CNN, WFAA, KSPR, KYTV, KMOV, WSVN, TESA RAYE STROUD, ALEX LEGGETT, MATT JONES , 417 STORM CHASERS, Matt Jones / 417 storm chasers

By Meteorologist Briana Waxman, Taylor Romine, CNN

(CNN) — Several people are injured after a tornado in Mineral Wells, Texas, flattened a portion of the town Tuesday night, the sixth day of a severe storm outbreak that has terrorized the midwest and continues to wreak havoc in the South.

The tornado ripped through Mineral Wells, about 80 miles west of Dallas, around 5 p.m. Tuesday evening, city officials said. Two people were transported to the hospital and several people were treated for minor injuries on the scene, but there are no reported deaths or active missing persons cases, said Mineral Wells Fire Chief Ryan Dunn. He didn’t know the extent of the injuries of the two people taken to the hospital.

Multiple homes and a wide swath of the industrial area were damaged, but a full assessment will need to be done in the morning, officials said. The impacted area had a 10 p.m. curfew Tuesday night to prevent people from going into the damage, Mineral Wells Police Chief Tim Denison said.

The local high school is being used as a reunification center and the Red Cross is there to help provide services, he added, saying people have already been trying to figure out how to help.

“There is a lot of hope out there, and we’ve had an outpouring of support from not only the first responding agencies but the community,” Denison said.

Tuesday’s storms also brought massive hail up to grapefruit size near Godley, Texas, while stones up to tennis ball and baseball size pummeled Springfield, Missouri, damaging vehicles and knocking down power poles.

Storm chaser Matt Jones was in the car in Springfield when hail bigger than golf balls picked up in intensity, cracking his windshield repeatedly. “This is insane, oh my God, I gotta get out of here,” Jones exclaimed in a video.

An emu at Springfield’s Dickerson Park Zoo was killed during the hail storm and a rhea, a large bird similar to an emu, was injured, the zoo posted on social media. The zoo was significantly damaged by the hail and will be closed Wednesday, the post said.

Footage from Springfield-Branson National Airport showed wind-driven hail lashing the airport and crews covering damaged vehicles with tarps. Airport officials said aid groups distributed tarps within hours as recovery efforts began.

In southern Oklahoma a possible tornado shredded buildings – including some mobile homes – and significantly damaged powerlines. Aerial footage shows a series of transmission towers bent to the ground near the town of Caney.

The storm impacted several areas across Oklahoma’s Atoka County, but no injuries had been reported as of Tuesday night, the sheriff’s office said.

A Level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms remains in place through early Wednesday morning for much of Arkansas and parts of southern Missouri, northeast Texas, northern Louisiana and central and northern Mississippi. Damaging winds, large hail and a few tornadoes threaten millions across a broader zone from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Tennessee Valley.

A tornado watch was in effect for parts of northern Mississippi, southeastern Arkansas and extreme northern Louisiana until early Wednesday morning, according to the

By Matt Egan, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is no stranger to tough decisions, but now he faces one of his toughest and most personal calls yet: Leave the stage or stick around in a supporting role once his replacement takes the helm of the US central bank.

Powell’s term as Fed chair expires on May 15, but his separate term on the Fed’s powerful board of governors doesn’t lapse until January 2028.

The succession drama at one of the most powerful institutions in the world has sparked a new guessing game in Washington and on Wall Street: Will Powell stay, now that the Justice Department has dropped its extraordinary investigation into him?

It’s a pivotal subplot of Wednesday’s Fed meeting and press conference, where Powell could reveal his plans, or at least drop hints.

Normally, this isn’t much of a debate: The leader of the Fed typically exits once their four-year term expires, even though technically they can hang around as a governor and continue voting on interest rate decisions.

But these aren’t normal times.

Fed independence, a tradition that Powell views as paramount and that has real-world implications for inflation-weary Main Street, has come under relentless attack during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Remaining at the Fed, albeit in a lesser role, could protect Powell from the Trump administration’s efforts to criminally charge him. And Trump wouldn’t be able to swiftly fill Powell’s seat with someone who may be more open to chipping away at the Fed’s cherished independence and lowering interest rates.

That’s why some of Powell’s former colleagues and Fed watchers suspect he will break from recent history, they told CNN. If Powell stays on the board, he would be the first Fed chair since 1948 to remain at the central bank.

“I would expect him to be torn – wanting to leave on a personal basis (he looks worn out) but also wanting to protect the integrity of the institution,” Bill Dudley, a former top Fed official who served with Powell during the first Trump administration, told CNN in an email. “My best guess is that he’ll stay on for a time – but measured in months, not years.”

‘Well and truly over’

In March, Powell said he had not decided whether to leave when his successor is confirmed. But he stressed this decision would be based on “what I think is best for the people we serve.”

“I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality,” he said at a press conference.

But it’s still debatable whether that criteria has been met, especially given the mixed messages from administration officials.

Last week, Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, announced she is closing the criminal investigation of Powell over the Fed’s costly renovation project.

That was enough for Republican Sen. Thom Tillis on Sunday to drop his opposition to Powell’s likely replacement, Kevin Warsh, setting the stage for a Wednesday vote to advance the nomination.

However, the legal matter does not appear to be closed altogether.

The investigation will now continue to be handled by the Fed’s inspector general. Pirro said her office will review the IG’s report and she noted that a criminal probe could be restarted, if warranted.

“Powell chooses his words carefully and I don’t see the DOJ announc

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) -

Tennis: Channel League Individual Championships: Dos Pueblos freshman sensation Ciaran Tober-Bridges won the the title in straight sets over Santa Barbara junior Beckett McManigal 6-1, 6-0.

Santa Barbara's Lucas Forry/Elio Taha captured the doubles title defeating a team of Nicolas Holve/Levi Reece of San Marcos.

Channel League Boys Golf Individual Championships: San Marcos standout Austin Downing won the 2-day tournament by four shots over teammate Andy Keenan. Downing finished 3-under par to win the title. Santa Barbara senior Alex Ortega finished third at 2-over par.

CIF-SS Beach Volleyball Quarterfinals:

Division 3: Long Beach Poly 4, Dos Pueblos 1

Division 4: Oak Park 3, Bishop Diego 2

Division 4: Campbell Hall 4, Foothill Tech 1

CIF-SS D8 Boys First Round Volleyball:

Laguna Blanca 3, Lynwood 0: Soren Alldredge had 15 kills for the Owls who host West Valley on Thursday in second round

Channel League Softball: Dos Pueblos 4, Oxnard 1: Freshman Emily Morici struck out 14 batters as the Chargers move to 9-1 in league and 17-5 overall.

The post Prep wrap for tennis, golf, volleyball, softball appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

CNN, STATE OF TEXAS

By Ashley Killough, Ed Lavandera, CNN

Austin, Texas (CNN) — After two days of emotional testimony, Texas lawmakers and investigators Tuesday laid out a grim assessment of Camp Mystic’s leaders’ role in last summer’s devastating floods that left 27 dead: no real evacuation plan and a delayed response as waters rose.

That’s raised mounting doubts for state lawmakers about whether the camp should reopen as planned.

The work of the state legislative committee – led by the same two investigators lawmakers hired in 2022 to investigate the Uvalde school massacre – offered the clearest picture yet of what happened at Camp Mystic’s Guadalupe River campus in July, pieced together through heart-wrenching testimony and chilling accounts.

“The fate of those girls was set before any first drop of rain ever fell,” said state Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican.

The investigators said the Eastland family, which owns and runs the camp, failed to build a flash flood evacuation plan, hold drills or give camp counselors any serious training in preparation for a major weather event.

And despite closely monitoring weather alerts in the early morning hours of the flooding, Dick Eastland, the longtime and beloved camp director, waited far too long to take action, investigators said. He died in the floodwaters after evacuating several campers and trying to save others.

“I understand completely when people point out the things we could have done that morning,” said Edward Eastland, a camp director and one of Dick Eastland’s sons. “I think about those things every day.”

“We’re so sorry. Every day. Every minute of every day, we’re so sorry,” Mary Liz Eastland, Edward’s wife, later added.

The investigation falls amid a variety of other probes into the tragedy at Camp Mystic, including as part of lawsuits filed by families against the camp’s leaders.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the two-day joint hearing of state House and Senate flood investigative committees and what investigators said took place as the disaster unfolded:

Camp director ran a tight ship but lacked a comprehensive flood plan

Investigators presented a timeline of events that paints a perplexing picture of Dick Eastland, who was deeply familiar with the region’s flood history yet created a culture of what investigators called flood complacency.

In an hours-long presentation Monday, investigators described Eastland as a patriarchal leader who “ruled” Camp Mystic, held a tight grip on decision-making across the camp and instilled a culture of “obedience” where campers, staff and family members strictly followed orders from up top. They said Eastland was “vigilant” about weather yet didn’t have a solid plan in case of a flood.

Por Joan Biskupic, Analista jefe de la Corte Suprema de CNN

Hace ocho años, en la primera batalla importante en la Corte Suprema de Justicia de EE.UU. sobre una política de Donald Trump, los magistrados desestimaron la retórica antimusulmana del presidente y confirmaron la prohibición de viaje a países de mayoría musulmana.

Ahora, los abogados de Trump invocan esta decisión judicial para instar a los magistrados a ignorar sus comentarios despectivos sobre los haitianos y a respaldar su plan de deportar a ciertos inmigrantes a quienes se les había otorgado previamente el “estatus de protección temporal” en Estados Unidos debido a la inestabilidad en su país de origen.

En el caso de la prohibición de viaje el presidente usó la estrategia de defenderla basándose en un interés “legítimo” de seguridad nacional, independientemente de si había estado motivada por animosidad.

Esta decisión marcó el inicio de la tendencia del tribunal a reforzar el poder de Trump. Fue también el primer caso importante en el que los magistrados conservadores adoptaron una postura que se ha vuelto miope ante las afirmaciones sesgadas del presidente.

Antes de ordenar la prohibición, Trump había afirmado: “El islam nos odia”, y prometió “un cierre total y completo” de la entrada de refugiados musulmanes.

“La cuestión que nos ocupa hoy no es si debemos denunciar las declaraciones”, comentó el presidente del Tribunal Supremo, John Roberts, al leer extractos de su opinión mayoritaria desde el estrado aquella dramática mañana de junio de 2018. “Se trata, más bien, de la importancia de dichas declaraciones a la hora de revisar una directiva presidencial aparentemente neutral, que aborda el asunto dentro del marco de la autoridad presidencial”.

Los magistrados disidentes criticaron a la mayoría por “aceptar ciegamente… una política discriminatoria motivada por la animosidad hacia un grupo desfavorecido, todo en nombre de una alegación superficial de seguridad nacional”.

Quizás la decisión más significativa de Trump hasta la fecha, relativa a su inmunidad frente a un proceso penal por actos oficiales, abordó directamente los motivos del presidente y los convirtió en un tema tabú.

Ese caso de 2024 surgió de las acusaciones de subversión electoral presentadas por el Departamento de Justicia contra Trump. (El asunto nunca llegó a juicio, debido a la intervención de la Corte Suprema).

“Al separar la conducta oficial de la no oficial”, afirmó la mayoría de la Corte Suprema, “los tribunales no pueden indagar sobre los motivos del presidente”.

Los magistrados disidentes se quejaron: “Según esa norma, cualquier uso del poder oficial para cualquier propósito, incluso el más corrupto, evidenciado por pruebas objetivas de los motivos e intenciones más corruptos, sigue siendo oficial e inmune”.

Una pregunta formulada por el juez Neil Gorsuch durante los argumentos orales del caso puso de relieve cómo algunos magistrados sopesaron las acciones de Trump con el respeto que merece el cargo de presidente.

“¿Debemos analizar los motivos, los motivos del presidente para sus acciones?”, preguntó Gorsuch, y agregó: “No me preocupa tanto este caso como los futuros… Estamos sentando un precedente histórico”.

La nueva disputa que se debatirá el miércoles deja al descubierto las motivaciones de Trump, específicamente las relacionadas con su supuesta animosidad racial.

Durante años, el presidente ha vilipendiado específicamente a los haitianos.

Trump describió a Haití como un país “sucio… Read more