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A list of Texas flood victims emerges
Two eight-year-old sisters from Dallas who had just completed 2nd grade. A beloved soccer coach and teacher. An Alabama elementary student away from home. These are a few of the dozens of victims lost in devastating flooding in Texas.
The flooding in central Texas originated from the fast-moving waters on the Guadalupe River on Friday, killing at least 89 people. Authorities say search and rescue efforts are still underway, including for campers missing from a summer camp for girls.
Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence
Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were among the victims killed by the flooding at Camp Mystic.
The girls had just finished second grade, their parents said.
“Hanna and Rebecca brought so much joy to us, to their big sister Harper, and to so many others,” John and Lacy Lawrence said in a statement. “We will find ways to keep that joy, and to continue to spread it for them. But we are devastated that the bond we shared with them, and that they shared with each other, is now frozen in time. “
David Lawrence, the girls’ grandfather and former publisher of the Miami Herald, said “it has been an unimaginable time for all of us.” He said the girls gave their family, including their sister, joy.
“They and that joy can never be forgotten,” he said in a statement.
University Park Elementary School, where Hanna and Rebecca attended, said on its website that “numerous” students were in the Texas Hill Country during the flooding and had to evacuate. The school did not immediately respond to a message left Monday morning.
“We are deeply saddened to report the loss of multiple students, and our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families deeply affected by this unimaginable tragedy,” the school said on its site.
Reece and Paula Zunker
Reece Zunker was described as “a passionate educator and a beloved soccer coach” by Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas.
“His unwavering dedication to our students, athletes, and the Tivy community touched countless lives and will never be forgotten,” the school posted online Sunday.
Paula Zunker was a former teacher at the school. “The care and impact she shared with her students continue to be felt, even years later,” the post said.
The couple’s young children, Lyle and Holland, were still missing, the school said.
The family had been staying at a river house in Hunt.
Tanya Burwick
The last time Tanya Burwick’s family heard from her was a frantic phone call about the floodwaters as she headed to work at a Walmart early Friday in the San Angelo area. When Burwick didn’t show up for work, her employer filed a missing persons report and sent a colleague to look for her.
Police investigating the 62-year-old’s disappearance found Burwick’s unoccupied SUV fully submerged later that day. Her body was found the next morning blocks from the vehicle.
“She lit up the room and had a laugh that made other people laugh,” said Lindsey Burwick, who added that her mom was a beloved parent, grandparent and colleague to many.
She and her brother Zac said the day was especially difficult because it happened on July Fourth as they were working at a fireworks stand that’s been in the family for generations. As word of Tanya Burwick’s disappearance spread, people from from Blackwell, a small community of about 250 people, showed up to the stand that’s run out of a trailer painted orange.
“People came to our aid,” Lindsey Burwick said.
Police in San Angelo said more than 12,000 houses, barns and other buildings have been affected by the floods in the community of roughly 100,000 people.
“We ask that the public continue to keep the Burwick family in their thoughts and prayers as they navigate this heartbreaking tragedy,” the San Angelo Police Department said in a Facebook post.
Jane Ragsdale
Jane Ragsdale, 68, devoted her life to the Heart O’the Hills Camp, a summer camp for girls in Texas Hill Country. She was a camper and counselor there herself in the 1970s before becoming a co-owner. By the 1980s, she was director of the camp in Hunt.
“She was the heart of The Heart,” the camp said in a statement. “She was our guiding light, our example, and our safe place. She had the rare gift of making every person feel seen, loved, and important.”
Since the camp was between sessions, no children were staying there when the floodwaters rose. The camp’s facilities, directly in the path of the flood, were extensively damaged and access to the site remained difficult, according to camp officials. The camp has been in existence since the 1950s.
Camp officials said Ragsdale would be remembered for her strength and wisdom.
“We are heartbroken. But above all, we are grateful,” the camp said. “Grateful to have known her, to have learned from her, and to carry her light forward.”
In a 2015 oral history for the Kerr County Historical Commission, Ragsdale, whose first name was Cynthie, but went by her middle name Jane, talked about how her father was also a camp director and how much she enjoyed her experiences.
“I loved every minute of camp from the first time I stepped foot in one,” she recalled.
Videos of Ragsdale strumming a guitar and singing to campers during a recent session were posted in a memorial on the camp’s Facebook page: “Life is good today. So keep singing ’til we meet, again.”
Sarah Marsh
Eight-year-old Sarah Marsh from Alabama had been attending Camp Mystic in Texas, a longtime Christian girls camp in Hunt where several others were killed in the floods. As of Sunday, afternoon, 11 children were still missing.
Marsh was a student at Cherokee Bend Elementary in suburban Birmingham.
“This is an unimaginable loss for her family, her school, and our entire community,” Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch said in a Facebook post. “Sarah’s passing is a sorrow shared by all of us, and our hearts are with those who knew and loved her.”
He said the community — where about 20,000 people reside — would rally behind the Marsh family as they grieved.
Her parents declined an interview request Sunday “as they mourn this unbearable loss,” the girl’s grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, told The Associated Press in an email.
“We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever!” Marsh wrote on Facebook. “We love you so much, sweet Sarah!”
She declined further comment.
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama also noted the girl’s tragic death.
“We continue to pray for the victims’ loved ones, the survivors, those who are still missing, and our brave first responders as search and rescue efforts continue in Texas,” she said in a post on social media platform X.
Blair and Brooke Harber
Sisters Blair and Brooke Harber, both students at St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas, had been staying alongside the Guadalupe River when their cabin was swept away, according to the school.
Pastor Joshua J. Whitfield of St. Rita Catholic Community, which shares a campus with the school, said the girls’ parents, Annie and RJ Harber, were staying in a different cabin and were safe. However, their grandparents were unaccounted for. Annie Harber has been a longtime teacher at the school.
“This tragedy has touched every corner of our hearts,” the church said in a statement Sunday.
Blair, who was enrolled in advanced classes, was involved in numerous school activities from volleyball and basketball to speech and drama. Brooke was a rising sixth grader and a student athlete in volleyball and lacrosse, among other sports. She also participated in speech and drama, according to the church.
Both were remembered for their kind hearts and warm personalities.
“We will honor Blair and Brooke’s lives, the light they shared, and the joy they brought to everyone who knew them,” Whitfield wrote in a Saturday letter to parishioners. “And we will surround Annie, RJ, and their extended family with the strength and support of our St. Rita community.”
The church held a special prayer service Saturday afternoon and offered counseling.
“Please keep the Harber family in your prayers during this time of profound grief,” Whitfield wrote. “May our faith, our love, and our St. Rita community be a source of strength and comfort in the days ahead.”
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Apple just added more frost to its Liquid Glass design
Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language just got a little more… frosted. In the third iOS 26 developer beta, Apple dialed back the transparency of navigation bars, buttons, and tabs that once allowed you to clearly see the content beneath them.
Apple already toned down the glassiness of Liquid Glass after many users complained that it was too transparent and made it more difficult to see certain options, like the icons inside the Control Center. This most recent beta makes Liquid Glass elements even more solid, likely as a way to improve readability. Still, some users see the change as a reversal of the flashy, glass-like design that Apple showcased at WWDC.
This is still just a developer beta, so it’s likely that Apple will continue to make tweaks before it releases iOS 26 to the public in September.
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Paolo Banchero, Magic agree to five-year rookie max extension
Orlando Magic star Paolo Banchero agreed to a five-year, $239 million maximum rookie contract extension that could reach $287 million, Mike Miller of LIFT Sports Management told ESPN on Monday.
Miller said Banchero’s new deal includes triggers to elevate the base salary to the supermax should the Magic franchise cornerstone make either an All-NBA team or earn MVP or Defensive Player of the Year honors next season.
The deal also has a player option for Banchero in 2030-31 — the first time a rookie max extension has had a player option since 2021, when Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks) and Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks) completed their rookie max contracts.
The Magic now have their core of Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs under contract for the next five years as well as newly acquired Desmond Bane under contract through the 2028-29 season.
Magic president Jeff Weltman said after last season that the franchise would take an aggressive approach this offseason, and after the acquisition of Bane and signing of veteran guard Tyus Jones, the team is well-positioned to be a contender in the Eastern Conference.
Orlando’s selection of Banchero with the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft triggered a turnaround for the franchise that has led to two postseason appearances in the past two seasons.
Despite an oblique injury that sidelined him for 34 games over the first two months of 2024-25, Banchero went on to have a career season, setting high averages of 25.9 points and 7.5 rebounds to go with 4.8 assists.
He’s only the eighth player in NBA history to average at least 25, 7 and 4 at age 22 or younger. And he joined Tracy McGrady and Shaquille O’Neal as the only Magic players to average more than 25 points in a season.
Banchero took his game to another level after the All-Star break, averaging 29.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists. In the playoffs, he put together seven straight games with 25 points or more spanning the 2024 and 2025 seasons, tying the longest streak in Magic history.
He has the third-most career points through three seasons in Magic history with 4,432, behind only O’Neal and Penny Hardaway.
The 2022-23 NBA Rookie of the Year, who earned his first All-Star selection in 2024, has averaged 22.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists in his three NBA seasons.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks contributed to this report.
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National Guard protects immigration officers in Los Angeles operation
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear and about 90 members of the California National Guard were deployed for about an hour Monday to a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large immigrant population. It wasn’t immediately known if any arrests were made.
Defense officials had said the troops and over a dozen military vehicles would help protect immigration officers as they carried out a raid in MacArthur Park.
“What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” said Mayor Karen Bass, who called it a “political stunt.”
She said there were children attending a day camp in the park who were quickly ushered inside to avoid seeing the troops. Still, Bass said an 8-year-old boy told her that “he was fearful of ICE.”
Bass showed video of officers on horseback sweeping across an empty soccer field.
Federal officers descend on MacArthur Park
The operation occurred at a park in a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations and is lined by businesses with signs in Spanish and other languages that has been dubbed by local officials as the “Ellis Island of the West Coast.”
Among those who spoke with Bass were health care outreach workers who were working with homeless residents Monday when troops pointed guns at them and told them to get out of the park.
Sprawling MacArthur Park has a murky lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with unlicensed food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking cheap T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.
“The world needs to see the troop formation on horses walking through the park, in search of what? In search of what? They’re walking through the area where the children play,” Bass said.
Eunisses Hernandez, a council member whose district includes MacArthur Park said “it was chosen as this administration’s latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents.”
Operation escalates Trump’s immigration crackdown
The operation in the large park about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. It came after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of Guard members and active duty Marines to the city last month following protests over previous immigration raids.
Trump has stepped up efforts to realize his campaign pledge of deporting millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation’s military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided.
In response to questions about the operation in MacArthur Park, the Department of Homeland Security said in an email that the agency would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.”
More than 4,000 California National Guard and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in Los Angeles since June — against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, the military announced about 200 of those troops would be returned to their units to fight wildfires.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the events at the park “a spectacle.”
“This is not about going after dangerous criminals,” Newsom said of Trump’s mass deportation agenda. “This is about destroying the fabric of this state.”
LA raid ends abruptly
The defense officials told reporters that it was not a military operation but acknowledged that the size and scope of the Guard’s participation could make it look like one to the public. That is why the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the raid that were not announced publicly.
“It’s just going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,” one of the officials said before the raid ended abruptly with no explanation.
The primary role of the service members would be to protect the immigration enforcement officers in case a hostile crowd gathered, that official said. They are not participating in any law enforcement activities such as arrests, but service members can temporarily detain citizens if necessary before handing them over to law enforcement, the official said.
Local officials say feds are sowing fear
“This morning looked like a staging for a TikTok video,” said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the Los Angeles City Council, adding if Border Patrol wants to film in LA, “you should apply for a film permit like everybody else. And stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy every day.”
Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he received a credible tip about the operation Monday.
“It was a demonstration of escalation,” Newman said. “This was a reality TV spectacle much more so than an actual enforcement operation.”
Since federal agents have been making arrests at Home Depot parking lots and elsewhere in Los Angeles, Newman said fewer people have been going to the park and immigrant neighborhoods near the city’s downtown.
“The ghost town-ification of LA is haunting, to say the very least,” he said.
Betsy Bolte, who lives nearby, came to the park after seeing a military-style helicopter circling overhead.
She said it was “gut-wrenching” to witness what appeared to be a federal show of force on the streets of a U.S. city. “It’s terror and, you know, it’s ripping the heart and soul out of Los Angeles,” she said. “I am still in shock, disbelief, and so angry and terrified and heartbroken.”
___
Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Damian Dovarganes and Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles; Julie Watson in San Diego; Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California; and Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, contributed to this report.
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