TV News LIES

Getting swallowed up by the gaping maw of the ground beneath one's feet is the stuff of nightmares. And it is what's happening — again — in the small Texas town of Daisetta.

A huge sinkhole that had appeared to be stable for more than 15 years suddenly began expanding about a week ago, growing by several acres and leaving nearby residents terrified that it will take them and their homes.

Video footage taken by Bluebonnet News on Sunday shows buildings, tank containers and other structures partially submerged in water. Deep cracks in the earth emanate from the dark pool like veins, running beneath empty warehouses and heavy equipment.

Years ago, the original crater made national news after suddenly collapsing on May 8, 2008. Over two days, it grew from a 20-foot hole to a cavity measuring about 900 feet across and 260 feet deep.

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Florida LGBTQ advocacy groups and lawmakers are gearing up for another uphill battle against Gov. Ron DeSantis and his fellow Republicans as the legislature appears poised to pass an expansion to the controversial state education law restricting talk of sexual orientation and gender identity in public school classrooms.

The state’s Parental Rights in Education measure, known to critics as “Don’t Say Gay” for its disproportionate impact on LGBTQ students and families, has been the law of the land in Florida for more than a year.

New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on President Joe Biden’s administration to ignore a ruling from a federal judge in Texas that suspended the approval of a common abortion pill, mifepristone.

“The executive branch has an enforcement discretion,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” also calling the ruling “a mockery of our democracy and a mockery of our law.”

“This ruling is an extreme abuse of power. It is an extraordinary example of judicial overreach,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the only Democrat who says the White House should ignore the ruling.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said Friday that he believes the Biden administration and the Food and Drug Administration “has the authority to ignore this ruling.”

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The US supreme court on Thursday refused to let West Virginia enforce a state law banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at public schools, one of many Republican-backed measures across the country targeting LGBTQ+ rights.

The justices denied West Virginia’s request to lift an injunction against the law that a lower court had imposed while litigation continues over its legality in a challenge brought by a 12-year-old transgender girl, Becky Pepper-Jackson.

Two conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented from the decision.

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A tornado that slammed into southeastern Missouri early Wednesday caused "multiple" fatalities and injuries and prompted a feverish search for survivors in the wreckage, authorities said.

Tornadoes were reported in parts of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri late Tuesday and early Wednesday, and severe storms forced brief ground stops at major airports in Chicago and Detroit.

The Missouri Highway Patrol tweeted that they were assisting agencies in Bollinger County in search and recovery efforts near the village of Glenallen, about 100 miles south of St. Louis.

“The damage is pretty widespread. It’s just heartbreaking to see it,” Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri Highway Patrol said. Crews are having to use chainsaws to cut back trees and brush to reach homes, he said.

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Nasa has named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly as early as next year on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years.

Christina Koch, an engineer who already holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, was named as a mission specialist, along with Victor Glover, a US Navy aviator, who was selected as the Artemis II pilot.

Glover, who was part of the second crewed flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, would become the first astronaut of colour ever to be sent on a lunar mission.

Rounding out the four-member crew are Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian ever chosen for a flight to the moon, serving as a mission specialist, and Reid Wiseman, an International Space Station veteran, named as Artemis II mission commander.

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A federal judge temporarily blocked a Tennessee law restricting drag shows on Friday, the day before it was set to go into effect.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker granted a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the law for two weeks, finding that it was “likely both vague and overly-broad.”

The law, signed by Gov. Bill Lee (R) last month, criminalized drag shows that take place in public or where they could be seen by children.

Parker agreed with Friends of George’s, the Memphis-based LGBTQ theater group contesting the law, that “this language could mean just about anywhere.”

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Thursday is the day to prepare for what's expected to be a wild and potentially dangerous Friday weatherwise across a large swath of the central U.S.

Forecasters are warning of an outbreak of severe weather Friday afternoon and evening in at least 12 states from the Upper Midwest to the Deep South: "Intense, damaging gusts and several tornadoes (some strong and long-track) are expected," the Storm Prediction Center said.

Tens of millions of people live where the high winds and tornadoes are possible: Big cities in the highest danger areas include Nashville, Memphis, St. Louis, Des Moines and Little Rock.

The storms will be fast-moving, so there won't be much time to react to warnings, forecasters said. "Now's the time to start preparing," said Storm Prediction Center warning coordination meteorologist Matt Elliott.

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