TV News LIES

Texas officials on Wednesday banned any chaplain from entering the state's execution chambers less than one week after the Supreme Court stayed the lethal injection of an inmate prevented from having a Buddhist spiritual adviser with him.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said changed its execution protocol directly in response to the high court ruling. Only security personnel may enter the execution chamber in future executions, TDCJ spokesman Jeremy Desel said in an email to UPI.

Under the new protocols, TDCJ chaplains will be available to the inmates until they are transferred to the execution chamber. Ministers and spiritual advisers also may observe executions from the witness rooms.

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Immigration checkpoints on highways leading from the Mexican border into the United States have been closed because the U.S Border Patrol has reassigned agents to El Paso, Texas, to process a massive influx of migrant families, agency officials said.

"To process and ensure appropriate care for those in custody, resources including personnel have been diverted from other border security priorities," U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement Monday. "Currently, El Paso sector has shut down immigration checkpoints and moved agents to assist with the processing of these aliens."

More than one and a half tons of cocaine were seized in Newark, the largest cocaine bust at Port Newark in 25 years, authorities said.

On Feb. 28, approximately 1.6 tons of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $77 million, was seized at Port Newark, announced the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in a statement. The seizure was the result of a joint raid by the CBP,  the U.S. Coast Guard, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New York Police Department and the New York State Police.

Jerry Merryman, one of the inventors of the hand-held electronic calculator who is described by those who knew him as not only brilliant but also kind with a good sense of humor, has died. He was 86.

Merryman died Feb. 27 at a Dallas hospital from complications of heart and kidney failure, said his stepdaughter, Kim Ikovic. She said he’d been hospitalized since late December after experiencing complications during surgery to install a pacemaker.

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Frank Robinson was royalty, a legend in the world of baseball. Despite his tremendous accomplishments on and off the field, it was as if his monumental role in baseball history had been forgotten.

Maybe now, people will pay attention and realize that Frank Robinson was one of the most impactful figures in baseball history.

Robinson, a first-ballot Hall of Fame player who became the first African-American manager in baseball, died Thursday at the age of 83, according to Major League Baseball.

Robinson, who had been in hospice in Southern California for several months, was able to say farewell to many of his friends and family before his death.

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Another top Virginia Democrat has admitted to wearing blackface decades ago. Attorney General Mark Herring issued a statement Wednesday saying he wore brown makeup and a wig in 1980 to look like a black rapper during a party as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

The revelation further roils the top levels of Virginia government. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax are already facing controversies, and Herring would be next in line to be governor after those two men.

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