AG Ken Paxton Establishes New Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency on Tuesday evening, as the state got the record as the second driest year ever. According to The Hill News, Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, and Ventura counties were previously exempt from emergency. Still, those counties are now included in the governor's proclamation. The Governor's Office stated that with the possibility of a third consecutive year of drought, the extended proclamation now needs local water supplies to implement water scarcity contingency plans that reflect local conditions, as stated in the report. Governor Gavin Newsom Bans Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment Conserving Water According to the proclamation noted above, the State Water Resources Control Board may adopt emergency regulations to prevent water wastage, such as hosing down sidewalks or driveways or cleaning a car without a shutoff nozzle. CalMatters reported that after being declared drought-stricken for the first time in April, the North Coast saw the most significant drops in household water use compared to last year's August, dropping by 18.3%. As conservation numbers dropped, the San Francisco Bay Area conserved nearly 10% more water than last August. "Those numbers are a little bit misleading, frankly. Looking at one month, in one year, compared to the same exact month in the current year, it's really not a true measure of what the efforts in the city have been," Director of Water Resources at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said, as quoted in the report. Meanwhile, more than half of California's population lives along the South Coast, where water use was down 3.1% in August compared to the same month in 2020. While this still falls short of Newsom's goal, it was a vast improvement over July's water use reduction at 0.1%, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. 2021 as a second driest year At this point in time, nearly 88 percent of California is either experiencing extreme drought or something even worse than that. Storage levels in California's major reservoirs were at or below average by the end of September. Northern and central California is expected to see rain and high-elevation snow through the end of October. However, even if all of these storms come together, they will not be sufficient to end the state's drought.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to lessen the number of unsolved homicides in the state. He is doing this by creating a new Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit. This team will assist local police, sheriffs and Texas Rangers to solve homicides, missing persons, and other unsolved cases.

Texas looking to solve cold cases

Right now, Texas has currently 19,207 unsolved homicide cases. Paxton said that this team will work to get closure for families around the state. The team’s first case involves missing high school senior Thomas Brown. Moreover, the high school class president and state champion football player went missing five years ago. Police found his remains in January 2019. They ruled that there was no foul play. However, the investigation was suspended because the cause of death could not be determined.

Moreover, this newly established unit works with law enforcement throughout Texas to analyze collected evidence and speak with experts to identify possible leads that could be developed. As the unit gets off the ground, the attorney general’s office is calling on the public with information about the death of Thomas to come forward.

Families deserve closure from these cold cases

Moreover, the Texas Rangers have their own website that lists unsolved homicide cases. The cases list some descriptions of the circumstances surrounding the victims’ deaths. The site lists the victim’s last name, the year their remains were found, gender, and county of residence at the time of their death. Moreover, the Department of Public Safety established the Unidentified Persons Unit in 2007 to aid statewide law enforcement to enter the required information into a database related to missing persons.

 

 

 

Related Posts