No timetable from governor on filling late Democratic congressman’s vacant seat

AUSTIN, Texas>> The race to fill a Texas congressional seat has candidates but no election date more than three weeks after Rep. Sylvester Turner’s death left a vacancy in a stronghold for Democrats, who are eager to cut into Republicans’ narrow U.S. House majority.

Turner, a former Houston mayor, died March 5, just weeks into his first term in Congress. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has the sole authority to call a special election but has not said when he might do so, drawing criticism from some Democrats who have accused him of trying to help protect the GOP’s margins.

The seat is one of four vacancies in Congress, including two in Florida, where voters next week will choose successors in special elections for a pair of GOP-held districts. Republicans hold 218 seats, while Democrats hold 213 seats.

Elections in Texas are typically held in May and November.

Three dead, more than 200 rescued after storms

McALLEN, Texas>> Drenching rain along the Texas-Mexico border let up Friday, but rescues were still ongoing a day after severe storms trapped residents in their homes, forced drivers to abandon their vehicles on flooded roads and shut down an airport. At least three people died.

Hidalgo County officials said in a statement that they did not immediately have more information about the three deaths except that they involved law enforcement efforts.

In Harlingen, officials said the city received more than 21 inches of rain this week, with the heaviest rainfall on Thursday causing severe flooding that had authorities rescuing more than 200 residents, with another 200 people still waiting to be rescued.

Governor signs ban on DEI in public colleges

COLUMBUS, Ohio>> Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has signed legislation to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs and make other sweeping changes to public colleges and universities in Ohio.

Students, teachers and civil rights groups had called for a veto by DeWine, whose office announced the signing Friday without further comment by the governor. The American Historical Association, American Civil Liberties Union, the American Association of University Professors, Ohio’s two largest K-12 teachers’ unions and Democrats all called on DeWine to reject Senate Bill 1, which also will prohibit faculty strikes and limit classroom discussion.

Besides banning DEI programs and rescinding certain collective bargaining and tenure protections for faculty members, the new law also will make schools promise not to influence student views on “controversial” topics, require every Ohio college student to take a three-hour civics education course and impose dozens of other programmatic and administrative changes.

Schools that violate its provisions risk losing state funding.

Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving WWII paratrooper, dies at 108

Sgt. Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving World War II paratrooper and a member of the Army’s first all-Black parachute infantry battalion, has died. He was 108.

Harris died March 15 in a hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by family, grandson Ashton Pittman said. He will be honored with a full military funeral April 5.

Harris was among the last surviving members of the historic 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. The battalion helped protect the U.S. from deadly Japanese balloon bombs, according to Robert L. Bartlett, a retired Eastern Washington University professor who specializes in the 555th. In 1944 and 1945, the Japanese launched thousands of the balloons to be carried by the Pacific jet stream to the U.S. mainland to explode.

— Denver Post wire services