Texas
Texas hospitals prepare to gather data on treating non-citizens

DALLAS – On Nov. 1, hospitals in Texas will have to start asking patients if they are United States citizens.
The move comes after an August executive order by Governor Greg Abbott.
The data must be reported to the state no later than March 1, 2025, and continue to be reported quarterly.
Abbott says he wants to know how much taxpayer dollars are going to providing care to non-citizens.

“Executive Order 46 will certainly be complied with,” said Stephen Love with the DFW Hospital Council. “They’re working within their own teams, their legal counsel, their people to do the registrations, whether it be in the ER or outpatient on how they were going to capture this information.”
Texas leads the nation in uninsured residents, and most of them are citizens.
The Texas Hospital Association says one out of every six Texans do not have health insurance.
Texas hospitals provided $3 billion in uninsured care that is not reimbursed.
“Increased expenditures for Texas hospitals providing medical care to individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States imposes burdens on the Texas healthcare system, including by predictably increasing the costs of medical care for all Texans,” reads the executive order.
Love wants everyone to know that the order does not mean hospitals will refuse care to non-citizens.
“[Gov. Abbott] made it clear we still need to treat them if it’s an emergency situation. So this is not designed in any way to say that that should influence whether you treat the patient or not,” he said.
The order came at a time where illegal border crossings were high.
Since this summer, crossing numbers in Texas have dropped significantly. Primarily, due to Abbott’s Operation Lone Star and an executive order from President Biden.
Love says hospitals on the DFW Council support Medicaid expansion, something Texas lawmakers have refused to do.
“Medicaid expansion would not solve all the problems. But Steven, it would go a good way towards helping many people that are uninsured,” he argued.
FOX 4 reached out to the governor’s office to see if he had any comment ahead of Nov. 1.
Gov. Abbott’s team says they stand by their original statement that he will fight to ensure Texas is compensated.

Texas
Daily Briefing: Redrawing Texas

Good morning!🙋🏼♀️ I’m Nicole Fallert. Happy Shark Week! 🦈
Quick look at Monday’s news:
Texas’ congressional map on the drawing board
The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature is poised to consider a new set of congressional maps during a special session that kicks off Monday.
Here’s the latest from the Caller-Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.
- Why this matters for America: After facing pressure from Trump’s political team, Gov. Greg Abbott has asked lawmakers to redraw some of Texas’ 38 U.S. House districts ahead of the 2026 midterms. Trump wants to disperse GOP voters across the state to help flip blue seats, rather then have them be consolidated in red districts.
- Can the president pressure state politics? Democrats from the state’s congressional delegation said they expect the new districts to violate the federal Voting Rights Act by diluting the votes of racial minorities.
- “I’m a Texan. How can I get involved?” Texans can follow the special session online, contact their lawmakers and testify at hearings to participate in the legislative process.
More from the USA TODAY Network: A special session could spark redistricting in Florida and Ohio is already scheduled to redraw maps this year.
Israel fire kills dozens more aid seekers in Gaza
At least 67 people were killed by Israeli fire while they waited for U.N. aid trucks Sunday in northern Gaza, the territory’s health ministry said, as Israel issued new evacuation orders for areas packed with displaced Gazans, some of whom began to leave. The ministry said dozens of people were also wounded in the incident in northern Gaza, in one of the highest reported tolls among repeated recent cases in which aid seekers have been killed. Much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland during more than 21 months of war and there are fears of accelerating starvation.
More news to know now
What’s the weather today? Check your local forecast here.
ICE detention is growing in the South
Republican-led Southern states increasingly lead in detaining and deporting millions of immigrants ‒ from “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades to the expansion of a sprawling Georgia immigration facility. Far from the U.S.-Mexico border, Mississippi has the ICE jail with the highest average daily population. Louisiana has more detention centers than any other state besides Texas – nine total – after it converted nearly half a dozen correctional facilities to immigrant detention. Most are remote, scattered near farms and forests. And other states might follow Louisiana’s example as more federal funds flow to ICE detention.
A $10 billion lawsuit. More documents coming. Here’s the latest on Trump and Epstein.
Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit for libel and slander against the Wall Street Journal, its publisher, two of its reporters, and News Corp founder and former friend Rupert Murdoch. At issue is its story that Trump sent a “bawdy” 50th-birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, decorated with a crude drawing of a woman’s naked body that used his distinctive signature. Trump called the article “false” and demanded damages. But his attempt to convince Americans that there is nothing to see here is likely to be an uphill battle.
Today’s talkers
WNBA Commissioner booed by crowd chanting ‘Pay Them!’
In case their message to the WNBA and its owners wasn’t already clear, the players sent another one ahead of Saturday night’s All-Star Game. Taking the court for warmups, every single player wore a black T-shirt with “Pay Us What You Owe Us” emblazoned across the front. The players’ unwavering stance stands in stark contrast to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s impression this is just the normal back-and-forth that occurs in every labor negotiation. The crowd booed Engelbert and chanted “Pay Them! Pay Them!” as she presented the All-Star MVP trophy to Napheesa Collier, whose team beat Team Clark 151-131.
Photo of the day: This is dad’s special cup
Scratch “cup.” It’s the Claret Jug. American Scottie Scheffler stole hearts celebrating his win of the 2025 Open Championship, the first British Open victory of his career, giving him career wins at three of the four major tournaments. Only the U.S. Open remains.
Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.
Texas
Texas A&M Coach Mike Elko Drops Bold NFL Draft Prediction

The SEC has been by far the most dominant conference in college football over the past 20 years or so, and naturally, has sent by far the most talent to the NFL as well.
Just over the past two years, the SEC has had a combined 138 players selected in the NFL Draft. The next closest conference is the Big Ten with 113, so there’s a pretty sizable gap.
It’s clear that NFL scouts know how tough it is to play in the SEC, and especially how tough it is to win in it. Now, Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko wants to use that knowledge to his players’ benefit.
During SEC Media Days in Atlanta, Elko boldly proclaimed that the Aggies could have “double-digit” picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. He noted how past SEC champions have typically had around 13 draft picks, and hopes bringing a title back to College Station could lead to similar results for the Aggies.
“We should get to double digit NFL draft picks this year,” Elko said, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “That’ll be the first time Texas A&M has done that in a very long time.”
Looking at past SEC champions, Elko isn’t far off in his assessment. Georgia had 13 players selected in this year’s NFL Draft, while Alabama had 10 selected in 2024.
Of course, the problem is getting to the point of competing for an SEC title. The Aggies were technically only a game away from the SEC Championship Game, as had they beaten arch rival Texas in the final game of the regular season, they would’ve been the ones heading to Atlanta to face Kirby Smart and Georgia. However, an 8-5 record (5-3 in conference play, with all three losses coming in November) tells a different story.
“I think you have to go through some of that sometimes,” Elko said. “As painful as it is, as it was for us and our fans and everyone involved, we had never been in that position before. We had never been the hunted team. We had never been in November competing for an opportunity to get into Atlanta with our destiny in our own hands.”
“I think you learn how you have to elevate your game in those matchups when you become that team. Going on the road in back-to-back weeks, we didn’t play the football that we needed to play to finish it. It’s been our mantra the entire off-season. Mantras don’t turn into wins. But I do believe our kids have a really strong chip on their shoulders to change that story and finish this thing the right way.”
Not to mention, the Aggies only had three players selected in this year’s draft. They were all selected in the first two rounds – with Shemar Stewart going in the first and both Nic Scourton and Shemar Turner going in the second – but they still didn’t have that much of a presence.
For A&M to go from three draft picks to 10 or more in the span of one year would be quite the jump, but certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
Texas
Robert Roberson: What happens next in Texas ‘shaken baby syndrome’ case

DALLAS – An execution date has been set for Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson. But the “shaken baby syndrome” case is far from over.
Robert Roberson Execution Set
What we know:
On Wednesday, Judge Austin Reeve-Jackson set Roberson’s new execution date – Oct. 16 at 6 p.m.
The judge stated that he understands an appeal for a new trial is pending, but there was no legal basis for him not to honor the state’s request to set a new execution date.
What’s next:
Roberson’s legal team now has 89 days to find a way to save his life.
The defense can move for a “stay” on Judge Reeve-Jackson’s ruling, meaning his order won’t be enforced since the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals is already considering the case.
If the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grants the defense’s motion for a new trial, the execution date will be void.
Roberson’s defense team primarily wants that new trial, calling the evidence used to convict him “junk science.” They also claim to have new medical evidence to present.

What they’re saying:
But lead attorney Gretchen Sween said the whole process is much more difficult now that a judge has set an execution date.
“Access is very limited to lawyers when their clients are on death row as it is. You have to schedule phone calls. For instance, I tried to get a phone call so I could talk to my client after today. The soonest day they could give me was July 30. Well, by then I’ll already be there to see him, which is also something you have to arrange. So it doesn’t get easier. It gets harder. And all the other things he has to worry about preparing for this potentially,” said defense attorney Gretchen Sween.
Sween also said that with an execution date, Roberson must also go back to spending nearly all of his time chained up in solitary confinement.
“As I mentioned in the courtroom, he is now a part of this pilot program where he spends much of his days out of solitary confinement with other inmates, unshackled. And even before he was chosen as one of the first 12 to be part of this program, they allowed him to be unshackled in the chapel praying with lawmakers,” she said.
The other side:
All of that, of course, is of little concern to family members who believe Roberson is guilty of killing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis.
Curtis’ older brother, who was 4 years old when she died, is counting down the days until Oct. 16.
“In my opinion, he did it 100%. I’ve been here since 2016 at the first evidentiary hearing. There’s nothing new,” Matthew Bowman said. “This was done by blunt force trauma. This man laid his hands on this infant baby. I’m done being respectful. It’s time for speaking up for Nikki.”
Robert Roberson Murder Conviction

The backstory:
Roberson, 58, was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in Palestine, Texas in 2002.
He took her to the emergency room with a high fever, where medical staff determined her condition was consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
Roberson’s attorneys have challenged that diagnosis, calling it “junk science.” They say Nikki died from natural causes, likely undiagnosed pneumonia.
If executed, Roberson would be the first person in the United States executed for a murder case tied to shaken baby syndrome.
Robert Roberson’s Delayed Execution

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Robert Roberson execution temporarily halted
In a late night ruling, the Texas Supreme Court issued a stay, temporarily preventing the execution of Robert Roberson. Texas House members issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify next week. Roberson would be the first person in the US executed for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
The backstory:
A coalition of lawmakers and the lead detective on the case has argued the science supporting Roberson’s death sentence doesn’t hold up.
The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued a subpoena on the day before Roberson’s scheduled execution on Oct. 17, 2024 for the death row inmate to testify at a hearing about his case. The Supreme Court paused the execution that night to review the committee’s request.
An opinion from the Texas Supreme Court in November said that the committee should be allowed to hear his testimony, as long as a subpoena does not block an inevitable execution.
Roberson did not appear at subsequent House committee meetings after the attorney general’s office opposed the efforts to bring him to the Capitol building.
The Office of the Attorney General told the State Supreme Court that doing so would present security and logistical concerns.
The Source: The information in this story comes from Wednesday’s court hearing, statements made by Robert Roberson’s attorney, and past news coverage.
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