2 philippines (The Center Square) – More than $225 million in grants have been allocated to assist and expand law enforcement and prosecutorial jobs in rural areas of Texas. Recognizing the need to increase salaries and recruit and retain law enforcement staff in rural areas where resources are limited and can’t compete with larger cities, in 2023, the state legislature passed SB 22, the Rural Law Enforcement Grant Program, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was an advocate for the bill, which received bipartisan support. The law appropriated $330 million for the program in the 2024-2025 biennium. In fiscal 2024, which ended Aug. 31, the Texas Comptroller’s Office awarded $125.7 million to 502 grant recipients. In fiscal 2025, it awarded $98.4 million to 396 grant recipients. “Many rural law enforcement and prosecutor offices have lacked the resources they need to attract and retain personnel or to buy much-needed safety equipment, and this program bridges that gap. I'm humbled that the Legislature placed this responsibility with my agency,” Comptroller Glenn Hegar said. “These men and women form the backbone of rural communities across the great state of Texas, and it is critical that we ensure they have what they need to keep Texans safe and secure." Earlier this year, Hegar visited several recipients of the grant program through his Good for Texas Tour series to highlight how they used the funds. Grant money helped increase minimum salaries for constables and sheriffs; increase deputy, jailer and corrections officer salaries; hire new deputies and corrections officers; fill open positions; and purchase equipment. In county attorney offices, grant money helped supplement the salaries of assistant district attorneys or hire additional ones, hire legal assistants, investigators, victim assistant coordinators and others. Brooks County Sheriff Benny Martinez, who advocated for the legislation, told The Center Square, “The Rural Law Enforcement Grant Program has been critical to sheriffs in disadvantaged rural counties with budgetary shortfalls. I’ve been a recipient of the grant program and greatly appreciate the support of the legislature for approving Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s pledge to increase law enforcement funding.” Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd agrees, saying it’s the first time in his 30-plus year career “that the legislature has done something like this for law enforcement. It’s a huge benefit because it enabled us to provide much-needed pay raises for the deputies and the jailers.” Boyd founded and leads an Operation Lone Star Task Force with sheriffs and law enforcement officials from nearly 50 agencies in dozens of counties, The Center Square has exclusively reported. He explained that historically, commissioner’s courts have underfunded sheriff’s offices because they argued state law enforcement agencies were patrolling rural areas but that hasn’t been the case for a range of reasons, leaving the sheriff’s offices underfunded and underpaid. SB 22 provided a “much-needed boost especially during hard economic times that we’ve been facing,” he said. When Patrick and state lawmakers learned “how little deputies were being paid or that they were relying on food stamps, they were shocked,” Boyd said. Boyd’s first partner, when he began his career, “was on food stamps. It was the only way to feed his family. A program like this helps them out,” he told The Center Square. “To put the pay raise into perspective,” he said, when he was first elected sheriff and came into office in 2021, “deputies were making $35,000 a year. Now starting pay is $51,400.” Before the legislature acted, in some poor, rural counties, some sheriff salaries were $20,000 a year. “Recruiting skilled law enforcement deputies in rural counties has always been a challenge. The impact of a grant like this that helps us better compensate and retain talented lawmen cannot be overstated,” Kinney County spokesman Matt Benacci told The Center Square. Despite the best efforts of the legislature, not all sheriffs and their deputies are receiving the money intended for them through the law because county judges or commissioners have control over the funding process and won’t approve the grant for political reasons, they told The Center Square. Several sheriffs spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation from their county judge or commissioners. If county officials don’t accept the grant, sheriffs and their deputies won’t receive salary increases and aren’t able to hire additional deputies or other staff and jobs remain vacant. In one rural county, the judge and commissioners didn’t want to pay the sheriff a full salary because he came out of retirement to take the job, one sheriff in a rural county said. The reasoning was that he didn’t need it because he was collecting retirement from his previous law enforcement job. In one border county, the county judge wouldn’t release funds for a sheriff’s office that was participating in Operation Lone Star. In another, the commissioners didn’t want the sheriff to make the minimum $75,000 under the law because it was more than they made and rejected the grant money. The sheriffs argue one way for the legislature to improve the program is to allow the sheriffs to apply directly for the grant and receive the funding directly. Criteria for the grant program can be found here . Those serving in jurisdictions with populations of 300,000 or less, whose fiscal years begins Jan. 1, have until Jan. 31, 2025, to apply.

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Sharon Horgan will sit down with Patrick Kielty this Friday night to chat about the return of black comedy series Bad Sisters , the reaction to the first season and what we can expect from the Garvey sisters this time around. Sharon will also speak to Patrick about an unexpected Royal visit on set and coming home to her family. Although her career has been incredibly successful, she is not the only talented member of the Horgan family. Read more: Late Late Show lineup 22nd November: Sharon Horgan, Piers Morgan and Emily Maitlis Read more: Louis Walsh says Ronan Keating insult "wasn't meant out of badness" The actress and producer is one of five siblings born to her Irish mother and Kiwi father, John, who passed away in December 2023 who raised the children on a turkey farm in Bellewstown, Co Meath . What exactly are five Horgan siblings getting up to these days? Here is everything we know about Sharon, her brothers Shane and Mark, and her sisters Maria and Lorraine. The eldest of the siblings is freelance producer, Maria who received a BA in English and French in Trinity and studied the Theory and Practice of Film and TV production at UCD as well as studying in University of London . She has produced a feature documentary called Housewife of the Year which was funded by Fís Éireann and RTÉ and co-produced the BBC podcast Where is George Gibney? Which he brother Mark is the frontman of. Sharon is the second eldest sibling of the clan. The 54-year-old studied at Brunel University in London, receiving a degree in English and American studies. When she began as an actress, the Meath-native appeared in several TV shows including The State We’re IN and Monkey Dust, but her breakthrough as a producer and actress was the series Pulling, which she co-wrote and starred in. The mum of two has now established a production company called Merman with Celia Mountford which has co-produced many shows including Motherland, Catastrophe and Divorce (which starred Sarah Jessica Parker). Sharon has also lent her voice to Bob’s Burgers, Bojack Horseman and Disenchantment. Sharon is a co-creator, writer, executive producer and star of the critically acclaimed Apple TV series Bad Sisters which has been renewed for a season two due to its success. Another actress in the clan is the third eldest, Lorraine Horgan who appeared in Peaky Blinders as Mrs Donovan. She has also appeared in There She Goes as Alison and in podcasts The End of the Line and Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon. The older of the two brothers in the family, Shane Horgan is a former rugby union player for Leinster and Ireland. He made his Leinster debut in 1998. Shane played in a backline that included well-known players like Rob Kearney, Johnny Sexton , and Brian O'Driscoll. The 46-year-old made his debut for Ireland in the 2000 Six Nations Championship against Scotland before his rugby career came to and end in 2012 after he was unable to fully recover from a knee surgery. Shane went on to work for RTE as an analysm for rugby coverage before joining TV3’s coverage of the Six Nations. Shane was inducted into the Irish Rugby Hall of Fame in November 2023. The youngest of the siblings, Mark, also works in media as a reporter and a podcaster He has a Bachelors Degree in Politics and Sociology for UCD and a Masters in Journalism from DCU. According to his LinkedIn, he is a producer for Second Captains.Jimmy Carter age: How old was the longest-living president in US history?

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