Southwest
Texas AG sues NCAA over trans inclusion in women's sports
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Sunday and accused the collegiate organization of deceptive marketing practices for including transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Paxton said in a news release the NCAA violated the Texas Trade Practices Act “which exists to protect consumers from businesses attempting to mislead or trick them into purchasing goods or services that are not as advertised.”
He accused the NCAA of “engaging in false, deceptive, and misleading practices by marketing sporting events as ‘women’s’ competitions only to then provide consumers with mixed sex competitions where biological males compete against biological females.”
“The NCAA is intentionally and knowingly jeopardizing the safety and wellbeing of women by deceptively changing women’s competitions into co-ed competitions,” Paxton said in a statement. “When people watch a women’s volleyball game, for example, they expect to see women playing against other women—not biological males pretending to be something they are not. Radical ‘gender theory’ has no place in college sports.”
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Paxton said he was seeking a court to grant a permanent injunction to prohibit the NCAA from allowing transgender athletes in women’s sports in Texas or “involving Texas teams, or alternatively requiring the NCAA to stop marketing events as “women’s” when in fact they are mixed sex competitions,” the news release said.
The NCAA released a statement to Fox News Digital later Sunday.
“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships,” the organization said.
NCAA President Charlie Baker was grilled over transgender participation in sports while he was on Capitol Hill last week. He was also asked about it during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
When McAfee asked Baker how the parents of daughters should feel about trans athletes in women’s sports and the NCAA’s record on it, Baker downplayed the impact.
“There are 510,000 college athletes playing in the NCAA, there are less than 10 transgender athletes, so it’s a small community to begin with,” Baker said.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
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Los Angeles, Ca
Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins. Here's the history
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – Jews around the world are marking the start of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C. after it was defiled by Syrian Greeks.
This eight-day holiday starts on the 25th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar, usually falling in December. In 2024, Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 25 and ends at sundown on January 2, 2025.
The story of Hanukkah begins in 168 B.C. when the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes banned Jewish religious practices and desecrated the Second Temple by setting up an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs.
This led to a revolt led by the Jewish priest Mattathias and his five sons, known as the Maccabees.
The Seleucid Empire, one of the successor states of Alexander the Great’s empire, was vast and powerful.
Judah Maccabee, one of Mattathias’s sons, and his followers fought a guerrilla war against the Seleucids.
Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Maccabees won several battles and eventually took back Jerusalem. When they reclaimed the Temple, they found only a small amount of oil left to light the menorah, the Temple’s candelabrum. The oil, believed to only be enough for one day, lasted for eight days.
This ancient miracle is the basis of Hanukkah, which means “dedication” in Hebrew.
Jews celebrate the holiday by lighting the menorah, with one more candle lit each night until all eight are lit on the final night. Traditional foods like latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly-filled doughnuts) are fried in oil, symbolizing the miracle of the oil.
Other customs include playing the game of dreidle and exchanging gifts.
Although Hanukkah is not as religiously significant as holidays such as Passover or Yom Kippur, it holds a special place in Jewish culture as a reminder of the Jewish people’s resilience and faith in the face of oppression.
Los Angeles, Ca
Loved ones searching for missing Los Angeles County woman
Homicide detectives and loved ones are searching for a missing Los Angeles County woman.
Maria Benitez, 41, was reported missing on Dec. 21, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The woman, who is considered at-risk, was last seen on the 5500 block of Lindsey Avenue in Pico Rivera around 12:30 p.m.
Family members said Benitez suffers from medical conditions and requires medication. They haven’t heard from her since her disappearance concerned for her well-being and asking for the public’s help.
She is described as a Hispanic woman standing 5 feet tall and weighing around 100 pounds. She has brown hair, brown eyes and a scar on her right ankle. She was last seen wearing a black shirt and black pants.
Her vehicle is described as a gray 2008 Nissan Altima with California license plate 6EPB787.
Anyone who knows Benitez’s whereabouts or has information on her disappearance is urged to call the LASD’s Homicide Bureau Missing Persons unit at 323-890-5500.
Anonymous tips can be provided to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org.
Southwest
Just in time for Christmas, husband receives miraculous 'Godwink': 'Completely healed'
David Espinoza and his wife Toni were living on the southern border of Texas, in the city of McAllen, five hours south of Houston.
As Christmas approached, they received the worst news.
Doctors in Houston told David Espinoza that his heart was operating at only 10% capacity.
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If he didn’t get a heart transplant quickly, he would not live to see his family for another Christmas.
Worse, he was told that finding a perfect donor could take nine months or more.
Toni Espinoza, known to be a prayer warrior, organized everyone she knew — and hundreds she didn’t — to pray for her husband to find a heart donor.
But within days, she felt conflicted.
She decided to change her strategy.
It seemed as if they were praying for someone to die in order for her husband to live.
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She decided to change her strategy.
She began praying fervently for God to completely and miraculously heal her husband.
And just for added comfort, she asked God to confirm her answered prayer by making it snow in McAllen, Texas, on Christmas Day.
She shared her private decision to pray for these miracles with a trusted childhood friend named Crawford.
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“Toni, have you ever seen snow?” her friend asked her.
She shook her head.
“It hasn’t snowed here in 109 years! And never on Christmas.”
She’d lived in McAllen, Texas, all her life.
The average winter temperature on the border was about 75 degrees.
Her friend continued, “The reason you’ve never seen snow is because it hasn’t snowed here in 109 years! And never on Christmas.”
Toni Espinoza shrugged, smiled and gave her friend a look of resolve.
“I know God is going to answer my prayers.”
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It was nearly midnight on Christmas Eve when one of the Espinoza daughters, home for the holidays, looked into the backyard — and shrieked.
“Mom, it’s snowing!”
Coatless, Toni Espinoza dashed into the backyard — delighted to see snow covering her fully flowered rose bushes.
Gazing into the night sky, as white snowflakes speckled her dark hair, she whispered, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
The next morning, children across McAllen bundled up, ran outside, rolled in the snow, fanned angels, and made snowmen for the first time in their lives.
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A McAllen newspaper headline announced the “First White Christmas Ever!”
Yet the best Christmas present of all came three weeks later.
David Espinoza’s Houston doctor looked at the medical charts.
He shook his head and said, “David, I don’t understand how this happened… but you’re going to live for a long, long time.”
He added, “Your heart is completely healed.”
In tears, the couple embraced — and praised God for the best Christmas gift ever.
The couple’s story appears in the bestselling book, “Godwink Christmas Stories” by SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, from which this article is excerpted. Copyright © SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt. For more info, see www.godwinks.com.
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