Texas
Texas ag commissioner proposes armed guards at school cafeterias
![Texas ag commissioner proposes armed guards at school cafeterias](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/5Iqk2KlariJ2bOf3hYSJQykSfVo=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/b94a7181caf90af0cb550f64e831c8a3/Trump%20Rally%20Sid%20Miller%20REUTERS%20TT%2001.jpg)
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In the course of the Texas Republican Conference in Houston final weekend, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller criticized the regulation enforcement response to final month’s lethal faculty taking pictures in Uvalde and mentioned he plans to position “extremely educated” armed guards in every of the state’s faculty cafeterias.
“When our youngsters are consuming their meals, watching over them might be a great man with a gun able to take out a foul man with a gun,” Miller mentioned on the conference Saturday.
However political science specialists say Miller, whose workplace oversees Texas faculty vitamin packages, lacks the authority to implement such a coverage. And gun security specialists and faculty leaders say the proposal might not be the best choice to forestall one other mass taking pictures.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor on the College of Houston, mentioned there may be nothing particular in present statutes governing the Texas Division of Agriculture that may permit Miller to pursue such a coverage.
The Texas Division of Agriculture promotes shopper safety, wholesome residing and financial growth and displays agriculture manufacturing. The division administers the nationwide faculty lunch and breakfast packages for Texas schoolchildren, in accordance with its web site. The division additionally companions with the Division of Protection to supply recent produce to varsities. Different school-related duties embrace guaranteeing that each one colleges are complying with pest administration pointers.
Rottinghaus mentioned a number of the division’s authority comes from what the federal authorities permits agriculture departments throughout the nation to do. Which means the statutes governing the division largely deal with lunch packages, breakfast packages, milk packages and different faculty packages which are linked to federal legal guidelines.
“I critically doubt that any of these federal legal guidelines permit for state-level businesses to supply armed help in colleges, interval,” Rottinghaus mentioned.
Miller’s workplace didn’t instantly reply Wednesday to assertions that it doesn’t have the ability to require armed guards in cafeterias.
Linda Isaacks, govt director of the Dallas College Directors Affiliation, mentioned Miller’s authority over faculty cafeteria packages might have led him to consider he can implement the position of a guard in every cafeteria. And to her, it doesn’t make sense to have guards stationed particularly at school cafeterias.
Issacks mentioned elevated entry to psychological well being care is essential in combating mass gun violence. She mentioned lecturers ought to have the ability to lock doorways from the within with a purpose to hold lively shooters out, and school rooms ought to have extra dependable two-way communication modes to the principal’s workplace and native regulation enforcement.
The Uvalde shooter walked by means of an unlocked door of Robb Elementary. He entered a classroom with out showing to come across a locked door, in accordance with footage considered by The Texas Tribune. He killed 19 college students and two lecturers.
“We’ve got acquired to do one thing to make our youngsters safer, however I believe there’s lots that may be carried out earlier than we put an armed guard in a cafeteria,” Isaacks mentioned.
If Miller’s proposal does turn into a actuality, she hopes that officers don’t assume that including extra armed regulation enforcement will remedy the disaster of mass gun violence.
“It must be a part of an even bigger plan,” she mentioned.
Kevin Lawrence, govt director of the Texas Municipal Police Affiliation, identified that Home Invoice 1009 already permits Texas colleges to nominate their very own marshals to protect faculty premises. Most excessive colleges have some type of on-campus safety, whereas most basic colleges — together with Robb Elementary — don’t.
“The elementary colleges simply merely haven’t, up till now, been thought of major targets,” Lawrence defined.
He mentioned the state might as an alternative deal with coaching its already present regulation enforcement officers. Presently, Texas regulation enforcement officers are educated “about 3,500” other ways, which has confirmed to result in conflicting reactions to emergency conditions with officers generally not figuring out methods to reply or whose result in comply with.
Within the weeks because the tragedy in Uvalde, questions have swirled across the actions of police, who took greater than an hour to kill the shooter, and whether or not some lives might have been saved if officers confronted the barricaded gunman sooner.
Texas Division of Public Security Director Steve McCraw instructed lawmakers this week that the regulation enforcement response in Uvalde was an “abject failure.” However there have been differing accounts between state and Uvalde faculty officers about what occurred inside the college. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Tuesday accused the state of leaking information to make native police look unhealthy. On Wednesday, Uvalde colleges police Chief Pete Arredondo, who has been fiercely criticized for the response to the taking pictures, was positioned on administrative go away.
Lawrence mentioned a number of of the primary officers who responded to the emergency have been educated by 5 totally different businesses, all of which probably had their very own coaching supplies. Refocusing consideration and assets on unifying the coaching these businesses supply would enhance regulation enforcement responses in occasions of disaster, he mentioned.
Nonetheless, including an armed guard to each faculty might function a deterrent to potential faculty shooters, Lawrence mentioned.
Rottinghaus mentioned the Legislature must flip a blind eye to Miller’s actions or must give particular Legislative approval for such a coverage to be carried out.
“The Texas Division of Agriculture virtually at all times stays in its personal lane,” Rottinghaus mentioned. “They virtually by no means have interaction in policy-making that’s outdoors the framework of what they’re allowed to do.”
On the off probability that Miller would have the ability to instate this coverage, his division probably wouldn’t have the finances to fund this system. Rottinghaus mentioned the division probably would have native faculty districts fund it.
Rottinghaus mentioned there’s loads of analysis indicating that there are methods to make colleges safer, however arming folks inside of colleges just isn’t the preferred or environment friendly method to enhance faculty security.
Sewell Chan and Zach Despart contributed to this story.
Disclosure: College of Houston has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
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Texas
City Councilmen address Texas Ethics Commission findings
![City Councilmen address Texas Ethics Commission findings](https://gray-kauz-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/MKHYF5PNWFDNXFCF6P5EXLI4KY.jpg?auth=dca68a5d71827a71406148cf7d486674c20fbc37472be048e2d5dfd7b19fe559&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – After five months of looking into complaints made against Wichita Falls City Council members in January, the Texas Ethics Commission has resolved the issue.
Tim Short, Tom Taylor, Jeff Browning, and Mike Battaglino all have agreed to pay a $500 Civil Penalty.
Cathy Dodson, who ran for the City Council District 3 seat in last year’s general election filed the complaints to the T.E.C.
“A non-profit cannot be involved in politics, the Wichita Falls Firefighter Association couldn’t list it that would be illegal,” Cathy Dodson said.
She told crews back in January that she had sufficient evidence to prove the four men took money from the Wichita Falls Firefighter Association PAC.
After notifying the council of their finding, they released a statement:
“The PAC provided written notice of this in-kind contribution on April 21, 2024. All four of us have now corrected our reports to disclose the in-kind contributions. Our joint settlement also states that the parties neither admit or deny the findings of the fact and conclusions of law described. We have paid the small civil penalty and made the bookkeeping adjustments. As a group, we look to move forward for the betterment of the city of Wichita Falls,” City Council Members said.
The city also added, at least six other complaints to the Ethics Commission regarding the same issues were dismissed.
Copyright 2024 KAUZ. All rights reserved.
Texas
Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations
![Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sky-Elements-record-setting-2023-July-4th-drone-show-Photo-Sky-Elements.jpg)
A moment from Sky Elements’ record-setting 2023 July 4th drone show [Photo: Sky Elements]
Last month, the Fort Worth-based drone light show company Sky Elements put their dazzling nighttime sky skills on national TV with an appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” earning a “golden buzzer” from Simon Cowell himself.
The 400-foot-tall, 300-foot wide display in the skies outside the the show’s studio featured a rocket liftoff and an image of Cowell in the sky as a waving, space-walking astronaut, capped by the AGT logo.
“It was really patriotic,” Cowell told the Sky Elements team after the demonstration. “And I think the way you told the story, the use of music, whether you’re 3 years old, whether you’re 100 years old, I think you’re absolutely going to love that audition.”
You can watch that AGT clip here for a cool, behind-the-scenes look at how the team’s drone show takes off.
See for yourself this coming week
Or you can watch Sky Elements in action yourself all over North Texas in the next week:
Tomorrow, Saturday June 29 at Toyota Stadium, Sky Elements will give a performance during FC Dallas’ 7:30 p.m. game against FC Cincinnati.
On Wednesday July 3, Sky Elements will perform Fourth of July shows in two local cities. The first will be the Denton Independence Day celebration at Quakertown Park, with “flight times” at 9:15 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The second will be held Wednesday during day 1 of a 2-day Sparks & Stripes celebration in Irving, with a drone and fireworks show at 9:20 p.m. at Levy Event Plaza over Lake Carolyn.
First drone light show to get FAA fireworks approval
![](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pyro-drone-show-by-Sky-Elements-Video-still-Sky-Elements.png)
“Pyro drone show” with fireworks on drones by Sky Elements [Video still: Sky Elements]
In May, Sky Elements announced that it had become “the first U.S.-based drone light show company to receive FAA approval to attach fireworks to drones.”
The company had been working on obtaining the waiver for 26 months before the FAA finally granted its approval. The FAA green light allows Sky Elements to legally attach and launch fireworks from drones during their shows, creating what they call “pyro drone shows.”
It’s not the first time Sky Elements has made history. On Fourth of July 2023, the company snagged a Guinness World Records title for the largest aerial formation of words created by drones (by using 1,002 drones). Then last December, the company broke two more Guiness World Records with a 1,499-drone show in North Richland Hills.
And when Major League Cricket held its historic opening night last July in Grand Prairie, Sky Elements was there to mark the occasion with a drone light show.
Not just all over North Texas—all over the U.S., too
The DFW shows coming next week are just a glimmer of the stunning amount of events Sky Elements is booked for across the U.S. You can check out the company’s master list of performances by going here—including a patriotically astounding amount of shows it’s doing around this year’s July 4th.
Get on the list.
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Texas
Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas
![Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1024/512/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A new tropical disturbance is now being monitored for development in the eastern Atlantic Ocean just in the wake of Invest 95L, which is on the cusp of becoming a tropical depression or Tropical Storm Beryl.
HOUSTON — A massive plume of dust from Africa’s Saharan Desert is blowing across the entire Atlantic Ocean this week, set to reach the shores of Florida and Texas in the coming days and casting a haze over typically blue skies.
The plume is currently forecast to skirt South Florida late Friday night into early Saturday morning, then push into the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
Eventually, the plume is forecast to move into Southeast Texas Sunday into Monday, with Corpus Christi and perhaps Houston likely to see some of the effects.
Coastal communities along the Florida Peninsula and the Gulf Coast are accustomed to seeing plumes of Saharan dust over the summer, which can impact air quality, produce colorful sunrises and sunsets, and reduce the chances of precipitation.
182 million tons of dust a year carried away from Africa
As daily triple-digit heat bakes the Saharan Desert, hot, dry air rises from the surface and carries fine particles of dust from the sands. That dust-laden air climbs to the highest reaches of the atmosphere, where winds called the Easterlies or Trade Winds (blowing from east to west) carry that dust about 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean into the Western Hemisphere in what’s known as the Saharan Air Layer (SAL).
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SAHARAN DUST PLUME
According to NASA, about 182 million tons of dust leave Africa every year, though that amount can vary depending on the amount of rainfall south of the Sahara region.
![FOX Model Wide with Dust Tracker](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Depending on the amount of dust being carried by the plume, air quality can be drastically affected. This means that people who have certain types of breathing problems can experience difficulty. People in the path of the plume can also experience eye, nose and throat irritation because of the fine dust particles in the air, according to WebMD.
The dry air from the hot, sandy desert also works to suppress tropical development and significant plumes of dust and dry air are common in the Atlantic during the first two and a half months of the hurricane season.
![Saharan Dust Trend](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/Saharan-Dust-Trend.png?ve=1&tl=1)
However, the current situation is a bit unusual in that there is quite a bit of tropical activity percolating in the Atlantic even with a significant dust layer.
Invest 95L and another tropical disturbance just to its east are holding positions just south of the dust layer, and are feeding off available moisture to their south to skirt the edges of the dust layer as they trek west.
However, the dust layer may become an important variable in the storms’ future development depending on their track.
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