The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.
Many Texans had the chance to do something unusual Thursday night: frolic in the snow. Joey Palacios with Texas Public Radio was out and about in San Antonio on Thursday, which was transformed into a wintery wonderland. He reports parts of San Antonio received nearly two inches of snow, which is the largest amount to fall on the city in more than 30 years.
While snow was expected in areas in West Texas, it took many by surprise in San Antonio, which is near the center of the state. In a downtown park near the city’s main Christmas tree, residents gathered and threw snowballs at each other. Miguel Torres is a recent high school graduate who has only seen snow once before.
“Enjoy it while you can because you know – we’re in Texas and it does get hot here,” Torres says. “So this is a rare thing to see.”
Snow also fell in Corpus Christi and other areas along the Texas Gulf Coast and parts of Northern Mexico. San Antonio’s last major snowfall was in January of 1985 where more than 13 inches of snow fell in the Alamo city.
Court documents show the FBI has found two suspects in the recent and still unexplained death of border patrol agent Rogelio Martinez.
Marfa Public Radio’s Carlos Morales has more on the developing story.
First reported by KRQE in New Mexico, the court documents – which have since been resealed – say an informant told FBI agents about the suspects: Two brothers who recently crossed the Mexican border.
According to the documents, one brother has denied any involvement in the death of agent Martinez and denied any knowledge of his brother’s involvement.
Jeannette Harper is with the FBI. She says this is one of their leads, but they have others.
“Well we want to come to a quick conclusion but we have to be thorough and we have to do our due diligence throughout the investigation,” Harper says.
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information in the case. That’s on top of a $20,000 offer by the state. The agency is also running digital billboards in four states along the southwest border asking for any information.
Most Texas members of Congress failed to protect the environment this year. That’s according to advocacy group Environment Texas, which released its annual federal scorecard this week.
Luke Metzger, who heads up the organization, says both of the state’s Senators – John Cornyn and Ted Cruz – got 0 percent on the scorecard when it came to 32 key environmental votes. Another 17 U.S. Representatives from the state got zeroes as well.
However, Metzger says, three members of the delegation got perfect scores. “They voted with the environment 100 percent of the time. And that was Congressman Castro of San Antonio, Lloyd Doggett of Austin, and Beto O’Rourke of El Paso,” says Metzger.
Others who scored over 90 percent include Representatives Mark Veasey of Fort Worth, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, and Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston.
