Texas
Contributor: What the great Texas bighorn sheep experiment tells us about rewilding the West
FRANKLIN MOUNTAINS, Texas — Two big rams bolted from the steel trailer, took a few hesitant steps and glanced around nervously at their new home: dramatic mountains in west Texas more than 200 miles from where they grew up. Within seconds of looking in all directions, they scrambled into the crevices of peaks that reach 7,000 feet above sea level. A knot of onlookers, more than 100, burst into cheers.
A victim of livestock disease, reckless hunting and the destruction of their Chihuahuan Desert habitat, these creatures vanished once from Texas. The last documented sighting of a native was in 1958 in the Sierra Diablo range to the southeast, and decades of conservation efforts followed with mixed success. But on a warm afternoon in December, 77 of these animals were captured near the town of Alpine and hauled back home to build a large wild herd — another chapter in the rewilding of the American West.
The desert bighorn, distinct from its Rocky Mountain cousin, ranges from the Chihuahuan Desert here to Utah, Nevada and the Mojave and peninsular deserts of California. The urbanized Texas landscape to which these megafauna return is vastly different from the one where they vanished decades ago. Restoring the natural balance in today’s West will involve humans, predators and other animals, a fragile balancing act that could be rich with reward.
I grew up in the city of El Paso and never saw a bighorn. Though I roamed the mountains of this region, often with my late father, I rarely glimpsed any endangered or threatened creatures, their numbers so small, their struggles for survival limited to the folds of mountains and arroyos. Yet in the last decade, I have seen mountain lions and bobcats in broad daylight and have caught the once nearly extinct Gila trout, slipping it alive and well back into its cold native waters. Now the bighorn was just a foot away.
The desert bighorn is legendary. The ancestors of Native Americans drew pictures of this keystone creature centuries ago in the Coso Range of California to the west and nearby in Three Rivers, N.M. This wild sheep was thought to be foundational to life in the desert: a spirit animal that guided predators, including humans, to food — often its own flesh — water and cover from the fierce Southwestern sun. But after Europeans arrived and expanded their westward settlements, especially in the 19th century, they loosed herds of cattle, horses and other livestock that competed with sheep for grazing while spreading disease.
In the 1950s, Texas began the painstaking process of redressing humans’ disruption of nature. Ovis canadensis nelsoni were imported from Nevada and raised on a private ranch near Alpine — right nearby, in Texas terms. Their numbers grew from fewer than 20 in the 1970s to more than 100 by the ’90s. Missteps occurred too: A herd transplanted near Van Horn was nearly wiped out by mountain lions, and bighorn have taken a hit from pneumonia spread by a rival sheep, the hardy and bearded aoudad, which carry the infection and are less affected by it. But the state rebuilt the bighorn population to about 1,500. Today, around 20,000 of them are scattered across the wilds from west Texas to the Mojave.
These animals are big, about the size of a mule deer, with some males weighing over 150 pounds. They’re also tough: What water they do get normally comes from their steady diet of desert plants, including cacti and other succulents. Herds can go long periods without water, which allows them to stay in places predators cannot follow. They can become dangerously dehydrated but recover quickly when they finally find a hidden desert seep. In west Texas, they will be tempted to explore the desert public lands to the north and northeast. Wary, with laser-sharp eyesight, they often stand hindquarter to hindquarter facing different directions on the lookout for coyotes and mountain lions.
A recent camera survey by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department didn’t spot any mountain lions in the Franklin Range, a department mammalogist, Dana Karelus, told me. Yet the occasional lion does roam here; in the last 15 years these big cats have been sighted in El Paso near a car wash, in a neighborhood and inside the city zoo.
But a stray ewe or a wobbly lamb makes a far bigger meal than, say, a house cat. The presence of the bighorns, then, is likely to draw lions toward the mountains instead of the city, where their visits are already rare. Coyotes adapted to urban environments may venture back into the mountains during lambing season. Omnivorous bears occasionally wander here too and will be enticed by a big meal, even a carcass, as long as it doesn’t take too much work. “It is a delicate balance in the case of urban areas,” Karelus told me.
Humans might glimpse these wild sheep when they venture onto the 100 miles of trails crisscrossing the 27,000 acres of Franklin Mountains State Park. And they should keep a lookout, especially in the deep nights of winter, on Texas Loop 375, a busy highway that cuts east to west. On the day of the bighorns’ release, highway signs flashed: “WATCH FOR WILDLIFE.”
“We fully expect them to stay up high,” Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Director David Yoskowitz said. “They want to stay away from humans. We feel very confident, we just have to respect each other’s space.”
The desert bighorn is bumping into other man-made obstacles across the Southwest. Nevada has built the most robust population through dedicated conservation efforts. But Southern California’s wild sheep are hemmed into small islands surrounded by oceans of city. Their survival and expansion depend upon corridors of travel from one group to another to promote the genetic diversity needed for adaptation. One California herd has actually grown in the Angeles National Forest because of a landslide decades ago in the San Gabriel Mountains that severed more than four miles of State Highway 39, according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Rebecca Barboza. With the road since closed to all but emergency vehicles, the bighorn ewes have had unimpeded access to prime lambing ground, plentiful forage and water.
“Without humans around, they really thrive,” Barboza said. “The forest is an island. These animals need to spread out — or die.”
In today’s urbanized Southwest, much as the animals will have to adapt, humans have to learn to share space with these homecoming creatures. In the Franklin Mountains’ new bighorn herd, it turns out half the ewes are pregnant: A new generation of lambs is due this spring.
Watching the bighorn run, I heard something I didn’t expect: silence. Their uniquely rubbery hooves made nary a sound as they darted toward the purple peaks. And in the fading light, the desert bighorn reappeared and disappeared all at once into the gathering winter dusk.
Richard Parker wrote this essay for The Times over the winter. A longtime journalist, commentary writer and author, his latest book, “The Crossing: El Paso, the Southwest and America’s Forgotten Origin Story,” was published March 4. Parker died earlier this month.
HOUSTON – A North Texas man faced execution on Wednesday for fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son nearly 13 years ago.
Cedric Ricks was sentenced to death for the May 2013 killings of 30-year-old Roxann Sanchez and her son Anthony Figueroa at their apartment in Bedford, a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sanchez’s 12-year-old son, Marcus Figueroa, was injured during the attack.
Ricks, 51, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Houston.
His attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, arguing that prosecutors violated Ricks’ constitutional rights by eliminating potential jurors on the basis of race. Previous appeals by Ricks that alleged ineffective counsel and called for the suppression of evidence in the case have been denied.
In a 1986 ruling known as Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court determined that excluding jurors because of their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“At trial, Ricks already suspected that the State had singled out minority jurors to exclude them from his jury,” Ricks’ attorneys said in their petition to the Supreme Court.
Ricks’ lawyers said that notes prosecutors kept during the jury selection process and which were not obtained until 2021 show that prosecutors singled out minority jurors.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office said court records show the prosecution’s decisions in jury selection were “race neutral” and lower courts have already concluded that prosecutors’ actions were not discriminatory.
Ricks “viciously stabbed his girlfriend Roxann and her eight-year-old son Anthony to death,” the attorney general’s office said. “The public has a strong interest in enforcement of Ricks’ sentence.”
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Ricks’ request for a 90-day reprieve or to commute his death sentence.
Prosecutors said Ricks and Sanchez were arguing in their apartment when Sanchez’ two sons from a previous marriage — Anthony and Marcus Figueroa — tried to break up the fight.
Ricks grabbed a knife from the kitchen and began to stab Sanchez multiple times, according to court records.
Marcus Figueroa ran to his bedroom closet and tried to call police. After killing Anthony Figuerora, Ricks resumed stabbing Marcus Figueroa, who survived the attack by playing dead. Ricks did not injure his then 9-month-old son, Isaiah, according to court records.
Ricks fled and was later arrested in Oklahoma.
During his trial, Ricks testified that he had anger issues and had been defending himself against the two boys after they had come to their mother’s defense.
“Explaining my rage, I was upset. Things happen. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I wish I could bring them back, like, right now,” said Ricks, who also apologized for the killings.
A day before the stabbings, Ricks had appeared in court after having been charged with assaulting Sanchez during a previous incident.
If the execution is carried out, Ricks would be the second person put to death this year in Texas and the sixth person in the country. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state.
Charles “Sonny” Burton, a 75-year-old inmate in Alabama, had been scheduled to be executed on Thursday. But Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted his death sentence, reducing it to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Burton had been sentenced to death for a fatal shooting during a 1991 robbery even though he didn’t pull the trigger.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Texas
Most applicants for Texas school choice vouchers already attend private schools, state data shows
The deadline for Texas families to apply for Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), also known as school vouchers, is on March 17.
TEFA is the $1 billion program that provides families with taxpayer money to help pay for private school. A longtime priority of Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Republicans were able to pass it through the Legislature in a special session in 2025 after years of opposition from a coalition of Democrats and some Republicans worried about it negatively impacting public schools.
In the period from when applications opened on Feb. 4 through March 8, more than 160,000 Texas families have applied for the vouchers. Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock expects the program to reach capacity in its first year.
Texas school voucher application data by income
According to data from the Comptroller’s Office, 79% of the applicants for TEFA are already in private school. Lawmakers who advocated for the program said it was designed to give public school and homeschooled students an opportunity to switch to a private education.
After applications close, the Comptroller’s Office will allocate funding to eligible families through a lottery that prioritizes students with disabilities first. Eleven percent of all applicants, about 18,000, are students with disabilities from families at or below 500% of the Federal Poverty Level.
Next on the priority list is students from low- and middle-income families. Just 35% of applicants are from households that earn 200% or less of the Federal Poverty Level:
- 200% or less of the Federal Poverty Level ($66,000 or less for a family of 4): 35%
- Between 200% and 500% of the Federal Poverty Level ($66,001-$164,999 for a family of 4): 36%
- 500% or more of the Federal Poverty Level: ($165,000 or more for a family of 4): 29%
The Comptroller’s Office will report the waitlist to the Texas Legislature to determine funding for future years.
Texas school voucher application data by grade
The highest share of applications are for students who will be entering pre-K in the fall. Nearly 21,000 applications, about 12.8%, are in that cohort. The number of applicants per grade level declines as the students get older:
- Pre-K: 20,975
- Kindergarten: 15,777
- First grade: 13,654
- Second grade: 13,035
- Third grade: 12,922
- Fourth grade: 12,449
- Fifth grade: 12,273
- Sixth grade: 12,262
- Seventh grade: 10,953
- Eighth grade: 9,600
- Ninth grade: 9,464
- Tenth grade: 7.921
- Eleventh grade: 6,731
- Twelfth grade: 5,347
Texas school voucher applications by school district
The Comptroller’s Office also released a list that broke down the number of applications submitted in each school district across the state.
How much money public school districts will miss out on will depend on how many enrolled or prospective students they lose to private school because of TEFA, since state funds follow the student. But since 79% of applicants are already in private school, the extent of the impact on public school funding may be limited.
Here are the North Texas school districts with the most TEFA applications from within their boundaries:
- Dallas ISD: 5,267
- Fort Worth ISD: 3,151
- Plano ISD: 2,875
- Richardson ISD: 1,803
- Frisco ISD: 1,793
- Arlington ISD: 1,746
- Northwest ISD: 1,661
- Garland ISD: 1,622
- Lewisville ISD: 1,614
- Keller ISD: 1,541
ARLINGTON, Texas – Arlington police are continuing to investigate a fatal crash that killed a 43-year-old woman on Friday afternoon, saying speed was a factor and that investigators are working to determine whether street racing was involved.
Surveillance video shows speeding before crash
What we know:
Tanya Cypert was less than a mile from her Arlington home when the collision occurred at the intersection of Cooper Street and Eden Road, authorities said. Cypert had been on her way to get something to eat before her shift at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine.
Police said surveillance video from a nearby business shows two vehicles speeding northbound on Cooper Street moments before the crash.
The footage shows a black sedan moving in and out of frame, followed by a second black sedan, identified by police as a 2025 Mercedes, weaving between other vehicles.
Another camera angle shows Cypert’s white Hyundai Tucson slowing to make a left turn onto Eden Road as the first black sedan passes through the intersection. Seconds later, the Mercedes enters the intersection and collides with Cypert’s vehicle.
The impact produced a cloud of smoke and caused an engine to detach and land on the road.
Arlington police investigate potential street racing
Dig deeper:
The 18-year-old driver of the Mercedes was injured and remains hospitalized with broken bones, police said. Investigators have not yet interviewed him.
Cypert was transported to a hospital, where she later died. Her French bulldog, which was in the vehicle with her, was also killed.
Victim’s family on the tragedy
What they’re saying:
Cypert’s sons, Chancellor and Ethan, said they returned to the crash site Monday to honor their mother’s memory.
“It was a regular day for her, and now it’s going to be memorialized as the worst day of our lives,” said Chancellor Cypert.
Chancellor said the family is seeking justice but not revenge.
“As much as we want justice and stuff, it’s not about seeking revenge. It’s about trying to honor her memory and how many people she loved,” he said. “She loved everybody.”
Ethan said the damage to the front of the vehicle was “crazy and mind-blowing,” adding, “There is no need for that amount of speed at all.”
A family friend, Karen Arce, described Cypert as selfless and supportive.
“The sun just shines a little less bright every day,” Arce said.
The family also said an off-duty Midlothian police officer witnessed the crash and was the first to exit his vehicle to try to help. They expressed gratitude for his efforts.
Charges pending in fatal Arlington collision
What’s next:
No arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed. Police said they are continuing to interview multiple witnesses and review surveillance video as the investigation remains active.
The Source: Information in this article was provided by FOX 4’s Peyton Yager.
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