Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An Arkansas law requiring that the Ten Commandments be prominently displayed in public school classrooms was struck down by a federal judge Monday.
The law is among those pushed by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to incorporate religion in public schools. Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas all have enacted similar laws requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms. And as such, each mandate has faced legal challenges that many expect to eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here is a closer look at the status of the mandates, which have stirred the long-running debate over the role of religion in government institutions.
Federal court ruling blocks mandate in Arkansas, Republicans vow to appeal
Last year, seven Arkansas families of various religious and nonreligious backgrounds filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s new law requiring all public elementary and secondary schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom and library. The lawsuit named six school districts in Arkansas as defendants.
While it is unclear how many school districts or publicly-funded universities have hung up posters, local media outlets have cited multiple examples over the past five months. That includes the Ten Commandments being posted at the University of Arkansas on the Fayetteville campus, the Arkansas Advocate reported in October.
Critics argue that the mandate is unconstitutional and violates separation of church and state. Proponents of the legislation say the Ten Commandments have historical significance and are part of the foundation of U.S.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks said in his written judgment that “nothing could possibly justify hanging the Ten Commandments—with or without historical context — in a calculus, chemistry, French, or woodworking class, to name a few.”
Brooks, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, went on to write that there is “no need to strain our minds to imagine a constitutional display mandated” by the 2025 law; “One doesn’t exist,” he wrote.
While Brooks’ judgment blocks the requirement, it’s unclear how broadly his decision can be applied — if it is limited to the specific school districts named in the lawsuit or if it applies to the entire state. Megan Bailey a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, one of the groups representing the parents challenging the law, said the ruling “makes clear the law is unconstitutional.”
“Given that, it would be unwise for any school district in Arkansas to move forward with posting the Ten Commandments,” Bailey told The Associated Press.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that she plans to appeal the ruling and “defend our state’s values.”
Louisiana schools encouraged to hang up posters after most recent ruling
In 2024, Louisiana became the first state to mandate poster-sized displays of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, from kindergarten through college.
While the challenge has wound its way through federal courts for nearly two years, a ruling last month vacated an earlier court order that had prevented the law from taking effect — clearing the way for displays to be installed in classrooms.
Immediately following the Feb. 20 ruling from the full 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, Gov. Jeff Landry instructed schools to follow the law and post the Ten Commandments. In a letter to educators, Landry wrote that the court’s decision “removes any obstacles to the implementation of Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law” and that schools “should now proceed with placing the posters in classrooms.”
The law requires schools to accept donated Ten Commandments posters, which must have “large, easily readable font.” Earlier this year, a conservative advocacy group, Louisiana Family Forum, sent posters to most of the state’s parish school systems, The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune reported.
There have not yet been widespread reports of schools hanging up the posters, with some school officials expressing worries about potential litigation. However, others say it is imminent. Among them is Louisiana State University President Wade Rousse, who said the university intends to comply with the law but, as of last week, has not received donated posters.
Posters go up in Texas classrooms
Last year, a similar mandate in Texas took effect — marking the widest-reaching attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools.
With no shortage of strong opinions among teachers, parents, and students, the posters began going up in classrooms as school districts accepted donations or paid to have them printed. About two dozen of the state’s roughly 1,200 school districts were barred from hanging the posters after federal judges issued injunctions in cases against the law.
In January, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments over the Texas law and litigation is pending.
HOUSTON COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — A man who was driving while using hallucinogenic drugs was arrested in Houston County earlier this week after holding someone in his car against their will.
According to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a call on Sunday evening stating that a man later identified as Christopher Russell Cross was holding a man in a vehicle against his will. It was later revealed that Cross had consumed mushrooms and PCP while driving with the victim.
The victim later stated that Cross told him that if he exited the vehicle, he would “send him to Jesus” and ordered him to urinate inside the vehicle, officials said.
Following the incident, officials found one pound of hallucinogenic mushrooms and 64 grams of PCP inside Cross’s vehicle. Cross was arrested and charged with kidnapping and two counts of possession of a controlled substance.
LONE STAR, Texas (KETK) — An investigation by the Texas Railroad Commission found that drilling fluids containing oil from a reserve pit at a Rose City Resources well site on U.S. Steel property leaked into a damaged pipe and flowed into a nearby low?lying area.
From there, the fluids migrated through underlying rock formations and ultimately entered the Ellison Creek Reservoir.
The Railroad Commission concluded that Rose City Resources is responsible for the unpermitted disposal and will be required to handle the cleanup, with the Commission providing oversight.
To date, cleanup efforts have primarily targeted the origin point and the lake’s east side, but Tuesday’s observations emphasize the need for more comprehensive action. Inspection findings indicate that areas on the western shoreline require more attention, aligning with suggestions from local officials.
The public is encouraged to report any additional affected areas to the Morris County Sheriff’s non-emergency number at 903-645-2232.
Residents who notice affected shorelines or have information about the spill are asked to contact the Morris County Sheriff’s Office at 903-645-2232.
TEXAS (KETK) — The window to apply for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program has been extended to March 31, after a federal court order was issued on Tuesday ahead of the initial deadline.
Parents may submit new applications before the extended deadline and previously submitted applications may be updated.
Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock announced on Tuesday that the school choice initiative surpassed 200,000 applications, with more than 2,200 schools signed up to participate.
“Crossing the 200,000-student mark shows just how strongly Texas families are responding to the opportunity for more educational freedom,” Hancock said.
The TEFA program, established by the Texas Legislature in 2025, allows families to apply for educational funding, such as private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational services.
Applications for the 2026-2027 school year will now close on March 31 at 11:59 p.m. Families accepted into the program will have until July 15 to select a school for their children, as additional schools register on a rolling basis.
“Our team has worked to stand up a program that is transparent, accountable and focused on student success,” Hancock said. “As we head into the final hours before the deadline, I encourage any family still considering TEFA to take a few minutes to complete an application. This program gives parents more tools to support their child’s future, and we want every eligible student to have the chance to benefit.”
DALLAS (AP) – Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett on Monday confirmed that a 39-year-old man who was killed in a standoff with Dallas officers last week was a member of her security team who had been using a fraudulent identity.
Diamon Mazairre Robinson lived as “Mike King” for years, during which he operated security businesses that hired off-duty officers, Dallas police said during a Monday press conference. Robinson’s real identity was exposed after Irving police put out a bulletin for a vehicle with stolen government plates, which a Dallas officer had seen while working with Robinson on a security job six months earlier.
Robinson fled Dallas police, who attempted to pull him over on March 11, escaping a brief chase before being located once more in a hospital parking garage, officials said. After an hours-long standoff with negotiators, officers shot and killed Robinson after he stepped out of the vehicle and drew a handgun.
In a statement posted on social media, the Dallas congresswoman confirmed that Robinson had helped provide security for her for years, and said her team had followed U.S. House procedure for contracting security. She also said Robinson, acting as Mike King, had worked with multiple law enforcement agencies, including Capitol Police. A spokesperson with the Capitol Police did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Crockett said that her team was unaware he had been acting under an alias, but that Robinson had always maintained positive community relationships and never gave anyone reason to suspect he had misconstrued his identity.
“What we’re learning about his past doesn’t fit the person we came to know as Mike King,” Crockett said. “ His death evokes a range of emotions. Our hearts grieve the loss of someone we knew and the lost good that could have come from his redemption.”
DPD Deputy Chief William Kenneth said investigators did not discover Robinson’s true identity until after Crockett’s campaign for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate race had ended. Crockett, a former public defender, said in her statement that she believed in people’s capacity for redemption and second chances. She also acknowledged Robinson’s prior criminal history and said they did not believe he had been charged with any violent offenses.
Robinson had posed as a federal officer under the “Specialty Dignitary Police,” a nonexistent agency he created identification cards for, officials said. He also had two active felony theft warrants from 2017, a parole violation, two vehicles with stolen government plates and multiple stolen firearms, including the one he produced before being shot, Kenneth said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts warned Tuesday that personal criticism of federal judges is dangerous and “it’s got to stop,” two days after President Donald Trump called a federal judge who ruled against the administration “wacky, nasty, crooked and totally out of control.”
As he has done before, Roberts was careful not to single out Trump or anyone else, insisting that the attacks on judges are not from “just any one political perspective.”
Criticism of judicial opinions “comes with the territory” and can be healthy, Roberts said in remarks at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.
But it’s different when the criticism moves away from legal analysis. “Personally directed hostility is dangerous and it’s got to stop,” Roberts said.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who shared the stage with the chief justice, thanked Roberts because “we always know that you have our backs and that means a great deal.”
The U.S. Marshals Service, responsible for protecting judges, reported 564 threats in the government fiscal year that ended in September, up from the year before. Roberts acknowledged the “serious threats” by noting Congress has responded by increasing funding for judges’ security.
Trump’s most recent comments about judges came Sunday in a post on his Truth Social following a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg quashing subpoenas the Justice Department had issued to the Federal Reserve.
Boasberg, Trump wrote, is “a Wacky, Nasty, Crooked, and totally Out of Control Judge” who “suffers from the highest level of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), and has been ‘after’ my people, and me, for years.”
Last year, Roberts publicly rejected Trump’s call for Boasberg’s impeachment when the judge blocked additional deportations to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The president also has been highly critical of Roberts and the five other justices who struck down global tariffs he imposed under an emergency powers law. Trump said he was “absolutely ashamed” of the members of the court who ruled against him, questioning their patriotism and singling out two of his own appointees, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch.
Trump’s allies and administration officials also have joined in the criticism. After U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston on Monday blocked the administration’s effort to reshape vaccines policy, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche noted that other rulings from Murphy had been upended.
“How many times can Judge Murphy get reversed in one year? The same day he is stayed for repeatedly refusing to follow the law, he issues another activist decision. We will keep appealing these lawless decisions, and we will keep winning. The question is, how much embarrassment can this Judge take?” Blanche posted on X.
AUSTIN (AP) – President Donald Trump has said he plans to endorse one of the candidates in the Republican Senate runoff in Texas, but Tuesday is the last chance for either to withdraw from the ballot and fulfill the party’s hope of avoiding more than two months of bitter and costly campaigning.
Neither incumbent Sen. John Cornyn or state Attorney General Ken Paxton have shown any signs of bowing out, instead launching new advertisements criticizing each other.
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he thinks he’ll bestow an endorsement this week. But it’s already been two weeks since he originally promised to back a candidate “soon” and urge the one without his support to drop out of the race “for the good of the Party.”
Cornyn finished ahead of Paxton in the March 3 primary, although he didn’t secure the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
Asked about the chance of Cornyn dropping out, campaign spokesman Matt Mackowiak said “of course not” and “we’ve already started our campaign.”
An ad released Tuesday by Cornyn’s campaign highlighted allegations that Paxton had an affair and his impeachment by Texas’ Republican-controlled House. Paxton was later acquitted and denied corruption accusations. Another ad framed some of the same accusations as Paxton violating the Ten Commandments.
As to whether Paxton plans to step down, campaign spokesman Nick Maddux declined to comment. But the candidate introduced a new attack ad against Cornyn on Friday and is scheduled to speak this month at the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual convention, hardly the signs of a candidate eyeing the exit.
The ad is a series of news clips highlighting Cornyn’s past critiques of Trump, including over the president’s false statements that the 2020 election was stolen, and frames Paxton as the MAGA-aligned candidate.
A pro-Paxton super PAC has also sought to catch Trump’s attention by airing an ad with the same messaging in the West Palm Beach, Florida, market, which includes Trump’s resort home, Mar-a-Lago.
But Cornyn, a more traditional Republican, isn’t retreating from the fight over who’s the better MAGA adherent: the first sentence on his website is “Cornyn votes with President Trump 99% of the time.”
Trump told NBC News that he likes “both candidates very much” and believes that either could beat the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, in the general election.
While Cornyn came out slightly ahead of Paxton in the primary, the second round of voting could favor the attorney general since runoffs typically draw a more conservative, activist corner of the Republican Party.
“Cornyn has always had a weakness with the most conservative voters in the electorate,” said Joshua Blank, director of research for the Texas Political Project at the University of Texas, Austin, which conducts statewide polls.
Still, he added, Cornyn’s primary campaign appeared to offset at least part of that disadvantage and “illustrate for the Republican primary electorate what kinds of vulnerabilities that Ken Paxton has.”
The ads, however, matter less in a runoff contest, said veteran Texas Republican strategist Dave Carney. The smaller, more concentrated electorate puts an emphasis on identifying individual voters, contacting them directly through digital advertising and texts, he said.
“Whoever has good data and knows who their supporters are and turns them out will win,” he said.
ALVARADO, Texas (AP) — A Palestinian woman who was the last person still in immigration detention after the Trump administration’s 2025 crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses was freed Monday after a year in custody.
Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old from the West Bank who has lived in New Jersey since 2016, had been held in a U.S. immigration detention center in Texas since last March. Her detention was linked, in part, to her participation in a protest outside Columbia University in 2024.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m free! I’m free! Finally, after one year,” Kordia, with a beaming smile, told reporters after emerging from the detention center.
An immigration judge had ordered her released on bond three times. The government challenged the first two rulings, but Kordia was freed Monday on $100,000 bond after it did not challenge the third.
Kordia said she was looking forward to going home and hugging her mother “so hard.” But she also said she would keep fighting on behalf of people still being held at the detention center.
“There is a lot of injustice in this place,” she said. “There is a lot of people that shouldn’t be here the first place.”
Kordia was among a number of people arrested last year after the Trump administration began using its immigration enforcement powers on noncitizens who had criticized or protested Israel’s military actions in Gaza, many students and scholars at American universities.
Among them was Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student involved in campus protests. He spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail before being freed. Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student who co-authored an op-ed criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war, was detained for six weeks.
Others did not fight to stay — one Columbia doctoral student fled the U.S. after her visa was revoked and immigration agents showed up at her university apartment.
Arrests of activists like Khalil drew condemnation from elected officials and advocates. But Kordia was not a student or part of a group that might have provided support, so her case remained largely out of the public eye while her detention carried on.
Kordia said she joined a 2024 demonstration outside Columbia University after Israel killed scores of her relatives in Gaza, where she maintains deep personal ties. She was around 100 people arrested by city police at that protest, but the charges against her were dismissed and sealed. Information about her arrest was later given to the Trump administration by the New York City Police Department, which said it was told the records were needed as part of a money laundering investigation.
Kordia was arrested during a March 13, 2025, check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Jersey. She was detained immediately and flown to Prairieland Detention Center, south of Dallas.
Federal officials have accused Kordia of overstaying her visa, while scrutinizing payments she sent to relatives in the Middle East. Kordia said the money was meant to help family members suffering during the war.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, had previously criticized Kordia for what she said was “providing financial support to individuals living in nations hostile to the U.S.”
The department said in an email Monday night, “The facts of this case have not changed: Leqaa Kordia is in the country illegally after violating the terms of her visa.”
“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” read the statement.
An immigration judge found “overwhelming evidence” that Kordia was telling the truth about the payments.
Kordia was recently hospitalized for three days following a seizure after fainting and hitting her head at the privately run detention facility.
At a hearing Friday, Kordia’s attorneys said she had a neurological condition that had worsened while in custody, putting her at an elevated risk of seizure. They reiterated that she could stay with U.S. citizen family members and did not pose a flight risk.
The immigration judge, Tara Naslow, agreed.
“I’ve heard testimony. I’ve seen thousands of pages of evidence presented by the respondent, and very little evidence presented by the government in any of this,” Naslow said.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on X that he asked for her release when he met with President Donald Trump last month
“I am grateful that Leqaa has been released this evening from ICE custody after more than a year in detention for speaking up for Palestinian rights,” Mamdani said.
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Offenhartz reported from New York.
POLK COUNTY, Texas (KETK) – A boil water notice has been announced for customers in the Chesswood water system as of Monday.
According to a press release, this notice was issued by a “production issue” at the water plant, leading to an outage. All customers are now advised to boil their water before consumption. Children, seniors and individuals with weakened immune systems are particularly susceptible to harmful bacteria.
To effectively eliminate the bacteria, water should be brought to a vigorous rolling boil and kept boiling for an additional two minutes. Alternatively, individuals can purchase bottled water or source water from other means for drinking and consumption.
Once the notice is lifted, Texas Water Utilities will inform its customers. For any inquiries, people can contact the company at 866-654-7992.
LIVINGSTON, Texas (KETK) — Newly released footage from the Livingston Police Department captures a dramatic Monday morning car chase, leading to the arrest of a 22-year-old suspect.
The Livingston Police Department said they were notified by the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office that a stolen vehicle may be heading into their area on State Highway 146. Officers later located the vehicle traveling northbound on 146, south of the city limits, and attempted to initiate a traffic stop in the area of Red Barn.
The driver continued to flee from authorities and officers conducted a PIT maneuver to prevent the suspect from getting back onto 146. Despite the maneuvers, the suspect continued to drive into the city limits of Livingston.
As the pursuit continued, deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office deployed spike strips near Garner Street, disabling the vehicle’s tires. However, the driver continued on to East Church Street, where he collided with a department vehicle.
According to officials, the suspect exited his vehicle on Old Woodville Road and fled into a wooded area. Officers successfully deployed a taser against the suspect and took him into custody.
Following his arrest, the suspect was identified as 22-year-old William Rivera from Lee’s Summit, Mo., and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and evading arrest with a vehicle.
“This is a great example of difficult and split decisions officers are forced to make in dangerous situations,” Livingston PD Lieutenant Jake Mueller said. ” Our officers handled the situation with professionalism and brought the pursuit to a safe conclusion. The suspect is in custody and no one was injured.”
HOUSTON (AP) — An Afghan immigrant whose family said had worked with U.S. forces in his home country died at a Texas hospital after having been detained by immigration authorities, according to officials.
Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, died at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on Saturday, a day after having been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
A cause of death is still pending. But Paktyawal’s family said he was not ill.
“We still cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man. His children keep asking when their father will come home,” the family said in statement.
In a statement, ICE said that Paktyawal had been arrested for committing fraud against SNAP, the government’s biggest food aid program, on Sept. 16. ICE said he had also been arrested for theft on Nov. 1.
Paktyawal was arrested during a targeted enforcement action and at the time of his arrest and processing on Friday, he did not report any prior medical history, according to ICE.
Paktyawal began complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains Friday night while in an ICE Dallas field office processing hold room, according to ICE. He was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas where he received treatment and was kept overnight.
On Saturday, Paktyawal was eating breakfast when staff noticed his tongue had become swollen. Medical staff performed multiple lifesaving efforts but he died at 9:10 a.m. Saturday, according to ICE.
“His passing is currently under active investigation,” ICE said.
Paktyawal had previously served alongside U.S. military special forces in Afghanistan and came to the United States as a refugee following the withdrawal by U.S. troops and the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021, according to #AfghanEvac, a San Diego-based group that helps resettle Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the two-decade war.
Paktyawal had been living in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, with his family while his asylum case remained pending, according to #AfghanEvac. He was married and had six children.
Deaths in ICE custody have soared during Trump’s second term.
The agency reported 14 custody deaths from the start of the government’s fiscal year Oct. 1 through Jan. 6, well on pace to surpass the previous 12-month count of 24. ICE reported 12 custody deaths in the 2024 fiscal year and 12 in the previous three years combined.
ICE has increased the number of people in its detention centers to more than 70,000 from about 40,000 at the start of Trump’s second term. It plans to spend $38.3 billion to boost capacity to 92,600 beds by the end of November, including converted warehouses that house up to 10,000 each
MARION COUNTY (AP) – Bob Sanders bumps along the dirt roads of his 1,100-acre ranch in a beat up burgundy Chevrolet Suburban, the engine roaring as his sprawling cattle operation, known locally for its wagyu beef, stretches around him. A shotgun rides in the passenger seat and battered binoculars sit on the dashboard.
The sloping pasture where his rust-colored cows graze gives way to trees that flank a narrow ribbon of water. It doesn’t look like much, just a slow-moving channel threading through sweetgums and cypress, but this 2.6-mile stretch of the Big Cypress Bayou carries a lot of weight — it connects Lake O’ the Pines, the region’s main water supply, to Caddo Lake, the state’s only natural lake.
Water feels abundant in this part of northeast Texas. But even in this lush corner of the state, water is increasingly top of mind. For Sanders and many of his neighbors in Marion County, about 35 miles northeast of Longview, the bayou represents something increasingly fragile in Texas: water that still belongs to the landscape it came from.
That was partly the reason why Sanders took a step few Texans have taken in decades. He donated part of his water rights to the Texas Water Trust, a little-known state program designed to preserve water for environmental and conservation purposes.
“That’s what I am trying to preserve, is water to keep this bayou system healthy. If North Texas gets our water, this ranch would be in a perpetual drought. It would break us and destroy the ranch,” he said.
Texas is staring at a water shortage by 2030 if a historic drought hits the state. As the population grows, droughts become longer and more frequent, and rising temperatures strain rivers and reservoirs, state water planners warn that without new water sources, Texas could face shortages in coming decades.
Lawmakers made significant investments last year in increasing water supplies, but that looming crisis has pushed growing cities to search for new supplies.
When a Dallas developer announced plans last year to drill more than 40 high-capacity wells in three East Texas counties to export billions of gallons of water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in East Texas to water-stressed areas of the state, locals were outraged. They argued the proposal would be an “existential threat” to regional water supplies.
The local groundwater conservation district voided the developer’s permits after a poultry farm sued the district, then the developer also sued the district.
Even in this part of Texas where water appears plentiful, Sanders and his neighbors say the threat is personal and they are ready to protect the area’s water however they can.
“I have the right to water my cattle, family crops, but if this water is pumped into a tanker and transported, that’s a different deal, because it affects everybody around here,” he said.
What’s the Texas Water Trust?
Sanders’ decision to donate to the Texas Water Trust reflects a growing effort by some rural landowners to keep water in local ecosystems.
The program itself is not new. Created by the Texas Legislature in 1997 as part of the state’s broader Texas Water Bank program, the trust allows water rights holders to voluntarily dedicate their water to preserving the flows in rivers and streams, improving water quality and protecting fish and wildlife habitat.
Water rights can be placed in the trust temporarily or permanently, depending on the agreement.
In theory, the idea is simple: instead of diverting water for irrigation or other uses, the water stays in the river system.
In practice, it has rarely been used in nearly 30 years.
Only three water rights have been placed in the trust since its creation: Two on the Rio Grande and another tied to the San Marcos River in Central Texas. The first donation came in 2003, when Hudspeth County rancher Kit Bramblett placed more than 1,200 acre-feet of Rio Grande water into the trust after watching stretches of the river dry up.
Sanders’ donation is the first since 2006. He said his impetus was the historic Texas drought of 2011.
The little bit of rain that fell in a five-year span wasn’t enough to sustain the ranch, and the Sanders family feared that they might run out of grass to feed their cattle.
They began to explore alternative revenue streams to keep the ranch afloat as they watched many of their mature trees dry up and die. Sanders said the experience really opened his eyes to the fragility of the region’s water supply.
“Life is in the water. When a person has a stroke, sometimes you can rehab them,” Sanders said. “But when a tree is short of water and has a stroke, it doesn’t come back. It dies.”
Sanders wanted to take action to preserve the bayou, so he reached out to state agencies and organizations he had already done environmental work with, including the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Caddo Lake Institute and the Army Corps of Engineers. He had worked with the organizations to improve water quality in the river and reintroduce native paddlefish following their decline after the construction of a dam.
Those agencies pointed him to The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit that helps preserve Texas land and water. The group agreed to buy a portion of Sanders’ water rights and place them into the state water trust.
Challenges to donation
Experts say the lack of participation in the water trust is largely due to how complicated and unfamiliar the process of donating water rights can feel to many who own them.
Surface water rights in Texas are treated as property rights and are governed by a patchwork of regulations rooted in a century-old doctrine often summarized as “first in time, first in right,” where the oldest rights have first right to water during shortages. Navigating that system can involve legal filings, state approvals and hydrological analysis that many landowners are unwilling or unable to pursue.
“There’s a lot of complexity around water rights,” said Myron Hess, a Texas water policy attorney who does some consulting work for environmental nonprofits. “Most people don’t understand that the water that’s in the river today isn’t necessarily going to be there tomorrow. Somebody else could take it out and pump it to Dallas.”
Awareness is another barrier.
“Not a lot of people are aware of (the trust),” said Marty Kelly, water resources program coordinator at Texas Parks and Wildlife.
In recent years, Parks and Wildlife, environmental groups and other state agencies held a workshop, gave presentations at water conferences and met with landowners to explain how the trust works and how Texans can participate.
Lawmakers also expanded Parks and Wildlife’s role in 2021, directing the agency to encourage and facilitate voluntary donations, help landowners navigate the process and to manage rights once they are placed in the trust. Kelly said the change gives the program clearer leadership.
“That’s a step in the right direction … There’s actually somebody who needs to be out trying to encourage people to put rights in the trust,” Hess said.
Concern about Caddo Lake
The 2011 drought forced many East Texas landowners to confront how vulnerable their operations could be to water shortages, said Ryan Smith, director of water and science for The Nature Conservancy in Texas. Another driver, he said, was Caddo Lake itself, which he described as “a very special place to everyone.”
Straddling the Texas-Louisiana border, the lake is famous for its maze of bald cypress trees rising from dark water. Several rivers and bayous feed the lake, including Big Cypress Bayou. Because the waterways are connected, the health of one can affect them all.
“We’re going to need to use all the tools in the toolbox to really find the balance,” Smith said. “Not just in this potential sale from the Cypress to the (DFW) metroplex, but in every case where water demand is growing.”
Back on his ranch, Sanders said the decision to put some of his water into the trust ultimately came down to legacy.
He’s nearing retirement and his son Dustin, who lives at the ranch with his wife and kids, now helps run the operation. Over the decades, the family has watched the land shift, with storms reshaping creek banks and droughts shrinking the bayou to a trickle some years.
What worries him most is the possibility that one day the water itself could be redirected out of the watershed or dry up completely.
He’s been talking to his neighbors about the trust. If enough of them decide to participate, Sanders believes it could help safeguard the rivers, the hardwood bottoms and ultimately Caddo Lake itself.
“It’s protection,” he said, “the bigger the army, the more protection you have.”
(AP) – A proposed megadeal in the self-storage business would create a $57 billion company overseeing square footage, if it were combined in a single location, of a small city such as Cupertino, California, or Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Public Storage said Monday that it will buy National Storage Affiliates in an all-stock deal worth about $10.5 billion, creating a company with 327 million square feet of storage at nearly 4,600 locations in the U.S.
Public Storage said it wants to expand its presence in areas like the Sun Belt and other regions that are likely to grow in population.
The deal, if approved, would combine the largest and the fourth-largest U.S. self-storage companies by market capitalization. Extra Space Storage and CubeSmart are the next two largest companies.
Public Storage, which has been based in Glendale, California, said this year that it is relocating to Frisco, Texas, near Dallas. National Storage is based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.
Investors that hold National Storage common stock and operating partnership units will receive 0.14 of a share of Public Storage common stock or partnership units for each National Storage share or unit that they own. This represents $41.68 per share.
Shares of National Storage jumped nearly 30% at the opening bell, while Public Storage’s stock fell less than a percent.
Before the transaction closes, Public Storage and limited partners in National Storage’s operating partnership will form a joint venture that includes 313 properties on National Storage’s operating platform comprising 19.6 million rentable square feet across 28 states and Puerto Rico with an estimated value of approximately $3.3 billion.
Operating partnership unitholders are expected to own about 80% of the joint venture at its start, with Public Storage holding the remaining stake. Public Storage will exclusively manage the joint venture portfolio and will earn customary property management, asset management and tenant reinsurance income.
The deal, which was approved by the boards of both companies, is expected to close in the third quarter. It still needs approval from National Storage equity holders as well as regulators.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration likes to promote its immigration enforcement agenda through numbers, with ambitious goals to deport 1 million people, report zero releases at the U.S.-Mexico border and arrest thousands of alleged gang members.
For all the boasting, the administration has been releasing less reliable, carefully vetted data than its predecessors on a signature policy that has become one of the most contentious of Trump’s second term.
The gap in information and a loss of figures from an office that has tracked immigration data back to the 1800s have left researchers, advocates, lawyers and journalists without important statistics to hold the Republican administration to account.
“They aren’t publishing the data,” said Mike Howell, who heads the conservative Oversight Project, an advocacy group pushing for more deportations. Instead, Howell said, the Department of Homeland Security has put out numbers in news releases “that purport to be statistics with no statistical backup and the numbers have jumped all over the place.”
With mass deportations a priority, new restrictions and increased enforcement have led to a surge in immigration arrests, detentions and deportations.
But finding the metrics that once measured those changes can be hard. It is an extension of earlier administration moves to limit the flow of government information by scrubbing or removing federal datasets or by the firing last year of the top official overseeing jobs data.
The Office of Homeland Security Statistics is responsible for publishing figures from Homeland Security agencies, including removals and the nationalities of those deported, to provide a comprehensive picture of immigration trends at the border and inside the United States.
Originally known as the Office of Immigration Statistics, it tracked such data since 1872. In its current form, created under the Biden administration, it also started publishing monthly reports that allowed researchers to track developments almost in real time.
But key enforcement metrics on its website have not been updated since early last year. A note on the page where the monthly reports were says it “is delayed while it is under review.”
“It’s the most timely data. It’s the most reliable data,” Austin Kocher, research professor at Syracuse University who closely follows immigration data trends, said about the monthly reports. “It has the most omniscient view of immigration enforcement across the entire agency.”
An interactive dashboard launched by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in December 2023 once let users examine whom the agency was arresting, their nationalities, criminal histories and removal numbers. ICE called it a “new era in transparency.”
Though intended for quarterly updates, the latest data is from January 2025. The agency’s annual report, typically released in December, had not been published as of mid-March.
Other agencies also publish data that touches on immigration, and parts of it do continue to roll out, such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics detailing border encounters or data from the Department of Justice’s immigration courts.
But experts say other data has slowed.
The State Department’s most recent visa issuance data is from August. Key statistics from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have not been updated since October.
The now-missing data had helped researchers study the effects of different policies. Lawyers could cite the figures to support their litigation. Journalists saw in them a powerful tool to hold the government to account on public claims or to report on important trends.
“We’re all a little bit in the dark about exactly how immigration enforcement is operating at a time when it’s taking new and unprecedented forms,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.
DHS did not respond to detailed questions about why it was no longer releasing specific data.
“This is the most transparent Administration in history, we release new data multiple times a week and upon reporter request,” the department said in a statement.
Figures the administration has released are inconsistent and unverifiable.
In a Jan. 20 news release, DHS said it had deported more than 675,000 people since Trump returned to the White House. A day later, in a second release, the department put the figure at 622,000. In congressional testimony March 4, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the figure was 700,000.
But ICE, an agency within DHS, also releases figures on how many people it has removed from the country, part of a large data release mandated by Congress. An Associated Press analysis of the figures put that number at roughly 400,000 over Trump’s first year.
DHS has said 2.2 million people who were in the U.S. illegally have gone home on their own, but the department has given no explanation for the count. Experts have questioned the source of that figure, saying this was not something that DHS historically has tracked.
The department did not respond to questions about where that data came from.
With key sources of data halted, researchers, advocates and others have had to rely on information the administration is obliged to report or that has come to light through legal action.
The publication of ICE detention figures — how many people are detained, for how long and whether they have committed a crime — is required by Congress and is generally released every two weeks. But the figures’ release has faced some delays and its data gets overwritten with every new publication, complicating the work of people who need access to it.
The University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project, a research initiative, successfully sued through the Freedom of Information Act to access data about ICE arrests including nationalities, conviction status and whether arrests occurred at jails or in the community.
Graeme Blair, co-director of the project, said every administration has struggled with transparency in immigration enforcement, and given the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement goals, the team wanted to secure and verify information that the government might not publicly release.
“Given the scale of what they were talking about doing, it seemed really important to be able to understand, to be able to double check those numbers,” he said.
But there are limitations, he said. The data obtained through the lawsuit only runs through Oct. 15. It does not cover recent operations such as the Minneapolis enforcement surge, when federal immigration officers fatally shot two protesters, leading to widespread demonstrations and scrutiny of enforcement tactics.
The absence of data is one of the few issues that has drawn bipartisan criticism.
“We deserve to know the numbers, just like we deserve to know who’s in our country and who needs to leave,” Howell said.
TYLER, Texas (KETK)– All smokable THC products must be removed from Texas dispensaries by March 31, upsetting business owners in East Texas.
A year ago, the debate started in the 89th legislature to ban or regulate THC products in Texas. In the end, state lawmakers could not agree. Ultimately, leading Governor Abbott to issue an executive order banning all THC products.
This order requires the 9,100 hemp retailers in the state, like Green Nation in Tyler to change the way they do business.
“What the law did is essentially that any THC products are now part of the total D-9 calculation. So, the State Health Department is essentially changing the way that hemp is defined by Texas and federal law,” Green Nation Owner, Austin Hubbard, says.
The new requirements on THC levels would eliminate the use of the hemp flower–and could limit 80% of the product for the industry and state lawmakers are hopeful that the new stricter rules will lead to lower health risks for the public.
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The Texas Department of State Health Services has also proposed raising licensing fees. Retailers, like Green Nation, could see fees spike from $150 to $20,000, and manufacturers could experience fees of $250 to $25,000. Hubbard is worried ‘a lot of these stores won’t be able to afford that.’
Hubbard is working to find a way to keep his business afloat by filing a temporary restraining order against the ruling until 2027.
People say that this is the only thing that deals with my post-chemo pain. So, I mean, it’s that’s really taken away from the people that need it the most,” Hubbard says, staying customer-driven through the legal battle.
In a statement to KETK News, the Texas Department of State Health Services addressed their new rules: DSHS promulgated rules in accordance with the statutes and the governor’s executive order. To set these fees, DSHS made estimates of the costs necessary to support regular inspection of manufacturers and retailers, including inspector salaries and travel, laboratory testing costs, related legal and State Office of Administrative Hearing costs for resulting compliance actions, and assistance from the TABC and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) per Executive Order GA-56.