Southwest
SENATOR PETER WELCH: I’m a Democrat and we need to fix FEMA with local control
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The threat of natural disasters has again gripped the nation. In Texas, more than 120 people are dead after horrific flooding, and at least 170 are still missing. Tragically, young children and counselors from a camp are among those lost. In New Mexico, houses have been washed down a river. And in North Carolina, more than 10 inches of rain flooded entire communities.
The scenes from these disasters are horrific and all too familiar. My state of Vermont faced catastrophic flooding two years ago, on July 10-11. Homes, farms and businesses were destroyed. Roads and bridges were washed away. The damage was shocking, and the recovery was painful. Then, exactly one year later, another flood devastated our state. Communities were left reeling — two once-in-a-generation floods, back-to-back.
After two consecutive floods, Vermonters know firsthand how essential local volunteer responders and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were to our state’s immediate recovery. Without question, the victims of flooding in Texas, North Carolina and New Mexico are experiencing this too.
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When disaster strikes, it is an all-hands-on-deck moment. The federal government has the unique ability to surge resources and personnel, and it’s critical they show up.
Crews work to clear debris from the Cade Loop bridge along the Guadalupe River on Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez)
As long as there is destructive weather, there must be a fully functioning FEMA. Communities from Vermont, to Texas, to North Carolina, to New Mexico know this reality.
But, the agency is far from perfect. FEMA must be reformed.
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FEMA is too slow, too bureaucratic and too bloated. Administrative costs outweigh direct disaster assistance. Recovery is hindered by red tape.
Thats why I introduced new legislation July 10 to fix FEMA’s broken long-term recovery process.
The “Disaster Assistance Improvement and Decentralization (AID) Act” has a simple premise: local leaders know their local community best. They should be empowered to make decisions.
Local leaders know what size culvert they need, what size stones to use in grading a road, and what bridge to replace first.
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Local leaders have the best understanding of the needs of their local communities and their neighbors. Too many communities across Vermont have wasted invaluable weeks debating with FEMA over inconsequential details or submitting and re-submitting paperwork every time they’re assigned a new recovery officer.
Final decisions on recovery projects weren’t even made in Vermont. The FEMA employee overseeing Vermont’s disaster recovery was located in Puerto Rico.
This image made from drone footage provided by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets shows flooding in Montpelier, Vermont, on July 11, 2023. (Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets via AP)
Time and time again, I heard these frustrations from flooded communities in Vermont. And time and time again, we got excuses from FEMA.
In early July, I visited five communities still recovering from the Vermont floods — Killington, Ludlow, Weston, Barre and Montpelier — and in the coming weeks, I’ll visit the state’s Northeast Kingdom. I spoke with leaders and recovery workers in every town who were exhausted and frustrated.
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Their recovery has been set back by constant staff turnover, endless paperwork and waiting, and now the threat of funding freezes and other uncertainty. Local leaders need the system to change.
Disaster-stricken towns and cities need to be empowered and need more authority to make decisions in the recovery process. Bureaucracy needs to take a backseat.
The AID Act helps local communities tailor recovery solutions to their unique needs by cutting through red tape in FEMA’s public assistance program and easing burdensome requirements that slow recovery.
It will get federal funding out faster once a disaster hits, so our communities don’t waste time or overextend their budgets on repairs.
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It will provide more training and technical assistance to towns and cities. Many rural towns have only one or two full-time employees. They have little-to-no capacity after a storm hits to begin the complicated recovery process.
It allows FEMA to cover the cost of relocating a government facility that has been damaged, such as a wastewater treatment plant. It allows counties and regional planning commissions to work with local towns in submitting FEMA applications and paperwork.
The “Disaster Assistance Improvement and Decentralization (AID) Act” has a simple premise: local leaders know their local community best. They should be empowered to make decisions.
Frequent staff turnover at FEMA only sets recovery back. The Disaster AID Act would make it easier to bring back experienced current and former FEMA employees and help limit this staff turnover, rather than force them out by compromising their pensions.
The Disaster AID Act protects FEMA’s pre-disaster hazard mitigation funds, so communities can better prepare for disasters. These funds are currently frozen, and many communities in Vermont and across the United States have been forced to pause or stop these projects as a result.
Like any reform effort, details matter. Accountability will be crucial, and this bill includes safeguards to avoid waste and fraud. But accountability cannot come at the expense of efficiency. I know we can find a workable solution that protects taxpayer dollars while fixing these broken processes.
Washington tends to think that more federal control is better. But I believe that we need to trust and empower the people working every day to improve their communities. This is a policy I can find common ground on with my colleagues across the aisle, and I look forward to working with them to help disaster victims from Vermont to Texas. We all want to improve FEMA, and we’ll need to work together to make it happen.
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Southwest
Man arrested on misdemeanor DUI charges outside Nancy Guthrie’s home after sobriety test
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TUCSON, Ariz. — A 34-year-old man was arrested late Thursday night outside the Arizona home where Nancy Guthrie went missing earlier this month, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department told Fox News Digital.
Shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday, deputies arrested 34-year-old Antonio De Jesus Pena-Campos in front of Guthrie’s home on misdemeanor DUI charges, the department said.
The arrest is not related to the Guthrie investigation, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department added.
Pima County sheriff’s deputies stopped a blue Chevrolet Equinox compact SUV near Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home late Thursday night. A man was later taken into custody after what appeared to be field sobriety testing. (Fox News)
Footage shows Pima County sheriff’s deputies shining a flashlight into the driver’s side of what appeared to be a blue Chevrolet Equinox compact SUV parked near the home where Guthrie was last seen Feb. 1.
Moments later, deputies spoke with Pena-Campos near a white canopy tent set up along the roadside as a deputy shined a flashlight toward the man’s face.
In another sequence, Pena-Campos walks in a straight line in what appears to be part of a field sobriety test. In subsequent footage, he is placed in the back of a sheriff’s pickup truck.
The man was detained as investigators continue searching for Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, who was reported missing Feb. 1 after authorities said she was taken during a home invasion. Investigators have said her pacemaker last synced with her iPhone around 2:30 a.m. that morning.
Her family has since offered a $1 million reward for information leading to her safe return as authorities continue to pursue leads.
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A deputy shines a flashlight toward a man’s face during what appears to be field sobriety testing outside Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home late Thursday night. The man was later taken into custody. (Fox News)
The development comes after a Catalina Foothills resident’s street-facing Ring camera captured 12 vehicles passing by between midnight and 6 a.m. on Feb. 1, the morning Guthrie is believed to have been abducted.
Some of the activity occurred around the 2:30 a.m. mark, roughly when authorities said the 84-year-old’s pacemaker last synced with her iPhone.
A man walks in a straight line under the direction of deputies during what appears to be field sobriety testing outside Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home late Thursday night. (Fox News)
Homeowners Elias and Danielle Stratigouleas told Fox News Digital that police had not canvassed their neighborhood in the 25 days since Guthrie was allegedly taken from her bed in what authorities have described as a home invasion kidnapping.
The couple said they alerted both the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department to the footage. It was not immediately clear whether the video would prove useful to investigators or whether any of the vehicles had traveled on Guthrie’s street.
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Pima County sheriff’s deputies speak with a man near a white canopy tent set up along the roadside outside Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home late Thursday night. (Fox News)
The Stratigouleas home sits on a back road that leads out of Guthrie’s neighborhood and avoids major intersections. The property is approximately 2½ miles — or about a seven-minute drive — from the crime scene, according to Google Maps.
One of the videos was recorded at approximately 2:36 a.m., roughly eight minutes after Guthrie’s pacemaker last synced with her iPhone, based on the sheriff’s timeline.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Olivia Palombo contributed to this report.
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Southwest
Trump introduces Cornyn, Paxton but stays mum on endorsement in heated GOP primary
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The Texas Senate primary for Republicans is a bloodbath, and President Donald Trump isn’t wading in.
Trump, who appeared in Corpus Christi, Texas, to tout his energy agenda Friday, had the opportunity to stake his claim in the contentious race and endorse a candidate.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is the longtime incumbent fending off seven challengers.
But the real race is between Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas.
President Donald Trump stops to speak to the media as he departs from Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House Feb. 27, 2026, in Washington, D.C. ( Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
All three were in attendance at Trump’s rally, reminiscent of the made-for-TV spectacles that dominated his successful 2024 election campaign. Yet Trump didn’t endorse any of them as Election Day in the primary fast approaches.
Trump acknowledged all three — he paired Cornyn and Paxton and mentioned Hunt later in his remarks. He noted that they were all engaged in an “interesting election.”
“They’re in a little race together,” Trump said of Cornyn and Paxton. “You know that, right? A little bit of a race. It’s going to be an interesting one, right? They’re both great people, too.”
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and John Cornyn, R-Texas (Getty Images)
Cornyn is running for a fifth term in the Senate and fighting for his political life in a nasty primary election that Trump has time and again refused to weigh in on. He’s got the full weight of Senate Republican leadership behind him, too.
Paxton, who has faced headwinds with scandals over the years, has strongly aligned himself with the president and built a coalition of conservative backers in the House, including Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who brought him to Trump’s State of the Union earlier this week.
And while the trio duke it out, money is being burned at a record pace. So far, a whopping $110 million has been spent on the Senate primaries, and $88 million of that has been dumped into the GOP contest, according to data from AdImpact.
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Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, walks up the House steps for a vote on the budget resolution in the U.S. Capitol April 10, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Given the crowded field, it’s likely the race will head to a runoff, which will turn into a brutal sprint until late May. Paxton believes he could come out on top with at least 50% of the vote come March 3, while Cornyn is eying the long game.
The coveted Trump endorsement could put either over the top in ruby red Texas. And he may be close to picking his favorite.
Ahead of the event, Trump was asked if he had decided who to endorse.
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“Pretty much,” he told reporters.
But when asked if he would say who, he said, “No.”
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Southwest
Jasmine Crockett reveals Colbert hasn’t invited her on show since furor over Talarico interview
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, revealed Friday she’s still not been asked to appear on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” days after the host claimed pressure from the Federal Communications Commission effectively censored an interview with her Senate primary political opponent, James Talarico.
Earlier this week, Colbert said CBS prevented the broadcast of Talarico’s appearance due to guidance from the FCC requiring shows to provide “equal time” to opposing candidates.
In response, the late-night host criticized the FCC and his own network. The Talarico interview was posted online, where it has garnered more than 8 million views on YouTube alone. The tumult and extra attention to the interview helped raise more than $2.5 million for Talarico’s campaign.
“No, I’ve not been invited on Colbert prior to his interview nor post his interview,” Crockett said on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” Friday.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett speaks to members of the media following a House Oversight and Accountability Committee deposition in New Albany, Ohio, on Wednesday, Feb. 18. (Dustin Franz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Crockett explained that while she has appeared on Colbert’s show twice before, she has not been invited since she launched her candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
“The only information that I got was after this debacle took place, I did receive a phone call from the parent company,” Crockett said.
She said that CBS representatives told her they did not tell Colbert he couldn’t air the Talarico segment. Instead, they said that if he had Talarico on, he had to offer the same time to Crockett.
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Texas state Rep. James Talarico, left, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, both Democrats and U.S. Senate candidates, participate in a debate during the 2026 Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention in Georgetown, Texas, on Jan. 24. (Bob Daemmrich/The Texas Tribune/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“They just said, if you air it, just make sure that you offer the representative equal time. Now, obviously, I wasn’t engaged in that conversation, so I cannot confirm the veracity of any statements,” she said.
“But I can confirm that I had never been asked to go on as it relates to kind of talking about the Senate race,” Crockett added.
CBS released a statement denying it censored Colbert, insisting the show chose to share the interview on YouTube instead to avoid the equal-time requirement.
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Texas state Rep. James Talarico appears with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” in New York on Feb. 16. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)
However, during Monday night’s broadcast, Colbert insisted he and his guest were being censored, telling his audience, “[Talarico] was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.”
The media attention and Colbert’s multiple segments this week about the controversy provided a boon to Talarico’s campaign. On Tuesday, Colbert crumpled up the CBS statement denying it had forced the comedian not to air the interview and put it into a dog waste bag before throwing it away.
On Wednesday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr dismissed the controversy as a “hoax,” stating that Talarico “took advantage of all of your sort of prior conceptions to run the hoax, apparently for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks. And the news media played right into it.”
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A spokesperson for Colbert’s show didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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