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Tag: Texas

  • Military families increasingly relying on food banks

    Military families increasingly relying on food banks

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    Food bank demand rises among military families


    Food bank demand rises among military families

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    Killeen, Texas — U.S. Army Pvt. Gypsy Jones is used to military lineups, including the line at the local food pantry, where a growing number of military families are turning for help. 

    The single mother’s military paycheck doesn’t cover her house payment, utility bills, clothing for her three young daughters and groceries. Jones says about 80% of the food in her house comes from pantries. 

    Food Care Center in Killeen, Texas, home of Fort Hood, is one of several pantries Jones frequents. 

    Raymond Cockrell, who runs the pantry, said he is seeing more people in uniform than ever before. 

    “Five years ago, when I started, we had about 600 military families come through our door,” Cockrell said. “Our most recent year that just ended, we had almost 2,000 families come through our doors.” 

    Nationwide, at least one in six military and veteran families were food insecure in 2021, up from one in eight families just two years earlier, according to the Military Family Advisory Network. 

    Pantries are facing their own hurdles. A dollar donated used to cover seven meals at the Food Care Center, but with inflation it now pays for only six. 

    If she could not rely on food pantries, Jones said she would have to take on a second or third job to make ends meet. She said that while some soldiers won’t come out of shame, for her, there’s no dishonor. 

    “There’s nothing wrong with seeking help when you need it,” she said. 

    Janet Shamlian


    Janet Shamlian

    Janet Shamlian is a CBS News correspondent based in Houston, Texas. Shamlian’s reporting is featured on all CBS News broadcasts and platforms including “CBS Mornings,” the “CBS Evening News” and the CBS News Streaming Network, CBS News’ premier 24/7 anchored streaming news service.

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  • Storms with possible tornadoes rake Oklahoma and Texas — injuring at least 7 — as blizzard conditions mount in the northern Plains | CNN

    Storms with possible tornadoes rake Oklahoma and Texas — injuring at least 7 — as blizzard conditions mount in the northern Plains | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Severe storms including suspected tornadoes have carved paths of destruction in Oklahoma and the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday and injured at least seven people – part of a larger storm system that threatens more damage in the South and blizzard conditions in states farther north.

    The giant winter storm system is pushing through the central US after walloping the West. About 21 million people from Texas to Mississippi are under threat of severe storms Tuesday, including tornadoes. And about 14 million people – largely in the north-central US – are under winter-weather warnings or advisories Tuesday, with blowing snow and power outages a key concern.

    A tornado watch is in effect for parts of Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas until 5 p.m. CT.

    Damage on Tuesday includes:

    • Grapevine, Texas: At least one tornado was reported in this city just outside Dallas Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said, and storms left at least five people there injured, Grapevine police said. Details about the injuries weren’t immediately available.

    Businesses including a Grapevine mall, a Sam’s Club and a Walmart were damaged, police said. A gas station was destroyed, and drivers on one road were forced to share a single lane because downed trees and other debris blocked parts of the thoroughfare, motorist Claudio Ropain David told CNN.

    • Elsewhere outside Dallas: At least two people were injured, and homes and businesses were damaged, as severe weather hit east of Paradise and south of Decatur in Wise County on Tuesday morning, northwest of Fort Worth, county officials said.

    One person was hurt when wind overturned their vehicle, and the other – also in a vehicle – was hurt by flying debris, the Wise County emergency management office said. One was taken to a hospital, the office said without elaborating.

    High winds also damaged homes and trees near Callisburg north of Dallas, blew over tractor-trailers near the towns of Millsap and Weatherford; and damaged barns near the town of Jacksboro, the National Weather Service said.

    • Wayne, Oklahoma: A suspected tornado in that town knocked out power and damaged homes, outbuildings and barns early Tuesday, officials said, adding no injuries were reported. Homes were flattened or had roofs torn off, and trees were snapped like twigs, video from CNN affiliate KOCO showed.

    More severe storms capable of tornadoes, as well as hail and damaging winds are expected Tuesday and Wednesday in the Gulf Coast region as the complex snow-or-rain system sweeps through the central US from north to south.

    A home sits in shambles Tuesday in Wayne, Oklahoma, after a tornado reportedly struck.

    Across the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest, heavy, blowing snow and/or freezing rain into Thursday could snarl travel and threaten power outages.

    Blizzard warnings – forecasting at least three hours of sustained winds or frequent gusts at 35 mph or greater during considerable snowfall and poor visibility – extended Tuesday from parts of Montana and Wyoming into northeastern Colorado, western Nebraska and South Dakota.

    Blizzard conditions were being reported in the morning and early afternoon near the Colorado-Kansas state line. Visibility along Interstate 70 in that area was down to 100 feet, a Kansas Highway Patrol spokesman said on Twitter.

    Snowfall through Wednesday morning generally could be 10 to 18 inches in the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Some areas inside the blizzard warning zones – particularly western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and northwestern Nebraska – could get as many as 24 inches of snow, with winds strong enough to knock down tree limbs and cause power outages, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    In Sidney, Nebraska, winds whipped Tuesday morning at 53 mph, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said, “and then you add in the snow, visibility is a quarter mile.”

    Interstates in South Dakota could become impassable amid the blizzard conditions, resulting in roadway closures across the state, the South Dakota Department of Transportation warned Monday.

    Ice storm warnings were issued for parts of eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota and western Iowa. Up to two-tenths of an inch of ice could accumulate in some of these areas, forecasters said.

    Wintry precipitation “will begin to spread eastward over the Upper Great Lakes late Tuesday and Wednesday and into the Northeast late Wednesday as the storm system continues eastward,” the prediction center said.

    Freezing rain and sleet, meanwhile, will be possible through Wednesday in the Upper Midwest.

    Meanwhile, the southern end of the storm threatens to bring more tornadoes.

    An alert for enhanced risk of severe weather – level 3 of 5 – was issued Tuesday for eastern Texas and the lower Mississippi River Valley, with the main threats including powerful tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail. Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and Lafayette, Louisiana, are part of the threatened area, as is Jackson, Mississippi.

    “My main concern with the tornadoes is going to be after dark,” Myers said Tuesday. “We have very short days this time of year, so 5 or 6 o’clock, it’s going to be dark out there. Spotters aren’t as accurate when it is dark. Tornado warnings are a little bit slow; if you’re sleeping, you may not get them. So, that’s the real danger with this storm.”

    A zone of slight risk – level 2 of 5 – encircled that area, stretching from eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma to southern Arkansas and much of the rest of Louisiana, including New Orleans, and central Mississippi.

    Tuesday also brings a slight risk of excessive rainfall in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, with 2 to 4 inches of rain and flash flooding possible, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    On Wednesday, the threat for severe weather is largely focused on the Gulf Coast, with tornadoes and damaging winds possible over parts of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.

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  • From blizzards to tornadoes, US braces for wild weather week

    From blizzards to tornadoes, US braces for wild weather week

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    SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest was braced Tuesday for blizzard-like conditions, while states farther to the south were warned of the risk of flash flooding and tornadoes from a massive storm blowing across the country.

    An area stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado was under blizzard warnings, and the National Weather Service said that as much as 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Meanwhile, ice and sleet were expected in the eastern Great Plains.

    The National Weather Service warned that up to about half an inch (2.5 centimeters) of ice could form and winds could gust up to 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour) in parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Power outages, tree damage, falling branches and hazardous travel conditions all threatened the region.

    “This is a ‘we are not kidding’ kind of storm,” the South Dakota Department of Public Safety said Monday in a tweet urging people to stock up on essentials, then stay home once the storm hits.

    Portions of Interstate 90 and Interstate 29 through South Dakota were expected to be closed by mid-morning Tuesday due to “freezing rain, substantial snow totals, low visibility, drifting snow and high winds,” the state’s Department of Transportation said. Secondary highways will likely become “impassable,” it said.

    Those farther south in Texas and Louisiana could get heavy rains with flash flooding, hail and tornadoes by Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. The storm was forecast to continue southeast into Florida later in the week.

    “It will be a busy week while this system moves across the country,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s headquarters in College Park, Maryland.

    The weather is part of the same system that dumped heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada over the weekend before moving east.

    In northern Utah, a tour bus crashed Monday morning as snow and frigid temperatures blanketed the region. The bus flipped onto its side in Tremonton after the driver lost control while switching lanes, the state’s Highway Patrol said in a statement. The Highway Patrol said 23 passengers were injured, including some seriously.

    Thousands of students from Native American communities across Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas were traveling to Rapid City, South Dakota, for this week’s Lakota Nation Invitational, a high school athletic event. Brian Brewer, one of the organizers, said he had urged schools and participants to travel early.

    “We told them with this storm coming — if you leave tomorrow, there’s a good chance you might not make it,” he said Monday.

    In Northern California, most mountain highways had reopened Monday. Remaining warnings in the Southern California mountains were expected to expire late Monday night, the National Weather Service said.

    With winter still more than a week away, it was the latest fall storm to bring significant precipitation to California, which is dealing with the impacts of years of drought that have spurred calls for water conservation.

    The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab northwest of Lake Tahoe reported that the storm dropped 54.5 inches (138.5 centimeters) of snow.

    The Sierra snowpack, which on average is at its peak on April 1, is normally a significant source of water when it melts in the spring. Throughout the drought experts have cautioned about optimism over early season storms as climate change makes what were once average conditions rare.

    Last year, a powerful atmospheric river dumped huge amounts of rain on California in October and a wet stretch in December left parts of the Sierra Nevada buried in snow. Then the state experienced its driest January through April on record.

    ———

    Associated Press writers Sam Metz in Salt Lake City, Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed reporting.

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  • State documents appear to indicate Uvalde Sheriff Nolasco has not completed active shooter training | CNN

    State documents appear to indicate Uvalde Sheriff Nolasco has not completed active shooter training | CNN

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    Uvalde, Texas
    CNN
     — 

    Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco does not appear to have completed an active shooter training course, according to documents CNN obtained Monday from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the regulatory agency for peace officers in Texas.

    The information comes on the heels of a contentious Uvalde County Commission meeting, during which Richard Carter, an attorney with expertise in police actions, presented the results of an independent review – which the county hired him to conduct – of the Sheriff’s Office policies at the time of the Robb Elementary School massacre.

    According to Carter, the sheriff’s office did not have an active shooter policy on May 24, when a teenaged gunman with a semi-automatic rifle stormed the school and killed 19 students and two teachers.

    Active shooter training is not required by county or state rules for people who aren’t school-based law enforcement officers. And an active shooter response policy is not required by Texas law of law enforcement agencies, according to the report.

    County commissioners met behind closed doors for more than 90 minutes to review the report and meet with victims’ family members. Community members called for Nolasco’s ouster at the meeting following CNN’s reporting last week about his failure to mount a response at the school and his failure to share critical information about the shooter.

    Nolasco was one of the senior law enforcement officials on the scene of the massacre.

    After the meeting, Carter also appeared to indicate Nolasco hadn’t received active shooter training.

    “He has not taken the course that his officers – all but three of his officers – have. He plans on doing that in the immediate future,” Carter said. “What I understood was, he wanted to make sure that all of his people that might go out were trained,” before he received his own training.

    In an email to CNN that included Nolasco’s records, law enforcement commission spokesperson Gretchen Grigsby said that “active shooter training is only required for school-based law enforcement officers as part of a one-time certification,” but she expected the topic would be a subject of discussion during the next legislative session.

    CNN has reached out to Nolasco about the contents of the report but has not received a response.

    CNN has also reached back out to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to clarify the contents of Nolasco’s training history, and has not received a response.

    The conclusion of Carter’s review comes after months of reporting by CNN about the law enforcement response to the shooting, including that Nolasco had vital information about the shooter that was not shared as the incident unfolded. It was just the latest revelation of senior law enforcement officers not taking command or following protocol to stop an active shooter and get swift treatment to victims.

    Carter’s inquiry, which was conducted over about two months, dealt strictly with the sheriff’s office’s policies, he said Monday.

    The office has since adopted an active shooter policy, Carter said during the public portion of Monday’s meeting.

    But at the time of the shooting – the worst at a K-12 school in the US in nearly a decade – its handbook only defined “active shooter,” Carter said. And while there were “portions that dealt with critical incidences and how officers would respond,” it did not constitute an active shooter policy, he added.

    Whether the sheriff’s office had an active shooter policy, however, is “no excuse for what happened” the day of the shooting, one community member said in a public comment portion of the meeting Monday.

    “Our officers in Uvalde County, including the city, school, and county, don’t live under a rock,” Diana Olvedo-Karau said. “Active shooter incidents happen across our nation all too often… so to step back and give the impression that because there was no policy there’s no accountability, is unacceptable, inexcusable, and shameful.”

    Carter did not examine the actions of the agency’s personnel on the scene of the shooting, he said, which, along with the broader law enforcement response, have been highly scrutinized.

    The grandmother of shooting victim Amerie Jo Garza said she was in “total shock” the Sheriff’s Office didn’t have an active shooter policy in place.

    “I could not believe that with all the mass shootings that have taken place, just in Texas alone, that there was no policy in place. It was a total shock,” Berlinda Irene Arreola said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.

    Arreola said it was difficult seeing Mariano Pargas, acting Uvalde police chief on the day of the shooting, at the meeting.

    “It was very hard, and It was very sad,” she said of Pargas, who has since resigned but is still a county commissioner.

    Arreola said that she believes he had plenty of time to take control of the incident but that “instead he ran in the other direction.”

    “So, seeing him for the first time was very, very hurtful,” she said.

    Arreola said the upcoming holidays are going to be a difficult time for her family without Amerie.

    “My son and my daughter-in-law just can’t keep it together to be able to enjoy the holidays. So it’s going to be different, definitely different this year and very sad. Very sad,” she said.

    In the months since the shooting, criticism of law enforcement’s response has focused on its failure to follow the main tenets of post-Columbine policies to immediately take down an active shooter. Instead, acting on the early and erroneous assessment that the gunman was barricaded, as opposed to an active shooter with his victims surrounding him inside two adjoining classrooms, police waited 77 minutes before confronting him.

    Much of the initial criticism focused on Uvalde School Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who had said he never considered himself in charge the day of the shooting. He was ultimately fired in August.

    In the months since the shooting, however, it’s become clear the failures that day went far beyond the scope of the small school police force. According to a preliminary report by a Texas House of Representatives investigative committee, 376 officers from local, state and federal agencies were on the scene of the massacre.

    Pargas, who remains an elected county commissioner, resigned from the police department after CNN reported he knew children needed rescuing and did not organize help.

    Separately, a Texas Ranger and a state police captain are under review for their actions or inaction the day of the shooting, and a state police sergeant was terminated. Another officer who quit the state police force and took a job with the Uvalde school district was also fired after CNN reported she was under investigation for her actions during the shooting.

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  • Texas officer testifies he saw gun before fatal shooting

    Texas officer testifies he saw gun before fatal shooting

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    A former Texas police officer testified in his murder trial Monday that he fatally shot a Black woman through a rear window of her home in 2019 while staring down the barrel of a handgun she was pointing at him.

    Aaron Dean testified that Atatiana Jefferson had the gun “pointed directly at me” on the fourth day of his trial in the killing the 28-year-old woman. It was Dean’s first public statement in the more than three years since the white Fort Worth officer shot Jefferson while responding to a call about an open front door.

    “I was looking right down the barrel of the gun and when I saw the barrel of that gun pointed at me I fired a single shot from my duty weapon,” Dean said on the witness stand.

    Prosecutors have contended the evidence will show Dean never saw Jefferson’s gun.

    The Fort Worth Police Department released body-camera video and arrested Dean on a murder charge within days of the Oct. 12, 2019 shooting. He quit the force without speaking to investigators.

    Since then, Dean’s case was repeatedly postponed amid lawyerly wrangling, the terminal illness of Dean’s lead attorney and the COVID-19 pandemic. Tarrant County prosecutors rested their case Wednesday after about two and a half days of testimony.

    Dean shot Jefferson after a neighbor called a nonemergency police line to report that the front door to Jefferson’s home was open. She had been playing video games that night with her nephew and it emerged at trial that they left the doors open to vent smoke from hamburgers the boy burnt.

    Bodycam footage showed that Dean and a second officer who responded to the call didn’t identify themselves as police at the house. Officer Carol Darch testified last week that she and Dean thought the house might have been burglarized and quietly moved into the fenced-off backyard, guns drawn, looking for signs of forced entry.

    There, Dean fired a single shot through the window a split-second after shouting at Jefferson, who was inside, to show her hands.

    Dean testified Monday that his view of the darkened backyard was clearer than what’s shown in his body-camera footage but said that he could not make out the race or sex of the person in the window. He said he opened fire after seeing a gun “very close” and that he was briefly blinded by his muzzle flash.

    “When my vision cleared, then I observed the person that we now know is Miss Jefferson,” he said, crying. “I heard her scream and then saw her fall.”

    Darch’s back was to the window when Dean shot, but she said he never mentioned seeing a gun before he pulled the trigger and didn’t say anything about the weapon as they rushed in to search the house.

    Jefferson’s 8-year-old nephew witnessed his aunt be shot from inside the room. Zion Carr testified that Jefferson took out her gun believing there was an intruder in the backyard, but he offered contradictory accounts of whether she pointed the pistol out the window.

    Carr, now 11, testified on the trial’s opening day that Jefferson always had the gun down, but he said in a interview that was recorded soon after the shooting and played in court that she pointed the weapon at the window.

    Dean testified that after the shooting he was shocked to find the little boy inside, still thinking someone had been stealing things from the house.

    “I’m thinking, ’Who brings a kid to a burglary? What is going on?” he said.

    ———

    Associated Press journalist Jamie Stengle contributed to this report.

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  • House advances giant Texas storm surge project in water bill

    House advances giant Texas storm surge project in water bill

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    HOUSTON — Fourteen years after Hurricane Ike ripped through thousands of homes and businesses near Galveston, Texas — but mostly spared the region’s oil refineries and chemical plants — the U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to authorize the most expensive project ever recommended by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect against the next raging storm.

    Ike erased beachfront neighborhoods, causing $30 billion in damage. But with so much of the nation’s petrochemical industry in the Houston-Galveston corridor, it could have been even worse. That close call inspired marine science professor Bill Merrell to first propose a massive coastal barrier to protect against a direct hit.

    Now, the National Defense Authorization Act includes authorizations for a $34 billion plan that borrows from Merrell’s idea.

    “It was quite different than anything we had done in the United States and it took us a little while to come around to it,” said Merrell of Texas A&M University at Galveston.

    The House passed the $858 billion defense bill by a vote of 350-80. It includes major projects to improve the nation’s waterways and protect communities against floods made more severe by climate change.

    Specifically, the vote advances the Water Resources Development Act of 2022. That lays out a sprawling set of policies for the Army Corps and authorizes projects that touch on navigation, improving the environment and protecting against storms. It typically passes every two years. It received strong, bipartisan support and now advances to the Senate.

    The Texas coastal protection project far outstrips any of the 24 other projects greenlit by the bill. There is a $6.3 billion plan to deepen vital shipping channels near New York City and a $1.2 billion effort to raise homes and businesses on the central Louisiana coast.

    “No matter what side of politics you are on, everyone is interested in having good water resources,” said Sandra Knight, president of WaterWonks LLC.

    THE IKE DIKE

    Researchers at Rice University in Houston have estimated that a Category 4 storm with a 24-foot storm surge could damage storage tanks and release more than 90 million gallons of oil and hazardous substances.

    The most prominent feature of the coastal barrier would be floodgates, including some 650 feet wide – roughly the equivalent of a 60-story building on its side – to prevent storm surge from entering Galveston Bay and plowing up the Houston Ship Channel. An 18-mile ring barrier system would also be built along the backside of Galveston Island to protect homes and businesses from storm surge. The plan took six years of study involving roughly 200 people.

    There will also be beach and dune ecosystem restoration projects along the Texas coast. The Houston Audubon Society raised concerns the project would destroy some bird habitat and harm fish, shrimp and crabs populations in the Bay.

    NEXT STEPS

    The legislation authorizes the construction of the project, but funding will remain a challenge — money must still be allocated. The huge cost burden falls heaviest on the federal government, but local and state entities also will have to pitch in billions. Construction could take two decades.

    “It significantly reduces the risk of that catastrophic storm surge event that is not recoverable,” said Mike Braden, chief of the Army Corps Galveston District’s mega projects division.

    The bill also includes a range of policy measures. When future hurricanes hit for example, coastal protections can be rebuilt with climate change in mind. Designers will be able to think about how much seas will rise when they draw up plans.

    “The future for a lot of these communities is not going to look like the past,” said Jimmy Hague, senior water policy advisor at the Nature Conservancy.

    The water resources bill continues a push towards wetlands and other flood solutions that use nature to absorb water instead of concrete walls to keep it at bay. On the Mississippi River below St. Louis, for example, a new program will help restore ecosystems and create a mix of flood control projects. There are also provisions for studying long-term drought.

    There are measures to improve outreach with tribes and make it easier to complete work in poorer, historically disadvantaged communities.

    It can take a long time to study projects, move them through Congress and find funding. Merrell, who will turn 80 in February, said he hopes to see some of the Texas project be constructed but he doesn’t think he’ll be around to see it finished.

    “I just hope the end product comes and it protects my children and grandchildren and all the other citizens of this area,” Merrell said.

    ———

    Phillis reported from St. Louis.

    ———

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Federal data: Kansas oil spill biggest in Keystone history

    Federal data: Kansas oil spill biggest in Keystone history

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    TOPEKA, Kan. — A ruptured pipe dumped enough oil this week into a northeastern Kansas creek to nearly fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, becoming the largest onshore crude pipeline spill in nine years and surpassing all the previous ones on the same pipeline system combined, according to federal data.

    The Keystone pipeline spill in a creek running through rural pastureland in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City, also was the biggest in the system’s history, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. The operator, Canada-based TC Energy, said the pipeline that runs from Canada to Oklahoma lost about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons.

    The spill raised questions for environmentalists and safety advocates about whether TC Energy should keep a federal government permit that has allowed the pressure inside parts of its Keystone system — including the stretch through Kansas — to exceed the typical maximum permitted levels. With Congress facing a potential debate on reauthorizing regulatory programs, the chair of a House subcommittee on pipeline safety took note of the spill Friday.

    A U.S. Government Accountability Office report last year said there had been 22 previous spills along the Keystone system since it began operating in 2010, most of them on TC Energy property and fewer than 20 barrels. The total from those 22 events was a little less than 12,000 barrels, the report said.

    “I’m watching this situation closely to learn more about this latest oil leak and inform ways to prevent future releases and protect public safety and the environment,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., of New Jersey, tweeted.

    TC Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the spill has been contained. The EPA said the company built an earthen dam across the creek about 4 miles downstream from the pipeline rupture to prevent the oil from moving into larger waterways.

    Randy Hubbard, the county’s emergency management director, said the oil traveled only about a quarter mile and there didn’t appear to be any wildlife deaths.

    The company said it is doing around-the-clock air-quality checks and other environmental monitoring. It also was using multiple trucks that amount to giant wet vacuums to suck up the oil.

    Past Keystone spills have led to outages that lasted about two weeks, and the company said it still is evaluating when it can reopen the system.

    The EPA said no drinking water wells were affected and oil-removal efforts will continue into next week. No one was evacuated, but the Kansas Department of Health and Environment warned people not to go into the creek or allow animals to wade in.

    “At the time of the incident, the pipeline was operating within its design and regulatory approval requirements,” the company said in a statement.

    The nearly 2,700-mile (4345-kilometer) Keystone pipeline carries thick, Canadian tar-sands oil to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas, with about 600,000 barrels moving per day from Canada to Cushing, Oklahoma. Concerns about spills fouling water helped spur opposition to a new, 1,200 mile (1,900 kilometers) Keystone XL pipeline, and the company pulled the plug last year after President Joe Biden canceled a permit for it.

    Environmentalists said the heavier tar sands oil is not only more toxic than lighter crude but can sink in water instead of floating on top. Bill Caram, executive director of the advocacy Pipeline Safety Trust, said cleanup even sometimes can include scrubbing individual rocks in a creek bed.

    “This is going to be months, maybe even years before we get the full handle on this disaster and know the extent of the damage and get it all cleaned up,” said Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club at the Kansas Statehouse.

    Pipelines often are considered safer than shipping oil by railcar or truck, but large spills can create significant environmental damage. The American Petroleum Institute said Friday that companies have robust monitoring to detect leaks, cracks, corrosion and other problems, not only through control centers but with employees who walk alongside pipelines.

    Still, in September 2013, a Tesoro Corp. pipeline in North Dakota ruptured and spilled 20,600 barrels, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.

    A more expensive spill happened in July 2010, when an Enbridge Inc. pipeline in Michigan ruptured and spilled more than 20,000 barrels into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. Hundreds of homes and businesses were evacuated.

    The Keystone pipeline’s previous largest spill came in 2017, when more than 6,500 barrels spilled near Amherst, South Dakota, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last year. The second largest, 4,515 barrels, was in 2019 near Edinburg, North Dakota.

    The Petroleum Institute said pipelines go through tests before opening using pressures that exceed the company’s planned levels and are designed to account for what they’ll carry and changes in the ground they cover. An arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation oversees pipeline safety and permitted TC Energy to have greater pressures on the Keystone system because the company used pipe made from better steel.

    But Caram said: “When we see multiple failures like this of such large size and a relatively short amount of time after that pressure has increased, I think it’s time to question that.”

    In its report last year to Congress, the GAO said Keystone’s accident history was similar to other oil pipelines, but spills have gotten larger in recent years. Investigations ordered by regulators found that the four worst spills were caused by flaws in design or pipe manufacturing during construction.

    TC Energy’s permit included more than 50 special conditions, mostly for its design, construction and operation, the GAO report said. The company said in response to the 2021 report that it took “decisive action” in recent years to improve safety, including developing new technology for detecting cracks and an independent review of its pipeline integrity program.

    The company said Friday that it would conduct a full investigation into the causes of the spill.

    The spill caused a brief surge in crude prices Thursday. Benchmark U.S. oil was up more modestly — about 1% — on Friday morning as fears of a supply disruption were overshadowed by bigger concerns about an economic downturn in the U.S. and other major countries that would reduce demand for oil.

    The pipeline runs through Chris and Bill Pannbacker’s family farm. Bill Pannbacker, a farmer and stockman, said the company told him that the issues with the pipeline there probably will not be resolved until after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

    The hill where the breach happened was a landmark to locals and used to be a popular destination for hayrides, Pannbacker said.

    ————

    Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas and Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. David Koenig contributed reporting from Dallas.

    ———

    Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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  • Oil spill in rural Kansas creek shuts down Keystone pipeline

    Oil spill in rural Kansas creek shuts down Keystone pipeline

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    TOPEKA, Kan. — An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas shut down a major pipeline that carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, briefly causing oil prices to rise Thursday.

    Canada-based TC Energy said it shut down its Keystone system Wednesday night following a drop in pipeline pressure. It said oil spilled into a creek in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City.

    The company on Thursday estimated the spill’s size at about 14,000 barrels and said the affected pipeline segment had been “isolated” and the oil contained at the site with booms, or barriers. It did not say how the spill occurred.

    “People are sometimes not aware of of the havoc that these things can wreak until the disaster happens,” said Zack Pistora, who lobbies the Kansas Legislature for the Sierra Club’s state chapter.

    Concerns that spills could pollute waterways spurred opposition to plans by TC Energy to build another crude oil pipeline in the Keystone system, the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) Keystone XL, which would have cut across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Critics also argued that using crude from western Canada’s oil sands would worsen climate change, and President Joe Biden’s cancelation of a U.S. permit for the project led the company to pull the plug last year.

    In 2019, the Keystone pipeline leaked an estimated 383,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of oil in eastern North Dakota.

    Janet Kleeb, who founded the Bold Nebraska environmental and landowner rights group that campaigned against the Keystone XL, said there have been at least 22 spills along the original Keystone pipeline since it began service in 2010. She said federal studies have shown the type of heavy tar sands oil the pipeline carries can be especially difficult to clean up in water because it tends to sink.

    “All oil spills are difficult, but tar sands in particular are very toxic and very difficult, so I’m awfully concerned,” said Kleeb, who is also the Nebraska Democratic Party’s chair.

    But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there were no known effects yet on drinking water wells or the public, and the oil didn’t move from the creek to larger waterways. Randy Hubbard, the Washington County Emergency Management coordinator, said there were no evacuations ordered because the break occurred in rural pastureland.

    TC Energy said it had set up environmental monitoring at the site, including around-the-clock air quality monitoring.

    “Our primary focus right now is the health and safety of onsite staff and personnel, the surrounding community, and mitigating risk to the environment,” a company statement said.

    Oil prices briefly surged at midday Thursday amid news of the spill, with the cost of a barrel of oil for near-term contracts rising by nearly 5%, and above the cost of oil contracts further into the future. That typically suggests anxiety in the market over immediate supply.

    A U.S. Energy Information Administration spokesperson said the Keystone pipeline moves about 600,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to Cushing, Oklahoma, where it can connect to another pipeline to the Gulf Coast. That’s compared to the total of 3.5 million to 4 million barrels of Canadian oil imported into the U.S. every day.

    Past Keystone spills have led to outages that lasted about two weeks, but this outage could possibly be longer because it involves a body of water, said analysts at RBC Capital Markets in a note to investors. Depending on the spill’s location, it’s possible that a portion of the pipeline could restart sooner, they said.

    “It’s something to keep an eye on,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which tracks gasoline prices. “It could eventually impact oil supplies to refiners, which could be severe if it lasts more than a few days.”

    The spill was 5 miles (8 kilometers) northeast of Washington, the county seat of about 1,100 residents. Paul Stewart, an area farmer, said part of it was contained on his land using yellow booms and a dam of dirt. The spill occurred in Mill Creek, which flows into the Little Blue River.

    The Little Blue feeds the Big Blue River, which flows into Tuttle Creek Lake, north of Manhattan, home of Kansas State University. The EPA said the oil did not affect the Little Blue.

    Dan Thalmann, publisher and editor of The Washington County News, a weekly publication, said crews were creating a rock path to the creek because recent rains made fields too soft to move in heavy machinery.

    “Gosh, the traffic past my house is unbelievable — trucks after trucks after trucks,” said Stewart, who took down an electric fence he’d finished putting up Wednesday, fearing it might be knocked down and dragged into a field.

    Chris Pannbacker said the pipeline runs through her family’s farm. She and her husband drove north of their farmhouse and across a bridge over Mill Creek.

    “We looked at it from both sides, and it was black on both sides,” said Pannbacker, a reporter for the Marysville Advocate newspaper.

    Junior Roop, the sexton of a cemetery near the spill site, said people could smell the oil in town.

    “It was about like driving by a refinery,” he said.

    ————

    Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. AP Business Writer Cathy Bussewitz contributed reporting from New York.

    ———

    Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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  • Delivery driver confessed to strangling Texas girl after accidentally hitting her with van, warrant says

    Delivery driver confessed to strangling Texas girl after accidentally hitting her with van, warrant says

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    A delivery driver suspected in the murder of a 7-year-old girl in North Texas told investigators that he accidentally struck her with his van prior to strangling her, according to an arrest warrant.

    The suspect, 31-year-old Tanner Lynn Horner, told Wise County Sheriff’s detectives that he was backing up a FedEx truck when he struck 7-year-old Athena Strand last Wednesday, per an arrest warrant obtained Thursday by CBS DFW.

    Horner told investigators that, after hitting Strand, he panicked and placed her inside the truck, the arrest warrant reads. He also told police that, after hitting her, Strand was not seriously hurt and was “alive” and “talking to him,” according to the warrant.

    He told detectives he then killed Strand because “she was going to tell her father about being hit by the FedEx truck,” the warrant states.

    Athena Strand
    An undated photo of 7-year-old Athena Strand, who went missing from a home in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30, 2022. Her body was found two days later, on Dec. 2. 

    Maitlyn Gandy/Facebook


    According to the warrant, Horner said that he initially tried to break Strand’s neck, but when that failed, he strangled her.

    Strand was reported missing from her father and stepmother’s home in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30 prompting a massive search. Two days later, according to the warrant, Horner led investigators to her body in the Wise County town of Boyd, located about 10 miles from Paradise.

    A contract driver for FedEx, Horner had delivered a package to the house at about the same time Strand disappeared, Wise County Sheriff’s officials had previously reported.

    In a news conference Thursday in Decatur, Texas, Strand’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy, who resides in Oklahoma, said that the delivery was Strand’s Christmas present.

    “The packages contained, ‘You Can Be Anything’ Barbies,” Gandy told reporters. “Athena was robbed of the opportunity to grow up to be anything she wanted to be. And this present, ordered out of innocence and love, is one she will never receive.”

    Gandy also said that she was supposed to bring Strand “back home to Oklahoma after Christmas break.”

    The warrant states that after Strand’s disappearance, investigators worked with Big Topspin, the contracting company hired by FedEx to deliver packages, to determine “which van and driver had made the delivery.”

    The van was equipped with cameras that captured footage of the suspect placing a girl who fit Strand’s description in the van, the warrant reads.

    When investigators located and interviewed Horner, he confessed to them that Strand was dead, the warrant said.

    Horner, of Lake Worth, Texas, is being held on capital murder and aggravated kidnapping charges. His bail has been set at $1.5 million. He has no criminal history. 

    Paradise is located in the Dallas-Forth Worth-Arlington metro area, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

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  • NC power grid attack stokes fear in rural LGBTQ community

    NC power grid attack stokes fear in rural LGBTQ community

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    DURHAM, N.C. — As shootings at two electrical substations cut power to thousands of central North Carolina homes last weekend, they also sparked widespread speculation that the days-long blackout might be the latest of several attempts to shut down a local drag show meant to celebrate the LGBTQ community in rural Moore County.

    Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said earlier this week that police have not found evidence connecting the attacks to the drag performance that began shortly before the power went out, nor have they released a motive. However, authorities are considering the timing overlap and recent attacks on similar events nationwide as they proceed with their investigation.

    Police have said the outages began shortly after 7 p.m. last Saturday after one or more people drove up to two electrical substations, breached the gates and opened fire on them. Whoever was responsible, Fields said, “knew exactly what they were doing to … cause the outage that they did.”

    Duke Energy officials said power was fully restored to the county Wednesday evening. A peak of more than 45,000 customers lost power over the weekend. Many residents said they struggled to stay warm as temperatures dropped below freezing overnight.

    Regardless of whether investigators connect the two events, Sandhills Pride Director Lauren Mathers said repeated efforts to shut down what was billed as a family friendly drag performance have left the county’s LGBTQ community feeling vulnerable.

    She is especially worried for the safety of local queer and trans youth, who she said rarely see themselves represented in rural and right-leaning places like Moore County.

    “This is my first time having this level of hate thrown at something that we love so much,” said Mathers, a Southern Pines resident and producer of the drag event. “Kids in rural communities don’t necessarily always have the same level of support, and what I hear from my kids is that there’s constant bullying.”

    Naomi Dix, headliner of the Dec. 3 show at the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines, said she and fellow organizers were brutally harassed in the weeks leading up to the show. Conservative community leaders led a protest outside the theater, spread the false narrative that it was a sex show and demanded it be shut it down, she said.

    Their concerns are shared by federal officials who have been on high alert in the weeks after a gunman opened fire in a gay nightclub in Colorado, killing five people and wounding 17 others.

    In a national terrorism advisory bulletin issued last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that the LGBTQ community and critical infrastructure may be targets of violence as domestic extremists and foreign terrorist organizations encourage online supporters to carry out attacks.

    The FBI posted a notice seeking information related to the North Carolina investigation, and Gov. Roy Cooper announced a reward Wednesday of up to $75,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

    For Dix, a Durham-based drag queen, the threats she faced leading up to the event were not isolated incidents but rather the “unfortunate reality for those working to increase LGBTQ visibility” in rural and conservative communities. Despite the backlash, she said, this will not be her last performance in Moore County.

    The night of the show, private security and local police monitored the venue, Dix said. When the power went out about 30 minutes into the show, she asked the crowd of 370 people to illuminate the room with their cell phone lights as she serenaded them with Beyonce’s “Halo.”

    “Our job as drag performers is to facilitate and create safe spaces,” Dix said. ”Specifically when it comes to Moore County, and dealing with this situation here in Southern Pines, it’s to find these areas in which there isn’t great representation of the queer community and to provide them with art and a space in which they can feel safe to express themselves.”

    A recent study of threats, protests and violence against drag events from the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD placed North Carolina and Texas atop the list of states with the highest number of drag events targeted this year. Of the 124 incidents documented across 47 states as of late November, at least 10 occurred in North Carolina. That tally does not include the latest demonstration in Moore County.

    Such attacks on the performance art with strong historical ties to the LGBTQ community are the latest examples of “an ongoing, increasingly violent pattern” of right-wing activists and politicians using false rhetoric to stoke fear and fuel LGBTQ opposition, said Barbara Simon, head of news and campaigns for GLAAD.

    Opponents of drag events catered toward families often falsely claim they “groom” children, implying attempts to sexually abuse them or somehow influence their sexual orientation or gender identity.

    Lawmakers in seven states have proposed legislation this year banning minors from drag shows and prohibiting public drag performances. A bill filed last month in Texas seeks to classify drag as a “sexually oriented business” on par with strip clubs.

    Serena Sebring, executive director of Blueprint NC, a coalition of progressive advocacy organizations in the Tar Heel state, said even though authorities are urging people not to jump to conclusions about the motive, she cannot ignore the persistent threats to LGBTQ communities and critical infrastructure nationwide.

    “Every member of our community bears the cost of homophobia and transphobia unchecked,” Sebring said. “Moore County is an example and ought to be a cautionary tale about what happens when we allow bigotry to flourish.”

    ———

    Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Judge Dismisses First Attempt To Sue Over Texas’ Citizen-Enforced Abortion Ban

    Judge Dismisses First Attempt To Sue Over Texas’ Citizen-Enforced Abortion Ban

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    A Texas judge on Thursday dismissed the first and only attempt by someone to sue a health care provider for violating the state’s citizen-enforced abortion ban, saying he wouldn’t consider it because the person who filed the lawsuit had no connection to the alleged crime.

    The ruling marks the first test of Senate Bill 8, last year’s Texas law banning anyone from aiding or abetting an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The law was able to survive court challenges because of its unique enforcement mechanism deploying citizens ― not the government ― to sue over any alleged violations. The ban went into effect before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for Texas and other red states to then pass even stricter abortion bans.

    But Thursday’s decision by Bexar County Judge Aaron Haas shows that everyday citizens hoping to collect a $10,000 bounty from the state for reporting abortions may need to clear more hurdles.

    A person holds a sign at a pro-choice protest in Austin, Texas, earlier this year.

    SUZANNE CORDEIRO via Getty Images

    “This is a significant win against S.B. 8’s bounty-hunting scheme because the court rejected the notion that Texas can allow a person with no connection to an abortion to sue,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

    The group was part of the legal team representing the physician named in the lawsuit, Dr. Alan Braid, who wrote in a 2021 opinion piece for The Washington Post that he knowingly violated S.B. 8 weeks after it went into effect by performing an abortion on a patient in her first trimester. Shortly after the article’s publication, Braid was sued by Felipe Gomez, a former Chicago lawyer whose license is suspended and who has no connection to Braid or the patient he served.

    “When I provided my patient with the care she needed last year, I was doing my duty as a physician,” Braid said in a statement Thursday. “It is heartbreaking that Texans still can’t get essential health care in their home state and that providers are left afraid to do their jobs.”

    Judge Haas determined Thursday that there’s a constitutional standard requiring a plaintiff to prove they were directly impacted by the abortion in order to sue. Though his decision doesn’t strike down S.B. 8, the Center for Reproductive Rights says it’s hopeful the ruling sets an important precedent discouraging more bystanders from following in Gomez’s footsteps.

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  • Jacob deGrom sees Rangers’ vision for future, not past

    Jacob deGrom sees Rangers’ vision for future, not past

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    ARLINGTON, Texas — Two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom sees the vision of what the Texas Rangers want to do, not their streak of six consecutive losing seasons and being more than a decade removed from their only World Series appearances.

    “The Rangers did a great job with constant communication and making me feel like they really wanted me here,” deGrom said Thursday during his introduction in Texas. “The vision was the same, build something great, and win year in and year out.”

    DeGrom is the latest big-money add — on a $185 million, five-year deal — for the Rangers as they try to turn things around. They nabbed deGrom last Friday before baseball’s winter meetings had even started. After completing his physical and the contract in Texas, he was even able to make it home for a previously planned Christmas outing with his wife and two small children at Disney World, which is where he was when his signing with Texas was announced last week.

    The 34-year-old right-hander spent the first nine years of his career with the New York Mets, who won 101 games last season. His arrival comes an offseason after the Rangers made a pricey, long-time commitment to middle infielders Corey Seager ($325 million, 10 years) and Marcus Semien ($175 million, seven years) and then went 68-94.

    DeGrom said Seager and Semien played a significant role in his decision and that, while he had been in contact with the Mets, he was excited about Texas after his conversations with the Rangers — including new manager and three-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy, general manager Chris Young and owner Ray Davis.

    “They showed a ton of interest right at the start, and the feelings were mutual,” deGrom said. “I want to play this game for a long time and want to win.”

    Young said the addition of deGrom is a big step toward the Rangers’ goal of building a world championship organization, and the full expectation next season is to compete for a playoff spot.

    “I’m ecstatic. To win in our game, you need pitching,” said Bochy, who was sitting to deGrom’s left. “We couldn’t have a better guy to head up this rotation. We’ve added to the rotation. So don’t tell me we can’t win. … We’re a much better club right now than just a few weeks ago.”

    DeGrom joins a Rangers rotation that also includes Jon Gray, the right-hander whose $56 million, four-year deal last winter was overshadowed by Seager and Semien.

    All-Star left-hander Martín Pérez this offseason accepted a $19.65 million qualifying offer to stay with the Rangers, who also acquired former All-Star right-hander Jake Odorizzi from Atlanta in a trade last month. Left-hander Andrew Heaney agreed this week to a $25 million, two-year deal with Texas.

    Before having to miss the final three months of the 2021 season with right forearm tightness and a sprained elbow, deGrom had a career-low 1.08 ERA over 92 innings. He was then shut down late in spring training this year because of a stress reaction in his right scapula and didn’t make his first big-league start until Aug. 2.

    He went 5-4 with a 3.08 ERA in 11 starts, then opted out of a $30.5 million deal for 2023 to become a free agent for the first time.

    “Last year’s was a weird injury, but finished the year strong and the goal’s to go out there and take the ball every fifth day for the Texas Rangers,” he said.

    Rangers team physician Dr. Keith Meister was one of the doctors who reviewed deGrom’s scapula last season since he had experience with that type of injury, but didn’t personally examine him. Meister told deGrom it would heal completely, and the pitcher said he felt great when he came back.

    He is now ready for another full season, after making only 38 starts the past three years.

    “The goal is to make 30-plus starts and I truly believe that I will be able to do that,” he said.

    DeGrom is 82-57 with 1,607 strikeouts in 1,326 innings in his career. He gets $30 million next year, $40 million in 2024 and 2025, $38 million in 2026 and $37 million in 2027. The deal includes a conditional option for 2028 with no guaranteed money.

    ———

    More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP

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  • Athena Strand’s mom says murdered daughter was ‘robbed of the opportunity to grow up’

    Athena Strand’s mom says murdered daughter was ‘robbed of the opportunity to grow up’

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    Athena Strand’s mom says murdered daughter was ‘robbed of the opportunity to grow up’ – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    The mother of Athena Strand, the 7-year-old Texas girl who police say was killed by a FedEx driver, spoke publicly for the first time since her daughter’s death. An affidavit has more details on the case.

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  • FedEx driver accused in girl’s slaying dropped off her gift

    FedEx driver accused in girl’s slaying dropped off her gift

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    The mother of a 7-year-old girl who authorities say was abducted and killed by a FedEx driver said she wanted everyone to know about the “amazing little girl” who would have received the Christmas present that driver dropped off the day she disappeared.

    “I was robbed of watching her grow up,” Maitlyn Gandy told those gathered at a Thursday news conference in Decatur, Texas. She stood beside the present, a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies.

    Athena Strand was found dead on Dec. 2, two days after she was reported missing from the home of her father and stepmother in Paradise, a town of fewer than 500 people about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Dallas.

    Tanner Lynn Horner, a 31-year-old FedEx delivery driver, confessed to killing Athena and told authorities where to find her body, Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin has said. Horner, who didn’t know the family, was arrested on charges of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping.

    The sheriff has said they knew early on that a delivery had been made at the girl’s home at about the same time that she disappeared. Authorities haven’t said how she died but Akin has said investigators believe she was killed about “an hour or so” after being kidnapped.

    Gandy, who spoke in front of the Wise County courthouse in Decatur, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of Paradise, said that Athena had been set to return home to her in Oklahoma after Christmas break.

    “Now, instead, Athena will be cremated and she will come home in an urn because I’m not even, I’m not anywhere close to being ready to let my baby go,” she said.

    Gandy said her daughter, who loved school and her friends in the first grade, also “loved dancing, singing and all animals: dogs, cats, horses, lizards and chinchillas.”

    She said Athena loved flowers, and also wasn’t afraid to get “down in the mud with the boys.” “She was her father’s daughter,” Gandy said.

    “I will never see her bright blue eyes or her ornery smile again,” Gandy said. “I will never be able to hear her say, ‘I love you, Mommy.’ I will never be able to do her hair again or to hold her while she sleeps.”

    She thanked the community, saying they “flew into action” from the moment Athena went missing and she’s been seeing people everywhere wearing pink in her daughter’s honor. At a vigil Tuesday night in Paradise, many of the mourners gathered to remember Athena wore pink.

    “I ask everyone to hold your littles just a little tighter for me,” Gandy said.

    Gandy was joined at the news conference by her attorney, Benson Varghese, who said they were looking into anyone “involved in the decisions that were made that led to this tragic loss.”

    Horner remained jailed Thursday on $1.5 million bond. Jail records did not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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  • Ex-Border Patrol Agent Convicted Of Killing 4 Women In Texas

    Ex-Border Patrol Agent Convicted Of Killing 4 Women In Texas

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    SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A former Border Patrol agent who confessed to killing four sex workers in 2018 was convicted Wednesday of capital murder, after jurors heard recordings of him telling investigators he was trying to “clean up the streets” of his South Texas hometown.

    Juan David Ortiz, 39, receives an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole because prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty.

    Ortiz, a Border Patrol intel supervisor at the time of his arrest, was accused of killing Melissa Ramirez, 29, Claudine Anne Luera, 42, Guiselda Alicia Cantu, 35, and Janelle Ortiz, 28. Their bodies were found along roads on the outskirts of Laredo in September 2018.

    During the trial that began last week, jurors heard Ortiz’s confession during a lengthy taped interview with investigators.

    Ortiz told investigators he had been a customer of most of the women, but he also expressed disdain for sex workers, referring to them as “trash” and “so dirty” and insisting he wanted to “clean up the streets.”

    He said “the monster would come out” as he drove along a stretch of street in Laredo frequented by the women.

    Webb County District Attorney Isidro R. “Chilo” Alaniz presents the closing argument in the capital murder trial of former U.S. Border Patrol supervisor Juan David Ortiz, at the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center in San Antonio, Texas, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)

    Defense attorneys said Ortiz was improperly induced to make the confession and that it should not be considered. Defense attorney Joel Perez argued that Ortiz, a Navy veteran who had been deployed to Iraq, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, had been suffering from insomnia, nightmares and headaches, and was medicated and had been drinking that night.

    Prosecutors told jurors it was a legal confession provided by an educated senior law enforcement official who was not having a mental breakdown.

    Erika Pena testified that Ortiz picked her up on the evening of Sept. 14, 2018, and that she got a bad feeling when he told her he was the “next to last person” to have sex with Ramirez, whose body had been found a week earlier. She testified that he told her he was worried investigators would find his DNA on the body.

    “It made me think that he was the one who might have been murdering,” Pena, 31, told the jury.

    Pena escaped from his truck at a gas station after he pointed a gun at her, and she ran straight to a state trooper who was refueling his vehicle. Ortiz fled.

    Authorities tracked Ortiz to a hotel parking garage in the early hours of Sept. 15, 2018, and he was arrested.

    Capt. Federico Calderon of the Webb County Sheriff’s Department testified that officers who arrested Ortiz knew about the slayings of Ramirez and Luera, and while chasing him after Pena’s escape learned that a third body — later identified as Cantu’s — had been found. But Calderon said it wasn’t until Ortiz’s confession that they learned Janelle Ortiz had been slain.

    Webb County Medical Examiner Corinne Stern testified that Ramirez, Luera and Janelle Ortiz were fatally shot while Cantu, who was shot in the neck, died of blunt force trauma to the head.

    The bullets collected from the crime scenes came from the same gun, and matched the weapon found in Juan David Ortiz’s pickup, a ballistics expert testified.

    Ortiz served in the U.S. Navy for nearly eight years, until 2009, holding a variety of medical posts and served a three-year detachment with the Marines.

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  • Growing number of states banning TikTok on government devices

    Growing number of states banning TikTok on government devices

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    A growing number of states are banning the use of TikTok on government devices over possible national security threats posed by the Chinese-owned social media platform. 

    On Wednesday, Texas became the latest state to ban the popular app, following Maryland, South Dakota, South Carolina and Nebraska. 

    U.S. officials are concerned the Chinese government could force TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, to share the data it collects on its millions of users. 

    “TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices … and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a letter announcing the ban. 

    For years, the U.S. intelligence community has had concerns about how data collected by the company is being used. FBI Director Christopher Wray said earlier this month that the company’s data collection “can be used for traditional espionage operations.” 

    The Trump administration threatened to ban the app unless it was sold to an American company, citing potential security and privacy threats. President Biden reversed Trump’s efforts to ban the app, but ordered a government review of foreign-owned apps, and whether they pose any security risks.

    The U.S. military previously banned its members from using TikTok on government devices. 

    TikTok denies it shares data with the Chinese government. 

    Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public policy for North America, told CBS News on Wednesday the company collects data similar to other apps.

    “Maybe they should consider banning all social media apps from government phones,” Beckerman said. 

    In a statement, TikTok added: “The concerns driving these bans are largely fueled by misinformation about our company.” 

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  • Border Patrol agent dies in ATV accident during Texas patrol

    Border Patrol agent dies in ATV accident during Texas patrol

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    MISSION, Texas — A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent died Wednesday after an all-terrain vehicle accident while patrolling along the border in south Texas, according to the agency.

    The accident happened about 1 a.m. near Mission, Texas, along the border with Mexico, Customs and Border Patrol said in a statement. The agent was tracking a group of people who had crossed the border illegally.

    Fellow agents found the man unresponsive, began life-saving efforts and called for an ambulance, the statement said. The agent died at a hospital.

    “The death of an Agent who died while securing our nation’s border is a tremendous loss for our organization and our nation, our prayers are with his family and co-workers during this difficult time,” said U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz in the statement.

    The agency did not release the identity of the agent and declined further comment.

    The Texas-Mexico border has seen multiple deadly accidents in recent years stemming from immigration-related pursuits.

    In June, four migrants died and three other people were injured after a Jeep being pursued by Border Patrol agents crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer on the interstate near the Texas border city of Encinal.

    In January, Texas Department of Public Safety Special Agent Anthony Salas died after being involved in a single vehicle traffic accident near Eagle Pass while working with U.S. Border Patrol to transport six people who had illegally immigrated to the U.S.

    Last year, an Austin man was charged in the deaths of eight migrants after a deadly crash near the border city of Del Rio following a police chase.

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  • “It hurts our hearts”: Rural Texas community mourns death of 7-year-old allegedly kidnapped and killed by delivery driver

    “It hurts our hearts”: Rural Texas community mourns death of 7-year-old allegedly kidnapped and killed by delivery driver

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    The rural community of Paradise, Texas, came together Monday night to mourn the loss of a 7-year-old Athena Strand, whose body was found two days after she was reported missing. Police said a 31-year-old delivery driver was arrested in connection with her death.

    Neighbors on Monday tied bows and balloons to their homes in memory of Strand, who loved the color pink.  

    Wise County Sheriff’s deputies said Strand was taken from the driveway of her home last Wednesday. After an extensive search, her body was found Friday.

    “It hurts our hearts to know that that child died,” said Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin.

    Investigators said Tanner Lynn Horner, a contract worker for FedEx, delivered a package to the house at about the same time Strand disappeared and took him into custody. Horner allegedly confessed to the kidnapping and killing of the girl, officials said.

    Over the weekend, FedEx issued a statement saying, “Our thoughts are with the family of Athena Strand during this most difficult time.”

    Strand’s grandfather posted a statement on Facebook, saying in part, “I want 5 minutes alone in a cell with the psycho that took our Athena away from us, but there’s a soft gentle voice in the back of my head telling me I need to forgive him.”

    Phile Erickson, the associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Cottondale in Paradise, whose son was in Strand’s class at school, said the tragedy is “a good wake-up call to parents just in general just to be more aware of everything … And so, you know, just keep loving them. Hug them tighter.”

    Horner had no criminal history. He’s being held on capital murder and aggravated kidnapping charges with a bond set for $1.5 million.

    FBI statistics show stranger abductions are rare and account for less than 1% of all kidnappings in 2021.

    Omar Villafranca


    Omar Villafranca

    Omar Villafranca is a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas.

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  • Lawyer: Man charged in Takeoff killing says he’s innocent

    Lawyer: Man charged in Takeoff killing says he’s innocent

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    HOUSTON — An attorney for a man accused of fatally shooting rapper Takeoff last month said Monday that the musician’s death outside a Houston bowling alley was a tragedy but that her client says he’s innocent of the crime.

    Patrick Xavier Clark, 33, made a brief court appearance in which prosecutors and his defense attorneys agreed to hold a bond reduction hearing on Dec. 14. Clark was arrested on a murder charge last week and is jailed on a $2 million bond.

    Clark, handcuffed and dressed in orange jail clothing, did not say anything during Monday’s hearing. Letitia Quinones, one of Clark’s attorneys, told reporters after the hearing that Clark is feeling “nervous and he’s concerned” because “he’s being charged with something that he believes he’s innocent of, so how would anyone do in that type of circumstance?”

    Prosecutors declined to comment Monday.

    Takeoff, 28, was shot in the head and back as more than 30 people were leaving a private party at the bowling alley. Houston police said at a news conference Friday that the gunfire followed a disagreement over a “lucrative” game of dice around 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, but that Takeoff was not involved and was “an innocent bystander.”

    Police have said another man and a woman suffered non-life-threatening gunshot injuries, and that at least two people opened fired. Police said investigators are still trying to track down witnesses.

    Born Kirsnick Khari Ball, Takeoff was the youngest member of Migos, the Grammy-nominated rap trio from suburban Atlanta that also featured his uncle Quavo and cousin Offset.

    Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said last week that investigators didn’t know whether Clark was invited to the party or if he knew Takeoff. Clark works as a DJ, according to court records.

    Asked Monday if Clark knew Takeoff, Quinones said, “We really don’t want to go into the facts at this point.”

    She said that Takeoff’s death was a “tragedy and it’s happening well too often in our communities.”

    “There is a lot of investigation that needs to be done. … So, we just ask that everyone keep an open mind and let the system do its part and let the Constitution do its part and that is, right now he’s innocent until he’s proven guilty,” Quinones said.

    Court records indicate Clark was arrested as he was preparing to leave the country for Mexico after getting an expedited passport and that he had a “large amount” of cash.

    Quinones said that Clark had been planning to go to Mexico on a vacation but had canceled his trip before his arrest.

    “He wasn’t trying to go anywhere,” Quinones said.

    Migos first broke through with the massive hit “Versace” in 2013. They had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, though Takeoff was not on their multi-week No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They put out a trilogy of albums called “Culture,” “Culture II” and “Culture III,” with the first two hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

    In the weeks before his death, Takeoff and Quavo put out “Only Built for Infinity Links.” Takeoff hoped the joint album would build respect for his lyrical abilities, telling the “Drink Champs” podcast, “It’s time to give me my flowers.”

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    Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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  • Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson returns to field after 11-game suspension

    Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson returns to field after 11-game suspension

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    Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson returns to field after 11-game suspension – CBS News


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    Deshaun Watson returned to the NFL field after an 11-game suspension, following accusations of sexual misconduct. On Sunday, Watson played his first game as Cleveland Browns quarterback against his former team, the Houston Texans. ESPN’S William Rhoden joins “CBS Mornings” to discuss Watson’s reinstatement and return to the field.

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