Grid is still vulnerable

Can the winter storm of 2021 repeat itself? ERCOT’s own studies indicate that not enough power plants are being built for reliability. Plants have been winterized, but there aren’t enough of them. The grid is still vulnerable.

The scarcity pricing is still present, which allowed market prices to skyrocket during the last storm.

Texas doesn’t need scarcity pricing, rotating blackouts and living on the edge of another grid disaster.

It needs a reliable supply of electricity and lower electric bills.

Thomas Darte, Greenville

DART is vital

I have lived in Dallas for 48 years. During that time, I can’t recall a period when DART was not part of the public conversation — whether about its planning, development or construction. A robust public transportation system has long been understood as a vital component of any major city’s ability to function effectively for all of its citizens.

Given that history, it is difficult to understand how, after decades of planning, enormous public investment and the completion of a substantial portion of the necessary infrastructure, several municipalities are now even considering “dropping out” of DART.

I am not a regular user of DART. However, I recognize that a significant portion of our fellow citizens relies on it almost exclusively. What happens to all those workers who use DART — and to the businesses that depend on them — if this system is weakened? And what impact does that have on the level of service we all receive from those businesses?

At the heart of this issue is the question some communities are asking: What do they receive in return for what DART costs them? That is a fair question. But has anyone fully considered what it might cost all of us if we handicap DART and limit its ability to serve the entire region?

Daryl Beck, Dallas

Privatize DART

Still fiddling while DART is burning. Here’s an idea. Form a private company, put a businessman in charge, sell tax free bonds to the general public and get out of the way! Think tollways, not foreign owners, but we the people.

Robin Stephens, Far North Dallas

Take care of White Rock Lake

Re: “Roll up your sleeves, Dallas,” by Mark Lamster, Sunday Arts & Life column.

Lamster urged Dallas leaders to “…preserve and restore its iconic City Hall” in this column about revitalizing downtown. That advice reminded me of another of the city’s iconic places in need of preservation and restoration — White Rock Lake.

Every year 170,000 cubic yards of silt and debris (enough to fill over 11,000 dump trucks) wash into the crown jewel of Dallas parks, according to a recent study.

In 2024, Dallas voters approved a $20 million bond to dredge a portion of the lake. That is a welcome commitment to preserving and restoring the lake.

However, a consulting engineer has cautioned planners that “The goal here is to establish a dredge program, not just to do a single dredge project.”

The money pledged so far is less than half of what will be needed to complete the dredging. Due diligence will require commitment and action from city leaders and citizens alike. We owe it to Nick and Nora, the bald eagle pair who have chosen the lake as their home. They are building a new nest in preparation for the next generation of eagles. We should do the same.

Walt Davis, Dallas/White Rock

Help Fort Worth’s nearby schools

Re: “Driving change in Fort Worth’s schools — Mayors, parents and community leaders take on five challenges to address low literacy rate,” by William McKenzie, Sunday Opinion.

This opinion piece says that the Sid Richardson Foundation and the Fort Worth Education Partnership are working to address the city’s low literacy rate. I hope that they are also having conversations with the small cities that ring Fort Worth, because many have the same low school rating as the Fort Worth ISD.

The school districts in these cities, such as Lake Worth, Everman, Birdville and White Settlement, have a large percentage of economically disadvantaged students and a significant percentage of students who are not English proficient, as does the Fort Worth district.

The successful approaches developed by the partnership to raise literacy will likely be just as useful in these school districts.

One Tarrant County school district is doing better than its profile would predict. Hurst-Euless-Bedford has a B rating and is seeing a larger percentage of its students master their curriculum and complete college, even with 60% of its students being economically disadvantaged and 25% not being English proficient. Perhaps their experience could help the other school districts improve their scores.

Jimmy A. DeFoor, Benbrook

The America I know

At my gym the other day, I sat at a workstation. Next to me was a woman in a hijab, pants and a full-length tunic. Across from me, a man spoke on the phone in a language I knew was Arabic.

At another table sat a scrawny teen immersed in his phone. A woman of color strolled by chasing her toddler. Her accent was Jamaican.

I, an older woman, sat post-workout writing in a leatherbound journal. I never wondered about anyone’s sexual orientation or pronoun preference. We all went about our business at peace.

This is the America I know and value. Teach your children to think critically and allow them to see the world as it is — no indoctrination is needed.

Cynthia Stock, Garland

Buying FIFA tickets not easy

Re: “Soccer fans call foul as ticket prices soar,” Sunday news story.

As recounted by this ticket buyer, it certainly was a sporting adventure. One I will avoid. Thanks for pointing out that FIFA is selling tickets to virtually stand in line at the virtual box office.

Doug Caldwell, Plano

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The death of a Cuban migrant inside a Texas immigration detention facility has been officially classified as a homicide, according to an El Paso county autopsy report.

Wednesday’s autopsy report from the El Paso county medical examiner’s office concluded that Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression”, according to Adam Gonzalez, a deputy medical examiner.

The report, which the Associated Press reviewed, also cited witnesses saying Lunas Campos became “unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement”. The document added that Lunas Campos had injuries on his chest and knees – as well as petechial hemorrhages in the eyelids and neck.

Lunas Campos died on 3 January while being held by federal immigration officials at Camp East Montana, a detention facility near El Paso. Confirming Lunas Campos’s death earlier in January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that Lunas Campos died after “experiencing medical distress” – adding that his death was under investigation.

However, according to a witness who had previously spoken to the Associated Press, Lunas Campos was handcuffed while at least five guards pinned him down, with one squeezing his neck until he became unconscious.

According to the DHS, Lunas Campos was arrested in July during an immigration sweep in Rochester, New York. Lunas Campos, who entered the US in 1996, had been charged with child sexual abuse, possession of a firearm and aggravated assault.

Attorneys representing Lunas Campos’s family have moved to block the deportation of two people they say witnessed the events leading to his death, ABC reported. In an emergency petition filed on Tuesday and granted by a federal judge, the lawyers argued that the witnesses’ accounts were essential to establishing what occurred.

“The two witnesses appear to have unique knowledge and independent eyewitness testimony of the events at issue,” the petition stated, according to ABC, which added that Lunas Campos’s family planned to seek formal testimony from the witnesses.

In the DHS’s initial statement following Lunas Campos’s death, officials said “Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm”.

“He was subsequently placed in segregation,” that statement continued. “While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance.”

However, the DHS changed its account after reports emerged in recent weeks that Lunas Campos’s death might be classified as a homicide.

The DHS claimed in a statement to the Guardian on 15 January that Lunas Campos had attempted suicide and that he “violently resisted” guards who tried to help him. Similarly, the Associated Press reported the DHS claiming that “during the ensuing struggle, Lunas Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness”.

The Guardian has reached out to DHS for comment on the published autopsy report.

According to ICE, the agency’s detention standards “ensure that detainees are treated humanely; protected from harm; provided appropriate medical and mental health care; and receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled”.

At least four migrants – including Lunas Campos – have died in US immigration custody since the beginning of year. The deaths of 32 people in custody in 2025 made it ICE’s deadliest year in two decades.

DALLAS (AP) — Texas and Oklahoma braced for heavy snow and ice that could make roadways treacherous Friday in what forecasters predict will be some of the initial effects of a huge, dayslong winter storm threatening catastrophic damage, extensive power outages and bitterly cold weather to the eastern two-thirds of the U.S.

In the Houston area, a utility company had 3,300 employees ready to work the winter storm, while Oklahoma’s Department of Transportation pretreated highways and interstates with salt brine. Freezing rain and sleet were also expected in New Mexico as early as Friday.

The massive storm system is expected to bring a crippling ice storm from Texas through parts of the South, potentially around a foot (30 centimeters) of snow from Oklahoma through Washington, D.C., New York and Boston, and then a final punch of bitterly cold air that could drop wind chills to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 46 Celsius) in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota.

Forecasters are warning the damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival a hurricane. About 160 million people were under winter storm or cold weather watches or warnings — and in many places both.

Cold air streaming down from Canada caused Chicago Public Schools and Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa to cancel classes Friday. Wind chills predicted to be as low as minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 37 Celsius) could cause frostbite within 10 minutes, making it too dangerous to walk to school or wait for the bus.

The cold punch coming after means it will take a while to thaw out, an especially dangerous prospect in places where ice and snow weighs down tree branches and power lines and cuts electricity, perhaps for days. Roads and sidewalks could remain icy well into next week.

Ice can add hundreds of pounds to power lines and branches and make them more susceptible to snapping, especially in windy weather.

Freezing temperatures are expected all the way to Florida, forecasters said.

A severe cold snap five years ago took down much of the power grid in Texas, leaving millions without power for days and resulting in hundreds of deaths. Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that won’t happen again, saying the power system “has never been stronger.”

Winter storms can be notoriously tricky to forecast, with forecasters saying the places with the worst weather can’t be pinned down until the event starts.

Governors in Georgia and Mississippi have declared states of emergency.

In Huntsville, Alabama, employees from Jomo’s Power Equipment, Parts & Service Inc. sold dozens of generators within about a day and ordered an emergency shipment to meet customer demand.

“I’d say 95% of the calls were generator-related or either service or ‘Do you have any generators in stock,’” Bryan Hill, the store’s manager, said Thursday.

Lindsay Sylvester in Toney, Alabama, stocked up early in the week on bread and other supplies at her home and sent her son, who is in college, bread, gloves, candles and hand warmers.

Sylvester said she went to the store early in the week because she knew supplies would be depleted close to the weekend.

“A couple of people I heard talking about they had gone to Walmart and there was no milk, no bread,” she said. “All the necessities were gone.”

As a precaution, North Carolina’s largest public school system prepared for potentially several days out of physical classrooms next week, telling its teachers to create three days of assignments accessible online or through paper copies.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger told residents to prepare for days without power or the ability to leave their neighborhoods. And in a nod to the politics of the time, the newly inaugurated Democrat said people should not be scared to call 911 in an emergency just because of the immigration crackdowns going on in places like Minnesota.

Arkansas Department of Transportation spokesperson Dave Parker pleaded for people to be patient and stay home if possible once the storm hits.

By Thursday, airlines had canceled hundreds of flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday, including at airports in Dallas, Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

At a busy grocery store near downtown Dallas, Kennedi Mallard and Frank Green loaded two shopping carts full of supplies into their car. They said there were some bare shelves inside.

“No water, no eggs, no butter, no ground meat,” Green said.

___

Megnien reported from Atlanta and Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report.

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