Here are things to know for Friday, May 28:
1. Volunteer firefighter killed by deputy fire marshal in shooting in Waller County
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A deputy fire marshal has been charged with manslaughter following the weekend shooting death of a volunteer firefighter. Joshua Hahn remains in the Waller County jail on a $100,000 bond.
Sheriff Troy Guidry said the shooting was not an intentional act, but a reckless one.
Investigators said Douglas Smith, 18, was shot one time while visiting a home off Bowler Road last Sunday. Prosecutor Sean Whittmore said at least five people were in the kitchen of the home when Hahn was showing off his rifle.
2. Maleah Davis update: Derion Vence pleads guilty, sentenced to 40 years in prison, officials say
Derion Vence pleaded guilty Thursday to tampering with a corpse and injury to a child -- 4-year-old Maleah Davis -- and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, officials say.
Vence, 28, dated Maleah’s mother, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s Office said in a news release with an update about the case. Vence, Maleah and her little brother were all reported missing the morning of May 4, 2019. When Vence and Maleah’s brother showed up at a hospital late that night, Maleah was not with them. Her remains were found by the side of a road in Arkansas a month after she disappeared.
Maleah was being watched by Vence because her mother was out of state on a trip. Vence eventually told police he had been attacked by unknown men a day earlier while on his way to the airport to pick up the mother along with Maleah and his son. He said that when he woke up after the attack, Maleah was missing.
3. Gov. Greg Abbott sends state troopers, National Guard to border after increase in fentanyl seizures
Gov. Greg Abbott called the smuggling of fentanyl across the Texas-Mexico border a “crisis” and said Thursday that he has deployed 1,000 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and National Guard members to combat the problem.
In the first four months of this year, Abbott said at a press conference in Fort Worth, the DPS saw a significant increase in fentanyl seizures compared to 2020. After having no fentanyl seizures in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Abbott said, DPS seized 52 grams in 2020. So far this year, they have already seized 137 grams, he said.
Abbott said the increase correlates with President Joe Biden taking office in January and taking steps like pausing border wall construction and ordering a review of the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their hearings in U.S. immigration courts.
4. After Harris County was left out of latest round of Hurricane Harvey relief funds, George P. Bush asks feds for $750 million
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said he is requesting $750 million in federal funds to be sent directly to Harris County after the county and Houston were awarded $0 out of the $1 billion pot in the latest round of Hurricane Harvey relief funds.
This announcement comes after an outcry from Houston and Harris County leaders who requested $1.3 billion from the land office, which was provided relief funds by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
On Tuesday, the Harris County and Houston officials court sent a letter to Bush expressing their “profound disappointment” at being left off the land office’s recent list of recipients for relief money. They argued Harris County bore the brunt of the damages and loss of life from Harvey, and that it should receive funding as a result.
5. Forecast: 40% chance Earth to be hotter than Paris goal soon
There’s a 40% chance that the world will get so hot in the next five years that it will temporarily push past the temperature limit the Paris climate agreement is trying to prevent, meteorologists said.
A new World Meteorological Organization forecast for the next several years also predicts a 90% chance that the world will set yet another record for the hottest year by the end of 2025 and that the Atlantic will continue to brew more potentially dangerous hurricanes than it used to.
For this year, the meteorologists say large parts of land in the Northern Hemisphere will be 1.4 degrees (0.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than recent decades and that the U.S. Southwest’s drought will continue.