Today is
Tuesday May 21, 2024
DALLAS (AP) â Former President Donald Trump urged gun owners to vote in the 2024 election as he addressed thousands of members of the National Rifle Association, which officially endorsed him just before Trump took the stage at their annual meeting in Texas on Saturday.
âWeâve got to get gun owners to vote,” Trump said. âI think youâre a rebellious bunch. But letâs be rebellious and vote this time.”
Trump, in his speech, said the Second Amendment âis very much on the ballot” in November, alleging that, if Democratic President Joe Biden âgets four more years they are coming for your guns, 100% certain. Crooked Joe has a 40-year-record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.â
The Biden administration has taken a number of steps to try to combat gun violence, including a new rule that aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who do not perform background checks.
Trump has pledged to continue to defend the Second Amendment, which he claims is âunder siege,” and has called himself âthe best friend gun owners have ever had in the White Houseâ as the United States faces record numbers of deaths due to mass shootings. Last year ended with 42 mass killings and 217 deaths, making it one of the deadliest years on record.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been criticized by Biden, specifically for remarks that Trump made this year after a school shooting in Iowa. Trump called the incident âvery terribleâ only to later say that âwe have to get over it. We have to move forward.â
Trump, during his speech, also laced into independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him âradical left” and âa disaster,â and noting that Kennedy had once called the NRA a âterror group.”
âDonât think about it. Donât waste your vote,â he said. âHe calls you a terrorist group, and I call you the backbone of America.â (Kennedy later said in a Fox News interview that he didnât remember his 2018 tweet. âI donât consider them a terror group, and I support the Second Amendment,” he said.)
Trump noted he will be speaking next week at the Libertarian Party’s convention and said he will urge its members to vote for him.
âWe have to join with them,” he said. âWe have to get that 3% because we canât take a chance on Joe Biden winning.”
Earlier Saturday, Trumpâs campaign and the Republican National Committee announced the creation of a new âGun Owners for Trump” coalition that includes gun rights activists and those who work in the firearms industry.
Biden has made curtailing gun violence a major part of his administration and reelection campaign, creating the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden also has urged Congress to ban so-called assault weapons â something Democrats shied from even just a few years ago.
âTonight, Donald Trump confirmed that he will do exactly what the NRA tells him to do â even if it means more death, more shootings, and more suffering,” said Biden spokesman Ammar Moussa.
When Trump was president, there were moments when he pledged to strengthen gun laws. After a high school mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and wounded 17 others, Trump told survivors and family members that he would be âvery strong on background checks.â He claimed he would stand up to the NRA but later he backpedaled, saying there was ânot much political support.â
On Saturday, Trump also brought up the criminal cases against him as his hush money trial heads into the final stretch next week and accused Democrats of being behind these cases because he is Biden’s opponent.
âNever forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom,â he said.
Trump criticized Biden’s border policies, repeating his pledge that he will order the largest domestic deportation operation. He spoke about abortion and warned Republicans not to be so extreme on abortion to remain electable.
âIn my opinion, Republicans have not been talking about it intelligently. They havenât been talking about it with knowledge,” he said. âRemember, speak from your heart. But you also have to get elected again.â
___
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report. Follow the APâs coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
KYLE, Texas (AP) â How many people named Kyle can fit in one place? For one Texas city, not enough.
Another attempt by the city of Kyle, Texas, to break the world record for the largest gathering of people with one name fell short Saturday despite 706 Kyles of all ages turning up at a park in the suburbs of Austin.
The crown is currently held by a town in Bosnia that got 2,325 people named Ivan together in 2017, according to Guinness World Records.
Itâs not the first time the Kyles have come gunning for the Ivans. Last year, the official count at what has become known as the Gathering of the Kyles clocked in at 1,490 in the fast-growing Texas city that is about 37 miles south of Austin, the state’s capital.
Kyle is not a chart-topper among popular names in the U.S., according to the Social Security Administration, which annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state. The most recent data showed Kyle ranked 416th among male names in 2023.
By comparison, Ivan ranked 153.
HOUSTON (AP) â As the Houston area works to clean up and restore power to hundreds of thousands after deadly storms left at least seven people dead, it will do so amid a smog warning and scorching temperatures that could pose health risks.
National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard said on Saturday that highs of around 90 degrees (32.2 C) were expected through the start of the coming week, with heat indexes likely approaching 100 degrees (38 C) by midweek.
âWe expect the impact of the heat to gradually increase … we will start to see that heat risk increase Tuesday into Wednesday through Friday,â Chenard said.
The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when humidity is combined with the air temperature, according to the weather service.
âDonât overdo yourself during the cleanup process,â the weather serviceâs Houston office said in a post on the social platform X.
In addition to the heat, the Houston area could face poor air quality during the weekend.
Heavy rainfall was possible in eastern Louisiana and central Alabama on Saturday, and parts of Louisiana were also at risk for flooding.
The Houston Health Department said it would distribute 400 free portable air conditioners to area seniors, people with disabilities and caregivers of disabled children to contend with the heat.
Five cooling centers also were opened â four in Houston and one in Kingwood.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS REMAIN WITHOUT POWER
The widespread destruction of Thursday’s storms brought much of Houston to a standstill. Thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds tore through the city â decimating the facade of one brick building and leaving trees, debris and shattered glass on the streets. A tornado also touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress.
More than a half-million homes and businesses in Texas remained without electricity by midday Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us. Another 21,000 customers were also without power in Louisiana, where strong winds and a suspected tornado hit.
âItâs been a madhouse out here,â Cypress resident Hallie OâBannon said. âYou know we donât have any power. No hot water. Itâs been really crazy.â
âEveryone is pretty resilient, and everyoneâs just trying to get back to normal and help each other out and the best way we can,â O’Bannon added.
CenterPoint Energy, which has deployed 1,000 employees to the area and is requesting 5,000 more, said power restoration could take several days or longer in some areas, and that customers need to ensure their homes can safely be reconnected.
âIn addition to damaging CenterPoint Energyâs electric infrastructure and equipment, severe weather may have caused damage to customer-owned equipmentâ such as the weatherhead, which is where power enters the home, the company said.
Customers must have repairs completed by a qualified electrician before service can be restored, CenterPoint added.
High-voltage transmission towers that were torn apart and downed power lines pose a twofold challenge for utility companies because the damage affected transmission and distribution systems, according to Alexandria von Meier, a power and energy expert who called that a rare thing. Damage to just the distribution system is more typical, von Meier said.
How quickly repairs are made will depend on a variety of factors, including the time it takes to assess the damage, equipment replacement, roadwork access issues and workforce availability.
STORM CAUGHT MANY OFF GUARD
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez reported late Friday that three people died during the storm, including an 85-year-old woman whose home caught fire after being struck by lightning and a 60-year-old man who had tried to use his vehicle to power his oxygen tank.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire previously said at least four other people were killed in the city when the storms swept through Harris County, which includes Houston.
School districts in the Houston area canceled classes Friday for more than 400,000 students and government offices were closed.
Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles said Saturday that he hoped to reopen schools on Monday, but that is dependent upon the restoration of electricity in school buildings.
âIf a school doesn’t have power, it will remain closed,â Miles told reporters during a tour of the heavily damaged Sinclair Elementary School.
Whitmire warned that police were out in force, including state troopers sent to the area to prevent looting. He said the speed and intensity of the storm caught many off guard.
Noelle Delgado, executive director of Houston Pets Alive, said she pulled up at the animal rescue on Thursday night and found the dogs and cats â more than 30 in all â uninjured, but the building’s awning had been ripped off, the sign was mangled and water was leaking inside.
She hoped to find foster homes for the animals.
âI could definitely tell that this storm was a little different,â she said. âIt felt terrifying.â
STATE AND FEDERAL RECOVERY ASSISTANCE ON THE WAY
In light of the storm damage, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Whitmire both signed disaster declarations, paving the way for state and federal storm recovery assistance.
A separate disaster declaration from President Joe Biden makes federal funding available to people in seven Texas counties â including Harris â that have been affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding since April 26.
___
Miller reported from Oklahoma City; Associated Press reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed.
DALLAS (AP) â Former President Donald Trump is expected to address thousands of members of the National Rifle Association in Texas a day after campaigning in Minnesota in the midst of his hush money trial.
Trump has pledged to continue to defend the Second Amendment and has called himself âthe best friend gun owners have ever had in the White Houseâ as the country faces record numbers of deaths due to mass shootings. Last year ended with 42 mass killings and 217 deaths, making it one of the deadliest years on record.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been criticized by President Joe Biden, specifically for remarks he made earlier this year after a school shooting in Iowa, which he called âvery terribleâ only to later say that âwe have to get over it. We have to move forward.â
Speaking Friday at a campaign event in Minnesota, Trump said: âYou know, itâs an amazing thing. People that have guns, people that legitimately have guns, they love guns and they use guns for the right purpose, but they tend to vote very little and yet they have to vote for us. Thereâs nobody else to vote for because the Democrats want to take their guns away and they will take their guns away.â
He added, âThatâs why Iâm going to be talking to the NRA tomorrow to say, âYou gotta get out and vote.ââ
When Trump was president, there were moments when he pledged to strengthen gun laws. After a high school mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and wounded 17 others, Trump told survivors and family members that he would be âvery strong on background checks.â He claimed he would stand up to the NRA but later he backpedaled, saying there was ânot much political support.â
On Saturday, he is expected to give the keynote address as the powerful gun lobby holds a forum in Dallas. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will also speak at the convention. Prominent gun safety groups that have already endorsed Biden are planning to demonstrate near the convention center where the gun lobby plans to meet.
While Trump sees strong support in Texas, Democrats think they have a chance at an upset in November with former NFL player U.S. Rep. Colin Allred leading an underdog campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas in 30 years, which is the longest streak of its kind in the U.S.
On Friday, Trump campaigned in Minnesota after attending his son Barron’s high school graduation in Florida.
___
Follow the APâs coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
HOUSTON (AP) â As the Houston area works to clean up and restore power to thousands after deadly storms, it will do so Saturday under a smog warning and as all of southern Texas starts to feel the heat.
The National Weather Service in Houston warned that with temperatures hitting around 90 degrees (32.2 C) this weekend, people should know the symptoms of heat exhaustion. âDonât overdo yourself during the cleanup process,” it said in a post on the social platform X.
The balmy weather is a concern in a region where more than 555,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity Friday night â down from nearly 1 million, according to PowerOutage.us. Fierce storms Thursday with winds of up to 100 mph (161 kph) blew out windows downtown, while a tornado touched down near the the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress.
At least four people were killed when the storms swept through Harris County, which includes Houston. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Friday that it could take âweeksâ for power to be restored in some areas.
With multiple transmission towers down, Hidalgo urged patience. Another 26,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, where strong winds and a suspected tornado hit, down from a peak of 215,000.
âWe are going to have to talk about this disaster in weeks, not days,â Hidalgo said.
She said she had heard âhorror stories of just terror and powerlessnessâ as the storm came through. The weather service also reported straight-line winds of up to 100 mph (161 kph) in the suburbs of Baytown and Galena Park.
The Houston Health Department said it would distribute 400 free portable air conditioners to area seniors, people with disabilities and caregivers of disabled children.
In addition to the heat, the Houston area has also been warned about poor air quality over the weekend. While to the east, heavy rainfall was possible in eastern Louisiana into central Alabama, while parts of Louisiana were warned of the risk of flash floods through Saturday.
The widespread destruction brought much of Houston to a standstill. Trees, debris and shattered glass littered the streets. One buildingâs brick wall was ripped off.
School districts in the Houston area canceled classes Friday for more than 400,000 students and government offices were closed. City officials urged people to avoid downtown and stay off roads, many of which were flooded or lined with downed power lines and malfunctioning traffic lights.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire warned that police were out in force, including state troopers sent to the area to prevent looting. He said the speed and intensity of the storm caught many off guard.
“Most Houstonians didnât have time to place themselves out of harms way,â Whitmire said at a news conference.
Noelle Delgadoâs pulled up Thursday night to Houston Pets Alive, the animal rescue organization where she is executive director to find the dogs and cats â more than 30 in all â were uninjured, but the awning had been ripped off, the sign was mangled and water was leaking inside. She hoped to find foster homes for the animals.
âI could definitely tell that this storm was a little different,â she said. âIt felt terrifying.â
Yesenia GuzmĂĄn worried whether she would get paid with the power still out at the restaurant where she works in the Houston suburb of Katy.
âWe donât really know whatâs going to happen,â she said.
Whitmire signed disaster declaration, which paves the way for state and federal storm recovery assistance. President Joe Biden also issued a disaster declaration, his for seven counties in Texas, including Harris, over severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding since April 26. His action makes federal funding available to people affected by the storms.
Emergency officials in neighboring Montgomery County described the damage to transmission lines as âcatastrophic.â
High-voltage transmission towers that were torn apart and downed power lines pose a twofold challenge for the utility company because the damage affected transmission and distribution systems, according to Alexandria von Meier, a power and energy expert who called that a rare thing. Damage to just the distribution system is more typical, von Meier said.
How quickly repairs are made will depend on a variety of factors, including the time it takes to assess the damage, equipment replacement, roadwork access issues and workforce availability. Centerpoint Energy deployed 1,000 employees on Friday and had requested 5,000 more line workers and vegetation professionals.
___
Associated Press reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed.
GALVESTON (AP) â Early estimates indicate up to 2,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into surrounding waters when a barge carrying fuel broke free from a tugboat and slammed into a bridge near Galveston, Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
The barge crashed into a pillar supporting the Pelican Island Causeway span on Wednesday. The impact caused the bridge to partially collapse and cut off the only road connecting Galveston to Pelican Island, the Coast Guard said.
Video shows splotches of oil had spilled from the barge into Galveston Bay. Jeff Davis of the Texas General Land Office said during a news conference Thursday that early cleanup efforts have not identified any impacted wildlife.
The barge has the capacity to hold 30,000 barrels, but was holding 23,000 barrels â approximately 966,000 gallons â when it struck the bridge, Rick Freed, the vice president of barge operator Martin Marine, said at the news conference. Freed said the only tank that was compromised in the crash was holding approximately 160,000 gallons, which is the âcomplete risk.â
âWeâre pretty confident there was much less oil introduced to the water than we initially estimated,â Coast Guard Capt. Keith Donohue said.
âWeâve recovered over 605 gallons of oily water mixture from the environment, as well as an additional 5,640 gallons of oil product from the top of the barge that did not go into the water,â Donohue said.
The Coast Guard said earlier that it had deployed a boom, or barrier, to contain the spill, which forced the closure of about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) of the waterway.
A tugboat lost control of the 321-foot barge âdue to a break in the couplingâ that had connected the two vessels, the Coast Guard said.
âWeather was not a factor, at all, during the coupling issue,â Freed said. When pressed for more details on how the two vessels became disconnected, he said: âItâs under investigation right now, and I really canât disclose anything further until the investigation is through.â
On Thursday, the barge remained beside the bridge, weighed in place by debris including rail lines that fell onto it after the crash.
The bridge, which provides the only road access between Galveston and Pelican Island, remained closed to incoming traffic, but vehicles leaving Pelican Island and pedestrians in both directions were able to cross.
Texas A&M University at Galveston, which has a campus on Pelican Island, urged staff and faculty to leave and said it was closing the campus, although essential personnel would remain.
âGiven the rapidly changing conditions and uncertainty regarding the outage of the Pelican Island Bridge, the Galveston Campus administration will be relocating all Texas A&M Pelican Island residents,” through at least Sunday, it said in a statement late Wednesday.
Fewer than 200 people related to the school were on the island when the barge hit the bridge. Spokesperson Shantelle Patterson-Swanson said the university would provide transportation and cover the housing costs of those who choose to leave, but underlined that the school has not issued a mandatory evacuation.
Aside from the environmental impact of the oil spill, the region is unlikely to see large economic disruption as a result of the accident, said Maria Burns, a maritime transportation expert at the University of Houston.
The affected area is miles from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which sees frequent barge traffic, and the Houston Ship Channel, a large shipping channel for ocean-going vessels.
The accident came weeks after a cargo ship crashed into a support column of the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.
LUBBOCK â The Texas Tribune reports that the Amarillo City Council must consider a policy that outlaws using local streets to access an abortion in other states after the city verified supporters of the policy gathered enough signatures to advance the issue.
The five-member council in the heart of the Texas Panhandle had been reluctant to follow other conservative cities and counties that have put the largely symbolic policy in place.
According to City Secretary Stephanie Coggins, the city validated 6,300 signatures out of the 10,300 submitted last month. The petition will be presented to the council on May 28. The council may then hold a public meeting on the same day to consider the ordinance or schedule the discussion for a future date. The council must vote on the petition within 30 days of it being presented.
Depending on the councilâs decision â the committee behind the “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance is unwilling to budge on certain provisions â the final say could be up to Amarillo voters in November.
During a press conference, Mayor Cole Stanley said most citizens are ready to have the issue in the rearview mirror and focus on other city business. He added that Texas is a âsanctuary state,â and wondered what would be accomplished by passing the ordinance.
âI donât feel the council has three votes that would be in favor of this ordinance as itâs written,â Stanley said.
He added, âI donât believe it would be necessary for the council to reject this. It has the signatures, it has been validated, itâs earned the right to go forward to the ballot if the committee decides to do that.â
The council asked the city attorney to draft a version of the ordinance that is in line with state law. Stanley previously told the Tribune their version would not have any provisions that âoversteps on civil liberties.â He believes this version will be ready for discussion at their next meeting. If it passes, the group behind the petition could still put the ordinance on the ballot.
âIt doesnât prevent this from going forward in November,â Stanley said. âIf something were to fail then, it wouldnât negate what the council would do here.â
On social media, Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas who is leading the charge, said he is looking forward to the next step of the process.
Lindsay London, co-founder of the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance, said the group is preparing for whatever comes next.
âWe are continuing to meet with the mayor and City Council,â London said, âto work to ensure that extremist rhetoric does not overshadow the diverse needs and perspectives in our community.â
Amarilloâs City Council first took up the issue in October, but did not immediately approve the ordinance. In December, the council signaled it was willing to pass a version of the proposed policy that focused on restricting access to abortion-inducing medication for medical abortions, and regulating the disposal of human remains.
The travel ban was removed entirely from that version â a key component for anti-abortion activists, as Interstates 40 and 27 run through the city. A group of residents, who Dickson said were âuncomfortableâ with the direction the council was taking, then began circulating the petition.
Dickson said the ordinance is about banning âabortion trafficking,â and neither he nor the committee behind the petition see the ordinance as a travel ban.
âWe do not see prohibitions on abortion trafficking, child trafficking, or sex trafficking as violations of peopleâs âcivil libertiesâ or the âright to travel,ââ Dickson said.
The original ordinance supporters want to see passed in the city does not call for pregnant women to be punished for having an abortion out of state. However, anti-abortion legal crusader Jonathan Mitchell has filed legal petitions seeking to depose women he claims traveled out of state for abortions. Mitchell is working with anti-abortion activists pushing the travel ban on a municipal level.
The proposed policy makes anyone who âaids and abetâ the procedure vulnerable to a private lawsuit from other citizens. The enforcement is similar to Senate Bill 8, the Texas bill that banned almost all abortions in 2021, prior to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. This is the only enforcement mechanism for the ordinance, which some council members have criticized as creating a system for neighbors to turn on each other to collect reward money.
Recently, city leaders in Clarendon, about 60 miles southeast of Amarillo, rejected passing the âsanctuary city for the unbornâ ordinance. The cities of Llano and Chandler held off on making decisions to approve or reject the travel ban.
Other cities and counties in Texas have passed ordinances to prohibit traveling through their jurisdictions for an abortion outside the state. This includes the cities of Athens, Abilene, Plainview, San Angelo, Odessa, Muenster and Little River-Academy, and Mitchell, Goliad, Lubbock, Dawson, Cochran and Jack counties.
AUSTIN (AP) – Arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico fell more than 6% in April to the fourth lowest month of the Biden administration, authorities said Wednesday, bucking the usual spring increase. U.S. officials have largely attributed the decline to more enforcement in Mexico, including in yards where migrants are known to board freight trains. Mexico wonât allow more than 4,000 illegal crossings a day to the U.S., Alicia Barcena, Mexicoâs foreign relations secretary, told reporters Tuesday, down from more than 10,000 Border Patrol arrests on some days in December. Migrants were arrested 128,900 times in April, down from 137,480 in March and barely half a record-high of 249,737 in December, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
While still historically high, the sharp decline in arrests since late December is welcome news for President Joe Biden on a key issue that has nagged him in election-year polls. Troy Miller, Customs and Border Protectionâs acting commissioner, said more enforcement, including deportations, and cooperation with other countries resulted in lower numbers. âAs a result of this increased enforcement, southwest border encounters have not increased, bucking previous trends. We will remain vigilant to continually shifting migration patterns,â he said. Authorities granted entry to 41,400 people in April at land crossings with Mexico through an online appointment app called CBP One, bringing the total to more than 591,000 since it was introduced in January 2023. The U.S. also allows up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuela if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive on commercial flights. About 435,000 entered the country that way through April, including 91,000 Cubans, 166,700 Haitians, 75,700 Nicaraguans and 101,200 Venezuelans.
TRINITY COUNTY â For nearly a month, Trinity County has been slammed with non-stop rain.
âI have never ever seen it like this before,â Trinity County Resident Frank Phifer said.
The constant flooding from the Trinity River has overwhelmed members of the community.
âThe rain today is going to throw water back on top of what we already have in low lying areas that are still flooded and itâs just going to make that worse,â Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said.
Some residents nearby worry the worst is yet to come.
âWe must respect Godâs weather first of all. All of the water in Trinity if it rise above what it is now and it comes down here in the neighborhood, all of people who are less fortunate than us could very well be in trouble,â Phifer said.
The Doug Bell Road subdivision has been flooded as the Trinity River rises to record high levels. Although the water in the subdivision has since receded, the Thursday rain could flood it again.
âMy heart goes out to them, they are really stuck between a rock and hard place,â Wallace said.
The rising water has pushed many people out of their homes and caused road damage in the area.
âA lot of our roads have washed out in the last couple of weeks. Our county roads and dirt roads are horrible. Weâve had lots of potholes, new potholes forming on major roads. People need to be really careful when driving no matter how low the water is because there may not be a bottom,â Wallace said.
Wallace said the county has met criteria to apply for FEMA.
âBad news in one way because the amount of damage, but good news if we are gonna have damage we might as well have enough to get some funding in here,â Wallace said.
Residents said they will continue to pray for sunshine and aid to be handed down as they continue recovery efforts.
âGod has brought me safety through the storm and the wind so Iâm grateful,â Phifer said.
HOUSTON (AP) â Prosecutors and defense attorneys on Thursday discussed whether classified documents might play a role in the planned trial of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, who is facing federal bribery and conspiracy charges over accusations he accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico.
During the hearing in a Houston federal courtroom, prosecutors declined to discuss publicly any information related to what type of classified documents might be part of the case. But Garrett Coyle, a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, said authorities didnât anticipate disclosing any classified material to the defense.
âCongressman Cuellar could have access to classified information,â Coyle said.
Chris Flood, one of Cuellarâs attorneys, said the defense currently does not have access to any classified material and because prosecutors have not yet begun to disclose to the defense what evidence they have in the case, he is not sure if any such material will play a role in his defense.
âI would love a better understanding of how much classified material they anticipate,â Flood said.
If any classified material becomes a part of the evidence in the case, its use would have to be reviewed by U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who will preside over Cuellarâs trial
Federal authorities have charged Cuellar, 68, and his wife Imelda Cuellar, 67, with accepting money from 2014 to 2021 in exchange for the congressman advancing the interests of the former Soviet republic and the Mexican bank in the U.S. He says they are innocent.
Cuellar and his wife appeared at Thursdayâs hearing via Zoom. They did not speak during the hearing.
Since Cuellarâs indictment last month, three people have pleaded guilty in connection with the case: Colin Strother, one of Cuellarâs top former aides; Florencia Roden, a Texas political and business consultant; and Irada Akhoundova, who was director of a Texas affiliate of an Azerbaijan energy company.
During Thursdayâs court hearing, Flood asked Rosenthal to schedule the trial for Cuellar and his wife for the fall of 2025.
Rosenthal said that was too far off and instead ordered that jury selection in the trial be scheduled to begin on March 31, 2025.
Prosecutors said their case could take four to five weeks to present to a jury.
According to the indictments against the Cuellars, the Azerbaijan energy company initially made the payments through a Texas-based shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar and two of the coupleâs adult children. That company received payments of $25,000 per month under a âsham contract,â purportedly in exchange for unspecified strategic consulting and advising services, the court documents said.
Among other things, Cuellar agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House, the indictment states.
In addition to bribery and conspiracy, the Cuellars face charges including wire fraud conspiracy, acting as agents of foreign principals, and money laundering. If convicted, they could face decades in prison and forfeiture of any property linked to proceeds from the alleged scheme.
Cuellar has said he has no plans to resign from Congress and few of his colleagues have called for him to step down. Cuellar did step down as the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee.
GALVESTON (AP) â Early estimates indicate up to 2,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into surrounding waters when a barge carrying fuel broke free from a tugboat and slammed into a bridge near Galveston, Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
The barge crashed into a pillar supporting the Pelican Island Causeway span on Wednesday. The impact caused the bridge to partially collapse and cut off the only road connecting Galveston to Pelican Island, the Coast Guard said.
Video shows splotches of oil had spilled from the barge into Galveston Bay. Jeff Davis of the Texas General Land Office said during a news conference Thursday that early cleanup efforts have not identified any impacted wildlife.
The barge has the capacity to hold 30,000 barrels, but was holding 23,000 barrels â approximately 966,000 gallons â when it struck the bridge, Rick Freed, the vice president of barge operator Martin Marine, said at the news conference. Freed said the only tank that was compromised in the crash was holding approximately 160,000 gallons, which is the âcomplete risk.â
âWeâre pretty confident there was much less oil introduced to the water than we initially estimated,â Coast Guard Capt. Keith Donohue said.
âWeâve recovered over 605 gallons of oily water mixture from the environment, as well as an additional 5,640 gallons of oil product from the top of the barge that did not go into the water,â Donohue said.
The Coast Guard said earlier that it had deployed a boom, or barrier, to contain the spill, which forced the closure of about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) of the waterway.
A tugboat lost control of the 321-foot barge âdue to a break in the couplingâ that had connected the two vessels, the Coast Guard said.
âWeather was not a factor, at all, during the coupling issue,â Freed said. When pressed for more details on how the two vessels became disconnected, he said: âItâs under investigation right now, and I really canât disclose anything further until the investigation is through.â
On Thursday, the barge remained beside the bridge, weighed in place by debris including rail lines that fell onto it after the crash.
The bridge, which provides the only road access between Galveston and Pelican Island, remained closed to incoming traffic, but vehicles leaving Pelican Island and pedestrians in both directions were able to cross.
Texas A&M University at Galveston, which has a campus on Pelican Island, urged staff and faculty to leave and said it was closing the campus, although essential personnel would remain.
âGiven the rapidly changing conditions and uncertainty regarding the outage of the Pelican Island Bridge, the Galveston Campus administration will be relocating all Texas A&M Pelican Island residents,” through at least Sunday, it said in a statement late Wednesday.
Fewer than 200 people related to the school were on the island when the barge hit the bridge. Spokesperson Shantelle Patterson-Swanson said the university would provide transportation and cover the housing costs of those who choose to leave, but underlined that the school has not issued a mandatory evacuation.
Aside from the environmental impact of the oil spill, the region is unlikely to see large economic disruption as a result of the accident, said Maria Burns, a maritime transportation expert at the University of Houston.
The affected area is miles from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which sees frequent barge traffic, and the Houston Ship Channel, a large shipping channel for ocean-going vessels.
The accident came weeks after a cargo ship crashed into a support column of the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.
HOUSTON (AP) â Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas on Thursday for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.
Officials urged residents to keep off roads, as many were impassable and traffic lights were expected to be out for much of the night.
âStay at home tonight. Do not go to work tomorrow, unless youâre an essential worker. Stay home, take care of your children,â Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in an evening briefing. âOur first responders will be working around the clock.â
The mayor said four people died during the severe weather. At least two of the deaths were caused by falling trees, and another happened when a crane blew over in strong winds, officials said.
Streets were flooded, and trees and power lines were down across the region. Whitmire said wind speeds reached 100 mph (160 kph), âwith some twisters.â He said the powerful gusts were reminiscent of 2008’s Hurricane Ike, which pounded the city.
Hundreds of windows were shattered at downtown hotels and office buildings, with glass littering the streets below, and the state was sending Department of Public Safety officers to secure the area.
âDowntown is a mess,â Whitmire said.
There was a backlog of 911 calls that first responders were working through, he added.
At Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, the retractable roof was closed due to the storm. But the wind was so powerful it still blew rain into the stadium. Puddles formed on the outfield warning track, but the game against the Oakland Athletics still was played.
The Houston Independent School District canceled classes Friday for some 400,000 students at all its 274 campuses.
The storm system moved through swiftly, but flood watches and warnings remained for Houston and areas to the east. The ferocious storms moved into neighboring Louisiana and left more than 215,000 customers without power.
Flights were briefly grounded at Houston’s two major airports. Sustained winds topping 60 mph (96 kph) were recorded at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
About 900,000 customers were without electricity in and around Harris County, which contains Houston, according to poweroutage.us. The county is home to more than 4.7 million people.
The problems extended to the city’s suburbs, with emergency officials in neighboring Montgomery County describing the damage to transmission lines as âcatastrophicâ and warning that power could be impacted for several days.
Heavy storms slammed the region during the first week of May, leading to numerous high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes.