Lead Stories

Texas Senate tentatively approves sweeping school finance, teacher pay bill

Public schools will get a record-breaking amount of new funding and many teachers will get thousands more dollars of pay under a bill tentatively passed by the Texas Senate late Thursday. The unanimous passage of House Bill 2 by the Capitol’s upper chamber will send the second major education measure to the governor conceived during a legislative session that has been defined by public school policy. A final vote is expected Friday. The bill would add $8.5 billion to public schools, earmarking $4.2 billion for teachers and roughly $1.3 billion for school districts to pay for operating costs such as utilities, buses and insurance that have increased substantially in recent years. “House Bill Two is the most transformative education package in Texas history,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said during debate. “I call it that because we have policies within this bill that will change public education forever.”

The bill, as passed, strikes a compromise between the House and Senate by keeping a prescriptive model of how school districts will spend the infusion of state funds, as the Senate preferred, while also addressing increasingly expensive fixed costs of running public schools that the House hoped to achieve. Under the bill, teachers will see pay raises designed to encourage teacher retention through experience-related bonuses. Those pay raises are doubled for teachers in small, typically rural, districts and could lift teachers’ salaries as much as $8,000 after they reach 5 years of experience and $5,000 for teachers in larger districts. The effect on North Texas schools was not immediately clear as lawmakers rushed to approve the bill with major changes made on the Senate floor before districts were able to perform their own analysis on how it will alter their bottom line. The bill has remained a closely watched piece of legislation for public school officials, many of which are in the process of drafting their budgets for the next school year.

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Republican-led House passes Trump agenda bill by a single vote

After weeks of internal GOP wrangling, the Republican-led House early Thursday passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," critical to advancing President Donald Trump's tax and immigration agenda. A smiling Speaker Mike Johnson announced the massive measure passed by a single vote -- 215-214 -- and was greeted with applause. He had struggled to get it done -- as he had promised -- by Memorial Day, before lawmakers go on recess. The sweeping package of tax cuts, Medicaid reform and immigration spending delivers on many of the president's domestic campaign promises.

Following debate that stretched Wednesday through the entire night and into early Thursday morning, the vote was a triumphant moment for Johnson, who conquered sharp divisions among his conference "through a lot of prayer" amid a historically low 3-vote majority. "The bill gets Americans back to winning again, and it's been a long time coming," Johnson proclaimed during his speech on the floor moments before the final vote. "It quite literally is again morning in America, isn't it, all right?" Trump celebrated the passage of what he called "THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL" in a social media post, calling it the "most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!" He said it fulfilled his campaign promise of "No Tax on Tips and No Tax on Overtime." He also recognized the tax deductions when consumers purchase an American-made vehicle, funding for the Golden Dome defense system, and the "TRUMP Savings Accounts" incorporated in the legislation. "Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill!," Trump wrote. "Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!" Trump added, before slamming Democrats.

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New Education System will receive $8,566 base funding per student

Houston ISD said its students at campuses carrying out stringent reforms will receive $7,011 when accounting for certain components of the New Education System, compared with $6,386 each for students at traditional campuses. Average per-pupil funding at New Education System (NES) schools was reported to be about $9,445 per student in the 2024-25 school year, while per-pupil funding at non-NES schools was about $6,882, according to the budget approved in June. NES schools have historically served a greater proportion of low-income students. The base funding per student is $8,566 per NES student versus $6,133, according to a Thursday presentation, not including special education funding per student. State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles chalked the difference up to teacher salaries per student, where NES students receive $660 more, and what's called "learning coaches" and "teacher apprentices" ($1,268 per student.) Miles also said special education for NES students costs $1,696 on average per student, while special education cost $717 on average per student.

"So (special education) is not — it's not different because of NES and PUA (schools that are not designated New Education System), meaning NES do not receive a SPED allotment more than what the PUA does," Miles said. "What happens here, though, is that the SPED students in the NES schools are have higher needs and are more life skills (students with higher needs). There's a higher percentage of life skill students. So the cost — the special ed cost per student is higher, and you can see that right here. Considerably higher." It is unclear what the percentage of higher-need special education students is for NES campuses in the upcoming year versus outside the system. Houston ISD wrapped its final budget workshop before a June meeting where appointed board members are expected to consider the budget. HISD expects to have an ending fund balance of $801.9 million in 2025 and $746.1 million in 2026, Thursday's presentation showed. Department budgets were cut by $71.4 million by cutting positions and purchased services, Miles said.

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Deadlocked Supreme Court rejects bid for religious charter school in Oklahoma

An evenly divided Supreme Court rejected a plan on Thursday to allow Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school, which would teach a curriculum infused by Catholic doctrine. In a tie, the court split 4 to 4 over the Oklahoma plan, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, and the decision provided no reasoning. That deadlock means that an earlier ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court will be allowed to stand. The state court blocked a proposal for the Oklahoma school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was to be operated by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, and aimed to incorporate Catholic teachings into every aspect of its activities. Because there was no majority in the case, the court’s decision sets no nationwide precedent on the larger question of whether the First Amendment permits states to sponsor and finance religious charter schools.

The decision did not include a tally of how each justice voted, stating only that the lower court ruling was “affirmed by an equally divided court.” Justice Barrett did not explain her recusal, though she is close friends with an adviser to the school. Across the country, charter schools are public schools that are run independently, sometimes by nonprofits. St. Isidore had sought to challenge their status as public schools, arguing that it would instead be a private school, in contract with the government. The question is likely to come before the court again in the coming years, giving the justices the opportunity to weigh in again in a more definitive way. The court’s conservative supermajority has often been receptive to allowing religion a greater role in public life. Proponents of expanded school choice and religious charter education did not concede defeat. Critics, too, agreed the court would likely revisit the issue. Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, a Republican who supported St. Isidore, dismissed the outcome as a “non-decision” and vowed to keep fighting against what he said was religious discrimination.

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State Stories

How a bill to speed up evictions is testing Texas’ powerful landlord lobby

Three weeks after Molly Cook was sworn in as a freshman state senator in February, the Houston Democrat was approached by a group of lobbyists with the Texas Apartment Association. “They asked me if I was a landlord,” said Cook, one of the few lawmakers who rents her home, “and said that they were here to support legislation that streamlines evictions.” The apartment association has been a powerful force at the Capitol for decades. Their efforts have helped turn Texas into one of the most landlord-friendly states, with laws that let property owners lock renters out while eviction cases are still ongoing and charge almost unlimited fees on top of rent. But the sweeping bill it pitched to Cook, widely marketed as a crackdown on squatting, is testing the group’s influence and just how far lawmakers are willing to go to strip tenants' rights. Under mounting pushback from tenant advocates and lawmakers and ahead of a key House vote, the association said this week it was open to changing the bill’s most contentious reform, a provision that lawyers said would deny due process to the state’s 12 million renters.

As filed by state Rep. Angie Chen Button and state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, both Republicans, the bill would end a requirement that landlords provide notice to vacate when evicting a tenant for any reason other than falling behind on rent. It would also allow them to request a summary judgment in all types of eviction cases, meaning they could be decided without a trial. Proponents, led by the TAA, say the reforms would help speed up the eviction process for landlords and make it easier to reclaim their properties from people who illegally occupy them. Critics warn doing away with those protections would punish all renters in the state for the rare instance of an illegal squatter. The House vote could come as early as Friday. “It’s very, very easy” to evict a tenant in Texas, said state Rep. Gary Gates, a Richmond Republican and the owner of more than 30 apartment complexes across Harris County. “What they’re trying to do is, under the guise of squatters, they’re trying to take away due process. That’s not needed. I already have an incredible advantage.”

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Commissioners vote no on sending Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo to Paris

Commissioners voted Thursday against sending Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and several of her staff members to Paris as part of a trade mission. Hidalgo presented a revised proposal that cut the cost of the mission by roughly half of her original request, which was pegged at around $23,000. But commissioners again declined to fund the mission, with only Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Hidalgo voting to support it. Although officials did not discuss the issue at length, Barbara Denson, a Harris County Republican Party precinct chair, criticized the proposed trade mission ahead of the vote.

"The voters have placed their trust in you to manage their hard-earned money wisely, and it's your responsibility to ensure that every dollar is spent effectively," Denson said during the public comment portion of Thursday's meeting. "But with the county facing a $140 million budget deficit, every expense demands careful scrutiny when finances are sinking, splurging on a $23,000 trip to France isn't the life raft you need." The deficit figure Denson referenced ballooned to around $270 million later that meeting after commissioners agreed to bring county deputies' salaries in line with those offered by the Houston Police Department. Hidalgo said the reduced request was intended to cover only her security detail. She also pointed to a 2024 request filed by the Harris County Toll Road Authority to send its director to Belgium for a bicycle conference, which was approved by commissioners. "My caveat is that this court approved last year in May, international travel for the HCTRA director at a cost of $13,000 for one employee," Hidalgo said. "This request costs $1,350 less than HCTRA's, and would cover ... a security detail in a place that this body has already leaked to my conspiracy theorists."

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Texas moves to ban taxpayer-funded abortion travel: 'It’s time for us to get stern'

Texas cities will be banned from using taxpayer dollars to fund out-of-state abortion travel under a bill that the Legislature sent to the governor Thursday. Senate Bill 33, authored by Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell of New Braunfels, builds on a 2019 law that prohibits public entities from contracting with abortion care providers such as Planned Parenthood, including for services unrelated to pregnancy termination. The Texas House passed the measure with an 87-58 vote, with two Democratic members joining their GOP colleagues to approve the bill. The Senate passed the measure with a 22-9 vote in April. The proposal is all but certain to affect Austin, whose City Council allocated $400,000 to provide logistical support, such as lodging and travel expenses, to residents who terminate their pregnancies outside of Texas.

The bill’s House sponsor, state Rep. Candy Noble, R-Lucas, said the legislation will ensure public money isn't "spent on an activity that is illegal in Texas." "Our goal, always, in this room, is to have our laws followed when we pass them," Noble said on the House floor. "We don’t want to be litigious, but when a city decides to clearly circumvent the intent of a law passed by the Texas Legislature, it’s time for us to get stern." Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who led the city's effort to fund abortion travel, called the measure an attack on local control. "This law sends a clear message that Austinites don’t deserve the freedom to make personal medical decisions or the right to (enact) policies shaped by our values," Fuentes said in a statement. "It’s shameful, it’s wrong, and only deepens the reproductive health crisis Texans are already facing.” SB 33 would authorize not only the state's attorney general but also any Texas resident to sue cities and other public entities that violate the law. If a lawsuit succeeds, the plaintiff would be entitled to seek declaratory relief, injunctive relief, court costs and attorney's fees from the defendant.

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Texas is about to allow designated prayer time in schools

Students could get designated prayer time in school if a bill set to pass the Texas Legislature is signed into law. The proposed legislation, Senate Bill 11, passed 91-51 in the Texas House on May 22, with seven Democrats supporting the bill. If it receives one more vote without being amended, it would head to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for approval. “Senate Bill 11 is about protecting the freedom of those who choose to pray, and just as importantly, protecting the rights of those who choose not to,” said Rep. David Spiller, a Republican from Jacksboro who is carrying the bill in the House. The bill passed in the Senate in March.

Under the legislation, a school district’s board of trustees could adopt a policy requiring campuses to provide students and employees with an opportunity to partake in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text each school day. A student wishing to participate would need a consent note from a parent and would waive their rights to sue the school over the policy. The time allocated could not be a substitute for instructional time. The prayer or reading of religious text must be away from other students whose parents haven’t consented, according to the bill. That means the time may be scheduled before school. Some Democrats raised concerns that part of the bill allows teachers to encourage or discourage student prayer. That measure would apply to all schools, not just those that adopt a formal policy allowing prayer or religious reading time, said Rep. James Talarico, an Austin Democrat. Allowing the encouragement of prayer would violate the First Amendment, said Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat. “Our students are protected, as we all are, by the First Amendment in our deeply personal decisions whether to pray, to not pray, to determine how we pray, whether that’s during the school day or at any other time,” Turner said. He tried to alleviate those concerns with an amendment but was unsuccessful. Spiller said the section of the bill at issue is drafted in a way that makes it consistent with existing law.

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Bill that would allow Dallas to move city elections to November clears hurdle

A Texas House committee on Thursday advanced a bill that would allow the Dallas City Council to move city elections from May to November. The legislation was nearly dead after state Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Prosper, said last week it would not be voted out of the Elections Committee he chairs. Dallas-area lawmakers and Dallas business leaders responded by lobbying Shaheen and committee members, and some local leaders put in calls to Gov. Greg Abbott. The bill on Thursday was unanimously passed out of committee after a hasty meeting. It is now up to the Calendars Committee to move it to the House floor for a vote. “The bipartisan vote coming out of the Elections Committee shows strong momentum for this bill,” said state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas. “The work is not over. We still need to get it to the House floor in order for Dallas to be able to increase voter turnout.”

The bill, authored by state Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, would give the Dallas City Council until the end of 2026 to move elections from May to November in odd numbered years. Anchia had an identical companion bill. Johnson said he was pleased with the outcome. In November Dallas voters approved a proposition that would allow the council to move May elections to November in odd years. Supporters say the move could double Dallas voter turnout, which in May was just over 7%. The Texas Legislature sets the state’s uniform election dates, and any changes — even for local elections — must be approved by state lawmakers. Though written for the city of Dallas, the bill would give local jurisdictions across the state the chance to move their elections from May to November if they act before Dec. 31, 2026. The Elections Committee also advanced a bill that would mandate that all local elections be held in November, with the option of odd years or alongside the partisan elections that are staged in even years. That bill, authored by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, also would give Dallas the power to move its election. Hughes’ bill would remove May as an option for elections, except in the case of runoffs or emergencies.

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Texans differ on beauty of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill

U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, voted early Thursday for his party’s sweeping package of income tax cuts, border security measures, Medicaid changes and other key elements of the Republican agenda. But he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. Self said the vote might have been the hardest of his political career because, despite demands by conservative deficit hawks, the bill fails to tackle his top priority of cutting spending enough to address the skyrocketing national debt. “Congress took President Trump’s incredible policies and paired them with more Washington spending — in another ‘must-pass’ bill,” Self posted on X. “Celebrate President Trump’s major America-First wins in this bill, but know that our Republican-led Congress can and must do better.” The legislation, which passed 215-214, now heads to the Senate where it could see further changes before reaching President Donald Trump’s desk.

The Texas delegation split along party lines Thursday – all 25 Republicans supported the measure and all 12 Democrats opposed it. Democrats said Republicans are moving to cut programs critical to working class families while providing tax cuts to the country’s wealthiest. They highlighted projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the bill’s health care provisions would result in millions losing coverage. The bill would place new requirements on food assistance programs and shift more of those costs onto the states, which Democrats said will mean more Americans going hungry. “These programs are lifelines for millions of working families—the same folks Republicans were elected to represent,” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, said in a statement. Crockett said the bill would strip health care from many of her constituents and take food off their tables.

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As FEMA is in upheaval entering hurricane season, Houston emergency leaders say they have a plan

FEMA funding and aid may be uncertain ahead of hurricane season, but Houston-area emergency management officials say they are prepared for the disasters and will seek assistance from the state for recovery efforts if necessary. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order establishing the FEMA Review Council to determine whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency is equipped to address disasters across the United States. Since then, Trump has made cuts to the agency. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer, was named acting administrator of FEMA just after Cameron Hamilton, who’d been leading the agency, was fired.

“There is obviously a lot to be figured out,” said Brad Burness, emergency management coordinator for Galveston County. Weather watchers already see signs of “near-average” storm activity for the Gulf of Mexico. A normal hurricane season produces 14 named systems in the Atlantic, based on data from 1991 to 2020. Seven of those named storms typically become hurricanes with at least 74 mph wind speeds. Three hurricanes on average become major hurricanes, reaching Category 3 status or higher, with wind speeds of at least 111 mph. Galveston County is no stranger to preparing for storms but Burness said recovery efforts will likely fall more on the state’s shoulders. “We will be looking to them for guidance and we will be partnering with the state to ensure our citizens are recovering from any natural disaster,” he said. Jason Millsaps, executive director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said his county is ready. Millsaps said Montgomery County is one of the few counties in the state with an emergency supply warehouse.

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After inciting panic, Judson ISD decides not to close three more schools

Less than a week after sparking community panic by discussing the closure of three neighborhood schools, the Judson Independent School District board has decided to keep the campuses open — at least for now. At a lengthy and passionate board meeting on Wednesday night, trustees unanimously voted against closing Judson Middle School, Candlewood Elementary School and Franz Leadership Academy. “I don’t know where we’re going to go from here,” said board president Monica Ryan. “We don’t have any answers. We don’t have any solutions.” The Northeast Side district is already shuttering Coronado Village Elementary School next year to help offset a projected $48 million budget shortfall. The board approved the campus closure in December following a series of community meetings.

Trustees said then that they would likely have to eventually take up campus consolidations again due to declining enrollment and stagnant state funding. Those discussions came earlier than expected. Last week, new board president Monica Ryan and three newly elected trustees asked the administration to gather information about closing more schools to cut expenses. School officials said the board was “blindsiding” the community, and dissenting trustees argued that consolidating campuses requires neighborhood feedback and a much longer timeline. On Wednesday, the administration reiterated that it was not recommending the closure of any campuses for the 2025-2026 school year. The crowd was lively, with attendees jeering or applauding during trustees' and district leaders' remarks. Throughout the five-and-a-half-hour meeting, Ryan repeatedly reminded audience members to keep their voices down. Superintendent Milton Fields said Judson ISD started this year with a $37 million deficit that it shaved down to $23 million by adding “disaster pennies” to the district’s tax rate. The proposed budget for next year included a $48 million deficit, but trustees approved a series of cost-cutting measures last week that brought it down to $40 million. If voters approve a tax rate increase next year, which Fields has said is vital, that will reduce the shortfall by another $12 million.

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Henry Cuellar gets coveted Memorial Day role despite bribery indictment

Over the years, generals, war heroes, West Point graduates and other revered figures have spoken at Memorial Day ceremonies at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. On Monday, a defendant in a federal bribery case will do the honors. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, under indictment on charges of selling his office, has been tapped to deliver the keynote address at one of the most solemn events on the calendar in San Antonio, often called "Military City USA" because of its deep historic ties to the armed forces. "I’ll be damned," said former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. "There’s a different ethical basis up there today. It’s a different game. Being indicted ... doesn’t seem to matter."

Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, and his wife, Imelda, were indicted by a federal grand jury last year. They stand accused of taking $600,000 in bribes from a Mexico City bank and an oil company owned by the government of Azerbaijan from 2014 to 2021. Prosecutors contend that in exchange for the money, the congressman advanced the bank’s interests in Congress and pushed foreign policies that favored the former Soviet republic. Cuellar and his wife have denied any wrongdoing. Despite the charges, voters in November elected Cuellar to an 11th consecutive term representing the 28th Congressional District, which stretches from San Antonio to the U.S.-Mexico border. It was not clear who selected Cuellar to make the Memorial Day speech. Gerald Lefler, director of Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, and his assistant, Graham Wright, did not respond to requests for comment from the San Antonio Express-News. Neither did Cuellar's office in Washington D.C.

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Proposed Muslim development in Texas brings inquiries by DOJ and state officials

The Department of Justice is investigating a proposed Muslim housing development in North Texas known as EPIC City for potential religious discrimination. Top state officials, including Republican Governor Greg Abbott have also launched investigations, even though the project's developers say they're years away from breaking ground. The East Plano Islamic Center – also known as EPIC – is a large mosque in Plano, a suburb North of Dallas. The mosque is running out of room as newcomers flock to the growing North Texas region. A member of EPIC who is a realtor proposed a solution when he saw some land for sale – why not build another community to accommodate the growing Muslim population in North Texas?

Several of EPIC's members live within walking distance from the mosque. Black and white houses with manicured lawns in the adjoining neighborhood are adorned with Arabic lettering. There's a grocery store up the road from the mosque called EPIC Market that sells halal meat and a Yemeni coffee shop, Haraz Coffee, which serves pistachio lattes and saffron milk cakes. Fawzia Bilal lives close to the mosque. She says it makes it easier for her to integrate prayer into her daily routine. Muslims pray facing in the direction of Mecca, their holy land, five times a day. And holy periods like Ramadan call for additional prayer. "I'm able to do this without getting into traffic or thinking about jumping into a car, walking distance," Bilal said. "I mean, it's all about honestly convenience and then the consistency with which we're able to practice our faith."

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South Texas is recovering from record-high border pursuits. How will they fare under Trump?

The two-dozen large stones lining the entrance to the Brackettville school buildings might not be the prettiest exterior design choice — but they serve their purpose, said Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe. “These big, ugly rocks,” Coe said, pointing as his truck rolled slowly past the complex, “we had those brought in to try to discourage anybody from wanting to bail out or drive off-road through our campus." For years, high-speed chases were part of daily life in southwest Texas — and, as a result, so were "bailouts." That’s the term for when high-speed pursuit suspects stop — or crash — their vehicle, then “bail out" of the car, attempting to escape. Bailouts occurred so often a Texas House committee found Robb Elementary School officials were desensitized to the resulting school alerts. In fact, several local law enforcement officials believed initial reports about what turned out to be the 2022 mass shooting at Robb, were, at first, reports of a bailout.

Fewer migrant encounters at the border over the past year likely led to a decline in both state and federal law enforcement vehicle pursuits. But four months into President Donald Trump's second term, it remains to be seen whether his border approach will lead to fewer high-speed chases — or if they’ll become a symptom of stricter immigration enforcement. Kinney County is in U.S. Customs and Border Protections’ Del Rio border sector. Not only did Border Patrol migrant encounters at the southwest border reach a record high in fiscal year 2021, encounters went up more than 500% in the Del Rio sector compared to the year prior. That tracks with a spike in pursuits Coe said he noticed. “We used to call them 'focus sectors' because they would have influxes in San Diego or Tucson, the Yuma sector and the (Rio Grande) Valley,” said Coe, a former Border Patrol officer. “Never Del Rio. And all of a sudden, Del Rio became the focus sector. And the Del Rio sector was never prepared for it.” Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were involved in 1,683 pursuits in counties on or close to the border in 2022 — the peak over the past five years, according to department data. Migrant encounter numbers remained high throughout the first three years under former President Joe Biden, with another spike in late 2023. The U.S. also saw more immigrants escaping rising turmoil in countries other than Mexico, like Venezuela and Haiti. The vast majority were asylum seekers arriving at higher rates for the same reasons that have historically driven immigration, said University of California, Davis political science professor Brad Jones.

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Down to the wire: Texas lawmakers tackled communism, school prayer, squatters Thursday

The Texas House voted overwhelmingly to require public school students to learn about “historical events and atrocities” that took place under communist regimes, putting Texas in line with Florida and other states that have adopted similar policies. Senate Bill 24 by Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, mandates the state to develop curriculum for fourth- through 12th-grade social studies classes that include “the oppression and suffering experienced by people living under communist regimes, including mass murder, violent land seizures, show trials, concentration camps, forced labor, poverty, and general economic deterioration.” It would also mandate teaching about the history of communist movements in the U.S. The bill passed in a 119-13 vote with five members abstaining. It now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott.

A bill that would remove sodas from being eligible for purchase under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program initially passed the House on Thursday. The lower chamber voted 88-47 to advance Senate Bill 379 by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston. It would prohibit the use of SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, from purchasing carbonated, sweetened soft drinks, which proponents of the bill say are contributing to an obesity epidemic in Texas. The Senate passed the measure by a 24-6 vote in late March. Critics have said the legislation could lead to a reduced availability of food for SNAP recipients, causing some small vendors to choose to stop accepting benefits altogether rather than sort through regulatory guidelines. Abbott last week formally requested a waiver from the Trump administration to prohibit the purchase of “unhealthy, highly processed food” using SNAP benefits. Although it's not yet entirely clear, the waiver might be required for the state to legally implement Middleton's bill if it becomes law. The House gave its blessing Thursday to Senate Bill 31, which aims to clarify the medical exception to the state's near-total abortion ban and educate doctors on when they can legally terminate pregnancies.

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Loophole cost Texas cities billions in tax revenue. Bill closing it heads to Abbott’s desk

Legislation sent to Gov. Greg Abbott aims to plug a loophole that has collectively cost Fort Worth, Arlington and scores of other Texas cities billions in lost property tax revenue through questionable deals between developers and outlying housing finance entities. The issue has ballooned into a top legislative priority for many local governments following reports that nonprofit housing finance corporations in scattered parts of the state were teaming up with affordable housing developers in bigger cities to claim tax-exempt status. In many cases, local officials didn’t learn of the arrangements until they discovered gaping holes in their tax revenue stream as a result of the exemptions. Rep. Gary Gates, R-Richmond, says billions in assessed property value were wiped off the tax rolls in Texas last year as a result of the cross-jurisdictional arrangements. The number could total up to $15 billion in 2025.

“There’s probably two or three a week being done right now as we talk,” the lawmaker said. Gates has joined with city officials across the state, including Arlington Mayor Jim Ross, to push legislative and legal action against the practice. “One would think it’s illegal, but it was a loophole they discovered they could do,” said Ross, who welcomed victory on the legislative front recently after the Texas House and Senate overwhelmingly passed Gates’ House Bill 21 with bipartisan support. “I’m glad we made enough stink about this to put a stop to it,” Ross told the Fort Worth Report. Both he and Gates said they were confident that the Republican governor would sign the bill, despite pressure by opponents seeking his veto. Gates’ bill was one of several introduced this session imposing tougher standards for housing finance corporations. One bill was authored by Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield. Under the bill, an HFC could still engage in residential development outside its home territory but only with approval of the governing body of the new location, according to a bill analysis by the Senate Research Center. Supporters say the new rules enable city and county governments to scrutinize the planned developments instead of being blindsided by disappearing tax revenue.

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National Stories

Hundreds join Trump at ‘exclusive’ dinner, with dreams of crypto fortunes in mind

President Trump gathered Thursday evening at his Virginia golf club with the highest-paying customers of his personal cryptocurrency, promising that he would promote the crypto industry from the White House as protesters outside condemned the event as a historic corruption of the presidency. The gala dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Washington, where Mr. Trump flew from the White House on a military helicopter, turned into an extraordinary spectacle as hundreds of guests arrived, many having flown to the United States from overseas. At the club’s entrance, the guests were greeted by dozens of protesters chanting “shame, shame, shame.” It was a spectacle that could only have happened in the era of Donald J. Trump. Several of the dinner guests, in interviews with The New York Times, said that they attended the event with the explicit intent of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations. “The past administration made your lives miserable,” Mr. Trump told the dinner guests, referring to the Biden administration’s enforcement actions against crypto companies.

The gala attendees made whooping noises while Mr. Trump spoke, and applauded as the president declared: “They were going after everybody. It was a disgrace frankly,” according to a video provided to The Times by a dinner guest. Mr. Trump promised to change that approach. “There is a lot of sense in crypto. A lot of common sense in crypto,” he said. “And we’re honored to be working on helping everybody here.” Mr. Trump and his business partners organized the dinner to promote sales of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency, a memecoin launched just days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. A memecoin is a type of digital currency tied to an online joke or mascot; it typically has no function beyond speculation. But Mr. Trump’s coins have become a vehicle for investors, including many foreigners, to funnel money to his family. The president’s business partners called the dinner the world’s “most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION” and posted a leaderboard online that allowed crypto investors to calculate how many $TRUMP coins they would have to buy to earn one of the 220 seats. The start of Mr. Trump’s second term has been punctuated with more than a dozen of these lucrative transactions for his family and partners: real estate deals from Qatar to Serbia that involve foreign governments, a new banklike crypto venture that has pulled in $2 billion from the government of the United Arab Emirates, a golf tournament at his Miami club sponsored by a Saudi-funded venture. Mr. Trump is estimated to have added billions to his personal fortune, at least on paper, since the start of his new term, much of it through crypto. But none of these profit-seeking pitches has been more explicit than the memecoin dinner. The event was unlike anything in recent American history — not a campaign fund-raiser but a gathering arranged by the president’s business partners to directly enrich the first family. As guests were flowing into the club, protesters held signs with slogans like “Stop Crypto Corruption,” “Release the guest list” and “No Kings.”

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Trump administration seeks to end protections for immigrant children in federal custody

The Trump administration is seeking to end an immigration policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, a move that will be challenged by advocates, according to a court filing Thursday. The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions. Government attorneys called the Flores agreement an “intrusive regime” that has “ossified” federal immigration policy. In a motion filed Thursday afternoon, they contend that the agreement is no longer necessary after Congress passed legislation and government agencies enforced policies that also implement standards and regulations called for in the agreement.

They also blamed the agreement for increasing the number of migrant children entering the country over the past three decades. “The FSA itself has changed the immigration landscape by removing some of the disincentives for families to enter the U.S. unlawfully. Unlawful family migration barely existed in 1997,” they wrote. President Donald Trump tried to end the protections during his first term and his allies have long railed against it. A separate court filing, submitted jointly by the administration and advocates, proposes a hearing on July 18 before Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee of the Central District of California. “Children who seek refuge in our country should be met with open arms — not imprisonment, deprivation, and abuse,” said Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.

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Shock at Harvard after government says international students must go

Just before the Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would bar international students from Harvard, staff members from the university’s International Office met with graduating seniors at the Kennedy School of Government, congratulating them on their degrees — and on surviving the chaos of recent months. Then, within minutes of the meeting’s end, news alerts lit up the students’ phones. Chaos was breaking out again: Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, had notified Harvard that its permission to enroll international students was revoked. With that, the degrees and futures of thousands of Harvard students — and an integral piece of the university’s identity and culture — were plunged into deep uncertainty. “There are so many students from all over the world who came to Harvard to make it a better place and to change America and change their home countries for the better,” said Karl Molden, a student from Vienna who had just completed his sophomore year. “Now it’s all at risk of falling apart, which is breaking my heart.”

The university has faced rapid-fire aggressions since its president, Alan M. Garber, told the Trump administration in April that Harvard would not give in to demands to change its hiring and admissions practices and its curriculum. After the government froze more than $2 billion in grants, Harvard filed suit in federal court in Boston. Since then, the administration has gutted the university’s research funding, upending budgets and forcing some hard-hit programs to reimagine their scope and mission. The end of international enrollment would transform a university where 6,800 students, more than a quarter of the total, come from other countries, a number that has grown steadily in recent decades. Graduate programs would be hit especially hard. At the Kennedy School, 59 percent of students come from outside the United States. International students make up 40 percent of the enrollment at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health and 35 percent at the Harvard Business School. Because international students do not qualify for federal financial aid, and typically pay more for their education, they contribute disproportionately to the university’s revenue, in addition to bringing diverse perspectives that enrich campus life and classroom discussions.

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Kim Jong Un’s new warship capsizes at launch due to ‘absolute carelessness’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s dream of modernizing his country’s outdated naval fleet suffered a major setback after a much-touted warship crashed into the water after a botched exit from the dock. Kim, who witnessed the mishap unfold at a Wednesday launch event, lambasted officials for their “absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism” in causing the “serious accident,” North Korea’s state media reported. The 41-year-old dictator equated the gaffe to a criminal act. The unnamed 5,000-ton destroyer had been docked at a shipyard in Chongjin, a northeastern port city. As it was pushed sideways toward the water, the ship didn’t move in parallel. Its hull got crushed and its bow got stranded on the shipway, state media said. Citing satellite imagery of the shipyard, South Korea’s military said the destroyer lay on its side in the water. North Korean state media didn’t publish images from the launch event or mention any injuries.

The warship represents one of Kim’s crown jewels in his push to upgrade North Korea’s naval fleet. Much of the country’s ships are from the Soviet era—and pale in comparison to the nuclear-powered submarines, warships and vessels possessed by the U.S. and South Korea. Nuclear-armed North Korea has a growing arsenal of weaponry. But nearly all of it is land-based, and therefore more easily detectable. Advancing the Kim regime’s naval capabilities could expand the potential theater of combat and offer more unpredictability to its firepower. Atop a country with serious food shortages, a down economy and widespread human-rights abuse, Kim has leaned heavily on military breakthroughs to boost morale and demonstrate the nation’s strength. Officials responsible for the warship blunder were censured for the fault. Kim vowed a turnaround by next month. The accident, Kim was quoted as saying, “brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse.” In recent months, Kim had showered extra attention on his country’s naval operations, visiting shipyards and touting breakthroughs. He oversaw a successful rollout in late April of another warship from the “Choe Hyon” class, named after a general who served under Kim’s grandfather and country founder Kim Il Sung.

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Ed Martin’s failed bid for U.S. attorney revealed the limits of Trump’s power

It was mid-April, and Ed Martin knew his nomination was in danger. The interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia had been in the job for about three months. But a cascade of revelations — about his actions in office, his ties to the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters and his sketchy Senate disclosures, among others — had left some Senate Republicans in doubt as to whether they could stomach a vote to install him permanently in the role. Thus started Martin’s final three-week sprint to win over members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, an effort that one witness said grew “frantic” as Martin’s prospects faded. In the end, his efforts failed. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said he was withdrawing Martin’s nomination and swapping in former judge and Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro. Martin would be placed in a different job within the Justice Department.

Days later, Martin gave a brisk explanation for why he believed his nomination had imploded. He pointed to opposition from one senator: Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), who Martin said “had some objections that he expressed, and that blocked it.” But the reality behind the scenes was more complicated, according to interviews with more than 20 individuals, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions or avoid reprisals. A number of Republican senators were uneasy about Martin’s nomination, several Senate aides said, and grew more so as Martin served in his job in an interim capacity and pursued a no-holds-barred mission to remake the U.S. attorney’s office. The result was a steady deterioration of his chances as Trump lost patience trying to persuade senators to support Martin. In the end, the failure of Martin’s nomination revealed a shifting relationship between Trump and Senate Republicans — and the limits of Trump’s power over them. While they had green-lit other controversial Trump nominees, they found something uniquely intolerable in Martin. And the president backed down.

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Trump-related crisis deepens at CBS News

The departure of two top executives at CBS News in recent weeks has shaken journalists at the outlet and fueled speculation the network’s corporate parent will soon settle a high-profile lawsuit brought against the company by President Trump. The resignation this week of CBS President Wendy McMahon came just weeks after that of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens. The back-to-back resignations served as the latest sign that a brooding crisis for one of the country’s largest and oldest broadcast news networks is reaching an inflection point. Though they did not mention Trump’s lawsuit explicitly as they announced plans to leave, McMahon and Owens made clear they were convinced they could no longer independently lead CBS, which has come under increased legal and regulatory threat from Trump’s administration.

“In some ways, it feels like Trump has already won this fight,” one Republican political operative told The Hill this week. “He wants to be covered positively by all of these networks, and this is a pretty clear sign his plan to intimidate is working.” Trump sued CBS News and “60 Minutes” last fall over an interview the program aired with former Vice President Kamala Harris just days before she faced off with Trump in the November election. As part of his $10 billion suit, the president’s attorneys argued producers for the program intentionally edited portions of the interview with Harris to cast her in a more positive, coherent light. CBS released a full transcript of the interview weeks later after a pressure campaign from Trump and his allies defending their editing and calling the suit “without merit.” Paramount has indicated in public statements and legal filings it is prepared to defend itself from the president’s claims in court despite widespread rumors of a settlement. Complicating matters for the massive media conglomerate, however, is pending business the company has before the Trump administration. Paramount, which has taken massive Wall Street losses on linear broadcast assets in recent quarters, is working to secure a mega-merger with fellow entertainment giant Skydance.

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Who Is Elias Rodriguez? A portrait of Jewish Museum shooting suspect emerges

The 31-year-old Chicago man who allegedly shot and killed two young Israeli Embassy staffers Wednesday night is an activist who has vocally protested on behalf of pro-Palestinian issues and a range of progressive and anticorporate causes. Elias Rodriguez once demonstrated with a socialist group outside the home of then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel against the city’s bid for a new Amazon headquarters, and to mark the anniversary of a fatal police shooting of a Black teenager. Some of his anger had roots in his boyhood, dating to his father’s apparent deployment to Iraq. According to authorities, Rodriguez’s path took a deadly and twisted turn Wednesday night. Just after 9 p.m. outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, he allegedly shot two people around his own age: Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, and her partner, Yaron Lischinsky, 30.

He was charged Thursday with murder and other federal crimes that carry the possibility of the death penalty. “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” he told police, according to an FBI criminal complaint made public late Thursday. Investigators are probing Rodriguez’s past for clues into his motivation, including a possible manifesto. “The FBI is aware of certain writings allegedly authored by the suspect, and we hope to have updates as to the authenticity very soon,” Deputy Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Dan Bongino posted Thursday. Outwardly, Rodriguez didn’t appear to be someone on the edge. He was a young professional in a city teeming with them. He had a degree in English from the University of Illinois Chicago, and lived with a woman in an apartment in a working-class area of the city. He was employed, working as an administrative specialist at the American Osteopathic Information Association. Authorities said that he was in Washington this week to attend a job-related conference, and that he legally purchased and flew with the 9mm handgun used in the killings. But beneath this life appeared to be an emerging radicalization, with roots as early as his childhood.

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Lead Stories

Texas House backs full hemp THC ban in win for Dan Patrick

The Texas House late on Wednesday approved a ban on all THC products, joining a push from state senators and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to squash the state’s booming hemp industry. The vote comes after months of lobbying from Patrick, who leads the Senate and has been pushing for lawmakers to close a loophole they unwittingly created in 2019 when they legalized hemp, allowing the proliferation of delta 8 and other hemp-derived strains of THC that produce a high. House members had been shifting toward a more limited crackdown on the industry ahead of Tuesday’s vote, with reforms to the Senate version from state Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, that would create new industry fees and rules, ban vapes, synthetic compounds and packaging marketed to children.

But in a 86-53 vote, mostly along party lines, lawmakers agreed to an amendment by state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, that reinstated a full ban over King’s objections. The final, amended bill passed easily with bipartisan support. “No social good comes from the legalization of intoxicants,” Oliverson said. “We are not banning hemp. We are banning high.” King maintained that new regulations would have been more effective, arguing a ban could not prevent out-of-state products from being mailed to Texas consumers: “Even if Texas passes a ban, a complete ban would maintain the status quo, just putting more of it on the streets unregulated.” Still, the House passage sets the full ban, which already passed through the Senate, on a glide path to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk and clears a thorny issue as the legislative session winds to an end.

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Texas teacher pay, public school funds revamped in sweeping legislative deal

A deal on a sweeping plan to pump $8.5 billion to Texas public schools has been struck. A compromise between the Texas House and Senate will maintain the lower $55 per-student increase to the basic allotment but adds an additional $500 million for fixed costs to the plan, lawmakers and several aides working on the deal told The Dallas Morning News. The agreement also could end an impasse on at least one other priority bill, a proposal to ban or regulate the sale of hemp-derived THC. The proposal creates a new $1.3 billion fixed-cost allotment to help schools pay for transportation, health insurance, utilities and contributions to the Teacher Retirement System that will result from educator pay raises also included in the bill, according to details obtained by The News and confirmed by the head of the House’s education committee, Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado.

“5.5 million Texas kids and hundreds of thousands of teachers are depending on us,” Buckley said to reporters at the Capitol. “And so, you know, I am, I’m confident that this will, this will be delivered on behalf of those kids.” Buckley said the fixed-cost allotment came after discussions with school officials about where they were facing budget pressure. “It meets that moment,” Buckley said. Other areas of funding include $850 million for special education, $430 million for school safety programs and $200 million for charter school facilities. The bill could come up for a vote in the Senate as soon as Thursday. Texas public schools receive $6,160 per student in that base amount now. They get additional state dollars based on various factors, such as for special education, career technical programs, safety needs and more. Lawmakers worked behind closed doors late into the night Tuesday to strike a deal after the Senate’s version unveiled last week faced pushback from public school leaders and advocates for its restrictive structure. The amount of per-student state funding will not be increased beyond what Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, proposed in the Senate’s version of the finance bill.

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Texas House passes bipartisan bill clarifying abortion ban exception

A bipartisan bill meant to clarify when doctors can perform emergency abortions in Texas will soon be headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. The Texas House overwhelmingly passed the legislation on Wednesday that standardizes the definition of medical emergency and clarifies that a physician need not wait until the risk to their patient’s life is “imminent.” Medical emergency is the only exception to Texas’ abortion ban passed three years ago; there is none for rape, incest and fetal anomalies. Senate Bill 31 already passed unanimously out of the Senate at the end of last month and needs one more procedural vote in the House before heading to Abbott, who hasn’t weighed in publicly on the bill.

State Rep. Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican who authored the House version of the bill, applauded the fact that the bill was supported by both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights groups. It passed the chamber 129-6. “It’s simple: We do not want women to die for medical emergencies during their pregnancies,” Geren said. “We don’t want women’s lives to be destroyed because their bodies have been seriously impaired by medical emergencies during their pregnancies. We know women have died after care was delayed or denied.” Just months after the state’s abortion ban went into effect in 2022, nearly two dozen women who were denied abortions and suffered health consequences sued the state, arguing that the law was so vague doctors were uncertain about when and if they could terminate dangerous pregnancies. The Texas Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the law is clear enough. Other anti-abortion groups and politicians said doctors were misinterpreting the law and causing women to suffer unnecessarily. But examples continued to surface, and investigative news nonprofit ProPublica found that at least three Texas women have died under the ban. Though Republican lawmakers had always maintained that the law did not need changing, earlier this year, top leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, expressed openness to a possible legislative fix, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick placed this bill on his priority list.

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Divided House GOP tries to push Trump’s big tax bill over finish line

Lawmakers were working through a second straight night early Thursday, as House Republican leaders struggled to push President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration legislation toward passage. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) finished negotiating with warring factions of the House GOP conference late Wednesday and began alerting lawmakers about the final changes to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. The House cleared a procedural hurdle around 2:45 a.m. to advance the measure for a final passage vote later in the morning. “We are getting very close to a bill that is going to be able to garner the votes necessary for passage,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-South Dakota), a key interlocutor between House leadership and budget hawks.

New fissures among House Republicans over deficits and health-care spending had emerged early Wednesday, complicating passage of the measure once more — and inspiring GOP leaders to get the president involved to twist arms for the second time this week. Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) returned from a Wednesday afternoon White House gathering, which lasted roughly two hours, projecting confidence that the House could pass the bill in the next 24 hours. GOP leaders can only lose three Republican votes if all lawmakers are present and voting. The bill would extend tax cuts Trump signed into law in his first term that are otherwise set to expire, along with some new reductions — including ending taxes on tips and overtime wages — and hundreds of billions of dollars in spending on the White House’s mass deportation drive and funding for defense priorities and a “Golden Dome” continental missile defense system. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it would add $2.3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.

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State Stories

Nonprofit leaders fear Texas ‘school safety zones’ will shutter homeless shelters

Texas bill aiming to prohibit homeless shelters from operating near schools is winding its way through the Legislature, as supporters seek to establish “school safety zones” and critics worry that the legislation could hurt agencies and shutter shelters across the state. The bill’s author, state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, says it will protect students. But opponents say it could make it more difficult for homeless people to get the help they need to stabilize their lives, such as temporary shelter, employment resources and treatment programs for substance abuse. Creighton’s bill, Senate Bill 2623, could ban shelters from operating within 1,500 feet of public grade schools or parks.

“Texas law protects schools from vape shops, sexually oriented businesses, and even concrete batch plants — but it does nothing to prevent services that become a magnet for encampments and open drug use near our campuses,” Creighton said in a statement. “No Texas school should be surrounded by public safety hazards,” his statement said. The bill, which passed the Senate last month and is now being considered by the House Intergovernmental Affairs committee, would also prohibit school districts from putting a new campus within 1,500 feet of facilities, including government-funded ones, that provide certain services for the homeless. Organizations who serve people experiencing homelessness are decrying the legislation that proposes the “school safety zones,” concerned the law’s potential outcome is not fully understood and could increase homelessness if agencies that provide aid are forced to close or relocate.

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Ted Cruz pushes $10B education tax credits as momentum for options grows

A federal tax credit unveiled Tuesday is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s latest proposal to promote the use of public funds for private schools. His bill would provide up to $10 billion a year for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to nonprofit organizations that grant scholarships for K-12 public and private school students. “Every child in America deserves access to a quality education that meets their individual needs, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or zip code,” the Texas Republican said in a news release announcing the bill. “I remain committed to leading this fight until universal school choice has become available to every American.”

Cruz’s latest push for federal support comes weeks after Texas adopted a near universal education savings account program that creates a voucherlike plan allowing families to spend public money on private school. Cruz deployed his significant political influence in Texas to encourage state Republican lawmakers to back that program. Cruz has long been a leading proponent of the voucherlike plan, often describing it as the civil rights issue of the 21st century. His latest plan would allow tax credits for contributions to scholarship granting organizations that could be used for tuition, books and other educational expenses. On his podcast, Cruz recently recounted his efforts to enact such a proposal during President Donald Trump’s first administration. Cruz said he was stymied at the time by strong opposition from Senate Democrats, opposition he attributed to the political support they receive from teachers unions. Public school advocates say they oppose pouring resources into private schools and directing them away from the public institutions that educate most American children.

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Piney Point Village mayor announces intent to run for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's seat

The mayor of Piney Point Village, a Houston enclave with a population of roughly 3,000, announced Tuesday her intent to run for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's seat in the November 2026 election. Aliza Dutt, a Republican, was elected mayor of Piney Point Village in 2024 with 492 votes, according to the city's unofficial elections results. Dutt said in a Tuesday news release that public safety, fiscal responsibility and an emphasis on infrastructure are the key pillars of her campaign. “Harris County is at a crossroads. Voters are tired of rising taxes, rising crime, and rising dysfunction,” Dutt said. “I’m running to restore common sense, protect our families and get government back to doing the basics—safely, efficiently and transparently.”

Dutt is a former D.C.-area reporter who also worked as an energy analyst, according to her campaign page. She is the first candidate to publicly announce her intent to run for Harris County judge. Piney Point is one of the six independent cities that collectively form the Memorial Villages in west Houston. The enclave is an affluent city with a median income of more than $250,000, according to the Census Bureau. Dutt served as a Piney Point Village City Council member prior to being elected mayor. Although her political experience is limited, Dutt boasts several endorsements from conservative officials, including Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, according to her campaign's Facebook page.

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Texas set to fund first clinical studies of psychedelic drug to treat PTSD

Texas is set to become one of the biggest players in psychedelics research, as the Legislature is poised to fund the first clinical trials of a drug lawmakers hope will eventually help reduce veteran suicide rates and offer an alternative to opioid treatments. Both chambers of the state Legislature have approved a new state fund for research into ibogaine, a compound derived from the West African iboga plant that has been used in other countries to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and addiction. The proposed state budget allocates $50 million, though the exact number may change in ongoing negotiations. The plan, if signed into law, would not only make Texas the first state in the country to fund such trials but also the movement’s biggest public investor, beating even the federal government’s $10 million allocation for general psychedelics research.

Ibogaine remains illegal nationwide as a Schedule I substance and some researchers continue to urge caution on mainstreaming their use, citing a general lack of concrete research. The state's GOP lawmakers say they are encouraged by testimony from veterans on the miracle-like effects of the substance that they have traveled to access in Mexico. “Ibogaine isn’t just another drug,” said State Rep. Cody Harris, an East Texas Republican and the bill’s House sponsor. “In a single dose it can silence the screams of withdrawal, quiet the cravings that chain people to addiction, and mend the broken pieces of the mind ravaged by trauma.” The fund would create public-private partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and state research institutions to launch the human trials. The bill won a bipartisan majority in the state Senate and was opposed by just two Republicans in the House. Lawmakers are now hashing out final details of the plan before final approvals and sending it to the governor’s desk.

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This Texas bill would ban offshore wind farms in state waters from connecting to ERCOT's grid

Texas lawmakers have advanced a bill to prohibit offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Mexico from connecting to the state’s primary power grid through state waters. Senate Bill 383 passed narrowly out of the relevant Texas House committee in a Tuesday meeting that wasn’t broadcast to the public or recorded. Since the bill has already been approved by the state Senate, all that’s left before it heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk is a vote by the full House floor. The bill applies to any offshore wind energy facility and related power grid infrastructure located in waters under state jurisdiction, which extends nine nautical miles from the Texas coastline. A previous version of the bill would have given the state utility regulator the authority to approve or deny such projects based on their impact on shipping routes, tourism, fishing, wildlife and other factors.

The latest version of the bill simply bars any offshore wind project in Texas waters from connecting to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas power grid at all. Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, an environmental advocacy nonprofit, said the bill would essentially “ban offshore wind” for the Texas power grid. That's more or less the point, the bill’s author, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, said in his remarks ahead of the Senate vote on the bill earlier this month. Texas should focus on building “dispatchable” energy resources, a term state legislators most commonly use to refer to natural gas power plants, instead of offshore wind, he said. “Texas should continue its commitment to reliable, dispatchable energy, and categorically reject this wasteful and unwanted program that will damage Texas,” said Middleton, who owns his own oil and gas company. He highlighted offshore wind's potential negative impacts on shipping routes and wildlife.

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Down to the wire: Texas lawmakers OK bills on handgun licenses, cryptocurrency, AI abuses

As the clock ticks down to the June 2 final adjournment of the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers are scrambling to pass — or kill — the bills that have been stacked up for weeks. Here's some of the action at the Capitol on Wednesday. The House finally passed and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott legislation to formally recognize in Texas any handgun license issued in other states. Senate Bill 706 would end the requirement for the governor to negotiate agreements with other states before Texas will accept the licenses. Abbott, a three-term Republican who has signed numerous laws expanding gun rights, is expected to sign the bill.

The House gave final approval to Senate-passed legislation to establish the Texas Bitcoin Reserve, which would be administered by the Texas comptroller. The fund will contain Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of at least $500 billion. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made SB 21 a priority in the upper chamber, following up on President Donald Trump's pledge to make the United States "the cryptocurrency capital of the world." The measure now returns to the Senate for members to consider the modifications made to the bill in the House. A bill that would provide more protections for migrant workers who might otherwise be forced to live in substandard housing was sent to the governor's desk. According to the Legislature's analysis of SB 243, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs historically has lacked the resources to investigate allegations of substandard housing. Complicating matters is that "migrant laborers are often reluctant to report violations or collect damages related to substandard housing conditions because of fear of retaliation," according to the analysis. The legislation "seeks to address this issue by strengthening the TDHCA penalty structure for violations of provisions governing migrant labor housing facilities and by providing for increased accountability and enforcement of those provisions," the analysis said.

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The Texas Renaissance Festival’s controversial “King George” is dead

The king is dead. George Coulam, the long-reigning “king” and controversial founder of the nationally renowned Texas Renaissance Festival, died at the age of 87, according to Grimes County law enforcement officials. His manner of death is currently under investigation, after the festival creator was found at his home Wednesday morning. Coulam’s death comes after major defeats for the man who built the country’s largest Renaissance fair, which hosts half a million guests each year. Earlier this month, residents voted Coulam out of the mayorship he had held since 1982, when he helped incorporate the city of Todd Mission, which is home to the festival grounds. Days after the election, on May 7, a Grimes County judge decided in favor of plaintiffs whose lawsuit accused Coulam of failing to honor a 2023 agreement to sell his lucrative business. “King George,” as he is known in Ren fair circles, was ordered to go through with the sale of the festival he had overseen for nearly 51 years.

Born to a Mormon family in Salt Lake City, Coulam first experienced Renaissance festivals in California as he attended San Fernando Valley State College, where he studied art, taking classes in stained glass, woodworking, and art history. An early attempt at starting his own fair in his home state of Utah was dogged by Mormon Church officials. He tried again in Minnesota before eventually settling on the more than two hundred acres of festival and camping grounds in what is now Todd Mission, about an hour northwest of Houston. Inspired by Disneyland but wary of the suburban sprawl that encroached on the so-called Happiest Place on Earth, Coulam bought up much of the land around his fairgrounds to create the city he governed—and where many of his employees resided—for more than four decades. The Texas Renaissance Festival officially opened its doors in 1974, welcoming “rennies” from across the country to experience an immersive time-travel experience featuring costumes, corsets, swords, daggers, jousting, mead, and more popular aspects of European cultural history. Coulam was known to be exceptionally strict about the period dress code and authenticity, once firing a staffer who was spotted smoking a cigarette. More recently, King George was the subject of a three-part HBO docuseries, Ren Faire, which followed his efforts to find a successor for the festival before his death, which he wished to happen at the age of 95. It was not an entirely flattering depiction of the monarch. The series captured Coulam’s sometimes abrasive, even verbally abusive behavior toward his staff. It also followed his search for companionship on dating websites that cater to those looking for and willing to provide financial benefit. The sites were mentioned in a 2020 lawsuit brought against Coulam by a former staff member, who accused him of sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, and wrongful termination. In the suit, which was eventually settled, the plaintiff claimed she was tasked with helping Coulam navigate prospective dates.

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Texas Education Agency accountability scores expose longstanding inequities in Austin ISD

When the Texas Education Agency released its latest round of releasable academic rankings for schools on April 24, a map began circulating in online Austin parent groups. The map showed that schools earning “A” grades under the state’s A-F rating system were located west of Interstate 35. Meanwhile, schools receiving an “F” grade were concentrated across the highway, in a swath sometimes called the Eastern Crescent. It was a stark picture, said Sharyn Vane, the mother of two Austin district graduates and a longtime education advocate. To Vane, the divide on that map is emblematic of historic discrepancies in how schools have been resourced in the Austin district.

“I certainly don't want to say that the board is doing nothing,” Vane said. “They are doing something, but they are also trying to balance a system that has been unbalanced for years if not decades.” The adequate resourcing of schools has been a point of conversation as the district has proposed plans this month to improve academic scores at Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools — three North Austin schools that are facing consecutive years of “F” ratings, according to the state’s A-F scoring system. While some parents and teachers have blamed district officials for not providing enough staffing, programming or funding to those campuses — which serve high proportions of low-income students and English learners — officials have stated that they are working to address decades of inequity and simply need more time. The Austin district consists of areas that are very high income and areas that are low income, both with different levels of need, said Allen Weeks, executive director for Austin Voices for Youth and Education, a nonprofit that provides services to families in high-needs schools. “I think there's a lot of advantages to that, long-term just in the social benefits, in keeping a district that looks like America,” Weeks said. “However, that lower-income area is going to have higher needs and is going to need more investment.”

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Austin's airport sees flight delays Wednesday due to air traffic controller shortages

Flights arriving at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport are delayed an average of 61 minutes because of a staffing shortage in the control tower. The Federal Aviation Administration's ground delay advisory said the delay will last until 9:59 p.m. There were more than 200 delays at the airport as of Wednesday afternoon, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. The max delay was 7 hours and 45 minutes. Tower shifts are supposed to have 14 controllers, but as few as eight were scheduled. The airport paused incoming flights from Houston and Dallas in March, also due to staffing issues. These delays have become more common as ABIA has struggled with chronic air traffic controller shortages.

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Texas moves closer to billions in reimbursement for border security costs

House Republicans moved late Wednesday to include $12 billion in their One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would go toward reimbursing states for border security costs incurred since the start of former President Joe Biden’s administration. If approved, much of that funding would likely flow to Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has traveled to Washington multiple times this year, lobbying congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump to provide about $11 billion to cover spending on Operation Lone Star. That initiative involved sending state troopers and National Guard soldiers to the border, as well as putting razor wire and other physical barriers along the Rio Grande.

Congressional Republicans from Texas have advocated for years to have the state reimbursed. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, recently introduced legislation to establish a reimbursement fund to cover states’ border expenses. He said the intention was to include it in the sweeping legislative package moving through a process called budget reconciliation that does not require votes from Democrats. After a marathon debate session Wednesday, the Rules Committee voted to send the bill to the floor along with a series of revisions that include the border security reimbursement language. Other changes are aimed at winning over conservative holdouts who want to see deeper spending cuts and Republicans from blue states who have been pushing to raise the cap on state and local tax deductions. It was not immediately clear whether those changes would be enough to secure passage. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he wants the House to pass the bill by the end of this week.

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Bud Kennedy: John Cornyn-Ken Paxton talk steals thunder while the Texas House rolls over

The most powerful man or woman in the Texas Capitol says this Legislature is “boring,” and that’s bad news. The most powerful man or woman in the Capitol is not Gov. Greg Abbott. It’s Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. If he’s bored, that means he’s getting his way. So far, he appears to be getting his way on almost everything, including an outright ban on THC and hemp-based consumables. The Texas House has almost nothing left for last-minute, feeble leverage, and the session ends June 2. Generally, there’s been way more chatter in Austin about the 2026 election and the potential Sen. John Cornyn-Ken Paxton cage match than gossip about the Legislature. Patrick and the Senate simply handed the House a list of honey-dos, including a complete ban on THC products sold in thousands of shops and up to a 1-year sentence for possession. The House dawdled but crammed it all in at the end, like a term paper assignment.

“This legislative session had all the charisma of a common brick,” government instructor Darrell Castillo of Weatherford College, a former White House staffer under President Ronald Reagan, wrote by email. The Cornyn-Paxton buzz “continues to take more air out of the room,” he wrote. That also creates a vacancy for attorney general, along with the comptroller job and a seat on the Railroad Commission overseeing oil and gas. SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson, an observer of religious conservatives, said the Legislature is boring because Republicans control both Austin and Washington now and have already dealt with border enforcement, abortion and race and gender issues. Another reason for the lack of drama: Dade Phelan’s departure as speaker. As House speaker, he often challenged Patrick. New Speaker Dustin Burrows has gone out of his way to work with Patrick, originally a harsh critic, and is “much less of a thorn in conservatives’ side,” Wilson wrote by email.

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Bradford William Davis: In Nate Schatzline’s Texas, books endanger kids more than child marriage

Mercy Culture, the church last seen building a controversial shelter to help survivors of sex trafficking, is known for literally demonizing its critics, referring to its opponents on what was fundamentally a zoning issue as “demons.” The perceptive prophets may be on to something because, as it turns out, the prince of darkness himself has inhabited me with a perverse message straight from the underworld. Behold and tremble as my fork-tongued master spellbinds my Google Docs with a take straight from the fiery bowels of hell. (If it helps set the mood, imagine sitting next to me at Cherry Coffee while my head spins and my MacBook floats over the espresso bar.) The demonic dispatch: Kids should not get married.

Now, why would Satan possess me, a lowly columnist, to deliver a message the saints and sinners of the Texas legislature largely agree on? My only guess: state representative and Mercy Culture pastor Nate Schatzline voted against HB 168 – a bill seeking to close a loophole allowing 16-year-olds to get married if they are legally emancipated from their parents. “Per (the Department of State Health Services) records of marriage applications from 2018 to 2021, which is the most recent batch we have since the last law was enacted, there are instances of severe age gaps of these emancipated minors — 10, 20 or even 30 years of age difference between them,” said Katy Rep. Jon Rosenthal, the bill’s author. “There are even instances that would be considered sexual offenses outside of marriage.” (Schatzline did not return my request for comment to explain his vote in time for this column.) Despite Schatzline’s best efforts, this real anti-trafficking bill continues to advance through the legislature.

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National Stories

Memorial Day weekend travel expected to break record: AAA

Memorial Day weekend travel this year is expected to break the travel record for the holiday, with more than 45 million Americans expected to hit the road between Thursday and Monday next week. AAA is projecting 45.1 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home during the four-day period, representing an increase of 1.4 million travelers from last year. The previous Memorial Day record was notched in 2005, with 44 million people on the move. “While some travelers embark on dream vacations and fly hundreds of miles across the country, many families just pack up the car and drive to the beach or take a road trip to visit friends,” Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA Travel, said in a statement earlier this month. “Long holiday weekends are ideal for travel because many people have an extra day off work and students are off from school.”

About 39.4 million people are expected to travel by car, while 3.61 million will opt for flying to their destination, the AAA projects. May 23, Friday, is expected to be the busiest day for securing a rental vehicle, according to Hertz. The cities that have the highest demands for rental cars include San Francisco; Denver; Orlando, Fla.; Miami; Seattle; and Las Vegas. Domestic flights are 2 percent more expensive compared to 2024, according to AAA’s booking data. The most popular destinations for travelers this year are New York City, Orlando, Denver, Seattle and Chicago. Those traveling via car will encounter cheaper prices at the pump. The prices for Memorial Day weekend are expected to be the least expensive in recent years when adjusted for inflation, according to an analysis by GasBuddy. The national average will be $3.08 per gallon on Memorial Day. “While we’re forecasting the lowest summer gas prices in years, economic jitters are slightly dampening optimism — but we still expect a robust travel season, with millions of Americans hitting the road, many for extended trips,” said Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

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Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in shooting outside Capital Jewish Museum

Two staff members at the Israeli Embassy were shot and killed Wednesday outside the Capital Jewish Museum by an assailant who shouted “free, free Palestine” after he was arrested. The attack outside an event at the Jewish Museum in Washington drew widespread condemnation, including from President Donald Trump. “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal authorities were investigating the attack.

Pamela A. Smith, chief of police for the DC Metropolitan Police Department, said in a press conference that a single suspect approached a group of four people exiting the museum and fired his handgun, striking two of them. He then entered the museum, where he was detained by event security. The suspect, tentatively identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, chanted “free, free Palestine,” while in custody, she said. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that she and Jeanine Pirro, the newly minted interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. had arrived on the scene shortly after the DC police department relayed word of the shooting publicly. “I spoke to the president of the United States multiple times tonight,” Bondi said at the press conference. “On behalf of the president, his prayers are with all of us, all of the Jewish community, everyone in Washington, DC, state, local and federal agencies and our great U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, who will be prosecuting this case.” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called the shooting “a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.”

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In this political bellwether, voters feel the impacts of Trump’s policies

Todd Harder voted for Donald Trump and knows firsthand his community would benefit if the president can deliver on his promise of a quick American manufacturing renaissance. But Harder doesn’t believe he will ever see it. The early evidence, Harder said, is that the tariffs and tough trade talk Trump says will bring back factory boom times is instead leading to hard times. “My generation, it’s not going to (positively) impact. It is going to hurt us,” said Harder, the owner of ProDart, which makes wooden darts and dartboards in an Allentown industrial park. “In the future, for the next generation, it might possibly help them out. But it’s impacting the people that are here now today … in a not-good way.”

That skeptical short-term take — from a Trump supporter — is worth noting and tracking: Trump’s political standing is down from Inauguration Day, and the economic tumult caused by the tariffs debate is part of his slip. Harder lives in a Pennsylvania and American bellwether: the 7th Congressional District. Trump won it just barely in 2024, and the House seat flipped from Blue to Red. It is already a top target in the 2026 midterms. The Lehigh Valley holds icon status in the history of American manufacturing. Bethlehem Steel and Western Electric were among the valley giants back in the day; Mack Trucks and Martin Guitars are today. Crayola crayons is an Easton landmark whose lineage traces back to a turn-of-the-century company that made the red barn paint that dots the rural countryside. The globalization and trade debates that animate Trump today have defined the Lehigh Valley economy for a generation now. There were more than 66,000 factory jobs in the valley in 1990, just shy of 55,000 a decade later and a low of 35,000 in 2011. By the end of 2024, manufacturing employment had climbed back to 41,000. It has been flat in the four months Trump has been back in the White House.

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Democratic groups launch $14 million investment ahead of 2026 House races

The Democratic group Defend the Vote PAC and Defend the Vote Action Fund announced a $14 million investment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The investment includes $10 million from Defend the Vote PAC, which would support House Democrats the group describes as “pro-democracy champions” through direct contributions, independent expenditures, and targeted get-out-the-vote efforts. Defund the Vote Action Fund’s $2 to $4 million investment will support election worker and voter protection efforts, as well as nonpartisan get-out-the-vote activities. The Hill was the first outlet to report on the groups’ investments.

In addition to their $10 million investment, the Defend the Vote PAC endorsed its first federal candidates of the cycle, including Reps. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Adam Gray (D-Calif.), George Whitesides (D-Calif.), Derek Tran (D-Calif.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), April McClain Delaney (D-Md.), Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.) Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), Susie Lee (D-Nev.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), Josh Riley (D-N.Y.), Greg Landsman (D-Oh.), Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), and Marc Veasey (D-Texas). Defend the Vote PAC says it will also work with candidates to improve their messaging to voters by showing them “the connection between democracy and economic well being.”

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Trump confronts South African president, pushing claims of genocide

President Donald Trump pressed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to protect White Afrikaner farmers from violent attacks in an extraordinary Oval Office confrontation Wednesday in which it fell to others to remind Trump of the nation’s long-standing epidemic of violence against both White and Black people. Trump amplified false claims that White Afrikaners have been victims of a genocide, even showing video of crosses and earthen mounds that he said represented more than 1,000 grave sites of murdered farmers. The mounds were in fact part of a protest against the violence, not actual graves. Trump also made no mention of South Africa’s violent and discriminatory history of White rule before the end of apartheid.

Ramaphosa stared straight ahead during the exchange, occasionally moving in his seat and looking over at Trump, who wouldn’t make eye contact as a clip played of crowds repeatedly shouting, “Kill the Boers,” a reference to White farmers descended from colonists who built and led the nation’s brutal apartheid regime. While Ramaphosa and several of his deputies agreed with Trump that curbing violence should be a priority, they also noted that it is a problem across all of South Africa, not just in rural areas and certainly not just against White people. And they rejected Trump’s claim that the government is responsible for the murder of White farmers, a group he has characterized as victims of violence and of discriminatory laws. The remarkable exchange was broadcast live around the world and showcased Trump’s selective, and racially polarizing, view of entrenched challenges in a country that endured nearly half a century of state-sanctioned segregation. The stance also reflected a theme of his second term: that efforts at equity have tilted the world against White people, denying them opportunities in favor of unfairly elevating minorities. The Oval Office meeting had been billed as a chance to reset the trade relationship between the two countries after Trump’s tariffs, and came as tensions escalated over the president’s interest in Afrikaners. Trump in recent months expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the United States and slashed aid to the country over the issue, which has long been a focus of Elon Musk, a South African-born senior adviser to Trump who was in the room Wednesday. After watching the video, South Africa’s president asked: “Have they told you where that is? Mr. President? I’d like to know where that is. Because this I’ve never seen.” “It’s in South Africa,” Trump responded.

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Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster Clubs are taking in more money than ever

Donald Trump’s private clubs have emerged as a moneymaking venture for the president’s second term, and a hub for donors and favor-seekers alike. It now costs a record $1 million to join Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort, according to people familiar with the membership fees, up from about $500,000 during his first term. The initiation fee at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., rose to $125,000, surging from $75,000 in recent years, a person close to that club said. Another Trump golf club in Florida, near Mar-a-Lago, now charges more than $300,000 to join, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump has encouraged Republican Party officials to hold events at his clubs, where he headlines official dinners and cocktail parties. The clubs have in turn also attracted a new clientele of donors seeking to influence policy in the White House, including cryptocurrency executives pushing for deregulation, advocates seeking pardons for allies, and business leaders looking for exemptions from tariffs, among others.

One of the biggest such events yet is set to take place Thursday at Trump’s golf course outside Washington, when his cryptocurrency venture is hosting a gala dinner for his $TRUMP meme coin’s biggest holders. Many of the investors are foreign, and some of the top givers have been promised official tours of the White House, according to the advertisement for the event. He is forging ahead with the event over the objections of some of his own aides and lawyers, who were initially shocked that he had agreed to it, according to people familiar with the event’s planning. Organizers asked prospective guests to take part in background checks, but the White House hasn’t extensively vetted them, the people said. A White House official said the president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and added that the White House had nothing to do with the Thursday event, which the official said was in “the president’s personal time.” “The president left his real-estate empire to run for office and serve our country, and he has sacrificed greatly in doing so. Every decision he makes as president is always in the best interest of the country,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization didn’t respond to requests for comment. Presidential historians say there has never been such a moneymaking venture run by a president from inside the White House.

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Lead Stories

Rapidly expanding school voucher programs pinch state budgets

In submitting her updated budget proposal in March, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs lamented the rising costs of the state’s school vouchers program that directs public dollars to pay private school tuition. Characterizing vouchers as an “entitlement program,” Hobbs said the state could spend more than $1 billion subsidizing private education in the upcoming fiscal year. The Democratic governor said those expenses could crowd out other budget priorities, including disability programs and pay raises for firefighters and state troopers. It’s a dilemma that some budget experts fear will become more common nationwide as the costs of school choice measures mount across the states, reaching billions of dollars each year.

“School vouchers are increasingly eating up state budgets in a way that I don’t think is sustainable long term,” said Whitney Tucker, director of state fiscal policy research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank that advocates for left-leaning tax policies. Vouchers and scholarship programs, which use taxpayer money to cover private school tuition, are part of the wider school choice movement that also includes charter schools and other alternatives to public schools. Opponents have long warned about vouchers draining resources from public education as students move from public schools to private ones. But research into several programs has shown many voucher recipients already were enrolled in private schools. That means universal vouchers could drive up costs by creating two parallel education systems — both funded by taxpayers. In Arizona, state officials reported most private school students receiving vouchers in the first two years of the expanded program were not previously enrolled in public schools. In fiscal year 2024, more than half the state’s 75,000 voucher recipients were previously enrolled in private schools or were being homeschooled.

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State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, an Austin Democrat, is running for lieutenant governor

State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, has filed paperwork to run for lieutenant governor in next year’s midterm election, giving up a safe seat in the Texas House to seek one of the state’s most powerful offices. Goodwin has long been expected to run for the seat, currently held by Republican Dan Patrick, who has said he will seek reelection next year. The four-term Austin Democrat told The Tribune in 2023 she was mulling a run, and since then she has openly signaled her plans to allies. She appointed a campaign treasurer for her lieutenant governor bid on Monday, the first formal step for a candidate to start raising money. Unseating Patrick will be a daunting task for any Democrat. The lieutenant governor is sitting on a war chest of more than $33 million, and he has many deep-pocketed conservative allies ready to ride to the rescue if he finds himself endangered.

Texas Democrats have struggled to mount competitive statewide campaigns in recent years, including in 2022, when Patrick won reelection by 10 percentage points. But the party is hoping for more favorable conditions next year, driven by backlash to President Donald Trump and the prospect of Attorney General Ken Paxton — a Republican who has faced various legal scandals — leading the ballot if he is nominated for the U.S. Senate over incumbent John Cornyn. In 2018, the first midterm under Trump, Democrat Beto O’Rourke came within 3 percentage points of defeating Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Patrick won reelection by nearly 5 percentage points that year. Democrats have not won a statewide election in Texas since 1994. Goodwin will have to make up significant ground financially, with just over $150,000 in her campaign account as of Dec. 31, the last date covered by public campaign finance reports. Goodwin, a 58-year-old real estate agent, has served in the Texas House since 2019, representing a district that covers some of West and North Austin and the western side of Travis County, including parts of Bee Cave and Lakeway. She is seen as one of the more liberal members of the state House and currently serves on the chamber’s appropriations and insurance committees. With Goodwin running for lieutenant governor, Travis County Democratic Party Chair Pooja Sethi is seeking to fill the open seat. Sethi announced she is stepping down as party chair in June, and she recently filed paperwork to run in Goodwin’s district.

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Austin’s reign as a tech hub might be coming to an end

Nearly five years after Austin, Texas, became a darling of the tech industry, luring companies out of California with the promise of lower taxes and a better quality of life, the city is now bleeding tech talent that is flowing back to the coasts. A new report from venture-capital firm SignalFire shows that in 2024 Big Tech employment declined 1.6% in Austin, and startup employment fell 4.9%. Tech employment in Dallas and Houston also declined, along with cities like Denver and Toronto. Tech employment grew, on the other hand, in New York and San Francisco. It is a shift from five years ago, when Texas seemed like a growing Sunbelt beacon for tech, luring companies like Tesla, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Oracle from California, and inspiring a number of remote tech workers and startups to follow them. But many of those companies have since laid off workers and Oracle actually relocated from Texas to Nashville, Tenn. “I think that promise was never realized,” said Asher Bantock, SignalFire’s head of research. “This idea that it would become a new startup hub didn’t materialize.”

Return-to-office requirements combined with the burgeoning artificial-intelligence industry centralizing in Silicon Valley drew workers back West, while Austin’s fluctuating living costs and outdated infrastructure left new transplants frustrated, Bantock said. Gabriel Farid Guerra said he was extremely underwhelmed after moving to Austin from New York in 2022. Working a completely remote job at the time, he said he signed a one-year lease in the city, chasing the idea that it was “the new, booming U.S. tech hub.” Compared with New York and San Francisco, he said, tech events were harder to find, the quality of events was lower and opportunities for new roles were sparser. Public transit also left something to be desired, he said. He broke his Austin lease after six months, and after bouncing to Boston and Washington, D.C., Guerra moved to San Francisco. He recalled that when he was living in D.C., he was asked in which regions his then-employer, startup Antithesis, should promote its software product. “They gave me a list of cities and asked me about Austin, and I said, ‘No, not Austin. It’s kind of dead.,” he said.

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House committee advances bill to save, reform Texas Lottery

A House committee on Tuesday advanced legislation that preserves the embattled Texas Lottery, but abolishes the commission that oversees it. Under the bill the state would move oversight and control of the games’ management to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and a new lottery advisory committee. The compromise bill, approved 10-4 Tuesday by the House State Affairs Committee, mollifies some lawmakers who want to end the Texas lottery. It would subject the lottery to various reforms, such as requiring retailers to have an age verification process at the point of sale. The lottery also would undergo a strict review over the next two years. Last week the Senate approved the bill authored by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood. It now advances to the House floor for consideration. The 140-day legislative session ends June 2.

The Lottery Commission is under its 12-year systematic evaluation and will expire Aug. 31 without reauthorization from the Legislature. The evaluation started last year with the Sunset Advisory Commission, which made recommendations on how lottery oversight could be improved. Under the lottery’s existing set-up, lawmakers would have to approve legislation to extend the lottery or it will expire. Hall’s bill would make the current Sunset process moot by extending the review process, as well as mandating reforms. Lawmakers were concerned over whether lottery officials violated Texas law by allowing couriers to take online ticket orders to make the system more convenient for customers. Legislators said the system violated the prohibition against telephone and online sales of tickets and made it possible for minors to play the lottery. Couriers are now banned from the ticket-buying process. There have been other controversies. Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have ordered investigations of potential crimes related to two multimillion-dollar jackpots. One jackpot for $95 million that was paid in April 2023 went to an overseas entity that bought over 25 million $1 tickets, giving it access to “nearly every possible number combination,” Abbott said when announcing an investigation by Texas Rangers. A second winning ticket for $83.5 million was purchased in February from an Austin lottery store connected to a courier. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate’s presiding officer, asked the Texas Rangers to expand the investigation to include “any and all matters related to the Lottery Commission first allowing lottery couriers into Texas and any and all possible crimes internally or externally arising from the Lottery Commission’s actions or failures to act.”

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State Stories

Texas House greenlights restrictive bail measures aimed at Harris County

The Texas House on Monday approved a series of restrictive bail measures long sought by Gov. Greg Abbott, likely assuring the changes — which received bipartisan support — will be on the ballot in November. The chamber overwhelmingly approved a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would give judges significantly more power to deny bail to people accused of certain crimes, effectively putting them behind bars until they are tried. State Rep. John Smithee, an Amarillo Republican who chairs the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, said the bail bills are the most important he has ever voted on. He pointed to examples of individuals who have been granted pretrial release and gone on to commit other crimes and argued the legislation will stop that from happening in the future.

“It holds the very key to the life or death of some very wonderful people,” Smithee said. The House votes are a significant victory for Abbott, who has long sought to restrict bail as he has accused “activist judges” in Democratic cities like Houston of being too quick to grant pretrial release. Abbott ratcheted up a pressure campaign in recent weeks, holding public events in Houston and Austin and posting repeatedly on social media about especially egregious examples. The Texas Republican also shifted his demands as lawmakers negotiated the deal the House approved, pushing for lawmakers to force judges to prohibit pretrial release to defendants accused of several violent offenses. The House legislation would not go that far, instead requiring judges to deny bail to those accused of a series of crimes, including murder, aggravated assault and sexual assault, only if prosecutors present compelling evidence that they will not show up to court or will be a danger to the community. The reforms would require judges to issue a written order explaining any time they grant bail, a priority of Abbott’s.

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Bill to curb abuses of affordable housing tax breaks moves a step from becoming law

A measure that would put major new constraints — some say too many — on a program aimed at incentivizing affordable multifamily housing across Texas has won overwhelming approval from the state House and Senate, and it will take effective immediately if Gov. Greg Abbott signs it. House Bill 21 would sound a death knell for so-called “traveling" housing finance corporations — a term for entities located hundreds of miles away that, in exchange for large fees from developers and investors, use their legal status to remove properties from the tax rolls of local jurisdictions by buying them and then designating them affordable housing, often without making them any more affordable. "This solves the biggest part of the problem, and it probably sends a message to (bad actors in the industry) not to look for any more loopholes" in the state's affordable housing regulations, said state Rep. Gary Gates, R-Richmond, who spearheaded the measure.

But critics of HB 21 are likening it to a sledgehammer when a scalpel is needed, saying it risks severely hampering legitimate affordable housing projects statewide if it becomes law. That's because it contains retroactive provisions and would not only apply to traveling HFCs but also to those operating within the jurisdictions — and with the blessing of — the cities and counties that formed them. “I don’t see how these new regulations create an environment where people are going to be able to do business in this segment of affordable housing," said Todd Kercheval, executive director of the Texas Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies, a trade group. Kercheval's group and others, such as the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers, have described traveling HFCs as a scourge on their industry and have backed legislative efforts, albeit more targeted, to stamp them out. But with HB 21 already to Abbott — and having received the two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate needed to take effect immediately if he signs it — the clock is ticking.

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Controller Chris Hollins won’t certify Whitmire’s $7B budget until judge OKs drainage payment plan

Controller Chris Hollins said he won’t certify Mayor John Whitmire’s 2026 budget until the court makes a decision on the city’s payment agreement with the plaintiffs in a years-long streets and drainage lawsuit, Hollins told the Houston Chronicle following a budget trends report Tuesday. Whitmire earlier this month presented a $7 billion budget with no added fees for residents and no tax increases. The city’s budget deficit of around $106 million will be eradicated by dipping into the city’s savings account. The budget includes a payment plan for a denied appeal in a lawsuit that requires Houston to stick to city law and put more money toward street and drainage projects.

The agreement would charge a percentage of the 11.8 cents per $100 of evaluation required by the city law incrementally over the next two years. The city would then start charging the full 11.8 cents starting in 2028 to fully supply the drainage fund. As a result, the city would see $490 million in its drainage fund in 2026, $525 million in 2027, $540 million in 2028 and $585 million in 2029, Whitmire’s team explained. But even though the court ruled the city had to comply with the ordinance, the city has not yet received word from a judge on whether Houston’s agreement with the plaintiffs is acceptable. “We've shared with [the Whitmire administration] that they'll need to go to the court to get that blessing before we can move forward,” Hollins said. City Attorney Arturo Michel wrote in a statement that the agreement is currently before the court and that all parties involved considered it routine to have it presented without a hearing. Michel said the plaintiffs in the case would contact the court to say the agreement is the preferred payment mechanism.

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Fort Worth ISD votes to close 18 schools over four years

The Fort Worth Independent School District’s board voted Tuesday to approve a plan to close 16 schools over the next four years. The closures the board approved Tuesday are in addition to two others the board had already approved. District officials say the cuts will allow them to redirect millions of dollars toward academic priorities.

The board approved the plan by an 8-0 vote, with board member Wallace Bridges absent. The closures are a part of Fort Worth ISD’s facilities master plan, which has been months in the making. The plan is intended to help the district manage revenue losses from declining enrollment. Fort Worth ISD has seen its enrollment drop by 15% since the 2019-20 school year, and officials project the district will lose another 6% of its enrollment by 2029-30. District leaders didn’t discuss the plan at Tuesday’s meeting. But at a work session last week, Deputy Superintendent Kellie Spencer said closing the campuses would save Fort Worth ISD about $10 million over the next five years. That’s money that the district can redirect toward literacy priorities, she said. During the meeting, groups of parents and other supporters of Briscoe and De Zavala elementary schools held signs asking the board not to close their schools. Several spoke during public comment, explaining what made their campuses special and how students and their families would be affected if they closed. Stephany Velez, the mother of two students at De Zavala, said she enrolled her sons at the school in spite of Fort Worth ISD’s overall lackluster performance because it was a consistently high-rated campus. She had planned to home school her kids, but she changed her mind when she heard about De Zavala’s dual language program. As a Spanish speaker herself, Velez said she wanted to make sure her sons had the chance to learn in both languages.

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Monument depicting a mother and unborn child at Texas Capitol closer to approval

A monument depicting a pregnant woman could soon be built at the Texas Capitol as a measure allowing its construction heads to Gov. Greg Abbott. House members approved a resolution on Tuesday that would authorize the State Preservation Board to approve such construction. The Senate passed the proposal earlier this month. If enacted, a replica of the National Life Monument, an eight-foot bronze sculpture depicting a mother with an unborn child cradled in a world-shaped womb, could be built with the board’s approval. The Texas Life Monument would provide “a public space to reflect on the beauty and sanctity of the love of a mother for her child,” Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, R-Round Rock, said Tuesday. She said the project would be funded by private donations. “I’m happy to report that they have the money they need for this already,” she said. “The monument must comply with board rules governing monument size, design and timeline.” The House voted 98-44 to adopt the resolution.

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City of Starbase becomes official at Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket site in South Texas

The City of Starbase is now official. On Tuesday morning, the Cameron County Commissioners Court certified the May 3 election results that created the new city near Elon Musk's rocket launch site outside Brownsville. The approval occurred with no dissent. "We congratulate Starbase, the new mayor and the new two city councilman and wish them the absolute best. We look forward to working with them for the betterment not only of Starbase but of Cameron County, Texas," County Judge Eddie Treviño said. While certifying the results, the commissioners stressed that they do not have power to block the new city — even if they disagree with its creation.

"Each of us when we take our oath of office commit and swear to uphold the Constitution and laws of this country and of this state. We don't get to pick and choose which ones we are going to follow or not follow," Treviño said. "So that's exactly what were doing here today. We understand some people may disagree with it, may disagree with the process, but we follow the law, as did the individuals who wanted to incorporate." Only people who live in the immediate area were eligible to vote in the Starbase vote. Almost all of them work for SpaceX, according to a Texas Newsroom analysis of the voter rolls. The election was not close: 212 voted for and 6 against. Musk, SpaceX's CEO, has wanted to incorporate the area around his rocket testing and launch site for years.

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Senate passes Ted Cruz bill to exempt tips from federal income tax

Workers who rely on tips moved a step closer Tuesday to seeing a significant tax break when the U.S. Senate approved a new federal tax exemption. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, authored the bill, which was approved by unanimous consent, meaning no senator objected to its passage. Cruz cast the show of bipartisan solidarity as a miracle and said the policy is now almost certain to pass the House and become law. The exemption on tips will have a lasting effect on millions of Americans, Cruz said. “We ought to be fighting for waiters and waitresses,” Cruz said on the Senate floor moments after the bill passed. “We ought to be fighting for bartenders, taxi cab drivers, Uber drivers. We ought to be fighting for beauticians and nail salon workers. We ought to be fighting for all the men and women who are working and working hard.”

The bill would let workers deduct up to $25,000 in cash tips from their federal income taxes. Workers — and their employers — would still be responsible for payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. President Donald Trump proposed the “No Tax on Tips” policy on the campaign trail last year while in Nevada, a swing state with a high per-capita number of tipped workers. Many Republicans and Democrats rushed to embrace the idea. Cruz introduced legislation to implement the policy, with both of Nevada’s Democratic senators quickly signing onto the bill. Some experts and lawmakers have questioned the proposal’s fairness because it would place much different tax burdens on, for example, a waiter and a house painter with identical income. It has proved broadly popular, however, and a version is included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Republicans are moving through the House. Democrats vehemently oppose many of the provisions in that sweeping multitrillion-dollar legislation, however, from new Medicaid work requirements to tax breaks that benefit wealthy Americans.

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Texas passes measure to create a state crypto reserve as Bitcoin tops $105K

The Texas House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to approve a state bitcoin reserve bill, sending the year’s highest-profile piece of crypto-related legislation to the governor’s desk for a likely signature. Senate Bill 21 would create the framework for the Lone Star State to stockpile bitcoin and potentially other cryptocurrencies, with control of the reserve, and any potential buying and selling therein, falling under the purview of the state comptroller. The move amounts to a major policy victory for a resurgent cryptocurrency industry, which has established a major presence in Texas. It also mirrors efforts underway at the federal level, as well as in other states, even as some argue the GOP-led effort in Texas runs counter to the traditionally conservative market principles the state has long been known for.

Addressing House members ahead of the vote, State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, called the reserve bill “a forward-thinking measure” that was about “recognizing digital assets not as a trend but as a strategic opportunity” and “strengthening the state’s fiscal resilience.” He added: “Texas can take a leadership role in the evolving digital economy.” The measure sailed through the state chamber, also picking up a new amendment aimed at further restricting which cryptocurrencies would actually be eligible for inclusion. It passed with 105 votes in favor and 23 against, with the “nays” roughly split between fiscally-conservative minded Republicans and Democrats. Under state rules, Gov. Greg Abbott will have 10 days to sign the bill, veto it or let it become law without his signature or return it, although The House’s decisive vote also means the body could potentially override a veto. “The main reason [for voting no] was because it offered little oversight,” Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, told The Dallas Morning News from the House floor, adding that he thought the bill favored wealthy private investors and incentivized risky investments. While the broad movement to use crypto to create strategic government reserves has offered the industry a sentiment boost and, at least ostensibly, much sought-after legitimacy, digital tokens are notoriously volatile. The “crypto winter” that began in late 2021 wiped trillions off the sector’s market capitalization before bottoming out, with many of the losses borne by small investors.

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Austin Mayor Kirk Watson backs downsized plan for I-35 caps, citing financial constraints

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson on Tuesday backed a proposal to fund only two of six proposed decks over Interstate 35 ahead of a major City Council vote, tipping the scales in favor of a pared down and less pricey version of the long-coveted plan. For months now, the council has debated how to proceed with the so-called "Cap and Stitch Program." As originally envisioned, the $1.4 billion plan calls for installing six "caps" over parts of I-35 in central Austin that would be topped with parks and other amenities, and two bridges known as "stitches" that would feature bike and pedestrian paths. But with a worsening financial outlook, including the likely loss of a $105 million federal grant for the project, city leaders collectively agreed to drop the two stitches, leaving council members to grapple with how many caps to proceed with.

The 11-member body, which is slated to vote on the issue Thursday, must make a decision by the end of the month. That's because the Texas Department of Transportation needs to know how many caps the city wants to build so the agency can include support columns in its design plans for an expansion of I-35 in Central Austin. The city also must foot the bill for those structures. Two main camps have emerged in the debate: Those who want to pay for columns for five of the caps at a cost of $203 million — and those who want to follow the recommendation of city budget staff to fund only two caps at a cost of $49 million. That would bring down total project costs to about $1 billion and $401 million, respectively, according to city staff and council members, though the caps likely won't be built for many years. Until Watson weighed in on Tuesday, council members were evenly split between the two groups. “After looking at the choices we face, including how best to balance our comprehensive city needs and our financial resources, I've decided to support the staff recommendation,” Watson said in a statement, joining council members Krista Laine, Marc Duchen, Mike Siegel, Vanessa Fuentes and Paige Ellis.

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After passing the Texas House, fentanyl test strip bill languishes in Senate

Nearly one month after the Texas House unanimously advanced a proposal to legalize fentanyl test strips, activists stormed into the office of Republican state Sen. Pete Flores to demand that the upper chamber’s Criminal Justice Committee consider the bill before the session ends. With raised voices, members of Austin-based advocacy group VOCAL-TX told Flores’ staff “you have blood on your hands” for failing to set House Bill 1644 or its Senate companions for a hearing. The legislation would also legalize strips that test for xylazine, another synthetic opioid. “The people have approved the bill, and you haven’t,” said Carolyn Williams. “My son died for nothing — and this could have been preventable, but you won’t pass it. I don’t know what kind of God you serve, but the God you serve is not a righteous God to have people killed.”

Williams' son died after smoking a fentanyl-laced joint, she later told the American-Statesman. She and other protesters brandished signs reading, “Over 5,000 Texans lost to preventable overdose. Take action now Senator Flores!” and “Texans need drug checking tools!” “I heard you, I heard you, I heard you,” said Flores’ chief of staff, Harold Stone, gesturing to each activist. Flores, a Pleasanton Republican who chairs the committee that would hear the bill, was not visible in the office and did not seem to be present. One of Flores’ aides called state troopers with the Department of Public Safety, and after the protesters continued to yell questions, DPS escorted them out. Flores’ staff declined to answer questions from the Statesman about the senator’s position on the bill and told the reporter to leave. The office also did not respond to an email request for comment Tuesday. This is the second time the state House has passed legislation to legalize fentanyl test strips and the second time that VOCAL-TX has confronted a senator for declining to hear the bill. In 2023, advocates occupied the office of state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who was then the chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

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‘Uvalde Strong Act’ passes Texas Senate amid calls for bolder action

A bill that aims to better prepare law enforcement agencies to respond to mass shootings to avoid a repeat of the 2022 massacre at a Uvalde elementary school sailed through the Texas Senate and will likely be on its way to the governor's desk soon — but some fear the measure does not go far enough to prevent future tragedies. House Bill 33, titled the "Uvalde Strong Act," passed the upper chamber unanimously Monday after clearing the House with no opposition April 29. The House is expected to concur with Senate tweaks to the legislation and send it for a gubernatorial signature. On May 24, 2022, three years ago this Saturday, a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and killed 19 children and two teachers, marking the state's deadliest school mass shooting. As the tragedy unfolded, nearly 400 police officers waited more than an hour to confront the shooter.

HB 33 introduces a slew of new requirements for schools and first responders. It requires school districts and multiple law enforcement agencies to meet together each year for planning and training, and it mandates annual mass shooting exercises. It requires the Texas Department of Public Safety to make agreements with local agencies detailing how the departments would coordinate with one another during an emergency. The legislation also gives responding officers the ability to override an incident commander and take control of a scene if the officer believes the response is inadequate or the situation is unsafe. It requires responding agencies to prepare a preliminary report by 60 days after an incident. "This tragedy has exposed critical failures in law enforcement preparedness, response coordination and school safety protocols, making it clear that Texas must take action to address our current shortcomings and future readiness for active shooter situations," said Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, who sponsored the bill in the Senate.

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Southwest Airlines will require chargers be kept out while in use because of battery fire concerns

Passengers on Southwest Airlines flights will soon be required to keep their portable chargers in plain sight while using them because of concerns about the growing number of lithium-ion battery fires in a new policy that other airlines may adopt. Southwest announced the new policy that will go into effect May 28 and said passengers may have already seen notifications about the rule when using the airline's app. While Southwest is the first U.S. airline to restrict the use of portable chargers like this, several Asian airlines have taken action earlier this year after a devastating fire aboard an Air Busan plane waiting to take off from an airport in South Korea in January. There is growing concern about lithium-ion battery fires on planes because the number of incidents continues to grow yearly, and devices powered by those batteries are ubiquitous. There have already been 19 incidents involving these batteries this year, following last year's record high of 89, according to Federal Aviation Administration statistics.

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City Stories

Humble ISD trustee-elect failed to change her voter registration in time to sit on the school board

A candidate who won her bid for the Humble ISD school board on May 3 has now been declared ineligible after her opponent challenged her candidacy, a district spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Brittnai Brown, a former educator, was sued by opponent Tracy Shannon after the election, and the lawsuit cited voter records that showed that Brown did was not registered to vote in the district for the required six months before the filing deadline to run for the board. Brown and Shannon both cast bids to unseat the incumbent trustee Ken Kirchhofer for position four on the board. Vote totals from May 3 show that Brown took the lead, with 4,066 votes, Shannon came in second with 3,237 votes and Kirchhofer came in last place with 3,197 votes.

In the lawsuit, Shannon had asked for an injunction to canvassing the votes and for herself to be named victor instead, because she had the second highest number of votes. She also accused officials in the district of being unable to read at the last board meeting due to the discrepancy. "The district has taken the right step in declaring Ms. Brown ineligible. The pleadings in the lawsuit speak for themselves," Shannon said. "I ran against Ken Kirchhofer because I believe the district deserves better. There was a clear call for accountability in the district and I believe the election results reflect that appetite for accountability." But the district still canvassed the votes at a board meeting on May 13 because the district's legal counsel, Jeremy Binkley said that the district was legally obligated to canvass the votes on the 11th day after the election. Binkley also said if the trustee-elect was declared ineligible, it would create a vacant seat on the board that would be filled either with a special election or by board appointment.

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National Stories

Trump's Homeland Security secretary says habeas corpus lets him 'remove people from this country'

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the constitutional provision that allows people to legally challenge their detention by the government is actually a tool the Trump administration can use in its broader crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border. She called habeas corpus “a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their rights.” Noem, testifying before a congressional committee Tuesday, gave that response when asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan to define the legal concept. “That’s incorrect,” the New Hampshire Democrat swiftly interrupted Noem, defining the “legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.” Hassan, a former attorney who practiced in Boston, went on to call habeas corpus “the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.”

The back and forth follows comments by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who said earlier this month that President Donald Trump is looking for ways to expand his administration’s legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, Miller said the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus. The Latin term means, literally, “you have the body.” Federal courts use a writ of habeas corpus to bring a prisoner before a neutral judge to determine if imprisonment is legal. Habeas corpus was included in the Constitution as an import from English common law. Parliament enacted the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which was meant to ensure that the king released prisoners when the law did not justify confining them. The Constitution’s Suspension Clause, the second clause of Section 9 of Article I, states that habeas corpus “shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.” AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem being called out for giving a differing definition of a constitutional principle.

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Senators question Shari Redstone over efforts to reach CBS settlement with Trump

A trio of senators is seeking information about Paramount Global’s efforts to settle a lawsuit by President Trump against the company’s CBS News, probing whether the company risks violating a federal bribery statute. In a letter to Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said they are concerned that the media company “may be engaging in improper conduct involving the Trump Administration in exchange for approval of its merger with Skydance Media.” Trump is suing CBS News for $20 billion over how the network’s “60 Minutes” edited an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris last October. The suit alleges the interview was deceitfully edited to make her sound better. CBS has said it was neither doctored nor deceitful.

Redstone hasn’t seen the letter, which was sent Monday night, a spokeswoman said. She said Redstone has recused herself from the settlement talks. The suit has become a potential roadblock for Paramount’s merger with Skydance. CBS and Trump representatives have had talks with a mediator to attempt to reach a resolution to the suit. The deal also requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which is led by Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr. A Paramount spokesman has previously said the legal battle with Trump is unrelated to the FCC approval process and that the company will “abide by the legal process to defend our case.” He declined to comment on the senators’ letter. When Trump sued CBS last fall, the network said it was “completely without merit.” The three senators said that, given the company’s stance then and its efforts to have the suit dismissed, any settlement or a “quid pro quo” to help get the deal closed “may be breaking the law.”

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Trump unveils ambitious and expensive plans for 'Golden Dome' missile defense

President Trump on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan to shield America from missile attack by building what he describes as a "Golden Dome." "Once fully constructed the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Trump's budget and timeline for the project are ambitious. He told reporters he hoped to have it done "before the end of my term." The system would cost around $175 billion, the president said, with $25 billion to start construction in next year's budget.

A key part of the Trump plan is to place both missile-sensing and missile-destroying satellites into orbit above the Earth. The constellation would likely involve thousands of small satellites capable of attacking a missile in the moments after it launches from its submarine or silo. Such a vast network of satellites would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but it now seems at least theoretically within reach. Elon Musk's company SpaceX has been using low-cost rockets to launch a constellation of internet-transmitting satellites known as Starlink. SpaceX says the Starlink system currently has around 7,000 satellites in orbit, a scale that is comparable to most estimates of what a limited space-based missile defense capability would require. "The overall Golden Dome effort is long overdue," says Tom Karako, director of the missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Karako concedes that space-based interception of incoming missiles is a "wicked hard problem," but he says the reality is that the next large war will likely be fought partially above Earth's atmosphere. Given that reality, he thinks Golden Dome's capabilities will provide the U.S. with a robust defense that could also be used for anti-satellite warfare if needed.

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The Supreme Court stands up for democracy — and for an anti-trans lawmaker

There are no heroes in Libby v. Fecteau, a decision about an anti-trans lawmaker that the Supreme Court handed down on Tuesday. With only two justices publicly dissenting, the Court handed down a brief order temporarily lifting sanctions against that lawmaker. The lawmaker at the heart of the case, Maine Republican Rep. Laurel Libby, was sanctioned by her colleagues for posting an unblurred picture of a transgender high school athlete, along with the student’s name and the name of her school, in order to protest against including transgender girls in women’s sports. The sanction those colleagues imposed on her could not possibly be constitutional: They effectively stripped her of her right to vote on legislation as a member of Maine’s House of Representatives, stripping Libby’s constituents of their representation in the state House.

And Libby’s fellow lawmakers likely also violated her First Amendment rights in the process. As a legal matter, Libby closely resembles Bond v. Floyd (1966), a case brought by a Georgia state lawmaker who was not allowed to take his seat in the state legislature — ostensibly because his colleagues objected to his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond held that the First Amendment “requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views on issues of policy.” To be sure, no moral comparisons can be drawn between the plaintiffs in Bond and Libby. Bond involved Rep. Julian Bond, a Black man and a prominent civil rights activist who was elected to the Georgia legislature just as Jim Crow was beginning to lose its grip on the South. Libby, by contrast, arises out of Libby’s decision to bully a high school student. But the First Amendment protects offensive speech just as surely as it protects speech that is now widely viewed as prescient and wise. Indeed, nearly all First Amendment cases arise out of speech that someone in a position of power deemed offensive — why else would they have tried to censure or ban that speech?

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Judge orders U.S. to maintain custody of migrants sent to South Sudan

A federal judge on Tuesday evening ordered the Trump administration not to let a group of migrants being transported to South Sudan leave the custody of U.S. immigration authorities. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston wrote that the Trump administration must not let the migrants being transported to South Sudan out of their custody to ensure that the migrants will be able to be returned to the United States if the court finds that their attempted deportations are unlawful. The order also applies to other migrants being deported “to any third country” — meaning nations where deported migrants are not citizens. The court, Murphy wrote, would leave “the practicalities of compliance” to the discretion of the defendants, which include the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Murphy wrote that the defendants must answer several questions during an upcoming hearing scheduled for Wednesday, including the amount of notice each migrant received ahead of their attempted removal to South Sudan and any details about their current whereabouts. The order came in response to an emergency request from the lawyers for a group of migrants who asked Murphy to intervene after indications that federal immigration authorities may have deported up to a dozen immigrants from Myanmar, Vietnam and other countries to South Sudan. A federal immigration officer confirmed that at least one immigrant from Myanmar had been deported Tuesday morning to the African nation, according to court records. The spouse of a man from Vietnam said he told her that he and at least 10 others had also been flagged for deportation to that country. Lawyers for the immigrants argued in court records that the hasty removals would violate Murphy’s orders barring the government from deporting people to countries where they are not citizens without giving them a chance to challenge that decision. They asked the judge, based in Massachusetts, to order their immediate return. The allegations come weeks after DHS acknowledged that South Sudan has been engaged in an “ongoing armed conflict” and after a United Nations official warned that the country was at risk of slipping back into civil war.

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In approving soda ban for food stamps, U.S.D.A. reverses decades of policy

For two decades, the federal government has rejected states’ efforts to ban purchases of sugary drinks using food stamps, hesitant, in part, to cross an unusual coalition of corporate interests and anti-poverty groups. Now, the Trump administration has waded in, approving a first of its kind waiver on Monday for Nebraska to ban purchases of soda and energy drinks through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps. It is likely to pave the way for more state waivers, signaling a sharp shift in nutrition policy. Under the proposal, Nebraska will establish a program, beginning in January 2026 and affecting some 150,000 food stamp recipients in the state. Nebraska, in its waiver application, said it would regularly survey participants in the state to evaluate changes in their spending habits and examine retailer data to assess reductions in purchases of soda and energy drinks.

A spokesman for the state’s department of Health and Human Services said that Nebraska would also provide technical assistance to help retailers make the transition. In a statement on Monday, Brooke L. Rollins, the agriculture secretary, called the approval “a historic step to Make America Healthy Again.” The state’s governor, Jim Pillen, also welcomed the step, saying, “There’s absolutely zero reason for taxpayers to be subsidizing purchases of soda and energy drinks.” The prohibition adds to the limits recipients face in using the program. Already, their benefits do not apply to hot foods, nonfood items, alcohol and tobacco products. In recent months, Nebraska and other states, largely led by Republican governors, have sought waivers to extend those restrictions to unhealthy purchases. A spokesperson for the Agriculture Department said on Tuesday that the agency was reviewing and working with Iowa, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, West Virginia, Colorado, Idaho and Utah on similar waivers. A wave of approvals would come after decades of Agriculture Department denials under both Democratic and Republican administrations, including President Trump’s first.

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Lead Stories

Fight heats up over hemp-based THC on eve of House vote as Lt. Gov. Patrick weighs in

A showdown over the fate of the hemp-derived vapes, gummies, flower and edibles market hits the Texas House floor Tuesday, as lawmakers decide whether to kill a burgeoning industry of consumables made with hemp-derived tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The fight has been raging for years in the Texas Capitol and across the state, where more than 8,500 retailers have set up shop in vape stores, coffee shops, convenience stores and other venues in an industry that has raked in $8 billion in Texas since they were legalized through a federal loophole in 2019. It comes as a recent report by a governor’s forensics commission questions the reliability of some state lab tests on the THC levels in hemp-based products – the basis for several raids on hemp shops and one of the core arguments in favor of a ban on them.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is on the warpath against the retailers, with the Senate backing a full ban as one of the Houston Republican’s priorities for the session. On the eve of the vote, Patrick released an 8-minute video of footage from the bipartisan Senate floor vote and committee hearings. In it, Patrick vows not to leave Austin until a ban is passed. “There’s an important vote coming up for the members of the Texas House,” Patrick said in the video. “Many of you are watching this video, and many of you are concerned about THC, how it’s being sold to schoolchildren all across Texas. This is poisonous THC. No regulations whatsoever. ... “I’m asking the Texas House to stand up to the forces that are trying to have you stop this ban.” Texas House leaders, meanwhile, are signaling early resistance to a total ban on all hemp-derived products and have put forth a plan to curtail and regulate the industry. The critical vote will come on an amendment that will replace the language in the House version with the total ban enacted by the Senate, carried by House Republican Caucus Chairman Tom Oliverson, an anesthesiologist from Cypress.

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Tariffs creating ‘diminished momentum’ among Texas businesses, Dallas Fed survey finds

President Donald Trump’s tariff policy is taking a toll on Texas’ economic activity — and the optimism of the state’s business leaders — according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey. In its latest Business Outlook Survey published last week, the bank cited “diminished momentum amid elevated uncertainty” among the Lone Star State’s firms that stemmed from higher tariffs. Whipsaw policy decisions have created weaker demand and stoked inflation expectations, wrote Laila Assanie and Ethan Dixon, the report’s authors. “The Texas economy continues to expand, but at a below-trend pace,” the analysts said, while the central bank branch’s most recent surveys “suggest that firms are increasingly concerned about the outlook amid the heightened uncertainty around higher tariffs.”

The survey solicited responses from over 300 Texas executives and other business leaders between April 15 and April 23 — weeks after Trump imposed historically high baseline tariffs on all foreign goods. At a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce event last week, confusion and generalized fear pervaded discussions among North Texas’ C-suite crowd. In the sleek auditorium at Kimbell Art Museum, multiple attendees celebrated the area’s economic boom, which has included an influx of new companies, city-sponsored pro-business initiatives and major construction projects. But “the t-word,” as one speaker referred to it, was unavoidable. Robert Allen, president of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership, cited the “circus” created by rapidly evolving trade policy changes that have undermined confidence among consumers and businesses alike. While the administration walked back its most extreme levies on China, the policy uncertainty stoked high anxiety among respondents to the Dallas Fed’s poll — the likes of which haven’t been seen since the height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

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U.S. drillers say peak shale has arrived

President Trump, who promised to uplift oil and gas, is set to preside over a decline in shale production. Drillers that made the U.S. the world’s top oil producer say they are hitting the brakes to weather a period of low crude prices and that the gusher has likely peaked. Some of the largest producers, including Diamondback Energy, recently told investors that they would be spending less this year and plan to drop rigs. The U.S. is on track to see crude oil production modestly increase in 2025—in part because of growth in fields offshore—before declining next year by 1% to 13.33 million barrels a day, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. That would mark the first year-on-year decrease in roughly a decade, outside the Covid-19 pandemic. “We believe we are at a tipping point for U.S. oil production at current commodity prices,” Travis Stice, chief executive of Permian driller Diamondback, said in a letter to shareholders last week.

Trump had promised that his administration would bring a new dawn for America’s frackers by killing regulations and allowing them to build new pipelines. But even before he took office, U.S. oil production was on track to flatten out and fall by the end of the decade. Now, the upheaval in the global economy induced by his tariffs, coupled with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies’ decision to pump more oil, have likely compressed that timeline, crude-oil CEOs say. The disruption has been most notable in the Permian Basin, the country’s biggest oil field. Oil prices have fallen to $62.49 a barrel, down about 13% since Trump’s early April tariff blitz. That price is roughly equivalent to about $45 in 2015 dollars—below the average price that sent the oil industry into a painful downturn that year. “On an inflation-adjusted basis, current prices are at amongst the lowest they’ve ever been,” Paul McKinney, CEO of Permian driller Ring Energy, said in an interview. Prices should be around $85 a barrel to encourage companies to drill, he said.

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Mortgage rates jump above 7% after Moody’s downgrade of U.S. credit

Mortgage rates surged after the credit-rating agency Moody’s downgraded U.S. debt. Moody’s cut the U.S.’s sovereign credit rating from AAA to Aa1. It was the last of the major credit-rating firms to strip the country of its triple-A rating. S&P Global Ratings downgraded U.S. debt in the summer of 2011. The downgrade of debt put upward pressure on bond prices on Monday morning. That pushed the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage up 12 basis points to 7.04%, according to Mortgage News Daily. It later settled at 6.99% later in the day. Moody’s cited an increase in government debt and interest-payment ratios that were significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns as reasons for its decision.

Mortgage rates tend to move in tandem with Treasury yields. With the 10-year yield going up, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate was going to trend upward as well, Jake Krimmel, a senior economist at Realtor.com, told MarketWatch. (Realtor.com is operated by News Corp subsidiary Move Inc., and MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones is also a subsidiary of News Corp.) Mortgage rates going up is “really not ideal for prospective buyers,” Krimmel added. The housing market, meanwhile, is mired in a crisis of affordability. Elevated mortgage rates and record-high home prices have put homeownership out of reach for many Americans, as demonstrated in the chart below. Home sales plummeted to a 30-year low in 2024. Even though the spring season is typically the busiest time of the year for the residential real-estate market, buying and selling have remained “sluggish,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said of home sales through March.

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State Stories

Texas House greenlights restrictive bail measures aimed at Harris County

The Texas House on Monday approved a series of restrictive bail measures long sought by Gov. Greg Abbott, likely assuring the changes — which received bipartisan support — will be on the ballot in November. The chamber overwhelmingly approved a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would give judges significantly more power to deny bail to people accused of certain crimes, effectively putting them behind bars until they are tried. State Rep. John Smithee, an Amarillo Republican who chairs the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, said the bail bills are the most important he has ever voted on. He pointed to examples of individuals who have been granted pretrial release and gone on to commit other crimes and argued the legislation will stop that from happening in the future. “It holds the very key to the life or death of some very wonderful people,” Smithee said

The House votes are a significant victory for Abbott, who has long sought to restrict bail as he has accused “activist judges” in Democratic cities like Houston of being too quick to grant pretrial release. Abbott ratcheted up a pressure campaign in recent weeks, holding public events in Houston and Austin and posting repeatedly on social media about especially egregious examples. The Texas Republican also shifted his demands as lawmakers negotiated the deal the House approved, pushing for lawmakers to force judges to prohibit pretrial release to defendants accused of several violent offenses. The House legislation would not go that far, instead requiring judges to deny bail to those accused of a series of crimes, including murder, aggravated assault and sexual assault, only if prosecutors present compelling evidence that they will not show up to court or will be a danger to the community. The reforms would require judges to issue a written order explaining any time they grant bail, a priority of Abbott’s. The governor cheered the chamber's overwhelming support for the measure. "These bills will reform Texas' broken, deadly bail system & keep dangerous criminals behind bars — where they belong," Abbott wrote on the social media site X.

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Sid Miller: A lifeline for rural Texans struggling with mental health

Texas was built on true grit, God’s grace, and good old-fashioned hard work. Nowhere is that more alive than in our rural communities, writes Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. But behind that proud tradition, we’ve got a real crisis, and it's one we can’t afford to ignore any longer: I’m talking about the mental health emergency in rural Texas. I’ve spent my life working in agriculture. I’ve experienced the strain of maintaining a ranch when the weather is uncooperative, markets are volatile, and bills won't stop accumulating. Our farmers and ranchers are some of the toughest folks ever. They bear a significant burden—decades of legacy, the responsibility of feeding millions, and the unpredictability of nature. Yet, even the strongest shoulders can buckle under excessive weight.

The very traits that make our ag community great—independence, resilience, toughness—are the same qualities that sometimes prevent our farmers and ranchers from seeking help when they need it most. That’s not just a problem for them; it is a problem for all of us, too. That’s a food security issue. When our producers suffer in silence, our entire country is at risk. Farming is a very isolated job. You spend long days by yourself, working from sunup to sundown, always one storm or one bad market report away from disaster. That kind of stress can wear a person down. And because of the stigma, especially for men, too many people remain silent. Too many suffer in silence. And sometimes, that silence turns deadly. Of our 254 counties, 246 are classified as mental health shortage areas. This means that in most of rural Texas, there is simply no one around to help. Even if someone wants assistance, they often have to drive for hours, cannot get reliable internet for telehealth, or give up. That is not acceptable. We need to address this issue, and we need to address it immediately. This means expanding telehealth services, training more providers to work in rural areas, and reducing the bureaucratic barriers so assistance is more accessible. It also requires confronting the stigma. Being tough doesn’t imply suffering in silence. It means having the bravery to speak up, reach out, and encourage your neighbor to do the same.

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Mansfield parents worried about special school board meeting

The Mansfield school board has called a special meeting for Tuesday, May 20, at 6 p.m. to take action on the contract of Kimberley Cantu, the district’s superintendent. The move has some in Mansfield questioning the timing, considering that recently elected board members have not yet been sworn in. In the May 3 elections, board President Keziah Farrar and trustees Craig Tipping and Bianca Anderson lost their seats to challengers Ana-Alicia Horn, Jason Thomas and Jesse Cannon. Farrar declined to discuss Monday what would happen with Cantu’s contract. “You can watch the meeting tomorrow night,” Farrar told the Star-Telegram.

Incoming trustee Horn said she found out about the special meeting the same time as the public. In a text message exchange, Horn called it “highly irregular” since votes have been tallied and new trustees are awaiting swearing in at the next regular board meeting, scheduled for May 27. Mansfield residents who spoke to the Star-Telegram voiced support for Cantu and said they were worried about the outgoing trustees’ motives for taking action on her contract now. “Decisions of this magnitude should reflect the will of the current electorate, not be rushed through at the 11th hour,” Horn said. Cantu was hired as superintendent in 2019. She previously served as a teacher and administrator in the district. Cantu’s most recent contract was signed in 2024 and is set to expire on June 30, 2029. According to the Texas Education Agency, Cantu’s annual salary is $365,315.

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Latino representation in North Texas a focus of redistricting trial starting this week

Questions over whether Latinos had their voting power diminished in the Dallas area will be a focus of a federal trial in El Paso that begins Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, is scheduled to testify Friday before the three-judge panel in the case that will determine whether Texas must draw new maps for state and congressional districts. In a filing last week, Crockett and U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, alleged that the Legislature intentionally used racial discrimination to draw a pair of congressional districts in Houston and another in Dallas. Among the allegations is that state officials failed to create districts with a majority of voting-age Latino citizens in Dallas and Tarrant counties.

“The Dallas-Ft. Worth area could have gained (but did not) an additional Latino majority congressional district and State Senate district,” the lawsuit alleges. Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, said the current map “packs Latino voters” in North Texas and the Harris County area, depriving them of equal representation. In Texas, “voters of color tend to vote for one party, while white voters tend to vote for the other,” she told reporters Monday. “And the white voters do this in a way that blocks minority voters from being able to elect their preferred candidates.” For the congressional maps, Crockett and Green allege that their districts — and a vacant boundary represented by the late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston — dilute “minority voting strength” and prioritize racial considerations over traditional mapmaking principles. “The evidence will demonstrate that [the congressional map] was enacted with discriminatory intent, that the legislators knew of and intended the discriminatory effect on Black and Latino voters, and that it constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” attorneys for the federal lawmakers wrote. The case stems from several consolidated lawsuits, including a 2021 challenge filed by the Latino civil rights organization League of United Latin American Citizens. Registered voters and a coalition of organizations challenged the maps, alleging they violate the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act.

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President Donald Trump signs into law Ted Cruz’s bill targeting deepfake nudes

President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law legislation cracking down on the kind of “deepfake porn” that a classmate used to victimize Aledo High School student Elliston Berry. Elliston was 14 years old in October 2023 when the classmate used an artificial intelligence program to turn innocent photos of her into realistic-looking nudes and shared them with the rest of the school. “Elliston quickly became a powerful advocate committed to preventing other girls from suffering the same abuse,” Trump said as he saluted her willingness to speak out about her experience. Elliston and her mother, Anna McAdams, were at Trump’s side for Monday’s signing in the Rose Garden. In interviews and at public events, Elliston has publicly recounted the “fear, shock and disgust” she felt after a friend alerted her to the fake, but extremely realistic, nude pictures circulating online.

Her story prompted U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to author the Take It Down Act, which criminalizes publishing or threatening to publish nonconsensual intimate images, including realistic computer-generated photos and videos depicting real people. Penalties for publishing such images are up to two years in prison for offenses involving adults and up to three years in prison for offenses involving minors. The law also brings pressure on tech platforms such as Snapchat to quickly take down offending images, requiring them to be removed within 48 hours if requested by a victim. The Federal Trade Commission will be responsible for enforcing that requirement. Some digital rights groups have raised concerns about the potential for people to file false reports under the law, but the legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. It appeared on the cusp of passage in December as part of a sweeping end-of-session catchall bill. Unrelated aspects of that broader package drew opposition from Trump and others, scuttling it. Cruz introduced the legislation again this session with first lady Melania Trump joining the effort, tying it into her “Be Best” anti-cyberbullying initiative during a roundtable on Capitol Hill. Elliston was a guest of the first lady at Trump’s address to Congress earlier this year.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: Texas bill would lock up more youths in understaffed juvenile facilities

Delinquent youths tend to have better outcomes — meaning lower recidivism rates — when they receive intensive services and monitoring close to their home communities. The state’s juvenile justice agency has worked for years to reform operations to reflect that fact. As a result, the number of young people detained in secure state juvenile facilities has been cut almost in half since 2012. About 750 youths live in such facilities now. Senate Bill 1727 could reverse that trend. If it becomes law, more youthful offenders are likely to wind up in one of the state’s five secure facilities and remain there longer. They could even be transferred to adult prison at a younger age. These provisions would drive up juvenile justice costs without producing a commensurate increase in public safety. The bill’s stated purpose is to increase accountability and address violence against Texas Juvenile Justice Department staff.

However, many assaults, whether against peers, correctional officers or other employees, probably result from staff shortages and high turnover rates in secure facilities.The agency’s human resources plan for fiscal year 2025 revealed a turnover rate of 70.6% among juvenile correction officers in FY 2024. In FY 2023, only 38.4% remained in their jobs nine months after completing training. In addition, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation released last year showed that staff were overly quick to resort to physical coercion to quell misbehavior. Employees were equipped with jumbo canisters of pepper spray, used it more often than necessary, and sprayed the irritant directly into juveniles’ faces “for excessive lengths of time.” And even though 85% of youthful offenders in state facilities have moderate to severe mental health issues, only about half had treatment plans. Extended isolation is harmful to children and adults, but youngsters in state custody routinely spend 17 to 22 hours alone in their cells, the Justice Department found. The state agency also had “a pervasive atmosphere of sexual abuse, grooming, and lack of staff accountability,” according to the federal investigation. SB 1727 only makes the juvenile justice system more punitive. The bill further restricts the types of offenses for which a youth can receive community supervision. It drops the number of felony offenses required, from three to two, for a juvenile to be considered a “habitual felony offender.” It lowers the age at which young people could be transferred to adult prison from 16 to 15. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is scheduled for its next Sunset Advisory Commission review in 2026. Until lawmakers see the results of that performance audit, they should avoid bills like SB 1727, which would send more youths to secure facilities. Instead, legislators should ensure that the agency is fully funded and staffed, and can deliver appropriate mental health and rehabilitation services in its secure facilities. It is counterproductive to send more young offenders to facilities that cannot properly care for the youngsters they already have.

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Move over ACL. H-E-B launches its own Austin music festival, 'True Texas Tunes.'

Move over, Austin City Limits. There's a new music festival in town. To help benefit an Austin-based nonprofit, H-E-B is launching a live music series called "True Texas Tunes" at its newly renovated, multistory location on South Congress Avenue. The Texas-grown grocer is partnering with Austin nonprofit Housing Opportunities for Musicians and Entertainers — or HOME — to bring live music to its freshly upgraded location at 2400 S. Congress Ave., which reopened in December last year after undergoing substantial renovations. The live music series' debut show will kick off from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 17, featuring a performance from Marcia Ball's Boogie Trinity. After that, each show will land at the same time on the third Saturday of each month. According to Heidi Anderson, H-E-B's senior director of public affairs, this show series is in perfect tune with Austin's live music culture.

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High-speed chases added to Uvalde shooting chaos. Chases are down 3 years later — but trauma remains

It’s early April in Uvalde. That means professional barbecue chefs and hobbyist grillers make their way to the Uvalde County Fairplex, preparing ribs, brisket and barbacoa for their overnight smoke ahead of an annual weekend cookoff. This event is special to the roughly 12 competitors in attendance from across the 830 area code. It’s part of an annual scholarship fundraiser in memory of Makenna Elrod Seiler. A gunman killed the 10-year-old student and 20 others at Robb Elementary School three years ago. Registered nurse Sarah Reyes sits out under a canopy as her husband Mike mans the grills. The couple lives a mile from the border in Del Rio, but they travel the area entering plates from their Whatcha Smokin’ food truck in local competitions like these.

Cookoff travel brings Reyes, 50, and her husband into town frequently. But they make a point never to miss the Makenna Elrod Seiler Memorial Scholarship Event. Reyes remembers the shooting, its aftermath and the palpable sense of shock it brought to the small city of about 15,000 people. “Everybody was on edge,” Reyes said. “You walked into a convenience store and everybody looked at you like, 'who's coming in? Who's going out?’ It was just a really, really sad situation. So, this is an important event for us to continue to do in her memory.” Among the often-reported but seldom-explored facts of the tragedy is one key finding of a special Texas House committee’s investigation into the shooting: “bailouts” occurred so frequently in law enforcement pursuits near Robb at the time teachers and administrators became desensitized to the resulting schoolwide “Raptor” emergency alerts, lawmakers found. These alerts didn't specify what each emergency was. A former Robb administrator estimated bailouts prompted about 90% of lockdown or secure alerts in the first half of 2022. The colloquial term “bailout” describes the practice of high-speed pursuit suspects stopping or crashing the vehicle, then “bailing out" of the car and running. The lead-up to the shooting did involve a crash — the shooter crashed into a ditch while driving toward Robb — but he wasn’t being pursued. Two men called 911 after they walked toward his truck and he started shooting. In the two years leading up to the shooting, 57 vehicle pursuits in Uvalde County alone ended in what could be categorized as a bailout: either suspects escaped on foot or fled on foot before they were apprehended, according to Texas Department of Public Safety data, which includes some but not all chases started by local and federal agencies.

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Bill making bookstores liable for ‘obscene displays’ appears dead in Texas House

A bill that would have exposed booksellers to lawsuits over materials deemed inappropriate for children appears dead in the Texas House after missing key deadlines. House Bill 1375 would allow people to sue bookstores for selling or displaying books that are considered “harmful” to children. Supporters argue the measure is meant to protect young readers from obscene content, but critics warned it could open the door to widespread censorship. The bill, filed by Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, did not get a second reading on the House floor last week, making it effectively dead for this legislative session. However, the bill could technically still be revived as an amendment tacked on to another bill in the legislature.

Schatzline did not respond to KERA’s calls and emails for comment, but he told the House Judiciary and Civil Prudence Committee, “obscene displays, especially those targeted at children, can be extremely detrimental to a child's well-being,” according to the bill’s analysis. Dallas-based Half Price Books was a vocal opponent of the legislation, warning it placed an unrealistic burden on sellers and effectively required them to screen every title for potential objections. In an interview with KERA News, company President Kathy Doyle Thomas said she's still concerned about similar efforts in the future. The legislation would have threatened all independent booksellers, and shifted responsibility away from families onto businesses, she said. “If you don’t want your child to read a book, then take it away from them,” Doyle Thomas said. “That is your right as a parent — not to tell me what I can and can’t read.”

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Closing some smaller elementary schools could save Fort Bend ISD $13M, report shows

Fort Bend ISD is built for more than 100,000 students, but recent demographic projections show enrollment stagnating around 80,000 students until 2034, an outlook that could force school closures to save money, officials told a full boardroom Monday. Closing or consolidating some of the 19 elementary campuses with less than 600 students could save the district $13 million, auditors said. With an estimated budget shortfall of $34 million for next school year and having already undergone $30 million in reductions over the past two years, Fort Bend ISD leaders appear to have few options to save money. The audit conducted by an outside firm presented a “what-if” scenario of budget reductions Monday that could save the district $17.4 million in the upcoming school year, including potential school closures.

Auditors did not provide recommendations for specific campus closures or consolidations, and Chief Financial Officer Bryan Guinn said the district does not have a plan yet, but the board will have to vote on next year’s budget in late June. Guinn encouraged trustees to consider using 7 cents in so-called disaster pennies to lessen needed budget cuts. The consolidation or closure of 19 low-enrollment elementary schools would save the district money, as auditors said it costs around $1,800 more per student for the 9,175 students served at smaller elementary schools. “Based on this map, it appears that each elementary school with fewer than 600 students has at least one opportunity to merge with a contiguous small school,” the report read. Budget reductions before the 2023-2024 school year included the consolidation of four elementary schools into two — Mission Glen and Mission Bend and Briargate and Blue Ridge elementaries — although both consolidated campuses still have less than 600 students enrolled, according to Texas Education Agency data.

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Houston judge orders U.S. to find Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador

A Houston judge on Monday ordered the U.S. government to track down a Venezuelan man who is believed to have been deported to El Salvador after government attorneys told the court they did not know where he was. Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino, 24, was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last fall after arriving in Houston as a refugee, but his family and attorneys stopped hearing from him on March 15 as his asylum case was awaiting a decision. Days later, his name appeared on a flight manifest published by CBS News identifying the 238 Venezuelan men who had been deported to a mega prison in El Salvador. Neither his family nor his legal team has had contact with him since.

Agelviz Sanguino’s family filed suit earlier this month alleging that his right to due process had been violated and demanding his return. On Monday, Judge Keith Ellison of the United States District Court in the Southern District of Texas issued an order giving the government 24 hours to confirm Agelviz Sanguino’s location and health, and explain to the court the “legal basis for his continued detention.” Ellison also ruled that the government must reestablish communication between Agelviz-Sanguino and his attorneys within two days and provide them with contact information for the prison where he is being held. During Monday’s hearing, Ellison seemed to allude to similar cases around the country in which the government has disregarded court orders to return some migrants, such as Maryland’s Kilmar Abrego Garcia, from El Salvador. “It’s not always clear to me that the executive branch and judicial branches have communicated as well as they should have in this series of cases,” Ellison said.

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Fort Bend County Judge KP George requests money laundering trial be moved to new courtroom or county

Fort Bend County Judge KP George has requested to be tried for his alleged money laundering charges through another court or even another county, with his attorneys stating they do not believe George could get a fair trial under the 458th District Court Judge Maggie Jaramillo in Fort Bend County. George’s attorneys at his Monday court date filed a motion to have George’s trial recused, requesting that a judge from another county preside over the case. “We don’t think that one judge in Fort Bend County should be presiding over another judge,” said Jared Woodfill, one of George’s attorneys. George remained silent, stating that his lawyers speak on his behalf.

George, the county's top elected official, is accused in court documents of "criminal activity, namely wire fraud," and "tampering with governmental record" in the form of a campaign finance report. Both charges were committed with "intent to defraud or harm," the indictments allege. The alleged money laundering offenses account for more than $30,000 but less than $150,000 and took place between Jan. 12, 2019 and April 22, 2019. George took office as county judge on Jan. 1 of that year. George was arrested April 4. George has maintained his innocence and said that he loaned personal funds to his own campaign and later repaid the loan, adding: "This is a standard and lawful practice." It’s not uncommon for attorney’s to request a trial be recused, said Wes Wittig, assistant district attorney. “That's a lawyer's job to do those things, so I’m not surprised at all that they filed,” Wittig said. “Whether it has merit and whether it will be successful, we’ll wait and see what the courts do.” Woodfill blasted the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, stating that the Texas Ethics Commission should be investigating George’s alleged crimes, not the district attorney. Woodfill stated that the charges are “politically motivated” on the part of District Attorney Brian Middleton, implying that Middleton is investigating George because Middleton will be up for re-election in November.

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Harris County leaders question whether a county administrator is needed, push to close office

Two commissioners have begun a push to shutter the nascent Office of County Administration, following the resignation of the second county administrator in less than four years. Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Tom Ramsey argued at a recent meeting that Harris County was simply too large and diverse for a centralized administrator to oversee. “My skepticism around this office has nothing to do with the work that the office has completed,” Garcia said at the May 8 commissioners court meeting. “I don't believe a traditional county administrator like the one in Travis County will ever work in Harris County. I think it's a disservice to our constituents.” Garcia said the office created an unneeded layer of bureaucracy between elected officials and their constituents. He said commissioners were better equipped to represent the needs of their precincts directly rather than routing them through a centralized administrator.

It’s a marked departure for Garcia, who was among the three Democrats who voted to create the office in 2021. Ramsey and then-Republican Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle criticized the Democrat-led effort, saying the office would serve only the whims of whichever party held a majority on commissioners court. The bipartisan push came after Diana Ramirez, the second person appointed to serve as county administrator since the office was founded in 2021, resigned in April. Commissioners created the OCA to oversee the county’s 16 departments, including flood control and public health, and handle various day-to-day operations. Ramsey, a vocal opponent of the office since its inception, acknowledged the unlikely pairing and described the OCA as an experiment that had run its course. "We probably have come to this conclusion from different areas. But the bottom line is, we've had this experiment. We're going on four years," Ramsey said. "Harris County is a different type of organization. No other county in the state has a toll road authority like this. No one has a flood control district like this. No one has port considerations like this. Nobody has a hospital district like this. So there's a lot of issues associated with it." A 3-2 vote ultimately saved the office from being stripped of some of its responsibilities at the May 8 meeting. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who cast the tie-breaking vote, said the OCA was an improvement over the previous system, which was predicated on commissioners strong-arming staff into doing what they wanted.

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'Every corner of Texas': Harmony charter network gets $25M to fuel growth

Harmony Public Schools, one of the largest charter networks in Texas, has secured a $25 million grant to advance its rapid statewide expansion. The grant is the largest ever awarded by the Charter School Growth Fund, a Colorado-based nonprofit that aims to broaden the footprint of high-performing charter schools nationwide. It will be used to help Harmony expand its STEM-focused education model to high-need areas throughout Texas where “demand for excellent public school options remains high,” a news release says. “This investment represents more than just dollars — it’s a vote of confidence in the life-changing education that Harmony students receive every day,” Fatih Ay, CEO of Harmony Public Schools, said in a statement. “We’re honored by Charter School Growth Fund’s historic commitment, and we look forward to continuing our shared mission of expanding access to excellent public schools in every corner of Texas.”

Harmony Public Schools operates over 60 Pre-K through twelfth-grade college preparatory campuses in 23 cities across the state. During the 2023-2024 school year, its South Texas district served 4,848 students across nine campuses, with nearly 90% of its students Hispanic and over 80% economically disadvantaged, according to state data. San Antonio is home to four of its schools. Harmony School of Innovation serves Pre-K through 10th-grade students on the Northeast Side. On the far West Side are Harmony School of Excellence, which offers Pre-K through fifth grade, Harmony Science Academy, for sixth through 12th grade, and Harmony School of Science, for Pre-K through second grade. On Friday, school officials hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Harmony School of Science San Antonio campus that will serve third through ninth graders at 5578 Wiseman Blvd. The school will open in August.

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Bringing down the hammer: Where the Texas Legislature's gavels are made

If statistics were kept on the number of gavels broken in the Texas Legislature each year, it seems likely that this session would set a record. While presiding over the House floor, lawmakers have smashed at least 14 gavels and even shattered a tempered-glass cover on the speaker’s desk in a freak accident. (No one was injured.) The incidents have become so frequent and so well-known around the Capitol that state Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons joked in a social media post that “They’re ordering these gavels off of Temu,” referring to the Chinese e-commerce platform that sells dramatically reduced-cost goods. Although that isn’t the case, where the gavels come from might be surprising. State prisoners make every wooden gavel used in the Texas Capitol, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed to the American-Statesman. Inmates also manufacture the desks, chairs, flags and other furniture that populate the House and Senate, making prisoners a key part of the legislative process that shapes Texans fate.

The department that manufactures gavels and other furniture is Texas Correctional Industries, one of many “correctional industries” programs around the country. Like the vast majority of incarcerated workers in Texas, inmates who make this furniture are not paid, a practice some Democratic state lawmakers disagree with. “They should get whatever credit they deserve for that,” state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said of inmates who make Capitol gavels and furniture. “Whatever value (the furniture) has, it should be real” and paid into inmates’ accounts. The House purchased 400 gavels this year, while the Senate purchased 100, according to the TDCJ. Smaller gavels —used for committee hearings — cost $25, while larger gavels used on the House and Senate floors cost $40 each. The Legislature created Texas Correctional Industries in 1963 to provide inmates “marketable job skills, help reduce recidivism and reduce department cost” by selling products for profit, according to the TDCJ website. Only local, state and federal agencies, public hospitals, schools, universities and other public entities can purchase the prison-made wares.

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National Stories

Democratic Rep. McIver charged with assault after skirmish at ICE center, New Jersey prosecutor says

Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver is being charged with assault after a skirmish with federal officers outside an immigration detention center, said New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, who also announced Monday that she was dropping a trespassing case against the Newark mayor whose arrest led to the disturbance. Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba wrote on social media that McIver is facing a charge of assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement, but court papers providing details were not immediately released or publicly available online. The prosecution of McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption. The case instantly taps into a much broader and more consequential power struggle between a Trump administration engaged in a sweeping overhaul of immigration policy and a Democratic party scrambling for ways to respond.

Within minutes of Habba’s announcement, McIver’s Democratic colleagues cast the prosecution as an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents and an effort to silence their opposition to an immigration policy that helped propel the president back into power but now has emerged as divisive fault line in American political discourse. At the same time, Habba announced that her office agreed to dismiss a misdemeanor charge against Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested after he attempted to join McIver and two other members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation inspecting the facility in their oversight capacity. Habba said the decision was reached “for the sake of moving forward” and said she has invited the mayor to tour the Delaney Hall detention center and will join him herself. “The citizens of New Jersey deserve unified leadership so we can get to work to keep our state safe,” Habba said in a statement. McIver has denied any wrongdoing and has accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor. She denounced the charge as “purely political” and said prosecutors are distorting her actions in an effort to deter legislative oversight.

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'Dried out prune'? 'Corrupt' and 'incompetent'? It's getting nasty between Springsteen and Trump

They have some similarities, Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump — guys in their 70s with homes in New Jersey and big constituencies among white American men middle-aged and older. And both, in very different respects, are the boss. That’s about where it ends. The veteran rock star, long a political opponent of the president, stood up as one of Trump’s most prominent cultural critics last week with a verbal takedown from a British stage. As is his nature, Trump is fighting back — hard. He calls Springsteen a “dried out prune of a rocker” and is even bringing Beyoncé into the fray. On Monday, the president suggested Springsteen and Beyoncé should be investigated to see if appearances they made on behalf of his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, last fall represented an illegal campaign donation.

Opening a tour in Manchester, England, Springsteen told his audience last Thursday that “the America I love, the America I’ve written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” He added, “Tonight we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.” Springsteen later made reference to an “unfit president and a rogue government” who have “no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.” The next morning, Trump called Springsteen highly overrated. “Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” he wrote on social media. “This dried out prune of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back in the Country,” he said. The next night, also in Manchester, Springsteen repeated his criticisms. “It’s no surprise what Springsteen’s political leanings are and have been for many decades,” said veteran music writer Alan Light, author of the upcoming “Don’t Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.” “He’s somebody who has been outspoken in his music and his actions.” The Boss’ statements this week showed he wasn’t afraid to speak out “at a time when so many people and institutions are just kind of rolling over,” Light said.

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Forecasters: Most taxpayers would see tax cut under Republican plan

Most taxpayers would see their tax bills fall under House Republicans’ plans, according to a new nonpartisan analysis. About two-thirds would pay less in 2027, per the Joint Committee on Taxation. About a quarter would see essentially no change in their tax bills, and about five percent would pay more. Higher-income people would be more likely to reap tax cuts topping $500, though a majority of everyone making at least $40,000 would see such a cut. At the same time, the report shows there would be significant variations within different income cohorts.

About one-quarter of taxpayers making more than $1 million would face tax increases, the report says. At the other end of the income spectrum, more than 40 percent of those earning between $15,000 and $40,000 would see basically no difference, with their taxes changing by less than $100. The analysis lands amid a heated debate among lawmakers over who would get what under the plan. Democrats call the package little more than a giveaway to billionaires, a characterization Republicans adamantly reject. The report is unlikely to settle that debate in part because the numbers can be parsed so many different ways. The JCT analysis is the second one the agency has released in the past week examining how the benefits of legislation — extending a raft of temporary tax cuts while creating a number of new ones — would shake out among different income groups.

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US Supreme Court lets Trump end deportation protection for Venezuelans

The U.S. Supreme Court let Donald Trump's administration on Monday end temporary protected status that was granted to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the United States by his predecessor Joe Biden, as the Republican president moves to ramp up deportations as part of his hardline approach to immigration. The court granted the Justice Department's request to lift a judge's order that had halted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's decision to terminate deportation protection conferred to Venezuelans under the temporary protected status, or TPS, program while the administration pursues an appeal in the case. The program is a humanitarian designation under U.S. law for countries stricken by war, natural disaster or other catastrophes, giving recipients living in the United States deportation protection and access to work permits. The U.S. homeland security secretary can renew the designation.

Monday's brief order from the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, was unsigned, as is typical when it acts on an emergency request. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole justice to publicly dissent. The court left open the door to challenges by migrants if Trump's administration tries to cancel work permits or other TPS-related documents that were issued to expire in October 2026, the end of the TPS period extended by Biden. The Department of Homeland Security has said about 348,202 Venezuelans were registered under Biden's 2023 TPS designation. Monday's action came in a legal challenge by plaintiffs including some TPS recipients and the National TPS Alliance advocacy group. "This is the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history. That the Supreme Court authorized it in a two-paragraph order with no reasoning is truly shocking," said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of a UCLA immigration law center and one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs. Trump, who returned to the presidency in January, has pledged to deport record numbers of migrants in the United States illegally and has moved to strip certain migrants of temporary legal protections, expanding the pool of possible deportees.

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Meet the small-business owner suing Trump over tariffs

After a long day promoting her new cookbook, entrepreneur Emily Ley sank into her couch and began writing about the threat that President Donald Trump’s tariffs posed to her nine-person company. Ley sells high-end paper planners, advice books and other office staples online and at major stores such as Target. The only cost-effective way to run her company, Simplified, is to manufacture the products in China, she says. So when the White House signaled in March that it would escalate its trade war with Beijing, Ley wanted her Instagram followers to know who would foot the bill. “I cannot be quiet about this anymore,” she wrote. “Tariffs are killing businesses.” Ley watched as discussions about home organization and dinner prep in her Instagram comments shifted to debates over trade policy, with some commenters praising her transparency and others calling on her followers to switch to planners made in the United States. “One minute I was talking about how to make an easy pot roast, and the next minute we’re talking about an international trade war,” Ley said.

The post attracted the attention of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit that asked Ley to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the tariffs. Now the 42-year-old mother of three and one-time Trump voter is in the vanguard of a rapidly expanding legal campaign arguing that the president overstepped his authority and usurped the role of Congress in applying levies to almost all imports entering the United States. Ley said she had multiple conversations with the NCLA about what it would mean to sue the president. The NCLA describes itself as a nonpartisan organization that addresses violations of Americans’ civil liberties, but it has previously received financial support from conservative donor Charles Koch’s foundation — highlighting how backlash to Trump’s tariffs does not neatly follow traditional political lines. “I knew that I could be putting a target on my back,” Ley said. Bots have attacked every post she shares on Instagram with pornographic links since the day she sued the president, she said. Some customers have told her that they will stop buying her products because of the lawsuit, but she has also attracted new buyers who want to support her political cause.

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Trump proposal to repatriate Ukrainians, Haitians would use foreign aid funds

The Trump administration has devised plans to spend up to $250 million earmarked for foreign assistance to fund instead the removal and return of people from active conflict zones, including 700,000 Ukrainian and Haitian migrants who fled to the United States amid extreme, ongoing violence back home, according to draft internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The proposal, which has not been previously reported, was in development before a related May 5 announcement from the Department of Homeland Security declaring that immigrants who volunteer to “self-deport” to their home countries would be eligible for $1,000 stipends from the U.S. government. While prior administrations have supported using taxpayer funds for the voluntary repatriation of migrants, the proposal developed under President Donald Trump is unusual because it includes people who escaped from some of the most dangerous parts of the world and appears intended to bypass the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a U.N.-affiliated body that typically aids in returning migrants to their homes.

It coincides also with the administration’s polarizing bid to drastically slash foreign aid, most notably by dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and terminating 80 percent of its programs, including those that served Ukraine, Haiti and other troubled countries. In addition to Ukrainians and Haitians, the draft documents also mention Afghans, Palestinians, Libyans, Sudanese, Syrians and Yemenis, saying they, too, could be targeted as part of the voluntary deportation program. The U.N.-affiliated migration office does not support the return of people to any of those places, the draft documents say. The IOM did not respond to a request for comment. The draft documents were labeled predecisional, and a DHS spokesperson called them “outdated.” Even so, DHS and the State Department signed an agreement last week that details the same process, and includes the $250 million figure in foreign assistance funding that would support it, but does not name any specific nationalities that would be targeted for voluntary return. Critics of the proposal, including former government officials, said it is inhumane and counter to long-held U.S. ideals for the Trump administration to push people seeking refuge to return to countries where they are at risk of being killed. They also raised questions about whether such a plan represents a misuse of foreign aid funds designated primarily to support refugees and their resettlement. While the Trump administration is attempting to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country continues unabated — a crisis that has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands on both sides. Haiti, meanwhile, has been ravaged by gang violence and fallout from years of political instability. The State Department advises against all travel to both nations, citing significant safety risks there, and international law says that refugees should not be returned to their country if they face threats to their life or freedom.

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Lead Stories

Biden has been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer

Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his office said Sunday. The finding came after the 82-year-old reported urinary symptoms, which led doctors to discover a nodule on his prostate. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone. “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” his office said. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.” Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what’s known as a Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.

When prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it often spreads to the bones. Metastasized cancer is much harder to treat than localized cancer because it can be hard for drugs to reach all the tumors and completely root out the disease. However, when prostate cancers need hormones to grow, as in Biden’s case, they can be susceptible to treatment that deprives the tumors of hormones. Outcomes have improved in recent decades and patients can expect to live with metastatic prostate cancer for four or five years, said Dr. Matthew Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center. “It’s very treatable, but not curable,” Smith said. “Most men in this situation would be treated with drugs and would not be advised to have either surgery or radiation therapy.” Many political leaders sent Biden their wishes for his recovery. President Donald Trump, a longtime political opponent, posted on social media that he was saddened by the news and “we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.” Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, said on social media that she was keeping him in her family’s “hearts and prayers during this time.”

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The stark math on the GOP tax plan: It doesn’t cut the deficit

House Republicans pushed President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending bill past a key hurdle late Sunday night, but the last-minute grappling has them colliding with a stark reality: The plan won’t reduce federal budget deficits and would make America’s fiscal hole deeper. The current proposal would increase projected budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion through 2034, locking in tax cuts and spending increases that outweigh reductions in spending on Medicaid and nutrition assistance. While Republicans, who have vowed to reduce red ink, say higher economic growth will fill the gap, budget analysts across the political spectrum have panned the Republican plan, warning that it worsens the U.S. fiscal picture. The bill could reach the House floor this week, and it is a tenuous balance between the party’s tax-cut wing and factions seeking larger, quicker spending cuts.

To get a bill through the House with their 220-213 majority, GOP tax cutters trimmed their ambitions and scheduled some breaks to expire. Many spending hawks, meanwhile, backed the plan while groaning that it doesn’t go far enough fast enough. Others are holding out for more. The measure stalled in the Budget Committee on Friday. The panel revoted late Sunday and advanced the measure 17-16, with four conservatives—Chip Roy (R., Texas), Ralph Norman (R., S.C.), Josh Brecheen (R., Okla.) and Andrew Clyde (R., Ga.) voting present after voting no on Friday, allowing the bill to proceed. Party leaders spent the weekend negotiating with lawmakers pushing in several directions, and talks continued late Sunday. Conservative hard-liners such as Roy want accelerated spending cuts and quicker expirations of clean-energy tax breaks. He said on X after Sunday night’s vote that Medicaid work requirements will be accelerated but the measure doesn’t do enough to change the health program’s funding structure or cut off the energy tax credits. “We can and must do better before we pass the final product,” he said. But lawmakers such as Rep. Jen Kiggans (R., Va.), are concerned that clean-energy breaks vanish too quickly. Rep. Nick LaLota (R., N.Y.), sought a higher top marginal income-tax rate to help pay for a larger state and local tax deduction.

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Texas school leaders say state funding deal leaves out support staff

In their first opportunity to speak publicly about a new $7.8 billion school funding proposal in the Texas Senate, school leaders from around the state gathered at the Capitol to criticize the decision to cut back on no-strings-attached funds. They said they were thankful for billions of new dollars for teacher pay, special education and early childhood learning, among other things. But they warned the infusion wouldn’t allow them to provide raises for key support staff like bus drivers or custodians, and even with the extra financial help, they would struggle to close the budget fissures that have emerged in recent years. The best fix would be a large increase to the basic allotment, they said, a $6,160 per-student funding amount that districts can put toward any expenses.

Large city districts are like cruise ships, said Donald Hesemen, superintendent of West Hardin County Consolidated Independent School District in East Texas, while rural ones are small fishing boats. “We all have leaks. They could be bigger, they could be smaller, they could be at the front or the back,” Hesemen said. “But we have to have a correct plug for each one of our holes. In doing the basic allotment, we can adjust or fill those holes as needed.” The officials testified at a Senate education committee hearing late on Thursday about a funding deal that has the backing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows. Rather than increasing the basic allotment to provide billions of flexible funds to struggling school districts — as the Texas House had proposed — the latest proposal would make a series of targeted investments. The lion’s share of the funds would go to permanent teacher pay raises between $2,500 and $10,000, depending on experience and the size of the school district. Abbott designated teacher pay hikes as an emergency item earlier this year. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, the proposal’s author, reiterated Thursday that the best approach was a targeted one. With such a large infusion of new funds into schools, “we must deploy every dollar to ensure maximum impact,”

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Energized by Kennedy, Texas ‘Mad Moms’ are chipping away at vaccine mandates

Rebecca Hardy and Michelle Evans helped found Texans for Vaccine Choice with a group of like-minded women in 2015, as measles was spreading in California. They defeated legislation tightening Texas school vaccine requirements, and helped oust the lawmaker who wrote it, earning a catchy nickname: “mad moms in minivans.” Now, as a measles outbreak that began in West Texas spreads to other parts of the country, the “mad moms” have a slew of new allies. The 2024 elections ushered in a wave of freshman Republicans who back their goal of making all vaccinations voluntary. But no ally may be as influential as the one they gained in Washington: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptic. More than five dozen vaccine-related bills have been introduced in the Texas Legislature this year. Last week, the Texas House passed three of them.

Those bills would make it easier for parents to exempt their children from school requirements; effectively bar vaccine makers from advertising in Texas; and prevent doctors from denying an organ transplant to people who are unvaccinated. The Association of Immunization Managers, a national organization of state and local immunization officials, is tracking 545 vaccine-related bills in state legislatures around the country, 180 more than last year — evidence, the group’s leaders say, that Mr. Kennedy is changing the national conversation. After peaking at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of vaccine-related bills had come down in recent years. But the big fear of public health leaders that began during the pandemic, and accelerated with Mr. Kennedy’s political rise — that states will undo school vaccine mandates — has so far not come to pass.

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State Stories

TEA takeover led to academic gains but also turmoil in Houston. Is Fort Worth next?

When Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath warned Fort Worth school officials this month of the possibility of a state takeover, he acknowledged that such an intervention would be a major step, but said it was necessary for students who haven’t received the quality of education they deserve. But if the Texas Education Agency does take over the Fort Worth Independent School District, it wouldn’t be the first time it’s intervened in one of the state’s big urban school districts. In 2023, Morath took over Houston ISD, Texas’ biggest school district, after one high school received a failing grade for five straight years. Now two years into the state takeover, Houston ISD could offer a glimpse into where Fort Worth schools might be headed in the coming months. Earlier this month, Morath sent Fort Worth ISD officials a letter notifying them of the possibility of a state takeover. Morath told district officials that state law requires him to intervene after one campus, Forest Oak Sixth Grade Center, received a failure rating for a fifth consecutive school year. The school received its fifth F rating in the 2023 A-F accountability ratings, which were tied up in court until last month.

State law requires the education commissioner to do one of two things when a campus receives five consecutive failure ratings: Close the school or take over the entire district, replacing its elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers. The commissioner may also replace the district’s superintendent as part of the takeover. Once the commissioner decides to take over a district, TEA calls for applications from district residents who are interested in serving on the board of managers. TEA officials screen the candidates, ask them to go through governance training and conduct interviews. After that process is complete, officials present a list of finalists to the commissioner for final approval. Complicating matters is the fact that Fort Worth ISD closed Forest Oak Sixth last year and moved its students to Forest Oak Middle School. In his letter to district leaders, Morath said the fact that the campus is already closed doesn’t remove the need for intervention. But he also didn’t specify what form that intervention would take. All 2023 A-F scores are considered preliminary until they’re finalized in August, and school districts have the right to appeal. Fort Worth ISD officials have said they plan to appeal the rating, and Morath isn’t expected to make a decision until after that process is finished.

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Injuries, damage reported in Gordon after tornado warning

Injuries and damage to buildings were reported in Gordon after a tornado warning in the North Texas town on Sunday night, according to Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District 1. Gordon ISD officials said in a statement on Facebook that classes at the district’s only school are canceled for Monday, May 19. “No school tomorrow. Our first concern is safety,” district officials said in a social media post. “We are here if you need anything. There is lots of damage in Gordon. We are trying to assess as fast as we can.” According to the school district, none of the reported injuries are believed to be life-threatening. Damage was reported on the campus, including on the athletic field.

“We can’t thank you enough for the outpouring of love,” Gordon ISD posted. “We are most thankful that no life threatening injuries occurred. We do have substantial damage on campus. We will assess better in the morning when it is daylight. For safety purposes, we ask that everyone please stay off campus at this time, including staff. We need to let emergency crews and insurance adjusters do their job. Please stay off the football/baseball field. It’s is not safe. Cell phone service and internet are down and making it difficult to reach out to each of you.” “While we are devastated, we are Gordon strong,” the post concludes. “We will get through this. Sending our prayers and love to each and everyone in our community!” Gordon is about 60 miles west of Fort Worth.

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At Arlington town hall, Democrats call redistricting racist while Republicans defend maps as fair

Democratic politicians and some community members called Tarrant County’s redistricting process a racist power-grab by Republicans at a public hearing on Saturday — while Republicans defended the process as legal, necessary and long overdue. In April, Tarrant County Republican commissioners outvoted Democrats 3-2 to start the redistricting process, hiring a conservative law firm to redraw the lines of the four commissioners court precincts. Each Tarrant County commissioner represents one geographic precinct, except for the county judge, who represents the whole county. Local Democrats are up in arms, accusing Republicans of trying to draw Democratic County Commissioner Alisa Simmons out of her seat before she’s up for reelection next year. All five proposed maps would largely reshape the Democratic-led Precincts 1 and 2, making Simmons’ Precinct 2 more conservative, according to data shared by the county.

Critics of the maps say Republicans are trying to pack people of color into Precinct 1, diluting their voting power in other precincts. Republicans at Saturday’s meeting denied that redistricting has to do with race, including former Precinct 2 commissioner Andy Nguyen. Nguyen held the seat until he lost to Democrat Devan Allen in 2018. “The assumption that all minorities support one party over the other is false. I know many Blacks, Hispanics, Asians who regularly support conservative policies,” he said. “To me, this isn’t about race. It’s about equal and fair political representation.” Republicans argue that a redrawn map is overdue. Usually, redistricting happens after the U.S. Census every 10 years. After the 2020 Census, a previous set of commissioners voted to keep the map the same because the precincts were in balance by population. The law firm that led Tarrant County’s last redistricting process found that in 2020, the precincts had an overall population deviation of about 2%.

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Dallas’ Scottie Scheffler reasserts his dominance, wins PGA Championship for third major

Scottie Scheffler entered May with no PGA Tour wins in eight months, amid growing whispers that his three-year run of world golf dominance had plateaued. That narrative became silly after Dallas’ Scheffler began this month with an 8-shot romp in his hometown CJ Cup Byron Nelson — and downright preposterous Sunday, when he won the PGA Championship by five shots at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. “I always try to lean as much as I can on my mind,” Scheffler, 28, told reporters. “I think that’s probably my greatest strength. Today and this week, I really just feel like I did a good job of staying patient when I wasn’t swinging it my best.” It’s the third major championship for Highland Park High and University of Texas product Scheffler, combined with his 2022 and 2024 Masters titles. It’s also his 15th PGA Tour victory, putting him in more rarified air than ever. Before Sunday, only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods had won three majors and 15 tour events before age 29.

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Without public input, Texas House committee advances bill to end State Fair’s gun ban

A proposal that takes aim at the State Fair of Texas’ gun ban advanced out of a House committee Friday without a public hearing that typically precedes such votes. Only elected, appointed or employed peace officers are permitted to bring firearms to the State Fair following a 2023 shooting that injured three fairgoers. The Senate passed the bill in April. It would prevent contractors from banning guns in government-owned public spaces. The State Fair contracts with Dallas annually to use Fair Park. Residents or licensed gun owners could file complaints with the attorney general if they suspect a contractor is violating the law, according to the proposal. Violators would face a potential civil penalty of $1,000 to $1,500 for the first violation and up to $10,500 for subsequent violations.

The Texas Supreme Court last year denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s effort to stop the ban. Paxton petitioned the court to block the ban after unfavorable rulings from a Democratic Dallas County district judge and an appeals court with three GOP justices. The House received the bill from the Senate on May 1 and referred it to the State Affairs Committee. Traditionally, legislation is laid out at a public hearing, where lawmakers discuss the proposal and Texas citizens can weigh in. But the panel skipped that crucial part of the process and voted 9-5 to advance it. The rushed meeting came as the House faces a May 27 deadline to vote on Senate bills. While technically open to the public, the vote — which was not streamed online — occurred behind closed doors in a noon meeting that was noticed at 11 a.m. without a detailed agenda. Democratic Reps. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie and Richard Peña Raymond of Laredo proposed two amendments that were voted down. Turner’s amendment would have excluded properties where alcohol is served from allowing guns. Raymond’s amendment would have excluded any event held at a professional sports venue or practice facility.

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'Blindsided': Judson's newly elected board puts school closures back on the table to cut costs

Under pressure to reduce a record budget deficit, Judson Independent School District’s newly elected board is considering closing three more schools — a move that has sparked emotional pleas from students, parents and staff. In a board meeting that exceeded eight hours Thursday night, trustees voted 4-3 to have administrators review information on the proposed closures of Judson Middle School, Candlewood Elementary School and Franz Leadership Academy. The board will vote on the schools’ fates sometime this month. The controversial plans come as the district searches for ways to offset a projected $50 million budget shortfall next year. In December, the board voted to shutter Coronado Village Elementary School to cut costs.

The new board majority, including three recently elected members, believes stronger measures are needed to tackle Judson’s financial crisis. “We’re running out of time because we are running out of money,” said Amanda Poteet, who unseated incumbent Arnoldo Salinas in the May 3 city election. “These are the hard decisions that we got voted in to make.” The potential school closures did not come at the recommendation of Superintendent Milton Fields. While trustees previously discussed closing Judson Middle School, the elementary schools surprised the community. Judson ISD serves about 24,000 students across more than 30 campuses on the Northeast Side. Nearly 60% of its students are Hispanic, 22% are Black and 70% are economically disadvantaged, according to state data.

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San Antonio was home to some of the highest foreclosure rates in April

San Antonio had one of the worst foreclosure rates in the country last month, according to a recent study. ATTOM, which provides nationwide property data, released its April 2025 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report this week, collecting foreclosure filings from more than 3,000 counties across the U.S. There were a total of 36,033 foreclosed properties in April, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. This was a nearly 14 percent increase from last year.

“April’s foreclosure activity continued its gradual climb, with both starts and completions up annually,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “While volumes remain below historical norms, the year-over-year increases may suggest that some homeowners are beginning to feel the effects of persistent economic pressures.” In San Antonio, one in every 2,326 homes went under foreclosure, making it one of the highest foreclosure rates among metro areas with a population larger than one million. Houston also joined the list with one in every 2,147 properties in foreclosure. It also had one of the greatest number of repossessions with 114 reported in April 2025, as well as 1,202 foreclosure starts due to unpaid mortgages. Killeen-Temple also had one of the worst foreclosure rates among major metro statistical areas with one in every 1,590 units with a filing. ATTOM analyzed the total number of foreclosure filings entered into its Data Warehouse during the month and quarter to create the report.

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State places SAISD under a 'corrective action plan'

Following four years of having too many high schoolers at risk of not graduating, the Texas Education Agency is “informally monitoring” the San Antonio Independent School District. As a result, San Antonio ISD’s school board approved a “corrective action plan” from the TEA to improve the district’s Individual Graduating Committees during a school board meeting May 12. Under the Texas Education Code, Individual Graduating Committees (IGCs) are decision-making groups that identify high school juniors and seniors who failed two or more end-of-course exams. These students are then flagged as at risk of not graduating. The committees, legally required by the state, then assign alternative assignments, courses or projects for students to earn the necessary credits to graduate.

Less than 10% of a school district’s 11th- and 12th-graders should be at risk of not graduating — anything higher than that invites TEA scrutiny. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of juniors and seniors who’ve failed at least two end-of-course exams at San Antonio ISD, putting their graduation in jeopardy, has ranged between 12% and 14%, said SAISD Board President Christina Martinez. At one point, the percentage of students at risk of not graduating reached 16%, Martinez added. Under the TEA’s corrective action plan, campus administrators and staff must be retrained on the current laws and rules related to IGC implementation by May 30, providing the TEA proof of training by June 6. The plan also requires the district to “fully cooperate” with any information or physical inspection request from the TEA.

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Failure to Appear/Pay program traps Texans in cycle of debt

Kayla Miranda was going home in 2002 in Medina County outside of San Antonio when she was pulled over for speeding. Miranda, who was 19 at the time, had never had any tickets at that point of her life. The police officer said he could give her a warning, but he wasn’t going to, he had to teach her a lesson, Miranda recalled recently. The officer gave her a ticket, and with court fees, it totaled $250. At the time, Miranda said, she was working three jobs with no help from her parents, so she could not pay the fine. When she went to court and said she couldn’t pay, her court date was pushed back. This happened repeatedly for a year, even after she moved to Dallas. She said she wasn’t allowed to use a payment plan or the alternative of community service. Two years later, when she was waiting for her renewed driver’s license in the mail, she got a letter stating her renewal was denied because of outstanding fines from the ticket in 2002.

This was Miranda’s notice that she was enrolled in the Failure to Appear/Pay Program, which is managed by OmniBase Services of Texas, a private company that manages the program in Texas. A new report by Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit organization that advocates for equitable laws, says the program disproportionately affects people who have low incomes and people from marginalized communities. The program can cause negative ripple effects in housing, employment, and contact with the criminal justice system, the report says. For Miranda, that first speeding ticket and her inability to renew her driver’s license followed her for 22 years, even after paying off the ticket. It led to a cycle of financial stress, legal issues, and emotional toll on her and her family, she said. “It’s like it’s a hole you can never get out of,” Miranda said. The Failure to Appear/Pay Program was introduced in 1996 by state Sen. John T. Montford, who saw a problem with outstanding warrants and people failing to appear in court in Texas. This, as the bill said, caused “a significant loss of revenue to the municipality or county and the state.” The goal was to set up a statewide traffic warrant database and to deny the renewal of a driver’s license for those who failed to pay fines from traffic tickets. Since 1996, OmniBase has tracked and managed a database of court orders to deny the renewals of driver’s licenses for failure to appear or failure to pay or satisfy a judgment ordered by a court. It is implemented in municipalities and counties at their discretion.

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Austin gives low-income people cash with no limits. Texas lawmakers want to outlaw these programs.

Mariah Young says she grew so used to having the water shut off because of late utility bills, she didn’t realize it could be another way. “I would have to hurry up and figure something out because I didn’t want my kids coming home and not being able to take a shower,” Young, a mother of three, said. But Young says she no longer has to worry about the pipes running dry. Young is one of 97 people receiving $1,000 a month for a year as part of Austin’s guaranteed income program. Young says most of that money has gone to utilities and debt that piled up during the pandemic. Guaranteed income programs typically offer low-income people monthly cash payments with no requirements on how that money can be spent. Baltimore, New Orleans and Los Angeles all had or currently have guaranteed income programs.

But as quickly as these programs have been embraced, so, too, have they been attacked. In the past couple years, Iowa, Idaho and Arkansas have banned guaranteed income. And Texas may join them. Senate Bill 2010, filed by Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, prohibits direct or indirect cash payments to individuals by a local government. The bill has been voted out of the Senate and is awaiting a hearing in the House. If it becomes law, it would go into effect on Sept. 1. Officials, including Bettencourt, have been questioning the legality of guaranteed income for more than a year. In 2024, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued to halt Harris County’s guaranteed income program. The county planned to use federal funds to give $500 a month for a year and a half to about 1,900 people. In his lawsuit, Paxton argued the county that includes Houston didn’t have the authority or legal right to hand cash to residents without limits. A ruling from the Texas Supreme Court froze the program. “There is no such thing as free money — especially in Texas,” Paxton wrote in the lawsuit. He said a gift clause in the state constitution does not allow public funds to be sent to private citizens without a clear use. The same arguments have been made in the Legislature. In a public hearing in April, Bettencourt said lawmakers’ job was to decide whether these kinds of programs do indeed violate the state constitution and whether they should be explicitly outlawed.

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One year after a derecho devastated Houston, recovery efforts remain ongoing

It took a matter of hours, in some cases minutes, for a severe windstorm to sprout up and cause death and destruction in downtown Houston and the surrounding region. One year after a derecho blew through town — causing multiple deaths, tornadoes, power outages and damage to buildings and infrastructure — recovery efforts remain ongoing. Kris Larson, the CEO of economic development organization Downtown Houston+, said more than two dozen downtown buildings “endured some type of damage” from the straight-line storm with wind speeds reaching about 100 mph. He also estimated that between 5,000-10,000 windows on those buildings were blown out, causing 20-30 tons of shattered glass to fall on streets and sidewalks. "In the public realm, most of our work to help repair the damage is complete," Larson said this week. "But we still have a handful of buildings that are finalizing their glass repairs downtown."

Economic recovery also continues in the aftermath of the destructive windstorm on the evening of May 16, 2024, when more than 920,000 homes and businesses in the region lost electricity. Nishi Kothari, a partner for the Brasher Law Firm in the Houston area, said she represents clients whose storm-related insurance claims were denied or who received less money than they expected. "We have seen a lot of claims out of the derecho and then subsequently Hurricane Beryl, which hit later in July," Kothari said. "We've seen a lot of claims from Houstonians, where they felt like their insurance company either underpaid them or denied them wrongfully. And I've been helping home and business owners for the past year deal with these claims." The region’s tree canopy also took a hit. But in the downtown area, Larson said the number of trees planted during the last year outnumber the number of trees that were lost during the derecho and Hurricane Beryl less than two months later. “Some of the work around the community is still ongoing, particularly with private property,” Larson said. As the Houston region braces for upcoming summer heat and the start of a new Atlantic hurricane season — which is predicted to be more active than average — Kothari offered advice for those who are impacted by subsequent severe weather events. "We always tell people, ‘Try first on your own. Call your insurance company, try to work with them, submit your claim, document as many damages as you can on your own, take lots of pictures,'” she said. “Give them the chance to do the right thing.”

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No charges filed as police close Daystar abuse allegation investigation

A Texas police department has declined to file charges and closed its investigation into allegations of abuse involving the founding family of a major Christian television network. Last fall, Jonathan Lamb, son of Daystar Television Network founders Marcus and Joni Lamb, and Jonathan’s wife, Suzy, publicly accused Daystar leaders of covering up abuse involving their daughter dating back several years. The Tarrant County district attorney’s office said it found “insufficient evidence” to bring charges. “After a thorough investigation over the last year and a half, the Colleyville Police Department has concluded our investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse involving a child in the Lamb family,” Sgt. Dara Nelson, public information officer at the Colleyville, Texas, police department, told RNS in a Thursday (May 15) email. “The victim has not made an outcry and detectives obtained no evidence of a crime during the investigation.”

Leaders at Daystar — which is headquartered in Bedford, Texas, and claims its network is available in 2.3 billion homes worldwide — have denied any wrongdoing. “Although saddened by those who were led to believe the gossip, rumors and false allegations promulgated on social media, Daystar appreciates the love and support it has received from countless viewers and ministry partners and will continue in its mission to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ around the world,” Daystar leaders said in a statement posted to X on Wednesday. Texas has no statute of limitation in cases of child sexual abuse, Nelson told RNS in an email. “If any new evidence emerges in this case, it will be thoroughly investigated,” she wrote. In a post on X, Suzy Lamb called the action by the Colleyville police “a formality,” adding that abuse cases can take years to investigate. Lamb also disputed the claim that the investigation cleared anyone. “When our child is ready to speak – she will and the case will be wide open again,” she wrote. “Till then we rest and trust God to bring justice.”

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County Stories

Travis County sued by Texas over landfill

Travis County is being sued by the state of Texas over 148-acre landfill off Highway 290. The lawsuit alleges Travis County violated multiple environmental laws since the site closed down in 1982. The accusations reference an investigative report done by the Texas Commission of Environmental Health Quality (TCEQ) in 2024. TCEQ’s report details “erosion on the property” and “leachate leaks” across several parts of the landfill. Leachate is a liquid that is often hazardous and comes from several substances of trash. Environmental lawyer Bill Gammon said responsibilities to maintain a landfill are very clear.

“These are strict statutory violations,” Gammon said. “They’re one of the few statutes that actually has good enforcement ability, because it is so possible to measure exactly what’s going on.” Jeffrey Jacoby, the acting co-director at the Texas Campaign for the Environment, said he’s been familiar with concerns around the area for years. “You have issues with vectors—the birds and rodents who are attracted to open trash pits. You have leachate—trash juice escaping a landfill,” Jacoby said. “This can grow to be to have really, really profound negative impacts on people’s quality of life.” KXAN has reached out to Travis County for comment and have not heard back yet. We will update this story if a response is given.

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National Stories

How President Trump is sparking a crypto revolution in America

For years, crypto was viewed by many as a weird and fringe investment, hyped up by a bunch of math geeks and used widely by all kinds of unsavory characters, from drug dealers to hackers. It was known for spectacular returns — and spectacular crashes: Top crypto exchange FTX collapsed just two years ago, landing its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, in prison. Now, a radical shift is taking place under President Trump: From financial regulators to the halls of Congress and all the way to the Oval Office, the U.S. is fully embracing — and even promoting — crypto. It is a remarkable turnaround from the Biden administration.

And crypto companies are emerging as big winners. On Monday, one of the top exchanges in the sector Coinbase is joining the S&P 500, the stock market index that tracks the biggest traded companies in the U.S. "I think it's a historic moment for the industry and it's a really special moment for Coinbase," says Faryar Shirzad, the company's Chief Policy Officer. "Having Coinbase be the first crypto company that's on the S&P 500 and (to be) be in a position where more and more people are beginning to watch how we operate (and) what we do is really exciting for us." President Trump himself also stands to benefit financially. Shortly before his inauguration he even launched his meme coin — a crypto asset known more for being tied to Internet memes and jokes. And his family is getting into the action too with financial interests in crypto companies. Advocates of cryptocurrencies welcome the developments, believing the U.S. is finally embracing — and taking a global leadership role in promoting an area they say will help define the future of the financial sector. But critics are aghast, warning the U.S. is promoting an investment with a history of incredible volatility that will end up hurting scores of average Americans, potentially setting up a financial crisis like the one the world experienced in 2008.

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Mexican naval cadet, sailor identified as victims in Brooklyn Bridge crash

A Mexican naval academy cadet and a sailor died when the glitzy “goodwill vessel” they were aboard hit the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, Mexico’s president said Sunday, as U.S. transportation investigators arrived in New York to investigate the crash that injured 19 others and left the ship’s broken masts tangled with the bridge. “It was an accident, there are two people dead, and what we have to do is express solidarity and wait a bit to see what the causes were,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters, adding that Mexican and U.S. officials were coordinating closely. “The Secretariat of the Navy, and the authorities there [in the U.S.] are investigating,” she said.

Two of those injured were in critical condition after the ARM Cuauhtémoc drifted up New York City’s East River and its towering masts slammed into the bridge on Saturday evening. Video from bystanders showed sailors who were perched on the masts dozens of feet in the air flailing as the wooden beams they were strapped to bent and twisted in the collision. The cause of the crash was still under investigation Sunday, according to authorities, who have released few details. Transportation inspectors said there were no signs of structural damage to the bridge. New York officials said Saturday that the captain of the Cuauhtémoc lost control because of a mechanical issue and that the ship lost power before the crash. Maritime experts who reviewed video of the collision told The Washington Post that several factors could have contributed to the crash, including northeasterly winds and a current that might have pushed the Cuauhtémoc toward the bridge as it left port. They said video of the crash also showed signs that the ship had power and was being propelled backward, stern first, before it hit the bridge.

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Senate Republicans want to break up House’s Trump bill into bite-sized pieces

Senate Republicans say the House-drafted bill to enact President Trump’s legislative agenda has “problems” and are taking a second look at breaking it up into smaller pieces in hopes of getting the president’s less controversial priorities enacted into law before the fall. Even if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) manages to squeak Trump’s agenda through the House, it faces major obstacles in the Senate, where moderate Republicans say they oppose proposed cuts to Medicaid and fiscal conservatives say it doesn’t go nearly far enough in cutting the deficit. “There are still a lot of problems,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal discussions within the Senate GOP conference on the budget reconciliation bill.

The source said that while proposed cuts in Medicaid spending face stiff opposition in the Senate, GOP negotiators have yet to make much headway on reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which conservatives are targeting for cuts. The lawmaker said colleagues are talking about a Plan B if the bill fails to pass the House or if it hits a brick wall in the Senate. Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” suffered a setback Friday when a group of fiscal hawks on the House Budget Committee voted against advancing it out of committee. That forced the Budget Committee to convene again at 10 p.m. Sunday in a scramble to get the legislation moving and meet a self-imposed Memorial Day deadline for winning House approval of the legislation. The Speaker insists the bill is still on track but a group of Senate Republicans are growing increasingly doubtful about his plan.

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FBI identifies California bomb suspect as 'nihilistic' 25-year-old

The FBI on Sunday identified the suspect behind the bombing at a California fertility clinic as a 25-year-old man with "nihilistic ideation" who is believed to have died in the blast. The explosion Saturday morning tore through downtown Palm Springs, ripping a hole in the clinic and blowing out the windows and doors of nearby buildings. Akil Davis, the head of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, reiterated Sunday that the attack was being considered an "intentional act of terrorism." Advertisement He said the suspect had been identified as Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, of Twentynine Palms, California. Authorities in the small city, about 50 miles from Palm Springs, had said on Saturday that federal agents were operating in the area, without providing further details.

Davis told a press conference Sunday that "the subject had nihilistic ideations and this was a targeted attack against the IVF facility." He said authorities were investigating a "possible manifesto" shared online ahead of the attack, which he said Bartkus "was attempting to live stream." Advertisement All of the embryos at the clinic had been saved, Davis said, thanking the quick work of fire, police and FBI personnel. "They understood the sensitivity and the precious nature of what was inside, and they took extreme care to ensure that there was no loss of any sensitive material," he said. Palm Springs police chief Andrew Mills said he was "absolutely confident that this city is safe."

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The unlucky business owners who named their companies ‘DEI’ before it was a thing

Every time he hears about a U.S. company distancing itself from DEI, David Markley winces. Markley runs a car-parts manufacturing firm in Ohio named Design Engineering Inc. Yes, he sighs, that’s D-E-I. “You’re reading these headlines: ‘DEI is wrong,’ ‘Terrified of the aftermath of DEI,’” said Markley. “It’s disheartening when somebody’s, like, bashing your baby.” History and pop culture are riddled with examples of the misfortune of sharing a name with a political or societal lightning rod—or worse. A “Seinfeld” episode revolved around Elaine’s efforts to get her boyfriend to change a name he shared with a serial killer. In the movie “Office Space,” a character named Michael Bolton struggles with the association with the musician.

The phenomenon routinely crops up in the business world, too. After some consumers mistakenly linked Corona beer to the deadly coronavirus that was then sweeping the globe, beverage giant Constellation Brands felt compelled to issue a public statement in February 2020 insisting its customers weren’t confused and were still buying lots of Corona. Delta Air Lines similarly distanced itself from the highly contagious Covid variant of the same name. “We just call it the variant,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told The Wall Street Journal at the time. The 2024 presidential election put a spotlight on the diversity, equity and inclusion policies that had emerged in recent years as a staple for corporate human-resources departments. Since his return to the White House, President Trump has made eradicating DEI and other so-called “woke” policies a focus. Trump’s targets have extended well beyond diversity initiatives, so companies with DEI in their names aren’t the only ones caught in the anti-woke web.

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Trump and Putin set to discuss Ukraine war in high-stakes call

President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia are expected to speak Monday about the war in Ukraine, in a highly anticipated telephone call that comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at resolving the three-year old conflict. The call, which Mr. Trump said would take place at 10 a.m. Eastern, would be the second publicly acknowledged phone conversation between the two men since the American president’s second term began. The first call, which took place in February, was celebrated in Moscow as a sign of weakening Western resolve to isolate and punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. “Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end,” Mr. Trump wrote on Saturday on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, confirmed the planned call and said that the Kremlin is grateful for U.S. diplomatic efforts. The compliment was the latest example of attempts by both Russia and Ukraine to sway Mr. Trump with flattery and effusive language. “If the political services of the U.S. — which we highly value and are grateful to the American side — if they actually help us reach our goals with peaceful means, that would indeed be preferable” to the continuation of the war, Mr. Peskov told Russian state media on Monday. Mr. Trump took office in January promising to bring a swift end to fighting in Ukraine, but soon encountered the deep, seemingly irreconcilable differences between the warring countries. Mr. Trump has turned to a combination of threats and inducements — most of them unfulfilled — to get Russia and Ukraine stop fighting. But both sides believe that time is on their side. In his dealings with Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin has tried to appease the U.S. president by appearing to negotiate peace, but without offering any meaningful concessions to Kyiv. Given his repeated claims that Russia has the means to obtain all its goals in the war, making concessions might risk making Mr. Putin look weak.

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Pro-European centrist beats right-wing nationalist in Romanian vote

The centrist, pro-European mayor of Bucharest defeated a right-wing Euroskeptic on Sunday in a presidential election that analysts called Romania’s most consequential since the 1989 fall of communism. “What you did was extraordinary,” Nicusor Dan told the throngs gathered around his campaign headquarters in Bucharest early Monday. “You confronted the hate wave. This is your victory.” Then he addressed his opponent, the nationalist George Simion. “To the one who lost today,” he said, “we have to be united. I also offer you respect.” With 97 percent of the vote counted, Dan led Simion by more than seven percentage points, Romania’s Permanent Electoral Authority reported, a mathematically insurmountable margin. Simion conceded early Monday.

“We were alone against everyone,” he said in a video posted on Facebook. “I am proud of you and I congratulate my opponent for winning.” Simion, a MAGA-embracing member of Romania’s Parliament, once advocated what he said were the country’s historical claims on Moldovan and Ukrainian territory. During the campaign, he suggested that Romania, an E.U. member and NATO ally, should end its support for Ukraine. “I think what Mr. Simion said was pleasing to Russia,” Dan told reporters. “Exactly what the Russian administration says.” European leaders feared that Simion would align Romania with Hungary and Slovakia, countries that have disrupted the bloc’s unity on confronting Russia. Romania is home to a critical NATO air base and a key element of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system. Several leaders congratulated Dan before an official result. “I look forward to further developing the strategic partnership between our friendly nations for the sake of their stability, security, and prosperity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.

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Lead Stories

The coalition that powered Trump to victory in 2024 is starting to fray

President Trump’s victory in 2024 not only put a Republican in the White House but gave the party hope that its appeal was attracting new groups of voters. Trump drew unexpectedly large shares of young voters and Black and Latino voters—groups that had largely resisted the GOP. After broadening the Republican coalition, Trump is at risk of shrinking it. Trump came close to winning young voters—those under age 30—in 2024, a sharp reversal from his 25-point loss among young voters in 2020. He also made gains among Black, Hispanic and other minority groups, losing by a far smaller margin than in 2020. And he improved his showing among seniors. Now that he is back in the White House, these groups have grown increasingly unhappy with his job performance.

Since taking office, Trump’s job-approval rating has fallen across all segments of the public—even among his most ardent supporters. Now, he draws positive job ratings from only a few major voter groups. One is the group that has backed Trump since he became a national political figure: white, working-class voters without a four-year degree. Even among white, working-class voters, Trump now draws equivocal or even negative job ratings among women. His support remains strong, by contrast, among white men who don’t have a four-year degree. Trump’s improvement among young voters, those under age 30, was one of the noteworthy developments in the election. He lost among such voters by only 4 percentage points, a large survey of the electorate called AP VoteCast found. Now, disapproval outweighs approval by 10 points and even more than 20 points among young people. Similarly, voters who are Black or Latino, and those from minority groups overall, give increasingly negative assessments of the president’s performance.

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Could a $6 billion plan solve some of Texas' water supply problems?

As fast-growing cities, utilities and businesses clamor for more water in drought-stricken Central Texas, an ambitious $6 billion plan is emerging to meet some of their demand. The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority wants to build a new reservoir to hold water from the river, and construct more than 250 miles of pipeline to move that water throughout the river basin, which runs from Kerr County to the Gulf Coast. Dubbed the “WaterSecure Project,” officials say the plan would primarily rely on existing water rights that the authority already has for surface water from Guadalupe River, but it could potentially incorporate aquifer storage and brackish water desalination.

If it becomes a reality, the first water from the project would be delivered in 2033, with more available by the 2040s as the project is expanded, the river authority said. It expects utilities throughout the region to participate, purchasing water and paying back bonds issued for the project. The project could involve a new reservoir in Calhoun County, a new treatment plant, new desalination plant and underground storage wells in Gonzales County, and pipelines running all the way from the new reservoir to Kendall, Comal and Hays counties, according to regional water planning documents. It would be the latest large infrastructure project aiming to move water around the region, and likely the most expensive to date, with an estimated price tag more than double the cost of San Antonio’s Vista Ridge pipeline. In recent years, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and other utilities have also spent hundreds of millions of dollars building their own pipelines to bring in groundwater from the Carrizo Aquifer east of Interstate 35 to shore up their supplies, but the WaterSecure project would be the first large-scale system aimed at transporting surface water throughout Central Texas.

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Did a Texas gang database error help send the wrong man to a Salvadoran prison?

The mugshot photo from the Texas Gang Database shows a shirtless, bearded man, a star tattoo emblazoned just under each shoulder, next to the name, “GARCIA-CASIQUE, FRANCISCO.” Along with the photo is a date of birth, TxGANG ID number and a few lines accusing Garcia Casique of being a member of Tren de Aragua, the violent Venezuelan street gang. Only, the person in the photo is not Garcia Casique. His family and advocates insist Garcia Casique is a clean-shaven 24-year-old Venezuelan barber who was living in Longview, Texas – with no gang affiliations – when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swept him up earlier this year and removed him to a prison in El Salvador, along with more than 200 other, mostly-Venezuelan migrants. Law enforcement officials admit that the photo was of another suspect and the entry was removed last month from the Texas database, known as TxGANG, when authorities realized the mix-up.

Still, Garcia Casique remains in the Terrorism Confinement Center, the maximum-security prison in El Salvador known by its Spanish acronym CECOT, cut off from the rest of the world. Federal officials maintain that he is connected to Tren de Aragua. “¡Diosmi´osanto!” Mirelys Casique, Garcia Casique’s mom, exclaimed to USA TODAY from her home in Maracay, Venezuela after seeing the entry. “That’s not Francisco and those are not his tattoos.” The database entry was part of a slide presentation by Texas law enforcement officials obtained through records requests by American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, and shared exclusively with USA TODAY. Besides Garcia Casique, two other migrants deported to CECOT appear in the Texas database. Federal authorities said the faulty gang database played no role in removing Garcia Casique. And they insist that they got the right man. "Francisco Javier Garcia Casique removal was not erroneous," Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. "The mistaken photo uploaded to the state database [TxGANG], which the federal government does not maintain, has no bearing on Francisco Garcia Casique’s immigration proceedings." Neither the United States nor the Salvadoran government has offered evidence that the migrants flown to the prison are connected to Tren de Aragua, a gang that began in Venezuela’s prisons but now operates throughout Latin America. President Donald Trump has designated the group a terrorist organization and invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which he claims gives him the right to quickly deport its members without judicial review.

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It seems like every top Democrat running for president. They are.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky is telling reporters that he “would consider” a presidential bid. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the most recent Democratic vice-presidential nominee, says that if he is “asked to serve,” he will do “whatever it takes” to run. And Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who dodged a question about his presidential ambitions by mentioning the imminent birth of his third child, couldn’t help adding, “Babies get older.” Before the shadow primary — the quiet frenzy of courting donors, aides and the news media that defines the earliest stages of a presidential race — comes a period of politics that is a bit louder and a whole lot sillier. Call it the chatter primary. And this year, the talk about the 2028 presidential race seems to be coming from nearly every direction in the Democratic Party.

“Right now, I’m not running for anything,” Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary who ran for president in 2020, told reporters in Iowa last week. “But, of course, it means a lot to hear that people who supported me then continue to believe in what I have to say.” The party’s next primary battle is widely expected to be highly competitive and very crowded. Political kibitzers have flung around at least 19 names, crafting an early list that includes governors, senators, House members, former Biden administration officials and even some business leaders. In recent weeks, those would-be, could-be candidates have made splashy visits to early nominating states, held town-hall events far from home, raised eyebrows with a flurry of interviews, and quietly signaled to journalists that, yes, a run for president might well lie ahead. Presidential contests typically speak to the nation’s future, with candidates offering a fresh vision for the country.

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Texas Railroad Commission shuts down defiant oilfield operation after West Texas earthquake

A defiant oilfield disposal company that continued to inject wastewater deep underground in an area of West Texas plagued by earthquakes has been ordered — again — to stop. This time, Houston-based Blackbuck Resources must immediately stop operating its disposal well in Culberson County, in an area where the Texas Railroad Commission banned the practice in December 2023. The emergency order approved Tuesday by the commission legally compels Blackbuck to stop operating for at least 15 days. The order follows a 5.4 magnitude quake that rattled West Texas the evening of May 3 — a strong temblor that tied for the largest of its kind in Texas history. The practice of injecting oilfield wastewater underground is causing earthquakes in the area.

Blackbuck is the only company still injecting into the deep underground formations prohibited by the commission. In May 2024, the company challenged the commission’s decision to suspend its permit, arguing its disposal well was geologically isolated and could not be contributing to the rash of earthquakes in the area. The case remains under review by an administrative law judge. For technicians and scientists informing the commission’s decision, the matter is clear. The area near the state’s border with New Mexico overlays a system of faults being triggered as the wastewater drains, said Paul DuBois, the commission’s assistant director of technical permitting. What’s more, DuBois told commissioners Tuesday it appears strong earthquakes like the one earlier this month are migrating closer to Blackbuck’s operations after other disposal wells in the area have all shut down.

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State Stories

Texas’ education landscape seeps into San Antonio city races

Education, normally left to the state lawmakers who have policy-making power over local school districts, has become an unlikely defining issue in San Antonio’s city elections this year. Anxiety about the future of Texas’ embattled public education system has been front of mind for child advocates as the legislature drags its feet on additional funding it’s been promising for public schools. At the same time, major cuts are happening at the U.S. Department of Education and Gov. Greg Abbott signed the first school voucher program into law on May 3 — the morning of San Antonio’s municipal election. City leaders have almost no influence over local school districts, yet a number of youth-focused nonprofits are increasingly turning to local leaders to fill the gaps with after-school programs, early childhood education and workforce development.

“The state and federal conversations around education like school funding and vouchers and debates around [diversity, equity and inclusion] are shaping how people think about education at every level,” said Emily Calderón Galdeano, youth nonprofit UP Partnership’s interim CEO. “While those debates can feel distant or divisive, … we are capitalizing on this moment by reminding voters and candidates that city leaders have real power to invest in what’s working right here in San Antonio,” she said. That advocacy seems to be working. Just last year UP Partnership waged an unsuccessful campaign to codify in the City Charter that 20% of city revenue be used for programs aimed at children — a move that local leaders seemed intrigued by, but didn’t put to voters. Now, headed into a June 7 runoff election with many City Hall openings, candidates are giving education advocates’ ideas a full hearing across multiple forums and election events, despite looming city budget cuts and partisan pressures from both the left and right. “I know, today, unfortunately, people are very concerned about what the future public education looks like in our state,” mayoral hopeful Gina Ortiz Jones said in an election night interview just hours after Abbott held a public bill signing for the voucher law.

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John Moritz: Although scores of House bills died at midnight Thursday, some of them may find new life

Just after the clock struck midnight as Thursday night faded into Friday morning, the Texas House morphed into something of a graveyard. Perhaps "a salvage yard" would be a more accurate way to describe it. First, a little background. Thursday — Day 122 of the 140-day legislative session — was the last day for bills that originated in the House to be considered on first reading by that chamber under the rules its members agreed to in January. But the upshot was that Thursday's calendar was crammed with more than 400 bills the 150-member House did not take up earlier in the session. Given that the House gaveled in at 10 a.m., it was a given that scores of those bills would be stuck in the queue by the time the floor session would expire 14 hours later no matter how fast House managers might try to ram them through.

The last day's calendar was not a strategic list of must-pass bills, but actually a hodgepodge collection topped by leftovers. And those leftovers were there because many of the bills that the House had hoped to get to on Monday ended up being pushed to Tuesday because the chamber had run out of time. And many of Tuesday's bills were pushed to Wednesday, meaning many of the proposals scheduled for Wednesday topped the list on Thursday. But once Thursday arrived, there would be no tomorrow to continue considering House bills. But for all the bills that died with the stroke of midnight — and there were about 200 of them — many of them might actually remain on life support. And that's where the "salvage yard" comparison comes back into play. Bills that die in one chamber can be revived as "spare parts" for bills that originated in the other chamber. If the intent of both pieces of legislation is roughly the same, the moribund measures can be tacked on as an amendment to the bill that's still breathing. And there's still time. The House has until May 27 to take up Senate bills. And that means it might still be too soon to dig the graves of all the bills that didn't make Thursday's deadline. But the one drop-date that is absolutely certain is June 2. That's when the 2025 session must come to an end.

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Dan Branch: Texas’ Tier One moon shot

Texas is home to the most R1 research universities of any state in the country as a result of a moon shot that propelled the Lone Star State into the Tier 1 stratosphere in less than two decades. In the current session of the Texas Legislature, lawmakers are on course to take the next momentous step in the mission of transforming higher education in Texas. “Tier 1? and “R1” are terms that refer to the highest level of research universities, as designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Sixteen years ago, Texas had just three Tier 1 universities: Texas A&M, University of Texas at Austin and Rice. In the competition to retain bright students, attract cutting-edge innovators and win lucrative research contracts, Texas trailed California and New York, which led the country with 11 and nine such universities, respectively. In 2009, with bipartisan leadership and the passage of House Bill 51, the Legislature lit two powerful rockets that boosted Texas higher education.

The first engine, the National Research University Fund, rewarded emerging research universities with financial support when they delivered on valuable, objective metrics. The second propellant, the Texas Research Incentive Program, created a matching fund that equipped our public universities with a tool to encourage private donors to make groundbreaking gifts for targeted research. In its first decade, the National Research University Fund helped lift the University of Houston, Texas Tech, UT-Dallas and UT-Arlington to R1 status with distributions of over $200 million. Four other campuses accelerated even faster than many state leaders expected. The University of North Texas received R1 recognition in 2015, followed by UT-El Paso in 2019 and UT-San Antonio in 2021. In 2023, Texas State University adopted a “Road to R1” plan that targets R1 status by 2027. This fall, UT-San Antonio and UT-San Antonio Health Science Center will merge into a single institution. While the merger will compress our state’s R1 total from 16 to 15, the Alamo City will generate more research horsepower and Texas will still lead the nation with the most R1 institutions. Inspired by these impressive outcomes, the 2023 Legislature quadrupled this fund’s corpus to almost $4 billion, and voters approved this expansion nearly 2-to-1. The Texas Research Incentive Program generated even more thrust by delivering over $1.4 billion to rising Tier 1 campuses over the last 15 years. Incentivized by $427 million in matching public funds, private donors gave over $1 billion to public universities. In fact, private sector enthusiasm for the competitive program was so great that a backlog of qualifying gifts developed, as prodigious private giving exceeded the state’s biennial appropriations.

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Bradford William Davis: Greg Abbott thinks he’s protecting Israel. But he’s a hypocrite on antisemitism

What could you do with an extra $4.4 million? Two lawmakers from a small Texas city tried to find out. San Marcos City Council members Alyssa Garza and Amanda Rodriguez cited an estimate that millions of dollars from city residents’ taxes contributed to a foreign country’s conflict. Money they noted should be used to improve transit, support education, supplement housing and healthcare initiatives with a direct benefit to their constituents. So, Garza and Rodriguez drafted a resolution — meaning, a gesture without immediate material impact but carrying symbolic weight for representing the city’s commitments and values — calling for, among many things, San Marcos to seek to end its indirect participation in a foreign war. Simple enough? Despite a reported chorus of support during public comment, the resolution vote failed, 7-2, largely influenced by Gov. Greg Abbott threatening the city with a complete removal of state funding if it passed. I’m chomping on my tongue through the muscle to underline the absurdity of meddling in what is, at least partially, a small government business decision, but none of the facts withheld flatter him.

The foreign country was Israel, which has killed, officially, about 50,000 Palestinians in its military response to Hamas’ killing of 1200 people on October 7, 2023. (According to The Lancet, Israel’s concurrent destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure and access to food, water and electricity makes the death toll substantially higher.) That $4.4 million from San Marcos? Just a prick’s worth of the United States’ $18 billion bloodbath. None of Israel’s ongoing war would be possible without our politicians funding its weaponry. (If you’re counting, Fort Worth residents contributed about $54.7 million to the cause.) Garza and Rodriguez called for a permanent ceasefire to a conflict that can rightly be called a genocide, funded through American pocketbooks. Though Abbott made almost the exact same financial argument about our funding of Ukraine in its war against Russia, he accused the council members of “antisemitism” and proposing a “pro-Hamas resolution.” “I have repeatedly made clear that Texas will not tolerate antisemitism,” Abbott wrote in his letter to San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson in his successful effort to thwart the city’s efforts. “Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies.” Abbott doesn’t care that the city’s resolution explicitly condemns antisemitism. The resolution also called for Hamas — and, critically, Israel — to safely return its hostages. Garza and Rodriguez could not be more clear that their disapproval of Israel’s actions were not a referendum on Jewish people.

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A thirsty Tesla refinery could exacerbate Corpus Christi’s water crisis

Corpus Christi is a town built around water. But while the Gulf of Mexico has made the region what it is today, seawater can’t save Corpus from a rapidly growing water crisis. As the Gulf shines on the horizon, water for the town’s residents is nowhere to be found. Wilting plants, timed showers, and unwashed cars have become a staple as drought restrictions continue. Industries, on the other hand, face no limits on water use, and a resource-intensive expansion of new projects in the region, including Tesla’s new lithium refinery, is expected to add much more demand for an already strained supply. A Texas city the size of Corpus Christi, with a population of about 315,000, generally uses around 38 percent of its water supply for industrial, commercial or institutional use, according to the Texas Water Development Board. In Corpus, a coastal hub for heavy industry, that rate is at least 58 percent, according to Corpus Christi Water, the city’s municipal water utility.

“The City of Corpus Christi keeps telling us that we need to save water, but they don’t do anything to implement that on the industries,” said Myra Alaniz, a member of the environmental justice group Chispa Texas and resident of Robstown, just outside of Corpus. “We’re having to take the burden of the drought while industries, who make profit from it, go on their merry way.” Drought restrictions have been in place since the summer of 2022 and have only grown more strict. Now, Corpus Christi Water, the city’s water agency, is preparing to implement brand-new Stage 4 drought restrictions, which would make it mandatory to comply with the currently voluntary recommendations to limit car washing and lawn watering. “It’s called Stage 4, but the future recommendation from my office will be to call it an emergency,” Esteban Ramos, water resource manager at Corpus Christi Water (CCW), told the Texas Observer in March. “We’re at the end of the rope, and there isn’t rainfall on the horizon. … Calling it an emergency prepares our community and communities around us” for the next steps that could be coming. Yet, while residents are pushed to cut back on use, large industrial facilities in the vicinity of the Nueces Bay are still using the majority of the water under CCW’s jurisdiction—without restrictions—such as the energy company Avina’s new high-tech plant to process ammonia and hydrogen into alternative fuels and export it abroad. Last April, Avina purchased rights to 5.5 million gallons of water per day for the next 25 years—the last remaining supply from the Nueces River.

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Rep. Morgan Luttrell, ‘reborn’ through psychedelic therapy, wants the GOP to embrace it

Morgan Luttrell says he had never smoked anything, let alone tried drugs in his life. So the retired Navy SEAL had to ask a nearby nurse for guidance on how to inhale a psychedelic drug that was part of the final step of an intense three-day experimental therapy. Luttrell had traveled to Mexico in 2018 to take ibogaine, a drug that is illegal in the U.S. but is gaining a reputation within the veteran community as a potential treatment to address complicated conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. Inhaling a separate drug, called DMT, was the final step in the process. The Texas conservative, now in his second term in Congress, describes his journey as a last resort for people feeling trapped within their own minds, likening his physical experience of the psychedelic trip to an exorcism. After repeated vomiting, he lay on a small mattress at an indoor facility along with other participants. With his eyes closed, a flurry of colors, numbers and then math equations appeared, and he said it was like “looking at a movie screen, but it’s a movie screen of my life.”

The flashes of his past, he said, helped him gain a new perspective on painful life experiences, helping him be “reborn” and saving his marriage. Now Luttrell, 49 years old, is finding himself in another position he didn’t expect to be: pushing his party—which popularized the “just say no” slogan in the 1980s and has taken a hard line for decades on drug enforcement—to be more open toward what he says are lifesaving treatments that are currently illegal in the U.S. Luttrell is among a growing group of Republican lawmakers—many of them veterans—who are making the case for drugs that they say help address issues like PTSD, depression and substance abuse. “I had the inability to let the previous part of my life go and understand that my current life is what’s most important,” Luttrell said in an interview. He argues the path forward “needs to be medically based.” Proponents want more research and funding. And if the science supports their claims, some of these members say they hope the Trump administration will back their push to potentially allow usage of these drugs in medically controlled environments. They hope the drugs—including Schedule I drugs like ibogaine, psilocybin and MDMA—can become part of structured treatments and will help curb suicide rates in the veteran community.

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Thorny dispute over former Statesman site redevelopment goes to court

A judge on Thursday heard nearly three hours of arguments in an ongoing case that could impact the future — or at least the timing — of a planned redevelopment at a prime site formerly home to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper offices and printing plant along Lady Bird Lake. At issue is a lawsuit over the process of how, back in late 2022, the Austin City Council approved a special zoning ordinance called a planned unit development, or PUD, for the Statesman's former waterfront property just south of downtown. The Statesman moved several years ago to a new location near the airport. Opponents contend the PUD zoning was granted in violation of two mandates of the Texas Open Meetings Act: proper public notice, and a reasonable opportunity for the public to speak before the vote was cast.

Both provisions are central to the Texas Open Meetings Act, which serves as the foundation of a lawsuit filed against the City of Austin by the Save Our Springs Alliance, an environmental watchdog group. Attorneys Bobby Levinski and Bill Bunch represented the Save Our Springs Alliance in Thursday's hearing before District Judge Jan Soifer. The lawsuit seeks to void the council's Dec. 2, 2022 vote to approve the PUD. Attorneys Casey Dobson and Sara Wilder Clark represented the landowner, the Cox family of Atlanta, as well as Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group, which the Cox family hired to assist with the site's redevelopment. A high-profile mixed-use project is planned for the site, with multiple high rises and more than 3.5 million square feet of new buildings. Cox sold the Statesman but retained ownership of its 18.9-acre site, a property many developers had long coveted and said was ripe for new development.

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Travis County joins other Democratic DAs to sue Texas attorney general over new oversight rules

Life & Arts Podcasts Support KUT About Schedule Newsletters Texas Standard KUTX Music Politics Travis County joins other Democratic DAs to sue Texas attorney general over new oversight rules The Texas Newsroom | By Lucio Vasquez Published May 16, 2025 at 5:44 PM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email The Democratic DAs argue that Paxton's recently adopted regulations exceed his legal authority and violate the state constitution. Julia Reihs / KUT News The Democratic DAs argue that Paxton's recently adopted regulations exceed his legal authority and violate the state constitution. Democratic district attorneys and county attorneys from across the state filed lawsuits Friday challenging the constitutionality of new oversight rules imposed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which they argue infringe upon prosecutorial independence and violate the state constitution. The lawsuits were filed by a slew of Democratic DAs and county attorneys, including Delia Garza and José Garza of Travis County, Sean Teare of Harris County, Joe Gonzales of Bexar County, John Creuzot of Dallas County and Christina Sanchez of El Paso County. They argue that Paxton's recently adopted regulations — requiring district and county attorneys in counties with over 400,000 people to submit detailed reports and grant the Attorney General's Office access to certain case files — exceed his legal authority. Under the new rules, district attorneys must report indictments against police officers and poll workers, communications with federal authorities and office policies to the Attorney General’s Office.

The reports also require a wide range of information — including how cases are resolved, how budgets are spent, internal emails and details about how prosecutors make decisions. “These reporting requirements do not make communities safer,” said Gonzales, Bexar County’s district attorney. “They create barriers that divert limited resources away from what matters most, which is prosecuting violent offenders and protecting our community.” At the time, Paxton said the policy was intended to “rein in rogue district attorneys.” According to the state’s administrative code, noncompliance could result in prosecutors being removed from office. In a statement on Friday, Paxton called the rule “a simple, straightforward, common-sense measure” and accused the DAs of attempting to sidestep accountability. Paxton described the lawsuits as “meritless and merely a sad, desperate attempt to conceal information from the public they were sworn to protect.”

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Data center 'megasite' is coming to Lockhart as similar facilities strain Texas' water, energy supply

Only a few weeks after Austin City Council passed a resolution requiring various regulations on artificial intelligence operations, a new 2-gigawatt data center is coming to Lockhart. Tract, a Colorado-based developer, has secured 1,500 acres for a “megasite” in Caldwell County, only about six miles away from famous barbecue joints Smitty’s Market, Kreuz Market and Black’s. It has received enthusiastic support from Gov. Greg Abbott, who said in a statement that it will “create good-paying jobs, bolster the state’s power grid, and enhance our technology infrastructure.” However, data centers threaten to have a detrimental effect on Texas’ energy infrastructure. Data centers, which operate 24/7 and provide computing power for cloud operations and AI, require cooling units, fans and tons of water to operate. They account for almost 2% of overall global energy demand. Indeed, Texas energy demand is projected to nearly double by 2030, mostly thanks to data centers and cryptomining facilities, which account for about 50% of that expected demand.

As President Trump took office in January, he announced that Texas will be a cornerstone of his $500 billion Stargate initiative, with 10 data centers already under construction and 10 more planned. In a panel discussion on energy planning in April, Tom Oney, vice president of external affairs for the Lower Colorado River Authority, warned that data centers were a concern, saying: “The amount of load that’s coming to this area is something that we’re struggling with every day. ERCOT is putting out the alarm bell, and I think it’s right, because there’s not enough wires to move that kind of megawatts.” To address the environmental effects of multiplying data centers in the Austin area, City Council’s resolution requires audits overseen by humans, and it mandates an environmental study by Austin Energy, Austin Water and the city climate and budget offices over the next decade. It also requires the utilities to report an assessment of the impact to utility rates and strains on resources, and include recommendations on “ways to increase clean energy usage and water efficiency, address risks to the power grid, and minimize waste.” In a press release, Tract writes that it has secured equipment from Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative for an initial 360 megawatts of energy to begin in 2028. It has also committed to helping fund road improvements on FM 2720 as part of a community investment, according to Judge Hoppy Haden, who said it “shows they are invested in the future of Caldwell County.”

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The Texas Legislature gavels in and out every two years — but what about the actual gavels?

The Texas Legislature’s 2025 session gavels out in a little less than three weeks — operating word there being “gavel.” Those wooden mallets are used by judges to call a courtroom to order, by auctioneers to say “sold” and, of course, by Texas legislators at the Capitol. The thunk of a gavel is enough to sound the start of a new day in the Texas House or Senate, to show voting on a bill has ended, or even get noisy lawmakers in line. The kind of wooden gavel used varies between chamber and setting. Gavels used on the House floor are actually larger than the ones used in the Senate, according to the state’s official gavel order forms. Those House gavels come in at a whopping 16 inches from the head to the handle. Think of one of the biggest hammers you could buy at Home Depot.

For committee meetings, gavels are usually much smaller — with some coming in at only 10 and a half inches. But with all that banging in the Texas Legislature, gavels are bound to break — and break they do. As a matter of fact, one of the more recent breaks happened on the House floor last month, during debate on the state’s controversial school voucher bill. After hours on measure, tempers flared. Rep. Brooks Landgraf, who was acting as the presiding officer of the House at the time, tried to restore order in the chamber but broke the gavel and shattered the glass speaker’s desk while doing so. “The head of the gavel bounced up into the air after being struck, and then just came down on the glass top there at the speaker's rostrum,” he said.” “Everything was kind of in slow motion, and I saw it all drop right there. So unfortunately, that kind of brought everything to a screeching halt.”

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'Sacred site': Texas lawmakers fast-track changes in control of the Alamo

After a late start and some confusion, a bill that would overhaul management and oversight of the Alamo is speeding through the Legislature. A new, five-member Alamo Commission consisting of the governor and other top state elected leaders would assume oversight of the Alamo in late 2027, when a public-private $550 million makeover of the complex is scheduled for completion. The General Land Office has overseen the mission and battle site since 2011. The Texas Senate approved the bill on May 12, and it could soon be voted on by the House. Former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat who guided the 2011 legislation that put the shrine in the hands of the Land Office, said she believes the new bill will “pass and be on the governor’s desk shortly.”

“I’m so proud of how the state and the county and the city and everyone have played a significant role in the new vision for the Alamo,” she said. Under Senate Bill 3059, the new oversight arrangement would take effect in September 2027. Kate Rogers, executive director of the Alamo Trust, the nonprofit that handles day-to-day operations at the Alamo under contract with the Land Office, said she expected her organization would remain in place beyond 2027. A provision in the bill allows, but does not require, the new Alamo Commission to bring back the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the former stewards of the site, to handle daily operations. But Rogers said that was a drafting error. “There is not intent at the state leadership level to return the Alamo to the Daughters of the Republic at this time,” she said. “We have no indication at this juncture that there’s intent to terminate the arrangement with the trust.

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Charles Foster and Bill King: Deporting this law-abiding teen is not what this country voted for

(Charles Foster is one of the country’s leading immigration attorneys having served as an immigration policy advisor to President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. Bill King is a Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute and a former opinion writer for the Houston Chronicle.) She was four when her parents brought her to the United States, seeking a better life for their family. They settled in Georgia, where she attended public school, played sports and graduated from high school. After graduating, she began attending a local college. According to people in her community, she was also an active member in her church. A neighbor told reporters, "She has babysat for my kids for years. We adore her.” In family photos, Ximena Arias-Cristobal, known to friends as “Mena,” has bright eyes and a youthful smile. She is indistinguishable from millions of other American teenagers. We suspect hers would be the last image that would come to mind when Americans imagine the deportation of illegal immigrants. However, last week, a police officer in her hometown pulled her over for turning right during a red light. He discovered that she did not have a driver's license and deduced she was most likely not in the United States legally.

He arrested her. Later, she was transferred to ICE with chains around her hands and ankles despite the fact that she has no previous criminal record. She is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge next week in a deportation hearing. The police department later determined, by reviewing the dashboard video, that Mena had, in fact, not turned right on red. After observing a similar model and color vehicle run a red light, the police officer, who was momentarily blocked by traffic, mistook Mena’s vehicle for the offending one. The prosecutor dropped the traffic charges against her but she remains in ICE custody. In a post, DHS said that Mena admitted to entering the country illegally and had “no pending application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,” implying that was an option for her. That is about as disingenuous as it gets. Yes, she entered the country illegally when she was four years old, holding her parents' hands. The notion that somehow our legal system should hold a person responsible for a decision their parents made when they were four is revolting.

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Rice University offers lump-sum separations to eligible staff as part of long-term strategic plan

Rice University has launched a voluntary separation program for eligible staff members over the age of 50 — an efficiency effort that comes as the institution plans for significant growth over the next decade. The program has been in consideration for more than a year and is not connected to the federal funding challenges facing colleges around the country, according to a university official with knowledge of the initiative. “This optional program, developed with thoughtful consideration, is intended to support long-serving employees who may be considering retirement or a career change, while also helping the university plan strategically for the future,” the university said in a statement. “Rice is in a strong financial position and remains committed to investing in its people and mission.”

The so-called “Voluntary Separation Incentive Program” is available to staff members who are 50 or older with at least three years of cumulative service at Rice, according to an email announcing the program, which was obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Staff are not eligible if their salaries are fully funded by grants, however. Incentives are based on years of service, with lump-sum payments ranging from three to 12 months of salary, according to the letter. People between 60 and 64 will also receive medical insurance subsidies if they are enrolled in Rice medical coverage for the 2026 fiscal year. The program launched Monday, and applications will be open May 27 to June 30. Separation agreements will be finalized after, and the departures can occur on one of three dates, through next March. Provost Amy Dittmar and Executive Vice President Kelly Fox said in the letter that the program is meant to honor those who have served at the university and might be thinking about their next chapter. It comes after several years of investments in staff, including a reexamination and raise in base pay, a merit pool and lowered health care costs for two years in a row, they said.

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A Texas suburb that saw its population jump by a third is the fastest-growing city in the US

The fastest-growing city in the U.S. last year was a Dallas suburb that saw its population jump by nearly a third. The number of residents in Princeton, located about 46 miles (74 kilometers) north of Dallas, increased from about 28,000 to 37,000 from 2023 to 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday. The growth has come so quickly that the city — which more than doubled its population since 2020 — has struggled to build roads and infrastructure fast enough as it transforms from a farming community. Princeton Mayor Eugene Escobar Jr. said that when he first moved to the area over a decade ago, there were just two stoplights, and they had to do their shopping in the next town over. Princeton now has several stoplights and a Walmart, he said, but has had to implement a temporary moratorium on new home construction so infrastructure can keep pace.

Cities of all sizes grew on average from 2023 to 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2024 estimates, with New York City, Houston and Los Angeles seeing the greatest numeric gains and some cities in the Northeast and Midwest marking their first population increase in recent years. The U.S. Census Bureau said that two cities in that time period crossed the 1 million-population threshold: Fort Worth, Texas, and Jacksonville, Florida. Fort Worth now joins three other Texas cities topping that mark: Dallas with a population of about 1.3 million, San Antonio at about 1.5 million and Houston at about 2.4 million. Escobar said affordability has been the main draw to Princeton, which still has a small-town feel even as housing developments have blanketed the area. “It’s still cheaper to commute and live in Princeton than maybe live closer to work,” Escobar said. Median home values there, according to a news release from the city, are around $325,000, which is much lower than nearby suburbs.

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National Stories

Fatal blast near Palm Springs fertility clinic 'act of terrorism' - FBI

A bomb explosion outside a California fertility clinic has killed one person and injured four others in an "intentional act of terrorism", FBI officials have said. The blast happened just before 11:00 local time (19:00 BST) less than a mile from downtown Palm Springs, near several businesses including the American Reproductive Centers (ARC). The clinic said no-one from the facility was harmed. The FBI later said it had "a person of interest" in its investigation, but officers were "not actively searching" for the suspect. Michael Beaumier, a witness, said he was knocked off his bike by the blast. "It was that big of an explosion and I could hear windows shattering all around me," he said. Rhino Williams, who was at his restaurant nearby, told the BBC he initially thought the explosion was a plane or helicopter crashing.

He said he ran to the scene to see if he could help, finding a badly damaged building with walls blown out and the front axle of a car on fire in the car park. "That's all that was left of it," Mr Williams said. He also saw an iPhone on a tripod still standing in the car park, as if it was set to film or stream the explosion. Mr Williams said he rushed through the building shouting for any injured people - but did not find any. A few minutes later first responders arrived. Nima Tabrizi, another witness, said he heard a "big boom", a large cloud of smoke and the front of the clinic "completely blown out". The FBI said in a Saturday briefing that it was a deliberate attack. "This was an intentional act of terrorism. As our investigation will unfold we will determine if it's international terrorism or domestic terrorism," said Akil Davis, the head of the FBI's Los Angeles field office. Palm Springs police chief Andy Mills said the blast damaged several buildings, some severely. He added that the identity of the person who was killed was not known. The ARC in Palm Springs said the explosion occurred in the car park near its building. Palm Springs Mayor Ron De Harte told BBC's US partner CBS News that the source of the explosion "was in or near the vehicle".

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Mexican tall ship strikes Brooklyn Bridge, snapping masts and killing 2 crew members

A Mexican navy sailing ship on a global goodwill tour struck the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday, snapping its three masts, killing two crew members and leaving some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage but at least 19 people aboard the ship needed medical treatment. Two of the four people who suffered serious injuries later died, Adams announced on social media early Sunday. The cause of the collision was under investigation.

In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the ship, called the Cuauhtemoc, could be seen traveling swiftly in reverse toward the bridge near the Brooklyn side of the East River. Then, its three masts struck the bridge’s span and snapped, one by one, as the ship kept moving. Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8:20 p.m. collision. No one on the bridge was reported injured. The vessel, which was flying a giant Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted into a pier on the riverbank as onlookers scrambled away. Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts but, remarkably, no one fell into the water, officials said. Sydney Neidell and Lily Katz told The Associated Press they were sitting outside to watch the sunset when they saw the vessel strike the bridge. “We saw someone dangling, and I couldn’t tell if it was just blurry or my eyes, and we were able to zoom in on our phone and there was someone dangling from the harness from the top for like at least like 15 minutes before they were able to rescue them,” Katz said.

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Trump Justice Dept. considers removing key check on lawmaker prosecutions

Federal prosecutors across the country may soon be able to indict members of Congress without approval from lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, according to three people familiar with a proposal attorneys in the section learned about last week. Under the proposal, investigators and prosecutors would also not be required to consult with the section’s attorneys during key steps of probes into public officials, altering a long-standing provision in the Justice Department’s manual that outlines how investigations of elected officials should be conducted. If adopted, the changes would remove a layer of review intended to ensure that cases against public officials are legally sound and not politically motivated. Career prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section guided and signed off on the criminal investigations into alleged corruption by New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) and former Democratic senator Bob Menendez.

A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the proposal and said that no final decisions have been made. The three people familiar with the proposal spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear reprisals. Attorney General Pam Bondi has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of having weaponized the Justice Department and has vowed to remove politics from the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. Since being sworn in, she has closely aligned the department — which traditionally keeps some distance from the White House — with the president, ratcheting up immigration enforcement and refocusing the civil rights division on culture war fights that go beyond traditional conservative causes such as religious freedom. Federal law enforcement officials arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) at an immigration facility this month, and prosecutors charged him with trespassing. Trump administration officials have warned that three members of Congress from New Jersey — all Democrats — who were at the facility with Baraka could be charged as well. Public corruption cases are complicated and can be difficult to prosecute. The agency has lost many of its high-profile cases, including the botched prosecutions of former Republican senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and of former Democratic senator John Edwards of North Carolina.

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In inauguration, Leo XIV urges end of division: ‘This is the hour for love’

The Catholic Church inaugurated its 267th pope in an incense-laced rite heralding the start of a novel papacy — one filled by a White Sox fan, former missionary and dual citizen of the United States and Peru who sought to position himself Sunday as a humble unifier in an age of arrogance, hatred and division. The solemn service — which featured the new pontiff adorned with the sacred Ring of the Fisherman and pallium — on a brisk, overcast morning, anointed the first American and second Latin American to lead the world’s largest Christian faith. Since becoming Leo XIV ten days ago, the Chicago-bred pope has warned of profound societal divisions and rallied for peace in a conflict-plagued world. In words that reverberated through St. Peter’s Square, Leo appeared Sunday to reach out to church conservatives, while also repeatedly invoking, and echoing, his predecessor Pope Francis, in calling for the respect of cultural and religious diversity and consideration for the marginalized. He bemoaned “an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources” and urged an end to the “hatred, violence and prejudice” cleaving nations in two.

“Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love,” Leo declared. In a show of the multilingual nature of the papacy, Mass was in Italian, with readings in Spanish, English, Latin and Greek. At St. Peter’s Square, a multitude of 200,000 faithful, speaking a Babel of languages, stretched behind cardinals, bishops, royals, representatives of other faiths and dignitaries led by Italy’s prime minister and president, Vice President JD Vance and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte. Leo, a reserved 69-year-old unused to the limelight, appeared pensive throughout. His pronouncements, even singing, delivered a relatively youthful vigor to a Church led for decades by older men. Ahead of the 10 a.m. Mass invoking the ancient roots of the faith, Leo debuted in the popemobile, cruising the teeming square and the Mussolini-era Via della Conciliazione, to cheers and applause as the bells of the basilica tolled. Leo emulated Francis by traveling in the white vehicle unprotected, without a bulletproof cover. Outside of Mass, the pope has on his schedule private audiences with Boluarte and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended Pope Francis’s funeral and returned for Leo’s Mass. Vance and his wife, Usha, got a handshake and quick exchange of words in a receiving line, as did Secretary of State Marco Rubio. There were expectations that Rubio and Vance, both Catholics, would privately meet with the pope before their departure from Rome.

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In comeback, Journalism wins 150th Preakness Stakes

Two weeks after entering the Kentucky Derby as the favorite only to finish second, Journalism appeared beaten again entering the final straightaway at Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, the middle leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. Once trailing by as many as five lengths, Journalism was still far behind Gosger at the top of the homestretch as it squeezed between Clever Again and Goal Oriented — the horses so close they and their jockeys rubbed together — before finally finding open ground. From there, with jockey Umberto Rispoli urging him on, Journalism ran down Gosger at the post, needing all of the course’s 1 3/16th miles to author a stunning comeback victory at the 150th Preakness at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course. It was the second Preakness victory for Journalism's trainer, Michael W. McCarthy, who previously won in 2021 with Rombauer. As the gap between the leader and Journalism widened, McCarthy said he was resigned to a loss.

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America's largest remaining antebellum mansion burns down in devastating fire

Historic Nottoway Plantation, the largest antebellum mansion in the U.S., burned to the ground this week after a fire broke out on Thursday. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths connected to the fire. Fire crews worked to extinguish the flames with water reportedly being poured onto the rubble as long as 18 hours after the fire started, according to Fox 8. As of Saturday, the cause of the fire was still under investigation. "Some staff members stated they had gone into the museum and there was smoke. When they returned, the whole room was in flames," Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle told Fox 8, adding that it was "a total loss."

Daigle noted in a post on the Iberville Parish Government’s Facebook page that "The loss of Nottoway is not just a loss for Iberville Parish, but for the entire state of Louisiana. It was a cornerstone of our tourism economy and a site of national significance." The 64-room mansion was built by John Hampden Randolph in the late 1850s, according to multiple sources. It sat on more than 53,000 square feet and — in addition to the dozens of rooms — it contained 365 doors and windows and 22 white columns, Fox 8 reported. The property overlooked the Mississippi River. Randolph first arrived in Louisiana in 1841 and began by planting cotton, but ultimately shifted to sugar cane, according to the LSU Scholarly Repository. The scholarly repository article also notes that the mansion was named "Nottoway" after the county in Virginia where his ancestors lived. U.S. Department of the Interior records cited by Axios show that Randolph owned 155 slaves and 6,200 acres of land by 1860. In addition to the luxurious mansion, the property also featured several trees that are over 100 years old, several of which are more than 120 years old, according to Nottoway Plantation’s website.

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Amid global competition for production business, Hollywood is hurting

On a Hollywood backlot in Los Angeles, you can find a replica New York City street — complete with a diner, a newsstand, brownstones, a bodega and a subway entrance. It's part of the Radford Studio Center, a sprawling production hub in Studio City. In 1928, silent film actor and director Mack Sennett built the studio on what was once a lettuce ranch. Classic TV shows Gunsmoke, Gilligan's Island and The Mary Tyler Moore Show were all made here. So was the hit 1990s TV show Seinfeld. "This stage has a ton of positive juju," says Zach Sokoloff from Radford's soundstage nine, where Seinfeld taped. Sokoloff is senior vice president at Hackman Capital Partners, which manages Radford Studio Center and studios around the world. Riding in a studio golf cart to the backlot, Sokoloff points out the spot where the show's famous episode "The Soup Nazi" was made.

Trump's proclamation — prompted by a visit from one of his "special ambassadors" to Hollywood, Jon Voight – shocked and confused film industries around the world. But the president quickly paused to consider the idea, saying he'd meet with industry leaders because he wanted "to make them happy." In the days since, Voight, and fellow "ambassador" Sylvester Stallone teamed up with the Motion Picture Association and several industry unions to craft a letter urging the president to consider enacting federal tax incentives and adjusting certain tax provisions to increase film and TV production in the United States. The entire episode opened a conversation about the decline of TV and movie-making — and what can be done about it. According to FilmLA, which issues film permits, production still hasn't rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic and delays triggered by the writers and actors' strikes in 2023. Studios and streamers also aren't ordering as many shows these days. "With less work to go around, the competition for what's left is intensified," says spokesman Philip Sokoloski. Most states have some sort of financial incentive for productions. So do nearly 100 countries, including Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia. "Even Thailand [has incentives]," says Joe Chianese, senior vice president of Entertainment Partners, a global production services company. "The recent season of The White Lotus was shot entirely in Thailand. With the number of incentives here in the U.S. and around the world, producers really have a lot of choices." Chianese consults with producers about production laws, incentives and taxes around the world.

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Lead Stories

GOP plans to advance megabill in peril

Speaker Mike Johnson is racing to resolve a suite of remaining issues with the GOP megabill just days before he hopes to put it up for a floor vote. Warring factions inside the House Republican Conference huddled with the speaker Thursday, jockeying primarily over what to do about SALT — the state-and-local-tax deduction. But other disagreements are also raging around major spending cuts for Medicaid, clean energy tax credits enacted under former President Joe Biden and a slew of other issues that are part of a complex funding puzzle. Inside the meeting, lawmakers discussed how to make more room for SALT, with some lawmakers still favoring a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans to make all the math work, according to two Republicans granted anonymity to describe the private talks. GOP leaders have pushed back against such a move. SALT Republicans, including a die-hard group of five New Yorkers, reiterated in the meeting that they would not accept the $30,000 cap currently in the megabill draft.

The speaker also brought Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) into the conversation via speakerphone, according to the people, after SALT members asked her to leave a recent meeting amid concerns she was more sympathetic to her Republican colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee than her fellow New York lawmakers. Another Republican involved in the talks, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they were optimistic that the speaker would “pull a rabbit out of a hat again.” Negotiators in the room were working to find “a sweet spot” on SALT and things were moving in a positive direction, the Republican said. Lawmakers submitted a host of requests for estimates of how certain changes would fit together, and they are now waiting to get the data before making bigger alterations. Many “more details” are needed to figure out the funding puzzle around SALT, according to another person with direct knowledge of the talks. Johnson, leaving the meeting at one point, told reporters he was committed to working through a slew of major issues potentially impeding passage of the party-line package central to enacting President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.

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Texas Senate panel debates sweeping, $8 billion school funding bill after making significant changes

After weeks of negotiation, a panel of Texas senators met Thursday to discuss a multifaceted public education finance package that would dedicate an additional $8 billion to Texas public schools. Lawmakers have dramatically changed how the $8 billion will be spent since the Texas House approved the bill in April. The House’s measure would have added $395 to the base amount of spending allocated per student, known as the basic allotment. However, the new version — which was worked out between top lawmakers in both chambers during a conference committee — decreased that amount to $55.

The basic allotment is an important number for the state’s school funding formula, which multiplies the basic allotment by characteristics of a district and its students to determine how much per student money districts get to operate schools. Despite that decrease, Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 chair Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) told committee members on Thursday that the revamped HB 2 would give districts more agency. “There's more freedom and flexibility in the new Senate and House negotiated bill for the use of the basic allotment,” Creighton said. “Previously, it had guardrails telling districts how to use that money. So, we're shifting billions of dollars permanently off of the basic allotment pressures.” The broad strokes of the Senate Committee Substitute for House Bill 2 have been laid out in a bill summary, but the entire 225-page bill has not yet been made public. Creighton said that too much of the discussion around the committee substitute has been on the loss of funding for the basic allotment. Instead, he said the focus should be on where the bulk of the new money is going.

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Senate OKs bill to overhaul embattled Texas lottery: 'They have a two-year lease on life'

The Texas Senate on Thursday unanimously passed newly filed legislation to overhaul the management of the embattled Texas lottery by abolishing the commission that oversees its operation and placing it under the authority of a different state agency. The swift action, coming in the homestretch of the 140-day legislative session, would spare the lottery from being abolished, but would keep its operations under close watch for the next two years. "They have a two-year lease on life," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate's presiding officer, said after the 31-0 vote was finalized. Patrick on Wednesday acknowledged that the early-session effort to abolish the Texas lottery was a political nonstarter. "They like their Lotto and they like their scratch-off games," Patrick told reporters, referencing Texans who play the lottery. "So, we're going to fix it."

Patrick has been waging a campaign against the 33-year-old state lottery and its top managers since the beginning of the year. He even threatened to abolish it, citing what he described as poor management and lax oversight. The three-term Republican was particularly critical of the lottery's "under the radar" acceptance of third-party brokers that sell game tickets through smartphone apps. And after an app user hit the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot on Feb. 17, Patrick made an unannounced visit to the Austin retailer that sold the winning ticket and was stunned to see that the outlet was not a traditional convenience store. Instead it was stocked with "racks and racks" of lottery terminals "just spitting out tickets." "This is a mess, and if people don't have confidence in the lottery, they're going to stop playing," Patrick said in the interview at the time. "And right now, as lieutenant governor of the state of Texas, I have no confidence in the lottery." The store, Winners Corner, is owned by a third-party broker, commonly called a "lottery courier company." On Monday, state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, shelved his legislation that would have abolished the lottery and replaced it with the just-passed new measure, Senate Bill 3070, that would put the agency under the authority of the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation.

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FEMA head admits in internal meetings he doesn’t yet have a plan for hurricane season

The newly appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged in private meetings that with two weeks to go until hurricane season, the agency doesn’t yet have a fully formed disaster-response plan. David Richardson, who previously served as a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security and doesn’t have a background in emergency management, told staff he would share a hurricane plan with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after he completes it late next week. He said Thursday he’s 80% to 85% done with the plan. The agency is already months behind schedule in its preparations for the hurricane season starting June 1, which is expected to have above-normal activity, according to FEMA employees. Richardson said in a recent meeting with FEMA staff that “clarifying the intent of the president,” who has called for terminating the agency, was a challenge in preparing a strategy for hurricane season, according to a video recording of the meeting viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

He also seemed to express surprise at the vast range of FEMA’s responsibilities, raising concerns among career officials about his ability to run the nation’s disaster-management agency. Richardson, who leads FEMA in an acting capacity, took over the complex agency last week. “I feel a little bit like Bubba from ‘Forrest Gump,’ ” Richardson said, according to the video. “We’ve got hurricanes, we’ve got fires, we’ve got mudslides, we’ve got flash floods, we’ve got tornadoes, we’ve got droughts, we’ve got heat waves and now we’ve got volcanoes to worry about.” FEMA has been struggling with a steep decline in its workforce, turmoil in its upper ranks and no clear direction about the future of the agency, according to more than a half dozen current FEMA employees and documents reviewed by the Journal. Trump signed an executive order in January that established a FEMA review council to overhaul the agency. Richardson has been drafting the plan for hurricane preparedness without the expertise of FEMA staff who are usually responsible for putting it together every year, some of those agency employees said.

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State Stories

Ending use of NDAs to silence abuse survivors passes Texas Senate after fast-track

A ban on using nondisclosure agreements to silence abuse survivors passed the Texas Senate unanimously — though it may still face hurdles on its path to the governor’s desk. “Trey’s Law,” which was championed by two North Texas lawmakers in the wake of prominent church sex abuse scandals, was fast-tracked Thursday afternoon and passed the Senate 31-0. A House version of the proposal by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, passed unanimously in early April, but it was stuck in limbo for weeks awaiting a Senate committee hearing. Leach worried then that senators were trying to weaken his bill.

On Thursday, the Senate passed Sen. Angela Paxton’s, R-McKinney, version of Trey’s Law that was identical to Leach’s, which banned such nondisclosure agreements in sexual abuse cases involving not only children but adults. Robert Morris’ accuser Cindy Clemishire previously testified in support of the bill at public hearings. She alleged that Morris, who founded Gateway Church, offered her a settlement if she signed an NDA. Elizabeth Carlock Phillips of Highland Park, the sister of the bill’s namesake Trey Carlock, has also testified in support of the bill. Phillips alleged in March testimony that her brother, who died by suicide in 2019, was abused by a camp counselor and signed a settlement he called “blood money” that included a nondisclosure agreement. The passage of Paxton’s bill means Trey’s Law can’t go directly to the governor’s desk as it would have if the Senate adopted the House’s version. “The bill now has to go back through the House process, where it was already voted out of committee unanimously and passed the House floor unanimously,” Phillips said..

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More than 120 Texas organizations urge lawmakers to act on child care affordability

A coalition of over 120 Texas organizations is calling on state lawmakers to take urgent action to make child care more affordable for families, as tens of thousands remain on lengthy waitlists for financial assistance. The groups recently signed a letter urging the Texas Legislature to prioritize funding for The Texas Workforce Commission's Child Care Scholarship Program. The push comes as the average cost of child care in Austin now exceeds $1,200 per month, according to management software company Bright Wheel, putting significant strain on working families. Kassandra Gonzalez, a young mother from Texas, knows these challenges firsthand. After giving birth, she was forced to drop out of college because she could not afford tuition and childcare.

“It was a struggle," said Gonzalez. "It was just check by check that I was trying to live off of, so it's difficult to deal with." Gonzalez eventually received a child care scholarship through the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), which allowed her to return to college while working full-time. “My scholarship is for the whole thing, so it covers all the bases- the whole bill for daycare and everything,” said Gonzalez, who is now on track to graduate this fall. According to TWC, approximately 95,000 families are currently on the waitlist for child care scholarships, with wait times estimated to be as long as two years in some areas. The demand for assistance has increased as more parents return to the workforce, while federal pandemic relief funds that previously expanded access are set to expire soon. To address the crisis, lawmakers are considering House Bill 500, a supplemental budget measure that would allocate $100 million in state funding to remove 10,000 families from the waitlist. If passed, it would mark the first time the Texas Legislature has committed state funding to the program.

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This year's first major heat wave is here. How will the ERCOT power grid hold up?

The Texas power grid is expected to sail through the first major heat wave of the year without issue, largely thanks to its diverse and growing mix of power plants and renewable energy. That’s an observation energy professionals closely following the Texas Legislature made with some irony, as state lawmakers have proposed numerous bills to constrain the very same renewable energy that's expected to help keep the power grid afloat this week. "If there is not a crisis (this week), it's in part because of these resources that right now get considered to be not important or not having very much value,” said Aaron Zubaty, CEO of Eolian, a California-based company with battery storage projects in Texas. Electricity demand increases during hot weather as Texans tend to crank up the air-conditioning when the heat arrives. And this week, extreme heat is expected to arrive unseasonably early: Temperatures are forecast in the mid-to-high 90s for the Houston area, while San Antonio and Austin could eclipse 100 degrees.

Electricity demand is also expected to be unseasonably high. In fact, power demand could set an all-time May record of 81 gigawatts Wednesday afternoon, according to forecasts from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the operator of the state’s main power grid. For comparison, the all-time power demand record on the ERCOT grid is 85.5 gigawatts, set during a record-shattering heat wave in August 2023. Still, ERCOT does not anticipate electricity shortages this week, spokesperson Trudi Webster said in an email statement. ERCOT's main role is to ensure electricity supply matches demand at all times. It has the authority to order rotating blackouts to reduce power demand as a last resort. “The grid is operating under normal conditions, and we expect to have sufficient capacity to meet demand,” Webster said.As recently as three to four years ago, a similar May heat wave to the one Texas is seeing this week would’ve “almost certainly” brought a power grid emergency during the hottest afternoon hours, Stoic Energy Consulting president Doug Lewin wrote in his newsletter on Monday. Just two summers ago, a string of days with 80-plus gigawatts of power demand forced ERCOT to issue nearly a dozen requests for Texans to conserve electricity use to stave off rotating blackouts. What’s changed? The ERCOT grid has added more solar arrays to cushion the grid during the hottest hours, and more battery storage to help fossil fuel power plants fill in the gaps when solar power is unavailable, said Rob Allerman, a senior director at Enverus, an energy analytics company.

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Democrat edges out leading Republican in Texas Senate race—GOP poll

A new poll of the 2026 Texas Senate race shows Attorney General Ken Paxton, the leading candidate in the Republican primary, trailing former Representative Colin Allred, a Democrat, in the Lone Star State. Democrats are hoping to make the race for the seat competitive, particularly if Paxton defeats Senator John Cornyn in the GOP primary, but a Cornyn campaign spokesperson told Newsweek the campaign is "confident" in his chances.

Republicans currently hold a Senate majority with 53 seats, compared to 47 seats held by Democrats. The Democratic Party hopes to take back the majority in the 2026 midterms but face a challenging map. GOP-held seats in Maine, which backed former Vice President Kamala Harris, and North Carolina, which backed President Donald Trump by only about three points in 2024, are viewed as Democrats' best flip opportunities in the midterms. Beyond those two, they'll have to flip states Trump won by double-digits to reclaim a majority. Other double-digit Trump states they are eyeing include Alaska, Florida, Iowa and Ohio—but Republicans are favored in each of those races. Texas has for decades been a reliably Republican state. Although it became more competitive in the 2010s, Democrats have been unable to flip it, and the state did move rightward again last year. Still, some Democrats believe it could be competitive next year if Trump's approval fuels a 2018-style "blue wave."

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Trump's tariffs helped fuel a surge of imports at the Port of Houston last month

The sweeping tariffs President Donald Trump proposed last month helped fuel higher import volume at the Port of Houston last month. Port Houston said 2.8 million tons of goods came into its facilitites from abroad in April, up 10% from March levels and 25% more than the year earlier. The port handled 196,222 20-foot equivalent containers, or TEUs, compared to 189,661 in March and 160,766 in April 2024. While the port has generally been on a growth trajectory since the COVID-19 pandemic, last month's jump suggested that importers were reacting to Trump's sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on most of the nation's trading partners, major and minor. While many of the tariffs, announced April 2, were paused or dialed back, others have been implemented or remain pending.

"Everybody's playing the game," said Tim Sensenig, CEO of TMSfirst, a transportation management software company headquartered in Spring. "People are going to rush like hell to move things when they can." The rush to import was seen at ports across the country. Overall U.S. container imports were up 1.2% in April compared to March—and 9.1% higher than a year ago, according to a monthly report from logistics technology company Descartes Systems Group, released May 8. Among the big gainers was the Port of Long Beach, which saw its busiest April ever. "While container import growth remained strong in April, it may be, in part, because U.S. importers are continuing to pull shipments forward ahead of new U.S. tariffs, in particular the 145% tariff on Chinese goods implemented on April 9,” said Jackson Wood, director of industry strategy at Descartes, in a statement. Trump walked back the triple-digit tariffs on China on May 12. This back-and-forth and the atmosphere of uncertainty it has fostered has raised concerns that imports could slump in coming months if tariffs are revived or the broader economy falters. At the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest by container volume and the leading port for imports from Asia, the big hit is projected to come this month. The 13 vessels scheduled to dock there the week of May 25 are 42% lower than the week earlier and 35% below the year-ago period. At a May 1 event on Houston's global trade hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership, Port Houston Chairman Ric Campo expressed confidence that the region would be relatively well-situated to navigate the uncertainty. The Port of Houston is a relatively low-cost provider, Campo said, and focused on productivity. "We will be able to adapt and be able to continue our upward trend," he said.

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Nancy Fowler: Fentanyl killed my daughter. Texans need access to test strips.

(Nancy Fowler lives in Houston.) I heard a sound come out of my body when the police confirmed our daughter's death. It was a guttural scream that emanated from my soul. It was raw, piercing, pure. I crumbled to the floor, holding onto the leg of my younger daughter. I heard something crack inside me. No one else could hear it, but my soul fractured that day. I found her unresponsive in her room on Christmas Eve while she was home from college on winter break. She had died the previous night, and her body was already beginning to stiffen. I refused to believe what I already knew. I screamed for her sister Anna to call 911 and began administering chest compressions until I heard the first responders confirm her passing.

We eventually learned that Kate, our 18-year-old daughter, had ordered a pill from Snapchat that contained a lethal amount of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than morphine. I had no idea drugs could be purchased via social media, and I was unaware that millions of the pills sold on the street are counterfeit. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, five out of every 10 counterfeit pills that contain fentanyl have a potentially deadly dose. A lethal amount of fentanyl is the size of 10 to 15 grains of table salt, and anything can be laced — including non-opioid drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, and counterfeit benzodiazepines like Xanax. There are even brightly colored and flavored pills to entice kids to get them hooked. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, more than 7,000 Texans died from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids from 2019 to 2023. Many of these people didn't know what they were taking. As parents, we don’t want our kids to do drugs. But we can also agree that if they do, we certainly don’t want them to die from one bad decision. Fentanyl testing strips, which can identify the presence of fentanyl in a drug sample, are one tool to help individuals avoid this lethal substance. They are cheap and easily accessible online — but not if you live in Texas, where they are considered illegal drug paraphernalia. This law needs to change immediately. The good news is that many of our elected officials want to legalize test strips for fentanyl and xylazine, a powerful animal tranquilizer increasingly found in the illicit drug supply. House Bill 1644 has passed in the Texas House of Representatives with zero opposition. If it passes in the Senate, Texas will join the 45 other states and the District of Columbia in making test strips legal, and will be in line with the current Trump administration's drug policy priorities. HB 1644 would also allow law enforcement, first responders, treatment providers, hospitals, universities, and others to distribute test strips to people who use drugs. This makes the strips a critical tool to establish connections with people who use drugs and, possibly, connect them to treatment or other needed services.

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Why Dan Crenshaw was called a 'jerk' during debate over GOP Medicaid cuts

The divide between Republicans and Democrats over the future of Medicaid was well encapsulated this week by two of Houston's congressional members during an all-night rumble that resulted in one Democrat calling U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw “a jerk.” Crenshaw and U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, are both members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee that advanced a plan that will either save Medicaid or imperil it, depending on which party had the microphone. While Fletcher and Crenshaw, R-Houston, didn’t directly combat each other, they outlined each party's view on what will happen to the popular health care program if Congress makes cuts to it as part of the “big beautiful bill” President Donald Trump wants from Congress this summer. Crenshaw and other Republicans acknowledged their bill could kick 7.6 million people off Medicaid but insisted it’s aimed at fraud and abuse, undocumented immigrants and able-bodied Americans who aren’t willing to work. “We’re not here to cut the Medicaid lifeline for the neediest Americans. That’s just a lie,” Crenshaw said as he started his remarks around 3 a.m.

At one point he looked at a crowd of Medicaid recipients with disabilities who had filled the hearing room in Washington, D.C., and accused Democrats of using them to scare the public about benefit cuts. “If I could roll two eyes I would," Crenshaw, who wears an eye patch because of a combat injury from his time as a Navy SEAL, said as Democrats objected to him claiming they were lying about the issue. U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., could be heard a short time later responding on the microphone, “He’s being a jerk.” The bill would impose work requirements to receive Medicaid for able-bodied adults aged 19 to 64 without dependents, demanding they work or volunteer at least 80 hours a month or show they are looking for work. It includes exceptions for pregnant women and short-term hardships. Benefits for people with disabilities, children, and the truly needy, Crenshaw said repeatedly, are not going to be cut. But that is where Fletcher took issue later in the hearing. While the bill doesn’t directly cut benefits for those recipients, she said it could indirectly affect their health care because of rules the GOP is adding to the program. The former oil and gas attorney said Congress should learn the lessons from that and ensure the eligible recipients aren't dropped simply because of mounds of red tape. “Let’s not make the law that was so bad in Texas the law of the land across the country,” Fletcher said.

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Mark Cuban teams up on $750 million fund to buy into pro sports franchises

Former Dallas Mavericks Governor Mark Cuban will soon join the ownership stable of various professional sports teams across the NFL, MLB, and NBA. The first fund for his new private equity group, Harbinger Sports Partners, will cap out at $750 million, as first reported by Bloomberg. It aims to wrap up fundraising by 2027. Cuban and company will deploy between $50 million to $150 million into each investment, setting the debut fund up for between five and 15 assets. The group is targeting ownership stakes of up to 5 percent in each enterprise. Joining Cuban, who is serving as general partner, are Steve Cannon, former CEO of AMB Group—the parent company of the Atlanta Falcons—and Rashaun Williams, a venture capitalist and limited partner in the Falcons. Cannon will be the firm’s CEO and Williams will serve as chief investment officer.

It’s a different approach from other big investors in the space, such as Dallas-based Arctos Partners, which typically invests at minimum 5 percent. It holds a 17 percent share in the Sacramento Kings, 10 percent stake in the Buffalo Bills, and 12.5 percent stake in Paris Saint Germain. RedBird Capital is another major local player that prioritizes larger stakes. It wholly owns European soccer club AC Milan, owns 11 percent of Fenway Sports Group (owners of the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, and the Pittsburgh Penguins), and has a 24 percent stake in the Alpine F1 team. When asked what differentiates his group from those two competitors, Cuban simply said, “We can move quickly.” Harbinger plans to hold its assets for at least seven years, but no more than 10. Cuban told D CEO he won’t speculate on what he expects to be a healthy return on investment over that period, but it’s no secret that sports valuations have boomed over the last half-decade.

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Supreme Court revives lawsuit over fatal Texas police shooting during traffic stop for unpaid tolls

A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday revived a civil rights lawsuit against a Texas police officer who shot a man to death during a traffic stop over unpaid tolls. The justices ordered the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take a new look at the case of Ashtian Barnes, who died in his rental car in April 2016 on the shoulder of the Sam Houston Tollway in Houston. Barnes was shot by Officer Roberto Felix Jr., who jumped on the sill of the driver’s door of Barnes’ car as it began to pull away from the stop. Felix fired twice in two seconds because he “reasonably feared for his life,” his lawyers wrote in their Supreme Court brief.

Lower courts had dismissed the excessive force lawsuit filed against Felix by Barnes’ mother, Janice Hughes. The issue before the justices was whether those lower courts used the right standard, evaluating Felix’s actions only at the “moment of the threat” that caused him to shoot Barnes. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that courts should look at the “totality of the circumstances” to evaluate the suit against Felix. The standard embraced by the court Thursday often will be friendlier to plaintiffs in civil rights cases. Barnes had been driving to pick up his girlfriend’s daughter from day care when he was pulled over by Felix, who received a radio message that the license plate on Barnes’ car had unpaid tolls associated with it. Barnes’ girlfriend had rented the car, and Barnes was unaware of the outstanding tolls, according to court records.

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County officials unveil newly renamed Sheila Jackson Lee building in downtown Houston

Family of Sheila Jackson Lee gathered alongside Harris County commissioners Thursday to dedicate a 17-story building in downtown Houston to the late congresswoman. The ceremony came after commissioners unanimously voted in August to rename 1111 Fannin after Jackson Lee, who died from complications related to pancreatic cancer in July. Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who spearheaded the effort, said the building will serve as a reminder of Jackson Lee's nearly 30-year tenure as a U.S. Representative. "For nearly three decades, she served the 18th Congressional District with unmatched commitment, energy and resolve," Ellis said. "The girl just wouldn't give up. Whether it was championing human rights, expanding health care access, fighting for racial and economic justice or demanding bold criminal justice reform. Sheila's actions were a testament to her unwavering dedication to the causes that she believed in."

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Here's why Texas professors, advocates are protesting SB 37 as it pends in House committee

As the sun beat down on the outdoor rotunda at the Texas Capitol on Thursday, professors, students and education advocates gathered again to sound a warning on Senate Bill 37, a priority higher education bill that they say would drastically change faculty governance, core curriculum and regents' authority over hiring. The Texas Conference and University of Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors and affiliate advocacy organization American Federation of Teachers said the bill, authored by Conroe Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton, will hurt education and recruitment at top-ranked universities. SB 37, which Creighton said codifies and balances the power at institutions of higher education, has been left pending in the House Higher Education Committee since May 7. The Senate approved the proposal last month.

"SB 37 isn't about silencing anyone — it's about restoring balance and transparency in our public universities and ensuring our public universities and ensuring taxpayer-funded institutions don't operate as ideological echo chambers," Creighton said in a statement to the American-Statesman on Wednesday, when the House panel first took up the bill in a hearing. Jaime Cantu, an instructor at ACC, a member of the school's faculty senate, and a doctoral candidate at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, said at the rally that he teaches students about historical racial disparities in health to help his students, who are primarily low income and people of color, know the importance of their contribution to the field. A provision in SB 37 — which states that core curriculum must not "advocate or promote the idea that any race, sex, or ethnicity or any religious belief is inherently superior to any other race, sex or ethnicity or any other religious belief" — would make him fearful of teaching that, he said. Cantu also criticized a provision in the bill stating that faculty senate representatives can be immediately removed if they engage in "using the member's position for political advocacy," saying it distorts the work faculty senates do. Creighton said the bill will not cause education to be censored, but rather, it will incentivize educators to present all sides of a topic. "Curriculum decisions — especially in core courses — must serve students' academic needs, not political agendas. Texans expect rigorous, relevant education — not one-sided narratives," Creighton said in a written statement to the Statesman on Thursday. "This is about accountability and student outcomes, not censorship."

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Paxton settles lawsuit with Travis County over security funds for DA granted behind closed doors

The lawsuit Attorney General Ken Paxton filed against the Travis County Commissioners Court in September over allegedly violating the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) has been settled. The lawsuit was filed after the commissioners court agreed to pay Travis County District Attorney José Garza $115,000 for private home security in a closed session in March 2024. Paxton's office argued such a use of public funds should be deliberated during a regular session, when residents have a chance to weigh in. Garza said a series of escalating threats, including tweets displaying his address and one handwritten note that read "Resign by the end of June or we will kill you" pushed him to ask for money for private security.

In the settlement, Travis County did not admit to violating TOMA but agreed to continue complying with the act going forward. “This agreement balances public transparency with security concerns like those permitted for discussion in executive closed session, thereby protecting our employees and elected and appointed officials,” Travis County spokesperson Hector Nieto said in a statement. Since the lawsuit was filed, the commissioners court has taken steps to ensure all elected or appointed officials receiving threats can get protection through the county. As attorney general, Paxton too has a taxpayer-funded security detail. The Travis County Commissioners Court is in the midst of one other lawsuit with the attorney general. In September, Paxton also sued the county for funding a program that mailed out voter registration forms to unregistered voters ahead of the election. That litigation remains ongoing.

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Fearing state takeover, Austin ISD plans to replace middle school teachers

Austin ISD has hatched a new plan for schools performing poorly on standardized tests. The plan to address our local school district’s worsening accountability crisis has changed again. Three weeks ago, Austin ISD was proposing to close struggling Dobie Middle School and bus its students to Lamar Middle School for the next two years. Now, district leaders say they will keep Dobie open but replace its principal, other school leadership, and about half of its teachers in an effort to bring up the school’s accountability scores. The district is proposing the same changes at Webb and Burnet middle schools. Some of the teachers likely to be affected are questioning the plan. Jasmine Graves, who teaches business and finance at Burnet, said she and her colleagues felt blindsided when they heard details of the plan at a private meeting with district administrators on May 6.

“We were just stunned,” Graves said. “The next day, lots of teachers were crying and the kids wanted to know what was wrong, because they didn’t know. It was very somber.” “Lots of teachers were crying.” – Burnet Middle School teacher Jasmine Graves Dobie, Webb, and Burnet received F’s when the state’s A-F accountability ratings were released in April – the second consecutive F scores for each school. Over the last 10 days, AISD administrators have held public meetings in the schools’ cafeterias to explain that state law requires the district to submit a “turnaround plan” for any school that gets two consecutive F’s. The administrators pitched their preferred turnaround plan, called a “district-managed restart.” The district-managed restart would require AISD to bring new principals and teachers into Dobie, Webb, and Burnet who have experience in improving student performance. It would require more teaching in literacy and math and a host of other changes. Superintendent Matias Segura clarified to members of the board of trustees last week that all teachers at the schools will be required to reapply for their jobs and that “only the most effective staff” will be retained. He added that state law mandates that 60% of the teachers who teach at a restarted school must have demonstrated “instructional effectiveness” during the previous year.

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Texas House tentatively passes bill repealing unconstitutional ban on gay sex

A repeal of the state’s defunct ban on gay sex has tentatively passed the Texas House. On Thursday, lawmakers voted 72-55 to give the first approval to House Bill 1738, making it the furthest this push has gone in the Texas Legislature. The bill requires another vote before it could advance to the Senate. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered the landmark Lawrence v. Texas ruling that struck down the criminalization of gay sex, making it unconstitutional and unenforceable. However, the old ban on “homosexual conduct” remains on the state’s penal code. Efforts to remove it have been brought sessions after sessions, including this year’s HB 1738 by Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas. And the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022 has only raised fear that the Lawrence ruling could be reconsidered next.

Following the Thursday vote, Jones told The Dallas Morning News that there is still a lot of work to do, but he is taking in the moment. “It was a great feeling,” said Jones, who is gay and Texas’ first openly HIV-positive lawmaker. He is also the vice chair of the House’s LGBTQ Caucus. “I think it gave a little bit of hope. When you have a lot of really long and bad days in this chamber, it’s nice when we can come together and get something right.” During a House Criminal Jurisprudence committee hearing on April 8, Jones described HB 1378 as a “straightforward clean-up bill” that looks to ax the defunct ban from the state’s penal code. The legislation makes “no change whatsoever” to children’s education, he said. Language reading that “homosexual conduct is not an acceptable lifestyle” would also remain on the state’s health and safety code, according to the bill. The proposal to remove the criminal statue received overwhelming public support, according to the bill’s witness list. And out of three witnesses to testify in person, only Jonathan Covey, director of policy for Texas Values, spoke against the measure. The Christian political advocacy group has opposed previous efforts.

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National Stories

Supreme Court hears historic arguments on birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court on Thursday seemed open to lifting a series of nationwide orders blocking President Donald Trump from enforcing his birthright citizenship policy, even as several of the justices wrestled with the practical implications of allowing the government to deny citizenship to people born in the US. After more than two hours of argument, it was uncertain how a majority of the court might deal with those two competing interests. Here’s a look at some of the key takeaways from the arguments:

Kavanaugh, a key vote, suggests class-action lawsuits instead: Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a member of the conservative wing, suggested that class-action lawsuits would suffice for allowing the challengers to Trump’s executive order to get broad relief from the courts. He brushed away the suggestion from challengers that relying on class certification as a tool raises many of the same issues as nationwide injunctions the president is complaining about. It’s a technical point, Kavanaugh acknowledged, but a potentially important one. Part of what Kavanaugh seemed to be saying was that there was another way for the groups challenging Trump to quickly shut down the order. Chief Justice John Roberts, who was relatively quiet throughout the course of the arguments, repeatedly stressed that the courts, including the Supreme Court, could move “expeditiously.” Liberals pepper Trump attorney on practical impact: The court’s three liberals battered Solicitor General D. John Sauer with questions about how rolling back nationwide injunctions would work in practice. They quickly sought to move the debate beyond the Trump’s administration assertion that its request was “modest.”

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Supreme Court rules totality of circumstances must be considered in police shootings

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the totality of circumstances must be considered when determining whether a police shooting is justified — not just the split seconds before an officer opens fire — in a case involving the fatal shooting of a Black man from Texas. The broader standard is likely to make it easier for victims to prove allegations of excessive force in court. The high court revived a lawsuit by the mother of Ashtian Barnes, 24, who alleged that Roberto Felix Jr., a law enforcement officer in Harris County, Texas, used excessive force when he opened fire on Barnes during a stop for suspected toll violations in the Houston area. The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a lower court’s summary judgment for Felix, citing the circuit’s “moment of threat rule” that requires asking only whether an officer was “in danger at the moment of the threat that resulted in [his] use of deadly force.”

The Supreme Court justices sent the lawsuit back to the lower courts for reconsideration under its more holistic analysis. “To assess whether an officer acted reasonably in using force, a court must consider all the relevant circumstances, including facts and events leading up to the climactic moment,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court. Felix pulled Barnes over in April 2016 after receiving a radio call that the license plate of Barnes’s vehicle matched that of one with outstanding toll violations. The vehicle Barnes was driving was a rental, and he did not know about the toll violations. Felix ordered Barnes to get out of his vehicle, but Barnes began to drive away. Felix jumped on the doorsill and fired two shots inside. Barnes was mortally wounded but managed to bring the car to a stop. Two seconds elapsed between when Felix stepped on the doorsill and when he fired his first shot. The officer’s dashboard camera recorded the deadly encounter, which lasted several minutes. The Supreme Court has held that law enforcement officers can be held liable if they use deadly force without a reasonable belief that a person presents an imminent threat of harm to others or the officer.

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Former FBI Director James Comey takes down Instagram post after conservative uproar

Former Director of the FBI James Comey on Thursday took down an Instagram post of seashells spelling out the numbers “86 47” after Republicans claimed that it was a threat against President Donald Trump. The number 86 can often refer to getting rid of or tossing something out, while 47 corresponds to Trump’s current term in office as the 47th president. “Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered. This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!” Donald Trump Jr. posted on social media. Comey – who emerged as a Trump critic after the president fired him early in his first term – denied that the picture was a call for violence.

In explaining why he removed the post, Comey wrote on Instagram that he had “posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.” “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he continued. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a social media post Thursday evening that DHS and the Secret Service are investigating an alleged threat made against Trump by Comey. “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUSTrump,” she wrote. “DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.” A spokesperson for the Secret Service told CNN that the agency was aware of the social media posts but would not comment further on protective intelligence matters.

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Two officials fired by Trump return to court to challenge his power

Appellate judges in Washington, D.C., will consider a key question on Friday: Does the president have the Constitutional authority to fire board members at agencies created by Congress to be independent of the White House? More specifically: Did President Trump overstep when he removed National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris from their positions without cause? Already, lower court judges have said yes, citing a 1935 Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey's Executor that upheld limits Congress placed on the president's removal powers. The judges ordered Wilcox and Harris temporarily returned to their seats.

But the Trump administration appealed those decisions, arguing that the lower court judges erred in their interpretation of that 1935 decision and that they exceeded their authority in ordering reinstatement. After some back and forth involving emergency motions at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court stepped in on April 9, with Chief Justice John Roberts issuing an order clearing the way for Wilcox and Harris to be removed again until the merits of their cases could be considered. Of the three D.C. Circuit Court judges who will hear those merit arguments Friday, two are Trump appointees who — in this case and a related one — have supported the government's stance that the Constitution gives Trump the power to control the executive branch as he sees fit. The third judge, a Biden appointee, sees it differently. At stake in this case are not just Wilcox and Harris' jobs, but the jobs of people Trump has fired elsewhere in a similar fashion, including at the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Congress created these "independent agencies" with some protections from political interference written into law. They are led by boards or commissions whose members are nominated by presidents and confirmed by the Senate. Congress required that these boards or commissions be bipartisan, with Democratic and Republican members serving staggered terms. By law, the president can only fire members for cause, such as neglect of duty or malfeasance.

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He calls them handsome, attractive, tough: Trump’s bromance with Arab leaders

Three days in the Middle East have put President Trump’s bromance diplomacy on full display. “I like you too much,” Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, later placing his hand on his heart as the two men bid farewell on the airport tarmac. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was “attractive” and “tough,” Trump said after a surprise meeting in Riyadh with the former rebel leader who toppled Syria’s longtime dictator in December. Trump said Qatar’s ruling emir and his family were “tall, handsome guys.” “You’re a magnificent man,” Trump said Thursday at the royal palace here, as he sat beside Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates. Trump’s close ties with Arab leaders stand in contrast to his interactions with some traditional U.S. allies, including European counterparts, who have been the subject of the president’s derision and criticism. And it signals that Trump is turning to strong relations with the Gulf as the centerpiece of his Middle East strategy.

The Gulf monarchs returned Trump’s affection. Sheikh Mohamed bestowed on Trump the Order of Zayed, the country’s highest civilian honor. All three countries organized fighter-jet escorts for Air Force One. They committed to trillions in U.S. business investments. They organized camel parades, horseback riders, singers, sword dancers and lavish parties in opulent palaces. And they heaped praise on Trump as a political comeback king, sometimes echoing his rhetoric with phrases like “drill, baby, drill.” Trump’s unreserved adoration for Prince Mohammed marked a contrast with former President Joe Biden, who vowed during the 2020 presidential campaign to treat Saudi Arabia like a “pariah.” Amid high energy prices, Biden visited Saudi Arabia in 2022 and gave Prince Mohammed a fist bump, in an attempt to reset the tense relationship. Trump this week cast his bonds with Arab leaders as central to his foreign policy. “We will work together, we will be together, we will succeed together, we will win together and we will always be friends,” Trump said in his keynote address in Riyadh. It was the second Trump term’s greatest display of the president’s personalization of foreign policy, which is deeply influenced by his relationships with world leaders. Trump announced this week that the U.S. would lift sanctions on Syria in large part because of how he viewed Sharaa, a U.S.-designated terrorist who overthrew dictator President Bashar al-Assad last year. Trump also said Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan influenced his decision.

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Law firms fighting back against Trump report security clearance suspensions

Despite legal setbacks, the Trump administration appeared to be moving forward with its campaign against elite law firms that have chosen to fight the president’s executive orders that threaten to upend their business. Two of those firms, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block, notified the courts this week that the Justice Department had recently revoked security clearances held by lawyers on their staff, a move that significantly curtails the types of cases and clients the firms can attract. The suspension of clearances is just one of the punishing provisions contained in a series of nearly identical executive orders issued by President Trump in March as part of a broader effort to bend the legal community to his will. A number of firms cut deals with Mr. Trump in order to avoid becoming subject to such directives.

The handful of firms that did not make deals — and were then singled out in orders that accused them of working against the country’s national interest — sued, arguing that the orders amount to blatantly illegal retaliation for representing clients and employing lawyers the president opposes politically. In at least one instance, a federal judge has agreed, bypassing a trial and permanently blocking the government from enforcing the terms of an order targeting the firm Perkins Coie. In the cases involving WilmerHale and Jenner & Block, judges have temporarily halted the Trump administration from implementing the orders aimed at them while litigation plays out. Even so, Paul Clement, a lawyer for WilmerHale, said in a filing that two of its lawyers had received letters informing them that their security clearances had been suspended. “This development underscores that the executive branch stands ready and willing to implement the executive order absent judicial intervention,” Mr. Clement wrote in a notice dated May 9. A lawyer for Jenner & Block filed a similar notice dated May 14 indicating that it had just learned one of its attorneys had their clearance suspended, as well.

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Price tag for Trump’s military festival could reach $45 million

A massive military parade and festivities planned in Washington next month will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million and will involve dozens of warplanes, hundreds of Army vehicles and thousands of soldiers from across the country sleeping in downtown government office buildings, an Army spokesperson said Thursday. The parade, to commemorate the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, will be held June 14, the same day as President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday, and will include representation from all active Army divisions, said Steve Warren, a spokesman for the branch. The parade’s overlap with Trump’s birthday has stirred ire among some civilians and veterans, especially at a time when his overhaul of the federal government includes slashing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The response from D.C.’s mayor, however, has been more muted than when Trump proposed a parade during his first term. The president has long mused about soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the streets of the capital and aircraft roaring overhead but backed off the idea in 2018 amid pushback from the Army and D.C. officials over exorbitant costs and the damage tanks might cause to roads. The spectacle and the tension surrounding it also highlight D.C.’s dual identity as the seat of the U.S. federal government and a deep-blue city that overwhelmingly voted against Trump three times. Protest plans are also underway. About 3,000 service members will be housed on unused floors of a General Services Administration building and 2,000 in an Agriculture Department building, Warren said. Most participating service members will arrive a couple of days before the parade, he said, and leave June 16. Vehicles will arrive in the region by rail and be trucked into the city, he said. Participating aircraft will fly in. Overall, 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft and 6,600 soldiers are expected to take part in the festivities, the Army has announced. There will be a fireworks display and a day-long festival on the National Mall with military demonstrations, musical performances and a fitness competition. After an initial interview with The Post about the parade’s cost, Warren said the estimate he provided for the parade included other events taking place that day. He said he wasn’t able to provide a cost breakdown of each of the day’s events.

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Copyright May 23, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved