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Tag: Texas

  • Texas woman charged with threatening to kill judge overseeing Trump’s federal election interference case | CNN Politics

    Texas woman charged with threatening to kill judge overseeing Trump’s federal election interference case | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    A Texas woman has been charged with threatening in a voicemail to kill the federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Washington, DC, over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

    Abigail Jo Shry called the chambers of Judge Tanya Chutkan on August 5, and left a voicemail message threatening to “kill anyone who went after former President Trump,” according to a criminal complaint.

    The death threats also allegedly included racist comment against Chutkan, who is Black. Prosecutors said in court filings that Shry called the judge a “stupid slave n***er” in the voicemail.

    Shry is charged with Transmission in Interstate or Foreign Commerce of any Communication Containing a Threat to Injure the Person of Another. She is being held in detention pending trial, according to court documents, and a bond hearing has been set for September 13.

    “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b*tch,” Shry said in the message, according to the complaint. “You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”

    Investigators said in the complaint that Shry continued her threats in the recording, saying: “You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”

    On August 8, Shry admitted to Department of Homeland Security special agents that she made the call to Chutkan’s chambers but that she “had no plans to travel to Washington, DC or Houston to carry out anything she stated,” the complaint said.

    CNN has reached out to the public defender’s office in Houston that is representing Shry.

    CNN has also reached out to a representative for Chutkan. As previously reported, security for the district judge had been increased in the federal courthouse in Washington, DC.

    Shry, according to the complaint, also made “a direct threat to kill Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee, all democrats in Washington D.C. and all people in the LGBTQ community.”

    CNN has reached out to the office of the Texas Democrat for comment.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Texas woman charged with threatening federal judge overseeing Trump Jan. 6 case

    Texas woman charged with threatening federal judge overseeing Trump Jan. 6 case

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    A Texas woman was arrested last week on allegations that she sent a threatening and racist voicemail to the federal judge in Washington, D.C., who was randomly assigned to oversee the Justice Department’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump.

    According to a criminal complaint filed last week, on the night of Aug. 5, prosecutors allege that Abigail Jo Shry left a voicemail for Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is Black, that said in part, “You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”

    In the message to Chutkan, Shry alleged that if Trump were not to be elected president in 2024, “we are coming to kill you,” and “you will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it,” per the complaint.

    In the voicemail, Shry also made similar threats against Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who is also Black, along with threats against the LGBTQ community, the complaint reads.

    Three days after the call, special agents with the Department of Homeland Security visited Shry’s home in the city of Alvin, located in the Houston metropolitan area, where she allegedly admitted to having made the call, court records state.

    She told the special agents that she was not planning to travel to D.C., but “if Lee comes to Alvin, then we need to worry,” the complaint states.

    Shry was subsequently arrested on a federal count of transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of any communication containing a threat to injure the person of another, per the complaint.

    A detention hearing was held Tuesday, according to court records. A Texas federal judge ordered that Shry be detained pending trial.

    Trump was indicted earlier this month by a federal grand jury in D.C. on four felony charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    Chutkan, who has overseen several cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, issued a protective order last week limiting the use and disclosure of “sensitive” material in the case moving forward. Trump publicly attacked Chutkan in a Truth Social post Sunday, calling her “very unbiased & unfair.”

    This is one of four criminal cases brought against Trump, the latest of which was handed down Monday by the Fulton County district attorney in Georgia. That grand jury indictment also accuses Trump and 18 others of attempting to subvert the results of the 2020 election.

    — Robert Legare and Melissa Quinn contributed to this report. 

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  • Texas seeking repayment from Planned Parenthood of millions in Medicaid funds

    Texas seeking repayment from Planned Parenthood of millions in Medicaid funds

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    Austin, Texas — Texas wants Planned Parenthood to give back millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements – and pay far more in fines on top of that – in a lawsuit that appears to be the first of its kind brought by a state against the largest abortion provider in the U.S.

    A hearing was set for Tuesday in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who earlier this year put access to the most common method of abortion in the U.S. in limbo with a ruling that invalidated approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.

    The case now before him in America’s biggest red state doesn’t surround abortion, which has been banned in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. But Planned Parenthood argues the attempt to recoup at least $17 million in Medicaid payments for health services, including cancer screenings, is a new effort to weaken the organization after years of Republican-led laws that stripped funding and imposed restrictions on how its clinics operate.

    At issue is money Planned Parenthood received for health services before Texas removed the organization from the state’s Medicaid program in 2021. Texas had begun trying to oust Planned Parenthood four years earlier and is seeking repayment for services billed during that time.

    “This baseless case is an active effort to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

    Texas brought the lawsuit under the federal False Claims Act, which allows fines for every alleged improper payment. Planned Parenthood says that could result in a judgement in excess of $1 billion.

    It’s not clear when Kacsmaryk will rule.

    The lawsuit was announced last year by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is nowtemporarily suspended from office pending the outcome of his impeachment trial next month over accusations of bribery and abuse of office.

    Spokespersons for the office didn’t return a message seeking comment Monday. Last year, Paxton said it was “unthinkable that Planned Parenthood would continue to take advantage of funding knowing they were not entitled to keep it.”

    Jacob Elberg, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in health care fraud, described Texas’ argument as weak.

    He called the False Claims Act the government’s most powerful tool against health fraud. Cases involving the law in recent years have included a health records company in Florida and a Montana health clinic that submitted false asbestos claims.

    Elberg said it is “hard to understand” how Planned Parenthood was knowingly filing false claims at a time when it was in court fighting to stay in the program and Texas was still paying the reimbursements.

    “This just isn’t what the False Claims Act is supposed to be about,” said Elberg, faculty director at Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law.

    Planned Parenthood has roughly three dozen health clinics in Texas. One has closed since the Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed Texas to ban abortion.  

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  • Jury awards Texas woman $1.2 billion in revenge porn case

    Jury awards Texas woman $1.2 billion in revenge porn case

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    A Texas woman was awarded a $1.2 billion settlement after a Houston-area jury ruled she was the victim of revenge porn. 

    The woman, who went by her initials D.L. in court documents, filed a harassment lawsuit in April 2022 in Harris County against her former boyfriend Marques Jamal Jackson. According to the suit, Jackson posted intimate images of his ex-girlfriend, obtained while they were dating, onto social media platforms and adult websites “with the intent to embarrass, harass, torment, humiliate, and publicly shame” her.  

    The lawsuit also accuses Jackson of tapping into the plaintiff’s mother’s home security system to spy on D.L. after the two broke up, as well as sending links to her friends and family to sites where intimate images of her had been uploaded. 

    A symbolic win

    The billion-dollar settlement offers a symbolic win for victims of “imaged-based sexual abuse,” known as “revenge porn,” which is used to inflict “a combination of psychological abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse,” the plaintiff’s attorney, Bradford J. Gilde of Gilde Law Firm, said in a statement.

    “While a judgment in this case is unlikely to be recovered, the compensatory verdict gives D.L. back her good name,” Gilde said. “The punitive verdict also is the jury’s plea to raise awareness of this tech-fueled national epidemic.”

    D.L. joins a growing list of revenge porn cases where victims have been awarded large sums. In 2021, a Maryland woman won $500,000 from a Michigan man who posted nude photographs of her online, the Detroit Free Press reported. A California woman was awarded $6.45 million after her ex-boyfriend shared nude pictures and videos of her online.

    Nearly all 50 states — including Texas — have passed laws banning revenge porn with the exception of Massachusetts and South Carolina. 

    “Despicable activity”

    Jackson and D.L. began dating in 2016 and, soon after starting their relationship, the pair moved to Chicago where Jackson had been offered a job, court documents state. During their relationship, D.L. was comfortable sharing intimate images of herself with Jackson. 

    However, soon after the pair broke up in October 2021 and D.L. moved back to Texas, Jackson began posting D.L.’s private images online between, the lawsuit claims. Court documents show that one of Jackson’s final messages to D.L. read, “You will spend the rest of your life trying and failing to wipe yourself off the internet. Everyone you ever meet will hear the story and go looking.”

    Jackson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. 

    “We will forever admire D.L.’s courage in fighting back,” Gilde said. “We hope the staggering amount of this verdict sends a message of deterrence and prevents others from this engaging in this despicable activity,” he added.

    Khristopher J. Brooks

    Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.

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  • Barrels Of Drinking Water For Migrants Walking Through Texas Have Disappeared

    Barrels Of Drinking Water For Migrants Walking Through Texas Have Disappeared

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    HEBBRONVILLE, Texas (AP) — As one of the worst heat waves on record set in across much of the southern United States this summer, authorities and activists in South Texas found themselves embroiled in a mystery in this arid region near the border with Mexico.

    Barrels of life-saving water that a human rights group had strategically placed for wayward migrants traveling on foot had vanished.

    Usually, they are hard to miss. Labeled with the word “AGUA” painted in white, capital letters and standing about waist-high, the 55-gallon (208-liter), blue drums stand out against the scrub and grass, turned from green to a sundried brown.

    The stakes of solving this mystery are high.

    Summer temperatures can climb to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) in Texas’ sparsely populated Jim Hogg County, with its vast, inhospitable ranchlands. Migrants — and sometimes human smugglers — take a route through this county to try to circumvent a Border Patrol checkpoint on a busier highway about 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the east. More than 60 miles (96 kilometers) from the U.S.-Mexico border, it can take several days to walk there for migrants who may have already spent weeks crossing mountains and desert and avoiding cartel violence.

    “We don’t have the luxury of losing time in what we do,” said Ruben Garza’s, an investigator with the Jim Hogg Sheriff’s Office. Tears streamed down his face as he recalled helping locate a missing migrant man who became overheated in the brush, called for help but died just moments after his rescue.

    Exact counts of those who die are difficult to determine because deaths often go unreported. The U.N. International Organization for Migration estimates almost 3,000 migrants have died crossing from Mexico to the U.S. by drowning in Rio Grande, or because of lack of shelter, food or water.

    Humanitarian groups started placing water for migrants in spots on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico in the 1990s after authorities began finding bodies of those who succumbed to the harsh conditions.

    John Meza volunteers with the South Texas Human Rights Center in Jim Hogg County, where the population of about 5,000 people is spread over 1,100 square miles (2,850 square kilometers) — larger than the state of Rhode Island. He restocks the stations with gallon jugs of water, trims away overgrown grass, and ensures the GPS coordinates are still visible on the underside of the barrel lids.

    On one of his rounds in July, Meza said, 12 of the 21 stations he maintains were no longer there.

    The Associated Press compared images captured by Google Maps over the last two years and confirmed that some barrels that were once there were gone.

    Wildfires are common in this part of Texas, where dry grass quickly becomes fuel. Road construction crews frequently push or move aside obstructions for their work. But as Garza, the sheriff’s investigator, walked along a path designated by GPS coordinates for the barrels, there were no signs of melted, blue plastic. And nothing indicated the heavy barrels had been moved. Though volunteers fill them only partway, they can weigh up to about 85 pounds (38 kilograms).

    The investigator drove up and down the main highway where many of the water stations were installed near private property fence lines making note of the circumstances of each missing barrel.

    Empty water bottles sat on the ground near the round impression left behind by the heavy barrel in one site. At another, the grass was trimmed, and fresh earth was laid bare to create buffers against fire.

    Garza suspected state road crews moved three barrels that had been along an unpaved road, but the Texas Department of Transportation denied it. The investigator also noted a “tremendous amount” of wildfires could be to blame. He’s also speaking with area ranchers in hopes of showing the disappearances may be a simple misunderstanding, not a crime.

    “They probably have a logical explanation,” he said, with no apparent lead.

    Migrant rights activist Eduardo Canales walks behind one of his blue water drops Saturday, May 15, 2021, in Falfurrias, Texas. Every week, Canales fills up blue water drums that are spread throughout a vast valley of Texas ranchlands and brush. They are there for migrants who venture into the rough terrain to avoid being caught and sent back to Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

    But in other states along the southern border, missing water stations have been ascribed to spiteful intentions.

    The group No More Deaths in 2018 released video of Border Patrol agents kicking over and pouring water out of gallon jugs left for people in the desert.

    No More Deaths said that from 2012 to 2015, it found more than 3,586 gallon jugs of water that had been destroyed in an 800-square-mile (2,072-square-kilometer) desert area in southern Arizona.

    Laura Hunter and her husband, John, started putting out water along popular smuggling routes in Southern California in the 1990s. They note their effort is not affiliated with political or religious groups, but that their work is often attacked.

    “Every single year, we have vandalism, of course, you know, people that don’t agree with what we do,” Laura Hunter said.

    The Hunters met with Eddie Canales, the executive director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, about 15 years ago and provided the design for the low-cost water stations. In light of the news, they offered some advice.

    “I would replace them all with some used barrels, just replace them all,” John Hunter said. “And then I would put a couple of cameras on those and get the guy’s license plates and his face.”

    Canales said he plans to work with volunteers to replace the missing stations in the coming days.

    The number of migrants crossing through South Texas and subsequent deaths decreased this year after President Joe Biden’s administration instituted new border polices. A medical examiner’s office who covers eleven counties including Jim Hogg has received the bodies of 85 migrants who died this year. It represents less than half the number sent to that office in 2022. Most of the migrants who died this year suffered fatal heat strokes.

    But that could change, especially if legal challenges to the Biden administration’s policies are successful.

    For now, the mystery about the barrels’ disappearance remains unsolved. But Meza, the volunteer who restocks the barrels in Jim Hogg County, plans to continue his work

    “If that was intentional, that’s a pretty malicious thing. You know what I mean?” Meza asked. “You’re saying, ‘Let these people die because I don’t want to give them access to water.’”

    Associated Press writer Anita Snow in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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  • How restoring an old Mustang fostered joy, friendship for one ALS patient

    How restoring an old Mustang fostered joy, friendship for one ALS patient

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    How restoring an old Mustang fostered joy, friendship for one ALS patient – CBS News


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    After he was diagnosed with ALS, Craig Reagan’s friends came together, putting in hundreds of hours to restore his 1973 Ford Mustang, which he had owned since high school. Steve Hartman has the story in “On the Road.”

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  • 3-year-old migrant girl dies while on bus to Chicago

    3-year-old migrant girl dies while on bus to Chicago

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    3-year-old migrant girl dies while on bus to Chicago – CBS News


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    A 3-year-old girl died while traveling aboard a bus from Texas to Chicago with a group of asylum seekers, officials said. An investigation into the death is underway.

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  • 3-year-old migrant girl dies aboard bus headed from Texas to Chicago

    3-year-old migrant girl dies aboard bus headed from Texas to Chicago

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    Migrant girl, age 3, dies while on bus to Chicago


    3-year-old migrant girl dies while on bus to Chicago

    00:26

    A 3-year-old migrant girl riding a bus carrying asylum seekers from Texas to Chicago died Thursday in Southern Illinois, authorities said.

    The girl died at a hospital in Marion County, an official for the Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed to CBS News. She was believed to be traveling with her mother and father. She was not identified. 

    The girl was on a bus which had originated from the Texas border town of Brownsville, both the Illinois health official and the Texas Division of Emergency Management confirmed. 

    No details were provided regarding a possible cause of death.

    Texas officials said in a statement that when the girl “presented with health concerns,” the bus “pulled over and security personnel on board called 911 for emergency attention.” The girl was treated by paramedics before being taken by ambulance to a hospital.

    The Illinois Department of Public Health said in a statement that it is “working with local health officials, state police, and federal authorities to the fullest extent possible to get answers in this tragic situation.”

    Texas officials confirmed the bus was headed to Chicago as part of its “border bus mission.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is one of several Republican governors in southern states who have authorized the bussing of thousands of migrants to Democratic-run cities since early 2022 as part of an ongoing political battle over immigration policies. Critics have accused GOP leaders of using migrants as political pawns. 

    Abbott has sent several migrant buses to Los Angeles in recent months, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration also sent several charted planes to the California capitol of Sacramento.  

    “State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said of the practice in June. 

    — Adriana Diaz contributed to this report. 

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  • How fixing up an old Mustang helped one ALS patient find joy through friendship

    How fixing up an old Mustang helped one ALS patient find joy through friendship

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    College Station, Texas — If there’s anything even remotely good about having ALS, 56-year-old Craig Reagan of College Station, Texas, says it may be a heightened sense of gratitude. 

    Gratitude for caregivers like his wife Nancy, his children, his dog Taco, and his 1973 Ford Mustang — which even though it had stopped running back in 1999 — took up permanent residence at his house. 

    “It’s a big paperweight,” Craig explained to CBS News, adding that he “just had such an attachment to it.” 

    Reagan has had the Mustang since high school. 

    “And he was proud of it,” Nancy said.

    Craig had hoped that someday his two sons might want to fix it up with him, but they showed no interest in cars. Then, he planned to do it himself, but he was diagnosed with ALS in 2016.

    ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing patients to lose their ability to move and speak.

    The Mustang sat rotting — until some old high school friends caught wind.

    “And everybody, as soon as I called these guys, they were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Richard Watson said. 

    For the next year, the friends went to work on it, putting in hundreds of hours while other kids from the class of 1985 paid for parts. 

    And not long ago, that big, immovable paperweight was ready to lift off. 

    “It was almost like a piece of him…that came back to life,” his wife Nancy said.

    While there is still no known cure for ALS, Craig has clearly found his treatment.

    “I feel like I’m a teenager,” Craig said.

    And as for the people who made the moment possible, they insist the bigger gift was the lesson they received.

    “He reminded us of something maybe we forgot,” Watson said. 

    “Just do good stuff for people,” friend Mike Silva added. “That’s all that matters. Just do good stuff today.”

    Do good stuff today. There’s no better medicine on earth.

    Steve Hartman


    Steve Hartman

    Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1998, having served as a part-time correspondent for the previous two years.

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  • 3-Year-Old Dies Riding One Of Abbott’s Migrant Buses

    3-Year-Old Dies Riding One Of Abbott’s Migrant Buses

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    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A 3-year-old child riding one of Texas’ migrant buses died while on the way to Chicago, officials said Friday, the first time the state has announced a death since it began shuttling thousands of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border last year.

    Texas authorities confirmed a child’s death in a statement Friday but did not say where the child was from or why they became ill. The Illinois Department of Public Health said the child was 3 years old and died Thursday in Marion County, in the southern part of that state.

    “Every loss of life is a tragedy,” the Texas Division of Emergency Management said in a statement. “Once the child presented with health concerns, the bus pulled over and security personnel on board called 9-1-1 for emergency attention.”

    The child received treatment from paramedics and later died at a hospital, according to the agency. The bus departed from the Texas border city of Brownsville. State officials said all passengers had their temperature taken and were asked if they had any medical conditions.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks after signing one of several Public Safety bills at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Texas has bused more than 30,000 migrants to Democratic-controlled cities across the U.S. since last year as part of Abbott’s crackdown at the border.

    Spokespersons for Texas’ emergency management agency did not immediately respond to questions seeking additional details Friday.

    Illinois officials said in a statement they were working with health officials, state police and federal authorities “to the fullest extent possible to get answers in this tragic situation.”

    Texas has bused more than 30,000 migrants to Democratic-controlled cities across the U.S. since last year as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s sprawling border mission known as Operation Lone Star. Besides Chicago, buses have also been sent to Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles.

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  • Man dies of heat stroke in Utah’s Arches National Park while on a trip to spread his father’s ashes, family says

    Man dies of heat stroke in Utah’s Arches National Park while on a trip to spread his father’s ashes, family says

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    A Texas man whose body was found in Utah’s Arches National Park is believed to have died of heat stroke while on a trip to spread his father’s ashes, family members said Tuesday.

    James Bernard Hendricks, 66, of Austin, had been hiking in the park and likely became disoriented from a combination of heat, dehydration and high altitude, sisters Ila Hendricks and Ruth Hendricks Brough said.

    The victim, who went by “Jimmy,” stopped in Utah while traveling across the West to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he planned to spread his father’s ashes on a peak located outside Reno, Nevada, the sisters said.

    Hiker Dead Heat Stroke
    James “Jimmy” Bernard Hendricks is seen on March 2022, in Austin, Texas. Hendricks was found dead in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, on Aug. 1, 2023. 

    Ruth Hendricks Brough / AP


    Rangers found his vehicle at a trailhead parking lot after Hendricks was reported overdue the morning of Aug. 1, according to park officials. Hendricks’ body was found about 2 1/2 miles from the trailhead during a search off the trail later that day, the sisters said.

    He was an experienced hiker but his water bottle was empty, Brough said.

    His sisters said he likely went on a long hike on the morning of July 29 – the last day Hendricks was seen alive – then perished during a second, shorter hike the same day.

    Temperatures in the area topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) that day. Brough found out later that her brother had been taking medication that can lead to dehydration.

    “It was just a horrible crushing blow to everybody,” she said. “He was the quintessential nature boy who went everywhere and did everything. He was so strong.”

    Another sibling – brother Ron Hendricks – disappeared more than two decades ago in the Lake Tahoe area, Brough said. The family was notified this year that his remains had been found and identified through DNA testing. James Hendricks had been organizing a memorial service for him, she said.

    The National Park Service and Grand County Sheriff’s Office were investigating the death. An official cause of death has not been determined, but heat and altitude are considered “relevant factors,” said Lt. Al Cymbaluk with the sheriff’s department.

    Much of the U.S. has seen record-breaking heat this summer. An Oregon woman died Friday during a hike in northern Phoenix. Authorities said her death appeared to be heat-related.

    Last month, a California man was found dead in his car in Death Valley National Park. Authorities from the National Park Service said that the man’s death appears to have been caused by extreme heat.

    Also in July, two women were found dead in a state park in southern Nevada. Police didn’t release any details on the hikers’ possible cause of death, but the southern part of the state remains in an excessive heat warning, and the high temperature on Saturday was 114 degrees.

    Arches National Park, located in a high-elevation desert north of Moab, is known for its natural sandstone arches. The park has also seen fatalities.

    In 2019, a man and woman died after falling into the bowl area near the park’s Delicate Arch. In 2020, a woman was decapitated when a metal gate at the park sliced through the passenger door of a car driven by her new husband.

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  • Electricity rates in Texas skyrocket amid statewide heat wave

    Electricity rates in Texas skyrocket amid statewide heat wave

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    The rate Texas residents pay for energy has skyrocketed in recent days, as hotter-than-usual temperatures cause demand for electricity to soaring across the state.

    Texans were paying about $275 per megawatt-hour for power on Saturday then the cost rose more than 800% to a whopping $2,500 per megawatt-hour on Sunday, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Prices so far on Monday have topped off at $915 per megawatt-hour. 

    Demand for electricity hit a record-setting 83,593 megawatts on August 1, the energy provider said Friday, adding that there could be another record broken this week. The ERCOT power grid provides electricity to 90% of Texas.

    ERCOT issued a weather watch for Monday, warning customers that the state may see higher temperatures, which will in turn put heavier demand on its electrical grid. The energy provider assured customers “there is currently enough capacity to meet forecasted demand.”


    Solar power helping Texas electric grid through heat wave as Californians asked to conserve

    06:56

    Excessive heat warning

    A giant swath of Texas is under an excessive heat warning, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to reach between 108 and 102 degrees in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. Texas has seen 26 straight days of above 100-degree temperatures, CBS News Texas reported.

    This week’s expected electricity demand will mark ERCOT’s first big test since its grid crashed during a 2021 ice storm that caused a blackout and knocked out power to millions of homes. Since the blackout, Texas lawmakers say the grid is more reliable. Legislation passed this year that is designed to help the grid has still drawn criticism from Republicans in the statehouse, AP News reported.

    Hot weather has not caused rolling outages in Texas since 2006. But operators of the state’s grid have entered recent summers warning of the possibility of lower power reserves as a crush of new residents strains an independent system. Texas mostly relies on natural gas for power, which made up more than 40% of generation last year, according to ERCOT. Wind accounted for about 25%, with solar and nuclear energy also in the mix. 

    Solar power generation in Texas has increased significantly over the past few years, CBS News reported. 

    Texas’ grid is not connected to the rest of the country, unlike others in the U.S., meaning there are few options to pull power from elsewhere if there are shortages or failures. In May, regulators warned the public that demand may outpace supply on the hottest days.

    Khristopher J. Brooks

    Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.

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  • Texans Wrangle ‘Willy’ The Rodeo Goat Following Wild Weekslong Chase

    Texans Wrangle ‘Willy’ The Rodeo Goat Following Wild Weekslong Chase

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    HOUSTON (AP) — Willy the rodeo goat, who has lassoed the hearts of residents in a rural South Texas county ever since she escaped from an arena enclosure July 15, has been found.

    The elusive goat had hidden in sugar cane and corn fields, avoiding capture for weeks in Willacy County, about 300 miles (483 km) southwest of Houston. Residents searched for her on horses, all-terrain vehicles and by drone. Local businesses aided the search by donating 90 prizes and gifts worth $5,000 in total — including brisket, bales of hay and beef jerky — to be given to whoever found her.

    Ricardo Rojas III didn’t have to go far to find Willy. He and a friend caught the slippery goat on Monday in his backyard, about 1 mile (1.6 km) away from where she escaped.

    The 16-year-old high school junior and family friend Sammy Ambriz were fixing animal stalls on the teenager’s 10-acre (4-hectare) family property located between Raymondville and Lyford in deep South Texas when there was a Willy sighting.

    Neighbors had possibly seen the goat, so Rojas’ father told him to grab some ropes. Rojas used one of his family’s goats and its cries to try and lure Willy out of the heavily wooded area behind his family’s property.

    They soon spotted Willy coming out of the woods and chased her when she ran back into the trees, Rojas said. They cornered her, and both Rojas and Ambriz unsuccessfully tried to lasso Willy.

    “And then she started to run again. But luckily, we had a fence that was there, and she tried to hop the fence, but then her head got stuck in the fence,” Rojas said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Me and Sammy jumped on top of her. At that point, she wasn’t going nowhere.”

    Alison Savage, president of the Willacy County Livestock Show and Fair, said they believed Willy was getting enough to eat and drink while she was on the lam but worried that predators, including coyotes, might get her.

    “We had her checked over just to make sure that she is getting healthy,” Savage said. “We plan to let ol’ Miss Willy lead a very sweet life going forward.”

    When Willy first escaped, she hadn’t yet been named. During the search, the livestock show had been posting updates on its Facebook page, and an online poll on the page christened her Willy. Officials had not been sure whether Willy was a boy or girl, Savage said.

    People from around the U.S. had reached out asking for updates and sending their wishes for Willy’s safe return.

    The search also brought together many of Willacy County’s 20,000 residents, many who grow crops and raise livestock, as families went out to search for Willy.

    “I think it was very awesome that everybody was working together to try to find her,” said Rojas, who is splitting the prizes with Ambriz.

    The search has also been a boon for the livestock show; residents and businesses donated hundreds of dollars to make improvements to the nonprofit’s arena and other facilities.

    “Even a little rodeo goat is important and has shown us and taught us that we need to look after each other,” Savage said, “and we need to take care of one another, and together, there’s pretty much nothing we can’t do.”

    Follow Juan A. Lozano on the X platform: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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  • Texas judge grants abortion exemption to women with pregnancy complications; state AG’s office to appeal ruling

    Texas judge grants abortion exemption to women with pregnancy complications; state AG’s office to appeal ruling

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    A judge in Texas ruled late Friday that women who experience pregnancy complications are exempt from the state’s abortion bans after more than a dozen women and two doctors had sued to clarify the laws.

    “Defendants are temporarily enjoined from enforcing Texas’s abortion bans in connection with any abortion care provided by the Physician Plaintiffs and physicians throughout Texas to a pregnant person where, in a physician’s good faith judgment and in consultation with the pregnant person, the pregnant person has an emergent medical condition requiring abortion care,” Travis County Judge Jessica Mangrum wrote. 

    However, the state attorney general’s office filed an “accelerated interlocutory appeal” late Friday to the Texas Supreme Court. In a news release Saturday, the state attorney general’s office said its appeal puts a hold on Mangrum’s ruling “pending a decision” by the state Supreme Court. 

    Thirteen women and two doctors filed a lawsuit earlier this year in Travis County, which includes Austin, to clarify the exemptions in Texas’ abortion law. Mangrum’s ruling comes two weeks after four of the plaintiffs testified about what happened after they were denied abortion care despite their fetuses suffering from serious complications with no chance of survival. 

    Magnum wrote that the plaintiffs faced “an imminent threat of irreparable harm under Texas’s abortion bans. This injunction is necessary to preserve Plaintiffs’ legal right to obtain or provide abortion care in Texas in connection with emergent medical conditions under the medical exception and the Texas Constitution.”    

    The lawsuit, which was brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, is believed to be the first to be brought by women who were denied abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.  

    texas-women.jpg
    Amanda Zurawski, left, and Samantha Casiano spoke about the impact of Texas’ abortion law at a hearing in Austin, Texas, on July 19, 2023.

    Caroline Linton / CBS News


    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which defended the law, had argued the women lacked the jurisdiction to sue. The attorney general’s office had asked the state to dismiss the lawsuit because “none of the patients’ alleged injuries are traceable to defendants.” 

    Paxton is currently suspended while he awaits a trial by the state Senate after he was impeached. 

    Samantha Casiano, who was forced to carry a pregnancy to term, even though her baby suffered from a condition doctors told her was 100% fatal, testified in July that her doctor told her that she did not have any options beyond continuing her pregnancy because of Texas’ abortion laws.

    “I felt like I was abandoned,” she said. “I felt like I didn’t know how to deal with the situation.” 

    Casiano, who has four children, had to carry the baby to term, and her baby daughter died four hours after birth. In describing how she couldn’t go to work because she couldn’t bear the questions about her baby and visible pregnancy, Casiano became so emotional that she threw up in the courtroom. The court recessed immediately afterward.

    The lawsuit had argued that the laws’ vague wording made doctors unwilling to provide abortions despite the fetuses having no chance of survival.   

    Mangrum wrote in her ruling that “emergent medical conditions that a physician has determined, in their good faith judgment and in consultation with the patient, pose a risk to a patient’s life and/or health (including their fertility) permit physicians to provide abortion care to pregnant persons in Texas under the medical exception to Texas’s abortion bans.”

    Texas has some of the strictest abortion bans in the country. SB8 bans abortions in all cases after about six weeks of pregnancy “unless the mother ‘s life is in danger.” House Bill 1280, a “trigger law,” went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, making it a felony for anyone to perform an abortion. 

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  • Willie’s Grill & Icehouse Donates Thousands Amidst Kyle Grand Opening

    Willie’s Grill & Icehouse Donates Thousands Amidst Kyle Grand Opening

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    Willie’s Kyle Soft Opening Raises Over $6K for First Responders and Nursing Staff


    KYLE, Texas, August 3, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Willie’s Grill & Icehouse officially opened its doors in Kyle, Texas, on Monday, July 17. In a big-hearted move that underscores the definitively Texas brand’s commitment to its communities, Willie’s Kyle turned days one and two of its soft opening into two local fundraisers: On July 14, proceeds went to the Kyle Fire Department and on July 15, cash raised went to Seton Foundations. Both organizations received checks for $3,300 each. 

    The highly anticipated Kyle outpost is the 20th in the state for the Texas-based, Texas-grown Willie’s, as well as the eighth location to feature an expansive full bar—the largest of the franchise’s bars. The addition underscores Willie’s reign as the region’s top family-friendly haven, where a renowned scratch Texas kitchen and casual icehouse vibes offer wholesome fun for parents and kids.

    At the Willie’s Kyle ribbon-cutting ceremony, led by the Kyle Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, July 20, members of the Kyle Chamber joined the celebration. Willie’s community outreach assumes a variety of forms. In addition to ongoing philanthropic efforts, Willie’s presence in Kyle has also created more than 100 quality, local jobs. A job at Willie’s offers a bright future: Willie’s actively promotes and hires from within, believing every position has the potential for long-term career growth.  

    “If our time here thus far is any indication, the future for Willie’s Kyle is bright,” said Greg Lippert, CEO of Willie’s Restaurants. “We’ve loved getting to connect with the community and are thrilled to offer families a laid-back, delicious place to come and gather over delicious food and drink.” 

    Located at 19200 S I-35 Frontage Rd, Kyle, TX, 78640, Willie’s Kyle is defined by the same mouthwatering menus, sprawling open-air patio spaces, and genuine friendliness that have endeared the brand to families for almost three decades. Retractable glass garage doors facilitate easy movement between outdoors and Willie’s colorfully decorated interior, rooted in vintage-inspired nods to the Texas icehouse tradition. Outside games, 18 massive flat-screen TVs, and ample seating beckon, providing plenty of room for relaxing, watching a game, and reconnecting with family over classic dishes always made from scratch, served with inspired craft cocktails, local brews, and more.

    Willie’s Kyle is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to Midnight; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

    Source: Willie’s Grill and Icehouse

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  • This Democrat Thinks He Can Do What Beto O’Rourke Couldn’t: Take Down Ted Cruz

    This Democrat Thinks He Can Do What Beto O’Rourke Couldn’t: Take Down Ted Cruz

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    The January 6 rioters were closing in fast. Texas congressman Colin Allred could hear them coming, breaking glass and pounding on doors. He thought about his toddler son; Allred thought about the possibility he could be killed on the House floor and never meet his second son, due to be born in two months. He sent a text to his wife: Whatever happens, I love you. Then Allred took off his suit jacket and braced himself to use the skills he’d learned as an NFL linebacker, “putting people on the ground.”

    Meanwhile, Texas senator Ted Cruz, who had helped stoke the insurrection, was hiding in a supply closet.

    In the Hollywood version, the moment Allred learned about Cruz cowering is the moment the Democratic congressman decided to run against the Republican senator in 2024. The reality isn’t that melodramatic, but as Allred underscores the contrast between their responses during the insurrection, it’s clear that he is prepared to make a sharp and compelling case against Cruz. “There’s been no accountability for his actions,” Allred tells me. “For being on vacation in Cancun when Texas was freezing, for using the border as a political backdrop but not passing any legislation, for being one of the most divisive figures in the country, whipping up the mob in the weeks prior to January 6. But that accountability comes in this election.”

    Allred still needs to win his party’s nomination next March, and he will face a spirited Democratic primary opponent in Roland Gutierrez, a state senator whose district includes San Antonio and Uvalde and who is making reducing gun violence a priority. But one reason Allred is considered the front-runner, and why he could be a serious general election threat to Cruz, is his campaign’s theory of the case. (Allred has been within single digits of Cruz in, admittedly, very early head-to-head polls; he’s also outraising the incumbent out of the gate.)

    His camp believes the biggest lesson from Beto O’Rourke’s narrow loss to Cruz in 2018 isn’t simply that the Republican is vulnerable, but that the race was too much about O’Rourke and not enough about Cruz. The charismatic O’Rourke became a celebrity and a cause, which was enough to get him within 2.6% of victory; Allred believes that to defeat Cruz the focus needs to be squarely on the incumbent. “Oh, Ted Cruz is unlikable. But he’s also not doing the job. And that’s the biggest thing,” Allred says. “He has become mostly a media figure. He’s podcasting three times a week. He’s a constant presence on Fox News. He’s a content machine, but he’s not a legislative machine. He votes against our interests time and time again, because he’s an ideologue, pursuing an ideological viewpoint and a media viewpoint, not what’s best for Texas.”

    There would be other significant differences between O’Rourke and Allred as Cruz challengers. O’Rourke was staunchly left of center; Allred, who currently represents a suburban Dallas district, is modestly moderate. Allred supports red flag laws and universal background checks, but he will not be declaring, as O’Rourke did during a brief presidential run, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.” Allred believes climate change is a crisis, but he is pragmatic when it comes to one of Texas’s most powerful industries. “It isn’t realistic to think that we’re going to be able to immediately transition away from fossil fuels,” he says. “I’ve been supportive of an all-of-the-above energy approach.”

    His personal story should have broad appeal. Allred, 40, says he has never met his father, who was Black; he was raised in Dallas by his mother, a white public school teacher, and went to Baylor on a football scholarship, then spent four seasons playing for the Tennessee Titans. Lying on the field, injured, Allred decided to go to law school; he later worked on housing issues in the Obama administration. In 2018 Allred, in his first run for office, knocked off 11-term Republican congressman Pete Sessions. “He is genuinely concerned with making a difference for other people,” says Julian Castro, the former San Antonio mayor who, as HUD secretary, was Allred’s boss (and who is now an MSNBC contributor and emphasizes that he can’t endorse candidates). “Colin hasn’t forgotten where he came from.”

    None of which will keep Cruz from hammering Allred, if he’s the nominee, on culture-war issues, by trying to portray his opponent as a drag queen-loving socialist Democrat, playing to partisan advantage: Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in Texas since 1994. “Even in the most liberal places in Texas, we’re pretty much a center-right kind of people. You know, even Democrats like their guns here,” says Vinny Minchillo, a Republican strategist in Dallas. “But the political map of Texas is always very tricky, because every two years there’s a whole new crop of people coming from out of state. So I would never say never about Cruz being vulnerable. I’m just surprised because Allred is leaving a really safe, nice seat, and this might be a suicide mission for him.” To pull off an upset, Allred will need the same perverse help with Democratic turnout motivation that President Joe Biden is looking for: “If Trump is at the top of the Republican ticket,” Texas political analyst Harvey Kronberg says, “then Ted Cruz is beatable.”

    Allred shrugs at all the speculation and triangulation. He is wisely keeping things as simple, and as local, as possible. “This is not about the broader trends in the country. It’s not about the other races that we’ve had at the statewide level. This isn’t about whether Texas is going to turn blue,” he says. “It’s about a particular senator who has not been doing the job and who should not be reelected. This is about beating Ted Cruz and getting 30 million Texans the kind of leadership they deserve.”

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  • Biden says border walls don’t work as administration bypasses laws to build more barriers in South Texas | CNN Politics

    Biden says border walls don’t work as administration bypasses laws to build more barriers in South Texas | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden said Thursday that he doesn’t believe border walls work, even as his administration said it will waive 26 laws to build additional border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley amid heightened political pressure over migration.

    According to a notice posted to the Federal Register Wednesday, construction of the wall will be paid for using already appropriated funds earmarked specifically for physical border barriers. The administration was under a deadline to use them or lose them. But the move comes at a time when a new surge of migrants is straining federal and local resources and placing heavy political pressure on the Biden administration to address a sprawling crisis, and the notice cited “high illegal entry.”

    Biden – who, as a candidate, vowed that there will “not be another foot” of border wall constructed on his watch – defended the decision to reporters Thursday, saying that he tried to get the money appropriated for other purposes but was unsuccessful.

    “I’ll answer one question on the border wall: The border wall – the money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate it, to redirect that money. They didn’t, they wouldn’t. And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated. I can’t stop that,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office.

    Asked whether he believes the border wall works, Biden answered, “No.”

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated forcefully that there had been no change to the administration’s policy at a news conference in Mexico City on Thursday.

    “I want to address today’s reporting relating to a border wall and be absolutely clear: There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall,” Mayorkas said. “Allow me to repeat that: There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall.”

    “We have repeatedly asked Congress to rescind this money, but it has not done so, and we are compelled to follow the law,” he said.

    Border Patrol reported nearly 300,000 encounters in the Rio Grande Valley sector between last October and August, according to federal data. Last month, Border Patrol apprehended more than 200,000 migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, the highest total this year.

    Biden has been plagued by issues on the border since his first months in office, when the US faced a surge of unaccompanied migrant children that caught officials flatfooted. Over the last two years, his administration has continued to face fierce pushback from Republicans – and at times, Democrats – over his immigration policies.

    But a new surge of migrants has placed additional pressure on federal resources and tested Biden’s latest border policies only months after going into place, prompting fresh criticism from Republicans and concern within the administration over a politically delicate issue.

    Migration along the southern border has been a relentless focus of the Republican presidential primary field and conservative media, and leading Democrats, including the mayors of New York and Chicago, have begun publicly demanding stronger efforts by the federal government to provide resources to accommodate arrivals.

    The Department of Homeland Security had concluded “it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads” in Starr County, Texas, along the US border with Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the filing posted in the US Federal Registry.

    “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,” Mayorkas said in the notice.

    Construction of the wall will be paid for through a 2019 appropriations bill that funneled money specifically to a “border barrier” in the Rio Grande Valley, and according to Mayorkas, “DHS is required to use those funds for their appropriated purpose.” The funds needed to be spent by the end of fiscal year 2023, prompting the administration to choose to move forward this year with construction in south Texas, according to a source familiar.

    US Customs and Border Protection had previously announced plans to design and construct up to 20 miles of new border barrier systems in Starr County, including light poles and lighting, gates, cameras and access roads, among other systems. CBP sought public input between August and September, according to the agency.

    Among the laws the Biden administration is bypassing to build the wall are several of the same statutes the administration has in the past moved to protect, including: the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

    A CBP spokesperson said the agency “remains committed to protecting the nation’s cultural and natural resources” while implementing “sound environmental practices” to build the border barriers.

    Migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border are expected to remain high in the near term, a senior US Customs and Border Protection official recently told CNN, though additional commitments from Mexico are expected to help eventually drive down numbers.

    This week, Mayorkas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House Homeland Security adviser Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall will meet with their Mexican counterparts in Mexico City for annual security talks.

    Migration is expected to be a topic of discussion. Senior administration officials maintain that the US has been in regular touch with Mexico over the situation at the US southern border, including commitments to shore up enforcement.

    Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said constructing a new border wall is a “regression” that won’t resolve the immigration problem. During his daily press conference, he criticized “right-wing Republicans” for pressing the immigration and drug trafficking problem for political purposes.

    “So, they are acting very irresponsibly, and they are putting very hard pressure on the president, who will always count on our support,” Lopez Obrador said. “But that authorization for the construction of the wall is a setback. Because that doesn’t solve the problem, that doesn’t solve the problem. The causes must be addressed.”

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Federal judge orders Texas to remove floating barriers aimed at deterring migrants on Rio Grande | CNN Politics

    Federal judge orders Texas to remove floating barriers aimed at deterring migrants on Rio Grande | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    A federal judge ordered Texas to remove floating barriers in the Rio Grande and barred the state from building new or placing additional buoys in the river, according to a Wednesday court filing, marking a victory for the Biden administration.

    Judge David Alan Ezra ordered Texas to take down the barriers by September 15 at its own expense.

    The border buoys have been a hot button immigration issue since they were deployed in the Rio Grande as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative known as Operation Lone Star. The Justice Department had sued the state of Texas in July claiming that the buoys were installed unlawfully and asking the judge to force the state to remove them.

    In the lawsuit, filed in US District Court in the Western District of Texas, the Justice Department alleged that Texas and Abbott violated the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act by building a structure in US water without permission from United States Army Corps of Engineers and sought an injunction to bar Texas from building additional barriers in the river. The Republican governor, meanwhile, has argued the buoys are intended to deter migrants from crossing into the state from Mexico.

    Texas swiftly appealed the judge’s order.

    “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,” Abbott’s office said in a statement, adding that the state “is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

    Ezra wrote Wednesday that Abbott needed permission to install the barriers, as dictated by law.

    “Governor Abbott announced that he was not ‘asking for permission’ for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier. Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

    Ezra also found Texas’ self-defense argument – that the barriers have been placed in the face of invasion – “unconvincing.”

    “This argument fails because (1) the RHA has already balanced policy interests and determined that the nation’s interest in free navigation of its waterways is supreme to unauthorized state action, and (2) whether Texas’s claim of ‘invasion’ is legitimate is a non-justiciable political question demonstrably committed to the federal political branches,” he wrote.

    CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

    Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement following the order that the Justice Department is “pleased that the court ruled that the barrier was unlawful and irreparably harms diplomatic relations, public safety, navigation, and the operations of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande. “

    The Justice Department had brought the lawsuit after Abbott said he would not order the removal of the floating barriers from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the department’s request days before.

    Ezra heard arguments in the case last month, during which the Justice Department focused on its claim that the barriers violated federal law, but also on the buoys’ role in fraying relations with Mexico – which has voiced concern with the “inhumane” barriers and claimed they reside in part on the country’s territory.

    Texas, meanwhile, maintained it had constitutional authority to deploy the floating barriers. Ezra at times requested that the state’s attorneys focus on the buoys and not dive into other issues like fentanyl and overall illegal immigration on the US southern border.

    The state is facing another lawsuit over the barriers, brought in early July by the owner of a Texas canoe and kayaking company operating on the Rio Grande.

    This story has been updated with additional details.

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  • Police Hold Black Family At Gunpoint After Typo Misidentifies Their Car As Stolen

    Police Hold Black Family At Gunpoint After Typo Misidentifies Their Car As Stolen

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    A police department in a suburb north of Dallas pulled over a Black family visiting from Little Rock, Arkansas, incorrectly believing that they were in a stolen car, according to harrowing body camera footage released Saturday.

    On July 23, a Frisco police officer identified as V. McQueen in the body camera footage incorrectly entered the license plate of the family’s black Dodge Charger, which police began tracking as it left a hotel parking lot.

    The car drew their attention, the Frisco Police Department said, because it had out-of-state plates and because Chargers were high-theft vehicles, according to WFAA-TV in Dallas. That led to what the police described as a “high-risk traffic stop” on the Dallas North Tollway.

    Though no one was physically hurt, the bodycam footage captured emotional moments as the family faced a life-threatening, “traumatizing” confrontation.

    With guns drawn, the police first ordered the driver, a 28-year-old woman who identified herself as a nurse, to get out of the vehicle.

    “What did I do?” she asked Officer McQueen while crying. “I’ve never been in trouble a day in my life. This is scaring the hell out of me.”

    There were three other people in the car: her husband, her son and her nephew. Their names were not publicly released. The two boys were 12 and 13 years old, NBC News reported.

    The family also had a registered concealed handgun locked in the glove compartment, the woman and her husband told police.

    After ordering the driver out of the car, police ordered her son out next. The officers had their guns pointed at the car as well as at the woman and one of the children as they were forced to get out of the car and walk toward the police and face backward with their hands in the air.

    Soon after, they placed the son in handcuffs and into one of the police vehicles while the woman talked to McQueen.

    “Is he in cuffs? Please don’t let them do nothing to my baby. This is very traumatizing,” the driver pleaded.

    From inside the car, the man was heard pleading with police officers.

    “Listen, bro, we just here for a basketball tournament,” he said. “Don’t do this to my son, bro.”

    He identified himself as a basketball coach for a team his nephew and son played on.

    Partially through the stop, McQueen realized she made an error, accidentally running the license plate of the car as one from Arizona (AZ) rather than Arkansas (AR). At that point, the officers stopped aiming their guns at the family. McQueen then admitted the error to the family while the other police officers were gathered around. McQueen and some of the officers can be heard apologizing.

    “This is all my fault. I apologize for this. I know it was very traumatic for you and your nephew and your son. And like I said, it’s on me. There are consequences that come with that,” McQueen told the woman.

    One officer is even seen trying to comfort one of the boys — putting his arm around him after the incident.

    “No one ever gets hurt when they cooperate,” another officer said in the video.

    The husband then became emotional.

    “It could’ve went all wrong for us, though,” he can be heard saying. “If I would’ve went to reach for my phone, we could’ve all got killed.”

    In a July 28 press release, the police department acknowledged the mistake and said they’d investigate the incident.

    “We made a mistake,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in the news release. “Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them.”

    “I empathize with them and completely understand why they’re upset. I apologized on behalf of our department and assured them that we will hold ourselves accountable and provide transparency through the process. This incident does not reflect the high standard of service that our officers provide on a daily basis to our residents, businesses and visitors,” Shilson said.

    The Frisco Police Department declined HuffPost’s request for comment.

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  • Matthew McConaughey ‘Still Answering’ If He’s Considering A Run For Office

    Matthew McConaughey ‘Still Answering’ If He’s Considering A Run For Office

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    Matthew McConaughey might still be entertaining a run for office.

    The Texas-born movie star said he was carefully considering if he wanted to step into politics while talking about new measures to address school safety during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

    Asked if he could see himself running for elected office, he told host Jonathan Karl, “There’s a great question that I’m still answering.”

    McConaughey explained why he was more comfortable working outside the system, offering Karl more details about his Greenlights Grant Initiative.

    The program, which he and his wife Camila Alves launched earlier this month, aims to connect communities to government grant money to prevent school violence and support students’ mental health.

    “As of right now, to be a private citizen with my wife and to come up with an idea like the Greenlights Grant Initiative,” he said.

    “To work with the government publicly to help them, not doing the job for them, helping them pull off what they set out to do in the first place,” the conservative-leaning star went on. “There is an argument that that’s more useful, what I’m doing right now, in a small way.”

    Matthew McConaughey, a native of Uvalde, Texas, talks about the mass shooting in Uvalde as he joins White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for the daily briefing at the White House in Washington D.C. on June 7, 2022.

    A native of Uvalde, Texas, McConaughey was compelled to act on gun violence after the community was devastated by a school shooting in May 2022. The shooting at Robb Elementary School left 19 students and two teachers dead.

    In June 2022, the actor visited the White House to discuss gun violence prevention with President Joe Biden.

    Not long after, congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which approved school funding for mental health support, enhanced background checks and stricter implementation of “red flag” laws.

    In his interview with ABC, McConaughey addressed people who are worried gun control will infringe on their second amendment rights, telling Karl, “I’d change the word from ‘control’ to ‘responsibility.’”

    “No one wants to be controlled,” he continued. “But responsibility is still something that we can all go, ‘Yeah, I’ll take responsibility…’ The Second Amendment defenders could talk responsibility. They could look you in the eye and talk responsibility with someone from the other side of the aisle.”

    McConaughey first flirted with the idea of running back in 2021 after polls showed him leading in a hypothetical governor’s race against Republican incumbent Greg Abbott.

    “It’s a humbling and inspiring path to ponder,” McConaughey said in a Twitter video in November 2021. “It is also a path that I’m choosing not to take at this moment.”

    Abbott would go on to defeat his Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke by double digits in November 2022.

    Watch McConaughey’s full ABC interview here:

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