Several laws, including changes to vehicle inspections and property taxes, take effect on Jan. 1 in Texas.
During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2, known as the Property Tax Relief Act.
Most of it is already in effect to help with property tax relief, but what’s new in 2025 is a tax circuit breaker.
Homeowners and businesses may be eligible to claim a circuit breaker tax credit. That credit essentially limits the amount property taxes can increase in a certain period in Texas.
The remaining provisions of the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, which have already taken effect in most parts, are also new for 2025.
The new section authorizes procedures for Texans to designate a registered agent who may make data privacy-related decisions on behalf of another resident.
Texas lawmakers begin the 89th Legislative session on Jan.14 in Austin.
Lawmakers have already filed a record number of bills, with some of the big topics being abortion, border and immigration, guns, property taxes, and, of course, public education.
There is a major push for school choice, which could lead to a type of school voucher program that would provide public funds directly to families to help them pay for their children’s private schooling and other educational expenses.
Beginning Jan. 1, Texas drivers will no longer need to get an annual safety inspection to register their vehicles.
However, vehicles must pass emissions tests in major metropolitan areas, and all drivers will pay a $7.50 inspection replacement fee when renewing their vehicle registration. State lawmakers approved the policy change, spearheaded by Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, during the 2023 legislative session.
“With Texas being one of only a handful of states that still requires yearly safety inspections, eliminating the mandate is long overdue,” Harris said in a statement to Community Impact. “These inspections do not make roads safer, as evidenced by over 40 other states.”
Here’s what Texans should know before registering their vehicles in 2025.
The details
The new state law, House Bill 3297, eliminates mandatory safety inspections for noncommercial vehicles.
The $7.50 “inspection program replacement fee” will go to the state’s general revenue fund, a clean air account and the Texas Mobility Fund, which supports the construction and expansion of state highways. Drivers registering new vehicles will pay a $16.75 fee to cover two years, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Texans whose vehicles are registered in the following 17 urban counties will need to get an emissions test before renewing their registration:
Brazoria
Collin
Dallas
Denton
Ellis
El Paso
Fort Bend
Galveston
Harris
Johnson
Kaufman
Montgomery
Parker
Rockwall
Tarrant
Travis
Williamson
Bexar County will begin requiring an emissions test in 2026, according to the DPS.
Zooming in
During an emissions test, an inspector will check a vehicle’s engine and electronic systems to ensure cars do not release too many pollutants. In the above counties, vehicle registration will be denied if an individual has not gotten their emissions system checked or if the vehicle did not pass the inspection, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Electric vehicles will remain exempt from emissions tests, according to the DPS, and commercial vehicles—such as delivery trucks, buses and taxis—must still pass safety inspections.
The DPS encourages motorists to regularly service their vehicles to keep Texas roads safe. This includes ensuring a vehicle’s headlights, tail lights, horn, mirrors, windshield wipers, tires and more work properly. Driving a vehicle without functioning safety features is against the law, according to the DPS.
“Texans are responsible [and] fiercely independent, and I trust them to keep their cars and trucks safe while on the road. … I am proud to author this bill, which will free up over 40 million hours per year for Texas drivers,” Harris said.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced on Monday that the United States would offer almost $2.5 billion in defense assistance to Ukraine, a move that will bring an “immediate influx of capabilities” as the country defends itself against Russia’s assault.
“At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office,” Biden said in a statement.
The support will include both a $1.25 billion drawdown package for Ukraine’s military and a $1.22 billion package authorized through the U.S. Department of Defense’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, according to Biden. The department has now used all funds allocated by Congress under that initiative, he added.
Prior to the announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the support would be “significant” for his forces fighting against the Russian invasion.
“This support is crucial to stabilizing the front lines — every additional supply from our partners means more saved lives of our soldier,” he said on Sunday. “We are also working to ensure that other partners maintain their support at the necessary level.”
The new support packages are expected to help the Ukrainian military with ongoing battlefield efforts, along with “longer-term supplies of air defense, artillery, and other critical weapons systems,” Biden said.
He added that he’s “directed my Administration to continue surging as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible — including drawing down older U.S. equipment for Ukraine, rapidly delivering it to the battlefield, and then revitalizing the U.S. defense industrial base to modernize and replenish our stockpiles with new weapons.”
The U.S. Department of Defense will be delivering hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets and hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine, Biden said, “which will strengthen Ukraine’s hand as it heads into the winter.”
The funeral for former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Sunday at the age of 100, will be held on Jan. 9 at Washington National Cathedral.
Carter, the son of a peanut farmer who was elected the nations 39th president, passed away surrounded by family at his home in Plains, Georgia, just months after he became the longest-lived former chief executive in U.S. history.
President Joe Biden, who praised Carter as a “man of principle, faith, and humility,” has also marked Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning for the former Democratic president.
Biden said in March 2023 that Carter had asked him to deliver his eulogy. Their relationship spans decades, back to when Biden endorsed Carter for the presidency during Biden’s first term as a senator in 1976.
In remarks on Sunday evening, Biden spoke about Carter’s support for him and his family after his son Beau died of cancer. Carter was later diagnosed with metastatic melanoma.
“I think that what Jimmy Carter is an example of is just simple decency, simple decency,” Biden said as he reflected on that time in his life. “And I think that’s what the rest of the world looks to America for.”
Washington National Cathedral, situated just miles north of the White House, has been the site of several state funerals for former presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush.
Carter is expected to be buried in Georgia next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died last year at the age of 96. Carter, who had been in hospice care, made a rare public appearance to attend his wife’s memorial service.
The couple previously spoke about being laid to rest together at their family residence, near the edge of a pond on the property where they fished together.
ALVIN, Texas (KTRK) — Recovery efforts are underway in Alvin ISD after a deadly tornado destroyed Walt Disney Elementary School.
It was one of many structures damaged by tornadoes this past weekend across southeast Texas. One person was killed in Alvin, and officials say at least four others were hurt.
SkyEye flew over the storm-ravaged areas and captured video of severe damage.
A tornado in Montgomery County had peak winds of 145 miles per hour, while a tornado in Brazoria County was on the ground for eight miles and had winds between 115 and 135 miles per hour.
Administrators surveyed the damage at Walt Disney Elementary School on Sunday. They said they hope to have an update for the community on Monday.
Brazoria County was left storm-ravaged after a strong storm produced a deadly tornado.
At this point, no announcements have been made about where the teachers and students will go once the Spring semester starts next week. The Alvin ISD school board is holding an emergency meeting at 11 a.m. Monday.
The National Weather Service said the tornado that struck the school on Saturday was an EF-2.
The district said many teachers lost valuable materials, some of which they paid for out-of-pocket.
To help combat the losses, the Alvin ISD Education Foundation is taking donations. They said they’d provide information soon on where the community can drop off physical items for donation.
All 181 passengers and crew aboard a passenger jet that crashed upon landing in South Korea on Sunday morning are presumed dead except for two people rescued from the wreckage, authorities said.
Jeju Air flight 2216 was landing at Muan International Airport around 9 a.m. local time when the plane went off the runway and crashed into a wall.
There were a total of 175 passengers and six crew members aboard the Boeing 737 aircraft, which had taken off from Bangkok, according to the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport. The official death toll, which has been provided by the National Fire Agency, has climbed steadily in the hours since the crash.
Firefighters and rescue team members work at the Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. (Maeng Dae-hwan/Newsis via AP)
A plume of smoke at the scene of the Jeju Air crash in Muan, South Korea.
Courtesy Yoo Jung-Pil
The transport ministry was on the scene investigating the cause of the crash, and details of what happened were beginning to come into focus. Prior to the plane’s crash landing, the control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the ministry said. About a minute after that warning, a pilot sent a mayday distress signal, after which the tower issued permission for the aircraft to land, the ministry said.
Video from the scene at the time of the crash appears to show the landing gear was up when the plane touched down, possibly indicating some sort of malfunction, and it also appears the plane landed at a high speed. Videos taken at the scene showed flames and a thick column of dark smoke at the crash site.
As of 1 p.m. local time, authorities said the plane had completely burned. A temporary morgue was being set up at the airport.
By about 8 p.m., the official death toll had climbed to 176 people, the National Fire Agency said. Eighty-three of the dead were women and 82 were men, the agency said, adding that another 11 bodies remained unidentified. According to the flight manifest, there were five children under 10 years old on the flight, the youngest of them 3 years old.
A man and a woman were rescued from the wreckage and were taken to the hospital, according to the transport ministry. Both were crew members, the fire agency said. Their conditions were not released.
Initially, there were conflicting reports on the number of people rescued.
Jeju Air is a South Korean low-cost carrier that operates an all Boeing fleet, with 42 planes and nearly 3,000 staff.
“We deeply apologize to all those affected by the incident at Muan Airport,” Jeju Air said in a notice posted in English on its website. “We will make every effort to resolve the situation. We sincerely regret the distress caused.”
The website’s landing page replaced Jeju Air’s logotype, which is usually orange, with an all-black version.
Boeing was in contact with Jeju Air regarding the crash and was “standing ready to support them,” a Boeing spokesperson told ABC News.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” the spokesperson said.
Muan, a city of roughly 90,000 people, is located in southwest South Korea.
The winning ticket for the $1.22 billion Mega Millions jackpot has been sold in California, with the winner set to take home the fifth-largest prize ever.
The winning ticket was sold in Shasta County at the Circle K on 3505 Rhonda Road in Cottonwood, California, and matched all six numbers in Friday night’s drawing.
The winning numbers were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and gold Mega Ball 6 and the cash value of the jackpot is estimated to be $549.7 million, according to the lottery.
Lottery tickets for the Mega Millions jackpot are seen in a store on Aug. 8, 2023 in New York.Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
No one has won the grand prize in the last 30 drawings, as the jackpot has ballooned. The last time the jackpot was won was at $810 million in Texas on Sept. 10.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, according to Mega Millions.
“Congratulations to our $1.22 billion jackpot winner from California,” said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium. “What an amazing present this holiday season! At an incredibly special time of year, this is both an incredibly special moment for our winner, and for all the great organizations and causes that benefit from lottery ticket sales around the country. Thank you to everyone who plays. Because of you, we have winners all around the country taking home cash prizes both big and small, and we have educational causes, parks and many other great organizations benefiting as well. Thank you and congratulations to all our winners.”
In total, there were more than 31.4 million winning tickets across all prize tiers during the 31-drawing run, which began after the last jackpot was won in Texas on Sept. 10 — including 65 second-tier prizes of $1 million or more, won in 26 different jurisdictions from coast to coast, according to Mega Millions.
“It’s only the fourth Mega Millions jackpot won in 2024, and with only one more drawing this year, odds are that the year will end with the fewest jackpots won in any year since the game began in 2002,” Mega Millions said following Friday’s drawing. “In addition to the $810 million Texas win on September 10, a $552 million windfall went to an Illinois online player on June 4 (the largest lottery prize ever won with an online ticket purchase), and a huge $1.128 billion prize was won in New Jersey on March 26.”
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 for one play.
Severe weather battered parts of the Pacific Northwest Thursday as forecasts showed a resurgence of heavy rain for a handful of southern and midwestern states. The wave of storms put a damper on travel plans after the Christmas holiday and contributed to hundreds of flight cancellations nationwide.
A series of thunderstorms caused ground stops at both Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Thursday afternoon. Amid what AAA predicted was to be the busiest holiday travel season on record, there were at least 264 flight cancellations out of DFW as of Thursday evening, accounting for 22% of all cancellations nationwide according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Another 550 flights out of DFW were delayed, accounting for 46% of all delays nationwide.
“We have a connecting flight here from DFW to Tokyo for our second anniversary and it’s been delayed 12 times, and the communication has been poor,” Latoyia Pugh told CBS News.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the state’s emergency response plan in preparation for the weather Thursday afternoon.
“Texas is prepared to deploy all necessary resources to help local officials respond to severe weather threats,” Abbott said in a statement. “As Texans and out-of-state visitors begin traveling after the Christmas holiday, it’s crucial that everyone regularly monitor road conditions, make an emergency plan, and heed the guidance of state and local officials.”
At least one suspected tornado touched down near El Campo, Texas, Thursday evening, about 80 miles southwest of Houston. The most potent storms were covering a region from Shreveport, Louisiana, south to Beaumont, Texas, according to CBS News senior national weather correspondent Rob Marciano.
Earlier, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth had issued various watches and warnings for flash floods, dense fog, tornadoes and thunderstorms in different parts of the region Thursday morning. All the tornado watches and warnings had been canceled by Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Oregon and Washington were expected to see moderate to heavy rainfall and a few thunderstorms Thursday, resulting in up to 3 inches of inundation spread across the area and potentially some flooding in places where the rain falls rapidly, according to a National Weather Service advisory. Mountain snow, high winds and perilous surf was also expected.
At one point Thursday morning, almost 60,000 customers were without power in Washington and Oregon, according to the outage tracker FindEnergy.com. However, by Thursday night, that number was down to about 14,600 customers.
This is the latest iteration in a series of storms caused by an atmospheric rivercurrently impacting the West Coast. The initial round in the Northwest is expected to move inland by Thursday afternoon, meteorologists said, offering the region a short reprieve before another bout of extreme weather arrives Thursday night in many of the same areas. The upcoming spell is expected to bring an additional inch or two of rainfall by Friday morning.
High wind warnings were also issued for stretches of coastal Oregon and Washington. Forecasters in Medford, Oregon, had warned Thursday morning that “damaging winds will blow down trees and power lines.”
The National Weather Service in Seattle shared similar warnings overnight Wednesday into Thursday, noting wind gusts in the area could peak at around 60 mph for coastal areas and reach up to 55 mph around the Puget Sound. Meteorologists in Portland reported a wind gust of 92 mph at Beacon Rock, Washington — which is roughly 35 miles east of Portland — in the early hours of Thursday morning, the weather service said.
The latest storms in the Pacific Northwest trailed a string of dangerous weather along the West Coast this holiday week. Earlier, a major storm hammered Northern California and caused the death of at least one person in Sunset State Beach in Santa Cruz, who on Monday became trapped beneath debris that authorities believe piled on top of him because of a large wave, the Associated Press reported. Two people had to be rescued when a portion of the Santa Cruz Wharf collapsed.
Thick fog also hovered over portions of the Midwest on Thursday. In Kansas City, forecasters predicted fog and light rainfall would persist throughout the day, with areas of especially low visibility — less than a quarter of a mile in some places — expected to linger across central and eastern Kansas as well as central Missouri through the morning. Forecasts suggested the fog would dissipate, but only to an extent, by the afternoon.
Outlooks farther north in Illinois were fairly similar.
“Areas of dense fog will remain over parts of northern Illinois into this afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chicago said in a mid-morning advisory Thursday. “Expect low visibilities and slowed driving out on the roads until conditions improve.”
Two weeks before the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments over TikTok’s future, President-elect Donald Trump has asked the justices to delay a Jan. 19 deadline for the app to be sold to a new owner or face a ban in the U.S.
An amicus brief filed by Trump’s nominee to be solicitor general, John Sauer, is asking the court to grant a stay delaying the deadline so that the incoming president can work out a “negotiated resolution” that would save the app.
The filing casts Trump as someone who “alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government.”
Trump’s brief says he “opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture,” but does not express the view that the law requiring the sale violates the First Amendment, saying he takes no position on the merits of the case.
Instead, the filing from Sauer asks the court to put the deadline on pause to allow Trump’s incoming administration “to pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thus preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns.”
TikTok, which has over 170 million U.S. users, has sued over the law requiring it to be sold by its current Chinese-based owner ByteDance by Jan. 19 or be banned in the U.S.
Biden and some congressional leaders argued that the ultimatum against TikTok was necessary because of security concerns about ByteDance and its connections to the Chinese government.
Trump originally tried to ban TikTok in his first term, but has since reversed course, vowing during the 2024 presidential campaign to “save” the app.
In Trump’s amicus brief, Sauer raised the idea of social media censorship, invoking Brazil’s recent month-long ban of social media platform X, the treatment of the Hunter Biden laptop story and government efforts to stamp out COVID-19 misinformation as incidents that should give the justices pause.
“This Court should be deeply concerned about setting a precedent that could create a slippery slope toward global government censorship of social media speech,” Sauer wrote in the filing. “The power of a Western government to ban an entire social-media platform with more than 100 million users, at the very least, should be considered and exercised with the most extreme care—not reviewed on a ‘highly expedited basis.’”
While Sauer acknowledged that TikTok may pose national security risks while it remains under ByteDance’s control, he also urges the justices to be skeptical of national security officials, whom, he said, “have repeatedly procured social-media censorship of disfavored content and viewpoints through a combination of pressure, coercion, and deception.”
“There is a jarring parallel between the D.C. Circuit’s near-plenary deference to national security officials calling for social-media censorship, and the recent, well-documented history of federal officials’ extensive involvement in social-media censorship efforts directed at the speech of tens of millions Americans,” Sauer wrote.
JENNI, the new ViX original film inspired by the life of late superstar Jenni Rivera, will premiere on ViX and in select theaters across the U.S. and Mexico on December 6. The Spanish-language streaming service announced the news on November 13 in a press release, which also included the film’s first trailer.
About the Film
Starring Annie Gonzalez (Flamin’ Hot, Gentefied) as the iconic Mexican-American banda singer, the movie follows Rivera’s journey from her humble beginnings in Long Beach, California, to her rise as one of the most famous female regional Mexican artists, and the days leading up to her tragic and unexpected death.
“JENNI also shows the struggles she endured in her personal life and how she became the artist fans know and love today,” notes the press release. “This story of resilience and bravery highlights the building blocks that made Jenni Rivera who she was and the remarkable legacy she left behind.”
Trailer Highlights
The trailer features Gonzalez — who also sings in the film and is credited as an executive producer — performing Rivera’s early song “La Chacalosa” at a nightclub. “My life ain’t no fairy tale,” Gonzalez says in character as Jenni, while a montage shows scenes of her struggles with teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, and legal troubles, alongside her rise to fame and pride as the mother of five children.
Legacy of Jenni Rivera
Known as “La Diva de la Banda,” Rivera broke barriers for women in Música Mexicana, a genre still dominated by male artists. Her empowering anthems like “La Gran Señora” and “Inolvidable” became a source of inspiration for women everywhere.
Rivera, the most successful woman in regional Mexican music and on the Billboard Latin charts at the time of her passing, tragically died in a plane crash in 2012 at the age of 43. Among her many achievements:
30+ songs charted on Regional Mexican Airplay, including 15 top 10s and the No. 1 hit “De Contrabando.”
25 songs charted on the Hot Latin Songs list.
La Misma Gran Señora became her third No. 1 album on Top Latin Albums in December 2012, ruling for eight weeks and remaining on the tally for 73 weeks, making it her longest-charting album.
Cast and Crew
The cast includes:
Manuel Uriza as Pedro Rivera, Jenni’s father and Regional Mexican entrepreneur
Cinthya Carmona as Chiquis Rivera, Jenni’s oldest daughter and a singer
Jero Medina and Miguel Angel Garcia as Trino Marín, Jenni’s first husband and father of her three oldest children
Gabriela Reynoso as Rosa Saavedra, Jenni’s mother
J.R. Villarreal as Juan “Cinco” Lopez, Jenni’s late second husband
Tatiana Alicia Beltrán as the young Jenni Rivera
The film was produced by Javier Chapa and Phillip Braun of Mucho Mas Media, and Alec Meachem of De Line Pictures. It was directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero, with a screenplay by Shane McKenzie and Kate Lanier.
