Texas
Letters to the Editor – Three cheers for Mike Bidwill, Texas firefighters,Chris Packard
1 Mike Bidwill — While the fires in California were dominating the news and our hearts, Mike Bidwill, owner of the Arizona Cardinals, chose to do something good. He sent two planes to Los Angeles to pick up players, families and pets and bring them to Arizona for the game. The team used the Cardinals’ training facility for the game between the Rams and the Vikings. The Rams organization arranged for about 40 buses to help fans get to games.
Here is a big shout out to Bidwill for helping the families and players escape from the devastating fires for at least a while.
Barry Rothschild, Dallas/Preston Hollow
2 Texas firefighters and Greg Abbott — Re: “Happy to Help When the Fires Need Dousing — And Gov. Abbott, thanks for not taking potshots at Newsom, others,” Jan. 17 editorial.
Thanks to The Dallas Morning News editorial board for recognizing Gov. Greg Abbott for deploying more than 100 Texas firefighters to help with the Los Angeles wildfires. And thanks also for recognizing the bravery and self-sacrifice of the Texas firefighters who traveled to California to help.
As our fellow citizens in California deal with the devastating effects of wildfires on their communities, let us reflect back to February and March 2024, when the largest wildfire in Texas history burned more than 1,500 square miles of rangeland in the Panhandle northeast of Amarillo. How would our fellow Texans have felt while they were dealing with the crisis at hand if states who didn’t align with us politically took potshots at us?
During a crisis we are not red or blue states, we help those in need. Thanks to Texas for pitching in.
David Alan Jones, Farmers Branch
3 Chris Packard — After a long and successful for-profit career, Chris Packard turned his formidable operations skills to the nonprofit sector. After rising through the ranks at McDonald’s from the counter to own six franchises, Chris transitioned his leadership skills to the nonprofit world. As interim CEO of seven nonprofits, he most recently led the Transition Resource Action Center, which supports foster children aging out of care and other homeless youth.
Chris is known to lead nonprofits with the efficiency of a Costco and the heart of Mother Teresa. Formerly a part of the now-closed CitySquare, TRAC had several leadership changes in a short timeframe and needed a crackerjack interim CEO. Enter Chris.
Chris hit the ground running, immediately implementing TRAC’s strategic plan. His management style won over staff. He spent equal time in both the Dallas and Fort Worth locations while improving the work environment, workflow, organization chart and job descriptions seemingly overnight.
Serving on the CEO search committee, Chris helped hire and ultimately transitioned our new CEO, Nicole Binkley.
Thank you Chris, from our youth, staff and board members for your effective leadership.
Madeline D. McClure, Dallas/Bluffview
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
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.
Texas
First significant rain of the year expected in North Texas
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