Today is
Sunday April 20, 2025
TYLER – According to the National Weather Service, three East Texas counties were hit by tornadoes on Tuesday but no fatalities or injuries were reported.
Our news partner, KETK, reports that in Tyler County, a tornado hit on Tuesday evening. It originated 0.5 miles west of Highway 287, leaving several trees and a few buildings damaged. The tornado moved northeast where it damaged a home and destroyed an outbuilding. Several pine trees were snapped at the trunk and 30% of a roof was peeled off of a home. Further east towards Highway 287, it damaged several trees before it ended near Little Cypress Creek. Following the severe weather, the county issued a Declaration of Disaster on Wednesday. County officials claimed that populated areas could be impacted by flooding, property damage, short-term electrical power and utility outages. Read the rest of this entry »
LONGVIEW — Our news partner, KETK, reports that a pedestrian has died, the Longview Police Department said, after a pick up truck reportedly struck them on Tuesday night.
Longview police officers responded to the call on Tuesday at around 9:14 p.m. in the 200 block of West Loop 281. An initial investigation shows that a man was crossing the roadway “at an improper location” when a pick up truck traveling eastbound struck him.
Authorities said the pedestrian was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, and an investigation is still in progress.
RUSK COUNTY – Our news partner, KETK, reports that the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office arrested five people on Feb. 28 after drugs were seized along with a firearm.
An investigation led county law enforcement to Henderson, where they carried out a controlled substance search warrant at the Woodlawn Hills Hotel on U.S. Highway 79. Authorities said they found 39 individual packages of suspected cocaine and a firearm in the possession of Cameron Horn, 23 of Henderson. She has since been charged with manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance and received bonds totaling $65,500.
She was also wanted on a Harris County warrant. Officials said, Tamara Simon, 44 of Henderson, was found in possession of suspected methamphetamine. She was charged with possession of a controlled substance and received bonds totaling $10,000.Jayme Hogan, 20, and Aaron Yelverton, 22, were reportedly found in possession of suspected concentrated THC. Each were charged with the state jail felony possession of a controlled substance in penalty group two and received bonds of $10,000 separately.From Longview, Harold Holman, 31, had an outstanding Rusk County warrant for possession of marijuana and was given a $1,000 bond.
Future arrests are expected as the investigation continues and the sheriff’s office said no further information will be released at this time.
Students who created pro-Palestinian artwork now on display at the University of North Texas said they removed a piece of their exhibit two days early. State Republican lawmakers had complained about it and an upcoming lecture, calling them antisemitic.
The action comes as conservatives who have historically championed free speech are now showing interest in policing it in the wake of student protests of the Israel-Hamas war.
It also happened during a session of the Texas Legislature in which university officials across the state are under pressure to eliminate any offerings that could be seen as divisive or lose critical funding.
State Rep. Mitch Littl e, R-Lewisville, sent a letter to UNT officials on Sunday, requesting the exhibit entitled “Perceptions: Observations & Reflections of the Western Muslim” be removed within 48 hours. He pointed out that one piece in the exhibit featured Hebrew writing that reads, “The murder of people = genocide.”
The letter was signed by four other Republican state representatives: Richard Hayes of Hickory Creek; Ben Bumgarner of Flower Mound; Jared Patterson of Frisco; and Andy Hopper of Decatur.
“While we understand it is the mission of the University of North Texas to keep its students informed of geopolitical issues and create an environment where free speech can thrive, you surely appreciate that this framing is not only inflammatory, but factually false with regard to the allegation of ‘genocide,’” wrote Little, who publicized his letter on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday afternoon.
Little questioned the university’s compliance with a federal antidiscrimination law and Gov. Greg Abbott ’s May 27 executive order requiring all higher education institutions in Texas to review their free speech policies to establish and enforce “appropriate” punishments for antisemitic rhetoric.
On Tuesday afternoon, Steve Moore, chief marketing and communications officer for the UNT System, said the students chose to take their artwork down early. Those students, Dania Bayan and Fatima Kubra, later clarified they took down one piece of their exhibit, but the rest of it remains until their show ends on Thursday as the space hosts exhibits from students throughout the semester who apply for the opportunity. They declined to provide any additional comment.
Students apply to show their work in the student union. The application asks about the topic they will explore, how it represents or challenges that topic and for scholarly research to support their representation. It is reviewed by a committee of faculty, staff and students at the College of Visual Arts and Design and other colleges within the university.
In his letter, Little also called for the cancellation of a lecture entitled “Palestinian Children and the Politics of Genocide.” Nancy Stockdale, the associate dean for academic affairs at the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, is scheduled to give that lecture on April 3 at the student union.
He pointed out that Stockdale, who is also an associate professor of history, has described Israel as “oppressive” and its response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel as “disproportionate” in a story about the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on UNT’s main campus in Denton last year.
In a statement to The Texas Tribune on Tuesday, Little said he isn’t concerned the lecture exists or that UNT employs Stockdale, but that higher education in Texas and elsewhere elevate her view that Israel is engaged in genocide “without ever meaningfully presenting a countervailing view.”
“Her ideas are treated with respect and prominence; opposing views are omitted in academia,” he said.
A top United Nations Court found last year that it is “plausible” that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention, but hasn’t made a final determination as to whether it is guilty of genocide.
Moore, with UNT, did not have an update on the status of the lecture and declined to respond to the accusations Little makes in the letter that UNT is tolerant and even indulgent of antisemitic rhetoric.
Stockdale did not respond to a request for comment.
Many Texas college students, including those at UNT, walked out of their classes, set up encampments and protested for their institutions to divest from manufacturers supplying Israel with weapons in its strikes on Gaza last spring.
Republicans cheered when those students were arrested and also pushed for their expulsion.
There are at least two bills, one in the Senate and one in the House, that would require universities to use the state’s definition of antisemitism when considering disciplinary action against students. The state uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which free speech advocates say is problematic because it includes criticisms of Israel’s government. They believe that is political speech protected by the First Amendment.
The measures stand in stark contrast to a law passed in 2019, which allows anyone to express themselves in the common outdoors areas of a college campus so long as they do so in a way that is lawful and does not disrupt the institution’s function.
Little did not respond when asked how the lecture Stockdale plans to give would not be considered expressive speech protected under that law.
Alex Morey, vice president of campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, suggested the Legislature look to a 1999 Supreme Court decision if it is interested in protecting Jewish students from discriminatory harassment.
The court found then that discriminatory harassment can include speech, but it needs to be so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a student an education, she said.
She encouraged UNT not to cow to this political pressure.
“All that’s going to do is send out a bat signal to others who might want to impose their own brand of censorship,” she said.
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, state legislator and institution in Houston Democratic politics, died Tuesday evening. He was 70.
Turner’s death comes two months into his first term representing Texas’ 18th Congressional District, the seat long occupied by his political ally, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who also died in office last year amid a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Turner said in 2022 that he had secretly been recovering from bone cancer. Last summer, as he was seeking the nomination for Jackson Lee’s seat, Turner said he was cancer-free.
Before joining Congress, Turner served as Houston mayor from 2016 to 2024. He served for nearly 27 years in the Texas House.
Gov. Greg Abbott can call a special election to fill Turner’s congressional seat for the rest of his term. State law does not specify a deadline to call a special election, but if it is called the election is required to happen within two months of the announcement.
Turner’s death comes at a critical time in Congress. House Republicans have few votes to spare as they look to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, including extending his 2017 tax cuts. With Turner’s safely Democratic seat vacant, Republicans now control 218 seats to Democrats’ 214 — an extra vote of breathing room in the narrowly divided chamber.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire, Turner’s successor, confirmed the news at Wednesday’s Houston City Council meeting. Turner was working in Washington, D.C., and was taken to a hospital, where he died, Whitmire said.
“This comes as a shock to everyone,” Whitmire said. “I would ask Houstonians to come together, pray for his family, join us in celebrating this remarkable public servant. Celebrate his life, which we will be doing.”
Whitmire, who has recently clashed with Turner over several political and policy issues, said he and Turner were very close and had “been together in good times and bad times.” The two overlapped in the Texas Legislature — Whitmire in the Senate, Turner in the House — for Turner’s entire legislative career.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said House Democrats were “shocked and saddened” by Turner’s sudden death.
“Though he was newly elected to the Congress, Rep. Turner had a long and distinguished career in public service and spent decades fighting for the people of Houston,” Jeffries said in a statement. He noted that Turner was at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening for Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress, calling him a “fighter until the end.”
To highlight his opposition to proposed Medicaid cuts, Turner invited a constituent to the speech, Angela Hernandez, whose daughter has a rare genetic disorder. In a video posted to social media Tuesday evening alongside Hernandez, Turner finished by saying, “Don’t mess with Medicaid.” Jeffries invoked that as Turner’s “final message to his beloved constituents.”
During his time in Austin, Turner wielded outsized power for a Democrat serving in a Republican-controlled Legislature. He spent nearly 20 years on the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee and at the time of his exit was the only Democrat to chair a budget subcommittee, overseeing funding for the judiciary, criminal justice and public safety.
Turner also served for more than 15 years on two of the state House’s most powerful committees: State Affairs, which oversees a sweeping range of key legislation, and Calendars, which sets the agenda for bills heard on the House floor.
During budget debates on the House floor, Turner was known for using an abacus as a prop to underscore his opposition to GOP tax cuts.
“When the abacus came out, I knew I was done,” State Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, wrote on social media. “You will be missed, my friend.”
State Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat and the House Democratic Caucus leader, said Wednesday on the Texas House floor that he was “devastated” by Turner’s death.
“Sylvester was more than just a colleague for me. He was my adviser. He was my mentor. He was my personal hero,” Wu said, getting choked up.
When Wu began working as a legislative staffer in 2005, he recalled, “there were only two names that I knew before coming to work here, and that was [longtime Rep.] Senfronia Thompson and Sylvester Turner. Because they were people who were outspoken for fighting for their communities and defending the poor and the working class and anybody who got stepped on.”
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
EAGLE PASS (AP) — Vice President JD Vance is visiting the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday to highlight the tougher immigration policies that the White House says has led to dramatically fewer arrests for illegal crossings since Donald Trump began his second term.
Vance will be joined in Eagle Pass, Texas, by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as the highest-ranking members of Trump’s Republican administration to visit the southern border.
The White House says Vance is set to tour the border, hold a roundtable with local, state, and federal officials and visit a detention facility. State authorities and local activists say Vance’s itinerary also likely includes a visit to Shelby Park, a municipal greenspace along the Rio Grande that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott seized from federal authorities last year in a feud with the Biden administration. Abbott accused that administration of not doing enough to curb illegal crossings.
“Border security is national security,” Hegseth told Fox News before the trip. He added, “We’re sending those folks home, and we’re not letting more in. And you’re seeing that right now.”
Trump made a crackdown on immigration a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, pledging to halt the tide of migrants entering the U.S. and stop the flow of fentanyl crossing the border. As part of that effort, he imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, saying neither is doing enough to address drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
“They are now strongly embedded in our country. But we are getting them out and getting them out fast,” Trump said of migrants living in the U.S. illegally as he delivered an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
Although Trump has not made a trip to the border since Inauguration Day, the visit of three of his top officials is evidence of the scope of his administration’s focus on the issue. He has tasked agencies across the federal government with working to overhaul border and immigration policy, moving well beyond the Department of Homeland Security, the traditional home of most such functions.
Arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico plummeted 39% in January from a month earlier, though they’ve been falling sharply since well before Trump took office on Jan. 20 from an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023. Since then, Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, introduced severe asylum restrictions early last summer.
The Trump administration has showcased its new initiatives, including putting shackled immigrants on U.S. military planes for deportation fights and sending some to the U.S. lockup at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It has also expanded federal agents’ arrests of people in the U.S. illegally and abandoned programs that gave some permission to stay.
Trump border czar Tom Homan said migrants with criminal records have been prioritized in early efforts to round up and deport people in the U.S. illegally, but he added of other migrants, “If you’re in the county illegally, you’re not off the table.”
“When we find the bad guy, many times they’re with others, others who aren’t a criminal priority, but were in the country illegally,” Homan told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday. “They’re coming, too.”
Since Trump’s second term began, about 6,500 new active duty forces have been ordered to deploy to the southern border. Before that, there were about 2,500 troops already there, largely National Guard troops on active duty orders, along with a couple of hundred active duty aviation forces.
Of those being mobilized, many are still only preparing to go. Last weekend, Hegseth approved orders to send a large portion of an Army Stryker brigade and a general support aviation battalion to the border. Totaling about 3,000 troops, they are expected to deploy in the coming weeks.
Troops are responsible for detection and monitoring along the border but don’t interact with migrants attempting to illegally cross. Instead, they alert border agents, who then take the migrants into custody.
Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with tackling the root causes of immigration during his administration, seeking to zero in on why so many migrants, particularly from Central America, were leaving their homelands and coming to the U.S. seeking asylum or trying to make it into the county illegally.
Harris made her first visit to the border in June 2021, about 3 1/2 months deeper into Biden’s term than Vance’s trip in the opening weeks of Trump’s second term. Trump has routinely joked that Harris was in charge of immigration policy but didn’t visit the border or even maintain close phone contact with federal officials.
Vance’s trip also comes as the Trump administration is considering the use of the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 to detain and deport Venezuelans based on a proclamation labeling the gang Tren de Aragua an invasion force that could be acting at the behest of that country’s government. That’s according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.
It is unclear how close the decisions are to being finalized. Some officials have questioned whether the gang is acting as a tool for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. has not recognized as that country’s legitimate leader. There are some concerns that invoking the law would require the U.S. to more formally recognize Maduro.
Still, the 1798 law allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country with which the U.S. is at war, and it has been mentioned by Trump as a possible tool to speed up his mass deportations.
Six years after Texas lawmakers inadvertently triggered the state’s booming consumable hemp market, one chamber of the Legislature is pushing to shut down the industry by barring products that contain tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
Yet even with the backing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful Texas Senate leader, the proposal to ban THC faces uncertain prospects in the House, where the hemp industry is bullish about getting lawmakers to tighten regulations rather than quashing most of their products altogether.
In the lower chamber, efforts to ban THC products have failed to gain traction, and this session no House lawmaker has filed anything akin to Senate Bill 3, which would outlaw products containing any amount of THC. House leadership has avoided weighing in on the matter, including Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who did not respond to a request for comment.
Mark Bordas, executive director of the Texas Hemp Business Council, said his group is “cautiously optimistic” that House lawmakers will forgo a ban and accept “thoughtful regulations” such as restricting THC products to Texans 21 and older, requiring tamper-proof packaging, and barring sales within a certain distance of schools. Some have also proposed tighter and more consistent testing requirements to ensure hemp products do not contain excessive levels of THC.
“We think at the end of the day, cooler heads will prevail,” Bordas said. “We hope the Legislature will recognize that there are more than 50,000 jobs and lots of small businesses at stake, people’s livelihoods as well as lives. People that have problems with alcohol or opioid addiction have turned to hemp so that they can be functional members of society again.”
Thousands of cannabis dispensaries have popped up across Texas since 2019, when the GOP-controlled Legislature authorized the sale of consumable hemp. That law, passed one year after hemp was legalized nationwide, was intended to boost Texas agriculture by allowing the commercialization of hemp containing trace amounts of non-intoxicating delta-9 THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana.
What ensued was a proliferation of hemp products, ranging from gummies and beverages to vapes and flower buds, that can now be bought at more than 8,300 locations around the state, from dispensaries to convenience stores. The products are not allowed to contain more than a 0.3% concentration of THC; anything higher is classified as marijuana, which remains illegal in Texas aside from limited medical use. Still, the hemp-derived products look, taste and sometimes have intoxicating effects similar to their more potent sibling. (Hemp and marijuana plants are both cannabis plants; the difference lies in their THC levels.)
Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican who carried the 2019 hemp legalization bill, says lawmakers did not intend to allow for such an explosion of consumable products. His latest proposal, SB 3, would make it illegal to possess or manufacture products containing THC outside the state’s medical marijuana program. Violators would face up to a year in jail for possessing such products and 2 to 10 years in prison for manufacturing them under Perry’s bill, which is among Patrick’s top priorities this session.
At a hearing on SB 3 this week, Perry blasted the hemp industry, saying that they had “exploited” the 2019 law he helped pass “to the point that it has endangered public health” with dangerously high THC concentrations.
“From a credibility perspective, the current industry providers — and there are several that are controllers of this industry — have shown not to be trustworthy,” Perry said. “And now what they’re all screaming about is, we want regulation, but we want it the way we want it.”
It is now time, Perry said, to “get the genie back in the bottle.”
Not everyone is on board with the idea. Critics say the ban would effectively eliminate Texas’ hemp industry and its roughly 50,000 jobs, along with tax revenue from the $8 billion it generates annually, by one estimate. And instead of solving public health concerns, critics argue, a ban would make things worse by forcing consumers into an unregulated black market, promoting easier access to even more potent products.
“You don’t cure alcoholism by banning light beer,” Bordas said. “Hemp is the light beer of cannabis offerings. If Texas has a THC problem, doesn’t it stand to reason that the source of that THC problem is the high-potency marijuana with higher concentrations of THC?”
Supporters of Perry’s bill say those high THC levels are already found in retail products that purport to be under the legal limit. Steve Dye, chief of the Allen Police Department in north Texas, said recent undercover operations in his city found THC concentrations “that tested up to 78%” in some products — well above the 0.3% threshold. (The manager of one shop raided by Allen authorities has filed a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the search warrants and lab tests.)
“Labels on many products do not reflect the actual level of THC inside the packaging, which is leading to accidental intoxications, overdoses and increased addiction for these psychoactive products, particularly to our youth,” Dye told Senate lawmakers at Monday’s hearing on SB 3.
For now, state and federal law places no age limits and loose and inconsistent testing requirements on Texas’ hemp industry. While SB 3 would ban THC products, it would continue to allow the non-intoxicating, non-psychoactive cannabidiol known as CBD. And it would place firmer restrictions on those products — along the lines of what hemp industry leaders propose for THC consumables, including barring sales or marketing to minors under 21 and requiring “tamper-evident, child-resistant, and resealable” product packaging.
Throughout the several-hour hearing, scores of people urged senators to impose tighter regulations to rein in high THC levels, rather than banning the products. Law enforcement cleared the Senate gallery after multiple outbursts from attendees cheering on witnesses who criticized the bill.
Kevin Hale, legislative coordinator for the Texas Libertarian Party, said Perry’s bill amounts to “blatant government overreach” and “pulls the rug out from under” hemp business owners who spent the last six years “investing in storefronts, payrolls, marketing and supply chains.”
“These products are in demand by your constituents. They are not dangerous,” Hale said. “Libertarians believe in a free and open, transparent market. This bill does the opposite, pushing consumers and suppliers back into the black market, where the labels and ethics are unchecked.”
Some patients and doctors say the THC in cannabis can be used effectively to combat pain, depression, anxiety, appetite problems and nausea. Under the state’s Compassionate Use Program, lawmakers have allowed some Texans to use medical marijuana to treat conditions that include epilepsy, seizures, autism, cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Though some veterans use the medical marijuana program for PTSD and other conditions, a number of veterans groups oppose Perry’s bill, with some telling the Senate committee Monday that they prefer to use the more affordable and accessible THC products found at everyday retailers.
But David Bass, an Army veteran who founded a group called Texas Veterans for Medical Marijuana, said it would be expensive to properly regulate the hemp industry. He urged lawmakers to support SB 3 and focus on expanding the state’s Compassionate Use Program.
“I do not want our veterans using these hemp derivatives,” Bass said. “The reason is, they have no idea what they are taking and they are not using these products under the care of a physician.”
Under Texas’ Compassionate Use Program, Bass said, “we know exactly the origin and formulation of our meds. DPS inspects and certifies CUP meds, and we use CUP meds under the care of our doctors.”
As things stand, however, the hemp industry has “overwhelming advantages” over the state program, said Jervonne Singletary, senior director of government relations at Goodblend, one of three medical marijuana providers in Texas. For one, she said, patients have to jump through so many hoops to place and receive orders that some may opt to simply pick up THC products from the gas station around the corner.
“Right now, hemp businesses can really locate anywhere throughout the state that they want. They can be next door to your child’s school,” Singletary said. “Most liquor stores can’t do that, we certainly can’t do that, and we think it only makes sense to bring them in line.”
Another Perry bill, SB 1505, would take aim at the issue by allowing medical marijuana providers to operate satellite storage facilities designed to make it easier for patients to access their prescriptions. The bill would also double the cap on licensed medical marijuana dispensers, to six from three.
Original article published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
CAMP COUNTY– Our news partner, KETK, reports that two people had to be rescued from their RV’s following Tuesday morning’s intense thunderstorms.
The dangerous wind blew cabins into campers and overturned RV’s at Barefoot Bay RV Park on Lake Bob Sandlin in Pittsburg.
Vaia Hernandez was one of the people entrapped in her camper. Her RV was picked up by the intense winds and flipped it over on its side. A tree fell on her truck, leaving both properties a total loss.
“I don’t think you can repair this, I kind of don’t want to bother with it, I don’t want to look at it anymore, it’s just it’s traumatizing,” Hernandez said. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER — As much of East Texas was under a thunderstorm or tornado warning on Tuesday morning. Our news partner, KETK, has compiled pictures sent in from the community.
To view those pictures, click here.
TYLER – After severe weather hit East Texas on Tuesday morning, about 80,000 customers are reportedly without power as of 12 p.m.
Our news partner, KETK, has compiled a list of East Texas counties from the Texas power outage map and electric co-ops with power outages. To view that list, click here.
TYLER— As East Texas battles the storms, some roads have been shut down due to flooding, damages or car crashes.
Our news partner, KETK, has a full and updated list of road closures. To view that list, click here.
SEMINOLE — Measles had struck this West Texas town, sickening dozens of children, but at the Community Church of Seminole, more than 350 worshippers gathered for a Sunday service. Sitting elbow-to-elbow, they filled the pews, siblings in matching button-down shirts and dresses, little girls’ hair tied neatly into pink bows.
Fathers shushed babbling toddlers as their wives snuck out to change infants’ diapers.
A little girl in this mostly Mennonite congregation was among those who’d fallen ill with the highly contagious respiratory disease, senior pastor Dave Klassen said — but she’s doing fine, and she happily played through her quarantine. He heard that at least two Mennonite schools shut down for a bit to disinfect.
What he hasn’t heard: Any direct outreach from public health officials on what to do as the number of those sickened with measles has grown to 146 and a school-age child has died. And though Klassen is a trusted church and community leader, his congregants haven’t asked about whether they should vaccinate their kids – and he wouldn’t want to weigh in.
“With this measles situation, I can honestly just tell you we haven’t taken any steps as a church,” he said. “We did leave it up to the mothers.”
As measles — a preventable disease the U.S. considered eliminated in 2000 — spreads through West Texas’ rural expanse, Klassen is sticking to an approach on vaccines that is a key tenet for Mennonites. Family leaders are the top decision-making authority — not outside recommendations, certainly not government mandates.
Alongside measles in this region, where voters overwhelmingly supported President Donald J. Trump, there’s another outbreak: one of misinformation about vaccines, distrust of local public health officials and a fear of governmental authority overruling family autonomy. And on the national stage, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the country’s top health official and an anti-vaccine activist, dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual.”
“Do I trust all the vaccines? No,” Klassen said. “And I get from (Kennedy) that he doesn’t trust all the vaccines, either. And he is very well educated in that; I’m not.”
In an opinion piece for Fox News Digital, Kennedy wrote about the value of the measles vaccine but stopped short of calling on families to get it, saying the decision is “a personal one.” He urged parents to speak to their health care providers about options.
Vaccine skepticism has also been spurred by state lawmakers who this year filed more than a dozen bills that would strengthen or expand vaccine exemptions, which Texas already allows for “reasons of conscience, including a religious belief.”
At hospitals in Lubbock, 80 miles to the north and on the front lines of the outbreak, babies with measles are struggling to breathe.
Dr. Summer Davies, a Texas Tech Physicians pediatrician, said she has treated about 10 of the outbreak’s patients, most very young or teens. She said children have had to be intubated, including one younger than 6 months old. Others come in with such high fevers or severe sore throats that they refuse to eat or drink to the point of dehydration.
“It’s hard as a pediatrician, knowing that we have a way to prevent this and prevent kids from suffering and even death,” she said. “But I do agree that the herd immunity that we have established in the past isn’t the same now. And I think kids are suffering because of that.”
In Lubbock County, 92% of kindergarteners are up to date on their measles, mumps and rubella shots, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That’s lower than the 95% threshold experts say is needed to prevent measles from spreading. Gaines County, which includes Seminole, has an 82% MMR vaccination rate, though rates for homeschooled or private school students may be much lower. The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide. Many Mennonite families don’t send children to public schools.
All of the children admitted with measles to Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock were unvaccinated, officials said last week. Dr. Lara Johnson, the hospital’s chief medical officer, told The Associated Press that Covenant has seen more than 20 patients, including children, teens and pregnant mothers, since the outbreak began in late January.
News of a measles case in Seminole, population 7,200, put doctors on a “shared high alert,” said Dr. Martin Ortega, a family physician for Texas Tech Physicians in Odessa, about an hour away. The small towns of West Texas may look completely isolated on a map, with little between them beyond oil and gas facilities and sprawling desert. But the region is connected by its people, who regularly travel long distances to grocery stores, hospitals and houses of worship.
Many doctors are seeing measles cases for the first time in their careers. In Lea County, New Mexico, 30 minutes west of Seminole, nine measles cases with no clear connection to the Texas outbreak, rattled doctors and parents. An unvaccinated infant in Austin also tested positive for measles after an overseas vacation.
It’s “a little bit surreal,” said Dr. Rumbidzai Mutikani, a pediatrician at Nor-Lea Hospital District’s Hobbs Medical Clinic. Parents were so concerned “our phones were just ringing,” Mutikani said.
Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock’s public health department, said West Texas’ rural landscape is a major challenge, not just in getting to patients and transporting test samples, but also in getting the word out.
A lot of the messaging is word of mouth, she said, but they are working on public-service announcements featuring trusted Gaines County residents, putting up billboards about measles, handing out flyers and posting in WhatsApp groups.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused “a lot of distrust in public health” and government requirements, Wells said. On Facebook, people have accused her of making up the measles outbreak. They hope her department loses its funding.
It’s “really hurtful stuff,” she said. “We’re really working to help encourage vaccines for our community and help those kids that are infected to make sure they get medical treatment so that we don’t end up with another death.”
The reality on the ground can be nuanced, however.
Brownfield Mayor Eric Horton is pro-Trump, he said, but also pro-MMR vaccine.
His county was hard-hit by COVID-19, Horton said, with nearly 90 deaths. So when measles cases came to his town of 8,600, Horton feared for his community. He said the local hospital has been busy administering vaccines since the outbreak started.
“Out here on the south plains of Texas, we are conservative people, but we also are not anti-vaxxers,” he said.
Across the region, people echoed this sentiment about routine childhood vaccinations in interviews with the AP and The Texas Tribune. Often, though, they are less supportive of COVID-19 and flu shots.
“It’s frustrating that (Mennonites) don’t vaccinate, and they put other people’s families and children at exposure for it,” said Stephen Spruill, a 36-year-old trucker from Seminole.
But “this is America. People have the right to choose.”
Macey Lane, 31, of Hobbs, said: “I do support Donald Trump. I don’t support not requiring vaccines.”
All of Lane’s kids are vaccinated. Praising Sen. Mitch McConnell’s vote against Kennedy’s nomination, she said the fact that “the only Republican that went against RFK was a polio survivor says a lot.” But she said she voted off other issues: her religious beliefs, stance on abortion and who would be best for the region’s oil and gas industry.
“As far as RFK being an anti-vaxxer, this is the most important thing: People have to make a decision for themselves and be as informed as they possibly can,” Horton said.
But in doctors’ offices throughout the region, pediatricians see the consequences of that stance.
Mutikani, the Hobbs pediatrician, said she’s seen vaccine hesitancy increase in recent years as parents come to her with worries that line up with what’s trending on social media. “Virulent” misinformation is especially worrisome in rural areas with few news sources or where many people who don’t regularly see doctors live, she said.
And having “these really big, respected public figures openly going against the grain, going against research and what we know, it makes it really, really difficult,” she said.
Most Texans are still vaccinating their kids, including Jennifer Sanchez, a 26-year-old Odessa resident. She took her 6-year-old and 1-year-old to the local public health department on Monday to get the measles vaccine.
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
TYLER — Our news partner, KETK, reports that staff were evacuated at People’s Petroleum in Tyler Monday afternoon after smoke was coming from the building.
According to Tyler Fire Department Assistant Chief Kelly Adkinson, when firefighters arrived they found no smoke but made the decision to evacuate people to investigate the situation. Adkinson said after Encore arrived they determined it was an electrical issue with an underground transformer located under College Street. Due to a strong smell of smoke, firefighters performed ventilation to help clear the smell out.
Officials said there were no injuries reported and staff and patrons were allowed to reenter the building after around 30 minutes.
HENDERSON COUNTY – Our news partner, KETK, reports that a 21-year-old from Kemp has been arrested for continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 in Henderson County.
On Feb. 10, an investigator with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office’s Crimes Against Children Task Force was shown a forensic interview of a child at the Maggie’s House children’s advocacy center in Athens.
According to arrest documents obtained by KETK, the child was interviewed after they made an outcry at school which was reported to Child Protective Services. The child said they had earned a dollar bill by “doing something nice” to a man named Ian. Read the rest of this entry »
KILGORE – Investigators are seeking help to identify a Jane Doe who has remained unidentified since December 2000. According to reports from our news partner KETK, investigative Genetic Genealogists with the DNA Doe project are currently working to identify the woman who was found over 24 years ago in a wooded area five miles northeast of Kilgore.
Investigators believe she would have been around 30 to 50-years-old, between 4’10” and 5’3” tall and weighing 115 pounds. Investigators also believe that the woman was dead for up to two years before she was found in 2000. The DNA Doe Project began working on this case in the fall of 2021, which was previously worked on by the team at Parabon Nanolabs. The case was taken on by a group of four genetic genealogists and six support staff members. Read the rest of this entry »