How an internship program hopes to end “brain drain” in Texas’ Permian Basin and other rural regions
This is the third year businesses in the Permian Basin — known for high school football and oil fields — have participated in the University of Texas at Austin program. Students this year say they are seeing their hometowns in a new way.
WATCH LIVE: University of the Southwest in New Mexico provost news conference
Authorities are trying to determine why a pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane on a darkened, two-lane West Texas highway before colliding head-on with a van, killing nine people including six New Mexico college students and a golf coach.
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State: Water may be unsafe at Texas site for migrant teens
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas’ environmental regulator on Friday barred most uses of the water at an oilfield camp converted into a holding center for immigrant teenagers, raising alarms about the safety of more than 400 youths detained there. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said running water at the Midland camp could be used only to flush toilets or wash clothes because officials aren't sure whether the water is safe. AdThe Midland camp did not have an active permit with TCEQ for a public water system, according to the agency’s online records. Texas Sen. Kel Seliger said Friday that water on site is drawn from a well that the company drilled without getting a TCEQ permit. Hopefully not oilfield pollutants, but they don’t know.”It's unclear whether TCEQ has tested the water or whether any hazardous chemicals have been found.
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Emergency sites for migrant children raising safety concerns
A surge of migrants on the Southwest border has the Biden administration on the defensive. President Joe Biden’s administration has been sharply criticized for its response to a surge in crossings of unaccompanied immigrant children. “I feel like I have to wait and try again.”The Biden administration is not expelling immigrant children unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian. But Pfluger and other Midland officials said the Biden administration wasn’t answering their questions or giving them assurance that officials would keep the surrounding community safe. HHS opened the Midland site without notifying some top local officials who say many of their questions aren't being answered.
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West Texas flower shop owner, former mayoral candidate charged in Capitol riot
(AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar)MIDLAND, Texas – A West Texas flower shop owner who posted a video on Facebook bragging about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office being broken into during the U.S. Capitol riot last week was arrested Wednesday, federal officials said. The Midland Reporter-Telegram reports that Cudd and Rosa appeared Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Griffin in Midland. “She did not break into Nancy Pelosi’s office," Flanary said. “She didn’t go anywhere inside or near it.”“We’re pretty confident that the cameras will show she was only in the public portions of the Capitol,” Flanary said. A mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building last week following a rally the president held.
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Mayoral candidate, attorney among Texans who joined in US Capitol siege and posted on social media
FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump climb the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana File)Texans who were involved in Wednesday’s siege upon on the U.S. Capitol were not shy about it on their own social media accounts. Texans among the mob who stormed the Capitol included a former mayoral candidate, a real estate agent, a lawyer and a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy. Videos Cudd posted on her own Facebook have gone viral. A lieutenant with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is under investigation after she posted photos of the incident on her Facebook.
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Midland rejects ordinance enforcing Texas’ mask mandate
MIDLAND, Texas – The city council in Midland on Monday declined to approve ordinances related to enforcing Texas’ mask mandate. Monday’s decision came amid a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in Texas. In El Paso, officials have been asking Abbott for support for a curfew in the county as mortuaries are being overwhelmed due to COVID-19 deaths. El Paso has recorded a steep incline in COVID-19 cases and deaths over the last few weeks. On Monday, El Paso recorded 328 new coronavirus cases and seven new deaths, bringing the active case count to more than 36,000 and the death toll to 862.
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Carjacking suspect arrested in Kendall County following violent encounters with victims, law enforcement officers
But law enforcement authorities said Jerry Gardner, of Cedar Park, didn’t give up easily. Gardner was involved in a violent series of encounters, beginning at a gas station in Midland, where the carjacking occurred Friday night, the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office said. Gardner then struck a customer who tried to intervene in the carjacking before taking off on Interstate 10. Gardner then ran toward a Kendall County deputy and the suspect was shocked with a Taser, the KCSO said. After a brief struggle, he was arrested and taken to the Kerr County Jail, where he is being held on bonds from six charges totaling $528,500.
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Trump rallies oil-and-gas workers in the Permian Basin against Democrats ahead of the November election
U.S. President Donald Trump signed presidential permits for energy development during a tour of the Double Eagle Energy oil rig in Midland on Wednesday. Carlos Barria/REUTERSPresident Donald Trump sought to give a morale boost to the beleaguered Texas energy industry during a visit Wednesday to the Permian Basian, while also rallying oil-and-gas workers against Democrats ahead of the November election. "We were very close to losing a very powerful, great industry," Trump said, "and now we're back and we're just gonna keep expanding." While Texas officials welcomed Trump to Texas by endorsing his "support of Texas energy producers, the industry across the state has been harshly disrupted in 2020. The trip was Trump's 16th visit to Texas as president but first to the Midland-Odessa area, a Republican stronghold.
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Trump to discuss energy, tour oil rig, raise money in Texas
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will shift his focus to American energy dominance during a stop in Texas later this week that will include his first visit to an oil rig. During the stop Wednesday at Double Eagle Energy in the west Texas city of Midland, Trump will discuss how the U.S. is achieving energy dominance by cutting regulations, simplifying permitting and encouraging private investment in energy infrastructure, the White House said. While in Texas, Trump will raise money for the Republican Party and his reelection campaign at a fundraising luncheon with supporters in nearby Odessa. It will be Trumps 16th visit as president to Texas, the White House said. The White House said Trump has taken steps to help the energy industry recover after the coronavirus outbreak caused demand for energy and prices to plummet as people stayed home to avoid becoming infected.
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Michigan village not waiting for federal, state flood relief
FILE - In this May 29, 2020 file photo, two cars are flipped over after major flood damage, in Sanford, Mich. Sanford village, with a population of 859, is pulling together after the devastation of two dam failures in May. Volunteers are still clearing muck and providing supplies to those whose homes were destroyed since there's no telling when major state and federal help will come. Although state or federal government aid would be a huge help, Ricards said Sanford could not wait. We celebrated birthday parties, their graduations, anything you can think of there.The goal is to keep people in the village, Cole said. I think its better just to help than to sit back and wait" for state or federal funding, Cole said.
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The big names headed to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
The majority of the lineup for this year’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo was released Thursday and it includes big names in country and pop. The rodeo will run from March 3-22, just weeks after the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, which runs Feb. 6-23. Here in the Alamo City, Cody Johnson, Midland, Chris Young and Brad Paisley will also play for the San Antonio rodeo. Other San Antonio rodeo performers include ZZ Top, Aaron Watson and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. Here’s the full lineup for the 2020 San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo: