Texas
Public Health Emergency Acts Streamline Texas Disaster Response
The Public Health Emergency declared for Texas by US health authorities this month will cut through bureaucratic hurdles to lifesaving care, but disaster prevention efforts are a more efficient use of federal dollars, scholars of health and environmental law said.
Southeast Texas, including Houston, faced back-to-back disasters earlier this month after Hurricane Beryl was followed closely by a powerful heat wave. The storm left more than one million residents sweltering without electricity or air conditioning as heat indexes surpassed 100 degrees, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The sequence of extreme weather was deadly: 15 deaths in Harris County, which includes Houston, had been attributed to Hurricane Beryl as of July 22, local officials said. Seven of those deaths were caused by heat amid power outages due to the storm.
“Often the more serious problems are either the second or the third disaster,” said Robert Verchick, a professor of disaster and climate change law at Loyola University New Orleans and a former Environmental Protection Agency official in the Obama administration. “It’s like a row of dominoes, and not having electricity for a week is a serious public health problem.”
The public health emergency for Texas, declared by the HHS on July 12, followed a major disaster declaration from President Joe Biden that unlocked federal resources to aid recovery efforts.
“The combination of severe heat and limited access to electricity is dangerous, especially for vulnerable populations and those relying on electricity-dependent durable medical equipment and certain healthcare services,” Dawn O’Connell, HHS’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said in a statement announcing the agency’s emergency declaration.
Cutting Red Tape
While a major disaster declaration is more “infrastructure oriented,” the public health emergency is focused on “dealing with the people hurt from the storm and dealing with the people hurt from the extreme heat,” said Jean Su, senior attorney and energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The emergency declaration is essentially a tool to cut through regulatory red tape that would impede the ability of healthcare providers to respond quickly during a disaster, said Dr. David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs and chief medical officer for the University of Texas System.
“There’s a lot of reporting and deadlines and those types of things that get in the way of a hospital being able to respond,” said Lakey, a former commissioner of the state’s health department. “The emergency just takes some of that bureaucratic work off the table for a while for them to be able to concentrate on caring for these individuals.”
Dialysis patients, for example, may have a care provider that’s unable to operate after the hurricane, Lakey said. The emergency declaration would allow them to quickly receive treatment elsewhere, and also to replace supplies they may have lost in the storm, he said.
The emergency declaration unlocks emergency funds and allows HHS to take steps including modifying certain privacy and telemedicine requirements, adjusting Medicare reimbursements, deploying additional personnel, and more.
But Verchick urged officials to invest more resources in preparing for disasters ahead of time, rather than solely reacting once they happen.
“Of course responding to disasters is extremely important, but it’s more important to take actions that prevent the harms to begin with,” he said. “That is money that goes so much further in the prevention stage than it does in the recovery stage.”
Additional efforts to protect against extreme heat would be particularly helpful in predominantly Black and Latino communities, Verchick said. Those places often face disproportionate harm from high temperatures because of policies that have funneled mitigation resources toward wealthier and whiter areas.
The Texas public health emergency is the first such declaration HHS has made this year, though it has twice renewed public health emergencies for wildfire recovery in Hawaii and for the opioid epidemic nationwide. The agency declared five public health emergencies in 2023.
Texas
Texas primary runoff: Key races on the May 26 ballot
SAN ANTONIO – Texas voters will settle unfinished business from the March Primary on May 26, when they decide either who will be on the ballot for the November general election or who will take office next year.
Those contests in which no candidate received 50% plus one of the vote will be on the Tuesday, May 26 runoff election ballot.
The marquee matchup on that ballot is the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate between incumbent John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn received 42% of the vote to Paxton’s 41%. The two were the top vote-getters in a field of nine candidates seeking the seat on the November ballot.
Cornyn and Paxton were both hoping to get the endorsement of President Donald Trump, but that didn’t happen before the March vote and hasn’t happened since.
One day after the primary, the president said that he would endorse one of them but expected the other to drop out of the race. Neither candidate was inclined to do that. There still hasn’t been an endorsement.
Whoever wins will face Democratic nominee James Talarico, an Austin-area state representative and former San Antonio teacher who won his primary bid against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Another seat both parties have their eyes on in the newly-drawn Congressional District 35. Republicans and Democrats both want this seat formerly held by Greg Casar, who was drawn out of the district in last year’s redistricting. Casar will seek re-election in District 37.
Both the red and blue parties have runoff contests for voters to settle. On the Republican side, Carlos De La Cruz and John Lujan are the two candidates who came out with the most votes from a field of 11 candidates. Lujan, who had 33% of the vote, is giving up his seat in the Texas House to run for the job in Washington. De La Cruz, an Air Force Veteran and brother to U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (District 15), received 27% of the vote. Trump endorsed De La Cruz early in the campaign.
On the Democratic side, the race was close between Maureen Galindo with 29% of the vote and Johnny Garcia (27%). The pair outlasted two other candidates to qualify for the runoff. Garcia is a now-former spokesperson with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. Galindo is a housing advocate who also works as a marriage and family therapist.
In Bexar County, the race for the Democratic spot on the ballot for District Attorney is down from eight to two: Luz Elena Chapa and Jane Davis. Chapa, a former appellate judge, received 27% of the vote. Davis, the chief of the juvenile section of the Bexar County DA’s Office, earned 18%.
The winner of this runoff will face Republican Ashley Foster in November, along with any independent candidate who makes it onto the ballot. The winner of that contest will take over from outgoing District Attorney Joe Gonzales, who is not seeking re-election after two tumultuous terms in office. Gonzales has endorsed Jane Davis as his successor.
Voters, depending on their party and address, will also be deciding the lieutenant governor, attorney general, state representative, state senator, county clerk and district clerk races.
The Bexar County Democratic sample ballot can be seen below:
The Bexar County Republican sample ballot can be seen below:
Early voting begins on Monday, May 18, and runs through Friday, May 22.
Election day is Tuesday, May 26.
Read also:
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Texas
Best social media reactions from Texas A&M’s 18-11 loss to MSU
The pitching woes continued for Texas A&M in its 18-11 series-opening loss to Mississippi State at Blue Bell Park on Thursday night.
Typically, scoring 11 runs in an SEC contest equates to a win, but not for the Aggies. Jason Kelly’s pitching staff gave up the most runs in a single inning since Texas A&M joined the conference in 2012. To make matters worse, the loss was tied for the most runs allowed this season, which came in an 18-5 run-rule loss to Auburn on May 2.
Needless to say, the bullpen has much work to do moving forward. With postseason play right around the corner, it is make-or-break for the pitchers on the roster to step up and provide consistency on the mound for the Aggies. If Texas A&M drops the series to the Bulldogs on Friday, it will be the end of the team’s hopes of being a national seed.
The Aggies will aim to avoid dropping their third straight SEC series, as they face Mississippi State in Game 2 at Blue Bell Park on Friday. First pitch against the Bulldogs is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT and will be broadcast live on SEC Network+.
Here are some of the best social media reactions from Texas A&M’s loss to Mississippi State in Game 1:
Final score from Blue Bell Park
18 runs… yes, you read that correctly
Statistics from the series-opening loss
Mississippi State takes down No. 10 in Game 1
Texas A&M drops in the league standings
That one stings a little
Poor night for A&M on the mound
Kellner’s mask was a sight to see
A closer look at Kellner’s mask guarding his eye
Grahovac’s lead-off solo home run
Hacopian’s solo home run in the first
RPI update
Weston Moss slated to start in Game 2
The formula for success wasn’t there for the Aggies in the series opener
Frustrating night on the bump for Texas A&M
The Aggies must find an answer to the lack of consistent performances on the mound
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.
Texas
‘We have great support’: Coach Bucky speaks at Dallas A&M Club event
Texas A&M football and basketball may be in the quiet stretch of their calendars, but the offseason doesn’t mean the work slows down. This is the time for coaches to hit the road, meet with Aggie clubs, and lay out the vision for the months ahead. One of the first stops each summer is the Dallas Aggies Coaches Night.
Hosted annually by the Dallas A&M Club, the event brings together several Texas A&M head coaches. This year, first‑year basketball coach Bucky McMillan joined football coach Mike Elko. Before the program began, both coaches met with the media and offered updates on their teams. And while football naturally draws the biggest spotlight, McMillan delivered plenty of insight into his first year in Aggieland and the foundation he’s building.
Below are some of the most notable quotes from Coach Bucky’s appearance at Coaches Night.
Texas A&M head basketball coach Bucky McMillan speaks on attending his first Dallas A&M Club event
“We didn’t have a roster. We didn’t have any coaches… It was wild, but since then I have gotten to meet so many great people and so many I have made friends with.”
Coach Bucky McMillan on the support they team received
“We have great support, and you did it with a coach you didn’t know very well. We broke a lot of records last year… We broke 15 A&M records. We are going to break all those again next year. I was proud of our defense, as small as we were.”
Coach Bucky McMillan discusses what being in Aggieland has meant to him
“Aggies love Aggies and A&M. I am from SEC country in the middle of Alabama. I tell my friends, the honor and tradition of being an Aggie is something I don’t take lightly. The honor of the people, it’s truly awesome. It makes me proud to wear this on my shirt.”
Coach Bucky McMillan on Mike Elko
“The football coach has to deal with a lot more things than I do… We lose a game, and most of y’all know about it, but everybody knows if he loses a game.” “The one thing I know is there could not better coach for Texas A&M than Mike Elko.”
Coach Bucky McMillan on the 2026-27 basketball season
“We are going to take that next step. We were a game away from the Sweet 16 this year, and we are going to be in that second weekend next year, trying to get the Final Four.”
Here’s a look at the impact the Dallas A&M Club has had since its founding.
Established in 1902, the Dallas A&M Club has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to Dallas-area students attending Texas A&M – with 29 Aggie fish and sophomores currently benefiting from our $6,000 scholarship awards.
As the chartered A&M Club for all of Dallas County, the DAMC has also generously given back to The Association of Former Students by contributing to the following: Aggie Park, Endowed Aggie Ring Scholarship (4), Endowed Diamond Century Club, Endowed Scholarship Fund, Corregidor Muster Memorial Fund, Building Enhancement Campaign, and The Association’s Annual Fund.
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on X: @whosnextsports1.
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