Southwest
Cruz race now a 'tossup' should be warning for Texas GOP, says expert
The race between Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, for Senate in Texas is heating up, something one expert believes should serve as a warning to Republicans in the dependably red state.
“Texas is an interesting political environment and will become a bellwether within the next decade,” Jimmy Keady, the founder and president of JLK Political Strategies, told Fox News Digital. “With the recent influx of West Coasters, and a fast-growing Hispanic population, recent elections in Texas are closer than Republicans want.”
The comments come as Cruz seeks to fend off yet another tight challenge from a Democratic opponent, this time from Allred, who has represented Texas’ 32nd Congressional District in the Dallas area since 2019.
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While the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Cruz with a five-point lead in the race, there are some troubling signs for the Republican incumbent, including recent polls that show Cruz with a lead close to within the margin of error.
Allred has looked to capitalize on the momentum, taking to social media to highlight a Morning Consult poll that showed him with a slim lead in the race.
“For the first time in this race, a new poll has us leading Ted Cruz by 1 point. I don’t know about y’all but I’m fired up and ready to WIN,” Allred said on X. “We’ve got 47 days, let’s do this Texas.”
Prominent Republicans have noticed the challenge, with Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita taking to X to question what is “wrong with the Senate race in Texas” and calling for “some real professionals” to “save” Cruz.
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The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Some polls leading up to Cruz’s 2018 Senate race with former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, showed a similarly close race, though Cruz was able to hold off the Democratic challenger by under three percentage points.
But that close win was also a stark departure from Cruz’s 2012 victory, when he easily topped former Texas Democratic state Rep. Paul Sadler by nearly 16 percentage points.
That narrowing of the margins in Texas should have Republicans on edge, Keady argued, though he stressed he believed Cruz would be safe in 2024.
“Texas will stay red this November and Ted Cruz will win re-election,” Keady said. “But Republicans should not take the threat of losing this state lightly. As the Republican Party makes a play for blue states, Democrats are going to start making a play for red states… to hold these seats, Republicans will have to stay disciplined on messaging and prioritize candidate recruitment.”
The Cruz campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Request for comment.
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Southwest
Texas man convicted after saying he mutilated victims, ate human heart as part of 'ritualistic sacrifices'
A Texas man was convicted of killing three people, dismembering them and burning their bodies after admitting to investigators that he was called to “commit sacrifices.”
Jason Thornburg was found guilty of capital murder on Wednesday and now, the same Tarrant County jury that convicted him must determine whether he receives a death sentence or if he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to Fox 4.
In September 2021, Thornburg killed three people, dismembered their bodies and stored them under his bed at a motel in Euless, Texas, before lighting the bodies on fire inside a dumpster in Fort Worth.
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Thornburg confessed to investigators that he felt a compulsion to commit “ritualistic sacrifices” and that he ate a victim’s heart and other parts of the victims’ bodies.
His attorneys argued he was insane when he carried out the murders and suffered from a severe mental disease.
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When he was arrested on murder allegations, Thornburg confessed to police he killed his roommate in May 2021 during a suspicious home explosion and his girlfriend in Arizona back in 2017.
These two previous murders were brought up in court on Thursday when the punishment aspect of the trial began.
The victims’ families cannot speak publicly until the punishment phase is finished.
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Los Angeles, Ca
Vehicle, 2 occupants plunge into crowded Southern California harbor
Two people were taken to the hospital after a vehicle they were inside plunged into the harbor Sunday night in Marina Del Rey, officials confirmed to KTLA.
Details are limited and It’s unclear exactly how the incident occurred, but authorities with the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to 4675 Admiralty Way just after 6 p.m. on reports of the vehicle in the water.
L.A. County Fire Department Public Information Officer Marco Rodriguez said the two occupants were able to get themselves out of the vehicle after it went into the water.
Both were examined by medical personnel with the fire department and taken to a nearby hospital in unknown condition.
Rodriguez said that two L.A. County Lifeguard divers were deployed to ensure there were no other occupants trapped in the vehicle.
A witness, Johnny Hamcheck, told KTLA that a third person, a woman, exited the vehicle before it went into water, though officials did not confirm that detail.
Footage of the recovery effort showed crews attaching large yellow floating devices to the vehicle as it was anchored to a crane and eventually pulled out of the water and loaded onto a tow truck.
The vehicle showed heavy front-end damage, presumably from crashing through the steel railing and into the water.
An investigation into the crash is ongoing and no further details were provided.
Southwest
24 states' attorneys general call on Supreme Court to keep biological boys out of girls sports
Attorneys general from 24 states are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling and uphold an Arizona law to prohibit biological boys from competing on girls’ sports teams.
The petition comes after a federal appeals court ruled that the law likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
“Sports teams are divided by sex to begin with to give girls a level playing field so they’re not competing against boys,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a news release. “Arizona’s law restricting girls’ sports teams to biological females is just common sense, and it protects girls from competing against bigger, stronger males who identify as females.”
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In addition to Wilson, the attorneys general supporting the petition are those from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
The petition notes that these states have laws similar to Arizona’s that restrict girls’ sports to biological females.
It also argues that the Equal Protection Clause does not prohibit states from offering separate sports teams for men, women, boys and girls.
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“In sports, equal access means a level playing field,” the attorneys general write in their brief. “And a level playing field usually means sports teams divided by sex so that girls can compete against other girls.”
“Basing the distinction on biology rather than gender identity makes sense because it is the differences in biology—not gender identity—that call for separate teams in the first place: Whatever their gender identity, biological males are, on average, stronger and faster than biological females. If those average physical differences did not matter, there would be no need to segregate sports teams at all,” they continued.
The attorneys general are asking the high court to “make it clear that the Constitution does not prohibit states from saving women’s sports from unfair competition and providing meaningful athletic opportunities for girls and women,” according to Wilson’s news release.
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