March 25, 2026

And a good afternoon everyone. I'm Long Gonzalez and this is South Texas Midday. The Corpus Christi City Council voted five to three to advance procedural steps to follow up on a petition that seeks to remove Mayor Palet Wahardo. The vote taken by the council doesn't remove the mayor outright but sets the stage for a possible hearing that could lead to the mayor's removal. One council member, Eric Untu, outlined that there is some confusion about the petition. He made clear that none of the council members who voted in favor of that process had anything to do with the petition to remove the mayor. was introduced last August in coming in connection with the Homewood Suites investigation. But he also added that he's not happy with the process and the way the city charter is mapped out. I don't like this part of the charter. It only takes five people to put a petition together to remove a council member. With other things, it takes sometimes 10,000 signatures, some take 100, some takes 1,000. I don't like it. During the council meeting, residents came forth with comments of support as well as their disapproval of the efforts to remove O'Aharlem. The city council will meet April 14th, and the council will take the next steps in how that petition moves forward. Medical clinics aren't having much luck staying open in the community of Kingsville. First, the Sister Elizabeth Smith Clinic closed its doors last October. Most recently, the WellMed Clinic there shut its operation last week. The closures have left many Kingsville residents searching for some new options when it comes to their health care. Officials with WellMed did release a statement about the closure in Kingsville, citing cuts to health care funding as well as adjustments to Medicare reimbursements. That brought changes to their current business. The statement also outlined a new partner clinic will be opening up in Kingsville soon. Folks there in Kingsville needing medical attention and care will now have to travel to other communities for that medical help. The Neuasas County Medical Examiner's Office has identified the AEP, Texas employee who died after a possible electrocution during work in the downtown area. Victim identified as 53-year-old Lee Wayne. Officially, the medical examiner's office has not yet... revealed Wayne's cause of death. First responders were called to the 600th block of Mistina Street near the Corpus Christi Cathedral Tuesday morning. Because of the nature of the incident, power was cut to that area. So a specialized rescue team could reach Wayne. An investigation into that incident is continuing.

Researchers at Texas A&M University, Kingsville, are experimenting with existing virtual fencing technology to develop a plan for cattle ranchers should their herds become infected by the New World Screw Worm parasite. The project comes as Texas and the U.S. Department of Agriculture eye the movements of NWS south of the Texas-Mexico border, something that could devastate the state's cattle industry. Rob Bosskamp reports. Dr. Robert Wells says his team is thinking outside the box, or in this case, within the perimeter of a virtual fence. We're just trying to be novel and innovative and use off-the-shelf technology that's out there that's available to any rancher right now. Wells, a professor of practice at Texas A&M University Kingsville's King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management hopes to utilize existing virtual fencing technology to help ranchers manage cattle. Ultimately, they want to develop a protocol ranchers can use should the New World Screwworm. or NWS reaches the Texas-Mexico border. The flesh-eating parasite has not been reported in Texas since 1982. We don't know when or if the new world's screw worm fly gets here. We hope it never does. But if it does, we want to be ready to be able to have something that a producer can use.

Over 160 cows are fitted with a special caller which uses humane electrical pulses, sounds, and GPS tracking. A four-day training protocol teaches the cows to respond to the virtual fences. Well, says it allows ranchers to schedule where they want cattle at a particular time and saves ranchers time and resources seeking out individual groups. At the same time, if a cow doesn't show up, ranchers can look up their last known GPS location. Because if she doesn't show up, then more than likely it's because she's not feeling good. And so he can go out and find her and hopefully save her life or at least get her treated so that way she can maintain herself and continue to live. The research began earlier this year and comes at a time when Texas and the U.S. Department of Agriculture or USDA are stepping up efforts to keep NWS out of the country. In recent months, the flesh-eating parasite was detected 200 miles from the Texas-Mexico border in the state of Tamalipas, as well as a Florida quarantine facility. If a cow were to be infected by NWS, the research helps ranchers mitigate the impact of the screw worm and larva on herds, while a two-year project, Wells hopes to have a rough draft of a protocol they can advise to ranchers by the summer. This project won't stop the screw worm getting here, but pretty much nothing will until we can get a large enough production of the sterile flies. Until that happens, we've got to have ways that we can manage the ranch and manage the cattle and still stay in business. And that's what this project aims to do.

Last month, the USDA opened a U.S.-based sterile fly dispersal facility in Edinburgh to help fend off NWS from reaching the border. In 1976, an outbreak in Texas affected more than 1.4 million cattle and hundreds of thousands of sheep and goats. A USDA analysis suggests such an outbreak today would cost the state economy $1.8 billion. We have technology that's now available that we can hopefully use in order. to mitigate the impact and the effects of it and hopefully to be able to keep ranchers in business rather than having to sell out because of the impacts and the effects of the screw worm. Wells, a South Texas native who grew up during the 1970s outbreak, said another would disheartened ranchers who've already experienced it. Some of them are telling us that if it gets here, they're just going to sell out. They just don't have the manpower. They don't have the time or the ability to go out and check a herd every day. This will allow them to hopefully be able to stay in the business. And Wells believes the research will find an outside-the-box solution for a problem he hopes will stay outside the country. I'm Rob Bosskamp in Corpus Christi. Conservatives are holding one of their largest annual gatherings as President Donald Trump faces a tough moment and a growing rift over the Iran War. The Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, begins today near Dallas. While Trump maintains broad support among conservatives, the Iran War is more than a wrinkle for activists drawn to his America First campaign pledge against getting involved in foreign conflicts. Some featured speakers at the conference back the war. Others warn it could drain support from voters ahead of the midterm elections. Trump ally Steve Bannon calls the Iran conflict risky for conservatives, while Texas Senator Ted Cruz defends Trump's decision as exactly right. Edinburgh CISD head football coach Ernie Alonzo faces charges in a lawsuit filed against him last September by a student who has accused Alonzo of forcing students to work out while naked. The student filing the lawsuit identified only as NR alleging that Alonzo forced him and other students to perform what was called strenuous physical activity. while nude. Testimony began Tuesday in the Alonza trial with Alonza denying the incident ever happened. Several Edinburgh CISD officials, including District Superintendent Madio Salinas, were called to the stand in the trial. Also adding some confusion to the case was a halt to the probe by police by what was reported as unnamed administrator. Superintendent Salinas stated he never ordered the investigation closed or authorized anyone to close it. Meanwhile, a hearing for a second lawsuit filed by three other students has not yet been scheduled.

And the state quietly shuttered a jail booking facility in Valverde County last summer that it operated as a hub of Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star Border Crackdown. That's according to state officials. At the facilities, officers booked asylum seeking migrants on state charges of criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, and human smuggling, a more serious felony that was largely leveled against thousands of young Americans. Greg Abbott credited President Donald Trump's return to the White House. when he shut the first facility in Jim Hogg County last March. However, internal booking logs showed the reality was more nuanced as the number of illegal border crossings had been decreasing for months before tanking. Further, under Trump's second administration, the closure of the facility in Valverde, home to Del Rio, had not been previously reported or acknowledged by state officials until... Tuesday. DPS spokesperson Sheridan Nolan confirmed the closure to the Texas Tribune in response to questions about internal records that suggested no one had been booked at that facility since May of 2025. And that's the latest news on South Texas Midday. Today, I'm Long Gonzalez, your community arts calendar and more coming away in just a few moments.