English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in Waco, TX

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A family in McGregor who dedicated more than 20 years to bringing the Christmas spirit to Central Texas has passed on the tradition.

Before these displays were in Waco, they were with Roger and Lana Schmidt in McGregor.

Every year after Thanksgiving, they would light up their home with decorations that the whole community would come to see.

Roger Schmidt noted that each year the set up would take at least two months of daily work.

Last year they decided to retire from the tradition, but luckily nothing would go to waste.

“We just wished that someone would come along and do what we did, for the reasons we did, the way we did, and literally the next the Shriner’s knocked on the door and said, ‘Can we talk?’”

The Schmidts say they are happy that all their decorations found a new home without being separated and sold.

While all the Schmidt family’s decorations are set up at the Karem Shriner’s Feztival of Lights, the Shriners have also added their own touches to the display.

“There are some displays that talk about the pediatric care we that provide at our hospital in Galveston... So, we wanted to obviously honor the Schmidt’s legacy of this display and also incorporate what we are about,” President Justin Duty said.

Duty says they are hoping to expand in the next years.

“A family from the Houston area reached out and they have a display that took up 5 or 6 acres, so we’re looking forward to getting that and having it down here next year as well,” Duty said.

The Karem Shriner’s Feztival of lights will run every day until December 31^st, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

You can drive, walk or ride on the Shriner’s mini trains through the lights tour.

Ticket are $2 per person.

They also have their Feztival of Trees which continues Friday through Sunday.

Friday and Saturday they are open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday they will be open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The display is located at the Karem Shriner’s facility in Waco at 400 Karem Circle.

Amazon's new MK30 Prime Air drone is displayed during Amazon's "Delivering the Future" event at the company's BFI1 Fulfillment Center, Robotics Research and Development Hub in Sumner, Washington on Oct. 18, 2023.

Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images

Amazon is facing a federal probe after one of its delivery drones downed an internet cable in central Texas last week.

The probe comes as Amazon vies to expand drone deliveries to more pockets of the U.S., more than a decade after it first conceived the aerial distribution program, and faces stiffer competition from Walmart, which has also begun drone deliveries.

The incident occurred on Nov. 18 around 12:45 p.m. Central in Waco, Texas. After dropping off a package, one of Amazon's MK30 drones was ascending out of a customer's yard when one of its six propellers got tangled in a nearby internet cable, according to a video of the incident viewed and verified by CNBC.

The video shows the Amazon drone shearing the wire line. The drone's motor then appeared to shut off and the aircraft landed itself, with its propellers windmilling slightly on the way down, the video shows. The drone appeared to remain in tact beyond some damage to one of its propellers.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, a spokesperson confirmed. The National Transportation Safety Board said the agency is aware of the incident but has not opened a probe into the matter.

Amazon confirmed the incident to CNBC, saying that after clipping the internet cable, the drone performed a "safe contingent landing," referring to the process that allows its drones to land safely in unexpected conditions.

"There were no injuries or widespread internet service outages. We've paid for the cable line's repair for the customer and have apologized for the inconvenience this caused them," an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC, noting that the drone had completed its package delivery.

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The incident comes after federal investigators last month opened a separate probe into a crash involving two of Amazon's Prime Air drones in Arizona. The two aircrafts collided with a construction crane in Tolleson, a city west of Phoenix, prompting Amazon to temporarily halt drone deliveries in the area.

For over a decade, Amazon has been working to realize founder Jeff Bezos' vision of drones whizzing toothpaste, books and other goods to customers' doorsteps in 30 minutes or less. The company began drone deliveries in 2022 in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California.

But progress has been slowed by a mix of regulatory hurdles, missed deadlines and layoffs in 2023 that coincided with broader cost-cutting efforts by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

The company has previously said its goal is to deliver 500 million packages by drone per year by the end of the decade.

The hexacopter-shaped MK30, the latest generation of Amazon's Prime Air drone, is meant to be quieter, smaller and lighter than previous versions.

Amazon says the drones are equipped with a sense-and-avoid system that enables them to "detect and stay away from obstacles in the air and on the ground." The company recommends that customers maintain "about 10 feet of open space" on their property so drones can complete deliveries

The company began drone deliveries in Waco earlier this month for customers within a certain radius of its same-day delivery site who order eligible items weighing 5 pounds or less. The drone deliveries are supposed to drop packages off in under an hour.

Amazon has brought other locations online in recent months, including Kansas City, Missouri, Pontiac, Michigan, San Antonio, Texas, and Ruskin, Florida. Amazon has also announced plans to expand drone deliveries to Richardson, Texas.

Walmart began offering drone deliveries in 2021, and currently partners with Alphabet's Wing and venture-backed startup Zipline to make drone deliveries in a number of states, including in Texas.

WATCH: Amazon unveils satellite terminal for enterprise customers — but Starlink still dominates

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Health district confirms open investigation as moviegoers report rodent encounters

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District has confirmed an open investigation into mice at the Cinemark theater in Waco after multiple customers reported rodent encounters during movie screenings.

An anonymous customer provided video of a mouse filmed at the theater in early October, showing the rodent running behind seats while a movie played.

The movie theater is located at 2400 Creekview Dr.

Abagail Salas said she encountered a mouse while watching a movie at the Cinemark on October 14. She heard a customer scream and leave the theater but decided to stay.

“30 seconds later I heard a noise, so I took out my flashlight and on top of my drink was a rat that had climbed down from my arm and was biting the lid and straw in like a very hungry way,” Salas said.

Customer brings mouse traps to theater

Cole Pauley brought a mouse trap into the theater last Thursday as a precaution.

“I was like, man I’ll just take mouse traps and build a wall of protection around me just so we don’t have to deal with it. They were like, you won’t do that, you’re ridiculous, no one would do what. I said, watch me,” Pauley said.

He said the trap caught a mouse by the end of the movie.

“All of this construction is driving these mice out of their fields they live in, they got to go somewhere. They’ll get it under control, I’m not really worried about it. It was just something funny,” Pauley said.

Theater responds to complaints

Cinemark said in a statement: “Given nearby construction, we’ve strengthened our protocols and partnered with specialists to maintain high standards of cleanliness. We’re pleased with the progress and remain committed to delivering an outstanding moviegoing experience for every guest.”

Salas disagreed with the theater’s assessment of progress.

“I’ve had coworkers that have gone in the past week, and it’s crawled up their arms or their laps. To me, these rats or mice are comfortable enough to climb on people now,” she said.

The anonymous customer who filmed the mouse said the rodents pose additional risks, including population growth and food contamination concerns.

“Not only was it gross to see, but the smell is gross. When I stuck my head behind the seats, it smelled like a hamster cage. It just grossed me out knowing they serve food there because if you know there’s mice in the theatre, you know there’s mice in the kitchen,” the customer said.

Salas said she has no plans to return to the Waco Cinemark soon and drove to Temple this weekend to see a movie instead.

“This weekend, I had to go all the way to Temple. It’s about 50 min drive,” she said.

The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District said: “At this time, the facility has an open investigation. Cinemark is working diligently with Environmental Health and its pest control company to abate said conditions, establish routine disinfection schedules, and prevent future complaints.”

Several Central Texas organizations are making sure everyone can enjoy a holiday meal this Thanksgiving.

WACO, Texas — Thanksgiving is almost here, and several Central Texas organizations are stepping up to make sure every family can enjoy a holiday meal this year.

With some Central Texans wondering how they will put food on the table this year, local community groups and other organizations are hosting food distributions or community meals.

Here are some of the events where Central Texans can get Thanksgiving meals this holiday season:

Thanksgiving food basket distribution: The We The People Community Outreach Coalition will host a Thanksgiving food basket distribution event at the Waco Multipurpose Center, located at 1020 Elm Ave. in Waco, at 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 24.

Shepherd's Heart: The Shepherd's Heart Food Pantry in Waco partnered with the Central Texas Marketplace to provide food to 1,000 Central Texas families on Saturday, Nov. 22. Shepherd's Heart also has food pantries across the Waco area and hosts monthly food distributions in the area. More about the organization can be found at this link.

H-E-B Feast of Sharing: Waco residents are invited to share a holiday meal at the BASE at Extraco Events Center, located at 4601 Bosque Blvd, from 4-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2. H-E-B and community volunteers will reportedly serve a free meal including turkey, dressing, green beans and more to over 7,000 people. The H-E-B Pharmacy team will also reportedly offer free flu shots while supplies last.

Killeen Auto Steve Harvey Annual Turkey Giveaway: Killeen Auto will host the Steve Harvey Annual Turkey Giveaway on Tuesday, Nov. 25. The event will give away 75 free Thanksgiving meals from 3-6 p.m. at Killeen Certified, located at 3401 E. Central Texas Expressway in Killeen.

Families in Crisis: Families in Crisis in Killeen is providing Thanksgiving meals to those without homes and survivors of domestic violence. The organization is collecting donations through Wednesday Nov. 26, asking for items like canned vegetables and meats, rice, pasta, sauce, stuffing mix, instant potatoes, baking ingredients and more. For more information, visit this link or contact Families in Crisis at 254-634-1184.

H-E-B Feast of Sharing: Killeen residents are invited to share a holiday meal at the Killeen Civic and Conference Center, located at 3601 W WS Young Drive from 4-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9. H-E-B and community volunteers will reportedly serve a free meal including turkey, dressing, green beans and more to over 5,000 people. The H-E-B Pharmacy team will also reportedly offer free flu shots while supplies last.

Feed My Sheep Temple: Feed My Sheep Temple, a nonprofit that offers meals to those in need daily, will host a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, Nov. 27. Feed My Sheep, which is located at 116 W. Avenue G in Temple, said it expects to serve between 600 and 700 people on Thanksgiving. The organization is also looking for volunteers to help serve the meals. For more information, or to volunteer, visit the Feed My Sheep website at this link.

FTL Church: Multiple families are reportedly joining forces to provide hot meals at The FTL Church from 10-11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 27. The meals will reportedly be given out at the church, located at 820 South 21st St. in Temple. Meals will be served until they run out, organizers said.

Wes's Burger Shack: Wes's Burger Shack in Temple will host its annual Thanksgiving meal at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 27. The restaurant, located at 1301 S. 1st St. in Temple, invites all those who do not have someone to eat with. Attendees are invited to bring sides or help cook, but are not obligated to do so, owner Wes Teeters said. Teeters said food is typically gone by 3 p.m.

H-E-B Feast of Sharing: Temple residents are invited to share a holiday meal at the Mayborn Convention Center, located at 3303 N. 3rd St., from 4-8 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4. H-E-B and community volunteers will reportedly serve a free meal including turkey, dressing, green beans and more to over 4,000 people. The H-E-B Pharmacy team will also reportedly offer free flu shots while supplies last.

WACO — Texas’ AI boom and the tide of data center companies chasing it have arrived in the Waco area.

Lacy Lakeview, a suburban town five miles north of downtown Waco, and McLennan County are negotiating the area’s first large-scale data center project, valued at some $10 billion on 520 acres of farmland west of Elm Mott. Across the bargaining table is Infrakey, a data center company formed in March.

Infrakey purchased the farmland in June, the same month the Lacy Lakeview City Council signed a memorandum of understanding with the company.

The Lacy Lakeview Data District depicted in the company’s online material shows a scale of industrial development and investment unmatched in McLennan County’s history: acres of computer hardware, substations and a 1.2-gigawatt gas-fired plant capable of powering about 300,000 homes.

The impact of the $10 billion tax value at buildout is not lost on Lacy Lakeview Mayor Charles Wilson.

“For the city, a tax base of this quantity is a paradigm-changer for us,” Wilson told the Bridge on a Tuesday call. “We’re obviously keen on seeing it get done.” Lacy Lakeview currently has a tax base of $649 million.

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Wilson hopes to see the project break ground sometime next year.

Collecting property taxes on the unincorporated site would normally require annexation. However, the site is in Waco’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, meaning that Lacy Lakeview would likely have to work out a deal with Waco allowing Lacy Lakeview to annex it.

The project would be the biggest taxpayer in McLennan County by far and would also pay millions of dollars a year in taxes to Connally ISD and McLennan Community College.

Data centers across the country have been criticized for draining water supplies, straining power grids and exacerbating air and noise pollution.

Available materials on the Lacy Lakeview project do not give a full picture of those impacts.

Infrakey officials acknowledged an email from the Bridge but did not provide anyone to interview. The Bridge was unable to reach a company representative at the listed phone number.

County Judge Scott Felton said the company is in the process of furnishing more details for the Waco-McLennan County Economic Development Corporation to assess. Felton sits on the three-member board of the city-county entity, which uses a fund generated by property tax revenue to incentivize industries.

The high-voltage debates surrounding AI infrastructure seen elsewhere may be difficult to avoid for Infrakey or local officials supporting the project.

The Bridge interviewed several residents and business owners bordering the project site, nearly all of whom expressed shock, unaware that survey stakes in the farmland signal a gigawatt-scale data campus.

Bob Beechner, a retired Waco firefighter living a quarter mile west of the project area, feared his rural community would become unrecognizable, consumed by a “techno industrial” zone.

“That’s a bombshell, man,” he said.

Now-deleted online marketing materials from Infrakey encouraged the county to use its permitting authority to achieve an 18-month development timeline. But Felton said the facility’s water use and air pollution impact will have to be studied first.

“The amount of water needed is a big issue, and then also emissions, air quality,” Felton said Tuesday. “All those things have to be analyzed so that we’re totally understanding what the consequence of operations would be besides the positive impacts of growing the tax base.”

The 1.2-gigawatt gas-fired generator proposed for the site would be larger than any power plant currently operating in McLennan County, eclipsing the Sandy Creek coal plant’s capacity of 900 megawatts.

The power plant would likely minimize disruptions to the electric grid, which according to some reports have accompanied other power-hungry data center developments.

But any large natural gas plant could risk polluting the area with hazardous gases, including nitrogen oxide, benzene and formaldehyde, each associated with a range of negative health effects.

Other Infrakey project documents obtained by the Bridge suggest the facility will use a mix of on- and off-site electricity, citing multiple solar arrays and power plants in Central Texas. Battery energy storage is shown to be integrated with the gas-fired generation system as well.

Mayor: We have the water

Felton and Mayor Wilson say they are confident the facility will not endanger the area’s water resources, noting plans for water reuse technology and treated effluent, as well Lacy Lakeview’s water surplus.

“We as a city are only using 20% of the water that we are contracted for,” Wilson said.

Lacy Lakeview gets most of its water from the city of Waco, contracting for 2.1 million gallons a day.

Lacy Lakeview already plans to buy 665,000 gallons a day of cleaned wastewater from the city of Waco, according to a regional water plan.

“I don’t foresee water becoming a crunch for us or frankly, for anyone in McLennan County,” Wilson said.

If the facility uses what’s called a closed-loop cooling system to manage the temperature of computer chips, it may require millions of gallons to fill the system at first but far less afterwards, as the evaporated water is continually recovered and recirculated.

Felton also said the economic development board needs to be sure Infrakey can finance a project of this size. Other than road work, the company has promised to cover 100% of the facility’s capital expenses, meaning local governments would not need to issue bonds for them.

Some of Infrakey’s management, including Chair Bill Barney and CEO Braham Singh, have considerable experience in the data center and telecommunication industry, mostly in Asia.

Sujeeth Draksharam, who handles government and public communications for the company, was appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation board in 2022. Felton said Draksharam’s connection to the governor gave him peace of mind that Infrakey was legitimate.

‘Who cares about you guys?’

Many of the residents surrounding the land Infrakey purchased moved to the area for its bucolic charm.

Jared Cronin, a member of the Ross Volunteer Fire Department, recalled a boyhood memory in the same pastures that may hum with silicon chips in the near future. He was wrangling escaped cows.

“Most people in the area are out there because they like the rural life,” Cronin said. “I think I can speak for a lot of us that it’s one of those things, where, if this does go through, I think we’ll be selling out and moving out farther. I haven’t met anybody that’s real excited about it. I’ll put it that way.”

Bryant Stanton, a widely known artist who operates Stanton Studios, a stained glass business on Rogers Hill Road, also opposes the project.

Stanton, like Mayor Wilson, viewed a data center as a paradigm-changer, but one that disfigured a landscape he had come to love.

“It’s rural… that’s what we like about it,” Stanton said. “For our mayor not to consider us, I take that as an affront. It’s like, ‘Who cares about you guys?’”

He and Beechner, the retired Waco firefighter, were unmoved by the project’s tax revenue projections when presented with Infrakey’s $10 billion figure.

Wilson said he wants residents to understand that the project is at a very early phase of negotiations.

While he did not have plans to schedule a public outreach session on the project, Wilson reiterated that Lacy Lakeview’s city council meetings are open to the public and also livestreamed.

Waco Bridge photojournalist Justin Hamel contributed to this story.