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It's Friday, April 17th.
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Mostly cloudy with a stiff breeze throughout the day.
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The high will be 84.
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It will turn much cooler when the evening rolls around
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with the possibility of a late thunderstorm.
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The low tonight will be 52.
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Saturday will be unseasonably cool
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with a high of only 65 expected.
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There will be an abundance of clouds
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and an 80% chance of showers throughout the day.
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Sunday will be sunny and nice with a high of 74.
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Overnight lows over the weekend will be in the lower 50s.
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Here are today's headlines.
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With Dallas County GOP chair Alan West's resignation,
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party leaders still want to overturn his decision
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to allow county-wide voting in the May 26th runoff
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and reinstate precinct-based voting for all voters.
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But Dallas County's elections, Chief,
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has already said there is not enough time to do that.
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After thousands were turned away at polls on March 3rd,
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due to confusion tied to precinct-based voting
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forced by Republicans, West amended the party's contract
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with the elections department to let voters cast ballots
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at any vote center, regardless of address.
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West said he did so to protect the party
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from potential litigation, but the unilateral action
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was counter to a vote 200 members of his executive committee
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took last year to use precinct-based voting
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for the 2026 primary cycle and set off fury
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that led to calls for his ouster.
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West stepped down Wednesday days before a planned vote
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by the committee to call for his resignation
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over backlash to his handling of runoff voting.
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In other news, Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday warned Dallas
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that he would pull $32.1 million in state funds
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if the city does not repeal police department rules
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around collaboration with US Immigration
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and Customs Enforcement.
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In a letter to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, Andrew Friedrichs,
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the executive director of Abbott's Public Safety Office,
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said the Dallas Police Department's internal rules
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regarding immigration may violate the city's agreement
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with the state for the funding.
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The threat to Dallas is part of a broader push
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by the Republican governor to force major cities
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into closer alignment with federal immigration enforcement.
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Abbott issued similar warnings this week to Houston
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and Austin for their respective immigration-related policies.
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Next up, the voice of seven-year-old Athena Strand
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asking, why are you doing this?
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Could be heard repeatedly after a FedEx driver placed her
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in the back of his delivery truck
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and drove from her home on the evening of November 30, 2022.
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The exchange between the first grader
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and the 34-year-old Tanner Horner
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was captured by his delivery truck's video camera
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and kidnapped her after dropping off a Christmas package
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that her family's rural, wise county home.
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He strangled her in the back of his truck
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and dumped her body in a river several miles away.
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Video and audio from the incident were played for jurors on Thursday
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during the eighth day of Horner's Capitol Murder Trial.
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Part of it was recorded by a dashboard camera
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but most came from a camera inside the truck.
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Horner pleaded guilty last week to Capitol Murder
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and aggravated kidnapping, just as his trial was set to begin.
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The move sent the case into the penalty phase,
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which is expected to continue into next week.
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Prosecutors planned to ask jurors to give Horner the death penalty
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as public defenders are expected to argue
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that his mental health issues and troubled upbringing
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should make him eligible for a sentence of life and prison without parole.
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And a philosophy professor at Texas A&M University
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who made headlines earlier this year after administrators
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directed him to cut some lessons on Plato
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will leave to teach at Southern Methodist University this fall.
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Martin Peterson said the Texas A&M system's new policies
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limiting what faculty can teach about race and gender
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fueled his resignation.
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Such restrictions, which banned the advocacy of race
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and gender ideology, spurred the scrutiny of the Plato excerpts
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in Peterson's contemporary moral issues course in January.
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Peterson said he didn't believe he would be granted the freedom
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to decide what students should learn in his classes
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at Texas A&M anytime soon.
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Thanks for listening.
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For more on-today stories and the latest breaking news,
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visit DallasNews.com.
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Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back on Monday
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with more from the Dallas Morning News.