East Texas man accused of killing his sister

HENDERSON COUNTY – A $2 million bond has been set for an East Texas man arrested for allegedly killing his sister Monday in Henderson County. According to the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to the shooting of 30-year-old Samantha Moore in the Bonita Point subdivision just outside of Gun Barrel City. Moore was transported to a local hospital where she later died from her injuries.

According to our news partner KETK, deputies learned Moore’s brother, John Tyler Clague, 37 of Mabank, had shot her and fled the home. Investigators learned that Clague had been taken to a home in the Harbor Point subdivision. (more…)

Forgotten in jail without a lawyer in Maverick County

EAGLE PASS — Fernando Padron was stuck in a South Texas jail cell. Accused of stealing credit cards that he used to buy diapers, a bike and other goods for his family, he had not been brought into court or spoken to a lawyer.

He did not hear anything about his case for nine months. Finally, in March 2023, prosecutors charged him with a misdemeanor, and he was released. But his ordeal had just begun.

Over the next two years, he would be arrested repeatedly in connection with the theft. He was pressured into a seemingly improper plea deal in one court, only to be charged again in another. At one point, he was in jail for six months before officials involved in his case realized he was there.

Padron, 27, is a U.S. citizen with no prior convictions, and his offense was minor enough that elsewhere in Texas, he might not have been jailed at all. But he was in the dysfunctional Maverick County court system, where basic tenets of American justice often do not apply.

Officials here openly acknowledge that poor defendants accused of minor crimes are rarely provided lawyers. And people regularly spend months behind bars without charges filed against them, much longer than state law allows. Last year alone, at least a dozen people were held too long uncharged after arrests for minor nonviolent crimes, interviews and records reviewed by The New York Times show.

Some defendants seem to have been forgotten in jail. Two men were released after The Times asked about them, half a year after their sentences had been completed.

“The county is not at the level that it should have been for years,” conceded Maverick County Judge Ramsey English Cantú, who oversees misdemeanor court. He said he had been trying to “revamp” and “rebuild” the local justice system since he was elected in 2022.

“It’s been a challenge for me,” he added. “But at the end of the day it is unjust.”

Under the U.S. Constitution, people facing jail time are entitled to a lawyer — paid for by the government if they cannot afford their own — and a fair and efficient court process. But these protections are tenuous, especially in rural parts of America, studies have shown. In Texas, one of the states that spend the least on indigent defense, The Times found recent examples of people held beyond deadlines without charges or lawyers in six rural counties.

Maverick County stood out. It is in one of the state’s poorest regions, and many defendants cannot afford a lawyer; some spend months in jail because they cannot pay a bail bondsman $500 or less. Yet over the past two decades, state auditors have repeatedly noted the county was failing to adequately provide indigent counsel. In 2023, when more than 240 misdemeanor defendants requested representation, the county judge appointed lawyers in only a handful of cases, records show. Nonetheless, the state has imposed no consequences.

With no one to guide them, defendants enter a disjointed justice system where it can be perplexingly difficult to figure out why someone is in jail, if there even is a reason. Misdemeanor court files are almost always missing key documents. Felony court files are often not available until more than a year after a defendant’s arrest. The jail sometimes reported having no record of people despite recently holding them for months.

Defense lawyers and constitutional law scholars, responding to The Times’s reporting, called the county’s practices “atrocious,” “Kafkaesque” and “not a criminal system at all.”

“The lack of transparency and the lack of public defenders in this jurisdiction has allowed this completely inept system to persist,” said Rachel Kincaid, an associate law professor at Baylor University in Waco and former federal prosecutor. “There’s no pressure on them to do anything differently.”

In jailhouse interviews, some defendants said they had no idea what was happening in their cases.

“They haven’t told me anything,” Juan Sanchez, 21, said in Spanish in May, shivering on a jail stool without a shirt or pants in a knee-length suicide prevention vest. He had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to trespassing at the local mall in exchange for his release, but was not let out until June, shortly after The Times asked officials why he was still there.

“They really don’t give you information here,” said David Burckhardt, 36, who had been jailed for five months without charges after being arrested in August 2023 on accusations of vandalizing his neighbor’s car. “You just got to do your time.”

But it is what happened to Padron that best illustrates the repercussions of the county’s lapses. Told details of his case, four veteran Texas defense lawyers said that in other counties they most likely could have secured a sentence of 30 days or fewer, with some chance he would get no jail time.

Padron has now spent 20 months in jail, missing his son’s first two birthdays. His case is still not resolved.

“I got out and I was doing things right,” he said at the jail after his third arrest stemming from the theft. “And then, all of a sudden, you have an arrest warrant. And I left my girlfriend and son by themselves.”

About half of Maverick County’s residents live in the city of Eagle Pass, which is on the Mexican border, about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. Most residents’ first language is Spanish, and people who live in the neighboring Mexican city, Piedras Negras, cross often to work, shop or visit relatives.

The county has a history of scandals, including a federal investigation into bribery and contract-rigging a decade ago that sent four of five commissioners to prison. A veteran police officer said locals jokingly call it “the Free State of Maverick” because officials tend to do what they want and deal with the ramifications later.

The region is also at the forefront of America’s crackdown on immigration. Since 2021, Texas police officers have arrested thousands of migrants in Maverick County for trespassing, in an effort to deter crossings and boost deportations. After legal challenges, the state created a special criminal system to expedite the process by quickly charging migrants and assigning them lawyers.

The justice system for local residents shows far less urgency. It took on about 350 cases last year, a vast majority of them misdemeanors or felony drug possession. The police and the Sheriff’s Department often take weeks or months to report an arrest to prosecutors. The prosecutors then take months to decide whether to go to court, for charges as simple as resisting arrest or trespassing. During this time, prosecutors are not told, and typically do not check, whether a defendant is in jail.

Neither law enforcement agency answered questions about the delays. Jaime Iracheta, the county attorney, said misdemeanors in Maverick County go through layers of vetting. Some other jurisdictions file such charges within days, if not hours.

Although those leading the justice system are all Democrats — a relic of the party’s historical strength with Hispanic voters — they are divided into rival factions. Iracheta, whose office prosecutes misdemeanors, endorsed English Cantú in his 2022 run for county judge. Sheriff Tom Schmerber, who has overseen the jail since 2013, is an ally of the judge’s predecessor, David Saucedo.

When Judge English Cantú ran against Saucedo, his second cousin, he called Saucedo a “bully” who gave his “cronies” big salaries “not to do anything.” Saucedo called his opponent “self-serving” and accused him of helping spread an “almost comical” rumor that he was a murderer.

In interviews, officials did not dispute that the county had not released some people on time, but blamed one another for the failures.

“The unfortunate inability of communication between the Sheriff’s Department and the prosecutor’s office, I think, is what has delayed this situation,” English Cantú said.

He added that misdemeanor court, where he presides about once a month, was held less often under Saucedo. Saucedo said his own predecessors held misdemeanor court even less frequently.

Iracheta said the Sheriff’s Department was the problem. “We have extreme issues over there, but I can’t control who the people elect,” he said.

The sheriff did not respond to interview requests, but the jail’s case manager, Daniella Ramos, criticized the magistrates who set bail. She said she sends them weekly jail rosters so they can order defendants to be released, but they go “into the abyss.”

Kina Mancha, the county’s longest-tenured magistrate, countered that the jail had sometimes failed to follow orders to let people go. “They’re not doing their job,” she said.

Without public defenders, the county relies on local lawyers to represent poor defendants, paying a few hundred dollars per case. But in felony court, the few willing lawyers are often not appointed until defendants appear before a judge — typically months or years after their arrest.

In misdemeanor court, lawyers are rarely appointed at any time. Often, the only lawyer in the room is the prosecutor. Cantú’s primary job is serving as the county’s chief executive, akin to a mayor. Like most Texas county judges, he does not have a law degree.

Born in San Antonio, Padron has spent most of his life in Piedras Negras. He dropped out of school around age 12, when his mother was killed, and in recent years has regularly crossed the international bridge to look for day labor in Eagle Pass.

On the night of his arrest in June 2022, Padron needed diapers for his infant son, Fernandito, but had no money. He recalled telling his girlfriend: “I’m going to go to someone and see what I can do. I’ll take any job right now.”

He entered the United States and saw a house where he thought he might offer to clean the yard or wash the truck. But it was dark outside, he said. When he noticed the truck door was unlocked, he snatched the wallet inside.

Later, he would describe the decision as rash, adding that he wished he could apologize and work to repay what he took. “I got carried away,” he said in Spanish.

After buying diapers at a grocery store, Padron went to a Walmart and bought a bike, a hair straightener and a “Frozen” coloring book before the accounts were frozen. He was heading back toward the border at around 10 p.m. when the police, responding to a call from the credit cards’ owner, found him and chased him down. The police reported recovering goods worth a little more than $300.

They arrested him on several potential charges: the misdemeanors of fleeing the police and stealing the wallet, and multiple counts of using stolen credit cards, a low-level felony. A magistrate met with Padron, noted on a form that he wanted a court-appointed lawyer and set his bail at roughly $40,000. He probably could have paid $4,000 or less to a bail bondsman and been released, but Padron did not have that. He was sent to the county jail.

Texas law lays out what should have happened next. His form requesting a lawyer should have reached English Cantú within 24 hours and been ruled on within days. Prosecutors had 30 days to officially charge him with any misdemeanors and 90 days for felonies; after both deadlines, he should have been released.

None of that was done.

English Cantú said in an interview that he does not get the attorney request forms. This surprised several county magistrates, who said jail staff had promised a year ago to begin consistently forwarding them to the court.

“Was that being done? I don’t know,” said Jeannie Smith, a magistrate of nearly 15 years. “Is it being done now? I don’t know.”

Without a lawyer to follow up on his case, Padron stayed in jail for nine and a half months.

Misdemeanor prosecutors finally charged him in March 2023 with one crime, evading arrest. He was released and a month later reported to court, where he was offered a plea deal: a year of probation, along with a $600 fine, $270 in court costs and a monthly $40 fee.

Padron hesitated. He knew he could not pay, he said later, and he had already been jailed so long. Shouldn’t he get credit for that? he recalled asking the prosecutor.

The prosecutor most likely should not have offered Padron a deal at all. State law bars Texas prosecutors from speaking in court to a defendant who has asked for a lawyer before a judge rules on the request. (Although prosecutors said they only talk to defendants who have waived their right to counsel, the law specifies those waivers are invalid if a request for a lawyer is outstanding.)

A defense lawyer could have pushed for Padron to get time served, a sentence equal to the months he had spent in jail, ending his case without probation. Or asked the court to waive fines and fees, given his inability to pay them. But Padron did not have a lawyer, and the prosecutor warned him the next offer could be worse. He took the deal.

Six months later, in November 2023, Padron was arrested for violating his probation as he crossed into Eagle Pass for work. He had not attended his monthly check-ins or paid his dues.

This time, he was in jail for six and a half months, apparently by mistake, before anything happened in his case.

“I found out he was in custody because he called me from the jail,” the probation officer told English Cantú in a May 2024 hearing.

The judge called the delay “unacceptable.” “We need to move these individuals as quickly as possible, especially if they are inmates,” he added.

Padron stood expressionless. The 10-minute back-and-forth was in English, which he does not understand.

In Texas, misdemeanors like Padron’s evading arrest charge have a maximum sentence of one year, and judges are required to credit defendants for time already served. Padron had been incarcerated for a total of 16 months. Still, the prosecutor asked for another 44 days in jail.

English Cantú switched to Spanish to ask Padron why he violated probation, and he responded that with a baby and little work, he could not afford the fees and was afraid to check in without them. The judge paused, and then sentenced him to 34 additional days. (The judge declined to comment on individual cases.)

“The good news is it’s almost over,” Padron said at the jail a couple of weeks later, desperate to reunite with his family. In July, he was released for what he thought would be the final time.

A month later, he was again stopped at the border and sent back to jail. More than two years after his initial arrest, he was now being charged in felony court for using the credit cards.

By then, the victim of Padron’s crime had moved on.

Yaqueline Salinas had been furious in 2022 when she got an alert that her credit cards were being used at the nearby Walmart. She drove around until she saw Padron, whom she recognized from her neighbor’s security cameras, and flagged down the police.

But it took felony investigators a year to ask for her credit card statements, she said. The bank had refunded her money, so she never responded. “I felt bad, honestly,” Salinas later said in an interview in Spanish, remembering the Pampers that fell off the bike Padron was riding. “He’s already missed so much time with the baby.”

She assumed his case had been resolved long ago. “He went back to jail?” she asked a Times reporter. “Oh my god.”

Even without her records, felony prosecutors carried on. But it would be another year before Padron was indicted.

Last year, felony indictments in the county were brought, on average, nearly 14 months after a crime, more than twice the time it took for misdemeanor charges, a Times analysis shows. Felony prosecutors work for the district attorney and rarely coordinate with the county attorney’s misdemeanor prosecutors, they said.

As a result, defendants like Padron sometimes plead guilty to a misdemeanor, thinking they will be freed, only to be rearrested — or never let go — because the police had also listed a potential charge for felony prosecutors to consider.

That is why Sanchez, the man held for trespassing at the local mall, was not released until seven months after his guilty plea: The jail was still holding him on an outstanding burglary allegation that prosecutors later said they were not pursuing.

Another man, 22, was arrested last April, accused of smashing his father’s car windows and running from the police. In September, he pleaded guilty to evading arrest, a misdemeanor, for time served. But the jail continued to hold him, waiting for the district attorney to charge him with vandalism. In February, when The Times asked the district attorney why the man was still there, he said his office had no record of the case. The man was released that day.

In interviews, English Cantú and Iracheta, the county attorney, were quick to point to improvements they had made.

Iracheta said he had sped up misdemeanor prosecutions in recent years by requiring the police to send him cases within 30 days. Still, in 2024, his office took half a year on average to file charges.

“Filing within six months is reasonable,” he said, noting that the statute of limitations for misdemeanors is two years. “We are actively working to improve efficiency,” he added.

Last fall, English Cantú accepted a state grant to hire a coordinator to help appoint lawyers; the coordinator started this month.

From July to December, the judge also assigned lawyers in 31 cases, according to audit reports, compared with none in the first half of the year. He denied one request. Still, almost all those appointments came after defendants appeared in court; scores of additional requests logged by magistrates earlier in the process had gotten no response, state reports through December show.

In felony court, Padron’s case continued. He was finally given a lawyer, Luis De Los Santos, in August 2024.

De Los Santos was initially appointed to handle Padron’s felony charges about five months after his first arrest, according to a court administrator. But Padron said he never heard from the lawyer, and nothing was ever recorded in his court file. Twenty-one months later, afterPadron was indicted, De Los Santos was assigned to the case again. (He did not respond to questions about his first appointment.)

In October, after Padron’s first felony court appearance, De Los Santos seemed unsurprised that his client had been in jail so long. Moments later, the judge, Maribel Flores, said that she does not usually know how long a defendant has been held until late in a case. But asked by a reporter about Padron’s time in jail, she said that in such situations, “usually we’ll just do time served.”

In November, the prosecution agreed for Padron to be released on bail without cost. But the charge hung over him.

“I really don’t want to get probation, because for any little thing they’re going to lock me up,” he said the next morning. “I’m going on two and a half years for the same thing.”

He reported to court again in December, when the prosecution offered Padron a plea deal: not time served, but five years of probation, which typically involves nearly $4,000 in fees.

De Los Santos told Flores that he considered the offer “fairly reasonable.” But Padron was hesitant, and the lawyer asked for more time to explain the deal to him. Flores put the case off again until January.

Padron missed that hearing. The next day, outside his home, he said he had overslept and found his bike missing when he awoke, leaving him no way to get to court on time. His son was about to turn 3, and Padron was despondent at the idea of being sent to jail again.

Across the border, a new warrant was written up for his arrest.

Article originally posted by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

Incendiary devices found at a Texas Tesla dealership

AUSTIN (AP) — Austin police say they’re investigating several incendiary devices found at a Tesla dealership Monday on the city’s north side, the latest in a series of events targeting the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

Austin police responding to a report of hazardous materials found the devices and called in the city’s bomb squad, which took them into police custody without incident, the department said in an email to The Associated Press. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

“This is an open and ongoing investigation, and there is no further information available for release at this time,” the department said.

Attacks on property carrying the logo of Elon Musk’s electric-car company are cropping up across the U.S. and overseas, along with protests nationwide in response to the billionaire’s work with the Trump administration cutting federal funding and the workforce.

On Saturday, a man drove his car into protesters outside a Tesla dealership in Palm Beach County, Florida. No one was injured, and the man was arrested on an assault complaint. In California, police said a counter-protestor was arrested Saturday after activating a stun gun during an anti-Musk demonstration outside a Tesla dealership near downtown Berkeley. Nobody was hurt. The 33-year-old man was awaiting charges Monday.

Several more cases of violence targeting Tesla include Cybertrucks being set on fire in Seattle and shots fired at a dealership in Oregon. Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars also have been targeted.

$150K grant for equipment, training to the SFA police department

NACOGDOCHES – Our news partner, KETK, reports that the University of Texas System Police Department at Stephen F. Austin State University has received a $150,000 grant to fund equipment and training.

The Nacogdoches Law Enforcement Foundation, a nonprofit that assists agencies serving in Nacogdoches, awarded the grant. The $150,000 grant will cover at least 30 duty tourniquets with carriers, along with two automated external defibrillators for new patrol vehicles.

Korey Kahle, a lecturer of computer science at SFA, has been the head of the foundation since it began in March 2022. Recently, the foundation also helped Cason Snider, who was injured in a Nacogdoches County two-vehicle crash in 2017.

Some Nacogdoches County residents under boil water notice

NACOGDOCHES -Caro Water Supply Corporation has issued a boil water notice for several areas affected in Nacogdoches County on Monday due to a generator failure.

The corporation recommends that customers boil their water for more than two minutes at a rolling boil to ensure that all bacteria and microbes have been destroyed. Customers may purchase bottled water or other suitable drinking water for consumption purposes.

Caro Water Supply Corporation will notify customers when they no longer need to boil water and the notice has been rescinded. Anyone with questions regarding the boil water notice can reach the water supply company .

Our news partner, KETK, has a full list of the public areas under the boil water notice. To see the full list, click here.

Wood County woman sentenced to 30 years for assault

WOOD COUNTY – Our news partner, KETK, reports that a Wood County woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison after “repeatedly striking” a woman with a metal pole.

According to the Wood County District Attorney’s Office, around 10:30 p.m. on April 6, 2023, Ruby Dee Isaacs and three other people arrived at the victim’s home uninvited, holding weapons including a knife, machete, pepper spray and a homemade metal pole with a sprocket attached to the end.

Officials said that after a verbal dispute, Issacs repeatedly struck the victim in the face and body with the metal pole. The attack caused serious injuries to the victim’s face, requiring several stitches in her chin and staples in her forehead. (more…)

Federal judge rules Texas A&M can’t ban drag show

COLLEGE STATION – A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Texas A&M University System from enforcing a ban on drag shows being held at its special event venues.

This means “Draggieland” will go on as planned on Thursday at the flagship university’s Rudder Theatre in College Station.

“Draggieland” is an annual pageant where contestants wear clothing or makeup that often, but does not always, run counter to their expected gender identity. The contestants dance and answer questions afterward about what drag and LGBTQ culture means to them. It has repeatedly sold out the 750-seat venue since it started in 2020.

In her ruling, Judge Lee H. Rosenthal said the student group that organizes “Draggieland”, the Queer Empowerment Council, was likely to succeed in showing the ban violates the First Amendment.

“Anyone who finds the performance or performers offensive has a simple remedy: don’t go,” Rosenthal wrote.

The students said while their fight isn’t over, they were overjoyed by the decision and vowed to share that joy by putting on the best show possible Thursday.

The Queer Empowerment Council, which organizes “Draggieland”, sued after the system’s board of regents passed a resolution last month banning drag performances across all 11 campuses. The council argued that the public universities are not allowed to censor student performances based on their personal dislike of its content or perceived ideology.

The regents said they were trying to comply with recent executive orders issued by President Donald J. Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott telling agencies not to promote “gender ideology” or else they could lose funding from the federal and state government. They’ve also argued drag shows mock and objectify women, which violates federal antidiscrimination law.

This follows previous drag show bans and First Amendment fights in court.

In 2023, Republican state lawmakers portrayed drag performances as inherently sexual and obscene. They passed Senate Bill 12, which prohibited performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics in front of children. But a court struck down the law as unconstitutional.

That same year, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler cancelled a student drag show, similarly arguing that such performances degrade women.

The students sued, but the judge in that case has so far held that drag shows are not clearly protected under the First Amendment in part because children were expected to attend.

No children are expected to attend “Draggieland”.

Texas A&M’s resolution also spurred the University of Texas System to prohibit its 14 institutions from sponsoring or hosting drag shows.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

Attorney General’s impeachment cost Texas $5.1 million

AUSTIN – The impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton cost the state about $5.1 million in taxpayer funds, largely to pay for lawyers hired by House leaders to prosecute Paxton in a Senate trial that ended in his acquittal, according to a report released Friday by the State Auditor’s Office.

The total is roughly $900,000 higher than previously reported, based on records from the House’s impeachment case, which did not include a full tally of the chamber’s outside legal costs.

The House, which impeached Paxton over allegations that he accepted bribes and abused the authority of his office, accounted for nearly 87% of the state’s overall tab. Of the more than $4.4 million spent by the lower chamber, more than $4 million went to “contracted professional services,” which the auditor’s report described as “costs for attorneys, investigators, and other related costs.”

House records released in late 2023 show that invoices topped $3.5 million for the two renowned Houston attorneys who led the case against Paxton, Rusty Hardin and Dick DeGuerin.

Additionally, the auditor’s office found that the Texas Senate spent $435,000 on costs that included lawmakers’ per diem payments, travel, and producing the journal documenting the trial. The Attorney General’s Office spent an additional $230,000, while two other agencies — the Texas Legislative Reference Library and the Texas Legislative Council — combined to spend roughly $8,500.

The auditor’s report came at the request of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has spent more than a year pressuring the House to reveal its impeachment expenses. Patrick, a Republican who oversees the Senate and presided over Paxton’s trial, previously alleged that the House “spent like drunken sailors on shore leave” on the case.

Paxton’s impeachment created enormous strife between Patrick and former Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who supported the impeachment effort. Earlier this month, the Lt. Governor wrote on social media that Phelan’s successor, Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, handed over “detailed expenditures” that Patrick then turned over to the State Auditor’s Office.

In a statement Friday, Patrick thanked Burrows for “his commitment to transparency” and slammed Phelan, saying the report showed he “frivolously wasted taxpayer funds for an ill-fated political gambit.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

Lawmakers push to spend billions of dollars for water projects

AUSTIN – Texas lawmakers agree that the answer to the state’s looming water crisis is to invest billions of dollars into fixing the problem. What they don’t agree on, at least for now, is exactly how to spend the money.

State. Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and state Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, filed bills this month that take big swings at solving the ongoing water issues plaguing Texas. They include investing billions of dollars into repairing and upgrading aging infrastructure like water pipes, as well as creating new water sources for the future.

The discussion comes at an important time — a Texas Tribune analysis found the state could face a severe water shortage by 2030 if there was a recurring, statewide record-breaking drought and if state leaders and water entities failed to use strategies that secure water supplies.

A pair of proposals — Senate Joint Resolution 66 and House Joint Resolution 7 — would allocate up to $1 billion a year to boost water projects. Their accompanying bills, House Bill 16 and Senate Bill 7, both would create new water committees to oversee the funding and promote investment into new water projects.

Gov. Greg Abbott has declared water an emergency item for this legislative session, which means the bills could be on a fast track in the Legislature.

Both proposals would funnel up to $1 billion a year to the Texas Water Fund — a special account voters approved in 2023 to help pay for water projects.

Perry’s resolution calls for 80% of the money to fund projects to create new water supplies and 20% to repair aging infrastructure. Harris’ resolution does not specify how the money would be split and would leave the structure how it is — letting the Texas Water Development Board decide how to prioritize projects.

The debate around the bills centers on whether to prioritize projects for new water sources or repairing aging water pipes that leak massive amounts of water throughout the state.

Water experts agree that projects to create new sources of water need to be funded. However, there is concern about neglecting repairs on water pipes around the state.

A Texas 2036 report estimated that the state needs nearly $154 billion by 2050 for water infrastructure, including $59 billion for water supply projects, $74 billion for leaky pipes and infrastructure maintenance, and $21 billion to fix broken wastewater systems.

Perry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, said the House and Senate will have to find a balance to move water legislation forward.

“I don’t think anybody takes issue with the fact that we need to invest in new water supplies,” Fowler said. “But there is a tremendous need to address aging infrastructure. We have a lot of immediate needs, like yesterday.”

Texas is looking to desalination to remove salt from seawater or brackish groundwater to create more water for drinking, irrigation and industrial uses.

Another strategy would be treating produced water, which is wastewater that comes out of the ground during oil and gas production. According to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, every barrel of oil produced also generates five barrels of wastewater.

Perry lists both options as eligible for state money in Senate Bill 7. He also acknowledged that old pipes are leaking massive amounts of water every year, calling that primarily a local issue.

“But I’m willing to leverage tax dollars, as we have in the past, and work on that at the same time,” Perry said. “But supply has to be priority one.”

Jennifer Walker, director for the Texas Coast and Water Program for National Wildlife Federation, said repairing old, leaking infrastructure should be considered a new water supply and urges lawmakers to be more liberal in that definition.

“Stopping that [water] loss and delivering more drops to customers, that is a new water supply for our communities,” she said. “We’re not delivering it to our customers otherwise, unless we address that.”

A 2022 report by Texas Living Waters Project, a coalition of environmental groups, estimated that Texas water systems lose at least 572,000 acre-feet per year, or about 51 gallons of water per home or business connection every day — enough water to meet the total annual municipal needs of Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo and Lubbock combined.

Some of Texas’ water infrastructure is nearly as old as the state itself — the oldest pipes date back to as early as the 1890s. In 2019, Little Bill’s Plumbing in Pampa unearthed a wooden water pipe that experts believed could have been used before the city was incorporated.

Tom Gooch, vice president and a water resource planner with Freese and Nichols, said much of Texas’ water infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life, but repairs remain largely a local responsibility — and funding is limited.

“The tradition in Texas has been that this kind of maintenance and repair tends to be a local responsibility.”

Many pipes across the state are over 100 years old, and underground pipes can be damaged when the ground around them expands and contracts during droughts and wetter weather cycles. Corrosion and leaks are hard to detect, and with thousands of miles of underground pipes, repairs are expensive and time-consuming.

Sources like the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas give local governments money to help, but there are more funding requests than the Water Development Board can fund.

Most of the experts agree that both new water supply and fixing deteriorating infrastructure is important. However, some think it would be best to keep giving the water development board discretion over how state money is spent.

Fowler, with the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, said he believes a lot of people supported the structure of the Texas Water Fund before because it was set up in a way to give flexibility to the board.

“If we’re too prescriptive, then it could potentially impact our overall spending power and what we can actually do,” Fowler said.

During a House committee meeting this week, Sarah Kirkle with the Texas Water Association testified in support of the House Joint Resolution. She said it would allow communities to meet new growth needs, upgrade existing facilities and fix broken lines. She was also in support of keeping the power to prioritize spending with the Water Development Board.

Gooch said repairing and keeping old infrastructure running is essential.

“I don’t know that you can rank it, you’ve got to do both,” Gooch said. “You’ve got to keep your system functioning well, and you’ve got to go find additional water to put into the system, to appropriately use your resources to get both those things done.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

Two DFW massage parlors closed for suspected human trafficking

AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) reports that it has issued six-month emergency closure orders effective March 19, 2025, that closes two DFW massage establishments for suspected human trafficking.

The shops, SY Foot on Belt Line road in Garland and Happy Feet Massage on Oakmont boulevard in Fort Worth, were ordered to halt operations. During two different inspections of the Garland location and one inspection of the Fort Worth location, TDLR inspectors and local Police Department officers found several indicators of possible human trafficking. These indicators included people living on the premises and items that are prohibited in a massage establishment. An online investigation also found that the locations was advertising on illicit webs sites. The Garland Police Department had received several complaints about possible human trafficking at the location.

In a House Bill passed in the 88th State Legislative Regular Session, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation’s executive director can issue an emergency order halting the operation of any massage establishment if law enforcement or TDLR believes human trafficking is occurring at the establishment. Chiping Zhang, the owner and operator of two massage establishments, was so ordered to halt operations, and is also prohibited from operating different massage establishments at these locations for six months.

Texas death row inmate’s appeal is rejected by the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a Texas death row inmate whose bid for a new trial drew the support of the prosecutor’s office that originally put him on death row.

The justices left in place a Texas appeals court ruling that upheld the murder conviction and death sentence for Areli Escobar, even though Escobar’s case is similar to that of an Oklahoma man, Richard Glossip, whose murder conviction the high court recently overturned.

There was no explanation from the justices about why Escobar’s appeal met a different fate.

Unlike in Glossip’s case, Escobar is not facing imminent execution.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has twice rejected Escobar’s appeals. The first time followed a lower court decision ordering a new trial after the judge identified problems with the evidence. More recently, the appeals court again ruled against Escobar after the Supreme Court had ordered it to reconsider.

Escobar was convicted and sentenced to death in the May 2009 fatal stabbing and sexual assault of Bianca Maldonado, a 17-year-old high school student in Austin. They lived in the same apartment complex.

The focus of the prosecution case against Escobar was evidence from the Austin Police Department’s DNA lab.

But a later audit turned up problems at the lab that led Judge David Wahlberg of the Travis County District Court to conclude that Escobar’s trial was unfair.

“The State’s use of unreliable, false, or misleading DNA evidence to secure (Escobar’s) conviction violated fundamental concepts of justice,” Wahlberg wrote.

When the case returned to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Travis County prosecutors no longer were defending the conviction. Voters had elected a new district attorney, Jose Garza, who ran on a promise to hold police accountable in Austin, the state capital and county seat.

In Glossip’s case, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond backed the call to throw out the conviction and death sentence because the discovery of new evidence persuaded him Glossip did not have a fair trial.

The justices agreed, ruling that prosecutors’ decision to allow a key witness to give testimony they knew to be false violated Glossip’s constitutional right to a fair trial.

East Texas student sells pig for over $500,000 at Houston Rodeo

CENTER – Our news partner, KETK, reports that a 12-year-old from Center ISD accomplished an impressive feat during the 2025 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this week by selling a market barrow pig for a record $501,000.

Dallas Martinez, who is currently in the sixth grade, was named Junior Market Barrow Grand Champion and sold his championship market barrow pig for $501,000, which breaks the previous record by over $100,000.

Martinez has been competing in major stock shows since he was 9-years-old. The student’s father, Berto Martinez, is a member of the Center ISD faculty working for the maintenance department.

Federal judge strikes down Texas’ mail ballot ID requirement

SAN ANTOINIO – A federal judge in San Antonio has ruled that the state of Texas’ ID requirements for mail ballot applications are unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez on Thursday found that the provisions in the state’s 2021 voter security law SB1 discriminate against voters with disabilities.

Mail-in voters are principally people over the age of 65 and people with disabilities. Since the law was enacted, many voters reported having their ballots rejected because they didn’t provide an ID number, or the number they provided did not match the one the state had on file.

“The problem with that is that many Texans have more than one department of public safety ID number,” said Victor Genecin, an attorney with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. “So the first hurdle for a voter who’s applying for an absentee ballot is they may not know which number is in the election system. And even if they do know which number is in the election system and they put it in correctly, the election system may not have the number right.”

Genecin cited testimony at trial, where the Texas Secretary of State conceded that more than 650,000 registration records in their system were incorrect.

He added that expert testimony at the trial estimated that more than 2 million people were unable to vote due to the ID restrictions.

The ruling ordered the Texas secretary of state to remove the requirements from mail-in ballot applications. However, the ruling came just weeks before Texas’ municipal elections, so they will remain in effect through May 3.

Judge Rodriguez also struck down provisions of SB1 that require those who assist voters to swear an oath under penalty of perjury.

“Normally when somebody says to you, ‘would you help me?’ you either step up to help them or you don’t. But you don’t say, you know, ‘what’s wrong with you? Why do you need help?’ You just help,” Genecin said. “And so the idea that that people who are disabled must explain why they’re unable to vote without assistance is offensive in itself.”

Genecin added that part of the oath is that the assister must swear to be understanding that if the voter turns out not to be eligible for assistance, then the vote could be invalidated.

“So it puts the assister in the position of having to evaluate whether the voter is eligible for assistance, and the word ‘eligible’ is not defined anywhere in the statute,’ he said.

The state of Texas was expected to appeal.

Opponents of SB1 applauded the decision and called it a victory for voters with disabilities.

“It truly is such a victory for voting accessibility, and it affirms that our electoral system must protect and prioritize the right of every voter to be able to participate fully,” said Elsie Cooke-Holmes, International President and Board Chair of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a co-plaintiff in the case. “It really does provide an opportunity for the 3 million plus voters with disabilities in Texas to be able to exercise their rights to vote without undue hardship. It ensures that their voices will be able to be heard, and that their votes will actually count.”

Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled last fall that the state of Texas could no longer investigate voter assistance efforts as a criminal act. The state of Texas has appealed that ruling.

Cooke-Holmes said her organization sees momentum in the challenge to SB1.

“We know the fight is not over. We are going to continue to advocate for policies that eliminate all forms of voter suppression,” she said.

SB1, which was passed in the wake of President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud without evidence following the 2020 election, also limited early voting hours, banned 24-hour voting, eliminated drive-thru voting centers, limited multiple drop-off locations for mail ballots, limited the distribution of mail-in ballot applications and expanded the authority of partisan poll watchers.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

City of Gladewater issues boil water notice

GLADEWATER — According to a report from our news partner, KETK, the City of Gladewater issued a boil water notice for all customers as of Thursday but announced it on Friday morning.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has required the City of Gladewater public water system to notify all customers who experienced low pressure or no water to boil their water before consumption. This includes water used for washing hands and faces, brushing teeth, and drinking water. (more…)

71-year-old killed in mobile home fire

TRINITY – According to a report from our news partner, KETK, a 71-year-old man died on Friday morning in a fire that burned a mobile home in Trinity.

Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said James Barber, 71 of Trinity, died in a mobile home fire that happened on Clemons Street at around 5 a.m. on Friday.

According to Wallace, Trinity County law enforcement is investigating the cause of the fire.

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