Texas
Water supply top of mind for Texas lawmakers this spring
The consensus in Austin is clear: the state is running out of water to keep up with a growing population. Recognizing the problem is one thing, solving it is another.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) pegged it as one of his seven emergency items in his State of the State address earlier in the month.
“We’re going to put Texas on a path to have plenty of water for the next five decades. We will make the largest investment in water in the history of the State of Texas,” said Abbott.
State leaders said the water supply is one of their top priorities this spring in the legislative session. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) signaled Senate Bill 7 will be one of that chamber’s solutions. Every session, he puts out his top 20 priorities.
This will all build on what the state government has already done. In 2023, voters approved the creation of the Texas Water Fund and diverted a billion dollars to upgrade water pipes and start new projects. That is a drop in the bucket to what’s needed. The business group Texas 2036 predicts the state will need more than $100 billion in the coming decades to keep up with demand.
The water supply has been a basic component in building the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, where there is a scramble to find more water to keep up with the growing suburbs.
When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed up Lake Lavon in 1953, they planned for it to be the water supply feeding the growing suburbs around Dallas. Plano, Allen, Richardson, Garland, and a collection of other cities formed the North Texas Municipal Water District, taking water from its Wylie Water Treatment Plant and pumping it to homes and businesses in member communities.
Executive Director of the North Texas Municipal Water District, Jenna Covington, told NBC 5 their story is about growth and trying to keep up.
“The largest challenge that we work through on a daily basis is keeping up with the growth here in the North Texas area,” she said.
The water in Lake Lavon is no longer enough. Since its founding, the district has tapped into reservoirs in the east, including Lake Tawakoni and Jim Chapman Lake, and to the north, in Lake Texoma and the newest reservoir, Bois d’Arc Lake. The district is currently expanding that pipe route through an expansion of the Leonard Water Treatment Plant northeast of DFW.
Those projects are all aimed at pumping out 400 million gallons per day to keep up with an estimated 70,000-80,000 new people arriving in their district in every recent year.
“Water development is something that takes decades to accomplish. A lot of the investment that is being made on the front end of these projects is being paid by the existing ratepayers for the people who are yet to come,” said Covington.
According to the district, all that may still not be enough. Their planning documents show demand may far outpace supply if people do not conserve water during dry years. Covington said not watering lawns so much is the low-hanging fruit. The entire state is in a similar situation.
Lone Star Politics speaks with Jenna Covington, executive director of the North Texas Municipal Water District about the demand for new supplies of water. State Senator Kelly Hancock tells NBC 5 what state lawmakers are working on this year in Austin now that East Texas plans are in limbo.
The Texas Water Development Board predicts Texas will have to invest much more to keep up with what’s needed. Its leaders spoke to the Texas Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs earlier this month and told them the grant money they have set aside has a lengthy waiting list.
Senator Charles Perry, R – Lubbock, and committee chair will spearhead Senate Bill 7. A prominent idea is getting a dedicated funding stream from state sales taxes for water projects.
“It’s in conversation with members to get the full bye in. We feel pretty good about that,” said Perry in the committee.
Those changes will eventually need to be approved by voters amending the state constitution.
Until then, Covington told NBC 5 they plan to put $1.1 billion into new projects and maintain current pipes in North Texas. She said they will need five times more than that in the next 10 years.
According to planning documents, some possible long-term plans include buying more water from Lake Texoma, buying more water from a new reservoir in Toledo Bend along the Louisiana border, or converting more from Lake Wright Patman from flood control to water supply.
“There’s a tremendous need for water infrastructure, not only in our local organization here in the North Texas area but for utilities across the state,” said Covington.
As of February, one major solution looks less likely. Earlier, the Texas Water Development Board moved the creation of the Marvin Nichols reservoir in East Texas up from 2070 to 2050. The $4 billion creation of a 66,000-acre reservoir lake seems to be in jeopardy after intense pushback from East Texans trying to protect their land.
In January, the TWDB reported that it was still feasible to build the project, but bills have been filed in the legislature to kill the idea.
A backup plan is also getting pushback from East Texas. Five of the seven communities around Lake O’ The Pines must approve a deal to sell water to the North Texas Municipal Water District. Last week, hundreds also voiced opposition to that plan, organized by Longview Republican Jay Dean.
“If they got the type of water volume that they’d like to get, this lake would drop seven to eight feet, which would be catastrophic to a lot of homeowners,” said Dean. “Not only that, but it’d be catastrophic to the bayous and Caddo Lake downstream.”
A petition to stop the sale of water already has more than a thousand signatures.
In an interview with NBC 5, Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs, Sen. Kelly Hancock, R – North Richland Hills, said the state needs a “Texas-sized solution.”
“We have revenues,” said Hancock, pointing to the multi-billion dollar state surplus.
“I think we have to be sending consistent money but we need a large influx this time. We need a Texas-sized plan,” he said. “The less we move into that fund, the longer it’s going to take, the more expensive it’s going to be.”
Hancock said new state money could go to maintenance, new agreements with neighboring states, and more reservoirs.
“We aren’t just looking to get reelected. We’re looking out for Texas and for Texans yet to be born,” said Hancock.
Texas
North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak
A middle school in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is closed Friday after an outbreak of norovirus.
According to the school district, they closed Creekview Middle School in Fort Worth on Friday to sanitize and clean the building. The district said they plan on reopening the school on Monday.
The district said children started to get sick on Tuesday with what appeared to be a stomach virus and that on Wednesday it spread to a larger group.
EMSISD said they reached out to the Tarrant County Public Health Department and that they recommended disinfecting and cleaning the school on Wednesday night and reopening the next day.
More cases continued to be reported on Thursday, so the public health department then recommended that they clean again and close the campus on Friday.
Parents were notified of the district’s decision on Thursday afternoon.
The district has not said how many students and staff were sickened in the outbreak.
Officials with Children’s Medical Center said that because norovirus is highly contagious and resistant to many common hand sanitizers, it presents a unique challenge for families.
The hospital says hand sanitizer isn’t enough and recommends thorough hand washing with soap and water. They also recommend parents keep their children home for a full 48 hours after symptoms stop to prevent further outbreaks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are approximately 2,500 norovirus outbreaks in the United States each year and that they are most common from November through April. For further tips on preventing the spread of norovirus, visit the CDC.
Texas
Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.
So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.
Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.
Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.
Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.
Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.
“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.
Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert
Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.
Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.
Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.
“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.
The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.
Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.
Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”
Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.
Texas
Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.
Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.
The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.
Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.
Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.
In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.
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