www.youtube.com – FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth – 2025-05-16 18:37:12
SUMMARY: Kaufman County is offering a \$30,000 reward for information leading to the capture of fugitive Trevor Mchuan, who cut off his ankle monitor and fled on the same day his capital murder trial was set to begin. Mchuan is accused of killing his neighbor, Aaron Martinez, in 2023. Authorities have released computer-generated images of what Mchuan might look like today, including different hairstyles and disguises. Sheriff Brian Beavers believes Mchuan may be hiding in East Texas and is considered a danger to society. Tips are encouraged, with the reward and Crimestoppers number available for the public’s assistance.
In the continued effort to find a wanted criminal, Kaufman County authorities have released computer-generated images of his potential disguised look to help the public identify him.
Five Texas district attorneys have filed two separate lawsuits against Attorney General Ken Paxton over a new rule that grants his office broad access to their case records. The rule, enacted in April, allows Paxton’s employees to request documents from district attorney offices in counties with populations over 400,000, which includes 13 counties. The lawsuits argue that this rule is unconstitutional and imposes excessive burdens, as it could require disclosing confidential information. Paxton defends the rule as a measure for transparency and accountability, particularly against district attorneys he views as unwilling to prosecute certain crimes.
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Five Texas district attorneys are suing Attorney General Ken Paxton in two separate lawsuits filed Friday over new rules that would give the state’s top law enforcer meticulous access to their office’s records.
The two lawsuits, filed in Travis County District Court, seek to overturn a new rule created by Paxton’s office giving the attorney general office’s employees discretion to request almost all documents from cases county officials work on, regardless of whether they are being pursued. The district attorneys suing Paxton said the rule is an unconstitutional overreach that would needlessly burden offices who would have to present “terabytes” of data to the attorney general.
The rule, which took effect in April, only applies to counties with 400,000 residents or more — a threshold only 13 counties in the state meets. Paxton’s office has marked the provision as a way to “rein in rogue district attorneys” refusing to uphold the law. District attorneys from Travis and El Paso counties filed one suit, while district attorneys from Harris, Dallas and Bexar counties filed another. Both seek to block Paxton from being able to enforce the rule, alleging it violates the state constitution and federal law.
The background: The rule, known as Chapter 56, was originally proposed in the administrative code in September 2024. It requires district attorneys to provide all documents or communications produced or received by district attorneys’ offices, including confidential information.
Included in the rule’s definition of “case file” materials eligible for review are all documents, correspondence and handwritten notes relevant to a case. It also requires counties to submit quarterly reports to the attorney general on twelve different subjects, including specific information on indictments of police officers or for violations of election code.
The new Chapter 56 cites a 1985 statute prompting district and county attorneys to report information to the attorney general “in the form that the attorney general directs.” To enforce the collection of documents and communication, the rule would create an “oversight advisory committee” composed of employees from the attorney general’s office. The committee would be able to request entire case files from district attorneys at their discretion. Failing to provide the requested documentation to the advisory committee would result in “official misconduct” under the rule, allowing a district judge to remove a district attorney from office.
Why the district attorneys sued: The two lawsuits both claim the law cited by the new Chapter 56 does not provide Paxton’s office with the sweeping jurisdiction the rule creates — and that providing the information requested would be both expensive and illegal. One lawsuit from Dallas, Harris and Bexar county attorneys claims the rule seeks to achieve a “political objective” by burdening officials and creating strict consequences for noncompliance.
“These reporting requirements do not make communities safer,” Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said. “They do not identify trends, improve transparency, or enhance public trust. Instead, they create barriers that divert limited resources away from what matters most, which is prosecuting violent offenders and protecting our community.”
The trio’s lawsuit also maintains the rule violates the Texas Constitution’s protections on separation of powers because the attorney general has “no authority” to expand the definition of official misconduct.
The second lawsuit filed by the district attorneys from El Paso and Travis counties marks similar issues with the new rule, and also claims it would require illegally forfeiting the private information of victims working with their offices. In a press release from March, Paxton’s office states the new rule will help “assist citizens” in judging prosecutors’ performance, which attorneys in the second suit worry indicates private information could be shared with the public.
“The Challenged Rules purport to require an unprecedented level of disclosure of privileged and confidential information from only some of the State’s prosecutors for the sole purpose of unconstitutional oversight,” the lawsuit reads.
What Paxton says: The attorney general has lauded the new rule as a way to help the public better understand how their local prosecutors are operating, and create consequences for those who do not act. In a statement to the Texas Tribune about the lawsuit, Paxton called the rule a “straightforward, common-sense measure” that aims to shed light on attorneys who may be refusing to prosecute dangerous crimes.
“It is no surprise that rogue DAs who would rather turn violent criminals loose on the streets than do their jobs are afraid of transparency and accountability,” Paxton said in a statement about the lawsuit from Dallas, Harris and Bexar county officials. “This lawsuit is meritless and merely a sad, desperate attempt to conceal information from the public they were sworn to protect.”
Paxton’s office also waived concerns about potentially burdensome time or financial costs, stating in the Texas Register that their assessment finds “minimal, if any, fiscal impact.”
Other factors: The new rule is not the only way elected officials in Texas have sought to rein in “rogue” district attorneys in recent years through a similar enforcement mechanism. The state Legislature passed House Bill 17 in 2023, which allows courts to remove district attorneys who refuse to prosecute certain crimes, also through “official misconduct” designation.
Republican lawmakers at the time rallied behind the bill after criticizing Democratic district attorneys for not pursuing alleged voter fraud or prosecuting abortion-related cases. José Garza, the Democratic district attorney for Travis County who joined El Paso and Bexar counties in suing Paxton, was unsuccessfully sued through the law’s provision in 2024.
First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This article presents a straightforward report on the conflict between Texas district attorneys and Attorney General Ken Paxton without evident editorializing or partisan language. It provides perspectives from both sides: the district attorneys’ legal challenges against what they view as Paxton’s overreach, and Paxton’s framing of the rule as necessary for accountability. The inclusion of background, legal context, and statements from multiple officials suggests an effort to maintain balanced coverage, avoiding overt bias toward either conservative or liberal viewpoints.
SUMMARY: Ten inmates escaped the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans early Friday through a hole in a cell wall and defective locks; nine remain at large. Surveillance footage showed them fleeing, scaling fences, and crossing an interstate. The inmates were discovered missing during a routine headcount around 8:30 a.m. One, Kendell Myles, was recaptured using facial recognition in the French Quarter. Officials said no deputy was present at the pod during the escape, only a technician who had stepped away. Sheriff Susan Hutson cited possible inside assistance. Authorities urge the public to stay alert, not approach escapees, and are conducting a full investigation.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-16 15:50:00
In April, Texas’s oil and natural gas industry reversed March job losses, adding 1,700 upstream jobs, including 900 in services and 800 in extraction. From April 2024 to 2025, the sector gained over 206,000 upstream jobs, a 1% rise. Since September 2020, upstream jobs increased by 31.2%. Jobs pay an average $128,000. Despite fewer unique job postings in April (8,826) versus March (10,120), Texas leads U.S. states in energy job postings. The industry paid $669 million in production taxes in April and a record $27.3 billion in fiscal 2024. Growing U.S. power demand highlights the need for domestic oil and gas development.
(The Center Square) – Reversing from job losses in March, the Texas oil and natural gas industry posted job gains in April, according to the latest employment data.
The industry contributed to the state’s job gains, which again led the U.S. in job creation and broke multiple employment records last month, The Center Square reported.
Upstream oil and natural gas employment climbed by 1,700 in April over the month, representing an increase in 900 jobs in the services sector and 800 jobs in oil and natural gas extraction. In March, the industry reported job losses of 800 after reporting gains in January and February of 2,600 and 1,600, respectively, The Center Square previously reported.
From April 2024 to April 2025, the industry added more than 206,000 upstream jobs, a 1% increase. The upstream sector involves oil and natural gas extraction and some types of mining. It excludes other industry sectors like refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities that support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs statewide. Industry jobs pay among the highest wages in Texas, with an average salary of $128,000 in 2024.
“The oil and natural gas industry continues to demonstrate resiliency while facing uncertainty with underlying demand concerns,” Texas Oil & Gas Association President Todd Staples said. “These positive job numbers are a tremendous benefit to the families who are supported by this industry and are important for the communities in which they occur. Sound policies that support fair business practices and laws that keep our state competitive are necessary if Texas is going to continue to benefit from oil and natural gas activity.”
Since the COVID-era low point of September 2020, the industry has added 49,000 Texas upstream jobs, a 31.2% increase, averaging monthly growth of 891 jobs, TXOGA notes. Over the same time-period, months with upstream oil and gas employment increases outnumbered those with decreases by 39 to 15.
While there were new job postings, there was a decline in overall unique postings in April compared to March, according to an analysis of the employment data by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO). Last month, there were 8,826 active unique jobs postings for the Texas oil and natural gas industry, compared to 10,120 in March.
Texas still had more postings than other states by far. California had 2,611 unique job postings in April, followed by New York’s 2,392, Florida’s 1,744, and Colorado’s 1,290, according to the data.
The top three companies posting the greatest number of unique jobs in April were Love’s (665), Cefco (655) and John Wood Group (280), TIPRO found. Of the top ten companies listed by unique job postings last month, five were in the services sector; two were in a gasoline station/convenience store category, two in midstream and one in the oil and gas operator category.
In April, Texas energy producers paid $436 million in oil production taxes and $233 million in natural gas production taxes, according to Texas comptroller data.
This is after the industry paid a record $27.3 billion in state and local taxes and state royalties in fiscal 2024, The Center Square reported.
According to a recent U.S. Energy Information Administration Short-Term Energy Outlook report, U.S. power consumption is expected to reach record highs in 2025 and 2026. “The forecasts for surging power demands underscore the need for reliable power generation from domestic energy sources, including oil and natural gas,” TIPRO said. “Energy policies that support greater oil and gas development will continue to prove critical to keep up with the rising power generation needs in the U.S.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
The content provides a factual, data-driven account of Texas’s oil and natural gas industry job performance. However, the inclusion of quotes from industry representatives, such as Todd Staples of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, and the emphasis on the industry’s positive economic impact, including high wages and tax contributions, suggests a framing that aligns more with a pro-industry perspective. The article highlights policies favorable to the industry and advocates for continued support of the sector, which subtly leans toward a center-right viewpoint. The reporting largely focuses on the economic benefits of the oil and gas industry without delving into environmental or regulatory concerns, a common characteristic of center-right coverage on energy topics.
