Paul Ryan Plans Texas Trip to Visit US-Mexico Border

Our daily roundup of Texas headlines.

By Michael MarksFebruary 13, 2017 10:30 am

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

According to the McAllen Monitor, House Speaker Paul Ryan will travel to McAllen next week for a daylong visit to the Texas border. The visit comes amid Congressional discussions over immigration, border security, and a border adjustment tax, which could impose a 20 percent tariff on all imports to pay for a corporate tax cut.

Ryan will tour the border with members of the Border Patrol – Representatives Mike McCaul and John Carter, both from central Texas, are expected to join him.




Cattle fever ticks continue to spread in South Texas – in November, the Texas Animal Health Commission identified the tick in Live Oak County Officials for the commission said over the weekend that they’ve found ticks eight more properties in the county since then.

The ticks are a serious concern to ranchers since a bite can spread an infection called babesiosis, which often kills cattle. Rick Kelley, a reporter for the Valley Morning Star, told the Standard cattle fever has decimated herds in the past.

“Obviously the cattle interests in Texas, and let’s remember this is Texas’ number one agricultural commodity – I think it’s about $11 billion a year – is very, very concerned. It was a terrible problem in, say, the 1890s and early 1900s,” he says. 

Cattle fever ticks do pop up from time to time in an eight-county buffer zone along the Mexican border. The parasites can spread through cattle, white-tailed deer, and nilgai – an imported species of antelope.




Advocates in Dallas say the recent death of a Sudanese man there shows a need for more support for the city’s refugee community. KERA’s Stephanie Kuo reports:

Mohammad Adam died in his sleep while inside an art installation cube in the neighborhood on Jan. 15. Community advocates say his death points to a lack of support for refugees in Dallas.

Adam was a Sudanese refugee, who went by “Turkey” in Vickery Meadow, where he lived for about seven years. He was a man of few words, but friends who knew him liked him – friends like David Brhane, who is also homeless.

“I used to stay with him. I sleep with him. In the morning, we wake up, and we stay together all day,” Brhane said in between tears. “I’m really upset about that, and I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray.”

Community advocates say rising rents in Vickery Meadow led to Adam’s eviction from his apartment. Adam’s body was found by another friend and fellow Sudanese refugee, David Mbusa, who had also been recently evicted and is now living in a homeless shelter in downtown Dallas.

Read more.