Family incarceration has been revived after Biden – and Jade, Jason and Gabriela are speaking out about their distressing treatment in Texas
When Jade and her family first arrived at the detention facility in Karnes county, Texas, she wasn’t really sure what to think.
“I guess I was confused and scared,” said the 13-year-old. Her parents were doing their best to reassure her that everything would be OK, but she knew they were in danger of being deported.
Continue reading...Students in Lamar can no longer learn about the state of Virginia on their online research database due to the ban
Virginia’s state flag and seal, depicting the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a slain tyrant, her drooping toga exposing her left breast, has been banned from younger students in a Texas school district.
The district, Lamar consolidated independent school district, near Houston, took action against the image late last year when it removed a section about Virginia from its online learning platform used by third through fifth graders, typically encompassing ages eight to 11, sparking a row, Axios reported on Thursday.
Continue reading...Cuts to disaster agency and deregulation of fossil fuels, plus rise of water-guzzling datacentres, highlighted in new report
The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal climate disaster agency – and the full-throttle deregulation of fossil fuels and water-guzzling datacentres – could prove catastrophic for America’s endangered rivers, threatening the food, water and livelihoods of millions of people, according to a new report.
American Rivers’ annual most-endangered rivers list lays bare a myriad of human-made threats including floods, drought and other extreme weather events driven by the climate crisis, as well as industrial pollution and poor river management – all of which Trump’s regulatory rollbacks will almost inevitably make worse.
Continue reading...Authorities investigate after residents as far as 28 miles away report hearing a boom as Austin house collapses
A house explosion in Austin, Texas, destroyed the residence and damaged 24 nearby properties, injuring six people – including two firefighters.
Around 11.25am CDT, residents across Austin reported hearing a boom and feeling an explosion in the area. “It rattled my windows and building,” one person posted on social media with an image of a plume of smoke rising into the air. Residents as far away as Georgetown – about 28 miles to the north – reported hearing the explosion.
Continue reading...Mexico’s failure to keep up 81-year-old water-sharing treaty has sparked a diplomatic spat with the US
Mexico will make an immediate water delivery to Texas farmers to help make up its shortfall under a treaty that has strained US relations and prompted tariff threats by Donald Trump, said Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Friday.
Mexico is looking for alternatives to comply with the 81-year-old water-sharing treaty with the US, Sheinbaum said in her regular news conference. A proposal had already been sent to US officials, she said.
Continue reading...Pete Hildebrand says health secretary ‘never said anything’ about vaccine’s efficacy when he visited for funeral
A Texas man who buried his eight-year-old daughter on Sunday after the unvaccinated child died with measles says Robert F Kennedy Jr “never said anything” about the vaccine against the illness or its proven efficacy while visiting the girl’s family and community for her funeral.
“He did not say that the vaccine was effective,” Pete Hildebrand, the father of Daisy Hildebrand, said in reference to Kennedy during a brief interview on Monday. “I had supper with the guy … and he never said anything about that.”
Continue reading...Power and gas shut off in regions as flooding worsens, threatening waterlogged and badly damaged communities
After days of intense rain and wind killed at least 18 people in the US south and midwest, rivers rose and flooding worsened on Sunday in those regions, threatening waterlogged and badly damaged communities.
Utility companies scrambled to shut off power and gas from Texas to Ohio while cities closed roads and deployed sandbags to protect homes and businesses.
Continue reading...Founded in 1983, the restaurant known for waitresses in skimpy outfits has run into financial difficulties lately
Hooters, the US-based restaurant chain known for chicken wings and skimpy waitstaff outfits, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
HOA Restaurant Group filed the motion for chapter 11 protection Monday in the north Texas bankruptcy court in Dallas.
Continue reading...New Jersey Democrat began talking on Monday night to highlight ‘a nation in crisis’ and is still going
US voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Florida in elections that some see as a test of Donald Trump’s popularity and the political clout of his billionaire ally Elon Musk.
The most closely watched contest is a battle for a seat on Wisconsin’s seven-member supreme court. Conservatives are trying to flip ideological control of the court, which currently has a 4-3 liberal majority. The contest, which features liberal judge Susan Crawford facing off against conservative Brad Schimel, will have huge consequences in the state.
Continue reading...Critics say bans would hinder rights as proponents would impose their beliefs on others who don’t share their views
Rightwing groups around the US are pushing legislation that would place new limits on what books are allowed in school libraries in a move that critics decry as censorship often focused on LGBTQ+ issues or race or imposing conservative social values.
Caught up in the attempts at suppressing books are classics like The Color Purple and Slaughterhouse Five.
Continue reading...Key elections in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Wisconsin could offer a glimmer of hope to Democrats
Several elections on Tuesday will be a crucial test of the popularity of the chaotic and extremist first two months of Donald Trump’s second term and the clout of his close ally, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who has been tasked with radically reforming the US federal government.
They could also offer a glimmer of hope to Democrats – fresh off a surprise upset win in a local race in Pennsylvania last week – that their divided political party could be seeing a resurgence in its fortunes. Or, if they fail to land further blows on Republicans, it will be yet another sign that the party is destined for a long period in the wilderness amid historic lows of its popularity in recent polls.
Continue reading...Harlingen receives more than 21in of rain this week, with 200 people still waiting to be rescued from their homes
At least three people have died after severe storms along the Texas-Mexico border, officials said on Friday.
Meanwhile, crews were rescuing residents trapped in their homes by drenching rains a day earlier, which also forced drivers to abandon their vehicles on flooded roads and shut down an airport.
Continue reading...Government reports largest outbreak is in Texas, and 70 people across US needing hospitalization
The federal government reported on Friday that there have been 483 confirmed cases of measles across 20 US jurisdictions so far this year, with the largest outbreak in Texas, and 70 people across the nation needing to be hospitalized.
That compares with 285 cases of measles in the US for the whole of 2024. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on its website that 97% of the confirmed cases this year so far involved people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccine status was unknown – and 75% of the cases this year have affected people under the age of 19.
Continue reading...Vicente Gonzalez tirelessly promoting Nayib Bukele, including reposting calls to ‘impeach corrupt judges’
A Texas Democrat is co-chair of a congressional caucus that has tirelessly promoted El Salvador’s authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, including on the caucus’s X account by reposting calls to “impeach the corrupt judges” who impede the actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Bukeke is also currently at the center of a scandal in the US involving the transport of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they have entered the country’s notorious prisons for gang members – despite clear evidence that some of them have no gang links.
Continue reading...Ohio, Maryland and Alabama among states to report new cases, with 378 confirmed in first few months of 2025
More US states are reporting measles cases as the Texas outbreak expands, surpassing last year’s total, amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.
The Texas outbreak could take a year to get under control, one health official said – during which time it may spread to more states. Yet the parents of the six-year-old girl who died of measles in Texas have spoken against measles vaccination as misinformation continues to proliferate, including from figures such as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Continue reading...Yisroel Liebb of New Jersey claims pilot broke lock and pulled him out with his pants down, leaving him exposed
An Orthodox Jewish passenger says a United Airlines pilot forcibly removed him from an airplane bathroom while he was experiencing constipation, exposing his genitalia to other flyers during a flight from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston.
Yisroel Liebb, of New Jersey, described his trip through allegedly unfriendly skies in a federal lawsuit this week against the airline and the US Department of Homeland Security, whose officers he said boarded the plane upon landing and took him away in handcuffs.
Continue reading...US citizen girl deported with mixed-status family, who filed complaint over denied healthcare and poor conditions
A family that was recently removed from the United States to Mexico has filed a complaint seeking an investigation into what they describe as “serious abuses” they say they faced during their detention in the US prior to their removal.
The mixed-status family includes two undocumented parents and six children, five of whom are US citizens. On 4 February, five of the children, including four who are US citizens, and the two parents were removed from Texas and sent to Mexico after they were stopped at an immigration checkpoint.
Continue reading...Several people killed in Kansas dust storm while scattered tornadoes cause fatalities in Missouri
Violent tornadoes ripped through parts of the US, wiping out schools and toppling semitractor-trailers in several states, part of a monster storm that killed at least 35 people as more severe weather was expected.
In western Kansas, a dust storm was reported to have killed eight people as high winds produced blowing dust over the interstate, causing collisions of more than 71 vehicles on the I-70.
Continue reading...Billionaire Trump ally and Greg Abbot tweet about Frank Zamora, who was let go after refusing to remove pronouns
The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and, later, Elon Musk showed support on Wednesday for the firing of a state employee who refused to remove his pronouns from his work email signature.
Frank Zamora, 31, was let go from his job as a program manager at the Texas real estate commission (TREC) last month because he refused to comply with a mandate from the organisation to employees to remove gender pronouns from email signatures.
Continue reading...Epicenter of latest outbreak had one of state’s highest immunization exemption rates for 2023-24 school year
The measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials.
Since late January, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the South Plains region, the state’s department of state health services (DSHS) reported Friday. At least 16 patients have been hospitalized as a result.
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