Southwest
Texas university takes heat for clearing DEI offices: 'The cruelty is stunning'
The University of Texas at Austin (UT) is taking heat for removing its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices.
Per CBS Austin, Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, blasted UT before a scheduled speaking conference to address the school’s move to cancel DEI on campus and lay off employees.
UT laid off dozens of employees who worked in their DEI programs to comply with a new state law, the university announced last week. The Austin American-Statesman reported that a person with knowledge of the situation said 60 positions that were related to DEI work were eliminated at UT-Austin.
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Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, blasted UT before a scheduled speaking conference to address the school’s move to cancel DEI on campus and lay off employees. (YouTube Screenshot)
The speaking conference will involve college educators and state civil rights activists, according to CBS.
“The problem is it’s really the cruelty is stunning because these are employees whose work it is to help students succeed,” Mulvey said.
She went on to say, “And that’s who’s getting fired. So, my question for the people implementing Senator Creighton’s SB 17 is, ‘How does this help students?’ It just there’s just no way you can say this is going to help students.”
Mulvey explained further that DEI helps “veterans, students with disabilities, first generation students, and “all students of color.”
“They help all sorts of students. That’s what these services do. And by firing the people who supply these services, the only result is it’s going to be harder. It’s going to be more difficult for the students these services were set up to help,” Mulvey said.
Furthermore, UT students spoke with Fox News Digital about the matter, torching their soon-to-be alma mater.
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A Black University of Texas Austin (UT) sophomore told Fox News Digital that students were disappointed to find out that there won’t be any Black, Latino, and Asian-exclusive graduations sponsored by the university anymore. (Fox News Digital)
One of the students blasted the school for complying with the “extremist Texan government” and called the layoffs of DEI employees “wrongful termination.”
“State efforts to undermine initiatives that seek to uplift and protect marginalized groups have no place on our campus,” Maddox Réal, class of 2026, told Fox News Digital.
Réal went on to say, “I have found myself extremely disappointed in UT Austin’s response to these authoritarian practices, and its commitment to be SB 17 compliant. As one of the most influential and powerful universities in this nation, one would expect a fight, a struggle, on behalf of so many vulnerable students.”
The law mandates that all governing boards of public colleges and universities ensure that their institutions prohibit the establishment and maintenance of a DEI office and the issue of “DEI Statements.” In addition, hiring practices and trainings are no longer able to use DEI statements.
The layoffs came after state Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton, outlined expectations of how universities will comply with the state law. He wrote a letter expressing the serious nature of the bill, saying that the measure “mandates a fundamental shift in the operation of our higher education institutions.” He added that universities are expected to facilitate a “merit-based environment.”
Creighton, like other critics of DEI programs at the university level, argued they were simply discrimination by another name in explaining his opposition; DEI supporters argue they address increasingly diverse student populations and are a form of correction against systemic inequities.
TEXAS UNIVERSITY CLEARS DEI OFFICES, LAYS OFF EMPLOYEES IN LIGHT OF NEW STATE LAW: REPORT
Per a letter penned by Sen. Brandon Creighton, the Senate Committee on Education, is expected to hold a hearing in May on how universities are complying with SB 17. (YouTube Screenshot)
Cultural graduations were another casualty of the effect of the law, prompting outrage from some students.
When the university’s Multicultural Engagement Center (MEC) was closed in compliance with the state’s law, Black Graduation, Latinx Graduation, and GraduAsian ceremonies were impacted as a result.
Erin McCormick, class of 26, previously told Fox News Digital that most of UT’s “large liberal student population” was “pretty irritated or pretty annoyed” by the cancelation of Black graduation.
“It’s kind of bummy that they closed it because I feel like Black graduation – it really celebrates the achievement. Just because given the history of Texas and UT alone, Latinos are not always welcome here, not wanted to graduate from here,” McCormick said.
She added, “So having Black graduation is kind of a celebration of the history and of everything that the Black community in Austin, especially UT Austin, has gone through. And then also, UT, while being diverse, is not very diverse in the Black student population. So, Black graduation is a way for all of us to kind of find our own little niche community.”
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Southwest
Missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos believed to be ‘in imminent danger,’ Texas sheriff says
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Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar indicated that authorities believe that Camila Mendoza Olmos, a 19-year-old woman who went missing on Christmas Eve, is “in imminent danger.”
The FBI is supplying technical aid and the Homeland Security Department is keeping an eye on border crossings as well as international travel, Salazar indicated, according to ABC News.
“We definitely don’t want to miss anything,” he said, according to the outlet. “The ground search is somewhat limited to a couple of square miles. We’re also not ruling out that this case may take us outside the borders of the continental United States.”
TEXAS 19-YEAR-OLD CAMILA MENDOZA OLMOS VANISHES OUTSIDE HER HOME ON CHRISTMAS EVE
Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, was last seen outside her home in San Antonio, Texas, on Christmas Eve, authorities said. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
The sheriff confirmed to ABC that the young woman had not been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which he verified despite Olmos being an American citizen.
“That was a personal concern. So, I had it checked to make sure that there were no stops, no detentions, and that she’s not somewhere in a federal detention facility. That is something we needed to check,” Salazar noted, according to the outlet.
Fox News Digital reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment.
TEXAS FATHER RESCUES KIDNAPPED DAUGHTER BY TRACING HER PHONE’S LOCATION, SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS
Camila Mendoza Olmos was last seen around 6:58 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in northwest Bexar County, Texas. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
A December 24 Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post noted, “Camila was last seen leaving her residence at approximately 6:58 a.m. on Wednesday, December 24, 2025. Video footage from that time shows an unknown individual, believed to be Camila, searching inside her vehicle for an unidentified item. Moments later, the footage ends. It is believed that she left the residence on foot, as her vehicle remained at the location.”
The post notes, “The only items known to be on her person are her car key and possibly her driver’s license. Camila’s mother stated that Camila normally goes for a morning walk; however, she became concerned when Camila did not return within a reasonable period of time.”
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The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said, “It is believed that she left the residence on foot, as her vehicle remained at the location.” (Google Maps)
The sheriff’s office indicated in the post that she had been “Last seen wearing: Baby blue with Black Hoodie, Baby blue Pajama bottoms, White shoes.”
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Southwest
DAVID MARCUS: At AmericaFest, two legacies hang in the balance, Charlie Kirk’s and Donald Trump’s
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There are two legacies hanging in the balance this weekend in Phoenix as Turning Point USA puts on its annual AmericaFest conference, first is its late founder, Charlie Kirk’s and the other is President Donald Trump’s.
At the convention center here in Arizona, as many as 25,000 attendees are expected to gather to celebrate the life of Kirk, who was tragically murdered just months ago, but also to try to chart a course forward for the movement he marshaled.
Arriving a bit late on Thursday, I was greeted by Lucas, a TPUSA employee from Detroit in his mid-twenties. He was a picture-perfect ambassador, a clean-cut kid who is eschewing his generation’s almost epic bout of despair and instead leaning in to create positive change.
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“The energy has been amazing,” he told me, referring to the huge upswing in interest in TPUSA since Kirk’s horrible murder.
“Not the way you’d want it to happen,” I somewhat darkly noted, but Lucas said, “You have to find the silver lining, I guess.”
Lucas and the hundreds like him are honestly an inspiration, while so many of their generation are out of shape from toe to top, they see a bright future for America that so many of us in advanced years have long ago forgotten.
But do not get the impression that at AmFest this year all is hugs and kumbaya. Iin fact, what you will find here are the early stages of a war to define what Donald Trump’s legacy, and the legacy of his MAGA movement will be.
PASTOR GREG LAURIE LAUNCHES CRUSADE AT CAMPUS WHERE CHARLIE KIRK WAS KILLED, WANTS TO BRING HOPE FROM TRAGEDY
Thursday night’s lineup on the big stage was a potent mix, featuring both Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire and Tucker Carlson, whose current feud over Israel has become a bit more than nasty.
I won’t litigate the feud here, it’s all on video after all, but the broader point is that some lines are being drawn ahead of the first presidential race in a while, in 2028, that presumably will not include the name Trump on the ballot.
‘PEOPLE WERE LISTENING’: PROSECUTOR SAYS CHARLIE KIRK WAS TARGETED FOR HIS INFLUENCE
At Amfest, we finally have more than tea leaves to tell us what the conservative movement after Trump and Kirk will look like — we have the actual tea, and a few stains to boot.
The factions are becoming clear, Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika, in her speech Thursday enthusiastically endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president, while Shapiro said, more moderately, that Vance would have to build his own coalition.
Is Shapiro lining up a movement behind a potential candidate like Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz who has not been a member of Donald Trump’s, let’s face it, somewhat obsequious court of the Oval Office, and if so, can Erika Kirk’s power thwart such a play?
This weekend in Phoenix has assembled the people with the strongest claim to the MAGA movement — a once disparate band of misfits whose allegiance to the “orange man” who kept winning put them at the forefront of American power and politics.
Many of the grave and profound conservative voices and pundits of old, who give no truck to the New Right have fled ship for think tanks or psuedo-right-wing journals that exist only to destroy Trump and his movement, but they are not the vanguard. The real fight is here.
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What plays out over this weekend in Phoenix will have profound implications not just for next year’s midterms, but for the presidential race in 2028.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, during a panel discussion at the Generation Next Summit at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 22, 2018, in Washington. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Legacies are matters of the future, and it is only the young attendees at Amfest who will see the longest lasting fruits of the American conservative movement — a movement still firmly shaped by Charlie Kirk.
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It is both remarkable and stark to see the myriad and often giant images of their Charlie around the convention center amid his earthly absence. Each image is a reminder both of his life’s great success and its tragic end.
But Charlie Kirk’s legacy will not be a statue, or a plaque. His legacy will live in the hearts of the young kids assembled in Phoenix this weekend. Maybe they are naïve. Maybe they are not withered and weathered by life’s brutal storms. God bless them for their hope. We could use a bit more of it.
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Southwest
Two riders trapped more than 100 feet in air after Texas roller coaster malfunctions
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Two theme parkgoers were trapped more than 100 feet in the air for more than 30 minutes this week after a roller coaster in Texas malfunctioned.
The Circuit Breaker roller coaster at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin unexpectedly stopped at the first drop, leaving Matthew Cantu, 24, and Nicholas Sanchez, 20, dangling at a 90-degree angle Wednesday night, KXAN-TV reported, citing a publicist representing the two men.
“For more than 30 minutes after the ride stopped, family members reported receiving no clear updates, while witnesses said staff provided conflicting explanations, including comments that the riders ‘weren’t strapped in currently,’” the publicist’s news release said, People magazine reported.
UNIVERSAL ORLANDO THEME PARK COASTER DEATH RULED ACCIDENTAL
Construction continues on the Circuit Breaker, the first tilt roller coaster in Texas. (Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)
“A sensor triggered a ride delay,” the Circuit of the Americas told Fox News Digital in a statement Saturday. “It was resolved, and the ride proceeded without incident.
“As with all amusement attractions of this sort, delays occasionally occur. We regret the inconvenience and are glad that out of the 25,000 people that have ridden the coaster, only two have this badge of courage.”
The Circuit Breaker is Texas’ first “tilt” roller coaster, which means the track tilts 90 degrees for a nearly vertical drop during the ride.
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The ride opened as a preview in October and will officially open next year, according to KVUE-TV.
Austin-Travis County EMS responded to the incident before 10 p.m. Wednesday, evaluating one of the men who refused medical attention, KVUE reported.
Cedar Point in Ohio opened its new Siren’s Curse roller coaster this summer. (Akron Beacon Journal/Imagn)
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Austin-Travis County EMS for comment.
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Another tilt roller coaster, known as the Siren’s Curse at Cedar Point in Ohio, has similarly malfunctioned multiple times since it opened this summer.
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