"There's a sense of pride that you're a small part of building this," said Akshar Patel, who has been to all three Akshardhams in the world.

IRVING, Texas — Rinkesh Desai and Akshar Patel of DFW will soon head to the northeast for a moment 13 years in the making. They will join the 50-person band from BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Irving to help inaugurate the largest Hindu temple outside of India.

The Akshardham in New Jersey is built on 183 acres and took the work of 12,500 volunteers from across the United States.

"To me it's a dream come true" said Rinkesh Desai, who will be visiting the temple for a fourth time.

"Our Guru Pramukh Swami Maharaj was the inspiration for building the Maha Mandir," said Desai.

The Maha Mandir translates to a great place for peace of mind. It is not just a building, it is an enormous complex with 13 shrines and more statues and carvings than you can count.

"There's a sense of pride that you're a small part of building this," said Akshar Patel, who has been to all three Akshardhams in the world.

"We've been fortunate to take part in all three of the openings," he said. The other two Maha Mandirs are in India.

No inauguration is complete without a band, and this Dallas-area Akshar Band represent BAPS is prepared to perform between 10 to 15 songs for the week long event.

"It's not about the size of the mandir. It's about the inspiration the mandir brings," said Desai.

Desai is excited for the immeasurable the new temple brings: the sacrifice, service, and the selflessness. He showed WFAA a piece of the marble he kept from the construction and saved for his son.

"To me it means quite a bit... this was a part of what we did and why we did it," he said.

The temple opens on Oct. 8. They say not just to the Hindu community but for all in search of peace.

IRVING (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Demand for skilled trades are at an all-time high. So much so, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says about 700,000 job openings are available each year.

Skilled laborer jobs are tough work and it takes a special person to do so, which is why the demand is so high in a growing area, like Dallas/Fort Worth.

"By 2028, they are expecting a 2.4 million person shortage in the business of skilled trades," said Fred Webster with the Tulsa Welding School of Dallas admissions office. "This market is blowing up, growing, expanding...So we are providing students with the skills, knowledge and attitude to be able to fill those positions."

The Tulsa Welding School just opened its newest branch in Irving. It offers programs like welding, electrical technology, refrigeration technology and electrical line work.

Zach Taylor is one of the instructors in charge of teaching line work and says it's an intense boot camp.

"It's a 15-week program, entry level," he said. "It gives them all the info they need to get in the door of this industry."

Taylor says all students need in order to join a program is a high school diploma and some work ethic and those are the same requirements over in the welding program.

It's why some students say it is a perfect fit.

"I am a hands-on learner; I can't sit in a classroom and read books," ," said welding student London Skipper. "It's definitely for people who love hard work and love to use their hands."

The school already has about 170 students and is still enrolling, all with the hope of offering North Texans a pathway to a lifelong career.

Nicole Nielsen

Nicole Nielsen joined the CBS 11 news team in June 2020. Born and raised in Keller, Nicole is a North Texas native who is thrilled to work for the station she grew up watching.

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Officials say he admitted to accessing private patient information and submitting insurance claims to providers for COVID-19 testing that was never performed.

IRVING, Texas — Editor's note: The video published above is a WFAA interview with a medical expert after the CDC recommends a new COVID-19 booster vaccine.

An Irving man has pleaded guilty alongside three coconspirators as part of a $7 million COVID-19 testing fraud scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

The DOJ said Terrance Barnard, 40, was indicted in December 2022 for Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud, Aggravated Identity Theft and Aiding and Abetting Aggravated Identity Theft. Barnard pleaded guilty to those charges on Thursday.

Barnard, according to plea papers, admitted that he and his coconspirators accessed private patient information – including names, dates of birth, and insurance subscriber numbers – through various clinics where Barnard worked as a contract lab technician.

Barnard said that, on occasion, he took photographs of patient information and stored the images on “burner” phones. On other occasions, he and a coconspirator accessed the clinics’ confidential electronic medical records to obtain large amounts of patient information at once, DOJ officials said.

Barnard and his coconspirators then used the patient information to submit claims to insurance providers – including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, United Healthcare, Aetna, Humana, and Molina Health Care – for COVID-19 testing that was never performed.

Barnard admitted that the “labs” at which the coconspirators claimed the testing occurred, including TC Diagnostics, ME Diagnostics, and PHR Diagnostics, were, in fact, shell entities that never operated as labs. All three entities submitted approximately $30 million in claims and were paid more than $7 million in reimbursements for fake testing, DOJ officials said.

According to the terms of his plea agreement, Barnard has agreed to a $7.29 million forfeiture money judgment and will forfeit a number of items seized during the investigation, including $2.5 million in funds from numerous bank accounts, two residences, six vehicles and six luxury watches.

Barnard's three coconspirators were identified as Connie Jo Clampitt, 52; William Paul Gray, 50; and Donn Hogg, 37. Clampitt, Hogg and Gray have each pled guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in November 2023.

Barnard now faces up to seven years in federal prison.

More Texas headlines:

North Texas’ biggest apartment builder — Irving-based JPI — is being purchased by a Japanese housing firm.

JPI, which this year is building over 4,000 Dallas-Fort Worth rental units, has agreed to a sale to a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sumitomo Forestry Co. Sumitomo Forestry is an international conglomerate of wood products and housing construction companies that already have significant holdings in North Texas.

The Japanese firm has previously partnered with JPI on developments. Sumitomo invested over $200 million in seven JPI rental communities over the last four years.

“Sumitomo’s consistent partnership and investment in JPI projects since 2019 is a testament to their confidence and faith in our vision,” JPI CEO Payton Mayes said in a statement. “This acquisition amplifies JPI’s influence in the housing sector and charts a definitive path for JPI’s sustained growth.”

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Sale terms weren’t disclosed. Nikkei Asia reported the deal is valued at $215 million.

The transaction is scheduled to close before the end of the year.

JPI’s top officers plan to remain with the firm after the acquisition and will keep the headquarters in Irving. Mayes and CFO Mollie Fadule will hold minority interests in the company.

“This collaboration with JPI is a significant milestone in our continued commitment to fostering sustainable communities,” Sumitomo Forestry’s Atsushi Iwasaki said in a statement. “The shared values and vision between Sumitomo Forestry and JPI cement this partnership’s potential.

“We’re looking forward to a future filled with innovative, impactful communities across the income spectrum.”

Sumitomo Forestry entered the U.S. housing market in the early 2000s with single-family home construction in the Pacific Northwest. The Japanese company’s MainVue Homes later expanded to North Texas.

The firm builds more than 10,000 U.S. homes a year.

In 2016, Sumitomo Forestry Co. purchased Dallas homebuilder Gehan Homes. And in 2013, it purchased ownership in Bloomfield Homes L.P., one of D-FW’s top homebuilders.

Sumitomo in 2018 acquired North Carolina-based Crescent Communities LLC, which has built apartments and single-family homes in North Texas.

The affiliated Sumitomo Group has also invested in D-FW industrial properties.

Apartment builder JPI is a more than three-decade-old company that has built over 110,000 rental units in major markets around the country. The company has more than 280 employees. Outside of Texas, it has offices in San Diego and Irvine, Calif.

JPI earned $13 million in pretax profit on $423 million in revenue last year, according to Nikkei Asia. This year, the company was named the fastest-growing developer in the nation by the National Multifamily Housing Council. It is currently building over 9,700 apartment homes.

“This transaction will enable JPI to grow and deepen our impact on the housing sector,” Fadule said in a statement.

The JPI sale is the second such purchase this year of a major North Texas-based apartment builder.

In March, Lincoln Property Co.’s apartment building division sold to Canada-based Cadillac Fairview. Cadillac Fairview, which manages property investments for the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, previously had a 49% stake in Lincoln, a Dallas apartment builder that dates to the 1960s.

Governor Greg Abbott today touted Texas' historic leadership in the financial services industry at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.'s ("Wells Fargo") new regional campus groundbreaking in Irving. During the ceremony, the Governor highlighted how Wells Fargo's new facility will help expand Texas' financial services workforce—which is already the largest in the nation—and encourage even more economic growth in North Texas.

"As a hub of innovation, Texas needs the support and services of businesses like Wells Fargo," said Governor Abbott. "With hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investment and myriad new jobs, Wells Fargo's new campus will encourage even more economic growth in the area and keep Texas home to our nation's largest financial services workforce. More than 3,000 workers are expected to report to this facility upon its completion, and I thank the Irving City Council and Mayor Stopfer for their hard work in bringing such a great company to this wonderful city. I also thank Wells Fargo and President and CEO Scharf for their continued investment in Texas and the great people of Irving. Working together, we are underwriting the Texas of tomorrow."

The Governor was joined at the groundbreaking by Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer, Wells Fargo President and CEO Charlie Scharf, Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Beth Bowman, and KDC Real Estate Development and Investments CEO Steve Van Amburgh. During the ceremony, Governor Abbott presented a proclamation to President and CEO Scharf commemorating the new facility and Wells Fargo's investment in the Irving community and the people of Texas.

Last October, Governor Abbott announced that Wells Fargo would create a new regional campus in Irving. The project will create 650 new jobs and $455 million in capital investment for the region. A Texas Enterprise Fund grant of just over $5 million has been extended to Wells Fargo.