Today is
Sunday April 20, 2025
AUSTIN(AP) — Wildfires fueled by dry conditions and gusting winds burned in a few Southern states Thursday, forcing evacuations in Texas and prompting Florida officials to close part of a major highway with spring break in high gear.
A wildfire in Sam Houston National Forest near Houston prompted the evacuation of about 900 homes and closed schools. The National Weather Service issued elevated fire warnings around the nation’s fourth-largest city.
The fire, which started Wednesday, had burned about 3.1 square miles (8 square kilometers) and was only about 10% contained Thursday morning, the Texas A&M Forest Service said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or property damage, but the Cleveland Independent School District, which has about 12,000 students, canceled classes as a precaution.
Firefighters and law enforcement “did an such unbelievable job yesterday in protecting homes, animals, livestock and people. We’ve lost basically nothing, which is hard to believe,” the county’s top elected official, Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough, said.
However, he said, expected wind gusts Thursday along with a drop in humidity could make the situation disastrous.
“We’re asking the people who evacuated last night to stay still away from their homes,” Keough said.
In the Florida Keys, a large brush fire that began Tuesday caused authorities to close one of the two roads leading in and out of the island chain, and intermittently shut down U.S. 1 so fire crews could move equipment.
Spring break is in full swing in Florida, and U.S. 1 is the major thoroughfare that connects the mainland to the islands. It is also a heavily traveled road for people who live on the mainland and work at many of the hotels and restaurants in Key Largo and beyond.
In Arkansas, crews responded to more than 50 fires Wednesday that were fueled by high winds.
The fires closed several highways, including a portion of Interstate 530 southeast of Little Rock due to heavy smoke.
Flames damaged structures in several cities, including Little Rock. The roof collapsed at St. Joseph’s, a 115-year-old building in North Little Rock that once served as an orphanage and is now the home of a nonprofit that provides urban farming resources.
The South has experienced recent cold and dry conditions, followed by gusting winds, that have fanned the flames.
Texas has seen fire hazards range from the far northern Panhandle, where ground vegetation froze and dried out, and push hundreds of miles east to the coast.
South Florida has seen every little rainfall over the past few weeks. The rainy season doesn’t start until sometime around mid-May. Another cold front with dry air is expected to push through South Florida on Thursday night, said meteorologist Donal Harrigan with the National Weather Service in Miami.
Red Flag warnings
The weather service issued Red Flag warnings for fire conditions in east Texas and South Florida and could extend them for several days.
Red flag warnings are issued by the National Weather Service when conditions are ripe for fires. In southeast Texas, weather service officials predicted wind gusts of 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour), combined with humidity as low as 18%. That combination will continue to dry out vegetation.
FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that statewide and national child advocates are sounding the alarm on impacts to emergent bilingual students, one group among many who have been left with less academic support and resources after mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education. Almost half of staff at the federal department were recently cut as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce staff across multiple federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Education cuts have resulted in the disbandment of the department’s Office of Language Acquisition, which provides support to English-learning, emergent bilingual students. This student population is among the fastest-growing in Texas with 20% of students statewide — about 1.2 million — identified as emergent bilingual, according to the Texas Education Agency. The apparent elimination of federal oversight for these students, advocates say, could prompt them to fall behind academically, disengage from school and face lower graduation rates.
“One of the things that a lot of people don’t understand is that while immigration may have partly something to do with this, we are a Latino state in many ways. We are a legal immigration hub in many ways. We have a lot of children here that are American citizens, that are still bi-language learners,” said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, during a virtual press conference on Wednesday, March 19. “This decision effectively eliminates federal leadership, educator support and resources designed to help emergent bilingual kids succeed in school,” he added. According to Children at Risk, a Texas research and advocacy nonprofit focused on improving children’s quality of life, Texas’ emergent bilingual student population grew by 49% from 2013 to 2023. The Texas state director of Emgage, a group of organizations dedicated to politically empowering Muslim American communities, shared a story of an emergent bilingual student who received support through middle and high school and graduated speaking fluent English. He is now working full-time and attending college to obtain his bachelor’s degree. Jida Nabulsi, the state director, said many emergent bilingual students don’t realize they have the same opportunities as this student to open doors for themselves.
AUSTIN – The Texas Senate on Wednesday passed a state ban on all forms of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, advancing a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to crack down on the state’s booming consumable hemp market six years after lawmakers inadvertently permitted its rise.
Senate Bill 3 — which Patrick called among his “top five” bills over his 17 years in the Legislature — would outlaw products with any amount of THC, ranging from gummies and beverages to vapes and flower buds, which are currently sold at more than 8,300 locations around the state. Current Texas law allows hemp-derived products that contain less than 0.3% of THC.
“Kids are getting poisoned today,” Patrick said in the Senate chamber as the vote neared.
He used similar language Wednesday morning. “This is a poison in our public, and we as a Legislature — our No. 1 responsibility is life and death issues,” Patrick said at a morning news conference, alongside members of law enforcement and advocates for families who saw loved ones develop behavioral health problems after consuming supposedly-legal THC products. “We’re going to ban your stores before we leave here, for good.”
The vote was 24 to 7.
“I believe this bill goes too far, in that it would put out of business the consumable hemp industry in Texas,” state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin said during debate of the bill, arguing that concerns related to sale of low-THC products should be addressed through stronger regulations.
The Texas House has yet to consider its hemp proposal, House Bill 28, which would impose stricter oversight and licensing requirements for the hemp industry rather than ban THC altogether. If the House passes its proposal, the two chambers would have to reconcile their differences before the legislation could become law.
State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, the lead author of SB 3, said that the Senate and the House were “philosophically aligned” and that there was time to work out any policy differences.
“We’re all on the same page,” Patrick said, adding that he had spoken about the issue with House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and Gov. Greg Abbott. “We’re going to protect the people of Texas from THC.”
Patrick also had a message aimed directly at retailers: “You might want to voluntarily close your doors, because the investigations are going to continue, and I’m sure the lawsuits are about to come,” he said on Wednesday. “You know what you’re doing.”
The hemp industry lobbied fiercely against a total prohibition on THC, urging lawmakers to instead impose “thoughtful regulations,” such as restricting THC sales to Texans 21 and older, requiring tamper-proof packaging and barring sales within a certain distance of schools.
Mark Bordas, executive director of the Texas Hemp Business Council, said that lawmakers were conflating consumable hemp, which, by legal definition, has a low concentration of THC, with higher potency marijuana.
Certain bad actors are “operating in the black market, in the shadows,” he said, arguing that the state needed greater oversight of the industry as a whole to block those manufacturers and retailers — rather than a total prohibition.
“We have a common enemy. We know who’s doing wrong,” Bordas said. “We’d both like to eliminate them, but the problem is, the lieutenant governor and Senator Perry are going to eliminate the entire business — including over 7,000 licensed dispensaries.”
The industry also highlighted roughly 50,000 jobs and billions in tax revenue that would be lost if lawmakers quashed the hemp market entirely. And critics argued that instead of addressing public health concerns, a ban would push consumers into an unregulated black market, easing access to more potent products.
“Bans don’t work,” Bordas said, a point that was echoed on the Senate floor by state Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio. “All it’s going to do is encourage the bad actors to fill the vacuum.”
Still, he said that the industry believed “cooler heads will prevail” in the House.
Thousands of cannabis retailers have popped up across the state since 2019, when the Republican-controlled Legislature approved the sale of consumable hemp. That law, which was passed one year after hemp was legalized nationwide, was intended to boost Texas agriculture by allowing the commercialization of hemp containing trace amounts of non-intoxicating delta-9 THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana.
What followed was an explosion of consumable hemp products, which are barred from containing more than a 0.3% concentration of THC.
Products with a higher concentration are classified as marijuana, which remains outlawed in Texas aside from limited medical uses. Still, hemp-derived products look, taste and sometimes have intoxicating effects similar to their more potent counterparts.
Perry, who led the 2019 bill to legalize hemp, said that lawmakers had not meant to usher in such a large market. On Wednesday, he accused the hemp industry of exploiting a loophole in the 2019 law and making their products easily accessible to young people.
“This is changing people’s lives in short order, because it’s been marketed as something that is safe and legal, and it’s anything but,” Perry said. “This is not the pot of yesterday. This is stuff that will change lives forever.”
Supporters of the ban said high-potency products are already being sold at retailers, despite purporting to be under the legal limit. Steve Dye, chief of the Allen police department in north Texas, said that undercover investigations in his city had found and tested products with up to a 78% THC concentration.
“Most people think that if you walk into a store and you’re able to buy something from a retail establishment, it must be legal and it must be safe,” he said on Wednesday. “With these THC consumables, neither is true. Intentional mislabeling on many products have led to accidental overdoses and increased addiction.”
State and federal law currently place inconsistent testing requirements and no age limits on Texas’ hemp industry.
SB 3 would continue to allow the non-intoxicating, non-psychoactive cannabidiol known as CBD, while placing firmer restrictions on those products — including barring sales and marketing to those under 21 and requiring “tamper-evident, child-resistant, and resealable” product packaging.
Some patients and doctors say the THC in cannabis can be used effectively to combat pain, depression, anxiety, appetite problems and nausea. Under the state’s Compassionate Use Program, lawmakers have allowed some Texans to use medical marijuana to treat conditions including epilepsy, seizures, autism, cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Some veterans groups told the Senate committee that advanced SB 3 this month that they prefer using the more affordable and accessible THC products sold at everyday retailers like smoke shops and gas station convenience stores. Others said that it would be expensive to properly regulate the industry, and warned that unlike under Texas’ Compassionate Use Program, Texans reaching for retail products did not have the benefit of medical supervision and oversight.
At the same time, the hemp industry has “overwhelming advantages” over the state program, according to Jervonne Singletary, senior director of government relations at Goodblend, one of three medical marijuana providers in the state. Patients have to jump through so many hoops to place and receive orders that some may opt to simply pick up THC products at a nearby retail outlet, she said.
On Wednesday, Patrick vowed to “expand” the Compassionate Use Program and continue investing in mental health care across the state.
SB 1505, also led by Perry, would allow medical marijuana providers to operate satellite storage facilities designed to make it easier for patients to fill their prescriptions, and it would double the cap on licensed medical marijuana dispensers from three to six.
“This is not a political or partisan issue,” Patrick said. “This is about saving lives.”
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
AUSTIN – A woman and her lawyer met with Texas Lottery Commission administrators and lawyers for an exchange: her winning lottery ticket for the $83.5 million it was supposed to be worth.
But her lawyer, Randy Howry, said lottery commission officials told her she wouldn’t be receiving the eight-figure payout until a series of investigations into her win and others were complete. Those investigations — one by Attorney General Ken Paxton and the other by the Texas Rangers, a division of the Department of Public Safety — were launched because the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought the ticket through an online app run by a courier.
“She played by all the rules in play at the time,” Howry said of her client, who chose to buy tickets from a courier because of safety concerns. “She should be paid her winnings, but she’s being caught up because the politicians are now involved.”
Lawmakers have scrutinized the state’s lottery commission repeatedly throughout the current Legislative Session over the growing use of couriers — third-party services that enable online purchasing of lottery tickets — and expressed concerns the practice could enable unfair or illegal activity. The move to ban couriers in Texas has the woman who bought her 10 tickets through Jackpocket, the nation’s largest courier, “caught in the crossfire,” Howry said.
After the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot was won in February, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick publicly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the win and announced he would be opening an investigation into the lottery’s dealings with couriers. The investigations by Paxton and the Texas Rangers followed shortly afterward.
The commission confirmed in a statement to the Tribune that the payout is going through both internal and external review processes.
“The claim is being reviewed under the Commission’s claim validation requirements and is the subject of external investigation,” a spokesperson with the lottery commission said.
Also under investigation is a 2023 lottery win in which several entities bought 99% of the game’s possible combinations with the help of retailers and a lottery courier business. That win, its legality which Patrick and other lawmakers question, also has cast doubt on the commission as a whole.
Most major lottery jackpot winners choose to remain anonymous and state law provides protections for them, but Howry said his client feels she is being “lumped in” with potentially illegal players needlessly. While there has yet to be any litigation filed regarding the jackpot, Howry said his client is considering it if the payout is withheld longer.
“The longer it takes for the lottery commission to be responsive to us, the more likely it is that that litigation will be filed,” Howry said.
Couriers have been active and unregulated in Texas for years until late February, when the lottery commission announced it would move to ban the use of couriers entirely. While lawmakers have cast doubts on the legitimacy of the business, proponents of the services say they provide convenience and may actually be a safer way of playing the lottery than buying tickets in public.
Howry’s client is part of a growing number of Texans who had been using Jackpocket and other couriers to buy tickets. Jackpocket alone has sold over $550 million in tickets since it entered the state in 2018, according to the company. Jackpocket has since suspended its activities in Texas following the lottery commission’s announcement, but other couriers are still selling tickets through their apps.
Howry said the refusal to pay out the jackpot to his client is not being applied equally, as others are still claiming prizes won through courier services. He pointed out that the 2023 win was paid out at the time without issue.
“If there was a concern that the couriers were not a safe way to play this game, why didn’t you stop it back then?” Howry said. Why did you make this decision two years later, when this person, who did play by the rules, won the lottery?”
Original article published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
AUSTIN – The Texas Senate on Wednesday advanced the chamber’s signature bill aimed at reining in the state’s high housing costs: allowing smaller homes on smaller lots.
Senate Bill 15 — a top priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate — would reduce the amount of land cities require single-family homes in new subdivisions to sit on. The idea is to reduce the final cost of new homes by allowing homebuilders to construct smaller homes on smaller lots. The bill cleared the Senate by a 28-3 vote.
“The crisis can be summarized in one stat: the average age of a homebuyer in Texas is 54,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who authored the bill. “That’s a classification … that’s not going to be able to be sustained to help first-time homebuyers.”
The bill is part of a slate of proposals aimed at addressing the state’s high home prices and rents by allowing more homes to be built. Texas needs about 320,000 more homes than it has, according to one estimate. That shortage helped drive up home prices and rents, housing advocates and experts argue, because the state hasn’t built enough homes to meet demand amid the state’s economic boom.
State lawmakers are eyeing ways to relax local rules that say what kinds of homes can be built and where — which critics say get in the way of allowing more homes to be built. Legislators are considering proposals intended to make it easier to build accessory dwelling units — otherwise known as ADUs, casitas or mother-in-law suites — in the backyards of single-family homes. Other proposals would allow developers to put homes in places that now only allow offices, shopping malls, warehouses and houses of worship.
SB 15 would prevent cities from requiring homes in new subdivisions to sit on more than 1,400 square feet. The most common lot-size requirements in major cities sit between 5,000 and 7,500 square feet, a Texas Tribune analysis found. The idea behind reducing those requirements would be to give homebuilders the flexibility to build smaller homes and thus reduce the overall cost of the home. The bill would only apply in new subdivisions, not in existing neighborhoods, that sit on at least five acres of land.
For some city officials as well as neighborhood activists who oppose new housing, the idea of state lawmakers weighing in on what kinds of homes cities allow and where is an undue incursion on local authority. Other states like California, Oregon, Montana and Florida have passed laws aimed at curtailing local rules in order to add more homes and reduce housing costs. Few parts of Texas have gone untouched by higher housing costs in recent years, proponents note — providing ample pretext for state lawmakers to intervene.
In Texas, the GOP-led Legislature has pushed for more than a decade to sap authority to make laws from local officials in the state’s urban areas, often Democrats. Democratic House lawmakers led the charge in 2023 to kill legislation that would’ve addressed some local zoning rules when it comes to housing.
Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, expressed concern that Bettencourt’s bill would take zoning powers away from cities that have an interest in regulating land uses like military facilities and industrial parks. But Bettencourt said the legislation relates solely to density, leaving local leaders free to reserve land for residential and commercial use.
Georgetown Republican Sen. Charles Schwertner said he worried that the density rules would unfairly limit city officials’ ability to shape growth.
“I still feel this might be a step too far, although I am willing to vote for it today,” he said.
Some Democrats in the Legislature have shown openness to relaxing city zoning rules at the state level. Two Democratic senators, Roland Gutierrez and Royce West, signed on to Senate Bill 15 as co-authors. (The bill also has nine Republican co-authors.)
The bill now moves to the Texas House of Representatives, where similar legislation died last session. Lawmakers in that chamber, too, have shown an appetite for changes to allow more homes to be built. Making it easier for builders to obtain permits and more difficult for neighboring property owners to oppose new housing are among House Speaker Dustin Burrows’ top priorities.
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
AUSTIN — Sen. Ted Cruz is entering deeper into the fight over school vouchers in the state Legislature, unveiling a six-figure ad buy Thursday praising state House members who support the effort.
Though school vouchers are an issue debated on the state level, Cruz has long been a vocal supporter from his federal perch. He gave targeted endorsements for candidates who support voucher legislation last primary cycle, when school vouchers were the principal cleavage among Republicans. He has urged his fellow Republicans in the Legislature to support vouchers for multiple sessions.
Cruz also led legislation in Congress to expand college savings plans to include public, private, religious, and home-school educational expenses, saying “school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.” The bill mirrors legislation in the state House and Senate, which would create education savings accounts that can be used for private and parochial education.
“Every parent knows choices matter,” Cruz says in the ads. “For too long, Texas parents haven’t had the freedom to choose the right school for their kids. This has to change. School system bureaucrats have fought us every step of the way. But the courage and determination of a few Texas legislators means there’s new hope for our kids.”
Vouchers are Gov. Greg Abbott’s top legislative priority this session, and he has drawn the support of several other national actors. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have called on Republicans in the Legislature to pass school voucher bills. Trump last month said on social media that he would be “watching them closely.”
During last year’s Republican primary, Abbott’s formidable campaign operation targeted 21 Republicans who joined Democrats in opposing school voucher legislation in 2023. Fifteen Republicans were ousted during last year’s primaries.
Abbott has since expressed confidence that voucher legislation will pass with the current Republican majority.
The Republicans who opposed voucher legislation were largely from rural areas and asserted the legislation would weaken funding for public education. Abbott denies that the program would come at the expense of already existing public school funding.
“Texas provided OVER $6 BILLION last session in new public education funding,” Abbott posted on social media. “Anyone who claims that Texas has not increased funding for our public schools since 2019 is a liar.”
Cruz’s ads name 14 House Republicans: Speaker Dustin Burrows, Brent Money of Greenville, Joanne Shofner of Nacogdoches, Trey Wharton of Huntsville, Janis Holt of Silsbee, Matt Morgan of Richmond, A.J. Louderback of Victoria, Alan Schoolcraft of McQueeney, Wes Virdell of Brady, Helen Kerwin of Glen Rose, Shelley Luther of Tom Bean, Don McLaughlin of Uvalde, Marc LaHood of San Antonio and Andy Hopper of Decatur.
Burrows will also honor Cruz on the House floor on Thursday for his advocacy of school vouchers.
Original article published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago.
Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.
The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.
Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.
Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn’t provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search.
“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,” he said in a statement.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Another storm system affected millions of people in the middle of the U.S. on Wednesday, leaving parts of the Midwest and Great Plains under blizzard conditions and a broad swath of neighboring states at risk of high winds and wildfires.
Roughly 72 million people were under a wind advisory or warning, with winds gusting over 45 mph (72 kph), according to Bryan Jackson, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
At this time of year, cold air lingering in the north collides with warm air from the south to produce strong, low pressure systems, Jackson said. But he added that the latest weather was the third storm system to rapidly develop in recent weeks and bring high winds to a large swath of the U.S., a “very active pattern” since February.
At least 42 people died over the weekend when dynamic storms unleashed tornadoes, blinding dust and wildfires, uprooting trees and flattening hundreds of homes and businesses across eight states in the South and Midwest.
Snow for some
A band from southwestern Kansas to central Wisconsin was expected to bring as little as 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow or as much as a foot (30 centimeters). Combined with high winds, forecasters warned of whiteout conditions.
The Kansas Department of Transportation temporarily closed more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) of Interstate 70 from the Colorado border east to Salina, Kansas. By Wednesday night, nearly all of it had been reopened due to improved road conditions.
The first stretch to close in western Kansas was also impacted by last week’s high winds when eight people died after a dust storm resulted in a pileup of 71 cars and trucks.
Blizzard conditions early Wednesday led to near-zero visibility in south-central Nebraska, the state patrol said via Facebook, urging people to stay off the roads. There were road closures of more than 160 miles (255 kilometers) of I-80 from Lincoln to Lexington and nearly 70 miles (115 kilometers) of I-29 along the Nebraska-Iowa border. Stalled cars, jackknifed semitrailers, crashes and downed power lines contributed to the chaos.
Around the Iowa-Illinois border, more than an inch of snow was falling per hour, while gusts were as high as 30 mph (48 kph), according to the National Weather Service.
Heavy snow and high winds knocked down tree branches and snapped utility poles. Power was knocked out to more than 140,000 customers in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Indiana, according to PowerOutage.us.
The storm left many with weather whiplash following a springlike Tuesday with temperatures topping 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 Celsius) in some parts.
High winds and risk of fires
Where it was not snowing, there were still very strong winds. Gusts combined with dry conditions from Texas and Oklahoma through Arkansas and central Missouri raised the wildfire potential.
“Before plants are growing,” Jackson said, “there’s a lot of dry fuel out there.”
The fire threat ramped up Tuesday and persisted Wednesday with renewed risk in parts of Oklahoma still reeling from an outbreak of blazes that started Friday. More than 400 homes were severely damaged or destroyed, and at least four people died due to the fires or high winds, officials said.
The Texas A&M Forest Service reported that it responded to 14 new wildfires Tuesday that burned about 29 square miles (75 square kilometers) across Texas.
The agency responded to a fire of about 3 square miles (8 square kilometers) the following day in San Jacinto County, with just a small fraction of it contained.
One fire near Borger, in the state’s panhandle, cut power, led to evacuations and threatened more than 1,000 late Tuesday, the city said via Facebook.
“Through quick response and collaborative effort from many departments around our region, the fire remained outside of the City limits, and we did not lose any of those 1201 homes,” the city said.
As of Wednesday night, that fire, originally spanning 350 acres (140 hectares), covered an estimated 500 acres (200 hectares) and was 75% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Crews also responded to dozens of fires in Arkansas, where winds posed additional risk. Four homes in Little Rock were heavily damaged in the southwest part of the city, Fire Chief Delphone Hubbard said during a news briefing, but no fatalities or injuries were reported.
Mayor Frank Scott urged people to heed a burn ban for Pulaski County, saying, “Please do not do anything reckless or careless, because it could create a loss of life.”
Part of I-530 southeast of Little Rock was shut down because of smoke from a grass fire, but traffic resumed by the evening.
The midsection of the state saw wind gusts as high as 59 mph (95 kph), according to the National Weather Service.
In New Mexico, where massive walls of dust forced highway closures and resulted in power outages Tuesday, forecasters warned of a return of critical fire weather conditions on Thursday.
Tornadoes possible
Severe thunderstorms were possible in central Illinois with risks of hail, strong wind and tornadoes. Much of Illinois and Indiana were forecast to be under slight risk, with lower risk farther south through the Tennessee Valley.
Severe storms brought strong winds to Indiana, and hail and tornadoes threatened part of the state, the National Weather Service said.
Looking ahead — and eastward
Jackson said the storm would send a cold front across the Eastern Seaboard on Thursday with potential heavy snowfall at higher elevations in New England.
___
Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
LUBBOCK (ABC) — The measles outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow with 20 additional cases confirmed, bringing the total to 279 cases, according to new state data published Tuesday.
Almost 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). Just two cases are among fully vaccinated individuals. At least 36 people have been hospitalized so far, the state said.
In the Texas outbreak, children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases, at 120, followed by children ages 4 and under making up 88 cases, the DSHS data shows.
“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities,” the DSHS said in its update.
The number of measles cases in Texas is close to the number confirmed for the entirety of last year in the U.S., which saw 285 cases nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two likely measles deaths have been reported so far in the U.S. this year. The first reported death was in Texas, according to the DSHS. The child did not have any known underlying conditions, according to the department.
The death was the first U.S. measles death recorded in a decade, according to data from the CDC.
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.
New Mexico has reported a total of 33 measles cases so far this year, according to the NMDOH. Many of the cases have been confirmed in Lea County, which borders western Texas.
Health officials suspect there may be a connection between the Texas and New Mexico cases, but a link has not yet been confirmed.
The CDC has confirmed 301 measles cases in at least 14 states so far this year, including Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington, according to new data published Friday.
The majority of nationally confirmed cases 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 (measles, mumps and rubella) inoculation and 2% are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.
The CDC recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second dose between ages 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, per the health agency.
In the face of the growing measles outbreak, the federal health agency issued an alert on March 7 saying parents in the outbreak area should consider getting their children an early third dose of the MMR vaccine. Texas health officials have also recommended early vaccination for infants living in outbreak areas.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
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AUSTIN (AP) — The Trump administration has moved to dismiss a Biden-era lawsuit against Texas over a state law that would allow local police to arrest migrants who enter the country illegally, days after the administration’s decision to dismiss similar lawsuits against Iowa and Oklahoma.
The Justice Department under the Biden administration had sued Texas over concerns that the law, known as Senate Bill 4, was unconstitutional and sought to supersede federal authority.
Signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023, the law would allow law enforcement to arrest migrants for illegal entry and give judges the authority to order them to leave the country. It took effect for just a few hours last year before a federal appeals court put it on hold.
Abbott signed the bill to challenge the federal government after accusing the Biden administration of failing to enact immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration’s decision shadows its refusal to pursue lawsuits against Iowa and Oklahoma, which enacted similar state immigration laws to allow state and local officials to arrest and charge immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Texas’ law has been considered the most far-encompassing by legal experts and opponents, allowing police anywhere to carry out immigration enforcement.
Senate Bill 4 was one of many efforts by Abbott during the Biden administration to instill more state control over immigration enforcement, which has included busing tens of thousands of migrants to Democratic-controlled cities and installing giant buoys in the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossing the river from Mexico.
AUSTIN (AP) – The Texas Senate on Tuesday advanced bills that would require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments and allow districts to provide students with time to pray during school hours.
Senators gave final approval to Senate Bill 11, the school prayer bill, on a 23-7 vote. It now heads to the Texas House for consideration. All Republican senators and three Democrats — Royce West of Dallas, Judith Zaffirini of Laredo and Juan Hinojosa of McAllen — voted for the bill.
Lawmakers also gave initial approval to Senate Bill 10, the Ten Commandments bill, on a 20-10 vote. Both proposals are on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s list of priority bills this session.
The votes are the latest sign of confidence by conservative Christians that courts will codify their opposition to church-state separation into federal law and spark a revitalization of faith in America.
That much was clear during the debate on the Senate floor Tuesday. Several Democrats criticized both bills, saying they would infringe on the religious freedoms of Texans who are not Christian.
“I think you’re expanding the role of our public education system to include matters that particularly conservatives have previously said is a private matter,” Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, said of the school prayer bill. The proposal references the Bible but does not specifically name any other religious texts.
Republican Sens. Mayes Middleton of Galveston and Phil King of Weatherford, who authored the bills, expressed confidence that their legislation would survive in the courts. Religious conservatives see recent court rulings as a sign that legislation putting more religion in public schools will survive legal challenges — though critics of these proposals aren’t so convinced.
“Our schools are not God-free zones. We are a state and nation built on ‘In God We Trust,’” Middleton said in a news release following Tuesday’s vote. “Litigious atheists are no longer going to get to decide for everyone else if students and educators exercise their religious liberties during school hours.”
Middleton also thanked President Donald Trump for “making prayer in public schools a top priority.”
Some Texas faith groups have expressed sharp opposition to both bills. In a letter directed to the Texas Legislature on Tuesday, 166 faith leaders in the state — including those from Sikh, Baptist, Jewish and Buddhist communities — called on lawmakers to reject the school prayer bill and similar legislation.
“We do not need to — and indeed should not — turn public schools into Sunday schools,” the letter wrote.
Similar arguments to those made on the Senate floor Tuesday were also echoed during a Senate committee hearing on March 4, as supporters and some lawmakers argued that the legislation would reverse what they see as decades of national, moral decline.
The vote comes amid a broader push by conservative Christians to infuse more religion into public schools and life. In just the last few years, state Republicans have required classrooms to hang donated signs that say “In God We Trust”; allowed unlicensed religious chaplains to supplant mental health counselors in public schools; and approved new curriculum materials that teach the Bible and other religious texts alongside grade-school lessons.
Last month, Texas senators also approved legislation that would allow public taxpayer money to be redirected to private schools, including parochial schools.
Those efforts have come as the Texas GOP increasingly embraces ideologies that argue America’s founding was God-ordained, and its institutions and laws should thus reflect fundamentalist Christians views. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers and leaders have continually elevated once-fringe claims that the wall between church and state is a myth meant to obscure America’s true, Christian roots. The argument has been popularized by figures such as David Barton, a Texas pastor and self-styled “ amateur historian ” whose work has been frequently debunked by trained historians, many of them also conservative Christians.
Barton and his son, Timothy Barton, were both invited to testify in favor of the bills on the March 4 hearing. Citing old documents and textbooks that mention the Ten Commandments, they argued that Christianity is the basis for American law and morality, and that their inclusion in classrooms would prevent societal ill such as gun violence.
“It used to be there was a very clear moral standard that we could point to,” Timothy Barton testified, calling it “ironic” that children can be arrested for breaking the law — and thus, he said, the Ten Commandments — but that they should not be able to read them in schools.
Other bill supporters and lawmakers said that there was a moral and spiritual imperative to introduce children to Christianity. Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, cited a study that found around 25% of children have been to church.
“It’s absolutely horrific, and something we all need to work on to address,” he said.
Other lawmakers similarly invoked declining Christian participation as a reason to support the bills. “There is eternal life,” said Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels. “And if we don’t expose or introduce our children and others to that, then when they die, they’ll have one birth and two deaths.”
Texas is one of 16 states where lawmakers are pursuing bills to require the Ten Commandments in classrooms — pushes that supporters say have been enabled by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In 2019’s Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, for instance, the court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach, Joe Kennedy, who argued that his employer, a public high school, was violating his religious rights by prohibiting him from leading prayers on the field after games.
Kennedy was among those who testified in support of the Texas bills on March 4. He was joined by Matt Krause, a former state House representative and current lawyer at First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based law firm that represented Kennedy and other high-profile plaintiffs in lawsuits that have allowed for more Christianity in public life.
The Kennedy case, Krause testified, was a “ huge paradigm shift ” that allowed for the Ten Commandments to be in classrooms because of its historical significance to American law and history. Asked about the recent court decision that blocked a similar Louisiana law, Krause said he expected the Texas bill would be upheld if it were taken to the ultraconservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, after that, the U.S. Supreme Court.
The bills have been strongly opposed by religious history scholars and some Christian groups, who argue that they are based on mischaracterizations of early American history and amount to a coercion of religion upon students. Opponents also say that the Ten Commandments bill diminishes a sacred text by stripping it of its religious nature, and that introducing more Christianity into schools will exacerbate tensions and isolate Texas’ growing number of non-Christian students.
“Since 2021, this Legislature has used its authority to impose increasingly divisive policies onto school districts, banning culturally relevant curriculum, forcing libraries to purge undesirable books and putting teachers into the crosshairs of overzealous critics,” said Jaime Puente of the nonprofit Every Texan. The bills “are two giant pieces of red meat that will further harm our schools.”
Christian opponents also testified that the bills would erode church-state separations — a cause that has historically been championed by Baptists and other denominations that faced intense religious persecution in early America.
“All Baptists are called to protect the separation of church and state,” said Jody Harrison, an ordained minister and leader of Baptist Women in Ministry. “Is it really justice to promote one type of Christianity over all schoolchildren?”
Harrison’s comments were strongly opposed by Campbell, the senator. “The Baptist doctrine is Christ-centered,” she said. “Its purpose is not to go around trying to defend this or that. It is to be a disciple and a witness for Christ. That includes the Ten Commandments. That’s prayer in schools. It is not a fight for separation between church and state.”
LUBBOCK (AP) — A Texas lawmaker is laying the groundwork to create a statewide system that connects all first responders and government agencies to the same network. The proposal comes as a possible solution to fix communication issues the agencies have encountered during emergencies and amid a rash of new wildfires in the state.
State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, filed House Bill 13 this month. The bill would create The Texas Interoperability Council, which would be tasked with creating a statewide strategic plan for governing the use of emergency equipment and infrastructure. King filed the bill in response to the devastating wildfires last year that engulfed the Panhandle, when more than 1 million acres burned and three people died. King, who lost part of his property in the fires, said he found communication problems as he led the investigative committee last year.
“The first responder community will tell you it takes three meetings in the middle of a disaster before everybody starts moving in the same direction,” King said in a House committee meeting last week. “When that wildfire is moving 60 miles-per-hour, that’s too long.”
Since the wildfires last year, lawmakers seem ready to mitigate wildfire risk. King and state Sen. Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, filed a package of bills that address the problems uncovered last year. Their bills would put more oversight on unregulated power lines, increase funding for rural volunteer fire departments and create a database of readily available firefighting equipment.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also signaled that wildfire response is one of his priorities for the session. Last week, Sparks filed Senate Bill 34, which now includes his previous bills about wildfire response and creating the Texas Interoperability Council.
In both bills, the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the Texas House of Representatives each would appoint two members to the council, which would be led by the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The members would serve staggered six-year terms, with the last term ending on Sept. 1, 2031.
TDEM Chief Nim Kidd called the bill the boldest move he has seen in his career. Kidd, who started his career 33 years ago when he joined the volunteer fire department in La Vernia, told lawmakers he often paid for his own equipment and training. He mentioned that when he worked for the San Antonio Fire Department, the police, fire and EMS crews were responding to the same incident on three different radio channels that were all labeled the same.
A network that connects all first responders and state agencies is important, he said, as several agencies respond to the same incident but aren’t able to talk to each other.
“This council will set up an organization structure to bring in over 50 independent operators of radio systems on to the same place,” Kidd said.
This month has been a test of preparedness. As the committee discussed the bills, most of Texas was under wildfire risk. A combination of weather conditions — including hurricane-force winds and drought — hit the Panhandle and South Plains. Gov. Greg Abbott directed the TDEM to ready state emergency response resources.
Jordan Ghawi, a reserve firefighter and a leader for the state emergency medical task force, testified in favor of HB 13. Ghawi told lawmakers he has been deployed to numerous disasters, including the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde and hurricanes. He said in every response, the lack of communication and interoperability has been a problem.
“When seconds matter,” Gwahi said, “the ability for our first responders, whether its law enforcement, fire, EMS or state agencies to communicate seamlessly can mean the difference between life and death, or property preservation or property loss.
The bill states the strategic plan must include plans to develop any necessary communication infrastructure and training programs. It must also have a plan to make sure first responders have communication equipment that is interoperable with other equipment, and another plan to ensure any new emergency equipment and infrastructure can be integrated into the existing equipment.
The council would also administer a grant program to assist local governments in getting emergency communication equipment that connects them with other emergency responders and the emergency infrastructure in the state. The grant also would go toward building more emergency communication infrastructure in the state.
Two wildfires erupted in the Panhandle over the weekend. The Windmill Fire in Roberts County was still active Tuesday, but firefighters had it almost completely contained after burning more than 23,000 acres. Several small fires popped up around the state, as well, including the Crabapple Fire outside Fredericksburg. After burning nearly 10,000 acres, firefighters had the fire 90% contained Tuesday night. Firefighters also were battling another blaze late Tuesday night that started in Dallam County, which is near the Texas-Oklahoma border. Texas A&M Forest Service reported it had burned 15,000 acres and was 50% contained. The fire’s forward progression also had stopped.
A Texas 2036 study with state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon found that the wildfire season — late winter and early spring — is expected to get longer. The study also states that while almost all of the wildfires occur in the western half of the state, other portions of the state will likely be susceptible to wildfire risk.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from military service on Tuesday, the latest in a string of legal setbacks for his sweeping agenda.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump’s order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights. She was the second judge of the day to rule against the administration, and both rulings came within hours of an extraordinary conflict as Trump called for impeaching a third judge who temporarily blocked deportation flights, drawing a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, delayed her order until Friday morning to give the administration time to appeal.
“The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes,” Reyes wrote. “We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.”
Army Reserves 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott, one of 14 transgender active-duty servicemembers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he was holding his breath as he waited to find out if he would be separated from the military next week.
“This is such a sigh of relief,” he said. “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do. This is my dream job, and I finally have it. And I was so terrified that I was about to lose it.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted about the ruling on social media, writing, “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…is there no end to this madness?”
The judge issued a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys who also represent others seeking to join the military.
On Jan. 27, Trump signed an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.
In response to the order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service. Gender dysphoria is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys contend Trump’s order violates transgender people’s rights to equal protection under the Fifth Amendment.
Government lawyers argue that military officials have broad discretion to decide how to assign and deploy servicemembers without judicial interference.
Reyes said she did not take lightly her decision to issue an injunction blocking Trump’s order, noting that “Judicial overreach is no less pernicious than executive overreach.” But, she said, it was also the responsibility of each branch of government to provide checks and balances for the others, and the court “therefore must act to uphold the equal protection rights that the military defends every day.”
Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members.
In 2016, a Defense Department policy permitted transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump’s first term in the White House, the Republican issued a directive to ban transgender service members. The Supreme Court allowed the ban to take effect. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, scrapped it when he took office.
Hegseth’s Feb. 26 policy says service members or applicants for military service who have “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”
The plaintiffs who sued to block Trump’s order include an Army Reserves platoon leader from Pennsylvania, an Army major who was awarded a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan and a Sailor of the Year award winner serving in the Navy.
“The cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed—some risking their lives—to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the military ban seeks to deny them,” Reyes wrote.
Their attorneys, from the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAD Law, said transgender troops “seek nothing more than the opportunity to continue dedicating their lives to defending the Nation.”
“Yet these accomplished servicemembers are now subject to an order that says they must be separated from the military based on a characteristic that has no bearing on their proven ability to do the job,” plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote. “This is a stark and reckless reversal of policy that denigrates honorable transgender servicemembers, disrupts unit cohesion, and weakens our military.”
Government attorneys said the Defense Department has a history of disqualifying people from military service if they have physical or emotional impairments, including mental health conditions.
“In any context other than the one at issue in this case, DoD’s professional military judgment about the risks of allowing individuals with physical or emotional impairments to serve in the military would be virtually unquestionable,” they wrote.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys say Trump’s order fits his administration’s pattern of discriminating against transgender people.
Federal judges in Seattle and Baltimore separately paused Trump’s executive order halting federal support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 19. Last month, a judge blocked prison officials from transferring three incarcerated transgender women to men’s facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy under another Trump order.
Trump also signed orders that set up new rules about how schools can teach about gender and that intend to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
“From its first days, this administration has moved to strip protections from transgender people across multiple domains — including housing, social services, schools, sports, healthcare, employment, international travel, and family life,” plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote.
Talbott, 31, of Akron, Ohio, enlisted in March 2024 as an openly trans person after fighting for roughly nine years to join the service. He said his fellow soldiers gave him some good-natured flak for being so much older than other recruits, but never treated him differently for being trans. Talbott anticipates that his colleagues will be “pretty excited that I get to stay.”
“Now I can go back to focusing on what’s really important, which is the mission,” said Talbott, a platoon leader for a military policing unit.