Fox 26 reported that Erica Lee Carter, daughter of the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, has taken the official oath of office to take over her mother’s seat in Texas’ 18th Congressional District

Carter announced her candidacy for her mother’s seat in August 2024 after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called for a special election to fill the seat following Lee’s death following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Her selection was not a surprise. After her mother’s death, Carter said in a press release, “I want to finish for my mom!”

After taking the oath of office in Washington on November 12, she turned to other members of Congress and said: she mentioned that she was excited to work with them.

“Thank you to the voters of Texas’ 18th Congressional District for trusting me to serve the rest of the 118th Congress.

“I am honored to conclude for you and in memory of my mother, the late great Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee,” Carter said, in line with .

“I’m ready to get up and work for you. I look forward to working with Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and all of my colleagues in Congress on the important issues facing the United States House of Representatives on behalf of the American people.”

Carter will serve in the role until January 3, 2025. After that, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner will serve in Texas’ 18th Congressional District after the outcomes are announced on Election Day.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee held this position from 1995 until her death. Carter documented her journey on X, formerly known as Twitter, by posting a photograph of herself sitting in her mother’s old office. “It is an indescribable honor and profound humiliation to be sworn in as the next Congresswoman of Texas’ 18th Congressional District,” she wrote on Twitter. “As I stand here today, I proudly take the place of my mother, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.”

She also posted a touching comparison photo of herself delivering her first speech to Congress in the identical place where Jackson Lee delivered his first speech almost 30 years ago.

Local Texas leaders, including Republican Jasmine Crockett, delivered celebratory remarks. She prolonged “warm welcome” Carter, who resembles her mother, says she knows the previous congresswoman “looks down at the ground with pride.”

It took Las Vegas police officer Alexander Bookman one second to shoot and kill Brandon Durham on Tuesday after ordering him to “drop the knife” and firing six shots after entering Durham’s home.

However, Durham, a 43-year-old black man who works in real estate, was the homeowner and told his daughter to call the police for help in reporting a house invasion.

The video shows the lady holding the knife while Durham held her wrists with each hands to avoid being stabbed.

“Hey! Hey! Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” Bookman screamed, opening fire and shouting orders.

The first bullet appeared to hit Durham in the pinnacle, causing him to groan in pain as he fell to the ground. Bookman then fired a further five shots while Durham was on the ground.

“Hands up!” Bookman shouted.

But by then, Durham was dead, and the one person in a position to raise their hands was the lady who had broken into Durham’s home after smashing several automobile windows in front of his house.

Alejandra Marie Boudreaux, 31, was arrested on charges of home invasion while in possession of a firearm or deadly weapon; assault constituting domestic violence with a deadly weapon; child abuse or neglect; and disrespect for the protection of person or property, in accordance with court records available online in Clark County, all of that are felonies.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police told local media that Durham had a previous relationship with Boudreaux, but provided no details about it.

Durham’s 15-year-old daughter, Isabella Durham, was home when her father was killed and was hiding in a bedroom.

“I heard shots. “I heard them and I’m disgusted,” her daughter said at a press conference outside the home on Thursday, in accordance with The Times. Las Vegas review magazine.

“When I grabbed the phone and handed it to him, that was the last time I saw my father alive.”

Shooting

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police released a 55-second video from Bookman’s body camera that shows an officer arriving in a squad automobile.

The dispatcher could be heard describing an individual between 20 and 35 years old, of average construct, wearing a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants moments before Bookman exited the police automobile.

A person could be heard screaming from contained in the house, prompting Bookman to kick the door open and enter the home together with his gun drawn, followed by one other officer.

The man’s pleas for help grow to be louder and loud banging could be heard as officers move to the back of the home, where they find Durham fighting with Boudreaux in a bedroom doorway.

Boudreaux appears to be wearing a black sweatshirt and sweatpants, but underneath the sweatshirt is a red hoodie together with his head covered. But Bookman shot and killed Durham, who was only wearing underwear.

Police didn’t say who was holding the knife, only saying that the 2 were “fighting for the knife.”

However, Durham’s family watched the video and consider he was never holding a knife.

“What colors are you looking at? Not the colors of the clothes. You look at the color of his skin and that’s why he’s dead,” said Rachael Gore, a registered domestic partner of Durham who describes herself as his wife. Vegas Review-Journal.

Police say Boudreaux can also be black. However, because she was wearing a hoodie and a long-sleeved shirt, her skin color wasn’t as obvious as Durham’s, who was only wearing underwear.

Durham’s friend Branden Cinquegrani described him as a “good man.”

“I just want everyone to know that he’s not a knife-wielding man in Sunset Park,” he told the Review-Journal.

Durham’s mother, Lenore DeJesus, also expressed outrage on the news conference.

“What I want and what I demand are answers,” she said, in accordance with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“The police owe us these answers,” she continued. “No lies, no made-up stories, no things to cover up their actions. They must take responsibility for what happened and provides us the answers we deserve. We don’t deserve any less.”

Bookman, 26, has been placed on paid administrative leave. According to The Times, the Durham shooting is the thirteenth by Las Vegas police this yr, and eight of them were fatal. Forest Vegas Sunny.

This time last yr, Las Vegas police shot and killed six people, two of whom died.

“My brother is dead because a police officer wasn’t properly trained,” said Durham’s sister, Diane Wright 8 News now.

“The officer shot my brother in the head and shot him at least four more times until my brother was lying dead on the floor… saying, ‘Don’t move,'” Wright said. “Where is he going? Has he already been killed by you?

Americans are fed up with food prices, and plenty of expect President-elect Donald Trump to lower their grocery bills.

During the campaign, Trump often complained about significant price increases for bacon, cereal, crackers and other products.

“We’ll take them down,” he told shoppers during a September visit to a Pennsylvania grocery store.

But the food price inflation that caught the United States – and other parts of the world – by surprise in 2021 and 2022 had complicated causes which can be difficult to eliminate, from the pandemic to the war in Ukraine to bird flu. Many economists imagine that Trump’s plans, which include imposing tariffs on imported food and deporting undocumented employees, could actually cause food prices to rise.

Prices for food eaten at home within the U.S. rose 28% in comparison with 2019, in response to government data released Wednesday. However, growth peaked in 2022; between October 2023 and October 2024, food prices increased by 2%, which is lower than the final inflation rate.

Nevertheless, supermarket sticker shock weighed on the American electorate. About 7 in 10 voters, including 70% of girls and 63% of men, said they were very concerned about the price of food and groceries, in response to an AP VoteCast survey of greater than 120,000 voters. Only 1 in 10 said they weren’t very concerned or not concerned in any respect.

Trump won decisively amongst voters who said they were “very” concerned. About 6 in 10 voters in that group supported him, and 4 in 10 supported Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival. Harris won the overwhelming majority of voters who were somewhat concerned, not very concerned or not concerned in any respect.

Asked how he would lower grocery prices during a September town hall in Michigan, Trump said the tariffs would help American farmers. Trump has called for a 60% tariff on products made in China and a “universal” tariff of 10-20% on all other foreign goods entering the United States. In some speeches he mentioned even higher percentages.

Trump said American farmers are being “decimated” since the United States is allowing so many agricultural products into the country. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, as of 2021, the United States imported 60% of fresh fruit, 38% of fresh vegetables – excluding potatoes and mushrooms – and 10% of beef.

“We will have to behave a bit like other countries,” he said. “We won’t let that much come. We will put our farmers back to work.”

But David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University, said food producers depend on imported goods corresponding to fertilizer, equipment and packaging materials. Ortega said in the event that they are forced to pay more for these products, they’ll raise prices.

He added that American farmers might also have trouble selling their goods abroad because other countries will likely respond with retaliatory tariffs. According to the USDA, roughly 20% of U.S. agricultural production is exported every year.

The American Farm Bureau didn’t reply to a request for comment from the Associated Press. The Consumer Brands Association, which represents large food firms corresponding to Coca-Cola and Nestle in addition to personal care firms corresponding to Procter & Gamble, says lots of its members need ingredients grown outside the U.S. corresponding to coffee, bananas and chocolate.

“There is a fundamental disconnect between the stated goal of lowering grocery prices and tariff policies that can only increase those costs,” said Tom Madrecki, the association’s vp of campaigns and special projects.

Ortega said Trump’s plans to deport people within the U.S. illegally could also drive up grocery prices. He said there are greater than 2 million undocumented employees working across the U.S. food chain, including about 1 million on farms, 750,000 in restaurants and 200,000 in food production.

At a town hall in Michigan, Trump said that lowering energy costs by increasing oil and gas drilling would also lower food prices.

“If you make donuts, should you make cars, whatever you do, energy is essential and we will get it. My ambition is to scale back my energy bills by 50% inside 12 months,” he said.

Energy constitutes a comparatively small a part of the prices of manufacturing and selling food. According to the USDA, for each dollar spent on food in 2022, just below 4 cents went to energy costs. Agricultural production cost 8 cents and food processing cost 14 cents.

Joseph Glauber, a senior research fellow on the International Food Policy Research Institute, said energy prices are necessary but have already fallen significantly over the past yr.

“I think it would be difficult for the Trump administration to have a big impact on energy prices in the short term,” Glauber said.

Asked whether Trump has plans beyond energy and tariffs to lower grocery costs, a spokesman for his transition team didn’t provide further details.

“Americans re-elected President Trump with an awesome majority, giving him a mandate to implement the guarantees he made through the campaign. He will keep his word,” said Karoline Leavitt.

Maria Kalaitzandonakes, an assistant professor of agricultural and consumer economics on the University of Illinois, said her research shows that most voters imagine politicians can lower grocery prices.

Jordan Voigt, 34, a single mother of two young children, said she now lives along with her parents near Asheville, North Carolina, because gas and grocery costs have change into so high.

Voigt said she voted for Trump partially because she believes he’s a businessman who can lower prices.

“He doesn’t just say, ‘Oh, that is what it costs, Americans have to just accept it.’ I appreciate it,” Voigt said during an election night meeting. “He stands up and says, ‘No, Americans won’t pay this.’ And he said, “You’re going to have to find a way to do it cheaper.”

But Ortega and other economists say there’s little the president can do, especially within the short term, to lower grocery prices. Persistent price declines often only occur in cases of sharp and long-lasting recessions.

“People want grocery prices to drop to pre-pandemic levels, but that’s just not going to happen,” he said. “Deflation is not something we want.”

Kalaitzandonakes agrees that the White House has little power to bring down food prices quickly.

But she said presidents can encourage policies that may help tame grocery price inflation in the long term, corresponding to increasing competition and investing in infrastructure, agricultural technology and crops which can be proof against pests and extreme weather.

“Cutting food prices is not a good idea,” Kalaitzandonakes said. “Instead, we want to consider whether your income is keeping pace with your bills and whether your grocery bill is falling.”