Kansas State women’s basketball’s fairytale run will continue.

A day after rallying to keep their Big 12 Tournament run alive, the 12th-seeded Wildcats got hot in the fourth quarter to upset fifth-seeded Oklahoma State in a 74-73 quarterfinal win on Friday, March 6, at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

After Oklahoma State made a game-tying 3-pointer with five seconds left, it accidentally fouled Tess Heal with 1.3 seconds remaining, sending her to the line. She split her free throws, missing the backend, leading to a Cowboys miss on a desperation heave.

The Wildcats will play in Saturday’s 3 p.m. semifinal against the winner of Friday afternoon’s matchup between league-champion TCU and ninth-seeded BYU.

Kansas State got a special shooting performance from freshman Jordan Spieser, who showed why she was considered a five-star prospect, as she finished with 21 points and five made triples. After Oklahoma State cut the Wildats’ lead to two with 46 seconds left, Speiser made her final 3-pointer with 17 seconds left.

This came after the Wildcats went on a 9-0 run to overcome a four-point deficit with 4:41 left in the fourth. Taryn Sides’ layup with 1:48 left put the Wildcats up by five. Kansas State’s largest deficit was 13 points early in the third quarter.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a reporter for a Spanish-language news outlet in Tennessee but agents didn’t have a warrant, according to court documents filed by this week her lawyer.

Estefany Rodriguez Flores, a reporter for Spanish-language news outlet Nashville Noticias who has done stories critical of ICE, was arrested Wednesday during a traffic stop and is being detained by ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, according to documents filed in federal court in Nashville. Her lawyers called for her immediate release.

Rodriguez, a Colombian citizen, entered the U.S lawfully and has been living in the U.S. for the past five years, court records filed by her lawyer show. She has a valid work permit, and she has applied for political asylum and legal status though her husband, who is a U.S. citizen.

Rodriguez was with her husband in a marked Nashville Noticias vehicle when it was surrounded by several other vehicles and she was taken to a detention center, the news outlet said in a statement.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

ICE scheduled a meeting with Rodriguez on her case but it was rescheduled twice, first because the office was closed during a winter storm and the second time because an agent couldn’t find her appointment in the system, her lawyers said in court documents.

A new meeting was then set for March 17.

When she was arrested, Rodriguez was not shown any arrest warrant, only an immigration document telling her to appear before ICE. Her lawyer, Joel Coxander, has spoken to an ICE agent who indicated that there was no arrest warrant for her at the time of her arrest, her lawyer said in court documents.

Rodriguez joined Nashville Noticias in 2022, covering social, family, health, police and immigration issues, the news outlet’s statement said.

“She needs to reunite with her young daughter and husband to continue her legal process within the framework permitted by law,” the statement said.

Read the full statement:

“Official Statement from Nashville Noticias Regarding the Detention of Our Colleague Reporter Estefany Rodríguez by ICE Agents

On March 4, Estefany Rodríguez, a reporter for Nashville Noticias and Univision 42 Nashville, was with her husband, Alejandro Medina III, outside the gym located at 2615 Murfreesboro Pike, when the vehicle they were traveling in (marked with the Nashville Noticias logo) was surrounded by several other vehicles. Several men got out and demanded that our colleague be taken into custody for reasons that the legal team will specify at a later date.

Estefany Rodríguez was taken to a detention center.

Estefany Rodríguez holds a degree in journalism from Colombia, her native country, where she has worked for several years at various news outlets. She joined the Nashville Noticias team in 2022, covering social, family, health, police, and immigration issues.

Nashville Noticias LLC expresses its respect for the laws of the United States and hopes that this situation will be resolved favorably for our colleague so that she can be released soon, as she needs to reunite with her young daughter and husband to continue her legal process within the framework permitted by law. Her legal team at MIRA Legal, as well as the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Coalition (TIRRC), are providing legal representation in the case and will have details on the progress and responses from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Tennessee Federal Court.

Nashville Noticias will also be providing updates on its social media platforms and website, nashvillenoticias.com.

We trust in the justice system of the United States of America.

Respectfully,

Nashville Noticias LLC

March 5 2026″

Despite failing to defeat a slate of anti-gambling candidates this primary cycle and facing powerful opposition in the Texas Capitol, casino interests say they are undeterred in their effort to elect legislators favorable to their industry in hopes of one day legalizing gambling in the state.

Republican state Reps. David Lowe, Terri Leo-Wilson, Mark Dorazio and Andy Hopper, all gambling opponents, defeated primary challenges from candidates backed by billionaire Miriam Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands casino empire on Tuesday. Outspoken anti-gambling activist Cheryl Bean also overcame opposition from Texas Sands PAC and Texas Defense PAC – super PACs funded by the casino company – in the open race for the Republican nomination to represent House District 94 in Tarrant County.

“If the prize is destination resort casinos in Texas, Las Vegas Sands is now further away from it in 2026 than they were in 2023,” said Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University.

In a news release Wednesday morning, Sands PAC said it would continue to invest in and organize for Texas candidates in favor of bringing casino gambling to Texas.

“The long game matters,” read the statement. “And Texas Sands PAC is playing to win.”

The statement underscores the industry’s strategy to spend millions of dollars across the state in hopes of slowly growing its standing in both chambers of the Texas Legislature. Adelson donated $9 million to both Texas Sands PAC and the Texas Defense PAC last summer to back pro-gambling candidates. Candidates received direct donations from Texas Sands PAC, while the Texas Defense PAC spent millions more to indirectly boost candidates through mail, digital, and voter-contact campaigns.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas Senate, remains a vocal critic of legalizing gambling: in both the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions, he vowed that the Senate would not even vote on pro-gambling bills.

In 2023, sports gambling legislation advanced from the House but died in the Senate. Two years later, neither casino nor sports gambling bills got traction in the House despite millions spent on lobbyists by Las Vegas Sands.

With the 75-year-old Patrick securing the Republican nomination for a fourth four-year term as lieutenant governor, the deadlock looks unlikely to break any time soon.

But Sands appears to have nothing but time and money, pursuing incremental wins until the Senate is run by someone more sympathetic.

Adding to its base of support in the House, however, has proven challenging.

Republican businessman Kyle Morris, Lowe’s opponent, received $140,000 from the Texas Sands PAC but lost by more than 27 percentage points, according to unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of State. Morris was the single largest beneficiary of the PAC among non-incumbent candidates.

Meanwhile, former Mont Belvieu City Manager Nathan Watkins, Leo-Wilson’s opponent, received $110,000 and lost his race by 25 percentage points, according to unofficial results.

Those defeats come after Republican John Huffman, the former mayor of Southlake, failed to advance to the runoff in the Senate District 9 special election in November despite receiving $1.2 million from the Texas Sands PAC, according to campaign finance reports.

“Our mission remains unchanged: trust Texas voters,” Andy Abboud, senior vice president of government relations for Sands, wrote in a statement Wednesday. “We have and will continue to support candidates who are committed to a business-friendly environment that keeps the Texas economy strong, competitive, and growing. Cycle after cycle, the record speaks for itself, and we are proud of the role we played in delivering those results. We congratulate every candidate who earned the trust of Texas voters.”

Las Vegas Sands’ perseverance in the face of a string of defeats makes sense when factoring in the value legal casino gambling in Texas could bring to the company, said Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

“There’s enough to gain that they’ll continue to spend,” Wilson said. “If Texas does at some point open up to casino gambling, there will be an enormous amount of money to be made here in the state.”

Sands does have a significant cohort of supporters, and its Sands PAC gave direct donations to more than 40 incumbents in the House and Senate leading up to Tuesday’s election.

“They’ve been successful in protecting a lot of incumbents, but that doesn’t move the needle on the issues they care about,” Wilson said.

If anything, gambling is losing ground in Texas: The Texas Lottery Commission was abolished this year after allegations of corruption surrounding a winning ticket sold by an online courier. And some conservative lawmakers are pointing to recent NBA gambling-related indictments as an example of the moral decay caused by gambling.

Despite the defeats, available public polling in the state shows strong public support for legalizing both casinos and sports gambling, though Republican voters have expressed mixed views. Legalizing gambling in Texas would require the voters to weigh in on the issue directly through an amendment to the state constitution.

“I definitely think they’re in the long game,” Jones said. “I do think that they had hoped the long game wouldn’t be so long.”

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.