John Burnett

Texans are obsessed with the Western diamondback rattlesnake. They catch thousands of them each year for snake festivals. Now, a possible ban of gassing snakes by the state jeopardizes those fiestas.

The judge blocked a state agency from licensing the facility inside a private detention facility for undocumented mothers and children who have crossed the Texas-Mexico border.

The United States is awash with concealed handguns. Nearly 13 million Americans have permits to conceal carry mainly over concerns about crime and mass shootings.

Even as violent and property crimes fall, more Americans are carrying concealed handguns. Many think having a gun makes them safer, but the decision to shoot is a serious one with grave consequences.

The U.S. is not the only country where voters are tired of politics as usual. For the first time, Mexican ballots will be full of independent candidates free from the established parties.

An eccentric millionaire from Santa Fe hid a chest full of gold and precious gems in the Rocky Mountains six years ago. Today, thousands of treasure hunters are obsessed with finding it.

Methane leaks are bad news. We'll fly over a South Texas oilfield with a leak detection crew and witness — with the aid of an infrared camera — how much methane gushes into the atmosphere.

Cuban migrants are getting in to the U.S. through Laredo, Texas. Some lawmakers say it's time to remove the special status Cuban migrants have, saying it's unfair to others who face worse hardships.

The border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which was until recently one of the world's murder capitals, will present Pope Francis with a panoply of Mexico's intractable problems: rampa...

A dozen congregations are harboring immigrants facing deportation. It echoes the sanctuary movement of the 1980s, when hundreds of churches sheltered Central Americans escaping war and violence.

Jerky sales are soaring, thanks in part to millennials, who are snacking more than ever. Meat snacks are lightweight, high in nutrition and can travel long distances without spoiling.

Gun-loving Texans fought hard for the right to strap handguns openly on their belts. Now that open carry is the law, some gun owners look down at the open-carry crowd as unsafe and uncouth.

Immigration agents are rounding up Central American families who entered the U.S. illegally within the past two years. They are mainly mothers with children whose asylum claims have been rejected.

Most nights, you can walk into a blues club and find a harmonica player blowing their heart out onstage. The wailing, honking sound associated with Western movies and juke joints is what many harp players have emulated for decades. But in the rarefied world of the harmonica, the earth has ...

Several centers for migrant children have opened in Texas. Authorities expect more children and families escaping violence from Central America to make their way north to the U.S. this coming year.

The Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, where a terrorist couple killed 14 people, is covered by terrorism insurance. In fact, 6 in 10 major U.S. businesses are insured for terrorism damage.

When an event happens like the massacres in San Bernardino, Calif., or Paris, interest spikes in terrorism insurance. Nearly six in 10 major businesses in America are insured for terrorism damage.

Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest wildlife refuges in the world and one of the last great wild places in Africa. The problem is, it's not a refuge from anything. In the past five years, 60 percent of its iconic elephant herds have been machine-gunned or poisoned ...

To a person, it was the most harrowing and horrific experience any of them had experienced in their careers in law enforcement and emergency medicine. Thirty-six first responders — among the 300 who raced to the Inland Regional Center shortly after 11 am Dec. 2 — came to the second ...