Texas
Dallas representative files bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Texas
DALLAS – While Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wants to ban all THC products in Texas, other lawmakers are looking to make recreational marijuana legal in the state.
State Rep. Jessica González (D-Dallas) filed House Bill 1208 for the upcoming legislative session before Patrick came out against THC products.
The bill would allow adults 21 and older to use, possess and transport up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for personal use. Adults would also be allowed to keep up to 10 ounces of cannabis in their residence, as long as it is stored in a secure location.
Smoking or consuming cannabis while in a public place or in a car on a public road would not be allowed.
Packaging for cannabis products would be required to be in child-resistent packaging that would be clearly labeled, and not easily confused for candy.
The bill also lays out plans for the production and sale of recreational marijuana.
Under the plan, businesses looking to grow, transport, test or sell cannabis would need to be licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
A 10 percent tax would be imposed on the sale of all cannabis and cannabis products.
If passed, the bill would take effect on September 1, 2025.
The Texas legislative session will begin on Jan. 14, 2024.
Marijuana in Texas
Recreational marijuana is illegal in Texas, but voters in some Texas municipalities have supported its decriminalization.
This November, voters in Dallas, Lockhart and Bastrop approved ballot measures to legalize the possession of four ounces or less of marijuana with arrests or citations.
Voters in Denton, Austin, Elgin and Killeen previously supported similar measures.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed lawsuits against several of the cities, saying the measures conflict with state law.
Medical cannabis is legal in Texas, though it is limited. The Texas Compassionate Use Program allows certain physicians to prescribe low-THC cannabis to Texans with an approved list of conditions. Some of the conditions include epilepsy, MS, autism, cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.
READ MORE: Recreational marijuana is illegal in Texas, so why are THC products on store shelves?
An agriculture bill passed in 2019 allowed hemp products with low levels of THC to be sold in the Lone Star State.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has called for the so-called hemp loophole to be closed in the next legislative session.
Texas
ICE begins immigration raids across Texas
TEXAS — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids around Texas on Sunday, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Sally Sparks, DEA Houston Division spokesperson, told Spectrum News, “The DEA Houston division along with our Department of Justice partners, is assisting DHS and other federal law enforcement partners with their targeted enforcement actions.”
Sparks added that the raids occurred in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Brownsville and McAllen.
On Jan. 20 and 21, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency concerning immigration, enacting multiple executive orders.
The first group of active-duty military personnel arrived in El Paso and San Diego last week to bolster border security, according to defense officials.
The Associated Press reported on Jan. 23 that no requests had been made to use military bases for migrant housing or troops for law enforcement.
Texas
Multi-agency operation targeted immigrants in Austin and San Antonio
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Agents from multiple federal agencies carried out immigration enforcement operations in Austin and San Antonio on Sunday, federal officials said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives collaborated on “enhanced targeted operations” in both cities, an ICE spokesperson said. A similar operation took place Sunday morning in the Rio Grande Valley, a local station reported.
The spokesperson said the operations were to “enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.” The official did not say what kind of offenses the targeted individuals were suspected of committing or whether anyone was detained.
KXAN first reported ICE was conducting an operation in the Austin area on Sunday afternoon through a spokesperson for the DEA’s Houston division. DEA spokesperson Sally Sparks said the agency’s Houston office “mobilized every agent in our division,” whose jurisdiction spans from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, Del Rio and Waco.
“We got information that we had to mobilize, so we mobilized,” Sparks told The Texas Tribune. “The majority of our agents assisted.”
A Houston DEA post on X on Sunday showed photos of law enforcement officers in a residential area escorting a man in handcuffs.
Neither ICE nor the DEA answered questions about the scale of the operations. Spokespeople for the Travis and Bexar counties’ sheriff’s offices said they had not been notified of the operations. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said Doggett did not receive advance notice that ICE would conduct an operation in Austin.
Sunday’s operations came less than one week after President Donald Trump began his second term as president and promised mass deportations across the country. Trump issued more than a dozen immigration-related executive orders last week, including halting the use of an app that lets migrants make appointments to request asylum and authorizing immigration officers to raid sensitive locations such as churches, schools and hospitals.
The Trump administration has also directed federal officials to investigate and potentially prosecute local officials who interfere with deportation efforts. Some local Texas officials said they are ready to assist Trump, though they have offered scant details on how they would cooperate. A group of Texas lawmakers asked state education officials last week for clear guidance on how school districts should prepare for federal immigration enforcement.
Federal officials also conducted raids in Chicago on Sunday, and ICE officials have been directed to increase the number of people they arrest from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, The Washington Post reported Sunday. ICE made 956 arrests Sunday and sent 554 requests to take custody of individuals currently being held in jails, prisons or other confinement facilities, the agency said in a Sunday evening post on X.
Trump’s actions over the past week have left some migrants stranded on the U.S.-Mexico border, and the threat of deportation has left others in fear. Texas is home to approximately 1.6 million undocumented people, according to a Pew Research Center Report.
Texas
First soaking storm of 2025 brings heavy rain, flooding concerns to North Texas
Following a nice and above-average start to the weekend, a cold front swept through North Texas overnight, bringing light rain to kick off Sunday.
Shower coverage will be fairly isolated in the Dallas Fort-Worth area and will only stick around for about the first half of the day. However, scattered showers may persist in eastern and southeastern counties.
As far as temperatures go, North Texas will feel about a 10-degree drop from Saturday, with highs falling back below average to the lower 50s this afternoon.
Looking ahead to the start of the new workweek, expect partly cloudy skies on Monday, with highs in the mid-50s.
By Tuesday, clouds build back in, but a southerly flow sends temperatures back to the upper 50s, approaching 60 degrees.
Tuesday afternoon and evening will mark the beginning of a significant weather shift.
Scattered showers roll in Tuesday evening as an area of low-pressure heads through the southwestern U.S.
This low-pressure system will continue its eastward track, bringing heavy, soaking rains on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
For this reason, CBS News Texas meteorologists have issued First Alert Weather Days for all three days, warning of soaking rains, a few thunderstorms and the potential for some flooding, especially from Thursday into Friday.
Temperature-wise, North Texas will remain near- and above-normal throughout the extended forecast.
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