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…

As major repairs continue on the historic Battleship Texas, plans are being finalized for the ship’s permanent home. The Battleship Texas Foundation announced this week that it is working on a deal to bring the ship to the Pier 21 waterfront development in Galveston. Texas is the last surviving battleship that served in both World Wars. She is in dry dock in Galveston. “This ship is in a hospital. We are doing major surgery on the ship,” said Travis Davis, Vice President of Ship Operations for the Battleship Texas Foundation. The State of Texas, which owns the ship, had considered scrapping her. The 111-year-old battleship was taking on 2,000 gallons of water a minute at her longtime home near the San Jacinto Monument outside Houston. Pumps kept the Texas afloat. “There was definitely a chance we were going to lose the ship,” Davis said. Fifteen months ago, Battleship Texas was towed to the Gulf Copper shipyard and lifted out of the water. Dozens of workers are slowly reversing decades of decay. Fixing the leaks is top priority. “The work that we’re doing to the ship is very critical,” Davis said. The severely weathered wooden deck will also be replaced to make…

Voters will decide how to spend the state’s historic surplus this November when they vote on fourteen different constitutional amendment propositions. One item comes after North Texas saw more droughts and extreme weather this year and aims to restore aging and damaged water infrastructure. Proposition 6 will create a dedicated Texas Water Fund to finance water projects through the Texas Water Development Board. $1 billion from the state’s surplus will get the fund started for repairing and replacing pipes along with larger water projects like wastewater treatment plants and reservoirs. “Texas is facing a very stark situation aging and fragile infrastructure. A lot of our infrastructure is very old, very outdated,” said Sarah Kirkle, policy director for the Texas Water Conservation Association. The Texas Water Conservation Association is the trade group for organizations like the Dallas Water Authority, the Upper Trinity Regional Water Authority, and others across the state. Kirkle tells NBC 5 that every year, enough water leaks out of utilities to supply Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, and other cities for an entire year. “You’ve probably seen in the news, you know, boil water notices and pipe breaks, leaking water. That happens not…

The record-breaking heat in the summer of 2023 put a real drain on the finances of businesses across North Texas, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Dallas Fed said the intensely hot weather likely reduced Texas’ GDP by 1% (or as much as $24 billion) because people spent less and some companies had a harder time supplying goods. The findings were part of a report on the Southwest Economy by researchers at the Dallas Fed. “Anecdotally, everyday behavior in Texas changed during the summer of 2023 as the heat bore down,” researchers said in the report. Researchers said the weather’s impact on Texas GDP growth was twice as pronounced compared to the rest of the country. “The effect of rising summer temperatures on job growth is another potential concern, but the impact has been more subdued compared to the hit to GDP,” the Dallas Fed said. On the flip side, the Dallas Fed said good spring weather and more normal fall temperatures helped spur spending. “The agricultural and real estate industries, in particular, have benefitted from springs that warm sooner,” according to the report. The Dallas Fed cautions that heat waves are expected to intensify in the coming…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) took two actions Monday related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, including spending millions to further secure Jewish synagogues and schools and issuing an executive order that prevents state agencies from buying goods produced in the Gaza Strip. Around 1,400 Israelis and Palestinians are dead two days after Hamas launched an attack that caught Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard and led to fierce battles in its streets for the first time in decades. At least nine Americans are among the dead. Israel’s military ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip on Monday, halting deliveries of food, water, fuel and supplies to its 2.3 million people as it pounded the Hamas-ruled territory with waves of airstrikes in retaliation for the militants’ bloody weekend incursion. The State of Texas condemns these heinous acts of violence and inhumanity against Israel and its people by ruthless terrorists, and we stand ready to offer our complete support to the Israeli and Jewish communities. I firmly denounce the act of war against Israeli citizens and Americans in Israel and support Israel’s right to defend itself from these barbaric attacks.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott The Texas governor’s office offered his…