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A Letter to Texas and Oklahoma: Goodbye and Good Luck

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A Letter to Texas and Oklahoma: Goodbye and Good Luck


Monday, July 1, 2024, is going to end up being a day to remember in Big 12 history. It is the day that Texas and Oklahoma are officially out of the Big 12 and into the SEC. Is it the biggest day in Big 12 history? Only time will tell.

While Monday is a huge day for everyone involved, I can’t help but go back to Big 12 media days three years ago. Former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby cracked a joke about being glad he didn’t have to answer realignment questions and said that everything was fine within the conference.

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Less than two weeks after that statement, the news heard around the world broke. Texas and Oklahoma were heading to the SEC after the 2024 season. Of course, we all knew that they would get out earlier, and they did. Instead of having to wait another four years, they got out in three after forking up millions of dollars.

 

I may not be a true Big 12 historian, but I am not stupid enough to realize what these two schools have done for the conference. Like it or not, Oklahoma and Texas have combined for 18 Big 12 titles in the last 25 years. Fourteen of those titles have come from the Sooners, while the Longhorns have had four. They have brought name recognition to the conference along with a pair of national titles and countless title game appearances.

The success they have had here (especially Oklahoma) has been off the charts. The Sooners had a run of six Big 12 titles in a row before the streak ended in 2021. And as someone who has covered the conference since 2016, I have seen plenty of championships won by Oklahoma. In fact, I have covered just two conference championship games that haven’t featured either Oklahoma or Texas since the game was brought back in 2017.

Both schools have had their fair share of superstars over the years. Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray all won Heisman trophies while playing in the Big 12, while Texas has had a few close calls between Vince Young and Colt McCoy. I could go on and on about all the greats that have suited up for these two since the conference came together in 1996, but that would take up too much time here.

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Whether or not you will be shedding a tear or jumping for joy is up to you, but there is no doubt in my mind that the conference will not be the same without these two schools. The SEC is saying that it’s a new era, and you know what? It’s also a new era in the Big 12, too.

We are bringing in four new schools and have brought in a total of eight new schools in the last couple of years. Without Texas or Oklahoma leaving, I am not sure if that would have happened, but I am glad it did. Am I going to miss that first Saturday in October at the Cotton Bowl? Sure, but I am also excited to see what the future holds in the Big 12 because it is going to be the most exciting football conference in America from top to bottom. So goodbye, Texas and Oklahoma.

Maybe we will meet again, but until then, enjoy the SEC. Sometimes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

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Triple-digit heat returns to North Texas before weekend storms bring relief

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Triple-digit heat returns to North Texas before weekend storms bring relief


A building system of high pressure is bringing triple-digit temperatures back to North Texas, though the intense heat will be short-lived before a weekend weather shift brings relief and renewed chances of rain.

Wednesday forecast

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We expect partly to mostly sunny skies Wednesday, with high temperatures reaching near 100 degrees across much of the region. While hot and dry conditions will dominate, a low chance of scattered rain showers remains possible, primarily in areas east of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

The heat is expected to solidify Thursday as the upper-level ridge settles firmly over the area. We have removed all chances of precipitation from Thursday’s forecast, locking in dry conditions and an afternoon high temperature of 100 degrees.

However, relief is on the horizon for the upcoming weekend. The high-pressure ridge will lose its grip on North Texas as it begins to shift westward toward the desert southwest.

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Weekend forecast

By late Saturday and continuing into Sunday, the atmospheric shift will establish a northerly flow aloft. This pattern change is expected to funnel a series of weather disturbances into the region, triggering a return of widespread rain and thunderstorm opportunities.

The unsettled weather pattern is forecast to linger well into next week. The persistent cloud cover and moisture associated with the continuing rain chances will successfully suppress the heat, keeping afternoon highs closer to historical norms for this time of year.

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7-Day forecast

The Source: Information in this article is from the FOX 4 weather team.

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US immigration officer shoots and kills man in Texas

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US immigration officer shoots and kills man in Texas


Man, identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, is latest to be killed by ICE officers since President Trump took power.

A United States immigration agent fatally shot a man in Houston, Texas, while officers were attempting to stop his vehicle, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.

The man killed on Tuesday was identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, described by ICE as a Mexican national and “illegal alien” who attempted to evade arrest during a “targeted enforcement operation” by federal immigration officers.

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Ronaldo Salgado, who identified himself as Salgado Araujo’s son, told the Spanish-language television station Telemundo Houston that his father was shot while he was looking for workers to hire in the area.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, said Salgado Araujo ignored commands to stop his vehicle, saying he “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer”. ⁠

In past shooting incidents, including the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, immigration officials had said that their officers were being attacked when the two were shot, claims vigorously disputed in both incidents.

Video footage captured on Tuesday by a surveillance camera from a nearby business and reviewed by the Reuters news agency showed a person lying on the ground beside a white van and surrounded by officers, in what appeared to be the aftermath of the shooting.

Salgado Araujo was targeted in an operation because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to DHS.

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Democratic US Representative Sylvia Garcia called for an independent and thorough investigation of ICE’s claims about the fatal shooting.

“All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation,” Garcia posted on social media.

Juan Proano, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, echoed Garcia’s calls for a transparent investigation into ICE’s actions.

“We don’t take DHS at their word at all,” Proano told The Associated Press news agency. “There should be an independent investigation, and they should release all the videos.”

There have been at least six fatal shootings by federal immigration officers since the start of President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement crackdown.

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Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, was shot in the head by a federal immigration agent during a crackdown in Minneapolis. DHS also said Good was trying to hit the agent with her vehicle, which local officials and witnesses disputed, saying she was only trying to drive away.

The backlash from Good’s killing and other similar incidents led ICE to step back from some of its more controversial operations.

However, Tuesday’s deadly ⁠confrontation in Houston came amid a recent increase in the number of ICE arrests nationwide, with immigration officers picking up about 2,000 migrants a day last week, Reuters reported.



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Trump takes credit for Toyota moving some truck production from Mexico to Texas: ‘That’s what tariffs do’

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Trump takes credit for Toyota moving some truck production from Mexico to Texas: ‘That’s what tariffs do’


Toyota is planning a $3.6 billion expansion of its Texas truck assembly plant. President Donald Trump took credit for the investment.

On Monday, the automaker announced the multibillion-dollar investment to add a second vehicle assembly line at its San Antonio manufacturing campus to support production of the Tacoma pickup. Toyota said the expansion project would shift some of the midsize truck’s production from its Mexico plants to San Antonio over roughly 4 years. Toyota will still build some Tacoma models and the Corolla in Mexico.

While Toyota did not attribute the expansion to tariffs in its announcement and the company is not fully exiting production in Mexico, Trump said the fresh investment was a sign that his tariffs were working.

“It came over the wires that Toyota is moving out of Mexico into the United States, and building one of the biggest truck and car plants ever built,” Trump said on Tuesday during a visit to Ankara, Turkey. “It’s amazing. That’s what tariffs do, properly used.”

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Toyota said the investment will create 2,000 jobs and add 2.5 million square feet to the site, doubling the company’s Texas footprint by 2030.


Toyota's Texas plant on a sunny day.

Toyota says its plant will hire 2,000 new workers to support the assembly line. 

Toyota



On Monday, Ted Ogawa, president and CEO of Toyota Motor North America, said the investment reflected the company’s “confidence in the region’s workforce, innovation, and long-term growth potential.”

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The move gives Trump a high-profile example of a well-recognized company creating manufacturing jobs. His administration has argued that tariffs incentivize companies — particularly automakers — to reshore manufacturing in America and reduce reliance on foreign production.

Toyota’s announcement also comes amid major uncertainty for automakers with plants in North America. The USMCA — the trilateral free trade pact between the US, Canada, and Mexico struck during Trump’s first term — is under review after the US declined to renew the treaty in its current form on July 1. The Trump administration is reportedly pushing to change the agreement so 50% of all automotive parts and manufacturing would happen in the US.

Toyota also nodded to that trade uncertainty in its release, saying it remained committed to operations in all three countries while encouraging “a quick resolution to USMCA” to keep North America globally competitive.





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