Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
TRINITY COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — After months of struggling with overcrowding and plumbing issues, an East Texas commissioners court will decide whether to close or maintain the county’s jail.
In November 2025, a bond to build a new Trinity County Jail failed to pass voter approval, which would replace the current jail that continues to face plumbing and capacity issues. Since that time, the county has partnered with neighboring agencies to accommodate inmates; however, escalating budget costs may lead to the indefinite closure of the jail.
The Trinity County Commissioners Court met on Tuesday to consider all funding and alternative jailing options before next week’s final decision. In an hour-and-a-half-long meeting, the commissioners court, Sheriff Woody Wallace and several community members came together to exhaust all options.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Tommy Park stated that the key consideration is whether the jail will result in savings or additional expenses. He emphasized that a decision is necessary as the budgeting process for the upcoming fiscal year nears, with costs starting to surpass the anticipated figures.
According to Park, the budget allocated for jail maintenance this fiscal year was approximately $10,000. As of Tuesday, the total expenditure has reached around $23,000, with an additional $1,896 still pending. The commissioners’ court noted that in previous years, the total budget spent on the jail was about $25,000.
In December 2025, the jail was out of compliance with the state, housing 13 inmates when it could only house a state-approved seven. At the time, the jail was also facing infrastructure issues of a backed-up sewer that was causing flooding throughout the jail.
Inmates were temporarily relocated to the Jasper County Jail and Trinity County secured a contract with Angelina County to house inmates as the facility was inspected and repaired. The contract, approved in January, costs the county an approximate $3,000 per day to house the inmates.
“I know we can hash out the numbers and how much we want to save or not save, but there are a lot of other things we gotta think about and that’s where we all gotta put our heads together — the sheriff, auditor, us, the judge,” Park said on Tuesday, addressing the commissioners court. “Bottom line is if we close this jail down, it’s never gonna open back up. I don’t necessarily know if we want to open it back up. It’s almost a hundred years old.”
In the special meeting, the commissioners court discussed several options — from utilizing the City of Trinity Police Department to continuing the contract with Angelina County. Ultimately, each decision would cost the county, as police officers and department staff would need to be jail certified and jailers would still be needed to transport inmates to and from other county jails.
Sheriff Woody Wallace, who has been outspoken on the jail’s issues, raises concerns of short-term versus long-term resolutions. He brought the question to the commissioners: “So the issue here is do we continue maintaining a building that’s almost a hundred years old? I would love not to. I think it’s pitiful that we have to do it.”
In the special meeting, Wallace agrees with commissioners that the current situation of maintaining a building as old as the jail or transporting inmates across county lines is not cost-effective, but that a jail is a necessity regardless.
Wallace cites that having an operating jail is a county’s obligation to serve its citizens and inmates. He also said it works as a means of controlling crime.
“The county is not in business to ‘save money’ — it’s in business to provide the service to the citizens,” Wallace told the commissioners court. “We have to provide a service to citizens and one of the statutory obligations of this court is to provide the sheriff with a jail. You can do that with a contract across the line, that’s not a problem, but you also have to meet the demands inside the county that we’re dealing with on a daily basis.”
After hearing the sheriff’s remarks and community input, the decision to close or otherwise maintain the county jail will be made on April 14 at 9 a.m. in a regular commissioners court meeting.
POLK COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — An East Texas man could face up to life in prison after he was arrested for being in possession of child pornography on Wednesday.
Photo of Jose Sanchez courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, early Wednesday morning, deputies assisted the Texas Department of Public Safety in executing a search warrant of Jose Sanchez’s home after he was believed to be in possession of child pornography obtained from the internet.
Following the search of his home, Sanchez was arrested and charged with five counts of possession of child pornography. Based on the charges, Sanchez could potentially be sentenced to 99 years in prison or receive a life sentence.
The investigation remains ongoing and additional charges may be filed against Sanchez, the sheriff said.
AUSTIN (AP) – Texas hemp industry leaders and advocacy groups have sued the state to block new regulations that eliminate natural smokeable hemp products and increase licensing fees.
The Texas Hemp Business Council, Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, and several Texas-based dispensaries and manufacturers filed for a temporary restraining order in state district court in Travis County against the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission on Tuesday. They argue that the agencies have overstepped their constitutional authority by rewriting the statutory definitions of hemp established by lawmakers in 2019.
“Under current Texas law, hemp is defined by its delta-9 THC concentration of not more than 0.3%,” said David Sergi, an attorney for the hemp coalition, in a press release. “These Texas officials and state agencies are clearly attempting to create new law in direct contradiction to what the Texas legislature intended.”
Even though Texas law bans marijuana, lawmakers legalized hemp in 2019. State law defines hemp as containing less than 0.3% levels of intoxicating Delta-9 THC.
To get around the law’s Delta-9 THC restrictions, manufacturers started cultivating hemp plants with another type of THC, called THCA, that, when ignited in a joint or smokeable product, can produce a high. Many lawmakers have said this legal loophole has allowed a recreational THC market to appear overnight without direct approval from the state.
Last year, the Texas Legislature voted to ban the products out of fear that these intoxicating products were consistently getting into the hands of children. But, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the decision last summer, before asking the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and DSHS to increase regulations on the industry instead.
The Texas Department of State Health Services released regulations on consumable hemp-derived THC products that went into effect on March 31. These new regulations include child-resistant packaging, a significant increase in licensing fees, new labeling, testing, and bookkeeping requirements. The rules also codify the legal purchasing age to 21, which went into effect last year as an emergency directive.
Also under the new rules, laboratories tests now measure the total amount of any THC in a product. If the THC levels exceed the 0.3% threshold, even if it’s only activated upon being smoked, the product will be noncompliant under state regulations. As a result, some of the most popular hemp products, like THCA flower and pre-rolled joints, have been banned.
Hemp businesses caught selling noncompliant products face a range of penalties and fines, including license revocation and up to $10,000 in violation fees for each day these products were sold in stores.
“An administrative agency may not substitute its own policy judgment for the outcome produced by the constitutional lawmaking process,” the lawsuit states. “The Texas Constitution vests legislative power in the Legislature, not administrative agencies.”
Retailers cannot sell hemp to out-of-state customers either.
The rules also increase licensing fees for manufacturers of hemp-derived THC from $258 to $10,000 per facility and retail registrations from $155 to $5,000, which industry leaders say will fulfill the ban by forcing businesses to close. The hemp business community’s lawsuit is not challenging the other new regulations, including the age verification or ones they say protect consumers.
“Texas hemp businesses wholeheartedly support those regulations, as they fall within the agency’s authority,” said Sergi. “We are seeking to halt rules that would effectively end the in-state production of hemp and the sale of hemp products—items the Legislature chose not to ban during recent legislative and special sessions.”
Concerns about the safety of these high-THC products among youth led lawmakers to attempt to ban hemp-derived THC products outright last year. While the overall ban didn’t succeed, lawmakers successfully banned vape pens containing THC and other hemp-derived intoxicating chemicals.
Data provided from the Texas Poison Center Network confirms a sharp increase in cannabis-related poisoning calls starting in 2019, a year after hemp-derived THC was legalized by the federal government, from 923 to a 10-year high of 2,592 in 2024. Calls climbed to 2,669 last year. The majority of these calls involve suspected poisoning of children under the age of five and teenagers.
Drug policy experts sa id these numbers seem alarming, but it is natural for poisoning calls to increase when a drug has become legalized, and the data needs additional context before making conclusions from it.
Jennifer Ruffcorn, spokesperson for HHSC, directed questions about the lawsuit and what it means for the new hemp regulations to DSHS.
Lara Anton, spokesperson for DSHS, declined to comment on pending litigation.
The hemp industry’s battle to stay alive in Texas started back in 2021 when the state health agency classified any amount of a natural intoxicating hemp compound called delta-8 THC as illegal. The hemp industry sued the state over its ban on delta-8 and the Texas Supreme Court is expected to consider the case this year.
The delta-8 lawsuit will have an impact on the outcome of the most recent lawsuit over the smokeable hemp ban because both lawsuits challenge the authority of a state health agency to make changes to the market without approval from lawmakers or the public.
HOUSTON (AP) — Lunar love knows no bounds.
Now hurtling home from the moon, the Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters.
Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one small, fresh crater after their capsule called Integrity and another after his late wife, Carroll. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen made the request right before Monday’s lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk.
Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020.
During Apollo 8 in 1968, astronaut Jim Lovell bestowed his wife’s name upon a prominent lunar peak: Mount Marilyn. It was humanity’s first trip to the moon and she anxiously awaited his return back home in Houston.
The three Americans and one Canadian of Artemis II are the first lunar visitors since Apollo 17 closed out that grand epoch in 1972, and their crater-naming request temporarily left ground controllers speechless.
“It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,” NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There was not a single dry eye.”
Mission Control’s lead scientist Kelsey Young worked with the Artemis II crew before launch, quietly helping them choose the two bright, relatively young craters, which they quickly spied once they were close enough to the moon through zoom lenses as well as their naked eyes.
Proposed Carroll Crater is at the moon’s left limb on the boundary of the moon’s near and far sides, and occasionally visible from Earth. It’s rather shallow and approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) across, according to Watkins. The slightly bigger Integrity crater is completely on the lunar far side.
Their request came shortly after they broke Apollo 13’s distance record for deep-space travelers. All four astronauts wept as they embraced in a group hug.
“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen radioed, his voice breaking. “It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.”
Mission Control fell silent for nearly a minute before replying: “Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear.”
The emotion-drenched scene was vastly different from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo moonshots in more ways than one. NASA’s Apollo all-male test pilots were for the most part all business and tear-free.
“This is no fault of Apollo,” Watkins said. “I think we’re seeing just a more human aspect.”
Once back on Earth later this week, the crew will submit the two proposed names to the International Astronomical Union.
Nearly a half century passed between Apollo 8 and the union’s sign-off of Mount Marilyn in 2017.
The IAU’s Ramasamy Venugopal promised a decision on Carroll and Integrity in about a month, the norm “for straightforward requests.”
There already are 81 astronaut-named lunar features on the group’s approved list, including Apollo 16’s Baby Ray and Gator, and Apollo 17’s Lara named for the lead female character in the 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago.”
Some Apollo-era nicknames didn’t make the cut.
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to walk on the moon, dubbed a split boulder “Tracy’s Rock,” after his young daughter in 1972.
And in 1969, Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad nicknamed his touchdown spot “Pete’s Parking Lot.”
DALLAS (AP) – Southwest Airlines is raising checked baggage fees by $10, less than a year after ending its “bags fly free” perk that long set it apart, as jet fuel costs have jumped since the start of the Iran war.
Customers checking one bag will pay $45 starting on Thursday, while a second will now cost $55, according to Southwest. Some travelers will still receive a free first checked bag, including certain loyalty-tier members, eligible co-branded credit card holders and active-duty military members.
The move was made “as part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop,” the Texas-based carrier said in a statement.
Southwest ended its generous, decades-old policy of allowing passengers to check two bags for free in May 2025, a move that marked a major shift for the carrier after years of marketing the perk as a key differentiator.
The airline now joins a growing list of U.S. carriers that have increased fees since the war in the Middle East began Feb. 28, sending oil prices swinging as fighting near the Strait of Hormuz disrupted global supplies. Threats to the narrow waterway where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil typically passes have pushed up jet fuel prices, which are refined from crude.
Delta Air Lines’ higher baggage fees took effect Wednesday. JetBlue and United Airlines also raised their bag fees last week.
Oil prices on Wednesday were plunging toward $95 per barrel after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran just before a deadline he had set for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf. But prices remain well above pre-war levels amid ongoing risks that the conflict could continue.
Adding to the uncertainty, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, casting doubt on whether the fragile ceasefire will hold.
The average price for a gallon of jet fuel in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York was $4.81 on Tuesday, up from $2.50 the day before the war started, according to Argus Media. The energy market intelligence company’s U.S. Jet Fuel Index tracks average prices across those major hubs.
Outside of the U.S., a number of carriers are responding by adding or increasing fuel surcharges, a tool that U.S. airlines don’t typically rely on.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — There are faster ways to get from Chicago to Los Angeles, but none have the allure or cultural cachet of Route 66.
To John Steinbeck, it was the Mother Road that led poor farmers from Dust Bowl desperation to sunny California. To Native Americans along the route, it was an economic boon that also left scars. To Black travelers, it offered sanctuary during segregation. And to music fans, it was the place to get their kicks.
Route 66 marks its 100th anniversary this year. Despite losing its status decades ago as one of the nation’s main arteries, people from around the world still flock to it to take perhaps the quintessential American road trip and soak in its neon lights, kitschy motels and attractions, and culinary offerings.
Each town has its own history and magic, said Sebastiaan de Boorder, a Dutch entrepreneur who, with his wife, breathed new life into The Aztec Motel in Seligman, Arizona.
“It’s an essential part of American culture and history,” he said of the highway. “The historical aspect is just a very big important part of American culture, with its influence and its character.”
The dream
Route 66, which runs for roughly 2,400 miles (3,860 kilometers) from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona before ending in Santa Monica, California, was stitched together a century ago from a collection of Native American trading routes and old dirt roads with the goal of linking the industrial Midwest to the Pacific coast.
Oklahoma businessman Cyrus Avery, known as the Father of Route 66, saw it as more than just a way to cross the country efficiently. It was a chance to connect rural America and create new pockets of commerce.
Avery knew the number 66 would be ripe for marketing and could be seared into drivers’ minds, and he was right: Route 66 has been immortalized in movies, books, including Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” and Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and songs such as Bobby Troup’s “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” which served as an anthem for post-World War II optimism and mobility.
Waves of migration
Since its November 1926 designation as one of the nation’s original numbered highways, the onetime Main Street of America has embodied the promise of prosperity.
It became a literal path of hope for migrants escaping drought-ravaged farms and poverty during the 1930s Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. And during World War II, it was used to move troops, equipment and workers out West.
The postwar boom of the 1940s and 1950s were Route 66’s heyday, as it became a popular vacation route. Cars became more affordable, disposable income increased, and people began chasing freedom on the open road.
“People generally have a sense of adventure, a sense curiosity. And you can find that on Route 66. This is the road of dreams,” author and historian Jim Hinckley said.
Going mainstream
Roadside diners and motels thrived, as crafty entrepreneurs dreamed up ways to part motorists from their money. There were rattlesnake pits, totem poles, trading posts, caverns where Old West outlaws purportedly hung out, and modern engineering marvels like St. Louis’ gleaming steel arch.
Barns were painted with larger-than-life ads, billboards teased local attractions, and neon was everywhere.
The cherry on top? The food.
There were places to grab and go, but also to sit down and relish a slice of home. The Cozy Dog Drive In — famous for its breaded hot dogs on a stick — has fit both bills since 1949. Inside the dining room in Springfield, Illinois, travelers tell tales of life on the highway.
“The road wouldn’t be alive without the stories of all the places along it that kept it going from town to town,” third-generation owner Josh Waldmire said. “We just survive off each other. The road feeds us, and as long as we put our feelings and love back into the road, it will reverberate with the travelers and the stories of the people.”
A divided highway
Route 66 was an economic boon to the Native American tribes along the way. But although it brought tourists, it also left scars of eminent domain across tribal land and perpetuated stereotypes.
More than half of the highway crossed through Indian Country, and vendor signs often made casual references to tipis and feathered headdresses — symbols easily appropriated for marketing but not always representative of the distinct cultures found along the route.
At Laguna Pueblo west of Albuquerque, restaurants and service stations sprang up, some operated by military veterans from the pueblo who were masters at fixing everything from flat tires to busted radiators.
Pueblo women adapted too, turning utilitarian pottery vessels into works of art coveted by tourists. Homemade bread and pies sealed the deal.
Laguna leaders have long considered the road — or he-ya-nhee’ in the tribe’s language of Keres — as “the corridor of commerce,” said businessman and tribal member Ron Solimon. Capitalizing on that potential, the tribe has built a multimillion-dollar empire of casinos, burger stands and other businesses.
There were also dangers along the route, particularly during the Jim Crow era, when Black travelers had to rely on guides like the Green Book to find safe lodging and services.
“Especially for long-distance travel, segregation was a fact of life,” said Matthew Pearce, state historian for the Oklahoma Historical Society. “And so Black motorists needed to know a safe place to go.”
The Threatt Filling Station near the central Oklahoma community of Luther wasn’t listed in the Green Book, but it did serve as a safe haven between two sundown towns, where people who weren’t white needed to leave by sunset. The station offered barbecue and even baseball.
Edward Threatt, whose grandparents opened the station around 1933, recalled a TV program about travelers getting their kicks on 66. “By and large, the Black traveler didn’t get a lot of kicks on Route 66,” he said. “And if they got some kicks, it wasn’t the kind you would think of.”
A new direction
President Dwight Eisenhower’s vision for a modern interstate highway system eventually led to Route 66 being decommissioned as a federal highway in 1985. Some towns along the route died, and it fell to local governments, state historical societies, and private businesses to preserve their sections of the famed road.
A driving force was Angel Delgadillo, a barber who lobbied the Arizona Legislature to designate the road as a historic highway. He saved Seligman from turning into a ghost town and set the bar for preservation elsewhere.
In New Mexico, original sketches for neon signs have been preserved, Route 66-themed murals abound and developers in Albuquerque have restored motor lodges along the longest urban stretch of the road still intact.
A visitor poses for photos with the “End of the Trail” Route 66 sign on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A visitor poses for photos with the “End of the Trail” Route 66 sign on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
More than 90% of the road is still drivable in California. Cadillac Ranch in the Texas Panhandle offers the chance to spray-paint half-buried cars. And at the Mississippi River, travelers can walk or bike across the old Chain of Rocks Bridge.
More than 250 of the route’s buildings, districts and road segments are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But it’s more than bricks and asphalt that fuel the fascination.
“Some of the most interesting and fun things that happen to people when they travel the route is running into somebody they know or some happenstance thing that comes totally unexpected,” said author and historian Jim Ross. “And that’s a great part of the Route 66 experience.”
TRINITY COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — After months of struggling with overcrowding and plumbing issues, an East Texas commissioners court will decide whether to close or maintain the county’s jail.
In November 2025, a bond to build a new Trinity County Jail failed to pass voter approval, which would replace the current jail that continues to face plumbing and capacity issues. Since that time, the county has partnered with neighboring agencies to accommodate inmates; however, escalating budget costs may lead to the indefinite closure of the jail.
Rep. Moran backs John Cornyn for Senate, declaring race choice between ‘character and corruption’
The Trinity County Commissioners Court met on Tuesday to consider all funding and alternative jailing options before next week’s final decision. In an hour-and-a-half-long meeting, the commissioners court, Sheriff Woody Wallace and several community members came together to exhaust all options.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Tommy Park stated that the key consideration is whether the jail will result in savings or additional expenses. He emphasized that a decision is necessary as the budgeting process for the upcoming fiscal year nears, with costs starting to surpass the anticipated figures.
According to Park, the budget allocated for jail maintenance this fiscal year was approximately $10,000. As of Tuesday, the total expenditure has reached around $23,000, with an additional $1,896 still pending. The commissioners’ court noted that in previous years, the total budget spent on the jail was about $25,000.
In December 2025, the jail was out of compliance with the state, housing 13 inmates when it could only house a state-approved seven. At the time, the jail was also facing infrastructure issues of a backed-up sewer that was causing flooding throughout the jail.
Inmates were temporarily relocated to the Jasper County Jail and Trinity County secured a contract with Angelina County to house inmates as the facility was inspected and repaired. The contract, approved in January, costs the county an approximate $3,000 per day to house the inmates.
“I know we can hash out the numbers and how much we want to save or not save, but there are a lot of other things we gotta think about and that’s where we all gotta put our heads together — the sheriff, auditor, us, the judge,” Park said on Tuesday, addressing the commissioners court. “Bottom line is if we close this jail down, it’s never gonna open back up. I don’t necessarily know if we want to open it back up. It’s almost a hundred years old.”
In the special meeting, the commissioners court discussed several options — from utilizing the City of Trinity Police Department to continuing the contract with Angelina County. Ultimately, each decision would cost the county, as police officers and department staff would need to be jail certified and jailers would still be needed to transport inmates to and from other county jails.
Sheriff Woody Wallace, who has been outspoken on the jail’s issues, raises concerns of short-term versus long-term resolutions. He brought the question to the commissioners: “So the issue here is do we continue maintaining a building that’s almost a hundred years old? I would love not to. I think it’s pitiful that we have to do it.”
In the special meeting, Wallace agrees with commissioners that the current situation of maintaining a building as old as the jail or transporting inmates across county lines is not cost-effective, but that a jail is a necessity regardless.
Wallace cites that having an operating jail is a county’s obligation to serve its citizens and inmates. He also said it works as a means of controlling crime.
“The county is not in business to ‘save money’ — it’s in business to provide the service to the citizens,” Wallace told the commissioners court. “We have to provide a service to citizens and one of the statutory obligations of this court is to provide the sheriff with a jail. You can do that with a contract across the line, that’s not a problem, but you also have to meet the demands inside the county that we’re dealing with on a daily basis.”
After hearing the sheriff’s remarks and community input, the decision to close or otherwise maintain the county jail will be made on April 14 at 9 a.m. in a regular commissioners court meeting.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The wife of a U.S. soldier was released Tuesday from a federal immigration detention facility where she had spent nearly a week after being taken into custody on a Louisiana military base.
The detention of 22-year-old Annie Ramos, the Honduran born-wife of a U.S. Army staff sergeant preparing to deploy, prompted public backlash from critics of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign who warned it demoralized troops during an ongoing war.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Ramos’ mother-in-law, Jen Rickling, confirmed her release to The Associated Press. The New York Times first reported Ramos’ release.
Ramos, who married Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank in March, had been detained by federal immigration agents while attempting to register at his base to receive military benefits and ultimately obtain a green card. She had lived in the country since she was less than 2 years old. DHS said Ramos had been ordered removed by a federal immigration judge in 2005 after her family had failed to appear for a hearing.
Ramos and her husband say she has been attempting to gain legal status, including by applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2020 though her application remained stalled amid legal battles to eliminate the program.
“All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby,” Ramos said in a statement to the AP after her release. “I want to finish my degree, continue my education, and serve my community — just as my husband serves our country with honor.”
A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, said that Kelly had called DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin regarding Ramos’ detention. Blank has family in Arizona.
“I’m happy Annie is back with her husband and family where she belongs,” Kelly said in a statement. “They never should have gone through this painful process, but far too many families like theirs are because of this administration.”
DHS told the AP that Ramos had been released with a GPS monitor “while she undergoes further removal proceedings.”
“She will receive full due process,” DHS said.
The Trump administration has scrapped policies of immigration enforcement leniency toward the family members of military personnel and veterans, even as the military has promoted the protection of U.S. soldiers’ family members from deportation as a recruiting incentive.
Ramos said she plans to continue studying biochemistry and focusing on enjoying married life with her husband.
“As Matthew continues preparing for his long career in the military, my focus now is on securing my status, continuing my studies, and building our life together,” Ramos said. “We want to create a home, a future, and a family. This experience has been incredibly difficult, but it has also reminded me of the power of faith, love, and community. I am hopeful for what comes next.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices plunged below $100 a barrel and Asia markets and U.S. stock futures jumped after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 4.8% and South Korea’s Kospi gained 5.6%. Futures for the S&P 500 advanced 2.3% as of 9:30 p.m. EDT, while Dow futures rose 2%.
Futures for U.S. crude oil sank 14.3% to $96.83 a barrel and Brent crude oil, the international standard, dropped 13.3% to $94.74. Oil prices had spiked because the war snarled the production and transportation of crude in the Persian Gulf. Much of that oil exits the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to reach customers around the world, but Iran had blocked it to enemies.
Late Tuesday, Trump said he was holding off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian targets. Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait would be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management.
The dramatic moves in prices are just the latest swings to hit financial markets since late February because of constantly shifting signals about when the conflict may end. Even with word of a ceasefire, neither Iran nor the United States said when it would begin, and attacks took place in Israel, Iran and across the Gulf region early Wednesday.
Earlier, U.S. stocks swung sharply during regular trading as uncertainty about the war with Iran increased after Trump had threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran does not meet his deadline at 8 p.m. Eastern time to open the Strait of Hormuz.
The S&P 500 fell as much as 1.2% but stocks rallied at the end of trading after Pakistan’s prime minister urged Trump to extend his deadline for another two weeks and asked Iran to open up the strait for the same amount of time.
The S&P 500 erased all its losses and ended with a modest gain of 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 85 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1%.
They’re the latest swings to hit financial markets since late February because of deep uncertainty about when the fighting may end.
Oil prices were likewise shaky. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude to be delivered in May briefly climbed above $117 before settling at $112.95.
Oil prices have spiked because the war has snarled the production and transportation of crude in the Persian Gulf. Much of that oil exits the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to reach customers around the world, but Iran has blocked it to enemies.
The worry in markets has been that a long-term disruption will keep oil prices high for a long time and send a painful wave of inflation crashing through the global economy. Trump kept traders on edge by making a series of threats to blow up Iranian power plants only to delay several times.
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline across the United States has leaped to $4.14, according to AAA. It was below $3 a couple days before the United States and Israel launched attacks to begin the war in late February.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased on word of a potential cease-fire. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.24% from 4.30% earlier Tuesday.
That’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war, and the rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.
HOUSTON (AP) — Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.
It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA’s Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.
“We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.
For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world’s first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.
Koch told her “astro-sister” that she’d hoped to meet up with her again in space “but I never thought it would be like this — it’s amazing.”
“I’m so happy that we are back in space together,” Meir replied, “even if we are a few miles apart.”
Houston’s Mission Control arranged the cosmic chitchat between the four lunar travelers and the space station’s three NASA and one French residents.
Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”
“It just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,” she told the space station crew. “The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized” when viewing the home planet from the moon.
By late Tuesday afternoon, the Artemis II astronauts had beamed back more than 50 gigabytes’ worth of pictures and other data from the previous day’s lunar rendezvous, which set a new distance record for humanity. The highlight: an Earthset photo reminiscent of Apollo 8’s Earthrise shot from 1968.
“While they are inspirational and, I think, allow all of us to really feel a little bit of what they were feeling, there’s also a lot of science hidden inside of those images,” said Mission Control’s lead lunar scientist Kelsey Young. “The conversations and the science lessons learned are just beginning.”
During a debriefing with Young, the astronauts recounted how they spotted a cascade of pinpricks of light on the lunar surface from impacting cosmic debris. The flashes lasted mere milliseconds and coincided by chance with Monday evening’s total solar eclipse.
Young said it was too soon to know whether the crew witnessed an actual meteor shower or more random, run-of-the-mill micrometeoroid hits. Either way, there were “audible screams of delight” in the science operations center, she said.
Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”
“It just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,” she told the space station crew. “The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized” when viewing the home planet from the moon.
The first lunar explorers since Apollo 17 in 1972, Wiseman and his crew are aiming for a splashdown off the San Diego coast on Friday to wrap up the nearly 10-day test flight. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha left port Tuesday for the target zone.
It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, a lunar lander docking demo in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will follow in 2028 with two astronauts attempting to land near the lunar south pole.
As for the Orion capsule’s pesky potty, Mission Control assured the astronauts that no maintenance was required Tuesday. The toilet has been on-and-off limits to the crew ever since last week’s launch, prompting them to rely on a backup bag-and-funnel system for urinating.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the crew following the lunar flyby Monday night: “We definitely have to fix some of the plumbing” ahead of the next Artemis mission. Engineers suspect a clogged filter in the overboard flushing system.
Aside from the toilet and other relatively minor matters, the mission has gone well, Isaacman noted at a news conference Tuesday, “but I’ll breathe easier when we get through reentry and everybody’s under chutes and in the water.”
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas health regulators told Camp Mystic’s owners Tuesday they are investigating hundreds of complaints following last year’s devastating floods that killed 27 girls as the state considers whether to allow the all-girls camp to reopen this summer.
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 investigations underscore the hurdles facing Camp Mystic as it pushes ahead with reopening plans over the outrage of the families of the 25 girls and two teenage counselors who died in the July 4 floods. More than 850 families have signed up to return to the Christian, all-girls camp this summer if it is allowed to reopen a portion of the camp that did not flood.
The Department of State Health Services said that since February, the agency has received “hundreds of complaints regarding Camp Mystic’s operations in the summer of 2025” alleging violations of state laws governing youth camps. The agency said it asked for help from state police.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said the Texas Rangers joined an “investigation regarding complaints of neglect” during the flood. Neither agency released details. The camp did not evacuate and was hit hard when the river rose from 14 feet to 29.5 feet (9 meters) within 60 minutes before dawn.
A letter sent Tuesday from the health agency to the camp owners informed them of the agency’s investigation, but made no mention of the Texas Rangers being involved.
Lawyers for the families of the girls who were killed and the Camp Mystic owners did not immediately respond to email messages requesting comment.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the Texas Rangers’ involvement a “criminal investigation” and said the state should not grant the camp a license to reopen until that probe and another one by state lawmakers are complete.
“I urge you to prioritize safety and do everything in your power to ensure Camp Mystic and/or their operators are not allowed to operate until the facts are in,” Patrick wrote in a letter Tuesday to the head of the health agency.
Families of several of the girls who died have sued the camp’s operators, arguing that camp officials failed to take necessary steps to protect the campers as life-threatening floodwaters approached. A district judge last month ordered the camp owners to preserve damaged cabins and other parts of the grounds in the flooded area as the lawsuits proceed.
The body of one of the campers killed, 8-year old Cile Steward, has not yet been recovered. DPS officials said the search for the girl continues.
Richard Eastland, one of the camp owners, was also killed. 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.
AUSTIN (AP) – Biblical stories like Jonah and the whale would be required reading for Texas public schools students under proposals that are putting the state at the center of another contentious wrangling over the role of religion in classrooms.
Religious leaders, teachers, parents and students spent hours Tuesday before the state education board arguing about the reading list for the state’s 5.4 million kindergartners to 12th-graders. The debate is part of widening efforts in the U.S. to incorporate religion in schools, mostly in Republican-led states, driving legislation and legal action.
Nationally, President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and expand religious expression in public schools. And Texas, a red state that is home to about one in 10 of the nation’s public school students, often helps set the agenda.
Texas became the first state to allow chaplains, in 2023. And just last year, a Republican-led mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools took effect in the state, although around two dozen districts took them down because of a lawsuit.
But while the debate over Texas’ reading list could have national implications, to the speakers the issue boiled down to whether the passages are essential to understanding the nation’s history and morals — or unconstitutional.
“Our children need truth,” said Nathan Irving, a pastor and father of eight from Myrtle Springs, Texas. “Truth is the only currency that never devalues. Investing truth into our children is the most loving thing that we can do for them. This is the truth. This country and this state were founded upon a Christian worldview. Like it or not, it is true.”
A final vote on the list is expected in June, and if approved by the Texas State Board of Education, the changes would take effect in 2030.
Several speakers cited the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
“This list is a tool of proselytization that has no place in our public schools,” Rabbi Josh Fixler, of Congregation Emanu El, a reform synagogue in Houston, told the board. “There is a difference between teaching about religion and teaching religion, and this list will force teachers to cross that line.”
Megan Boyden, a mother of three from Denton, Texas, described is as a direct attack on her private faith.
“As a Christian mother, it is my right and responsibility to teach our family’s religion,” she said. “It is not the state’s job to shed through the lens of a teacher who may not share the same beliefs I do. Will Bible passages be taught in conflict with my beliefs?
“What,” she asked, “of non-Christian students?”
The list stems from a state law passed in 2023, which called for the creation of a state-approved list of high-quality materials.
Third graders would learn about the Road to Damascus, which tells the story of Paul’s transformation from an early persecutor of Christians into a follower. Seniors, meanwhile, would learn about the Book of Job, a story about a man whose faith is tested when he looses everything.
The list also includes classics like Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat,” stories about the national folk hero Daniel Boone. And there are also works by famous African Americans like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. and a book about Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad fame.
The GOP-leaning board previously approved a new Bible-infused curriculum that is optional for schools to incorporate in kindergarten through fifth grades.
The board also is considering social studies standards that have been criticized as too state-centric, not focused enough on world events and rife with an undercurrent of American exceptionalism. They call for students to “identify the Texas flag as a symbol of Texas pride,” and recognize the state song “Texas, Our Texas.”
Students also are supposed to be able to understand stories about Texas Independence.
Curriculum debates crop up occasionally. Over the years, state boards in places such as Kansas have debated whether the teaching of evolution should reflect doubt about the well-established scientific theory — and leave room for arguments that the universe’s complexity points to an intelligent design.
Allison Cardwell, a mother of a fourth grader and a fifth grade social studies teacher, urged the board to rethink the standards. She said fifth grade would be the only time most Texas students would receive instruction in U.S. history until high school.
“We have to ask ourselves, How can we expect to create citizens who value liberty, responsibility, and the principles this country was founded on, if we don’t ensure that they truly understand those foundations?” she said.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A U.S. Army staff sergeant is trying to halt his wife’s deportation after she was detained inside a Louisiana military base where the couple was planning to live together just days after their wedding.
The effort to remove the soldier’s wife, who was born in Honduras and remained in a federal immigration detention center Monday, has drawn backlash from military family advocates who called the detention demoralizing in a time of war and warned that deporting spouses could undermine recruitment.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank said he brought his wife, Annie Ramos, 22, to his base in Fort Polk, Louisiana, last Thursday so that she could begin the process to receive military benefits and take steps toward a green card. The couple married in March.
Federal immigration agents detained Ramos as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, which legal experts say has dispensed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s practice of leniency toward families of military members.
“I never imagined that trying to do the right thing would lead to her being taken away from me,” said Blank, 23, in a statement to The Associated Press. “What was supposed to be the happiest week of our lives has turned into one of the hardest.”
Ramos’ detention was first reported by The New York Times.
Ramos entered the U.S. in 2005, when she was younger than 2 years old. That same year, her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading a judge to issue a final order of removal, according to DHS.
“She has no legal status to be in this country,” DHS said in an emailed statement. “This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
In 2020, Ramos applied to receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, but her husband says her application has remained “in limbo” amid legal fights to end the Obama-era program.
Last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that considered military service of an immediate family member to be a “significant mitigating factor” in deciding whether or not to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration’s new policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”
Prior to the Trump administration’s mass deportation push, DHS generally allowed the spouses of active-duty military members to gain legal status through policies like parole in place and deferred action that military recruiters promote, according to Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert.
Ramos’ case would have been easy to resolve in the past, Stock said, but instead DHS now appears to be focusing on detaining members of military families whenever the opportunity arises — including when, like Ramos, they are attempting to apply for legal status.
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“It doesn’t make any sense — they’re going to get arrested for following the law? That’s stupid,” Stock said. “It’s bad for morale, it disrupts the soldiers’ readiness.”
In September, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to DHS and the U.S. Department of Defense warning that arrests of military personnel and veteran’s family members was “betraying its promises to service members who play a key role in protecting U.S. national security.”
The Pentagon declined to comment.
Lydiah Owiti-Otienoh, who runs an advocacy group called the Foreign-Born Military Spouse Network, said she’s anecdotally seen an increase in cases where the lives of military families have been upended by tightening immigration restrictions. She believes the federal government is undermining its own interests by attempting to deport military spouses.
“It just sends a really bad message — we don’t care about you, about your spouses, anything you are doing,” Owiti-Otienoh said. “If military families are not stable, national security is not stable.”
Blank’s mother, Jen Rickling, told the AP in a statement that her daughter-in-law, a Sunday school teacher and biochemistry major, had been everything she hoped for — someone who “loves my son with her whole heart.”
“We absolutely adore her,” Rickling said. “I believe in this country. And I believe we can do better than this — for Annie, for other military families, and for the values we hold dear.”
Blank says he had been eager to start building a life and with Ramos on the base while he served his country.
“I want my wife home,” Blank said. “And I will not stop fighting until she is back where she belongs, by my side.”
FORT WORTH (DMN) – The former FedEx driver charged with killing 7-year-old Athena Strand after delivering a Christmas package to her family’s Wise County home pleaded guilty Tuesday before his capital murder trial even began. Tanner Horner’s plea before State District Judge George Gallagher will send the case directly into sentencing. A jury will have the choice to sentence Horner to death or life in prison without parole. The Dallas Morning News reports that Athena’s body was found two days after she went missing and several miles away, after investigators said Horner led them to it. A medical examiner ruled she died from blunt force trauma and strangulation. No evidence of sexual assault was found. Although the case is based in Wise County, it was moved to nearby Tarrant due to argument that Horner could not get a fair trial in Wise County. Horner is charged with capital murder of a child under the age of 10 and aggravated kidnapping. He has remained jailed since his arrest. Horner was charged with three unrelated counts of child sexual assault shortly after being taken into custody in Athena’s slaying. These charges are separate and reportedly occurred in a 2013 incident. Athena’s family later sued FedEx and Big Topspin Inc., the Dallas-Fort Worth-based contractor that hired Horner on the bases of lack or proper background checks on drivers. A nondisclosure agreement entered in the case prevented family attorney Paul Belew from disclosing what happened.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are rising, and U.S. stocks are falling Tuesday, but the moves are not as dramatic as the dire talk coming from both sides in the war with Iran.
President Donald Trump threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran does not meet his latest self-imposed deadline at 8 p.m. Eastern time to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials, meanwhile, urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants that Trump has threatened to bomb.
But the S&P 500 slipped just 0.5% as officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing, even though it was unclear if a deal would come in time to head off Trump’s threatened attacks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 271 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.
The moves were sharper in the oil market, where prices have spiked since the end of February because the war has snarled the production and transportation of crude in the Persian Gulf. Much of that oil exits the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to reach customers around the world, but Iran has blocked it to enemies.
The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude climbed 3.1% to $115.86. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.4% to $110.17 and is well above its roughly $70 level from before the war.
The worry in markets has been that a long-term disruption will keep oil prices high for a long time and send a painful wave of inflation crashing through the global economy. Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war.
So far in the war, Trump has made a series of threats to blow up Iranian power plants if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, but he has then delayed it several times. The possibility remains that Trump could back down again, among other scenarios, which is keeping uncertainty high.
A year ago, Trump ultimately backed off many of the stiff tariffs that he initially threatened to put on other countries’ imports, though they ended up higher than from before his second term.
“Investors are likely to remain on edge and markets unable to establish trends, probably until there is a clear outcome later this evening: a deal, the U.S./Israeli strikes intensify, or Iran’s retaliation becomes escalatory instead of proportional,” according to Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
In global stock markets, Universal Music Group helped to limit losses after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management offered to buy the record label behind Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $64 billion.
The proposed purchase, which Pershing Square argued would clear uncertainty that’s weighed on UMG’s stock, would bring the company to Nevada and move its stock listing from Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange.
UMG’s stock in Amsterdam rose 9.3% but remains well below what Pershing said its bid is worth. That could indicate investor doubt that the deal will happen.
Indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe, while Asian stock indexes were a touch stronger. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.8% for one of the world’s bigger gains.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were holding relatively steady ahead of Trump’s looming deadline. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.34%, where it was late Monday.
But it’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war. The rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.