Area News

By Terri Langford and Dan Keemahill, The Texas Tribune May 20, 2026 The number of Texans receiving food assistance dropped 14% in a year, reflecting a national decline, the result not only of stricter new work requirements imposed last year by the Trump administration but also rising fears of deportation, according to advocates. State data…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: GLO Press Office (512) 936-9582 media@glo.texas.gov AUSTIN, Texas— Today, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., encourages Texans to utilize the General Land Office’s (GLO) Texas Beach Watch website to stay informed about beach water quality during the 2026 beach season. The GLO’s Texas Beach Watch program will provide weekly updates on beach water…

BATON ROUGE, LA (05/20/2026)– Melody Mitchell of Gilmer, Texas, was recently elected to membership into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society, at Texas Tech University. Mitchell is among approximately 20,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each…

The United States Department of Justice May 20, 2026 WWW.JUSTICE.GOV/NEWS     WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced today that a former corrections officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) in Rusk, Texas, pleaded guilty for his participation in a conspiracy to assault an inmate in his custody, identified by initials M.S., on…

Texas has been named the 3rd U.S. state most reliant on emergency tradespeople, according to a new trade report by Wearethebest.com analyzing demand for emergency plumbers, electricians, and roof repair specialists across America. The comparison site conducted a survey and examined Google search interest since 2021 for terms including “emergency plumber,” “emergency electrician,” and “emergency roof…

(May 20, 2026, DALLAS) – GasBuddy, the fuel savings platform empowering drivers to choose their road to savings, today released its 2026 Summer Travel Survey results and forecast, revealing that American road trip culture is showing resilience even as gas prices surge to levels not seen in years. GasBuddy forecasts the national average will reach…

By Lomi Kriel, The Texas Tribune May 20, 2026 The 911 call came two days after immigration agents detained the 23-year-old Guatemalan woman in Minnesota as she was driving her mother and two young siblings to their jobs cleaning houses. “Excruciating pain,” the employee at the El Paso immigrant detention facility reported. Emergency responders rushed…

By Gabby Birenbaum, The Texas Tribune May 20, 2026 WASHINGTON — When Michael Burgess first ran for Congress in 2002, his name was sandwiched between two now-familiar politicians on the Republican ballot. Above him was John Cornyn, making his first bid for U.S. Senate. Further down was Ken Paxton, a then first-time candidate running for…

By Zach Despart, Misty Harris and ProPublica, The Texas Tribune May 20, 2026 In October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued pharmaceutical companies tied to Tylenol in state court, repeating claims made a month earlier by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that the pain relief drug was linked to autism and…

I’m sick. Kind of feeling my own mortality. Thinking about things I could have done better in my life. We had a bad flood some years ago. Very bad. As the flood was progressing, a neighbor that I didn’t really know walked over early in the morning. In his pajamas. He stuck a cup of…