Texas
More than 100 Texans active in the Jan. 6 insurrection among those pardoned
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A far-right militia leader convicted of seditious conspiracy. A U.S. Marine who pepper-sprayed law enforcement. Three men who attacked police with flag poles. A QAnon adherent who graffitied “Murder the Media” on a U.S. Capitol door.
They are among the some-120 Texans charged or convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection who are included in a sweeping pardon issued by President Donald Trump on his first day in his office.
Announced Monday evening, Trump’s directive all but ends a four-year effort by the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute those involved in the riot, which ultimately resulted in five deaths, injuries to 140 police officers, at least $2.8 million in damage and roughly 1,575 federal criminal cases. Of those defendants, two-thirds pleaded guilty and roughly 250 were convicted by a judge or jury. Only four defendants were acquitted of all charges, and fourteen had their cases dismissed.
Trump promised on the campaign to support the rioters — “hostages,” as he began to refer to them — and on Monday said his mass pardon “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.”
Texans played central roles in the event. In the lead up to Jan. 6, they helped craft the Trump administration’s legal attempts to overturn the election, and spread baseless and debunked election fraud conspiracy theories on the outgoing president’s behalf. On that January day, Texan-led militias stockpiled guns just outside of Washington, D.C., and carried out the main assault on Congress. A Texan was the first person to breach the Capitol. At least 37 Texans — including many with ties to far-right militias or violent conspiracy theories — were charged for assault or other violent crimes, according to an NPR database. Many others were charged with disorderly conduct, destruction of property, theft or conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Experts on political violence and extremism fear that Trump’s mass pardon is likely to make folk heroes of figures such as Stewart Rhodes, the Granbury-based leader of the far-right OathKeepers militia sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. Rhodes has for years argued that he is a “political prisoner” — akin to a Jew living in Nazi Germany. Rhodes was released from prison on Tuesday, as was Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the violent Proud Boys street gang who was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy.
“It’s extremely concerning,” said Elizabeth Neumann, who served as a senior Department of Homeland Security official for three years under Trump. “We just released the leaders of two terrorist organizations. However you want to think about Jan. 6, their role in it was premeditated. It was intended to overthrow the U.S. government and it was violent. People died. It’s a very sobering thing to realize that, in the name of politics, we have just released violent criminals out onto our streets.”
The mass pardon includes those who used firearms, stun guns, axes, mace, bike racks, fire extinguishers, bear spray, batons, baseball bats and metal whips to attack police officers, storm the Capitol and threaten lawmakers. Texans were among the armed, and many openly celebrated or egged on the violence.
Brian Scott Jackson, of Katy, was sentenced in August to three years in prison after pleading guilty to assault and other charges. The FBI said Jackson speared police officers with a flag pole, and celebrated the violence after leaving Washington.
“We love our president and we stood up for America today be proud we did it and f— these hoe ass cops that are traitors we f— ed up that capital up today !!!” prosecutors say he wrote in text messages in which he also called Black Capitol police officers the N-word.
Guy Wesley Reffitt, of Wylie, arrived to the Capitol with a handgun, body armor and zip ties, and prosecutors say he told fellow members of the Three Percenters militia that he planned to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the building by her ankles, “with her head hitting every step on the way down.” He was the first person tried for his role in the riot, but had his sentence reduced last month to six years and seven months in prison.
At his first trial, Reffitt’s son, Jackson, testified that his father threatened him and his sister, saying that “if you turn me in, you’re a traitor, and traitors get shot.” Jackson Reffitt said Monday that he was stunned by Trump’s decision to pardon his father, who as of Tuesday was no longer listed as in federal prison custody.
“I’m honestly flabbergasted that we’ve gotten to this point,” Jackson Reffitt told CNN. “I’m terrified. …I’ve got a gun, I’ve moved and I’ve gotten myself away from what I thought would be a dangerous situation, and staying where I thought my dad could find me or other people that are going to feel so validated by these actions, by this pardon.”
Texas
North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak
A middle school in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is closed Friday after an outbreak of norovirus.
According to the school district, they closed Creekview Middle School in Fort Worth on Friday to sanitize and clean the building. The district said they plan on reopening the school on Monday.
The district said children started to get sick on Tuesday with what appeared to be a stomach virus and that on Wednesday it spread to a larger group.
EMSISD said they reached out to the Tarrant County Public Health Department and that they recommended disinfecting and cleaning the school on Wednesday night and reopening the next day.
More cases continued to be reported on Thursday, so the public health department then recommended that they clean again and close the campus on Friday.
Parents were notified of the district’s decision on Thursday afternoon.
The district has not said how many students and staff were sickened in the outbreak.
Officials with Children’s Medical Center said that because norovirus is highly contagious and resistant to many common hand sanitizers, it presents a unique challenge for families.
The hospital says hand sanitizer isn’t enough and recommends thorough hand washing with soap and water. They also recommend parents keep their children home for a full 48 hours after symptoms stop to prevent further outbreaks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are approximately 2,500 norovirus outbreaks in the United States each year and that they are most common from November through April. For further tips on preventing the spread of norovirus, visit the CDC.
Texas
Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.
So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.
Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.
Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.
Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.
Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.
“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.
Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert
Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.
Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.
Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.
“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.
The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.
Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.
Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”
Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.
Texas
Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.
Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.
The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.
Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.
Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.
In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.
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