A 22-year-old Texas mother accused of driving more than twice the speed limit with her two young children in the car faces manslaughter charges after a crash killed a couple who had recently graduated from college.
Aldrea Rogers, 22, was arrested and charged with two counts of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of Julian Harris and Madison Duren, Dallas County jail records reviewed by Fox News Digital show.
Rogers was allegedly driving 82 mph in a 35 mph zone when she crashed into the couple's vehicle, FOX 4 Dallas reported, citing a newly released arrest affidavit.
Their friends, Eli Barron and Emmet Overcarsh, described the couple to FOX 4 Dallas as curious, enthusiastic people who loved learning and connecting with others.
Overcarsh also expressed disbelief that Rogers, who was the same age as the victims, allegedly had her two young children in the car when the deadly crash occurred.
Friends said the deaths have been difficult to comprehend, particularly because Rogers was the same age as the victims and allegedly had her two young children in the car.
Fox News Digital has contacted the Dallas Police Department and Dallas County court officials to obtain a copy of the arrest affidavit and additional details about the crash investigation.
Texas hasn’t gone blue in a statewide race in more than 30 years, but that streak could face a serious test this year. A new Fox News poll finds that while Texas likely voters favor Republicans retaining control of the U.S. Senate and give incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott an edge in his re-election bid, the Senate race remains deadlocked.
The survey, released Wednesday, finds Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton tied at 49% each among Texas likely voters in the race to replace Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the GOP primary to President Trump-backed Paxton.
Last month, Talarico was up by 2 points among likely voters (51%-49%). The shift to a tie reflects Paxton consolidating support among conservatives, rural voters, suburban women and voters who backed Cornyn in the primary.
Although Paxton is falling short of Trump’s 2024 margins, he has strengthened his support a tad among both men (+1) and women (+1) since September, while Talarico slightly lost support (-1 and -2, respectively).
Talarico leads by wide margins among Black voters (+65 points), urban voters (+29), those under age 30 (+28), and women with a college degree (+23). Paxton’s strongest groups include White evangelical Christians (+52), White men without a college degree (+32), rural voters (+21) and those age 65 and up (+18).
The survey finds Hispanic voters swinging back toward the Democrats. After backing former President Joe Biden by 25 points in 2020, they favored Trump by 1 point in 2024, according to the Texas Fox News Voter Analysis. This key voting bloc now favors Talarico by 30 points (64%-34%) and prefers Democratic control of the U.S. Senate by 29 points.
Overall, when it comes to Senate control, Texans choose Republicans by 4 points (51% to 47%), up from +1 point in September.
Talarico’s stronger party loyalty is another reason the race is close: 98% of Democrats support him, compared with 90% of Republicans supporting Paxton. Nearly 3 in 10 non-MAGA Republicans cross party lines to back Talarico.
Democrats also retain an enthusiasm edge: 69% are extremely interested in this year’s election, compared with 61% of Republicans. Extremely interested voters back Talarico by 7 points.
"The race is going to come down to two basic questions," says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who helps conduct the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson. "Do disaffected Republicans show up and, if so, do they grit their teeth and vote for a candidate who they have serious reservations about?"
Views of Talarico are net positive, albeit by just 1 point (49% favorable, 48% unfavorable), while Paxton’s ratings are underwater by 17 (41% favorable, 58% unfavorable). Among "double haters," voters who view both candidates negatively, Paxton leads by 50 points.
Voters express similar levels of concern about both candidates: 53% worry Talarico’s positions are too liberal, while 50% are concerned Paxton is too close to Trump. The intensity of these concerns is nearly identical, with 36% extremely concerned about Talarico and 37% about Paxton.
In 2024, Trump won the Lone Star State by nearly 14 points, but his job rating is currently underwater by 9 points (45% approve, 54% disapprove). Still, Paxton draws support from 13% of voters who disapprove of Trump, while 6% of Trump approvers back Talarico.
When it comes to their personal finances, more than twice as many voters say they are worse off (43%) than better off (20%) compared with two years ago; 36% say they are about the same.
Voters who are worse off back Talarico by 45 points, while those who are better off (+49) or about the same (+26) favor Paxton.
The governor’s race gives Republicans more breathing room: Abbott edges his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, by 5 points (52% to 47%), unchanged since September.
Abbott has a positive job rating (50% approve, 48% disapprove), and nearly all who approve support him in the race, as do 9% of those who disapprove.
Abbott also benefits from slightly stronger party loyalty and more ticket-splitting among Talarico supporters: 7% support Abbott, compared with 2% of Paxton supporters who back Hinojosa.
Conducted October 15-19, 2026, under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with a sample of 2,011 Texas registered voters randomly selected from a statewide voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (205) and cellphones (1,303) or completed the survey online after receiving a text message (503). Results based on the registered voter sample have a margin of sampling error of ±2 percentage points, and for the subsample of 1,398 likely voters it is ±2.5 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling errors, question wording and order can influence results. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis and voter file data. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Likely voters are based on a probabilistic statistical model that relies on past vote history, interest in the current election, intention to vote, age, education, race, ethnicity and marital status. Results among subgroups are only shown when the sample size is at least N=100.
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico blamed Republican extremism for prompting some of his past controversial remarks during a new interview, including assertions that God is "nonbinary" and that there are six biological sexes, arguing that those weren't issues he ran for office to discuss.
Talarico said that culture war issues became more prominent in the 2021 Texas state legislature and suggested Republicans were responsible for the increased attention to those topics. Talarico, in 2021, opposed a bill to ban men from women’s sports and claimed that "God is non-binary" while on the Austin, Texas, House floor.
Additionally, at a Texas House Committee on Public Education hearing in 2021, he stated, "Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes; in fact, there are six."
Talarico, who is running against Republican Ken Paxton in the state's closely watched U.S. Senate race, spoke to The New York Times' Michael Barbaro on the paper's "The Daily" podcast Tuesday. He said he felt compelled to fight what he described as Republican extremism at the time when asked about the comments.
"I was put in a position where I had to fight back against that extremism. So, you mentioned some of my comments on gender or on issues affecting trans people. It's not like I ran for the legislature to talk about these things. Again, if you go back to my first session, I wanted to talk about public education, which is why I ran in the first place," he said, pointing to other issues on which he ran.
"It's kind of ironic that they're clipping these things to make it sound like I'm the one who was talking about this when, in reality, it was the Republican extremists at the Capitol who were obsessed with talking about trans issues, obsessed with talking about people's private parts. That wasn't me. That was them that changed."
The Democratic Senate candidate said that, at the national level, the party may have gone too far. But at the state level, specifically in Texas, he believed certain bills were targeting and harming his constituents.
He pointed to Texas' abortion ban and legislation affecting the LGBTQ community.
"These bills targeting LGBTQ people have real ramifications in our state, especially when they're written to be overly broad," he said. "I'm all for if we want to figure out when it's appropriate for a trans athlete to play in a sport. That's a policy discussion that we should have and an issue we should solve.
"But the bill that they were trying to pass, the bill they ultimately did pass, was a blanket ban in all cases," he continued. "It treated tee-ball the same as varsity baseball.
"And it's because their goal was to score political points off of the backs of a very small, vulnerable group of people in our state. And, so, you know, my values haven't changed, but I was put in a position because of the rise in Republican extremism to defend my constituents."
Barbaro asked Talarico if he subscribed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and her assertion that so-called "Woke One" was "crazy" at a personal level.
Talarico said he regretted not articulating his position in a "more straightforward way" but had no regrets about defending his constituents.
"So, there's a lot that is said and, when you pull out maybe the most inarticulate of those things to make an attack ad, you know, I certainly regret not articulating my position more clearly, in a more straightforward way to say what I actually mean. And that's going to be true, you know, probably for my entire time in public service. I'm not a perfect person. None of us are. And, so, I'm going to always keep trying to improve how I talk about things so that I'm getting my point across," he said.
"I wasn't making a large point about American politics or the Democratic Party. I'll leave those to the pundits and the commentators. All I was trying to say is that I've said things imperfectly, and I'm going to keep working on trying to communicate more clearly and effectively."
Inez Stepman, senior policy and legal analyst at Independent Women, criticized Talarico's remarks.
"The left is always pulling a bait and switch with cultural issues. They advanced policies that placed males on girls sports teams, in locker rooms, in women’s prisons, and tried to push anyone who objected to that insanity out of public life. Now, they say none of this ever existed or isn’t important. But they don’t change their policy or votes," Stepman told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"Not a single Democrat on the federal level voted for a bill to keep men out of women’s sports. If they don’t want to talk about these issues, they could easily put them behind us by ceasing their campaign, including passing laws and regulations that force us to accept men in women’s spaces. But they won’t do that. They merely want us to stop talking about the consequences of their ideas and policies on women and girls."
Talarico was recently confronted about some of his comments regarding cultural issues while participating in a "Jubilee"-style town hall, during which voters confronted him one-on-one. Talarico met with a fellow Christian from Texas who pressed him on his past statements.
"You've said some concerning things in the past kind of related to faith and social issues. Things such as God is nonbinary, questions about how many genders there really are and your justifications using the Bible for abortion," Sarah Gardner, a small business owner, said to Talarico.
"The first comment about God not being defined by gender, when I said that I was being provocative. And I want to admit that and come clean about that. But I think what I was saying is actually not controversial theologically.
"The idea that we can't define God using human categories, not only did I say that, but the late Charlie Kirk said that, the late Pope Benedict said that. And so, yes, I was doing it, maybe in an annoying way, I can admit that," he said.
Texas has permanently banned a fan from attending Longhorns home football games after he was seen flipping off several Florida Gators players in Austin on Saturday.
The Longhorns suffered their second consecutive loss in Week 7, with the Gators pulling off a 27-24 upset. Shortly after the final whistle, a fan wearing Texas gear was caught on video flipping off Florida players as they left the field.
The fan was holding up his own phone behind his middle finger and documenting the scene himself while being filmed by FOX 7 video photographer Anthony Geronimo, who shared the video on X. Several Florida players walked after the fan, but any sort of altercation was avoided.
With the original video of the scene picking up over 3.5 million views, it made its way to the Texas athletic department, which has made it clear that it will not tolerate such behavior by banning the individual from future games at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
"I want to address the video circulating on social media showing unacceptable behavior by an individual who had the privilege of field access following Saturday’s game," Chris Del Conte, Vice President and Athletic Director, wrote in a statement published on the university's website. "We pride ourselves on sportsmanship and treating our opponents with respect. This individual’s actions did not reflect those values or meet our standards and will not be tolerated.
"The matter has been addressed internally, and I want to personally apologize to the University of Florida and its entire football program. Having access to our field comes with a responsibility to represent Texas with class and respect. This individual failed to uphold that responsibility and has been permanently banned from Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium."
Fans flipping off players is not a rarity in the college football world, but a fan with field access walking over to opposing players and doing so is.
Texas welcomes No. 7 Ole Miss to town on Saturday in what is likely a must-win game for the Longhorns if they want to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive. Texas will enter Saturday night's contest at 4-2 on the year, while the Rebels sit at 5-1.
A Texas woman's lunch took an unexpectedly toothsome turn when she allegedly discovered a cow tooth in her taco, prompting a lawsuit against popular restaurant chain Torchy's Tacos over a bizarre ingredient the company has since confirmed was the real deal.
Nohemi Castillo claims she nearly swallowed the tooth while eating takeout from the chain's South Congress Avenue location in Austin on June 9, according to a lawsuit independently obtained by Fox News Digital and filed Oct. 13 in Travis County District Court.
The order included the chain's "Democrat" tacos, according to the complaint, although a cow tooth was certainly not among the advertised ingredients.
Torchy's Tacos confirmed the unusual discovery in a statement to Austin TV station KVUE, saying its own investigation determined that the object was a cow tooth.
"Upon receiving the guest complaint, we conducted a thorough review and identified the item as a cow tooth," the company said. "This can occasionally happen when processing the meat, though it is quite rare."
The restaurant explained that its barbacoa comes from natural beef cheek sourced from a supplier, adding that it has taken steps to prevent similar incidents.
"We have partnered with our supplier to reinforce their internal procedures to prevent this from happening in the future," Torchy's said.
Castillo's attorney, Scott Vasquez, told Fox News Digital that the company did not acknowledge to him that the object was a cow tooth until the story attracted local media attention in October, roughly four months after the incident.
Vasquez provided Fox News Digital with additional photographs showing the tooth beside a tape measure, offering a closer look at the sizable object Castillo claims she nearly swallowed.
Another photograph included in the court filing shows the object resting on aluminum foil beside what appears to be taco meat.
A witness statement provided by Castillo's attorney describes the moment an ordinary lunch with a colleague took an unpleasant turn.
"As we were eating, I heard an ‘awww!’ When I turned to Nohemi, I saw her pulling something out of her mouth, she said, 'I think it's a bone,'" the witness wrote.
The colleague described Castillo examining the object while holding her left cheek before concluding that it appeared to be a tooth.
According to the lawsuit, Castillo was disgusted and sickened by the discovery and visited a doctor later that evening, where she received prescriptions.
The complaint alleges that she incurred medical expenses and experienced physical pain, mental anguish and other damages.
Castillo is suing Torchy's Tacos and Success Foods Management Group, which does business as Torchy's Tacos, alleging that the defendants failed to properly prepare, inspect and distribute the food before selling it to customers.
The lawsuit further alleges that Torchy's failed to adequately monitor its meat supplier and breached implied warranties that food sold to consumers is fit for consumption. It also alleges violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and federal food safety requirements.
Castillo contends that she would not have purchased the meal, or would have examined it more closely, had she known about the alleged defect.
She is seeking monetary relief of $250,000 or less, with any final award to be determined by a jury.
Vasquez also told Fox News Digital that he has become aware of other individuals reporting similar experiences with Torchy's since the story received attention, although those accounts have not been independently verified.
The attorney characterized the company's earlier responses as providing limited information while shifting blame and responsibility to others.
A convicted bank robber allegedly returned to a familiar disguise while robbing two Florida banks on supervised release, donning an "old man" mask and fleeing in a getaway vehicle tied to his earlier crimes, federal authorities said.
David Sartin Jr., 40, of St. Petersburg, faces two bank robbery charges after investigators say he targeted banks weeks apart while concealing his face behind a prosthetic mask with gray facial hair.
The allegations follow a sentence of more than 10 years in federal prison in a case involving five Texas bank robberies, during which Sartin wore a similar disguise, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The first holdup happened Aug. 24 at Valley Bank in Largo, where the suspect entered wearing a straw hat, sports jacket, gloves and a prosthetic face covering, according to investigators.
He approached a teller, demanded money and warned, "no dye packs," the complaint states.
Authorities say he escaped with $2,900, wedging a yellow wet-floor sign between the exit doors before fleeing toward a nearby church.
Surveillance video showed the suspect retrieving a bicycle, riding into a nature preserve and leaving the area in a Toyota FJ Cruiser, according to the affidavit.
Investigators traced the vehicle’s movements through video from surrounding businesses, city trucks, a police cruiser and a school bus. The Toyota was the same vehicle used in several of Sartin’s earlier Texas robberies, authorities said.
On Sept. 15, a similarly disguised suspect entered a Truist Bank in St. Petersburg wearing a flat cap, glasses, a sports jacket and an "old man" mask with a gray mustache and whiskers.
By then, the FBI was monitoring Sartin’s home with a surveillance camera. Video captured the Toyota leaving before the second robbery and returning afterward, when a man resembling Sartin unloaded a bicycle, according to the affidavit.
The following evening, investigators watched Sartin change the vehicle’s appearance. Investigators said he spray-painted the vehicle’s white roof black.
Sartin was arrested Sept. 19 on a warrant for violating his supervised release. Searches uncovered a bicycle and clothing similar to those seen in the robbery video, authorities said.
Agents searching his storage unit found an "old man" mask they said matched the disguise worn during both robberies, along with glasses, clothing and a fake handgun.
In a guest room where Sartin occasionally stayed, investigators also found another mask and a journal identifying him as its author. Its title page included the words, "God’s Best friend is a Bank Robber!" according to the complaint.
Sartin’s previous convictions stretch back nearly two decades. He was convicted of attempted bank robbery in Mississippi in 2008 following a failed holdup involving Halloween masks and disguises.
In 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison in the Texas bank robbery case.
He now faces up to 20 years in prison on each new robbery count if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Italy has granted Texas murder suspect Lee Gilley "partial extradition" after months of back and forth with U.S. courts. Fox News Digital has confirmed.
Gilley is accused of killing his pregnant wife, Christa Bauer Gilley, and their unborn child back in 2024; he was supposed to face trial in Harris County earlier this year – but instead cut his ankle monitor off and fled the U.S. to Italy. He reportedly left his home on a bicycle before boarding a private jet in Memphis, Tennessee, according to KPRC, leading authorities to suspect he had help fleeing the country.
In the motion obtained by Fox News Digital and translated to English, the Italian court granted the extradition on one charge of murder, not capital murder.
The motion also spelled out that Italy would only grant Gilley's extradition on the condition that he faces a reduced charge of first-degree murder for killing his wife and not their unborn child.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Italy denied requests to extradite Gilley back to the U.S. with concerns that the murder suspect would face capital murder punishment — including possible death penalty or life without possibility of parole — if convicted.
This could extend the already lengthy process of getting the suspect back to the U.S. to face charges. Gilley's attorney did not detail an exact timeline of when his client would be returning to U.S. soil.
Texas Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico got a big-name boost from a surprising corner of the Republican Party as former first daughter Barbara Bush recently donated to the main PAC supporting his campaign.
Former President George W. Bush has had a strained relationship with President Donald Trump dating back to the 2016 campaign, when Trump mocked both his mother and brother. But the donation by Bush’s daughter, the twin sister of NBC host Jenna Bush Hager, comes at a crucial time for Republicans’ hopes of holding the U.S. Senate.
Fox News Digital confirmed through FEC filings that Barbara Bush — who shares the name of the late first lady, her grandmother — contributed $2,500 to Lone Star Rising PAC this quarter. The PAC accounts for almost all the outside spending supporting Talarico, according to Houston Public Media.
While the amount is smaller than contributions from some other big-name donors, including The Eagles’ Don Henley, who gave $150,000 to the PAC, analysts said it is notable that Bush did not make an effort to conceal her politically famous identity.
"She didn’t give it to a 501(c)(4), in which her contribution would’ve been completely anonymous. She gave it to a PAC that reports all the money in and out," Texas campaign finance expert Andrew Cates told Houston Public Media.
Barbara Bush, 44, is currently an executive at the National Basketball Association, where she is vice president of social impact and inclusion. Her FEC filing reflected an address in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
According to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Bush works with the league internationally to use the "convening power of basketball" to support humanitarian efforts involving social justice, "health equity" and sustainability.
She also co-founded the Global Health Corps geared toward empowering youth to solve global health issues. She and Hager also co-authored several children’s books.
The George W. Bush Presidential Center did not respond to a request for comment directed to both former President Bush and Barbara Bush.
Fox News Digital also reached out to the Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents Barbara Bush.
Talarico has lambasted big money in politics and criticized Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and opponent Ken Paxton for "want[ing] corporations and billionaires to decide our elections, not Texans."
However, Talarico has also said he will not "unilaterally disarm" on campaign spending while Republicans employ political action committees, according to the Texas Tribune.
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