McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials remind the public that although it’s nice to give flowers for Mother’s Day, not all flowers can cross U.S. ports of entry.

There are restrictions on certain agricultural imports, including Chrysanthemums, which are not allowed to be brought from Mexico.

That’s because the flower can carry a fungus and that could infect U.S. plants and agriculture, CBP officials say.

Potted plants and soil also are not allowed to protect U.S. crops from plant diseases, invasive insects and worms.

Roses, carnations and many other flowers are allowed into the United States after undergoing inspections. However, plants or growing require a permit to be admissible, and soil cannot be imported from Mexico. 

All travelers must declare flowers and plants to CBP officials upon entry at U.S. ports.

The agency’s website provides a list of plants and cut flowers, fruits and vegetables that are allowed to be brought into the United States and what is not.

Failure to declare agricultural products can result in fines of up to $1,000 for first-time offenders for non-commercial quantities.

Mother’s Day is on Friday, May 10, in most of Latin America. In the U.S., Mother’s Day is on Sunday.

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The pace of migrants being ordered deported by U.S. immigration judges so far this fiscal year is 50 percent higher than in 2019, the peak year for the Trump administration, according to a new report.

U.S. immigration judges have ordered 137,000 others deported in the first six months of Fiscal Year 2024, according to a report by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University. Additionally, nearly half a million migrants have been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents in that time frame.

“Compared with peak removals in FY 2019 during the prior administration, the pace of new removal orders today is 50 percent greater. The increase in removal orders coincides with the expansion of the ranks of immigration judges during the current administration,” according to TRAC’s report, “Top Places With the Most Immigrants Recently Ordered Deported.”

A senior U.S. administration official this week told reporters that from May 12, 2023 — when Title 42 was lifted — until April 17, the Biden administration has removed over 690,000 individuals, most of whom crossed the Southwest border. That included more than 105,000 family members from 170 countries around the world.

The government of Mexico also recently released a report on the number of migrants it has released so far in 2024, with most sent to neighboring Guatemala and Honduras.

Report sheds light on deported migrants

TRAC obtained data on individual deportation cases, including locations, which found most removal of migrants — nearly 11,000 — occurred in New York City, followed by Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, where 8,336 deportation orders were issued. Other cities include:

• Los Angeles County, California, with nearly 6,000 removals ordered.

• Dallas County, Texas, had 2,815 removals.

• Miami-Dade County, Florida, had 2,521 removals ordered.

• Montgomery County, Texas, outside Houston, with nearly 2,000 removals.

• Travis County, Texas, which includes Austin, with 1,664 removals ordered.

• Orange County, California, with 1,576 removals.

• Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, with 1,527 removals.

The report notes that although Cook County, Illinois, had more asylum-seekers, the number of removal orders places it at only 10th in the United States.

The number of immigration court cases completed during the past six months took an average of 2.5 years from start to finish, or 942 days, the report found. Cases resulting in removal orders were swifter — 627 days on average, TRAC reports.

Cases in which immigration judges granted asylum or another form of relief took an average of 3.7 years to complete, or 1,361 days. TRAC reports the number of backlogged immigration cases currently is 3.5 million.

COLUMBIA, Tenn. (AP) — Severe storms tore through parts of the U.S. again Wednesday, spawning damaging tornadoes, producing massive hail, and killing two people in Tennessee and one person in North Carolina.

A storm that rumbled across northeastern Tennessee brought high winds that knocked down powerlines and trees. Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks said a 22-year-old man was in a car struck by one of the trees.

Wednesday afternoon, a tornado emergency — the weather service’s highest alert level — was issued for an area south of Nashville including the towns of Spring Hill, Chapel Hill and Eagleville.

The National Weather Service had previously reported a likely tornado on the ground in nearby Columbia, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Nashville. People in Columbia were injured and homes were damaged, according to Lynn Thompson, assistant director of Maury County 911. Thompson told The Associated Press that he could not provide any further details: “We’re getting overloaded right now.”

Rita Thompson, Marketing & Communications director with Maury Regional Health, said the hospital had received five patients. One died, another was in serious condition and three had injuries that were not life-threatening.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary ground stop at Nashville International Airport because of the weather, media outlets reported. Northeast of Nashville, a flash flood emergency was issued for Sumner and Robertson counties including the cities of Hendersonville and Gallatin. The National Weather Service said water rescues were ongoing in those areas and described the flooding from heavy thunderstorms as life-threatening.

“Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” the weather agency alert said.

The National Weather Service in Nashville on Wednesday evening issued a tornado watch for parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee until 3 a.m. CDT. The weather service continued issuing tornado warnings into the night, mostly in Tennessee, but also in Missouri, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.

In North Carolina, a state of emergency was declared for Gaston County Wednesday evening following a large storm. First responders were working to clear roads of downed power lines and broken trees and were helping residents, officials said. The New Hope Fire Department responded to a tree down on a car. One person in the car was killed and another was taken to a hospital, officials said.

More than 135,000 customers had lost power in the state as of Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.

The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes touched down Tuesday in western Ohio: five in Warren County and one each in Darke, Mercer and Auglaize counties. The weather service said crews are still surveying areas in other counties to determine if tornadoes struck there, as well. The strong storms also brought hail and heavy rains to the state and knocked out power to thousands of utility customers.

In Michigan, weather service meteorologist Nathan Jeruzal said the tornadoes there touched down one each in Kalamazoo, Cass and Branch counties — all in the southwestern part of the state. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for four counties.

Kalamazoo County’s Portage area was hard hit as a FedEx facility was ripped apart and more than a dozen mobile homes were destroyed. About 50 people temporarily were trapped inside the damaged facility because of downed power lines.

More than a dozen homes were destroyed in a mobile home park in adjacent Pavilion Township and 16 people were injured, said Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller.

Samantha Smith clutched a box Wednesday afternoon as she stepped from her mother’s partially wrecked home in Pavilion Township, about 137 miles (220 kilometers) west of Detroit. Inside the box were her grandmother’s ashes. Being able to recover the most cherished of items offered Smith a rare moment of relief amid the storm’s devastation. She said her parents and brother were injured during the storm but survived.

“I have thanked God probably a billion times since this happened yesterday,” she said. “My kids are healthy and good. We just gotta make back up what we lost.”

Travis Wycoff ventured out Tuesday night after seeing on radar that a tornado had touched down in the Portage area, and he said he helped an elderly couple out of their partially collapsed home and freed a service dog from a home.

“There were a lot of people running through the streets trying to find people and their pets,” Wycoff said. “It was just a lot of chaos.”

In southern Indiana, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down early Wednesday. The Clark County Emergency Management Agency said the storm damaged 24 structures, including homes in a subdivision north of the city of Sellersburg, located about 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Louisville, Kentucky.

Candice Holmes, a resident of the Lewis & Clark subdivision north of Sellersburg, said she, her husband and son sought shelter in their bathroom when they heard the approaching storm and “the wind just picked up all at once.”

“It was definitely a scary moment. ... And I’m glad we’re alive,” Holmes told WDRB-TV.

Tornadoes were also confirmed in Pennsylvania just outside Pittsburgh, in central Arkansas and in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia twister was at least the 11th tornado this year in the state, which sees two tornadoes in an average year.

Baseball-sized hail was reported Wednesday in areas just southwest of St. Louis. Heavy downpours caused flash flooding and at least one water rescue near Sullivan, a town that was struck by a small tornado just two days earlier. Damaging hail also was reported in the Kansas City area.

On Monday, parts of the central United States were battered by heavy rain, strong winds, hail and tornadoes, including a deadly twister that ripped through an Oklahoma town. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.

Across the U.S., the entire week is looking stormy. The Midwest and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee — cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.

Cappelletti and White reported from Detroit. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Rio Yamat, Heather Hollingsworth, Colleen Slevin, Jim Salter, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield, Beatrice Dupuy, Alexa St. John, Adrian Sainz, John Raby and Lisa Baumann.

(CNN) – The “world’s largest” vacuum designed to suck planet-heating pollution has just opened in Iceland.

“Mammoth” is a commercial direct air capture plant in Iceland which runs off clean geothermal energy.

Swiss company Climeworks said it is able to pull 36,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere at full capacity.

That is equivalent to taking around 7,800 gas powered cars off the road for a year.

The technology is designed to suck in air and strip out the carbon using chemicals.

The carbon can then be injected deep beneath the ground, reused, or transformed into solid products.

Climeworks said it plans to transport the carbon underground where it will naturally be transformed into stone.

SAN FRANCISCO (Gray News) - A woman in Northern California is facing more than three years in prison after being convicted of shoplifting dozens of times from a Target store while using self-checkout.

According to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Aziza Graves, 43, was found guilty of one felony count of grand theft and 52 misdemeanor counts of petty theft related to a series of retail thefts at an area Target.

Graves reportedly stole from the same Target store about 120 times in just over a one-year period.

Investigators said she would often steal jugs of detergent that could easily be resold in the San Francisco area.

“Retail theft continues to have a major impact on San Francisco businesses,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said. “Individuals such as Aziza Graves commit egregious thefts through brazen and repeated conduct that greatly impacts retailers’ ability to operate and serve the general public.”

Authorities said Graves’ thefts in this case occurred from Oct. 3, 2020, through Nov. 16, 2021, where she repeatedly stole merchandise of more than $60,000.

According to the district attorney, Graves would enter Target, pick up her items of choice and head to the self-checkout lane.

However, instead of paying full price for her items, she would insert a nominal amount, such as a single coin or bill, after scanning her merchandise and then exit the store.

The DA’s office said Graves was also convicted of one count of misdemeanor petty theft for stealing from a San Francisco-area Abercrombie and Fitch store.

Graves’ sentencing is scheduled for May 24.

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - Police are searching for the driver responsible for a crash that caused damage to a traffic light in south Laredo Tuesday night.

The crash was reported on May 8, 2024 at the intersection of South Ejido Avenue and Cuatro Vientos Drive just before 8 p.m.

According to Laredo Police, a pick-up truck allegedly drove off the roadway, rolled over causing damage to a traffic light at the scene.

Jose Espinoza with the police department says the driver of the vehicle allegedly left the scene before officers arrived.

“At the time no arrests have been made and we have not been able to identify the suspect, this is an ongoing investigation,” said Espinoza. “We are trying to review surveillance footage to see if we can identify the driver that fled the scene.”

Espinoza adds that no injuries were reported, and AEP was called into review the damages.

If you have any information regarding the driver of the vehicle, you are asked to call Laredo Police at 956-795-2800.

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - Another life is lost due to the deadly effects of fentanyl poisoning, according to the Laredo Police Department.

On Monday, May 7, 2024, first responders were called out to the 2500 block of Guadalupe Street for an unresponsive person.

Paramedics with the Laredo Fire Department confirmed the victim, a 26-year-old man was dead.

Investigators say they found drugs near the area where the person had died.

Law enforcement called the Overdose Task Force to the area who said the drugs tested positive for fentanyl.

While the death investigation remains ongoing, there are no signs of foul play.

At last checked, the Laredo Police Department reported 18 overdose deaths.