A South Dallas nonprofit that works with individuals transitioning out of Texas prisons aims to highlight the human side of incarceration. Trinity Restoration Ministries’ holiday gathering in a prison allowed children to celebrate Christmas with their fathers.
Texas
Will Texas Become ‘the Epicenter of a National Nuclear Renaissance’? – Inside Climate News
Texas lawmakers are considering a bill to resuscitate the state’s nuclear power industry through a taxpayer-funded incentives program. State Rep. Cody Harris, a Republican from Palestine in East Texas, proposed allocating $2 billion toward a fund to create the Texas Advanced Nuclear Deployment Office.
The bill proposes using public dollars to help fund nuclear construction, provide grants for reactors and fund development research. HB 14 would also create a state coordinator to assist in the state and federal permitting processes.
Harris told members of the Texas House’s Committee on State Affairs last week that Texas needs long-term energy solutions as the strain on the state’s electric grid increases from the expansion of data centers and other energy-intensive industries.
Texas has become too reliant on intermittent energy sources like wind and solar, he said. Harris called investing in nuclear energy a strategic imperative for the U.S. A global race for energy dominance is underway with immense national security implications, he said.
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“By passing this bill, Texas will become the epicenter of a national nuclear renaissance,” Harris said. “Texas will attract billions in private capital investments and create tens of thousands of high-wage jobs for Texans up and down the nuclear value chain.”
A week earlier, at the annual energy conference CERAWeek in Houston, nuclear power was being highly touted by both U.S. government officials and Big Tech.
Throughout the conference, nuclear reactors were described as an answer for the increasing power demands from data centers and artificial intelligence—if the technology can scale.
Texas’ electric grid has four large nuclear power units at two sites, including two at Comanche Peak, located some 60 miles southwest of Fort Worth. On a typical day, they produce enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes, according to the plant’s owner, Vistra Corp.
Comanche Peak’s second unit, completed in 1993, is the most recent large nuclear reactor to come online in Texas.
A small, one megawatt molten salt test reactor is under construction beneath a newly completed laboratory at Abilene Christian University, in an underground trench. Abilene-based Natura Resources is one of just two companies with permits from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct a so-called “advanced” reactor that is set to be completed in 2027.
The other company, California-based Kairos Power, is building its 35-megawatt test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the 80-year capital of American nuclear power science.
Gov. Greg Abbott has been bullish in recent years about making Texas a leader in nuclear power. In August 2023, Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas to form a working group to study and plan for the use of advanced nuclear reactors across the state.
That task force recommended in November 2024 the state put aside $5 billion toward a nuclear fund. Former Public Utility Commission of Texas member Jimmy Glotfelty testified in support of the new bill at last week’s hearing after spending 14 months on the task force.
He said the bill would put Texas on the path to being a leader of a renewed nuclear industry. If done right, long-term, Texas could see an addition of more than 100,000 jobs and more than $50 billion to the state economy, Glotfelty said, based on an economic study the task force commissioned from the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Everybody in the nuclear space would like to build plants here in Texas,” Glotfelty said. “We are the low regulatory, low cost state. We have the supply chain. We have the labor. And what this bill will do will put us a leg up on every other state.”
NextEra Energy Resources, a Florida-based clean energy power company, is considering bringing its shuttered nuclear plant in Iowa back online. It’s a move that a few years ago, NextEra wouldn’t have even thought about, said Michele Wheeler, the company’s vice president of regulatory and political affairs.
The company is also working with Dow and X-energy as the two companies develop an advanced small nuclear reactor technology at a Seadrift, Texas, site. It’s based on high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology, whereas Natura Resources’ project in Abilene uses liquid-fueled and molten salt-cooled technology.
In order for American production of nuclear power to be affordable and successful, someone has to be first, Wheeler said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be second,’ right? So how do you make the right incentives for those that go first to have the upside and the benefit of taking the risk?” Wheeler said at a breakfast session at CERAWeek about Texas power.
“Everybody in the nuclear space would like to build plants here in Texas.”
— Jimmy Glotfelty, former Public Utility Commission of Texas member
That’s where Texas can step in, said Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission. With a $23 billion surplus, the state has the ability to partner with private industry to ensure Texas leads the way with nuclear power, Gleeson said.
Gleeson sees nuclear as a solution to the massive new power demands in the state’s forecasts. As he travels the country, he’s been telling people that Texas is not in an energy transition but an energy expansion.
“I need more of pretty much everything,” Gleeson said. “If you care about the environment, if you care about clean air, I’m glad that you love batteries and I’m glad that you love wind, I’m glad that you love solar. Fall in love with nuclear—it has to be a part of the solution.”
Despite some of the energy sector’s efforts to bring low-carbon power online, the development of nuclear power has been thwarted by worries of disaster, radioactive waste, a history of projects far exceeding budget and its infamously laborious regulatory requirements.
But nuclear is seemingly having its moment with bipartisan support. Texas Republicans laud the power source’s reliability as they express concern about more of the state’s daily energy demand being met by less expensive but intermittent wind and solar. State Democrats, meanwhile, support adding more low-carbon energy to the grid.
Opponents of the bill called the incentive program a taxpayer handout and urged the power sector to compete in the state’s open energy market.
Cyrus Reed, the conservation and legislative director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, said unlike the Texas Energy Fund, a piece of legislation that passed in 2023 that awards grants and loans to finance dispatchable, or on demand, generation facilities in Texas, the proposed nuclear fund consists only of grants.
“That’s a very different proposal,” Reed said.
John Umphress, a retired Austin Energy program specialist who is evaluating the nuclear efforts on contract for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, also expressed his concern about funding developers of small modular reactors with public dollars.
The bill outlines three tiers for the funding program. The first tier provides a reimbursement grant for the costs associated with the initial development of an advanced nuclear reactor. It includes expenses like technology development, site planning, design and early permit work for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The second tier includes grants of up to $200 million for construction costs for projects with permits under review by the NRC. The third tier awards grants for operating costs once projects are finished.
Both Reed and Umphress warned that companies could see money solely for securing a permit. Such grants, they believe, go beyond a fair incentive.
“They may never, ever operate on the actual grid and they could have up to $200 million of taxpayer funds,” Reed said. “That seems wrong to us.”
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The last time Karley Alejo spent Christmas with her dad was when she was 3 years old.
Now 16, Alejo walked into the gym at the Sanders Estes Unit, trying to make eye contact with her father, Julian Alejo, who was wearing a white inmate uniform and a red Christmas hat.
Julian Alejo, 43, who is serving a 30-year sentence for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, was one of 27 inmates at the Sanders Estes Unit selected to participate in the Christmas with Dads event organized by Trinity Restoration Ministries on Dec.19. This south Dallas non-profit organization operates a faith-based reentry program for individuals transitioning out of Texas prisons.
For the first time since Sanders Estes Prison was established 36 years ago, its gym was transformed into a holiday village for inmates to celebrate Christmas with their children.
Julian Alejo, an inmate at the Sanders Estes Unit prison in Venus, talks with his 16-year-old daughter, Karley, during a Chirstmas with dads event Dec. 19, 2025.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
“This makes it more authentic and personal. Being able to open gifts and not having to just take them home and talk about them,” said Karley Alejo. “You get to actually be here, to make memories with your family here. It’s amazing.”
Inmates and volunteers pushed the gym equipment to the side to make room for four Christmas trees surrounded by presents, a red carpet, long tables set up with crafts, books, board games, a face-painting booth and food.
For a couple of hours, the gym was filled with laughter, shouts, prayers and the sound of children running around. Christmas music played in the background while children sat on their dads’ laps.
At one point, Santa showed up, and families took photos with him. The portraits were just like any family would take during the holidays. Still, the tall walls, tiny windows, and the wired patio, along with the surveillance cameras, were reminders of where the celebration was being held.
On two occasions, all the dads left the gym for the mandatory headcount before returning to be with their children.
Julian Alejo has been incarcerated for 12 years and dreamed of spending Christmas with his daughter. The night before the event, he couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t believe he was going to see her open a Christmas gift.
“Even though I’ve been away from her for years, I still have to show her that I’m her dad, I love her, and I’m here for her, and I’m going to support her, and what she does,” Julian Alejo said. “I’m going to advise her wisely, and I’ve got to make sure I’m there for her.
‘It’s about the kids, not the adults’
For Karley Alejo, living all these years with her dad has shown her how incarceration affects families and how society sees the inmates.
“I just feel like a lot of the time, people believe that if you’re in prison, you did something awful, and you can’t change, and that nobody’s gonna forgive you, and you’re just here,” Karley Alejo said. “But a lot of the time, a lot of people don’t want that from themselves. They might have made a mistake when they were younger or older, but all the people here have families.”
Shagala Taylor, 50, decided to take Friday off from work to visit her brother, Larry Taylor, and bring his eight-year-old twins, Champion and Reagyn.
Larry Taylor, 43, who is serving a 45-year sentence for murder, was surprised by his son. The boy ran toward Larry Taylor to be picked up by ‘Daddy.’
After setting him down, Larry Taylor did the viral ‘floss dance’ with him. He gave his daughter and sister big hugs. Then, they sat down to wait for their turn to be called out for breakfast.
Larry Jr. Taylor, an inmate at the Sanders Estes Unit prison in Venus, plays with his eight-year-old twins, Champion and Reagyn, during a Chirstmas with dads event Dec. 19, 2025.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
“Sometimes people don’t understand because in their mindset, ‘Adults knew what they were doing,’ but at the end of the day, it’s not about the adult, it’s about the kids of the incarcerated individuals,” Shagala Taylor said. “You have to get out of that mindset and bring it down to the kids’ level, understanding how they’re feeling. Got to have empathy and sympathy. I wish there were more programs out here like this.”
Shagala Taylor added the regular visits are tough for the kids.
They last two hours, and there’s no physical contact. Sometimes there are crayons and books, but still, the kids get bored and don’t understand why there isn’t a playground or why “Daddy” can’t pick them up or sit them on his lap.
“At the end of the day, it’s about the kids. They didn’t have a choice to be part of it. Ground the adults but not the kids,” Shagala Taylor said.
Larry Taylor treasures the memories of wearing matching pajamas with his children before he was incarcerated in 2022. He hopes one day he and his children can do it again.
Following the example
Around 200 volunteers came together to create the one-of-a-kind event, the result of months of planning, said Richard “Chico” Smith, executive director of Trinity Restoration Ministries.
The congregation from Lakepointe Church in Rockwall provided approximately 60 volunteers and covered most of the event’s expenses. Volunteers from Templo Betania in Dallas also participated by helping with decorations, serving food and greeting the families.
“Jesus told us not to forget about the incarcerated,” said volunteer Carmen Vazquez, 52. “He set an example for us to serve everyone, especially those who need us the most.”
Lamar Simpson, an inmate at the Sanders Estes Unit prison in Venus, holds his sleeping two-year-old son, Jamari during a Chirstmas with dads event Dec. 19, 2025.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
With a radio in one hand and a sheet detailing the seating organization and event details, Robin Stephens, a 22-year-old program administrator at the prison, coordinated the event and ensured all guests and inmates followed the prison’s protocols.
Stephens saw the event as an opportunity for the inmates to feel hopeful and stay motivated.
Brodgrick Price, the senior warden at Sanders Estes in Venus, about 30 miles southwest of Dallas, approved the “Christmas with Dads” event to support the inmates’ rehabilitation. He had no budget for it, and that’s where the nonprofits and volunteers stepped in.
Price believes in providing inmates with the tools to be successful while incarcerated and, upon release, to rebuild their lives, “bringing people to change the thought process through a rehabilitative approach versus a punitive one,” Price said. “A lot of times, when somebody gets in trouble, people want to punish them, versus getting to the root cause of why the person is acting out.”
Price was amazed by how the gym was transformed into a holiday party for the children to celebrate Christmas.
Kevin Porter ties the shoelaces of his son, Levi, during a Chirstmas with dads event at the Sanders Estes Unit prison in Venus Dec. 19, 2025.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
“I am so glad I said yes to this because I can see a lot of lives are being touched,” Price said, adding that some of the inmates were serving 12-, 15- and even 45-year sentences. “For the kids to be able to come in here and sit with them and open a present in front of them, that touches me.”
Frederick Pheiffer, 70, is an example of that rehabilitation. He was released four months ago after serving an 18-year sentence for murder.
Pheiffer graduated from the Trinity Ministries Restoration program and has been able to buy a car, get a job, and slowly reconnect with his family.
‘Those little things’
Adrian Casares was catching his breath after running behind his two sons. His 6-year-old wanted to kick the soccer ball, and his 3-year-old was trying to dribble a basketball.
Casares, 33, is serving a six-year sentence for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. As soon as he knew about the event, he signed up. He has had good conduct and earned ‘trusty level status.’ He’s now the barber of the officers.
Adrian Casares, an inmate at the Sanders Estes Unit prison in Venus, plays with his sons Ares and Atlas after a Chirstmas with dads event Dec. 19, 2025.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
His wife, Gracey Turner, 23, drove about two hours from Temple to bring the kids to spend the day with their dad. During the whole ride, kids kept asking, ‘When are we gonna see Daddy?’
In past holidays, Casares, his wife and their kids used to make a ‘Christmas crack,’ similar to a cracker jack, with peanuts, sugar, and other ingredients. Then watch movies and open gifts in the morning.
“That’s something I miss the most for sure, those little things,” Casares said. “ I’m just taking it step by step, trying to change everything about myself for my family, my kids.”
For Turner, the hardest thing about her husband being incarcerated is raising the children alone. The event allowed them to have a family holiday, like they used to. She said this will be a memory her kids will remember.
They made crafts, shot Polaroid photos and collected animal-shaped balloons and bags of gifts.
The celebration lasted only a few hours. By the end, the Christmas trees and hats were put away by the inmates, the tables had been cleared, and the gym returned to its usual function.
The dads returned to their cells.
“Radical Islamist terrorist groups are anti-American, and the infiltration of these dangerous individuals into Texas must be stopped,” said Texas A-G regarding terrorist org. CAIR.
Air traffic controllers lost communication for about 10 minutes with a small Mexican Navy plane carrying a young medical patient and seven others before it crashed off the Texas coast, killing at least five people, Mexico’s president said Tuesday.
Authorities initially believed the plane had landed safely at its destination in Galveston, near Houston, before learning it had gone down Monday afternoon, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. A search-and-resuce operation in waters near Galveston pulled two survivors from the plane’s wreckage, Mexico’s Navy said, while one remained missing.
Four of the eight people aboard were Navy officers and four were civilians, including a child, Mexico’s Navy said. Two of the passengers were affiliated with a nonprofit that helps transport Mexican children with severe burns to a hospital in Galveston.
“My condolences to the families of the sailors who unfortunately died in this accident and to the people who were traveling on board,” Sheinbaum said in her morning press briefing, without elaborating on a possible cause. “What happened is very tragic.”
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Baker said at least five aboard had died but did not identify which passengers.
The plane crashed Monday afternoon in a bay near the base of the causeway connecting Galveston Island to the mainland. Emergency responders rushed to the scene near the popular beach destination about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston.
Sky Decker, a professional yacht captain who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the crash site, said he jumped in his boat to see if he could help. He picked up two police officers who guided him through thick fog to a nearly submerged plane. Decker jumped into the water and found a badly injured woman trapped beneath chairs and other debris.
“I couldn’t believe. She had maybe 3 inches of air gap to breathe in,” he said. “And there was jet fuel in there mixed with the water, fumes real bad. She was really fighting for her life.”
He said he also pulled out a man seated in front of her who had already died. Both were wearing civilian clothes.
It’s not immediately clear if weather was a factor. The area has been experiencing foggy conditions over the past few days, according to Cameron Batiste, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He said that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday a fog came in that had about a half-mile visibility.
Mexico’s Navy said the plane was helping with a medical mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation. In a social media post, the foundation said: “We express our deepest solidarity with the families in light of these events. We share their grief with respect and compassion, honoring their memory and reaffirming our commitment to providing humane, sensitive, and dignified care to children with burns.”
Teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were at the crash site Monday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said, and a spokesperson for the NTSB said the agency was gathering information about the crash. The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said officials from its dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit and patrol responded the crash.
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