Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
SHREVEPORT (AP) – Two headline-grabbing, deadly domestic violence cases, one in Louisiana and the other in Virginia targeting Black mothers, have sparked a national conversation about domestic violence prevention resources and mental health care available to Black communities.
Many advocates in the aftermath of the deadly shootings have said the tragedies pointedly highlight troubling underlying trends where Black women are more likely to experience domestic violence — and they see the killings as an opportunity to confront how disparities in access to care and resources make some women and children more vulnerable to violence in the home.
On Sunday morning, a man police identified as Shamar Elkins fatally shot seven of his children and another child in Shreveport, Louisiana. A relative has said Elkins was in the midst of separating from his wife who was wounded.
And last Thursday, police found the bodies of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his estranged wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, in their suburban Washington, D.C., home. Justin Fairfax shot his estranged wife and then himself, and their two children in the home at the time were unhurt, police said. Like Elkins, Fairfax was in the process of separating from his wife and had faced a judge’s upcoming deadline to move from the house.
While it’s not clear what prompted the Shreveport killings or the apparent murder-suicide in Annandale, Virginia, experts say that the harrowing details of the killings echo familiar patterns that play out in homes across the country — and underscore the need for solutions that address the root causes of the disparate violence.
Sunday wasn’t the first time that Elkins’ family had suffered from gender-based gun violence: Shaneiqua Elkins and the other woman who was shot, Keosha Pugh, were sisters, and lost their mother to gun violence when they were under age 10, according to their uncle Lionel Pugh.
“It’s sad. It just breaks you down,” Pugh said.
Shreveport Councilman Grayson Boucher said at a news conference Monday that the Louisiana killings were emblematic of “a true epidemic of domestic violence” across the small southern city of roughly 180,000 people.
Those trends go well beyond Shreveport as experts have pointed out how both race and gender make Black women in particular more vulnerable to domestic violence.
More than four in 10 Black women experience physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes — a much higher rate than women who are white, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander — according to a 2014 study by the Centers for Disease Control.
Paméla Tate is the executive director of Black Women Revolt, which runs programs to prevent abuse and offers survivors’ resources. She said a logical skepticism about police and government child services agencies based on a history of institutionalized racism makes Black women reluctant to seek help — and especially vulnerable to domestic violence.
Additionally, Black women are two times more likely to be murdered by men than their white counterparts, according to a 2025 study published by the Violence Policy Center, based on federal government data from 2023. Those men are more often than not familiar to their victims, according to the study, which found that more than nine in 10 Black female victims knew their killers, with the majority of those killings being carried out with guns.
Ultimately, Tate said, “domestic violence doesn’t see color,” and is primarily driven by the prevalent belief among men — across racial demographics — that women are subjects or property.
“Domestic violence is about exerting power over someone that you profess to love and controlling their behavior,” Tate said.
There has been intense speculation about the role that mental health crises might have played in both shootings.
A relative of Elkins’ wife told The Associated Press that Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for about a week and a half for mental health help.
In Virginia, Justin Fairfax was a rising star in the Democratic Party until two women accused him of sexual assault, casting doubt on his trustworthiness as a political leader. The former lieutenant governor’s “mental and emotional health” suffered before he killed his wife and himself, according to court documents, which say he drank heavily and withdrew from his family after the allegations were made public in 2019.
Adult and child psychiatrist Christine Crawford hasn’t examined the killings in Shreveport or Annandale, but said financial troubles, marital issues and problems at work — in addition to underlying mental health vulnerabilities — can lead someone to “crack.”
“It makes some think about the amount of pain, distress and hopelessness they found themselves in at that time,” said Crawford, who practices at the Webster Clinic in Boston and is interim chief medical officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She noted many Black people find themselves priced out of programs and care for mental health for such reasons as private care costs and a lack of insurance.
That level of desperation can make some people feel “completely out of options on how to deal with the pain he was in at that moment,” Crawford said. T
Some have said that there are social dimensions to these economic trends, too.
“Mental health disparities in the Black community is not accidental,” said University of Michigan Social Work Professor Daphne C. Watkins. “They are the predictable result of structural racism” in schools, employment and other aspects of society.
Watkins, founder of the YBMen Project which provides young Black men with a safe place to discuss their mental health, manhood and social support, said studies show that 10% of Black adults experience moderate to severe depression, while 18% experience anxiety disorders.
But Black men tend to forego mental health treatment due to cultural expectations, in addition to costs, said Watkins. Without an outlet, stressors from family, work and relationships can pile up.
“For a long time, in the Black community, we didn’t talk about anxiety. Now, you have to talk about it hand in hand along with depression.”
Others have emphatically said that mental health is not an excuse for domestic violence.
“To say they’re mentally ill, that doesn’t cut it,” Tate said. “There are people who are depressed or people who have schizophrenia and don’t harm the their partners, much less kill them.”
Shaneiqua Elkins and Cerina Fairfax could have been struggling with mental health challenges too, Tate added, and they both “had the same access or ability to go and purchase a gun” but chose not to.
“The mental illness is not what we’re talking about here,” she said.
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction.
The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in two years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims’ young classmates and community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning on stopping domestic violence.
“We cannot afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”
The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and a nephew, police said. His wife and another woman were also shot and wounded.
Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for just over a week for mental health treatment, said his brother-in-law, Troy Brown, who lived in the house with his wife, Keosha Pugh, and was at work during the attack. Elkins appeared “better when he came home,” he said.
Elkins’ wife was seeking a divorce, which was causing him stress, Brown said. But everything seemed calm in the house when Brown left for work Saturday night, with the children playing games or watching TV.
“All I know is he just snapped,” Brown told The Associated Press. “If I wouldn’t have been at work, he was going to kill everybody in the house and that includes me.”
Brown’s wife, who made a series of frantic calls for help when the shooting started, and their 12-year-old daughter escaped through the home’s roof, he said. His wife broke her pelvis after falling and has since had surgery, he said.
“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”
Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers who fired or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.
Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.
Brown said his 10-year-old son, who loved to go outside and run around and play with friends, was killed.
“I’m never going to get to throw the football with him again,” he said “I’m never going to get to hear him say, ‘Dad, can I get this bag of chips?’”
Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.
Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school.
“She raised those kids right,” Pugh said. “They were the center of her universe.”
While the shooter did not appear to have a long criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.
Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies — including illegal use of weapons — are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.
Authorities said Monday that how and when Elkins got the gun is being investigated.
Louisiana, a reliably red state, has expanded access to guns in recent years. For years, Democrats in Louisiana have proposed bills to tighten gun control — or at least put “red flag” measures in place. But Republicans have routinely blocked such legislation.
Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.
Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.
Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.
Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown, and opened fire a few blocks away at the home where the children were targeted, police said.
One of the victims, 5-year-old Braylon Snow, was getting ready for preschool graduation next month, said Laurance Guidry, president and CEO of Caddo Community Action Agency, which runs the Head Start program where Braylon was a student.
“They have the cap and gowns just like you would have when you were graduating from high school,” Guidry said.
Gov. Jeff Landry said during a news conference Monday that he thought he had seen evil up close after a truck attack last year on Bourbon Street left 14 dead. “But the tragedy that unfolded this weekend seems to have eclipsed that,” he said.
Landry announced that the foundation created by the state’s first lady will pay the children’s funeral expenses.
Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.
“Happy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,” Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.
Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. “That was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that’s what she did,” Pugh said.
The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city’s worst days.
The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Oil prices slipped and shares were mostly higher Tuesday in Europe and Asia as U.S.-Iran talks aimed at ending the war remained in doubt.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil dipped 0.7% to $94.81. U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 0.9% to $86.63 per barrel.
The war has disrupted transport of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway that usually is fully open to international shipping, pushing oil prices sharply higher.
U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit the strait unimpeded, imposing a blockade on Iranian ports. He has said Vice President JD Vance will visit Pakistan’s capital Islamabad for talks with Iran. But after the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, the Iranian side has made no commitment to more negotiations.
In early European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6% to 24,558.9 and the CAC 40 in Paris was little changed, at 8,333.05. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.1% higher, to 10,620.92.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up just over 0.1%.
In Asian share trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.9% to 59,349.17 on strong gains for tech-related companies like Tokyo Electron, which rose 3.5%. Tech and energy giant SoftBank Group Corp. gained 8.5%, part of the latest wave of gains pinned on expectations of windfalls from artificial intelligence.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.7% to 6,388.47, and Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 1.8%.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.5% to 26,481.48 and the Shanghai Composite index added 0.1% to 4,085.08.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined less than 0.1% to 8,949.40.
Oil prices had climbed Monday following the latest rise of tensions between the United States and Iran, but the moves were more modest than they were earlier in the war. U.S. stocks, meanwhile, gave back a bit of their record-breaking rally.
On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high and the Dow industrials edged less than 0.1% lower. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.
Worries over disruptions of supplies of oil from the Persian Gulf if Iran continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz are clouding investor sentiment.
The next big deadline is looming on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, which is early Wednesday Tehran time, when a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is scheduled to expire.
“The current dynamic is one of a precarious balance of truce,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary, so “as the ceasefire draws to its 2-week deadline, the all-consuming question is whether both sides can seize on the talks to land on a US-Iran deal that ends the war.”
For now, oil prices remain well below the $119 per barrel level for Brent crude when fears were at their highest. And the S&P 500 is still above where it was before the war.
Several of the biggest U.S. banks said last week that they see the U.S. economy remaining resilient, particularly because of solid spending by U.S. consumers.
U.S. companies have been reporting big profits for the first three months of 2026, helping to support the market. Nearly nine out of 10 companies that have already reported earnings for January-March posted bigger profits than analysts had expected, according to FactSet.
If the rest of the companies in the S&P 500 match analysts’ expectations, overall earnings per share for companies in the index will end up 13% higher than a year earlier, it estimates.
Other companies scheduled to report their results this week include UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.
In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.21 Japanese yen from 158.82 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1767 from $1.1789.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, is vaulting into the midterms with a $15 million investment targeting Republicans in battleground districts after a series of setbacks in recent years.
“I think that this is the election that’s going to be the sea change, not only for getting to a pro-equality majority but for changing the momentum on this fight for equality,” said Kelley Robinson, the organization’s president, in an interview with The Associated Press. “This movement is ready for its next wind, its second wind.”
Besides eight congressional districts that could help determine control of the U.S. House, the Human Rights Campaign is also supporting Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas. The money will be spent on advertising, events and canvassers.
The LGBTQ+ movement has been reckoning with a wave of defeats on the campaign trail and in the courtroom that have left Democrats struggling to regain their footing.
President Donald Trump’s Republican administration has rolled back protections for transgender people, such as banning them from serving in the military and cutting off gender-affirming care for children. The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority has upheld Republican states’ restrictions while striking down bans on “conversion therapy” practices in Democratic states.
“I believe that our movement made ourselves believe that we were closer to equality than we actually are,” Robinson said. “The last few years, we’ve been doing an incredible amount of listening, of learning, also of repositioning this work.”
After the 2024 presidential election, Democrats were divided over the role that LGBTQ+ rights played in their party’s losses. The Trump campaign ran a series of advertisements mocking Vice President Kamala Harris for supporting medical gender transitions for incarcerated people and highlighting the issue of transgender people playing on women’s sports teams.
“Kamala Harris is for they/them,” said a voice-over in one national ad. “President Trump is for you.”
Robinson argued that the ad was effective because of an implicit economic message, not for its critiques of the policy toward transgender people. But conservative activists and some moderate Democrats have argued such stances are too unpopular with swing voters.
“There’s a real disconnect between most voters and the party elite,” said Leor Sapir, a fellow with the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.
He added, “If I’m a Democrat consultant, my advice would be: Do everything in your power to keep this issue off the public agenda.”
Robinson said her organization has been soul-searching on how to best craft winning messages on LGBTQ+ rights.
“Our job is to move away from the fireballs that our opposition wants to talk about and instead find a way to get back to the things that are impacting folks every day,” she said.
In January, the Human Rights Campaign published a guide to blunting conservative attacks on LGBTQ+ issues, citing the successful campaigns of Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
Although the guide encourages candidates to “lead with your values” and “address concerns directly,” it also encourages them to “go big” and quickly pivot to issues like cost-of-living concerns.
“I think the number one way to shut out a voter is to try to make them believe that their fears are not real. So what we coach candidates on doing is listening,” Robinson said. “For folks who have questions about the issues, that’s OK. We’re in a moment where the stakes in front of us are too high to look away.”
HOUSTON (AP) – Environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Monday over its approval last month of oil company BP’s ultra deep-water drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico.
The groups sued on the 16th anniversary of the nation’s worst offshore oil spill 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, when BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig sent 134 million gallons (500 million liters) of crude oil spewing into the ocean, killing 11 people and causing billions of dollars in damage to wildlife and miles of coastline.
The administration approved BP’s $5 billion Kaskida project in March, the company’s first new oil field developed in the Gulf since 2010. BP said it could have capacity of 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Groups Healthy Gulf, Habitat Recovery Project, Center for Biological Diversity and others requested a review of the project approval in its Monday filing against the U.S. Interior Department, Secretary Doug Burgum, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and director Matthew Giacona.
The groups say information required for the approval is missing and does not demonstrate that BP has the qualifications to conduct safe drilling that deep. They also say that Kaskida endangers Gulf residents’ health, harms ecosystems and impacts fishing and tourism industries.
“The Trump administration has teed up the entire Gulf region for a Deepwater Horizon sequel” by approving the project, said Brettny Hardy, senior attorney at Earthjustice, which is representing the plaintiffs.
Several lawmakers last year attempted to call on the administration to reject the project’s approval.
Interior spokesperson Charlotte Taylor told The Associated Press that the department does not comment on ongoing litigation. But: “America sets the global standard for energy production. We do it cleaner, safer, and more reliably than anywhere in the world.”
Taylor added the Kaskida project “represents a major step forward, unlocking more than 275 million barrels of previously unrecoverable oil in the Gulf of America. This development will drive job creation, strengthen U.S. national security, and help cut energy costs for American families.”
Increased fossil fuel production has been a priority for President Donald Trump in his second term, and the administration has proposed a number of pro-oil and gas rollbacks of regulations viewed as unfriendly to the industry as part of an “American energy dominance” agenda.
The Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S. and produces about 2 million barrels of oil a day, in particular has been of high importance to Trump.
The administration announced earlier this month it was combining the current Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, under the new Marine Minerals Administration to expedite permitting for offshore oil and gas drilling. The two agencies were separated in the aftermath of the 2010 oil spill.
The administration last month also exempted drilling in the Gulf from the Endangered Species Act — law that makes it illegal to harm or kill species on a protected list — on the basis of national security.
These changes have been made amid soaring energy prices and global oil shocks brought on by the U.S.-Iran war.
BP America spokesperson Paul Takahashi told The Associated Press that Deepwater Horizon forever changed the company.
He added BP believes the lawsuit is unfounded and “is fully confident in our Kaskida development plan and our ability to deliver this offshore project safely, responsibly and in compliance with U.S. regulations and industry standards.”
Just last month, a massive oil spill in the Gulf spread more than 373 miles (600 kilometers) and into seven nature reserves, contaminating at least six species and sending 800 tons of hydrocarbon-laden waste into the ocean.
Many of Trump’s moves have reversed efforts by former Democratic President Joe Biden to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters.
AUSTIN (AP) – The satirical news outlet The Onion is back with a new plan to take over the Infowars platforms of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as his company faces liquidation over more than $1 billion in defamation judgments owed to relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Under a proposal submitted Monday to a state judge in Texas, The Onion would be granted an exclusive, temporary license to the intellectual property of Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, allowing the outlet to put its own content on the Infowars website and social media accounts.
Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion, said the deal could be in place around April 30, if approved by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin. He said The Onion has already hired people to run Infowars as a parody site including Tim Heidecker, one half of the comedy duo Tim and Eric known for their work on the Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” shows.
“We’ll build this into a bigger comedy network,” Collins said in phone interview Monday, adding the Sandy Hook families would receive profits from the new operations.
“A big part of it for us is that the way people consume news now is they see somebody who has no idea what the (expletive) they’re talking about staring into their camera and just like coming up with conspiracy theories or telling you health hacks that will actually get you poisoned, things like that,” he said. “We’re going to create a bunch of characters and worlds around those kinds of things.”
After the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones called it a hoax staged by “crisis actors” in an effort to increase gun control. Many relatives of the victims, along with an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, sued Jones and his company for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.
On his show Monday, Jones vowed to fight the licensing proposal in court but acknowledged he and his crew could be kicked out of the building at the end of the month. He said he would continue his shows in another studio he is preparing, and they would air on his personal X account and other new social media accounts and websites, as well as dozens of radio stations. He also has set up new websites for the merchandise he sells, including dietary supplements and clothing that bring in millions of dollars a year.
“I’m going to continue the exact same show,” he said. “It’ll just be called the ‘Alex Jones Show.’ So, it’s the same satellite, same system. It’s a different news site and news studio. So I’m not going anywhere.”
The licensing deal with The Onion would be for six months, with the right to renew it for another six months as a court-appointed receiver works to eventually sell the assets of Infowars’ parent company, Austin-based Free Speech Systems, and give proceeds to the Sandy Hook families. The receiver is supporting the plan, which calls for The Onion to pay $81,000 a month to cover the rent for the building housing Infowars’ studios, along with utilities and other costs.
During a trial of the defamation suit in Connecticut in 2022, victims’ relatives testified that people whom they called followers of Jones subjected them to death and rape threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media over the hoax claims. Jones argued there was never any proof that linked him to the actions of others.
A jury and judge awarded the families and the FBI agent more than $1.4 billion in damages. In a similar lawsuit in Texas, the parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook were awarded nearly $50 million. Jones appealed both awards. He lost his challenges to the Connecticut judgment, while his appeal of the Texas award is still pending.
Jones filed for bankruptcy in late 2022. In those proceedings, an auction was held in November 2024 to liquidate Infowars’ assets to help pay the defamation judgments, and The Onion was named the winning bidder. But the bankruptcy judge threw out the auction results, citing problems with the process and The Onion’s bid.
The attempt to sell off Infowars’ assets later moved to the state court in Texas, where Guerra Gamble appointed a receiver to liquidate the assets of Jones’ company. Jones is also appealing that ruling, which has put a hold on the liquidation.
A lawyer for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones in Connecticut said they support The Onion’s plan.
TEXARKANA, Texas (KETK)– Officials are urging motorcyclists to drive safely after one person was killed in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in Texarkana on Sunday.
Man dies from injuries in high-speed Texarkana motorcycle crash
According to the Texarkana Police Department, the crash occurred around 9:20 a.m. on St. Michael Drive. The driver of the motorcycle, identified as 35-year-old Jared Furlow, was pronounced dead on the scene.
This was the second fatal motorcycle crash to happen in Texarkana in the past two weeks and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation is providing tips to help keep motorcyclists safe on the roadway, including:
Avoid riding in blind spots of cars and trucks
Wear a quality helmet and eye protection
Use turn signals for all turns and lane changes
Make sure your headlight works and is on day and night
Use lane positioning to see and be seen.
“We urge all motorists and motorcyclists to use extra caution on our roadways, remain alert, and look out for one another,” the Texarkana Police Department said.
DAINGERFIELD, Texas (KETK) – The Daingerfield-Lone Star ISD Board of Trustees has called for voters to pass a $45 million bond proposal that would fund a new elementary school campus and more.
LIST: 11 East Texas school districts put bond measures on May ballot
According to the district, the bond proposal came about after a comprehensive districtwide facilities assessment identified several needs across the district, including the aging West Elementary and South Elementary schools, which were both built in the 1950’s.
Beyond their aging campuses, the district has undersized classrooms, asbestos in certain older materials and a lack of secure entry areas.
If voters approve the $45 million bond, the following items would be funded:
A new PK–5 elementary school to replace the existing two campuses.
Security vestibules at the junior high and high school.
Demolition of the current elementary buildings (retaining South Elementary’s library wing for repurposing).
Additional high school parking for improved access and safety.
The district estimates that the Interest & Sinking (I&S) rate will rise by $0.38 per $100 of property value if the bond is passed. As per state law, homeowners 65 and older with a homestead exemption will not see any increase if the bond passes.
To learn more about the proposal, visit Daingerfield-Lone Star ISD online.
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction.
The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims’ young classmates and neighbors grieved at a growing memorial. Community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning about how to stop domestic violence.
“We can not afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “This is the responsibility of all of us. We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”
The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and another child, police said. His wife also was shot and wounded.
His wife’s sister, who called police minutes after the shooting started, escaped with a child by jumping from the roof, police and family members said Monday.
“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”
Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.
Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.
Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.
Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school and carefully dressed them before family events.
“She raised those kids right,” Pugh said. “They were the center of her universe.”
Gunman had no recent arrests for domestic violence, police say
While the shooter did not appear to have an extensive criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.
Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies — including illegal use of weapons — are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.
Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.
Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020 as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.
The violence started before sunrise Sunday
Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.
Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown and a few blocks away at a home where the children were found, police said. Elkins’ nephew was among the slain children, according to the Caddo Parish coroner’s office.
Mourners lit candles for the victims Sunday night in a nearby parking lot.
“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them because you just don’t know,” said Kimberlin Jackson, who attended the vigil and is an advocate at the Head Start program where one of the victims was a student. She said the last time she saw him was Friday.
A relative says they were a joyful family
Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.
“Happy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,” Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.
Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. “That was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that’s what she did,” Pugh said.
The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city’s worst days.
The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The cherry blossoms draw more than a million visitors to Washington’s Tidal Basin annually. This year was no different, except some strolling the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial were dressed in camouflage — and armed.
Eight months after President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital and called up the National Guard, more than 2,500 troops remain, in a deployment that has grown increasingly routine, with no clear end in sight.
Deployments to other cities have ended or been paused by courts in California and Illinois, while more limited operations are ongoing in cities including New Orleans. But in Washington, guard members still walk city streets and patrol metro stations, tourist attractions, neighborhoods and parks.
Even with pivotal elections looming this year, that lingering presence is barely mentioned in city council meetings or by candidates running for mayor and Congress — perhaps reflecting both competing priorities and a sense that local officials have little power to stop it. Unless the courts step in, the guard will remain at least through the end of the year, if not longer.
“Taxpayers are paying more than a million dollars a day to have them walk around,” said Phil Mendelson, chairman of the District of Columbia Council, in an emailed response to questions.
And, he said, “the presence of armed soldiers on American streets is not a good look.”
Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order in August to deal with what he called a crime emergency. The order brought the guard in, along with hundreds of additional federal law enforcement officers.
Over the months, guard members have responded to medical emergencies, assisted with arrests, helped local police enforce the city’s juvenile curfew and carried out beautification projects. The D.C. Guard helped with snow removal during a major storm in January.
While the guard members do not make arrests, the Trump administration argues their support to the broader mission has helped reduce crime. The White House said 12,000 arrests have been made by the task force since operations began, including 62 known gang members, and thousands of illegal firearms were seized.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the president’s crime task force in the city has “yielded tremendous results for local communities.”
“Every local leader should want to mimic this success in their own locales,” Jackson said.
But officials disagree over how much credit the deployment can be given in Washington, a heavily Democratic city. Figures show crime was already on the decline before, although those figures are being investigated after claims arose against local police that they may have been manipulated.
A court battle over the guard deployment is ongoing, and without a judge stepping in it could go on as long as the White House wants.
Asked how long the guard deployment would continue, Jackson said in an email that there were “no announcements to make.”
The office of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, which is challenging the deployment in court, declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. The National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon did not answer requests for comment.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is not running for reelection, has walked a fine line on the guard’s deployment and the broader federal intervention, at once appearing to work with the president but also pushing back on some of his demands, like local cooperation for immigration enforcement.
Leading candidates to replace Bowser and the city’s 18-term non-voting delegate in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, have focused on affordability, statehood and trying to hold federal agencies accountable for their role in the surge.
The District Council, which includes at least four candidates for mayor or delegate, unanimously approved a measure to increase transparency in federal law enforcement operations. While the military deployment is mentioned at times on campaign websites and in ads, it isn’t currently a central campaign issue.
Other pressures on the city, including unemployment and lost revenue tied to federal workforce cuts, have taken priority. The city’s primaries are June 16, along with a special election for an at-large city council seat.
Some residents say frustrations over the guard eased after two members of the West Virginia contingent were ambushed just blocks from the White House, killing Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and severely injuring her colleague.
Kevin Cataldo, a neighborhood commissioner who joined the local Metropolitan Police on a walkalong in his neighborhood recently, said he already treated the guard members courteously, making a point to acknowledge them because they did not choose to be in the city. The shooting ambush deepened his sympathies for them. “That was just horrible,” he said.
District Council member Brianne Nadeau said constituents continue to ask why the guard is still around but the complaints are far fewer than at the start of the deployment.
“It would be great if the federal government would use its money and resources to help the District on the things we need help with and not act like an invading army,” Nadeau said in an email.
Fellow council members and mayoral candidates Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie have raised similar issues, including the high costs.
There has been little recent public polling specifically on attitudes toward the presence of uniformed personnel in U.S. cities.
Several groups are planning protests and other events on May 1 to oppose the federal surge, including the continuing presence of the National Guard, said Keya Chatterjee co-founder and executive director of Free DC, an advocacy group that fights for the city’s autonomy. Among the goals: “an end to the military occupation of D.C. before the June election.”
Chatterjee said normalizing the guard’s presence makes it easier to suppress dissent and “tilt the playing field” in elections.
The presence of guns and military personnel could create an intimidating atmosphere during elections, Chatterjee said. Citizens have to step in and “number one, we have to help our neighbors feel safe voting.”
Scott Michelman, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, said the situation underscores the city’s limits on self-governance.
Washington is a federal district with limited autonomy where Congress retains authority to review the city’s laws and control its budget and where the president has direct control of the D.C. Guard and can authorize an indefinite military deployment with little effective resistance from local authorities.
“We should have local control and local democratic accountability for the people who enforce our laws,” Michelman said. “D.C. is uniquely disempowered in our system in many ways.”
AUSTIN (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) – Texas communities will need to spend $174 billion in the next 50 years to avert a severe water crisis, a new state analysis revealed Thursday. That’s more than double the $80 billion projected four years ago, when the Texas Water Development Board last passed a state water plan.
The three-member board presiding over the agency authorized the highly anticipated draft blueprint Thursday, the first administrative step toward adopting the water development board’s plans for the next 50 years. The plan, released every five years, encompasses the projects that 16 regional water planning groups in Texas said are the most urgent, water development board officials said.
The board’s latest estimates come as the state’s water supply faces numerous threats. Growing communities across Texas are scrambling to secure water, keep up with construction costs and cope with a yearslong drought. This week, Corpus Christi officials said the city may be just months away from declaring a water emergency. Meanwhile, other rural cities by the Coastal Bend are rapidly drilling wells to avoid a crisis. Residents in North Texas have also been bracing for groundwater shortages.
In an effort to restrain the crisis, lawmakers last year called an election in which voters approved a $20 billion boost for communities to use on water-related expenses. The water development board’s estimate shows that what lawmakers proposed on the ballot falls dramatically short of the needed cash, experts said.
“What this number tells me at the end of the day is if we don’t get serious about (funding water projects), there are going to be serious consequences for Texas,” said Perry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network. “Even with the billion-dollar-a-year plan kicking in, it’s not going to be enough to offset the costs of the projects that are going to have to be executed.”
The new estimate accounts for 3,000 projects, from regional infrastructure upgrades to smaller endeavors such as drilling new water wells. Texas’ water supplies are expected to drop by roughly 10% between 2030 and 2080, according to the water plan. In that same time frame, the maximum amount of water communities can draw is also expected to decline by 9%.
The 80-page plan notes approximately 6,700 recommended strategies that would add water to the state’s dwindling portfolio. The recommendations — which are not accounted for in the cost — include developing new supplies from aquifer storage and recovery, brackish groundwater, desalination and recycled water. It also calls for water conservation.
The report suggested that if Texas does not implement the plans and recommendations, the state is one severe drought away from an estimated $91 billion in economic damages in 2030.
The state’s plan attributes a variety of reasons for the bigger price tag, such as higher costs of construction due to inflation, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains, and a growing backlog of water supply projects.
“There’s a plan that can meet our needs,” said Matt Nelson, deputy executive administrator for the Office of Planning at the water development board, adding that they take their cues from the regional planning groups. “These are local projects that folks need to implement; they’re needed regardless of how they’re funded. It’s important to remember these are not top-down projects or state projects.”
Experts told The Texas Tribune that the board’s estimate is only a fraction of what Texas communities will need to ensure they have water in 50 years’ time, saying growth and development are outpacing the state’s ability to keep up.
“This is a bigger water plan in terms of volume strategies and capital costs compared to anything we’ve ever seen before,” said Jeremy Mazur, the director of infrastructure and natural resources policy at think tank Texas 2036.
Mazur suggested that the $174 billion only covers water supply projects and does not account for updating aging infrastructure, adding that the actual price could amount to a quarter of a trillion dollars.
“There’s a substantial magnitude with regard to the capital investment needed to both fix our aging and current systems and potentially develop the water infrastructure, water supply projects that we need.“
The report largely confirmed what many water experts have warned regarding threats to the state’s water supply, said Sarah Kirkle, director of policy at the Texas Water Association.
“Population growth, extreme weather, and economic development needs are all increasing demands on our infrastructure, and the state is going to need more water, sooner,” Kirkle said. “This is all while water projects are becoming more costly and complex because the easiest and cheapest local projects have already been developed.”
Fowler, with the infrastructure network, said he expects the Texas Legislature to take up the issue next year, when lawmakers meet for the 90th legislative session. He said the state should take a bigger role in ensuring that communities can afford their respective water projects.
“It’s going to have to be a top-down priority, there’s no way around it,” he said. “The challenges are so immense that it’s going to take all hands on deck.”
Texas residents have until the end of May to comment on the proposal. Water development board officials must adopt it by January 2027.
Alejandra Martinez contributed to this story. To see the story in its original form to The Texas Tribune.
SHREVEPORT (NEXSTAR AP) — Eight children are dead following a shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, authorities have confirmed. The suspect is also dead, after being fatally shot by police, and investigators are now reviewing multiple crime scenes. Police were initially called to a shooting that happened just after 6 a.m. on Sunday, Christopher Bordelon with the Shreveport Police Department said during a morning press conference.
Shreveport Police say eight children, ranging in ages from 1 to 14 years old, were killed, and two other individuals were injured.
The suspect allegedly stole a vehicle after the shooting and was fatally shot by Shreveport Police officers following a pursuit that extended into Bossier Parish. No officers were harmed in the shooting, which is now under investigation by Louisiana State Police.
Some of the children shot were related to the suspect, according to Bordelon. Officials said they were still gathering details about the crime scene, which extended across three residential locations.
“This is an extensive scene unlike anything most of us have ever seen,” Smith added.
Police say they do not yet have a motive but described the incident as a domestic disturbance.
“This is a tragic situation, maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had in Shreveport,” Mayor Tom Arceneaux said during Sunday’s press conference. “It’s a terrible morning in Shreveport, and we all mourn with the victims.”
Louisiana State Police are asking for anyone with pictures, video or information to share it with state police detectives.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said in a statement that he and his wife were heartbroken. “We’re deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers and first responders working tirelessly on the scene,” he added.
This was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. since eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb in January 2024, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
LUFKIN (KETK) – A Lufkin man was sentenced to 20 years in state prison on Thursday after he drove through an Angelina County home and left the homeowner dead in April 2025.
Jorge Urbina Lopez of Lufkin was arrested in April of 2025 after the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office said his Chevrolet truck left the roadway, hit a tree and smashed into a home in Moffett.
70-year-old Robert Bole was found dead inside the home after the truck drove into the home. The truck was later found under a tarp at Lopez’s home, which was just three miles away from Bole’s residence.
Lopez’s home was searched but he was only found after sheriff’s office deputies searched a second location. Lopez was found hiding under a bed and reportedly resisted arrest.
On Thursday, Lopez pleaded guilty to failure to stop and render aid in a collision causing death. The 217th Judicial District Court judge then sentenced Lopez to serve 20 years in state prison. Lopez’s 20-year sentence in state prison started on Thursday and he was given a 357-day credit for time he had already served in jail.
EAST TEXAS (KETK) — A number of cities across East Texas have been named in part of a statewide investigation regarding alleged unlawful property tax increases.
The investigation was launched by Attorney General Ken Paxton earlier this month, claiming that many cities are not complying with Senate Bill 1851, which requires them to complete and publicly post annual financial audits before increasing property taxes.
Due to possible violations of SB 1851, Paxton is demanding documents from over 1,000 cities across the state to ensure they are complying with audit and transparency requirements before raising taxes. The Office of the Attorney General clarified that the investigation of the cities is not for them raising taxes but to ensure they are following compliance with audit and transparency requirements.
East Texas cities that have been named in the investigation include:
*Alba
*Alto
*Arp
*Athens
*Atlanta
*Avinger
**Broaddus
*Brownsboro
*Bullard
*Caddo Mills
*Canton
*Carthage
*Center
*Chandler
*Clarksville
*Coffee City
*Crockett
*Daingerfield
*De Kalb
*Diboll
*Edgewood
*Elkhart
*Emory
*Frankston
*Garrison
*Gilmer
*Grapeland
*Hallsville
*Hawkins
*Henderson
*Hughes Springs
*Jacksonville
*Kilgore
*Livingston
*Lone Star
*Longview
*Lufkin
*Malakoff
*Mineola
*Mount Enterprise
*Mount Pleasant
*Mount Vernon
*Nacogdoches
*New London
*New Summerfield
*Newton
*Noonday
*Ore City
*Overton
*Palestine
*Pinehurst
**Pittsburg
*Point
*Quitman
*Rusk
*San Augustine
*Tatum
*Texarkana
*Troup
*Trinity
*Tyler
*Van
*White Oak
*Whitehouse
*Winnsboro
*Winona
*Zavalla
Paxton added, “I am demanding that cities prioritize transparency and work to minimize the tax burden of every citizen across the state,” Paxton said. “While many cities have complied with these requirements, I will continue to fight to ensure that every municipality across our state is following the law.”
TYLER (KETK) — The Texas job market is currently thriving, as the state added 40,000 non-farm jobs in January, signaling economic expansion across many industries.
Recent data from the Texas Workforce Commission shows that Tyler’s employment is 115%, while Longview’s 123%.’
Despite continued job growth across the state, many Texans are struggling to land interviews and find work. Stephen Lynch, with Workforce Solutions, said one of the biggest barriers is knowing where to look.
“Employers scan resumes and they are based upon keywords and they match up to the job description that they have posted,” Lynch said.
Lynch explained that while this may seem like a disadvantage, Lynch notes it can actually help you find your perfect match faster.
Through its GoodBiz job coaching program, Goodwill helps around 700 East Texans each year find employment. Lewis says industries like manufacturing and service jobs are seeing high wages, like those at Amazon and YellaWood.
While the job market in Texas continues to excel, adults attempting to reenter the workforce are still facing challenges in finding work.
“It’s not just one part-time job. In many cases, they need multiple part-time jobs… their Social Security, a pension—it’s just not enough to keep up with the cost of living,” Lewis said.
For East Texans searching for their next role, the jobs are there; however, finding them in a tech-driven world is the challenge.