Flash floods hit New Mexico as Texas death toll grows: Unbiased Updates, July 9, 2025

First Texas, now New Mexico. Walls of water tear through a mountain town overnight

Homes gone, families rescued, and more rain on the way. Plus, confusion at the top. Donald Trump says he did not order the halt of weapons to Ukraine

So who did? And a changing of the reins. The army is saying goodbye to its ceremonial horses, but not without a retirement plan

The stories that matter, clear and credible, from across the country to around the world

These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News. Good morning, everyone. I'm Craig DeGrelli. It has happened again

Devastating flooding is hitting the southwest, this time in New Mexico overnight

just days after historic flash floods left more than 100 dead in Texas

Oh, my gosh. Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah, look at that. Take a closer look

Wow. A home ripped off its foundation, floating away. In south-central New Mexico, at least three people, including two children, were killed when flash floodwaters tore through the resort town of Ruidoso overnight

Emergency crews carried out at least 85 swift water rescues. Three people remained hospitalized this morning in stable condition

The Rio Ruidoso River crested at a record 20 feet yesterday, rising that high in just a matter of minutes after intense monsoon rains

The burned bare land left from last year's massive wildfires in Ruidoso

which is normally a gorgeous place, made conditions worse, sending water and mud surging through the area

Meanwhile, in Texas, the flood crisis is far from over this morning. More than 170 people are still missing, and the death toll has climbed to 110

Governor Greg Abbott says Kerr County, the hardest hit, accounts for most of the missing

And he's pushing back against questions about failures in the warning system

Who's to blame? Know this. That's the word choice of losers. Every football team makes mistakes

The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who's to blame. The championship teams are the ones that say, don't worry about it, man

We got this. We going to make sure that we go score again that we going to win this game The way winners talk is not to point fingers They talk about solutions We going to address every aspect of this storm to make sure that

we're going to have in place the systems that are needed to prevent deadly flooding events like this

in the future. Governor Abbott promised that emergency alerts and response plans will be a

focus during a special session of the state legislature later this month. This morning

new reporting from CNN is raising questions inside the Trump administration, even inside

the Pentagon, about who really called the shots on pausing U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine

And President Trump says it was not him. Watch this. Last week, the Pentagon paused some shipments of weapons to Ukraine. Did you approve of that

We want to put defensive weapons because Putin is not he's not treating human beings right

He's killing too many people. So we're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I've

approved that. So who ordered the pause last week? I don't know. What didn't you tell me

That was Donald Trump at yesterday's cabinet meeting sounding off after reports surfaced

that the Pentagon halted a key batch of American defensive weapons destined for Ukraine without

informing the White House or State Department in advance. Sources tell CNN that Defense

Secretary Pete Hegseth signed off on the pause without clearance from President Trump

catching national security officials off guard and prompting confusion inside the administration

and with allies abroad. Trump, seemingly frustrated, later told reporters that the

United States would continue supporting Ukraine, and he did not hold back on his growing impatience

with Russian President Vladimir Putin. We get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin

for you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless

That blunt language underscores what insiders describe as a shift, with Trump less inclined now to hand Putin any type of win by holding back military aid

Sources tell CNN Donald Trump had simply requested an assessment of U.S. stockpiles last month

not a pause in Ukraine shipments. But that temporary stoppage was reportedly pushed

by lower-level Pentagon officials concerned about replenishing American weapons. The Pentagon now says it is working with the White House and Congress to explain what happened This morning a major win for the Trump administration at the U Supreme Court The justices gave the green light for mass layoffs and sweeping agency cuts

putting on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the president's plan to shrink the

federal workforce without Congress. The unsigned order clears the way for job cuts across agencies

such as Treasury, State and the VA, with tens of thousands of federal jobs potentially on the line

Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson dissented, calling the ruling hubristic and senseless, even warning the court had just unleashed the president's wrecking ball before the case even

played out. This is the latest in a string of high court decisions that bolstered Donald Trump's

executive power heading into the fall. Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing growing criticism

and this time it's coming from within her own party. That criticism follows a Justice Department

memo this week that confirmed convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein did die by suicide

The DOJ and FBI also released more than 11 hours of video from outside Epstein's prison cell

intended to back up that conclusion. But skeptics immediately pointed to one missing minute of

footage, fueling fresh conspiracy theories. Bondi responded to the backlash during a televised

cabinet meeting on Tuesday. What we learned from Bureau of Prisons was every year, every night

They redo that video. It's old from like 1999. So every night the video is reset and every night should have the same minute missing

So we're looking for that video to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night

And that's it on Epstein. Bondi also tried to put to rest another controversy

Back in February, she implied a so-called Epstein client list was on her desk

This week, the DOJ said no such list exists. Bondi now says she was referring to a range of files connected to the case, not a definitive list of names

President Trump also weighed in, calling the renewed obsession with Epstein, quote, a waste of time

We are still a year and a half out from the 2026 midterms

but one big-name Democrat is already making moves that look a lot like a preview of 2028

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a vocal Trump critic, is on a two-day swing through South Carolina

On Tuesday he crisscrossed small towns in the northeastern part of the state shaking hands stopping in coffee shops and urging voters to use their moral authority to stand up to Donald Trump and GOP policies But the trip is raising eyebrows for another reason

South Carolina is one of the first Democratic primary states, and Newsom's name has been floated as a likely 2028 presidential contender

He says he's there simply to spend time in places Democrats often overlook

But later today, he heads to upstate South Carolina, deep red territory

and home to Senator Lindsey Graham as part of what looks more and more like a soft launch for a national run

Finally this morning, some of the Army's most unsung heroes are heading into retirement

The U.S. Army is shutting down most of its ceremonial horse units. More than 140 horses will soon be up for adoption

It's a cost-cutting move that's expected to save about $2 million a year

Cavalry units at bases nationwide will be closed. The horses were just featured in last month's military parade, marking the Army's 250th anniversary in D.C

The Army says the horses will be adopted out or donated to organizations but not sold

By the way, the old guard units that handle military funerals at Arlington and Joint Base San Antonio will not be affected

By the way, I love the idea of adopting out those horses or donating them

There's a program called Victory Riding Academy right here in Elkhorn near the Street Arrow News studio, Elkhorn, Nebraska, in Omaha

They provide equine therapy services to veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder

It's a fabulous program. A lot of these vets have come home from Afghanistan and Iraq with mental health issues

They work with the horses and get better. It is fabulous. Want more unbiased updates

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Go to san.com slash newsletters. And before we head out, here's what we're tracking today

At 945 this morning, the Senate Health Committee votes on the nomination of Susan Menares as director of the CDC

Then at 1030, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon

And at 11, Kerr County officials will give a briefing on search and recovery efforts after last weekend's deadly Texas flooding

Those are your unbiased updates for this Wednesday. We'll see you back here tomorrow. For all of us here at Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DeGrelli

Have a great day