Lead Stories

Suspect arrested in ‘credible’ plot to attack Texas Capitol on Thursday, DPS says

The Texas Department of Public Safety found a “credible” threat to attack the Capitol on Thursday, the agency confirmed in an email. DPS said the threat was initiated by Benny Caldera Jr., 40, and several co-conspirators who had planned to carry out a "violent attack" on Oct. 1. DPS said they worked with the FBI and local law enforcement to arrest Caldera at his residence in Converse, a city just outside San Antonio, around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Caldera was transported to the Bexar County Jail and charged with felony terroristic threat against a public servant, DPS said. A $75,000 bond has been set for Caldera, according to county documents. Caldera has been charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon in Bexar County in 2023 and 2024, according to county documents. The news was first shared in a memo to members of the Texas Senate. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said there is "speculation that there are other conspirators," but no one else has been charged. “They don't know anything about motive, who, what, when, where, yet,” Bettencourt said. “Literally, just within a few hours of the tip they had the potential perpetrator in custody.” DPS said its investigation into the threat is ongoing and that it will continue to have an increased presence at the Capitol.

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Texas public schools could lose $227M from voucher exodus, estimate shows

Rural Texas school districts are poised to lose millions of dollars in funding this year after thousands of students reported using vouchers to leave for private or home schools, according to a new analysis of state data. Across the state, at least 28,200 public school students took a voucher, an estimated loss of at least $227 million in state funding for their public districts. Large urban-area school districts have seen the most students leave. But the effect could be felt more acutely among hundreds of smaller school districts, where losing a handful of students can have a dramatic effect on the budget. The analysis by the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency and Every Texan, two advocacy groups that oppose vouchers, provides the first glimpse into the program’s effect on public schools. About 70% of the state’s more than 1,000 school districts lost at least one student to a voucher as of Aug. 10, according to the organizations, which received the data from the Comptroller through a public information request. The districts range from Marathon ISD, which educates just 46 students at a single school in a remote patch of southwest Texas, to Houston ISD, with nearly 170,000 students and 270 schools.

Because schools are funded based on student attendance, each student who leaves is a financial hit. The organizations conservatively estimated the average loss at $8,200 each, but that figure will vary depending on the student and where they live. Miles ISD, with about 500 students 20 minutes outside of San Angelo, estimates each departure costs the district about $15,000 in funding. “If you lose four kids to it, you lose a teacher’s salary,” Superintendent Ty Stevens said. But most districts still have no idea how many students have left. That’s because the Texas Comptroller won’t release exact numbers for any district with fewer than 30 students participating in the voucher program, citing privacy concerns. More than 540 districts fall into that category. “I have a feeling that we probably have fewer than 10 students receiving it,” said Brandon Enos, superintendent of Gunter ISD, with about 1,250 students 30 minutes north of Plano. “I have no way of knowing it.” Concerns about vouchers’ impact in rural Texas, where public schools are often the largest employer, were a big reason why 21 GOP lawmakers banded with Democrats to block Gov. Greg Abbott’s voucher plan in 2023.

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Senate reaches bipartisan deal on permitting bill for energy projects

Senators from both parties said Wednesday they have reached a deal on legislation aimed at speeding up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects that now face yearslong delays, as lawmakers seek to meet growing demand for electricity and other forms of energy. The bill, proponents argue, would cut down the arduous timeline for getting big energy projects off the ground at a time when demand is rising because of mushrooming data centers for artificial intelligence. The bill would ensure AI data centers are forced to pay for the increased electricity they use and would mark a significant change to a landmark environmental law that critics say slows the process of building energy projects. Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, called the bill “a major step toward making it faster and more efficient and easier to build infrastructure projects” of all types while maintaining important environmental protections.

“The American people sent us here to do big things. This is a big thing. It’s monumental and it’s legacy-setting,” Capito said at a news conference at the Capitol where she was joined by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. The four senators lead the chamber’s energy and environment panels. Heinrich said the bill “will mean more energy on the grid, more good-paying jobs, and lower electricity costs for families and businesses. And as data centers drive demand for more power, it will ensure they pay their fair share of the grid upgrades they require — not leave that bill to American families.” A vote on the bill won’t happen until after the midterm elections — reflecting the fraught political reality as elections loom that could change partisan control of both chambers. But the bill represents a rare instance of bipartisanship over the country’s energy policy as lawmakers from both parties agree on the need to build new energy projects of all types. Lee, who chairs the energy committee, said he is confident the bill will be approved in a lame-duck session in November, noting its bipartisan support and encouragement from business and environmental groups.

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Another day of pounding rain raises flooding fears in Texas

At a news conference this week, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said officials had positioned crews and equipment across the state ahead of moisture sent into the region from Hurricane Polo, which made landfall twice this week on Mexico’s western coast — about 500 miles from the parts of Texas expected to be hit by storms. Governor Abbott cautioned that heavy rain could lead to flooding and rising rivers. “We’ll do everything possible so that we can make it through this very heavy rain event with no loss of life,” he said. At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, where official weather records are taken, no rain fell from July 16 to Sept. 20, a 67-day stretch that tied for the second-longest period without measurable precipitation, according to the National Weather Service. More than 43 percent of Dallas County is experiencing an exceptional drought, the highest category of drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The weather on Wednesday is a classic collision of colliding air masses colliding across the Central Plains, setting off storms and outbursts of rain in the afternoons and evenings. Those outbursts can also bring tornadoes, hail and damaging winds, a pattern that also occurs in late spring but occurs again as summer transitions to fall. What makes this system more potent is an influx of moisture from the remnants of Polo, which will drift into Texas on Wednesday. Over the next two days, the heaviest rainfall is expected in a band stretching across Central Texas from the Mexican border and into Oklahoma. The storms will begin in the west and slowly shift east. Downpours could drop up to five inches of rain in a short period, creating a severe risk of flash flooding. When water hits the dry soil, it will run off as if the ground were concrete rather than soaking in, heightening the threat of floods. Emergency managers were also concerned about the lingering rainfall over southeastern Colorado, where the ground was saturated from days of rain and could fuel more flooding.

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State Stories

Texas oil, gas production increases slightly in third quarter as Iran War uncertainty remains

Texas oil and gas companies reported increased activity in the third quarter but remain uncertain about the impacts of the Iran War, according to the latest Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Energy Survey. The survey included responses from 83 exploration and production firms, as well as 42 oilfield services firms across Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico. Oil prices have skyrocketed during the United States' and Israel's war with Iran, due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damage to infrastructure. On average, survey respondents said they expect the West Texas Intermediate crude oil price to be about $88 per barrel at the end of the year. However, Federal Reserve senior business economist Kunal Patel said many executives remain uncertain about the outlook for oil and gas firms next year.

"I think a lot of that has to do with the price volatility. It's kind of unclear where prices will be," he said during a press briefing Wednesday. In survey comments, oil and gas executives echoed this uncertainty. "The Iranian conflict continues to be the wild card in the industry," a survey respondent from an exploration and production firm wrote. "Its movement correlates with commodity prices." "My oil price crystal ball broke when the administration first hit Iran," wrote a respondent from an oil and gas support services firm. The Federal Reserve Bank also asked oil and gas leaders when they expect Persian Gulf crude oil exports to return to normal. The highest share of respondents said they expect a return to normalcy in the second quarter of 2026. The survey saw modest increases in indexes measuring employment and hours worked. However, costs also remained elevated. "There is some limitation unless firms are willing to pay an incredibly higher price, whether it's goods or for services," Patel said. "That's kind of capping that increase in activity." The survey also asked companies about oilfield theft. Nearly half of firms in the Permian Basin said they had experienced oilfield theft. Most exploration and production executives whose companies were impacted by theft said that theft levels remained about the same over the past 12 months. The majority of these companies said the financial impacts of this theft were low.

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Talarico and Paxton go toe-to-toe on data centers

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico said Wednesday that data center construction in Texas should not be allowed to contribute to the state's ongoing affordability crisis. State Rep. Talarico, who is running against Republican Ken Paxton to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, discussed data centers while participating in a Q&A dialogue with the United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC). USHBC President Javier Palomarez moderated the discussion and asked Talarico how he would approach data center construction if elected. Talarico said he believes data centers are "exacerbating the affordability crisis."

"If a data center company can't meet the demands of the community where they seek to operate, if they can't pay for their own energy, if they can't pay for their own water and recycle their water, if they can't get the consent and the input of the police who live in these communities, then they shouldn't be built," Talarico said. Paxton participated in his own Q&A session with the USHBC earlier this week. In his own discussion, Paxton called for balancing border security with immigration reform to help labor-starved business sectors. Over the past year, artificial intelligence and the data centers needed to power them have become increasingly hot-button issues, particularly as the November midterm election approaches. Talarico argued data centers should not be strong-arming communities and should instead be working with the communities in which they hope to become a part of. "I'm someone who believes in local control, and I've fought for it in the state legislature, and I don't want to make economic development decisions for our communities," he said. "What I want to ensure is that it is a two-way street, because right now a lot of these giant data center companies are running over local communities, and these giant data centers are popping up in people's backyards and there's no input." During the discussion on data centers, Talarico criticized Paxton, Texas’ current attorney general, for allegedly taking campaign donations from some of the companies behind data centers. "I'll just say, I haven't taken a dime from data center companies," he said. "My opponent in this race has taken nearly half a million dollars from data center companies, and so what we need is a senator who's going to be independent, who is going to fight for Texans in these negotiations and ensure that these negotiations are fair."

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GOP redistricting in Texas and Florida may not turn out as Trump hoped

Eric Flores, a former federal prosecutor and Army National Guard infantry captain, was one of the Republican Party’s prized recruits in this year’s midterm elections. With help from a redrawn congressional map in Texas, he seemed primed to dislodge longtime Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in a region that swung toward Donald Trump in the last presidential election. Now Flores is one of several candidates in tougher races than originally envisioned as Republican-run states heeded Trump’s call to begin an unusual round of redistricting to help retain control of the U.S. House. Republicans hoped to pick up as many as nine seats combined in Texas and Florida. But even though the districts were redrawn to make them easier to win for Republicans, the party is weighed down by the public’s dissatisfaction with Trump, the economy, the war with Iran that has raised gas prices, and the president’s deportation agenda.

Republicans won 25 of Texas’ 38 seats in the U.S. House as Trump returned to the White House two years ago. Partially using that election as a baseline, the redrawn map was intended to help Republicans win up to 30 seats. Key to this plan was the Rio Grande Valley, a heavily Latino region on the southern tip of Texas that had shifted toward Trump. Republicans in Washington acknowledge that inflation, Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran have made their path harder. Latino voters’ discontent with Trump’s immigration agenda further scrambles their efforts. Republicans are also facing the potential loss of an incumbent who represents a redrawn district. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who is running for a third term, has a strong challenge from musician Bobby Pulido. A Latin Grammy winner whose top song on Spotify has 619 million streams, Pulido does not face the usual first-time candidates’ challenge of establishing name ID. Republicans already had 20 out of Florida’s 28 House seats, and they wanted to boost that to 24 with their new congressional map. But much like in Texas, their plan was based on 2024 results, when voters, including many Latinos, were dissatisfied with Biden on the economy and immigration. Republicans went after Rep. Kathy Castor in metro Tampa and Rep. Darren Soto in the Orlando area, while putting South Florida Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz into the same district.

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Exxon, others defeat consumer lawsuit over plastic recycling claims

Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other major chemical producers persuaded a US judge on Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of misleading ?the public for years about the effectiveness of plastic recycling and ?driving up costs for consumers. Here are the details: US District Judge Toby Crouse, in a ruling on Tuesday, said the plaintiffs — eight individuals and the board of a local county commission — failed to ?show that they have so-called standing to sue in the first place Crouse ?said the lawsuit, despite its length, “is light on facts connecting the ?defendants’ conduct and plaintiffs’ injuries.” The judge said the complaint “fails to allege that ?any specific plaintiff saw any specific ad or marketing material produced by any specific ?defendant”

In their 2024 lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that Exxon, Chevron and other companies duped consumers into believing that plastic is recyclable, leading them to buy more plastic products. The plaintiffs proposed ?a class of millions of purchasers of plastic products nationwide In court papers, the ?plaintiffs said the companies “engaged in a coordinated, fraudulent marketing scheme to portray plastics as broadly and ?readily ?recyclable, knowing that the vast majority of consumer plastics cannot be and are not recycled” Crouse said other manufacturers and retailers that are not parties to the case are responsible for setting prices. He also found the “breadth” of some of the plaintiffs’ ?claims undermined their viability “The ?plaintiffs argue that ?the price of every single plastic product that they have ever purchased was artificially inflated because of the defendants’ conduct,” ?the judge wrote. “That bald conclusion fails to account for the ?obvious intervening ?events and market conditions” Exxon, Chevron and a lead attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment The companies in their bid for dismissal said the ?plaintiffs were ?seeking to impose liability on them “based on an ?innocuous and socially beneficial activity: the promotion of recycling”

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Austin ICE shooting: Bond denied for man shot by ICE agent; he's now in federal criminal custody

The man who was shot by an ICE agent in North Austin appeared in federal court on Wednesday. 28-year-old Wilber Garces Perez was charged with assaulting, resisting, interfering with, and impeding a federal officer. On Wednesday, his bond was denied, meaning he'll now be in federal criminal custody, instead of federal immigration custody. The hearing on Wednesday focused on his alleged assault on an officer before shots rang out.

At the United States Courthouse in Downtown Austin, he attended a federal criminal bail hearing. For several hours, the court reviewed evidence from the moments leading up to the shooting, as well as questioning a Department of Homeland Security investigator, with a heavy focus on the initial traffic stop conducted by ICE agents. Federal prosecutors allege that on Sept. 20, federal agents stopped Perez after confirming he had a final order of removal. The officers said that Perez gave them his driver's license but ignored repeated requests to put his vehicle in park and step out. The federal complaint says the officers gave him additional instructions in Spanish before he abruptly closed his windows and drove away. It was during this time that prosecutors claim the driver's side mirror struck one of the officers in the torso. Much of Wednesday afternoon was spent reviewing the body camera footage of one of the ICE agents who conducted the traffic stop. The angle was from the agent assisting in the stop, not the federal officer who was allegedly struck by the vehicle. It was announced in court that footage of the incident would not be made available to the public.

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Inside downballot Dems’ effort to flip Texas’ key county battleground

On an August day in Fort Worth, when the temperature will reach the high 90s before noon, Tiffany Burks is counting door hangers. Volunteers have gathered at Portico Coffee in the Northside neighborhood, and Burks, the Democratic candidate for Tarrant County district attorney, is reviewing logistics before a block walk. Her choice of venue was strategic: In the 1930s, banks, insurance companies, and housing authorities “redlined” Fort Worth, denying loans to people in neighborhoods like Northside based on race. The practice helped entrench racial and economic segregation in Fort Worth, with effects that continue to shape where people live and if they can accumulate wealth. As Burks sees it, the redlining also helped create long-term “disillusionment” in government. “I go and I talk to people and I ask them, ‘Who is your DA?’ And they have no idea,” said Burks. That’s why she and her volunteers are “going into areas where people don’t normally go, to try to let them know that we really do care about Northside.”

While 40 percent of Tarrant County’s population is white, 92 percent of the death sentences sought by prosecutors since 2012 have been against people of color. The decision on which charges to file and when to pursue the death penalty lies with the DA’s office. Burks, who worked in that office as a prosecutor from 1999 to 2021, previously ran for the top job in 2022 against Republican candidate Phil Sorrells, who beat her by about 6 points. She says Sorrells is part of an “old boys network” that doesn’t work for the people they’re elected to represent. Burks wants to create a new diversion unit within the office that connects people struggling with addiction and homelessness to services rather than repeatedly jailing them. The DA hopeful frequently campaigns with fellow Democrats Nydia Cárdenas and Alisa Simmons, who are both running for spots on the commissioners court. Similar to Burks, Cárdenas meets many people who don’t know that the governing body handles county finances, elections, budgets, and taxes. Voters will ask her, “Oh, is that the one where the guy kicks everybody out and he’s rude?’” She tells them, “Yes, that’s the one.” County Judge Tim O’Hare—the Republican leader of the court and the guy who “kicks everybody out”—has spent years making it more difficult for people to vote.

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Downtown Dallas Inc.’s plan to save downtown

Downtown Dallas has had an eventful year. In January, the largest tenant, AT&T, announced its move to Plano. Months later, Comerica pulled all employees out of its eponymous tower. Today, the flagship, 100-plus-year-old Neiman Marcus will close its doors for good. And, of course, the debate over City Hall‘s future rages on. That’s why Downtown Dallas Inc. CEO Jennifer Scripps said it’s “no accident that we are releasing [a new] plan as we are going into the fourth quarter of what has been a consequential 2026.” The morning of Sept. 30, Scripps alongside Chris Beynon of urban design firm MIG addressed hundreds of leaders and stakeholders to unveil downtown’s plan to prioritize mixed-use development with a goal of doubling downtown’s resident population in the next decade—downtown’s current population is about 16,000.

The plan has five pillars: rejuvenating the economy, boosting residential growth, cultivating distinct districts, increasing mobility through trails and transit-oriented development, and investing in the ground-level experience for pedestrians. “We believe all of those flat parking lots are not fully contributing need to be turned into other assets,” Scripps told D CEO. “Once you have more people, … you think about all the things you like to do in your neighborhood. … By having a mixed-use development, we are a healthier downtown.” Scripps also noted that although downtown is less than 1.5 percent of Dallas’ geographical area, it’s nearly 5 percent of the city’s tax base. Beynon said that the key to boosting the economy downtown is converting vacant offices—as Chicago and Philadelphia have done—and creating experiences for pedestrian like “streateries.” Repurposing the AT&T Discovery District is also top of mind. “We have to make sure that we safeguard this great jewel in downtown and reinvent its next stage,” Beynon said. Given the district’s prime geography, the priority will be bringing new tenants, maintaining management and operations, and ensuring it remains the heart of the city.

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$430M data center planned for this North Texas tech hub, as Abbott halts permits

A $430 million data center is planned for Fort Worth’s AllianceTexas development. In late September, state regulatory paperwork was filed for a data center at 14700 Heritage Parkway — on the west side of Interstate 35W in Denton County. The paperwork describes a data center building with 156,500 square feet of administrative area and four data halls with a 42,000 square foot screened-in equipment yard. The owner of the land is AIL Investment LP. The company Colovore is listed on the paperwork. California-based Colovore has data centers in several states, including one in Austin and two in Dallas-Fort Worth. According to its website, Colovore “designs and operates dedicated AI infrastructure in strategic metro markets” and describes its Texas data centers as “part of a growing Texas footprint.” The website also shows that the company is pre-leasing space at the Fort Worth site. Colovore did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the city of Fort Worth said in September that the company was not under consideration for economic incentives. Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to stop issuing permits to data centers until an audit of the state’s electric grid is complete.

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Sarah Stogner: Oil theft steals billions.Texas leaders must listen to locals

(Sarah Stogner is the Republican district attorney of Texas’ 143rd Judicial District, which includes the town of Pecos and a swath of West Texas.) It was easy to miss amid all the electioneering across the state, but the Legislature recently held a hearing on a crucial, timely issue: oilfield theft. It’s a scourge eating away at Texans’ livelihoods. Unfortunately, many of us leading the fight were not heard from. Earlier this year, a Bloomberg headline read, “Oil Theft Is Burning a Billion-Dollar Hole in the West Texas Economy.” Such theft includes the illegal extraction and resale of crude oil, as well as the stealing of valuable oilfield equipment, tools and materials from production sites. Bloomberg cited a report that the losses could amount to $2 billion a year. Now, the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers says the annual impact could be even bigger, at $4.3 billion.

In West Texas, where I serve as district attorney of the 143rd Judicial District, my office has announced two large-scale, successful crackdowns in recent months. In each case, we coordinated with the Department of Public Safety’s Organized Oilfield Theft Prevention Unit and other state, local and federal agencies. Alleged perpetrators were arrested and face charges. At a news conference, I explained that for far too long, many people in the know have looked the other way. Some have called oilfield theft a “cost of doing business.” But they’re wrong. Oil thieves leave a trail of victims. When they steal energy supplies for sale on the black market, undercutting legal rates, energy companies lose money. The vast majority are small businesses. Employees lose jobs. Local governments lose tax revenue, which creates budget shortfalls for schools, hospitals and other vital services. Meanwhile, criminal syndicates grow. There's nothing partisan about fighting this. It should be something Democrats and Republicans work together on. But many just jump on the bandwagon and make promises during election seasons in hopes of appealing to those of us who follow this issue. It’s a lot of talk, and not enough follow-through.

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Houston area man wins Fourth Amendment case against Bexar sheriff

A Houston area man, who won his Fourth Amendment case against the Bexar County sheriff's office, spoke to reporters on Tuesday at the federal courthouse, urging others to use his court victory to battle for their constitutional rights too. Alek Schott, who was traveling for his oil industry job as president of RMS Controls, said there was no probable cause for his I-35 stop in March 2022 by local sheriff's deputy Joel Babb or the search or interrogation that followed. He and his attorneys, Christie Hebert and Jeff Rowes of the Texas Office of the Institute for Justice, said roadside federal surveillance cameras, Schott's ordinary trip in a black Ford 250 pickup to near the border and back, an anonymous tip, a K-9 alert from a manipulated dog, and an invented traffic violation all set the scene for the unlawful stop.

The attorney's said Babb told Schott he was stopped because he allowed his pickup to drift across a fog line on the road, but evidence at the trial showed he never did so. The local jury, who heard the case in Federal Judge Orlando Garcia's court this week, agreed the stop was unconstitutional. "I was returning from a work trip. Just driving back, not realizing there was an entire surveillance network for license plate readers, just marking people to be targeted on their journeys home," he said. "So, I was just traveling back home, trying to get back to my family and my kids and spent 76 minutes detained by the side of the road for doing nothing wrong." Nothing unlawful was found in Schott's truck either, his attorneys said. He said he sued for only $76, one dollar for each minute he was detained, because he wanted his case to be about justice and not monetary reward. Hebert said the case was not about tough law enforcement using high tech to fight crime, but rather unconstitutional "dragnet" style tactics.

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Robert Wilonsky: Sad shrug of a farewell for downtown Dallas’ Neiman Marcus

They wanted to be interviewed for this piece, the current employees of the downtown Neiman Marcus who will become former employees of the downtown Neiman Marcus once it closes forever this very Wednesday. Lifers, veterans and relative newcomers alike, each with warm memories of lives spent toiling with pride, satisfaction and joy at what was once, and for a long time, known only as The Store. But on Monday, during my of-late daily wanderings through the store built for Dallas by Herbert Marcus Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband Al Neiman and sold to the rest of the world by Stanley Marcus, I was told time and again that I was to pocket my notepad and put away my pen. Employees, no matter how glowing their reminiscences, were instructed by corporate — New York-based Exemplar Luxury Group — not to offer their fond-farewells to media. Nor is there a scheduled valediction — no last toasts nor send-off speeches to the family that brought Dallas to the world and the world to Dallas. Just the clicking of locks and lights.

Another reminder, as though one were needed, that Neiman Marcus — “The Proud Dallas Store,” as this newspaper’s great columnist Frank X. Tolbert once called it — is no longer a Dallas store. Nor a store come Wednesday. Nor, it would seem, very proud, either. “Personally, I am very sad,” said photographer Allison V. Smith, granddaughter of Stanley Marcus and co-editor and co-publisher, with her mother Jerrie, of Reflection of a Man: The Photographs of Stanley Marcus. “It’s a loss to the history of our lives. I am very grateful that my mom, Uncle Dick and Aunt Wendy are not here to witness this.” In recent weeks I’ve watched The Store, spared the executioner’s dispatch in May 2025, slowly fill with the grieving lined up over the still-open casket. One employee I’ve come to know told me the sadness has become overwhelming, that there would be tears enough come Wednesday. The worker had hoped for a wake — a joyful celebration of what had been, not the ceaseless lamentations for what would no longer be. “I just can’t make myself go,” said the woman tasked with overseeing 300 boxes overfilled with Marcus’ documents and correspondence and a room filled with his library. “People say it’s really depressing.” Yes, I said. Mourners at a funeral. “That’s what I’ve heard,” Peterson said. “I am just afraid for the building.” The structure, at least its exterior, isn’t imperiled: At the beginning of August, the Landmark Commission initiated the long-overdue process of rendering the downtown flagship a local monument worthy of legal protections. (It’s already on the National Register of Historic Places.) The commission did so with the blessings of Andrew Woodworth, Exemplar’s chief legal counsel, and local zoning and land use attorney Tommy Mann. Mann mentioned that Saks Global — by which Exemplar was known before emerging at July’s end from Chapter 11 bankruptcy — had previously gone to City Hall to ask for tax increment financing funds, worked with historic architects and presented designs for a reimagined Neiman’s to city officials. But Saks’ bankruptcy sidelined those plans.

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TSMC mulls multibillion-dollar Texas campus for more AI chips

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is weighing a new campus in Texas that would add tens of billions of dollars in new investment to the company’s multiyear expansion into chipmaking in the US. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. is looking into further overseas facilities to help handle unrelenting demand for artificial intelligence hardware, according to people familiar with its plans. TSMC has already committed to spending $265 billion at an expansive site in Arizona, where it’s developing several fabrication plants, and the envisioned Texas investment would also involve multiple fabs, one of the people said. Business from North America accounts for more than 75% of the chipmaker’s wafer revenue so far this year, and AI silicon designers like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. bring in huge orders for some of its most advanced technology. The AI boom has strained TSMC’s existing capacity and the company’s had to roughly double its planned equipment purchases over the past year in order to keep up with demand, Deputy Co-Chief Operating Officer Cliff Hou said last month.

If TSMC ultimately decides to invest in Texas, the project would encompass multiple chipmaking plants, each of which would cost at least $20 billion, according to one of the people. The plans remain at an early stage, the people cautioned, asking not to be identified as the details aren’t public. The potential Texas investment is contingent on US legislators extending an advanced-manufacturing tax credit that is set to expire at the end of this year, one of the people said. That tax credit was a cornerstone of former president Joe Biden’s 2022 Chips Act, and it was increased to 35% and extended last year. While an extension has yet to find a viable path to passage this year, Senator Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican, and Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, have said they are committed to it. Texas already has a significant semiconductor foundation, including an extensive chip production complex that South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. has established. Elon Musk is also developing his Terafab project, which will supply chips for his massive business empire, in the Lone Star state. TSMC executives including Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei have consistently said their international expansion will be in service of customer demand and dependent on cooperation and support from local governments. Beside its Arizona campus, Taiwan’s most valuable company is also building plants in Japan’s Kumamoto, in partnership with Sony Group Corp., as well as a nascent project in Saxony, Germany.

Read this article at Bloomberg - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Flock's CEO claims its tech "solved" 1 million crimes last year. The company's own methodology undercuts that claim

Faced with recent questions about the privacy costs of its technology, the surveillance camera startup Flock Safety and its CEO have deployed a tidy statistic to tout its benefits. "Last year we helped clear just over a million crimes in America," Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in a March 2026 podcast interview. "Over a million cases were solved last year with this technology," Langley told the auto industry publication The Drive, "and the level of abuse is incredibly low relative to that." "Today, Flock technology assists your officers in more than one million crimes solved annually," Langley said in a blog post last month announcing new privacy updates. But a CBS News review finds the claim that Flock helped solve a million crimes in 2025 is not supported by the available evidence.

In a statement for this report, Flock spokesman Paris Lewbel cast the statistic in a different framing. In addition to case clearances, he said, it includes "investigative leads, cross-jurisdictional assistance, searches conducted during active investigations, and other Flock deployments." "The most precise way to describe our 2025 national estimate is that Flock technology supported approximately 1 million investigations and incidents," Lewbel said. The company did not answer whether Langley had been imprecise in claiming Flock solved one million crimes in 2025, and did not provide CBS News with underlying data supporting that claim. Flock first explained the source of its claims of one million crimes solved in a May 2026 blog post announcing the results of its 2025 Impact Census, in which about 700 law enforcement agencies that use Flock's system participated. Flock says agencies that formally tracked outcomes supplied raw counts, while others provided percentage estimates. The blog post also said the study found 20% of cleared cases in customer jurisdictions in 2025 were assisted by Flock technology.

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Rural hospital administrators: The Rural Health Transformation Program isn’t helping, yet

The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) was supposed to help rural hospitals deal with cuts to federal funding as a result of H.R. 1, or the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” but so far, those in rural health care say they’re not seeing any results. While some said it’s too early to see results, others said the program isn’t helping what really needs to be helped — rural hospitals. Kevin Stansbury, the CEO of Lincoln Health Community Hospital in Hugo, Colorado, said the negative impact of H.R. 1 has been real. Hugo, he said, is a town of about 800 people, but the hospital serves an area roughly the size of the state of Connecticut. “We operate on a negative margin typically, and we’re able to stay open because of tax support, and because of other income streams like the 340B program, and the supplemental payments that we get through the Medicaid program that are being targeted by H.R. 1,” Stansbury said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.

“It worries us a lot. The projections we have from the Colorado Hospital Association say that when the cuts are complete, we could lose about $1.5 million in revenue to our already non-existent bottom line, which will really stress us tremendously. We’re trying to figure out ways to mitigate that the best we can.” The Rural Health Transformation Program was one of the compromises out of that legislation designed to offset budget cuts to Medicaid. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the law will cut federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over 10 years and will increase the number of uninsured people by 10 million in 2034. To offset those cuts, Congress created the RTHP, which would invest $50 billion into rural health over the next five years. Administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the program allocates money to states to use on rural health initiatives. In December of last year, CMS determined how much each state would receive. Awards ranged from $147 million to $281 million, with the average being $200 million. States then began the process of allocating that money to different programs and initiatives within their borders. The money was intended to “expand access to care in rural communities, strengthen the rural health workforce, modernize rural facilities and technology, and support innovative models that bring high-quality, dependable care closer to home,” according to the CMS. “More than 60 million Americans living in rural areas have the right to equal access to quality care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said last year. “This historic investment puts local hospitals, clinics, and health workers in control of their communities’ healthcare.” The one thing it didn’t do, however, was allocate money directly to rural hospitals.

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OpenAI’s Greg Brockman backs out of second $25 million donation to A.I. Super PAC

The OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna, pulled out of a $25 million donation that they had planned to give to a leading artificial intelligence advocacy group, a sign of how sensitive the company has become to the growing backlash to A.I. The group, a super PAC called Leading the Future, said last summer and repeated in later comments that the Brockmans planned to donate a total of $50 million, with the first $25 million in 2025 and a second $25 million this year. That second commitment has since wilted away. Mr. Brockman’s retrenchment was never announced publicly. But inside OpenAI, the 38-year-old executive shared in June that he had no plans to make additional donations beyond the first $25 million.

“I also want to say that I feel terrible about the fact that LTF keeps reflecting on the company and become so much of a distraction for people here,” Mr. Brockman wrote that month in a Slack message obtained by The New York Times. “I’ve been thinking hard about how to turn the ship on it. We’ve donated $25m so far, and have no plans to donate more at this time.” OpenAI has drawn fire for a host of safety concerns, and the A.I. industry’s lobbying effort has attracted scrutiny in recent months. Some in the industry view Leading the Future as too dismissive of calls for A.I. safety, just as OpenAI tries to stake out a middle ground of sorts. Several ideological allies of the super PAC have also had issues with the group’s at-times aggressive tactics against opponents, including a high-profile effort against a New York congressional candidate. In June, 10 days before Mr. Brockman’s internal message, OpenAI published an unusual blog post distancing itself from the super PAC. “OpenAI does not direct the activities of LTF, or have visibility into their operations,” the San Francisco company wrote. It added in bold, “We want to be explicit: No outside political group speaks for OpenAI or represents our company’s views.”

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Hegseth cutting generals and admirals by 20%, including top officers who "clung to the woke department"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a speech on Wednesday that the Pentagon is eliminating roughly 1 in 5 generals and admirals during the second Trump administration through firing or position cuts, following through on Hegseth's pledge to fundamentally change how the Pentagon operates. Hegseth said he's aimed for the department to be "unrelenting, unapologetic, and uncompromising" in its mission to win. Generals who "clung to the woke department or seem to think civilian control of the military is simply a suggestion, well, they no longer work here," Hegseth said. "The number crunchers say we fired 10% of the generals and admirals across the force, and that number sounds about right," Hegseth said. "And I know because I directed it that we've also reduced the overall number of general officer slots by an additional 10%. So yes, 20% reduction across the board. Now the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability, and long overdue."

Hegseth gave that update in a speech dubbed the "State of the Force Address," a rare military address to military officers and enlisted service members at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. It marks the latest move by Hegseth to change the structure of the military, especially at its top levels. Fox News was first to report the planned reductions on Tuesday. In May 2025, Hegseth ordered that a minimum of 10% of all flag and general officers be cut, along with 20% of general officers in the National Guard. In a one-page memo posted on the Defense Department's website, Hegseth said at the time that the cuts were necessary to "drive innovation and operational excellence." He argued that the military must be "unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hinder their growth and effectiveness," and the key to achieving this would be "removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions." As of July, there were 851 active-duty generals and admirals across the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force, according to a Defense Department tally. A year earlier, there were 848 general and flag officers. Federal law caps the number at 857.

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The gap between the rich and the very, very rich is getting wider

The ultrawealthy aren’t just pulling away from average Americans. Buoyed by a stock-market boom that has added trillions of dollars to their net worth, the extremely rich are even pulling away from other rich Americans. The top 0.1% wealthiest Americans have seen their total wealth more than double since the end of 2019, according to new data from the Federal Reserve. The year the pandemic started was when the ultrawealthy began to pull away from other rich groups, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Fed data. In dollar terms, the very richest Americans have gained a total of $14.5 trillion in wealth over that period, with most of that—about $10 trillion—coming from gains in stocks and mutual funds, according to the Fed data, which runs through the end of June. The 0.1% now control about $28 trillion, or about 15% of the nation’s total wealth, which amounts to nearly $186 trillion. The average wealth for a household in this group is more than $200 million.

As of 2022, the minimum for the top 0.1% was $45.8 million, according to the most detailed data available from the Fed. With wealth among the group up by roughly 50% since then, that threshold is much higher now. The people who fall into this group aren’t usually traditional salaried workers. Rather, they are much more likely to be the owner of a bunch of car dealerships or an heir living off investment income. The ultrawealthy’s recent gains from the stock market dwarf the total wealth of the bottom 50% of all Americans, which is about $4 trillion. That bottom group has actually seen their wealth rise more than any other group on a percentage basis, thanks to a combination of rising home values and pandemic-era government relief that swelled bank accounts and helped pay down debt. Nevertheless, the bottom half’s share of total wealth, at an average of about $63,000 a household, comes to just 2.3% of the nation’s total wealth. The average household in the top 0.1% holds over 3,000 times as much wealth as a bottom-half household does. In the top 0.1% by wealth, 37% earn most of their income from businesses, and 26% derive it from capital gains, according to an analysis of Fed data from economics professors Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick for their recent book “The Everywhere Millionaire.” Only 10% derived most of their income from wages and salaries.

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Trump buys ads on CNN, MS NOW as he fights to bar them from the White House

The Trump administration bought advertising space on both CNN and MS NOW, running taxpayer-funded ads promoting President Donald Trump, even as the president barred both cable networks from the White House grounds — bans that have been paused by a federal judge. The White House in recent days began running three advertisements that it calls “public service announcements,” which Democrats and former ethics officials have claimed could violate government ethics laws because of their political nature. For two of the three advertisements in the campaign, the administration has bought ad space on CNN and MS NOW in local markets, according to data from AdImpact. “The Country He Loves,” a 30-second ad, in which Trump promises to “defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” has aired on MS NOW for viewers in Los Angeles. It has also aired on CNN in Los Angeles and Albany, New York.

“Final Battle,” a 30-second ad with a similar tone, shows Trump railing against the “deep state,” “warmongers” and “globalists.” The ad has aired for viewers of MS NOW in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Washington. It also aired once on CNN in Los Angeles. The Trump administration has spent at least $2.87 million running the three ads, according to a modeled estimate from AdImpact. The company said that because the ad is classified as a PSA rather than traditional political advertising, it could not release administration’s exact spending; the company also could not isolate how much was spent specifically on CNN and MS NOW. The Trump administration made the bulk of its ad spend on CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC and Fox News — where it has bought thousands of ad placements in the past week. But the inclusion of MS NOW, on which it bought 38 ads, and CNN, where it bought 10 ads, according to AdImpact, are notable because of Trump’s ongoing battle to bar the networks from the White House. The White House bans, which also include Politico, were temporarily halted by a federal judge who found that the news outlets were likely to succeed in a case filed last week against the White House. The three outlets have since returned to the White House grounds to cover the president.

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Eric Schmitt was warned about the Jack Smith texts. He used them anyway.

As they prepared for the testimony of former special counsel Jack Smith, Republican staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee gave Sen. Eric Schmitt a warning: The texts they had obtained from the Justice Department — which Schmitt suggested was proof Smith had colluded with a Georgia state prosecutor — were “unvetted,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the conversation. Schmitt used the texts anyway. What followed was a congressional spectacle that unraveled almost as quickly as it began. Schmitt insisted Smith attended an Atlanta Hawks basketball game in February 2024, suggesting he may have conspired in some way with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, only to watch the allegation implode within minutes as C-SPAN cameras broadcast the exchange to the world.

According to a source familiar with the committee process and two sources familiar with the matter, the Department of Justice shared materials with GOP staff on the Judiciary Committee ahead of Smith’s hearing. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley’s team assembled a memo about key information for the hearing, according to one source. But Grassley’s staff did not include the texts in the memo, that source added. Grassley also did not share the texts with Democratic senators before the hearing, according to a Democratic staffer and another source briefed by committee staff. That omission deepened Democratic suspicion that congressional Republicans and the Trump administration were working together to undermine or trap Smith, one of the people said. Schmitt’s staff came to the Republican staff asking for material showing a connection between Smith’s investigation — which probed efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election through bogus claims of fraud — and Willis’ probe into whether Trump sought to manipulate the Georgia election results, according to a source with direct knowledge. The source said such back-and-forths over potential material is common practice ahead of congressional hearings.

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Lead Stories

Ken Paxton, G.O.P. nominee in Texas, privately said Trump’s convention hurt him

Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, told a group of conservative donors and lobbyists last week that President Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas had hurt Mr. Paxton politically, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times. The recording, which is muffled at times, captures Mr. Paxton being asked, “Do you feel like he’s a little bit of a drag?” It is not clear from the audio whom the questioner is referring to. Mr. Paxton responds: “So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.” The audio of Mr. Paxton was shared with The Times by an attendee who recorded him speaking at a private fund-raiser in Washington attended by roughly a dozen people.

The person, who opposes Mr. Paxton’s campaign and provided the recording to The Times, was granted anonymity because Mr. Paxton’s remarks were private. Three other people with knowledge of the event confirmed Mr. Paxton’s attendance. Two of these people recalled that Mr. Paxton had been posed this question, and one recalled his response about the negative consequences of Mr. Trump’s convention. Asked about the remarks, Nick Maddux, a senior Paxton adviser, said that “this is more manipulated nonsense from The New York Times to create a story that doesn’t exist.” “Our latest poll from the last week has Ken Paxton leading by three points, and every serious pollster will tell you that our numbers have improved since early September,” Mr. Maddux said. “Ken Paxton is going to win this race, and he looks forward to closing strong alongside President Trump including when he comes to Texas this week.” The event was hosted last Thursday by two Republican lobbyists, Susan Hirschmann and Chris Brinson, in a conference room near Capitol Hill. They did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Paxton’s comments about the convention are notable because of how closely he has aligned himself in public with Mr. Trump, who pushed for the unusual midterm gathering and ensured that much of it would serve as a celebration of his presidency. A longtime Trump loyalist, Mr. Paxton won a costly and bitter primary this year over Senator John Cornyn thanks to the president’s support.

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Supreme Court allows Trump’s quick third-country deportations to continue

The Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump’s administration continue swiftly deporting people to countries other than their own for now, while the justices consider whether the policy is legal. The apparent 6-3 order temporarily lifts lower court requirements for migrants to get a chance to object before being sent to countries to which they have no ties. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have kept the lower court order in place. The Trump administration said last week the lower court order forced the cancellation of a deportation flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries. The conservative majority has sided with the administration before on the core Trump administration policy, allowing deportation flights to temporarily continue last year.

The court said it will consider several questions: whether the policy is lawful, whether lower courts had the authority to consider the case and issue a sweeping block, as well as other questions the government deems appropriate. The order “has now allowed the administration to resume sending people to third countries where they may face persecution, torture, imprisonment, or other grave danger,” said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and one of the lawyers representing immigrants in the case. “But today’s order does not decide that the government’s policy is lawful,” she said in a statement. “The Court will hear that question on an expedited schedule.” Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported some 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries, from Liberia to Guyana. The vast majority have been sent to Mexico.

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Venezuelan man shot and wounded by ICE agent in Texas is charged with assaulting an officer

Federal prosecutors in Texas announced charges Tuesday against Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a Venezuelan delivery driver shot and seriously wounded by an ICE officer in Austin this month. The charges came a day before he was set to appear in court to challenge the legality of his immigration detention. Garcés Pérez, 28, was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Garcés Pérez was wounded by an ICE officer in the upper part of his back on Sept. 20 while he was in his car making DoorDash deliveries. His attorneys say the bullet is still lodged near his spine, causing “grave danger.” A Democratic congressman who visited Garcés Perez last week said he was in a wheelchair, in pain and in need of surgery.

“We are all laser-focused on making sure that Wilber doesn’t die in custody,” said Rochelle Garza, president of the legal nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project, who is part of Garcés Perez’s legal team. Garcés Pérez had his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons said in a statement. The criminal complaint accuses Garcés Pérez of striking an ICE officer’s torso with his car’s side mirror while trying to drive away. This officer was not wearing a body camera at the time of the encounter, as the Department of Homeland Security has stated previously, but the complaint includes images appearing to capture this moment from the body camera of a second ICE officer who was also there. After this, “a high-speed chase through a commercial and residential area” ensued, the complaint states. Tuesday’s court appearance following the criminal complaint took Garcés Pérez’s legal team “as a surprise,” they said in a statement. “His attorneys only learned of this appearance due to a pre-scheduled meeting they had with him this morning, in which he did not appear,” their statement said. “This morning, when his attorneys were finally able to see him, he was in considerable pain, dizzy, and needed pain medication, which had not been provided. Rather than provide the life saving medical care he needs, DHS and the government are playing games with his life.”

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Tarrant candidates make plea for cash after mystery poll shows Dems ahead

A mystery poll showing the historically-red Senate District 9 voting blue in key races this November has become campaign fundraising fodder in the Tarrant County judge race. The candidates are warning against — or promoting — what could be a competitive election cycle in the red county that occasionally tips blue, and using the poll of unknown origins as a basis for their arguments as they urge voters to open their pocketbooks. The poll was published by Quorum Report, a respected outlet for Texas politics, without saying who exactly conducted the poll — beyond “a reputable Republican pollster” — or what the methodology was. It shows 600 likely Senate District 9 voters preferring Democrats by a noteworthy margin in races for state Senate District 9, U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor and Tarrant County judge.

That district elected President Donald Trump in 2024 by a 17-point margin, then it flipped blue to choose Democrat Taylor Rehmet over Republican Leigh Wambsganss in a February special election for a partial term in the Texas Legislature. The Democratic’s 14-point win shocked the country because of the Senate district’s deep-red roots. Now, this poll shows Rehmet winning a full term in the Texas Senate. It also has Democratic nominees James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa, Vikki Goodwin and Alisa Simmons joining him in flipping seats that have been ruby red for over three decades. Texas last elected a Democrat statewide in 1994; Tarrant County hasn’t had a Democrat in the county judge seat since 1986. Simmons and Republican incumbent Tim O’Hare have both seen the polling for their Tarrant County judge race and spread the news to their supporters with a plea for more dollars. O’Hare, who recently sounded the alarm at a True Texas Project meeting, said in a campaign email that if Republicans are behind in his race, “every corner of Tarrant County is in play.” The email said if Simmons wins the race as the poll says, she will raise taxes and wipe away support for the sheriff and law enforcement. Simmons’ post on X said the polling shows Tarrant voters refuse to keep supporting Republicans, who she says are “taking away our rights, starting culture wars and tanking the economy without consequence.” Both candidates said in their messages that the only way to ensure their preferred outcome is for supporters to pour money into the campaign.

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State Stories

President Trump prepares to tour Peterbilt plant in Denton on Thursday

President Donald Trump plans to tour Denton’s Peterbilt Motors plant Thursday to tout his pro-growth economic agenda, which the White House claims has sparked trillions in investment, lowered taxes and brought key manufacturing back to the U.S., according to a statement from the White House. “The President’s American First trade agenda is driving a manufacturing renaissance that will continue to pay dividends for the great state of Texas and Americans across the country,” Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said in the statement. Trump is expected to address Peterbilt workers during his visit. Denton Mayor Chris Watts said he plans to attend Thursday’s event at the invitation of Peterbilt, the city’s largest private employer, and he praised the truck manufacturer’s investment in Denton.

“Peterbilt has long been a shining example of what it means to be a strong corporate partner, providing high-quality jobs for our residents while also supporting nonprofit organizations that serve our neighbors who need a helping hand,” Watts said in a statement Tuesday, through a spokesperson. “Their continued growth also holds the potential for additional job opportunities that benefit our community. “With more than half of Denton households struggling each month to make ends meet, the work being done at Peterbilt represents more than employment. It represents opportunity, an opportunity for families to strengthen their financial security and improve their quality of life.” The president’s visit comes as Americans’ negative views about the economy have lingered. Gallup last week announced its Economic Confidence Index has stayed steady at -20. “This reflects relatively few Americans rating current economic conditions as excellent or good (28%) while the majority continue to say the economy is getting worse (63%),” Gallup reported.

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Brisket is missing from Texas menus. A Democrat blames Republicans.

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) is blaming Republicans for the missing brisket. The congressman running in a competitive race for reelection released a new ad Tuesday accusing Republicans of spiking beef prices with President Donald Trump’s tariff policy. “Have you seen the price of beef lately?” Gonzalez, a moderate Democrat, says to the camera before serving guests at a barbecue minuscule portions of meat. “Puras migajas” — pure crumbs — a man in the ad says after receiving a single bite of beef. Beef prices have steadily increased since 2025 because of numerous factors, including a volatile market for cattle ranchers that has led to a historically low herd. The rise in prices has caused some restaurants to pull brisket from their menus. Gonzalez is up against Republican Eric Flores in his majority-Latino district. Trump won the district by more than four percentage points in 2024, but Republicans redrew its boundaries last year to favor Trump by more than 10 percentage points. Still, Democrats are optimistic about holding the seat, betting that Latino voters who went for Trump in 2024 will swing back toward Democrats this year because of high prices and the president’s immigration agenda.

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Conservative moms are fed up over Texas schools. For Gina Hinojosa, it’s an opening.

Vanessa Ovalle has a “frontline view” of Texas schools as a single mom and a speech pathologist at a local school in McAllen, a city in the Rio Grande Valley bordering Mexico. Ovalle described the state’s education system as “completely disappointing.” In nearby Welasco, Catalina Ozuna said her daughter is working in an understaffed kindergarten classroom for little pay while being weighed down by the cost of daycare for her own child. Meredith Keller, who for over a decade presided over a local school board south of Austin, calls a new voucher program that allows parents to use public dollars for private school “a slap in the face to everyone who went to public school.”

These Texas voters all have two things in common: They have backed Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in the past and are now throwing their support behind Democrat Gina Hinojosa in the November election, driven by concerns about the state of public education. In this Republican bastion, angst over the state’s public education system has helped fuel Hinojosa’s campaign, giving voters here one of the most competitive governor’s races they’ve seen in decades. That a Democrat has a chance is a welcome surprise for voters like Maria Colmenero, 32, who stood at the back of an Hinojosa rally this month in Brownsville, a town along the Mexican border, holding one of the campaign’s school-bus-yellow “Save Our Schools” placards. Colmenero said the main issue driving her support for Hinojosa is the state of public schools in Texas. She said she’s homeschooling her three daughters because the local public school options just “weren’t up to par.”

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Judges back Meta $552M power plant if EP Electric customers don't pay

El Paso Electric is close to getting state regulators’ approval for a $551.8 million, 366-megawatt power plant to be built for the Meta Platforms data center complex in far Northeast El Paso. The city of El Paso and others are opposing the McCloud power plant. Two Texas administrative law judges issued a report Wednesday, Sept. 23, recommending that the Public Utility Commission of Texas approve construction of the plant, but on the condition that EPE ratepayers be protected from paying the facility's construction and operating costs. EPE officials have proposed a so-called “bridge period” of up to five years, in which Meta will be responsible for all construction and operating costs for the power plant until it's tied to EPE’s grid.

“EPE has left open the possibility that other customers may pay a portion of the costs in the future,” judges Cassandra Quinn and Arthur D’Andrea noted in their decision. For EPE to include the McCloud power plant costs in future electric rates, it would need to show that the power plant’s capacity is needed for its grid, is cost-effective, and increases EPE's grid reliability, the judges wrote. The judges issued their recommendation after hearing arguments from EPE and opponents during a July 8 videoconference, and receiving post-hearing briefs before closing the proceeding Aug. 6. The PUCT's five commissioners are expected to make a decision on EPE's application by December. Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is leasing the $14 billion data center campus on 1,000 acres at Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue and U.S. Highway 54, near the New Mexico state line. It's under construction and is expected to open in 2028. The McCloud plant cost had initially been projected at $500 million by EPE. But in the hearing judges’ report, the cost was put at $551.8 million. EPE’s “lack of analysis regarding options (to the McCloud plant) is concerning,” the judges wrote.

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San Antonio Express-News Editorial: Philip Cortez deserves another term in the Legislature

We recommend incumbent state Rep. Philip Cortez for a seventh term representing Texas House District 117. This district takes in parts of the South, Southwest and far West Sides of San Antonio. Cortez, born and raised on the South Side, has his district's pulse, and knows the issues and community's priorities. Cortez also has a long history of public service. In his early 20s, he served as chief of staff to Mayor Ed Garza. He was then elected to two terms on the San Antonio City Council, representing District 4. He’s also a former U.S. Air Force officer, retiring as a captain in 2019. Cortez was first elected to the Texas House in 2012, but he lost to Republican Rick Galindo in 2014.

In a 2016 rematch, Cortez regained his seat and has held it since then through hard work, constituent services and building meaningful connections with other lawmakers. For example, at the beginning of the 89th session, House Speaker Dustin Burrows appointed Cortez as chairman of the Permanent Standing Subcommittee on Defense & Veterans' Affairs. Supporting veterans, seniors, public education (he opposes vouchers for private schools) and creating better-paying jobs are Cortez’s priorities. During the 2025 session, Cortez pushed through a $50 million appropriation as an incentive for the U.S. Air Force to build a military cyber campus at Port San Antonio, but in a sudden and inexplicable reversal, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed it, claiming it to be duplicative of other state initiatives. It wasn't. Cortez, who has a doctorate in education administration, has said oversight of school vouchers and improving public education funding remain top priorities. He faces Republican Ben Mostyn, a San Antonio-area Realtor and U.S. Army veteran, in a rematch from two years ago. We met with Mostyn at that time and found no need to meet again.

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Judge denies DA’s request to revoke bond for Vision Oil CEO Josh Cohen

A West Texas state judge denied prosecutors’ requests to revoke the bond of Josh Cohen on Tuesday, allowing the former head of Vision Oil and Gas to remain free while facing charges for an oilfield fraud scheme targeting Permian Basin companies. Cohen, who lives in New York but owns and operates wells across Texas, was arrested June 5 for failing to pay more than $1.2 million he allegedly owed to oilfield services companies in Ward, Reeves and Midland counties. He was charged with one count of felony theft of services and one count of engaging in organized crime.

After being released on a $400,000 bond in July, prosecutors alleged Cohen violated conditions of his parole when he solicited work from Texas companies, according to court documents. Cohen also ignored a court-mandated order to wear an ankle monitor and failed to provide proof of doing so, prosecutors said. Judge Alan Nicholas in Monahans disagreed, saying he couldn’t take away Cohen’s right to work and that the state hadn’t proved Cohen wasn’t going to pay for services he solicited, even though seeking new contracts violated the initial conditions of his bail. Ward County District Attorney Sarah Stogner, who brought charges against Cohen, said she was looking forward to letting the case play out in court. Cohen’s attorney, Lane Haygood, did not respond to requests for comment. During his June arrest Cohen was accused of contracting for services such as oilfield remediation, trucking and equipment rentals “without the intent or ability to pay for them,” pushing some firms to “near financial collapse,” according to law enforcement documents. In a filing requesting the bond revocation in August, prosecutors said Cohen solicited work on more than 270 wells across Midland, Canadian and Amarillo. Cohen called and emailed contractors for the work under his own name, a fake name, and on behalf of an associate while using multiple phone numbers, the filings said.

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16 trucking companies, including five in Texas, hit bankruptcy court in less than a month

A new round of trucking bankruptcies has swept across the U.S. in recent weeks, with carriers ranging from small owner-operators to fleets operating dozens of trucks seeking Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 protection. At least 16 trucking, delivery and transportation companies entered bankruptcy proceedings between late August and Sept. 21, according to federal court filings and carrier records reviewed by FreightWaves. The filings include Chapter 11 cases involving Globemaster Incorporated, Xoco Transport, Jett Transport & Materials, CLJ Transporting, Mill Creek Logistics-Illinois, RP Hay Hauling, Truckload LLC and Pacer Transport. Several smaller carriers filed Chapter 7 cases, which typically involve liquidation rather than reorganization. The filings come as trucking companies continue navigating a freight environment marked by rising diesel fuel prices and other elevated operating costs.

Xoco Transport, a Hidalgo, Texas-based carrier, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 16. Bankruptcy court filings indicate the carrier has more than 40 tractors, 65 drivers and 70 trailers. Jett Transport & Materials LLC filed for Chapter 11 protection Sept. 14 in the Western District of Texas. The Somerset, Texas-based company specializes in hauling construction materials and reported assets between $100,000 and $500,000 and liabilities between $500,000 and $1 million. The company operates about 14 trucks and 14 trailers, according to records included with the bankruptcy information. It was listed with 10 drivers and an active motor carrier registration. The recent bankruptcy activity also includes a cluster of smaller fleets entering Chapter 7 proceedings. A&B Transportation Inc. of Lake Elsinore, California, filed Sept. 11. The carrier is listed with six trucks and six drivers. Russ Exp Co., an Arlington Heights, Illinois-based interstate carrier with five trucks and five drivers, also recently entered Chapter 7 proceedings. Texas-based carriers entering bankruptcy include T Yorkman Trucking LLC of Midland, which specialized in oil field water transportation, vacuum truck operations and hazardous-material hauling; Blue Star Transports LLC of Garland, listed with two trucks and two drivers; and Jackdollars Transport LLC of McKinney, a one-truck carrier.

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How Republicans hijacked Fort Bend County

Depending on how you count, Fort Bend County currently has zero, one, or two chief executives. In March, the elected county judge, a Democrat turned Republican named KP George, was convicted of felony money laundering after spending campaign funds on personal expenses. George’s downfall set off a political crisis that has thrown the suburban county southwest of Houston into chaos. While George appealed his conviction, a separate civil lawsuit sought his suspension from office. Under Texas law, the civil case had to be heard by a visiting judge, one temporarily appointed to hear a case in a court they do not normally preside over. The rule seems reasonable enough. An outside arbiter would presumably be insulated from local political considerations. But that theory proved, well, presumptive. The district judge assigned to the case, Republican Jeth Jones from Galveston County, decided to suspend George and replace him with Republican businessman Daniel Wong. Wong was an unusual choice. The Macau-born owner of a civil engineering firm was a former city council member in Sugar Land, Fort Bend’s largest city, but had no experience in county government.

He had, however, recently won the GOP nomination for county judge and would be running for the position in the November election. His interim appointment meant that he could run as an incumbent—an incalculable advantage for any politician. (Jones declined an interview request for this story.) Fort Bend Democrats saw Wong’s appointment as part of a right-wing conspiracy to take control of the county, which narrowly voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. The elected county attorney, Democrat Bridgette Smith-Lawson, filed a lawsuit claiming that Wong’s appointment was illegal. The two Democrats on the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, the five-member governing body, refused to acknowledge Wong’s legitimacy and have been boycotting meetings since June. “We have a person who is operating in an office that does not have clear legal title to do so,” Smith-Lawson told me. “The rightful judge is still KP George, whether people like it or not. He’s suspended without pay, but he has not been removed from office.” The three Republican commissioners, led by Wong, have attacked Smith-Lawson as a partisan operative and voted to strip employees and resources from her office. Wong insists that the entire controversy has been ginned up by his political opponents. “People [in Fort Bend County] recognize I’m the county judge,” he told me. “They use different terms—interim county judge, acting county judge, county judge—but they all recognize me as the legal county judge.”

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CAIR Texas responds to “anti-Muslim” rhetoric in public schools

While many public school teachers and parents from diverse faith backgrounds rallied against Ten Commandments posters and state-mandated Bible readings, recently approved curriculum changes that spread anti-Muslim themes also have detrimental impacts on the future of public education, officials with CAIR Texas said this week. The Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations hosted a livestreamed discussion Monday night to talk about changes to the social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills — the official state curriculum standards for public schools — approved for K-8 in June and for high schoolers on September 4 by the State Board of Education. The new standards are set to take effect in 2030.

Sameeha Rizvi, the Richmond-based governmental affairs and legislative manager for CAIR Texas, said the new social studies standards will shape what millions of students learn about history, religion, culture and civic life for years to come. “These standards include significant changes affecting the teaching of Islam, as well as representation of Black, brown, immigrant, Palestinian and other marginalized communities in Texas classrooms,” she said. “As communities continue to review and assess the impact of these changes, it is important that parents, educators, faith leaders, advocates and community members understand what was adopted and what it could mean in practice.” So what exactly changed? For starters, the Board approved a high school lesson requiring students to learn that “radical Islam” prompted the 9/11 terrorist attacks, rather than highlighting extremist groups like al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. Additionally, students will now learn about early Islam based on the Prophet Muhammad’s “brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, the normalization and regulation of slavery and the taking of female captives as harem slaves.”

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Houston-area Trump voters caught in immigration crackdown

A Honduran woman’s potential departure from Texas is forcing her conservative Bellaire family to confront a hard truth: President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown isn’t confined to Latino neighborhoods or work site raids. Instead, it casts a wide net that ensnares even people who “do it the right way.” In a few weeks, Anyi Hernandez-Escobar, her husband Patrick Keating and their 16-month-old toddler Emma could find themselves nearly 2,000 miles from their Houston home and extended family. Hernandez-Escobar, who came to the U.S. in 2018, could be forced back to her native Honduras because of an agreement between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Department of Justice. The agreement dissolved a Biden-era policy that allowed immigration judges to close certain cases, like Hernandez-Escobar’s, if an immigrant was applying for legal status.

This sudden turn of events has left her in-laws and her husband torn about their political choices. They voted for Trump, in part because they believed his pledge to focus on deporting criminals. They said they never expected the administration’s policy could impact them so directly. “Anyi, she's always tried to do it the right way. Right from the minute she crossed,” said Ingrid Keating, her mother-in-law. “Immigration has been such a mess for so many years, but of course it's easy not to pay too much attention when it's not your immediate family. Now, all of a sudden, it really brings it home.” Even Hernandez-Escobar, who is not eligible to vote, said she supported the president’s promise to target criminals. “There was a lot of crime in the country. I thought it was good to deport the bad people,” she said. “Now, it doesn’t matter if you’re a good person or a bad person.” Hernandez-Escobar crossed the border into Texas and sought asylum at Eagle Pass during Trump’s first term. She was eight months pregnant and fleeing what she described as a desperate situation in Honduras: She had been abandoned by her parents, had no money and said the biological father of her son was largely out of the picture.

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Houston Mayor John Whitmire funded Montrose pride banners

Rainbows have returned to Montrose with the installation of pride banners along Westheimer Road, nearly a year after the city removed the neighborhood’s iconic crosswalks to comply with threats from Gov. Greg Abbott. City leaders celebrated the ten new banners strung up on light poles at a press event in the heart of the historic heart of Houston’s LGBTQ+ community on Tuesday, voicing defiance against Abbott, who last year directed cities to remove “social, political, or ideological messages" from roadways or lose state transportation funding.

“I want to remind the Republicans in the Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott: You think you can pave over our existence and our history, and you cannot,” said state Rep. Ann Johnson, an openly lesbian Democrat who represents Montrose. Mayor John Whitmire personally paid for the roughly $10,000 installation, which hung banners along Westheimer from Taft Street to Montrose Boulevard. The original crosswalk, at the intersection of Westheimer and Taft, was painted over by Metro in September, then repainted by the city, then finally paved over the next month after a standoff between protestors and police. Four people were arrested. “Someone is driving down Westheimer and wondering whether there is a place for them here… without anyone having to say a single word, these banners tell them and myself, you are here, you are seen, and you belong,” said Kerry-Ann Morrison, the president of Pride Houston who organized the installation alongside longtime community advocate Jack Valinski.

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City Stories

David Persse, ‘pioneer’ of Houston’s EMS system, dies at 67

David Persse — a former director of the Houston Fire Department's (HFD) Emergency Medical Services (EMS) — died on Monday, according to the department. In a statement, Fire Chief Thomas Muñoz hailed the longtime leader as "a pioneer whose impact on the Houston Fire Department cannot be overstated." The department credited Persse, 67, with developing a mobile stroke unit program, which brought early diagnosis and treatment from the hospital to the field, as well as a tele-health program virtually connecting patients with emergency physicians.

Marty Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, said Presse’s innovations "saved countless thousands of lives over the years." "It shows what a pioneer Dr. Persse was, and his legacy is going to continue to live on in all of us," Lancton told Houston Public Media. According to HFD, Persse began his emergency medicine career as a field paramedic and instructor before attending Georgetown University's medical school. After working in leadership roles in Houston and Los Angeles, he returned to Houston for good in 1996 to lead the city's EMS system. His years of public service included time as Houston's Public Health Authority and the city's Chief Medical Officer. He led Houston and Harris County through multiple hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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National Stories

Media trust increase driven by Republicans: Gallup

Republicans drove an increase in Americans’ trust in the media, which jumped by 5 percent this year after hitting an all-time low in 2025, according to survey results published Tuesday. In the new Gallup survey, 33 percent of respondents said they trusted mass media — including newspapers, television and radio — a “great deal” or “fair amount” when it comes to their ability to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.” These new figures mark a rebound from 2025, where 28 percent of those polled — a new low in Gallup’s more than 50-year trend — expressed confidence in media outlets’ reporting. Republican respondents fueled this increase, with 22 percent expressing trust in the media, an 8 percent increase from the year prior. Republicans’ trust in the media hasn’t passed 20 percent since 2018, and 22 percent is the highest the figure has ticked over the past 10 years.

Democrats’ evaluation moved in the opposite direction, with their trust hitting a historic low of 50 percent. Meanwhile, 31 percent of independents trust the media, a slight increase from 28 percent in 2025. Out of the entire respondent pool, 33 percent of those surveyed stated they have “not very much” confidence in mass media, while an equal 33 percent have “none at all.” Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of U.S. social research, acknowledged in an analysis of this year’s results the party-line fracture surrounding media trust — but also emphasized that these ratings are historically weak overall. “The partisan trends also reveal a somewhat different political environment toward the media in [President] Trump’s second term than in his first,” Saad wrote. On Sept. 18, Trump banned three media outlets — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — from the White House. In a social media post announcing the ban, the president referred to CNN as “fake news” and called out MS NOW for changing its name from MSNBC, alleging the outlet had to rename itself due to “lack of viewership and credibility.” He also railed against the $8 million government agencies pay for Politico Pro subscriptions, calling it “illegal and ridiculous.” A federal judge swiftly reversed the ban on Sept. 24, mandating that the White House restore the three outlets’ press credentials. But the feud is waging on after the ruling, as the Trump administration barred CNN from traveling with the press pool on Air Force One over the weekend. Gallup surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults between Sept. 1-17. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.

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Jack Smith defends Trump charges as senator’s perjury claim falls apart

It was meant to be a dramatic confrontation, a public accusation of perjury against Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump. Instead, Senator Eric Schmitt’s amateur sleuthing into basketball led him to the wrong game, league and state. During a four-hour Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Mr. Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, struck a conspiratorial tone and asked Mr. Smith if he had attended an Atlanta Hawks home game in February 2024. Mr. Schmitt focused on the basketball game in the hopes that he could show Mr. Smith had perjured himself and was involved in a conspiracy with local Atlanta prosecutors to ensnare Mr. Trump. In a hearing where Republicans repeatedly accused Mr. Smith of lying, what Mr. Schmitt first presented as smoking-gun evidence against Mr. Smith turned out to be a misfire.

During his testimony, Mr. Smith appeared deeply confused by Mr. Schmitt’s question. “I definitely did not go to a Hawks game,” he said. “I’m sure of that.” Mr. Schmitt seemed confident he had just caught Mr. Smith in a lie. It was part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump’s Republican allies to characterize Mr. Smith as politically partisan, a man with an ax to grind not just against a former president, but also the Republican establishment. Mr. Smith has already defended his work before Congress, and Republicans have claimed that his past testimony included perjury. On Tuesday, Mr. Schmitt argued that Mr. Smith had lied again, this time about a basketball game. If the prosecutor was in Atlanta, Mr. Schmitt suggested, he might have met with the local district attorney, Fani Willis, who also pursued a criminal case against Mr. Trump. Mr. Schmitt’s Republican colleague from Louisiana, John Kennedy, stood next to him helping hold up a poster board showing text messages among members of Mr. Smith’s special counsel team from Feb. 3, 2024, discussing seats at a basketball game. “I don’t think you know we have this stuff, so I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t perjure yourself,” Mr. Schmitt said, even as the poster board was swiftly taken down, too quickly for most in the room to read it.

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Officials cast doubt on Trump’s plan for drones, snipers at proposed arch

Trump administration officials said Tuesday that they were unaware of specific plans to convert President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch into a military complex, more than a week after Trump announced plans to put snipers, drones and ammunition at the site. Senior officials at the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and the National Park Service told advocacy groups that they were proceeding with existing plans for the arch’s design and features, including that it will be open to tourists, according to three people with knowledge of the remarks. The officials also told the groups that the administration had received no additional information from the Defense Department about militarizing the project, the people said.

Administration officials met with the advocates as part of a required process to evaluate the planned arch’s harm on nearby historic sites. Trump officials are hoping to build the 250-foot-tall arch in Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries and near Arlington National Cemetery. Spokespeople for ACHP and the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, did not immediately respond to questions about the meeting. Trump on Sept. 20 said on Truth Social that the arch would be converted into a “military complex” that would “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.” Trump did not explain what security need might be served by adding weaponry to the proposed arch, which would be near existing military installations. Trump has repeatedly invoked military and national security needs to expedite his construction projects and other priorities, including his planned White House ballroom. Administration officials are hoping to begin construction on the arch as soon as November.

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US forces exit Iraq, emboldening Iran's proxies and Islamic State

US forces ended their mission in Iraq on ?Wednesday after more than two decades of war there, raising fears of a security vacuum that would embolden Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias and allow Islamic State to regroup. The withdrawal of the final troops, mainly from an airbase in Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, was celebrated as a victory by Tehran and its allies, although many Iraqis were concerned that their own security forces were unprepared. The pullout was agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried out by Donald Trump's ?administration even as it wages war against Irannext door. It comes 23 years after US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein, triggering years of upheaval and chaos. US troops initially left at the ?end of 2011 but came back less than three years later after Islamic State fighters seized a third of Iraq.

More than 4,500 US troops died in America's ?biggest war of this century, around twice as many as in the parallel war in Afghanistan. The Iraq Body Count project says more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. The Pentagon said the ?United States and its coalition partners formally concluded "Operation Inherent Resolve" and that the Pentagon will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to Iraqi partners. The Iraqis are expected to lead the effort ?to secure the country, an ally of both Washington and Tehran, and keep the remnants of Islamic State suppressed. “The end of the international coalition’s mission does not mean the end of our battle against terrorism, but rather Iraq’s transition to a phase in which it assumes full responsibility for its security and stability," said Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi in a statement. Tehran has steadily entrenched itself through proxies in Iraq since the fall of Saddam. While the ?departure of US forces is broadly popular among Iraqis, some worry that security forces trained and funded by the United States still can't protect the country.

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OpenAI ignored employees’ warnings about safely testing A.I. models

Months before OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue, two employees raised an alarm with top executives. They were ignored. In emails, the employees said they worried that OpenAI’s newest artificial intelligence models were not being appropriately monitored during testing to gauge the technology’s sophistication and to secure the models, according to messages viewed by The New York Times. In response, OpenAI executives told the employees that the tests needed to move forward as quickly as possible to release the A.I. models on time. No additional security protocols were instituted, said the workers, who were not authorized to speak publicly on sensitive matters. OpenAI’s models later broke out of their testing environments and attacked the A.I. start-up Hugging Face and other organizations, setting off a global debate about A.I. safety.

The exchanges between OpenAI employees and executives — which have not been previously reported — were part of a pattern where the San Francisco company did not prioritize security, according to employees and independent security researchers. That approach not only was evident with the testing of A.I. models, they said, but also showed up in other areas of the company, which makes the ChatGPT chatbot. Independent security researchers said they found bugs in recent months that allowed them to view the internal communications of OpenAI employees. They also found other vulnerabilities that would enable them to see the company’s internal computer code and view the chat logs of ChatGPT users. When the researchers contacted OpenAI about their findings, they said, the company initially disregarded them. “OpenAI’s security seems to be about what you’d expect from a research lab that scaled at a blistering pace over four years and focused more on beating its competitors than securing its infrastructure,” said Joshua Saxe, the chief technology officer of the A.I. security firm Abundant Security.

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Democrats eye Nebraska as an opportunity to take a Senate seat away from Republicans

Marine Corps veteran Gunner Arellano is a Donald Trump man — he voted for the president three times — but, he said, he won’t be casting a ballot for Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., in November. Dan Osborn, an independent who has the backing of the state’s Democratic Party, is “more for the people” than Ricketts, Arellano, a 35-year-old tobacconist, said in an interview at the S.G. Roi cigar shop in downtown Omaha late last month. While Arellano is familiar with Ricketts, a former two-term governor who ranks high on the list of wealthiest senators, he said that the senator isn’t present enough. “All those politicians, they want to come around when it’s election time, right?” he said. “Come down on a Wednesday in the middle of your term, you know.”

Arellano said he’ll vote for Osborn, and voters like him are the reason that Democrats in Nebraska and at the national level hope they might be able to swipe a Senate seat in this heavily Republican state. They’re even more optimistic about flipping the state’s Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, where Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won in 2024 and Republican Rep. Don Bacon is retiring. In that year, Osborn surprised many political observers by running a competitive campaign against Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who ended up winning by a little more than 6 percentage points while Trump took the state by 20 points. The latter margin is one reason, along with Ricketts’ record of winning statewide races at the gubernatorial and Senate levels, that Republicans are confident they can keep the seat. Omaha was the last in an eight-stop, five-state tour that NBC News reporters took through battleground congressional districts — and states with competitive Senate races — along Interstate 80 in late August. Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to take control of the chamber next year, and Nebraska has emerged at the edge of the small list of states that could be in play in November.

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Trump signs executive order rebranding AI as 'Super Intelligence' as tech titans ink separate SI accord

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing the federal government to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "Super Intelligence" across the executive branch, cementing a rebranding effort he has championed in recent weeks. Signed after a White House summit with leading technology executives, the order directs federal agencies to use the terms "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory materials. The order also directs agencies to "no longer acknowledge" the terms "artificial intelligence" and "AI," according to the White House. The order further instructs the assistant to the president for science and technology to develop a federal definition of SI and recommend any additional executive actions needed to implement the new terminology.

Trump argued in the order that AI no longer reflects the technology's rapidly advancing capabilities, saying SI better captures its promise and potential. "The term 'Super Intelligence' more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies," Trump wrote. He also wrote that modern AI systems are increasingly amplifying human ingenuity and unlocking new forms of creativity, arguing they represent the beginning of a new era of SI. The order follows remarks Trump made at last week's United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where he publicly called for replacing the term "artificial intelligence" with SI. "Whoever wins AI, you have to remember this, and now I say whoever wins SI, whoever wins superintelligence, wins. That's the group that wins," Trump said at the time.

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Why New York City has become an AI mecca

The City Council is set to hold a rare all-Council meeting on Oct. 5 to discuss the “potentially catastrophic risks” of artificial intelligence and debate a package of oversight legislation, including protections for AI whistleblowers and requirements for third-party validators of AI systems. Attorney General Letitia James has also asked New Yorkers to report AI companies who might be violating the law. But while New York politicians are focused on the perils of AI, the city has emerged as a center for AI companies, second only to the Bay Area, showing the industry’s growing importance to the city’s economy — and the risks if the AI boom turns into a bubble. Elise AI, founded five years ago, now employs 600 people, two-thirds of them in New York. This week, it announced it had raised $350 million, which values the company at $4 billion as its tools for property management and healthcare companies gain new clients.

Alex Sambvani’s Slang AI, which two years ago was developing an application to handle phone calls to restaurants, is now selling itself as an AI tools manager for restaurants around the world. In the last two years, Sambvani has raised $48 million, bringing total investment to almost $70 million, while doubling Slang AI’s headcount to 70. Two juggernauts leading the development of AI — OpenAI and Anthropic — have both established major operations here. The same factors that drove the city’s tech boom over the past 10 years are what’s propelling AI’s growth now: New York has both an enormous reservoir of tech talent and is the city best poised to bring tech innovation to the rest of the economy. “There are a wide range of small- to medium-sized AI companies in every sector who are coming here or launching here because of what Willie Sutton said about where the money is, because you have companies in finance, law, medicine, insurance or whatever,” Greg Morrisett, the dean of Cornell Tech said, citing the famous 20th-century bank robber.

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Lead Stories

The Trump-loving Texas Republican sounding the alarm on data centers

By sheer numbers, Texas’ stock of existing and planned data centers is bigger than China’s. The state, under the auspices of three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott, has become an incentive paradise for tech companies looking to capitalize on the AI boom. It might be backfiring. As lawmakers across the country throw the doors open to tech giants — including behemoths like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Alphabet, Oracle, and Meta — an enticement war is taking shape between states. Subsidized or discounted utility rates, easy environmental approvals, property tax abatements, and payroll credits are just some of the sweeteners local officials are offering to get data centers built in their backyards. As it turns out, Americans hate it. Enter Sid Miller, the outgoing Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, and one of the most vocal Republicans in the state — if not country — clamoring for increased data center regulation. His opposition to the datafication of Texas has placed him at odds with Abbott, currently caught in a closer-than-comfortable reelection campaign, and at times even Donald Trump, despite the president endorsing him multiple times.

Backlash to the data center bonanza has become an electoral fissure in the run up to November’s midterm elections. A survey published by Gallup earlier this month found that 7 in 10 Americans would oppose the construction of a data center in their communities. State-level polling conducted in August by the Texas Politics Project found that roughly 57 percent of respondents opposed or strongly opposed the construction of data centers in their communities, with the proportion of opposition being much higher in rural areas. They suck up water and energy resources, take up land, disrupt the peace and quiet of the intentional distance you take from the city slickers, and they’re popping up like weeds. In a white cowboy hat and a matching Texas drawl, Miller has been sounding the alarm about the looming voter backlash to the industrial AI boom, even going so far as to warn that it could cost Abbott his chance at reelection. Miller lost his own bid for reelection in the Republican primary earlier this year, and with nothing left to lose, he gave Rolling Stone his perspective on the potential make-or-break issue of the midterms. "I started this way before the primary election, way back probably a year, a little over a year ago. My first concern was all the good farmland that was disappearing. Data centers, crypto mines, solar farms — they want to locate them on our very best, most fertile farmland. The reason they do is that it’s cleared, it’s flat, it’s got electricity. Most of the time, it’s got water, irrigation, everything. They can just rev up and go. It’s in the county, most of the time, so there’s no oversight or regulation or guardrails, no permits needed. Once they pave that [land] over, we’re not getting it back — it’s gone," he said.

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Gov. Greg Abbott declares statewide disaster proclamation over diesel shortages

Governor Greg Abbott announced a statewide disaster proclamation over diesel shortage on Monday, following recent record-high prices. The proclamation permits the use of dyed diesel on roads and lifts weight restrictions for agricultural, timber and fuel loads. It also suspends Texas Low Emission Diesel rules to the extent allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Dyed diesel — regular diesel with red pigment — is reserved for off road use only, usually by farm and construction equipment. Unlike regular diesel, it is untaxed. With the proclamation, the governor's office aims to alleviate skyrocketing prices at the gas pump. While it increases the supply of diesel, it does not affect the fuel tax, which is 20 cents per gallon.

"Texas agriculture and freight run on diesel," Abbott said in a press release. "Record prices put both industries at risk and raise costs for every Texas family. Farmers and truckers can now use dyed diesel on Texas roads, and fuel, crop, and timber loads can move at a higher weight. These steps cut costs on the farm, on the road and at the store." Seven months into the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran, the U.S. continues to suffer from a major upset in exports of oil and gas from the Middle East, due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damaged infrastructure. According to AAA, diesel prices reached a record high of $6.53 on average last week. This time last year, diesel average $3.69 a gallon. President Donald Trump recently vetoed a proposal by Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, and talks to end the war have continuously deteriorated. Politicians across Texas have sought to capitalize on voters' affordability concerns, in response to continued inflation. Abbott, who is seeking re-election, will face Democratic State Rep. Gina Hinojosa in November. Hinojosa has asked the governor to waive the state gas tax.

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ICE operations are making it hard for vulnerable Republicans fighting for their political survival

Battleground Republicans across the country are on defense as ICE operations keep finding their way into local headlines. A flurry of ICE activity in four rural Kansas towns this week prompted businesses to shutter and public schools to urge families to identify who could pick up children from schools in case their parents were detained. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) — a normally staunch MAGA defender who finds himself in a tougher-than-expected election — took to social media to say he was “closely following” the situation, signaled his displeasure that ICE wasn’t working more closely with local law enforcement, and said he had phoned Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Battleground Republicans across the country are on defense as ICE operations keep finding their way into local headlines. A flurry of ICE activity in four rural Kansas towns this week prompted businesses to shutter and public schools to urge families to identify who could pick up children from schools in case their parents were detained. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) — a normally staunch MAGA defender who finds himself in a tougher-than-expected election — took to social media to say he was “closely following” the situation, signaled his displeasure that ICE wasn’t working more closely with local law enforcement, and said he had phoned Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Later, he complained that ICE’s failure to communicate with local law enforcement caused “mass disruptions to local communities and businesses.” “We must keep our communities safe, but it has to be done in a responsible and secure manner,” he said in a statement Thursday evening.

Mullin took over DHS in March with a mandate to keep immigration enforcement out of the news following a public outcry over the killing of two Americans by immigration agents during enforcement operations in Minneapolis. No subsequent incidents have generated the same type of national attention — but ICE’s recent record-high arrest rate is still landing hard in some communities. “It does cause quite a disruption in the community,” said Scott Fischer, the GOP chair in Ford County, one of the counties where ICE activity was reported this week. “We don’t want our community disrupted.” In Florida, local officials are warning about the impact of ICE raids on businesses, and a Republican incumbent is on air with a Spanish-language ad denouncing Trump’s crackdown. In Michigan, Democrats are calling for an investigation after a man crashed his car and died while fleeing ICE. In Maine, the fallout from a fatal ICE shooting of a 25-year-old from Colombia continues to loom over GOP Sen. Susan Collins’ reelection race. In Texas, last week’s nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan in Austin is just the latest of several highly publicized ICE operations that have fueled wall-to-wall media coverage. “There’s already been some blowback associated with what people feel is a little bit of a heavy hand when it comes to immigration enforcement,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “Obviously, border security is critical, but I think the administration maybe has miscalculated a little bit. … It is going to be one of the factors people are weighing in the election.”

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Texas weather: State prepares for heavy rainfall, flooding threats

A large portion of the state is facing heavy rainfall and flooding threats later in the week. The message from state leaders was simple: prepare now before the rain arrives. What they're saying: "We want to make sure that our fellow Texans know about the volume of rain that's about to hit their region," said Governor Greg Abbott. State officials issued an early warning Monday urging Texans to get ready for what could be a significant flooding event. Abbott says the weather could be similar to July’s deadly flooding. He says there’s still time to prepare. "Please take whatever action you can to prepare yourself, your family, your home for the heavy rain that may come," said Governor Abbott.

It begins Monday night with a slight risk of flooding and possible flash flooding in far west Texas and El Paso. By Tuesday, the rain is expected to spread across much of west Texas and the Panhandle from Amarillo to Lubbock to Midland. "Fash floods should be anticipated. Rain of five to seven inches coming down. Wind. In those areas up to 60 miles per hour, including the potential for tropical tornadoes with wind up to 80 miles per hour," said Governor Abbott. On Wednesday, the impact will be felt across the majority of Texas, according to Abbott. Heavy rain could reach the I-35 corridor from north Texas through central Texas. The cold front pushing into those regions could bring significant rainfall. "There is a possibility that the front could stall. And if it stalls, it could result in an extraordinary amount of inches of rain falling in those regions that might be incalculable at this time," said Governor Abbott. The flash flooding risk continues into Thursday with 10 inches of rain expected from areas north of Dallas to south of San Antonio.

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State Stories

Ted Cruz scores Senate win on college sports bill. What happens next?

Sen. Ted Cruz took a big step forward Monday in his effort to impose order on what he describes as college sports chaos, as the Senate approved his proposal to impose new rules on player eligibility, transfers and compensation deals. Cruz said before the vote the bill is necessary to preserve a vibrant environment for the student athletes on the field and the fans cheering for their favorite teams. “This bill is about protecting what makes college sports uniquely American,” Cruz said before the bipartisan 77-22 vote to approve the measure. Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the bill isn’t perfect and represents the product of intense negotiations with the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington.

It now goes to the House, which is set to be on recess through the midterm elections in November. Cruz has suggested Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., bring the House back before November to pass the bill and give Republicans a bipartisan accomplishment to brag about on the campaign trail. He also floated a unique victory lap: having President Donald Trump sign the bill on ESPN’s College GameDay. It’s not clear Johnson would be inclined to pull his Republicans away from their reelection efforts for an issue such as college sports. Johnson could receive some pressure from Trump, who has made the issue a priority and talked about its importance during an interview Saturday with Clay Travis at the Texas-Tennessee football game. “We have to get it voted on and we're counting on the House, and I think the House will come through too,” Trump said of the bill. The legislation sets transfer and eligibility rules, granting athletes one “free” move during their careers. Additional transfers are restricted, with exceptions for circumstances such as a coaching change or program termination. The bill provides a “targeted” antitrust exemption and allows teams to pool TV rights, with some requirements. It preserves the right of players to receive compensation from name, image and likeness deals while placing new guardrails on those agreements.

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Harris County Treasurer cited after allegedly causing 4-vehicle crash on I-45

Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt was cited Sept. 18 after she caused a four-vehicle crash on Interstate 45, according to a Texas Department of Transportation crash report. The incident marks Wyatt’s fourth run-in with the law since she took office at the start of 2023. The embattled Democrat was twice arrested for drunken driving, and in December was charged with burglary of a vehicle, though a grand jury later declined to indict her on that charge. Commissioners are actively seeking to abolish Wyatt’s position, which critics consider antiquated, and voted earlier this year to strip her office of a key oversight role after an attempted fraud went undetected. One state lawmaker said commissioners may get their wish if voters reelect Wyatt in November. “This will come down to what happens in the election,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston. “If she stays in the job, it will be effectively a signal for removal.”

Wyatt’s office did not respond to a request for comment Monday. In a Sept. 25 screening with the Houston Chronicle editorial board, Wyatt said her legal troubles have no impact on her professional ability. “Car accidents happen every day,” Wyatt said. “As far as my personal life is concerned, it has nothing to do with my ability to do my job.” After the I-45 wreck, Houston Police Department officers cited Wyatt for failing to control her speed, but officers found no indication she was intoxicated, according to the report. Footage of the incident first shared by KPRC 2 showed a Black Nissan Xterra aggressively changing lanes before rear ending another vehicle. A diagram of the crash included in the crash report alleged Wyatt rear ended two additional vehicles before coming to a stop. No one was badly injured in the crash, according to the report. Wyatt was first charged with driving while intoxicated in December 2023. That charge was later dismissed after she completed a pretrial diversion program, despite twice violating the conditions of her bond. Wyatt was charged again with drunken driving in May after she was found asleep at the wheel in Galveston County. That case is pending.

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Why Fort Worth ISD couldn’t stop a state takeover

One day last spring, Laura Craig’s elementary-aged child came home distressed. Everything at their Fort Worth ISD school was changing, they said. The desks had been moved out of the pod formation they liked. Pajama day, a prize for students meeting their reading goals, was canceled. “There were a lot of things they were looking forward to,” Craig said, “and they were not allowed to do them.” Soon she would hear about a canceled field day at another elementary school in the district. Another parent reported that practice time for sports at their school had been cut short. These were seemingly small losses, but for Craig, they were confirmation of what she’d been dreading for almost a year. Things were changing for the worse, and her kids’ schools would not be exempt. In March, the state completed its takeover of the 67,000-student district on the western side of the Metroplex, replacing the elected board with an appointed board of managers, replacing the superintendent with a recruit from out of state, placing them under the guidance of a conservator to oversee reforms. Craig knew the district had challenges—one school had received an F letter grade from the Texas Education Agency for five straight years before closing in 2023, 77 had received some mix of D’s and F’s, and eight had not met state passing standards since 2018.

But she’d been hoping that, whatever remedy the newly appointed leadership chose, her kids’ schools—all A- and B-rated campuses—would be left to carry on as usual. But what’s best—for students, their schools, and the entire Texas education system—is more complicated than it sounds. It’s easy to agree that students should learn to read, write, and work with numbers in a safe, supportive, joyful environment. “I know of no school system leader, be it a school board member or a superintendent, who doesn’t possess a desire for our students to thrive,” TEA commissioner Mike Morath wrote in a May 2025 letter announcing his agency’s intent to consider the possibility of interventions into Fort Worth ISD. The disagreement arises when someone tries to figure out how to make that happen for every child in a district with dramatically variable income levels, adult educational attainment, and neighborhood cultures. In a state that is loath to spend more money and increasingly ready to institute top-down reforms, the reins of change have landed in one pair of hands: Morath’s. “But if that desire does not translate into student learning, the only moral response is to change practices,” his letter continued. He said he planned to evaluate the district over the coming months and then, if forced to by the district’s underperformance, intervene. Public school advocates and parent organizations fearing state intervention often point to Houston ISD, the state’s largest district, where a TEA takeover has led to the departure of 21,000 students. In 2023, Morath installed Mike Miles, a former Dallas superintendent, to lead the district and gave him broad authority to remake it using his philosophy of reform. Miles quickly rolled out his New Education System, or NES, a highly centralized instruction model built around scripted curriculum, tightly timed lessons, frequent testing, and intensive teacher evaluation. It started on a few targeted campuses, but by the 2024–25 school year, NES was in operation on 130 of the district’s 274 campuses. Teachers and parents fiercely resisted the changes, citing staff turnover, library closures, and the fact that the reforms were imposed by an unelected, state-appointed administration; Houston Public Media reported that 633 HISD teachers had resigned by early 2024, nearly twice the number the previous year, while a standing petition demanding Miles’s removal gathered more than 21,000 signatures.

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The GOP made protecting Title IX their signature issue. The lives of two Texas athletes show they're not.

This fall, Ryann Allison is finally a senior at Stephen F. Austin State University, a midsize public university in Nacogdoches, a town in rural East Texas, where the men’s and women’s Division I sports teams are known as the Lumberjacks and the Ladyjacks, respectively. The mascots are a nod to the school’s proximity to the state’s timber and forestry industries as well as to good old-fashioned gender roles. A driven and organized young woman who grew up in Texas, Allison usually looks forward to returning to campus and her intense schedule. But not this year. For the first time since she arrived on campus, she isn’t playing on the school’s beach volleyball team. In a way, she feels she’s lost an important part of her identity. In May, just after the end of the spring season, Allison was called into head coach Gretchen Hand’s office. She assumed it was a conversation about a scholarship that she’d been promised for the following year—she didn’t think anything of it.

“But before I could say anything, I was informed that I would not be renewed for next year, and that I wasn’t a fit for the team anymore,” Allison said in a recent interview. Allison, who was one of the team’s top players and had helped Hand recruit and organize new players the previous fall and winter, was stunned. “I remember being absolutely shell-shocked and not knowing what to even say. I remember continually saying, ‘I don’t understand.’ And she was like, ‘Well, you actually don’t have to understand.’ ” When Allison’s best friend and teammate, Brynn Dowd, called to ask how it had gone, Allison replied: “I was cut.” “Ha, ha. You’re funny. What actually happened?” Dowd said, because the concept was so out of touch with reality. But Allison wasn’t joking. And later that day, when Dowd went into her meeting with Hand, she was told that she, too, would no longer be on the roster. Representatives from Stephen F. Austin State University and Coach Hand did not respond to requests for comment. Neither Dowd nor Allison was ever told explicitly why they were cut from the team. But they have a strong suspicion: retaliation. Though Allison and Dowd were shocked to be dumped from the roster, the future of the school’s beach volleyball program overall had been precarious. It wasn’t the first time they had received abrupt and destabilizing news. Back in May 2025, Ryann Allison signed on to a Zoom meeting along with 20 of her teammates where they were unceremoniously told that their program would no longer exist due to the university’s “financial constraints.”

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CPS Energy board names Frank Almaraz as the San Antonio utility’s new CEO

CPS Energy’s Board of Trustees has identified a new CEO and it’s a familiar face. San Antonio’s publicly-owned utility company announced plans to hire interim CEO Frank Almaraz as its full-time leader at a Monday board meeting. CPS Energy made Almaraz interim CEO in June. Before that, he had served as chief operating officer for five months. He worked at CPS Energy between 2011 and 2021. Board Chair Francine Romero said the utility had initially launched a broader search before deciding to keep Almaraz on permanently.

“We need a leader who understands the funding requirements and infrastructure demands that support our own growing community and the statewide grid,” she said. “We determined that Frank Almaraz is the president and CEO that CPS Energy needs now, because in addition to meeting the requirements above, Mr. Almaraz has more than a decade of leadership within the municipal energy model.” Romero added that a one-month contract negotiation period would begin now. CPS Energy spokesperson Milady Nazir emphasized that nothing is finalized until Almaraz formally accepts the job. “Contract negotiations are still in process,” she said. Almaraz would replace Rudy Garza, CPS Energy’s previous CEO, who left to lead the Lower Colorado River Authority at the beginning of June. Almaraz has already overseen a busy summer, butting heads with state officials after Gov. Greg Abbott announced a proposal to get rid of municipally-owned utilities.

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Orlando J. Pérez: Trump sealed his Venezuela policy: Oil is ahead of the ballot box

(Orlando J. Pérez is a professor of political science at the University of North Texas at Dallas. The opinions expressed represent those of the author and not necessarily those of the university or its leadership.) What did Donald Trump and Delcy Rodríguez settle when they met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last Tuesday? The meeting was a brief pull-aside at a reception Trump hosted, closed to the press. A source briefed on the 15-minute conversation told Axios that Trump said, “You have to have elections at the end of the day,” without insisting on a date. That same night, Rodríguez posted a photo of herself flashing a V for Venezuela beside Trump’s thumbs-up and called the encounter historic. That image put a presidential seal on a policy Washington chose months ago: work with the government that inherited power from Nicolás Maduro and keep the uncertainty of an open election at arm’s length. A Meganálisis poll taken before the trip had already found that 91% of Venezuelans opposed the meeting.

Even Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida, who defends the administration’s approach, said the photo hit him like a kick to the liver. Hours earlier at the General Assembly podium, touting the August oil deal, Trump had spelled out his priorities to world leaders: “To the victor belong the spoils.” By the administration’s account, that deal gives a U.S.-backed venture 100-year rights to 17 oil fields holding an estimated 65 billion barrels. There is another recent deal: On Sept. 2 Energy Secretary Chris Wright stood beside Rodríguez in Caracas as Houston-based Chevron committed more than $7 billion to double its Venezuelan output. That same day, Trump said Venezuela is “not ready yet” for elections and praised Rodríguez for “doing a very, very good job.” A process is underway between part of the opposition and the current government that will run through December, without yet setting a date for a presidential vote. Human rights groups still count about 328 political prisoners at the end of August. On the day of the New York meeting, María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, tried three times to return home and was turned away each time.

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Port Houston’s economic impact nears $1 trillion milestone

A new study by Martin Associates shows Port Houston is closing in on a massive financial milestone. In 2025, the waterway generated $987 billion in economic impact nationwide. Often referred to simply as City Docks, the Turning Basin Terminal is the oldest part of Port Houston, dating back to 1914 when the Houston Ship Channel first opened. Jordan Frisby, Port Houston’s chief of staff, says nearly 290 million tons of cargo moved through the waterway last year, making it the nation’s busiest by cargo volume. Out of roughly 200 terminals along the 52-mile stretch, Port Houston operates eight public ones.

At the Turning Basin Terminal, the cargo is breakbulk, which means it is handled as individual pieces rather than in containers. Most of it consists of steel, pipes and oversized equipment, which are primarily used to support oil and gas production activity. Frisby says most of what is imported into the Port goes straight into the Texas landscape to fuel regional growth. "There’s an insatiable demand for cement. We’re really just moving a huge amount to support all construction in Houston and Austin and the surrounding areas,” said Frisby. While much of the heavy material stays domestic to support infrastructure and energy production, Frisby says international exports include overseas shipments of frozen beef and poultry. With economic impacts reaching 98% of counties across Texas and nearly $1 trillion nationwide, port officials say the growth could soon reach a historic milestone. "We continue to see increases in both our energy cargo and our container traffic,” said Frisby.

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Following voter fraud acquittal, Crystal Mason sets her sights on Tarrant DA

The decade-long litigation of a Fort Worth woman accused of illegally voting in 2016 was resolved last week, but her fight lives on until the Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells is unseated. Crystal Mason, a mother and grandmother who cast a provisional ballot in Tarrant County 10 years ago while ineligible to vote, saw her case resolved Sept. 24 by the highest criminal court in the state. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed state prosecutors’ appeal of her acquittal in a 5-4 decision.

“Today we celebrate victory, but next we’re coming for accountability,” Pamela Young, executive director of United Fort Worth, said Monday. “We’re coming for accountability, and that starts Oct. 19 through 29 with early voting. We can be a part of that accountability by kicking Phil Sorrells right out the door.” In 2024, District Attorney Sorrells asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to convict Mason of voting illegally and send a message to all “would-be illegal voters.” She was initially found guilty by the 432nd Judicial District Court in 2018, but the ruling was overturned by the Second Court of Appeals. Mason, who lived in Rendon at the time, used a provisional ballot while on supervised release for a 2012 tax fraud conviction. The vote did not count, but she faced five years in prison for casting the provisional ballot. “The facts are undisputed that Crystal Mason was on federal felony probation when she cast her illegal ballot. That’s against the law,” Sorrells said in a comment Monday. “Elections are the cornerstone of our democracy and anyone who attacks them with an illegal vote will be prosecuted.” “Anyone who knows Crystal Mason, first of all, knows that they are registered to vote,” Grinter Allen said. “But second of all, has been absolutely bowled over by her faith and her optimism that Texas can be the place that we deserve, and that it can happen slowly, it can happen peacefully, it can happen at the ballot box.”

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New coalition warns data center growth could strain Texas water supplies

A new coalition of civil rights leaders, rural advocates and community groups launched Monday at the Texas Capitol, warning that the rapid expansion of data centers across the state could threaten Texas’ already limited water resources. The group, called We the People Texas, announced its formation alongside the release of public records it says reveal additional data center developments and water-related negotiations involving publicly owned water resources. The coalition includes the Texas NAACP, Save Rural Texas, the Texas Coalition Against Data Centers, Don’t Drain Texas and other grassroots organizations. Members are calling for an immediate pause and review of water commitments tied to future data center projects. “We are a politically diverse group, but water is something that affects every Texan,” speakers said throughout the event.

Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe said his concerns center on what he believes is a growing disconnect between Texas’ long-term water outlook and the state’s increasing number of data centers. “There is a clear and present danger to the survival of the conditions in our state,” Bledsoe said. He pointed to existing projections showing future water shortages and argued state leaders should proceed more cautiously before approving additional large-scale developments. “We already had the projected shortages and so this is akin to building your state capitol building on quicksand because we know that it’s going to happen at some point,” Bledsoe said. Bledsoe said the coalition is seeking greater public awareness and involvement in decisions surrounding water use and future industrial development. “We want people to feel alarmed because it’s right around the corner in your community,” he said. “Don’t think because I live in this large city or I live here and there, that you’re insulated from the problem.”

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2 Atmos Energy contract workers hospitalized in pipe explosion days after Dallas apartment gas lea

Two Atmos Energy contract workers were hospitalized Monday morning after a pipe exploded during routine maintenance at a Dallas apartment evacuated earlier this month for a gas leak. Dallas Fire-Rescue says a contractor was pressure testing a gas line near 1200 Turtle Creek Boulevard when the line exploded during the process. The incident happened at the Alexan Riveredge Apartments, where hundreds of residents had been displaced by a separate gas leak more than a week earlier. The contract workers were taken to a hospital. Fire-Rescue described their injuries as non-critical. No civilians or firefighters were hurt, and the fire department said there was no impact to the nearby apartment complex or neighboring businesses. Atmos Energy said the work involved testing the pipeline with air and did not involve natural gas. The company also said natural gas service to the area was not affected and there was no damage to its pipeline.

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Morgan Stanley officially picks Dallas for new regional HQ, 3,800-plus jobs

Morgan Stanley has made it official: the financial giant has picked Dallas for a new regional headquarters, the latest major win cementing the region's status as "Y'all Street." After months of speculation, the New York-based firm confirmed the decision in a Sept. 28 announcement from Gov. Greg Abbott revealing a state grant backing the project. The state awarded Morgan Stanley a $43.85 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund, along with a $40,000 Veterans Created Job Bonus. Morgan Stanley will invest $684 million and is expected to create more than 3,800 jobs. The state's TEF grant is the third-largest since 2004 and the largest for a financial services company, according to records from the governor's office.

"Morgan Stanley's expansion in Dallas reflects our commitment to investing in markets that offer exceptional opportunities for growth, innovation, and talent. With a thriving financial services industry in Texas, we are excited to establish Dallas as a strategic hub for our firm to serve clients and attract top talent in the years ahead,” Eric Grossman, executive vice president, chief legal officer and chief administrative officer said a in a statement. “We greatly appreciate the support of the State of Texas, the City of Dallas, and Dallas County and look forward to deepening our roots and contributing to economic growth in the state.” The phased approach will see Fountain Place in the Dallas Arts District serve as Morgan Stanley's temporary home while the firm partners with Trammell Crow Co., a subsidiary of CBRE Group Inc., to develop a $1.3 billion tower at the corner of McKinney Avenue and Fairmount Street. Morgan Stanley will lease about 255,000 square feet at Fountain Place for a little more than four years before moving into its new hub at 2401 McKinney Ave. around 2031 under a 16-year lease.

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Paxton backs fuel tax break, offers no detailed plan for lost revenue

Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton defended his call Monday to permanently repeal federal fuel taxes that help pay for the nation’s roads and bridges, but offered no detailed plan for replacing the lost revenue. “I know people need money in their pockets,” Paxton said at a United States Hispanic Business Council forum. “Gas prices are high. Let’s give them the opportunity, at least for the time being, to give them a little relief.” Paxton was responding to a question from Javier Palomarez, the group’s president and the forum’s moderator. Asked how his plan would pay for the upkeep of “Texas roads,” Paxton shifted to Texas’ state fuel taxes, saying some of that money had been improperly diverted to other uses.

After the forum, a Paxton spokesperson pointed to a statement the attorney general issued Saturday calling for an end to federal fuel taxes. Paxton said Washington should “cut waste” to fund road maintenance rather than “taxing Texans at the pump.” The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel, with most of the money going toward highway construction and repairs. Palomarez, a Democrat, responded, “God bless you,” after Paxton said drivers needed relief. Paxton’s proposal came after his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, called for suspending federal gas and diesel taxes and ending the war in Iran, which he said is a major contributor to soaring fuel costs. Talarico urged Paxton to support both measures. Talarico will appear before the same group Wednesday in the Rio Grande Valley. Paxton was also asked about the growing number of data centers in Texas. He said the state has “plenty of open space” for them but said new facilities should generate their own electricity without burdening the grid, recycle water through closed-loop systems, exclude Chinese hardware and software and locate away from neighborhoods.

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National Stories

New Democrats back candidates in deep-red districts

The centrist New Democrat Coalition is expanding its endorsements into firmly Republican territory, another sign of the party’s ballooning confidence in their midterm prospects. The group’s campaign arm, NewDem Action Fund, is endorsing seven candidates running in seats currently held by the GOP — including several that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. They are Chris Backemeyer against Rep. Mike Flood in Nebraska, Kristina Knickerbocker against Rep. Mike Turner in Ohio, Mitchell Berman against Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin, and Raymond Smith against Rep. Greg Murphy in North Carolina. They are also endorsing Nancy Lacore in South Carolina, Teresa Benitez-Thompson in Nevada and Blake Gendebien in New York, who are running for open seats.

“I spent 21 years serving our country in national security roles, where the focus is on the mission and getting the job done,” Backemeyer said in a statement. “That’s the pragmatic approach the New Dems bring to Congress, and it’s what Nebraska’s First District deserves.” Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, who chairs the fund, said that the endorsed candidates will have access to money, support and advice, as well as likely future visits from New Democrat members. Stanton said he intends to campaign with candidates in Arizona and Iowa. The new endorsements come as President Donald Trump campaigns in deep-red regions ahead of Election Day. Stanton and his fellow New Dems see the move as a sign Trump and House Republicans are on their back foot. “I’m not sure where friendly Trump territory is in the United States of America,” Stanton said in an interview. “Americans are very upset at the poor decisions of this president … but they’re even more mad at the Republicans in Congress who have rolled over and let him do whatever he wants without any resistance.” The more New Dem-endorsed candidates that flip their seats, the more influential the already 100-plus-member caucus will be next term. The coalition will be well positioned to have would-be-speaker Hakeem Jeffries’ ear and his back, Stanton said. “Every single endorsed candidate supports Hakeem Jeffries for speaker of the House,” Stanton said in an interview. “We will be a strong governing partner with Hakeem Jeffries to make sure that his speakership is as successful as possible.”

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This Senate Democratic candidate is making a play for RFK Jr.’s MAHA supporters

The Make America Healthy Again movement has been closely associated with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration, but at least one Democrat in a closely watched Senate race is making a play for MAHA supporters. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s pivotal Senate seat, on Tuesday is releasing a “Building a Healthier America” policy agenda focusing on cracking down on pesticides, changing drinking water standards and boosting access to healthy food. However, El-Sayed, a former public health official, does not share some MAHA supporters’ skepticism of vaccines, saying in an interview that he “believe[s] in vaccines.” El-Sayed said the country needs to “severely, severely rethink” how much pesticides are used and in what context. He said he would seek to draft “broad legislation led by science to limit pesticide use” if he wins in November.

His newly released policy agenda says he would fight against legal immunity for pesticide manufacturers — a divisive issue after the Supreme Court this year ruled to limit lawsuits over a popular weed killer’s potential health impacts. He said he would also aim to ban pesticides already prohibited in Europe, though the document didn’t specify if he was targeting particular chemicals. Polls show that while 4 in 10 adults say they support MAHA, the majority are Republicans or Republican-leaning and supporters of the Make America Great Again movement. Republican operatives have credited Kennedy with helping woo some left-leaning and independent voters to support the GOP. Recently, some influential MAHA leaders, particularly those focused on pesticides, have become disillusioned with the White House, warning the administration risks losing voters in the midterms if they don’t reduce the use of pesticides. White House officials have said delivering on the MAHA agenda is a “top priority,” but some Democrats, like El-Sayed, are seeking to capitalize on the split.

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'Pseudo-journalism': Partisan 'news' sites target US midterms

It bills itself as an "independent journalism" outfit, but the innocuous-sounding North Carolinian is among hundreds of partisan sites that researchers say masquerade as local news outlets in battleground states ahead of the US midterm elections. The so-called "pink slime" sites -- many secretly backed by partisan groups on both sides of the political aisle -- appear to be fueling an explosion of polarizing or false narratives ahead of the November 3 elections. Their backers are splurging hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising their articles on social media, expanding their otherwise limited readership while authentic media outlets grapple with financial woes, layoffs, and record low public trust. The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a political action committee that describes itself as "solely dedicated to protecting and expanding the Republican Senate majority," apparently launched the North Carolinian in July, according to disinformation watchdog NewsGuard.

The North Carolinian said the site was "paid for by SLF" and was "not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee." But the site appears focused on opposing Democrat Roy Cooper's campaign for US Senate and boosting his Republican opponent in the southern state, Michael Whatley. It carries headlines with phrases such as, "Roy Cooper's disastrous crime record" and "Whatley highlights Democrat Cooper's dangerous soft-on-crime record." SLF spent between $34,700 and $46,715 promoting the site's articles on Meta platforms through late August, garnering at least 3.6 million views, according to NewsGuard. SLF did not respond to AFP's request for comment. NewsGuard has identified 21 pink slime outlets that launched this year, bringing the total number of such sites to 1,179. By comparison, only 937 daily newspapers were operating, according to Northwestern University's Local News Initiative. "These pink slime sites can be confounding to news consumers who may not be aware of their agendas and confuse them with authentic independent news websites in their area, thereby undermining trust between journalists and their readers of all political persuasions," said NewsGuard's Sam Howard. NewsGuard said two pink slime networks -- One Nation on the right, and the American Independent on the left -- collectively spent at least $801,500 on advertising in the first eight months of this year to promote their articles on Facebook and Instagram. Their growing online reach could potentially affect the responses of AI chatbots, which are now popularly used for online searches, researchers say. One Nation, an affiliate of SLF, has launched six sites posing as independent news portals in states with key Senate races -- Georgia, Alaska, Maine, Iowa, Ohio, and New Hampshire -- according to the independent newsletter Popular Information.

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Contradicting Trump, Pope Leo says artificial intelligence safety concerns not 'fake news'

Pope Leo dedicated his first encyclical to artificial intelligence and protecting humanity in its wake. Pope Leo XIV said Monday that concerns about artificial intelligence going rogue are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously, insisting that safety issues raised by AI experts should be discussed and acted on. Leo, who dedicated his first encyclical to AI and protecting humanity in its wake, was asked during a news conference about what the United States and China especially should be doing to prevent AI from posing catastrophic risks to humanity. President Donald Trump has called concerns about AI going rogue a “hoax.” “This is a problem that I think we need to sit down and talk about,” the American pope told reporters returning home from France. “We can’t just sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen.”

Trump has been a champion of AI, often warning that the United States must remain ahead of China in the technological arms race. He has said efforts to limit the technology were part of a “conspiracy” by his political opponents. Several AI giants, including Anthropic, have called for a slowdown in development to give safety measures time to catch up to the fast-moving technology. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, for example, has warned that within six to 12 months, AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet. Trump said on Sunday he planned to have a late dinner with Amodei, but he has not yet commented on the meeting. “If someone were to ask me ‘Am I in panic mode?’ No I’m not. I sleep at night,” Leo said. “I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI should be taken seriously.” “I don’t think that that is ‘fake news’ as some have said to try and cause whether financial or other some other kind of benefit,” Leo said.

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Freak chain of events leads to a Tennessee election with zero candidates

A Tennessee state legislative district will have no candidates on the ballot in November, ensuring whoever wins will have to carry out a write-in campaign — and it's unclear who that might be. G.A. Hardaway, the Democratic lawmaker who had previously represented the district, died in April. But even if he had lived, it was eventually determined that he didn't submit enough ballot signatures to qualify for the August primary, coming up just one short of the required 25. According to The Commercial Appeal, the local paper in Memphis, the Shelby County Commission appointed Hardaway's son, T.J. Hardaway, to serve in the seat.

The younger Hardaway was planning to launch a write-in campaign, but suspended those efforts earlier this month. Ballot access snafus have caused surprising issues around the country in multiple states. In April, New Mexico GOP state Rep. Rebecca Dow was booted from the ballot after a judge determined the way she submitted her nominating petitions did not adequately give voters a chance to review or withdraw their names, which would have potentially left that district with no candidate, although the state Supreme Court ultimately reversed this decision and let her back on the ballot. Then in June, Democrats de facto won a Republican-held seat in Florida after Rep. Paula Stark failed to file her campaign finance disclosures on time, disqualifying her from the ballot and leaving only Democrats cleared to run.

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RFK Jr.’s push to revamp American food runs into White House resistance

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to revamp America’s food system have hit their biggest hurdle yet: the White House. Two years ago, the Trump campaign joined forces with Kennedy, embracing his ambition to wage war on chronic disease. But concerns about whether his ideas on food are even feasible have prompted clashes within the administration, casting uncertainty over a once-potent political agenda that drew support from millions of voters. At a July meeting convened by senior White House officials, tensions were running high. Up for discussion was a definition of ultraprocessed food—a wonky but critical part of Kennedy’s plans to overhaul the U.S. food supply—and whether it should undergo a layer of further review by White House staff. The definition that health officials pushed for: Processed food should be considered ultraprocessed if it contains ingredients such as artificial colors, nonnutritive sweeteners or chemical preservatives, with exemptions, according to people familiar with the matter and a document viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

White House staffers were concerned the definition could cover most food in U.S. grocery stores and support existing efforts to sue food companies over bad health outcomes. One of Kennedy’s top aides, Calley Means, accused White House officials of trying to block the definition to cater to special interests, some of the people said. Means, a fiery influencer and wellness author, raised his voice and repeatedly asked why the definition required additional review, saying it wasn’t open for further debate. He said Kennedy’s health department had already worked on it for months and had vetted it with scientists. In response, White House officials highlighted concerns that the definition could be exploited by the plaintiffs’ bar and be grounds for a lawsuit against the government. They also pointed to its potential impact on the food industry and international trade agreements. The internal discord has stalled three separate efforts to curb the country’s reliance on ultraprocessed foods, a cornerstone of Kennedy’s agenda to remake the U.S. food supply. Means has mounted an expansive effort to roll out policies in Trump’s second term, saying the administration needs to deliver for its “Make America Healthy Again” supporters. White House officials have often viewed him as overly aggressive, pushing policies that aren’t feasible and seeming unwilling to compromise to make them more achievable, officials said.

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Second prosecutor resigns from DOJ probe targeting Trump foes

A lawyer who backed President Donald Trump’s false 2020 election claims has resigned from a Justice Department investigation into whether former government officials conspired against the Republican president, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. Kurt Olsen’s resignation from the so-called “grand conspiracy” probe represents further turmoil in a meandering investigation that has proceeded in fits and starts since its inception as prosecutors pursue an ill-defined right-wing theory of a conspiracy against Trump. It comes just weeks after the departure of another Trump ally, Joseph diGenova, who had been leading the closely watched investigation in Florida. The person who confirmed Olsen’s resignation spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Olsen didn’t immediately respond to an email on Monday.

Olsen’s prominence as an election denier elevated his profile in the Trump orbit, but his absence of experience as a Justice Department prosecutor made him an unconventional pick for such a high-profile investigation. Investigators have focused attention on multiple major investigations of Trump, including the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and his retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and have demanded testimony from officials from both of those probes as they search for any signs of a potential conspiracy to deprive Trump of his rights. Olsen’s role in the investigation came into focus earlier this month when an attorney for former CIA Director John Brennan revealed that he had discussed with Olsen a subpoena compelling Brennan to testify before the grand jury in Fort Pierce on Oct. 25. Wainstein said Olsen told him that Brennan also remains a “target” of a narrower false statements investigation. It’s the latest sign of upheaval in the yearlong conspiracy investigation. Last April, a lead national security prosecutor in the Brennan investigation was replaced on the team after raising questions about the strength of the case. Days later, diGenova was sworn in.

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Lead Stories

Inside the Trump campaign strategy to reverse Republicans’ dwindling hopes of winning the midterms

The midterms mood among Donald Trump’s inner circle has soured as GOP candidates openly break with the president and his approval ratings hit an all-time low, prompting a largely unspoken but age-old question: How does an unpopular president best help his party keep control of Congress? Trump advisers have privately acknowledged that there’s little expectation he can win over large numbers of independents and swing voters, which was part of his path to victory in critical states in 2024. And while they’re more concerned about losing control of the House, Republicans’ previous confidence that they can hold onto the Senate is dwindling by the day. “It’s obviously going to be f***ing rough,” one Trump adviser told CNN, adding that they believe the best-case scenario is achieving what Democrats did in 2022, when under former President Joe Biden they narrowly lost control of the House but kept the Senate.

Still, Trump’s team is planning an aggressive campaign schedule for Trump and Vice President JD Vance in October in both battleground and deep-red states alike, multiple officials told CNN — as advisers believe their only hope at holding ground is increasing turnout, and the president can help with that. “The system is built around what areas we need to goose turnout 2-3 points,” one operative told CNN. In recent weeks, Trump’s senior advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, put together a calendar that has Trump on the campaign trail for most days in October, though two administration officials said that not all stops had been confirmed. He is planning trips to Alabama and Oklahoma next week, but a GOP official said those were “outliers” in the travel strategy, which would focus more on battleground districts. “He’ll be playing hard in Florida, Texas, Michigan and Ohio — he’ll be on the road just about every day in October campaigning. We’re leaving it all on the table,” the official added. However, even in more purple states, the plan is for Trump to go to more conservative areas, according to another official.

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The moves that backfired on Trump and drove interest rates and inflation higher

In the early days of President Trump’s second term, his economic advisers laid out a simple theory: Show the bond market that Washington was serious about closing its gaping deficits, and long-term interest rates would fall on their own. Trump could leave the Federal Reserve alone. It hasn’t worked out that way. Inflation is rising, the Fed is raising rates and the 10-year Treasury yield is well above where it stood on Inauguration Day, when the new team blamed high rates on runaway Biden-era spending. Last week, that yield reached the highest level since 2007 as investors weighed a resilient economy, prolonged energy disruptions that threaten to aggravate price pressures and a central bank losing patience waiting for them to fade.

The White House theory rested on fiscal restraint that never arrived and overlooked how much of Trump’s own agenda would feed the price pressures now pushing rates higher. Tariffs raised the cost of imported goods. The war with Iran sent oil and diesel prices soaring. Immigration restrictions shrank the labor force. “This was entirely predictable,” said Jessica Riedl, a former Republican Senate aide who is now a budget and tax fellow at the Brookings Institution. Add tax cuts, new spending and pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates, and “all six of those policies move inflation up, not down,” she said. The stakes are high. Rising long-term rates raise borrowing costs for home buyers, businesses and the government. Mortgage rates, which dipped to 6% in February, now sit above 7%, a difference that adds roughly $3,000 a year in payments on a new $400,000 loan. Workers’ pay hasn’t kept pace with inflation since March.

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Camp Mystic proposes property sale, dissolution amid bankruptcy case

Camp Mystic has proposed selling its property and eventually dissolving as the camp faces ongoing legal and financial challenges more than three months after filing for bankruptcy. Under the proposal, families with wrongful death claims connected to the July 4, 2025, Hill Country floods would be allowed to resume pending lawsuits or file new ones. Those claims would be paid first through available insurance coverage. If insurance does not fully cover the claims, the families would share any remaining funds with other unsecured creditors. The plan must still be approved by the bankruptcy court.

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Texas cattle groups say ICE operations disrupting beef supply chain

Three major cattle industry organizations representing producers in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas say ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations are disrupting the beef supply chain, delaying cattle shipments and creating economic uncertainty for agricultural businesses. In a joint statement, the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Kansas Livestock Association and Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association said they are closely monitoring reported ICE activity affecting agricultural communities across the three states. The groups said they respect the responsibility of federal agencies to enforce immigration laws but warned that cattle producers, livestock markets, processors and other rural businesses depend on a stable workforce to maintain animal care, food safety and supply chain operations.

“Sudden workforce disruptions can create immediate animal-welfare, operational, and economic consequences that extend well beyond an individual business,” the organizations said. The cattle groups said the disruptions come as the cattle and beef industries already face significant market and supply chain pressures. They described the effects of the enforcement activity as a costly burden on producers and said the consequences can continue for days or weeks after operations conclude. In response to concerns raised by the industry groups, ICE pointed to a statement from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who said the agency is not conducting worksite operations in Kansas. According to the statement, ICE enforcement actions have targeted people accused or convicted of serious crimes, as well as people with final orders of removal.

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State Stories

Angie Chen Button, Zach Herbert clash in North Texas state House race

The Republican incumbent and Democratic challenger split over school vouchers, insurance costs, taxes and the role of state government during separate appearances Sunday on NBC5’s Lone Star Politics. Their differences are playing out in one of North Texas’ most competitive state legislative races. House District 112 includes parts of Richardson, Garland, Sachse, Sunnyvale and Rowlett. Long held by Republicans, the district has become increasingly competitive as Democrats try to flip the seat Button has represented since 2009. She is one of only two Republicans from Dallas County in the Texas House.

In the joint interview with NBC5 and The Dallas Morning News, Button presented herself as an experienced leader who understands the district’s tech-focused economy as well as residents’ struggles with rising costs. She recalled growing up poor in Taiwan, then coming to the United States and working to achieve a slice of the American dream. “I want to give back to this great country and to this great community,” Button said. “The voter knows every time they send me back to Austin, I cut taxes and I work hard to reduce the everyday cost of living expenses.” Herbert, a Marine veteran and personal injury lawyer, accused Button of being out of touch and criticized her for not holding town hall meetings. “I have spent my whole career standing up for people,” he said. “And I've sat by and watched as our representative has failed us… we aren't being represented by somebody who passes laws that help the people that live in my district. And so I said I can do a better job.” The candidates’ sharpest disagreement centered on the state’s private school voucher program, a centerpiece of Gov. Greg Abbott’s 2025 legislative agenda. The program provides families with state-funded education savings accounts that can be used for private school tuition and other approved education expenses.

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Texas City police sergeant, dispatcher misused Flock cameras

The Texas City Police Department suspended two employees, including one who was demoted from sergeant to officer, over alleged misuse of Flock cameras, the city revealed in a meeting last week. The Texas City Commission held a special meeting last week in which, among passing an increased tax rate, Assistant Police Chief James Patterson gave a presentation on how the department is using Flock cameras. Patterson said during his presentation that the department in August instituted a monthly audit process in which Flock logs for every employee of the Police Department. An audit spanning January to June and about 11,900 searches found 58 that were not for a law enforcement purposes, Patterson said.

In one instance, a civilian dispatcher was found to have used Flock on multiple occasions to check on the status of her child who was driving her car. The employee made 42 searches, according to the presentation. She was suspended for multiple days. In the second instance, a sergeant was demoted to the rank of a police officer after the audit revealed he had used Flock 16 times for non-law enforcement purposes. The presentation didn’t disclose what the officer used the searches for. He was also suspended for multiple days. Flock's internal audit assistance tool helped the department identify both cases of alleged misuse, said Patterson, who didn't name the two employees. The Chronicle has reached out to the police department for comment. Both cases were presented to the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office’s Public Integrity Unit, according to the presentation. The district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges against the employees. Both instances of misconduct were reported to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

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Michael Hansen and Lora Bartlett: Banning H-1B teachers is a recipe for disaster

(Michael Hansen is a senior fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Lora Bartlett is the chairwoman of the education department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-author of “Going the Distance: The Teaching Profession in a Post-COVID World.” ) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wants public schools in his state to employ “exactly zero” employees on H-1B visas. His campaign-trail proposal would completely bar schools from employing anyone on the specialized work permit, impacting new hires and current teachers. If passed, this would be a stark reversal for the state that, in 2025, received more K-12 education H-1B visa approvals than any other. Abbott’s rationale prioritizes protection against vague threats of “foreign influence” over the mundane?but tangible consequences of thousands of students losing access to qualified teachers. H-1B reliant Dallas Independent School District bluntly described the implications: If these teachers go, it will need more Texans in the pipeline.

But the Texas pipeline of qualified teachers is running dry. We have each spent years studying teachers in America’s most challenged schools and the difficult decisions made in response to teacher shortages. Our findings demonstrate how educationally reckless the governor’s proposal is. Our research, looking at three decades of math and science teacher qualifications, surfaced a significant?finding: STEM teacher qualifications in the highest-need settings have been stable, even modestly improving. This is occurring despite the teaching profession being at a 50-year low, including coinciding enrollment drops in teacher preparation programs and relative declines in teachers’ pay.?? How is it, then, that STEM teacher quality has been sustained, even improved? High-need schools got creative. Recruiting foreign-trained teachers emerged as a critical stopgap. Foreign teachers’ share of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce in high-need schools grew from 1 percent in 1993 to more than 6 percent by 2020. They are concentrated where teacher shortages are worst: math, science, special education and foreign languages in high-poverty urban and rural schools.?

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Austin City Council candidate Misael Ramos details harrowing arrest for protesting ICE

Misael Ramos, a candidate for Austin City Council’s District 1, was released from the Travis County Jail just after 5pm on Saturday, Sept. 26. Ramos had been arrested this morning and held for close to eight hours on misdemeanor riot charges connected to his participation in a protest against ICE’s shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in North Austin on Sunday, Sept. 20. Ramos’ release delighted a crowd of over 200 who had gathered outside the jail to hear comments from his attorney, campaign manager, and other supporters. He appeared suddenly at the side of the gathering to sustained cheers as the press conference neared an end, making his way through well wishers to the podium, where he was asked to describe his arrest by Department of Public Safety troopers earlier that morning.

“I literally was walking my dog and this car pulled up beside me,” Ramos responded. “The man said, ‘Are you Misael Ramos, running for City Council?’ I said, ‘I don’t know you,’ so I kept going. And he jumped out of his car, and said that he had a warrant.” Ramos said his dog snapped at the man, who was apparently a law enforcement officer, and the man put his hand on his gun, telling Ramos he could kill the dog if it bit him. Ramos asked if he would be allowed to drop the dog off at his home before being taken into custody. Then four vans, one a DPS vehicle and the others unmarked, pulled up. “There had to be about six or seven guys who jumped out and surrounded me,” Ramos told the crowd. “Luckily, right next door was my neighbor, filming the whole thing, and she reassured me that she had caught everything and she was going to stay there until the end.” Ramos said that a man from a nearby convenience store offered to take his dog back to his home. “I said, ‘Thank you,’ gave him the leash, and then they proceeded to arrest me,” Ramos said. “That was my morning.”

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Manchin: ‘If character means anything, you can’t vote for Ken Paxton’

Former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) on Sunday took aim at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate in the Lone Star State’s Senate race, deriding his “character.” During an interview with NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt on “The Hill Sunday,” Manchin was asked about Texas’s Democratic Senate candidate, state Rep. James Talarico. “I don’t know that young man, and things he’s said I’m discouraged about, but I can tell you, if character means anything, you can’t vote for Ken Paxton, if character means anything, because he has none,” Manchin said. “So, you have a situation there.”

While Democrats usually face electoral struggles in the Lone Star State, Paxton comes with notable baggage. He previously faced impeachment in the Texas House on corruption charges before he was later acquitted by the state’s Senate three years ago. In a recent poll, Talarico had a slight lead over Paxton. The NBC 5 Dallas/Telemundo Station Group survey found that 46 percent of registered voters supported Talarico, while 43 percent backed Paxton. The national political environment has also been recently rough for the GOP, with President Trump’s approval rating recently slumping, the unpopular war in Iran nearing the seven-month mark, widespread concerns about the cost of living, and Republicans falling behind Democrats on key issues like immigration and healthcare in recent polling. According to a polling average from Decision Desk HQ, Trump’s approval rating on Sunday evening was sitting at 38.8 percent, with his disapproval rating at 59.6 percent. The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates the Texas Senate race as a “toss-up.” The Hill has reached out to Paxton’s campaign for comment.

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Does Joe Rogan care who wins the Texas Senate race?

It’s late June, more than two hours into the 2,518th episode of his mega-popular podcast, and Joe Rogan is critiquing part of James Talarico’s anatomy. With his guest, the conservative-leaning comedian Tim Dillon, Rogan was riffing on possible 2028 presidential contenders. Dillon offered up Jon Ossoff, the well-known senior U.S. Senator from Georgia, prompting a “Who’s that guy?” from Rogan. The show’s producer having pulled up a photo of Ossoff, Rogan began to assess. “That looks like a president. … His neck is medium. It’s not too thin; it’s not too thick,” he said. “Like Talarico’s neck is a little too small, you know what I mean?” “Yeah, that’s probably true,” replied Dillon. This bit of neck-related commentary wasn’t turned into viral social media clips or fodder for quick-turn news writeups. But, frequently, Rogan’s off-handed political claims made deep in the woods of his meandering “longform” conversations are indeed treated as newsworthy—part of a long, hard turnaround over the last five years or so.

Gone are the days when presidential contender Bernie Sanders was ostracized for having appeared on the transphobic Rogan’s show and when liberals mounted a campaign for Spotify to deplatform the host over COVID-19 misinformation. Instead, presidential flameout Kamala Harris’ failure to appear on Rogan’s podcast was treated as a major hinge-point in her 2024 collapse. And, a little over a year ago, Talarico’s appearance on the show was among the biggest stepping stones in his rise from relatively obscure state rep to hot-shot U.S. Senate nominee. That July 2025 conversation began with Rogan not knowing which elected office Talarico held and ended, 133 minutes later, with the former telling the latter to run for president. “A Joe Rogan-Blessed Democrat? James Talarico Draws Eyes of a Party Desperate For New Leaders,” swiftly blared Time—and even this month GQ described Talarico as “a progressive, Christian state legislator who managed to hang with Joe Rogan.” The out-of-state money and support flowed like Black Rifle coffee during a Rogan podcast. A month and a half after that episode, Talarico officially declared for Senate. But, over the following year, it’s been unclear whether Rogan supports this bid by the man he told to run for the White House—or even to what extent the Austin-based host is aware of the race that’s unfolding around him.

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Inside the Texas factory racing to break China’s grip on EV magnets

Inside MP Materials' "Independence" factory in Fort Worth, Texas, items that look like gum strips, corn flakes, and crushed pepper are laid out on a table. A giant U.S. flag hangs from the ceiling, and employees wearing protective thermal suits work near equipment where temperatures surpass 1,000 degrees Celsius. Under bright white lights, a shiny red Cadillac Vistiq gleams with its electric motor ripped open on a table, revealing what's inside: rare earth magnets. The magnets are tiny, roughly equivalent to a miniature Hershey's candy. They feel robust and solid to hold, with smooth texture and sharp edges. Above all, their importance is hard to overstate. They're used in everything from military weapons and fighter jets to medical devices, iPhones, and electric vehicles. There’s just one big elephant in the room: China dominates the production of rare earth magnets.

The country has the largest known rare earth reserves in the world, accounting for 49% of global supply, according to the International Energy Agency. Virtually all the rare earths used in the U.S. currently are sourced from overseas, giving Beijing incredibly strong leverage over its trading partners. After the Trump administration imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods last year, China retaliated with export controls on rare earth magnets, sending U.S. companies that depend on them scrambling to secure supply. Ford even suspended production of the Explorer SUV for a week because a supplier ran out of magnets. The U.S. eventually caved to Chinese pressure by trimming the tariff percentages, although China’s reduced export controls are still in effect. Now American rare earths specialist MP Materials is attempting something that hasn’t been done in decades: resuscitate the rare earths supply chain in the U.S. It owns and operates Mountain Pass in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, the only rare earth mine and refining facility in the Western hemisphere and the largest of its kind outside China, according to the company. Its Independence factory in Fort Worth turns the raw material from that mine into automotive-grade magnets for electric motors. In a boost to that effort, General Motors is partnering with MP Materials to source EV magnets domestically and protect itself from policy swings and tariff chaos. It’s part of GM’s vision of localizing its EV supply chain, a mission that’s looking more urgent by the day.

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Houston Astros win AL West title on final day and return to postseason

They dug themselves a hole, deployed a flawed roster and dismissed their general manager in the middle of a playoff race. Being in first place and below .500 at the time distilled the essence of this bizarre season. It laid bare that the Houston Astros, with an aging core and suspect depth, are no longer the dominant force of years past. Their season resembled a six-month ordeal. Self-belief that bordered on obstinacy still proved sound, with American League dysfunction serving as a saving grace. The Astros are returning to the playoffs, a year after their streak of eight straight appearances ended, to attempt another run at October glory. It will mark their 10th postseason appearance in the last 12 years; only the Los Angeles Dodgers have more in Major League Baseball in that span.

“The goal at the beginning of the year is to get to the postseason,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said, glasses shielding his eyes from bubbly spray in the visitors’ batting cage at Sutter Health Park. “For us, it came down to the last game of the season. It was a tough year — a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of injuries. But we made it through. And that’s all that matters.” The Astros won the American League West on the season’s final day. A loss by the Rangers, with whom they entered Sunday tied atop the division, made it official while the Astros were finalizing a 9-0 rout of the A’s. A record of 81-81 produced their eighth AL West title in the past 10 seasons. “I mean, we got to our goal, right?” said ace Hunter Brown. “You want to make the postseason, you want a chance to win the World Series. And we got that.” Dubious history belongs to Houston. The Astros are MLB’s first division champion — and first postseason qualifier — to finish with a non-winning record in a full-length season. They logged their fewest wins in a full season since 2014, the final year of a rebuild, when they incurred 92 losses. They are, still, a playoff team. They will host an AL wild-card round series against the Chicago White Sox, with Game 1 on Tuesday at Daikin Park.

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The blue tsunami sets its sights on the Texas governor’s race

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sounded like a new man in late August during an interview with ABC News. After spending years luring tech companies to Texas—following a deal with Google last year, he proclaimed Texas would be the “epicenter” of A.I. development—his state instead became the epicenter of a red-hot backlash as frustration with data centers peaked with the public. Their message had been received, at least for the remainder of election season: Abbott was pressing pause on data centers. “They basically dug their own grave,” Abbott said to ABC, blaming tech companies for moving too fast without consulting local stakeholders. “That’s why they got the backlash they deserve.” If Abbott sounds like a new man, it is because he finds himself in a new circumstance: a competitive election.

Over the course of the three gubernatorial races, three attorney general races, and the single state Supreme Court election Abbott has run in, he’s never won by less than 11 points. Now, in his run for a fourth term against Austin Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, Abbott’s lead has been trimmed to a couple of points in polling average, while election analysts continue to move their ratings of the race in Democrats’ direction. What gives? Certainly the atrocious political environment for Republicans across the board this year serves as the foundation for a close race. But as the data center walk-back demonstrated, some of Abbott’s usual methods just aren’t landing in this more populist environment. Abbott, like Gov. Rick Perry before him, has hung his hat on corporate relocations, offering incentives for companies to move from stiflingly regulated states like California to Texas. No doubt, it has generated quite a bit of wealth and growth for Texas this century. But with voters furious over the state of the economy, Hinojosa has taken up a coherent message for these prime political conditions: What has all this done for me? “The exact thing that he brags about is now an indictment on him,” Hinojosa told me in an August interview. “People do not think corporations should be getting tax breaks to come here to hire people from outside the state.”

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Wanna request Flock data records? You likely face an ‘uphill battle’ in North Texas

It takes only a few seconds for a Flock camera to capture a plate number, vehicle make, color or even scratches from a vehicle. For North Texans, getting information on the technology can take weeks or even months, with bills sometimes running into the tens of thousands. Flock cameras, most often used by police departments as automated license plate readers (ALPRs), have become the subject of considerable public controversy this year. Fanned by fears of abuse and government overreach, a nationwide DeFlock campaign is scrutinizing the cloud-based system at every turn; some local councils are canceling contracts, while others are sticking with it and residents are looking for answers.

Flock faces a wide range of criticisms. Some point to the dozens of documented cases of law enforcement agents using the system to stalk romantic partners; some fear the technology will be used for immigration enforcement, and others are fundamentally concerned with the system’s ability to track a vehicle across hundreds of miles through its cloud-sharing system, as North Texas officers did in 2025 while using around 83,000 license plate readers to track a woman seeking an abortion. However, public officials and police leaders say the technology is invaluable, with Carrollton Police Chief Roberto Arredondo calling it the “best tool we have” last week before the council voted to re-approve and consolidate its Flock contracts. And they’ve responded to criticism, often by creating transparency portals packed with information, detailing procedural guardrails or sharing anecdotal evidence of the system’s effectiveness. In one 2026 case listed on Carrollton PD’s transparency page, police say Flock cameras were used to locate a driver who struck a child on a bicycle and fled the scene. Still, the Deflock movement is gaining momentum and spans a political spectrum ranging from fringe caucuses within the Democratic Socialists of America to the office of U.S. Rep. Keith Self, a Plano Republican who has quoted Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels on at least two occasions. And while some lobby from the U.S. Capitol or organize citizen town halls to raise awareness, other residents are going straight to the source with their concerns through open records requests. But, in some cases, getting information hasn’t been easy.

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Ex-‘We Buy Ugly Houses’ franchise owner in Dallas gets 15 years in prison for $39 million scheme

The former owner of a Dallas “We Buy Ugly Houses” franchise was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison for a wire fraud charge related to an alleged home investment scam. Charles Carrier, 67, pleaded guilty to the charge in October and has been ordered to pay more than $24 million in restitution to victims. Carrier also had to pay more than $3.2 million to victims across three lawsuits in Dallas County. “Financial fraud isn’t just numbers on a ledger — it’s a direct assault on hardworking Americans who trusted an alleged expert with their savings,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a press release. “Through his lies and deceit, Carrier earned every month of his 15-year sentence.”

Prosecutors allege Carrier got more than $39 million from more than 80 people from 2018 to 2024. Carrier’s business model was relatively simple: Convince investors to lend him money so he could purchase and renovate old houses that he would then rent out or sell for a profit — a practice known as house flipping. Investors in return would get interest payments on their loans and be assured the property legally secured the loan. So, even if Carrier couldn’t pay back the loan, the investor could get their money back by selling the property. But in some cases those properties were already sold off, or their loans were being used to pay off other investor’s interest payments as part of the scheme. First, Carrier in some cases never did the legal paperwork to ensure an investor had a legal right to sell the property and get their money back if the loan couldn’t be paid back. Second, even when Carrier did provide investors with the correct legal records, he had already entitled portions of the property to multiple other investors. Third, Carrier had already sold some properties that investors believed were backing their loans.

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National Stories

White House expands taxpayer-paid ad campaign boosting Trump

The White House has expanded a series of taxpayer-funded advertisements boosting President Donald Trump, including a new spot that repurposes imagery and political rhetoric Trump used while campaigning for president. The latest ad is the third in a series that the White House refers to as public service announcements, but which Democratic members of Congress and former ethics officials say are political ads and therefore a potential violation of federal law. The 30-second ad, titled “Final Battle,” features black-and-white footage of Trump staring straight into the camera as he strides through a hallway lined with portraits. The imagery and remarks echo a video Trump posted to Truth Social during the 2024 campaign. In a voice-over, Trump promises to expel “the warmongers,” “globalists” and “deep state” actors from government and drive his political enemies from power.

“We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists,” Trump says in the clip. “We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.” The ad includes a disclosure: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” The spot aired during “Saturday Night Live,” “Fox News Sunday,” and several college and NFL football games this weekend, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. More than $300,000 has been spent on the ad. It was not clear which government agency was responsible for making and paying for the ads. The earlier ads that began airing last week included one that featured campaign slogans and another featuring footage of Mount Rushmore. Federal law, enacted annually as part of appropriations bills since the 1950s, prohibits agencies from using taxpayer money for unauthorized “publicity or propaganda.” The Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm, has interpreted that to cover communications that are purely partisan, while acknowledging that administrations may use public money to explain and defend their policies.

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Impeaching Trump a third time would be ‘setting a standard,’ Khanna says

While speaking with NBC News’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, Khanna rejected the idea that House Democrats should refrain from investigating and “potentially even impeaching” the president. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) “is warning Democrats against doing that,” Welker noted, as she said earlier in the week she’s not “interested in being in a confrontation with Donald Trump” and Democrats should simply “get back to work” if they retake the lower chamber. “Is impeaching President Trump a third time a mistake for Democrats?” Welker asked. “No, it’s not,” Khanna said. “Because it’s not about Donald Trump, he’s going to be a lame duck and, in my view, largely increasingly irrelevant. The point is to stand up for the Constitution.” Democrats have focused on the Trump family’s business dealings when discussing potential avenues for impeachment, an argument Khanna referenced as well.

“Impeachment says that you can’t get into an illegal war in Iran without constitutional approval; impeachment says that you can’t just start firing federal employees in defiance of what Congress says; impeachment says you can’t do deals with foreign governments to allegedly enrich your own family,” he said. “It’s about setting a standard. And the Democrats can impeach to uphold constitutional values and at the same time have a first 100 days agenda that deals wth the cost of living.” Duckworth said she would “rather move the ball forward to the benefit of the American people,” at a Center for American Progress event on Tuesday. “And if we can do it in a way that allows [Trump] to save face and he doesn’t stop us, then that’s better for everybody all around.” Throughout Trump’s second term, Democrats have debated how to balance attacking the deeply unpopular president with promoting an alternative policy agenda, as they’ve prioritized anti-Trump messaging throughout previous campaigns in an attempt to win over voters. Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice. The House approved articles of impeachment against him in 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress before the Senate acquitted him in February 2020. Following the Jan. 6 riots, the Senate similarly acquitted Trump after the House approved one article of impeachment for incitement of insurrection.

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Foiled terror plot at bomber base signals wider threat to US military installations: expert

Five men arrested near a key U.S. bomber base in the U.K. on Sunday may have planned a "complex," coordinated attack with potentially far-reaching security implications for American military installations globally, a former U.S. intelligence official warned. As counterterrorism police investigated after officers detained the suspects near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a former Pentagon official also said President Donald Trump would ultimately be the one to decide the consequences if indeed the "trail leads to Tehran." The men were initially held on suspicion of offenses under Britain’s Explosives Act before being arrested on terrorism charges in connection with the airfield, a key U.S. Air Force hub and the primary European base for American strategic bombers.

On Sunday, Trump said U.S. authorities had been monitoring the suspects prior to their capture. "We had them under investigation," Trump told reporters in Chicago. "They were looking to do big damage to our fort." "It may have been Scotland Yard. I don't know. We worked with a lot of them. We had them under view for a long time, and we got them," Trump added. According to Sky News, counterterrorism police were investigating whether Iran is linked to the suspected bomb plot. Former Trump White House official Morgan Murphy told Fox News Digital that British authorities are leading the investigation alongside U.S. law enforcement and intelligence. "Every phone, bank record and rental receipt will be run through British and American intelligence, and if the trail leads to Tehran, it will be found," Murphy clarified. "But as American airmen and bombers seem to have been the target, Air Force investigators on the base, the FBI in London, and American intelligence will likely all work the case."

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Iran insists on diplomatic solution after Trump rejects peace plan

Iran insisted on Sunday that only diplomacy can solve its conflict with the ?United States and Israel, after US President Donald Trump said he rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end fighting. "Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening ?the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi posted on social media. "Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock." Iran announced a peace proposal last week at the UN General Assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted to the Americans via Qatari mediators. Trump said on Saturday he rejected the plan, and argued that desperation was driving the Iranians’ push for an agreement on the key waterway.

"They want to make a deal to open the Hormuz Strait immediately because they're losing ?so badly," Trump told reporters at the White House. Keeping the door to diplomacy open, however, Trump told Axios in a phone interview on Sunday that he expected US negotiators to engage in more talks this ?week. Araqchi said mediators facilitating Tehran's talks with Washington had not officially relayed a US rejection of the plan. "We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive views ?to us, and we will make a decision based on them," Araqchi posted. The US has imposed an economic blockade on Iran to put pressure on Tehran to stop Iranian attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which ?have drastically reduced shipping through the area even as Trump repeatedly asserts that the US controls the waterway. The commander-in-chief of Iran's army, Amir Hatam, said the war was at a critical and decisive stage, adding that Tehran would not accept ?a situation in which it was unable to trade while foreign powers used the region's strategic waterways. "If Iran cannot trade, if Iran cannot live, no one will be able to trade or live," he said, in comments reported by state media.

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Every household in this rural town receives $10,000 if a data center gets built

The letters started arriving in June, from a big developer who said he would give $10,000 to every family in town. They could spend it on anything. “Really whatever you want,” the developer wrote. To get the money, the township just needed to let NorthPoint Development build its data center, the first of 15 buildings the firm planned on 1,300 acres in the Pocono foothills. Then, $10,000 checks would go out to each of the 4,500 households there. It would be a $45 million payout, the developer wrote. For many in Hazle Township, which has a median household income of about $60,000, a payout of $10,000 would be a significant sum. Even after taxes, it could cover about six months of rent for a two-bedroom apartment or many more months of groceries or fuel.

But regardless of income, job status or location, few of the people in Hazle Township interviewed by The Wall Street Journal indicated that they are eager to welcome the data center for the payout. They reject the developer’s project for a variety of reasons, from the accompanying noise to an aversion to the rapid spread of artificial intelligence. A common thread is a general distrust toward these projects or the people behind them. John Zola, a resident of nearby Sugarloaf who opposes construction of data-center transmission lines through his property, said small-town politicians across Pennsylvania are too easily wooed or overwhelmed by big developers. Then “the gates open, and then the municipalities provide 10-year tax abatements.” Data-center developers are increasingly offering towns and cities packages in the tens of millions of dollars, including funds for fire departments, emergency services and schools. In Hazle Township, locals have also spotted developer generosity at the local Italian festival: “Free Amusement Rides Sponsored By NorthPoint.” Direct cash payments to residents, however, would mark a new phase in the AI build-out.

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Nor’easter lingers over Northeast as high tides bring more coastal flooding

Residents of coastal communities in the Northeast slogged through floodwaters for a second day as a powerful nor’easter pummeled the shoreline Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes. Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighborhoods in New Jersey while wind gusts toppled trees on New York’s Long Island, damaging homes and bringing down utility poles. In the New Jersey beach town of Sea Bright, each high tide brought a new round of flooding. “It’s not like a one-time occurrence,” said Caroline Virenius, whose garage filled with about a foot of water (30 centimeters). “It’s getting wet again and again.” The slow-moving storm, which killed a New York City Housing Authority worker when a tree fell Saturday, was expected to linger through Sunday with heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous surf all the way to New England.

Extreme amounts of rain — more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) since Friday in some spots in New Jersey — combined with a surging ocean led to flooding amounts not seen for close to a decade in places used to dealing with high water, residents said. The National Weather Service predicted the storm will weaken over Sunday night with local heavy rain in parts of New England and the mid-Atlantic. But local officials in New Jersey and New York told residents that high tide late Monday could potentially bring more flooding. “There is another band of the storm, a weaker band, but still another band that could hit early this afternoon and later into the evening,” said New York’s Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. The nor’easter triggered memories of Superstorm Sandy, which left behind over $60 billion in damage across the eastern U.S. in 2012. While this storm’s impact has been nowhere near that, it could be the first of several along the East Coast this fall because of an El Niño climate pattern that’s disrupting this year’s weather. Images of waves crashing into sea walls and onto beaches raised concerns about coastal erosion.

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What to know about the $810 million in spending canceled by President Trump

Each year, Congress passes laws which allocate money to the federal government's various programs and agencies. Trump, for the second year in a row, is refusing to send some of that money to the places that Congress says it has to go, setting off a fresh battle with lawmakers over who controls federal spending. Of the $810 million being withheld, $567 million comes from programs that "provided services to refugees, asylees, and other non-citizens," according to a memo from the White House. The move, called a pocket rescission, is illegal, according to the Government Accountability Office, an independent, non-partisan watchdog agency charged with providing federal agencies fact-based information. Article 1 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to levy taxes and decide how federal funds are spent — known as power of the purse. If the president disagrees, he or she can send a request to Congress to cancel the fund, but that is supposed to happen with 45 days notice in order to let Congress agree or disagree.

A pocket rescission happens when the president decides to cancel funds without ample time for Congress to weigh in or reallocate the money. With the end of the fiscal year less than a week away, the announcement means the funds will go unspent and Congress can't respond. "This is the most recent attempt by this Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to undermine Congress's Constitutional power of the purse," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations committee, wrote in a statement posted to X. "OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding." The canceled funds are fueling anger from Democrats who say OMB director Russell Vought is violating the separation of powers and undermining Congressional authority. "This is theft from the American people, plain and simple," wrote Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee on X. "Every Republican who voted for these bills should be furious, because Vought is saying their votes don't count." "Donald Trump knows he can't get these cuts through Congress, so he is illegally making them through the back door," Rep. Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget committee, said in a statement. "Trump's actions are a blatant attack on Congress's constitutional power of the purse." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The administration also says it withheld $15 million to a Justice Department team tasked with "preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, incidents, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony," $70 million to "programs provide grants and fellowships to support institutions bringing foreign students and faculty to the United States to study or teach language," and tens of millions to various research and non-profit grant programs that target climate change or racial and gender minority work.

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Lead Stories

School choice fight enters new phase as Texas lawmakers debate future of program

The years-long fight over whether Texas should use taxpayer dollars to help families pay for private school appeared settled when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2 into law. But some Texas Democrats say they’re already looking for ways to reverse it. “When we talk about education, we have to talk about what a disaster this program has become,” State Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, said on Thursday. The program, officially named the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), started this fall. For the first school year, the Texas Legislature earmarked $1 billion. Now, according to the Texas Tribune, Texas Comptroller Don Huffines has asked the legislature to double the program’s funding — at minimum. “It is a scam that’s going to affect you and your state budget from here on out,” State Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, said on Friday. “That should be the call to eliminate the vouchers.”

Republicans argue repealing the program would take away options from families already using it. “I think that the good families of this state that have applied for those… and now have their kids in an environment of choice, I think they would disagree strongly with repealing that program,” said State Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton. “If it’s working, we should expand it,” State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-McKinney, said. Leach was concerned with how many parents were approved for the program who later decided to return the money. “[While] I constantly hear from parents in my district who are not able to get it… we’ve got to be willing to, session after session, look at it, figure out what’s working, and invest in those areas.” So far, states that have implemented some form of school choice have not gone back on their decision. And of the three states that have walked back some form of school choice, only Illinois did it through their state legislature (through inaction, not an active repeal). Repealing TEFA in 2027 would take a Herculean effort. Texas has had a Republican trifecta for almost the entire century, and even Alvarado admits there’s little chance Democrats could take the Texas Senate this November.

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Vance woos skeptical conservatives with his own take on Trump’s messaging

The midterms are approaching and the vice president is Vance-splaining. JD Vance is smoothing the harder edges of President Trump’s words, or expanding on them, as he reaches out to dissatisfied conservatives and urges them to stick with Republicans in the midterms. Asked about Trump saying last week he was “proudly banning” CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House, Vance on Monday replied: “I take some issue with the premise, he’s not banning media outlets,” and said it was a reasonable step to withhold access for some outlets. Earlier this month, shortly after Trump promised every American adult $5,000 if they keep Republicans in power—prompting accusations from Democrats that the president was trying to buy votes—Vance went on Fox News to explain. “What the president is just saying is…if you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you’re going to share in some of the benefits,” he said.

As Americans’ concern with the Iran war grows and gas prices increase, Vance frequently appears on Fox News to defend the prolonged conflict that he initially said would be over quickly. “Trump brings the clarity, and JD provides authentic reinforcement,” said John Ashbrook, Republican strategist and co-host of the Ruthless podcast. “It’s a political ham-and-egg routine that works very well together.” The move may help Vance should he run for the Republican presidential nomination. Vice presidents who run frequently position themselves as a successor to their president, to inherit the coalition that sent their predecessor to the White House. The coalition that elected Trump in 2024 has fractured, however, and Vance is working to rebuild it for the midterms and beyond. Though no Republican has launched a presidential run, the jockeying is expected to start shortly after the midterms. Vance leads Republicans in all early polls that often include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump Jr. When Vance spoke at the Dallas midterm GOP convention earlier this month, some people in the crowd chanted “48! 48!” Trump is the 47th U.S. president. “He can distill things down in a way that people can understand,” said Iowa-based radio host Steve Deace, who had Vance on his show this month.

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Corpus Christi could owe Texas $235 million for failed desalination plant

Heading into election season, leaders in Corpus Christi face a puzzling question: what to do with $235 million from the state of Texas for a seawater desalination plant that was never built. This month, officials in the Gulf Coast city declined to pursue the flagship water supply project for the second time in a year over cost concerns. Now Corpus Christi may have to return the money, including $50 million it already spent, plus $72 million in interest. “That’s going to be a painful experience if the State of Texas calls our notes due,” said City Council member Mark Scott at the Sept. 1 meeting before the vote that rejected the desalination project. “I think we are dangerously close.” Returning the money would “seriously damage our relationship with state leadership, negatively impact any future loan applications and continue to put downward pressure on our credit ratings,” Scott said in a follow-up statement.

For almost a decade, city officials in Corpus Christi have debated the desalination project’s location, cost, development model, benefits to residents and potential environmental impacts, even as a regional water shortage grew increasingly likely. State officials in Texas have also pushed to develop seawater desalination plants for nearly 25 years with little to show for their efforts. Corpus Christi should return the state’s money and lay the project to rest, said City Council member Sylvia Campos, an opponent of the desalination project. “That is the only way we can finally finish this,” she said. “We need to once and for all kill it and move on.” Other city leaders say that won’t happen, even if it means reviving the controversial desalination project for another political cycle. The city has requested an extension of its funding agreement with the state, but state leaders haven’t publicly addressed the question, leaving Corpus Christi an uncertain path forward. “This is very much the first time this has ever happened,” said Perry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, a construction and engineering trade coalition. “They’re having to figure out how to unravel what they’re in right now.”

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A ‘big problem’: Trump’s war with Iran drags down Republicans in midterms

As President Trump warned in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in recent days that he might “annihilate” Iran, a growing number of Republicans were scrambling to find distance from a costly war that has swelled into a midterm crisis for the party. The split screen showed how Mr. Trump and his party’s battleground candidates are increasingly at odds as the November elections approach. With no clear resolution in sight, the war has sent the prices of gasoline, diesel and heating oil upward, and cost increases have spilled across the economy. Mortgage rates have also climbed to seven percent, squeezing prospective homeowners already struggling with inflation. While Mr. Trump is talking about escalating the war if he cannot strike a deal with Iran, Republicans in competitive races are losing patience with the fighting. Representative Ashley Hinson, the party’s Senate nominee in Iowa, called at a news conference Friday for an “immediate” end to the war, saying she was “incredibly frustrated” by rising costs.

Former Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee in the Senate race in Michigan and an early cheerleader for the war, released an advertisement on Monday in which he declared that it “needs to end.” Brinker Harding, a Republican trying to win a swing Nebraska congressional district that has been in his party’s hands for nearly a decade, said in an interview Friday that “we need to bring the war in Iran to a close as quickly as possible.” And Senator Jon Husted, who is working to fend off the Democratic former senator Sherrod Brown, told reporters on Friday that “we got to bring the war to a close” — even as he added that any resolution should be on “acceptable” terms. Still, many Republicans have been cautious about crossing Mr. Trump, fearing a backlash that could alienate Republican voters they need in November. Despite Ms. Hinson’s and Mr. Husted’s calls for an end to the war, they recently voted against resolutions to rein in Mr. Trump’s ability to carry on the conflict. On Saturday, Mr. Trump said he rejected Iran’s latest cease-fire proposal, another signal that Republicans’ calls for an end to the war would not be swiftly answered. The proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz — a vital oil-shipping corridor before the war — and restarted negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. Much of the conflict has played out as Mr. Trump conducted a primary season retribution campaign against Republicans he deemed disloyal.

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Texas Republicans have weathered blue waves before. Is 2026 different?

For the past 20 years, Republicans running statewide in Texas could wake up on Election Day reasonably confident they were going to return to bed that night in a happy mood. Even in 2018, when Democrats Beto O'Rourke and Justin Nelson came within a few scant percentage points of scoring upsets in the races for U.S. Senate and Texas attorney general, respectively, none of the pre-election polling suggested the Republicans would lose. For sure, millions of Texas Democrats went to bed disappointed after all of the votes were tallied in that election eight years ago, but hardly any of them went to bed surprised by the outcome in those races. But this cycle, a measure of apprehension among Republicans is beginning to show through. The Quorum Report, an online newsletter for political insiders in Austin, reported recently that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told donors and lobbyists at a private fundraiser that the Republican winning streak in statewide elections that began in 1998 might not be a slam dunk come Nov. 3.

And even some GOP-held state Senate seats that earlier this year appeared to be as safe as a baby in its mother's arms could be in jeopardy in an election year roiled by economic uncertainty, war and a mercurial Republican president who has said that the spiraling cost of gasoline is no cause for alarm. Patrick, according to the report, which relied on unnamed sources, acknowledged that Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton was in trouble in the race against Democrat James Talarico. The lieutenant governor said that he and Gov. Greg Abbott, who are both seeking fourth terms, should be all right, but only “as long as everything goes right.” Heading into the final five weeks of the 2026 campaign, Democrats have been talking about a Democratic wave in terms suggesting it's a foregone conclusion. They cite many of the same factors that are likely worrying Patrick. But Democratic waves are nothing new — neither are Republican waves, for that matter. At least in statewide elections, Texas has been all but immune to the tsunamis that have washed away political careers elsewhere. Let's look at 2006. Republican President George W. Bush was entering the final two years of his second term. The war in Iraq, which was sold as a cakewalk a few years earlier, was dragging on and casualties were mounting. The stumbling federal response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina the year before was still fresh in voters' minds. And Bush's party paid dearly. Democrats took control of both houses of Congress and captured a majority of the governorships. But in Texas, every Republican on the statewide ballot sailed to victory. Even though Gov. Rick Perry got just 39% of the total vote, he still beat his Democratic rival by 10 points. Two independent candidates split the rest.

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State Stories

Texas Democrats push party to invest more in Texas governors race

Despite being outspent on the airwaves 12 to 1 over the last four weeks, Democrat Gina Hinojosa remains within striking distance of pulling off what would be one of the greatest political upsets in Texas history. Most polling shows Hinojosa within a few percentage points of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking a record-setting 4th term. If those polls are accurate, Abbott could be sweating out Election Day for the first time in decades. Since his 2002 race for Texas Attorney General, no Democrat has come within 10 points of defeating him. The closeness of the contest has Hispanic leaders within the Democratic Party in Texas warning key national party leaders that failing to invest in the race could cause lasting damage to the party and the nation.

“The party can’t afford to continue to make the same mistakes of the past and not invest in our Latino candidates and Latino voters,” said a letter signed by dozens of Democratic leaders to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who is the leader of the Democratic Governors Association. “Governor Beshear, this responsibility falls in your hands and we ask that you make this significant investment to make Gina Hinojosa the first Latina Governor of the Great State of Texas and help save our democracy.” Six members of the U.S. House from Texas, including the state’s first two Latinas elected to Congress in 2018, U.S. Reps Sylvia Garcia of Houston and Veronica Escobar of El Paso, are among the signatories asking for $10 million of help. They said the Democratic Governors Association is spending at least that much on races in Virginia, New Jersey and Arizona. “Now we are asking to be part of that offense,” the letter states. Beshear, who just published a new book and is widely considered a potential White House contender in 2026, has praised Hinojosa’s campaign, but isn’t quite reaching for the checkbook. “Gina Hinojosa is a great candidate and running a great campaign,” Beshear told Politico in a statement earlier this month when pressed on whether there will be support for Hinojosa. “We are currently investing by paying expenses and recently providing staff. My goal as chair of the DGA this year is to win as many races as we can, and that’s exactly what we’re doing by going on offense and expanding the map.” Earlier this week, Hinojosa said her own fundraising has improved, and she will report having raised $20 million for the race. Still, that’s a far cry from catching Abbott, who has spent nearly $48 million on campaign ads since the start of September compared to just $4 million for Hinojosa.

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Judge dissolves Westlake data center restraining order, but fight continues

A district judge in Fort Worth dissolved a temporary restraining order Friday, Sept. 25, that kept Westlake from voting to approve a data center near homes in Keller, but the court battle isn’t over. Judge Kimberly Fitzpatrick dissolved the temporary restraining order after chastising attorneys representing both sides for submitting around 1,000 pages of documents Thursday night, Sept. 24. Fitzpatrick told attorneys that there was no way that she could adequately prepare to issue a ruling because she did not have adequate time to study the documents. Fitzpatrick ended the temporary restraining order and set a hearing for Oct. 23 to consider the lawsuit that the Lakes at Marshall Ridge Homeowners Association filed against the town of Westlake. The city of Keller is an intervener in the suit.

When asked about the judge’s decision to dissolve the TRO, Keller mayor Ross McMullin, who attended the hearing, said the decision didn’t change Keller’s case. “We are going to keep moving forward and advocate for all of our residents and look forward to presenting our arguments on the 23rd,” he said. McMullin said that both Keller and Westlake are asking similar questions concerning how close data centers should be to neighborhoods, adding that the state needs to provide guidance to cities. Westlake spokesperson Jon Sasser said in an email that Westlake was pleased with the judge’s ruling to dissolve the temporary restaining order. “Westlake is pleased the judge decided to dissolve the temporary restraining order filed by the city of Keller. We are confident the entire dispute will be fully resolved during the upcoming October 23rd hearing. In the meantime, Westlake will continue to follow the directives laid out by Governor Abbott regarding the development of data centers.”

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'We need to be heard': Family of most recent person to die in Tarrant Jail custody wants answers

Catherine Cano and Ruth Hernandez looked through old family photos in their living room, pointing to their brother in each one. “He wasn’t a serious person, he was more funny and outgoing and kind and [caring],” Cano said. “He always cared for his family. If he needed help, he'll be there to help us.” It had been about a week since Cano and Hernandez last spoke to their brother. Then Cano got a phone call Tuesday from Tarrant County that her brother has died while in custody at Tarrant County Jail. "I'm broken," Cano said. "I'm heartbroken that it had to happen this way. It shouldn't have happened this way." Jose Orozco, 37, died Tuesday at John Peter Smith Hospital after a day of being in custody. In an interview Thursday, Cano and Hernandez told KERA News they want answers on what happened to Orozco before he died. Hernandez said he may have had drugs in his system when he was booked into jail and was going through withdrawal symptoms. She believes authorities neglected medical care.

“He could have gotten some type of help before he died and just seeing him in person with my mom, it was hard to see him lifeless because he was trying,” Hernandez said through tears. “He had struggles, but he was trying to be better than before, and I don't feel like he was given enough time.” Orozco’s death marks the sixth death at Tarrant County Jail this year, raising concerns from the community and one county commissioner how the jail is run. Laurie Passman, a spokesperson for Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, told KERA News Friday she cannot further comment on the family's claims as the case remains under active investigation by multiple agencies. "We believe the most responsible course is to allow the investigative process to run its course and for all relevant facts to come forward before reaching any conclusions or offering further comment," Passman said. In a press release shared after Orozco's death, the sheriff's office said he was found unresponsive in his cell around 11 a.m. Tuesday. A detention officer in Orozco's housing unit began life-saving measures before he was transported to JPS. He was pronounced dead Tuesday at 12:11 p.m., according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office website. Court records show Orozco was arrested and booked into Tarrant County Jail early Monday morning on a burglary of a building charge.

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The Austin ICE shooting has raised questions about medical standards for detainees

The recent shooting of a man by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin has led to questions about hospitals’ legal obligations when treating ICE detainees with traumatic injuries. 28-year-old Wilber Garces Perez was shot in the back by an ICE officer Sunday. Video shared by the Austin Police Department suggests the shooting followed a car pursuit. Garces Perez and his lawyer have described an unprovoked encounter with authorities, but the Department of Homeland Security said he was the subject of a “targeted vehicle stop” and attempted to evade arrest. After the incident, Garces Perez was taken to Austin’s Dell Seton Medical Center for treatment — but he and his lawyer have said they do not believe he was given appropriate care at the hospital, and remains in poor condition at a detention center in South Texas with a bullet still lodged in his back.

Representatives for the hospital and for ICE have disputed the claim that Garces Perez has not received adequate care. But community members and elected officials are still pushing for answers on whether Garces Perez is getting what he needs. “I am making it very clear to every part of the federal government that ICE needs to take the medical care of Wilber Garces Perez extremely seriously,” Texas Congressman Greg Casar said at a news conference Wednesday. Garces Perez’s lawyer Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said he was discharged from Dell Seton on Sunday after about four hours there. Lincoln-Goldfinch and Garces Perez’s wife asked for information about his condition at the hospital that afternoon, but they were told by a security guard that he was not there. Later, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson arrived and told the women they would hear from a hospital attorney. They learned from the attorney that Garces Perez had already been discharged to an ICE detention center. “I'm very displeased and disappointed in the way that the hospital treated him and the way that they treated me and his wife,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said in an interview with KUT. “I don't think in any circumstance is it adequate care to discharge someone from a hospital four hours after they've been shot while they have the bullet still lodged in their body.”

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AI garbage trucks flag 20,000 homes in Texas city

Artificial Intelligence cameras mounted on Dallas garbage trucks have flagged about 20,000 homes for potential code violations in just four months. The cameras, made by Alabama-based City Detect, use artificial intelligence to analyze images captured by sanitation trucks and generate "blight scores" for homes and buildings. Dallas approved a contract for 100 cameras to be installed on nearly 50 sanitation trucks in December. Installation began in April. According to City Detect, the system can identify more than 100 signs of property deterioration, including storm damage, overgrown lots, illegal dumping and graffiti. Since the cameras were installed, thousands of Dallas homeowners have received courtesy notices about issues such as driveway debris and overgrown weeds. According to the city, 57 properties have received citations after an in-person inspection by a code compliance officer.

A city memo says the cameras will not be used to issue citations automatically. The technology has also prompted questions about privacy and the expanding use of artificial intelligence by local governments. "The staff's desire is to be able to have a cleaner, more tidy, orderly city, right? My concern is, as we're learning more about AI and the lack of privacy and lack of protections, does the city have those protections in place to make sure my home, your home, our residents' homes, and our privacy are protected," Dallas City Council Member Chad West told Fox 4. Unlike Flock, City Detect says it does not share its data with state or federal law enforcement agencies. The company also says its cameras automatically blur faces and license plates and cannot zoom in on specific people or objects. "We focus on the built environment and assess structural issues that pose health and safety risks for residents," City Detect CEO and co-founder Gavin Baum-Blake said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. Founded in 2021, City Detect has at least seven verified contracts in Texas, Georgia, California, Arizona, Florida and South Carolina. Dallas is the company's largest municipal customer in Texas. Coppell and Little Elm also use City Detect's technology.

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How Mayor Jones’ approach to San Antonio budget left her without votes

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones immediately went on the offensive after voting against next year’s city budget. She blamed her City Council colleagues for adopting a $4.4 billion budget that in her view was beyond city government’s means — and for approving a 3.9% property tax rate hike to help pay for it. She also criticized City Manager Erik Walsh and his staff for not offering up a more fiscally responsible spending plan. “Ultimately, there wasn’t a big enough appetite to do things differently,” Jones said at the Metro SA Chamber’s City Vision event Monday, which five of City Council’s 10 members attended. City budget writers, with direction from council, had to close a $158 million gap between revenue and expenses over the next two years.

As Jones puts it, few council members were willing to consider her spate of proposals to tap sales and hotel tax dollars to pay for a handful of programs and grants for San Antonio nonprofits. The idea was to stop paying for them out of the city’s $1.76 billion general fund, which funds street repairs, fire and police protection, and other basic services. But she didn’t try to rally a majority of council members to support her vision for city spending — which is a basic move for a mayor. Instead, she largely laid out her ideas in memos, brief conversations with a few members and news conferences. Her approach to City Council boiled down to “take it or leave it.” Jones told the San Antonio Express-News that if council had been focused on not raising taxes, rethinking general-fund expenses and helping as many residents as possible, “then we can have some substantive conversations about paths forward.” “That’s my going-in position,” she added. “At the end of the day, I can only control myself.” Councilwoman Teri Castillo said Jones’ conversations with her largely amounted to the mayor telling her about a budget proposal instead of asking for her feedback.

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After floods, a new vision emerges for healing the Guadalupe River

As she surveyed the bank of the Guadalupe River, Carole Griffin spotted something unexpected: a small buttonbush plant, growing unnoticed not far from the water's edge. For months, she and fellow volunteers from the local Texas Master Naturalist chapter had been tending to this section on the Kerrville River Trail, planting new trees, shrubs and grasses. It was part of the Kerr County River Foundation's efforts to shore up the riverbanks and help the river recover after the July 4, 2025 flood. When the Guadalupe rose again this July, they feared that work might have been undone. That wasn't the case: While the second flood caused major damage, more than half of the new plantings survived. Weeks later, Griffin and her fellow volunteers were finding more plants they figured had been washed away, growing back after all. They used branches and sticks left behind from the flood to form a fence around the buttonbush, to protect it from ravenous deer.

They'd done the same around a other trees nearby that also survived the second flood. In the face of the flood's devastation, the scrawny trees can seem insignificant. But for those who spent the past year trying to help the Guadalupe recover from the flood damage, it’s a story of hope – and evidence that there is a path that leads to a better future for the river. Securing the long-term health of the river – which is crucial not only for the area’s ecosystem, but also for Kerr County’s economy and quality of life – won’t be as simple as picking up trash, hauling away debris or dredging out the gravel the floods piled into the riverbed. What’s needed, experts and advocates say, is a new vision for the people who manage and use the waterway, one that understands how the Guadalupe functions and reimagines what is needed to protect and preserve it. “We have to change our perspective and begin to think about how can the river use this experience, this next flood that it experiences, to actually heal itself,” said Ryan McGillicuddy, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “Because that’s what rivers do.”

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Wayne Christian: Don’t slam the door on data centers

Growing up in East Texas, I watched small towns thrive because local businesses kept the lights on. Every courthouse square had stores, restaurants, and families building a future together. Today, too many of those storefronts sit empty. Rural Texas populations in the past few decades have either declined or remained stagnant. Our young people graduate, pack up, and leave for big cities because that’s where the jobs are. Put simply, rural Texas is dying. That’s why I believe we should take a hard look at the opportunities data centers bring, not slam the door before the conversation even starts. Now let me be clear. I don’t support data centers that drain a community’s water supply. I don’t support any that drive up electric bills for hardworking families who are already struggling to put food on the table. And I certainly don’t support projects that just aren’t the right fit for the community where they’re proposed. But that’s exactly why local communities should evaluate individual projects on a case-by-case basis, rather than uniformly banning them statewide.

In East Texas, after careful evaluation and conversations with local stakeholders, Diode Ventures withdrew its proposal for a data center because the project wasn’t the right fit. That’s exactly how the process should work. Contrast that with blanket bans that tell companies not to bother proposing a project at all. That’s shortsighted. Not every proposed data center should be built in Texas. Not every project is a good fit for every town. That’s the beauty of the free market. Communities have a voice. Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent audit directive temporarily pausing certain grid connections while state agencies complete a comprehensive review is a prudent approach. Transparency matters. Texans deserve confidence that our electric grid, water resources, and local infrastructure can support these investments before projects move forward. It’s the start of something we sorely need: a Texas plan for data centers. Instead of asking how to stop them, let’s ask how to make them better. Can they build or pay for their own water infrastructure? Great. Can they generate their own electricity or invest in new power generation? Even better. Can they reduce noise, improve cooling technology, and become better neighbors? That’s exactly the kind of innovation and approach we should welcome.

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‘Make Quinceañeras Great Again’: A Texan singer puts the G.O.P. on defense

No one had announced that he would show up at the Friday night high school football game in South Texas. But as he ascended the bleachers, a line quickly formed of fans old and young. Two retirees posed for photos with him, while shy-looking teenagers rehearsed what they would say on their turn. Most U.S. House candidates do not receive such an enthusiastic reception. But for Bobby Pulido, a Tejano singer running as a Democrat, it is commonplace. Mr. Pulido — a standard-bearer of the Tejano genre, which fuses the traditional Tex-Mex music of accordion and bajo sexto with modern country or pop — is running in a district anchored in the Rio Grande Valley, where entire families grew up listening to his music. Many voters know him, or at least feel as if they do.

That feeling was summed up by the mother of a high school dance coach: “We know him personally,” Yolanda Ozuna, 69, said of Mr. Pulido, before correcting herself. “We’ve not known the family personally — but the family’s been around him.” At 53, with two Latin Grammy Awards under his belt, Mr. Pulido is bringing the glam and allure of pop music to a new kind of performance: a high-stakes political campaign. Like other entertainers turned politicians before him — including a certain reality TV star who became president — he is wielding his celebrity and keen sense of spectacle on another stage where attention is a crucial currency. His prominence and his moderate platform have created an unusual challenge for his Republican opponent, Representative Monica De La Cruz. Even though President Trump won the district by 18 percentage points in 2024, limited polling of the race points to a tight contest that Ms. De La Cruz admits is “very competitive.” Mr. Pulido has tried to expand his popularity by performing for free at more than 70 quinceañeras, weddings and other events in his district, a tactic he adopted in response to a dig from his opponent. (“This election isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera,” Ms. De La Cruz had said in March.) At each party, his campaign team collects attendees’ contact info, helping to build a database of potential voters. He sings for 10 minutes, then gives a simple pitch in English or Spanish. Before he leaves, he hands the birthday girl a “Make Quinceañeras Great Again” baseball cap and accommodates guests’ requests for photos. Ms. De La Cruz and her allies have sought to undercut Mr. Pulido’s family-friendly image. She has attacked him for his ties to Frankie Caballero, a former bandmate who is a registered sex offender, and for past offensive comments denigrating the bodies of postpartum women. “I have been a leader that has brought results home to this community,” Ms. De La Cruz said in an interview at a park in Edinburg, where she and Mr. Pulido both live, “while my opponent has brought scandals to this community.” Mr. Pulido maintains that voters have “never” asked him about Mr. Caballero or his past controversial comments, and that they are “distractions” from voters’ concerns about affordability and health care. Mr. Pulido has mostly managed to dodge Republican attacks on policy. Running as a conservative Democrat, he has avoided partisan positions on transgender athletes, immigration and gun control that are unpopular in the district while embracing Democratic calls for government-funded health care and safety net programs.

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Despite no planned data centers, Edinburg to consider zoning recommendations

Edinburg leadership will soon be making a decision on the regulation of potential data centers within the city, though none have been proposed, thus far. On Friday, Mayor Omar Ochoa said the city’s planning and zoning department had approved a recommendation to the city commission to make an amendment to the unified development code (UDC) that would require data center facilities to acquire a special use permit (SUP) in order to develop within city limits. “The idea would be to have some mechanism to regulate data centers, if any were ever proposed in the city limits. Because right now there is none,” said Ochoa.

The change would not prohibit data centers in Edinburg. Rather, it would give city officials an additional opportunity to review a proposed facility before it could proceed. The mayor called it “forward thinking” and asserted that the city is unaware of any data center seeking to locate in Edinburg. As the leader considers this move toward data center regulation, he confirmed his understanding of the significant resource demanded by these facilities. “I mean even the governor has now gone out and done a moratorium on any permits for data centers,” Ochoa said, referencing Gov, Greg Abbot’s recent direction of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to halt permits sought by data centers while state agencies complete audits concerning electricity and water demands. According to Ochoa, the SUP requirement would create an additional process a proposed facility would have to go through, “because otherwise it would just be subject to the normal requirements as long as it was built on land that was properly zoned,” he said. He added that currently, as long as a data center meets existing zoning, building and state regulations, there’s not much else a city would have the power to do to stop a facility from locating there.

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Texas Senate race puts North Texas suburbs in focus ahead of early voting

The North Texas suburbs are emerging as a crucial battleground in the Texas Senate race, with early voting for the midterm elections less than 30 days away and signs of cracks among some traditionally Republican voters. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest media market in Texas, putting added attention on suburban voters in Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties as Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat state lawmaker James Talarico compete for support. Republicans have maintained their governing coalition for a generation in part by attracting a large share of conservative-leaning independents. This year, however, some former Republican leaders in North Texas are publicly breaking with the party's Senate candidate. The Texas Tribune published an article Thursday featuring roughly a dozen former local Republican leaders who said on the record that they would vote for Talarico — their first time voting for a Democrat — or leave the Senate race blank.

Among them is former Southlake Mayor John Huffman, who told NBC 5 that he could not get past concerns about Paxton's character, including his highly publicized divorce and past corruption allegations that Paxton has largely defeated. Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report Capitol newsletter, said the suburbs have previously shown their ability to shift even when Republicans remain competitive statewide. “In 2018, you had Senator Cruz in this race, and Democrats still picked up 12 seats in the Texas House, two seats in the Texas Senate and two seats in the Congressional delegation," said Scott Braddock with Quorum Report. Braddock said business and industry groups are circulating polling showing Democrats outperforming Republicans in the suburbs. Collin County has also seen major corporate relocations bring an influx of new and more diverse workers to Texas. Braddock said changing populations are creating opportunities for both parties across North Texas. "The Northeast part of Tarrant where Southlake is. The populations are just completely different year after year, you know, in election after election. And there are real opportunities for Republicans and Democrats," Braddock said. Paxton's campaign has publicly focused its efforts on defending the suburbs, including an appeal to Republican-leaning women. “Suburban moms want someone who will actually fight the people putting their kids in harm’s way: Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Tech,” a Paxton campaign spokesperson said. Outside groups are spending more than $100 million in Texas to help Paxton fend off Talarico. That effort includes thousands of mailers supporting Paxton and attacking Talarico.

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James Dickey: What Texans should know about data centers and property values

(Fort Worth-raised James R. Dickey is the Founder & Principal of JD Key Consulting. He is a former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas and the founder of the Dallas Tea Party.) I've heard the same concern at county meetings, city council hearings and community forums across Texas. "Data centers are going to kill my property values." I understand why people say it. For most Texans, their home is their biggest investment, and nobody wants to see it lose value because of a new development nearby. But before we accept that claim as fact, we ought to ask a simple question: Is there any evidence that it's actually true? I wanted an answer based on Texas, not assumptions or studies from somewhere else. So I decided to test the claim myself. I analyzed 45 Texas ZIP codes that gained their first data center and compared them with similar ZIP codes in the same metropolitan areas that didn't. After testing the data across multiple statistical models, I found no measurable evidence that data centers caused nearby home values to decline.

That doesn't mean every data center belongs everywhere. Communities should absolutely ask questions about infrastructure, water, electricity, noise and where projects are located. Those are legitimate issues that deserve thoughtful discussion. But that's a different conversation than claiming data centers automatically hurt property values. Based on the evidence we have in Texas, they don't. In fact, today's data centers are generally quieter, more energy efficient and more water conscious than many of the facilities included in the analysis, making the claim even harder to support. Too often, these debates are driven by social media posts, headlines from other states or speculation that gets repeated often enough to sound true. Before long, perception starts replacing facts. Meanwhile, we lose sight of what data centers actually bring to a community. These facilities support the digital infrastructure our economy depends on, from banking and healthcare to advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence. They also represent hundreds of millions, and often billions, of dollars in private investment, create high-paying construction and skilled technical jobs, support local contractors and suppliers, and expand the commercial tax base in ways that benefit local communities over the long term.

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Growers wrestle with labor as RGV farmworkers struggle to find jobs

A South Texas agricultural employer is in its fourth year of hiring foreign workers for its farming and packing operations under the H-2A visa program. This year, they’re planning to expand their H-2A workforce by over 40%. “We don’t have enough local workers to do the work on the farm that we need,” the employer, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said. However, Elizabeth Rodriguez, a South Texas farmworker advocate, expressed concern with the regional agricultural industry’s increased reliance on the program in July, fearing the recent changes to how H-2A wages are calculated could make the program more attractive to employers and displace local workers. “Those farmworkers have worked here for 30 years in the agricultural industry,” she said. “They’re finding it harder to find work to make ends meet.”

In 2025, a housing adjustment lowered required pay for many H-2A workers. The new methodology was later challenged in federal court. In August, a federal judge ruled it unlawful and ordered the U.S. Department of Labor to develop a replacement. But for now, the existing H-2A wage rate remains in effect. Employers have been warned they could eventually owe additional wages if the replacement methodology produces higher rates. Meanwhile, the Texas International Produce Association (TIPA) says there’s simply not enough domestic workers available. Jed Murray, the director of government relations for TIPA, argues that wages aren’t the problem. Rather, he points to the availability as well as consistency of domestic workers. He attributes the shortage to longtime agricultural workers aging out. Younger workers, Murray says, are increasingly choosing other industries, such as construction. When asked what determines whether growers employ H-2A or domestic labor, Murray pointed to supply, adding that growers can usually maintain a core group of longtime local workers, but have trouble expanding that base when they need to scale up. He argues that additional local groups of workers who don’t have that longtime experience are consequently less consistent.

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National Stories

One dead as powerful nor’easter causes flooding and knocks out power to parts of East Coast

A powerful, slow-moving storm creeping along the coast of the Northeast brought high winds that have caused power outages, while whipping up big waves and heavy rains. The New York City Housing Authority said one of its employees was killed by a fallen tree in Brooklyn, as the storm pelted the city with rain and strong winds on Saturday. Emergency crews in mid-Atlantic and New England states raced to restore power after downed trees contributed to outages for about 100,000 customers. Also in New York, four people were hospitalized with minor injuries after they were struck by a falling tree in Brooklyn’s Kelly Park section, the city’s fire department said. Tens of millions of people remained in the path of the nor’easter Sunday, with major flooding forecast for some coastal areas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said response coordination centers in affected regions were operating at an “enhanced posture,” and teams were on standby in New England in case of widespread outages.

The forecast showed no immediate reprieve. There will be “a lot of high winds, a lot of high tides and heavy rain possibility over the next few days for the northeastern U.S.,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. “Anyone who goes in or near the water this weekend is literally gambling with their life,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said. The highest tides were likely to occur north of Atlantic City, New Jersey, from Saturday night into Sunday, creating the potential for widespread road flooding in coastal and bayside communities, the National Weather Service said. In the coastal New Jersey borough of Surf City, water flooded the streets and inundated some homes. Kenny Formica, owner of Surf City Marina on the Jersey Shore, was trying to keep busy Saturday as he sat at home watching water rise inside his marina through surveillance cameras. Water getting inside the building is rare, Formica said. The last time he remembers it happening was during Hurricane Sandy, which he said caused more than $4 million in damage to his business. Ahead of the storm, Formica said workers secured dock lines, moved loose items and equipment out of harm’s way and parked the marina’s trucks and forklifts at the highest point of the property. By Saturday morning, even those were nearly surrounded by water.

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Trump administration considers building baseball park in Grand Teton National Park

Major League Baseball has approached the Trump administration about hosting a game at a national park, officials from the White House and MLB confirmed Saturday. The administration has scouted locations in Grand Teton National Park to build a baseball park to host an MLB game, according to two other people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Grand Teton is the country’s eighth-most visited national park and is famous for its breathtaking views of the Teton Range of the Rocky Mountains. National parks are among the country’s most protected federal lands, and constructing a sports facility at Grand Teton could set a new precedent for the use of vast national park land in the Western United States.

An MLB official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the league approached the administration after the success of MLB’s other stand-alone events, such as the recurring Field of Dreams game in Iowa. The idea of playing a game in a national park is one of several that MLB is exploring. The White House said in a statement that MLB asked the administration “if it was possible to host a game at a national park, similar to the Field of Dreams game.” “This is not a Presidential directive, nor is it being directed by the White House. It’s also not being driven by the Department of Interior,” the statement said. “Therefore, this is not a White House or Administration priority.” The White House said MLB has not made any decisions and the Park Service has not granted any permits. “If the MLB wants to go on site visits of national parks, that is their prerogative,” the statement said.

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Lead prosecutor in ‘Broadview Six’ case resigns in fiery letter to U.S. attorney

The prosecutor tasked with overseeing the Trump administration’s failed prosecutions of six anti-ICE protesters resigned this week and accused the U.S. attorney in Chicago of interfering in the case and blaming her for its collapse, according to reports. In a three-page letter obtained by the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets, Sheri Mecklenburg said she was “retiring under protest” after U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the Northern District of Illinois “personally directed” the pursuit of felony charges in the “Broadview Six” case, in which a half-dozen protesters were prosecuted for protesting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill. All charges were dropped against the protesters earlier this year after federal prosecutors admitted to errors in the case. Mecklenburg said in the letter that Boutros pursued felony charges “over my objection that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges.”

The strongly-worded letter is the latest controversy for Boutros, a Trump appointee. He attracted criticism for his handling of the Broadview case, which began with the arrests of the half-dozen protesters — including then-congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh — in September 2025. Prosecutors were accused of improperly redacting grand jury transcripts and dismissing jurors who disagreed with the government’s case. The federal judge presiding over the case upbraided Boutros in court, telling him, “I do believe deeply in the presumption of regularity and that most government attorneys are doing the best they can to do the right thing. That trust has been broken.” Mecklenburg’s letter, which is dated Thursday and was first reported on Friday, is titled “my forced retirement.” It alleges that Boutros is trying to blame the failed “Broadview Six” prosecution on her. “You sent an office-wide email laying responsibility at my feet for a felony prosecution that you personally directed over my objection that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges,” she wrote. “You then publicly announced an investigation of my conduct spanning twenty years.”

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Iran insists on diplomatic solution after Trump rejects peace plan

Iran insisted ?on Sunday that only diplomacy can solve its conflict with the United States and Israel after US President Donald Trump said he rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait ?of Hormuz and end fighting. "Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi posted on social media. "Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock." Iran announced a peace proposal last week at the UN General Assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted to the Americans via Qatari mediators. Trump said on Saturday he rejected the plan and argued that desperation was driving ?the Iranians’ push for an agreement on the key waterway. "They want to make a deal to open the Hormuz Strait immediately because they're losing so badly," Trump told reporters at the ?White House.

Despite Trump's public statements, mediators facilitating Tehran's talks with Washington have not officially relayed a US rejection of the plan, Araqchi said. "We are waiting for ?the mediators to convey the definitive views to us, and we will make a decision based on them," Araqchi posted. The US has imposed an economic blockade on Iran to put pressure on Tehran to ?stop Iranian attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which have drastically reduced shipping through the area even as Trump repeatedly asserts that the US controls the waterway. The Wall Street Journal first reported that ?Trump had rejected the Iranian proposal, citing unnamed US officials. It said Trump was privately sceptical that Iran would meet his demands and had told his staff that he sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely after the November US midterm elections. A US official had said earlier that discussions with Iran through mediators were "positive and constructive".

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CNN says it was left off Air Force One for Trump's Saturday trip

The White House left CNN off Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s trip Saturday to a college football game in Tennessee, marking the latest media restriction from the administration in an ongoing dispute with First Amendment implications. CNN, a member of the U.S. network video pool that rotates duties shooting and sharing video coverage of the president, reported it had been scheduled to fly aboard the president’s plane Saturday for a visit to a midday game between the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the University of Texas. But White House guidance issued Friday night instead included Real America’s Voice, a conservative outlet. The White House guidance was issued after journalists from CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, which Trump banned last week from the White House grounds, returned to the executive complex with TV cameras in hand after a judge handed the organizations a reprieve.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down the president’s ban in an overnight ruling early Thursday, but his decision dealt with “hard passes” to the White House grounds and didn’t directly address pool duties. The judge’s temporary order also said nothing directly about Air Force One. The spot meant for CNN on the flight has long been saved for a member of the U.S. network video pool; Real America’s Voice is not a part of that group. The White House did not respond to emails from The Associated Press requesting comment about the decision. CNN declined to comment. A written pool report Saturday morning confirmed there was “no TV pool” for the travel, though Real America’s Voice celebrated its inclusion in the trip and said it would make feeds available to other news outlets. “CNN is not here; we have taken over that responsibility. We are so excited to be here,” correspondent Taylor Mitchell said in a video that the outlet posted on social media.

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She helped lead a far-right internet movement. Then it turned on her.

She’d done everything she thought men expected of women on the far right, so when the hatred came for Amy Dangerfield she felt so depressed she could barely stand. She’d moved from Australia to the United States in 2017 with a dream of spreading her internet-inspired beliefs: that women had driven men to madness through rejection and disrespect; that society needed strong men to survive. She’d worked to distinguish herself from the glut of women she thought had been conned by the poisonous promises of feminism, recording dozens of videos on their and her biological inferiorities as she fought to build a 100,000-subscriber YouTube page and a self-made career. She’d even met a nice Christian man and after a few months of dating had gotten married, hosting a “spiritual ceremony,” as she called it, in a small chapel on the Las Vegas Strip. Within a few weeks, at age 30, she’d gotten pregnant, believing she could grow both a baby and a lifestyle brand simultaneously, two beautiful creations intertwined.

The long hours on camera had earned her and her husband the provisional low-six-figure income of a middle-class content creator. But it was the wedding that had made her go viral: In photos, she wore a white dress she bought from Macy’s for $80 and a blue “America First” hat, the emblem from the online show of Nick Fuentes, a far-right video streamer who has said that the Holocaust is “fake,” that most “Blacks need to be imprisoned” and that “women are made to be f---ed.” It was a signal of her commitment to Fuentes’s digital fan base, the “groypers,” so named for the chubby, smug-faced cartoon frog and alt-right meme they use as avatars. It was a sign, also, of her new lifestyle as one of Fuentes’s most loyal female acolytes, known as the “groypettes.” In the first days of her marriage, she said, “Time to make some mini groyps,” in an X post viewed 1.8 million times. When the groypers posted on X and Telegram that women belonged in breeding gulags or were too stupid to vote, she’d defended them, telling her own audience that the edgy jokes made “inconvenient truths more digestible” for a new generation of conservative men. When Fuentes said women made men “want to cut their heads off,” she’d defended that, too, calling it a natural reaction to the modern thinking that taught women to push men away.

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New Boeing 737 MAX software glitch could disrupt navigation feature

Boeing has identified a 737 MAX software glitch that could cause an automated navigation feature to fail, prompting concerns about a potential safety risk while planes are landing. The glitch, which Boeing acknowledged, hasn’t been publicly disclosed. It emerged from a cockpit software update and can occur when flight crews alter their planned flight path following a missed approach. In a certain scenario, pilots may have to fly manually without some autopilot functions. That, some industry officials said, could overwork pilots while they are already busy, at low altitude and possibly dealing with situations like bad weather.

The aerospace giant, airlines and regulators have been assessing the glitch and whether it poses a flight safety issue. Boeing notified 737 MAX operators in late August about the glitch, saying that it didn’t pose a safety risk, according to a company document viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The company said it was working with airlines on a procedure to allow pilots to re-enable the automated navigation feature if needed, and also devising a software fix. “We shared information with operators that reinforced existing pilot procedures for safely handling such cases,” Boeing said. “Our engineers are working on a software update to permanently address the issue.” Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have told Boeing that they don’t want to receive new 737 MAX planes equipped with the flawed software, and instead requested an earlier version of it, according to industry officials. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the new 737 MAX issue and will take action if needed, a senior agency official said. The stakes are high for the American plane maker because its 737 MAX has a checkered safety record and it has been working to restore trust with regulators, airline customers and the flying public.

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Lead Stories

Sen. Paul Bettencourt says state should have caught error that caused Texas voter registration backlog

A key Texas Republican lawmaker says state officials must be held accountable for an error that led to a backlog of at least 178,000 voter registration applications from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Votebeat reported earlier this week that DPS failed to send counties thousands of voter registration applications and updates submitted through its online driver’s license portal. Some of those date back at least a year, and counties are now being hit with a deluge of applications to process in the weeks leading up to November’s midterm election. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican from Houston who has championed election administration legislation for years, told Votebeat on Thursday that although a DPS failure is at the heart of the problem, the Texas Secretary of State’s office should have caught the issue because it oversees the system the counties use to receive the files from DPS.

“If the files were received, pulled, or not, that should have been noticeable,” Bettencourt said. “They should have caught it.” When asked whether he was concerned about the error or whether he had offered DPS specific direction on how to handle it, Gov. Greg Abbott referred questions to the agency and the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. DPS has said only that the error has been resolved, but has not offered details on how it was fixed or responded to further questions about the cause. The backlogged voter registration records go back at least as far as October 2025. They could include new registrations or simply updates to voters’ existing records, like a change in address. The exact number of outstanding applications statewide is still unknown, but officials in seven of Texas’ 254 counties have confirmed receiving more than a combined 178,000 records. Some of the people whose applications were delayed may have since registered another way.

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Former Houston State Rep. Garnet Coleman dies at 65

Garnet Coleman, a Democrat who represented Houston’s House District 147 in the Texas Legislature for more than 30 years, died Wednesday at the age of 65. According to a statement from his family, Coleman died of natural causes. He had long been living with serious complications from diabetes. State Rep. Armando Walle, a Democrat who represents Houston's HD 140, called Coleman a close friend and mentor. He said that the state had lost "a giant."

"I loved him like a brother," Walle said. "What I remember distinctly about Garnet Coleman is that he was a day-one supporter of mine, but he was a day-one supporter of Texans." Coleman's most significant legislative achievements include the passage of significant health care legislation, including Children's Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Texas' mental health parity legislation, and HIV/AIDS services. "This was not just for kids in Third Ward, Second Ward, or Northside," Walle said. “Working mothers across the state owe a debt of gratitude for the work and tenacity of Garnet Coleman, because he was the lead champion in passing Medicaid and CHIP in Texas." Coleman's district stretched across much of Houston's Inner Loop, including the University of Houston's main campus. "There are a lot of doctors, a lot of graduate students at [the University of Houston's] Hobby School that would not be getting their education and being primary care physicians or being public servants without his tenacity in advocating for the funding and the authorization to create the Hobby School of Public Affairs but also the Tillman Fertitta Medical School at the University of Houston," Walle said.

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Texas Republicans splinter as MAGA candidates test party limits

Republican Joe Straus spent 10 years as the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Now he’s the latest to join a chorus of GOP leaders voicing doubts about US Senate nominee Ken Paxton, who’s trailing Democrat James Talarico in polls with less than six weeks until Election Day. “Republicans are really pushing their luck with Ken Paxton at the top,” Straus said in an interview Thursday. “He has a list of scandals as long as a CVS receipt.” While Straus declined to say how he plans to vote, he said he understood Talarico’s appeal. “I admire Talarico for making a deliberate and sincere attempt to welcome Republican voters and independents into his campaign,” the former speaker said. Straus’ doubts echoed the concerns of other senior Texas Republicans, some of whom have broken with candidates from their own party. The divisions have deepened despite urgent calls for unity from other Republican leaders as the GOP works to defend its narrow US Senate majority and extend decades of dominance in Texas.

Karl Rove, a longtime adviser to former President George W. Bush, recently said he wouldn’t vote for Bo French, the Republican nominee for a state oil and gas regulator. Rove slammed French as a “bigot” after the candidate’s social media post about nonwhite students cheering at a University of Texas at Austin football game. Senator John Cornyn, who lost to Paxton in a fractious GOP primary that inflamed tensions between the party’s traditional and MAGA wings, hosted Bush at a fundraiser this week to support six Republican Senate candidates — but not Paxton. Since his primary loss, Cornyn has criticized Paxton as “lazy” and a “poor campaigner.” Paxton, the state attorney general, was impeached in 2023 by the Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives on charges of bribery and misuse of power. Paxton denied the accusations and was acquitted by the state Senate. He has also been dogged by allegations of adultery, and his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton, said last year she was seeking a divorce on “Biblical grounds.” Still, she recently told a group of Republican women to vote GOP “even if we’re mad at them.” At a Republican midterm convention this month in Dallas, Paxton addressed party activists and national donors in a bid to boost his campaign. Asking for support, he said Talarico “is the most radical Democrat in Texas history, but he’s also the most well funded.”

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Shale tycoon claims Exxon CEO ‘betrayed’ him in $60 billion deal

Scott Sheffield, one of the earliest architects of the US shale oil boom, said he was “betrayed” by ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. after Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods failed to support him in a dispute with the Federal Trade Commission despite a promise to do so. “I do firmly believe that Exxon schemed against me during the FTC process,” Sheffield, the former CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources Co., wrote in a new memoir to be released Oct. 6, From Tehran to the Permian. “Contrary to Darren’s assurances to me, Exxon threw me under the bus at its earliest opportunity.” Such public animosity directed at one high-profile oil boss from another is extremely rare in the US shale patch, where rivalries abound but the industry generally tries to portray a unified front. Sheffield, however, said his wife likened his experience with Woods to the 1997 film The Devil’s Advocate, a thriller about an ambitious lawyer who discovers his new boss is actually Satan.

“‘Darren Woods came into my home, ate my food, drank my beer and lied to my husband’s face,’” Sheffield quotes his wife as saying. “‘It’s hard to get over that.’” The dispute stems from ExxonMobil’s agreement to buy the Permian Basin giant Pioneer for about $60 billion in late 2023. As part of the accord, Sheffield was due to take a seat on ExxonMobil’s board after the transaction closed. But the merger proposal suffered a lengthy review by the FTC, which was then run by Lina Khan, an appointee of President Joe Biden. His administration regularly blamed Big Oil for high gasoline prices and for fueling the climate crisis. As part of the review, Khan alleged Sheffield colluded with OPEC on oil prices — a claim he says was “absurd.” The FTC would only approve the deal if the Texas oilman was prevented from joining the larger company’s board. “Woods called and promised me that Exxon would not ‘throw me under the bus,’ and that it had ways to fight the FTC,” Sheffield said in the book. And yet, soon after, Exxon agreed to the FTC’s terms, which Sheffield considered a violation of Woods’ promise to push back against the commission. He said he didn’t seek to blow up the deal over the issue, writing numerous times in the book that it was ultimately good for Pioneer’s shareholders. But he was enraged. “Now I understood why people had been telling me for more than 50 years that the two X’s in Exxon stood for the double-cross company,” Sheffield wrote. “I am now convinced I was set up.”

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State Stories

Rising diesel prices impacting school districts

As fuel costs rise, getting students to and from school is getting pricey. “Last school year that closed out we spent right at a million dollars in diesel fuel for our buses,” said Hays CISD spokesperson Tim Savoy. Savoy says the district is keeping a close eye on diesel prices. This year Hays CISD increased the budget to take into account rising costs, but if prices don’t fall they could end about $200,000 over the transportation budget. “We budgeted that $1.2 million to have that extra cushion in there, but it looks like with the prices, where they are at, we will go through that and over some if they stay this high.” This time last year Hays CISD was spending $2.44 a gallon for diesel and this last month they spent $5.13 a gallon. Austin ISD is also bracing for the impacts of higher fuel costs.

In an online slide show the district posted, they are estimating a $1.9 million increase this year for fuel costs. Jaimie Brito is the executive director of refining and oil products for Dow Jones Energy, he says the increase in average price of diesel is substantial. “Right now the national average is in the $6.50’s and for Texas it is around $5.50,” said Brito. Brito says there is a lot of uncertainty with what the future holds, but people who rely on diesel are feeling the impacts across the board. “It is a monstrosity, the price increase completely disrupts any budget,” said Brito. For prices to get back to normal global conflicts must de-escalate to reopen vital shipping lanes, and international refining capacity must expand.

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Angela Colmenero, Trump’s latest judicial nominee to Southern District of Texas, confirmed on party-line vote

Wednesday afternoon, the Senate confirmed Angela Colmenero to the bench for the Houston division of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Colmenero was confirmed on a party-line vote of 50-47. Colmenero's confirmation leaves one vacancy remaining in the U.S. Southern District. "After nearly two decades in public service to the Lone Star State, Angela Colmenero is well equipped to serve as a District Court Judge," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX. "I am grateful Angela will bring her exceptional legal acumen, sound judgment, and devotion to the rule of law in this new role, and I look forward to seeing her on the bench."

Colmenero previously served as deputy chief of staff to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and as provisional Texas attorney general during U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton's 2023 impeachment process. Half of the district's bench is now made up of President Donald Trump's appointees, either since 2025 or from his previous term. "Senators Cornyn and [Ted] Cruz have been very aggressive about filling those seats, and making sure that they’re seated," said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias. "It slowed down quite a bit during Biden’s time, and only a few were confirmed." Federal judges have life tenure. Barring impeachment, that means they're on the bench till they retire or die. "These people could be serving for decades, literally," Tobias said. "And so it’s a huge legacy for the president, and I think Trump is very aware of how important that is." Tobias said that Colmenero fits into the ideological mold of her fellow Trump appointees to the Southern District — among them Judges John Marck and Arthur "Rob" Jones, who were confirmed this summer. "I think these nominees are somewhat more conservative than Trump 1.0 and certainly more conservative than the Obama nominees, and [they] often have worked in the very areas that are the culture war issues," Tobias said. "For example, reproductive freedom and election disputes and religious freedom and the abortion pill and any number of other disputes and litigating those issues as lawyers."

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As crime falls, Texas eyes addiction treatment behind bars

For the third year in a row, crime in Texas is falling, and state leaders are pointing to the decline as evidence that a nearly two-decade investment in tough enforcement and smarter reentry is paying off. Even so, a growing group of lawmakers, researchers and reentry advocates say the numbers open a window to build on that success, and they are turning attention to a less visible part of the story: what happens to people while they are behind bars, and whether treating their addictions there could help keep the crime rate falling for years to come New Uniform Crime Reporting data from the Texas Department of Public Safety showed the statewide crime rate dropped 13 percent in 2025, the largest single-year decline in five years and the third consecutive annual drop. Governor Greg Abbott has attributed the trend to tough laws and strong law enforcement, pointing to a sweeping bail reform package and a focus on violent, repeat offenders.

Independent experts have urged caution about assigning credit to any single policy. Alex del Carmen, a criminologist and dean at Westfield State University who has worked with Texas police departments, told The Texas Tribune in July that no single actor could claim credit, and that declines happening at once in cities with very different policies pointed to broad structural and post-pandemic forces. Thomas Abt, founding director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction, told the same outlet that the drop had occurred in places with and without aggressive immigration enforcement. Even so, Texas has spent nearly two decades building a distinctive model that supporters say leaves the state well positioned to hold on to the gains. That model rests on a simple split: be tough on the people the public genuinely fears, and be smart about the people who can be redeemed. Beginning in 2007, under an effort that became known nationally as Right on Crime and grew out of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the state expanded treatment and reentry programs rather than building more prisons. Texas went on to close prison units, lower its incarceration rate, and reduce crime while saving taxpayers billions, a record conservatives around the country have sought to copy.

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Texas electric utility only considered gas to power $10 billion Meta data center

While Texas officials have hit pause on data center permitting, one project that is still moving ahead is Meta’s $10 billion, 1-gigawatt data center in northeast El Paso. Meta had already signed tax abatement agreements with El Paso, jumped through regulatory hoops and started construction before Texas officials tapped the brakes on data center development this year. But one hurdle the project must still clear is securing approval for El Paso Electric’s application to the Public Utilities Commission of Texas to build a 366-megawatt natural gas facility, using modular generators, to power the data center. Once operational, Meta’s data center would be the utility’s largest electric customer. The City of El Paso intervened in the application, and a hearing was held in July.

Administrative law judges for the commission released their proposed decision Wednesday. They found that El Paso Electric failed to adequately consider alternatives to the gas plant, called the McCloud facility and failed to issue a request for proposals to contractors. The judges recommended that the Public Utilities Commission only approve the application on the condition that El Paso Electric does not pass capital and operating costs on to its ratepayers. Without this condition, the judges recommend the application be denied. The ultimate decision lies with the five PUCT commissioners. The application has not yet been scheduled for a vote. “We’re disappointed,” said Verónica Carbajal, an organizer with the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition in El Paso, which submitted comments of over 1,000 people protesting the application. “If the state was really serious about this, the commission would be denying everything related to data centers.” El Paso Electric did not respond to a request for comment.

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A top Texas smokehouse is cutting brisket from its menu amid soaring beef prices

Last week, Andrew Soto learned the wholesale price of his brisket had increased by $1 a pound, a dramatic leap even at a time of soaring beef costs across the country. The owner and pitmaster behind Butter’s BBQ in Sinton, Texas — one of the top 50 smokehouses in the state, according to Texas Monthly’s estimable list — figured he would need to charge customers $51 a pound to justify keeping brisket on the menu. The increase would represent more than a $10 markup from his most recent price of $37 a pound. “That was the final straw that broke the camel’s back,” Soto said in an interview. “I’m not charging that.” So, the owner did something drastic in a state where brisket is considered king among pitmasters and patrons alike: Soto decided to take the cut off his menu, even though it’s his top-selling item.

He announced it Sunday in a brief social media post, saying that brisket is “eating up over 70% of our total grocery costs.” Butter’s is the first smokehouse on Texas Monthly’s list to drop brisket completely, said Daniel Vaughn, the magazine’s barbecue editor. Soto’s decision was fueled not just by the skyrocketing price of brisket but by inflation that has increased his costs across the board, he said. He has had to raise menu prices, which Soto says has only hurt business in the small town of Sinton, population 6,000, about 20 miles north of Corpus Christi. Sales last weekend, the owner said, were down 60 percent from the previous year. These economic pressures have been too much for numerous smokehouses in Texas. Several have closed in the past month or so, said Vaughn, including Fiasco BBQ in Austin, Kelly’s Hill Country BBQ in Wimberley, and Lenox Bar-B-Q in Houston. This is not a story about beef inflation alone, Vaughn said. “It’s a story about overall inflation.” The pitmaster said he will add beef cheeks to his smoked-meat offerings, following the lead of other Texas smokehouses that have turned to the rich, gelatinous cut as a brisket replacement. Soto doesn’t look forward to the tough conversations that lie ahead with customers at his restaurant: He compares dropping brisket from his menu to a favorite team losing the big game. “It’s a gut punch,” said Soto, who won’t rule out bringing brisket back at some point. “It really does hurt.”

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'My nightmare is over': Highest Texas criminal court upholds Crystal Mason voter fraud acquittal

Nearly a decade after authorities said Crystal Mason voted illegally in Tarrant County the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a lower court's decision to acquit her of criminal wrongdoing. Crystal Mason was charged with illegal voting after she cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. Mason, who was on supervised release for federal tax evasion at the time and thus ineligible to vote, has maintained that she did not know she was ineligible. Her ballot was never counted. Mason was convicted of voter fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years. She appealed twice to the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, the latter attempt being approved by the court and her conviction overturned in 2023.

While it looked for several months like that would be the end of the case, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced in 2024 that his office was filing its own appeal, challenging the decision to overturn the conviction to the highest possible court. Now Mason's attorneys say her decade-long battle to defend her innocence is over. The ACLU and Texas Civil Rights Project, which have represented Mason through her appeals, announced in a news release Thursday that the court changed its mind and is upholding the acquittal without hearing arguments. “In all these years, I never lost my faith that justice would be done,” Mason said in the news release. “I am so happy my nightmare is over and I can move on.” Prosecutors argued Mason cast her provision ballot knowing she was ineligible to vote, an important detail after an amendment to the law under which she was prosecuted. The 2021 amendment requires that state's attorneys show evidence proving the person knew they weren't eligible.

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Save Dallas City Hall group to launch petition, wants voters to decide building's fate

The Save Dallas City Hall Coalition wants voters, not the city council, to decide what will happen to the building designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei. And they want it on the May 2027 ballot. The group plans to submit the official paperwork on Oct. 2, which will start the petition process. They will need 20,000 in-person signatures from registered voters within 60 days to make it happen. If placed on the ballot, it would be a proposed amendment to the Dallas City Charter that requires keeping the current building as the seat of city government unless otherwise decided by voters. The announcement came on Thursday, nearly a year since city council members were first told that the building had millions of dollars in deferred maintenance and proposed relocating City Hall elsewhere in downtown.

That briefing sparked strong debate in later months on whether the city should stay and repair the building, or move elsewhere and use the land at 1500 Marilla Street for economic development opportunities. That sparked the creation of the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition, which has grown from a grassroots effort to an organized 501(c)(4) nonprofit that issued a number of legal notices to the city prior to filing a lawsuit last month. The group is made up of residents, neighborhood and business leaders, preservation advocates, architects, current and former elected officials, and other community stakeholders. That briefing sparked strong debate in later months on whether the city should stay and repair the building, or move elsewhere and use the land at 1500 Marilla Street for economic development opportunities. That sparked the creation of the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition, which has grown from a grassroots effort to an organized 501(c)(4) nonprofit that issued a number of legal notices to the city prior to filing a lawsuit last month. The group is made up of residents, neighborhood and business leaders, preservation advocates, architects, current and former elected officials, and other community stakeholders.

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Scripted lessons, lack of trust among Fort Worth ISD parents’ biggest concerns

Parents and community members who attended Fort Worth ISD’s recent series of community listening events and superintendent strategic action sessions most commonly named scripted lessons, campus-wide mandates, micromanagement and rigid schedules as their largest concerns since state-appointed leadership took over the district in March, according to data released by the district. Superintendent Peter Licata and the state-appointed Board of Managers, who were appointed to their roles following the Texas Education Agency’s takeover of the district due to stagnant academic performance, held 41 total listening sessions as part of their community listening series. The district listed a total of 3,027 respondents during the sessions and through digital forms.

District leaders posed five main questions to attendees at the listening sessions, which were: What should students know and be able to do, what describes a successful graduate, what are values and non-negotiables for the district, what is the district doing that is working, and what is the district doing that is not working. The largest complaints at the sessions were related to scripted lessons and instructional mandates, responses show. As part of Fort Worth ISD’s effort to overhaul the way instruction is delivered to students, state-appointed leaders developed a stricter scripted curriculum model for its campuses. Higher-rated schools gained more autonomy to teach in different ways, while lower-rated schools are required to strictly follow the model, with little tolerance for going off script. But several parents and teachers at campuses that gained “autonomy status” who spoke to the Star-Telegram still say they have been subject to strict scripted curriculum with little opportunity for independence. The district’s new overall instruction framework, Cowtown 12, is followed by all campuses district-wide. It includes first-teach lessons, and “demonstrations of learning” intended to prove students are absorbing content by testing their knowledge at the end of lessons.

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Bud Kennedy: Texas Democrats smell a breakout year but face a $200M GOP counterpunch

Texas Democrats are on the verge of their best election in 30 years. Either that, or Texas Republicans are on the verge of a $200 million rally. Six months ago, we knew that if gas is close to $4 a gallon and U.S. troops are still at war with Iran, then it will be tough for all Republicans in an election cycle that is always locked in against the party in the White House. If Texas Republicans lose a U.S. Senate seat from Texas for the first time in nearly 40 years, or a Tarrant County courthouse race for the first time in more than 30, then you read this here first: In the next four weeks, Republicans will spend $100 million on ads for Ken Paxton.

For six years, he was an obscure Collin County lawyer and low-key Texas attorney general. Since 2020, he has been notorious. If Texas voters don’t like him anymore, whether it’s over his impeachment, his devotion to Donald Trump or his prominence as a ladies’ man, they are not likely to start liking him now. But he always outperforms the polling. And the point of Paxton’s campaign is not to win back Talarico voters. It’s to stir up his own by scaring them with drag performers, trans rights and Satan. Democrats are running against other devils: THC bans, data centers, public school takeovers and stalking via license-plate cameras. Talarico still has to win back challenger Jasmine Crockett’s voters in south Dallas County and central Houston. He not only can’t win without them — he needs Black Texans to turn out as heavily as they did for Barack Obama or Kamala Harris. The same goes for Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare, a personal-injury lawyer from Southlake: If voters don’t like him anymore after four years of open hostility and abusive treatment, they are not going to start liking him now. The beneficiary is Arlington Democrat Alisa Simmons, a county commissioner and former 911 call-taker who became the regional spokeswoman for that emergency dispatch agency.

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Man crashes into tree while attempting to evade ICE officers in Galveston

A man from Guatemala was injured after allegedly attempting to evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Galveston on Tuesday. According to a Wednesday news release from Galveston County Precinct 3 Constable Justin West, officers tried to pull over Willian Antonio Dardon-Soto, 32, when Dardon-Soto crashed into a federal law enforcement vehicle. Dardon-Soto continued to drive before crashing his vehicle into a tree, where he was arrested, according to West. Representatives from the Houston Field Office for ICE did not respond to a request for information on the crash and the status of Dardon-Soto, including what charges, if any, he faces. Dardon-Soto could not be reached for comment.

Galveston police were dispatched to the crash on the west side of Galveston at around 10 a.m. Tuesday, along with the Galveston Fire Department and EMS. Galveston County Precinct 3 deputies were working alongside ICE officers as outlined under a federal program called the 287(g) task force , according to the news release. The Precinct 3 Constable's office joined the federal 287(g) task force program in 2025, according to West. The program allows local law enforcement to perform immigration enforcement under ICE's oversight. According to West’s office, citing information from the Department of Homeland Security not shared directly with reporters, Dardon-Soto previously entered the U.S. illegally in 2016. He was arrested and deported that same year. On an unknown date, he re-entered the U.S. illegally and hadn't encountered ICE officials until his crash on Tuesday, according to the news release.

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In a Texas prison, Kwaneta Harris cultivated a menopause support network from scraps of paper

For most of Kwaneta Harris' life, menopause was not something she heard people talk about. She didn't learn about much beyond hot flashes, night sweats and irregular periods in her nursing school training, or at any point during her decade-long career in the medical field. Her mom never passed along tips about that particular stage of life — just as her grandmother never shared any menopause wisdom with her mom. This legacy of silence meant that Harris' crash course in menopause came in her late 40s, while she was incarcerated at a Texas state prison. For three years, Harris experienced a litany of confusing ailments: shoulder pain, memory loss, heart palpitations, thinning hair and mood swings. She saw specialist after specialist, each visit costing $13.55 — a substantial amount for a person with no income — and typically requiring an hours-long bus ride to a medical facility in Galveston. None of these visits resolved the fears spiraling in her mind.

Harris finally connected the dots after hearing a neuroscientist explain on NPR that hot flashes, insomnia, memory lapses and anxiety are menopause symptoms, and they start in the brain, not the ovaries. "It was like clicking a puzzle again," Harris told The 19th in a phone call from prison. "And it was so relieving because I really thought I was losing my mind." But when she brought this information to the prison medical staff, a familiar scenario began to play out, one that she characterized as a dismissal of her symptoms and no urgency to respond. She quickly understood that menopause care in prison — like other prison health care — is mired in a lack of resources and timely treatment options. This reality set Harris on a hunt to find her own solutions, not only for herself but also for the growing population of incarcerated people experiencing menopause. Since 2022, Harris has built community with women in her facility, written articles for national news outlets and advised an organization on bringing menopause education to prisons. Her efforts are happening alongside a growing conversation among celebrities, politicians, journalists and the general public about the nuances of menopause.

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Houston Chronicle Editorial: To replace Paul, vote for this conservative Republican who takes housing affordability seriously

For years, House District 129 has been served by Dennis Paul, who helped create the Gulf Coast Protection District (good for Houston) and who recently filed a bill to try to put Harris County’s flood control district under the governor’s control (bad for Houston). Even before he announced he was going to throw his hat in the race for state Senate, District 11, Rep. Paul’s team called Scott Bowen to give him the heads up. He was at the chemical plant where he works, Bowen told us. He had about 96 hours to put together a campaign. And he did. The former Clear Creek Independent School District board member wasn’t new to elected office and his family has deep connections to the local Republican party. But he has also put together a genuinely impressive campaign with real issues at the heart of it, going beyond the usual partisan talking points on important issues like property taxes, housing costs and flood resilience.

He’s lived all of these issues as a longtime resident in the district that includes Clear Lake, Seabrook, Webster as well as bites of League City, Pasadena, Friendswood and more. Bowen, 36, was born in North Carolina but has been in Clear Lake since he was a young kid, attending public schools all the way through. His father is a well-connected former Republican precinct chair. He works in petrochemicals and engineering, currently working for a TPC chemical plant, which briefly made headlines recently when a power outage caused flaring and black smoke. He got a spot on the local school board and vowed to bring some more opposition and discussion to what had been a pretty unanimous board prior. While on the board he passed the first school district policy banning Critical Race Theory, well before the state did. That's not the kind of policy-making we think is important for Texans and voters kicked him off the board in 2025 for a candidate who eschewed partisan issues in favor of fiscally conservative leadership. But from his seat on the board, he saw what many Texas school districts are facing: declining enrollments, aging neighborhoods with few opportunities for young families to move in. When he met with the editorial board, he focused on those critical issues and largely stayed away from culture war concerns.

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Talarico challenges Paxton to debate on Fox News

Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico is challenging Republican nominee Ken Paxton to a debate on Fox News. The challenge comes after State Rep. Talarico criticized Attorney General Paxton for failing to accept any of three debates offered by nonpartisan outlets — Nexstar, WFAA and Hearst Newspapers/NBC/Telemundo. “Ken Paxton has been dodging debates all year,” Talarico said in a one-on-one with Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief Matthew Watkins at TribFest 2026, “that’s why I’m challenging Ken Paxton to a debate on Fox News.”

While Paxton has done interviews with network news outlets during the campaign, his appearances in nonpartisan media have been few and far between. He has, however, gone on Fox News multiple times since winning his primary in late May — most recently speaking with Bret Baier at the National Republican Convention in Dallas. “His handler in July said ‘Of course we’re going to debate,’ and then they declined three different invitations from local Texas TV stations. So let’s go to Ken Paxton’s safe space, let’s do Bret Baier on Fox News. I’ll go into the lion’s den because I know what I believe. I am proud of my record, and I’m not afraid of hard questions. Ken Paxton is running from a fight,” Talarico said. “I’m challenging Paxton to a game on his home turf.” Ken Paxton’s campaign did not respond to our immediate request for comment.

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City Stories

Dog’s Head detractors bark back with lawsuit

Back in July, Save Our Springs Alliance attorney Bobby Levinski warned that the city of Austin was walking into a lawsuit over the planned Dog’s Head development. That lawsuit has arrived. SOS, People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources, and a group of Dog’s Head neighbors filed suit against Austin and City Council on Monday, challenging the legality of the two major actions city leaders have taken thus far on the proposed development east of Downtown, which is to be built over 4 square miles of land next to the airport and is imagined as a city within the city. The lawsuit’s first challenge is to Council’s unanimous approval in May of the 45-year development agreement with the company that has been buying up land in the Dog’s Head over the last several years, the Endeavor Real Estate Group.

The second is to Council’s July approval of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone for the project, which would give Endeavor over a billion dollars from future property and sales taxes collected in Dog’s Head to reimburse the company for their construction of roads, utility lines, and other infrastructure. The amount of taxpayer money that would ultimately flow to Endeavor has been estimated at $1.5 billion, but the Dog’s Head lawsuit pegs the figure at $2 billion. “The $2 billion rebate over 35 years is only a guesstimate from Endeavor; we actually have no idea how much the rebate will actually be since the rebate commitment is not capped and expressed only as a percentage of future taxes generated on the Dog’s Head land,” Levinski said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. Susana Almanza, executive director of PODER, pointed out that city leaders have raised taxes and fees while cutting services in recent budgets, saying, “The last thing Austin should be doing is diverting billions in future public revenue away from libraries, parks, public safety, and affordable housing to subsidize private development that was already moving forward.”

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National Stories

As states seek to rein in Flock license plate cameras, New Hampshire is considered a model

As backlash to Flock and other license plate-tracking cameras grows, some states are exploring limiting the technology. New Hampshire is already a decade ahead. Since 2016, the Granite State has had one of the strictest laws in the country regulating and limiting automated license plate readers. The result: While license plate-tracking cameras from companies like Flock, Axon, and Motorola Solutions have proliferated in other states in recent years, New Hampshire’s years-old law appears to have prevented those companies from establishing a foothold here. Now, as bipartisan opposition has led states such as Florida, Arizona, Connecticut, and South Dakota to seek to restrict the cameras, New Hampshire has provided a possible template.

In a press conference earlier this month, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis urged legislation to bar the cameras from his state — and pointed to the Granite State as a model. “Florida’s going to need to do something for sure on that,” DeSantis said Sept. 2, according to WESH. “I think New Hampshire showed the way it can be done.” But even as other states explore restrictions, some New Hampshire lawmakers say the state’s laws should be tightened further. Rep. Michael Granger, a libertarian-leaning Milton Republican, has filed a legislative service request for the 2027 session “relative to surveillance on public ways and on public property” — the first step toward a bill. Granger did not respond to requests for comment. Since 2016, New Hampshire state law has allowed only state, county, or local law enforcement officers to use “number plate scanning devices,” or automated license plate readers. And the statute also tightly regulates how even those officers may use them. The devices may be used to identify stolen vehicles; vehicles registered to people with outstanding arrest warrants; vehicles involved in suspected terrorism or major crimes such as homicides and shootings; vehicles associated with wanted, missing, or endangered people; vehicles in the vicinity of a recent crime; and vehicles that have violated commercial trucking requirements or whose drivers have had their licenses or privileges suspended.

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The AI build-out is becoming the biggest economic bet in U.S. history

The AI build-out is on track to become the biggest economic bet in U.S. history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge U.S. infrastructure projects such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet. Total investment in data centers and related artificial-intelligence infrastructure is projected to total $10.3 trillion from 2025 to 2032, according to new estimates by economist Stijn van Nieuwerburgh published by the Brookings Institution. That is a staggering 3.6% of gross domestic product a year, on average. Never before has the U.S. economy been so dependent on the build-out of a single industry. The investment is transforming every corner of the economy, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and minting new billionaires. It is also creating significant risk, as much of it is built on debt. An abrupt slowdown could ignite shock waves throughout the U.S. economy.

Projecting investment is tricky, and total spending might well end up substantially lower. Still, the money poured into data centers this year already represents an investment unprecedented in recent history. AI investment in the U.S. is projected to hit 1.9% of GDP in 2026, according to new estimates from Goldman Sachs. The railroad boom of the late 19th century marked the last time the build-out of one new industry accounted for a larger share of the economy. The flood of money spent on the build-out of data centers has represented a bright spot in an otherwise dark time for the construction industry. Through July of this year, a seasonally adjusted $37 billion has been spent on private data-center construction—about $9 billion more than in the first seven months of last year, according to the Commerce Department. Private construction spending on everything else—houses, apartment buildings, shopping centers and so on—was about $46 billion below year-earlier levels in the first seven months of this year. Hyperscalers are tying up scarce workers and electricity, raising costs for other businesses. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond recently reported that data-center construction is straining labor availability in its area. It isn’t just electricity: In many places, data centers are pushing up land costs. “It’s crowding out manufacturing,” said Didi Caldwell, a site-selection consultant who works with heavy industry.

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Xi Jinping got the red carpet treatment from Trump - but not everything he wanted

President Xi Jinping's summits with Donald Trump have one clear aim. China believes the United States is trying to contain its rise as a superpower, and it wants Washington to stay out of its way - particularly when it comes to trade, technology and Taiwan. On this visit, however, despite Trump rolling out the red carpet for him, the Chinese leader didn't get everything he wanted. The trade truce that saw both countries pause a tit-for-tat tariff war and prevent a further escalation, was extended by only a few months - from November to January. Beijing had hoped for at least a year as Xi looks to ride out the remainder of Trump's presidency. This means key disputes on tariffs, China's dominance on rare earth supplies and access to advanced US chips are being kicked forward into yet another round of negotiations. This suggests the US wants China to do more to fulfil its side of the bargain before offering longer-term concessions.

The uncomfortable truth for Xi is that his domestic economy is in trouble. While the country sells a record number of goods around the world, consumers at home are holding back. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high and property prices have slumped in a country where 80% of people own their own homes. Trade is helping to prop up growth, making access to overseas markets more important than ever. Xi needs to protect those exports from the kind of debilitating tariffs the US imposed last year. On Taiwan, Xi once again made clear that US arms sales to Taiwan are a red line for China. The US is bound by law to provide the self-governing island with the means to defend itself. In May, Xi warned Trump that mishandling the issue could cause the two countries to "collide or even enter into conflict". Trump then delayed the approval of a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan, describing it as a "very good negotiating chip" with Beijing.

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The rise of the almost-premium credit card

It used to be that $500 would get you a premium credit card. Now it gets you something just below that. The popularity of ultra-luxe cards with ever-higher annual fees has led to a reshuffling of the market, with cards just below that tier now making up a new category for the not-quite-rich enough. These near-premium cards are increasingly being aimed at younger Americans eager for travel, dining out and the merry-go-round of other life experiences constantly on display on social media and in pop culture. Skye Zhao couldn’t justify paying $895 for an American Express Platinum card. But she crunched the numbers and realized the $325 annual fee for the Gold card would be worth the travel points and perks she could earn.

Another plus is the rose-gold metal card. “It’s very pretty,” said Zhao, a 25-year-old doctoral student in New York. The reordering of the credit-card market comes after issuers have tricked out top-flight cards with new benefits to justify higher fees. Amex hiked the annual fee on its Platinum card by $200 last year, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve saw a similarly big leap from $550 to $795. The higher prices are pushing some to search for alternatives. “What has emerged is what I would call the upper-middle-class option,” said Ted Rossman, principal consumer finance analyst at Money Management International, a credit-counseling organization. Part of the appeal of these near-premium cards is that they still confer a sense of exclusivity that doesn’t come with free or lower-fee cards. They might have airport lounge access, for instance, or credits for popular restaurant chains.

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South Asians face surging racism in America

For months, many Indian Americans said that they had noticed what seemed to be a marked uptick in racist comments against South Asians in some corners of social media. But two recent incidents have left some in the community wondering whether the anti-South Asian hate that they thought was a fringe sentiment was perhaps not so fringe after all. As part of the rollout of a new tip line to report truckers suspected of fraud, the Department of Homeland Security posted an image on Sept. 9 of a “Transformers” character facing off with a Sikh man, along with the words: “America for Americans. Get off our roads. You don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh.” Singh is a common surname for followers of the Sikh faith. A few days later, Bo French, a Republican candidate for statewide office in Texas, posted an image from a University of Texas football game showing cheering students who appeared to be of South Asian heritage. He wrote: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”

For many, the posts confirmed an uneasy sense that the immigration debate has led to rising animus against people of South Asian descent and that it has crept into mainstream American politics, particularly on the right. “What we’re seeing now is full blown and out in public view,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-director of Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that tracks discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. “When agency officials and candidates use this language, it gets weaponized and utilized by those who are perpetrating hate.” There was backlash to the posts and some backtracking. Mr. French later said that his post was “not about race, it’s about policy,” specifically what he believed to be an admissions policy that favored international students over Americans. (By state law, 90 percent of first-year students at the University of Texas at Austin must be in-state residents.) Mr. French did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Homeland Security said that its post was a depiction of Harjinder Singh, an Indian citizen accused of causing a high-profile fatal crash in Florida last year. It later removed the image without explanation. A few days later, on Sept. 13, a Sikh trucker named Gurvinder Singh was stabbed 17 times at a Wyoming rest stop. Many Sikh Americans couldn’t help but draw a connection to the heightened rhetoric.

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NJ governor asks Caldwell, her second in command, to resign

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Thursday asked her lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, to resign from office by Friday, following an investigation that found he made female members of his staff uncomfortable, including a sexual harassment complaint that was substantiated by investigators. A 61-page report Sherrill released late Thursday concluded that Caldwell asked a female senior staffer whether her friend was single and that if the woman was ambitious, she “needed a man who was in a position to help them.” “The lieutenant governor’s resignation is necessary and in the best interest of New Jersey residents,” Sherrill said in a statement. Thomas Calcagni of Calcagni and Kanefsky, a law firm representing Caldwell, disputed the report's findings and said its “conclusions go further than the evidence supports.”

“The question is not simply whether investigators believed one person over another,” Calcagni said in a written statement. “The question is whether the evidence actually proves that a violation occurred. In our view, the evidence does not support these findings.” The statement did not say whether Caldwell plans to heed Sherrill’s request to resign. If Caldwell does not resign, the only way to remove him as lieutenant governor under New Jersey's state constitution would be for the legislature to do so through an impeachment by a majority of assemblymembers, and then a conviction by two-thirds of state senators. The report’s findings come nearly three weeks after it was revealed that Caldwell was under investigation over the allegations by an outside law firm tapped by Sherrill to conduct the probe. Former New Jersey Attorney General Chris Porrino and other attorneys from the firm Lowenstein Sandler have reviewed complaints against Caldwell and interviewed the lieutenant governor and witnesses, including a whistleblower from Caldwell’s staff.

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‘Love Me’: White House airs government-funded ad praising Trump

With the midterm elections approaching, the White House is airing a new TV ad promoting President Donald Trump and his policies that says it is “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” The unusual 30-second commercial shows rapidly edited pictures and video of Trump over audio of him denouncing communism and socialism, with text on the screen that touts his administration’s accomplishments, such as “reigniting American manufacturing.” The spot is set to the song “Love Me” by JMSN. The ad ends with a clip of UFC President Dana White praising Trump as the “toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.”

The commercial started airing Wednesday across the country on cable TV, including Fox News, as well as connected TV, according to AdImpact. The ad-tracking service said the government has spent just over $14,000 to run the ad so far. That is a small amount of money compared to the tens of millions of dollars that are flooding the airwaves in the final weeks of the midterms, and the ad doesn’t mention any races or candidates. But it marks an atypical use of taxpayer dollars at a time when Trump has sought to make himself front and center in the elections, even though he is not on the ballot. The White House declined to elaborate on how the ad is being funded but defended it as part of “public service announcements” to promote national pride. “The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. “We should be proud of our country.” JMSN, the singer-songwriter whose song is the soundtrack of the ad, suggested on X that the administration used “Love Me” without his permission. “I am looking at lawyers and handling this internally,” JMSN wrote.

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Former Secret Service cybercrime expert weighs in on privacy after hackers breach stolen Flock camera

A stolen Flock Safety license-plate camera yielded roughly 1.6 million images after hackers physically removed and reverse-engineered the device, but a former Secret Service cybercrime expert says the incident does not appear to have compromised Flock's broader cloud network. Jason Brown, director of customer advisory and counter-fraud lead at threat intelligence firm iCOUNTER, spent 25 years with the U.S. Secret Service and specialized in cybercrime. Brown told FOX Business that the distinction between accessing one physically stolen camera and breaching Flock's network is critical. "The biggest thing I keep hammering at home [is] that Flock was never compromised," Brown said. "So there's never been a large dump of information out of their network."

Hackers physically removed a Flock Safety license-plate camera and reverse-engineered the device, recovering roughly 1.6 million images, according to WIRED. (Getty Images / Getty Images) According to WIRED, hackers physically removed a Flock camera from above a roadway and reverse-engineered it. They reportedly discovered encrypted and unencrypted portions of the device's storage and recovered an encryption key stored on the camera that allowed them to unlock additional data. "This was a situation where somebody physically had access to a camera because they stole it off of a pole, took it home, and then did backward engineering on that camera," Brown said. "That did not give them the capability to actually log into the cloud portion of Flock, and nothing in the cloud of Flock proper was accessed." According to WIRED's analysis, the recovered logs covered roughly 21 days of activity, including 1.6 million images, 50,200 vehicles and 27,000 short video clips. Flock cameras capture images and short videos of passing vehicles, which are transmitted to the company's cloud infrastructure for processing and can then be searched by authorized law enforcement users.

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Lead Stories

Texas counties are receiving tens of thousands of unprocessed voter registration applications due to state error

Tens of thousands of voter registration applications, some dating back at least a year, are caught in a backlog and have yet to be processed due to an error by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the leader of an association of county election officials said Wednesday. Texas Democrats, who are fiercely contesting key offices in closely watched races this year, are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to investigate the problem, which was first reported by Votebeat. Some voter registration applications and updates submitted through DPS’s online driver’s license portal were never sent to county voter registrars, the state told county election officials. In an emailed statement Wednesday, DPS said “the system issue has been resolved” and the agency worked with the secretary of state’s office “to identify incomplete records to backfill incomplete information.” DPS did not respond to questions about what caused the issue or the exact scope of the problem. The state began delivering the unsent registrations to county officials Tuesday night.

Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said the organization is still gathering numbers from its members but that he expects large counties to be hit the hardest with additional applications. Voter registrars have told the association they’ve received anywhere from a few hundred voter registration applications to process in small counties to tens of thousands of applications and updates in the most populous counties, McGinn said in a statement Wednesday. “We cannot provide specific numbers of these records for specific counties, because by the time I send this e-mail the numbers will have gone up — and will continue to go up throughout the day today,” he wrote. In Collin County, officials are analyzing more than 40,000 additional records they’ve received as of Wednesday. Election workers are trying to identify how many of those could be duplicates of existing records, as well as how many are new voter registration applications versus updates to an existing voter registration, said Kaleb Breaux, the county’s elections administrator. That data analysis alone is going to be time-consuming, he said. “I have seven full-time voter registration staff and we have brought in 10 temporary workers since Labor Day to help out with applications,” Breaux said. “Depending on what our final numbers are, and how long it takes to process these records, we may have to bring on more.”

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Angela Paxton to Texas women: Vote Republican despite candidate flaws

State Sen. Angela Paxton of McKinney is telling Texas women to vote for the Republican ticket, including candidates they see as flawed. Her public comments are being closely watched after she filed for divorce from Attorney General Ken Paxton last year, accusing him of adultery. Ken Paxton is running for the Senate against state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, after defeating longtime Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff in May.

“It’s not the people; it’s the seat, because we have more control over that seat and the future when we control the seat, when it’s still in the family, even if we’re mad at them,” Angela Paxton said while speaking last week to a group of Republican women. “But if we lose it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back.” The outlet spoke to attendees who confirmed Angela Paxton never mentioned Ken Paxton by name while making the case for overlooking the flaws of an individual candidate and focusing on party values. Angela Paxton sent an email to supporters before the GOP runoff encouraging them to vote in that election and endorsing various statewide candidates but stopped short of endorsing either Republican in the Senate contest.

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Behind the oil-and-gas industry’s blitz to try to defeat a diesel export ban

When the oil-and-gas industry heard President Trump back the idea of a ban on diesel exports, it pulled out the bazooka. Shortly after Trump made his suggestion Tuesday, Mike Sommers, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s top lobby, issued a statement condemning the move. He said restricting U.S. exports “would only compound the problem” of rising diesel costs. API also issued a press release on the dangers of an export ban. “Restricting U.S. diesel exports would wreak havoc on fuel markets at home and abroad, destabilize refinery operations and deepen a global refining crisis already putting upward pressure on U.S. prices,” the group said. Around the same time, a loose group of CEOs affiliated with API and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade group that represents refiners, sprang into action.

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier and other senior executives started calling their contacts in the administration to push back on the idea of a ban, according to people close to the situation. The executives have different relationships with different members of the administration and they made their discontent known. ExxonMobil and Valero are among the other companies involved in the effort, according to people aware of the interactions. The industry has also been able to rely on Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Louisiana Republicans. The full-throated offense comes as the industry sees an existential threat to its business. Oil-and-gas producers sell a large chunk of their product to refiners, who then turn it into fuel and export it. Bottling up diesel production risks congesting the whole energy chain—and could cost the industry billions of dollars. On Wednesday, more than 30 business, energy and manufacturing groups including API, AFPM and the Business Roundtable in a letter urged Trump to reject export restrictions. “While we understand the urge for a silver bullet, there are no easy answers,” the letter said. Oil lobbies and executives have been gearing up for a potential ban on energy exports since the beginning of the Iran war. They first anticipated restrictions on crude exports. In the end, it is diesel, whose price has exploded, that has become a target of the administration.

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Texas turning blue may hinge on Democrats harnessing data center opposition

Mason McCallister said it was an act of God that sent him down a gravel road near his home in Bells, Texas, one Sunday last December. It wasn’t the normal route he and his family take back from church, but he decided to detour so his daughters could shout hello to their grandmother as they drove by her home. What he saw that day catapulted him into a debate playing out around the country — and especially in Texas — over data centers. It’s one that may now affect the outcome of key elections in the Lone Star State. As they rolled past, flashes of red caught McCallister’s eye among the lush green of the area’s gentle hills. “Driving down that road, I just see survey markers everywhere,” McCallister, a real estate agent, told CNBC. “And I knew at that time what was happening. I could feel it” — a data center is coming, he said. Mason McCallister, a real estate agent who has argued for stricter regulations and more transparency around data center development, near his Bells, Texas home.

The outcry over data centers — warehouses that contain the hardware for powering artificial intelligence and other technology — was only a faint murmur when McCallister first saw the survey markers. In the months since, it’s become a dull roar, as increasingly more projects are proposed and built, and general anxiety over AI and its potentially humanity-ending powers grows. Across Texas and the country, people have flooded local meetings to protest proposed projects, citing concerns about the use of water and other resources, noise and light pollution, rising utility costs and falling property values. Some towns and cities have moved to block their development, as anti-data center advocacy groups and social media pages proliferate. Polling shows the economy and cost of living are top of mind for voters in the runup to the 2026 midterm elections. But some political strategists say data centers are a potent enough issue that they could shift the balance of power in Texas, potentially paving the way for Democrats to win statewide for the first time since 1994. Democrats have their sights set on the governor’s mansion, as well as an open U.S. Senate seat, and the outcome of the Senate race could determine control of Congress. Populists on both the left and the right — including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo. — were quick to try to rein in data centers and protect consumers against associated utility cost increases.

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State Stories

Why Texas could become epicenter of America’s housing downturn

Texas is set to become the epicenter of America’s housing downturn, as the state faces such a significant inventory glut that many of its markets are likely to see dramatic price declines, according to analysts. The massive population boom faced by the state between 2020 and 2024, when U.S. Census Bureau data shows it gained over 2.1 million new residents, spurred an unprecedented surge in new home construction in Texas, made easier by regulatory relief and lower costs. This would generally be considered good news for buyers, as the nation is facing a chronic shortage of affordable homes, estimated anywhere between 1.5 million and 10 million.

But by the time this new inventory flooded the Texas market, everything had changed. Domestic migration to the state had slowed down, held back by return-to-office orders; and higher borrowing costs and skyrocketing home values had pushed many would-be buyers to the sidelines. "High mortgage rates and still-high home prices have dampened demand and allowed homes to stack up on the market, and now the pressure on prices is downward," Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, told Newsweek. While for Berner this is a natural "correction" of the Texas housing market, for Trevor Bacon, founder and CEO of housing data and analytics company Parcl Labs, it is a sign of a potential darker turn for the state. "Texas is dealing with a supply glut that was largely built for a very different demand and affordability environment," he told Newsweek. "Demand peaked in 2021 when mortgage rates were still around 3 percent, yet roughly 75 percent of the stock added across Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio since 2020 came after that peak," he said. "Today, there is simply too much housing at prices and financing costs buyers aren’t willing or able to absorb," he added. That is why Parcl Labs believes that Texas may become the weakest major housing market in the country. "The market now has to rebalance with mortgage rates near 7 percent, and price appears to be the primary lever left," Bacon said.

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HISD cuts staff, campus budgets after enrollment drops nearly 10,000 from last September

Houston ISD is cutting staff, reassigning employees and reducing campus budgets after steep enrollment declines so far this school year. HISD reported just over 155,600 students enrolled as of Sept. 4, which is a drop of nearly 10,000 students from September 2025, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Texas public schools will not count their official enrollment until Oct. 31, and HISD’s student population typically grows between the start of school and then. But the early decline points to a tight financial year for the district, which expected to lose only 4,000 students — or $50 million in funding — this school year. The state funds public schools based on attendance, so declining enrollment in HISD and other districts creates financial pressure.

HISD had 9,691 fewer students on Sept. 4 than on Sept. 5, 2025, according to district records. That represents a nearly 6% drop in enrollment. HISD said in a statement Tuesday that the enrollment losses are part of broader financial challenges facing the district and other public schools across the country. “We have worked hard over the last three years to put HISD on stronger financial footing while putting more resources into classrooms and increasing teacher pay,” state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said in a press release. “But we also have to adjust when enrollment and revenues change. We have to make responsible decisions now so the District remains financially strong and can continue investing in the things that have the greatest impact on student achievement," he said. "We are hopeful the next legislative session will provide additional funding for Texas public schools." It’s typical for a district’s student count to gradually increase after the first day of school until it reaches peak enrollment sometime between the end of September and mid-October, said University of Houston clinical associate professor Duncan Klussmann.

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Gina Hinojosa blasts HISD AI use as Greg Abbott's 'experiment' on kids

Gina Hinojosa made a campaign stop in front of Houston ISD headquarters Tuesday, calling the district's plan to expand its AI-focused school model to 100 campuses "Greg Abbott's plan to experiment on our children with AI." It's part of the Austin Democrat's campaign focused on public education as she takes on Abbott in the race for Texas governor. The former school board member has also pledged to end the state takeover of HISD and other districts, eliminate the STAAR and cut the state's new $1 billion voucher program for private school tuition while increasing teacher pay. Her populist message for everyday Texans, including teachers, against tech billionaires has made her perhaps the most serious challenger that Abbott has faced during his three terms as governor.

Hinojosa on Tuesday called for a "framework in place to protect kids" and said elementary school students shouldn't interact with artificial intelligence. "I am here to talk about the catastrophic impacts on our children to experimenting — Greg Abbott's plan to experiment on our children — with AI," Hinojosa said. "I am here in Houston where the plan under Greg Abbott is to convert 100 schools —100 public schools — into AI schools, and they have already started." HISD's state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles wants to increase the number of so-called Future 2 schools from nine this year to 100 by 2031, according to an email obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Miles has said the model is meant to prepare students for a world where AI is ubiquitous. While HISD has embraced AI in its new school model, curriculum and special education compliance, other large school districts in the country, such as Los Angeles and New York City, have put sweeping restrictions on students using AI. Locally, Katy ISD has banned generative AI through sixth grade and placed limits for older students.

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The enending nightmare of Jason Landry’s disappearance comes to an end

It became one of the most bizarre missing persons cases in Texas history, but it began in a fashion that can only be described as strikingly mundane: Jason Landry, a laid-back college student, had spent several days camped out in his apartment, making social media videos, talking to friends about conspiracies, smoking pot, ordering fast food, and perfecting an extensive Christmas wish list for his mother. Hours before he would become a statewide news story, Jason told friends that he planned to drive from his San Marcos apartment to his family’s home, in the Houston suburbs. It was a seemingly safe and predictable two-and-a-half-hour road trip he’d made several times before. But somewhere along the way, in a set of circumstances that still remain shrouded in ambiguity, Jason’s late-night drive turned into a nightmare, one that has lasted—almost impossibly—for nearly six years. On Wednesday, a critical piece of that nightmare, the uncertainty that has kept Jason’s family members from being able to fully process his tragic ending, came to a merciful end.

The Texas attorney general’s office’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit announced that DNA analysis has concluded that human remains recently discovered in rural Caldwell County and tested by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI) are those of Jason Landry. “The Landry family has been notified, and agencies respectfully request privacy for the family as they navigate this difficult update,” the statement read. The statement noted that the skeletal remains do not offer insight into the cause of death, whether foul play was involved, or how they arrived at their final resting place, questions that will ensure investigators continue researching Jason’s case. Jason’s disappearance always seemed like more than a simple mystery—it was something far more unsettling and disorienting. In the nearly two years I spent investigating his disappearance, culminating in a story for Texas Monthly that was published last summer, it became clear to me that everyone who ventured into the case—whether they were volunteer searchers, law enforcement investigators, or parents desperately searching for their child—lost a part of themself in their hunt for Jason. Indeed, the phenomenon began the moment Kent Landry, Jason’s father, arrived on Salt Flat Road outside Luling in the freezing early-morning hours of December 13, 2020, to find that the state trooper who’d alerted him to his son’s abandoned car had gone home and fallen asleep.

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San Antonio congressman says Venezuelan man shot by ICE told he needs surgery

A Democratic congressman said Wednesday that a Venezuelan man shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas and then taken to a detention center has been told by a specialist he needs surgery to remove the bullet still lodged near his spine. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar visited a federal detention center in south Texas where Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken into custody after being shot Sunday in Austin by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Casar said Garces Perez was in a wheelchair and still in pain, but did not say whether the family had decided that he should undergo surgery. The Department of Homeland Security has said Garces Perez, who has been taken to a hospital twice since the shooting, is receiving around-the-clock medical care and pain medication.

“If they want to say it’s great medical care, they should start providing great medical care today by having him leave the detention center, go to a hospital or to a doctor, and do not delay his surgery if that’s what his family chooses to do,” Casar said. Garces Perez remains in Texas detention center Casar, whose district includes Austin, was the first member of Congress to visit Garces Perez in person since the shooting. He said the wound in Garces Perez’s back remains bloody and medical staff change his gauze two or three times daily. Following Casar’s visit and a press conference, DHS issued a previous statement denying claims that Garces Perez was forced to sleep on a floor or that he was prevented from having the bullet removed, saying ICE would not advise on a medical procedure for a detainee. Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice, his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said. He was shot and taken to a hospital, then released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back, she said.

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Recall efforts target Dallas Council Members Gay Donnell Willis and Chad West

Two members of the Dallas City Council are facing separate recall efforts, as neighborhood disputes over hot-button zoning cases — and, in one case, the future of Dallas City Hall — spill into electoral politics. Groups in Districts 13 and 1 are preparing petitions seeking to recall Council Members Gay Donnell Willis and Chad West, respectively. D13 Together, a coalition that comprises neighborhood residents from Preston Hollow, Melshire Estates, Wimberley Court, and Bluffview, among others, announced plans Tuesday to notify the city secretary of its intent to circulate a recall petition early next week to remove Willis (District 13) from office. “I think we’ve got a lot of synergy among the neighborhoods,” said resident Margaret DiFrancesco. “We’re funded, we’re serious, we’re committed, and I think we have a lot of strength in our numbers.”

From official notification, the group will have 60 days to gather signatures from at least 15% of the District 13 voters eligible to participate in the last general municipal election. That way put the target figure over 9,500. If the city secretary certifies the petition, the Dallas City Council would be required to call a recall election for the next date permitted under state law, which would be in May. Tension has been building for months around three zoning cases in the district, so much so that the coalition formed in August and issued an ultimatum to Willis, calling on her to delay or oppose specific zoning applications that have drawn organized neighborhood opposition over proposed height and density increases. Meanwhile, a group of Oak Cliff residents is also planning to collect signatures to recall their council member, citing disputes over zoning and the future of Dallas City Hall. Neighborhood organizer Joseph Beckham told the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday that he and others intend to file notice with the city this week. Organizers estimate they would need roughly 7,000 signatures.

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‘You Can See Everything’ trailer: Nathan Fielder lives with Texan Elizabeth Holmes, makes her cry and interrogates her husband

A24 has released a new trailer for “You Can See Everything,” the mysterious and highly anticipated documentary that’s heating up awards season. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s top-secret doc is 174 minutes and follows Theranos founder and fraudster Elizabeth Holmes in her final days of freedom and first few weeks of imprisonment. The official logline reads: “Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.”

The highly anticipated documentary premiered to a full crowd at the Telluride Film Festival, followed by the reveal of a short teaser and an Oct. 16 release date announcement. Leaving much to be discovered, the minute-long teaser showed Fielder and Holmes staring intensely into each other’s eyes as Holmes promises she’s being genuine. “I don’t have anything to deceive you on,” Holmes tells him. “Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.” Variety’s film critic Owen Gleiberman saw the film at the festival and described it as “a one-of-a-kind reality-TV-as-hangout-movie psychodrama circus. Yet it’s been made with a spirit of true inquiry, driven by Fielder’s acidly quizzical personality (as an onscreen interviewer, he’s got the most drop-dead deadpan since Steven Wright), and it gets its hooks in you.” Similarly, Variety’s own Clayton Davis concluded that the film “keeps escalating in strangeness across its three-year span and lands a final movement that had Telluride’s most seasoned attendees walking out shell-shocked. ‘Wild’ and ‘WTF?’ were the words circulating on the gondola line, and they were compliments.”

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Joel Pinckney: His car is still sitting there

(Joel Pinckney is a writer and book worker living in Austin.) There’s a gray Subaru Impreza parked on Hunters Trace in Austin. It has sat there, unmoved, since 8am last Saturday. You can see it just where you turn right onto the street from Rundberg. I walk this way almost every morning with my kid. On Saturday we went a different route, looping around a few other streets before approaching Hunters Trace from the other direction. It was a beautiful, quiet morning; we had the streets almost entirely to ourselves. Earlier in the walk, we had stopped for a while to watch a couple of squirrels chase each other up and down a tree; my three-year-old was delighted when one of them paused, looked at us, and flicked their tail, as if acknowledging our presence. As if seeing us there meant something to them. Not long after I saw an unmarked black car quickly flash blue lights and swerve in front of a small hatchback. Behind, another unmarked car turned on its lights. The driver of the hatchback was boxed in; he had no way out, no choice but to stop.)

He was alone in his car, alone on the streets—there were no other cars going in either direction. I watched as masked ICE agents exited the two cars, removed the driver from the hatchback, and put him in handcuffs, depositing him in the vehicle in front. He didn’t resist, so far as I could tell. I know nothing about this man, except where he was at 8am on Saturday; except that I was the last person to catch a glimpse of him before he officially entered the hell and terror of ICE detention. I can imagine he knew this day might come; I can imagine people he loved had disappeared without explanation, and yet with but one explanation; I can imagine people who loved him spent much of Saturday trying to reach him, looking for him at his usual places, before reaching the horrible, desolate, unavoidable conclusion that so many here and across the country have had no choice but to reach in recent months. This man was taken amidst what has been referred to as a shadow surge: ICE arrests are way up across the country, and ICE’s tactics, often thanks to the willing collaboration of state and local police, are much more subtle than they were even just a few months ago. Texas leads the country in ICE arrests, as a September 22 piece in the Austin American Statesman pointed out, “with more than 1 in 5 U.S. arrests this year occurring in the state.” The Statesman piece also noted that ICE arrests in Austin tripled this summer. The surge here has been particularly concentrated in the Rundberg/North Lamar area of North Austin, as highlighted recently in the Austin Chronicle, an area of town with a particularly large immigrant presence. The majority of these arrests are happening in the shadows, during quiet hours, when almost no one is looking.

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Nueces River Authority leader announces retirement days before board meets on his job

For two years, John Byrum sold South Texas on a big idea. A small river authority based in Uvalde would build a 100-million-gallon-a-day seawater desalination plant on Harbor Island. The river authority's board president, Eric Burnett, has called the future facility the largest plant of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Now Byrum is leaving before construction has started, and days before his board is scheduled to discuss his job behind closed doors. KRIS 6 News has reported several setbacks for the project this year. Design work on its pipeline stopped after the engineering firm ran through its contract. Byrum said federal money was coming, but no commitment has been made. And in June, the agency's chief financial officer confirmed that money for the project could run out by the end of August unless more payments came in.

The project is tied to a regional water shortage. This spring, the city of Corpus Christi said a persistent drought could trigger a water emergency in a region of more than 500,000 people, where oil refineries and petrochemical plants would also face cuts. City leaders have since said recent rains pushed that date back to September 2027. Regional water planners project the area will need roughly double its current water supply within a decade, a gap the Harbor Island project is meant to help address. Corpus Christi agreed in October 2025 to pay the river authority $2.7 million to reserve 50 million gallons a day from the plant. As of July, 18 cities and water supply corporations across South and Central Texas had paid fees to hold a place in line. Corpus Christi's own, separate desalination project in the Inner Harbor has stalled. In early September, the City Council voted 5-3 against a design contract for the roughly $979 million plant. The Nueces River Authority announced Wednesday that Byrum will retire as executive director Oct. 31. The agenda for Friday's board meeting includes a closed session on the "evaluation, duties, discipline, employment, reassignment, or dismissal" of the executive director, followed by possible action in open session. Deputy Director John Chisholm will serve as interim executive director, pending action by the board.

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Bo French wants to 'kick' Islam out of Texas energy. Can he?

Bo French has said he is running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, to “end DEI” and “to kick radical Islam out of Texas Energy.” But just how far he could stretch the commission’s authority is an open question. French made waves this month when he posted a photo of non-white students at a UT football game and suggested they did not belong at the school. He has since doubled down on the position, even in the face of Republican criticism. If he defeats his Democratic opponent Jon Rosenthal in November, he would become one of three commissioners with sweeping discretion over an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Texans. He would also help lead the commission’s staff of more than one thousand employees.

Theoretically, French has little room to fulfill his campaign promises, industry experts and attorneys said. The bulk of the commission’s work involves approving and regulating permits that empower oil and gas companies to drill wells, operate pipelines and dispose of oilfield waste. French has targeted Saudi Arabia’s presence in the Texas energy industry in news releases and social media posts, pointing to a petrochemical facility north of Corpus Christi that a subsidiary of the nation’s state-owned oil company operates with Spring-based Exxon Mobil. A subsidiary of Saudi Aramco also operates a massive oil refinery — the largest in the U.S. — in Port Arthur, a facility that employs more than one thousand people. The Railroad Commission doesn’t have direct permitting authority over these facilities, but it does regulate the pipelines carrying oil, gas and chemicals to and from the sites. If the commission figured out a legal pathway to suspend permits for these pipelines, it could functionally freeze operations at the facilities. French, a former Tarrant County GOP chair, did not respond to requests for comment.

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Half of Texas families have someone skipping meals or eating less as food costs rise, new poll says

Texas families are struggling to keep up with rising food costs, according to a new poll from No Kid Hungry Texas. Half of Texas families surveyed reported at least one member of the household skipping meals or eating less because of concerns about cost. Advocates warn food insecurity and the effects of inflation could worsen as federal changes to food assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, go into effect. No Kid Hungry Texas conducts this kind of polling every year, according to the organization’s director Stacie Sanchez. She said in previous polls parents might stop buying specific types of foods that can be expensive, like meat or protein, but parents skipping meals is new. “Parents are having to make difficult trade-offs,” she said. “They are having to make really hard choices between paying the electric bill or providing nutritious food.”

More than 80% of respondents said the cost of food is rising faster than their income – which Sanchez said is leading people to find creative ways to make ends meet that could cause larger financial issues in the future. The poll found about 40% of families were taking on debt to cover the cost of food – and there was a significant increase in people utilizing “buy now, pay later” services, like Afterpay or Klarna, to cover necessities. “We saw folks having to take on second jobs or join the gig economy,” Sanchez said. “Texans are dealing with and experiencing these issues every day. We experience the highest food insecurity rate in the nation and that’s showing up.” Last year, the organization’s poll found a growing number of families reported food insecurity and trying to maintain nutritional diets without resources was having a bigger effect on people’s physical and mental health. This year, the poll shows several factors making that problem even worse, Sanchez said. More parents reported feeling helpless because they can’t feed their children. “The urgency really feels ramped up,” Sanchez said. “There are so many factors at play that are kind of creating a unique moment in this time.”

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Federal judge rules EPA unlawfully clawed back $250 million for solar energy initiatives across Texas

A federal judge this week ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency unlawfully clawed back more than $250 million for solar energy initiatives across Texas, siding with a legal challenge brought by Harris County last year. The ‘Solar for All‘ program was intended to fund clean energy initiatives for low-income households across the state, create job growth and establish community hubs powered by solar energy reserves in the event of power outages. The program was backed by a $7 billion clean energy fund signed by former President Joe Biden. Harris County was awarded $54 million for the solar program in 2024. That money was rescinded in August last year when the county received a termination letter from the EPA that claimed to end the initiative.

The Harris County Attorney’s Office brought the legal challenge in October of 2025, after raising doubts about the legality of the termination notice. The EPA argued in court that Congress repealed the Solar for All program in 2025 through the passing of President Donald Trump’s signature tax cut and spending package — known colloquially as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — forcing the agency to terminate more than $7 billion in grant funds for solar initiatives across the United States, according to lawsuit documents. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday sided with Harris County in it’s arguments that the EPA unlawfully clawed back those funds. She described the agency’s interpretation of the act as “arbitrary and capricious.” Chutkan’s ruling does not instruct the EPA to restore the grant funds. Brent Taylor, a spokesperson for the Harris County Attorney’s Office, said the federal agency will essentially be on notice to figure out how to restore the program, though not necessarily any lost funds. Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin, who was appointed by commissioners court in April this year, said the county will work to safeguard the funds for local projects.

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National Stories

Hormuz supply crisis to change LNG market forever

The Strait of Hormuz crisis has turned roughly 20% of global LNG supply into something buyers now have to treat as interruptible. Nearly seven months after traffic through the strait collapsed, LNG exports from Qatar and the UAE remain severely constrained. Buyers in Europe and Asia are responding by looking for supply that does not depend on Hormuz at all—from Canada, Mozambique, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Argentina—and reconsidering how much of their future gas demand they are willing to tie to a single export route. The war has changed the near-term outlook and sent LNG prices in Asia and Europe soaring to the highs last seen in the 2022 crisis. Europe is hard-pressed for supply ahead of winter, while price-sensitive buyers in Asia are scrambling for alternatives, burning more coal, and boosting renewable energy generation targets to avoid supply crunches and hefty gas import bills when the next crisis hits the energy market.

The current crisis goes well beyond the concerns about winter supply in Europe or how high prices in Asia destroy demand. The war and the Strait of Hormuz supply crunch have undermined the decade-old belief among buyers that relying on cheap fixed-term supply from one or two sources is enough. “The market seems now to be viewing the 20% of global supply behind the straits as ‘interruptible’ – even if it does return, it could easily be constrained again, feeding market volatility and further complicating contracting decisions,” Wood Mackenzie analysts said about their conversations with LNG leaders at the Gastech 2026 conference in Bangkok earlier this month. “An important consequence is that the value of more reliable supply has increased,” WoodMac’s analysts say. Following the halt to LNG shipments from the Strait of Hormuz for months, buyers have started to think about energy security more than anything else and are busy diversifying their sources of supply. European buyers started exploring purchases from Canada after it became clear in April that U.S.-Iran ceasefires aren’t bringing back Qatar’s supply to the market.

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Judge restores White House access for POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW

A federal judge has ordered the White House to immediately restore the press credentials of three news organizations after President Donald Trump barred their reporters from the complex last week. Early Thursday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order sought by POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW as part of a joint lawsuit filed challenging the revocations. Citing the urgent needs of a “free press,” Kelly ordered the 78 journalists’ credentials returned for at least two weeks while further litigation plays out. The Trump-appointed judge suggested that the national security grounds the administration claimed to justify the ban amounted to an after-the-fact justification of a decision the president appeared to have made over more mundane disagreements with the outlets’ reporting. Kelly called the disputed stories “routine.”

“The Court is skeptical — at least on this record — that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes,” Kelly wrote in an eight-page ruling issued just before 1 a.m. Eastern. “Nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns. Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting,” the judge added. The judge noted that the administration provided no support for its assertion that any of the disputed stories contained classified information or actually damaged national security and said some of the reporting was months or years old, belying claims the administration’s claims of urgency by the administration. Kelly also said the White House appeared to have violated the constitutional due process rights of the journalists by failing to give them advance notice that concerns about their reporting could lead to cancellation of their passes.

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China hawks seethe as Trump rolls out red carpet for Xi

China hawks on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. are seething as President Trump prepares to welcome the country’s President Xi Jinping for what is expected to be a lavish three-day state visit to Washington. Unlike with other world leaders, Trump is pulling out all the stops for his Chinese counterpart. Trump took the unusual step of welcoming Xi at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday evening and will greet him again Thursday on the South Lawn for an elaborate arrival ceremony complete with B-2 Spirit and F-22 Raptor flyovers. Critics are questioning why Trump, who has a storied history of slamming China, is rolling out the red carpet for the U.S. adversary.

“Had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States, based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Arms Services Committee, said on the upper chamber floor Tuesday evening. Despite the criticism over the state visit, many China critics say they are not as concerned about the optics of the state visit as much as they are about the policy developments that come out of the event. “To me, the overall arrival and presentation is one thing. It’s certainly symbolic and can matter, especially for the Chinese side,” said Andrew Harding, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation who previously served as Special Assistant for Asia on the National Security Council under Trump. “But I think from an American perspective, we need to focus on the substance of the agreements,” he continued. “What matters most about determining where the president’s position is is what is ultimately negotiated during the summit.”

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Trump welcomes Xi to Washington looking for a trade win

US President Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday for a lavish state summit expected to be heavy on symbolism but light on substance, with ?both leaders keen to showcase stable ties despite a deep underlying rivalry. It will be the year's second meeting of the leaders of the two biggest economies, but Xi's first ?visit to Washington in more than a decade. Trump greeted Xi on arrival on Wednesday evening, the first time a US president has welcomed a foreign leader at Joint Base Andrews in 11 years, when President Barack Obama welcomed Pope Francis in 2015, according to C-SPAN, which tracks presidential events.

In a statement on arrival carried by China's Xinhua news agency, Xi voiced hope for a more stable relationship with the United States, saying Beijing and Washington should be "partners, not rivals" and that the "historical logic ?of peaceful coexistence" between the two countries had not changed. For Trump, who relishes ceremony and prizes his ties with powerful leaders, the visit is as much a matter of national prestige as ?an opportunity for high-stakes diplomacy. The US president aims to reciprocate the grand welcome he received in China in May and impress Xi with a ceremony spanning the ?White House South Lawn, State Floor and Rose Garden. Major breakthroughs are not expected. Analysts say tangible outcomes are likely to be limited to an extension of a trade truce expiring in November and an agreement to ?examine threats posed by artificial intelligence. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday after talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng that they had agreed to extend until January 10 an agreement that paused a ?trade war that saw mutual tariffs top 100%. People familiar with the plans say the talks could also yield deals to lower some tariffs, combat drug trafficking and expand military-to-military dialogue, while Trump is expected to seek the release of Americans and others detained in China. Former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the summit was less about substantive negotiations than a chance for two forceful leaders to project strength.

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Eight sailors assigned to US carrier group that fought in Iran war attempted suicide, Navy secretary tells Congress

Eight US Navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a period that included when the ships undertook combat operations against Iran and the carrier set a modern record for its time at sea, according to a letter from the service’s acting secretary, which was obtained by CNN. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao revealed the number, which has not been previously reported and covers crew members from several ships that travel together, including the carrier, in written responses to questions posed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand about the morale and mental health of the USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew. Cao wrote that no service members had killed themselves during the deployment. The rate of suicide attempts among the Lincoln strike group’s sailors was roughly consistent with that of the entire active duty Navy in 2024, the most recent year for which the Pentagon has released suicide data.

That year, the Navy saw 356 suicide attempts among its estimated 337,000 active duty sailors. “Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Cao wrote to Gillibrand, a Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services, in a letter dated Tuesday. “This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier airwing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.” Between 6,000 and 7,000 US Navy sailors were deployed as part of the Lincoln strike group across roughly a half dozen ships — with the carrier kept out of port for over six months while conducting a high rate of combat operations against Iran. “Eight attempted suicides is incredibly high,” one US military official told CNN, noting recent carrier strike group deployments have had one or two per year. “The strain of combat ops is much higher than normal deployments. No port calls, constant alerts, etc.” The Navy did not respond ahead of publication to a request for comment about the letter.

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New coalition fights Trump’s efforts to weaken protections for historic sites

A coalition of more than 600 historic preservation groups, architectural associations, tribal governments and other organizations is urging Congress to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to weaken or evade laws intended to protect historic sites. Members of the new coalition say that they are seeking to safeguard sites in every congressional district — and that they intend to pursue legal action if Congress does not act. “Our coalition did not exist six weeks ago. Today it brings together constituencies who have rarely spoken with one voice,” the groups wrote in letters that were set to be sent to all members of Congress on Thursday. The signatories want lawmakers to reject the administration’s revisions to a 60-year-old federal law that governs changes to landmarks such as the National Mall, sites that are significant to Indian tribes and other properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The proposed changes would allow federal agencies to undertake their own projects or permit construction by private developers without public input, breaking with long-standing requirements for public participation. Some members of Congress are also considering similar changes to the review process, which is required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The administration can enact regulatory revisions to Section 106 without congressional approval, but the coalition is asking lawmakers to help oppose such changes. The coalition also wants Congress to block legislation that would separately allow similar revisions to take effect. The coalition says it is also responding to Trump’s attempts to unilaterally change historic sites, such as demolishing the White House’s East Wing to build a planned ballroom. Administration lawyers have argued in court that they do not need to seek congressional approval for Trump’s projects, such as the ballroom and his planned triumphal arch. “The burden of standing up for congressional authority is falling heavily to civil society organizations, law firms, and individual Americans when Congress itself should be taking the lead,” the coalition wrote in a letter shared with The Washington Post. Administration officials on Thursday declined to comment on the new campaign. Spokespeople for the White House and the Interior Department touted the president’s projects and said they were following Section 106 requirements to seek public input on the arch.

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MAGA podcasters are tuning out Trump. We tracked what they are talking about now.

Conservative podcasters appear to be losing interest in President Trump. Instead, they are criticizing a Bible-quoting Democrat threatening to flip red Texas, and they can’t stop talking about a murder trial that divided a jury—and the country. The Wall Street Journal analyzed nearly 70,000 hours of podcasts to understand the topics that conservative podcasters—some of whom helped propel Donald Trump to victory in 2024—are talking about, and what has fallen out of the conversation. The analysis captures the political mood in key corners before crucial midterm elections in November. To do it, we used an in-house AI tool developed to help monitor trends on social media ahead of the midterms. In addition to podcasts, we have pulled in more than 10 million TikToks and Instagram posts from a range of creators. We crossed those with thousands of hours of broadcast news and the Journal’s own articles to understand the political topics circulating in the mainstream. Here’s what we found:

Trump has urged voters to keep him front of mind when they head to the polls in November, telling supporters at the GOP midterm convention to “pretend I’m on the ballot.” Congressional Republican leaders are also putting the president front and center in their effort to keep control of the House and Senate, despite Trump’s low approval ratings, though some Republicans in tight races are starting to tiptoe away from the president. But MAGA podcasters aren’t playing along. Mentions of Trump’s name per hour on conservative podcasts have fallen nearly 70% from their peak in the run-up to the 2024 election. On conservative podcasts, James Talarico has become the most-discussed Democrat in the country who isn’t a former president. This month, hosts on the 147 shows the Journal tracks have named him more often than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont—and nearly three times as often as Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist mayor of New York. Democrats haven’t won a statewide office in Texas since 1994. Polls show Talarico, a state legislator who has campaigned on his Christian faith, in a tight race against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a MAGA warrior beloved by Trump’s base and backed by national Republicans pouring money into the state to shore him up.

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Copyright October 01, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved