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How Texas’ plans to arrest migrants would work if allowed to take effect

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ plan to arrest migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally is on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest move over immigration. The nation’s highest court has put a pause on law through Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern over a lawsuit led by the Justice Department. The department argues that Texas is overstepping the federal government’s immigration by attempting to arrest migrants and empower state judges to order them to leave the U.S. A federal judge in Texas blocked the law last month in a sweeping rejection of the measure.

Migrants lacking passports must submit to facial recognition

McALLEN (AP) — The U.S. government has started requiring migrants without passports to submit to facial recognition technology to take domestic flights under a change that prompted confusion this week among immigrants and advocacy groups in Texas.

It is not clear exactly when the change took effect, but several migrants with flights out of South Texas on Tuesday told advocacy groups that they thought they were being turned away. The migrants included people who had used the government’s online appointment system to pursue their immigration cases. Advocates were also concerned about migrants who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally before being processed by Border Patrol agents and released to pursue their immigration cases.

The Transportation Security Administration told The Associated Press on Thursday that migrants without proper photo identification who want to board flights must submit to facial recognition technology to verify their identity using Department of Homeland Security records.

“If TSA cannot match their identity to DHS records, they will also be denied entry into the secure areas of the airport and will be denied boarding,” the agency said.

Agency officials did not say when TSA made the change, only that it was recent and not in response to a specific security threat.

It’s not clear how many migrants might be affected. Some have foreign passports.

Migrants and strained communities on the U.S.-Mexico border have become increasingly dependent on airlines to get people to other cities where they have friends and family and where Border Patrol often orders them to go to proceed with their immigration claims.

Groups that work with migrants said the change caught them off guard. Migrants wondered if they might lose hundreds of dollars spent on nonrefundable tickets. After group of migrants returned to a shelter in McAllen on Tuesday, saying they were turned away at the airport, advocates exchanged messages trying to figure out what the new TSA procedures were.

“It caused a tremendous amount of distress for people,” said the Rev. Brian Strassburger, the executive director of Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, a group in Texas that provides humanitarian aid and advocacy for migrants.

Strassburger said that previously migrants were able to board flights with documents they had from Border Patrol.

One Ecuadorian woman traveling with her child told the AP she was able to board easily on Wednesday after allowing officers to take a photo of her at the TSA checkpoint.

‘Civil War,’ an election-year provocation, premieres at SXSW film festival

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — “Civil War,” Alex Garland’s election-year provocation, debuted Thursday at the SXSW Film and TV Festival, unveiling a violent vision of a near-future America at war with itself.

“Civil War,” reportedly A24’s biggest budget release yet, is a bold gamble to capitalize on some of the anxieties that have grown in highly partisan times and ahead of a potentially momentous November presidential election.

The film, written and directed by the British filmmaker Garland (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation”), imagines a U.S. in all-out warfare, with California and Texas joining to form the “Western Forces.” That insurrection, along with the “Florida Alliance,” is seeking to topple a government led by a three-term president, played by Nick Offerman.

In drawing battle lines across states blue and red, “Civil War” sidesteps much of the politics that might be expected in such a movie. And the story, too, largely omits surrounding context for the conflict, focusing on the day-to-day adventures of a group of journalists played by Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who are attempting to document the fighting.

“The film is intended as a conversation. It is not asserting things — I mean I guess it’s asserting some things,” Garland told the crowd after the screening. “But it’s a conversation, and that means it’s not a lecture.”

“A lot of the times,” he added, “I was thinking about what can I avoid, what can I miss out and make it a sort of two-way exchange.”

The movie year has showed signs of turning combustible as the nation girds for an election where some believe democracy is at stake. At the Academy Awards on Sunday, host Jimmy Kimmel largely avoided talking politics before reading a critical social media post from former President Donald Trump.

“Isn’t it past your jail time?” prodded Kimmel.

There are more films on the way with potential to add talking points. “The Apprentice,” in which Sebastian Stan plays Trump, was shot in the fall, though no release date has yet been announced. But nothing has had quite the anticipation of “Civil War.” Some even debated whether its timing was inappropriate.

Yet “Civil War,” which will open in U.S. theaters on April 12, isn’t as incendiary as some hoped, or feared. There are some chilling moments, including one where a gun-wielding militant played by Jesse Plemons asks the journalists, “What kind of American are you?” But much of the film’s visceral power comes through its scenes of the U.S. as a battleground populated by refugee camps and mass graves.

The idea for the film came to Garland almost exactly four years ago, he said.

“I wrote it back then and sent it to A24 and they just said, ‘Yup, we’ll make it,’ which was surprising,” said Garland, who shot the film in Georgia. “This is a brave film to finance, it really is.”

“I had never read a script like this,” said Dunst, who plays a veteran combat photographer.

In the film, Dunst’s character, Lee, heads to Washington, D.C., to capture potentially the final, blood-letting moments of the war. The group is joined by a young, aspiring photographer, played by Spaeny. Though “Civil War” culminates with the White House under siege, it’s in many ways a film about journalism.

“This is a sort of love letter to journalism and how it important it is,” said Garland, who said his father was a newspaper cartoonist. “Newspaper people … I wanted to make them heroes.”

Initial reaction out of SXSW for “Civil War” spanned both masterpiece and mess. Some were unsure of how to immediately respond, including Spaeny, who moments after seeing it for the first time said, “I need a second.”

Garland, for his part, demurred from making any grand political statement.

“I just want to say: I always try to make sort of funny movies. I thought ‘Ex Machina’ was funny,” Garland said. “If people laughed, I’m glad, partly because some of it is so (expletive) stupid. It should be funny. It’s crazy. It’s messed up.”

Law to protect gun and energy companies costs state millions

AUSTIN – The Austin American Statesman says that a 2021 Texas law designed to protect the energy and firearms industries is costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in business-related activity while increasing costs for state and local governments to borrow money to build highways, schools and countless other public projects, according to a new report by an economic analysis and public policy consulting firm. According to a study by Austin-based firm TXP released Wednesday, the so-called Fair Access law, which prevents governmental entities from doing business with financial institutions that have environmental, social and governance policies against fossil fuels and firearms, is making financing big-ticket projects more expensive and forcing some high-end lenders out of Texas. “These findings illustrate that when government attempts to mandate values, no matterwhat kind, to businesses, the market loses,” said Jon Hockenyos, TXP president and author of the report conducted on behalf of the Texas Association of Business Chambers of Commerce Foundation.

TXP’s report largely praises Texas’ historically business-friendly policies, which the analysis found are largely responsible for the state’s sustained economic growth dating back decades. But it acknowledges that many businesses, including financial institutions, have chosen to adopt environmental, social and governance policies, commonly called ESGs, at the behest of shareholders and employees. By eliminating these companies from participating in the bond market and other segments of the economy, the report said, competition is limited, thereby removing some forces that drive down the cost of doing business in Texas. As a result, the report said, the state stands to lose: $668.7 million in lost economic activity, $180.7 million in decreased annual earnings, 3,034 fewer full-time, permanent jobs, and $37.1 million in losses to state and local tax revenue. Since the Fair Access law took effect, financial powerhouses Citigroup and Barclays “have been forced to exit Texas’ municipal finance market due to a perception of discrimination.” On its website, Barclays says it is committed to reducing greenhouse emissions “through energy efficiency, electrification of our buildings and vehicles, renewable electricity sourcing and replacing fossil-fuel-powered infrastructure with low-emission alternatives.” “We also continued to pursue the integration of ESG considerations and expectations into processes throughout the procurement lifecycle,” the company’s website says.

Paxton requests vastly expanded powers

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will seek case files, correspondence with federal authorities and policy documents from urban-area district attorneys under expansive rules his office proposed last week. Paxton’s office seeks to require district attorneys in Texas’ most populated counties to provide investigative files for cases involving indicted police officers, poll watchers and defendants claiming they acted in self-defense. The proposed rules would expand the power of the attorney general’s office by giving Paxton unprecedented access to district attorneys’ prosecutorial decisions and policies. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, a Democrat, called the proposed rules an “overbroad” burden on his office and said allegations of wrongdoing by prosecutors should be aired in a courtroom.

“Is the purpose of getting the file to call us and give us some help? Are we going to analyze [the case] from Austin and say, ‘Hey, we have some suggestions for you?’” Creuzot, a former judge and trial lawyer, told The Dallas Morning News. He added: “I don’t know that the attorney general has the skills to try an important criminal case.” In addition to case files, Paxton wants access to prosecutors’ communications with federal authorities. DAs who fail to comply with the new rules would be subject to lawsuits, misconduct allegations and removal from office. The rules, which would apply to county attorneys who prosecute misdemeanors, are subject to a 30-day comment period, which began last week, and adoption is left solely to the attorney general’s office. The earliest they can be adopted is April 8. “District attorneys who choose not to prosecute criminals appropriately have created unthinkable damage in Texas communities,” Paxton said in a statement. “Some of these officials have developed an unacceptable pattern of failing to uphold the law and adopting policies that privilege criminals over innocent victims.”

TEA approves expansion of sanctioned charter school

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News says that just days after putting the state’s largest charter school network under conservatorship for misusing public funds, the Texas Education Agency agreed to let the network, IDEA Public Schools, carry out a major expansion. IDEA is allowed to increase student enrollment from 78,200 to more than 90,000 by the 2025-2026 school year. The 10 new campuses will be mostly in Fort Worth and the Permian Basin, with two in Humble, near Houston. The application went in on March 6 — the day TEA assigned a pair of conservators to oversee IDEA — and was approved on March 8. Critics, including teachers unions, said the TEA’s rapid approval of a charter network under scrutiny exemplified their concerns with GOP leaders’ push to privatize the state’s public education system. While school districts are run by elected boards of trustees, charter schools are public schools run by private organizations.

“This is an insider deal, behind-the-scenes, shady transaction that had no public input whatsoever,” said Patty Quinzi, director of public affairs with the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers union. TEA spokesman Jake Kobersky wrote in an emailed statement that the new IDEA schools met the requirements in state law to be eligible for expansion and would lead to “improved educational outcomes for students.” The charter network said the expansion would allow it to serve more students. “IDEA Public Schools has a long track record of achieving excellent results for kids — especially helping low-income and traditionally underserved students succeed in college and adulthood,” said Brian Whitley, spokesman for the Texas Charter Schools Association. “It’s important that Texas families have access to these opportunities.” New charter schools require approval from the elected State Board of Education, but for the last decade, existing charter schools have been allowed to expand with only the approval of TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. During that time the number of charter schools has increased rapidly.

SpaceX loses Starship near end of flight

BOCA CHICA (AP) —SpaceX came close to completing an hourlong test flight of its mega rocket on its third try Thursday, but the spacecraft was lost as it descended back to Earth.

The company said it lost contact with Starship as it neared its goal, a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The first-stage booster also ended up in pieces, breaking apart much earlier in the flight over the Gulf of Mexico after launching from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border.

“The ship has been lost. So no splashdown today,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot. “But again, it’s incredible to see how much further we got this time around.”

Two test flights last year both ended in explosions minutes after liftoff. By surviving for close to 50 minutes this time, Thursday’s effort was considered a win by not only SpaceX’s Elon Musk, but NASA as well as Starship soared higher and farther than ever before. The space agency is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in another few years.

The nearly 400-foot (121-meter) Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, headed out over the Gulf of Mexico after liftoff Thursday morning, flying east. Spectators crowded the nearby beaches in South Padre Island and Mexico.

A few minutes later, the booster separated seamlessly from the spaceship, but broke apart 1,500 feet (462 meters) above the gulf, instead of plummeting into the water intact. By then, the spacecraft was well to the east and continuing upward, with no people or satellites on board.

Starship reached an altitude of about 145 miles (233 kilometers) as it coasted across the Atlantic and South Africa, before approaching the Indian Ocean. But 49 minutes into the flight — with just 15 minutes remaining — all contact was lost and the spacecraft presumably broke apart.

At that point, it was 40 miles (65 kilometers) high and traveling around 16,000 mph (25,700 kph).

SpaceX’s Elon Musk had just congratulated his team a little earlier. “SpaceX has come a long way,” he said via X, formerly called Twitter. The rocket company was founded exactly 22 years ago Thursday.

NASA watched with keen interest: The space agency needs Starship to succeed in order to land astronauts on the moon in the next two or so years. This new crop of moonwalkers — the first since last century’s Apollo program — will descend to the lunar surface in a Starship after transferring from NASA’s Orion capsule in lunar orbit.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson quickly congratulated SpaceX on what he called a successful test flight as part of the space agency’s Artemis moon-landing program.

The stainless steel, bullet-shaped spacecraft launched atop a first-stage booster known as the Super Heavy. Both the booster and the spacecraft are designed to be reusable, although they were never meant to be salvaged Thursday.

On Starship’s inaugural launch last April, several of the booster’s 33 methane-fueled engines failed and the booster did not separate from the spacecraft, causing the entire vehicle to explode and crash into the gulf four minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX managed to double the length of the flight during November’s trial run. While all 33 engines fired and the booster peeled away as planned, the flight ended in a pair of explosions, first the booster and then the spacecraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration reviewed all the corrections made to Starship, before signing off on Thursday’s launch. The FAA said after the flight that it would again investigate what happened. As during the second flight, all 33 booster engines performed well during ascent, according to SpaceX.

Initially, SpaceX plans to use the mammoth rockets to launch the company’s Starlink internet satellites, as well as other spacecraft. Test pilots would follow to orbit, before the company flies wealthy clients around the moon and back. Musk considers the moon a stepping stone to Mars, his ultimate quest.

NASA is insisting that an empty Starship land successfully on the moon, before future moonwalkers climb aboard. The space agency is targeting the end of 2026 for the first moon landing crew under the Artemis program, named after the mythological twin sister of Apollo.

South Dakota governor touting Sugar Land dental clinic

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has puzzled political observers with a new video touting her experience at Smile Texas, a Sugar Land clinic focused on cosmetic dentistry. “I love my new family at Smile Texas!” Noem said in a tweet accompanying the video posted Monday to her personal account on X, the former Twitter. In the video, Noem said that for years she needed “an adjustment” to her teeth after a biking accident in which she lost all her front teeth. After an initial consultation with the clinic via Zoom several years ago, she explained, she traveled to Houston twice to have the work done. “The team here was remarkable and finally gave me a smile that I can be proud of and confident in,” Noem said.

Neither Noem’s office nor Smile Texas responded to questions Wednesday about the cost of the governor’s treatment, whether she received a discount or whether the treatments were covered by insurance. While the sparsely populated state of South Dakota does have some cosmetic dentistry clinics, Noem suggested that her research pointed her to Smile Texas. “They’re the best, first of all,” Noem said. The Republican, a farmer and rancher by background, is in her second term as governor, having first been elected in 2018. She is an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump and is widely seen as a contender to be his running mate. While Noem’s video was released on her personal account, political ethics experts have described it as unusual, to say the least. According to the nonprofit Coalition for Integrity, South Dakota law prohibits elected and appointed officials from accepting gifts from lobbyists or principals worth more than $100 in any calendar year. But “there are no other rules regarding acceptance of gifts,” in the state, the coalition notes, nor are officials required to list gifts on their financial disclosure forms.

Feds investigate a tire problem on an American Airlines flight to LA

FORT WORTH (AP) — Federal officials are investigating an incident in which an American Airlines plane flying from Dallas to Los Angeles suffered a tire problem, just a week after a United Airlines jetliner lost a tire during takeoff.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that preliminary information indicated that American flight 345 “blew a tire” during takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport but said later “the crew reported a flat tire.” American said the pilots got a warning of low pressure in one of the tires.

The Boeing 777 landed safely and taxied to the gate under its own power, American said.

That model of plane has 14 tires to handle the pressure of takeoffs and landings: six on each of the two main landing gear assemblies and two more under the nose landing gear. The FAA is also investigating an incident last week in which a United Airlines Boeing 777 lost a tire during takeoff in San Francisco and cut short a flight to Japan, landing safely at Los Angeles International Airport.

Both planes in the recent incidents are more than 20 years old.

UK and Texas pledge closer trade ties

LONDON (AP) — Britain signed a trade agreement with Texas on Wednesday, the eighth the U.K. has inked with a U.S. state in the absence of a wider free trade deal with the U.S. government.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the document in London alongside U.K. Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch. Abbott also met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who told him it was an “exciting moment.”

The “statement of mutual cooperation” is not a full trade deal because individual U.S. states do not have the power to sign those, but it commits Britain and Texas to improve cooperation between businesses and tackle regulatory barriers to trade.

“Understand that this is far more than a document,” Abbott said. “What we signed our names to today is a pathway to increased prosperity.”

During and after Britain’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership, supporters of Brexit argued that a chief benefit of leaving the bloc, and its vast free market of almost half a billion people, was the chance for the U.K. to make new trade deals around the world.

U.K.-U.S. trade talks were launched with fanfare soon after Britain left the EU in 2020, but negotiations faltered amid rising concern in the U.S. administration about the impact of Brexit, especially on Northern Ireland.

Instead, Britain has resorted to signing agreements with states including Florida, Indiana and North Carolina.

Although these agreements do not lower tariffs, as a free trade deal would, they can provide some help for businesses through recognizing U.K. qualifications or addressing state-level regulatory issues.

Legislator calls for inquiry into Gov. Noem’s Texas dental trip

HOUSTON (AP) – A Democratic legislator on Wednesday called for an inquiry into South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s trip to Texas for dental work and a promotional video in which she praises the doctors for giving her “a smile I can be proud of and confident in.”

State Sen. Reynold Nesiba said he initially found the nearly five-minute video to be simply odd. Later he considered other questions and asked the Republican co-chairs of the Legislature’s Government Operations & Audit Committee to put the matter on the panel’s next meeting agenda in July for discussion and questions.

“I just thought it was a very strange video about how much she enjoyed having her teeth done at that particular place,” said Nesiba, a member of the audit committee.

Nesiba said he wonders whether Noem used a state airplane or public funds for the Texas trip and whether the governor paid for the dental procedure or if it was discounted because of her video.

Noem’s office did not respond to questions Wednesday about the promotional video posted Monday night to her personal account on X in which she praised the dentists and staff at Smile Texas, a cosmetic dental practice in the Houston area.

In the video, Noem complimented the dentists that recently “gave me a smile I can be proud of and confident in.” Noem, who is seen as a potential vice-presidential pick by former President Donald Trump, identifies herself as the governor of South Dakota and includes clips of her speaking at a Republican Party event with Trump signs in the background.

A woman who answered the phone at Smile Texas cited privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in response to The Associated Press asking to speak with a member of the practice. When asked if Smile Texas plans to use Noem’s video for promotion, the woman said, “No, she posted that,” then hung up when asked again.

South Dakota law bans gifts of over $100 from lobbyists to public officials and their immediate family. A violation is a misdemeanor punishable up to a year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine. The state attorney general’s office declined to answer questions about whether the gift ban applies to people who are not registered lobbyists.

Noem’s video, in which the governor says she went to Smile because it was “the best,” comes at a time when South Dakota has spent $5 million on a workforce recruitment ad campaign in which she stars in TV spots portraying herself as a plumber, electrician, nurse and other high-demand workers. In one ad, Noem portrays a dentist in blue scrubs, speaking over a patient with a dental instrument in her hand amid the sound of a drill.

Nesiba said the dental promotion “just undermines the millions of dollars that we have invested in her as being a spokesperson for South Dakota.”

Paul Miskimins, a Republican former state legislator who practiced dentistry over 37 years in South Dakota, said he saw nothing wrong with Noem seeking care out of state, noting he had sought dental care from a friend in Canada. Miskimins added that celebrities often give testimonials about dental work, and he didn’t see why a public official couldn’t do the same.

“I think that this is America, and we all have a right to choose where we receive our care,” Miskimins said.

Noem has previously faced ethics questions, including an investigation in 2019 about her use of a state plane to attend six events outside of South Dakota hosted by political organizations, including the Republican Governors Association, Republican Jewish Coalition, Turning Point USA and the National Rifle Association. At the time, the governor’s office defended the trips as part of her work as the state’s “ambassador” to bolster the state’s economy.

Noem also was criticized for having family members join her on several trips. But her office has said that was keeping in line with a precedent set by former governors.

Ultimately, South Dakota’s ethics board dismissed the complaint over Noem’s flights to the political events in 2022 because state law doesn’t clearly define what is meant by “state business.”

But the state ethics board did say Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license.

The governor intervened with a state agency after it had moved to deny her daughter’s application for an appraiser license in 2020. Noem had called a meeting with her daughter, the labor secretary and the then-director of the appraiser certification program where a plan was discussed to give the governor’s daughter, Kassidy Peters, another chance to show she could meet federal standards in her appraiser work.

Noem has said she followed the law in handling her daughter’s licensure and that Peters received no special treatment.

Voters re-elected her in 2022 with 62% of the vote.

Michael Card, an emeritus political science professor at the University of South Dakota, said he has no ideas about the governor’s motivation for the video but found it puzzling.

“It just seems unusual for an elected official in office to make an infomercial like that,” he said.

Paul Alexander thrived while using an iron lung for decades

DALLAS (AP) — Confined to an iron lung after contracting polio as a child, Paul Alexander managed to train himself to breathe on his own for part of the day, earned a law degree, wrote a book about his life, built a big following on social media and inspired people around the globe with his positive outlook.

Alexander died Monday at the age of 78 at a Dallas hospital, said Daniel Spinks, a longtime friend. He said Alexander had recently been hospitalized after being diagnosed with COVID-19 but he did not know the cause of death.

Alexander contracted polio in 1952, when he was 6. He became paralyzed from the neck down and he began using an iron lung, a cylinder that encased his body as the air pressure in the chamber forced air into and out of his lungs. He had millions of views on his TikTok account.

“He loved to laugh,” Spinks said. “He was just one of the bright stars of this world.”

In one of his “Conversations With Paul” posts on TikTok, Alexander tells viewers that “being positive is a way of life for me” as his head rests on a pillow and the iron lung can be heard whirring in the background.

Spinks said Alexander’s positivity had a profound effect on those around him. “Being around Paul was an enlightenment in so many ways,” Spinks said.

Spinks said that Alexander had learned how to “gulp air down his lungs” in order to be out of the iron lung for part of the day. Using a stick in his mouth, Alexander could type on a computer and use the phone, Spinks said.

“As he got older he had more difficulties in breathing outside the lung for periods of time so he really just retired back to the lung,” Spinks said.

Gary Cox, who has been friends with Alexander since college, said his friend was always smiling. “He was so friendly,” Cox said. “He was always happy.”

A book Alexander wrote about his life, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung,” was published in 2020. Cox said that the title comes from a promise Alexander’s nurse made him when he was a young boy: He’d get a dog if he could teach himself to breathe on his own for three minutes.

“That took a good maybe two years, three years before he was able to stay out for three minutes and then five minutes and then 10 minutes and then eventually he got the strength to learn to stay out all day,” said Cox. And, indeed, Alexander did get that puppy.

Alexander, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1978 from the University of Texas and a law degree from the school in 1984, was a driven man who had a strong faith in God, said Spinks. They became friends in 2000, when Cox took a job as his driver and helper.

He said he would drive Alexander to the courthouse, and then push him to his court proceedings in his wheelchair. At the time, he said, Alexander could spend about four to six hours outside of an iron lung, and would be in an iron lung when he was at his office or home.

Spinks only worked for Alexander for about a year though they remained friends, and Spinks said he was among the friends who helped maintain and repair Alexander’s iron lungs.

“There were a couple of close calls when his lung would break and I would rush out there and we would have to do some repairs on it,” Spinks said.

Cox said that at one point, he and his brother got an iron lung off eBay and drove to Chicago to pick it up, bringing it back to Dallas and refurbishing it.

“They quit making them,” Cox said. “They quit supplying the parts for them. You can’t even get a collar for them anymore.”

Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease primarily affects children.

Vaccines became available starting in 1955. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it was no longer routinely spread.

Spinks said that Alexander loved being interviewed, and had a passion to show that disabled people had a place in society.

Chris Ulmer, founder of Special Books By Special Kids, a social media platform that gives disabled people a way to share their stories, interviewed Alexander in 2022.

“Paul himself really loved inspiring people and letting them know that they are capable of great things,” Ulmer said.

“He just had such a vibrant and joyful energy around him that was contagious,” he said.

Cox said that over the years, people around the globe sought Alexander out to hear his inspirational story.

“If he set his mind to it, he could do it,” Cox said.

UT Austin will require standardized test scores for admission

AUSTIN – KUT news reports that UT Austin will once again require students to submit their SAT or ACT test scores for admission, the university announced Monday. UT put the requirement on hold in spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The requirement will go into effect for the fall 2025 semester. UT President Jay Hartzell said reinstating the requirement is part of the university’s goal to attract top students and ensure they’ll be successful in college. He said UT has found the test score is a key predictor of student success. “But also a predictor of where we need to be more diligent, supportive of the students that come our way and do all we can to position them to succeed,” he said. “If we’re going to get to where we believe we can go in terms of graduation rates and success this is an important tool for us to get there.” He said UT had been looking at the impact of the test-optional policy.

“After a year we found that students who did not submit their scores were less likely to perform as well,” he said. UT is not alone in reinstating standardized test requirements. While many colleges and universities stopped requiring scores during the pandemic, several elite institutions have changed course on their test-optional policies. So far this year, selective universities such as Yale, Brown and Dartmouth shared plans to require standardized test scores again. Other schools in Texas are still test-optional. Texas State does not require SAT or ACT scores for first-time applicants. Texas A&M does not require them for freshmen but encourages students to submit scores if they have them. UT had a record 73,000 applicants last year, and the university estimates that about 90% took a standardized test. Forty-two percent of freshman applicants for the fall 2024 semester asked for their SAT or ACT scores to be considered as part of their application. Nearly half of the students applying under Texas’ auto-admit rule — because they’re in the top 6% of their high school class — also asked that their standardized testing scores be considered. Some current UT students said they are wary of the test scores being required again.

Texas teens cannot get birth control without parental consent

HOUSTON – A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Texas father can deny his daughters access to contraception, finding that a state parental rights law trumps a federal program that allows some clinics to forgo getting that approval, according to the Houston Chronicle. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit marks the first major decision on birth control access since federal protections for abortion were overturned almost two years ago. Texas minors are required by state law to have parental consent before accessing contraception; however, the case decided Tuesday pertains to federal Title X clinics, which are meant to provide affordable family planning services. The rules of the program, in place since the 1970s, require that the clinics serve all adolescents and encourage family participation “to the extent practical.”

The court ruled that if Title X were to take precedence over a state law, it would be an “invasion” of the father’s “state-created right” to consent to his child’s medical care. The decision affirmed a lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk that since December 2022 has blocked Texas minors from seeking contraception at federal clinics without parental approval. The decision, which could reach the Supreme Court if appealed, also represents a major departure from longstanding precedent. Federal courts have repeatedly held that youths have a right to receive birth control without parental approval. “Title X’s goal (encouraging family participation in teens’ receiving family planning services) is not undermined by Texas’s goal (empowering parents to consent to their teen’s receiving contraceptives),” reads the ruling written by Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump. “To the contrary, the two laws reinforce each other.” The plaintiff, Alexander Deanda, is the father of three minor daughters and had said that he is raising them according to his Christian beliefs to abstain from premarital sex. Deanda, who lives in the Texas Panhandle, said he wanted to be informed if his daughters access or try to access birth control.

US oil production sets all time record

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that the U.S. produced more crude oil last year than any nation ever has, setting new records for total annual production and average monthly production, according to data released Monday by the Energy Department. The nation’s oil production reached an average of 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023, up from the previous global record of 12.3 million barrels per day set by the U.S. in 2019. The monthly average in December — 13.3 million barrels per day — was high enough to set a new monthly record.

The U.S. has become a global energy superpower in the 16 years since the Texas shale boom began reshaping the global energy industry. The Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is the largest oil-producing region in the country, accounting for roughly 40% of all U.S. crude oil production, and among the largest in the world. The U.S. has outpaced global oil powerhouses Russia and Saudi Arabia every year since 2018, the Energy Department’s data showed. Russia produced 10 million barrels per day in 2023; Saudi Arabia produced 9.7 million barrels per day. Before hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling unleashed the shale boom, U.S. oil production had peaked at 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970 and fell to a low of 5 million barrels per day in 2008. Production has increased steadily since 2009, when the so-called shale revolution reversed the trend.

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How Texas’ plans to arrest migrants would work if allowed to take effect

Posted/updated on: March 18, 2024 at 4:35 pm

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ plan to arrest migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally is on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest move over immigration. The nation’s highest court has put a pause on law through Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern over a lawsuit led by the Justice Department. The department argues that Texas is overstepping the federal government’s immigration by attempting to arrest migrants and empower state judges to order them to leave the U.S. A federal judge in Texas blocked the law last month in a sweeping rejection of the measure.

Migrants lacking passports must submit to facial recognition

Posted/updated on: March 18, 2024 at 6:34 am

McALLEN (AP) — The U.S. government has started requiring migrants without passports to submit to facial recognition technology to take domestic flights under a change that prompted confusion this week among immigrants and advocacy groups in Texas.

It is not clear exactly when the change took effect, but several migrants with flights out of South Texas on Tuesday told advocacy groups that they thought they were being turned away. The migrants included people who had used the government’s online appointment system to pursue their immigration cases. Advocates were also concerned about migrants who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally before being processed by Border Patrol agents and released to pursue their immigration cases.

The Transportation Security Administration told The Associated Press on Thursday that migrants without proper photo identification who want to board flights must submit to facial recognition technology to verify their identity using Department of Homeland Security records.

“If TSA cannot match their identity to DHS records, they will also be denied entry into the secure areas of the airport and will be denied boarding,” the agency said.

Agency officials did not say when TSA made the change, only that it was recent and not in response to a specific security threat.

It’s not clear how many migrants might be affected. Some have foreign passports.

Migrants and strained communities on the U.S.-Mexico border have become increasingly dependent on airlines to get people to other cities where they have friends and family and where Border Patrol often orders them to go to proceed with their immigration claims.

Groups that work with migrants said the change caught them off guard. Migrants wondered if they might lose hundreds of dollars spent on nonrefundable tickets. After group of migrants returned to a shelter in McAllen on Tuesday, saying they were turned away at the airport, advocates exchanged messages trying to figure out what the new TSA procedures were.

“It caused a tremendous amount of distress for people,” said the Rev. Brian Strassburger, the executive director of Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, a group in Texas that provides humanitarian aid and advocacy for migrants.

Strassburger said that previously migrants were able to board flights with documents they had from Border Patrol.

One Ecuadorian woman traveling with her child told the AP she was able to board easily on Wednesday after allowing officers to take a photo of her at the TSA checkpoint.

‘Civil War,’ an election-year provocation, premieres at SXSW film festival

Posted/updated on: March 18, 2024 at 4:23 am

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — “Civil War,” Alex Garland’s election-year provocation, debuted Thursday at the SXSW Film and TV Festival, unveiling a violent vision of a near-future America at war with itself.

“Civil War,” reportedly A24’s biggest budget release yet, is a bold gamble to capitalize on some of the anxieties that have grown in highly partisan times and ahead of a potentially momentous November presidential election.

The film, written and directed by the British filmmaker Garland (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation”), imagines a U.S. in all-out warfare, with California and Texas joining to form the “Western Forces.” That insurrection, along with the “Florida Alliance,” is seeking to topple a government led by a three-term president, played by Nick Offerman.

In drawing battle lines across states blue and red, “Civil War” sidesteps much of the politics that might be expected in such a movie. And the story, too, largely omits surrounding context for the conflict, focusing on the day-to-day adventures of a group of journalists played by Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who are attempting to document the fighting.

“The film is intended as a conversation. It is not asserting things — I mean I guess it’s asserting some things,” Garland told the crowd after the screening. “But it’s a conversation, and that means it’s not a lecture.”

“A lot of the times,” he added, “I was thinking about what can I avoid, what can I miss out and make it a sort of two-way exchange.”

The movie year has showed signs of turning combustible as the nation girds for an election where some believe democracy is at stake. At the Academy Awards on Sunday, host Jimmy Kimmel largely avoided talking politics before reading a critical social media post from former President Donald Trump.

“Isn’t it past your jail time?” prodded Kimmel.

There are more films on the way with potential to add talking points. “The Apprentice,” in which Sebastian Stan plays Trump, was shot in the fall, though no release date has yet been announced. But nothing has had quite the anticipation of “Civil War.” Some even debated whether its timing was inappropriate.

Yet “Civil War,” which will open in U.S. theaters on April 12, isn’t as incendiary as some hoped, or feared. There are some chilling moments, including one where a gun-wielding militant played by Jesse Plemons asks the journalists, “What kind of American are you?” But much of the film’s visceral power comes through its scenes of the U.S. as a battleground populated by refugee camps and mass graves.

The idea for the film came to Garland almost exactly four years ago, he said.

“I wrote it back then and sent it to A24 and they just said, ‘Yup, we’ll make it,’ which was surprising,” said Garland, who shot the film in Georgia. “This is a brave film to finance, it really is.”

“I had never read a script like this,” said Dunst, who plays a veteran combat photographer.

In the film, Dunst’s character, Lee, heads to Washington, D.C., to capture potentially the final, blood-letting moments of the war. The group is joined by a young, aspiring photographer, played by Spaeny. Though “Civil War” culminates with the White House under siege, it’s in many ways a film about journalism.

“This is a sort of love letter to journalism and how it important it is,” said Garland, who said his father was a newspaper cartoonist. “Newspaper people … I wanted to make them heroes.”

Initial reaction out of SXSW for “Civil War” spanned both masterpiece and mess. Some were unsure of how to immediately respond, including Spaeny, who moments after seeing it for the first time said, “I need a second.”

Garland, for his part, demurred from making any grand political statement.

“I just want to say: I always try to make sort of funny movies. I thought ‘Ex Machina’ was funny,” Garland said. “If people laughed, I’m glad, partly because some of it is so (expletive) stupid. It should be funny. It’s crazy. It’s messed up.”

Law to protect gun and energy companies costs state millions

Posted/updated on: March 17, 2024 at 6:51 am

AUSTIN – The Austin American Statesman says that a 2021 Texas law designed to protect the energy and firearms industries is costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in business-related activity while increasing costs for state and local governments to borrow money to build highways, schools and countless other public projects, according to a new report by an economic analysis and public policy consulting firm. According to a study by Austin-based firm TXP released Wednesday, the so-called Fair Access law, which prevents governmental entities from doing business with financial institutions that have environmental, social and governance policies against fossil fuels and firearms, is making financing big-ticket projects more expensive and forcing some high-end lenders out of Texas. “These findings illustrate that when government attempts to mandate values, no matterwhat kind, to businesses, the market loses,” said Jon Hockenyos, TXP president and author of the report conducted on behalf of the Texas Association of Business Chambers of Commerce Foundation.

TXP’s report largely praises Texas’ historically business-friendly policies, which the analysis found are largely responsible for the state’s sustained economic growth dating back decades. But it acknowledges that many businesses, including financial institutions, have chosen to adopt environmental, social and governance policies, commonly called ESGs, at the behest of shareholders and employees. By eliminating these companies from participating in the bond market and other segments of the economy, the report said, competition is limited, thereby removing some forces that drive down the cost of doing business in Texas. As a result, the report said, the state stands to lose: $668.7 million in lost economic activity, $180.7 million in decreased annual earnings, 3,034 fewer full-time, permanent jobs, and $37.1 million in losses to state and local tax revenue. Since the Fair Access law took effect, financial powerhouses Citigroup and Barclays “have been forced to exit Texas’ municipal finance market due to a perception of discrimination.” On its website, Barclays says it is committed to reducing greenhouse emissions “through energy efficiency, electrification of our buildings and vehicles, renewable electricity sourcing and replacing fossil-fuel-powered infrastructure with low-emission alternatives.” “We also continued to pursue the integration of ESG considerations and expectations into processes throughout the procurement lifecycle,” the company’s website says.

Paxton requests vastly expanded powers

Posted/updated on: March 16, 2024 at 2:07 pm

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will seek case files, correspondence with federal authorities and policy documents from urban-area district attorneys under expansive rules his office proposed last week. Paxton’s office seeks to require district attorneys in Texas’ most populated counties to provide investigative files for cases involving indicted police officers, poll watchers and defendants claiming they acted in self-defense. The proposed rules would expand the power of the attorney general’s office by giving Paxton unprecedented access to district attorneys’ prosecutorial decisions and policies. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, a Democrat, called the proposed rules an “overbroad” burden on his office and said allegations of wrongdoing by prosecutors should be aired in a courtroom.

“Is the purpose of getting the file to call us and give us some help? Are we going to analyze [the case] from Austin and say, ‘Hey, we have some suggestions for you?’” Creuzot, a former judge and trial lawyer, told The Dallas Morning News. He added: “I don’t know that the attorney general has the skills to try an important criminal case.” In addition to case files, Paxton wants access to prosecutors’ communications with federal authorities. DAs who fail to comply with the new rules would be subject to lawsuits, misconduct allegations and removal from office. The rules, which would apply to county attorneys who prosecute misdemeanors, are subject to a 30-day comment period, which began last week, and adoption is left solely to the attorney general’s office. The earliest they can be adopted is April 8. “District attorneys who choose not to prosecute criminals appropriately have created unthinkable damage in Texas communities,” Paxton said in a statement. “Some of these officials have developed an unacceptable pattern of failing to uphold the law and adopting policies that privilege criminals over innocent victims.”

TEA approves expansion of sanctioned charter school

Posted/updated on: March 16, 2024 at 2:06 pm

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News says that just days after putting the state’s largest charter school network under conservatorship for misusing public funds, the Texas Education Agency agreed to let the network, IDEA Public Schools, carry out a major expansion. IDEA is allowed to increase student enrollment from 78,200 to more than 90,000 by the 2025-2026 school year. The 10 new campuses will be mostly in Fort Worth and the Permian Basin, with two in Humble, near Houston. The application went in on March 6 — the day TEA assigned a pair of conservators to oversee IDEA — and was approved on March 8. Critics, including teachers unions, said the TEA’s rapid approval of a charter network under scrutiny exemplified their concerns with GOP leaders’ push to privatize the state’s public education system. While school districts are run by elected boards of trustees, charter schools are public schools run by private organizations.

“This is an insider deal, behind-the-scenes, shady transaction that had no public input whatsoever,” said Patty Quinzi, director of public affairs with the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers union. TEA spokesman Jake Kobersky wrote in an emailed statement that the new IDEA schools met the requirements in state law to be eligible for expansion and would lead to “improved educational outcomes for students.” The charter network said the expansion would allow it to serve more students. “IDEA Public Schools has a long track record of achieving excellent results for kids — especially helping low-income and traditionally underserved students succeed in college and adulthood,” said Brian Whitley, spokesman for the Texas Charter Schools Association. “It’s important that Texas families have access to these opportunities.” New charter schools require approval from the elected State Board of Education, but for the last decade, existing charter schools have been allowed to expand with only the approval of TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. During that time the number of charter schools has increased rapidly.

SpaceX loses Starship near end of flight

Posted/updated on: March 16, 2024 at 4:50 am

BOCA CHICA (AP) —SpaceX came close to completing an hourlong test flight of its mega rocket on its third try Thursday, but the spacecraft was lost as it descended back to Earth.

The company said it lost contact with Starship as it neared its goal, a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The first-stage booster also ended up in pieces, breaking apart much earlier in the flight over the Gulf of Mexico after launching from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border.

“The ship has been lost. So no splashdown today,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot. “But again, it’s incredible to see how much further we got this time around.”

Two test flights last year both ended in explosions minutes after liftoff. By surviving for close to 50 minutes this time, Thursday’s effort was considered a win by not only SpaceX’s Elon Musk, but NASA as well as Starship soared higher and farther than ever before. The space agency is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in another few years.

The nearly 400-foot (121-meter) Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, headed out over the Gulf of Mexico after liftoff Thursday morning, flying east. Spectators crowded the nearby beaches in South Padre Island and Mexico.

A few minutes later, the booster separated seamlessly from the spaceship, but broke apart 1,500 feet (462 meters) above the gulf, instead of plummeting into the water intact. By then, the spacecraft was well to the east and continuing upward, with no people or satellites on board.

Starship reached an altitude of about 145 miles (233 kilometers) as it coasted across the Atlantic and South Africa, before approaching the Indian Ocean. But 49 minutes into the flight — with just 15 minutes remaining — all contact was lost and the spacecraft presumably broke apart.

At that point, it was 40 miles (65 kilometers) high and traveling around 16,000 mph (25,700 kph).

SpaceX’s Elon Musk had just congratulated his team a little earlier. “SpaceX has come a long way,” he said via X, formerly called Twitter. The rocket company was founded exactly 22 years ago Thursday.

NASA watched with keen interest: The space agency needs Starship to succeed in order to land astronauts on the moon in the next two or so years. This new crop of moonwalkers — the first since last century’s Apollo program — will descend to the lunar surface in a Starship after transferring from NASA’s Orion capsule in lunar orbit.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson quickly congratulated SpaceX on what he called a successful test flight as part of the space agency’s Artemis moon-landing program.

The stainless steel, bullet-shaped spacecraft launched atop a first-stage booster known as the Super Heavy. Both the booster and the spacecraft are designed to be reusable, although they were never meant to be salvaged Thursday.

On Starship’s inaugural launch last April, several of the booster’s 33 methane-fueled engines failed and the booster did not separate from the spacecraft, causing the entire vehicle to explode and crash into the gulf four minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX managed to double the length of the flight during November’s trial run. While all 33 engines fired and the booster peeled away as planned, the flight ended in a pair of explosions, first the booster and then the spacecraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration reviewed all the corrections made to Starship, before signing off on Thursday’s launch. The FAA said after the flight that it would again investigate what happened. As during the second flight, all 33 booster engines performed well during ascent, according to SpaceX.

Initially, SpaceX plans to use the mammoth rockets to launch the company’s Starlink internet satellites, as well as other spacecraft. Test pilots would follow to orbit, before the company flies wealthy clients around the moon and back. Musk considers the moon a stepping stone to Mars, his ultimate quest.

NASA is insisting that an empty Starship land successfully on the moon, before future moonwalkers climb aboard. The space agency is targeting the end of 2026 for the first moon landing crew under the Artemis program, named after the mythological twin sister of Apollo.

South Dakota governor touting Sugar Land dental clinic

Posted/updated on: March 15, 2024 at 3:52 am

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has puzzled political observers with a new video touting her experience at Smile Texas, a Sugar Land clinic focused on cosmetic dentistry. “I love my new family at Smile Texas!” Noem said in a tweet accompanying the video posted Monday to her personal account on X, the former Twitter. In the video, Noem said that for years she needed “an adjustment” to her teeth after a biking accident in which she lost all her front teeth. After an initial consultation with the clinic via Zoom several years ago, she explained, she traveled to Houston twice to have the work done. “The team here was remarkable and finally gave me a smile that I can be proud of and confident in,” Noem said.

Neither Noem’s office nor Smile Texas responded to questions Wednesday about the cost of the governor’s treatment, whether she received a discount or whether the treatments were covered by insurance. While the sparsely populated state of South Dakota does have some cosmetic dentistry clinics, Noem suggested that her research pointed her to Smile Texas. “They’re the best, first of all,” Noem said. The Republican, a farmer and rancher by background, is in her second term as governor, having first been elected in 2018. She is an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump and is widely seen as a contender to be his running mate. While Noem’s video was released on her personal account, political ethics experts have described it as unusual, to say the least. According to the nonprofit Coalition for Integrity, South Dakota law prohibits elected and appointed officials from accepting gifts from lobbyists or principals worth more than $100 in any calendar year. But “there are no other rules regarding acceptance of gifts,” in the state, the coalition notes, nor are officials required to list gifts on their financial disclosure forms.

Feds investigate a tire problem on an American Airlines flight to LA

Posted/updated on: March 16, 2024 at 4:49 am

FORT WORTH (AP) — Federal officials are investigating an incident in which an American Airlines plane flying from Dallas to Los Angeles suffered a tire problem, just a week after a United Airlines jetliner lost a tire during takeoff.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that preliminary information indicated that American flight 345 “blew a tire” during takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport but said later “the crew reported a flat tire.” American said the pilots got a warning of low pressure in one of the tires.

The Boeing 777 landed safely and taxied to the gate under its own power, American said.

That model of plane has 14 tires to handle the pressure of takeoffs and landings: six on each of the two main landing gear assemblies and two more under the nose landing gear. The FAA is also investigating an incident last week in which a United Airlines Boeing 777 lost a tire during takeoff in San Francisco and cut short a flight to Japan, landing safely at Los Angeles International Airport.

Both planes in the recent incidents are more than 20 years old.

UK and Texas pledge closer trade ties

Posted/updated on: March 16, 2024 at 8:15 am

LONDON (AP) — Britain signed a trade agreement with Texas on Wednesday, the eighth the U.K. has inked with a U.S. state in the absence of a wider free trade deal with the U.S. government.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the document in London alongside U.K. Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch. Abbott also met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who told him it was an “exciting moment.”

The “statement of mutual cooperation” is not a full trade deal because individual U.S. states do not have the power to sign those, but it commits Britain and Texas to improve cooperation between businesses and tackle regulatory barriers to trade.

“Understand that this is far more than a document,” Abbott said. “What we signed our names to today is a pathway to increased prosperity.”

During and after Britain’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership, supporters of Brexit argued that a chief benefit of leaving the bloc, and its vast free market of almost half a billion people, was the chance for the U.K. to make new trade deals around the world.

U.K.-U.S. trade talks were launched with fanfare soon after Britain left the EU in 2020, but negotiations faltered amid rising concern in the U.S. administration about the impact of Brexit, especially on Northern Ireland.

Instead, Britain has resorted to signing agreements with states including Florida, Indiana and North Carolina.

Although these agreements do not lower tariffs, as a free trade deal would, they can provide some help for businesses through recognizing U.K. qualifications or addressing state-level regulatory issues.

Legislator calls for inquiry into Gov. Noem’s Texas dental trip

Posted/updated on: March 16, 2024 at 8:14 am

HOUSTON (AP) – A Democratic legislator on Wednesday called for an inquiry into South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s trip to Texas for dental work and a promotional video in which she praises the doctors for giving her “a smile I can be proud of and confident in.”

State Sen. Reynold Nesiba said he initially found the nearly five-minute video to be simply odd. Later he considered other questions and asked the Republican co-chairs of the Legislature’s Government Operations & Audit Committee to put the matter on the panel’s next meeting agenda in July for discussion and questions.

“I just thought it was a very strange video about how much she enjoyed having her teeth done at that particular place,” said Nesiba, a member of the audit committee.

Nesiba said he wonders whether Noem used a state airplane or public funds for the Texas trip and whether the governor paid for the dental procedure or if it was discounted because of her video.

Noem’s office did not respond to questions Wednesday about the promotional video posted Monday night to her personal account on X in which she praised the dentists and staff at Smile Texas, a cosmetic dental practice in the Houston area.

In the video, Noem complimented the dentists that recently “gave me a smile I can be proud of and confident in.” Noem, who is seen as a potential vice-presidential pick by former President Donald Trump, identifies herself as the governor of South Dakota and includes clips of her speaking at a Republican Party event with Trump signs in the background.

A woman who answered the phone at Smile Texas cited privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in response to The Associated Press asking to speak with a member of the practice. When asked if Smile Texas plans to use Noem’s video for promotion, the woman said, “No, she posted that,” then hung up when asked again.

South Dakota law bans gifts of over $100 from lobbyists to public officials and their immediate family. A violation is a misdemeanor punishable up to a year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine. The state attorney general’s office declined to answer questions about whether the gift ban applies to people who are not registered lobbyists.

Noem’s video, in which the governor says she went to Smile because it was “the best,” comes at a time when South Dakota has spent $5 million on a workforce recruitment ad campaign in which she stars in TV spots portraying herself as a plumber, electrician, nurse and other high-demand workers. In one ad, Noem portrays a dentist in blue scrubs, speaking over a patient with a dental instrument in her hand amid the sound of a drill.

Nesiba said the dental promotion “just undermines the millions of dollars that we have invested in her as being a spokesperson for South Dakota.”

Paul Miskimins, a Republican former state legislator who practiced dentistry over 37 years in South Dakota, said he saw nothing wrong with Noem seeking care out of state, noting he had sought dental care from a friend in Canada. Miskimins added that celebrities often give testimonials about dental work, and he didn’t see why a public official couldn’t do the same.

“I think that this is America, and we all have a right to choose where we receive our care,” Miskimins said.

Noem has previously faced ethics questions, including an investigation in 2019 about her use of a state plane to attend six events outside of South Dakota hosted by political organizations, including the Republican Governors Association, Republican Jewish Coalition, Turning Point USA and the National Rifle Association. At the time, the governor’s office defended the trips as part of her work as the state’s “ambassador” to bolster the state’s economy.

Noem also was criticized for having family members join her on several trips. But her office has said that was keeping in line with a precedent set by former governors.

Ultimately, South Dakota’s ethics board dismissed the complaint over Noem’s flights to the political events in 2022 because state law doesn’t clearly define what is meant by “state business.”

But the state ethics board did say Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license.

The governor intervened with a state agency after it had moved to deny her daughter’s application for an appraiser license in 2020. Noem had called a meeting with her daughter, the labor secretary and the then-director of the appraiser certification program where a plan was discussed to give the governor’s daughter, Kassidy Peters, another chance to show she could meet federal standards in her appraiser work.

Noem has said she followed the law in handling her daughter’s licensure and that Peters received no special treatment.

Voters re-elected her in 2022 with 62% of the vote.

Michael Card, an emeritus political science professor at the University of South Dakota, said he has no ideas about the governor’s motivation for the video but found it puzzling.

“It just seems unusual for an elected official in office to make an infomercial like that,” he said.

Paul Alexander thrived while using an iron lung for decades

Posted/updated on: March 15, 2024 at 3:52 am

DALLAS (AP) — Confined to an iron lung after contracting polio as a child, Paul Alexander managed to train himself to breathe on his own for part of the day, earned a law degree, wrote a book about his life, built a big following on social media and inspired people around the globe with his positive outlook.

Alexander died Monday at the age of 78 at a Dallas hospital, said Daniel Spinks, a longtime friend. He said Alexander had recently been hospitalized after being diagnosed with COVID-19 but he did not know the cause of death.

Alexander contracted polio in 1952, when he was 6. He became paralyzed from the neck down and he began using an iron lung, a cylinder that encased his body as the air pressure in the chamber forced air into and out of his lungs. He had millions of views on his TikTok account.

“He loved to laugh,” Spinks said. “He was just one of the bright stars of this world.”

In one of his “Conversations With Paul” posts on TikTok, Alexander tells viewers that “being positive is a way of life for me” as his head rests on a pillow and the iron lung can be heard whirring in the background.

Spinks said Alexander’s positivity had a profound effect on those around him. “Being around Paul was an enlightenment in so many ways,” Spinks said.

Spinks said that Alexander had learned how to “gulp air down his lungs” in order to be out of the iron lung for part of the day. Using a stick in his mouth, Alexander could type on a computer and use the phone, Spinks said.

“As he got older he had more difficulties in breathing outside the lung for periods of time so he really just retired back to the lung,” Spinks said.

Gary Cox, who has been friends with Alexander since college, said his friend was always smiling. “He was so friendly,” Cox said. “He was always happy.”

A book Alexander wrote about his life, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung,” was published in 2020. Cox said that the title comes from a promise Alexander’s nurse made him when he was a young boy: He’d get a dog if he could teach himself to breathe on his own for three minutes.

“That took a good maybe two years, three years before he was able to stay out for three minutes and then five minutes and then 10 minutes and then eventually he got the strength to learn to stay out all day,” said Cox. And, indeed, Alexander did get that puppy.

Alexander, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1978 from the University of Texas and a law degree from the school in 1984, was a driven man who had a strong faith in God, said Spinks. They became friends in 2000, when Cox took a job as his driver and helper.

He said he would drive Alexander to the courthouse, and then push him to his court proceedings in his wheelchair. At the time, he said, Alexander could spend about four to six hours outside of an iron lung, and would be in an iron lung when he was at his office or home.

Spinks only worked for Alexander for about a year though they remained friends, and Spinks said he was among the friends who helped maintain and repair Alexander’s iron lungs.

“There were a couple of close calls when his lung would break and I would rush out there and we would have to do some repairs on it,” Spinks said.

Cox said that at one point, he and his brother got an iron lung off eBay and drove to Chicago to pick it up, bringing it back to Dallas and refurbishing it.

“They quit making them,” Cox said. “They quit supplying the parts for them. You can’t even get a collar for them anymore.”

Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease primarily affects children.

Vaccines became available starting in 1955. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it was no longer routinely spread.

Spinks said that Alexander loved being interviewed, and had a passion to show that disabled people had a place in society.

Chris Ulmer, founder of Special Books By Special Kids, a social media platform that gives disabled people a way to share their stories, interviewed Alexander in 2022.

“Paul himself really loved inspiring people and letting them know that they are capable of great things,” Ulmer said.

“He just had such a vibrant and joyful energy around him that was contagious,” he said.

Cox said that over the years, people around the globe sought Alexander out to hear his inspirational story.

“If he set his mind to it, he could do it,” Cox said.

UT Austin will require standardized test scores for admission

Posted/updated on: March 15, 2024 at 3:52 am

AUSTIN – KUT news reports that UT Austin will once again require students to submit their SAT or ACT test scores for admission, the university announced Monday. UT put the requirement on hold in spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The requirement will go into effect for the fall 2025 semester. UT President Jay Hartzell said reinstating the requirement is part of the university’s goal to attract top students and ensure they’ll be successful in college. He said UT has found the test score is a key predictor of student success. “But also a predictor of where we need to be more diligent, supportive of the students that come our way and do all we can to position them to succeed,” he said. “If we’re going to get to where we believe we can go in terms of graduation rates and success this is an important tool for us to get there.” He said UT had been looking at the impact of the test-optional policy.

“After a year we found that students who did not submit their scores were less likely to perform as well,” he said. UT is not alone in reinstating standardized test requirements. While many colleges and universities stopped requiring scores during the pandemic, several elite institutions have changed course on their test-optional policies. So far this year, selective universities such as Yale, Brown and Dartmouth shared plans to require standardized test scores again. Other schools in Texas are still test-optional. Texas State does not require SAT or ACT scores for first-time applicants. Texas A&M does not require them for freshmen but encourages students to submit scores if they have them. UT had a record 73,000 applicants last year, and the university estimates that about 90% took a standardized test. Forty-two percent of freshman applicants for the fall 2024 semester asked for their SAT or ACT scores to be considered as part of their application. Nearly half of the students applying under Texas’ auto-admit rule — because they’re in the top 6% of their high school class — also asked that their standardized testing scores be considered. Some current UT students said they are wary of the test scores being required again.

Texas teens cannot get birth control without parental consent

Posted/updated on: March 14, 2024 at 5:01 am

HOUSTON – A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Texas father can deny his daughters access to contraception, finding that a state parental rights law trumps a federal program that allows some clinics to forgo getting that approval, according to the Houston Chronicle. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit marks the first major decision on birth control access since federal protections for abortion were overturned almost two years ago. Texas minors are required by state law to have parental consent before accessing contraception; however, the case decided Tuesday pertains to federal Title X clinics, which are meant to provide affordable family planning services. The rules of the program, in place since the 1970s, require that the clinics serve all adolescents and encourage family participation “to the extent practical.”

The court ruled that if Title X were to take precedence over a state law, it would be an “invasion” of the father’s “state-created right” to consent to his child’s medical care. The decision affirmed a lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk that since December 2022 has blocked Texas minors from seeking contraception at federal clinics without parental approval. The decision, which could reach the Supreme Court if appealed, also represents a major departure from longstanding precedent. Federal courts have repeatedly held that youths have a right to receive birth control without parental approval. “Title X’s goal (encouraging family participation in teens’ receiving family planning services) is not undermined by Texas’s goal (empowering parents to consent to their teen’s receiving contraceptives),” reads the ruling written by Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump. “To the contrary, the two laws reinforce each other.” The plaintiff, Alexander Deanda, is the father of three minor daughters and had said that he is raising them according to his Christian beliefs to abstain from premarital sex. Deanda, who lives in the Texas Panhandle, said he wanted to be informed if his daughters access or try to access birth control.

US oil production sets all time record

Posted/updated on: March 15, 2024 at 3:51 am

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that the U.S. produced more crude oil last year than any nation ever has, setting new records for total annual production and average monthly production, according to data released Monday by the Energy Department. The nation’s oil production reached an average of 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023, up from the previous global record of 12.3 million barrels per day set by the U.S. in 2019. The monthly average in December — 13.3 million barrels per day — was high enough to set a new monthly record.

The U.S. has become a global energy superpower in the 16 years since the Texas shale boom began reshaping the global energy industry. The Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is the largest oil-producing region in the country, accounting for roughly 40% of all U.S. crude oil production, and among the largest in the world. The U.S. has outpaced global oil powerhouses Russia and Saudi Arabia every year since 2018, the Energy Department’s data showed. Russia produced 10 million barrels per day in 2023; Saudi Arabia produced 9.7 million barrels per day. Before hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling unleashed the shale boom, U.S. oil production had peaked at 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970 and fell to a low of 5 million barrels per day in 2008. Production has increased steadily since 2009, when the so-called shale revolution reversed the trend.

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