites and laboratories plague much of rural Texas, where the measles outbreak has concentrated.
At least 198 people in Texas have been infected with measles since late January, and one child has died from measles, the first such death in the country in a decade.
More measles cases are expected, and the outbreak could last for months, state health services commissioner Jennifer Shuford told lawmakers last week.
Though different from COVID in many ways, measles is similarly revealing how a lack of public health resources leaves rural communities vulnerable. What’s left are local leaders forced to scrape together the few tools they have to respond to an emergency, contending with years of lackluster investment from the state and federal level to proactively prevent emerging public health threats.
“We’re in a public health shortage area,” said Gordon Mattimoe, director of the Andrews County Health Department.“ You have to think outside the box.”
Some 64 Texas counties don’t have a hospital, and 25 lack primary care physicians, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture. Twenty-six rural Texas hospitals closed between 2010 and 2020, according to a rural hospital trade organization, and although closures slowed in the years since, those still standing are often in crumbling buildings with few medical providers.
Swaths of Texas have scant resources for public awareness campaigns. And they lack sufficient medical staff with expertise to provide the one-on-one education needed to encourage vaccination and regular visits to the doctor.
“We have a difficult time in our area finding pediatricians for our newborns,” said Sara Safarzadeh Amiri, chief medical officer for Odessa Regional Medical Center and Scenic Mountain Medical Center. “That’s a problem. If you can’t find a pediatrician, then when a serious question comes up, who do you ask?”
Most of Texas’ measles cases are in unvaccinated school-aged children and are concentrated in the Mennonite community in Gaines County. Cases have also been confirmed in eight other counties spanning Dallam near the Oklahoma border down to Ector, south of Gaines.
To contain the illness, rural health care teams have cordoned off spaces to conduct measles testing, used social media to blast residents with information about vaccination efficacy and schlepped throat swabs across counties to ship them to a state lab in Austin — the only public state facility that was conducting measles testing until the Texas Tech University Bioterrorism Response Laboratory, part of a national network of CDC-funded labs, began measles testing last Monday.
Testing is critical for measles, experts say, because infected individuals can be contagious for several days and must isolate themselves to avoid spreading it further.
In Gaines County, runners have had to drive specimens up to 70 miles to get to a FedEx office where they could ship the specimen to the state laboratory. It could then take another 48 hours to get test results. During that time, public health officials would ask patients suspected of measles to quarantine — but they don’t know if they followed through.
“Some people need the test to say ‘I’m positive’ before they actually do something or follow the directions given,” Amiri said. “Having that testing available is very important.”
In Andrews County, just south of Gaines, Mattimoe is using the old City Hall building as a testing site because he doesn’t have a reverse pressure room.
Those rooms prevent contagious diseases from spreading to other people, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends suspected measles patients are treated there when possible. In the absence of such spaces, rural counties including Lynn and Yoakum have improvised a room for measles testing, hoping they don’t get overrun with more patients they can handle.
Mattimoe, who said he is anticipating more cases, opted to open up City Hall for testing since that building happens to be vacant.
WIthout it, Mattimoe said, he’d have to “shut down the entire department for two hours between suspected cases.”
Public health is based upon prevention, yet it’s emergencies that spur the most action, particularly in rural communities.
It was only after a school-aged child died from measles that state and federal support intensified. Twenty seven contractors were brought into the outbreak area last week to assist local health departments, Shuford, the state health services commissioner, said during a legislative hearing. A public awareness campaign with billboards and social media messaging was also launched. And, upon a request from the state, the federal CDC sent “disease detectives” to West Texas.
County officials also doubled down their efforts. In Ector County, County Judge Dustin Fawcett made media appearances to discuss the efficacy of the MMRV vaccine whose two doses provide 97% protection against measles. And the commissioners court approved the purchase of a $7,695 freezer to store measles test specimens — samples shipped after the date of collection must be kept at -70 degrees celsius.
In Andrews County, residents stepped up their communal responsibilities. Mattimoe saw a surge of people coming into the clinic to get vaccinated. “Unfortunately, the death of a child was one of the things that spurred many people to come in,” Mattimoe said.
Even as state and federal officials are sharing more information on vaccines, experts say those campaigns needed to come sooner. They have known for years that vaccination rates have been declining.
“We shouldn’t be doing it during an outbreak,” Amiri said. “We should be doing it beforehand to prevent the outbreak.”
Getting vaccines in residents is further complicated by the fact that Texas has a mostly decentralized system of public health. Cities and counties can stand up their own public health departments or districts, but the majority of rural counties can’t afford to have their own. Instead, they rely on one of 11 public health regions.
Those regions cover vast territories with limited dollars and don’t always know the ins and outs of local communities, especially on how to motivate residents to get vaccinated. The logistical challenges of traveling across counties adds another layer of difficulty.
“You have to call these tiny towns and figure out who can give you space for free to set up a testing clinic,” Wells said. “Then you’re driving from Lubbock to rural areas and that cuts how long you can keep the clinics open.”
And then, rural public health departments are having to contend with mixed messaging from the federal level as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, has cast vaccination as a personal choice while downplaying the news of the outbreak.
“I think with the changes that are occurring at the federal level, we need to realize that we do need to strengthen our local public health,” Amiri said
Years of underinvestment in public health left Texas ill prepared for the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Hospital equipment was scarce, and state and local health departments had outdated technology that limited access to crucial data.
The pandemic also exposed the rural-urban inequities in health care access. Residents of Texas counties without hospitals died from COVID-19 at 20% higher rates than residents of counties with hospitals, according to an analysis by the Austin American Statesman.
An influx in federal funding helped shore up local public health departments and stave off more rural hospital closures. Texas received $35.5 million in grants for improvements in public health infrastructure in fiscal year 2020. An additional $221 million — the most of any state — is flowing to Texas through the CDC’s five-year Public Health Infrastructure Grant.
That funding has helped some local health departments address the measles outbreak, public health officials said. The Lubbock public health department has nearly doubled in size thanks to a $2 million grant. Those extra workers have been on the front lines of testing for measles and vaccinating children.
“It moved us from undersized to right sized,” said Katherine Wells, director of the city’s public health department. “It got us to the…health department we need for Lubbock.”
In Andrews County, Mattimoe has also used grant dollars to grow his health department. Four new employees, including an epidemiologist and a social worker, have helped the county complete a population health assessment that offers a snapshot of residents’ needs. And its year-round vaccine clinics have helped stave off the worst of the measles outbreak.
“Community immunity has really saved us,” Mattimoe said. “There will be a case eventually, but there’s something to be said about herd immunity.” Andrews County does not have any confirmed measles cases as of Friday.
The influx of dollars that rural communities received during the height of the pandemic showed the meaningful changes that officials could do with more support, but it still hasn’t been enough.
Texas spends less on public health per person than the vast majority of other states, according to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center, whose analysis shows Texas spent $17 per person on public health in 2023. A decade earlier, the spend was $19.
The low levels of state funding particularly hurt rural communities that have higher rates of uninsured Texans and more senior citizens with greater health needs, according to the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals. Deteriorating buildings and the shortage of medical professionals still persist in rural areas, while lower volumes of patients means higher health care operational costs.
In Lynn County, Richburg, the CEO of the health district, had hoped the makeshift contraption she made during COVID for a reverse pressure room wouldn’t be needed again in her rural community of 5,500 people. She attempted to pass a bond last year to pay for infrastructure upgrades, including a mini intensive care unit with four negative pressure rooms.
Voters rejected the proposed tax increase, though, a gut punch to Richburg.
“We wanted those four specific beds so that when we had situations where we needed to isolate patients, they’d be adequately cared for and not in a room with a broken window with a fan duct taped in it,” she said.
In addition to isolation rooms, Lynn County’s health care system is due for a major electrical upgrade, Richburg said. The facility’s backup power generator doesn’t cover the MRI machine or the CAT scan. In the meantime, Richburg and her staff plan to do their best with what they have.
“We’re still here, the lights still come on every morning, and patients still come in for services,” Richburg said. “We’re not going away.”
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
TYLER – A man was arrested for injury to an elderly individual on Thursday after an elderly woman was brought into a Longview emergency room with serious injuries, according to a press release.
Smith County Sheriff’s Office deputies started an investigation after an elderly woman in Smith County was brought into a Longview emergency room on Feb. 4, following a hospice referral.
Officials said the woman had been sitting in a chair in her own waste for two weeks, and that her clothing had to be removed from her skin, causing further injury. Our news partner, KETK, reports that he woman has been put under the care of Adult Protective Services, and is being treated for several serious medical conditions resulting from this neglect. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – A Mineola man has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin, Jr.
Bobby Wayne Land, 48, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle on March 7, 2025.
According to information presented in court, on February 28, 2023, law enforcement officers executed a search of Land’s residence in Van Zandt County which resulted in the discovery of approximately 205 grams of methamphetamine. Land admitted that the methamphetamine was his and possessed if for the purpose of distributing to others. Co-defendant, Preston Mitchell Wilson, was sentenced on January 17, 2025, to 120 months in federal prison. Danny Lynn Nabors was also sentenced on January 17, 2025, to 96 months in federal prison.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Grand Saline Police Department; the Canton Police Department; and the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Jackson.