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Texas Democrat says he and his also accused wife are innocent amid claims they took money from Azerbaijan and Mexican bankThe US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a...

Republican governor says on social media ‘no encampments will be allowed’ as videos show police using pepper sprayProtesters who returned to the University of Texas at Austin on Monday were greeted by dozens of law enforcement officers, many in riot gear. At least 43 protesters were arrested as police and campus security used pepper spray and flash-bang charges on the crowd.The Republican governor, Greg...

More than 60 people, including a journalist, arrested at University of Southern California and University of Texas at Austin. This blog is now closed.Campus protests: full storyMike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, will visit Columbia University today to speak to Jewish students and hold a press conference “regarding the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses”, his office has said.New York House...

Investigators say data from electric Mustang Mach E shows ‘Blue Cruise’ was in use when SUV struck a stopped car in San AntonioThe driver of a Ford electric SUV involved in a February fatal crash in Texas was using the company’s partially automated driving system before the wreck, federal investigators said Thursday.Data from the 2022 Mustang Mach E SUV showed that Ford’s “Blue Cruise”...

Cities expect huge crowds with millions gathering in 115-mile wide ‘path of totality’ for Monday’s exceptionally large and long eclipseShould the weather gods grant their blessing, a celestial show for the ages will darken the heavens over a large swathe of the US from Texas to Maine on Monday, giving tens of millions of people a grandstand view of a rare phenomenon being billed...

Solicitor general says in appellate hearing that SB4, paused from going into effect, may have gone beyond limitations of state lawsThe state of Texas has conceded that it may have gone “too far” in passing a law last year that made entering the state illegally a crime and allowing state judges to order undocumented people to be deported.The admission that Texas’s SB4 may have...

Appeals court rules Mason, now 49, did not know she was ineligible when she voted in 2016 and throws out convictionA Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in...

Investigation by forest service into Smokehouse Creek fire says decayed Xcel Energy pole ‘had broken off at ground level’The biggest wildfire in Texas state history, which killed two people and scorched more than 1m acres, was caused by a power line pole that had decayed at the base, an investigation has concluded.The finding comes from a Texas A&M forest service investigation into the Smokehouse...

Residents in California urged to shelter in place as possible record 12ft of snow forecast to be dumped over weekendA dangerous winter storm has arrived in California, battering the Sierra Nevada with snowfall, gale-force winds and blizzard conditions as authorities urge residents to shelter in place and prepare for power outages.Perilous conditions in the mountain region are expected to get significantly worse on Friday...

Governor issues disaster declaration as emergency crews work to contain dozens of wildfires burning across Texas PanhandleDozens of wildfires are causing chaos across the Texas Panhandle as the Smokehouse Creek fire – now the largest blaze in state history – grew to more than 1mn acres on Thursday, even as a dusting of snow brought a measure of relief.At least two people have died,...

Unseasonably warm temperatures, strong winds and dry grasses fuel Smokehouse Creek fire, the largest in the stateThe main facility that assembles and disassembles America’s nuclear arsenal shut down its operations on Tuesday night as fires raged out of control in Texas.Pantex issued a statement online saying it had paused operations until further notice. “The fire near Pantex is not contained,” the company said. “Response...

City council approves year-long contract with Knightscope to rent a K5 robot to respond to door alarms at the airportAn autonomous robot is due to become the latest addition to San Antonio International Airport’s security apparatus.Following a 7 to 3 vote on Thursday by the San Antonio city council, city officials approved a year-long contract with Knightscope, a California-based developer of autonomous security robots,...

No immediate reports of major damage or injuries after quake struck at 12.32am about 45 miles south-east of San AntonioAn earthquake of 4.7 magnitude that struck early Saturday morning near a small Texas city – one of several earthquakes that have occurred in the area in recent days – could be felt dozens of miles away, including in San Antonio.There were no immediate reports...

Samuel Moreno-Carranza, age seven, was injured after his mother fired a rifle inside church and police responded, killing herA boy who was shot in the head at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch on 11 February has lost “a portion of his frontal lobe” while recovering at the hospital, according to his grandmother.In a Facebook post three days after the shooting, Walli Carranza said...

Two off-duty officers at Joel Osteen’s megachurch shot a woman who fired a rifle and claimed to have a bomb, police saidA woman with a rifle was killed by two off-duty police officers – while a child was critically wounded – on Sunday at a megachurch in Houston, Texas, run by prominent evangelical Christian pastor Joel Osteen, the city’s police chief said.Troy Finner said...

Greg Abbott says he will defy Biden and US supreme court and install more concertina wire to try to prevent migrant crossingsThe fight between Texas and the federal government over the control of the US-Mexico border has further intensified after state governor Greg Abbott announced he will defy the Biden administration and US supreme court by ordering the installation of even more razor wire...