Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
LIVINGSTON, Texas (KETK) – A 13-foot alligator was discovered at Sam Rayburn Lake recently and has been removed from the lake.
Winnsboro angler sets Bassmaster weight record at Sam Rayburn Reservoir
The gator, which has been named ” Big Jasper,” was removed from the East Texas lake by Sam Rayburn Lake Rangers and Texas Game Wardens from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department after he was deemed a nuisance.
Following his removal, Jasper was transferred to the Gator Country rescue in Beaumont, which serves as a home for various alligators and reptiles to live out their days in peace.
CROCKETT (KETK) – Lieutenant Lonnie Lum of the Crockett Police Department has died from ALS. According to the department, Lum died on Thursday morning and served with Crockett PD for 20 years. Our news partners at KETK provided a statement from Crockett PD, stating, “Lt. Lum faithfully served our department for 20 years, leaving behind a legacy of service, leadership, and dedication that will not be forgotten,” Crockett PD said. “Words cannot fully express what he meant to everyone here. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate this difficult time. Rest easy, Lt. We’ve got it from here.” Funeral services for Lum have not been shared publicly by the department.
TROY, Ala. (AP) — A series of police pursuits have led to at least eight deaths around the country in less than a week amid ongoing calls from some law enforcement experts to curb risky high speed car chases.
In Texas, a man fleeing from police died Sunday. In Alabama, four people died when a car being pursued by a state trooper went off a road and hit a tree Friday. And in California, three people were killed in vehicle crashes during police pursuits in separate incidents last week.
The deadly incidents are among the hundreds of fatalities that occur during police chases each year.
In 2023, a report from the Police Executive Research Forum, a national think tank on policing standards, called for police to put the brakes on car chases unless a violent crime has been committed and the suspect poses an imminent threat. The report noted a spike in fatalities and an increase in pursuits by some departments, including in Houston and New York City.
In the case in Alabama, a driver was trying to elude the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s highway patrol on a rural road in southeast Alabama’s Pike County when the crash occurred late Friday night, agency spokeswoman Amanda Wasden said in an email Sunday. No other vehicles were involved.
The driver and two passengers, one of them a 17-year-old, were not wearing seat belts and were thrown from the sedan. A third passenger was not ejected, but all four were pronounced dead at the scene.
Wasden said the crash was under investigation, and no additional information was available. Her email did not say what prompted the pursuit.
In Fort Worth, Texas, police had been pursuing a car which had been driving without headlights on Interstate 35 when the car hit multiple other vehicles and eventually crashed, killing the driver, according to the Fort Worth Police Department.
In southern California, the Pomona Police Department said in a statement that its officers were pursuing a fleeing domestic violence suspect Wednesday when his car hit another vehicle, killing the couple inside. The two were days away from the birth of their child, according to KCBS-TV.
In another case, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said that deputies had attempted to stop a stolen U-Haul truck before it slammed into an SUV, killing the SUV’s driver and critically injuring her three passengers.
GROVETON, Texas (KETK) – Two women were arrested on Friday after Trinity County Sheriff’s Office deputies found illegal drugs inside a home in Groveton.
East Texas officials warn of ISIS terror threats on Easter services
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies were working within Groveton city limits on Friday in an attempt to serve a burglary warrant. While attempting to locate the suspect for that warrant at a home on Sunset Road in Groveton, deputies found evidence that the house was being used to distribute illegal drugs.
The sheriff’s office then secured a search warrant for the home and searched the location. Inside the home they found baggies, 15 grams of suspected “crystal like” narcotics, drug paraphernalia and unused packaging materials.
“Once that warrant was executed, it became clear this wasn’t just somebody’s house… it was a full time bad decision factory,” Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said.
Two women were arrested following the deputies’ search of the home. Heaven Porter was arrested for manufacture and delivery of between 4 and 200 grams of a controlled substance. Melanie Casier was arrested for manufacture and delivery of between 1 and 400 grams of a controlled substance. Both have been booked into the Trinity County Jail.
The burglary warrant suspect was arrested later for the charge of burglary of a habitation.
“Turns out you can run for a while, but eventually you run out of road in Trinity County,” Wallace said. “Let this be a reminder… if you are operating a drug business, you might want to consider a different line of work. Because around here, we do not offer business licenses for that kind of operation… just jail space.”
FORT WORTH (AP) — A tanker truck in Texas hauling gasoline erupted into a fiery blaze Sunday after colliding with another vehicle and knocking over power lines, leaving the truck driver in critical condition, Fort Worth authorities said.
The 18-wheeler was carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline that began leaking after the truck spun off the road near a gas station. The downed power lines then sparked a fire around 1 a.m., Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson Craig Trojacek said.
“The driver of the 18-wheeler was trying to do everything he could to keep the gas from draining into the parking lot of the Valero gas station when it lit off,” Trojacek said.
The driver was hospitalized with burns, but no one else was injured, Trojacek said. Fire crews spent hours spraying the tanker with water and used sand to try and contain the gasoline, he said. Firefighters left the scene around 7 a.m.
Videos of the fire show what appears to be front of the truck engulfed in flames as plumes of smoke rise.
One witness, Bailey Moss, said he was staying with a friend nearby when he heard “a loud crash” and peered outside.
“The fire spread quickly, and you could feel the heat even from a distance. It was pretty intense,” Moss said.
McALLEN (AP) — For five months, the young father waited for his 3-year-old daughter’s release from federal custody after she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother, hoping through delays for their safe reunion.
Only when he turned to the courts as a last resort did he learn that the girl had suffered alleged sexual abuse at the foster home where she’d been placed after immigration officials separated her from her mother.
“She was so long in there,” said her father, who is a legal permanent resident in the United States. “I just think that if they would have moved faster, nothing like that would have happened.” He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to prevent identifying his daughter as a victim of sexual abuse.
President Donald Trump’s administration began targeting detained immigrant children, like the man’s daughter, last year when it implemented new rules and procedures, which were immediately followed by a dramatic jump in detention times. The federal government intensified efforts to expand family detention indefinitely by motioning to terminate a cornerstone policy ensuring the protection of immigrant children in federal custody.
For months after the girl was placed in foster care, her father’s attempts to be reunited stalled as the government told him it couldn’t make an appointment to take his fingerprints.
During that time, according to court documents, the girl said she was sexually abused by an older child staying with her in foster care in Harlingen, Texas. A caregiver noticed the child’s underwear was on backward, according to the lawsuit. The girl then told the caregiver she was abused multiple times and it caused bleeding. Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement officials told the father that there had been an “accident” and his daughter would be examined, he told the AP in an interview.
“I asked them, ‘What happened? I want to know. I’m her father. I want to know what’s going on,’ and they just told me that they couldn’t give me more information, that it was under investigation,” the father said.
The girl underwent a forensic exam and interview. Although the father wasn’t told of the outcome, the older child accused of the abuse was removed from that foster program, according to the lawsuit.
The girl was forensically examined and interviewed, according to the lawsuit. The abuse allegations were reported to local law enforcement, said Lauren Fisher Flores, the lawyer representing the girl. The Associated Press does not typically name people who have said they were sexually abused.
“To have your child abused while in the government’s care, to not understand what has happened or how to protect them, to not even be told about the abuse, it is unimaginable,” Fisher Flores said. “Children deserve safety and they belong with their parents.”
The ORR and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, were named in the child’s lawsuit but did not respond to emails seeking comment.
The girl and her mother illegally crossed the border near El Paso on Sept. 16 of last year. When her mother was charged with making false statements and they were separated, the toddler was sent to the custody of the ORR, which cares for immigrant children in shelter or foster settings.
Children in ORR’s care are released to parents or sponsors who submit to a rigorous process that has grown more extensive under the Trump administration.
Stricter rules were imposed on documentation required for sponsors, border agents started pressuring unaccompanied children to self-deport before transferring them to shelters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement started arresting some sponsors in the middle of the release process.
Legal advocates filed lawsuits challenging the policy changes, anticipating that they would result in prolonged detention.
Average custody times for children cared for by ORR grew from 37 days when Trump took office in January 2025 to almost 200 days this February. The total number of children in ORR custody fell by about half during the same time period.
Attorneys are now turning to habeas petitions, which function as emergency lawsuits, to expedite the release of children to their parents and sponsors.
Fisher Flores, legal director of the American Bar Association’s ProBar project, said that this year the organization has worked on eight habeas corpus petitions representing children who have been held in federal custody for an average of 225 days. They had not filed these kinds of petitions for children before the start of this Trump administration.
Fisher Flores said that legal intervention helped prompt the federal government to respond to the father’s sponsorship application.
After the monthslong delay, attorneys sent the government a letter in February and prompted them to allow the father to receive appointments for a fingerprinting background check, a home visit and a DNA test. Then ORR stalled again, offering no timeline on her expected release.
Attorneys filed the habeas petition in federal court and two days later, ORR released the girl to her father.
It was while the attorneys prepared the lawsuit that the father realized that the “accident” officials had told him about was alleged sexual abuse.
“Increasingly, we have to turn to the federal courts to challenge these harmful legal violations and demand that children be released,” Fisher Flores said.
The fingerprinting policy was challenged during the first Trump administration by legal advocates including the National Center for Youth Law. Other nationwide lawsuits are opposing more recent changes affecting the custody and care of immigrant children.
“This represents yet another version of family separation,” Neha Desai, managing director at Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law, said of the 3-year-old girl’s case.
“A bipartisan Congress designed protections around the simple principle that children should be released to their family quickly and safely. This administration has been consistently flouting its legal obligations to release children to their families, profoundly jeopardizing children’s health and well-being,” Desai added.
When the father finally reunited with his daughter, he cried. His daughter was happy to see him, too.
But after her five months in detention, he started noticing changes: She had nightmares and was easily upset. “She was never like that” before, her father said.
The pair now live in Chicago with the girl’s grandparents while her case moves through the immigration court.
FORT WORTH (AP) – Most travelers flying with United Airlines will pay $10 more to check their luggage beginning on Friday, as higher jet fuel costs driven by the war in the Middle East push another major U.S. carrier to increase fees.
The first piece of checked luggage will now cost customers $45 on flights within the United States, Mexico, Canada and Latin America, according to United. A second bag will cost $55.
“This is the first time in two years the airline has raised bag fees,” United said in a statement.
Speaking to investors last month, United CEO Scott Kirby said the rising costs for jet fuel since the conflict began on Feb. 28 had already added roughly $400 million to operating costs. The CEOs for Delta Air Lines and American Airlines reported similar figures.
Some United passengers will still receive a free first checked bag, including co-branded credit card holders, certain loyalty-tier members, active military personnel and travelers in premium cabins. Customers who check bags less than 24 hours before departure will pay an additional $5.
United joins JetBlue, which raised its checked baggage fees earlier this week by $9 for peak travel periods. JetBlue said that charging more for optional services used by select customers helps keep base fares competitive. Like United, it will continue offering a free first checked bag to some customers.
The war, now in its second month, has severely disrupted global oil supplies, particularly near the narrow Strait of Hormuz where a fifth of the world’s oil typically passes. That has caused crude prices to fluctuate wildly, which affects airlines’ operating costs because the fuel their aircraft rely on is refined from crude oil.
Fuel is typically the second biggest expense for airlines after labor.
The average price for a gallon of jet fuel in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York reached $4.88 on Thursday, up from $2.50 just before the war, according to Argus Media. The energy market intelligence company’s U.S. Jet Fuel Index tracks the average prices across those major hubs.
Airlines are under increasing pressure to find new sources of revenue as fuel costs climb. A number of non-U.S. carriers have already responded by adding fuel surcharges or raising ticket prices. Industry experts say U.S. airlines will boost fares as well, but since they don’t typically rely on fuel surcharges, they’re also expected to pass on higher fuel costs to travelers by raising — or introducing — add-on fees.
United announced another pricing change on Friday that brings the “pay for what you want” approach already standard in economy to its premium cabins. On long-haul international routes, transcontinental U.S. flights and certain Hawaii services, seats in the front cabin will now be divided into three fare types.
At the bottom, a new base fare will carry the lowest upfront price but removes some of the extras that travelers often expect with premium tickets — including advance seat selection and refunds. In practice, that could mean a cheaper entry point to the front cabin but fewer perks.
The middle option, labeled standard, adds back common perks such as seat selection, extra checked bags and the ability to make itinerary changes. At the top end, the flexible tier includes all of those features and is fully refundable, offering the most flexibility for travelers willing to pay more.
United said it plans to introduce the new fare structure in select markets this month and expand it across more routes later this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Friday it is combining two agencies that were separated in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The Interior Department said the overhaul would increase efficiency and speed up permitting for offshore oil and gas drilling.
The new Marine Minerals Administration will bring together the functions of the current Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. Doing so will enable a “streamlined approach” that will maintain existing regulatory protections and rigorous safety standards, he said.
The combined agency will “deliver clearer coordination, better service to the public and stronger, more integrated oversight of offshore energy development,” Burgum said in a statement.
The new name is reminiscent of the old Minerals Management Service, which for decades was the federal agency responsible for overseeing offshore drilling. In April 2010, a deadly explosion destroyed BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and discharging nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the sea over the next three months in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Lawmakers from both parties and outside critics accused the agency of lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry. A 2008 report by the Interior Department’s inspector general said employees accepted gifts, steered contracts to favored clients and engaged in drug use and sex with employees of the energy firms they regulated.
The head of the agency resigned in May 2010 — less than a year into her tenure — under public pressure as the Obama administration moved to impose stricter control over drilling in the wake of the spill.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement replaced the disbanded Minerals Management Service in 2011. The former agency’s revenue management function was also separated into a new office. The Obama administration said the reorganization was designed to remove the complex and sometimes conflicting missions of the former agency.
BOEM oversees development of oil and gas, as well as renewable energy and mining on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, while BSEE enforces safety and environmental regulations.
Environmental groups slammed the reorganization as a replay of the agency’s troubled past.
The MMS was intentionally split up after the Gulf spill because regulators were too cozy with industry and “we couldn’t trust the integrity of their work,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The new set-up “sounds like yet another handout to the oil industry that will fast-track risky projects. It sure won’t make the people or wildlife on our coasts any safer,” she wrote in an e-mail Friday.
The National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore developers, said that two separate — yet overlapping — government agencies responsible for administering the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act can understandably result in inconsistencies and delays.
“Bringing them back together should result in closer coordination and a more efficiently functioning government, for the benefit of American citizens who rely upon the energy produced from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to fuel our economy and lift society,” Association President Erik Milito said in a statement.
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McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
PAYNE SPRINGS, Texas (KETK) — More than 12 hours after a boat carrying three people capsized on Cedar Creek Lake, emergency crews continue an intensive search for a missing man feared to have drowned.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said three men were fishing on Cedar Creek Lake near Payne Springs on Thursday at around 10:30 p.m. when their boat took on water and capsized. Two men made it to shore and contacted emergency crews.
The third individual, a 42-year-old man, tried to swim to shore. Witnesses reported hearing him call for help, but he could not be found.
The Payne Springs Fire and Rescue said a resident assisted by launching a pontoon boat, transporting firefighters and other residents to begin an initial surface search while additional rescue boats were on their way.
Payne Springs Fire and Rescue conducted a surface and an underwater search before being assisted by the Texas Game Wardens. Search efforts continued until 2 a.m. Friday morning.
Search crews, including Texas Game Wardens, are on the lake on Friday looking for him. However, the search is being hindered by weather conditions and water depth, the department stated.
BIG BEND (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) – In February, the Trump administration waived over two dozen environmental laws to clear the way for a 150-mile-long border barrier through West Texas, including Big Bend National Park and the adjoining state park, a rugged and scenic stretch with unscalable canyons along the Rio Grande.
But as word spread that the Trump administration planned to erect a 30-foot-tall barrier to deter people from crossing the border illegally, people and officials from both political parties have made their opposition clear.
“A border wall in the Big Bend region is an absurd, wasteful, counterproductive idea that is loathed by nearly every person who has ever lived or visited there,” said Isaac Saul, who writes a political newsletter called the Tangle and has a home in Brewster County, where Big Bend is located.
The sheriffs of Brewster, Culberson, Hudspeth, Presidio and Terrell counties — a mix of Democrats and Republicans — wrote an open letter that said: “Based on decades of combined experience working with this terrain, we believe that construction of a continuous physical border wall in the Big Bend region would not represent the most practical or strategic approach to border security in this area.”
Local officials in nearby Alpine, along with Presidio and Hudspeth counties, have approved resolutions opposing the wall.
After strong opposition, the Trump administration apparently changed its plans: a map on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website no longer indicates that a border wall will be constructed in the Big Bend region from the state park to the Amistad National Recreation Area in Del Rio, as of April 2.
A spokesperson for the Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector told Marfa Public Radio last week that there are “currently no plans for border wall construction” in the state park, which borders Big Bend National Park.
While the Trump administration hasn’t made any official announcement about its plans, the CBP website now shows the agency instead plans to install “virtual wall” technology through the rugged region that would alert Border Patrol agents when people cross the border.
It’s unclear if these plans are final, since the map legend has continuously changed in the past few weeks.
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Advocates and residents say they are happy their efforts have apparently helped halt the plans to build a border barrier through the state park. But the fight isn’t over, they say.
“I don’t consider this a win yet because there’s still a lot of unanswered questions,” said Anna Claire, 29, a photographer who lives near Terlingua and led an online petition with more than 100,000 signatures opposing a barrier. “I would say a win is no border wall, period. The whole basis for this wall is that there is a crisis, but there isn’t a crisis and their own data doesn’t back that up.”
Documents obtained by Inside Climate News show the Border Patrol has sought access to Big Bend Ranch and other state parks to lay the groundwork for border barrier construction. Letters sent by the Border Patrol to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department included detailed maps of where the border barrier would go within Big Bend Ranch, Seminole Canyon and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley state parks.
The Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector, which encompasses 517 miles of the 1,950-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, has historically been the least busy of the nine sectors. In fiscal year 2025, Border Patrol recorded 3,096 apprehensions in the Big Bend sector — accounting for just 1.3% of the 237,538 apprehensions recorded across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
Last year, Congress approved $46.5 billion for the Trump administration to erect border barriers and add detection technology in different parts of the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. Contractors have started construction in parts of California, Arizona and New Mexico. But in Texas, where land along the border is privately owned, the administration has faced obstacles and opposition.
The government has sent letters to some landowners along the river, threatening to condemn some of their land through eminent domain if owners don’t willingly allow the federal government access to their land.
Luis Armendariz, 83, who owns about 1,000 acres of farmland and a hardware store in Presidio, about 100 miles upriver from Big Bend, said he received one of those letters and doesn’t see the need for a barrier in the area. He worries that a barrier would cut off his access to irrigation water from the river..
“If the wall is going to get in my way, I don’t want it,” he said.
To read this article in its original form, go to The Texas Tribune.
FORT WORTH (AP) – Nuchi Nashoba grew up looking at a photograph of her great-grandfather Ben Carterby inside her grandmother’s Oklahoma home. But, she didn’t know much about the man in the frame other than that he was a World War I veteran.
It wasn’t until 1989 — when Nashoba was in her late 20s — that she learned a deep secret about her ancestor.
Carterby was one of the Choctaw code talkers — a group of 19 Native American soldiers who used their language to transmit encrypted messages to the Allies during campaigns in northern France. The soldiers were sworn to secrecy and hid details of their service from families for decades.
Over the past 20 years, Nashoba has led advocacy efforts to spotlight the group’s hidden legacy as president of the Choctaw Code Talkers Association. Now, the soldiers’ contributions are recognized in Fort Worth through a new plaque at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park.
The Choctaw Code Talker Historical Marker was unveiled during an April 1 ceremony hosted by the Oklahoma tribe, the Texas Historical Commission and the city’s parks and recreation department. Several descendants of the Native soldiers attended.
“Seeing the marker really brings me a lot of joy,” Nashoba said. “This is what preserves the history for generations to come.”
Choctaw code talkers’ ties to Fort Worth
Members of the Choctaw code talkers were men who volunteered to fight for the U.S. in World War I at a time when Native Americans were not recognized as citizens. Indigenous communities wouldn’t receive citizenship until 1924.
While in the battlefields in France, some of these men were overheard speaking their Choctaw language and were trained to use their words as “code.” They were placed on front lines and command posts so that messages could be transmitted to headquarters.
The soldiers shared words like “tanampo chito” for artillery and “tvshka” for warriors, according to the historical marker. The Germans famously failed to decipher these Choctaw transmissions within 24 hours throughout the war.
The Choctaw group is widely considered to be the first Native American code talkers to serve in the U.S. military. Their work paved the way for the Navajo code talkers during World War II.
“Their story is a testament to the resilience and patriotism of the Choctaw Nation,” Col. Brent Kemp, commander of the 56th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the National Guard, said at the unveiling. “Their ingenuity and bravery reminds us of the power of cultural heritage and the importance of preserving Indigenous languages.”
The Native American soldiers were in the 36th Infantry Division at Camp Bowie, a westside training site for more than 100,000 soldiers during World War I.
Council member Macy Hill, who represents Camp Bowie, said it was only fitting for Fort Worth to honor the legacy of the code talkers since they walked on the site’s grounds.
“This is where the Choctaw code talkers were initially trained and where they will forever be remembered,” she said.
Descendants carry the torch
As Ta’Na Alexander — the great-great-granddaughter of Carterby — watched the marker’s unveiling in Fort Worth, she couldn’t help but feel proud that her family’s history is slowly spreading across the U.S.
“It’s pretty monumental to realize that more people are starting to recognize the significant part of these men who were sworn to secrecy,” said Alexander, who is Nashoba’s daughter. “This marker connects the past to the future.”
She credits her mother’s leadership for widespread education about the work of Native soldiers.
Last May, the Choctaw Code Talkers Association led the charge to place a bronze sculpture honoring the group at the Choctaw Cultural Center in southern Oklahoma. The artwork depicts three soldiers in the middle of battle.
The organization also advocated for 23 Oklahoma bridges to be renamed after the code talkers and other Native veterans.
The Fort Worth marker was the group’s first venture into Texas, Nashoba said. The group is exploring other statewide recognitions, she added.
For now, Alexander invites Fort Worth residents to stroll through the memorial park to learn that her ancestors’ stories aren’t just about being Native. They’re about what it means to be American, she said.
“You might not be Native or Choctaw, but what we do share in common is that we have the right to vote,” she said. “We have a voice. We have a freedom that exists here that doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
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This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
DALLAS (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Thursday accused rapper Pooh Shiesty and eight others of robbing three men at gunpoint and kidnapping them earlier this year in Texas following a contract dispute involving rapper Gucci Mane ‘s record label.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas declined to name the victims and an indictment only refers to them by their initials. One victim, R.D., is described as the owner of 1017 Records, the label belonging to Gucci Mane, whose legal name is Radric Delantic Davis.
Publicists for Gucci Mane didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
The alleged confrontation happened Jan. 10 after the three victims came to Dallas for what they thought was a business meeting, according to the federal indictment filed in the Northern District of Texas. Prosecutors said Pooh Shiesty, whose legal is name Lontrell Williams Jr., arranged the meeting, allegedly to discuss the terms of his contract with 1017 Records.
Once the three victims were inside the studio, Williams allegedly produced an AK-style pistol and forced one of them to sign a release from the recording contract. The other defendants then displayed firearms and robbed the victims of watches, jewelry, cash and other items. One victim was choked to near unconsciousness, prosecutors said.
Another defendant barricaded the door with his body to stop the victims from leaving.
Williams did not immediately return an emailed request for comment. He was on home confinement for a prior firearms conspiracy conviction out of Florida at the time of the alleged confrontation in Texas.
Bradford Cohen, an attorney for Williams during that firearms case, did not immediately reply to an email and phone call for comment from The Associated Press.
In Tennessee, the FBI in Memphis said Wednesday that it went to a home in the suburb of Cordova to serve court-ordered warrants. Property records show it is owned by Williams.
Gucci Mane is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of trap music alongside fellow Atlanta rappers T.I. and Jeezy. He emerged in the mid-2000s with his breakout single “Icy” and went on to build a vast catalog through a steady stream of mixtapes and albums. He has also helped launch or develop artists including Young Thug and earned a Grammy nomination for his appearing on Lizzo’s song “Exactly How I Feel.”
Gucci Mane has remained active with new music and business ventures, including his 2025 album “Episodes” and his 2017 memoir, “The Autobiography of Gucci Mane,” which reflects on his evolution as a music artist and personal struggles such as being diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In recent years, he has also publicly emphasized sobriety and stability.
EL PASO (AP) – A recent inspection at the nation’s largest immigration detention facility found dozens of violations of national standards that potentially exposed detainees to excessive force, disease, and other unsafe conditions.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Detention Oversight performed a congressionally mandated inspection over three days in February at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, according to a report posted online by ICE this week.
The report documents 49 deficiencies, which it defines as violations of detention standards or policies, in areas including the use of force and restraints, security, medical care and more. It was the first inspection released by that office since Camp East Montana was hastily built and opened last summer.
Attorney calls inspection findings ‘scathing’
The number of deficiencies at the camp is highly unusual. The most found in any other inspection by the oversight office so far this year was 13.
“This report is scathing. Camp East Montana gets an F,” said attorney Randall Kallinen, who represents the family of a 36-year-old detainee who died there in January — one of at least three deaths since its opening. “It’s very dangerous. Not only are the detainees in danger of excessive force, they are also in danger of improper or negligent medical care and mental health care, as well as danger from other detainees.”
The report comes as ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is pausing the purchase of warehouses intended to house up to 7,000 or more immigrants at a single location. ICE data through Feb. 5 shows that Camp East Montana has been the largest detention site, housing nearly 3,000 detainees per day, the majority of whom are men who have not been convicted of crimes.
The inspection was conducted before ICE moved last month to replace the prime contractor, Acquisition Logistics LLC, amid intense scrutiny over conditions at Camp East Montana. The company had been awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to build and operate the camp, even though it had no experience in the field. The company and its president, Ken Wagner, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Lawmaker calls ICE ‘uninterested’ in improving conditions
A more experienced contractor, Amentum Services, took over operations at Camp East Montana on March 12. A federal database says its nearly $453 million no-bid contract to provide detention, transportation and medical services runs through Sept. 30.
Detainees usually live at Camp East Montana for several days or weeks while they are awaiting deportation or before they are transferred elsewhere.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who has toured and met with detainees at the facility several times, said the inspection findings were “a drop in the bucket of what is so profoundly wrong with that facility.” She said detainees have consistently complained of medical neglect and other problems.
She said conditions have not improved and wonders whether that is by design to pressure detainees to agree to self-deport.
“ICE is completely uninterested in really creating any change or holding the contractor accountable,” she said.
An ICE spokesperson said the new contract will result in improved medical care, more staff on site and stricter oversight by ICE.
Report documents safety issues
The inspection report documented a series of safety lapses found during Acquisition Logistics’ tenure. Camp staff didn’t document whether they were conducting required checks to prevent self-harm and suicide, which 911 calls show have been a major problem at the facility.
Acquisition Logistics refused to provide information about staffing levels to ICE, which made it impossible to determine whether they were sufficient to maintain security, according to the report. In one instance, a detainee escaped when there was no staff assigned to watch the perimeter fences.
Inspectors found that tools and equipment were “unsecured and unaccounted for throughout the facility” and that staff did not maintain an accurate inventory of its ammunition.
Security guards who used and witnessed the use of force and restraints such as handcuffs failed to file written reports as required in some instances, the report said.
Supervisors also didn’t document their observations, staff failed to record or preserve video recordings in some cases, and the facility did not review incidents afterward to examine whether chemical agents or other types of force were used appropriately.
Medical staff failed to isolate a detainee who had symptoms consistent with tuberculosis, which spreads through the air, and did not notify ICE of the case.
The camp also acted slowly in response to a dozen grievances filed by detainees about medical care, taking between six and 14 business days to respond, the report said.
Despite the problems, the report gave the camp an “acceptable/adequate” rating and recommended ICE work with the new contractor “to resolve the deficiencies that remain outstanding.”
It pushed back on one of the most common complaints from detainees: that the food portions were too meager. It said the food service program, run by subcontractor Disaster Management Group, provided certification from a dietitian that the “average daily caloric provision of the menu” met federal recommendations.
EL PASO (AP) – The Afghan man had fled the Taliban for refuge in upstate New York when U.S. immigration authorities ordered him deported to Uganda. The Cuban woman was working at a Texas Chick-fil-A when she arrested after a minor traffic accident and told she was being sent to Ecuador.
There’s the Mauritanian man living in Michigan told he’d have to go to Uganda, the Venezuelan mother in Ohio told she’d be sent to Ecuador and the Bolivians, Ecuadorians and so many others across the country ordered sent to Honduras.
They are among more than 13,000 immigrants who were living legally in the U.S., waiting for rulings on asylum claims, when they suddenly faced so-called third-country deportation orders, destined for countries where most had no ties, according to the nonprofit group Mobile Pathways, which pushes for transparency in immigration proceedings.
Yet few have been deported, even as the White House pushes for ever more immigrant expulsions. Thanks to unexplained changes in U.S. policy, many are now mired in immigration limbo, unable to argue their asylum claims in court and unsure if they’ll be shackled and put on a deportation flight to a country they’ve never seen.
Some are in detention, though it’s unclear how many. All have lost permission to work legally, a right most had while pursuing their asylum claims, compounding the worry and dread that has rippled through immigrant communities.
And that may be the point.
“This administration’s goal is to instill fear into people. That’s the primary thing,” said Cassandra Charles, a senior staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, which has been fighting the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. The fear of being deported to an unknown country could, advocates believe, drive migrants to abandon their immigration cases and decide to return to their home countries.
Things may be changing.
In mid-March, top Immigration and Customs Enforcement legal officials told field attorneys with the Department of Homeland Security in an email to stop filing new motions for third-country deportations tied to asylum cases. The email, which has been seen by The Associated Press, did not give a reason. It has not been publicly released, and DHS did not respond to requests to explain if the halt was permanent.
But the earlier deportation cases? Those are continuing.
An asylum-seeker says she’s in panic over possibly being sent to a country she doesn’t know
In 2024, a Guatemalan woman who says she had been held captive and repeatedly sexually assaulted by members of powerful gang arrived with her 4-year-old daughter at the U.S.-Mexico border and asked for asylum. She later discovered she was pregnant with another child, conceived during a rape.
In December, she sat in a San Francisco immigration courtroom and listened as an ICE attorney sought to have her deported.
The ICE attorney didn’t ask the judge that she be sent back to Guatemala. Instead, the attorney said, the woman from the Indigenous Guatemalan highlands would go to one of three countries: Ecuador, Honduras or across the globe to Uganda.
Until that moment, she’d never heard of Ecuador or Uganda.
“When I arrived in this country, I was filled with hope again and I thanked God for being alive,” the woman said after the hearing, her eyes filling with tears. “When I think about having to go to those other countries, I panic because I hear they are violent and dangerous.” She spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from U.S. immigration authorities or the Guatemalan gang network.
There have been more than 13,000 removal orders for asylum-seekers
ICE attorneys, the de facto prosecutors in immigration courts, were first instructed last summer to file motions known as “pretermissions” that end migrants’ asylum claims and allow them to be deported.
“They’re not saying the person doesn’t have a claim,” said Sarah Mehta, who tracks immigration issues at the American Civil Liberties Union. “They’re just saying, ‘We’re kicking this case completely out of court and we’re going to send that person to another country.’”
The pace of deportation orders picked up in October after a ruling from the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, which sets legal precedent inside the byzantine immigration court system.
The ruling from the three judges -– two appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the third a holdover from the first Trump administration — cleared the way for migrants seeking asylum to be removed to any third country where the U.S. State Department determines they won’t face persecution or torture.
After the ruling, the government aggressively expanded the practice of ending asylum claims.
More than 13,000 migrants have been ordered deported to so-called “safe third countries” after their asylum cases were canceled, according to data from San Francisco-based Mobile Pathways. More than half the orders were for Honduras, Ecuador or Uganda, with the rest scattered among nearly three dozen other countries.
Deported migrants are free, at least theoretically, to pursue asylum and stay in those third countries, even if some have barely functioning asylum systems.
Deportations have been far more complicated than the government expected
Immigration authorities have released little information about the third-country agreements, known as Asylum Cooperative Agreements, or the deportees, and it’s unclear exactly how many have been deported to third countries as part of asylum removals.
According to Third Country Deportation Watch, a tracker run by the rights groups Refugees International and Human Rights First, fewer than 100 of them are thought to have been deported.
In a statement, DHS called the agreements ”lawful bilateral arrangements that allow illegal aliens seeking asylum in the United States to pursue protection in a partner country that has agreed to fairly adjudicate their claims.”
“DHS is using every lawful tool available to address the backlog and abuse of the asylum system,” said the statement, which was attributed only to a spokesperson. There are roughly 2 million backlogged asylum cases in the immigration system.
But deportations clearly turned out to be far more complicated than the government expected, restricted by a variety of legal challenges, the scope of the international agreements and a limited number of airplanes.
Mobile Pathways data, for example, shows that thousands of people have been ordered deported to Honduras — despite a diplomatic agreement that allows the country to take a total of just 10 such deportees per month for 24 months. Dozens of people ordered to Honduras in recent months did not speak Spanish as their primary language, but were native speakers of English, Uzbek and French, among other languages.
And while hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants have been ordered sent to Uganda, a top Ugandan official said none have arrived. U.S. authorities may be “doing a cost analysis” and trying to avoid dispatching flights with only a few people on board, Okello Oryem, the Ugandan minister of state for foreign affairs, told The Associated Press.
“You can’t be doing one, two people” at a time,” Oryem said. “Planeloads -– that is the most effective way.”
Many immigration lawyers suspect that the March email ordering a halt in new asylum pretermissions could indicate a shift toward other forms of third-country deportations.
“Right now they haven’t been able to remove that many people,” said the ACLU’s Mehta. “I do think that will change.”
“They’re in a hiring spree right now. They will have more planes. If they get more agreements, they’ll be able to send more people to more countries.”
___
Associated Press reporters Garance Burke in San Francisco, Joshua Goodman in Miami, Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Molly A. Wallace in Chicago contributed to this report.
TYLER, Texas (KETK) — A surge of interest in Texas’ new school choice program means thousands of families may be left waiting. A record 274,183 students applied for Texas Education Freedom Accounts ahead of the March 31 deadline, far exceeding the program’s available funding, according to state leaders.
In East Texas alone, 8,855 applications were submitted by families with students currently enrolled in local school districts. With funding expected to cover only about 100,000 students statewide, officials say a lottery system will determine who receives the education accounts.
What ‘school choice’ means for Texas children’s futures
The program allows families to use state funds for alternatives to public education, including private school tuition and homeschooling expenses. Priority will be given to students with disabilities and those from lower-income families.
East Texas School Districts
SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER OF APPLICANTS
Arp ISD 45
Athens ISD 148
Atlanta ISD 59
Big Sandy ISD 42
Brownsboro ISD 131
Bullard ISD 309
Canton ISD 77
Carthage ISD 32
Central ISD 51
Central Heights CISD 34
Chapel Hill ISD (Smith County) 246
Frankston ISD 31
Gilmer ISD 104
Gladewater ISD 70
Grand Saline ISD 45
Groveton ISD 32
Hallsville ISD 411
Harleton ISD 31
Harmony ISD 320
Henderson ISD 102
Hudson ISD 37
Huntington ISD 55
Jacksonville ISD 155
Jefferson ISD 85
Kilgore ISD 138
LaPoynor ISD 47
Lindale ISD 222
Linden-Kildare CISD 41
Livingston ISD 235
Longview ISD 585
Lufkin ISD 175
Mabank ISD 117
Malakoff ISD 31
Marshall ISD 368
Mt. Pleasant ISD 42
Mt. Vernon ISD 34
Nacogoches ISD 350
New Diana ISD 32
Palestine ISD 52
Pine Tree ISD 232
Pittsburg ISD 40
Pleasant Grove ISD 57
Quitman ISD 33
Rains ISD 61
Rusk ISD 109
Sabine ISD 34
Spring Hill ISD 92
Sulphur Springs ISD 191
Tatum ISD 39
Texarkana ISD 67
Trinity ISD 46
Troup ISD 51
Tyler ISD 1,736
Van ISD 113
Wells ISD 117
Whitehouse ISD 349
White Oak ISD 37
Wills Point ISD 79
Winnsboro ISD 63
Winona ISD 111
Yantis ISD 31
Data from The Texas Education Freedom Account
Families can expect results to begin rolling out later this month, with funding distributed starting in July.
Smith County 5th graders surprise fellow student at adoption ceremony
The Texas Education Freedom Account was created following the passage of Senate Bill 2 by the Texas Legislature. This bill allocated $1 billion in funding to help parents enroll their children in private schools or homeschool them.
These funds can be used for various education-related expenses, including academic assessments, private tutoring services, transportation to approved educational providers and meals offered by private schools.
For more information, people can visit the Texas Education Freedom Account website.