Jim Vertuno, Author at The Rapid City Post

In this image from police body cam video provided by the Uvalde County Sheriff's Department, law enforcement agents ready their weapons during the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (Uvalde County Sheriff's Department via AP)

What newly released videos and records reveal about the Uvalde school shooting

August 12, 2025

Anguished pleas from parents. Confused police officers. And the horrifying scene that emergency crews found when they first got inside the classrooms at Robb Elementary School. Newly released records surrounding the 2022 massacre, including hundreds of pages of files and hours of body camera video, show in greater detail the horrors and failures involved in one the worst school shootings in U.S. history. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed. The trove of documents, which Uvalde authorities spent years fighting to withhold, offer a deeper portrait of the teenage gunman and on-scene communications among hundreds of law enforcement officers who rushed to the rural South Texas campus.

FILE - Crosses are surrounded by flowers and other mementos at a memorial, June 9, 2022, for the victims of a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Uvalde school records show teenage gunman’s spiral before 2022 shooting

August 11, 2025

School district officials have released text messages, personnel files and student records of the shooter from the 2022 attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers. Monday’s document release follows a yearslong legal battle over public access to the material. Media organizations, including The Associated Press, had sued the district and county in 2022 for the release of their records. It is not the public’s first glimpse inside the slow law enforcement response to the shooting. Last year, city officials in Uvalde released police body camera videos from their officers and 911 calls.

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference at the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

What to know as Trump’s immigration crackdown strips tuition breaks from thousands of students

August 6, 2025

Tens of thousands of U.S. college students without legal residency are losing access to in-state tuition as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. The Justice Department has been suing states to end these tuition breaks. The lawsuits started in Texas in June and have expanded to Kentucky, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. Federal law prohibits in-state tuition benefits for students in the country illegally if those benefits are denied to out-of-state U.S. citizens. Texas’ program, once widely supported, has faced criticism from Republicans as they take a tougher stance on immigration. The impact is being felt nationwide, with some states ending or reconsidering these tuition breaks.

Texas House Rep. Joe Moody, D - El Paso, stands at the back of the House Chambers with empty chairs belonging to House Democrats protesting a redistricting map at the State Capitol, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez)

Why dozens of Democrats left Texas and how Republicans are trying to punish them

August 5, 2025

Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers in Texas have scattered across the country in a last-ditch effort to prevent Republicans from adopting U.S. House maps that President Donald Trump wants in place before the 2026 midterm elections. The Republican-controlled state House failed to reach a necessary quorum to vote on a district map Monday and Tuesday. By leaving the state, Democrats are beyond the reach of Texas law enforcement, and they can effectively shut down the vote by ensuring the 150-member House does not have the quorum required to do business. Gov. Greg Abbott and fellow Republicans are threatening to try to remove the Democrats from office if they don’t return to the Capitol.

CORRECTS CITY TO AURORA, ILL., Texas Rep. Gene Wu speaks as Illinois Governor JB Pritzker looks on during a news conference in Aurora, Ill,, on Tuesday, Aug 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Texas governor asks court to remove House Democratic leader from office over walkout

August 5, 2025

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to remove from office a top state lawmaker he called the “ringleader” of Democrats who left the state to block a vote on a new congressional voting map pushed by President Donald Trump. Abbott bypassed lower courts and filed a rare emergency petition against state House Democratic Caucus Chairman Gene Wu straight to the all-Republican state Supreme Court, the state’s top civil court. The governor’s lawsuit came just three days after dozens of Democrats left the state and hinges on an untested legal theory that the lawmakers can be found to have vacated their office if they don’t return to the state Capitol.

A granite Ten Commandments monument stands on the ground of the Texas Capitol, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Faith leaders and families sue to block Texas’ new Ten Commandments in schools law

June 25, 2025

A group of Dallas-area families and faith leaders has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The law mandates a specific version of the commandments be displayed in every classroom starting Sept. 1. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Dallas argues the measure violates the separation of church and state. Similar laws in neighboring Louisiana and Arkansas have faced legal challenges. Opponents say the Texas law infringes on religious freedom. Supporters argue it reflects the nation’s foundational values. More lawsuits are expected.

New Texas law will require Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom

June 21, 2025

Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new state law that will make the state the nation’s largest to attempt to impose such a mandate. The measure is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. Two other states, Louisiana and Arkansas, have similar laws. Louisiana’s is on hold as federal courts have ruled it unconstitutional. The Ten Commandments laws are among efforts in conservative-led states to insert religion into public schools.

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2012, file photo, students walk through the University of Texas at Austin campus near the school's iconic tower in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

What to know as Trump administration targets tuition breaks for students without legal status

June 5, 2025

The quick end to a Texas law that granted in-state public university tuition prices to students who lack legal resident status stunned immigrant advocates and state Democrats, who call it a cruel punishment for hardworking students that will ultimately hurt the state’s economy. In one of the Trump administration’s latest moves to crack down on immigration, the Justice Department on Wednesday sued to block the so-called “Texas Dream Act.” A few hours later, a federal judge declared it unconstitutional. The lighting ruling ended a policy that since 2001 has helped tens of thousands of students get into college and has spawned similar laws in two dozen states.

FILE - A sign is seen outside of Seminole Hospital District offering measles testing, Feb. 21, 2025, in Seminole, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Amid measles outbreak, Texas is poised to make vaccine exemptions for kids easier

May 27, 2025

Texas has been the center of the nation’s largest measles outbreak in decades. It has sickened more than 700 people in the state and killed two unvaccinated children. Yet even as the outbreak winds down, the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature is poised to make it significantly easier for parents to get the exemption forms needed to enroll their children in school without standard vaccinations for diseases such as measles, polio and hepatitis A and B. A vote by the Senate as early as Sunday could send it to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott

Jim Vertuno.