Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered flags in the Panhandle town of Fritch to be lowered to half-staff in honor of Fritch Fire Chief Zeb Smith. According to a letter sent to Fritch Mayor Tom Ray, Abbott’s office said Smith died in the line of duty “while responding to a structure fire.” “The first lady and I extend prayers of comfort for the Smith family during their time of grief,” said Abbott. “We urge all Texans to remember and honor Chief Smith’s service as a brave and dedicated firefighter.” Smith’s obituary said he was “a true hero” who died “serving his fellow man.” Smith, 40, will be remembered in a memorial service on Saturday at Grace Church in Fritch. Smith began firefighting in 2016 and began volunteering for the Fritch Volunteer Fire Department in 2017. He was named chief in 2020. He is survived by his two sons, Zane and Braylan. The governor’s order covers the flags of Texas and the United States. Individuals, businesses and government facilities in the surrounding area are also allowed to fly their flags at half-staff in Smith’s honor, the governor’s letter said. Flags should return to full staff within 10 days. Courtesy of Texas…

A Dallas woman is back in the U.S. with her family days after she was found driving in a small town in rural Mexico with no knowledge of how she got there. Enola Harris, 76, told police in Muzquiz, Mexico, that she had left her home in Dallas two days earlier – somehow ending up nearly 10 hours away and crossing the border into the Mexican state of Coahuila. “It is so strange,” said Tania Flores, mayor of the town of Muzquiz. After driving Harris back across the border into Texas on Sunday, the small-town mayor in Mexico told NBC 5 she still had questions about how this situation happened. “An old lady, 76 years old, that has amnesia, she ended up in a small little town in Mexico two days after,” Flores said. “She didn’t have clothes, and like how, how?” It all started just after midnight on Saturday morning in the rural town of Muzquiz, Coah., located about an hour and a half southwest of the U.S.-Mexico border. Police saw Harris with Texas plates driving the wrong way through downtown. “And they pull her over, and they realize that she did not have a clue where she was,” Flores…

Texas’ controversial state immigration-enforcement bill heads to federal court in Austin on Thursday morning. Senate bill 4 will allow law enforcement to arrest and remove migrants believed to have entered the state illegally. Two lawsuits, including one by the U.S. government, are trying to stop the bill from officially becoming law in three weeks. It essentially comes down to the United States versus the state of Texas – the federal hearing is set to begin at 9 a.m. SB4 was passed by Texas lawmakers late last year during their fourth special session. It will allow state and local law enforcement to arrest people they suspect entered Texas illegally. Law enforcement can jail and prosecute migrants from any country and state judges would also be authorized to order a migrant to return to Mexico, regardless of their nationality and not having any ties there. Just days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project on behalf of El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, American Gateways, and El Paso County. A motion for preliminary injunction followed in January 2024. Then the Department…

As a ceremony with the blaring horns of mariachi musicians and rhythmic click-clack of horse hooves was about to begin, Mayor Rolando Salinas took a moment to reflect that his Texas border city is “more than just the immigration crisis that you see in the media.” Cowboys and cowgirls from Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Mexico, met Friday on one of their two international bridges to begin a weeklong ride to the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. The annual ritual is a point of local pride even as Eagle Pass draws wide attention for a showdown between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over policing the border for illegal crossings. “It shows you the connectivity between the United States and Mexico,” Salinas said as he observed final preparations for the annual ”La Cabalgata Internacional La Grande.” A few hours later, about 200 advocates were in a festive mood in the nearby town of Quemado ahead of a “Take Back Our Border” rally on Saturday. Connie Hinton, 56, said she showed up with her father from Austin, Texas, because “they need to get the people that are here illegally under control.” The rally, which began with a trucker convoy…

Federal wildlife officials announced Wednesday they will consider adding 10 new species to the Endangered Species Act, including a big bumble bee that serves as a key pollinator across the United States. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they had completed 90-day reviews of petitions to add the species to the list and determined that listing may be warranted. The finding triggers reviews of the species’ status. One of the more prominent species up for consideration is the Southern Plains bumble bee. This large black-and-yellow bumble bee inhabits open prairies, meadows, and grasslands in the mid-Atlantic states and the Plains states from Texas to North Dakota. It’s also found in the grasslands and savannas in the southeastern U.S., including Florida. Queens can grow as large as an inch (26 mm); workers can grow to as large as three-quarters of an inch (18 mm). The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2022 to include the bee on the Endangered Species List. According to the center, habitat loss and degradation, as well as pesticides, have led to sharp population declines in the southern Plains states, including Texas and Oklahoma, as well as in Alabama and Mississippi….

The Department of Justice is threatening to sue Texas over the state’s new border law. Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 4 in December 2023. It will take effect in March 2024 and allow state and local law enforcement to arrest, jail, and prosecute people suspected of entering the U.S. illegally. “The goal of SB4 is to stop the title wave of illegal entry into Texas,” Abbott told reporters during a signing ceremony last month. The Justice Department calls the law unconstitutional. In a letter sent to Abbott last week, the DOJ said it would sue Texas unless federal authorities were notified by January 3 that the law would not be enforced. In response, the Governor’s spokesperson, Renae Eze, said in a statement to NBC 5: “Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Texans and Americans from President Biden’s open border policies. President Biden’s deliberate and dangerous inaction at our southern border has left Texas to fend for itself. Governor Abbott signed Senate Bill 4 into law last week to help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas as the President refuses to enforce federal immigration laws.” Immigration law…

It’s a bird … it’s a plane … it’s aliens! Actually, it’s a home in Georgetown, Texas. Made with more than 13,000 lights, the Central Texas home is causing chaos with its Christmas light show display. The man behind the show, Chris Hartgraves, has been expanding the display for the past three years. “Everybody knows I save up my vacation time, and they know my vacation once a year is to actually just set up the lights,” Hartgraves said. The home has giant light beams shining into the sky, which are the main culprits of the chaos. “People thought it was Elon Musk and his Starlink,” Hartgraves said. “Some people said it was aliens coming down to land.” The police even showed up at Hartgraves’ doorstep this holiday season. He said they had to verify he wasn’t intentionally pointing the lights at airplanes. Hartgraves said he built most of his decorations himself and taught himself how to program the light show using computer software which allows him to see the light show on a computerized replica of his home. “Every week, it’s a different show,” Hartgraves’ neighbor Kay Hood said. “On the Facebook page people are wondering what are these…

Two days after losing her bid to be Houston’s next mayor, longtime U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee announced on Monday she will seek a 16th term in Congress in 2024. Jackson Lee first took office in 1995. Her district includes downtown Houston and some of the city’s historically Black neighborhoods, including Third and Fifth Wards. “I am enthusiastic about the prospect of continuing our shared journey to uplift the 18th Congressional District,” Jackson Lee, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Your support has been invaluable, and I eagerly welcome it as I strive to further serve and represent our community with my ability to get the job done.” Jackson Lee’s announcement comes after she was handily defeated by state Sen. John Whitmire in a mayoral runoff election on Saturday. She had sought to be Houston’s first Black female mayor. Jackson Lee was heavily outspent by Whitmire in the campaign and also had to deal with fallout from the release in October of an unverified audio recording that purportedly captured her profanely berating staff. In her reelection bid to Congress, Jackson Lee will be facing at least one challenger in the Democratic primary: former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards, who once was an intern…

Texas must move a floating barrier on the Rio Grande that drew backlash from Mexico, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, dealing a blow to one of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s aggressive measures aimed at stopping migrants from entering the U.S. illegally. The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals requires Texas to stop any work on the roughly 1,000-foot (300-meter) barrier and move it to the riverbank. The order sided with a lower court decision in September that Abbott called “incorrect” and had predicted would be overturned. Instead, the New Orleans-based court handed Texas its second legal defeat this week over its border operations. On Wednesday, a federal judge allowed U.S. Border Patrol agents to continue cutting razor wire the state installed along the riverbank, despite the protests of Texas officials. For months, Texas has asserted that parts of the Rio Grande are not subject to federal laws protecting navigable waters. But the judges said the lower court correctly sided with the Biden administration. “It considered the threat to navigation and federal government operations on the Rio Grande, as well as the potential threat to human life the floating barrier created,” Judge Dana Douglas wrote in the opinion….

A Texas attorney has been accused of using work-related visits to a county jail to smuggle in legal paperwork laced with ecstasy and synthetic marijuana to inmates over the past several months, authorities announced Monday. Ronald Lewis, 77, was arrested on Friday after arriving at the Harris County Jail in Houston to visit an inmate, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a news conference. This booking photo provided by the Harris County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office, shows Ronald Lewis on Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. Authorities have accused the Houston attorney of using work-related visits to a county jail to smuggle in legal paperwork laced with ecstasy and synthetic marijuana to inmates over the last several months. Lewis was free on bond on Monday, Nov. 20, after being arrested Friday at the Harris County Jail in Houston while trying to visit an inmate. (Harris County Sheriff’s Office via AP) During his arrest, Lewis had 11 sheets of paper believed to be laced with narcotics, according to authorities. Lewis has been charged with two counts of bringing a prohibited substance into a correctional facility. He is free after posting bonds totaling $15,000. An attorney for Lewis did not immediately return a call seeking…