Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s Tax Day on Wednesday, the deadline for most Americans to file taxes, and the Trump administration says millions of people have already used new breaks such as no tax on tips and overtime, exemptions for interest on certain car loans, deductions for some seniors, and Trump Accounts for children’s savings.
More than 53 million filers claimed a deduction under one of those provisions from Republicans’ massive tax and spending law, a Treasury official told reporters Tuesday ahead of the deadline, with 6 million people claiming no tax on tips, 21 million claiming the overtime deduction and 30 million older Americans claiming the enhanced deduction.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the numbers, said the 2026 filing season was a success from the administration’s perspective.
Still, the latest data comes as most Americans, or 7 in 10, still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polling, despite the passage of the Republican tax law which promised big savings for taxpayers.
As the tax season kicked off in January, the White House boasted that average returns were projected to rise by at least $1,000. But currently, the average refund amount is $3,462, according to the latest IRS data, which is up 11% or about $350 from last tax year’s $3,116 average refund payment.
Treasury has shifted its messaging to tout that tax refunds this season are up 24% compared with the four-year average of refunds before President Donald Trump took office.
The White House has been trying to promote Trump’s tax cuts as a way to get voters more enthusiastic about the way he’s handling the economy ahead of November’s midterm elections, but the message has been overshadowed for weeks by higher gas prices caused by the war in Iran.
The 2026 season comes as the IRS has gone through a leadership turnover and reduced its workforce by 27% over the past year through cuts brought on by the Department of Government Efficiency.
IRS CEO Frank Bisignano is set to testify in front of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
In his public testimony to lawmakers, Bisignano planned to tout the IRS’ implementation of the Republican tax law.
However, Democratic lawmakers zeroed in on IRS disclosures of confidential taxpayer information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of an agreement between ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to share information for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.
AUSTIN (AP) – An Austin district judge on Monday ordered the state’s Historically Underutilized Business Program rules be temporarily reinstated, meaning women- and minority-owned business owners can qualify for the state’s HUB program again for now.
Four business owners and a trade association sued the state of Texas and acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock on March 2 over the agency’s emergency rules that removed women and minorities from the HUB program and stripped their businesses of their HUB certifications. The judge ordered the reinstatement of six businesses that sued the Comptroller’s office over the emergency rules — two joined after the lawsuit was first filed — and further directs state agencies to inform HUB businesses that have been decertified since December of the court ruling.
The HUB program was created through bipartisan legislation during the 1990s to give minority- and women-owned businesses a leg up when seeking state contracts. The program does not set quotas for the the number of HUB-certified businesses, but sets goals that state agencies generally strive to meet.
The plaintiffs include Houston-based general contractors Ipsum General Contractors, LLC and Houston Construction Services; Sugarland-based medical technology distributor Mpulse Healthcare & Technology LLC; Burleson-based restoration firm Williams Professional Water Restoration Service LLC; and the greater Houston chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, a nonprofit trade association that represents 155 minority- and women-owned contractors.
Along with Hancock, the lawsuit also names Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Marc Williams, Texas Health and Human Services Commission Executive Commissioner Stephanie Muth and Texas Facilities Commission Executive Director Will McKerall, whose departments all implemented Hancock’s changes to the HUB program.
Travis County district judge Amy Meachum set a trial date for the suit for Nov. 9.
The background: HUB businesses received 3,634 contracts totaling more than $4 billion in 2024, according to the Comptroller’s Office. Republicans in the state Legislature filed several bills aimed at killing the HUB program entirely last year, but legislation failed in both chambers.
In October, Hancock announced that his office would not issue new or renewed certifications while the program was being reviewed. His decision pushed the program into the national battle over government initiatives seen as those focused on “diversity, equity and inclusion.” The comptroller’s office then cited emergency powers to restructure the program in December, removing all women and minority business and limiting eligibility to only service-disabled veteran business owners.
“Businesses deserve a level playing field where government contracts are earned by performance and best value — not race or sex quotas,” Hancock, who is running in a competitive GOP primary for comptroller, wrote on social media at the time.
That change shrank the program from more than 15,000 participants to just under 500. HUB certified business owners said at the time that the change risked undercutting their business strategy and would hurt their bottom line.
State Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat who co-authored the 1999 bill that codified the program into state law, said the Legislature, not the comptroller, is empowered to change the program.
“The Legislature voted. The answer was no,” West said. “The Comptroller doesn’t get to override that decision because he disagrees with it — that’s not his role under the Texas Constitution, and these business owners deserve to have that principle upheld in court.”
This is the first lawsuit challenging Hancock’s changes to the program.
Why the businesses are suing: During a news conference in Austin announcing the suit in March, the business owners said they are suing because they all lost out on government contracts after Hancock stripped their HUB certification in December.
“In this country, the legislature passes the laws, not the comptroller, and Texas is no different,” Alphonso David, president & CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum, and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, wrote in a statement. “The HUB case highlights a fundamental American principle — members of the executive branch cannot rewrite laws passed by the state legislature. They cannot deny citizens of their legal rights without a court order, legislative approval, or due process.
“Acting Comptroller Hancock took a program created by statute and rewrote it without any legal authority. His actions are baseless and unlawful and must be reversed.”
The businesses ultimately want the court to restore the program to its original form, arguing that Hancock overstepped his statutory authority, deprived them of state contracts without due process and violated the Texas Constitution.
Ruben Mercado Jr., founder of Ipsum General Contractors, said a contract he was drafting a $1 million bid for was withdrawn after Hancock restructured the program in December.
Wendell Stamley, president of the National Association of Minority Contractors, said its members in Texas have seen government contracts canceled and work they were expecting be unexpectedly returned to competitive bidding.
What state officials said: The comptroller’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the injunction granted on Monday. In a statement in March, Hancock defended the changes to HUB by pointing to the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended affirmative action in college admissions and a 2025 executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott that banned DEI policies in Texas agencies.
“Every Texas business is equally eligible to compete for state contracts, regardless of race or gender,” Hancock wrote. “Through the Centralized Master Bidders List, the primary system agencies use to notify vendors of bidding opportunities, any qualified business can register and compete. Texas will continue expanding opportunity for small businesses across our state the right way — rooted in fairness, equal treatment, and the Constitution.”
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Texas man accused of trying to kill OpenAI CEO Sam Altman by throwing a Molotov cocktail at his San Francisco home was experiencing a mental health crisis and has been overcharged by prosecutors, his public defender said Tuesday.
Daniel Moreno-Gama made his first court appearance on state charges with disheveled hair and wearing an orange jail uniform. The 20-year-old, whose attorney said is autistic, kept his gaze down during the brief hearing and softly answered “yes” when asked by a judge whether he agreed to continue his arraignment. San Francisco Judge Kenneth Wine ordered him held without bail and set his arraignment for May 5.
Authorities say Moreno-Gama, of Spring, Texas, hurled the incendiary device at Altman’s home Friday, setting an exterior gate on fire before fleeing on foot. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama went to OpenAI’s headquarters about 3 miles (5 kilometers) away and threatened to burn down the building, they said. They said he traveled to the city from Texas.
No one was injured at Altman’s home or the company’s offices. San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Diamond Ward called the case a “property crime, at best,” and said that prosecutors are pursuing higher charges to curry favor for Altman. Moreno-Gama also faces federal charges.
“It is unfair and is unjust for the San Francisco district attorney and the federal government to fearmonger and to exploit the mental illness of a vulnerable, young man by turning a vandalism case into an attempted murder, life exposure case to gain support of a billionaire, and to get political points at the expense of true justice for everyone involved,” Ward said.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins disputed that he was overcharged, saying Moreno-Gama carried out a “targeted attack on Mr. Altman” and that prosecutors had evidence to back up the charges. She said prosecutors would act the same whether the victim was a “billionaire or a CEO or any average San Franciscan.”
“Regardless of a victim’s status, they all deserve justice and they all deserve safety,” she said.
Moreno-Gama’s parents said in a statement he has never harmed anyone and recently began having mental health issues.
“We have been trying our best to address these issues and get him effective treatment, and we are very concerned for his well-being,” they said.
Authorities said Moreno-Gama, who works part-time at a pizzeria and is attending community college, expressed hatred of artificial intelligence in his writings, describing it as a danger to humanity and warning of “impending extinction,” according to court filings.
“This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious,” FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo said during a news conference Monday.
Moreno-Gama is charged in California state court with two counts of attempted murder and attempted arson. He tried to kill both Altman and a security guard at Altman’s residence, Jenkins alleged. Officials have not said whether Altman was home at the time, prosecutors said.
Jenkins said the state charges carry penalties ranging from 19 years to life in prison.
On Monday morning, FBI agents went to Moreno-Gama’s home in a Houston suburb where they spent several hours before leaving. He has also been charged by federal prosecutors with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives. Those charges carry respective penalties of up to 10 years and 20 years in prison.
“We will treat this as an act of domestic terrorism, and together with our partners, prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law,” U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said.
The document in which Moreno-Gama discussed his opposition to AI also made threats against Altman and executives at other AI companies, officials said.
“If I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message,” Moreno-Gama wrote, according to authorities.
Advocacy groups that have issued grave warnings about AI’s risks to society condemned the violence.
Anthony Aguirre, president and CEO of the Future of Life Institute, said in a written statement Friday that “violence and intimidation of any kind have no place in the conversation about the future of AI.”
Another group, PauseAI, said in a statement that the suspect had no role in the group but joined its forum on the social media platform Discord about two years ago and posted about 34 messages there, none containing explicit calls to violence but one that was flagged as “ambiguous.”
Discord said Monday that it has banned Moreno-Gama for “off-platform behavior.”
AUSTIN (AP) — The medical officer for the Texas summer camp where 27 girls were killed in a flood last year testified Tuesday she still has not officially reported the deaths to the state health agency that regulates camps and is reviewing its application to reopen this summer.
Mary Liz Eastland, a member of the family that owns and operates Camp Mystic, was questioned in a legal fight between the camp operators and families of victims who have filed lawsuits and want the camp to preserve damaged areas as evidence. The hearing over the past two days has produced the most extensive details from camp operators of what happened in the July 4 predawn flood on the Guadalupe River, and the delayed decisions to evacuate until it was too late.
While the deaths of 25 campers and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp have been widely reported and are not in question, the Texas administrative code requires camps to report deaths to state health regulators within 24 hours.
“I did not think of this requirement in the moments happening after the flood,” Eastland said, adding she also had not done so leading up to camp’s March 31 application to reopen.
Eastland could not recall exactly when she learned campers had died, saying it could have been a day, or several days, after the flood. Richard Eastland, her father-in-law, also was killed.
When pressed if she should formally report the deaths now with the camp license pending, Mary Liz Eastland said, “I guess so.”
It was unclear if the failure to report would affect the camp’s license application. A copy of the camp’s application includes lists of camp officers and flood plain maps. Operators are also required to submit a detailed safety plan, but that is shielded from public view.
State regulators will visit the camp during the license review. The agency has also said it is reviewing hundreds of complaints filed against the camp and has invited the Texas Rangers investigative unit to help. State lawmakers also are conducting a seperate investigation of the flood.
“DSHS will consider any findings from the inspection and investigation when making the determination on the renewal application,” the agency said Tuesday.
The camp’s plan to reopen part of the campus this summer and host nearly 900 girls has outraged families of the girls killed. The family of 8-year-old Cile Steward, the only camper still missing, filed the lawsuit that prompted this week’s hearing.
The Steward family has said the camp should not be allowed to reopen under the continued leadership of the Eastland family. Separately, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said no license should be issued until all the investigations are complete.
Mary Liz Eastland’s testimony came after her husband Edward Eastland spent hours under questioning Monday and Tuesday about missed weather warnings, the delayed decision to evacuate, and desperate attempts to save children as the water ripped through the camp with enough force to create rapids that swirled around the cabins.
He tearfully described grabbing two girls and another who jumped on his back before they were all washed away.
“A genuine hero testified today,” said Mikal Watts, one of the attorneys for the Eastlands. “He told a gripping story of saving lives in an unprecedented tsunami. I am proud to represent Edward Eastland and his family.”
Mary Liz Eastland recounted her steps that night when she and her children left their house to join her mother-in-law. She described water pouring into the house and breaking a window to escape. The family was able to get to higher ground.
She also described what she saw at sunrise when she went toward the river bank, “seeing girls in trees.” She and other staff gathered survivors for a head count, checking names against cabin rosters.
“I had to figure out who we had and didn’t have at that point,” she said.
But she also acknowledged never trying to get to the low-lying areas to evacuate campers in the early moments of the storm, saying she could not pass through the rising floodwaters. She was also pressed as to why, as the camp’s chief medical officer, did she not try to call or alert other medical staff to get to the campers before disaster struck.
Steward family attorney Christina Yarnell noted Eastland had been at Camp Mystic as a camper, counselor or staff member since 2002.
“You knew the property. You knew the flood lines. You knew access points,” Yarnell said. “Your children knew them. These were first-year campers … Cile needed your help and you abandoned her, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Eastland said.
CASS COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — A 12-foot-long alligator has been killed after being hit by a vehicle early Tuesday morning in Cass County.
According to Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD), Texas Game Wardens were notified at around 4 a.m. of the incident on FM 3129, which led to the euthanization of the alligator due to its injuries.
13-foot alligator removed from Sam Rayburn Lake
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For alligators in Texas, it’s mating season, and they are on the move, looking for new waterways and mates. TPWD said that if they are left alone, they will more than likely move on.
“Alligators by nature are shy animals that, if left alone, keep to themselves and play an important role as apex predators in aquatic ecosystems,” The TPWD said. “Like any predator, it’s best not to approach them, and it is illegal to feed or harass them.”
The TPWD considers removing and relocating alligators as a last resort, saying that it is only generally done if it has been identified as a nuisance or an immediate danger to the public.
COLLIN COUNTY – U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs announced that a McKinney man who was involved in the Homeland Security Task Force for trafficking cocaine and methamphetamine in the Eastern District of Texas has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III sentenced Eraldo Orozco-Fernandez, 34, to 180 months in federal prison after he entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine.
Orozco-Fernandez was pulled over for a traffic infraction in McKinney on March 31, 2023, according to information provided by the court. During the stop, a search of the car turned up more than $2,800 in cash, a gun, and about 3.76 kilograms of cocaine. Another eight kilograms of methamphetamine, about one kilogram of cocaine, and $6,000 in US dollars were found during a search of Orozco-Fernandez’s McKinney home. Orozco-Fernandez acknowledged taking part in a plot to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine in the Eastern District of Texas.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The director of the Texas summer camp where 27 campers and counselors were killed by a devastating flood in 2025 testified Monday he did not see official warnings issued the day before the storm hit, that staff had no meetings about the pending danger and that they did not make the call to evacuate until it was too late.
Over several hours of sometimes emotional testimony at a court hearing packed with families of campers who were killed, Edward Eastland provided the most detailed description yet of how camp staff did or didn’t respond as floodwaters along the Guadalupe River quickly rose to historic levels, trapping children and counselors in cabins before they were swept away in the early morning dark of July Fourth.
“I wish we never had camp that summer,” Eastland said near the end of his testimony. He acknowledged lives could have been saved if camp staff acted sooner, but insisted they could not have anticipated the severity of the storm.
This week’s hearing comes during a legal battle between the camp owners and victims’ families who have filed multiple lawsuits and the families’ demands to preserve the damage at the camp site as evidence.
And it comes as Camp Mystic plans to reopen in less than two months. The camp has applied with state regulators to renew its license so that it can open an elevated area that did not flood. Camp operators have said nearly 900 girls have registered to attend.
Eastland acknowledged the camp had no detailed written flood evacuation plan. He also said more campers would have survived if he and his father, camp co-owner Richard Eastland, as well as a camp safety director had made quicker decisions to evacuate.
By the time they did, the waters were so high and so fast they were producing rapids that swirled around some cabins, he said.
Eastland also acknowledged staff didn’t use simple measures like using campus loudspeakers to tell campers and counselors to leave their cabins and get to higher ground earlier in the storm.
Cici Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cile is the only camp victim still missing, said after the testimony the state should deny the camp’s license.
“It is so clear they are incapable of keeping children safe,” Cici Steward said.
Eastland attorney Mikal Watts declined comment immediately after the hearing.
Missed warnings and missed chances to evacuate
Eastland said he and other staff were signed up for an emergency warning system on their phones and used other weather apps. But he said he did not see flood watch social media posts by the National Weather Service and the Texas Department of Emergency Management on July 2 and 3.
Eastland said he thought the local “CodeRED” mobile phone alert system and phone weather apps staff had at the time “was enough.”
A July 3 National Weather Service alert asked area broadcasters to note that locally heavy rainfall could cause flash flooding in rivers, creeks, streams and low-lying areas, all features of the Camp Mystic property.
Eastland said that his father typically monitored weather issues and that he did not believe camp staff held a meeting about the alerts and warnings that day.
The storms would hit in the overnight hours, killing 25 campers, two teenage counselors and Richard Eastland, who had loaded up his large SUV with campers before the vehicle was swept away. None survived.
“We did not expect what was going to happen,” Edward Eastland said.
“You were warned,” said Brad Beckworth, an attorney representing the Steward family.
Eastland says campus loudspeakers were not used to issue a weather warning
The courtroom heard part of a video of “Taps” played over loudspeakers when the campers went to bed at around 10 p.m. July 3.
Eastland said he went to bed about 11 p.m. and never received a National Weather Service flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m.. He said he slept through a CodeRED alert text at the same time that warned of a flood event that could last several hours.
His father called him on a walkie-talkie shortly before 2 a.m. to tell him about hard rain falling and the need to move canoes and water equipment off the riverfront. They did not move to evacuate cabins at that point.
“It was not reasonable to do that at that time,” Eastland said. “The water wasn’t out of the Guadalupe River. It was pouring down rain and lightning and the cabins were safe at that time.”
Richard Eastland made the call to evacuate cabins about 3 a.m., Edward Eastland said.
Lawyers for the families introduced a signed statement from a counselor who described the horror of the night. She woke up during the storm and could see girls running for shelter.
“The water was rising faster than anything I have ever witnessed,” the counselor wrote. She said Edward Eastland eventually approached the cabin in knee-deep water, told her it was too late to leave and they should ride out the storm there.
The counselor said she tried to keep the children out of the rising water pouring in before she was eventually swept away herself.
Eastland also tearfully described trying to grab two girls and a third who jumped on his back while he stood bracing himself in a cabin doorway before they were washed away. He and a counselor eventually were pushed into a tree.
“The water was over my head very quickly. The water was churning,” Eastland said.
At one point, several family members left the courtroom during a cellphone video taken the night of the flood. Someone could be heard yelling “Help!” in the background.
Flooding killed at least 136 people along the Guadalupe River
All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.
Texas health regulators said last week they are investigating hundreds of complaints filed against the camp owners. The Texas Rangers are also helping look into allegations of neglect, according to the Texas Department of Safety, although the scope of the state’s elite investigations unit was not immediately clear.
The hearing is scheduled to continue Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas said Monday he will retire from Congress after bipartisan calls to expel him.
Gonzales had already said he would not seek reelection after admitting to an affair with a staff member who had later died by suicide. His retirement announcement came just hours after Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said he would be resigning from Congress as he also confronted allegations of sexual misconduct.
House Republican leaders had already called on the three-term Gonzales to not seek reelection as they try to hold on to a strongly Republican district in November’s midterm elections. And the House Ethics Committee had initiated an investigation. Under House ethics rules, lawmakers may not engage in a sexual relationship with any employee of the House under their supervision.
“There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,” Gonzales said in a social media post. “When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office.”
He said it has been a privilege “to serve the great people of Texas.” He gave no further details on his plans to step down. Previously, he had insisted he would serve out the remainder of his term as the GOP works to hold its slim House majority.
Last month, the top Republican and Democratic members on the House Ethics Committee said in a joint statement that an investigative panel would look into whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct toward an employee in his office and whether he discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.
That announcement came the same day that Gonzales, appearing on the “Joe Pags Show,” was asked if he had a relationship with the aide, Regina Ann Santos-Aviles.
“I made a mistake and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith, and I take full responsibility for those actions,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales went on to say he had reconciled with his wife and had asked God to forgive him. He also said he looked forward to the Ethics Committee investigation.
But as lawmakers returned from a two-week break on Monday, there was a growing clamor among members to take a stand against alleged sexual misconduct. Swalwell’s alleged transgressions brought renewed attention to the issue.
Comments from lawmakers on social media suggested some were open to an expulsion trade-off of sorts that would affect each party equally.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., said both Gonzales and Swalwell “are not fit to serve in Congress given their sexual transgressions against women who work for them.”
“There’s already been a resolution announced to expel Swalwell that I will support. I will introduce a resolution to expel Rep. Gonzales,” Leger Fernandez said.
In a separate post that came after the Texas lawmaker made his retirement announcement, she challenged Gonzales to make it “effective immediately.”
“He has until 2PM tomorrow — when we will file his expulsion,” she said on X.
CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) – In parched southern Texas, a yearslong drought has depleted Corpus Christi’s water reserves so gravely that the city is scrambling to prevent a shortage that could force painful cutbacks for residents and hobble the refineries and petrochemical plants in a major energy port.
Experts said the city didn’t expect such a bad drought, and new sources of reliable water didn’t arrive as expected. Those problems arose as the city increased its water sales to big industrial customers.
“We just have not kept up with water supply and water infrastructure like we should have. And it’s decades in the making,” said Peter Zanoni, the city manager since 2019.
Corpus Christi, a city of about 317,000 people that also supplies water to nearby counties, is closely tied to its oil and gas industry. The region makes everyday essentials like fuel and steel and ships them to the world.
Zanoni said it is highly unlikely the city will run out of water, but without significant rainfall or new sources, residents may face forced cutbacks and industry may have to do with less. At a time when the Iran war is already raising gas prices, the shortage is hitting an area that produces 5% of the U.S. gasoline supply.
Droughts are common, but this one has dragged on for most of the past seven years. Key reservoirs are at their lowest point ever. The quickest fix is different weather.
“We are actively praying for a hurricane,” former city council member David Loeb said, half in jest. Loeb doesn’t want anyone injured, but after wrestling with previous droughts in his time on the council, he feels the lack of rain acutely.
The drought isn’t expected to lift by summer, leaving officials scrambling to tap more groundwater to avoid an emergency.
After the last drought in the early 2010s, the city approved a pipeline extension to bring in more water from the Colorado River and promoted conservation. In the years that followed, water use actually fell. The city, seeing opportunity, added a petrochemical plant and steel mill to its long list of industrial customers.
City officials had allowed for drought in their calculations — just not this kind of drought, Zanoni said. It has hit especially hard because reservoirs never fully recharged after the last one.
And it’s come at a bad time.
After many years, the pipeline extension finally delivered its full capacity only last year. Meanwhile, discussion of building a desalination plant that would remove salt from seawater — a potentially drought-proof solution recommended in 2016 — bogged down over concerns about costs as high as $1.3 billion and environmental impact.
“If the then-city council had followed through on that, we would have had that plant up and running by now,” Zanoni said.
Corpus Christi has followed its long-established plan for reducing water use. Stage 1 seeks voluntary actions from citizens like taking shorter showers and limiting how often they can water. Currently, the city is in Stage 3, which means pauses on many outdoor water uses.
Many residents are angry that they can’t water their lawns, that their bills are set to rise sharply and that they may face fines, said Isabel Araiza, co-founder of a grassroots group active on water issues. Some don’t feel industry will be asked to share in the pain, she said.
The city’s drought plan allows for charging residents and businesses extra if they use lots of water. But big industry, which Zanoni says consumes as much as 60% of the city’s water, can opt to pay a permanent surcharge to avoid the possibility of having a much larger fee added in times of drought.
Araiza calls it a bad system. Once industry pays the surcharge, she said, they have no incentive to conserve water.
A Port of Corpus Christi police officer guides a boat through the port Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
A Port of Corpus Christi police officer guides a boat through the port Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
The city has defended the system, saying in a statement that industry does not “get a pass on water conservation” or forced curtailment. The statement said the business surcharges have raised $6 million a year.
It is wrong to suggest industry isn’t helping, said Bob Paulison, executive director of the Coastal Bend Industry Association. Companies have stopped landscaping, they recycle water for essential cooling needs and they are looking for alternative water sources, he said.
The city hasn’t imposed extra costs on anyone yet.
But Zanoni said water rates may eventually double as the city invests roughly $1 billion on infrastructure — costs that some argue will disproportionately benefit industry and make life for residents more expensive.
The city is in a water emergency when it has 180 days before water supply can’t keep up with demand. Officials have run through different scenarios for getting new water and the drought easing, and have said an emergency could come as early as May, as late as October, or not at all.
The city has tapped into millions of gallons of new groundwater, and it hopes to get even more.
The biggest unknown is the Evangeline Groundwater Project, which involves a pipeline and about two dozen wells that could add enough water to head off an emergency. It still needs state approval but the city hopes water could be flowing as soon as November. New sources come with drawbacks – some have raised water quality concerns, and there are worries too much pumping could deplete groundwater.
If the city has to declare a water emergency, it would be able to more aggressively curtail water use – mandatory reductions that would apply evenly to all industry and residents. That is a sensitive decision and is likely to be a “knock-down drag-out bloodbath,” Loeb said.
Because residents on average have already reduced their water use, future mandatory cuts are likely to fall heavier on industry.
“It’ll be an unbelievable disaster,” said Don Roach, former assistant general manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District that has lots of industrial customers in the area. “When you cut the cooling water off to most of these industries, they just have to shut down. There’s no other way around it.”
Paulison said companies that produce fuel, polymers, iron and steel “have the least amount of flexibility in just cutting water usage.” He added, however, that companies remain optimistic they can reduce usage, adapt and continue operations.
Zanoni said the city’s plans should buy time to avert the worst.
“We are hoping we don’t get there, but we don’t work on hope,” he said.
EL PASO (AP) – Federal regulators have cited three contractors, including one owned by a campaign donor to President Donald Trump, for safety violations stemming from the death of a worker helping build a major immigration detention center last year.
Violations deemed serious by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration were found in its investigation into the July 21, 2025, death of Hector Gonzalez, 38, who was crushed by falling materials in a construction accident as contractors raced to build Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.
The violations were highlighted in a report released Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen, which scrutinized the companies profiting from work at the costly but troubled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.
Gonzalez’s death came days after the Army awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to Acquisition Logistics to build and operate the camp at Fort Bliss, near the U.S.-Mexico border. The site opened the next month and quickly became ICE’s largest detention center for immigrants awaiting or challenging their deportation, eventually housing more than 3,000 people at times.
The camp has been beset by allegations of inhumane conditions, disease outbreaks and the deaths of three detainees in December and January. A February inspection by ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight found dozens of violations of national standards. ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics, a small Virginia company that had no prior experience running a detention facility, as the prime contractor last month, awarding a no-bid contract to Amentum Services.
“The Trump administration is doling out billions of dollars in taxpayer funds on contracts that have led to the deaths of four people in a six-month period. And things are not likely to improve,” said Public Citizen researcher Douglas Pasternak, who authored Monday’s report.
OSHA investigated Gonzalez’s death, as it does routinely for workplace fatalities, to determine whether safety rules were followed. It ultimately declined to cite Acquisition Logistics but sought penalties against three subcontractors that helped build the camp. The companies — Base International, JMJ Production Services and Fulfillment Personnel Services — were cited in January for violations of safety standards governing the use of powered industrial trucks, records show.
Base International — owned by Florida businessman Nathan Albers, a donor to Trump and other Republican Party politicians and groups in recent years — employed Gonzalez. OSHA found the company violated a safety standard by exposing employees to “struck-by hazards” from an unstable, elevated load of stacked composite beams on a forklift while they were unloading supplies.
The investigation cited the other two companies for violating that standard as well as another by failing to ensure employees were certified to operate powered industrial trucks on the site.
JMJ Production Services and Fulfillment Personnel Services each agreed to pay reduced fines of $15,000 for the violations as part of settlements with OSHA in February. But Base International is contesting its citation, for which OSHA has proposed a $11,585 penalty, the agency’s enforcement database shows. If a settlement is not reached, an administrative law judge will hold a hearing to consider the appeal.
“Base International is appealing the ruling, because there was no wrongdoing by the company,” company spokesperson Tom McNicholas said.
Albers is also CEO of Disaster Management Group, a federal contractor that shares the same Jupiter, Florida, address as Base International.
Public Citizen’s report described Albers as a close associate of the Trump family who donated more than $150,000 to Republican campaigns in 2025. It said Albers’ wife had co-chaired a pet fundraiser at Mar-A-Lago with Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, last month.
Juan Munoz, founder and president of Austin, Texas-based JMJ Production Services, told the AP by phone Friday, “I wish I could talk about that but you’d have to talk to my attorneys.” He didn’t respond to a follow-up email he requested.
Fulfillment Personnel Services, based in Mobile, Alabama, did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.
SPRING, Texas (AP) — The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI founder Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco was opposed to artificial intelligence and had list of other AI tech executives, according to court documents.
Authorities allege Daniel Moreno-Gama threw the incendiary device about 4 a.m. Friday, setting an exterior gate at Altman’s home alight before fleeing on foot, police said. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama allegedly went to OpenAI’s headquarters and reportedly threatened to burn down the building.
On Monday morning, FBI agents went to Moreno-Gama’s home in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston, where they spent several hours before leaving. He has been charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives.
When Moreno-Gama was arrested Friday, officials found a document on him in which he “identified views opposed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the executives of various AI companies,” court documents say.
Moreno-Gama wrote of AI’s purported risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to the criminal complaint.
Advocacy groups that have issued grave warnings about AI’s risks to society condemned the violence.
Anthony Aguirre, president and CEO of the Future of Life Institute, said in a written statement Friday that “violence and intimidation of any kind have no place in the conversation about the future of AI.”
Hours after the attack on his house, Altman posted a photo of his husband and their toddler in a blog post addressing the threats against him.
“Normally we try to be pretty private, but in this case I am sharing a photo in the hopes that it might dissuade the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house, no matter what they think about me,” Altman wrote.
He added that “fear and anxiety about AI is justified” but it was important to “de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally.”
TEXARKANA, Texas (KETK) — A man has died from his injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash on Friday in Texarkana.
According to the Texarkana Police Department, 53-year-old Russell Daily of Arkansas was traveling eastbound on West Seventh Street at a high speed when his motorcycle left the curved roadway past the CPKC Railroad underpass.
Daily struck a metal bench at the T-Line bus stop at Elm Street and was transported to CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital. The police department said he later died from his injuries.
“Traffic investigators determined that excessive speed and the use of a vehicle tire on the motorcycle were the primary contributing factors in this crash,” the police department said. “It was also noted that Mr. Daily was not wearing a helmet.”
The police department urges all drivers to ensure motorcycles are properly equipped and to take precautions while on the road.
HOUSTON (AP) — Never-before-glimpsed views of the moon’s far side. Check. Total solar eclipse gracing the lunar scene. Check. New distance record for humanity. Check.
With NASA’s lunar comeback a galactic-sized smash thanks to Artemis II, the world is wondering: What’s next? And how do you top that?
“To people all around the world who look up and dream about what is possible, the long wait is over,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said as he introduced Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen at Saturday’s jubilant homecoming celebration.
Now that the first lunar travelers in more than a half-century are safely back in Houston with their families, NASA has Artemis III in its sights.
“The next mission’s right around the corner,” entry flight director Rick Henfling observed following the crew’s Pacific splashdown on Friday.
In a mission recently added to the docket for next year, Artemis III’s yet-to-be -named astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are racing to have their company’s lander ready first.
Musk’s Starship and Bezos’ Blue Moon are vying for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028. Two astronauts will aim for the south polar region, the preferred location for Isaacman’s envisioned $20 billion to $30 billion moon base. Vast amounts of ice are almost certainly hidden in permanently shadowed craters there — ice that could provide water and rocket fuel.
The docking mechanism for Artemis III’s close-to-home trial run is already at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The latest model Starship is close to launching on a test flight from South Texas, and a scaled-down version of Blue Moon will attempt a lunar landing later this year.
NASA promises to announce the Artemis III crew “soon.” Like 1969’s Apollo 9, Artemis III aims to reduce risk for the moon landings that follow.
Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart loved flying the lunar module in low-Earth orbit — “a test pilot’s dream.” But there’s no question, he noted, that “the real astronauts” at least in the public’s mind were the ones who walked on the moon.
Wiseman and his crew put their passion and feelings on full display as they flew around the moon and back, choking up over lost loved ones as well as those left behind on Earth.
During the their nearly 10-day journey, they tearfully requested that a fresh, bright lunar crater be named after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020. They also openly shared their love for one another and Planet Earth, an exquisite yet delicate oasis in the black void that they said needs better care.
Artemis II included the first woman, the first person of color and the first non-U.S. citizen to fly to the moon.
“Wonderful communicators, almost poets,” Isaacman said from the recovery ship while awaiting their return.
Apollo’s manly, all-business moon crews of the 1960s and 1970s certainly did not do group hugs.
For those old enough to remember Apollo, Artemis — Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology — couldn’t come fast enough.
Author Andy Chaikin said he felt like Rip Van Winkle awakening from a nearly 54-year nap. His 1994 biography “A Man on the Moon” led to the HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon.”
“It’s amazing how far we’ve come and how different this experience is from back then,” Chaikin said from Johnson Space Center late last week.
The hardest part, according to NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, is becoming so close to the crews and their families and then blasting them to the moon. He anxiously monitored Friday’s reentry alongside the astronauts’ spouses and children.
“You know what’s at stake,” Kshatriya confided afterward. “It’s going to take risk to explore, but you have to make sure you find the right line between being paralyzed by it and being able to manage it.”
Calling it “mission complete” only after being reunited with his two daughters, Wiseman issued a rallying cry to the rows of blue-flight-suited astronauts at Saturday’s celebration.
“It is time to go and be ready,” he said, pointing at them, “because it takes courage. It takes determination, and you all are freaking going and we are going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every possible way possible.”
KEMP, Texas (KETK) – The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office said three people were arrested on Friday after an illegal game room was searched in Kemp.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies executed a search warrant at “The Box” game room on N. Seven Points Boulevard in Kemp at around 12 p.m. on Friday.
“This operation is part of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office’s ongoing commitment to investigate and prevent illegal gaming activity within the county,” the sheriff’s office said in a post.
Alisha Norris, 43 of Gun Barrel City, was arrested at the scene and charged with gambling promotion, keeping a gambling place, possession of gambling device, equipment, or paraphernalia and engaging in organized criminal activity. Henderson County Jail records show that Norris is currently being held on a total bond of $42,500.
Later, Gayla Stanley, 64 of Gun Barrel City, and Rad Quarrington, 62 of Mabank, were also both arrested and charged with gambling promotion, keeping a gambling place, possession of gambling device, equipment, or paraphernalia and engaging in organized criminal activity.
Stanley’s being held in the Henderson County Jail on a total bond of $80,000. Quarrington’s bond has not been set and he remains in the Henderson County Jail.
Lynette Hooker bounced around the deck of the docked Soul Mate, smiled into the camera and proclaimed: “We’re finally leaving Kemah,” referring to a Texas port town.
“It’s only been four months,” she said as her husband, Brian, tugged on some rigging as they got ready to set sail.
The “Gulf Crossing” video more than three years ago marked the start of a sailing adventure — chronicled on Facebook — for a couple who are now at the center of criminal investigations after Lynette went missing in the Bahamas.
A few days after Lynette disappeared, police in the Atlantic Ocean island nation arrested Brian. He denies causing his wife’s death and has been cooperating with law enforcement, his attorney, Terrel Butler, said.
On Friday, Brian’s attorney reiterated his innocence and said his wife has not been found. She said police had just finished an intensive 4-hour interview with him in which she described him as continuously asking about his wife.
“He was a bit puzzled because he was uncertain as to why they were questioning him about causing harm or possible murder when they had not given him any information in terms of where she is, if they had recovered her,” she said.
Brian Hooker had told police that his wife of more than 20 years fell overboard Saturday night from a small motorboat that was carrying the couple from Hope Town to Elbow Cay, small islands on the eastern end of the Bahamas. He said Lynette, 55, had the keys and the boat’s engine shut off.
“Strong currents subsequently carried her away, and he lost sight of her,” police said in a statement Saturday.
He paddled to shore and alerted others early Sunday, said authorities, who arrested and questioned him Wednesday.
The U.S. Coast Guard has opened an investigation separate from the one by Bahamas authorities.
Karli Aylesworth, Lynette’s daughter, has said it’s unlikely her mother would “just fall” from a boat.
And while the couple is seen smiling, laughing and joking in social media videos of their voyage, they have a history of contention.
Brian and Lynette Hooker accused each other of assault in 2015, according to a Kentwood, Michigan, police report obtained by NBC News.
Brian Hooker, who was intoxicated and bleeding from the nose, told police his wife had struck him multiple times in the face, the report said. He told officers Lynette also was drunk. She was arrested for assault and spent the night in jail. A warrant was denied because it wasn’t clear “who started the assault.”
Aylesworth also told NBC that the couple’s relationship was volatile and that they have a “history of not getting along, especially when they drink.”
The couple’s home is in Onsted, about 72 miles (117 kilometers) southwest of Detroit. The closest big body of water is Lake Erie, about 60 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Onsted.
Lynette Hooker’s mother, Darlene Hamlett, said Wednesday that the family “grew up on water” and that her daughter’s life has been “near lakes, on boats, sailing and swimming.”
The couple posted videos of their years sailing around the Caribbean on their “Sailing Hookers” Facebook page.
Lynette, in the March 2023 video, describes the start of the couple’s voyage aboard the Soul Mate as the sailboat slips through the Kemah, Texas, fog and into the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
“Pretty cool,” Lynette said as Brian blared the Soul Mate’s foghorn. Later, while changing an engine alternator belt, he looks up at his wife and says, “Hi sexy.”
In an earlier video, the couple explains how they bought the Soul Mate in the coastal town of Rockport, Texas, and fixed it up.
“After several years of driving around the country, looking for our perfect sailboat, we finally found her in Texas,” Lynette said in that eight-minute video, posted in January 2023. “She was a little rough on the edges. The decks needed to be redone, but we knew we were up for the task.”
That video shows them working together, scraping, priming and painting. “The decks are done! we’re still married! party time!” is printed in a message on the video.
A video posted two years ago shows them using their smaller motorboat to buy food on land. The video doesn’t give the couple’s location.
“We got the grub,” Brian says into the camera, which shifts to a case of beer at his feet and bags of groceries in the bow. “Delivery … the way of life, man.”
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Associated Press writers R.J. Rico and Dánica Coto contributed to this report. Freelance videographer Keith Gomez also contributed to this report.