January 25, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

US declares power emergency in Texas as storm boosts demand

The US Energy Department declared a power emergency in Texas Saturday as a massive winter storm was set to test the state’s electric grid with ice, snow and temperatures forecast to be in the teens and single digits. The order, signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, authorizes the state’s grid operator to deploy backup generation at data centers and other major facilities, “due to a sudden increase in demand, a shortage of electric energy, a shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy.” “This extreme level of demand raises a significant risk of emergency conditions that could jeopardize electric reliability and public safety,” the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc., wrote in requesting the emergency action Saturday.

click here for more

More than 175 million people will face snow, rain, sleet and ice through the weekend as record-breaking cold across the central and eastern regions fuels the season’s largest winter storm. In Texas, nearly 50,000 customers were out of power as of 11:19 p.m. New York Time, according to tracker PowerOutage.com. The storm is set to be one of the biggest tests of the state’s electric grid since the deadly collapse during a freeze in February 2021 that killed more than 240 people and paralyzed the entire state. The Energy Department warned grid operators on Friday to be prepared to make backup power available ahead of the storm, including from datacenters, an usual move for facilities that do not usually provide power to the grid. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator — which manages a power grid that stretches from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast — lowered its energy-emergency alert level to 1 late Saturday. It was at EEA2 earlier in the day in an effort to shore up reserves as conditions worsened. EEA2 is usually triggered as operating reserves continue to decline and means MISO is facing an energy shortage and needs to reduce demand. PJM Interconnection, another big US grid, asked the Energy Department for an order allowing all generators in its 13-state footprint to operate at maximum capability beyond emissions limits as soon as possible, according to a letter Saturday evening. It said it already provided up to 3 gigawatts during neighboring grid MISO’s emergency level Saturday.

US storm leaves 670,000 without power, forces thousands of flight cancellations

More than 670,000 customers in the U.S. as far west as New Mexico were without electricity and almost 10,000 flights were canceled on Sunday ahead of a monster winter storm that threatened to paralyze eastern states with heavy snowfall. Forecasters said snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures would sweep the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday and into the week. Calling the storms "historic," President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.

click here for more

"We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security said. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, at a news conference on Saturday, warned Americans to take precautions. "It’s going to be very, very cold," Noem said. "So we'd encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together." "We have utility crews that are working to restore that as quick as possible," Noem added. The number of outages continued to rise. As of 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) on Sunday, more than 670,000 U.S. customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with more than 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and New Mexico. Major U.S. airlines warned passengers to stay alert for abrupt flight changes and cancellations.

AG Bondi demands access to Minnesota voter rolls after fatal Border Patrol shooting

Just hours after federal immigration officers shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi seized upon the incident to demand access to Minnesota’s voter rolls, directly tying the Trump administration’s quest for voters’ unredacted personal data to its aggressive immigration raids across the state. In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz (D) Saturday, Bondi blamed state and local leaders for the unrest ignited by the Trump administration’s expansive immigration enforcement operations. She claimed that Walz could “restore the rule of law” by complying with a list of demands, including giving the Department of Justice (DOJ) the state’s voter registration records. “Allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960,” Bondi said in the letter, which was first obtained by Fox News.

click here for more

The letter adds the state’s unwillingness to share voting data to a litany of grievances the Trump administration has leveled against Minnesota, which range from the local Democratic leaders’ rejection of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions to a longstanding welfare fraud scandal. Bondi’s other demands included sharing Minnesota’s data on Medicaid and supplementary food assistance with the federal government, ending “sanctuary policies” and supporting and collaborating with ICE. This would allow the government to investigate fraud and curb “crime and violence” in the state, the attorney general claimed. In sum, Bondi’s letter represents a major assault on Minnesota’s sovereignty, demanding that it forfeit its ability to make and enforce its own laws and maintain its voter rolls without oversight from the executive branch, which does not have authority over elections. Earlier this week, Minnesota rejected the DOJ’s demand for data on its same-day voter registration and vouching system. Minnesota leaders described the request as an unlawful federal attempt to intrude on sensitive voter information and the state’s authority.

Gun activists bridle at suggestion that pistol justified killing

Some high-profile gun rights activists and groups bristled on Saturday at government officials’ claims that federal agents may have been justified in killing a Minneapolis man during a protest because he was carrying a pistol. The right to bear arms in public has been a mainstay of the gun rights movement. On Saturday, a Los Angeles federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, became a magnet for outrage when he wrote on social media that “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don’t do it!” Gun Owners of America, one of the country’s largest gun advocacy groups, said in its own posting that it condemned his “untoward comments.”

click here for more

The group said that “federal agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm. The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting — a right the federal government must not infringe upon.” The gun group also accused “the Left” of “antagonizing” immigration agents. The exchange could point to political fissures between the gun rights movement and President Trump, who is generally seen as an ally. And it already is sparking debate within a movement that has long warned against government overreach. The National Rifle Association referred to federal agents as “jackbooted government thugs” in a 1995 mailer. But in a statement Saturday night, the N.R.A. put blame for the shooting on Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and other “radical progressive politicians.” It said their “calls to dangerously interject oneself into legitimate law-enforcement activities have ended in violence.”

Key takeaways from Crockett vs. Talarico Democratic US Senate debate

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and Texas State Representative James Talarico took the stage at the Texas AFL-CIO COPE convention on Saturday afternoon to debate for the first time since they both launched their bids for the U.S. Senate. The Dallas-area civil rights attorney and former San Antonio-area school teacher are the top two contenders for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. Since the Democratic primary field became set in early December, two different polls have shown a different story. Here are three key takeaways from Saturday’s debate.

click here for more

Almost the entire debate focused on substance. Both candidates refrained from personal attacks. However, there was an early moment when it could have gone in a different direction. About 10 minutes into the debate, moderators asked Talarico, “you have said that your campaign is shaped by two commandments, ‘Love God.’ ‘Love thy neighbor.’ But a lot of Democrats want a fighter. So why do you think that your approach is the right one to get you to Washington?” Talarico responded by saying he has been a fighter for Texans in the State House. “We need a proven fighter for our schools, for our values, for our constituents in the halls of power in Washington D.C.,” Talarico said. “I think we need a teacher in the United States Senate.” In a response, Crockett painted herself as a fighter. “James and I served in the State House together. He’s actually been elected longer than I have been elected,” Crockett said. “Yet he’s not as known right now because I have engaged in these fights and they have been right there on the front lines where people could see me out front.”

State Stories

Austin dispels rumors of ICE presence at warming centers

The city of Austin on Saturday evening addressed online rumors claiming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were staging in the area. City officials said they contacted regional ICE representatives, who assured them the agency is not operating at warming centers or cold weather shelters. Officials also said ICE is not bringing in personnel from outside the area or housing them in local hotels.

click here for more

Schools tied to 'terrorists' or 'enemies' can be denied vouchers, Paxton says

Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday partially sided with acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in his push to ban some private schools from the state's new voucher program over alleged terrorism or foreign ties. Paxton confirmed in a non-binding opinion that the state comptroller “unambiguously” has the authority to block or remove schools from the program if they violate other state laws, including the support of transnational criminal networks or terrorist activity. But he declined to weigh in on the specific schools Hancock is targeting, saying only the comptroller’s office could determine whether a school can be disqualified. "Your inquiry improperly shifts the responsibility of making these factual determinations to the Attorney General," Paxton wrote. "Our office has no greater statutory role in deciding who qualifies for the TEFA program than we do in dictating which private schools are accredited in Texas."

click here for more

Hancock asked Paxton to weigh in last month, alleging that certain unnamed schools that applied to the tuition-support program have ties to the Chinese government and the Council American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group that Gov. Greg Abbott recently declared a terrorist organization. CAIR has disputed the designation and is suing to overturn it. In a statement Saturday afternoon, Hancock said he appreciated Paxton’s support and that his opinion “makes clear that Texas will not tolerate taxpayer funds being diverted to bad actors.” The opinion is legally nonbinding but could be used to justify barring certain schools. Conservative opponents of school choice have long criticized the voucher program for its potential to direct tax dollars to Islamic schools. Hancock has not said he plans to block all Islamic schools from the program, though none have been publicly admitted so far. The effort to bar the unnamed schools has already created broader ripple effects within the program, as hundreds of other schools, including Christian and Jewish institutions, have also seen their invitations to sign up delayed by over a month. Parents are scheduled to begin signing up for the program on Feb. 4.

Protest breaks out at Dilley immigration detention facility holding 5-year-old Liam Ramos

A protest broke out Saturday at the South Texas family detention complex in Dilley, about 70 miles south of San Antonio, after guards abruptly ordered attorneys to leave while detainees — many of them children — poured into open areas of the facility chanting “Libertad,” or "Freedom," according to an immigration attorney who witnessed the event. Immigration attorney Eric Lee said he was at the Dilley facility for a confidential visit with clients — an immigrant family of six, including five children — when guards began shouting for everyone in the waiting area to leave, citing what they described as “an incident.” As the Michigan-based attorney walked toward his car, he said he heard what sounded like “hundreds of children” shouting, with voices he described as "high-pitched" and "urgent." He said he could see children streaming from dormitory areas behind a chain-link fence and chanting “Libertad."

click here for more

Lee said clients he later spoke with told him the protest was triggered by concerns over the treatment of Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old who was taken into custody with his father in Minnesota earlier this week and transferred to the Dilley facility. Lawmakers and advocates are calling for the child’s release, while the Department of Homeland Security disputes claims about how the boy was taken into custody and faces criticism over access to the facility. School officials in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, have said federal agents took the child from a running car in the family’s driveway and directed him to knock on the door of the home — an action the superintendent described as “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.” The Department of Homeland Security has disputed that account, saying agents did not target the child, were focused on apprehending the child’s father—whom DHS said fled on foot—and attempted to have the child’s mother take custody of the boy. Lee described Saturday’s action inside the facility as a peaceful demonstration, not a riot, and said the show of solidarity carried risk for detained families. Lee said the protest unfolded against what he described as harsh day-to-day conditions inside the Dilley detention center. He characterized the facility as “a horrible, horrible place,” alleging that drinking water is “putrid” and often undrinkable, and that meals have contained “bugs,” dirt, and debris.

Anti-abortion Texans rally at the Capitol despite frigid temperatures

As temperatures inched toward freezing on Saturday afternoon, people in knit caps and raincoats gathered for the Texas Rally for Life in Austin, holding signs that read “Let Life Live” and “Pray to End Abortion.” While turnout appeared lower than in previous years, the annual event still drew a crowd as elected officials, activists and clergy members stood on the Texas Capitol steps to cheer the anti-abortion movement's gains in the state. “I think I've been at this event pretty much every year that I’ve been governor. Never have I seen a weather challenge like this,” said Gov. Greg Abbott to the crowd. “But I'm so proud and heartened to see that it's not dampened your spirit.” Similar events happen across the country each year around the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.

click here for more

For decades, these rallies brought together members of a movement that hoped to see that decision reversed. In 2022, it was, and the federal right to abortion ended. Now, events like the Texas Rally for Life celebrate the anti-abortion movement’s political successes. Over the past five years, the state has instituted multiple overlapping abortion bans and pioneered a new civil enforcement mechanism for cracking down on those who “aid or abet” abortion seekers. “Because of your decades of advocating for life, abortion is not legal in our state,” Abbott said Saturday. The governor also touted bills passed during last year’s state legislative session, including a new law that aims to penalize the practice of out-of-state doctors providing abortion pills to women in Texas and a statute that prevents local governments from using taxpayer money to support travel and logistics for women seeking abortions.

Debate clips: Talarico on ICE: 'take that money back'

Democrats Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico differed more on style than substance in their first debate for U.S. Senate in heavily Republican Texas, though they distinguished themselves somewhat on the future of ICE and impeachment of President Donald Trump. Crockett, an outspoken second-term U.S. House member, and Talarico, a more soft-spoken four-term state representative, generally echoed each other on economic issues, health care and taxes. Both called for a “fighter” in the role. Crockett, who is Black, said she was better positioned to attract disaffected Black voters, while Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who often discusses his Christian faith, suggested he could net rural voters unhappy with Republicans.

click here for more

Both candidates condemned the shooting of a man in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers Saturday, and ICE’s heavy presence in the city, though Talarico was more adamant about cutting funding to the agency. Both said they support bringing impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, under whom ICE serves. But Crockett was less specific about cutting their funding. “We absolutely have to clean house,” she said. “Whatever that looks like, I’m willing to do it.” Talarcio more specifically said of ICE funding, “We should take that money back and put it in our communities where it belongs.”

Debate clips: Jasmine Crockett: ICE agents in Minneapolis are ‘turning us into Nazi Germany’

Texas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett compared the actions of federal agents in Minnesota, where an agent shot dead a man Saturday, to “Nazi Germany” during a Democratic debate for the U.S. Senate. Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are the leading candidates in the Democratic primary, hoping to win in March and be on the ticket in November for Sen. John Cornyn’s seat. The two Democrats took the stage in Georgetown, north of Austin, shortly after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis had shot 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive-care nurse for a VA hospital. The shooting came just weeks after Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer in the same city. The Saturday killing was recorded by bystanders from different angles, showing a group of federal officers tackle Pretti as he appeared to be using a phone to record them.

click here for more

Pretti was legally carrying a handgun, according to Minnesota authorities, and was shot multiple times after he was on the ground. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters that the fact that Pretti carried a weapon “looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement,” contradicting video evidence of the encounter. At one point during Saturday’s debate, the moderators asked Crockett and Talarico about how they’d balance their feelings toward ICE while also representing Texans who support deporting undocumented immigrants. “As it relates to the enforcement that we see right now, let me be clear: They are supposed to do immigration and customs enforcement,” Crockett said. “Not going after U.S. citizens. Not going after people that are documented. That is not what they are supposed to do, but that is what they’re doing. They are turning us into Nazi Germany by saying they’re going to go door to door.” She continued, “They’re going after people because of their accent or the color of their skin, because this Supreme Court gave them carte blanche ability to do so. So all we want ICE to do is to do what ICE was created to do, and unfortunately, that’s not what they are doing.”

End of an era: David Taffet retiring from host of longest running LGBTQ radio show in country

In era is coming to an end for LGBTQ+ North Texas. After 35 years as a co-host on Lambda Weekly, David Taffet is retiring following a Parkinson’s diagnosis a year-and-a-half-ago. And he’s looking for someone to replace him. Lambda Weekly, the longest-running LGBTQ+ radio show on the air anywhere, airs each Sunday from 1-2 p.m. on KNON 89.3, North Texas’ public radio station. Taffet first joined the show in 1989. “In 1989, I was writing travel articles for Dallas Voice, and Bill Travis — who was the Lambda Weekly host at the time — asked me to come on each week to do a travel spot,” Taffet recalled this week. “Usually, the piece was recorded and then played on the air. So I usually wasn’t even in the studio when it was broadcast.”

click here for more

Then Alonzo Duralde joined Travis as the show’s cohost until 1992, when both men left the show on the same day — Travis to move to San Francisco and Duralde to move to Los Angeles. Steve Walters stepped in then to take over as host. “Steve had radio experience, but his first day at Lambda Weekly, he was just really nervous,” Taffet said. “I went into the studio to see if he wanted me to keep doing the travel spot, and he was so nervous, I asked him if he wanted me to stay. He said yes, so I sat down and we just spent the hour talking about whatever. “At the end of the hour, I asked if he wanted me to come back the next week, and he said yeah. So I became his cohost,” he added. “That way, he had someone to talk to. We got gay newspapers from all over the country back then, from all over the world. And we would read the articles and find things to talk about. And we would fill in between the segments with music.” Before long, Taffet said, he and Walters started inviting guests to join them on the show each week, either for a short segment or for the whole hour, “and they would just join our conversations about whatever garbage we were talking about that day.” Walters left the show in 1998, and Cathy Tipps stepped up as Taffet’s new cohost. The two started advertising for a third cohost, and that’s when, in about 1999, Lerone Landis joined the show. Shortly after, Tipps left, and “that’s when Patti [Fink] came along. She came on first as a guest. Then Lerone and I asked her to come on as a cohost,” Taffet said.

Sen. Cornyn targets Texas AG Paxton. Talarico spotlights insulin costs

Candidates in the U.S. Senate primary in Texas are taking their messages to the airwaves. For incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, that means taking aim at his biggest threat in the Super Tuesday primary on March 3: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn's campaign launched on Thursday, Jan. 22, with a digital ad entitled "Same Lawyer. Radical EPIC City. Ken Paxton's Record Exposed." The ad alleges that Paxton "talks tough on radical Islam, but the record shows he's soft on the issue." A voiceover in the ad blasts Paxton over the fact that the attorney in his impeachment proceedings "is the same lawyer defending the radical Islamic (East Plano Islamic Center) City project," which will bring "Sharia Law in Texas." In fact, the EPIC project, situated about 40 miles from Dallas, has nothing to do with "radical" Islam or "Sharia Law." The project is a planned community that will feature more than 1,000 residential units, a K-12 school, a community college and commercial shopping facilities.

click here for more

The Department of Justice closed its investigation into the project last year after affirming that the developers would comply with the Fair Housing Act. The ad also criticizes Paxton for sending "over two-and-a-half million dollars to organizations resettling Afghan refugees into Texas" after U.S. troops withdrew from the country. It's unclear, however, how such an allegation ties into Cornyn's attacks on radical Islam, as the Afghan nationals who resettled in the United States did so after assisting U.S. troops in their war against the Taliban. While Cornyn lobs largely unsubstantiated allegations against his primary challenger, state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate in the U.S. Senate race, used his airtime to tackle kitchen-table issues, specifically the cost of the diabetes medication Insulin. In the ad, which launched Friday, Jan. 23, in major markets across the state, Talarico recalls his own Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and how the "how the sky-high cost of insulin motivated him to take on Big Pharma …" "When I was 28, I almost died," Talarico, D-Austin, says in the ad. "I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. When I picked up my first Insulin prescription, it cost me $684. I couldn’t afford that. Most Texans can’t either." Talarico then details how that experience led him to introduce and pass legislation in the Texas House of Representatives to cap Insulin prices at $25 for patients on state-regulated healthcare plans. The law took effect Sept. 1, 2021, and aids approximately 16% of Texans. "I know what it means to fight for my life," he says as the ad concludes. "I approve this message because, in the Senate, I’ll fight for yours."

Heartbreak, confusion, prayer: A typical day at ‘the tent’ by Dallas’ ICE office

The air was frigid and windy on a January morning as Sandra Avalos scanned Empress Row in Dallas for cars entering and exiting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. Avalos, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, helps erect two tents each morning outside the parking lot for the field office. A stack of papers listing the rights of detainees sits on tables inside the tents, and boxes of donated stuffed animals and clothes are on the ground nearby. Since President Donald Trump took office for the second time last January, enacting a sweeping immigration agenda and deporting more than 605,000 people, Avalos and about 60 others like her have become a constant presence outside the ICE building. They’re part a nationwide group working to protect the rights of immigrants.

click here for more

The Dallas field office, where a gunman killed two detainees and injured another in September, serves as a processing center for detained migrants, an administrative office for some Department of Homeland Security and ICE employees, and a location for check-in appointments. These check-ins are meant to give ICE a way to monitor people who have been released during the course of their immigration cases. Volunteers who stand outside each morning try to advise people of their rights, obtain contact information for a loved one in case they are detained, and troubleshoot the myriad problems that come up during these check-ins. These advocates — a mix of church members, seasoned activists and some who have never been a part of any movements — take shifts at the tent throughout the week. Across the Metroplex, many of these advocates who focus their efforts on immigration have reinvented themselves to become de facto scholars of immigration policy and the inner workings of acquiring legal citizenship in the United States. The tent has been part of a larger movement to monitor immigration agents at field offices and courthouses across the country. One of the biggest tasks each day is to keep track of who goes into the field office — and who does not come back out.

HUD Secretary, Gonzalez, clash over ICE raids

Scott Turner, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, says there are plenty of Americans willing and able to replace immigrants in the construction industry. Turner clashed with U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen during a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. “We have plenty American people for American jobs, and that's my concentration. I would say that to have migrants to do these jobs, I believe, is a slap in the face for the American people. We need to increase the trades in our country. We need to bring back manufacturing in our country,” Turner said response to a question from Gonzalez. Gonzalez said he agreed with Turner that the U.S. has to bring back manufacturing but said that is not going to happen overnight. “We have a labor shortage,” Gonzalez said.

click here for more

Gonzalez began the exchange by telling Turner he wanted to address housing affordability in the U.S. “We have to be honest about that, because, while we talk about immigrants, 30% of construction workers in this country are immigrants. And in Texas, about 40% of construction workers are immigrants. And in your city of Dallas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, San Antonio, that number goes up to about 60% depending where you are.,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez said he had met recently with the South Texas Builders Association. “We had a very candid conversation about the labor shortage that we're suffering in Texas and across the country. Just last year, it was shown that we would have had 400,000 homes less built in this country if it had not been for immigrant labor,” Gonzalez said.

NTSB investigating Waymo over robotaxis passing stopped school buses in Austin

The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into Waymo’s operations in Austin after its robotaxis were found to have illegally passed stopped school buses in the city. The independent U.S. investigative agency said it’s looking into 24 documented instances of the autonomous ride-hailing company’s vehicles failing to stop around Austin ISD buses as required by Texas law. “Investigators will travel to Austin to gather information on a series of incidents in which the automated vehicles failed to stop for loading or unloading students,” an NTSB spokesman said in a statement.

click here for more

Waymo, the the driverless ride-hailing company owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., said it welcomed the opportunity to show the NTSB its approach to safety. The investigation comes after the school district this year launched a new school bus safety campaign that’s netted thousands of violators. In January, it approved a contract with AlertBus, an AI-powered program that automatically issues $300 fines based on footage from cameras attached to the stop arm of a bus. The system enforces a state law requiring other vehicles to come to a complete stop when a school bus is stopped with its stop-arm extended and red lights flashing. Other vehicles may not proceed until the bus begins moving again, a requirement intended to protect students getting on or off a bus. Since the start of the school year in August, the district has recorded Waymo’s robotaxis illegally passing a stopped school bus at least 24 times. Several of those incidents came after the company said it had issued a voluntary recall of its vehicles to address the issue with a software update and met with district officials.

Sister Norma Pimentel’s shelter in McAllen, Texas looks different now

For as long as Sister Norma Pimentel can remember, the shelter she runs in the border city of McAllen, Texas, has been crowded with thousands of migrants fleeing natural disasters, violence, authoritarian governments and poverty. But ever since President Trump retook the White House and embarked on aggressive immigration enforcement that has all but sealed the U.S. border with Mexico, her shelter, steps away from a bus station, looks quiet. “We have not seen a single migrant in months,” Sister Pimentel said last month. “We are completely empty.” She pointed to a vacant kitchen, a deserted children’s play area and a bare floor that less than two years ago was filled with makeshift beds. At the height of the migrant surge during President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration, shelters along the border quickly became overwhelmed by the flood of migrants, some having received up to 1,000 people a day.

click here for more

At Sister Pimentel’s shelter, the Humanitarian Respite Center, the emptiness was so palpable recently that the voices of the workers and volunteers and a Christmas song echoed throughout the desolate rooms. The migrant slowdown is happening from Texas to California. The number of individuals seeking to cross the Southwest border has dwindled to an average of 245 a day from a peak of about 10,000 to 12,000 encounters a day during Mr. Biden’s administration, according to government data. Sister Pimentel is well known globally for migrant advocacy and was included in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020. Her shelter became an epicenter of the immigration debate, and received some backlash for its work. “The question back then was that some people viewed Catholic Charities as inviting people to come over,” said Javier Villalobos, the mayor of McAllen, a registered Republican. “That’s not necessarily true, but some people viewed it this way.” With no migrants to house, the staff and volunteers at Sister Pimentel’s shelter have pivoted to help residents of McAllen, one of the poorest cities in America, with a population of about 150,000.

South Texas Builders Association is now getting national media attention

About an hour after the Rio Grande Guardian met with Mario M. Guerrero, CEO of South Texas Builders Association, a national TV news crew with CBS was slated to meet him. Guerrero said the national network showed interest in the group after watching STBA’s livestream on Facebook two days before. The livestream featured STBA’s Immigration Enforcement & Construction Industry Impact Symposium, held at McAllen Convention Center. Watching the livestream, CBS reporters would have heard about the huge concerns South Texas builders have with the current ICE raids at construction sites. So many workers are being rounded up that projects are blowing up, leaving some firms close to bankruptcy. “We have a national CBS news crew that is actually on their way right now. They're about 30 minutes out from McAllen. They're going to be coming in, and they're going to be doing a broadcast on STBA, the South Texas Builders Association, and they're supposed to air it out by the end of the week on a national level,” Guerrero told the Guardian.

click here for more

“They're going to be speaking to different people in the organization that were at that symposium yesterday. They told me personally that they were actually listening throughout the whole meeting, which is very humbling, because we're not advocating for destruction, we're not advocating for hate, we're advocating for peace, and we're advocating for love, and we're advocating for our community. If anybody says anything different, they obviously don't understand the words I'm saying.” Guerrero acknowledged he has been getting hate mail from across the country, for challenging the actions of the Trump administration when it comes to immigration enforcement. “We keep advocating for peace and love in our community. And unfortunately, the reality is that everything that's happening is already affecting our economy. And it’s going to have a massive effect on our local economy if we're not able to bring some sort of peace to the construction industry.” Another builder that spoke at the symposium was Efrain Gomez, Jr., president of Gomez 3 Construction. Indeed, Gomez served as moderator of the discussion.

Austin company to forgive $6.9M in debt for disabled vets AG says it scammed

An Austin company has agreed to provide almost $6.9 million in debt relief to disabled veterans the state alleged were deceptively charged for assistance in navigating the disability benefits claims process. VA Claims Insider LLC, also known as VACI, is prohibited from collecting any debts incurred by veterans who were misled into believing its services were free as part of an agreed final judgment entered into with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The office said Friday the company also will forgo collecting any qualifying debts incurred for the past nine years. The estimated total of the debt forgiveness is just under $6.9 million.

click here for more

“Disabled veterans are our nation’s heroes who put their lives on the line for our country, and no company will be allowed to pose as a legitimate VA service in order to scam and deceive them,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “This judgment ensures that disabled veterans are protected from VACI’s fraudulent VA assistance scheme and will not be held responsible for illegitimate debts.” Paxton had sued VA Claims in 2023 in state District Court in San Antonio, alleging the company had engaged in “false, misleading, and deceptive acts.” The company agreed to the judgment “solely for the purpose of settlement” and did not admit any wrongdoing or violation of state consumer protection laws, the court filing says. Judge Cynthia Marie Chapa signed the judgment Jan. 15. Jeff Eller, a VA Claims Insider spokesman, said in an email there “is no fraud” and that the company “will continue to actively fight any accusation of fraud.” He added that the company “welcomes the settlement with the State of Texas and looks forward to continuing its service to U.S. military veterans who are exploring their eligibility for increased disability benefits. As the only VA disability education company focused on educating veterans who seek to prepare and file their own claims, the work that VA Claims Insider does changes veterans’ lives for the better,” he said. VA Claims has entered into a permanent injunction that bars it from committing certain acts, including advertising as “free” any educational or consulting services to veterans when and if those services are not free.

National Stories

US airlines and airports brace for a brutal travel day amid massive winter storm

A massive winter storm set the stage for a brutal travel day Sunday, with airlines warning of widespread cancellations and delays at some of the nation’s busiest airports. Widespread snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened nearly 180 million people — more than half the U.S. population — in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, the National Weather Service said Saturday night. After sweeping through the South, forecasters said the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of snow from Washington through New York and Boston. More than 13,500 flights have been canceled across the U.S. since Saturday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

click here for more

About 9,600 of those were scheduled for Sunday. Aviation analytics company Cirium says its data shows that Sunday will be the highest cancellation event since the pandemic, with over 29% of all U.S. departing flights axed. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport warned travelers on its website of widespread flight cancellations. Nearly all of its departing flights scheduled for the day — 414 flights, or 97% — have been canceled. Significant disruptions were also expected at major airport hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Atlanta, home to the nation’s busiest airport, as well as New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. American Airlines had canceled over 1,400 flights for Sunday, according to FlightAware. Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines each reported about 1,000 cancellations for the day, while United Airlines had more than 800. JetBlue had more than 560 canceled flights, accounting for roughly 70% of its schedule for the day.

Protesters demand immigration agents leave Minneapolis after man is shot and killed during crackdown

Democrats demanded that federal immigration officers leave Minnesota after a U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigid streets and increasing tensions in a city already shaken by another shooting death weeks earlier. Family members identified the man who was killed as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who protested President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city. After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal officers, who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs. A federal judge has already issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, after state and county officials sued. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the suit filed Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect. A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St. Paul. “A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is non-negotiable,” Ellison said in a statement.

click here for more

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which are named in the lawsuit, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday. Another federal judge previously ruled that officers participating in the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when these people are observing the agents. The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Gov. Tim Walz, officials said. Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off with demonstrators daily. Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him.

GOP Sen. Cassidy breaks with Trump over deadly shooting by Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called for a full investigation after a federal agent fatally shot a man who was allegedly armed in Minneapolis on Saturday, calling the incident "incredibly disturbing." Cassidy joined a chorus of Democratic lawmakers raising questions following the shooting death of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex J. Pretti, who was killed by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. Pretti allegedly confronted officers during a Department of Homeland Security operation in south Minneapolis and was carrying a gun, according to the agency. "The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing," Cassidy said in a post on X. "The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation."

click here for more

Cassidy added that "we can trust the American people with the truth." The Louisiana Republican's comments were seemingly at odds with members of his party, including President Donald Trump, who said in a post on Truth Social following the shooting that federal agents "had to protect themselves" because of the lack of support from local police in Minneapolis. "This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go—What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?" Trump wrote in the post. "The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves—Not an easy thing to do!" Last week, Trump pledged his endorsement for U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow if she entered the GOP primary in Louisiana, challenging Cassidy, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015. Letlow launched her Senate bid days later.

Witnesses say they begged ICE agents not to detain Minnesota 5-year-old after father's arrest

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refused to allow 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos to stay at his Columbia Heights home with family after being detained, observers said, despite people in the home, neighbors and school officials begging them to do so. Those who saw the federal agents detain Liam Tuesday pushed back against claims this week by ICE and Vice President JD Vance that the child was abandoned by his family after the boy and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained on their way home from school. Neighbors and Columbia Heights school officials say they pleaded with agents to let the child enter the home to join his mother or to stay with a neighbor or school leader after agents took the father into custody. They also say that they did not see Conejo Arias flee the scene and leave his son in the cold as ICE officials maintain.

click here for more

“There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults,” said Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board who said she was at the scene and among those who offered to take Liam to his family or back to school. “There was another adult who lived in the home that was there saying, ‘I will take the child. I will take the child.’ Somebody else was yelling … that I was there and said, ‘School is here. They can take the child. You don't have to take them.’ And mom was there. She saw (through) the window, and dad was yelling, ‘Please do not open the door!’” ICE officials say the father and son are together at an ICE residential family facility in Texas. Marc Prokosch, the lawyer representing Liam and his dad, said he had still not had direct contact with them. ICE says the father is in the country illegally but Prokosch says that’s not the case.

Gambling industry found bankrolling swing district congressional members

Vulnerable members of Congress who rely on the gambling industry to fund their campaigns are pushing legislation that the industry wants passed, a Washington Examiner review of campaign finance filings has found. Reps. Susie Lee (D), Steven Horsford (D), Mark Amodei (R), and Diana Titus (D) — all from Nevada — have thrown their support behind legislation that would allow gamblers to deduct 100% of losses from their tax bills, revising a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that reduced the deduction to 90% of losses. Restoring the full deduction has been a major priority of the gambling industry, which has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of those representatives since 2020.

click here for more

Lee took the most from the gambling industry, accepting nearly $400,000 over the past four electoral cycles. She was closely followed by Amodei, who received well over $300,000, then by Horsford, who took almost $300,000, and Titus, who raked in around $200,000, according to a Washington Examiner review of records from the lawmakers’ primary campaign accounts, their victory funds, and their leadership PACs. Top executives from MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts reportedly met with representatives from the American Gaming Association — the trade group responsible for representing the interests of casinos and other parts of the gambling industry — in December to drum up support for a gambler’s tax break. Lee, Horsford, Amodei, and Titus, who ultimately fulfilled their request, have all accepted large donations from executives working for the three casino operators as well as the AGA. Casino executives and PACs representing the three operators that pushed for the legislation contributed roughly $140,000 to Lee, $95,000 to Horsford, $85,000 to Titus, and $83,000 to Amodei since 2020. The AGA, meanwhile, gave Lee $3,000, Titus $5,500, Horsford $6,000, and Amodei $5,000 over the same period. Amodei, Horsford, and Lee all represent swing districts, making campaign dollars even more valuable to them, given the difficulty of retaining their seats.

Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse dedicated to helping others, friends and family said

Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old man killed by federal immigration agents Saturday, worked as a nurse treating sick veterans, according to family, friends and colleagues – a reflection of his deep desire to help others, they said. Pretti worked as an Intensive Care Unit nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center for around five years, according to a co-worker who asked to speak anonymously. “Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world,” his parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, said in a statement. “Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact.”

click here for more

Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, Chief of Infectious Diseases Section at the Minneapolis VA, wrote on Bluesky that he was “a good, kind person who lived to help.” Drekonja said Pretti supported critically ill veterans at the hospital. The co-worker said Pretti researched how to prevent veterans from dying from colon cancer. Pretti was fatally shot while immigration agents wrestled him on the ground in Minneapolis; the Department of Homeland Security said officers took a handgun from Pretti at the scene and fired in self-defense. CNN analysis of video shows a federal agent removed the gun just before the shooting. “The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted,” the agency said in a statement. Minneapolis police have said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit, and court records show he had no charges in the state, only traffic and parking infractions. His parents, in their statement, disputed DHS claims that he was a threat to agents when he was killed. They said he was seeking to protect a woman near the agents at the time. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the parents said, adding that “he was a good man.”

Dems cool to Duffy’s IndyCar Grand Prix

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pushing to host an IndyCar race on the National Mall in August as part of the America250 celebration, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort. The race would start at the Supreme Court and cover a full lap around the National Mall, including the Lincoln Memorial. “Pit Row” would be by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Organizers are targeting Aug. 21 for the event. There’s only one problem: Congress has to approve legislation to make it happen. That seems increasingly unlikely since Democrats aren’t thrilled about the idea.

click here for more

Congress needs to pass a bill for the race because there’s a ban on advertising on the Capitol grounds. IndyCar vehicles are famously adorned with lots of ads. The Grand Prix idea has made its way to aides of the Big Four — Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Democrats are worried about the strain it would place on both the U.S. Capitol Police and area roads. Plus, Democrats feel as if Republicans haven’t been helpful to them. Why should Democrats assist Republicans with this if the GOP has refused to hang any plaque honoring the victims of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, one aide said to us. Several Democrats told us that it seems absurd for Congress to OK an IndyCar race in D.C. when lawmakers won’t even extend health care subsidies for millions of Americans.

Copyright January 25, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved