A judge in Texas ruled Thursday that three other states can move ahead with their effort to roll back federal rules and make it harder for people across the U.S. to access the abortion drug mifepristone.

The states of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri made the request in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas. The only judge based there is Matthew Kacsmaryk, a nominee of former President Donald Trump who previously ruled in favor of a challenge to the pill’s approval.

The states want the federal Food and Drug Administration to prohibit telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone and require that it be used only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current limit of 10 weeks. They also want to require three in-person doctor office visits instead of none to get the drug.

That’s because, the states argue, efforts to provide access to the pills “undermine state abortion laws and frustrate state law enforcement,” according to court documents.

Meanwhile, Kacsmaryk said they shouldn’t be automatically discounted from suing in Texas just because they’re outside the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that the case should have been settled when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to mifepristone last year, where the justices issued a narrow ruling finding that abortion opponents who first filed the case lacked the legal right to sue.

Kacsmaryk’s decision “has left the door open for extremist politicians to continue attacking medication abortion in his courtroom,” the ACLU said.

The ruling comes days before Trump begins his second term as president, so his administration will likely be representing the FDA in the case. Trump has repeatedly said abortion is an issue for the states, not the federal government, though he’s also stressed on the campaign trail that he appointed justices to the Supreme Court who were in the majority when striking down the national right to abortion in 2022.

In the years since, abortion opponents have increasingly targeted abortion pills, largely due to most U.S. abortions being carried out using drugs rather than through surgical procedures. So far, at least four states — Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire and Tennessee — have seen Republicans introduce bills aimed at banning pills. None take the same approach as Louisiana, which last year classified the drugs as controlled dangerous substances.

Previously, Kacsmaryk sided with a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations that wanted the FDA to be forced to rescind entirely its approval of mifepristone in 2000.

Yet the states are pursuing a narrower challenge. Rather than target the approval entirely, they sought to undo a series of FDA updates that have eased access.

But while the states’ leaders are pushing to severely limit access to the drugs, voters in Missouri sent a different message in November when they approved a ballot measure to undo one of the nation’s strictest bans. In Idaho, abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy. In Kansas, abortion is generally legal up until the 22nd week of pregnancy.

Across the U.S., 13 states under Republican legislative control bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions, and four more ban it after the first six weeks — before women often know they’re pregnant.

Some Democratic-controlled states have adopted laws seeking to shield from investigations and prosecutions the doctors who prescribe the pills via telehealth appointments and mail them to patients in states with bans. Those prescriptions are a major reason a study found that residents of states with bans are getting abortions in about the same numbers as they were before the bans were in place.

Mifepristone is usually used in combination with a second drug for medication abortion, which has accounted for more than three-fifths of all abortions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

The drugs are different than Plan B and other emergency contraceptives that are usually taken within three days after possible conception, weeks before women know they’re pregnant. Studies have found they’re generally safe and result in completed abortions more than 97% of the time, which is less effective than procedural abortions.

• Health
• Missouri
• Supreme Court of the United States
• Donald Trump
• Politics
• Texas
• Abortion
• Pregnancy
• Kansas

Since the Palisades Fire broke out on the morning of Jan. 7, several more wildfires have ravaged the Los Angeles area. At least 27 people have died and more than 12,000 structures have been destroyed. 

In the middle of all of this, a false evacuation alert sent to all of L.A. County’s approximately 10 million residents on Jan. 9 added to the chaos, as many Angelenos were left unsure what to believe.

“While the city alerts are definitely alarming, we just aren’t able to take any city push alerts at face value after [a] couple rounds of mistakes,” Sharvari Akre-Bhide, a clinical researcher living in L.A., told CBS News.

Instead, L.A. residents flocked to Watch Duty, an app which shows real-time updates and alerts for wildfires in 21 states. 

In the first days of the fires, Watch Duty shot to the No. 1 spot in Apple’s app store seemingly overnight. It provides users easy-to-read maps showing burn areas, evacuation zones, fire cameras and more. It’s all sourced from publicly available data and verified by a team of fire fact-checkers.

“Sending errant emergency alerts is a quick way to erode trust,” John Mills, co-founder and CEO of the app told CBS News. 

Watch Duty has been a lifeline for many people in wildfire-prone communities since it was created in 2021. 

“We did heed the first city alert enough to pack an emergency bag, but other than that have been monitoring Watch Duty before taking any action,” Akre-Bhide said. “…We’ve been basically cross checking every city push alert that goes out immediately with Watch Duty and then reevaluating.” 

She’s not the only one. Longtime California resident Keri Gailloux told CBS News she checks Watch Duty the same way she would her favorite weather app. 

“It’s about the facts,” Gailloux said. “It’s about what’s real and in real time, as much as you can get it. And while I love listening to people’s opinions about things, that’s where misinformation really can happen.”

How Watch Duty works 

The process to track and verify its information is deceptively simple, Watch Duty says. Information comes in, gets confirmed and goes out to users. 

“The difference with Watch Duty is that the people who are reporting on it are people who have been in the field, people who understand the importance of, ‘You’ve got a five minute evacuation window,'” Gailloux said.

Watch Duty has more than 150 volunteers made up of active and retired first responders, firefighters and dispatchers who monitor radios, scan the internet, and reach out to officials. If something comes in through one of those channels, the team coordinates and confirms the various pieces of new information. Once it’s confirmed, an incident leader will send the update to the app, which in turn alerts users in the area.

“We have historical recordings of everything that we do here.” Mills explained. “So it’s kind of hard to debate, because that’s what was said at that time. And so we try to remove opinion and sensationalism from this.”

Mills says that straightforward process of fact and science “used to be the world that we lived in, and we want to bring that back.”

“We didn’t start this because of misinformation,” Mills said. “We started it from looking at good information.”

Operating on trust

Mills points to what he believes is an outdated national alert system, ill-equipped to handle the ferocity of future natural disasters as one of the reasons for the confusion seen in California. 

“They have these arcane checks and balances from the FEMA ICS (Incident Command System) structure that was invented in the seventies.” Mills said. “Disasters are moving faster, and they haven’t updated.”

Mills remarks come as the L.A. Fire Department is facing scrutiny over its response to the Palisades Fire. 

“I’m not here blaming L.A. Emergency Operations Center or any of these people. This is a hard job to do,” Mills said.  

Gailloux seems to agree. 

“If you’re waiting for the news to tell you what to do, or you’re waiting for the fire trucks to show up, you could be dead.” Gailloux said. “[Watch Duty] understands the urgency.”

Mills sees a need for Watch Duty’s service beyond fires, with climate change putting more people in the path of potential disasters. 

“We’ve seen the same nonsense happen during floods, the recent tsunami warning in California that went awry, and just the misinformation that spreads around panic.”

According to Mills, Watch Duty is unique from its Silicon Valley counterparts in that it is a nonprofit with no plans to change. 

“Watch Duty is a nonprofit because, I mean the very easy answer is, it’s the right thing to do,” Mills said.  

With 2.8 million users, premium membership options and full-time employees, Watch Duty has a significant cash flow. According to the company’s 2024 annual report, it brought in $5.6 million in funding through a combination of grants, donations, and paying members. But Mills has no plans to put the app behind a paywall.

“This is a governmental service and a municipal operation that needs to exist free and devoid of ads, spam, sign-up logins, marketing to 3rd parties, [and] selling you fire hoses when you’re trying to run for your life.” Mills said. “It’s just ridiculous, and so we will take no part in that.”

So how should California government officials respond? Says Mills, “If I were them, I would pick up the phone and call me.” 

and
Melissa Mahtani
contributed to this report.

• California
• Wildfires
• California Wildfires

With the Northern Hemisphere well into the winter months, it may seem like temperatures are cold enough already. However, a deep freeze, thanks to the polar vortex dipping down from Siberia, is about to bring even harsher, frigid temperatures to nearly 300 million Americans. 

The polar vortex is a large area of cold air and low pressure that normally spins over the North and South Poles. During the winter months and when the jet stream allows, this cold air can drop farther down into lower latitudes like in the United States. This is forecast to happen as soon as this weekend. 

Beginning Saturday, the polar vortex will begin to dip down into the northern tier of the U.S., dropping temperatures into the single digits. Wind chills will already be dropping into the negative teens for that region. Forecast temperatures will be 20-25 degrees below average for this time of year. 

On Sunday, the chills really start to kick in, with temperatures dropping into the teens across the Central Plains. Wind chills will be down to the negative 20s in the Northern Plains and single digits for the Central Plains, making for dangerously cold conditions for those attending NFL playoff games. Forecast temperatures will be 25-30 degrees below average for this time of year.  

On Monday, the polar vortex will reach the Deep South, with temperatures down to the freezing point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit in Atlanta. Wind chills will be in the 20s. Across the Rockies, Plains and Midwest, some areas won’t make it out of the single digits.

At least 19 record-cold high temperatures are expected from the Plains into the East. Forecast temperatures will be 25-30 degrees below average for this time of year. 

For the presidential Inauguration on Monday in Washington, D.C., skies will remain mostly sunny for the ceremony, with temperatures in the low 20s. Wind chills are forecast to be in the single digits. 

This will mark the coldest Inauguration Day in 40 years. In 1985, it only reached 7 degrees for President Ronald Reagan’s second swearing in, causing the ceremony to be held indoors and the parade to be canceled. 

• Weather Forecast

A Texas truck driver charged in the deaths of 53 migrants who rode in a sweltering tractor-trailer with no air conditioning pleaded guilty Thursday over the 2022 tragedy that became the nation’s deadliest smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Homero Zamorano Jr., who lived in Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport aliens resulting in death, causing serious bodily injury, and placing lives in jeopardy; one count of transportation of aliens resulting in death; and one count of transportation of aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. The 48-year-old could face a maximum sentence of life in prison, the Justice Department announced.

Mark Stevens, Zamorano’s attorney, said in an email that he was unable to comment on a pending case. Zamorano is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24.

Authorities say Zamorano, who drove the truck, and other men charged in the smuggling attempt were aware that the trailer’s air-conditioning unit was malfunctioning and would not blow cool air to the migrants trapped inside during the sweltering, three-hour ride from the border city of Laredo to San Antonio.

Temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit while migrants screamed and banged the walls of the trailer for help or tried to claw their way out, investigators said.

The truck had been packed with 67 people, and the dead included 27 from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador, according to Mexican authorities. Prosecutors have said migrants paid up to $15,000 each to be taken across the U.S. border.

The incident happened on a remote San Antonio back road on June 27, 2022. Police officers detained Zamorano after spotting him hiding in nearby brush, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A search of Zamorano’s cellphone showed calls concerning the smuggling run.

Surveillance video of the 18-wheeler passing through a Border Patrol checkpoint showed the driver matched Zamorano’s description, according to the indictment.

Also charged previously in the tragedy was Christian Martinez, also of Texas, who with Zamorano was arrested shortly after the migrants were found. Martinez has since pleaded guilty to smuggling-related charges.

Four Mexican nationals were also arrested in the case in 2023. And in August, a suspect arrested in Guatemala was charged with helping coordinate the smuggling attempt. U.S. authorities said they would seek the extradition of Rigoberto Román Miranda Orozco, who is charged with six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious injury. Authorities alleged he is connected to four Guatemalan migrants in the trailer, three of whom died, and faces up to life in prison if convicted.

• Texas
• Smuggling
• Migrants

As the wildfires in Los Angeles left hundreds of homes in ruins, one family that lost everything in the worst wildfire in Colorado history says there’s a better way to rebuild.

Three years ago, Erik Ela, his wife and his now 4-year-old son, Alex, lost their two cats and their home in the Marshall Fire. It was two days before Alex’s birthday.

“We’ve experienced something that I never thought you’d experience and I’m ready for it to happen again,” Ela said.

When it came time to rebuild, the father from Superior, Colorado, wanted to make sure his new home was protected against fire — so he chose a design concept called Passive House. 

In a traditional house design, embers typically get sucked inside the home through roof vents during a fire. It’s one of the reasons why homes in Los Angeles are burning from the inside out. In a home built using the passive design concept, there are very few places for embers to get caught, according to Johny Rezvani, a Passive Home material supplier.

Compared to the roof vents on most houses, a Passive House has just a single air intake. A powerful filtration system is installed to control the flow of air, which helps keep embers out.

“And in an extreme weather situation, what you would do if you had to evacuate is you would close off that intake,” Rezvani said.

In Los Angeles, where the historic Palisades and Eaton Fires were fueled by intense Santa Ana winds, one home that followed the passive building principles was the only one still standing in its neighborhood. 

Despite a higher chance of surviving a fire, the reason not all new homes are built passively is the cost. It can be up to 7% more expensive to build a passive house compared to a more traditional one, according to the Passive House Network

Just six of the 300 homes that have been rebuilt in Superior are passive. Although a new Colorado state law aims to change the way homes most threatened by wildfires are built.

“I was shocked that we don’t require building standards,” Democratic State Senator Lisa Cutter said. “If your house isn’t well-protected and you don’t do everything you can and mitigate for fire around the property etc. Then you’re putting your neighbor’s house at risk.”

Cutter pushed for the creation of Colorado’s Wildfire Resiliency Code Board. It will identify areas with the highest wildfire threats and, for the first time, enforce mandatory wildfire construction codes. In Colorado, a million structures are built in places that meet or mix with natural areas where there’s a threat of wildfire. A third of all U.S. housing is in a high-risk area — that’s 44 million homes.

As climate change contributes to windy and dry conditions ripe for amplifying the risks of rapidly spreading fires, the time has come for some to rethink how they live with it and how they rebuild from it.

David Schechter

David Schechter is a national environmental correspondent and the host of “On the Dot with David Schechter,” a guided journey to explore how we’re changing the earth and earth is changing us.

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