Jewish Texans disagree on how to combat antisemitism in schools

AUSTIN – Some Jewish Texans on Tuesday supported a measure to address a rise in antisemitism in schools, while others said it would not only stifle free speech but make them less safe.

They testified Tuesday evening on Senate Bill 326 in the Senate’s K-16 Education Committee.

The bill would require public school districts, open-enrollment charter schools and colleges and universities to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition and examples of antisemitism in student disciplinary proceedings.

The IHRA defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

A few examples the IHRA provides of antisemitism are “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “applying double standards by requiring of it (Israel) a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel.”

Oli Hoffman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, said the IHRA definition encourages “a dangerous conflation of the government of Israel and the Jewish people.”

“I am a proud Longhorn studying education,” Hoffman said, “and I can recall some respectful debates regarding Israel that I was a party to on campus that would be defined as antisemitic come Sept. 1 if this bill is passed.”

Students at UT Austin and universities throughout the country demonstrated support for Palestinians last spring, calling for their universities to divest from manufacturers supplying Israel with weapons in its strikes on Gaza.

UT officials called state police, who responded to the campus and arrested more than 100 people. While some have criticized the university for what they called a heavy-handed response, others have applauded it as necessary to combat protests they saw as antisemitic. Some point to the phrase some protesters chanted, “from the river to the sea,” as evidence of this.

“From the river to the sea” refers to a stretch of land between the Jordan River on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank to the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

Pro-Palestinian activists have said this is a call for peace and equality in the Middle East, but SB 326’s author, Phil King, R-Weatherford, said he thinks that phrase calls for the killing of Jews.

Sandra Parker, vice chair of the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission and King’s invited witness, agreed and added that it also calls for the eradication of the Jewish state.

She stressed that the bill would allow school leaders to decide on their own if a student has violated their code of conduct and provides them a tool to determine whether the violation was motivated by antisemitism.

That could help the school determine what discipline is warranted, she said.

“Why is that necessary? Because you cannot defeat what you are unwilling to define,” Parker said. “We know the conduct is happening, but why? The answer can only be one of two things. Antisemitism is being tolerated and ignored or people don’t know what antisemitism is when they see it.”

Parker added that the bill could address incidents like one at a high school in San Antonio where she said a student who is not Jewish had an Israel flag stolen and destroyed by another student. The school then moved the student who owned the flag to another classroom rather than punish the students who destroyed the flag.

“This behavior was aimed to silence both Jewish students and those who support them,” Parker said.

But other Jewish Texans disagreed with King and Parker that the phrase “from the river to the sea” is antisemitic.

“Whatever the intentions of this bill, understand that it actually makes Jews in Texas less safe to formally associate us with a foreign government, evoking the longstanding antisemitic charge of dual loyalty that’s been leveled against Jewish people in the U.S. and Europe for decades, setting us apart from our neighbors and painting us as outsiders,” said Jennifer Margulies, who attends Congregation Beth Israel in Austin, which a man set on fire in 2022.

“I know what antisemitism looks like,” she said. “It looks like needing to reassure my child that it’s safe to attend Hebrew school when I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I drive by the burnt black sanctuary doors to drop her off, hoping that I am not lying.”

Since protests broke out last spring, lawmakers have heard about an uptick in antisemitic incidents in schools. They heard that again on Tuesday from Jackie Nirenberg, a regional director for the Anti-defamation League.

She said the ADF and Hillel International, a Jewish Campus organization, surveyed Jewish college students at 135 colleges and universities across the U.S. and found that 83% of them have experienced or witnessed antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

SB 326 was left pending in committee.

State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, has filed identical legislation in the House.

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

Trump administration says it will pull back billions in COVID funding from health departments

WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal health officials said Tuesday they are pulling back $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for state and local public health departments and other health organizations throughout the nation.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

The statement said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to recover the money beginning 30 days after termination notices, which began being sent out on Monday.

Officials said the money was largely used for COVID-19 testing, vaccination and global projects as well as community health workers responding to COVID and a program established in 2021 to address COVID health disparities among high-risk and underserved patients, including those in minority populations. The move was first reported by NBC News.

Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County & City Health Officials, said much of the funding was set to end soon anyway. “It’s ending in the next six months,” she said. “There’s no reason — why rescind it now? It’s just cruel and unusual behavior.”

In a related move, more than two dozen COVID-related research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health have been canceled. Earlier this month, the Trump administration shut down ordering from covidtest.gov, the site where Americans could have COVID-19 tests delivered to their mailboxes for no charge.

Although the COVID federal public health emergency has ended, the virus is still killing Americans: 458 people per week on average have died from COVID over the past four weeks, according to CDC data.

HHS wouldn’t provide many details about how the federal government expects to recover the money from what it called “impacted recipients.” But HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in an email: “The $11.4 billion is undisbursed funds remaining.”

Freeman said her understanding is that state health departments already had the COVID money.

“The funding was authorized by Congress, was appropriated by Congress, and it was out the door, basically, into the hands of the grantees” — states, she said, which decide how to distribute it locally.

Some of the COVID money is used to address other public health issues, Freeman added. For example, wastewater surveillance that began during COVID became important for detecting other diseases, too.

“It was being used in significant ways to track flu and patterns of new disease and emerging diseases — and even more recently with the measles outbreak,” Freeman said.

Under both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, billions of dollars was allocated for COVID response through legislation, including a COVID relief bill and the American Rescue Plan Act.

At this point, it’s unclear exactly how health departments will be affected by the pullback of funds. But some were starting to look at what it might mean for them. In Washington state, for example, health officials were notified that more than $125 million in COVID-related funding has been immediately terminated. They are “assessing the impact” of the actions, they said.

In Los Angeles County, health officials said they could lose more than $80 million in core funding for vaccinations and other services. “Much of this funding supports disease surveillance, public health lab services, outbreak investigations, infection control activities at healthcare facilities and data transparency,” a department official wrote in an email.

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Measles cases hit 370 total in Texas and New Mexico

WEST TEXAS (AP) – The measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico have surpassed a combined 370 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week. Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.

How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?

Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 18 new cases of measles since Friday, bringing the total to 327 across 15 counties — most in West Texas. Forty people have been hospitalized since the outbreak began. Lamb County was new to the list, with one case.

New Mexico health officials announced one new case Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 43. Most of the cases are in Lea County, where two people have been hospitalized, and two are in in Eddy County.

Oklahoma’s state health department has nine total cases as of Tuesday, including seven confirmed cases and two probable cases. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.

A school-age child died of measles in Texas last month, and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult last week.

Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?

Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.

An outbreak in Kansas has grown to 10 cases across three counties — Grant, Morton and Stevens counties. A state health department spokesperson did not respond to emails about whether the outbreak is linked to the situation in Texas or New Mexico.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases. The agency counts three clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025 as of Tuesday.

In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.

Do you need an MMR booster?

The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.

Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.

A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.

Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.

People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.

What are the symptoms of measles?

Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.

The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.

Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.

How can you treat measles?

There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.

Why do vaccination rates matter?

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett mocks Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as ‘Gov. Hot Wheels’

DALLAS (AP) – Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett mocked her state’s governor during a weekend appearance, referring to Greg Abbott — who uses a wheelchair — as “Gov. Hot Wheels” while speaking at a banquet in Los Angeles.

“You all know we got Gov. Hot Wheels down there. Come on, now,” Crockett, a Dallas Democrat, said about Abbott, a Republican, while addressing the Human Rights Campaign event. “And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot-ass mess, honey.”

Abbott was paralyzed in 1984 after a tree fell on him while he was running. The accident severely damaged Abbott’s spinal cord. Abbott, now 67, was elected in 2014.

Crockett, elected to the House in 2022, was roundly criticized by Republicans for the comments, an aside she made during her speech to the civil rights group event after she thanked Morgan Cox, a group board member and fellow Dallas resident, according to video of the event posted to Human Rights Campaign’s YouTube channel.

“Crockett’s comments are disgraceful,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn posted on the social media platform X. “Shameful.”

Crockett suggested Tuesday that she was not referring to Abbott’s condition. Instead, she posted on X that she was referring to Abbott’s policy of sending thousands of immigrants who were in Texas illegally to cities where local policy limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities, such as New York and Philadelphia.

“I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable,” the post stated.

Abbott’s office did not immediately replied to requests for comment.

Crockett has faced criticism from Republicans for suggesting last week that tech billionaire Elon Musk, heading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, “be taken down.”

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Gunman who killed 23 at a Walmart offered plea deal to avoid death penalty

EL PASO (AP) – The gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history has been offered a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, a Texas prosecutor said Tuesday.

The announcement by El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya is a significant turn in the criminal case of Patrick Crusius, 26, who was already sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty in 2023 to federal hate crime charges.

Under the Biden administration, federal prosecutors also took the death penalty off the table but did not explain why.

In addition to the federal case, Crusius was also charged in state court with capital murder.

Montoya said he supports the death penalty and believes Crusius deserves it. But he said he met with the families of the victims and there was an overriding desire to conclude the process, though some relatives were willing to wait as long as it took for a death sentence.

“The vast majority of them want this case over and done with as quickly as possible,” he said.

Montoya also said pursuing the death penalty would mean a long and drawn-out legal battle with many hearings and appeals.

“I could see a worst-case scenario where this would not go to trial until 2028 if we continued to seek the death penalty,” he said.

Montoya, a Democrat, took office in January after defeating a Republican incumbent who was appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Montoya’s predecessors supported sending Crusius to death row.

“I’ve heard about it. I think the guy does deserve the death penalty, to be honest,” Abbott said Tuesday about the decision. “Any shooting like that is what capital punishment is for.”

Crusius, who is white, was 21 years old and had dropped out of community college when police say he drove more than 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) from his home near Dallas to target Hispanics in El Paso.

Moments after posting a racist screed online that warned of a Hispanic “invasion” of the state, he opened fire with an AK-style rifle inside and outside the store.

Before the shooting, Crusius appears to have been consumed by the immigration debate, posting online in support of building the border wall and other messages praising the hardline border policies of President Donald Trump, who was in his first term at the time. He went further in the rant he posted before the attack, saying Hispanics were going to take over the government and economy.

In the years since the shooting, Republicans have called migrants crossing the southern border an “invasion” and dismissed criticism that such rhetoric fuels anti-immigrant views and violence.

In the U.S. government’s case, Crusius received a life sentence for each of the 90 charges against him, half of which were classified as hate crimes. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said after the sentencing that “no one in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence.”

One of his attorneys told the judge before the sentencing that his client had a “broken brain” and his thinking was “at odds with reality.”

Federal prosecutors did not formally explain their decision not to seek the death penalty, but they did acknowledge that Crusius suffered from schizoaffective disorder, which can be marked by hallucinations, delusions and mood swings.

The people who were killed ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to several grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, teachers, tradesmen including a former iron worker, and several Mexican nationals who had crossed the U.S. border on routine shopping trips.

In 2023, Crusius agreed to pay more than $5 million to his victims. Court records showed that his attorneys and the Justice Department reached an agreement over the restitution amount, which was then approved by a U.S. district judge. There was no indication that he had significant assets.

Texas measles outbreak grows to 327 cases with 18 confirmed infections over last 5 days: Officials

AUSTIN (ABC) – The measles outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow with 18 cases confirmed over the last five days, bringing the total to 327 cases, according to new data published Tuesday.

Nearly all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). At least 40 people have been hospitalized so far.

Just two cases have occurred in people fully vaccinated with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to the data.

In the Texas outbreak, children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases at 140, followed by children ages 4 and under accounting for 105 cases, according to the data.

“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities. DSHS is working with local health departments to investigate the outbreak,” the department said in a press release.

It comes as another case of measles was confirmed in New Mexico, bringing the total to 43, according to data from the state Department of Health. The majority of cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County — the epicenter of the outbreak in Texas.

Additionally, two cases of measles were confirmed in Erie County, Pennsylvania, on Monday. A media release from the Erie County Department of Health said the cases were linked to international travel and there is not a high risk of exposure for the general population.

Two likely measles deaths have been reported so far in the U.S. The first was an unvaccinated school-aged child in Texas, according to the DSHS. The child did not have any known underlying conditions, according to the department.

The Texas death was the first measles death recorded in the U.S. in a decade, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A possible second measles death was recorded after an unvaccinated New Mexico resident tested positive for the virus following their death. The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) said the official cause of death is still under investigation.

The CDC has confirmed 378 measles cases this year in at least 17 states: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington. This is likely an undercount due to delays in states reporting cases to the federal health agency.

The majority of nationally confirmed cases, about 95%, are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, the CDC said. Of those cases, 3% are among those who received just one dose of the MMR inoculation and 2% are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.

The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.

For those living in the outbreak area, Texas health officials are recommending that parents consider an early dose of the MMR vaccine for children between 6 months and 11 months, and that adults receive a second MMR dose if they only received one in the past.

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West Texas lawmakers to divert oil and gas taxes for county needs

ODESSA — The fracking boom that resuscitated the Texas oil fields has also beaten up the infrastructure in the Permian Basin, the state’s biggest oil and gas drilling region.

More heavy trucks drove through small towns, tearing up roads. Companies built temporary workforce housing, called man camps, which local officials said dramatically increased the population, requiring more public services like garbage pick-up, hospital beds and first responders.

Local leaders say the oil boom has caused strains that their city and county budgets can’t keep up with.

Two West Texas lawmakers want to divert 10% of the roughly $8 billion that oil and gas companies pay the state in so-called severance taxes to benefit oil-producing counties. Legislation sponsored by State Reps. Tom Craddick of Midland and Brooks Landgraf of Odessa would redirect a portion of those taxes to 32 eligible counties to be used for infrastructure repairs, emergency services, health care, education and workforce development.

Regulators, industry and environmental policy experts agree that addressing the damage caused by decades of oil and gas production will require significant policy and funding changes.

A report by the House Appropriations Committee on House Bill 2154, which Craddick and Landgraf authored together in 2019 to address the same issues, said that failing to help communities in the oil patch repair their infrastructure could also impede the oil and gas industry.

“In recent years, the regions of Texas responsible for the growth in the state’s oil and natural gas production have encountered significant challenges that have limited the potential growth of the energy sector and could pose a significant threat to the sustained future growth of oil and natural gas production in the state,” the report said.

Their 2019 bill died in the Senate. And in 2021 and 2023, they tried and failed again.

This time, they introduced two separate proposals. Craddick authored House Bill 265, which is basically identical to the 2019 bill. Landgraf introduced House Bill 188, which would also devote money to oil field cleanup and emissions reduction programs managed by the Texas Railroad Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — and give property tax relief to homeowners statewide.

Landgraf could not say whether the changes will be enough to finally win support in the upper chamber.

“It’s a high barrier. I’ve known that since 2018 when I first started looking into this,” Landgraf said. “But I do think that if it’s a policy that we can put in place, it would have great dividends for every corner of Texas, and that’s why I think it’s a fight that’s still worth fighting.”

The two bills would redirect some oil and gas tax money to certain oil and gas-producing counties, as well as coastal counties where a port authority transports oil and gas. Landgraf’s bill would set aside $500 million, while Craddick’s would collect up to $250 million for all eligible counties.

Under Landgraf’s bill, county governments, school districts, colleges and nonprofits in qualifying counties could apply for the money and spend it on things like road repairs, improving schools, workforce development initiatives and emergency services.

The remaining $300 million would go toward the Property Tax Relief Fund, an account managed by the state comptroller used to reduce maintenance repairs in school districts, which are funded by local property taxes.

If one or both of the bills can get through the Legislature and get Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval, they would still need to go before Texas voters this fall as a constitutional amendment.

Budget writers in both chambers typically don’t like being told how to spend money through constitutional amendments, said Sherri Greenberg, a dean of state and local government engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.

The intense pace of oil production in the Permian Basin, which covers 75,000 square miles between Texas and New Mexico, has also inflicted environmental damage.

The Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency that regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, has said it cannot afford to keep up with the increasing cost of plugging thousands of so-called orphan oil and gas wells, which have no clear owner or were drilled by now-bankrupt companies.

Recently, a number of these wells have unexpectedly erupted with toxic wastewater that apparently migrated from oilfield disposal wells.

Under Landgraf’s bill, 1% of the diverted money would go to the Railroad Commission to help plug orphan wells. An additional 1% would pay for emissions reduction efforts in trucking, farming and construction overseen by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Oil companies, trade groups and environmentalist policy experts have testified in favor of both bills.

Cyrus Reed, a legislative and conservation director for the Sierra Club, which advocates for policies that strengthen environmental protections nationally, said he supports Landgraf’s bill for its environmental propositions.

“We’re going to support any solution that gets more revenue paid by the oil and gas industry to resolve (environmental) issues,” Reed said. “We don’t want to rely on … just general revenue from the people of Texas to pay for a problem that industry created.”

Landgraf hopes that expanding the legislation so it has an impact beyond energy-producing regions of Texas will help it gain more support in the Legislature.

“My position is that what’s good for the Permian Basin is good for all of Texas,” he said “But sometimes that takes a bit more of a holistic or longer view for people not from the Permian Basin to reach that conclusion.”

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

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.

Judge allows drag show at Texas A&M despite the university’s ban

COLLEGE STATION (AP) – A drag show scheduled for this week at Texas A&M University can go on as scheduled despite a Board of Regents ban on such performances, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The ruling from Houston-based U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal blocked a university ban on drag performances on free speech grounds.

“To ban the performance from taking place on campus because it offends some members of the campus community is precisely what the First Amendment prohibits,” Rosenthal, who was nominated to the bench by the late President George H.W. Bush, said in her opinion.

The ruling blocks the ban while the broader legal case over it moves forward. The decision echoes others in recent years from the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to let Florida enforce a statewide ban, and district courts in a Montana, Tennessee and Texas.

Texas A&M has become a flashpoint in the most recent chapter of the legal battle.

Two years ago, the president of West Texas A&M in Canyon, said a drag show scheduled for that campus could not move ahead. In response to a legal challenge, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said the university could block the show, finding it contained “sexualized content” and could be more regulated than other forms of speech.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to take the case when the student group behind it appealed.

This time around, the backdrop is different. The Board of Regents passed a policy banning drag shows across the university system on Feb. 28, after tickets had already been sold to the “Draggieland” show on the flagship campus in College Station. The show has been an annual event there since 2020.

In the first two years, the university supported it financially. But in recent years, the student group Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council has been responsible for all the funding.

The university argued that allowing the show could jeopardize federal funding for the university in light of President Donald Trump’s executive order barring federal money to support what he calls “ gender ideology.” It noted how funds were cut off from Columbia University.

The judge decided that allowing the event does not imply that the university endorses it. By allowing it, she said, the university could comply with the “constitutional obligation to allow different messages and viewpoints, including those viewed as offensive to some, to be expressed at a university that is committed to critical thought about a wide range of conflicting and divergent viewpoints and ideologies.”

A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One state jumps into the fray over vaccine exemptions

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — One state’s effort to exempt young school-aged children from vaccines appears to have stalled as states contend with a burgeoning measles outbreak. In January, West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order allowing families to apply for religious exemptions to mandated childhood vaccinations. A measure that would have enshrined that order into law sailed through the state Senate last month, but on Monday the state House of Delegates rejected a bill that would have dismantled what is broadly considered by medical experts to be among the most protective school immunization policies in the country.

West Virginia is currently one of a tiny minority of U.S. states that only exempts students from being vaccinated if doing so poses a medical problem for them.

The bill rejected Monday proposed allowing private and religious schools to decide whether or not to accept religious exemptions from students’ families, whereas the Senate version of the bill would have required the schools to accept religious exemptions. Public schools would have been required to accept the exemptions under both versions.

The state Senate also voted in favor allowing families to opt out of vaccination for philosophical reasons, a justification the House measure didn’t include. West Virginia’s vaccine battle is surging to the forefront of state legislative issues as measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico have surpassed a combined 350 cases, and at least two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.

The West Virginia bill rejected by lawmakers Monday also would have changed the process for families seeking medical exemptions by allowing a child’s health care provider to submit testimony to a school that certain vaccines “are or may be detrimental to the child’s health or are not appropriate.”
Opposition forces surge

Those who opposed broadening West Virginia’s narrow vaccine exemptions said they were concerned about public health effects. Republican Delegate Keith Marple of Harrison County, 81, said he’s witnessed people disabled by polio and living on iron lungs.

Marple said he doesn’t want to see West Virginia children hurt and said it’s “essential” they continue receiving the required immunizations.

“I don’t want that on my conscience,” he said, before voting no on the bill.

West Virginia does not currently have a state health officer, but the last three people to hold the position wrote a joint letter to lawmakers Friday asking them to vote “no” on the bill, which was rejected 56 to 42 on the House floor.

Morrisey’s communications director Alex Lanfranconi said debate had “sadly derailed” since Morrisey put forward his proposal to provide a religious exemption to “unworkable, rigorous mandates.”

“West Virginia remains an outlier by failing to provide these exemptions, aligning with liberal states like California and New York,” he said in a statement.
State praised for vaccine policy

A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on kindergarten vaccination exemptions cited the West Virginia as having the lowest exemption rate in the country, and the best vaccination rates for kids that age.

State law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before starting school. The state does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.

Last year, former governor and current U.S. Sen. Republican Jim Justice vetoed a less sweeping vaccination bill passed by the Republican supermajority Legislature that would have exempted private school and some nontraditional public school students from vaccination requirements.

At the time, Justice said he had to defer to the licensed medical professionals who “overwhelmingly” spoke out in opposition to the legislation.
Religious freedom

Morrisey, who previously served as West Virginia’s attorney general, said he believes religious exemptions for vaccinations should already be permitted in West Virginia under a 2023 state law called the Equal Protection for Religion Act.

The law stipulates that the government can’t “substantially burden” someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion unless it can prove there is a “compelling interest” to restrict that right.

Morrisey said that law hasn’t “been fully and properly enforced” since it passed. He urged the Legislature to help him codify the religious vaccination exemptions into law.

After the bill failed Monday, Democratic Delegate Mike Pushkin called on lawmakers to reach out to Morrisey and “ask him to rescind his dangerous executive order on childhood immunizations.”

U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped in 2023 and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted in October.

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.

Multiple incendiary devices found at Tesla dealership in Texas: Police

AUSTIN (ABC) — Multiple incendiary devices were found at a Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas, on Monday morning, according to the Austin Police Department.

Officers located the “suspicious devices” after responding to a Tesla dealership on U.S. Route 183 just after 8 a.m. local time and called the Austin Police Department Bomb Squad to investigate, police said in a statement.

The devices were determined to be incendiary and were “taken into police custody without incident,” officials said.

Police said it is an ongoing investigation, and had no further information to release at this time.

Recent attacks aimed at Tesla dealerships, vehicles and charging stations have been reported in Las Vegas; Seattle; Kansas City, Missouri; and Charleston, South Carolina, as well as other cities across the United States since Tesla CEO Elon Musk began his role with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

In a public announcement Friday evening, the FBI said incidents targeting Teslas have been recorded in at least nine states since January, including arson, gunfire and graffiti.

“These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night,” the FBI said in the public service announcement. “Individuals require little planning to use rudimentary tactics, such as improvised incendiary devices and firearms, and may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes.”

The FBI urged the public to be vigilant and to look out for suspicious activity in areas around Tesla dealerships.

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