Texas has launched a partnership with Turning Point USA to create chapters of the right-wing organization on every high school campus in the state.  Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Turning Point USA Senior Director Josh Thifault revealed the initiative during a news conference at the Governor’s Mansion on Monday. They did not outline any plans that would require schools to initiate the clubs, but Abbott said that he expects “meaningful disciplinary action” to take place against “any stoppage of TPUSA in the great state of Texas.”  “Let me be clear: Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency,” the governor said, referring to the name of the high school clubs.  The announcement comes after Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who stood behind Abbott at Monday’s gathering, privately met with Thifault in early November to discuss expanding the organization’s presence in the state’s schools, which was first reported by The Texas Tribune. Four days after that meeting, Patrick said he would commit $1 million in campaign funds to help bring the project to fruition.  Turning Point USA was founded by Charlie Kirk, the late right-wing…

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, on Saturday announced he would not seek re-election after the conclusion of his term. Nehls, a close ally of President Donald Trump who co-sponsored legislation proposing putting the president on the $100 bill and renaming Washington’s Dulles International Airport after Trump, said he came to his decision after consulting his family during the Thanksgiving holiday — and said he intends to “focus on my family and return home after this Congress.” Nehls said he called Trump to let him know of his plans. “President Trump has always been a strong ally for our district and a true friend, and I wanted him to hear it from me first,” Nehls wrote on X. “Serving this country in the military, serving our community in law enforcement, and serving this district in Congress has been the honor of my life. Thank you for your trust, your friendship, and your prayers,” Nehls added. Congress Nov 24 The ‘ShamWow guy' is running for Congress in Texas Trump administration…

Texas cannot use a new congressional map drawn by Republicans in hopes of securing the party additional U.S. House seats, a panel of three federal judges ruled Tuesday. The ruling was a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to have GOP lawmakers in multiple states redraw their maps to help the party preserve its slim House majority in the potentially difficult 2026 midterm elections. “The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics. To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map,” the ruling states. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he plans to appeal and that the maps are legal. “The radical left is once again trying to undermine the will of the people. The Big Beautiful Map was entirely legal and passed for partisan purposes to better represent the political affiliations of Texas,” said Paxton. “I will be appealing this decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, and I fully expect the court to uphold Texas’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting.” Texas this summer was the first state to meet Trump’s…

With a historic investment by the 89th Texas Legislature, Texas A&M Forest Service approved $164 million in funding for Texas volunteer fire departments. The funding will be awarded to local fire departments through the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program, which will award 558 fire trucks and 321 slip-on units. The announcement came Tuesday, Oct. 14, after a meeting that marked the largest allocation of awards and the first phase in distributing over $192 million to Texas volunteer fire departments. According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, Texas uses a tiered approach to wildfire response, establishing local fire departments and counties as the first on the scene. State response is activated as wildfires become more complex and grow beyond the capacity of local first responders. “Texas fire departments are the front line of local response, and their equipment capacity is vital to response time and effectiveness,” said Al Davis, Texas A&M Forest Service director. “This historic funding reflects the strong support of the Texas legislature and governor. Their investment allows us to continue supporting and equipping firefighters who protect Texas’s lives and property.” By using the funding through this program to purchase critical equipment, local fire departments increase their capacity to…

Police are still searching for the person or persons who murdered three members of a Mansfield family living in Georgetown, north of Austin. The victims identified by police are 34-year-old Alonzo Hawkins; his cousin, 39-year-old Doneisha Brooks; and her daughter, 8-year-old Olivia Brooks. Relatives told KXAN the three recently moved to Georgetown for a fresh start. When they did not hear from them over the weekend, a family friend went to do a welfare check. Friends, family and their pastor held a press conference Tuesday afternoon at a park in Mansfield. “If anybody has any information that can lead to the capture of the perpetrator, that’s what’s most important when it comes to the family,” said Pastor Michael Evans. According to the family, the move from Mansfield to Georgetown in May 2024 was supposed to be a fresh start for Doneisha and her daughter, Olivia. “Got her life together, got a car, apartment, got a job,” said cousin Nicholas Ford. “She was doing good. She was happy.” Ford’s brother Alonzo was Doneisha’s cousin. He followed her to Georgetown, seeking a safer place to live and a new start. Hopes were crushed Saturday evening when police in the Austin suburb said…

Talk of Powerball is heating up nationwide as Saturday’s draw edges toward a staggering $1.8 billion, making it the second-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. The record jackpot was $2.04 billion, won on Nov. 7, 2022, according to Powerball. Zooming in on Texas tells a different story. Since joining the multi-state Powerball lottery in February 2010, the state has seen only two jackpot winners. Both came from small North Texas towns, and both wins happened less than two years apart. On May 29, 2013, a Quick Pick ticket purchased in Bells in Grayson County matched all numbers for a $40 million jackpot. Less than two years later, on Feb. 11, 2015, in Collin County, a Princeton player claimed part of a $564 million prize using their own numbers. No Texan has taken home the top prize since. What are the odds of winning Powerball in Texas? Technically, the odds are the same everywhere: about 1 in 292.2 million for a single ticket, according to Powerball. But Texas history tells its own story. With three drawings each week, more than 2,300 drawings have taken place since the state joined the game. Out of all those chances, only two jackpots were won in Texas. That means Texans have claimed…

The first human case of the flesh-eating parasite called “New World Screwworm” has been detected in the United States according to the Maryland Department of Health and Human Services. State leaders in Texas have already been on the lookout for the parasite. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maryland Department of Health, the infected person recently traveled to El Salvador and has since recovered from the infection. Health officials said there is no indication that the parasite was passed to other people or animals. “This is the first human case of travel-associated New World screwworm myiasis (parasitic infestation of fly larvae) from an outbreak-affected country identified in the United States,” HHS spokesperson Emily G. Hilliard said in a statement. Federal health officials said the risk to the public from this case is low, but concerns are growing in Texas, where the agriculture community has already been on alert. “It’s a real nasty infection. I can’t … describing it, you know, it will almost gross you out. It’s about as bad as anything you can imagine, being eaten alive by maggots is what it is,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. The screwworm spreads its eggs…

The U.S. plans to build a $750 million factory in southern Texas to breed billions of sterile flies, ramping up its efforts to keep flesh-eating maggots in Mexico from crossing the border and damaging the American cattle industry. Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture hopes to be producing and releasing sterile male New World screwworm flies into the wild within a year from the new factory on Moore Air Base outside Edinburg, about 20 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. She also said the USDA plans to deploy $100 million in technology, such as fly traps and lures, and step up border patrols by “tick riders” mounted on horseback and train dogs to sniff out the parasite. In addition, Rollins said the U.S. border will remain closed to cattle, horse and bison imports from Mexico until the U.S. sees that the pest is being pushed back south toward Panama, where the fly had been contained through late last year through the breeding of sterile flies there. The U.S. has closed its border to those imports three times in the past eight months, the last in July, following a report of an infestation about 370 miles from…

Texas lawmakers will take their search for answers following the deadly July 4 floods to the heart of the devastation in Kerr County, where local officials were expected to face questions over their response to the disaster that swept away homes and campers along the Guadalupe River. The hearing on Thursday is the first time a panel of lawmakers is visiting the hard-hit Texas Hill Country since the floods, which killed at least 136 people. Most were in Kerr County, including 27 young campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp. Local leaders who have defended their preparations and response to the fast-rising waters were among those invited to testify. Residents will also have the chance to address lawmakers. The hearing comes as authorities have begun publicly releasing records and audio — including 911 calls — that have provided new glimpses into the escalating danger and chaos in the early hours of the July Fourth holiday. These include panicked and confused messages from residents caught in trees and families fleeing with children from homes with water creeping up to the knees. “People are dying,” one woman tells a 911 operator in call logs released by nearby Kendall County. She says she had…

Attorneys for Robert Roberson have filed two motions in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for an emergency stay of execution and for the court to hear evidence they say proves his innocence. On July 16, Judge Austin Reeve Jackson set an Oct. 16 execution date for Roberson, who is accused in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. Roberson’s emergency motion for stay of execution asks that his recently set execution date of Oct. 16 be stayed to ensure the court has sufficient time to complete its review of his pending subsequent application for habeas corpus relief. The second, a motion for oral argument, has never been held before the CCA since his innocence was first raised in 2016. “The emergency motion today is reminding them, kind of pushing them, prodding them, saying, hey, listen guys, we have this proceeding that’s been pending since February,” said appellate lawyer Chad Ruback. Ruback is not associated with Roberson’s case. He said statistically, a conviction in a death penalty case will withstand appellate scrutiny. “They have knocked on a whole heck of a lot of doors, and they’ve had all of those doors slammed in their faces,” he said of…