FORT WORTH, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott called the smuggling of fentanyl across the Texas-Mexico border a “crisis” and said Thursday that he has deployed 1,000 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and National Guard members to combat the problem. In the first four months of this year, Abbott said at a press conference in Fort Worth,
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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate has approved a bill to cap the cost of insulin copays at $25. The bill would reduce and cap the cost of insulin co-pays for each prescription per month for insured Texans on state-regulated health plans. Sen. César Blanco joint authored the bipartisan bill Senate Bill 827 by Chair of
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Texas Sen. John Cornyn was clear in February: Congress should establish a 9/11-style outside commission to investigate the January 6 attack, a rare sign of bipartisanship just a month after the deadly Capitol insurrection. “I agree w/Speaker Pelosi — a 911-type investigation is called for to help prevent this from happening again,”
Continue Reading FORT BLISS, Texas — The shelter at Fort Bliss feels more like a warehouse, according to people who have been there, with rows and rows of bunk cots stacked on top of each other, filling up large white tents where hundreds of migrant children wait. Now, officials are talking about doubling that population — from
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas lawmakers have given final approval to allowing people carry handguns without a license, and the background check and training that go with it. The Republican-dominated Legislature approved the measure Monday, sending it to Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has said he will sign it despite the objections from law enforcement groups
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EL PASO, Texas — There’s no road trip, no soul searching. No beard or blogging. But Beto O’Rourke is making a political life decision again. Three years after becoming Democrats’ breakout star out of Texas, and a year removed from crashing back to Earth in a short-lived presidential run, O’Rourke is again weighing another campaign
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EL PASO, Texas — A Republican congressional delegation made up of members of the Border Security Caucus visited El Paso on Monday to examine U.S.-Mexico border conditions. The partisan group spoke to reporters afterwards, which you can watch in the video player above. The trip was led by GOP Rep. Brian Babin, the caucus co-chair
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EL PASO, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a retired federal law enforcement officer from El Paso who was put in a chokehold and wrestled to the ground at a VA hospital security checkpoint. (You can watch the incident in the video player above.) The justices did not comment
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — President Joe Biden will host the family of George Floyd at the White House on Tuesday to mark the one-year anniversary of his death at the hands of police, a White House official confirmed to CNN. The White House visit comes as lawmakers are likely to miss the President’s initial May 25
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EL PASO, Texas — Farmers from El Paso’s Lower Valley shared their concerns about the influx of migrants along the southern border with Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-District 23) and a Republican congressional delegation on Friday. Farmers said encounters on their property have increased significantly over the last five to six months. The farmers who
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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate has approved a bill to ban homeless encampments throughout Texas — a response to the city of Austin lifting a similar local ban two years ago that was recently reinstated by voters. House Bill 1925 would make camping in an unapproved public place a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — The former leader of the state Workforce Solutions Department that oversees unemployment benefits said his resignation in April was linked to threatening messages and incidents at the agency and elsewhere, in a string of Twitter posts Thursday. Former Cabinet Secretary Bill McCamley announced the reasoning behind his decision to resign
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — When Bridget Wiedenmeyer learned Texas was banning mask mandates in public schools, she immediately worried about her 11-year-old daughter — who has a chronic lung condition but is too young to be vaccinated against Covid-19. “There’s a large contingent of people who are like, ‘Well, only this teeny tiny percent of kids
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico probably overpaid unemployment insurance benefits by an estimated $250 million during the coronavirus pandemic amid a backlog of investigations into potentially fraudulent claims, the budget and accountability office of the Legislature announced Wednesday in a research report. Analysts briefed members of the Legislature’s lead budget writing committee on the trajectory
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EL PASO, Texas — A man who has largely funded the legal battle to preserve the area known as Duranguito in downtown El Paso says he wanted to discuss a settlement to end the costly case, but the City of El Paso hasn’t called him back. “I have reached out to them, they never reached
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AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed a law that bans abortions in Texas before many women even know they are pregnant and differs singularly from similar efforts nationwide: leaving enforcement to private citizens, who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. The law puts Texas in
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ELEPHANT BUTTE, New Mexico — More than two dozen farms in southern New Mexico have applied for a program that will pay them not to plant their fields as water managers look for new ways to stretch resources in the drought-stricken state. It’s the first phase of a multi-year pilot project being managed by the Office of
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that public schools must end mask requirements starting in June and ordered Texas’ cities and counties to drop nearly all face covering mandates by the end of the week. The announcement does not affect businesses, which can still require customers or workers to wear masks. But the
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas on Monday joined the growing number of states that will stop paying the federally funded $300 in extra pandemic-related weekly unemployment aid as businesses that scaled back or shuttered during the pandemic are reopening. The extra benefits in Texas will end June 26, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in a letter to the
Continue Reading HOUSTON, Texas — Tales of Bengal tigers on the loose, like the one found roaming a Houston front yard last week, may soon be history if a bipartisan bill becomes law. The Big Cat Public Safety Act would largely ban people from owning lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, cougars and jaguars as house pets. Zoos and
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — A day after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their guidance on wearing facemasks during the pandemic, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a new state public health order aligning with the CDC. Under the order, which was taking effect immediately on Friday, those in the
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas lawmakers have approved a measure that would ban abortions after as early as six weeks and allow private citizens to enforce the rule through civil lawsuits against doctors and others. The Senate vote Thursday sends the bill to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law. That
Continue Reading HOUSTON, Texas — Local officials in Texas unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday calling for a posthumous pardon for George Floyd on a drug charge from more than 15 years ago. Floyd died in May of 2020 after former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — The special runoff election in Texas’ 6th Congressional District will take place on July 27, Gov. Greg Abbott announced in a proclamation Wednesday, with early voting starting July 19. The runoff features two Republican candidates, Susan Wright and Jake Ellzey, vying for the seat held by Republican Rep. Ron Wright, who died
Continue Reading DALLAS, Texas — A federal judge has dismissed the National Rifle Association’s petition for bankruptcy, saying it was filed in “bad faith” in order to avoid litigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office, which has sued to dissolve the NRA for allegedly misusing charitable funds. The decision from Judge Harlin Hale came after a
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QUEMADO, Texas — A Texas farmer found five young migrant children who had been abandoned, resting on the ground in the hot sun on his ranch land along the border near Quemado in Maverick County, officials said Monday. Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-District 23) shared what he and U.S. Border Patrol agents called a “heartbreaking”
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas– The Texas “Constitutional carry” bill took a major step forward after an 18-13 vote by the state Senate ok’d the bill last week, moving it very near to becoming law. The vote came under party lines within days after a committee created to tackle gun legislation put the bill forward. While the
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republican lawmakers advanced a sweeping elections bill early Friday following hours of discussion that would put America’s biggest red state closer to imposing a raft of new voting restrictions in the face of growing warning from corporations. The key vote at 3 a.m. in the Texas House followed hours of debate as Democrats,
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — Texas would allow people to carry a handgun without a license, and the background check and training that go with it, under a measure approved by the state Senate on Wednesday. The Senate approved the Republican-led effort in a 18-13 vote, less than a week after it sailed out of a committee created to
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico – In a visit to a Las Cruces clinic on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján asked how staffers are meeting the need for mental health treatment during the pandemic. “There’s a stigma out there that discourages every one of us from coming forward to ask for assistance and help,”
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