Over the weekend, Teijo and 74 other women participated in the Houston pageant, with Aarienna Ware ultimately crowned the winner June 22. However, Teijo stood out throughout the competition, making history as the oldest contestant to ever compete in Miss Texas USA, the organization confirmed to NBC News. 

About a month before her historic day, Teijo gushed about the pageant and explained why she signed up in an Instagram post. 

“I am delighted to be a part of this incredible new experience as a contestant in the Miss Texas USA pageant,” she said. “In doing so, I hope to inspire women to strive to be their best physical and mental self and believe there is beauty at any age.”

Leading up to the competition, she shared information about the different sponsors she received and the growing support from fans. 

On June 16, she wrote, “Thank you to all my sponsors-your support has meant so much to me. All of your generous donations have made my participation in the Miss Texas USA possible.”

She added, “I can’t wait to show we all have a new stage of opportunity, strength, and beauty!”

Teijo was eligible to compete in the pageant following a recent rule change that removed age limits, NBC News confirmed. 

In another rule change, increasing the competitions inclusivity, the Miss Texas USA website reveals that since 2023 “women who are or have been married, as well as women who are pregnant or have children” have been able to participate, as well. 

This year’s two-day event began June 21 at the Hilton Houston Post Oak Hotel. Teijo, representing Paso Del Norte, shared a photo of her posing on a red carpet after arriving in H-Town. 

The contestants were judged in three categories: personal interview, swimsuit and evening gown. Ware, who represented Dallas, was crowned Miss Texas USA 2024.

The pageant’s Instagram page uploaded a video June 22 from the moment Ware was awarded the coveted title. She strutted across the stage while holding a bouquet of flowers to celebrate her win. 

She will now prepare for the Miss USA competition, which will air live on The CW on Aug. 4.

The upcoming pageant comes after months of controversy surrounding the organization. In May, former Miss USA 2023 winner Noelia Voigt announced on Instagram that she was resigning to prioritize her mental health. A few days later, Miss USA Teen 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava and former Miss Colorado USA 2023 Arianna Lemus revealed they also decided to renounce their titles. 

Lemus said her decision was an act of “solidarity” with Voigt and Srivastava. “Silencing women is not the definition of pageantry,” she said in the caption on her post. 

In response to the resignations, the Miss USA organization, which is owned by Miss Universe Organization, issued statements on social media. 

“We respect and support Noelia’s decision to step down from her duties. The well-being of our titleholders is a top priority, and we understand her need to prioritize herself at this time,” the Miss USA organization said, in part, thanking Voigt for her “service.”

A similar statement was posted on the Miss Teen USA Instagram account to address Srivastava’s departure.  

The organization did not comment on Lemus’ resignation.

This article first appeared on TODAY.com. Read more from TODAY here:

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Some staff members appeared solemn as they found their seats. Others looked angry. One attendee pulled out her cellphone and secretly hit record. Later, she shared the audio with NBC News and described the meeting in an interview. A second person who attended confirmed her account and the recording’s authenticity.

Kenneth W. Fambro II, a real estate executive who serves on Gateway’s board of elders, struggled through tears as he delivered the news that employees had come to hear: Morris, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders, was resigning from the church he’d founded 24 years earlier.

“This,” Fambro said of accepting Morris’ resignation, “has been one of the most difficult decisions in my life.”

Gateway elder: ‘One of the most difficult decisions in my life’

The recording of Fambro’s remarks reveals the deeply conflicted feelings of church leaders as they come to terms with the knowledge that their founding pastor — the man who’d built Gateway into one the largest megachurches in America and served on former President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory board — had confessed to engaging in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a child.

Fambro opened Tuesday by acknowledging that he and other church officials had long known that Morris had admitted to sexual misconduct when he was young. It was a story Morris told so often over the years from the pulpit and in one-on-one meetings that “you can get kind of numb” to it, Fambro said, according to the recording.

“Pastor Robert did a phenomenal job of being open and transparent about his transgressions and his past, his moral failures,” Fambro said, speaking on behalf of the elders board, which is charged with governing the church. 

“What we did not know was that she was 12 years old.”

Gateway elder says he didn’t know Morris’ ‘moral failure’ involved a 12-year-old

Cindy Clemishire, the woman who accused Morris of molesting her as a child, disputed the notion that Morris had been transparent. In a statement to NBC News, she said she was disturbed that Gateway elders struggled over whether to remove him from leadership.

“What is so difficult about accepting the resignation from a man who repeatedly sexually abused a little girl for almost five years and then lied about it?” Clemishire said after having reviewed a transcript of the recording provided by NBC News. “Why wasn’t he terminated?”

Clemishire and her lawyer, Boz Tchividjian, contend that she contacted Morris and church officials with her allegations in 2005 and 2007 and that Gateway’s board of elders should have long ago investigated Morris’ version of events. (Fambro began attending the church in 2006 and became an elder in 2014, according to Gateway’s website.)

Morris hasn’t been charged with a crime and didn’t respond to messages requesting comment.

The allegations were made public Friday in a post published by The Wartburg Watch, a website focused on exposing abuse in churches. Clemishire, 54, described in the post and in a subsequent interview with NBC News how Morris had molested her for years beginning on Christmas night in 1982, when she was 12.

Initially, Morris and Gateway’s elders responded Friday and Saturday by acknowledging in statements that Morris had several sexual encounters with a “young lady” when he was in his 20s and saying he had been transparent about his sin and had repented.

“Since the resolution of this 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures,” the elders said in a message to employees Friday.

But some Gateway parishioners and staff members viewed the statement itself as a moral failure. Why had church leaders described the alleged sex abuse of a 12-year-old with euphemisms?

Fambro didn’t address that question in his remarks Tuesday, and he and other church elders didn’t respond to messages requesting comment. A spokesperson for Gateway also didn’t respond.

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The person who made the recording of Tuesday’s staff meeting said she shared it with a reporter because she believes the board of elders is “gaslighting” employees about its initial defense of Morris and needs to be replaced. NBC News isn’t naming the woman because she fears retaliation.

At the meeting, Fambro defended the board of elders, which he said had been fielding criticism from members who felt leaders had taken too long to respond to the crisis.

He said leaders had deliberated during multiple hourslong meetings Monday and Tuesday and were following the guidance they’d long gotten from their now-former senior pastor. 

“If you’ve been here long enough, you’ve heard Pastor Robert say, ‘Before we can move, we need to hear God,’” Fambro said. 

Fambro also told employees he and the other elders “have great compassion” for Clemishire and don’t condone what happened to her.

“You won’t hear us try to explain it away,” Fambro said. 

But, he added, that doesn’t mean “we don’t love Pastor Robert, that we’re not defending him.”

He then spoke extensively about the profound impact Morris had on his life and on the lives of tens of thousands of church members. Fambro encouraged the audience not to let the revelations of child sex abuse make them lose sight of the good that God had done — and would continue to do — through Gateway and Morris.

“So yes, there is an anointing on this house. Yes, there is an anointing on Pastor Robert,” Fambro said. “But both/and, yes? There was some stuff that was done. They both can exist.”

Gateway elder says there is ‘an anointing’ on Morris

Fambro asked the staff to pray for Morris’ family, including his son James Morris, who is associate senior pastor and had been scheduled to succeed his father upon his planned retirement next year.

Robert Morris is still pulling for Gateway, Fambro said, which was why he is stepping down.

“Pastor Robert wants to see Gateway Church succeed in the body of Christ,” Fambro said. “Pastor Robert wanted to resign to not be a distraction.”

Clemishire said the elders’ continued support for Morris “makes me sick.”

“How can a church believe that a man can be anointed by God after sexually abusing a child and then lying about it for decades?” she said. “This is repulsive.”

Although elders had asked those in attendance not to record Tuesday’s meeting, Fambro seemed to sense that his words might eventually reach a broader audience. He said he worried someone would “take a sound bite, a clip, part of a sentence” and twist its meaning.

In closing, before another church leader stepped forward to describe the counseling services that would be available to employees, Fambro encouraged the audience members to focus on what they can do to help the church succeed.

“I can dwell on the past,” he said. “You guys can, as well. Or I can choose to say: ‘That’s a data point. How can I affect the future?’”

“‘How,” Fambro added, “do we move forward?’”

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The board of elders at Gateway made the announcement Tuesday in a statement to NBC News.

“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the church leaders said in their statement, noting that they had not known the victim’s age or the length of the alleged abuse. “Even though it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we regret that we did not have the information that we now have.”

The megachurch also announced it had hired the law firm Haynes & Boone to conduct an independent review of the allegations to ensure elders had a complete understanding of what happened.

Morris, a former member of President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory committee, had long told a story to his congregation and church leaders about a “moral failure” involving sexual sin when he was a young minister in his 20s.

Last week, Cindy Clemishire, now 54, revealed in a post on the church watchdog site The Wartburg Watch that she was 12 when Morris first sexually abused her in 1982. The alleged abuse continued for more than four years, Clemishire told NBC News on Monday.

Gateway and Morris responded to Clemishire’s allegation by releasing statements on Friday and Saturday acknowledging that Morris had engaged in “sexual behavior with a young lady” and stating that the “sin was dealt with correctly by confession and repentance.”

Clemishire released a statement Tuesday saying she had “mixed feelings” about Morris’ resignation. 

“Though I am grateful that he is no longer a pastor at Gateway, I am disappointed that the Board of Elders allowed him to resign,” she said in the statement. “He should have been terminated.” 

Clemishire added that she had repeatedly disclosed the abuse to church leaders and pastors, including at Gateway, but it was not until she spoke publicly that action was taken.

Morris did not respond to a message requesting comment.

Gateway officials did not respond to a message from NBC News on Tuesday asking why church leaders issued a statement referring to Clemishire as a young lady after she’d publicly revealed she was a child when the abuse began.

Morris is known for his efforts to advance conservative Christian morality through government and Republican politics. As news of the allegations against him spread in national media, some of his allies have distanced themselves from him.

A spokesperson for Trump said Morris was not working with the presidential campaign. And Texas state Reps. Nate Schatzline and Giovanni Capriglione, both Republicans representing areas where Gateway has campuses, issued statements condemning Morris’ actions. 

“Pastor Morris must be held accountable,” Capriglione wrote shortly before Morris’ resignation was announced. “The pain he has caused cannot be erased, and he should face the consequences of his crimes. I stand with any victims and will continue to fight for their rights and safety.”

In their official statement, Gateway elders expressed remorse over their handling of the situation.

“For the sake of the victim, we are thankful this situation has been exposed,” the statement said. “We know many have been affected by this, we understand that you are hurting, and we are very sorry. It is our prayer that, in time, healing for all those affected can occur.”

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“We have our squirrel resort,” Breyana Elwell said sitting on her porch.

It started last summer, in the middle of a Texas drought and heatwave, when Elwell put out a fan on the porch rail to help her family keep the heat and flies away.

“I peeked through the window and a little squirrel was ‘splooting’ right in front of it,” Elwell said. That got her thinking.

“I took action,” Elwell said. “Rummaged through our freezer and got some fresh fruits and some water and some nuts I ordered online.”

She set out the squirrel buffet on her porch with a few fans.

“There would be only one squirrel at a time usually on the porch. Then it turned into two. Then it turned into three,” Elwell said. “Once I saw six, I was like, we need to relocate them.”

The Elwells took a downed tree and created a squirrel highway between trees in their backyard, then they added fans, food and fun.

“My husband probably thinks I’m crazy, but he’s the one who built it for me,” Elwell said. “It’s become almost like a job, but it’s not a job because it’s a hobby for me and I love it so much!”

“It’s not necessarily about the squirrels because my phobia is actually rats and mice, and if you really look at a squirrel, it’s really a fancy rat,” Elwell said. “I think it’s just my heart. I would help anything.”

Elwell occasionally posts what’s happening at her backyard ‘squirrel resort’ on Instagram and TikTok.

“I just can’t wait to see what they do next,” Elwell said.

A family trip to a drive-thru safari in Texas turned into a heart-stopping experience when a giraffe grabbed hold of a child.

In the video, the family attempts to feed the safari animal when the animal suddenly snatches the child’s shirt. Fortunately, the giraffe quickly releases the toddler, and she is not hurt in any way.

However, on Wednesday, the wildlife center’s website announced a new policy: starting Thursday, guests will no longer be allowed to ride in the bed of pick-up trucks.

This developing story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Marc Leon, 22, is charged with murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the shooting death of 19-year-old Christopher Govea.

According to the Dallas Police Department, officers responded to the 960 block of E. Irving Boulevard around 7:30 p.m. after reports of a shooting inside a fast-food restaurant.

When police showed up at the Wingstop, they found Govea’s body and another man who had been wounded by gunfire. The second victim was rushed to a local hospital and is expected to survive his injuries.

Homicide investigators said they initially learned that an argument transpired between Leon and another man, who both worked at the business.

“He was a new worker. He had like a week or two weeks of working there,” Ruby Govea said. Ruby is Christopher’s older sister.

During the shooting, an employee who was standing nearby was grazed in the head and leg by stray bullets, police said.

Christopher’s family said he had just started his shift around 5 p.m.

“A co-worker called my sister to tell her that he was shot,” Ruby said. “Just why? He was a baby. He was 19. He was just starting to live.”

The family said Christopher was the breadwinner for his parents. His father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and his mother is the full-time caretaker.

“He was a hard worker,” Ruby said. “He never, like, he never got into arguments, fights, anything like that. He’d just go to work, come home, sleep, go to work.”

The family described Christopher as responsible and with a big heart for others. He was the youngest of seven children and a proud uncle of two.

“He was always trying to make jokes. He would always be singing,” Ruby said.

Leon reportedly fled the restaurant on foot before officers got there but was later apprehended at a nearby location. He was taken into custody, and Irving officers said they recovered the handgun that Leon used.

While thankful that the suspected gunman is behind bars, Ruby said, “We just want our brother back, and we can’t have him back. Nothing is going to change anything anymore. He’s gone.”

The police department said another employee who witnessed the deadly shooting told officers Leon was the only suspect who was involved.

“Why did the guy take it to that extent,” Ruby said.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m., family and friends will host a candlelight service to honor Christopher. Those in attendance are encouraged to wear dark green.

“That was his favorite color,” Ruby said.

Jackson Lee said it is “likely” that she will be “occasionally absent from Congress,” but she assured her district, which encompasses part of Houston, that her office “will continue to deliver the vital constituent services that you deserve and expect.”

“I am confident that my doctors have developed the best possible plan to target my specific disease,” she said in a press release posted to X. “The road ahead will not be easy, but I stand in faith that God will strengthen me.”

Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, and other representatives have recently faced health issues that impacted attendance. In August of last year, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced that he was being treated for cancer. He, too, had occasional absences as he recovered from treatment.

Jackson Lee serves on the Judiciary, Homeland Security and Budget committees. She has served in the House since 1995.

“Please keep me and my family in your prayers as you have always done,” she said in the press release. “Know that you will remain in mine.”

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:

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Another attempt by the city of Kyle, Texas, to break the world record for the largest gathering of people with one name fell short Saturday despite 706 Kyles of all ages turning up at a park in the suburbs of Austin.

According to Guinness World Records, the crown is currently held by a town in Bosnia that, in 2017, brought together 2,325 people named Ivan.

It’s not the first time the Kyles have come gunning for the Ivans. Last year, the official count at what has become known as the Gathering of the Kyles clocked in at 1,490 in the fast-growing Texas city that is about 37 miles south of Austin, the state’s capital.

Kyle is not a chart-topper among popular names in the U.S., according to the Social Security Administration, which annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state. The most recent data showed Kyle ranked 416th among male names in 2023.

By comparison, Ivan ranked 153.

A wide region was swamped from Houston to rural East Texas, where game wardens rode airboats through waist-high waters, rescuing both people and pets who did not evacuate in time. One crew brought a family and three dogs aboard as rising waters surrounded their cars and home.

A flood watch was in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rainfall Saturday night and the likelihood of major flooding.

“It’s going to keep rising this way,” said Miguel Flores Jr., of the northeast Houston neighborhood of Kingwood. “We don’t know how much more. We’re just preparing for the worst.”

Husband and wife Aron Brown, 45, and Jamie Brown, 41, were two of the many residents who drove or walked to watch the rising waters near a flooded intersection close to the San Jacinto River. Nearby restaurants and a gas station were beginning to flood.

Water could be seen flowing into parts of the couple’s subdivision, but Aron Brown said he wasn’t worried because their home is at a higher elevation than others in the neighborhood.

Brown, who had driven from his home in a golf cart, said the flooding wasn’t as bad as Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He pointed to nearby power lines and said that flooding during Harvey had reached the top of the lines.

Residents in low-lying areas asked to evacuate

Friday’s fierce storms forced numerous high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes. Officials redoubled urgent instructions for residents in low-lying areas to evacuate, warning the worst was still to come.

“A lull in heavy rain is expected through (Saturday) evening,” according to the National Weather Service. “The next round of heavy rainfall is expected late (Saturday) into Sunday.”

Up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of additional rain was expected, with up to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) possible in isolated areas.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said more rain was expected Sunday, and if it’s a lot, it could be problematic. Hidalgo is the top elected official in the nation’s third-largest county.

Ongoing rain has left parts of Texas drenched, residents trapped

Most weekends, Miguel Flores Sr. is mowing his huge backyard on a 2.5-acre (1-hectare) lot behind his home in Kingwood. But on Saturday, he and his family were loading several vehicles with clothes, small appliances and other items.

Water from the San Jacinto River had already swallowed his backyard and was continuing to rise — what was about 1 foot (30 centimeters) high in the yard Friday measured about 4 feet (1.2 meters) the following day.

“It’s sad, but what can I do,” Flores said. He added that he has flood insurance.

For weeks, drenching rains in Texas and parts of Louisiana have filled reservoirs and saturated the ground. Floodwaters partially submerged cars and roads this week across parts of southeastern Texas, north of Houston, reaching the roofs of some homes.

More than 21 inches (53 centimeters) fell over a five-day period through Friday in Liberty County near the city of Splendora, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Houston, according to the National Weather Service.

Hidalgo said Saturday that 178 people and 122 pets have been rescued so far in the county. Scores of rescues took place in neighboring Montgomery County. In Polk County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Houston, officials said they have done over 100 water rescues in the past few days.

Houston is one of the most flood-prone metro areas in the U.S.

Authorities in Houston have not reported any deaths or injuries. The city of more than 2 million people is one of the most flood-prone metro areas in the country and has long experience dealing with devastating weather.

Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall that flooded thousands of homes and resulted in more than 60,000 rescues by government rescue personnel across Harris County.

Of particular concern was an area along the San Jacinto River, which was expected to continue rising as more rain falls and officials release water from a full reservoir. Hidalgo issued a mandatory evacuation order on Thursday for people living along portions of the river.

The weather service reported that the river was at nearly 74 feet (22.6 meters) late Saturday morning after reaching nearly 78 feet (23.7 meters). The rapidly changing forecast said the river was expected to fall to near flood stage of 58 feet (17.6 meters) by Thursday.

Most of Houston’s city limits were not heavily impacted by the weather. Officials said the area received about four months’ worth of rain in about a week’s time.

The greater Houston area covers about 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) — a footprint slightly bigger than New Jersey. It is crisscrossed by about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) of channels, creeks and bayous that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of downtown.

The system of bayous and reservoirs was built to drain heavy rains, but the engineering initially designed nearly 100 years ago has struggled to keep up with the city’s growth and bigger storms.

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“I was so angry. I was sad and mad,” Kaylee Morgan told NBC News in a phone call Wednesday. “The whole week leading up to court I couldn’t decide if I wanted to laugh or cry.”

Morgan, a mother of five children, said she took five or six books out from the Navasota Public Library in Navasota, about 115 miles east of Austin, last March for her homeschooled children.

At the time, Morgan said she was pregnant and experiencing hyperemesis, extreme morning sickness, and placenta previa, when the placenta covers the opening in the cervix. It can cause bleeding around the start of the second half of pregnancy and mild cramping or contractions, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Morgan said the books were between a few weeks to a month late when her husband dropped them off, except for one that did not fit in the library’s drop box. Her stepson later dropped the book off inside the library, she said.

NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston obtained a copy of the overdue notice from the library that showed Morgan had two books due on March 31, 2023. The notice, dated April 10, 2023, said she owed a fee of $1.

A week later, the library sent what it said was a second and final notice. It said Morgan had 10 days to return the books and pay a new $2 fine or the matter would be turned over to the court.

A city ordinance states that failure to return books or library items within 30 days from the due date results in their library card being suspended. If a person fails to respond to the letter of complaint within 10 days of receiving it, it is considered a misdemeanor criminal offense punishable by a fine of up to $500.

Morgan said she did not receive the library’s late notices because they were sent to an old address. The library never called her about the late books, she said.

It wasn’t until she went to renew her driver’s license last month that she was told she had a warrant for a nearly $570 ticket.

The Navasota Public Library referred NBC News to city attorney Cary Bovey. Bovey could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Morgan, who said her family cannot afford to pay the ticket, said the entire ordeal has been stressful and questioned why the punishment for overdue library books was so strict.

“I offered to pay for the books. I offered to pay for the late fees but I cannot pay $600,” she said. “I understand that we have deadlines for a reason and all of those things, but there has to be a better way to cultivate community engagement, instead of tearing the community apart.”

“You could come in and read books to the kids for community service, you could help build the little free library or bring in canned goods,” she said. “Any number of things could be done.”

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Texas Highway Patrol Troopers and Upton County Emergency personnel responded to the crash along State Highway 349 around 4:50 p.m.

The National Weather Service had warned about blowing dust and damaging winds for Monday afternoon. Motorists were urged to use caution when traveling in West Texas.

Northeast of Midland in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois, severe storms with possible tornadoes, hail, and flooding rain were moving through on Monday evening.

Multiple tornado warnings were issued in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. It wasn’t immediately known if any damage had occurred or if anyone was hurt. The National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm warnings throughout those states and Indiana.

Northwest of Oklahoma City, a flash flood warning was issued for the cities of Kingfisher and Dover. Hail and up to one inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain had fallen, with up to two more inches (five centimeters) expected. A news outlet reported that some roads in Kingfisher were flooded.

Heavy rainfall was falling Monday night across central Illinois. The National Weather Service posted a flash flood warning after 1.5 to 2.5 inches (3.8 to 6.4 centimeters) of rain fell just south of Springfield and Decatur.

In a statement Monday, Miller’s office said the confirmation of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was received from the United States Secretary of Agriculture and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Miller said that “that rigorous safety measures and pasteurization protocols ensure that the dairy products remain unaffected by HPAI” and that there will be no supply shortages.

The commissioner’s office said cattle infected with avian flu often have a fever and their milk is thick and discolored.

“No contaminated milk is known to have entered the food chain; it has all been dumped. In the rare event that some affected milk enters the food chain, the pasteurization process will kill the virus,” Miller said.

Infected cows also have a “sharp reduction in milk production averaging between 10-30 pounds per cow throughout the herd.” The TDA said herds that are greatly impacted may lose up to 40% of their milk production for 7 to 10 days until symptoms subside. Infected cattle are expected to fully recover from avian flu.

“This presents yet another hurdle for our agriculture sector in the Texas Panhandle,” Miller said. “Protecting Texas producers and the safety of our food supply chain is my top priority. The Texas Department of Agriculture will use every resource available to maintain the high standards of quality and safety that define Texas agriculture.”

The TAD said the Texas dairy industry contributes roughly $50 billion in economic activity across the state and that Texas also ranks fourth in milk production nationwide.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Deon Cockrell said another vehicle was also involved in the crash in the suburbs outside Austin. He did not know which vehicles the victims were in.

Cockrell said others who were injured were airlifted to hospitals, but he did not know how many.

The Hays Consolidated Independent School District said the bus was involved in a “serious accident” while returning from a field trip to a zoo. Passengers on board included 44 students and 11 adults, the district said in a statement.

A large presence of first responders and emergency vehicles could be seen along the tree-lined highway after the crash, and the bus was upright but leaning to one side. The top portion of the bus’ front was crumpled, and much of another vehicle nearby was pulverized. Personal items were strewn across the highway.

The school district said the students attend Tom Green Elementary School in Buda, which is about 16 miles (25 kilometers) southwest of Austin.

The school district said parents of the students on the bus were notified of the accident and the district was working to reunite them.

Gov. Abbott posted on X, formerly Twitter, Friday evening addressing the crash saying in part that he is “saddened to hear about this tragic incident, and we ask all Texans to join us in prayer for Tom Green Elementary students and families during this difficult time.”

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Based on questions asked by the justices during oral arguments, Gonzalez could eke out a narrow victory.

Sylvia Gonzalez, then 72, was arrested in 2019 after recently taking office as a council member in Castle Hills, Texas, having run for election as a critic of the city manager.

She was charged with inappropriately removing a government document, identified as a citizen petition she had prepared.

Gonzalez said she accidentally muddled the petition with other papers.

The charges were ultimately dropped, but only after Gonzalez, who has no criminal record, spent a day in jail. She also quit the City Council.

Gonzalez then sued, saying that the arrest was a form of retaliation against her for expressing her complaints against the city manager, Ryan Rapelye. She claimed officials had violated the Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech rights.

Castle Hills Mayor Edward Trevino, then-police Chief John Siemens and Alex Wright, a lawyer engaged to assist with the investigation, were all named as defendants.

At issue at the Supreme Court is Gonzalez’s effort to overcome a procedural roadblock to pursuing her lawsuit.

Gonzalez’s lawyers at the Institute for Justice, a libertarian legal group, say she should be able to bring her claim under a 2019 Supreme Court ruling called Nieves v. Bartlett.

The ruling said that in most cases when police have probable cause to make an arrest, plaintiffs cannot bring retaliation claims.

But, the court added, in limited situations a case can move forward if the plaintiff can show that other people in a similar situation had not been arrested, even if there was probable cause.

During the argument, several justices from across the ideological spectrum seemed troubled that Gonzalez could not argue that no one else had ever been charged with the same crime in a similar situation in order to overcome the probable cause finding.

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan indicated that plaintiffs who, as she put it, have “solid objective evidence” that they were treated differently should be able to make that argument.

A fellow liberal, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, made similar remarks.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch also weighed in, pointing to the thousands of criminal statutes that are rarely if ever enforced, meaning that the absence of prosecution of other people could be relevant evidence of a retaliatory motive.

“You’re saying they can all sit there unused, except for one person who alleges that ‘I was the only person in America who’s ever been prosecuted for this because I dared express a view protected by the First Amendment’ and that’s not actionable?” he asked Lisa Blatt, the lawyer representing the defendants.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the 2019 ruling, appeared reluctant to limit its scope by ruling in favor of Gonzalez.

Seeking to expand the type of evidence that could be submitted to rebut probable cause “seems to me to be inconsistent” with the earlier ruling, he said.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh also seemed skeptical of Gonzalez’s arguments, saying that people are frequently prosecuted for tampering with or stealing government documents. What makes Gonzalez’s case different is that she claims it was not done on purpose.

“If you intentionally stole a government document at a government proceeding — that’s not nothing,” he said.

A federal judge rejected the defendants’ bid to throw out the lawsuit on the grounds that they were protected under the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which says there must be a violation of clearly established rights for lawsuits seeking damages over law enforcement or government officials’ actions. The judge said Gonzalez did not have to “plead or prove the absence of probable cause.”

But the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, saying that Gonzalez’s claim was barred because of the probable cause issue.

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News:

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According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, a person in the U.S. can expect to move 11.7 times in their lifetime. Therefore, making the right choice when moving homes is crucial, as it can be one of an individual’s biggest purchases.

A new study conducted by Storage Company Pink Storage compared all 50 states across 16 key indicators, ranging from housing affordability and levels of violent crime to average life expectancy, to determine the worst and best states to live in.

According to the report, Texas is one of the worst states to live in, leaving many residents wondering what went wrong.

The research’s key findings showed that Texas ranked in the top four for slow real estate growth.

In addition, Texas residents worked longer hours than every other state except Louisiana, which ranked first for hours worked.

Furthermore, Texas ranked 12th for levels of violent crime and 10th for auto crime.

Overall, Texas ranked sixth for the worst state to live in. The five states that ranked worse than Texas were Louisiana, Tennessee, Arizona, South Carolina, and California.

A February report ranked Texas among the top five states for women to live in.

“Moving home is one of the biggest decisions that you will have to make during your lifetime, and if you are moving across state lines, the move can be even more difficult,” said Scott Evans of Pink Storage.

“Everyone will have different criteria when moving homes, but most people will want to live in an area with affordable housing, good job prospects, and low crime levels. Our study focuses on these core principles and should give some insights into what can be expected when moving to a certain state.”

The study’s results are crucial for anyone looking to relocate, as it highlights the importance of considering all factors before making a decision.

When deciding where to live, factors such as the economy, crime rate, education, and housing market should be considered.

In conclusion, while Texas may not be the best state to live in, it’s important to note that every state has its pros and cons, and the decision to relocate should be made based on personal preferences and priorities.

The charts, full report, and methodology can be found on the company’s site.

In a letter posted on its site Thursday, Pornhub deemed the new Texas law ineffective and “dangerous,” adding that it will directly impact content creators’ ability to distribute their adult content legally.

“While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, providing identification every time you want to visit an adult platform is not an effective solution for protecting users online, and in fact, will put minors and your privacy at risk,” the letter read.

The bill, officially named House Bill 118, went into effect in September last year but was prevented from going into effect a month later following a lawsuit by a coalition of groups, including Pornhub’s parent company Aylo Global Entertainment.

But last week the U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals upheld the law following an appeal from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The law requires adult websites to verify users are at least 18 years old using a government-issued ID or public or private transactional data” before being allowed to access the content.

In a post on X, the bill’s author state Sen. Angela Paxton, defended the bill, adding it creates an “age verification requirement for online pornography websites in Texas to protect minors from accessing their harmful content.”

Last year Pornhub also restricted access to its site in Utah after the state passed a similar age-verification law.

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Jennifer Lynn Rossi, 45, mixed lemon, salt and vinegar into a sports drink bottle to allegedly “prevent her son’s drink from being stolen at school by other students,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Her 10-year-old son handed the bottle to another boy during P.E. class on Tuesday, who experienced nausea and a headache shortly after drinking the mixed concoction, the office said. Deputies were then called to the Legacy Traditional School in Alamo Ranch for the sick child.

Although lemon, salt and vinegar are nontoxic ingredients, the incident resulted in the victim being hospitalized for additional medical monitoring. The student was eventually discharged.

When the school principal contacted Rossi, she admitted having “intentionally mixed the contents of the drink” after hearing from her son that the victim “stole his drink and was bullying him,” according to the arrest affidavit.

The son recounted in a written statement that his Prime drink went missing during recess the day before, and the victim “said he had it and kept bragging about it.”

After coming home to tell Rossi about the incident, she “had an idea to prank” the alleged bully, and he “did what he was told by his mother,” according to the affidavit.

The victim stated the son “accused him” and “someone tried to hit him” for allegedly taking the Prime drink.

Rossi said she “only intended to stop her child from being bullied” and that she “is a nurse and knows the mixture to be nontoxic,” according to the affidavit.

But after the victim poured the mixed concoction into his water bottle and took a “large sip of the drink,” he “then stated feeling bad.”

Rossi was charged with injury to a child causing bodily injury.

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The case involves 2-year-old Josiah Sanders, who was taken from his home by Child Protective Services more than 65 days ago.

Records show that last December, the boy’s pediatrician instructed his mother, Joslyn Sanders, who is in a wheelchair, to take her son to Josiah to Children’s Medical Center Dallas after his weight dropped and a rash became something that needed to be treated.

According to records, Sander objected to an antibiotic doctors wanted to give the boy, so she left against doctors’ advice saying she wanted to take him to his pediatrician.

During a court hearing Wednesday, the hospital’s pediatrician, Dr. Suzanne Dakil, testified Josiah’s skin was flaking off, parts of his body were swollen, and if he did not receive in-hospital care doctors were concerned he might die.

When Sanders left the hospital, doctors had to report it to CPS. A CPS worker then went to the family home in Corinth with police.

According to police, when officers refused to remove the child from the home because they did not see signs of abuse or neglect, the CPS worker took Josiah back to Children’s in Dallas, despite not having a court order. According to police, Sanders told the CPS worker she would take Josiah to Children’s in Plano.

After a two-month stay in the hospital, Children’s said Josiah has improved and he gained eight pounds after a feeding tube was placed through his nose.

A Children’s emergency room doctor testified all of this could have been avoided if Sanders had taken her son straight to another hospital and not home.

Josiah’s pediatrician says Sanders is a good mother with understandable concerns and that this happened because of a lack of communication between doctors.

The CPS investigator who took Josiah from his home has not yet testified. The hearing in Denton County court continues next week. More than ten people are set to testify.

“It’s very difficult given it’s been pushed back, and I would like my son to be returned to me as soon as possible,” Sanders said after the hearing Wednesday. “I’m keeping my faith in God and in my team as well that justice will be served and the truth will be brought to light.”

When asked about the hospital’s assertion that his health has improved in doctors’ care Sanders said, “Given that I was given that same opportunity, I would have had the same results with him. CPS rushed to judgment and didn’t allow me, or give me the opportunity to do that.”

Sanders’ son remains in the care of a woman known to the family.

Elizabeth Francis, who lives in Houston, became the oldest living person in the U.S. after the reported death of 116-year-old Edie Ceccarelli of Willits, California, according to LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks human longevity, and the Gerontology Research Group, a nonprofit dedicated to supercentenarians and longevity.

According to the company’s ranking, Francis, at 114 years and 214 days old, is believed to be the fifth-oldest living person in the world.

She is surpassed by 116-year-old María Branyas Morera, who was born in San Francisco but has lived in Spain since she was a child; 115-year-old Tomiko Itooka, from Japan; 115-year-old Inah Canabarro Lucas, from Brazil; and 114-year-old Juan Vicente Pérez Mora, from Venezuela.

Who is Elizabeth Francis? 

Elizabeth Francis was born in Louisiana on July 15, 1909, but moved to Houston as a child when she was sent to live with her aunt following her mother’s death.

According to LongeviQuest, the woman worked in a cafeteria at the ABC13 News station in Houston for nearly 20 years until she retired in 1975, nearly 50 years ago.

Longevity runs in her family

Longevity appears to run in her family. Francis’s sister, Bertha Johnson, died in February 2011 at 106 years old.

The sisters are among the sibling pairs with the oldest combined age in world history.

Additionally, Francis has a daughter, Dorothy, who is currently 94 years old. The woman also has three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.

What is her secret for longevity?

Francis has said she attributed her longevity to her faith in God.

“It’s the good Lord’s good blessing,” she said in an interview with TODAY.com in August 2023. “I just thank God I’m here.”

During her certification as the oldest living person in the country, Francis told LongeviQuest that her life advice is: “If the good Lord gave it to you, use it! Speak your mind, don’t hold your tongue!”

Francis lives at home and is cared for by one of her granddaughters.

According to TODAY.com, she is confined to her bed and has some memory problems, but in general, she remains alert and recognizes her family.

Tyler Loudon, a 42-year-old from Houston, Texas, learned this lesson the hard way. He pleaded guilty Thursday to securities fraud for buying and selling stocks based on details gleaned from his wife’s business conversations while both were working from home. He made $1.7 million in profits from the deal, but has agreed to forfeit those gains.

Things might have turned out differently had Loudon or his wife decided to work from, well, the office.

Loudon’s wife worked as a mergers and acquisition manager at the London-based oil and gas conglomerate BP. So when Loudon overheard details of a BP plan to acquire a truck stop and travel center company based in Ohio, he smelled profit. He bought more than 46,000 shares of the truck stop company before the merger was announced in February 2023, at which point the stock soared almost 71%, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Loudon then allegedly sold the stock immediately for a gain of $1.76 million. His spouse was unaware of his activity, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Loudon will be sentenced on May 17, when he faces up to five years in federal prison and a possible fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. He may also owe a fine in addition to other penalties in order to resolve a separate and still pending civil case brought by the SEC.

Audrii Cunningham was last seen near her home in Polk County, Texas, at 7 a.m. local time on Thursday. She was due to catch a bus, but officials reported that she did not board it or show up at school that day, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

An Amber Alert has been issued, with the sheriff’s office collaborating with the Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety, the Livingston Police Department and multiple local fire departments.

Audrii is described as white and about 4 feet, 1 inch tall. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing black pants, a black hoodie with white lettering and black tennis shoes.

Don Steven McDougal, 42, was arrested Friday on suspicion of aggravated assault, in what police said was an unrelated incident. The sheriff’s office said he was “one of the persons of interest” involved in the case.

Detectives believe his dark blue 2003 Chevrolet Suburban was involved in Audrii’s disappearance and are appealing for anyone who saw it on Thursday or Friday to report it, the state Department of Public Safety for the Southeast Texas region said in a statement.

A small backpack thought to belong to her was found at the Lake Livingston Dam, not far from the Cunningham family home.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 936-327-6810. Tips can be submitted anonymously via the Polk County Crime Stoppers line at 936-327-7867 or online at p3tips.com or iwatchtx.org.

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Authorities said the female shooter, believed to be between the ages of 30 and 35, entered Lakewood Church at about 12:53 p.m. CT during Sunday service wearing a backpack and holding a long rifle. A young child who police said was approximately 4 to 5 years old accompanied her. The child was later wounded in the shootout with police and is hospitalized in critical condition.

A 57-year-old man was also wounded in the shooting. He was being treated for a hip injury and is in stable condition.

It wasn’t immediately clear what may have motivated the unidentified woman to attack the church.  It’s also unknown what relationship, if any, the woman had to the child.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner told reporters during a news conference outside the church that officers were unclear about how the child was injured.

“I will say this,” Finner said. “That female, that suspect, put that baby in danger. I’m going to put that blame on her.”

Witnesses reported the suspect claimed to have a bomb in her backpack and was spraying an unknown substance on the church’s ground. Officers searched her backpack and vehicle, but did not find any explosives, police said. First responders continued to search the megachurch, a building with a16,000-person capacity that is attended by 45,000 people every week, for hours afterwards.

The violence erupted just before the Spanish-language church service was scheduled to start. Osteen said the violence could have been much worse if it had happened during the earlier, larger 11 a.m. service.

Investigators believe the attack was an isolated incident.

Witnesses told reporters that they heard multiple gunshots. Christina Rodriguez, who was inside the church, told Houston television station KTRK that she “started screaming, ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,’ ”and then she and others ran to the backside of a library inside the building, then stood in a stairway before they were told it was safe to leave.

Longtime church member Alan Guity, whose family is from Honduras, said he was resting inside the church’s sanctuary before the Spanish service as his mother was working as an usher when he heard gunshots.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom and I yelled, ‘Mom,’ ” he told The Associated Press.

The 35-year-old ran to his mother and they both laid flat on the floor and prayed as the gunfire continued. They remained there for about five minutes until someone told them it was safe to evacuate. Outside, Guity said, he and his mother tried to calm people down by worshiping and singing in Spanish, “Move in me, move in me. Touch my mind and my heart. Move within me Holy Spirit.”

Despite the chaos, Finner said the tragedy “could have been a lot worse” if the two officers had not “engaged” the woman when she opened fire. They had been working security at the church on Sunday, and Finner praised them for their quick actions.

The officers work for the Houston Police Department and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, respectively. Both have been placed on protocol-mandated administrative duty.

Osteen said Sunday that his congregation is “devastated.” He added that he would pray for the victims and for the woman who did the shooting and their families. It was not clear where he was at the time of the shooting.

“We’re going to stay strong and we’re going to continue to, to move forward,” he said during the news conference with police. “There are forces of evil, but the forces that are for us — the forces of God — are stronger than that. So we’re going to keep going strong and just, you know, doing what God’s called us to do: lift people up and give hope to the world.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement saying “our hearts are with those impacted by today’s tragic shooting and the entire Lakewood Church community in Houston. Places of worship are sacred.”

Lakewood Church, founded by Joel and Delores Osteen, is among the largest congregations in the country, averaging about 45,000 attendees per week, according to its website.  

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“Oh, it’s scratching, dude,” one of the inspectors said in video they recorded Wednesday morning as the team looked up at the container, stacked about 25 feet in the air.

A crane was used to bring it to the ground, and out popped a very sweet and friendly dog.

“As soon as we opened it, we could see the little dog’s face poking out. She was right there, like she knew we were going to be there to open it for her. And she just, she wasn’t scared or anything. She just seemed happy more than anything, to be out of that dark space and in the arms of people that were going to take care of her,” McMahon, a petty officer 2nd class, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Coast Guard officials would later determine that the canine — since nicknamed Connie the container dog — had been trapped inside for at least eight days, with no food or water.

She was a little dirty and “definitely pretty skinny,” McMahon said.

McMahon and the three other inspectors drove Connie to an animal shelter in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, where she was checked out. A rescue group, Forever Changed Animal Rescue, has taken her in and is working to get her healthy and ready for adoption.

Coast Guard officials are not sure where the container came from, but inside were junked vehicles that were likely being shipped overseas to be sold for parts.

“So based on that, they think that the dog most likely was in a junkyard, in a car. And that’s how she accidentally got put in the container,” Guard spokeswoman Chief Petty Officer Corinne Zilnicki said.

McMahon said he’s grateful he and his team were at the right place and at the right time to hear Connie barking and prevent the container from being put on a cargo ship. They usually conduct inspections once a week throughout the Port of Houston, and on Wednesday they were at the port’s Bayport Container Terminal which likely has over 10,000 containers, he said.

“It would take at least another week to get to where she was going (on a cargo ship) and two weeks without food or water. I don’t think she would have made it,” McMahon said.

Forever Changed Animal Rescue thanked “all of the amazing people involved in this rescue and saving Connie’s life.”

The rescue group said in a Facebook post that Connie was a bit underweight, tested positive for heartworm and would be getting treatment for it.

“We will also be doing a full workup on her to ensure that she receives all the care she needs and deserves,” the group said.

The inspectors had thought about adopting Connie, but it wasn’t the right time for any of them.

“We know with all this, she’s going to go to a good home where they love her and take care of her,” McMahon said.

“We are not allowing Border Patrol on that property anymore,” Abbott said Friday, drawing applause from supporters at a stop for a state legislator running for reelection. He relayed frustration over migrants illegally entering the U.S. through the border city of Eagle Pass and federal agents loading them onto buses.

“We said, ‘We’ve had it. We’re not going to let this happen anymore,’” Abbott said.

Later that night, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said three migrants, including two children, drowned near the park after Texas officials “physically barred” Border Patrol agents from entering. Mexican authorities pulled the bodies, each of them wearing jackets, from the water on the other side of the Rio Grande.

The weekend deaths once again escalated tensions between Texas and the Biden administration. They also unleashed a new round of criticism from Democrats over Abbott’s aggressive actions to curb illegal crossings, saying the measures are putting migrants at risk. U.S. authorities described the drownings as underscoring the need for Border Patrol agents to have access to the area around Shelby Park, which Texas closed off earlier this week.

“U.S. Border Patrol must have access to the border to enforce our laws,” White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement Sunday.

Spokespersons for Abbott did not return messages seeking comment Sunday. His office on Saturday referred questions to the Texas Military Department, which said a unit searched the river after being informed by Border Patrol around 9 p.m. Friday that migrants were in distress. Texas authorities did not find anyone in the water, the department said in a statement.

The park lies in a major corridor for migrants entering illegally from Mexico and is at the center of Abbott’s aggressive attempts to stop them, known as Operation Lone Star. Migrants are periodically swept away to their deaths by the current of the Rio Grande.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents a Texas border district, acknowledged Sunday that state officials investigated the distress call and searched for the migrants.

“However, the bottom line is that Border Patrol was barred from entering Shelby Park,” Cuellar said in a statement. “Furthermore, Border Patrol was not allowed to investigate the situation and has not been given access to the area since last week.”

Texas Military Department officials did not release further details Sunday and did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Over the summer, thousands of people were crossing illegally into the U.S. through Eagle Pass. The numbers subsided but again rose in December when thousands of migrants overwhelmed federal resources. But a sharp decrease was noted at the start of January after Mexico stepped up immigration enforcement.

The 50-acre (20-hectare) park is owned by the city, but it is used by the state Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department to patrol border crossings. Earlier this week, Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas questioned why the state closed the park now, since daily apprehensions in the region have fallen in recent weeks. He said the state gave city officials no warning and offered no timetable on when the park would reopen.

On Friday, the Justice Department told the U.S. Supreme Court that Texas had taken control of Shelby Park and was not letting Border Patrol agents enter. Texas acknowledged seizing the city park but told the court the the federal government had mischaracterized its actions and that it was trying to resolve any disputes over access.

Texas has come under recurring scrutiny over efforts to curb border crossings. Abbott has sent more than 100,000 migrants on buses to Democratic-led cities, even as frigid conditions set in during the winter. He also has strung up razor wire on the border and installed buoy barriers on the Rio Grande.

Melissa R. Cigarroa, a city council member in Laredo and member of the No Border Wall Coalition, was among those who attended a vigil Saturday at Shelby Park to mark the deaths of migrants who have died along the Rio Grande.

Cigarroa said attendees passed through a gate with armed National Guard members and that they could see could see law enforcement officers and vehicles gathered near the river.

She said that scene coupled with the reason for the ceremony left her thinking about “just how little people’s lives matter in these decisions.”

“People are dying, and we know now that deterrents mean nothing,” she said.

___

Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press journalists Paul J. Weber in Austin and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this story.

The federal government’s account came hours after U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said the Texas Military Department and Texas National Guard “did not grant access to Border Patrol agents to save the migrants” Friday night. Mexican authorities recovered the bodies of a woman and two children Saturday across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.

“This is a tragedy, and the State bears responsibility,” said Cuellar, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee for homeland security, in a statement.

Homeland Security echoed Cuellar on the broad outlines of what happened, saying the migrants drowned in the Shelby Park area of Eagle Pass. In a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday, Texas acknowledged seizing the city park on the border but said the federal government had mischaracterized its actions and it was trying to resolve any disputes over access.

“In responding to a distress call from the Mexican government, Border Patrol agents were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the park,” Homeland Security said in a statement. “The Texas governor’s policies are cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office referred questions about the drownings to the Texas Military Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Friday, the Justice Department told the U.S. Supreme Court that Texas had taken control of Shelby Park and was not letting Border Patrol agents enter.

The park lies in a major corridor for migrants entering illegally from Mexico and is the center of Abbott’s aggressive attempts to stop them, known as Operation Lone Star. Migrants are periodically swept away to their deaths by the current of the Rio Grande.

Cuellar, who represents a Texas border district, said Mexican authorities alerted the Border Patrol to the distressed migrants struggling in the river late Friday. He said federal agents attempted to call and relay the information to Texas National Guard members at Shelby Park, without success. Agents then visited the entrance to the park but were turned away, according to the congressman, who said they were told a Guard member would be sent to investigate the situation.

The city owns the 50-acre park, but it is used by the state Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department to patrol border crossings. Although daily crossings diminished from the thousands to about 500, state authorities put up fences and stationed military vehicles by the entry to deny access to the public and Border Patrol agents this week, according to a court filing.

In its Supreme Court filing, Texas challenged claims that Border Patrol agents were denied access. They said the Border Patrol had scaled down its presence since summer when the state moved its resources and manpower to the park.

Federal agents were also granted access to the area to secure supplies, the state said.

Cuellar said there was no immediate information available about the victims’ nationalities, relationships, and ages. The Mexican government made no public statements.

On Saturday, members of the public held a ceremony at the park to mark the deaths of migrants in their region. Julio Vasquez, a pastor, said access was granted after making requests with the city and sharing pictures showing the entry still fenced up and guarded by members of the National Guard and military vehicles.

The videos were recorded without sound from Thompson’s Bookstore, a cocktail bar located on the corner of 8th and Houston streets, directly across from the hotel.

Jaden Holbrook and Jessica Knott were at work at the bar when they heard the blast and said the building started shaking.

“I was on the third floor, and I heard, like, a lot of rumbling and saw a bunch of debris fly up, and then the whole building started shaking,” said Holbrook.

From outside the bar, you see a flash from the explosion, then a hotel wall topples, and debris fills the air. At the moment of the blast, a bus is seen passing by.

“I was a little shocked and stunned,” said Knott.

Inside, Knott is seen reaching for the bar’s front door when it gets flung open by the blast. Debris is seen flying straight through the window.

“I’m OK. It knocked me back a little bit, but I did see the fire come at me. Felt a pressure cloud come through me but luckily we’re all OK,” said Knott.

The force of the blast was so fierce it knocked doors off hinges, toppled railings and cracked walls. The bar is now boarded up with hopes to reopen soon.

When the 12 businesses in the blocked-off area can reopen remains unclear. Wednesday, crews tested gas lines as part of the investigation.

On scene were Atmos gas workers, the Texas Railroad Commission, and the NTSB, which can investigate gas pipeline accidents, though one hasn’t been launched yet.

Angeliki Farquhar’s salon has been closed for two days. She and neighboring businesses say they’re eager to reopen and for gas service to be restored so they can keep their places and pipes warm during next week’s blast of winter weather.

“It’s been a little difficult,” said Farquhar. “The unknown is worse because we don’t know when we can open.”

The woman allegedly held by Lee Carter, 52, was found in April but the arrest on a charge of felony aggravated kidnapping only happened on Thursday, court records and Carter’s attorney said.

Records do not explain why it took authorities nearly nine months to arrest the suspect. The condition of the woman, who prosecutors say was 70 pounds and pregnant when authorities located her, was unclear Monday.

Court filings showed Carter posted $100,000 to secure his freedom on Sunday. He was no longer in the Harris County Jail on Monday, a sheriff’s official told NBC News.

A Harris County District Attorney’s Office affidavit supporting the suspect’s arrest states the woman used Carter’s laptop to “communicate with 9-1-1 dispatch that she was being held against her will.” Details about how she got the laptop were not released.

A Houston Fire Department crew came to Carter’s Perry Street home on April 7 and pried open the garage’s door to a find woman locked inside, living in putrid conditions, prosecutors said.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com here.

The lawsuit focuses on a massive development northeast of Houston, Colony Ridge, that promises homeownership with advertisements in Spanish, but then steers applicants into buying properties without basic utilities by taking out loans they can’t always repay, the Justice Department alleged. The suit said the developer uses high-pressure sales tactics that exploit limited English proficiency.

“The impact of this unlawful, discriminatory, and fraudulent scheme is devastating,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the department’s civil rights division. Many buyers found the lots didn’t have basic utilities, or were prone to flooding with rain and raw sewage.

Colony Ridge CEO John Harris said in a statement that the lawsuit is “baseless and both outrageous and inflammatory.”

“Our business thrives off customer referrals because landowners are happy and able to experience the American Dream of owning property,” he said. “We loan to those who have no opportunity to get a loan from anyone else, and we are proud of the relationship we have developed with customers.”

Colony Ridge developer Trey Harris has previously acknowledged to The Associated Press that his company provides loans to customers at interest rates that are higher than typical, but he said banks won’t provide those loans. He denied that the development was responsible for flooding problems in the area.

The development is home to more than 40,000 people, and its geographic footprint is nearly the size of Washington, D.C. It’s been growing quickly, in part with TikTok advertising and loans that required no credit check and only a small deposit. But those loans had high interest rates — averaging 10.9% to 12.9% from 2017 to 2021, when the standard fixed-rate loan was 2.35% to 4.05% — and the company didn’t check that customers could afford them, authorities said. Between 2019 and 2022, Colony Ridge initiated foreclosures on at least 30% of its seller-financed lots within three years, according to the Justice Department.

“Foreclosure is actually a part of Colony Ridge’s business. When a family falls behind on payments and loses their property, Colony Ridge buys back the property and flips it to another buyer, often at a higher price,” said Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

This fall, the neighborhood attracted other national attention as conservative media and GOP activists pushed unsubstantiated claims that it was a magnet for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally and that cartels control pockets of the neighborhood. There was no evidence to support the claims, and residents, local officials, and the developer disputed the portrayals.

The new Justice Department suit, on the other hand, alleges unlawful discrimination and seeks unspecified civil penalties as well as compensation for customers. One woman used the proceeds from selling her mother’s home to buy into Colony Ridge, only to be find she’d have to spend thousands more to set up basic infrastructure. During heavy rains, the property floods so badly that she cannot enter or leave the neighborhood, Clarke said. The case is also part of the department’s work to fight redlining, an illegal practice in which lenders avoid providing credit to people because of their race, color or national origin.

“Colony Ridge set out to exploit something as old as America — an immigrant’s dream of owning a home,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. Their practices “often ended with families facing economic ruin, no home, and shattered dreams.”

Kyle Douglas McMahan, 41, of Watauga, was taken into custody in Dallas nearly three years after authorities say he joined the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat with “God” written on it in black marker.

After the riot, his Google search history included: “Can I resign from the military if I do not want to serve an illegitimate president?” and “capitol terrorists identified,” according to court papers.

He faces felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers and obstruction of law enforcement, as well as additional misdemeanor offenses.

There was no lawyer immediately named in the court docket. The voice mailbox was full for a number listed for McMahan and a person who answered the phone at a number listed for a relative declined to comment.

The Air Force Reserve Command said in an emailed statement that McMahan is a reservist at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas. McMahan is a staff sergeant in the 301st Fighter Wing medical squadron and a traditional reservist who is not actively participating in the unit, the command said.

Authorities say McMahan was seen on camera pushing back and forth against an officer outside a Capitol door before going into the building. During another encounter with law enforcement inside, prosecutors say he attempted to swat at an officer and grabbed an officer’s fingers, appearing to crush them in his hand.

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Before he left the Capitol, he was captured on video telling one officer: “You’re a traitor,” according to court papers. Later that day, he was seen outside the Capitol wearing a green ballistics helmet and carrying an American flag.

Authorities say McMahan boasted on social media about being at the riot, writing: “For those that think we went in because of Trump is uninformed. We the people are the ones that need to rid our government of corruption, abuse and tyranny!”

He is among roughly 1,200 people who have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot that left dozens of police officers injured and halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory. Those charged include dozens of former and active duty military or members of the reserve.

Nearly 900 defendants pleaded guilty or were convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from three days to 22 years.

Richer reported from Boston. AP Researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.

Jurors deliberated for several hours before delivering the verdict for 35-year-old Kaitlin Armstrong, who investigators said tracked Wilson to the apartment where she was staying and shot her three times. They took only two hours on Thursday to convict her.

Prosecutors said Armstrong gunned down the 25-year-old Wilson in a jealous rage. Wilson had briefly dated Armstrong’s boyfriend several months earlier. Wilson went swimming and to a meal with him the day she was killed.

PROSECUTORS IN KAITLIN ARMSTRONG MURDER TRIAL ASK FOR 40 YEARS

Kaitlin Armstrong’s defense attorneys had urged the jury to consider something less than life that could offer the chance for parole. Prosecutors said they wanted a sentence of at least 40 years.

“This is a person who had time to think, meditate and calculate her actions,” said Travis County Assistant District Attorney Guillermo Gonzalez. “It’s time for accountability.”

The murder charge carries a range of five to 99 years, or life, in prison. Armstrong attorney Rick Cofer did not suggest a sentencing range but asked jurors to consider something less than life, which could offer the chance for parole.

“Forgiveness doesn’t suspend justice or holding people accountable,” Cofer said. “It has a possibility of atonement.”

Prosecutors said Armstrong gunned down the 25-year-old Wilson in a jealous rage in May 2022. Wilson, also known as “Mo,” had briefly dated Armstrong’s boyfriend several months earlier. Wilson went swimming and to a meal with him the day she was killed.

After two weeks of testimony, jurors deliberated for about two hours before delivering their verdict.

“From the day she was born, she had a force in her,” Wilson’s mother, Karen Wilson, told jurors Thursday at the start of the punishment phase of the trial. “She lived as if every day was her last day. And she lived it so fully. She never wasted any time. … It’s as if she knew her life would be short.”

Wilson’s family and friends, who sat in the front row for most of the trial, hugged and cried after the verdict.

Caitlin Cash, the friend who found Wilson’s body and tried to perform CPR, told jurors she had texted Wilson’s mother earlier that day with a photo of her starting a bike ride with a note: “Your girl is in safe hands here in Austin.”

“I felt a lot of guilt not being able to protect her,” Cash said. “I fought for her with everything I had.”

Armstrong’s younger sister Christine and their mother sat behind the defense table and cried after the verdict. Armstrong’s father stood silently for several minutes.

Christine Armstrong told jurors her older sister “is not a bad person.”

“She’s such a special person,” Christine Armstrong said before looking at her sister. “I’ve always looked up to you. … She’s always cared for other people.”

A Vermont native and former alpine skier at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Wilson was an emerging star in pro gravel and mountain bike racing. She was visiting Austin ahead of a race in Texas, where she was among the favorites to win.

Kaitlin Armstrong tracked Wilson to the apartment where she was staying through a fitness app and shot her three times, twice in the head and once through the heart, investigators said.

“I would have done anything to stand in the way of that bullet,” Karen Wilson said. “She did not deserve a death like that.”

Kaitlin Armstrong did not testify on her own behalf during the trial.

Her Jeep was seen near the apartment around the time Wilson was shot and bullet casings found near Wilson’s body matched a gun Armstrong owned. Armstrong briefly met with police before selling her vehicle and using her sister’s passport to fly to Costa Rica.

She spent more than $6,000 on a nose job there and changed the color and style of her hair to evade authorities before she was arrested at a beachside hostel, investigators said.

Armstrong again tried to escape authorities during an Oct. 11 medical appointment outside of jail. She faces a separate felony escape charge.

A man from Texas was sentenced to nearly a decade behind bars for a fatal hit-and-run last year on the Garden State Parkway.

Fornice Boatner, 33, was sentenced Tuesday was sentenced to 9 years for the crime of second-degree knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death, the Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said.

The sentence stems from the events in May 2022. It was on the morning of may 25, 2022 that that New Jersey State Police responded to a report of a person in a ditch next to the northbound side of the Garden State Parkway in Woodbridge Township. When officers located the body near milepost 130.4, it was identified as Elizabeth resident, 31-year-old Felipe Dos-Santos, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives determined that three days prior at around 1 a.m., Dos-Santos was walking northbound on the shoulder of the parkway near milepost 130.4, when he was hit by a 2007 silver Dodge Ram that fled the scene. A subsequent investigation found that the driver and registered owner of the vehicle was Boatner.

Allegedly, Boatner made repairs to the vehicle to conceal the damage sustained in the hit-and-run.

On May 28, 2022, Boatner was arrested by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office at his Texas resident. Boatner was charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash causing death, hindering, obstruction, and tampering with evidence. He was extradited to New Jersey on June 10, 2022.

Subsequently, on Jan. 30 of this year, Boatner pled guilty to second-degree knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death but failed to appear at sentencing. However, earlier this month, Boatner was arrested and charged with bail jumping.

In an interview with NBC affiliate KPRC, the good Samaritan, John Lally, said he was driving on U.S.59 when he got caught in the middle of a police chase and shooting in Houston on Saturday.

“I saw he got shot,” Lally told KPRC. “And I knew he got shot because he buckled to the ground… my mission at that point was just to get to him.”

The video shared by Lally shows him running toward Officer John Gibson, 29, and dragging him to safety.

“I said I want to let you know you’re going to be OK, the officer already put a tourniquet on your leg,” Lally told Gibson. “I know when you’re going through that type of pain, just somebody talking to you and being there with you and just holding your hand is probably going to take your mind off a lot of that stuff.”

Houston police said the shooting started after officers unsuccessfully tried to pull over a man who was driving a stolen car.

The man led police on a high-speed chase until he crashed into several vehicles and began shooting at officers.

Lally told KPRC the shooting lasted around 10 minutes before the suspect tried to get into a second car. The suspect was then shot multiple times and died from his injuries at the scene, police said.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said Lally “has had trouble with law enforcement in his life,” KTRK reported.

But at a news conference, Finner praised him for his actions.

“People make mistakes. But a truly reformed individual is a person that we can use. And he stepped up and other citizens stepped up and I don’t want that to get lost. It’ll be a time that we’ll acknowledge him formally,” Finner said.

Officer Gibson is expected to make a full recovery, police said.

A small plane overshot the runway while landing at a Texas airport over the weekend, smashing through a fence and colliding with a car driving along a nearby road.

The pilot and plane’s passenger were not seriously hurt in the crash and the car’s driver was hospitalized with minor injuries. The harrowing incident in McKinney was captured on video by a witness who was nearly hit himself by the skidding plane.

“All I was thinking was just, ‘I need to run away from this,’ and I just immediately stopped filming, and I just started running backward towards the golf course,” said Carson Raper, a 13-year-old eighth grader who lives near the airport.

Raper enjoys filming anything related to transportation. When he’s not recording videos of trains, he’s capturing footage of planes landing and taking off at Aero Country Airport.

On Saturday, just before 12:30 p.m., the middle school student said he was recording when he noticed a plane trying to land.

“The first video was its first attempt of landing, and it just had to go around. It was going way too fast, and so on its second attempt at landing, which was the crash, it overran the runway, smashed through the fence, and skipped across the road, and then a car hit it,” Raper described.

He said he was standing on the sidewalk next to his bike when the single-engine Lancair IV-P plowed through the fence toward him. The video shows him stop the recording to run.

“I was expecting it to slow down, but it just kept getting closer, and it wasn’t slowing down,” Raper explained.

“I just so happened to be at the right place at the right time. To see that plane crash while I was filming,” he added.

Raper said his family was in disbelief about what he witnessed and captured on his phone.

“It was kind of one of those moments where he like buried the lead when I came home,” said his mother, Margie Raper. She said what happened came up later.

His mom, who happens to be a high school journalism teacher, said she was proud of her son for documenting the event, but when she saw a video from another witness and could see Carson running for safety, that’s when it hit her that he could have been seriously hurt.

“It really made it hit home like how close to danger he really was,” said Margie Raper.

Carson Raper said that everyone involved appeared terrified and shocked.

“I saw the pilot and the co-pilot. They just dragged themselves out of the plane, and I also saw the person. I can’t exactly remember how many people were in the car, but I just remember the people in the car getting out and just being on the ground,” said Raper.

The teenager has also lamented on the thought of what could have been for him had the plane and car not collided.

“I wouldn’t be here, like that plane would have just plowed straight through it would have gone on the sidewalk. It would have gone on the golf course,” Raper said.

The young photojournalist said this experience won’t stop him from documenting planes, trains and boats, but it does make him rethink where he stands to set up his camera.

“I’ll keep in mind that stuff like that can happen, and I’ll probably just try and do stuff at a different angle,” said Raper.

The Federal Aviation Association (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the cause of the crash.

The plane is registered to Ojos Aviation LLC, based in Midland, where the aircraft took off.

The crash happened around 6:30 a.m. when the driver of a 2009 Honda Civic tried to outrun deputies from the Zavala County Sheriff’s Office and attempted to pass a semi truck, the state Department of Public Safety said. The Civic collided with a 2015 Chevrolet Equinox, which caught fire.

Everyone in both vehicles was killed, according to DPS. That includes the 21-year-old driver of the Civic, who as from Houston, and his five passengers. Some of the passengers were from Honduras, department spokesman Christopher Olivarez said in a statement. The two people in the Equinox were from Georgia.

The identities of those killed will be released to their families first, Olivarez said.

It was unclear how fast the vehicles were going, but photos provided by law enforcement show both were mangled and most of the Equinox was burned.

Wednesday’s crash near Batesville — about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio — is the latest deadly vehicle crash involving migrants, marking the highest death toll since 13 people died in a collision in remote Holtville, California, in March 2021.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has tallied 106 deaths in Border Patrol vehicle pursuits from January 2010 to June of this year. Deaths averaged 3.5 a year through 2019 but spiked in 2020, leading officials to develop a new policy for vehicle pursuits with an eye toward increasing safety.

The policy announced in January stops short of prohibiting chases but, according to CBP, “provides a clear framework for weighing the risks of conducting pursuits, such as the dangers they present to the public, against the law enforcement benefit or need.”

Local law enforcement agencies have been involved in fatal crashes as well in recent years. In June 2022, four migrants were killed in a smuggling attempt following a police chase in the South Texas city of Encinal, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Wednesday’s crash.

The Zavala County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 35, is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson, 25, in Austin in May 2022. She has pleaded not guilty to charges.

Armstrong was transported to a doctor’s appointment Wednesday, and as she was being escorted out afterwards “she ran,” Travis County Sheriff spokesperson Kristen Dark said.

“She made it about a block and a half. Our corrections officers never lost sight of her,” she said. Two corrections officers caught up with her and Armstrong was restrained. The incident unfolded in about 10 minutes.

She was taken to a local hospital to be checked out, was deemed to be in fine condition and was returned to the jail.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

The news was first reported by the Daily Caller and local outlets including the Texas Tribune. Paxton reportedly plans to file criminal complaints in each of the House impeachment managers’ eight home counties, citing a new anti-doxxing law that makes it illegal to release or leak personal information with the intent to harm them.

Paxton’s office did not return a request for comment, though he shared the Daily Caller’s tweet about the complaints on his X social media feed Monday.

Paxton was impeached this spring over allegations of corruption and abuse of office; in September, he stood trial in the Senate, where he was acquitted on all charges in the court of impeachment. Last week, House impeachment managers released a large trove of documents they said had not been brought up in trial for reasons that included time constraints and procedural decisions. The documents reportedly included Paxton’s home address before that was later redacted.

For more on this story go to NBCNews.com.

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The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing “high illegal entry.” According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded so far this fiscal year in the Rio Grande Valley Sector which contains 21 counties.

“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in the notice.

The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act were some of the federal laws waived by DHS to make way for construction that will use funds from a congressional appropriation in 2019 for border wall construction. The waivers avoid time-consuming reviews and lawsuits challenging violation of environmental laws.

Starr County’s hilly ranchlands, sitting between Zapata and McAllen, Texas, is home to about 65,000 residents sparsely populating about 1,200 square miles (3,108 square kilometers) that form part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Although no maps were provided in the announcement, CBP announced the project in June and began gathering public comments in August when it shared a map of the additional construction that can add up to 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the existing border barrier system in the area. Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said it will start south of the Falcon Dam and go past Salineño, Texas.

“The other concern that we have is that area is highly erosive. There’s a lot of arroyos,” Eloy Vera, the county judge said, pointing out the creeks cutting through the ranchland and leading into the river.

Concern is shared with environmental advocates who say structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and species like the Ocelot, a spotted wild cat.

“A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backwards for the borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday afternoon.

During the Trump administration, about 450 miles (724 kilometers) of barriers were built along the southwest border between 2017 and January 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott renewed those efforts after the Biden administration halted them at the start of his presidency.

The DHS decision on Wednesday contrasts the Biden administration’s posturing when a proclamation to end the construction on Jan. 20, 2021, stated, “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution.”

In a statement Wednesday, CBP said the project is consistent with that 2021 proclamation. “Congress appropriated fiscal year 2019 funds for the construction of border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, and DHS is required to use those funds for their appropriated purpose,” the statement said. “CBP remains committed to protecting the nation’s cultural and natural resources and will implement sound environmental practices as part of the project covered by this waiver.”

The announcement prompted political debate by the Democratic administration facing an increase of migrants entering through the southern border in recent months, including thousands who entered the U.S. through Eagle Pass at the end of September.

“A border wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. It will not bolster border security in Starr County,” U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar said in a statement. “I continue to stand against the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on an ineffective border wall.”

Political proponents of the border wall said the waivers should be used as a launching pad for a shift in policy.

“After years of denying that a border wall and other physical barriers are effective, the DHS announcement represents a sea change in the administration’s thinking: A secure wall is an effective tool for maintaining control of our borders,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement. “Having made that concession, the administration needs to immediately begin construction of wall across the border to prevent the illegal traffic from simply moving to other areas of the border.”

The shooting happened Saturday evening at a wedding being held outdoors near the small town of Denton in southeastern Nebraska, when Michael Gardner, 62, of Odessa, Texas, pulled out a revolver, intending to fire a blank round into the air to signal the start of the ceremony, according to a Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office press conference on Monday.

As he was cocking the gun’s hammer, it “slipped” and hit the boy just below his left shoulder, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said.

“I really don’t know exactly what happened,” Gardner told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Beatrice, Nebraska, where he’s been staying since the incident. “I’ve been around guns all my life, and I’ve never had anything like this happen.”

Gardner, an Ecto County Commissioner in Texas, said he was officiating the wedding of his nephew at an outdoor venue about 10 miles southwest of the capital city of Lincoln. Gardner said he made the blank round himself, using an empty shell, some black gunpowder and hot glue to hold it together. It was the dried glue that hit the boy and caused the injury, officials believe.

A news release from law enforcement said Gardner fired the gun to get the attention of people attending the wedding, but Gardner said that’s a mischaracterization.

“The gun was scripted into the wedding,” Gardner explained. “The gun was fired to signal the music to start and for the bride to start her march down the aisle.”

The boy was taken by ambulance to a Lincoln hospital, then to Children’s Hospital in Omaha, where he received stitches and was released. He’s expected to fully recover.

Gardner said he was with the child for all of it.

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“I never left his side,” Gardner said. “There is nobody who feels worse about this than I do. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.”

Gardner turned himself in Monday to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and was arrested on a charge of child abuse for neglectable firing of a firearm and injuring someone, Houchin said at the press conference.

Gardner was booked and posted a $1,000 bond to be released from jail.

“Just another example that playing with firearms — no matter what, even if they’re blanks — bad things can certainly happen,” Houchin said. “We do not believe Michael intended to hurt his grandchild, but the act was not very smart.”

Gardner is three years into his first term as Ecto County Commissioner and has plans to seek reelection next year.

“Politically, whatever happens, happens,” he said. “And I’ll live with that. I would never make excuses for what happened. The responsibility lies with me.”

Benjamin Brody, 22, is represented by Mark Bankston, a Texas attorney who won a defamation case last year against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a lawsuit brought by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Brody is seeking a jury trial in Austin, Texas, and unspecified damages of at least $1 million.

Attorneys for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment left through a spokesperson.

In June, a video posted to X showed a confrontation involving protesters near a Pride festival in Oregon. Some of those involved wore the same colors as the Proud Boys extremist group, according to The Oregonian. On X, some users falsely identified one of the participants as Brody, highlighting his post-college plans to work for the government to spread baseless assertions that federal agents were involved.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of Musk engaging with users spreading the posts involving Brody, including one in which Musk described it as a “probable false flag situation.” Brody, a recent college graduate who said he was in California when the event happened, came under harassment because of Musk’s reach, according to the lawsuit.

The posts by Musk were still on X as of Monday.

It is not the first time Musk has been sued for defamation. He defeated a lawsuit in 2019 from a British cave explorer who claimed he was branded a pedophile when the Tesla CEO called him “pedo guy” on what was then called Twitter.

Musk’s tech company has also taken others to court over what is posted on the site. In August, X sued a group of researchers over accusations that their work highlighting an increase in hate speech on the platform cost the company millions of dollars of advertising revenue.

The local authorities have said the influx of homeless, jobless newcomers is unsustainable.

Speaking in New York Wednesday, the Republican Abbott agreed it was “unsustainable,” but said he’s not the person most to blame.

“The lead importer of migrants to New York is not Texas, it’s Joe Biden,” he said at a breakfast event held by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Abbot said he began the busing program in response to the plight of the small border towns in his state who do not have the resources to deal with border crossers.

“It’s a crisis. It’s chaotic and it must stop,” he said, urging the president to enforce laws he said gives the White House authority to “repel” migrants at the border.

“Until that time comes,” Abbott said, “Texas is going to continue to use every tool that we can to secure the border the best that we can.”

Those steps have included placing buoys — a “floating border wall” — in the Rio Grande to make it even harder to cross the turbulent river, where many migrants, including children, have drowned. Razor wire has also been uncoiled along the border. And the state has paid for many buses to transport migrants to New York and other big cities run by Democrats.

By Abbott’s count, Texas has given bus tickets to about 42,000 to start new lives elsewhere — with 15,800 sent to New York City since the spring of 2022. Many thousands more people, though, have gone to the northeast U.S. on their own, or been sent by social service organizations or municipalities.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has also been critical of the federal government, saying it hasn’t done enough to help with the cost of absorbing the wave of nearly 120,000 — and counting — that have arrived in the city. But his spokesperson on Wednesday also blamed Abbott.

“New Yorkers deserve better than being trapped between a vicious game of political hot potato,” said Kayla Mamelak. “So let’s stick to the facts: When thousands of asylum seekers arrived at Governor Abbott’s doorstep in pursuit of the American Dream, he chose to use them as political pawns.”

Abbott said unlike New York, which sometimes has advance notice of bus arrivals, his state gets no such warning. “What is going on in New York is calm and organized compared to the real chaos of what we see on the border,” he said, adding that New York is seeing only a fraction of the multitudes Texas has had to deal with over the years.

Last week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre again accused Abbott of turning the border crisis “into a political stunt.”

She said the White House has given the city $140 million in aid — though the city wants more. Last week, Biden’s administration gave hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers ffrom Venezuela temporary protected status, which would expedite their ability to legally work in the United States.

Other U.S. cities have also dealt with an influx of migrants trying to escape poverty, violence or oppression in their home nations.

In San Diego, the county’s board of supervisors declared border crossings by asylum seekers an “urgent humanitarian crisis” and pleaded with the White House for more aid.

Since Sept. 13, U.S. authorities have been dropping off migrants at transit centers in San Diego and the suburbs of El Cajon and Oceanside. “Migrants are being released across the county with little direction and few resources,” the county statement said, calling on the federal government to limit releases or provide more financial support.

San Diego, like other border cities, is generally only a temporary home for asylum-seekers, who fan out across the country to join other migrants, family and friends.

On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration appealed to Mexico and Central America to help address the “unprecedented numbers of vulnerable migrants transit through the region,” adding that long-term solutions are needed to solve the underlying problems that drive people from their own countries.

Christian Martinez, 29, is the first conviction for the U.S. government over the tragedy in San Antonio, where the truck was found on a remote back road in June 2022. The dead included eight children who were riding inside the trailer that had no air conditioning in the sweltering Texas heat.

Martinez pleaded guilty to four smuggling-related charges and faces up to life in prison. Court records show his sentencing is set for Jan. 4.

David Shearer, an attorney for Martinez, declined comment.

Prosecutors said Martinez, who lived in suburban Houston, took the driver of the trailer to San Antonio to pick up the vehicle before it made its way to the U.S. border city of Laredo. Once there, Homero Zamorano Jr. allegedly loaded the migrants into the trailer and made his way back north while Martinez and four other men passed messages and made each other aware of the trailer’s progress.

Zamorano and the other defendants are still awaiting trial. Zamorano has pleaded not guilty.

An indictment unsealed in June alleged that the men worked with human smuggling operations in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. They allegedly shared routes, guides, stash houses, trucks and trailers, some of which were stored at a private parking lot in San Antonio.

The truck had been packed with 67 people, and the dead included 27 from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador, authorities in Mexico said.

Migrants paid the organization up to $15,000 each to be taken across the U.S. border. The fee would cover up to three attempts to get into the country, according to the indictment.

The surveillance video released Tuesday shows the March 2021 incident at the fast food restaurant near George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Anthony Ramos of Miami had been working in the area and had stopped to get a meal with his pregnant wife and their 6-year-old daughter when there was an argument over French fries with the employee, Alonniea Ford.

The video shows Ford throwing items out of the drive-thru window at the family’s car before pulling out a handgun and opening fire on their vehicle.

Ford pleaded guilty to a deadly conduct in the charge, but Ramos and his family have sued Jack-in-the-Box, with their attorney saying they need to do a better job of screening workers.

“I had my daughter in the back of the car to worry about, I had my wife, she was pregnant at the time, and to me it was unacceptable,” Ramos said.

In a statement last year when the lawsuit was announced, a Jack-in-the-Box spokesperson said they don’t comment on legal matters, “particularly those which involve independent franchise owners.”

In a post shared on X, previously known as Twitter, Chaves said Rio Grand City Border Patrol agents discovered the infant at the Texas border and included a blurred image of the baby boy.

“This is a chilling reminder of how children are exploited by human traffickers and criminal organizations every day,” Chavez added.

The incident comes amid a growing crisis at the border as a record number of migrant children are making the perilous journey through Latin America to reach the U.S., according to the U.N. children’s agency. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded over 149,000 children crossing in the fiscal year 2021, more than 155,000 in fiscal year 2022, and over 83,000 in the first eight months of fiscal year 2023, UNICEF said.

This is not the first time that a minor has been found alone at the border. On Aug. 23, two young siblings — a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy — were found abandoned in Rio Grande City. They reportedly came from Chiapas, Mexico, and were left to fend for themselves near the Rio Grande River, in the Eagle Pass area.

Days earlier, two brother from Honduras, aged 12 and 4, were also found near the Rio Grande. They told authorities they were abandoned by migrant smugglers.

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The announcement came Friday at a meeting that Mexican security and immigration officials had with a representative of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

So many migrants are climbing aboard trains that Mexico’s largest railway company said earlier this week it was suspending 60 freight train runs because of safety concerns, citing a series of injuries and deaths.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute did not say where the checkpoints would be established or how migrants would be dissuaded or detained. In 2014, Mexican authorities briefly took to stopping trains to pull migrants off, but it was unclear if the government was planning to resume the raids.

The institute said its officers have been detaining about 9,000 migrants per day this month, a significant increase over the daily of average of about 6,125 in the first eight months of the year. It said Mexico had detained 1.47 million migrants so far this year and deported 788,089 of them.

Mexican officials said they would speak with the governments of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba to ensure they would accept deportation flights.

The immigration agency said the Mexican railroad Ferromex would be part of the security plan. Ferromex said in statement Tuesday that it had temporarily ordered a halt to 60 trains carrying cargo because of about a “half-dozen regrettable cases of injuries or deaths” among migrants hopping freight cars.

“There has been a significant increase in the number of migrants in recent days,” Ferromex said, adding that it was stopping the trains “to protect the physical safety of the migrants.”

Customs and Border Protection announced this week that so many migrants had showed up in the Texas border city of Eagle Pass that it was closing an international railway crossing there that links Piedras Negras, Mexico.

Union Pacific Railroad Co. said the track would reopen at midnight Saturday, adding that roughly 2,400 rail cars remained unable to move on both sides of the border.

Charged with killing 22 North Texas women over a two-year span, Chemirmir was found guilty of capital murder in October 2022 in the death of 87-year-old Mary Brooks. His first trial, for the murder of Lu Thi Harris, ended in a mistrial. Chemirmir was later convicted of the murder charge.

Chemirmir, 50, had been serving two prison sentences of life without parole in the Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony near Palestine.

Officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Chemirmir was found deceased in his cell early Tuesday. The TDCJ said Chemirmir’s cellmate, who is serving a sentence for murder out of Dallas County, was identified as the assailant.

No further details about Chemirmir’s death have been confirmed and the TDCJ said the Office of Inspector General is investigating Chemirmir’s death.

The families of Chemirmir’s victims were notified of his death early Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, some of the family members of Chemirmir’s victims said they were relieved to learn of his death.

“My mother died in fear. This man did not have a peaceful passing. There’s some relief in feeling that he didn’t get off easily,” said Shannon Dion, whose 92-year-old mother, Doris Gleason, was among those Chemirmir was charged with killing.

Chemirmir was caught after a 91-year-old woman survived a 2018 attack and told police a man had forced his way into her apartment at an independent living community for seniors, tried to smother her with a pillow and took her jewelry.

Police said they found Chemirmir the following day in the parking lot of his apartment complex holding jewelry and cash, having just thrown away a large red jewelry box. Documents in the jewelry box led them to the home of Harris who was found dead in her bedroom.

Prosecutors said the suspected serial killer targeted people inside their homes or at senior independent living centers, smothering them with pillows to steal jewelry.

Most of the deaths were initially ruled natural causes, despite families reporting odd circumstances and stolen jewelry. It wasn’t until a woman survived an attack on her life, leading police to Chemirmir that the cases were reopened and indictments were filed.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot planned to secure two convictions before dismissing the remaining cases. Earlier this summer Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said he did not plan to try the nine capital murder indictments his office had against Chemirmir.

Chemirmir was the subject of an NBC 5 streaming series, “Stranger at the Door,” that looked into the dozens of deaths attributed to Billy Chemirmir. The series can be watched online here or on TV following the instructions below.

How to Watch the Rest of NBC 5’s ‘Stranger at the Door’

• Watch on your Roku device: add the NBC DFW channel to your collection, open the channel and select The only trthe Stranger at the Door playlist.
• Watch on your Fire TV device: download the NBC DFW app from the Amazon Appstore, open the app on your Fire TV and select the Stranger at the Door playlist.

Girl Scouts in Huntsville, Texas, were enjoying a trip to Lake Raven — right up until a 14-foot alligator starting swimming toward them.

In a video captured by local witness David Siljeg, the alligator is seen slowly swimming closer and closer to the group of girls while scout leaders rushed into the water to pull them out.

Everyone safely evacuated the water, and Huntsville State Park officials said that no one was injured. The park was closed for the day.

The No. 11 Longhorns on Saturday pulled off a road upset vs. No. 3 Alabama on Saturday, denting Nick Saban’s perfect record early in the season.

Texas moved to 2-0 in the process following a 37-10 win over unranked Rice in the season opener. But the Longhorns waited long to put points on the board in bunches.

They trailed 16-13 going into the fourth quarter after a scoreless third. Then the scoring started. Texas outscored Alabama 21-8 in the final period to claim a 34-24 win, with Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers dominating headlines for his display.

Ewers, who is in his second year with the program, completed 24-for-38 passes for 349 yards, three touchdowns and no picks. It was a stark contrast to Jalen Milroe’s display, as the Crimson Tide signal caller mustered 255 yards on 14-for-27 passing, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Here’s how social media reacted to Alabama’s loss:

Fans also praised Ewers’ commendable outing that has likely drawn more eyes on him for the rest of the season:

Ewers and Texas will be back in action next Saturday against unranked Wyoming. Alabama, meanwhile, will look to change its tide against unranked South Florida.

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The decision by U.S. District Judge David Ezra of Texas is likely to be appealed by the state, which for the past two years has aggressively pushed legal boundaries to curb the flow of migrants under a sprawling mission known as Operation Lone Star. The judge said the state must move the barrier by Sept. 15.

Dozens of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys have created a water barrier longer than a soccer field on a stretch of river where migrants often try crossing from Mexico. Texas also has installed razor wire and steel fencing on the border, while also empowering armed officers to arrest migrants on trespassing charges.

The buoys deployed in July brought a swift legal challenge from the U.S. Justice Department, which accused Texas of putting a barrier on the international boundary without permission. President Joe Biden’s administration also said the water barrier raised humanitarian and environmental concerns.

Texas installed the buoy barrier near the border town of Eagle Pass, with anchors in the riverbed.

The Office of the Governor released a statement Wednesday following the ruling by the U.S. District Court.

“Texas will appeal. Today’s court decisions merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along. This ruling is incorrect and will be overturned on appeal. We will continue to utilize every strategy to secure the border, including deploying Texas National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers and installing strategic barriers. Our battle to defend Texas’ sovereign authority to protect lives from the chaos caused by President Biden’s open border policies has only begun. Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.” – Office of the Governor

Eagle Pass is part of a Border Patrol sector that has seen the second-highest number of migrant crossings this fiscal year with about 270,000 encounters — though that is lower than it was at this time last year.

The Biden administration has said illegal border crossings declined after new immigration rules took effect in May as pandemic-related asylum restrictions expired.

Like other pieces of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border mission known as Operation Lone Star, the buoys pick up where former President Donald Trump left off. Plans for the same water barrier were in the pipeline in 2020, according to Mark Morgan, who at the time was the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Morgan said the plans were scrapped after Biden took office the following year. He called the barrier a “water wall” and said it was intended to be used as a stopgap in sections of the border where fences were not yet built or practical.

FLOATING BARRIERS NEAR US-MEXICO BORDER

Immigration Aug 22, 2023

Texas' floating barrier to stop migrants draws recurring concerns from Mexican govt., US official says

According to the Mansfield Police Department, officers received a call from a homeowner about a snake curled up inside her sink.

“When the call was dispatched, all of the officers knew that Officer Lynch was the perfect person for the job!” the police department said in a Facebook post Wednesday morning.

Authorities said Officer Lynch handled the serpent and released it into a safe area.

The homeowner was very thankful for Officer Lynch’s quick response and help, police said.

Police in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg, Texas said a man crashed his SUV into a Denny’s restaurant just off the highway late Monday morning. The vehicle slammed into the restaurant’s south wall leaving patrons with injuries ranging from minor cuts to “severe injuries” that don’t appear to be life-threatening, police said in a statement. Victims ranged in age from 12 to 60 years old.

The driver of the SUV was not injured, police said. The cause of the crash was not immediately released.

Video of the aftermath shows a red vehicle fully inside the restaurant, with the wall and windows around it demolished.