Texas
Texas grocery store gets state's first ammunition vending machine: 'Well secured from theft'
Aidan Johnston, Gun Owners of America’s director of federal affairs, explains why gun sales are surging in the U.S.
A Canyon Lake, Texas, supermarket has a new vending machine, but rather than selling candy, drinks or potato chips, it dispenses ammunition.
Lowe’s Market on Sattler Road in Canyon Lake was the recent recipient of the first ammunition vending machine in the state.
While recent trends across the U.S. have seen vending machines used to sell sandwiches from places like Subway, marijuana products, candied bacon and even crack pipes, they are now being used to sell ammunition.
While some may be concerned selling ammunition from a vending machine could lead to bullets in the hands of criminals or even children, the company behind the latest trend, American Rounds, claims its machines offer the highest standards and state-of-the-art security.
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American Rounds is bringing ammunition vending machines to stores around the country, starting with Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. (American Rounds, LLC)
American Rounds CEO Grant Magers told Fox News Digital his company was established last summer. Since then, it has installed ammunition vending machines at eight locations.
The first machine was installed at a Fresh Value supermarket in Pell City, Alabama. American Rounds also has four machines in Oklahoma at Super C Marts located in Noble, Lindsay, Wetumka and Kingston.
Along with the vending machine at Lowe’s Market in Canyon Lake, the company plans to install another at a second Canyon Lake Lowe’s Market in a couple of weeks.
The eighth vending machine will be installed at a LaGree’s Food Store in Buena Vista, Colorado, next week.
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American Rounds is bringing ammunition vending machines to stores around the country, starting with Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. (American Rounds, LLC)
“We have over 200 store requests for AARM (Automated Ammo Retail Machines) units covering approximately nine states currently, and that number is growing daily,” Magers said.
With business on the rise, Magers said he found it equally important to address the technology used in the ammunition kiosks, saying it provides accessibility but also safety.
The CEO said technology was a key factor when deciding to create American Rounds. Ammunition is sold otherwise either online or off the shelf.
“These environments lead to inadvertent sales to underaged purchasers, and … in the case of retail stores, a high theft rate,” he said. “What we loved about this concept is the AARM units use state-of-the-art ID scanners combined with facial recognition before a transaction can be made.”
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American Rounds is placing ammunition vending machines inside grocery stores around the country. (Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Magers said the facial recognition and state-of-the-art ID scanners ensure a buyer is of legal age and is who he says he is.
Magers said the machines weigh up to 2,000 pounds and are “well secured from theft.”
“We only place them inside stores and not outside,” he said, suggesting his company does the opposite of Redbox, which often places its kiosks outside stores.
Magers boasted that his team is made up of people who support law-abiding gun ownership, adding they believe in the Second Amendment and a need in the market to provide a safe and secure method to sell ammunition.
“[The ammunition vending machine] maintains the integrity of the Second Amendment and reduces the opportunity for error in retail sales environments,” Magers said.
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Another concern is with the data the kiosks collect during the transaction, though Magers said that is protected too.
“We do not give out, share or sell our customers’ information,” he said. “The scan is for verifying the customer is of legal age and that they are who they say they are only.”
Lowe’s Market did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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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