Dallas County jail population is surging near capacity
Texas adult literacy is shockingly low
Texas
The 2024 Paris Olympics deserve a Texas-size celebration
This year’s Paris Olympics were a fantastic showing of athletic prowess, comeback stories, camaraderie and friendship, and Texas athletes helped more than we could have hoped to make that possible.
Nineteen Texas athletes won 28 of the United States’ 126 medals, according to The Washington Post. Current and former University of Texas student-athletes won 16 medals, including six gold, according to UT. The number of medals won by athletes with Texas ties is higher still, according to The Dallas Morning News SportsDay team.
That’s worth celebrating. And this year’s games came with a few comeback stories that have made us positively giddy.
Sha’Carri Richardson, the 24-year-old Dallas track star and finalist for our 2023 Texan of the Year award, proved she still has her stride. After she was suspended from the Tokyo Olympics for testing positive for THC, Richardson this year helped lead the U.S. to a gold medal in the women’s 4x100m relay final, Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington reported from Paris.
Brittney Griner made a great comeback as well. Two years ago, Griner was imprisoned in a Russian penal colony, unsure of whether she would ever get home, let alone play basketball again.
But a 2022 prisoner swap brought her back stateside after spending 10 long months in prison, and this year, Griner did better than just compete in the Olympics again. She helped bring home a gold medal for the U.S. women’s basketball team in a nail-biter of a game against France, marking the team’s eighth consecutive gold medal in the event.
And who could forget about the woman who is perhaps the greatest gymnast of our time? She calls herself “Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, that loves to flip,” Sherrington reported. After withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympics for mental health reasons, she brought home three gold medals and a silver this year.
If winning a silver medal in the Olympics can be called a defeat, Biles showed extraordinary graciousness in it. After the floor exercise event, she called Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who won the gold, “queen,” Sherrington reported.
There have been a couple of sour notes, like the dispute over a bronze medal involving Jordan Chiles and Romanian Ana Barbosu in the floor exercise. But even still, the Olympic games, and the athletes who made them so wonderful to watch, reminded us why these events mean more than medals. They are about people who come together despite differences of culture, language and politics.
They set the example of graciousness in victory and in defeat.
In an age when many of us don’t watch the same things or talk about the same things, these Olympics brought us together. If there’s one thing we know, it’s that a little unity can go a long way, especially with divisions all around us.
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AUSTIN – Texas officials are rolling out a new online hub aimed at helping residents spot and report the New World screwworm, a pest Gov. Greg Abbott says threatens livestock, wildlife, and the state’s rural economy.
Abbott announced the launch of screwworm.texas.gov, an enhanced website housed in the Texas Division of Emergency Management’s Disaster Portal that he described as a “one-stop shop” for information and resources tied to the state’s response.
The New World screwworm poses a direct threat to Texas livestock, wildlife, and our rural economy,” Abbott said. “This new website puts essential tools in the hands of our producers, veterinarians, and families. Screwworm.texas.gov delivers the facts, maps, identification methods, and certification resources Texans need to detect problems early and report cases without delay. Now every Texan has the information to act. Texas will protect our land, our animals, and our way of life from this pest.
According to the governor’s office, the site is designed to provide “actionable and reliable multimedia information” about the New World screwworm, including fact sheets, videos, and educational materials.
The portal includes background information, guidance on how to spot the pest, sample collection procedures, Texas Animal Health Commission New World screwworm zone maps, the U.S. Department of Agriculture case dashboard, links to best practices for livestock and wildlife, and details on registering for a new no-cost New World screwworm Certified Inspector Training.
The governor’s office said state and federal partners are working together to detect, control and contain the spread, and that expanding public outreach and providing clear information is a key part of reducing risk.
Abbott’s office also highlighted actions taken by the governor in response to the pest, including:
- Directing the creation of a joint Texas New World screwworm Response Team
- Joining USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to announce a $750 million investment in a new sterile fly production facility in Edinburg
- Issuing a statewide disaster declaration ahead of the first detection
- Deploying state resources and activating the State Emergency Operations Center after the first confirmed Texas cases
- Visiting the Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville for a briefing
- Launching a free online training course to certify more inspectors
- Announcing federal funding to strengthen inspection capacity.
Texans are urged to inspect livestock and pets for wounds and report suspected cases immediately, including in wildlife.
For livestock and pets, suspected cases should be reported to the Texas Animal Health Commission’s 24-hour veterinarian call line at 1-800-550-8242.
For wildlife, reports should be made to Texas Parks and Wildlife’s 24-hour biologists’ call line at 512-389-4505. Officials also warn people not to move affected animals.
More information and updates are available at screwworm.texas.gov and screwworm.gov.
More than 150 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas have been infected with influenza over the past three weeks — a major outbreak less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated against the flu.
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