Lead Stories

Texas voters to settle marquee Senate, key statewide runoffs for both parties Tuesday

Voters on Tuesday will settle a marquee U.S. Senate runoff and a slate of other statewide office nominations that could reshape power inside America’s biggest red state and elevate the next generation of Texas political leaders. At the center is the Republican showdown between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have bombarded each other over ethics, loyalty and character in one of the state’s ugliest fights in years. The contest has drawn national attention and more than $125 million in advertising by the candidates and their allies, making it the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history. The winner will face the Democratic nominee, James Talarico, a state representative from Austin. Tuesday’s runoff ballot stretches beyond the Senate race. Democrats and Republicans also are picking nominees in congressional contests and statewide runoffs, including lieutenant governor and attorney general.

In the Republican Senate race, Cornyn, who finished first in the March primary, is betting GOP voters still value his experience and electability. He has portrayed Paxton as unfit for office, hammering him over his impeachment by the GOP-led Texas House, other legal troubles and allegations of adultery. Paxton’s nomination, Cornyn said, could hand Democrats an opening in November. Paxton, meanwhile, has cast Cornyn as a weak, do-nothing Washington insider disconnected from President Donald Trump and the party’s MAGA base. Paxton also has played up Trump’s late endorsement, saying it shows who the president trusts to aggressively support his agenda. Most state Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have stayed out of the divisive fight. Voters in both parties also are deciding who will replace Paxton, who is leaving the AG’s office after 11 years whether he wins the Senate runoff or not. The office is one of the state’s most powerful, in charge of defending state agencies and laws. It also has been a political springboard. Both Cornyn and Abbott served as attorney general. State Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston, who finished first in March, is backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin has lined up support from Sen. Ted Cruz and many House conservatives.

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A ‘vegan’ and ‘Tala-freak-o’: GOP prepares a furious general election messaging blitz against Talarico

In one of his first rallies since winning President Donald Trump’s endorsement in his Senate race, Ken Paxton told the crowd he wanted to try something new. The Democratic nominee, James Talarico, Paxton said, would be the “most radical US senator from Texas, maybe in the whole country, ever, so I wanted to test a few nicknames tonight and see if you can help me.” The suggestions from the audience started flowing as Paxton passed the mic around. “Low-T Talarico.” “Tofu Talarico.” “Tala-freak-o.” “Soy boy!” a man yelled out unprompted. The food references came from an already burgeoning Republican talking point — that Talarico is a vegan, which he isn’t.

Yet Paxton brought it up repeatedly, delighting a packed crowd of supporters inside a suburban Houston barbecue spot as waiters shuttled back and forth from the kitchen with heaping plates of brisket, sausage and ribs. “We know that James Talarico would never come here because he doesn’t eat any of that stuff,” Paxton said. “We never had a US senator who didn’t eat meat, especially Texas barbecue.” Talarico was, in a word, “unqualified” to represent Texas, according to Paxton. The scene showed how Paxton is already pivoting to the general election ahead of Tuesday’s primary runoff with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton — and Trump — are previewing a furious wave of attacks and mockery for Talarico, as Republicans prepare to rally around the scandal-scarred state attorney general and work to keep the spotlight on the Democrat instead. As Paxton spoke at Midway BBQ in Katy, TVs in the room showed Fox News replaying Trump’s comments earlier in the day declaring that Talarico “can’t get elected as a vegan in Texas.” Trump also called Talarico “a weird — a weird — candidate,” a comment that quickly made it into an ad from a pro-Paxton group. Republicans have also repeatedly brought up Talarico’s 2021 comment during a state legislative debate that “modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.” One of the patrons at Midway BBQ took the mic to call Talarico “six-gender Jimmy.”

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Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman released early from jail

Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman was released early from jail for good behavior. Hoffman, 49, began serving a 60-day jail sentence on April 27 for sexually abusing a young boy.

He pleaded guilty April 16 to indecent assault and displaying harmful materials to a minor, both Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. His trial on first-degree felony continuous sexual abuse of a young child charges ended in a mistrial in June 2025 after jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of finding him guilty. The Attorney General’s Office reduced the charges in exchange for his guilty pleas. Visiting Judge Roy Sparkman doubled Hoffman’s original 30-day plea deal to 60 days at sentencing. Hoffman, who has since moved to Nebraska, is under a lifetime protective order prohibiting him from contacting the victim. He is not required to register as a sex offender based on the misdemeanor charges to which he pleaded guilty.

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Some of Texas’s oldest barbecue joints close as meat prices skyrocket

If the Texas barbecue industry had an alarm, it would be the spreadsheet that Russell Roegels uses to track the price of brisket. On a recent morning, sitting at a quiet table in his suburban restaurant, he pointed to the number at the top of the column: $5.56. That’s the price he pays for a pound of the most important item on any barbecue menu in Texas. Over the past year, that number has risen 28 percent, a reflection of the spiking meat prices that have dented the pocketbooks of average grocery store customers nationwide. Inside the kitchens of Texas’s more than 3,000 barbecue purveyors, whose very existence depends on a plentiful and affordable supply of quality beef, the effect has been close to cataclysmal. Roegels, 53, grew up working at a barbecue joint and has run his own since 2001, serving some of Houston’s elite and their friends, including former president George H.W. Bush, NFL veteran Gary Kubiak and former Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte. He used to be able to offset the high wholesale cost by selling other meats and side dishes.

But this year he realized that wasn’t enough. So Roegels made the risky decision to raise the price he charges customers for brisket by $2, to $35 a pound — a 6 percent increase — and hoped his clientele wouldn’t defect. “This is as bad as it gets,” he said of escalating beef prices. “Everybody’s at risk these days: You’re one bad week from closing.” Roegels isn’t exaggerating. The culinary crisis driven by skyrocketing meat prices has contributed to the closures of some of Texas’s beloved barbecue joints: Brett’s BBQ Shop to the west of Houston, known for its barbacoa tacos; Kirby’s BBQ to the north with its signature increasingly expensive oak-smoked brisket; Sabar BBQ, with its Pakistani fusion sausage, in Fort Worth; Wright On Taco & BBQ in East Texas. Owners and experts predict the closures will worsen this summer and continue for years, potentially reshaping the nature of Texas barbecue, which has drawn acclaim for its distinct regional varieties and craft-style preparation, winning Michelin stars for what was once considered gas-station fare. The reasons for the spiking prices are various, says Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association. Inflation, tariffs, meatpackers’ pricing, and a national cattle herd at its smallest in 75 years because of drought, labor shortages, high operational costs and dwindling ranch land have all played a part. And with the threat of screwworm looming just across the border, experts warn that the herd could be even further depleted in years to come.

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State Stories

Trump endorsed Ken Paxton in Texas. But John Cornyn isn't going quietly.

After receiving a coveted Senate endorsement from President Trump last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took an early victory lap. Paxton released an ad touting the endorsement before quickly pivoting to one targeting Democratic nominee James Talarico. He asked his rival in the Republican primary, longtime Sen. John Cornyn, to stop the negative attack ads for the final days of the ugly race. Cornyn responded with a definitive no. “Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton,” Cornyn told reporters in Houston last week. Conventional political wisdom considers Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton to likely be a final blow in what was already a difficult battle for Cornyn. If true, the longtime senator is going down swinging, in a battle he has said from the beginning was largely motivated by his disgust for Paxton.

At his own rally in San Antonio, Paxton said: “We’ll have Tuesday and then we’re going to have a little race with James Talarico,” before testing out derogatory nicknames for the Democrat. He challenged the crowd, as he does at every rally, to name one of Cornyn’s accomplishments in office. Paxton and Cornyn are in a runoff for the party nomination, after neither won 50% of the vote in an initial March primary. Tuesday’s runoff election will be the latest test of the president’s power, as he has used the political muscle of his MAGA base to push out dissenting voices in the Republican Party. While Paxton’s campaign celebrated the endorsement, Cornyn’s campaign put out a press release listing all the headlines that called Paxton a gift to Democrats in the general election. James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said he thinks the endorsement will give a final boost to Paxton. Old-school party stalwarts loyal to Cornyn may not like to admit it, Henson said, but polling and other data shows Paxton more in line with the party’s electorate. “Paxton’s alignment with Trump and the Trump era is a better fit for where the base is right now,” he said. “If Cornyn winds up pulling this out, it’ll be because he dug it out with superior resources and campaigning.”

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Ebola concerns reach Houston as global outbreak intersects with World Cup travel

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the Houston area is prepared and not in a state of alarm as officials monitor the global Ebola outbreak ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Hidalgo shared an update Monday, emphasizing that local, state and federal agencies are working to stay ahead of any potential risks while keeping the public informed. “We are OK,” Hidalgo said. Hidalgo said the county is building on its experience from COVID-19 and past Ebola cases, working closely with health leaders to refine protocols. “The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency over the current Ebola epidemic in the DRC and surrounding countries. The DC currently has 101 confirmed cases, although the suspected number of cases is much larger at around 900,” Hidalgo said.

She is also pushing for better coordination at airport screening areas and more detailed data on incoming travelers. Hidalgo said seven Harris County residents who recently traveled to Uganda arrived back in the area over the past few days. All were screened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at Washington Dulles International Airport before traveling to Houston. None tested positive for Ebola, and none are showing symptoms. Officials expect more travelers from affected regions to arrive in the coming weeks, especially as the World Cup approaches. Houston is on the front line working to prevent Ebola exposure. Starting Tuesday, May 26, IAH will serve as the third screening point for US citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries. The CDC said returning travelers will be escorted to a designated screening area where they will complete a questionnaire about their travel history and symptoms. They'll have their temperature checked and be observed for signs of illness.

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Immigration courts are using a new tactic to speed up deportations. Dallas is next.

Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants' hearings and bunch them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders. The new and unprecedented tactic was shared with NPR by immigration attorneys and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a trade association that tracks trends in these courts. Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings — or "mega masters" — that include 100 or more people at a time. That's up from two or three dozen people at a time that had been typical before for a first hearing. For many immigrants, this is their first appearance in court to try to make their case to be able to stay in the U.S. Attorneys say these new hearings largely target people without lawyers representing them. Those who show up late, or not at all, are receiving removal orders, further truncating the already-limited due process available to immigrants.

"The major concern is that [since] this is going to be a group of people without attorneys, that they're not going to have gotten proper notice," said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practicing policy counsel at AILA, adding that courts often lack enough seats for hearings with so many people at once. "So it's almost like they are being designed to increase" how many people get deportation orders automatically, she said. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency that runs the immigration courts at DOJ, did not respond to a request for comment on this new strategy. Lawyers said the practice had started in the Chicago, Boston and Chelmsford, Mass., courts and is soon to start in the Dallas Immigration Court. The effort comes as President Trump seeks to deport a million people a year — much higher than the 600,000 people the administration deported in 2025. Trump has also complained about the backlogs of millions of cases inside immigration courts, pointing to courts as an obstacle to rapid deportation.

Read this article at NPR - Subscribers Only

Austin teen released from ICE detention

Twenty days of detention by federal authorities came to an end last week when Austin high school senior Luis Fernando Cabrera was released to his family just weeks before graduation. “It feels awesome to be with my friends and family again,” Cabrera said in Spanish in an interview with Capital Tonight. “And I’m also thankful for all the support I had from the beginning.” The 18-year-old was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) following a traffic stop earlier this month. Cabrera was on his way home from a closing shift at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen when he was pulled over for an expired vehicle registration and then taken to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center.

Speaking outside his church during a celebration for his return on Sunday, Cabrera said there were times he doubted whether he would return to Austin. “It wasn't easy. I thought they were going to deport me,” he said. “I'd never been locked up before. I'd never had handcuffs on me, on my feet and on my hands. I don't know, I think a little bit longer, and I might have gone into a depression.” He also said the conditions at the detention center were inadequate for housing people for long periods of time. “The food is something that can't sustain a person inside. The times when they feed you are also not ideal for when one should eat,” he said. “And the hygiene… they give you used clothing and well, that's not adequate for a person who isn't a criminal.” Cabrera, who was born in Mexico to Honduran parents, came to the United States without authorization when he was 11. His parents say they fled political violence in their home country after being threatened by a legislator there, and Cabrera has a pending asylum case dating back to 2019.

Read this article at Spectrum News - Subscribers Only

For Judge Barbara Lynn, ‘you must be present to win’

“I have many golf trophies that I picked up at the Dallas Bench Bar Conference when the real winners were not present,” Judge Barbara M. Lynn tells me, with plenty more pride than shame. She spent her career fighting for what’s hers. And when you do that for a half-century, maybe you get in the habit of taking all that and then some when opportunity presents itself. “I took the position ‘Must be present to win,’?” she says with a smirk. “So I have all these golf trophies.” She’s terrible at golf, but her bookshelves tell a different story. Lynn is admittedly overcompetitive. “Any game. Cards, board games. Any game of any kind,” she says, “I want to win. And there have been many examples of me trying to engineer victory.”

If you’re trying to win a charity golf tournament, why learn to be a good golfer when all you really need to do is drink a bunch of gin martinis at the winner’s podium long enough to accept trophies on behalf of everyone else? Finding loopholes in the system was necessary for Lynn as she fought to enter a male-dominated field, and it’s a required skill for any good lawyer. You can tell she takes joy from the creativity the job requires. It’s become such a part of her personality that she can’t turn it off. If you drink every time you see the word “first” when you read the Wikipedia entry on Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, you’ll be in a bad way within the first paragraph. She Kool-Aid Mans through every brick wall built in front of her. Her instinct is to take charge. Even during our conversation, there were a couple of times when I was ready to just hand her the interview and let her take over. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing now?” she says when I think the interview is over. Sure, it is technically “asked” in question form, but it is clearly not a question. Like your mom asking you if you’re about to take out the trash, and you know all the way down to your feet that the only answer is “Yes, ma’am. I’m on it.” It’s amazing how confident you think you are until a super-friendly lion with really fashion-forward statement glasses is facing you.

Read this article at D Magazine - Subscribers Only

3 San Antonio Republicans fight to hang on in Trump’s GOP

By Tuesday night, three San Antonio Republicans could be the next to fall over their disagreements with President Donald Trump. The result would be a bench wiped clean of moderates — at the same time the party faces unusually tough November races. Trump has been on a tear against fellow Republicans who’ve bucked his power, fueling decisive primary upsets for U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and a slate of Indiana state lawmakers all earlier this month. Now headed into Texas’ primary runoff, such disagreements threaten to end the careers of three local incumbents who remained popular in this area, and are some of the only Republicans in the state with general election skills in their DNA. The new 35th Congressional District seemed drawn specifically for state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), a popular retired firefighter who flipped a Democrat-held state legislative district within its boundaries.

But Trump upended Lujan’s smooth-sailing congressional bid the day before voting started in the March primary, backing little-known U.S. Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz, who he now faces in a runoff. “They were supposed to stay out of it,” Lujan said of the White House’s decision — which he believes could jeopardize efforts to hold a seat Democrats are targeting in November. On Tuesday, Trump also rocked U.S. Sen. John Cornyn‘s (R-Texas) expensive reelection race, endorsing Attorney General Ken Paxton as runoff votes were already being cast. Now the president’s top political aides are attacking attorney general hopeful U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) on social media as well, as Roy scrambles to defend his record. All three Republicans put much effort into building GOP power in stubbornly blue Bexar County. But in a year where some believe the whole state could be in play, they say the repercussions of their losses could go much further. “Democrats are energized because they see the first opportunity they’ve had since 1994 to elect a statewide Democrat … and Ken Paxton would hand it to him on a silver platter,” Cornyn told supporters Monday.

Read this article at San Antonio Report - Subscribers Only

Colonial PGA event loses winners of 13 majors, including big-name Dallas stars

The field for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club will be missing some big names, including two stars from Dallas. Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer and a former Highland Park and University of Texas standout, did not enter the Fort Worth PGA Tour event. Jordan Spieth, a Dallas native who also played at UT, joined Scheffler in skipping the event. Both have been fixtures at Colonial during their careers. Then the event lost two more major winners with the withdrawals of Brooks Koepka on Sunday and Wyndham Clark on Monday. Clark won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Sunday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney. Those four players have won a combined 13 majors: Koepka (five), Scheffler (four), Spieth (three) and Clark (one).

Scheffler and Spieth cited the PGA Tour’s hectic schedule that sandwiches in both Metroplex events amid majors and other signature events, the Dallas Morning News reported. “It’s just a rock and a hard place for myself and Scottie and guys who are local, who grew up here,” Spieth said after his round at the CJ Cup on Friday. Despite the departures, the Charles Schwab Challenge still boasts a solid field with seven of the world’s top 20 players: No. 9 J.J. Spaun, No. 12 Russell Henley, No. 13 Ludvig Aberg, No. 15 Robert MacIntyre, No. 16 Justin Thomas, defending champion No. 17 Ben Griffin and No. 20 Hideki Matsuyama.

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Inside the Texas ranch where big-city professionals go to get dangerous

Though I have almost certainly deserved it on numerous occasions, I have never been punched in the face. My lone fight was a short-lived scrape on an elementary school playground with a snot-nosed kid whose name escapes me. It resulted in a draw, I’m proud to say, and my chubby cheeks were left bruise-free. During my 43 years, I have never owned a gun nor felt the need. Maybe I’m privileged, or maybe I’m just lucky. When I mentioned all of this to Travis Miller, an affable mountain of a man and a professional bodyguard, he said another word comes to mind: “naive.” For as long as he can remember, his world has been defined by danger. He grew up in a rough Philadelphia neighborhood, and threats were everywhere. His only way out was via the football field, where he battled his way to a college scholarship. Now in his mid-thirties, Miller protects demanding, high-net-worth clients, a job that requires him to not only think about danger, but also to exude it. We were chatting beside a luxury swimming pool on the back patio of an upscale ranch house, part of a seven-thousand-acre property an hour and a half southeast of Dallas.

Here, surrounded by giant live oaks and rolling savannah, Miller’s company, Genesis Security Solutions, was putting on its first-ever retreat to teach “tactical leadership training,” which, I would soon learn, is corporatespeak for “how to handle guns and kill people.” I had come here out of curiosity, but also to carry out an experiment of sorts, one that had been arranged over the phone months earlier. At the time, I’d asked Miller if he could turn me—a soft-bodied man who tears up listening to humpback whale vocalizations on YouTube and gets excited researching new types of organic seeds for his backyard bird feeder—into a dangerous individual. “Absolutely!” he’d responded. The event had drawn around twenty professionals of all backgrounds, between thirty and sixty years of age, and cost $5,000 a head. Ever since Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in 2024, Miller and other “executive protection agents” say, business is booming. Miller attributes the demand to increasing wealth inequality, political unrest, and multiple attempts on President Trump’s life. “Many people—whether they’re a billionaire businessperson or a corporate executive or an ordinary person dealing with a stalker—have realized that they want to take control of their safety and the safety of their loved ones,” he told me. “That might mean hiring someone like me, but it could also mean learning how to become dangerous on their own as well.”

Read this article at Texas Monthly - Subscribers Only

Austin takes another stab at density bonus program promoting affordable housing construction

Cranes are already a defining feature of Austin’s downtown skyline, but Austin City Council members on Thursday approved sweeping new development rules aimed at sparking more housing construction and making it easier for developers to build taller projects. While Austin’s housing market has cooled from the sharp price spikes seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders and housing advocates say affordability remains a top concern as the region’s population continues to climb. Over the years, the city has adopted strategies to encourage more housing construction, including density bonus programs, a zoning tool that allows developers to build larger, taller projects than normally permitted in exchange for “community benefits,” such as affordable units, sidewalks or green space.

But the programs have faced ongoing criticism from both housing advocates and neighborhood groups, who argue the rules either do too little to encourage construction or allow projects that don’t deliver enough affordable housing in return. The overhaul creates a more manageable, citywide version of the density bonus program that city leaders say will be more effective at producing more housing and affordable units. It replaces Austin’s short-lived, controversial DB90 density bonus program, which gave developers a 90-foot height bonus in exchange for adding affordable housing, but led to taller buildings than some neighbors wanted and less affordable housing production than some hoped for. Still, some housing advocates remain wary that the new one will be successful in helping developers break ground, while opponents worry the new rules go too far. “Two steps forward, one step back,” said Greg Anderson, a longtime Austin housing advocate. “What was sad about last night is that we lost real potential for better zoning categories.” The approval followed a year-long review and revision process. Under the new rules, developers will be able to seek an additional 15, 30, 45 or 60 feet of height depending on zoning rules, the type of housing in a neighborhood and how close the site is to those houses. “This new tool has a range of options,” Council Member Ryan Alter told the Current. The 15-foot intervals better meet the scale and needs of the neighborhood, resulting “in much better outcomes for everybody.”

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ActBlue refuses donations for Texas Democrat accused of making antisemitic comments

Texas congressional candidate Maureen Galindo was cut off from a major Democratic fundraising platform and political action committee after a series of antisemitic remarks sparked widespread backlash within the party. ActBlue is no longer processing donations for Galindo, who is competing in a May 26 Democratic runoff against Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia in Texas’s 35th Congressional District. Galindo has been embroiled in controversy over antisemitic comments. Most recently, she wrote in an Instagram post saying that she intends to write legislation to “turn Karnes [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”

“It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” Galindo added, accusing Garcia of being “paid by Zionist terrorism and trafficking.” She has also previously said that Jews run Hollywood and worship the “synagogue of Satan.” Democratic lawmakers and candidates have spoken out against Galindo’s comments. Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who are Jewish, said they would force a vote to expel the Democratic candidate “every single day” the House is in session if she wins the Texas seat. “Maureen’s insane, antisemitic views — including putting Americans in concentration camps — have no place in our Party or country,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

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Jason Villalba: How Texas cities should get ready for the Opportunity Zone Program 2.0

(Jason Villalba served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives. He leads the Texas practice and the governmental relations group at FBT Gibbons LLP in Dallas, and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation.) Some of the most consequential decisions in Texas government happen without a press conference. The redrawing of the federal Opportunity Zone map, scheduled to be completed in Austin this summer, is one of them. The Opportunity Zone program, created in 2017, gives investors significant federal tax benefits for placing capital gains into projects inside designated census tracts. The first round of the program, launched in 2018, channeled roughly $100 billion into the selected communities. Version 2.0 of the Opportunity Zone program, made permanent last July under the One Big Beautiful Bill, will attract similar sums to be invested over the next 10 years. This summer, Texas will nominate approximately 600 new tracts for the program . The office of the governor, through its Economic Development and Tourism office, will make the final selection. The deadline for local jurisdictions to submit their nominations is June 26, less than six weeks away. The next opportunity to revise the map will not occur until 2036, a decade away. Time is of the essence for city halls around North Texas.

The state will not weigh nominations in a vacuum. It will weigh them against one another. The tracts that receive the benefit will be the ones whose sponsoring cities arrive with a clean demonstration that the tract qualifies under the new federal eligibility rules, documented local commitments such as council-approved tax incentives, economic development corporation participation and an identified project sponsor prepared to deploy capital in the first two years after designation. Much of North Texas is well-positioned to participate in this process. Cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Arlington have the staff, the standing relationships, and the institutional heft to command attention at the Capitol and the governmental infrastructure necessary to compete for the investment. Some of our suburban and exurban communities, however, do not have the necessary resources or preparation processes in place to fully capitalize on the opportunity. Smaller cities in the area, the ones now absorbing the region's growth in Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall and the outer reaches of Collin and Denton, have the qualifying tracts, the necessary developers, and are exactly the kinds of communities the Opportunity Zone program is intended to support. But, they do not often have the bandwidth to assemble a competitive nomination in six weeks while doing everything else a small city has to do.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

National Stories

Trump to visit Walter Reed for the third checkup of his second term

President Donald Trump plans to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday for a medical and dental checkup, according to a White House official. This is the president’s third in-person doctor’s visit in a little over a year. He went to Walter Reed twice last year, in April and October. He also visited his dentist in West Palm Beach twice this year — first in January and then again earlier this month for a follow-up. Trump, who will turn 80 next month and is the oldest person to assume the presidency, routinely asserts that he is in excellent health, even as rumors about his health circulate. He made his promised vitality and energy a major part of his campaign for re-election, mocking his rival as “Sleepy Joe Biden.”

But moments of apparent drowsiness and a noticeably bruised hand, which the White House has blamed on him shaking hands and taking aspirin as a blood thinner, continue to spark questions. The president was revealed last year to have chronic venous insufficiency, after he was examined for mild swelling in his legs. Trump told The Wall Street Journal during an interview published in January that “aspirin is good for thinning out” his blood and he doesn’t want “thick blood pouring through [his] heart.” His October visit was initially described by the White House as a scheduled follow-up, but Trump later told reporters that he had undergone an MRI. The exam was eventually revealed to be a CT scan of his heart and abdomen. “President Trump agreed to meet with the staff and soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in October. In order to make the most of the President’s time at the hospital, we recommended he undergo another routine physical evaluation to ensure continued optimal health,” Dr. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, said in a statement to NBC News. “As part of that examination, we asked the President if he would undergo advanced imaging — either an MRI or CT Scan — to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues. The President agreed, and our team of consultants performed a CT Scan. As we revealed in the post-examination report, the advanced imaging was perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.”

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Trump thinks bigger on Mideast as Iran framework brings criticism

President Trump expanded the scope of his diplomatic ambition over the holiday weekend, seeking not only an end-of-war agreement with Iran but also a pact to normalize relations between Israel and the broader Middle East. The normalization push could give Trump a way to cast any limited cease-fire and shipping pact as a larger regional success story instead of a climbdown, after defense hawks in his own party warned that a bad deal could tarnish his legacy. Trump also threatened to restart major hostilities. “Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all—Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before—And nobody wants that!” Trump posted on social media on Monday.

Negotiations with Iran have yet to produce a final deal despite White House claims of major progress, while Middle Eastern partners such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are privately pushing back against Trump’s insistence that they join the Abraham Accords and establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Tensions rose on Monday as the U.S. sank two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by launching surface-to-air missiles at U.S. planes, prompting American attacks on missile launchers near Bandar Abbas, a U.S. official said. “U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” said Col. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the command. The Trump administration is working toward a potential agreement with Iran that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. easing or ending its blockade on Iranian shipping, potentially ending one of the most significant disruptions to global energy supplies in recent history. The talks, however, leave unresolved thornier questions, including whether Iran would agree to major limits or dismantlement of its nuclear program—a longstanding Trump demand—and whether Tehran would receive broader economic incentives as part of any cease-fire arrangement.

Read this article at Wall Street Journal - Subscribers Only

The stock market and consumer vibes are saying very different things

Americans are in a decidedly bad mood. The stock market is decidedly not. This isn’t how it usually works. Instead, high stock prices have historically been associated with happy consumers, and vice versa. Here’s a look at what’s going on. Just how bad is sentiment? American attitudes just hit a milestone of sorts. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its index of consumer sentiment fell to the lowest level ever recorded in 70-odd years of surveys. Sentiment was already low at the start of this year, but it fell sharply after the Iran war began at the end of February and sent gas prices sharply higher. Until this year, the previous lowest level was in June 2022, when inflation was running at the highest level in decades. Friday’s sentiment reading was 10% below even that number.

“Prices remain extremely high, labor markets have unambiguously weakened in the last four years, and now we’re in the middle of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer surveys for the University of Michigan. “I don’t think the fact that we’re lower than June 2022 should come as a surprise to anyone.” Just how good are stocks? But if you look at the stock market, you would never imagine sentiment to be that low. Also on Friday, the S&P 500 notched its eighth consecutive week higher, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record close for the second day in a row. And it isn’t just that stocks are high. They also appear really expensive. The S&P 500 is clocking a valuation of 40.8, as measured by its cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio. That’s a metric popularized by Yale University economist Robert Shiller, who won an economics Nobel in 2013 for his work on asset prices. The only other time it was above 40 in the 145 years of Shiller’s data was in the years just before and after the peak of the dot-com bubble in early 2000. The year 2000 was also when the Michigan sentiment index reached all-time highs. It has never approached even close to those levels since then.

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America’s schools face a reckoning on digital devices

Just a few years ago, America’s public schools were rushing to get every child a laptop. Los Angeles middle school teacher Anna Soffer remembers it well: “The idea was that technology is the future, so we need to put tech in every child’s hands.” Now, the conversation has flipped. After pouring billions of dollars into laptops, tablets and learning apps, many schools are facing a digital reckoning. Classrooms have become saturated with screens, and a growing number of parents, teachers and school districts are saying it is time to scale back. “The Chromebook is just a world of distraction,” says Soffer, who teaches 6th?grade English and history. She favors pen-and-paper assignments but is required to use laptops and online apps for certain activities. “Every day, I’m battling, ’Who would you rather listen to, Ms. Soffer or Minecraft?’”

The Los Angeles Unified School District, where Soffer teaches, recently became the first major school district to say it will stop giving devices to its youngest students. It is part of a new screen-time policy taking effect in the fall across the country’s second-largest school system. A sweeping resolution passed last month by the Los Angeles school board requires the district to eliminate devices until second grade; set daily and weekly screen limits for all higher grades; block YouTube on school devices; and ban the use of devices at lunch and recess in elementary and middle school. The district will also audit its education technology contracts, which the teachers union says amount to $1.6 billion. The Los Angeles crackdown is adding momentum to calls for reform emerging around the country. In many cases, parents lobbied a few years ago for school cellphone bans, which have now become the norm. Realizing phones weren’t the only classroom distraction, they pivoted to a new target: school-issued devices.

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Trump Tower in Georgia to be built on land part-owned by son of US sanctions-hit leader

A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records. The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu. According to official records, the Fund Cartu is solely owned by Cartu Group JSC which, in turn, is 35% owned by Uta Ivanishvili, the eldest son of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire politician who is honorary chair of Georgia’s ruling party.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely recognised as the de facto leader of the Georgian government, was put under US sanctions by the Biden administration in 2024 for “undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”. Uta Ivanishvili, who is not under sanctions, owned 100% of Cartu Group JSC until 2024 but reduced his shareholding to 35% when his father, who is Georgia’s richest man, was subjected to US economic restrictions. It is not possible to identify the remaining 65% ownership of Cartu Group JSC today, as individual shareholdings of under 5% can be held anonymously. Under the sanctions regime, US citizens are prohibited from conducting business, processing payments, or providing services to Bidzina Ivanishvili personally without authorisation but there is an exemption relating to businesses controlled by him.

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How business casual blew up the Libertarian National Convention

Live free or die, but would it kill you to wear a tie? That was the essence of Ben Weir’s plea ahead of the biennial Libertarian National Convention in Grand Rapids, Mich. In a May 15 post on X, Weir, 36, declared that he’d had it with the wacky costumes, which have long been a staple of political party conventions but seem particularly popular among do-what-thou-wilt libertarians. No more using a boot for headwear, as one convention mainstay named Vermin Supreme did. No more see-through clothing to promote government transparency. Weir, who is running for Merrimack County sheriff in New Hampshire and couldn’t attend the convention, wrote that he was calling on the party’s national committee to establish “a baseline professional dress standard for participation in official proceedings.” His proposal called for business casual attire, neat facial hair and closed-toe shoes.

Perhaps the two major parties can allow their members to deviate from business casual, since they control the overwhelming majority of elected offices. A Republican or Democrat in a Dr. Seuss costume isn’t going to inadvertently hand the White House to the U.S. Pirate Party (which, yes, is real). Third parties don’t have that luxury. “We’ve been a party for over 50 years and we’ve never gotten a single federal candidate elected,” said Weir, who describes himself as a “punk/alternative guy” with tattoos and a nose ring. He isn’t against personal style, in other words. But when the biggest news out of your convention is a very big guy in a very small thong, your base probably won’t grow much. “I think a lot of libertarians are only libertarians because it gives them the mental freedom pass to break rules and be as crazy as they want to be,” Weir said. He’d rather the party focus on ideas that could appeal to swaths of Americans, such as abolishing taxation and expanding personal liberties.

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Pope Leo compares AI threat to biblical ‘Tower of Babel’

Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence “threatens to normalize an anti-human vision” and said that the concentration of immense digital power in the hands of a few private actors must be countered. The pontiff’s encyclical letter—a text that is poised to define Leo’s papacy—reads like a sharp warning to Silicon Valley executives and humanity more broadly about the future of civilization as new technologies rapidly advance. The risk, he said, is that humans will be reduced “to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.” Leo used two biblical images to describe the choice humanity faces. “The primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem,” he wrote. In the Bible, the Tower of Babel symbolizes a top-down, grandiose project where decisions are driven by pride, profit and a push for homogenization, the pope suggested in his text. In the rebuilding of Jerusalem, diverse people worked together to rebuild the ruined walls and established a fraternal coexistence within them, he added.

Leo’s encyclical has been long-awaited by policymakers, business leaders and different faith groups who see the Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination, as a source of ethical guidance on tech policy. In so doing, the pontiff is specifically calling out the private actors who are building the AI systems that will transform society. “Leo sees the challenge of AI as a choice about its design, and about who gets to make those choices,” said Vincent Miller, a professor of theology at the University of Dayton, Ohio. The encyclical is inspired by the church’s thinking about what it means to be human, and draws on 2,000 years of moral and social teachings. It is also the product of a decadelong dialogue between the Vatican and Silicon Valley on the ethical and social challenges posed by AI. Conversations with scientists, political leaders and teachers led Leo to a disturbing conviction, the pontiff said Monday. “Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed, freed from the logic that turned it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,” he said. “It must be at the service of all, and of the common good.” At the presentation of the encyclical, Leo was accompanied by Christopher Olah, a co-founder and safety researcher at AI firm Anthropic, which has tried to position itself as a proponent of AI safety. It is a central player in the AI landscape, showing rapid growth in its business and emerging as a flashpoint on questions of AI safety and national security.

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Lead Stories

Sen. Ted Cruz says Blanche faced "full-on revolt" over "anti-weaponization fund" in meeting with GOP senators

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said a two-hour meeting Thursday with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about the Justice Department's new "anti-weaponization fund" was "one of the roughest meetings I've seen in my entire time in the Senate." "There were fireworks at an epic level," Cruz said Friday on his podcast. "Fiery does not begin to cut it." Blanche was dispatched to the Capitol to try and convince skeptical Republican lawmakers to drop their opposition to the nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who claim they were politically persecuted. The announcement of the fund — part of a settlement to resolve President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS — came as senators prepared to vote on a reconciliation package to fund border security and immigration enforcement through the end of Mr. Trump's term.

The reconciliation measure is unrelated to the Justice Department fund, but Democrats vowed to force votes on amendments targeting the fund during the Senate's vote-a-rama on the funding package, which was expected to begin Thursday. Instead, lawmakers canceled votes after the Blanche meeting and went home for the Memorial Day recess. "We were going to lose those amendment votes because of the 40-plus Republicans in the room, I'd say half of them were ready to vote with the Democrats on this," Cruz said. "If the judgment fund had not been announced this week, we would be right now on the Senate floor, we'd be funding border security." "We will see the administration announcing at a minimum a modification of this, because if they don't, they've got a full-on revolt in the Senate," he added. Cruz said about 45 of the 53 Senate Republicans were attendance and "at least half of them were blasting the attorney general and they were pissed." "They were screaming at the acting attorney general," he said. "There were multiple senators who were yelling at the attorney general — and it was not calm, it was yelling — and they were saying this feels like self-dealing."

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Can John Cornyn overcome Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton?

As he approaches perhaps the most anxious election night of his long political career, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn might be hoping for a little magic from the ghost of Harry Truman. Cornyn, a four-term incumbent who previously served as Texas attorney general and on the state Supreme Court, has trailed narrowly in most polls leading up to Tuesday's Republican Senate primary runoff. But since President Donald Trump's eleventh-hour endorsement of rival Ken Paxton last week, many pundits have all but written off Cornyn's chances of advancing to the general election. And that's where the Truman comparison comes in. Students of political history will recall that in the 1948 election, the plainspoken man from Missouri who ascended to the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt three and a half years earlier was seen as heading for certain defeat against Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican governor of New York.

Truman had limped into the fall campaign that year leading a fractured Democratic Party. The progressive wing, believing Truman was an unworthy heir to FDR's New Deal, rallied behind the independent candidacy of former Vice President Henry Wallace, who had been dumped from Roosevelt's ticket in 1944. The segregationists who dominated the Southern Democrats at the time formed what became known as the Dixiecrats and nominated U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. So consistent was the polling that Truman could not win with his party so badly split that pollsters shut down their operations in the campaign's closing weeks. And so confident was at least one big-city newspaper, the Chicago Daily Tribune, that the Republican candidate would romp to victory, it published a front-page, all-caps banner headline reading "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" for its next-day edition before nearly enough of the votes had been tallied. That headline — just like the pollsters, pundits and all the rest — was dead wrong. And the iconic photo of the beaming Truman holding aloft perhaps the most famous newspaper blunder in American journalism endures nearly 78 years later as a reminder of the last glimmer of hope for every struggling politician who has ever prayed for an election-night miracle.

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Can U.S. Rep. Chip Roy make a comeback in his uphill Attorney General race?

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) seemed cooked after finishing a distant second in the GOP’s Attorney General primary. But a late infusion of campaign cash has suddenly pulled his race back online, sending Roy into overdrive as he tries to win back old supporters. In the final stretch of his Republican primary runoff, the 53-year-old has flown in conservative leaders to speak on his behalf, argued with social media influencers who’ve attacked his conservative credentials, and even launched TV ads defending his relationship with President Donald Trump. “There’s a lot of lies being told about our record, a lot of positions being distorted,” Roy told roughly two dozen supporters outside Brook Hollow Library on Monday — part of a breakneck campaign tour that could be his last.

It’s a comeback effort even Roy once viewed as impossible. He gave up a safe red congressional seat to run for Attorney General and weathered major attacks from self-funding state Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), who spent an astounding $15 million on his campaign and took 39% of the vote to Roy’s 32%. The San Antonio Report’s 2026 Republican Primary Runoff Voter Guide Yet if Roy’s internal polling is correct, he told supporters Monday, the May 26 runoff election is now in a dead heat. “We just came out of the field [Sunday] night. It’s moving, in a good way,” Roy said. “All the trends are in the right direction. We just have to get the truth out there about our record.” Middleton’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

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Rubio fends off conservative critics of Iran deal as agreement appears imminent

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s push for a deal to end the war with Iran, even as it came under attack from Republican hawks urging the United States to restart hostilities against Tehran. “There is no one who has been stronger on this issue than President Trump,” Rubio said, while noting he expects “some good news” in the coming hours regarding a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed in response to the U.S.-Israel war. Rubio spoke at a news conference in India’s capital. When asked about criticisms from Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo on social media, Rubio said the president’s commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon “shouldn’t be questioned by anybody.”

“The idea that somehow this president … is going to somehow agree to a deal that ultimately winds up putting Iran in a stronger position when it comes to nuclear ambitions is absurd,” Rubio said. The prospect of a deal, which Trump said Saturday was in the final stages of negotiations, has created a major rift among Trump’s supporters in a conflict that has already seen the MAGA movement splinter along fault lines of pro-Israel hawks and conservative doves. Pompeo criticized the emerging deal as an agreement to “pay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world,” a reference to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and weapons of mass destruction. The criticism prompted an immediate retort from senior White House official Steven Cheung on X, who said Pompeo “should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals.” Graham said on X that a deal could make Iran “more powerful over time,” and Cruz said he was “deeply concerned” that a deal to reopen the strait in exchange for economic sanctions relief would be a “disastrous mistake.”

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Democratic chair faces calls to quit over ‘shambles’ of election autopsy release

Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, is facing mounting calls to resign over his shambolic handling of an autopsy report on Kamala Harris’s defeat by Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Martin suppressed the document for months before finally bowing to internal pressure and releasing it on Thursday. The slapdash nature of the autopsy, omitting Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second term and failing to mention the words “Gaza” or “Israel”, has only deepened a crisis of confidence in his leadership. Democratic members of Congress have called for Martin to stand down. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts told the Axios news site: “He should resign,” because of “his lack of leadership”. Moulton added that it is “utterly nuts it took us this long to release the autopsy”.

Marc Veasey of Texas sounded an alarm before the midterm elections, telling Semafor: “There doesn’t seem to be a plan to turn things around and the clock is ticking. November is literally around the corner … I believe it’s time for him to move on.” Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, appearing on the Thom Hartmann Program, said in response to a caller who argued that Martin should go: “I agree … Having what we have right now is not doing it.” Other voices have joined the chorus. Tommy Vietor, a former spokesperson for Barack Obama, posted on X: “If he’d done this in the first place and not lied about why it hadn’t been released, things might be different. As it stands, this raises more questions about his judgment, candor and ability to lead the DNC.” Emily Amick, a Democratic strategist and former counsel to Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, said in a statement: “Ken Martin has lost the confidence of the party and voters across the country who have been moving away from the Democratic party cycle after cycle. I question how we can move forward with him at the helm of the presidential primary process without that trust.”

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State Stories

Bush Airport to be 1 of 3 U.S. entry points for travelers from certain countries amid Ebola outbreak

Houston’s Bush Airport has been designated as one of three airports authorized to screen passengers entering the U.S. from certain African countries as the Ebola outbreak spreads. Bush Airport and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport will join Dulles International Airport as the only entry points for passengers who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan within the last 21 days. “This requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens and LPRs (lawful permanent residents), who were present in those countries,” according to a notice from the U.S. Department of State. Bush Airport can begin accepting those passengers on flights departing after 10:59 p.m. Houston time on Tuesday, May 26. For Atlanta, the requirement begins for flights departing Friday night, May 22.

Both Houston and Atlanta are host cities for the World Cup, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s team is expected to have base camps in both cities. The DRC’s first match in Houston is scheduled for June 17. Houston health officials and infectious disease experts are closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak ahead of the World Cup. This outbreak involves a rarer strain of Ebola that doctors say behaves differently from more common forms of the virus. The concern in Houston stems from the fact that the DR Congo national soccer team is expected to use Houston as its home base during the FIFA World Cup, with players, staff and fans anticipated to spend several weeks in the city. Dr. John McCullers, dean of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston, said the virus is highly deadly but does not spread easily. “It’s one of those infectious diseases that’s really, really deadly, but it’s also harder to get because you have to have really direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person,” McCullers said.

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One number from SpaceX’s pre-IPO disclosures reveals just how fragile this business really is

Buried inside SpaceX's pre-IPO disclosures is a single percentage that should make every investor lining up for the $75 billion June 2026 Nasdaq debut pause. It's a quieter number tucked into a concentration-of-risk footnote, well away from the headline revenue figure and the backlog, and it reframes the entire bull case. In 2025, a single customer (the U.S. government) accounted for 20.9% of consolidated revenue. The year before, it was 24.2%. The year before that, 25.2%. The disclosure adds bluntly: "No other customers represented more than 10% of consolidated revenue." Against $18,674 million in 2025 revenue, roughly one in every five dollars flows from federal agencies whose budgets are written in a town where priorities shift every two years.

SpaceX's own risk language is unsparing. The company warns that the government can unilaterally "declare us ineligible to receive new contracts; terminate existing contracts at its convenience and without advance notice; reduce the scope and value of existing contracts; audit our contract-related costs and fees, including allocated indirect costs; and revoke required security clearances." Then the political layer: "The current political environment in the United States is highly polarized, and shifts in the composition of the U.S. Congress or changes in the presidential administration can result in significant changes in government spending priorities." Translation: a roughly $4 billion revenue stream sits on a switch that politicians can flip. The Federal Acquisition Regulation and DFARS compliance regime tightens the screws further. SpaceX concedes that noncompliance "could result in suspension of payments, termination of contracts, civil or criminal penalties, or exclusion from future government contracting opportunities." Washington's fiscal picture is a headwind. The federal deficit hit $1.77 trillion in fiscal year 2025. Real GNP growth has decelerated from 5.0% in Q2 2025 to 1.8% by Q3 2025. When growth slows and deficits balloon, discretionary contracting is the first thing to feel the squeeze.

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Growth in Texas' medicinal cannabis program slower than expected

Texas’ medicinal cannabis program is growing at a steady clip after lawmakers expanded it last year to include more patient conditions and dispensaries. Roughly 22,000 new patients have enrolled between September and April, bringing the program’s patients up to nearly 150,000, according to state data. Chronic pain, by far the most common newly eligible condition, is likely driving most of that growth, according to several doctors and business owners. But the overall trendline hasn’t spiked as much as supporters had forecast, at least so far. The Department of Public Safety is still finalizing licenses that would more than triple the number of dispensaries in the state. And the agency has yet to approve more satellite retail stores and new product formulations that would allow patients to intake high levels of THC.

“It didn’t accelerate the way it should have,” said Susan Hays, a lawyer who served on the DPS’ now-disbanded working group focused on medicinal cannabis. “That’s because the program’s not accessible, and it’s still expensive.” Texas’ medicinal marijuana program launched over a decade ago, but has struggled to gain traction and compete against the state’s booming, yet largely unregulated, hemp-derived THC market. In June 2025, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law the largest expansion of the Texas Compassionate Use Program to date, which added more eligible medical conditions, while also expanding the amount of allowable THC and the number of licensed dispensaries from three to 15. The changes, largely pushed by veterans groups, took effect in September. After months of deliberation, DPS issued 12 new conditional licenses in April and May for companies to begin operating in farther-flung areas of the state, where medicinal cannabis has largely been inaccessible. But those locations could take months or even years to become operational.

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A year after the flood, Kerr County quietly opens the summer season

On July 4, Vinny Mifsud was only halfway through his first season running GlowRow kayak tours from his property at the foot of the Sidney Baker Bridge, in Kerrville. His small, clear, fiberglass watercraft each light up with a differently colored LED strip, so that the guided trips up and down the Guadalupe River look like something between a rave and a regatta. Last summer, on nights when Louise Hays Park was full, kids often ran to the river to wave and watch them paddle by, Mifsud said. On the night of the deadly July flood, Mifsud locked up the trailer full of kayaks and oars and went back to his house, half an hour away, in Pipe Creek. The next morning, the kayaks, his business, and seemingly everything in a thirty-mile stretch was gone. Mifsud quickly turned his property over to the local and out-of-town fire departments that sent trucks and search and rescue teams. Like the rest of Kerrville, his focus was on the larger recovery, helping out where needed with cleanups, not rushing back to business as usual. It wasn’t until November that Mifsud ventured back onto the water, taking a tentative paddle along the old GlowRow route to see what was navigable. Along the way he passed a firefighter he recognized from the search and rescue teams.

The whole town, whose economy depends on the influx of summer crowds drawn by campgrounds and retreat centers, had been watching and waiting as delays from lawsuits, petitions, and inaccessible FEMA data during the 75-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown pushed the licensing for camps across the state down to the wire. Then, in early May, after the state announced that it would waive the cost-prohibitive requirement that camps have fiber-optic backup for their communication systems, the first camps began to get word that their licenses had been approved. The printing began. Camp would go on, for most. The summer tourist season in Kerr County ordinarily generates $102 million, 720 local jobs, and $13 million in combined federal, state, and county tax revenue, according to an economic analysis by Texas A&M’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center. On top of all of the horrific tragedies last year, the area suffered the loss of its economy, compounded by the $1.1 billion in direct damage across the Central Texas region. The analysis estimated that a similar decline in visitation during 2026 would result in a loss of between 26 and 106 tourism jobs, 5 and 22 jobs in supporting industries, and 36 and 144 jobs in other sectors as a result of lower spending by workers. The impact, and the continued effort it will take to bring Kerr County back to health, has been daunting, said Todd Bock, executive director of Kerr Economic Development Corporation. “It’s larger in scope than any of us anticipated.”

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El Paso proposal: No tax breaks, incentives for future data centers within city

No tax breaks or incentives for future data centers. That’s the basic recommendation from city staffers who in the coming weeks will present proposed policies to guide how the city should manage new data centers within its jurisdiction. A nearly 40-page policy memo obtained by El Paso Matters proposes the city establish binding “community benefit agreements” rather than offer incentive deals. Other rules would require a minimum distance between data centers and residential neighborhoods or ecological sites, and also require data centers to obtain a new kind of permit that would require a public process and more oversight. In a 5-3 vote, the City Council in February directed city staff to develop the framework. The proposed policies, which echo the backlash and public discontent with data center developments, suggest data centers could have negative environmental effects such as increased air pollution that run counter to the climate action plan the city adopted earlier this year.

“Hyperscale data centers like the one Meta is constructing in the Northeast, and the one recently announced at Ft. Bliss, will have a significant negative impact on (greenhouse gas) emissions, co-pollutants and overall air quality,” reads the policy document. The city estimated electricity generation to power data centers would increase the city’s carbon dioxide emissions by 21% compared with a 2019 baseline. The policy proposals include: Require AI data centers to obtain a special use permit rather than the “by right” permit now required. The special permit will require public disclosure and direct City Council oversight, as well as standards around distance from residential housing. Require data center developers to submit detailed plans covering their facility’s projected water and energy use, emissions, noise and water treatment. It also would establish performance standards and mandate developers use the most efficient cooling technologies to limit water consumption. Pause on any tax incentives for AI data centers and instead prioritize community benefit agreements that require legally binding commitments from developers to fund certain community projects, workforce education or neighborhood programs. Seek greater oversight and transparency of data centers’ water and energy usage and ensure costs aren’t shifted to existing utility ratepayers.

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Colony Ridge developers sue Alex Jones for defamation over social media video

The developers of a Houston-area residential community are suing far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for defamation, after comments he made in a February video in which he called the community a "mortgage scam" that was "occupied" by immigrants without legal status, according to a new lawsuit. The community, called Colony Ridge, filed the lawsuit this week in Liberty County, accusing Jones and Pete Chambers, who also spoke in the video, of disparaging their business and defaming them.

The allegations stem from a Feb. 6 video shared on X, which was titled "TEXAS TREASON ALERT," according to the lawsuit. The video was also shared on Infowars and Banned.Video, websites Jones operated until they were bought by The Onion and shut down earlier this month, as well as on TikTok. In the video, Chambers stated Colony Ridge was known as "la Colonia" and that it was "occupied" by thousands of immigrants without legal status, according to the lawsuit. Jones and Chambers also allegedly called the development "a mortgage scam." "Colony Ridge is about the people. We take seriously our responsibility to stand up for our residents and our community," Colony Ridge CEO John Harris said in a statement provided to Houston Public Media. “When powerful media figures knowingly spread lies about a community, there must be accountability. We will not sit by while Alex Jones, Pete Chambers, and Infowars use our residents as props in a disinformation campaign. The record must be corrected, and those responsible must answer for the real harm they have caused.”

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Texas Public Radio and San Antonio Report to combine operations

Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Report will combine operations beginning July 1, creating what leaders say will be the largest nonprofit newsroom in San Antonio’s history. The two organizations announced the move as local journalism faces financial pressure, shrinking newsroom staffs and major changes in how audiences get news. Under the plan, the San Antonio Report’s assets will be donated to Texas Public Radio, while both organizations continue to publish on their separate websites and platforms for now. TPR and San Antonio Report leaders said the goal is to share resources, expand coverage and reach more people across the San Antonio region.

Together, the newsrooms are expected to include about 31 journalists, which would be the most either organization has ever had. San Antonio Report publisher and CEO Angie Mock is expected to move into a transformational gifts role for one year. Editor-in-Chief Leigh Munsil will become senior vice president of news and editor-in-chief across both news teams. TPR President and CEO Ashley Alvarado said there is no planned consolidation of roles, though leaders will evaluate how positions fit the combined organization over time. The organizations say they have raised $1.4 million from local donors and philanthropic groups to support expanded digital operations and reporting capacity. The announcement comes as public media and nonprofit news organizations nationwide are looking for more sustainable business models. TPR and San Antonio Report leaders framed the combination as a growth strategy, not just a response to financial stress.

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Dallas Mavericks win control of American Airlines Center in ongoing legal dispute with Stars

The Dallas Mavericks were awarded full control over the American Airlines Center in a dispute with the Dallas Stars over arena maintenance and improvements — a decision the hockey team has already appealed. In a final judgment issued Wednesday, Dallas Business Court Judge Bill Whitehill found that the Stars had moved their headquarters to Frisco, giving the Dallas Sports Group — which has a controlling interest in the Mavericks — the contractual right to buy out the Stars' ownership interests in the American Airlines Center and fully control the arena. The Stars immediately appealed Whitehill’s ruling to the Fifteenth Court of Appeals. The team declined to comment. KERA News has reached out to the Mavericks and the American Airlines Center for comment and will update this story with any response.

Both of the teams' leases at the arena end in 2031, but the Stars currently practice at the Comerica Center in Frisco. In their suit filed in October, the Mavericks argued the Stars had moved their headquarters to Frisco in violation of the teams’ contract agreement — which requires the hockey team’s principal headquarters to be in Dallas — meaning the Mavericks could take over the arena. The Stars countersued, arguing the team's corporate and executive offices are still principally located in Dallas. The team also said only the city of Dallas, which owns the American Airlines Center, has the legal right to declare that the Stars have breached their contract, not the Mavericks. Both the Stars and the Mavericks are eyeing new arenas to potentially call home once their lease ends. The city of Dallas confirmed in February the Stars are in talks to potentially move to The Shops at Willowbend in Plano, but no formal offer has been made. Dallas City Manager Kimberly Tolbert confirmed in March she met with both teams about their “futures in Dallas” amid rumors that the Mavericks were looking to move to the Dallas City Hall site, the future of which is also undecided.

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Waymo pauses robotaxi service in Dallas amid weather, safety concerns

Dallas residents won't be seeing the white, camera-laden driverless robotaxis on the city's streets anymore — for now. The company Waymo said it's temporarily pausing its driverless rideshare service in Dallas after concerns over severe weather and freeway access. “We are committed to being good neighbors for our riders and our communities," a Waymo spokesperson said in a written statement Friday. "As part of that commitment, we make proactive decisions including temporarily pausing aspects of our service." The company cited flash floods in some areas of Texas, Atlanta and Nashville and said it's working to make improvements in those areas.

The decision comes just three months after the service launched in Dallas. Since the company began operating in various U.S. cities over the past year, there have been safety concerns over the autonomous technology. The company had filed a software recall late last year after reports that the robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in Austin and other cities, prompting an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. There have also been reports of the robotaxis blocking traffic during emergencies, such as during a shooting in Austin in April. Waymo told KERA it plans to restart operations in Dallas only when it's safe to do so. "We know riders count on us to get around, and we appreciate their patience as we work to get them where they’re going safely and reliably,” the spokesperson said.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: Dallas mayor grows staff while city looks for budget cuts

Mayor Eric Johnson recently scolded his City Council colleagues via newsletter for paying “lip service to fiscal responsibility” during the year while voting “for bloat when the time comes.” He patted himself on the back with a story about a time in 2020 when he pushed to “defund the bureaucracy.” His comments come on the back of a $33 million shortfall in the city budget, and, in other circumstances, would deserve at least measured support. But if Johnson wants to criticize others, he should first address the bloat in his own office. That would lend credibility to his demands of others. Going back to the days of Mayor Laura Miller in the 2000s, the mayor’s office has generally had a staff of four to five people, plus the occasional intern and part-timers. We know this from talking to City Hall insiders and from browsing archival webpages. Miller and her successors, Tom Leppert and Mike Rawlings, listed their staffers’ names and contact information.

But not Johnson. Not a single staffer is listed on his webpage. We had to file an open records request to find out he has seven employees in his office. Their annual salaries add up to more than $720,000, a steep sum for an office that doesn’t want to be found — not by the public or by this newspaper. Our emails to the mayor’s staff almost always go unreturned, and we know that even VIPs can struggle to get a hold of him. Council support staff technically report to the city manager’s office, but the Dallas mayor and council members usually select their aides. The mayor’s chief of staff, Alheli Garza, joined his office in 2019, when Johnson became mayor. She was a junior aide back then. Garza was promoted to chief of staff four years later, and as of May 2025, her annual salary was about $129,000, which was comparable to that of Johnson’s two previous chiefs of staff. Today, however, Garza’s paychecks come out to $167,769 annually — a whopping 29% bump year over year. “The chief of staff salary is based on the operational needs and scope of work for this critical position within the mayor’s office,” a city spokesman told us in an email. The next highest-paid position in the mayor’s office is his chief of policy and communications. Online records show that the city had posted that job by May 1 of last year, if not earlier. The top of the salary range advertised for the position was about $129,000, although the posting stated that this was a “starting salary range.” That’s a novel way to say “please ask us for more taxpayer money.”

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'This affects all of us': Rising costs push Texas farmers, families to the brink ahead of primary runoff

One Central Texas organization says rising farming costs and food insecurity are putting pressure on both farmers and families ahead of the upcoming primary runoff election. ‘This affects all of us’: Rising costs push Texas farmers, families to the brink ahead of primary runoff World Hunger Relief Executive Director Beth Ferguson said the impact of rising fuel, transportation and seed costs extends far beyond farms and into grocery stores and households across Central Texas. “When farmers are not able to produce because gas prices are through the roof or seed prices are skyrocketing because transportation costs are going so high, that trickles down into our grocery stores and translates into families,” Ferguson said. Ferguson said many families are already struggling with high grocery prices and limited access to food. “This is an issue that affects all of us. When farmers can’t produce, we don’t have food in the grocery store,” Ferguson said.

She said local farmers need more support from state and federal leaders, especially through programs tied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We’re going to have to really figure out how we can help small farmers and local farmers instead of just helping line the pockets of these big conglomerates that are taking over our farming industry,” Ferguson said. With early voting underway, Ferguson encouraged voters to research where candidates stand on agriculture and food access issues before heading to the polls. “Know who you’re voting for. Don’t assume just because you voted one way or another in the past that that is going to be a great way to vote this year,” Ferguson said. World Hunger Relief also encourages community members to support local farmers and share how rising costs are affecting their families and daily lives.

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National Stories

Elise Stefanik cozied up to Trump. Where does she go next?

In many ways, the book party promoting Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities — the new tome authored by Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik — has all the usual trappings. There’s a pile of books at the entrance of the room. Attendees are eagerly snapping up copies in hopes of snaring the author’s autograph. And there is the chitchat of friends and casual acquaintances, all the while keeping an eye out for someone more interesting or useful to talk with. But this isn’t your typical Washington book party. For starters, the venue isn’t a tweedy bookstore but a glossy trade association building just blocks from the Capitol. Here, the vibe is more like a high end hotel conference room than a literary salon. Waiters circulate among the crowd, passing around plates of hors d’oeuvres. Attendees — among them congressional colleagues, lobbyists and a bevy of former staffers and aides — queue up at the open bar in the back of the room where mid- to top-shelf liquor is being served. And, in a striking departure from the average book party, where the goal is to boost sales, copies of Poison Ivies are free for the taking.

Speaking about the premise of her book, Stefanik says the wave of post-October 7 antisemitism signals “a turning point in American higher education, and it highlights the need for moral clarity.” She praises Trump: “We have an administration that is holding these universities accountable.” Later, in an interview with POLITICO, Stefanik made clear that she would not rule out a future bid for any office and took pains to tout her status within the New York GOP. She describes herself as “the New York Republican who has earned and is very grateful for the strongest fundraising apparatus, strongest grassroots apparatus, strongest political record, highest turnout of any congressional district in New York State.” If anyone thought the low profile Stefanik has kept in recent months since she decided not to pursue a gubernatorial bid in New York means she’s done with politics, the book party demonstrates that’s not the case. Still one of the youngest people ever to serve in congressional leadership, she has pivoted her career twice already, and it doesn’t seem like she’s ready to join the K Street-flavored crowd packing the room for her. The venue. The canapes. The open bar. It’s not quite a fundraiser but it’s certainly not an opportunity to flog books. Instead, it’s a gathering of allies and loyalists. Stefanik may only be focused at the moment on finishing atop the New York Times best sellers list but she doesn’t seem like someone whose ambitions are quite that limited. She might be leaving Congress but, it seems, she’s still running for something.

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A massacre moved him to guard a mosque. He died in its defense.

Every morning, before he headed to work across town as a security guard at the Islamic Center of San Diego, Amin Abdullah would arrive at a tiny, worn-down mosque. Just as he would at his job, he swept the perimeter, using a flashlight to check every corner. And then he would go inside and pray, said his friend Khalid Alexander. Mr. Abdullah, who was a Muslim convert, felt he had a calling as a security guard at the Islamic Center of San Diego after he was pained by the terrorist attacks against the Muslim community in Christchurch, New Zealand. On Monday, Mr. Abdullah was killed in service of that calling, protecting the children inside the Islamic Center when terror arrived at its door. “Keeping people safe in the spaces he was in was always his top priority,” Mr. Alexander said. “He died exactly the way he would have wanted to,” the friend added.

Two other community members were killed, and were identified by several Muslim organizations on Tuesday as Mansour Kaziha, the manager of the mosque store and the center’s caretaker; and Nader Awad, a worshiper who rushed to the center to help. The authorities said the three victims were shot and killed on Monday by two teenagers, who later killed themselves in a vehicle blocks away. The killings at the mosque were being investigated as a hate crime and set off new concerns of Islamophobia in the United States. The attack began when both suspects ran past Mr. Abdullah, the security guard, to get into the Islamic center on Monday, and they most likely did not see him there initially, said Chief Scott Wahl of the San Diego Police Department at a news conference on Tuesday. Once Mr. Abdullah saw the gunmen, he quickly reached for his radio and ordered a lockdown. Then, he shot at both gunmen. The gunmen returned fire at Mr. Abdullah, and Chief Wahl said that he “continued to engage in a gun battle with the two suspects.” “His actions — without a doubt — delayed, distracted and ultimately deterred these two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque, where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects,” Chief Wahl said. “Tragically, he died in that gun battle.”

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Trump drops shocking violent AI vid showing assault on Late Show Host Stephen Colbert — so did his White House

President Donald Trump dropped a violent Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated video depicting an assault on ousted Late Show host Stephen Colbert — which was also distributed by the official White House X/Twitter account. The Late Show ended its run next week, a cancellation that was announced last year just days after Colbert made a particularly harsh criticism of CBS and Trump. On Thursday night, the show ended with an emotional finale that concluded with Colbert and rock legend Paul McCartney turning out the lights in the Ed Sullivan Theater. Trump himself has taken credit for Colbert’s cancellation, along with a raft of other media moves, and was quick to celebrate the end with a late-night attack following the show. He wrote “Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”

But Trump wasn’t done. On Friday night, he posted a video on his Truth Social account that featured a fake Late Show clip of Colbert welcoming the audience back from a commercial break, but then being assaulted by Trump. After throwing Colbert into a dumpster, the AI Trump does a discombobulated version of the trademark upper-body dance. The president also posted the video on his X/Twitter account, and the White House followed suit minutes later. Their post carried the caption “Bye-bye ??.” Earlier, on Friday morning, Trump posted another attack on Colbert that carried a threat to other hosts and used the language of death. “Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the “Beginning of the End” for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts. Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote. This imagery comes as Trump and his government are attempting to jail former FBI Director James Comey for posting a photograph of seashells forming the numerical phrase “86 47,” which the Trump DOJ is claiming constituted a threat on the president’s life.

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CBS News boss 'furious' over Anderson Cooper's '60 Minutes' farewell: report

Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief at CBS News, apparently wasn’t feeling all the feels of Anderson Cooper’s emotional farewell from “60 Minutes” last week. The correspondent signed off for good after 20 years, nearly crying as he said “I’m Anderson Cooper” for the final time in a “60 Minutes Overtime” segment on YouTube. But he also expressed hope that the venerable news show would uphold its “independence” ? which has been seriously disputed as CBS News leans right under Weiss. That’s what got the new boss “furious” and feeling “blindsided” after she wasn’t given a heads-up on his remarks, people familiar with the matter told Status.

“I hope ‘60 Minutes’ remains ‘60 Minutes,’” Cooper said. “There’s very few things that have been around for as long as ‘60 Minutes’ has, and maintain the quality that it has. ... I think the independence of ‘60 Minutes’ has been critical. The trust it has with viewers is critical to the success of ‘60 Minutes.’” Top producer Bill Owens reportedly departed due to interference, and correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi vented after Weiss pulled a segment on a notorious prison where migrants were sent by the Trump administration. (It later aired.) “In my view, it was the result of a more aggressive contagion: the spread of corporate meddling and editorial fear. It’s hard to watch,” Alfonsi said. HuffPost reached out to Weiss and CBS News for comment.

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Justice Department scrubs its website of news releases about Jan. 6 defendants

The Department of Justice is acknowledging it has removed from its website news releases about criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, calling the information about the prosecutions “partisan propaganda.” The purge of news releases documenting criminal charges, convictions and sentencings is the latest step by the Trump administration to dramatically rewrite the history of the assault on the Capitol, when hundreds of supporters of Republican President Donald Trump stormed the building in an effort to halt the congressional certification of his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump, on his first day back in office in January 2025, pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes during the Capitol assault, including those convicted of attacking officers with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and crutch. On Monday, the Justice Department announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund meant to compensate Trump allies who feel they were unjustly investigated and prosecuted. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has not ruled out that rioters convicted of violence will be eligible for payouts, prompting bipartisan anger in Congress. After a journalist on Friday observed on the social media platform X that the Justice Department was “quietly” removing news releases on its website that were related to the Jan. 6 attack, including about a Texas man who pleaded guilty to assault and also faced separate state charges of soliciting a minor, the department responded through its “rapid response” account that there was “nothing ‘quiet’ about it.”

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Suspected gunman dead after exchanging fire with Secret Service near White House

A man is dead after exchanging gunfire with Secret Service officers just outside the White House complex early Saturday evening, the Secret Service said. The man, who was identified by a law enforcement official as 21-year-old Nasire Best, fired shots at 17th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, near the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, according to the Secret Service. “A preliminary investigation indicates that as the individual approached, he removed a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers,” Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. “Secret Service police officers returned fire, striking the suspect, who was transported to an area hospital, where he later died.” A bystander was also struck in the exchange of bullets, the Secret Service said, but it is unclear whether it was by the suspect or shots returned from officers.

Best previously had been charged with unlawful entry when he tried to enter the White House complex in July 2025, according to court records. Best walked through an exit turnstile lane in a restricted area and told officers “he was Jesus Christ and that he wanted to get arrested.” A law enforcement official familiar with the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, described Best as an emotionally disturbed person who was known to law enforcement. Officials did not detail the extent of the bystander’s injuries or outline the possible motivations behind the exchange of gunfire. No Secret Service personnel or White House staff were injured, and President Donald Trump, who was in the White House at the time, was not affected. In a post on social media afterward, Trump thanked the Secret Service and other law enforcement for their actions, noting that the incident came only a month after the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner. He argued that it showed how important it is “for all future Presidents, to get, what will be, the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C.” — likely a reference to his White House ballroom project, which is designed to include significant security features.

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Tulsi Gabbard out as DNI but Trump doesn’t tee up a confirmation fight

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is resigning from her post as director of national intelligence because of her husband’s cancer battle, President Donald Trump announced Friday. The commander in chief said Principal Deputy DNI Aaron Lukas would take over after Gabbard departs on June 30. Trump described Lukas as “highly respected.” Trump made the personnel announcement on his social media platform a few minutes before Reuters reported that the White House forced her to step down. The White House slammed that report, which was attributed to “a source familiar with the matter.” “As the President said, she is stepping aside to ensure that her husband becomes better than ever before,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle wrote on X. “Any suggestion that the White House forced her to resign over her husband’s health is slanderous.”

Trump cited her spouse’s poor health as the reason behind her exit. “Her wonderful husband, Abraham, has been recently diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, and she, rightfully, wants to be with him, bringing him back to good health as they currently fight a tough battle together,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I have no doubt he will soon be better than ever. Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her. Her highly respected Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Aaron Lukas, will serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence,” the president added. Gabbard, in her own comment on X, echoed Trump’s reasoning. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer,” she wrote. “He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.”

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With big decisions ahead, the Supreme Court collides with a testy Trump

Vice President JD Vance made an unannounced visit to the Supreme Court last week to attend a private dinner in a wood-paneled conference room with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and dozens of the chief justice’s former law clerks. Accompanying his wife Usha, who clerked for the chief justice nearly a decade ago, Mr. Vance’s visit was a social call, people familiar with the dinner said. But Mr. Vance’s friendly pop-by illustrated the awkward dance that has been underway between the Trump administration and the nation’s highest court, as the administration has at times appeared to woo the justices even as President Trump has repeatedly bullied and insulted them. With the court preparing to issue major rulings in the coming weeks that will determine the fate of key aspects of the president’s agenda, Mr. Trump has vacillated between combative and conciliatory in his treatment of the justices.

He has seemed ever aware and at times resentful of the critical role the justices play in determining the lawfulness of his policies, with the court representing perhaps the one force in American government truly able to thwart his agenda. At the heart of the tension: a president who appears to believe that justices, especially those he appointed, should be loyalists rather than independent actors in a separate, equal branch of government. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that the American people have “always valued President Trump’s ability to freely speak his mind and share his thoughts directly with them” — including about the court. The chief justice did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. Vance declined to comment. Mr. Trump was furious with the court after it invalidated his sweeping tariffs in February. He called a news conference to vent, criticizing individual justices as “fools and lap dogs” and saying his two nominees who voted against him were “an embarrassment to their families.” While past presidents have voiced disagreement and frustration with Supreme Court rulings, that kind of language and personal animosity has been unheard-of from a president.

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Lead Stories

The latest Paxton-Cornyn ad dustup is an ominous sign for the Texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he wants to end his campaign on a “positive” note. Sen. John Cornyn, however, is prepared to go down fighting. Paxton said Thursday he’s pulling his negative ads against Cornyn in the final days ahead of their bruising GOP primary for Texas’ Senate seat. The move reveals that the MAGA warrior, bolstered by President Donald Trump’s endorsement, is confident in his ability to clinch the Republican nomination. But Cornyn, who’s facing an uphill battle to keep his seat, responded that he will keep his own attacks coming, leaning into Paxton’s long trail of personal and political scandals. In a race that’s been defined by personal shots, the latest online dustup between the two underscores the difficult path forward for the Texas GOP after next week’s runoff election.

In a race that’s been defined by personal shots, the latest online dustup between the two underscores the difficult path forward for the Texas GOP after next week’s runoff election. The Paxton-Cornyn matchup has deepened divisions between the MAGA and establishment wings of the GOP, and the fighting between the two camps has gotten so ugly that some Republicans are fearful it will dampen turnout in the midterms, hurt down-ticket Republicans — and possibly cost them the seat. Paxton’s announcement came after Texas GOP Chair Abraham George, a fellow conservative hardliner, asked the candidates to move beyond their feud out of consideration of the fight ahead to keep the seat red. The attorney general, who has gone after Cornyn for being too old to continue serving in Congress, wrote on X that his campaign has “already changed our TV ad traffic starting today to ensure our campaign ends on a positive note and that we can focus on beating the leftist lunatic in the fall,” referring to Democratic nominee James Talarico. He called on Cornyn “to do the same for the good of our party. A Super PAC supporting Paxton, Lone Star Liberty, also announced Tuesday it was pulling its own negative ads.

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Republicans revolt over Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

The Trump administration’s push for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund derailed Senate Republicans’ plans to pass the president’s priority immigration enforcement package Thursday. Senators left Washington for their Memorial Day recess with Republicans saying they were blindsided by the Justice Department’s announcement of the fund and at odds over how to rein it in. The issue had become so toxic for the Senate GOP that there were doubts they could muster 50 votes needed to pass the broader bill that would provide tens of billions of dollars to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol. President Donald Trump had demanded the package land on his desk by June 1, but GOP lawmakers will now almost certainly miss that deadline.

It was just the latest example of the party’s revolt against Trump, whose separate request for $1 billion in US Secret Service funding and East Wing ballroom security also seemed likely to be stripped from the package in part because of GOP opposition. The White House had put a full-court press on lawmakers to push the president’s priorities and even rerouted acting Attorney General Todd Blanche from a planned press conference on fraud in Minnesota to salvage the fund’s chances on Capitol Hill, where Republicans were weighing guardrails to the program. But Blanche met the full force of Republican angst that had been brewing after Trump issued what many saw as an ill-timed endorsement against another one of their own in a critical midterm election year. “I think it’s hard to divorce anything that happens here from what’s happening in the political atmosphere around us. This is a place that operates, and there’s a political component to everything we do around here, so yeah, you can’t disconnect those things,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said of Trump’s political retribution tour against Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas that had roiled the party in recent days.

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How Texas landed SpaceX as company files for largest IPO ever

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the initial public offerings. Gov. Greg Abbott touted his relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and the role of Texas in what is on track to be the largest IPO in history during a May 21 visit to Dallas for the 2026 Texas Bankers Association Annual Convention. The event took place a day after SpaceX's registration statement for its IPO filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission became public. The rocket maker is looking to raise as much as $80 billion or more in its initial public offering, making it the biggest ever in terms of funds raised, according to The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX’s valuation after the IPO is expected to reach $1.5 trillion or more, according to the Journal. "I text with Elon Musk all the time," Abbott said during the fireside chat with TBA CEO Chris Furlow.

Abbott described Musk as a case study in how Texas courts major corporations, arguing that the state’s willingness to move quickly and work directly with executives has set it apart from competitors. “[Musk] has an urgent need to get things done very rapidly, and so he realized that the state where he was going to be able to achieve that more than any other state was the state of Texas,” Abbott said. He outlined how Texas wooed Musk and his companies — including SpaceX and electric car manufacturer Tesla Inc. — as part of a broader push to attract businesses from across the country. State officials worked directly with Musk on Tesla’s gigafactory in 2020, Abbott said. Texas officials worked with Musk to streamline permitting and address logistical hurdles, ultimately allowing the company to meet its aggressive timeline, much to chagrin of some of his companies' local neighbors in Bastrop County. The experience, Abbott said, helped demonstrate the state’s ability to execute large-scale projects more quickly than competitors and played a role in Musk’s decision to expand further in Texas.

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DNC report on Harris' 2024 loss omits Biden's run, party's Gaza rift

It’s never a good sign when a report comes with a big red disclaimer at the top of each page, but that’s what happened on Thursday when the Democratic National Committee belatedly released its controversial autopsy report on the 2024 election. “This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC,” the disclaimer said. “The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.” It’s an inauspicious label on a document that has caused so much heartburn. Ken Martin, the DNC chair, originally promised to release the autopsy, then decided to keep it under wraps because he said he didn’t want to cause a distraction ahead of the midterms. After months of handwringing, Martin released the report on Thursday, saying it was only withheld because it was so shoddily done.

The report is far from comprehensive, and it avoids some of the most critical factors in the 2024 race. For example, it doesn’t address President Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second term at 81, despite widespread concerns about his age. Biden dropped out after a faltering debate performance, and Harris was quickly anointed to replace him at the top of the ticket. After serving as Biden’s vice president, Harris was viewed in some corners as the natural choice for a new nominee. But the report does not address lingering concerns that the process was rushed or should have been handled in a more deliberative manner. Perhaps most notably, the words “Gaza” and “Israel” do not appear anywhere in the text. Democrats suffered from internal disagreements over the conflict, which sapped enthusiasm for Harris among voters who were upset by the Biden administration’s support for Israel. The report found that the Biden White House did not “position or prepare the vice president” in a way that would allow her to lead a successful campaign.

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State Stories

Arrington wants third reconciliation bill by August recess

House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told us on Fly Out Day this week that a third Republican reconciliation package would be centered around sending more money to the Pentagon. Arrington hopes to mark up a budget resolution in the coming weeks and pass the reconciliation package before the August recess. Arrington said he has no idea how much money the Pentagon needs, but he’s met with Defense Department officials several times over the last few weeks. “We have six legislative weeks, we have about 25 legislative days left,” Arrington told us on Fly Out Day. In addition to defense spending, Arrington said he wants to cut “fraud” and include provisions to make housing and health care more affordable.

Of course, fraud is in the eyes of the beholder. Democrats will say Republicans are looking to slash spending from social safety net programs. Arrington sees these cuts as an “80-20” issue in Republicans’ favor. “I don’t know of anything that will motivate and energize voters more right now than the affordability paid for by the war on fraud,” Arrington said. The West Texas Republican is retiring at the end of this Congress. But we asked Arrington two key political questions anyway. First, Arrington said that he understood why President Donald Trump endorsed Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Texas Senate GOP runoff. “Obviously, John Cornyn is a friend and we [worked] well together over the years. Paxton, I think, has a lot of Trump, Trumpian style, and in that he’s broken conventional political norms,” Arrington replied. Paxton has been accused of various forms of corruption. Also, Arrington said that he plans to run for office again. “You know, God willing, I’ll get another shot at it,” Arrington said. Arrington added: “I’m going to keep that door open … but to be very direct about it, not false humility, I pray God gives me another opportunity to come back in some form, not obviously in Congress.”

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San Antonio mayor accuses rival’s chief-of-staff of leaking info about her security detail to KSAT

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has called one of her most vocal City Council opponents’ chief-of-staff an “insider threat” and accused the person of conspiring to leak specifics about her security detail to the press. The allegations, which Jones aired in a Wednesday memo, stem from a KSAT report in October that detailed the unprecedented security detail she demanded after a disgruntled Spurs fan in an online group allegedly threatened her life over her opposition to Project Marvel. Although KSAT disclosed in its reporting that the information came from sources inside the San Antonio Police Department, Jones maintained in her memo that the true source was District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito’s chief of staff, James Branch.

Jones’ allegations against Branch are outlined in the memo she addressed to the City of San Antonio Council Aides Corp. Personnel Committee. In the message, the mayor demands the City of San Antonio’s Administrative Directives (ADs), or code of ethics, apply to council aides. “At present, the inapplicability of those [Administrative Directives] to [council staffers] creates the ability for one to escape accountability, which runs contrary to the Code of Conduct we signed committing to ‘fostering a safe and productive work environment,’” Jones wrote. Jones’ office was unavailable for immediate comment on the memo. Following KSAT’s October report, San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus ordered a sweeping investigation into the alleged leak, interviewing 115 officers, according to Jones’ memo. During those inquiries, one SAPD officer disclosed that Branch “had access to the security information,” the memo states.

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In test of state abortion laws, Montgomery County prosecutors charge man with illegally inducing abortion

In something of a test of Texas’ abortion laws, a grand jury in Montgomery County has indicted a man for allegedly slipping an abortion-inducing medication to a pregnant woman, resulting in a stillbirth. Jon Rueben Demeter, 25, was arrested in February after allegedly crushing a mifepristone pill, mixing it in a water bottle with electrolyte mix and providing it to a pregnant woman. She then gave birth to a stillborn child at what was estimated to be 14 weeks into pregnancy, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle. During a news conference Wednesday in Montgomery County, livestreamed by Hello Woodlands, District Attorney Mike Holley stated the victim and her family would not be providing a comment but called her "brave and strong and did nothing wrong, except perhaps to be associated with this gentleman."

When a Houston Public Media reporter attempted to contact Demeter's attorney, Aaron Holt, a representative for his law firm said they would not provide a comment. On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Demeter on charges of injury to a child and, notably, a criminal count of providing an abortion. Prosecutors indicated the case was a watershed moment, potentially the first time a person has been criminally charged in Texas with providing an abortion. "I would like to say, though, that although the legality of abortion has changed, even within my lifetime, in this country," Holley said, "it has never been lawful for someone to perform an abortion in the manner against the woman and against her consent, of this nature. It has never been the law. It has always been illegal." In 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that abortion law should be decided by the states, Texas' own bans on abortion took effect. Among them was a law passed by the Texas legislature in 2021 which created a criminal penalty for providing an abortion.

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Cornyn, Paxton make dueling campaign stops in Houston area during GOP primary runoff for Senate

Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made their final Houston-area campaign swings this week during early voting for their Republican primary runoff election for the U.S. Senate, with Election Day scheduled for next Tuesday, May 26. Both visits followed swiftly on President Donald Trump's endorsement of Paxton over Cornyn on Tuesday. Cornyn told the Houston Association of Realtors on Thursday morning that he remains the Republicans' best chance to beat Austin state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, in November’s general election.

"If Ken Paxton, with the incredible baggage that he brings into this election were to somehow end up being the nominee, he could well lose that race to James Talarico," Cornyn said. Cornyn stressed that a Paxton nomination could have consequences well beyond Democrats potentially notching their first statewide victory in Texas since 1994. "The money that would have to be spent here in Texas to salvage a flawed candidate like Ken Paxton has to come from somewhere, and where it would likely come from is other key Senate races around the country, like Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire,” Cornyn said. “It would be hundreds of millions of dollars, and there's still a good chance that he would lose." Cornyn's visit to the Houston area followed Paxton’s by less than a day. Paxton spoke at events in Magnolia and Katy on Wednesday.

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Texas attorney general sues San Antonio solar company

After years of mounting complaints about Texas’ once largely unregulated residential solar industry, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a San Antonio-based solar company over allegedly misleading homeowners about energy savings, tax credits, warranties and financing agreements. The lawsuit against CAM Solar Inc. follows a broader state investigation into rooftop solar companies that the attorney general’s office says was prompted by more than 100 consumer complaints statewide. The allegations mirror findings from a 2024 San Antonio Express-News investigation into the industry that documented widespread reports of defective systems, aggressive sales tactics and homeowners stuck paying long-term loans for systems that failed to work as promised.

The series was built on an analysis of more than 1,000 consumer complaints filed with the attorney general’s office. CAM Solar Inc. was involved in an asset sale in September and is no longer in business, according to Tania Garcia, owner of CAM Solar 2.0 LLC. She said she purchased CAM Solar Inc.’s assets — including the company name, the gocamsolar.com website, customer database and phone number — but did not assume liabilities. Garcia’s LinkedIn profile shows she held office management and other roles at CAM Solar Inc. beginning in 2014. The company voluntarily terminated in November, according to state corporate records. CAM Solar 2.0 LLC was formed months earlier, in July. “It’s already become a headache,” Garcia said of calls from media outlets about the lawsuit. “I’m looking at possibly changing the name.” In a statement, Paxton said CAM Solar Inc. employed “fraudulent and deceptive sales tactics.” “Far too many Texans have been misled into purchasing expensive and complex solar systems,” Paxton added. “That ends now. I will aggressively pursue any bad actor in the solar panel industry that attempts to cheat Texans.” As part of its lawsuit, filed Wednesday in state District Court in San Antonio, the attorney general sought an ex parte temporary restraining order — meaning one requested before CAM Solar Inc. could formally respond — arguing there was a risk that company records could be destroyed or made unavailable if the business was alerted in advance. It’s unclear from court records whether a TRO has been granted.

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Amid backlash in Texas, progressive justice reform groups go dark in Bexar County DA race

Justice reform groups once spent big electing progressive district attorneys across the nation — including a roughly $1 million campaign to help Democrat Joe Gonzales defeat incumbent Nico LaHood in the primary in 2018. Eight years later, progressive DAs are under intense scrutiny from Texas GOP leaders trying to strip their power, and the groups that helped elect them have largely vanished from the scene. The Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC that spent roughly $3.6 million helping Gonzales and Travis County District Attorney José Garza has been dissolved, according to campaign filings.

Meanwhile, the bail reform-focused Texas Organizing Project reemerged briefly in this year’s race to replace the retiring Gonzales, but their candidate Jim Bethke finished last in a field of eight Democratic primary contenders, and the group hasn’t been involved since. Democrats are now down to two candidates in the race to replace Gonzales — both of whom support some nuanced justice reform measures, but have largely relied on personal funds to make their case to voters. Bail reform groups gained unusual access to the office under Gonzales, and neither candidate believes that should continue. Former Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Luz Elena Chapa has gone much further in criticizing Gonzales’ record as DA, earning a nod from the San Antonio Police Officers Association and finishing first in the March primary “We do have a big issue with repeat offenders, especially habitual repeat offenders,” Chapa declared on a debate stage full of progressive Democrats ahead of that race. “We do have a crisis because we haven’t been tough on crime in our community, and we need to make serious changes to improve public safety.”

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North Texas Muslim civil rights group calls for end of anti-Muslim rhetoric after mosque shooting

Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on Texas politicians to halt anti-Muslim rhetoric, especially in light of a recent deadly shooting at a San Diego mosque. “There’s been a rise in anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric by politicians at the local, state and federal levels using Islam and Muslims as a political football,” Carroll said Thursday. Carroll said the rhetoric is leading the harassment of Muslims in North Texas. Authorities in California said two teenagers opened fire at a mosque Monday, killing three men. The three men are being heralded as heroes for protecting 140 children who were attending school at the campus. Officials have said the perpetrators authored writings expressing hatred toward Muslims and Islam, Jewish people, the LGBTQ community, Black people, women, and both the political left and right, the Associated Press reported.

Republican politicians in Texas have increased engagement with anti-Muslim policies and politics. A “Sharia Free” caucus has formed in the Texas statehouse. A similar caucus in Congress was founded by Texas congressional Republicans Chip Roy and Keith Self. Shariah is a moral and spiritual framework of belief that guides many Muslims. In recent years, the term “shariah law” has been used, in particular, by U.S. conservative officials to suggest Muslims are imposing a system of laws on American communities. Carroll said the rhetoric is being used energize the Republican base ahead of the upcoming midterm elections in November. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott designated the council, often referred to as CAIR, as a terrorist organization last year. CAIR has strongly denied and condemned the designation and is suing Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton over the proclamation. In Texas, only about 2% of adults identify as Muslim, according to the PEW Research Religious Landscape Study. In Dallas-Fort Worth, that number is 1%.

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UT System expands reasons presidents can close academic departments

Presidents of University of Texas System universities can more easily eliminate academic programs and cut faculty positions in “extraordinary” circumstances, after UT System Regents approved a policy change Thursday. Programs should only be closed on an accelerated timeline due to time-sensitive, exceptional circumstances, such as needing to comply with new regulations or laws, the policy states. But a separate change approved Thursday expands the reasons a program can be closed on academic grounds, including for institutional strategy or program quality, as determined by the president. Tenured faculty whose positions are cut within closed programs can no longer appeal those terminations and will only be reassigned to different jobs if there is an “institutional need” for them elsewhere. That decision is up to the university president, who no longer needs to give faculty a reason for declining a reassignment request.

Archie Holmes, the UT System’s executive vice chancellor of academic affairs, said the board has been working to update their policies for years. Faculty will still have advance notice, due process and a chance to participate in discussions around program closures before an institution’s president makes a final decision, he said. Holmes must approve closures made under “extraordinary” circumstances. Low enrollment in a program would not make it eligible for an accelerated closure, according to the policy. “It’s really designed to try to streamline the process, in terms of making sure that folks have adequate opportunities to be able to have input, but decisions can be made quickly as necessary by the institution,” Holmes said after the vote. UT System Chairman Kevin Eltife also pitched the changes as a means to improve “efficiency.” But some faculty were concerned the changes will make it easier for universities to fire professors and close departments for political reasons without recourse.

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Austin ISD needs to pass a budget by the end of June. It still hasn’t released a plan

The Austin Independent School District expects a $181 million deficit in its next budget. But officials still haven’t released a proposal for what cuts will be made. The district originally said it would release a plan for the next budget by Thursday. Now, it won’t be released until June 4, adding to the uncertainty teachers and parents have been feeling for the last few weeks. At Thursday's board meeting, Superintendent Matias Segura said district officials have identified $130 million in potential cuts. He said they pushed the date to share the recommended budget while they work to find close to $50 million in additional cuts.

"This isn't an opportunity for me to take things off the list,” Segura said. "There's refinement, there's adjustments, but $180 million is not something that can be covered by going backwards.” Board members have asked the superintendent to reconsider cuts that would impact teachers. Trustee Kathryn Whitley Chu asked if the district has considered any feedback given by the board and questioned the current timeline, raising concerns about the changes that could impact teachers. "It feels like the community and the trustees didn't get to be a part of the planning process,” Whitley Chu said. "We're in a position now where it looks like the administration is planning to move forward with something that the community and the trustees aren't comfortable with.” District officials had previously announced more than 200 positions could be affected by the budget cuts. May 15 was the deadline for principals to meet with potentially impacted staff, but some teachers didn't hear those updates until this week. Some positions would be fully eliminated, others would move from full-time to part-time.

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A 222-bed homeless services hub is set to open in Houston in the coming weeks

Just a few blocks from 419 Emancipation Ave. — the site of an upcoming service hub for homeless people in Houston — dozens of people sleep on the streets, including Jerry Wayne Griffin. He said he hasn't had housing for about a year-and-a-half. He described his time on the streets as "hell." "I’ve seen some of my best friends pass away," Griffin said. "I’ve seen people get robbed. I’ve seen people get raped. These streets ain’t for nobody." He said he's looking forward to the service hub, where he hopes to "reconstruct my way of thinking" so he "can be an adult." "I’m going to be the first one at the door," he said. "They’re going to help you with shelter. They're going to help you with a job. They’re going to help you get your life together — and that’s what I want."

He won't have to wait long. According to the city's housing department, officials expect to open the facility — which the city purchased last year for $16 million — before mid-June. Through the doors at 419 Emancipation, people will pass a security station and then enter a triage area. "Their care will begin almost immediately because you’ll have professionals engaging them right here," said Houston public safety director Larry Satterwhite. A large cafeteria is flanked by what will be "a busy kitchen," serving three meals to more than 220 people per day, as well as two stories of residential rooms. Seventy-four rooms are ready for occupants. Each one has three beds, a set of lockers and a bathroom. There's space for extra beds, so the capacity could expand from 222 to 320. The building has been used as a shelter for women and children in the past. More recently, it was used as a facility for unaccompanied migrant children. For homeless people, the accommodations are "not what they have right now on the streets," Satterwhite said.

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Bigger price tag, smaller footprint: How Austin’s Project Connect went off the rails

Before landing in Austin, Cathy Cocco lived in both New York City and Tokyo, where she enjoyed the convenience of robust public transit. So given the chance, she was happy to cast a vote in 2020 for a state-of-the-art, 20-mile light rail system, running through the heart of Austin all the way to the airport — even though the plan didn’t directly serve her neighborhood in northwest Austin. “You have to vote for what’s good for the city,” Cocco said. Some 242,000 Austinites agreed with her. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Austin voters made a bet on the capital city’s future, indefinitely raising their own city property taxes by 20% to fund Project Connect, a $7.1 billion proposal for an electric, urban rail system along with a bevy of other public transit improvements, including new high-frequency bus routes and expanded shuttle pickup service. Construction was slated to begin in late 2024.

Nearly four years after Cocco cast her vote for the rail, she sued the city to stop it. Today, not a single foot of light-rail track has been laid. The total cost of the light rail alone is now $8.2 billion — up from the initial cost of $5.8 billion — but its footprint has been slashed to less than 10 total miles. The new plan no longer reaches Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and the number of stops was cut from 26 to 15. At less than half the original proposed length, the light rail now costs almost $840 million per mile, three times more than it did in 2020. Project Connect is now the costliest public transit project per mile in Texas history. It’s also the seventh most expensive light rail project per mile in the U.S., out of 34 compiled by the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University and adjusted for inflation. The massive jumps in cost and shrunken scale left Cocco disenchanted with the project. She and a group of taxpayers sued the city in 2024 to stop it from collecting property taxes to fund the project, arguing that it wasn’t what voters had been promised.

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They spent weeks housing the homeless, then police showed up

The officers arrived by 6 a.m. last Thursday, parking their squad cars and white vans on each side of Clarence Street, off Cesar Chavez Boulevard. The Dallas Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team walked into a clearing under Interstate 45 with zip ties looped around their duty belts and radios. They woke about two dozen people who had congregated in tents, then clasped their hands behind their backs. Before sunrise, 23 people were placed under arrest at this South Dallas homeless camp two miles from downtown. Housing Forward, the agency responsible for coordinating the homelessness response in Dallas and Collin counties, didn’t expect the day to begin like this. Thursday, May 14, marked the conclusion of a six-week services blitz that resulted in providing apartments or medical treatment to 47 people who had been living in tents beneath the highway.

As part of the encampment’s closure, police were expected to arrive with the city of Dallas’ Emergency Management and Crisis Response team and keep watch as people were instructed to leave the location. Instead, officers got here hours before service providers and immediately placed under arrest all 23 people who were present. “Housing Forward does not support this approach, which merely cycles people between our overcrowded jail and back onto the streets,” read a statement provided by the nonprofit. “Law enforcement is an essential partner in maintaining the vibrancy and safety of our public spaces. But an overly aggressive enforcement response to individuals experiencing homelessness undermines our shared goal of eliminating street sleeping.” For months, about 60 people had taken shelter in tents that extended the distance of roughly three football fields between Al Lipscomb Way and Coombs Street beneath the highway bridge. This site — informally called “Coombs” by police and service providers, named for the nearby street — became the first Dallas homeless camp outside of downtown decommissioned through a new, weekslong approach that paired service organizations, city clean-up crews, and the police department. Housing Forward hoped to build rapport with the people living here by helping them secure vital documents and offering housing or treatment.

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In South Texas House runoff, it’s a progressive insurgent versus the establishment

A close and contentious Democratic runoff is coming to a head this week in South Texas, pitting young progressive Julio Salinas, a former legislative staffer who hails from Mission, against moderate Victor “Seby” Haddad, a local banker and McAllen city commissioner. The MAGA wave that washed through the Rio Grande Valley in 2024 has both candidates vying to recapture public trust, fight President Donald Trump’s agenda, and maintain the historically blue Texas House District 41. The 13-year incumbent state Representative Bobby Guerra—a prototypical moderate Valley Democrat—is stepping down, and has given his endorsement to Haddad. In the March primary, progressive voters split between Salinas and Eric Holguín, the Texas director of the Latino civil rights group UnidosUS. Salinas not only ousted Holguín from the race but earned the most votes overall, jolting the political system and putting him just above Haddad. “The fact that he sort of emerged as the front-runner was genuinely surprising, given the sort of disparity in funding and disparity in endorsements,” said Álvaro Corral, a political science professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

House District 41 sits in the heart of Hidalgo County and encompasses parts of McAllen, Mission, Edinburg, and Pharr; Trump won the border district, which is predominantly Hispanic, by 1.6 percent in 2024. Though conservative prosecutor Sergio Sanchez and MAGA candidate Gary Groves are also battling for the Republican nomination in a runoff, GOP voter turnout in this historically blue stronghold was notably half that of Democrats in the primary. Given Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdowns and failure to address inflation, Corral believes it’s a good year to run as a progressive Democrat. Salinas’ colorful campaign and strong social media presence are reminiscent of Zohran Mamdani’s insurgent mayoral run—or more close to home, Michelle Vallejo’s prior congressional runs. His platform focuses on improving public transportation, expanding Medicaid, and establishing paid family leave. His plan to strengthen public schools includes rolling back the state’s newly enacted private school vouchers and raising teacher salaries by $15,000. Salinas, who is 26 years old, has embraced the identity of a young anti-establishment candidate going up against corruption and the “political machine,” vowing to fight against the oligarchs on behalf of working families.

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City Stories

Pardoned Jan. 6er Jake Lang threatens Frisco City Council ahead of mosque, temple vote

A notorious Jan. 6 rioter and conservative influencer appeared at the Frisco City Council Tuesday evening, dialing up the heat on what has become a contentious fight over the city’s growing Indian and Muslim communities. Edward “Jake” Lang spent four years in prison awaiting trial for charges related to his role in the 2021 Capitol insurrection; among the charges, Lang was accused of assaulting a law enforcement officer with a baseball bat. Pardoned on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term, Lang has spent the last few years circling the country and promoting far-right ideologies and conspiracy theories. Tuesday marked Lang’s latest appearance in North Texas when he spoke against multiple rezoning applications that would allow for two Hindu temples and one mosque to be built in Frisco during the city council’s open microphone period.

For months, a contingent of Frisco residents and some outsiders have swarmed the council meetings to decry what they see as an “Indian takeover” affecting the community. Much of the rhetoric has also incorporated an anti-Muslim message. Lang was warned several times by Mayor Jeff Cheney before his comments that he would be removed from the meeting if he did not stop making outbursts. He delivered remarks citing the far-right “great replacement” conspiracy theory that warns a cabal is organizing mass immigration as a means to replace white populations. While debunked, a 2022 AP-NORC poll found that one in three American adults believes “that a group of people is trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.” “You saw the children who were brought up on this stage,” Lang said, referring to children with the Frisco Boys and Girls Club who led the meeting’s pledge of allegiance. Of the six children recognized by Cheney, none appeared to be white. “Not one of [those children] is a heritage American. Not one of them was a Texan. Your replacement is here, Americans, and it is coming faster and faster. The Hindus and the Muslims are teaming up to take over Texans,” Lang yelled during his speech. “They are here to eradicate the Christians.” Lang ended his remarks with a threat, asking the council, “What the fuck is wrong with you, inviting these people into our country? This is a Christian country … you all deserve to be strung.”

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National Stories

Trump picked Warsh to cut rates. Markets are bracing for the opposite.

President Trump chose Kevin Warsh to run the Federal Reserve to secure the lower interest rates he has demanded for the past year. A suddenly pressing question is whether Warsh would have political cover to do the opposite and raise them. Warsh is set to be sworn in as the nation’s top central banker at the White House on Friday, the first Fed chair to take the oath there since Alan Greenspan in 1987. It is also his first public appearance with Trump since the president chose him in January after a monthslong public contest. He takes over at a moment fraught with risk. Inflation is rising, long-term bond yields are climbing, and a growing number of investors say the Fed’s next move could be a rate increase—not the cut Trump wanted and Warsh was hired to deliver.

The war in Iran, launched a month after Trump chose Warsh for the job as Fed chair, has scrambled the agenda: The conditions that would support cuts, such as falling inflation or a cooling labor market, have moved out of reach. Compounding the problem, the artificial-intelligence boom is looking like an engine of demand and growth, adding to near-term price pressures rather than easing them. In recent weeks, the administration has settled on a way to manage the gap between what Trump wants and what the market will allow. Its argument, advanced this month by Trump’s two most senior economic officials, is that the inflation now keeping rates high is a passing supply shock the Fed can look through—so the cuts Trump wants are still coming, just later. “Nothing is more transient than a supply shock,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNBC last week, predicting a substantial easing in price pressures after “one or two more hot inflation numbers.”

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Stephen Colbert delivers sentimental final monologue: ‘We were here to feel the news with you’

On Thursday, Stephen Colbert, dressed up in a sharp blue suit and tie, stepped before The Late Show audience to deliver his final show. He started the show speaking directly to the audience, both those who were in the audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater and those watching at home. He said he and the crew called the show “The Joy Machine,” because a show of that size must be a machine — but every night, they chose to make it with joy. “On night one of the Colbert Report,” he said, referring to his long-running Comedy Central talk show, “I said, ‘Anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you.’ And I realized pretty soon that our job over here was different. We were here to feel the news with you, and I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it.”

After a clip that stitched together moments of historic talk shows that together bid farewell to the host, Colbert launched into his monologue, but was interrupted by several A-list guests — Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, and Tim Meadows — who each stormed out when Colbert admitted they weren’t going to be his final guests. Throughout the monologue itself, Colbert played it straight, like a normal episode of the Late Show — doing a First Draft bit where he joked about starting an OnlyFans account, while taking shots at Dr. Brian Christine, a penile implant specialist who’s in charge of the Hantavirus (“[He] hosted a YouTube series on erectile dysfunction called Erection Connection, also the name of a very popular category on Craigslist”); a scandal over the Catholic Church’s “sexy priest” calendar (“I’m getting word that this is the worst scandal to ever hit the Catholic Church”); and how he’s grateful that he won’t have to cover “the inevitable rise of our machine overlords.” The show marks a sad end to an institution. Last year, in a decision that reverberated across the entertainment world, CBS announced plans to end its late-night talk show, which Colbert had hosted over the past decade. While the network cited financial issues, there was much speculation about political pressure as CBS’ parent company, Paramount, was seeking to complete a merger with Skydance Media that needed government approval at the time.

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RFK Jr. announces 'the largest autism fraud bust in American history' and it’s in Minnesota

The Department of Justice said Thursday it has arrested and indicted 15 people in Minnesota for fraud schemes involving $90 million in Medicaid funds. Mehmet Oz, who oversees Medicaid and Medicare, said at a press conference that Minnesota’s government, led by Democratic 2024 vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, had not done enough to prevent it. It’s the latest salvo in a battle between the Trump administration and Walz this year over Medicaid fraud. Medicaid is the state-federal health insurance program for low-income and disabled people. Minnesota was also at the center of Democratic resistance to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Federal agents killed two protesters in the state earlier this year, prompting Democrats in Congress to withhold funding starting in February for the Homeland Security Department.

Lawmakers agreed to fund much of the department three weeks ago after a record-long shutdown. Republican lawmakers plan to pass a party-line bill soon providing funds for the department’s immigration unit. In a statement to POLITICO, Walz said people who commit fraud in Minnesota “get caught and go to prison.” James Clark, inspector general at Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, said his department has been cooperating with “career federal and state partners for months to help them build criminal cases” against most of the individuals indicted today. In an emailed statement, Clark said his department stopped payments to some of the businesses connected to today’s charges more than a year ago and has already opened investigations and withheld payment to 11 of the 15 people charged. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, who appeared at the press conference alongside Oz and Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, said the arrests were “the largest autism fraud bust in American history.”

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As voters prioritize cost of living, focus on abortion evolves in midterm elections

In the last two federal elections since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Democrats have made reproductive rights a key part of their pitch to voters. That messaging dominated the airwaves. During the 2022 and 2024 elections, Democrats in House and Senate races spent more on campaign ads mentioning abortion than on any other issue, according to data from AdImpact. But, in 2026, that focus may be changing. Since January, candidates have spent almost four times less on campaign ads about abortion, compared to the same period in 2024.

It underscores a broader shift in attention within the party ahead of the midterm elections this fall, as voters consistently rank cost-of-living concerns as their top issue, raising questions about what an evolving Democratic message on reproductive rights looks like in 2026. Abortion rights advocates acknowledge it's been a challenge to break through on messaging this year, citing a crowded news cycle, but argue that calls to protect reproductive access and care need to be part of the political conversation around affordability. "When you talk about reproductive freedom in the context of the larger crisis in this country around the economy, it resonates," said Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All. "Most voters who care about reproductive freedom also understand the interconnection between the rising cost of health care, the rising costs of child care, the lack of maternal health care in their communities," she added. "And they need to hear about these issues together."

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Trump champions bid to nix clock changes by adopting permanent daylight saving time

President Donald Trump is championing the prospect of putting the kibosh on twice-annual clock changes by making daylight saving time permanent. A bill to make daylight saving time permanent has been folded into a larger measure that the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced in a 48-1 vote on Thursday. "Big Vote today (48-1!) in the Energy and Commerce Committee on a Bill including The Sunshine Protection Act, which will be making Daylight Saving Time Permanent! This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks. Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!" Trump wrote in a Thursday Truth Social post.

"It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production. It will also be a very nice WIN for the Republican Party. Take it! We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!" the president declared. Rep. Vern Buchanan's, R-Fla., office noted in a Thursday press release that "The Sunshine Protection Act was included as a provision within an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (AINS) to the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act, which was marked up and sent to the House floor by the House Energy and Commerce Committee today." The push is actually bipartisan. "The legislation has 32 bipartisan cosponsors in the House, and Senate companion legislation (S. 29) introduced by Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has 18 bipartisan cosponsors," Buchanan's release noted. The proposal would not compel a state that is not observing daylight saving time to start observing it. In a Truth Social post last year, Trump called for Congress to address the issue.

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Court showdown set over Alabama Republicans’ congressional map

A court showdown will unfold Friday to determine the fate of Alabama’s congressional map for the midterms. Alabama Republicans want to restore a map that would remove the state’s second majority-Black district and give the party a potential pickup. Republicans say the restoration should be allowed following the Supreme Court’s recent decision narrowing the Voting Rights Act. A coalition of organizations and Black voters want to keep Republicans’ map blocked. “Plaintiffs undersell the scope of the task they ask this Court to perform on the eve of Alabama’s elections,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s (R) office pushed in court filings. Alabama is one of several states making redistricting moves following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision last month, which narrowed a central plank of the Voting Rights Act that groups have used for decades to force additional majority-minority districts.

Alabama Republicans’ design was previously invalidated under the landmark law, and the courts took over redistricting. But in the wake of the high court’s decision, the justices lifted the block in Alabama. That means Alabama Republicans’ 2023 map is technically restored, as of now. On Friday, a three-judge panel in Birmingham, Ala., will hear a request to block it again from the challengers who’ve been fighting in court for years. “The Court should reject Alabama’s heated rhetoric and sweeping assertions in favor of the record and evidence this Court knows all too well,” one group of challengers wrote in court filings. At stake is a potential GOP pickup opportunity. Republicans want to redraw the Black-majority district currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Ala.) “I’m not so sure it’s going to go through. I haven’t looked at it that much,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told reporters earlier this week. “It’s all back in the courts and we’ll let them handle it the way they see fit. They’re like the referees at the football game. They’re the ones who are supposed to keep it fair,” he added.

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Republicans call off vote on Iran war resolution that was on the verge of passing

Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran, delaying planned votes on the matter into June. The House had scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution, brought by Democrats, that would rein in Trump’s military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it. It was the latest sign of the slipping support in Congress for a war that Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval. “We had the votes without question and they knew it, and as a result they’re playing a political game,” said Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, who sponsored the bill.

Republicans in the Senate are also working to ensure they have the votes to dismiss another war powers resolution that advanced to a final vote earlier this week, when four GOP senators supported the resolution and three others were absent from the vote. The actions by congressional leaders showed Republicans are struggling to maintain political backing for Trump’s handling of the war. Rank-and-file Republicans are increasingly willing to defy the president over the conflict. House Republican Leader Steve Scalise told reporters that the vote was delayed to give lawmakers who were absent a chance to vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson did not answer questions from reporters as he exited the House chamber. On Capitol Hill, patience with the war has worn thin as the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz disrupts global shipping and elevates gas prices in the U.S. Another House war powers resolution nearly passed last week, falling on a tie vote as three Republicans voted in favor. Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had the votes “locked in” this time around.

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Inside the next phase of OpenAI’s political strategy

The artificial intelligence industry’s push for tech-friendly federal legislation is foundering in Washington. So OpenAI’s top lobbyist and political strategist is pursuing a backup strategy — setting national AI policy by waging a state-by-state campaign. Chris Lehane calls the plan “reverse federalism”: With Capitol Hill deadlocked, the company behind ChatGPT is increasingly spending its time lobbying for state legislatures to pass laws on AI safety that the industry can live with. OpenAI’s quest to shape policies in a “critical mass” of states has already found success in California and New York, he said — with Illinois as its next target. “What we’re basically trying to do here is use a bunch of the big states to come together and mirror each other to de facto create a national standard,” Lehane — a former longtime Democratic political strategist now serving as OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer — said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO.

OpenAI’s effort comes after nearly a year in which the tech lobby has pressured Congress to block states from passing AI laws, warning it would create a conflicting “patchwork” of rules. In state capitals, meanwhile, legislators have introduced hundreds of new AI bills and signed dozens into law. Now Lehane is pursuing a deceptively simple play: If you can’t beat the state AI “patchwork,” co-opt it. Lehane said his state-by-state push seeks to cobble together a single national standard to address catastrophic AI risks. Worries about those risks are escalating as OpenAI, Anthropic and other leading tech companies release cutting-edge models capable of fueling destructive cyberattacks. The state laws favored by Lehane and OpenAI are generally more permissive than the ideal set of rules that AI safety advocates support. Centered on a slate of transparency and reporting requirements for developers of advanced AI, they would lock in a stable legal framework for OpenAI while exposing the tech giant to relatively few regulatory teeth and little in the way of new liability for catastrophic harms. The burgeoning effort comes as PACs funded by the AI industry pour millions of dollars into state-level political races across the country.

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Lead Stories

Democrats threaten to expel TX-35 candidate Maureen Galindo over antisemitic remarks if elected

Prominent Democrats are increasingly closing ranks in condemning Texas congressional candidate Maureen Galindo over remarks widely criticized as antisemitic, escalating tensions inside the party ahead of the May 26 runoff in Texas’ 35th Congressional District. U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Jared Moskowitz of Florida said Wednesday they would repeatedly push for House votes to expel Galindo if she wins election to Congress. “If for some reason Maureen Galindo wins the Congressional election in TX-35, as soon as she is sworn in, we will force a vote to expel her every single day we are here,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement posted by Gottheimer on X. The lawmakers called Galindo’s comments antisemitic and said views like imprisoning “American Zionists” have “no place in our Party or country.”

The controversy intensified after Galindo’s campaign recently said in an Instagram post that the Karnes ICE Detention Center would become “a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.” The post added: “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists.” Days earlier, during a May 13 appearance on Texas Public Radio, Galindo said “anybody who is supported by Israel should be tried for treason” and repeated claims widely condemned as antisemitic tropes about Zionist influence over media, banking and politics, including in San Antonio. Galindo, a sex therapist and housing activist who led the March primary field, is facing Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia in next week’s Democratic runoff for Texas’ 35th Congressional District, which stretches from parts of San Antonio into several surrounding South Texas counties. Garcia describes himself as a moderate Democrat. “My issues are making sure that our community stays safe, that we combat antisemitic remarks that we’ve seen my opponent make,” Garcia previously told Texas Public Radio.

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New $1.7 billion contract in Big Bend National Park won't be used for border wall, CBP says

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday a $1.7 billion federal contract awarded last week to an Albuquerque construction firm will not be used for a steel border wall inside Big Bend National Park and will instead pay for vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and "patrol roads." "It does not involve the construction of a 30-foot-high barrier in Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area," a CBP spokesperson said in a statement. "Instead, it utilizes technology like cameras and sensors, along with limited, low-profile, post-on-rail barriers in strategic areas designed to restrict vehicle access while leveraging the natural barriers that already exist in the area." The agency's statement came days after the contract in question was posted to a federal government spending website, where it was listed as being for "border wall in Big Bend, Texas."

The posting also linked the award to a project dubbed "BBT-4," which CBP confirmed Tuesday is the same "Big Bend Project 4" that is currently slated to run along and near the Rio Grande throughout the national park. The initial posting prompted concerns that border wall plans for the park were suddenly back on after months of CBP insisting that it was not pursuing a wall there. The agency did not explain in its statement why the contracting website showed the money being for a "wall." Local county officials told Marfa Public Radio this week that they were briefed by CBP officials in recent days and similarly informed that the agency is not planning a physical wall inside the national park. The Trump administration's map of border projects through the Big Bend region has changed multiple times in recent months. The changes have been published online with no announcement and have instead been noticed mostly by local residents, advocates and news outlets paying close attention to the map. At one point in recent weeks, the map was removed from CBP's "Smart Wall" landing page altogether.

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SpaceX IPO requires leap of faith in AI, Mars and Musk’s vision

Elon Musk’s SpaceX pulled back the curtain on a business empire that has racked up ballooning losses and debt after acquiring a cash-hungry startup, and pumping billions of dollars into futuristic endeavors ranging from AI to a Mars rocket. The prospectus that SpaceX filed Wednesday for an IPO of unprecedented size boiled down to a well-worn strategy that entrepreneurs commonly hawk up and down Wall Street: in order to make money, we need to spend money. And nowhere are the outlays larger than in space and artificial intelligence. “The big takeaway for me is that SpaceX is now an AI company,” said Chad Anderson, an early SpaceX investor and founder of Space Capital.

Musk is seeking to pull off the unprecedented feat of achieving a $2 trillion valuation from the outset, an audacious plan that’s set to transform both the public and private markets if it succeeds. At the same time, the prospectus lays bare concerns over whether private companies with limited financial disclosures and largely illiquid shares are reaching unjustified valuations in venture capital-led funding rounds. “Investors aren’t paying for today’s business, they’re paying for the platform that owns the next 50 years of orbital infrastructure,” Anderson said. The company’s future projections, even when championed by a celebrity figure like Musk, are nothing short of extreme. SpaceX states that their total addressable market, or maximum revenue ceiling, is $28.5 trillion, by far the largest in history, according to the filing.

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US raises pressure on Cuba by indicting former leader Raúl Castro

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles as the Trump administration escalated pressure on the island’s socialist government. The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, who turns 95 next month, was Cuba’s defense minister at the time. The charges, which were secretly filed by a grand jury in April, included murder and destruction of an airplane. Five Cuban military pilots were also charged. “For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Miami at a ceremony coinciding with Cuban independence day to honor those killed. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”

Asked to what lengths American authorities would go to bring Castro to face charges in the U.S., Blanche said: “There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.” Asked what will happen next for Cuba, President Donald Trump said, “We’re going to see.” He added that the U.S. is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.” The charges pose a real threat, observers said, following the capture by U.S. forces in January of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to face drug charges in New York. “He’s going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter Kornbluh, a specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. While it remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom, the murder and conspiracy charges carry the potential for life in prison or the death penalty upon conviction. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” In a message on social media, he accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating events surrounding the shootdown, including ignoring repeated warnings by Cuban officials at the time that they would defend against “dangerous violations” of their airspace “by notorious terrorists.”

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State Stories

Texas nursing board suspends Camp Mystic chief health officer's license over alleged flood response failures

The Texas Board of Nursing has temporarily suspended the nursing license of the chief health officer at Camp Mystic, the Central Texas summer camp where 27 people died in a July 4th flood last year, over allegations that she failed to protect campers and staff and evacuated herself while leaving others behind. According to the complaint, Mary Elizabeth Eastland failed to develop adequate emergency plans and protocols for campers, staff, and nurses at the camp. The board also alleges that when floodwaters began rising, Eastland abandoned the campers and staff in her care, instead evacuating herself and her own children. The deadly flash floods struck the camp on July 4th of last year, killing 27 people.

Camp Mystic has announced it will not reopen this summer. KHOU 11 reached out to Camp Mystic but did not immediately hear back. The charges allege that before the flood, Eastland failed to develop adequate emergency plans despite the camp's history of flooding. When floodwaters rose around 2 a.m. on July 4, 2025, she allegedly evacuated herself and her children to higher ground without providing any assistance or direction to campers or staff, never called her nursing team, and never contacted emergency services, even after learning people were missing. After the flood, she allegedly waited nearly nine months to report the deaths, despite a state law requiring reporting within 24 hours.

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Texas may need to pay $826 million annually for SNAP due to One Big Beautiful Bill

The Texas Legislature may need to set aside $826 million in next year’s state budget bill for food aid due to House Resolution 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, according to the nonprofit Feeding Texas. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps one in 10 Texans, Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole said during a Wednesday media briefing. Its recipients are U.S. citizens or lawfully present residents who meet work requirements and have total assets under a certain threshold. The average Texas household gets $11 per day from SNAP and typically only on the program for a year, Cole said.

She noted that it also provides a revenue stream of nearly $7 billion to the Texas economy. “Every federal dollar that is distributed through SNAP benefits goes directly back into the economy in the form of purchases at grocery stores… that generates between $1.50 and $1.80 (per dollar) in total economic activity,” Cole said. “So it’s really about more than just purchasing power in the hands of millions and millions of Texans who are experiencing food insecurity.” Jamie Olson, Feeding Texas’ VP of policy and advocacy, said that increased work requirements and new restrictions on legal residents led to a 9% drop in Texas’ SNAP participation. That’s around 400,000 Texans, according to Olson; roughly the population of Arlington, Texas. It’s a change driven by HR 1, 2025’s government shutdown, and an increase in risks faced by legal immigrants, she noted.

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'We should be able to vote on this': Temple residents push recall of city council over data center plans

More than 100 people gathered at a Temple town hall on May 18 as a grassroots group pushing to recall several city council members continued its fight against future data center developments in the city. The event, organized by Temple Stands Together, brought residents together to learn more about the potential impacts of data centers and to sign recall petitions targeting Mayor Tim Davis, Mayor Pro Tem Jessica Walker and Council Member Mike Pilkington. The recall effort comes after Temple city leaders voted in April to move forward with another proposed data center development. This involves a proposal to create a data center in the area for Rowan Digital Infrastructure. Residents at the town hall voiced concerns about transparency, infrastructure and the long-term impact large-scale data centers could have on Temple.

“Locally, data centers just are mysterious, and they don’t explain themselves,” Temple resident Anton Miller said. Temple Stands Together describes itself as a grassroots coalition made up of hundreds of residents concerned about the future direction of the city and the pace of development tied to data centers. Clayton Tucker, the Democratic nominee for Texas agriculture commissioner, also spoke during the event and said residents are asking city leaders and developers to be more accountable. “Our point is we have to make sure that they’re being responsible and if they’re not being responsible, then they shouldn’t be built,” Tucker said. Adrian Shelley with the organization Public Citizen addressed concerns over water and energy demands tied to data centers. Shelley said Temple’s current long-term water planning does not adequately account for future data center growth.

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Texas Ag Commissioner calls for pause on new AI data centers

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is calling for a pause on new data center development across the state, citing concerns about the impact on farmland, water supplies and the state's power grid. It comes just two weeks after 3NEWS reported that a new AI data center is planned for the Robstown area. Across Texas, large-scale data centers are increasingly being built in rural areas where open land is widely available. But Miller said farmers, ranchers and property owners should remain the priority as communities consider future development. “We can't just surrender everything to these global corporations. We need to ask some hard questions,” Miller said.

Miller said projects once viewed as economic development opportunities are now creating new concerns for rural communities and local infrastructure systems. “How much will these projects stress the electric grid, especially during summer peaks and winter storms?” Miller said. “What happens to our prime farmland when these industrial servers come in and take it all up. How much groundwater are they gonna use?” Water remains a major concern in the Coastal Bend as the region faces the possibility of a water emergency later this year. “Even though they say they can put in a closed loop system, that closed loop system still takes a tremendous amount of water,” Miller said. Scott Frazier, a longtime farmer in the Chapman Ranch area and board member for the Nueces County Farm Bureau, said rural communities are still adjusting to the rapid growth of industrial projects across Texas. “We had the wind farms move in then we had the solar farms and then now here come the data centers and, it's a new thing to deal with that we in rural Texas haven't really learned how to deal with yet,” Frazier said.

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Fort Bend’s Black voters may prove pivotal in low-turnout CD18 runoff

Fort Bend County has emerged as a key battleground in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’ historic 18th Congressional District, a race shaped by competing visions of Black political leadership: institutional experience versus generational urgency. U.S. Rep Christian Menefee, 38, and U.S. Rep Al Green, 78, both are relying on years of coalition building within their strongest political bases — Green in Fort Bend and Menefee in Harris County — while also trying to introduce themselves to voters who may not have supported them before. In the March primary, Menefee won 51% of the vote in Harris County, where he served as county attorney from 2021 to 2026. Green, meanwhile, earned 63% of the vote in Fort Bend, which he has long represented in Congress. Neither candidate won a majority overall, pushing the race to a runoff. Early voting runs through Friday; Election Day is Tuesday.

“Normally, in a low-turnout election, the Fort Bend boxes have been very important and pivotal in swinging an election,” said Michael Adams, a Texas Southern University political scientist. “When those boxes come in, they deliver. That’s what got Al Green into the runoff election in the primary.” The geographical divide is explained in part by what led to the runoff: Three years of political upheaval that reshaped Houston’s historically Black congressional seat. Longtime U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee died in 2024 while still in office, and was succeeded by former Houston mayor Sylvester Turner, who also died just two months after being sworn into office in January 2025. Gov. Greg Abbott later scheduled a special election in November 2025 to fill the remainder of Turner’s term, leaving the district without representation in Congress for months and drawing criticism from local leaders. While the seat was vacant, Republicans in the Texas Legislature approved a rare mid-decade redistricting plan that dramatically reshaped Houston-area congressional maps. The new lines dismantled much of Green’s longtime 9th Congressional District and packed many of those voters into the newly configured 18th District. After Menefee won the special election to finish Turner’s term in the old 18th District, the new maps pitted Green and Menefee against each other in the March primary.

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Dallas County approves $350M in bonds for new jail property, infrastructure without voter approval

Dallas County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday to borrow as much as $350 million to jumpstart a series of sweeping public infrastructure improvements, including acquiring land for a future county jail. The funding will be issued through certificates of obligation, a specialized form of municipal debt that allows local governments to secure capital under state law without requiring voter approval on a public ballot. When factoring in interest over the coming decades, the true cost of the repayment package is projected to climb to $688 million, financed through local property taxes according to PFM Financial Advisers.

Despite taking on this new debt, financial data presented by PFM during Tuesday's meeting indicates Dallas County will retain the second-lowest outstanding debt per capita among Texas's five largest local jurisdictions. Certificates of obligation, which do not require voter approval, would pay for facility construction, renovations and equipment throughout the county. The single largest line item in the newly approved resolution is a $60 million allocation dedicated to the purchase and initial site development of land for a new county jail. In 2022, Dallas County created the jail facilities advisory committee to evaluate options to replace the aging Lew Sterrett Justice Center, though a final proposed site location has not yet been publicly disclosed. In 2024, an advisory committee report estimated that building a modern, 7,200-bed correctional facility could cost taxpayers upwards of $5 billion by 2032. The commissioners vote on the bond came with no public discussion. KERA News reached out to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and will update this story with any response. Beyond the jail infrastructure, the remaining portions of the $350 million authorization will target various county facilities.

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Dallas City Hall divide softens as consultants detail repair tradeoff

A divided Dallas City Council struck a more congenial tone Wednesday as engineering and real estate consultants laid out a new roadmap for renovating City Hall. Council members, often on opposing sides, dug into the makings of potential 10-year repair programs based on reports done by engineering firm AECOM and other consultants. Cost estimates are expected June 3, and though some members remained skeptical, most signaled they believed the process was moving in the right direction. “I understand the approach and where we're headed, so it gives comfort to wherever we land,” council member Paula Blackmon said. The latest briefing marks the clearest look yet at the challenges of repairing the aging I.M. Pei-designed building.

The debate over repairing or abandoning the building played out visually in the council chambers during the public comment portion of the meeting. Preservation advocates wore blue “Save Dallas City Hall” shirts and redevelopment supporters sported green “Say Yes to Downtown” shirts. Bruce Orr, an ambassador for the campaign led by former Mayor Mike Rawlings, said the council faces “a difficult and potentially unpopular decision.” He said money spent revamping the building could instead fund parks and other amenities, especially if relocation proved cheaper as Dallas confronts budget pressures. “I ask only that you address our money problems responsibly,” Orr said. Kevin Pheiffer, a resident who backs restoring the building, said giving up city-owned property in favor of leased space elsewhere would amount to “generational theft.” “Do the hard work, and do some TLC on this building that's required,” Pheiffer said. Several speakers questioned whether giving up City Hall could actually turbocharge change downtown. Some referred to a plan crafted by University of Texas at Arlington and prominent architects that gives the city a new basketball arena and keeps City Hall. Others criticized city leaders for failing to prioritize repairs for years.

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Welcome to the first World Cup of the sports prediction market era

Sports wagering is illegal in Texas but that won’t stop countless fans in the Lone Star State from having financial skin in the first men’s World Cup in North America in 32 years. Welcome to the first World Cup in the age of sports prediction markets, whose popularity over the last year has surged even as legal battles have escalated over states' authority to regulate some companies. At issue, industry experts said, is a fundamental question: Is the multibillion-dollar sports prediction market industry merely sports betting in disguise? “It’s what everyone is talking about now,” Johnny ElHachem, a South Florida-based gaming attorney at Holland & Knight, told The Dallas Morning News. “The debate is far from over. I really think this is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. … For Texans, the legal ground beneath your feet is moving, and what is permissible today may be prohibited tomorrow, or the other way around.”

As fans gear up for the 48-team World Cup, the largest in history, more than $35 billion is expected to be wagered globally on the event. Some $3.1 billion is forecast to be bet just in the U.S., according to Bookies.com, almost double the $1.8 billion wagered during the last World Cup in 2022. Another $2.37 billion could be traded on prediction markets like New York-based Kalshi and Polymarket. Texans could also take part in prediction markets on wagering apps for FanDuel and DraftKings, which launched prediction markets in recent months to offer a product in all 50 states, including the 11 states where sports wagering remains illegal. Prediction markets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, and mimic traditional sports betting. Those who take part buy and sell “yes-and-no” contracts with each other on events that run the gamut from politics to sports and culture. Kalshi, after a recent funding round, recently announced a valuation of $22 billion. It said over the past six months, institutional trading volume has increased 800%. During that period, it said its annualized trading volume has more than tripled, growing from $52 billion to $178 billion.

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Former U.S. Attorney charged with hit-and-run in crash caught on camera

The former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas is now facing felony charges. Investigators say she left the scene of a crash in Houston that injured another driver. Jennifer Lowery spent over twenty years prosecuting crimes in the Southern District of Texas. The Department of Justice announced her appointment as U.S. attorney in 2022. Now, court documents accuse her of failing to stop and help after a crash that was caught on camera. Surveillance video obtained by ABC13 shows a black sedan heading north on Asbury Street around 8:07 p.m. on Thursday, May 14. The sedan crashes into a car going west on Memorial Drive. Gabriel Fonseca was driving that car after attending a downtown church service and heading to Memorial Park to exercise.

"Last second, didn't have time to swerve, so I just laid down my horn and smacked me right on the driver's side," recalled Fonseca. "After that, I just heard a really loud ringing in my ear, and there was dust everywhere. Fonseca says he remembers the airbags deployed, and he was confused as he tried to get help moments after the impact. "I remember pulling into the closest parking lot. Somehow, I called 911. I couldn't open the door, so I crawled out," he said. Witnesses ran over to help Fonseca, but investigators say the driver of the black sedan, identified in court records as Lowery, did not. The video shows the black sedan staying at the scene for only about two and a half minutes before leaving. "She didn't even check to see if I was dead, " Fonseca said. "It's a selfish and cowardly thing to do, to hit someone and run away without even being concerned." According to court documents, a witness followed the damaged car to a nearby home and later gave police a description of both the car and the driver. Officers then went to the house and reportedly found the damaged sedan.

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Gary Bird: Supporting students, strengthening communities across South Central Texas

(Dr. Gary Bird is the President of the Board of Directors of Communities In Schools of South Central Texas.) As another school year comes to a close across South Central Texas, it is an important time to pause and recognize the students, educators, families, and support staff who work tirelessly each day to help students succeed. At Communities In Schools of South Central Texas (CIS-SCT), we have the privilege of seeing firsthand the determination and resilience of students throughout our region. We also see the extraordinary impact that caring adults, strong schools, and supportive communities can have on a child’s future. Every school year looks different for each student. For some students, those challenges may include academic struggles, food insecurity, mental health concerns, unstable housing, transportation barriers, or family hardships. Yet despite these obstacles, students across our communities continue to show up, work hard, and strive toward their goals - aspiring for a bright future. Their perseverance deserves to be celebrated.

On behalf of the entire CIS-SCT Board of Directors, I also want to recognize the incredible educators, counselors, administrators, and school staff who go above and beyond every day. Their commitment extends far beyond academics. They serve as mentors, encouragers, advocates, and steady sources of support for students who need someone in their corner. At CIS-SCT, our mission is simple but powerful: to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Our site coordinators work directly on campuses throughout South Central Texas, building trusted relationships with students and connecting families to essential resources and services. This work would not be possible without strong partnerships with local school districts, community organizations, donors, volunteers, and supporters who believe every child deserves the opportunity to succeed. Together, we are helping students overcome barriers and creating pathways to brighter futures. This year, we have witnessed moments both large and small that reflect the power of community support. We have seen students improve attendance, gain confidence, overcome personal challenges, and take meaningful steps toward graduation and future careers.

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Texas AG Ken Paxton launches investigation into Meta AI glasses over privacy concerns

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into Meta’s smart glasses over concerns about how the devices may collect, process and potentially expose users’ private information, according to a news release issued Wednesday. The investigation centers on Meta’s AI glasses, which are equipped with cameras, speakers and communication tools that allow users to capture and share audio and video from their surroundings. According to the attorney general’s office, Meta’s privacy policy states the glasses have an “always enabled” mode that continuously processes video data for use with Meta AI products. The release said the devices also use an LED indicator light to signal when audio or video is being recorded, but officials raised concerns that the light can be hidden and does not activate during the glasses’ always-on mode.

WFAA reached out to Meta for comment on the investigation. "We also built in tamper detection that prevents capture if the LED is covered when a user is actively capturing photos or videos for their gallery. If the LED is covered, the user will be notified to clear it before they can initiate active capture," a META spokesperson told WFAA. The release also cited concerns over how user information is handled. According to Paxton’s office, individuals working for Meta subcontractor Sama in Kenya have claimed they could access users’ private information despite Meta’s privacy protections. The release said some workers reported viewing highly personal footage, including bathroom visits and other intimate moments. "Privacy and data protection are core to every product we build at Meta, including Ray-Ban Meta glasses. We're ready to address the questions Attorney General Paxton has raised, which appear to come from reporting that doesn't reflect the full picture of our work," a META spokesperson told WFAA.

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In Texas, high schools bet on a bright future for oil and gas careers under Trump

Dylan Ruiz sat in front of a nearly 6-foot-tall structure, a jumble of pumps and valves that simulate the flow of liquids and pressure changes. He was working through a training scenario on preventing oil leaks during his class on pumps, compressors and mechanical drives at Midland College in Texas. In the oil and gas industry, even minor errors can have major consequences. Ruiz, a 17-year-old senior at Legacy High School in Midland, is one of about 100 students earning dual high school and college credits by taking free courses on the basics of oil and gas production through Midland College’s Petroleum Energy Program. “It’s a boom-and-bust economy, but you can see the profits undeniably,” said Ruiz, who wants to be a petroleum engineer to provide for his family. As a kid, he and his family felt the bust: His dad, who entered the industry without a college degree, was laid off a few times. But they’re betting on Donald Trump to help usher in a boom.

For more than a decade, as many oil and gas workers near retirement age, the industry has poured millions of dollars into Texas K-12 education to create programs designed to train students on the basics of the industry. The investment in recruiting and educating younger people was in danger of slowing as the country moved toward clean energy production. But some educators in Texas say the programs have been reinvigorated by the Trump administration’s pledge to ramp up fossil fuel extraction. Oil and natural gas jobs pay among the highest wages in Texas, averaging about $86,298 in 2024, according to the latest figures from the Texas Workforce Commission. The Petroleum Energy Program primarily trains students for roles as technicians, supporting scientists and engineers in finding and extracting oil and gas. “We need those workers,” said Kathy Shannon, a prominent oil and gas education advocate who retired in 2023 as the longtime executive director of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, which works with the school district to promote STEM education and jobs in the industry. It’s necessary, she said, to “entice these kiddos and teach them about the industry and why it’s a great living.” Texas is among a handful of states — including California, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania — that offer courses in the oil and gas industry for high school students. It’s part of a larger trend of companies working more closely with school districts to ensure the skills that students are learning line up with business needs. Critics worry about the oil and gas industry’s influence over students, though, as evidence mounts of its environmental harms.

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NASA quietly removes former El Paso astronaut and other advisers, alarming former agency leaders

As the four-person crew of Artemis II arrived at Cape Canaveral on March 27 to prepare for the launch of its historic lunar mission, the administrator of NASA quietly removed the members of a key panel that had advised the agency for almost 50 years. One of those removed from the NASA Advisory Council was Danny Olivas, a retired astronaut from El Paso who played a role in investigating the safety of the Artemis II heat shield that would allow the capsule to return through Earth’s atmosphere.

“At this time, the structure of Federal Advisory Committees at NASA is being adjusted, and your role will conclude at this time,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s letter to Olivas said. Olivas said he wasn’t surprised, because Isaacman had indicated before becoming NASA administrator in December 2025 that he planned to eliminate many of the advisory groups of outside experts who have provided feedback to NASA for decades. “But I also think that there’s a level of ignorance or arrogance that is part and parcel for those that are outside of NASA in trying to understand what the various organizations do,” said Olivas, who joined NASA in 1998 and is a veteran of two space shuttle missions that included more than 35 hours of space walks, known officially as extra vehicular activity. His concern is shared by a number of former astronauts interviewed by El Paso Matters, including several who rose to the top leadership ranks of NASA. In addition to the apparent dismantling of much of the outside advisory system long used by NASA to shape policies and processes for space missions, the agency also has cut 20% of its work force since Donald Trump returned to the presidency in 2025.

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National Stories

Lawmakers scrutinize sportsbooks, prediction markets at testy hearing

Senators from both parties peppered officials from the gaming and prediction market industries with questions about their aggressive marketing strategies, integrity-monitoring practices and efforts to protect consumer safety during a sometimes testy hearing on Wednesday. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s hearing took place amid rising worries about betting scandals, and the possibility that people have been using insider information from government work to cash in on unregulated prediction markets. “Fans need to be assured that game rigging is rare, and that anyone caught doing it will be punished harshly if not banned forever,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who serves as chair of the committee. “This has all been inflamed by the rapid explosion of legal sports betting across the United States. What was once limited to a handful of locations is now available in almost every corner of the country — often right on a cellphone,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

“The introduction of sports event contracts on prediction markets has exposed more people to sports betting,” Blackburn added. “There are real concerns that they function much like traditional sports betting without the enforcement of state regulators and attorneys general.” A large portion of Wednesday’s hearing focused on the inherent difference between sports gambling and prediction markets, with multiple members of the panel asserting most Americans either don’t understand or see much difference between the two. Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, assured lawmakers that the major casinos and sportsbooks his organization represents, such as FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM, have doubled down on integrity monitoring and partnerships with law enforcement. He also defended the marketing tactics of several sportsbooks from skeptical lawmakers who railed against the targeting of young people on social media. When Blackburn asked Miller directly if his organization’s members advertise to children, he replied, “We do not.”

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Jan. 6 police officers sue to block Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization fund’

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward called criticism of the fund misguided and premature. “To all the panicans out there, look, as the associate attorney general, I already have the authority to settle any claim that is brought against the United States of America,” Woodward said. “I think that it’s way, way, way too early for us to rush to judgment on whether this was a good or a bad idea or to describe it as a slush fund, or really even to criticize it … because there’s not been a single claim filed, there’s not been a single payment made.” The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit are among the highest profile of the police officers who confronted the Jan. 6 rioters.

Video of Hodges screaming as he was being crushed by rioters in a door frame on the West Terrace of the Capitol became one of the most searing images of the event. Dunn engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters and testified that he faced “a torrent of racial epithets” from Trump supporters during the showdown. Dunn is running for Congress, in a crowded field seeking the Democratic nomination in Maryland’s 5th district. Dunn and Hodges are represented in the lawsuit by the Public Integrity Project, an anti-corruption group founded by Brendan Ballou, a Jan. 6 prosecutor who resigned from the Justice Department last year after Trump pardoned the vast majority of Capitol riot participants.

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Federal budget deficit projected to hit $2 trillion this fiscal year, ranking among largest in US history

The federal government is projected to run a budget deficit of at least $2 trillion this fiscal year, according to an estimate by the Treasury Department and bond market participants. Earlier this month, the Treasury released its quarterly refunding documents for the second quarter of the calendar year, which included estimates of needed borrowing over the next two quarters of fiscal year 2026 as of April. It showed that the White House is anticipating a roughly $2.1 trillion deficit in FY2026 based on the president's budget, while participants in the bond market expect the deficit to be about $2 trillion. Both figures are up from the estimate of more than $1.8 trillion that was produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in February based on legislation passed by Congress as of mid-January. The U.S. ran a deficit of just over $1.8 trillion in the last fiscal year.

"Both the Treasury and the markets agree we're on course to borrow $2 trillion this year, up from the $1.8 trillion deficit we logged last year. $2 trillion deficits used to be unheard of, and then they only occurred during major recessions – it's beyond scary that $2 trillion deficits are now the norm," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). A federal deficit of $2 trillion or more in fiscal year 2026 would rank as one of the largest in U.S. history, coming in at third on the all-time list. The two largest budget deficits in U.S. history were both incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the biggest totaling $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2020 and the next-largest reaching nearly $2.8 trillion the following year amid a surge of stimulus spending to support the economy. MacGuineas said that the latest deficit projection is "yet another data point – along with debt passing 100% of the economy in March and interest spending on track to top more than $1 trillion this year – showing the need for us to get our fiscal situation under control." "Markets will only tolerate our unsustainable borrowing for so long; the risk of fiscal crisis gets higher as the days pass. We need deficit reduction urgently," she added.

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Senate Republicans don't have the votes to fund Trump's ballroom

President Donald Trump may not be getting taxpayer money for his ballroom after all. Senate Republicans on Wednesday indicated they expect the funds intended to secure the planned East Wing project to be stripped out of the single-party package because they lack the votes to include the money in the bill. Adding to the troubles, Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, ruled that language fails to pass muster with the strict budget rules for what can be included in the $72 billion proposal for border security priorities. “We’re going back to square one,” Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told NOTUS. “What I’m told is it’s not based on an interpretation by the parliamentarian. The votes are not there. If we go forward, we will lose.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis also said Republicans don’t have the votes to pass the funding, warning that if they go forward with it, it would needlessly subject Republicans to brutal Democratic attacks ahead of the November midterms. “They should have never conflated the other legitimate Secret Service needs because it’s just giving everybody the ‘billion dollar ballroom’ and it’s just a bad idea,” Tillis told NOTUS. Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged the struggle to lock down the votes, telling reporters that despite Trump’s calls to oust the parliamentarian, that is the lesser of the worries at present. “There’s a couple of snags — snafus if you will — that we’ve run into,” he said after a caucus lunch. “There are issues related to the East Wing modernization project that are vote issues.” “There may be some issues that relate to the parliamentarian, but most of the issues we have here are votes,” Thune said earlier Tuesday.

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Former Rep. Barney Frank, champion of Wall Street reform and gay rights trailblazer, dies at 86

Barney Frank, the quick-witted Massachusetts congressman and liberal lion who helped overhaul Wall Street regulations after the 2008 financial crisis and made history as one of the first openly gay members of Congress, died Wednesday, his sister confirmed to NBC Boston. He was 86. He had entered hospice care at his home in Maine last month. “He was, above all else, a wonderful brother. I was lucky to be his sister,” Frank’s sister Doris Breay told NBC Boston.

Frank represented southern Massachusetts in the House for 32 years and established himself as a leading voice in debates over banking, affordable housing and LGBTQ rights. He chaired the Financial Services Committee amid the 2008 meltdown and co-authored the milestone Dodd-Frank Act, a sweeping law that sought to put Wall Street firms under tougher scrutiny. He blazed a trail for other openly gay American elected officials, and in 2012, he became the first member of Congress to enter into a same-sex marriage, tying the knot with his longtime partner, Jim Ready. “It was life-changing, lifesaving for me,” Frank told NBC News in a phone interview in last month. “I think the key to our having made the enormous progress we made in defeating anti-gay prejudice had to do with us all coming out and people discovering the gap between our reality and the way we were painted,” he added.

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Five Republican senators back Letlow in bid to sew up Louisiana runoff

Republican senators are moving quickly to get behind Rep. Julia Letlow, President Donald Trump’s pick in the Louisiana Senate runoff. Five GOP senators are backing Letlow in her runoff against Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, a founding member of the House’s conservative Freedom Caucus, according to details first shared with Semafor. Sens. Tim Sheehy of Montana, Katie Britt of Alabama, Jim Banks of Indiana, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, and Rick Scott of Florida are all endorsing Letlow after she received nearly 45 percent of the vote on Saturday. Letlow said her endorsers are “fighting every day to help President Trump deliver on the America First agenda, and I would be proud to stand alongside them in the United States Senate.” Her runoff race against Fleming is on June 27.

It’s a sign that the dust is settling from Letlow’s defeat of their colleague, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. Britt, Moreno and Banks are all vice chairs at the Senate Republican campaign arm, Moreno is running to chair it for the 2028 cycle, and Scott ran it in 2022 — while Sheehy is a close Trump ally. Their support for Letlow is both an attempt to help her decisively end the runoff and a sign that Republicans see her as favored over Fleming. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., also endorsed Letlow this week. Before Letlow and Fleming edged out Cassidy on Saturday, most Senate Republicans had treated the race gingerly, declining to take sides as Cassidy fought an uphill battle against Trump with backing from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In statements, her new endorsers said she would align with Trump’s “America First agenda.”

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House passes housing reform after Trump’s blessing

With President Donald Trump’s stamp of approval, the House overwhelmingly passed its version of a housing bill Wednesday, softening the Senate’s proposed restrictions around large-scale landlords and developers. The bill, passed 396-13, now goes back to the upper chamber, which passed its own housing bill two months ago — also with Trump’s support. The House bill stripped out a controversial provision from the Senate version that would force big developers to sell off homes built as rentals to families after seven years. The policy faced fierce backlash in the House and among industry groups that aggressively lobbied against it, arguing that it would hamper investment. The package, which would fast-track housing development by removing regulatory requirements and overhauling federal housing programs to better support the construction of new homes, is a key agenda item for Republicans and Trump ahead of the midterm elections.

Housing policy is also a rare spot for bipartisanship in this Congress. But the reform effort had been stalled for weeks due to disagreements between the Senate, House and White House. Trump wanted limits on institutional investors’ ownership of single-family homes. So did the Senate. The House didn’t include them until this week — finally earning the White House’s stamp of approval after it mirrored the Senate’s language on private equity ownership of single-family homes. The House also added prevailing wage protections to the package to satisfy labor unions and removed language included in the Senate-passed bill that would have required large developers to sell build-to-rent properties seven years after construction. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill characterized the changes as “modest amendments” that preserve the president’s vision and the Senate’s intent. “We listened to public comment, immense public comment over the last few weeks, and we modified old Section 901 of the institutional investor ban,” said Hill, an Arkansas Republican. House lawmakers said they had to amend the Senate version in order to get the bill passed in their chamber.

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Controversial CBS News boss gets put on the chopping block

Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, is facing a possible reduction in her role as Paramount leadership informally discusses narrowing her responsibilities and handing day-to-day broadcast operations to a more experienced television executive. The development, first reported by Puck, marks a sharp shift for a figure heavily backed by Skydance CEO David Ellison less than a year ago. According to Puck, sources familiar with the talks said Weiss “would likely cede day-to-day control over Evening News, CBS Mornings and 60 Minutes to this more experienced, as-yet-unnamed executive, shifting her focus to the news division’s digital growth while maintaining broad editorial influence across all the company’s platforms.” Paramount quickly denied the report. A spokesperson said, “Bari has the full support of Paramount and David Ellison as the editorial leader overseeing CBS News and 60 Minutes. Reports suggesting otherwise are inaccurate.”

Paramount executives believe Weiss “was given too broad a mandate for someone without previous experience in television,” while frustration has also grown over ongoing negative press coverage. Sources inside CBS News reportedly complained that “Bari is drastically overstretched, and lacks the experience and managerial skills necessary to run the network.” Puck argued it would be unfair to blame Weiss alone for CBS News’ struggles. He wrote that it was “entirely unfair to pin this misadventure” solely on her, noting the merger created an “unprecedented situation” and that Ellison himself may have been navigating a learning curve. The scrutiny comes at a difficult time for Paramount. The company, backed by the Ellison family, is pursuing a deal for Warner Bros. Discovery even after the conglomerate agreed to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix. Paramount has argued it could provide stability for CNN, making every controversy surrounding Weiss more damaging to its broader ambitions.

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Lead Stories

Why Trump bucked Republicans with a risky bet on Texas’ Ken Paxton

Sen. Tim Scott called President Trump on Tuesday with a last-ditch plea. The president was on the verge of publicly endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s tightly contested Republican primary. Scott, a South Carolina Republican who leads the Senate’s campaign arm, urged him to reconsider, according to people familiar with the conversation. Thirty minutes later, Trump backed Paxton anyway, breaking with Scott and other senior Republicans in Washington, who have long believed that Paxton’s GOP opponent, four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, was a safer bet. The decision, which came after months of waffling, reflected the president’s renewed conviction that he maintains an iron grip on the party following recent electoral victories, according to people familiar with his thinking. It was also a warning shot to Republicans in Congress that Trump won’t tolerate dissent.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. Trump’s decision comes with political risks. Though Republicans still have a good shot at winning in deep-red Texas, many GOP strategists worry that Paxton is a flawed candidate. He has been accused by his top lieutenants of abusing his office (he has denied wrongdoing), impeached by his own party (he was later acquitted), charged with securities fraud (he resolved the charges with a pretrial deal) and is currently in the middle of a divorce initiated by his wife “on biblical grounds.” Paxton has consistently denied wrongdoing and characterized accusations of illegal or immoral behavior as attacks by left-wing enemies. The winner of next week’s Republican runoff will face Democrat James Talarico, who some national GOP groups view as a formidable opponent. Trump has told advisers in recent weeks that he views Talarico as a weak candidate. Though both Paxton and Cornyn have vied for Trump’s coveted endorsement, the president had long resisted picking a favorite in the race. The competition between the two men has been ugly, with Cornyn attacking Paxton for infidelity in marriage, and Paxton calling Cornyn old, weak and too bipartisan for Texas.

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Democrats are bullish on Texas after Trump’s move for Paxton

Democratic leaders say they’re one step closer to winning in Texas, now that President Donald Trump has endorsed scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for Senate. The question now is whether they’re close enough that it’s worth investing in a state where Democrats have consistently been disappointed in recent years. If Paxton beats Sen. John Cornyn in next week’s Republican primary runoff, Democrats say they see a viable path to win a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in more than three decades. State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee and a rising star inside the party, has already raised a record-breaking $27 million for his race. For the first time, the flagship political action committee aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled its willingness to jump in. “We remain bullish about Texas, and there is every likelihood we’ll make a mark there,” Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement shared with NOTUS.

Democrats’ dream of turning Texas blue is still a longshot. Contesting Texas would require vast financial resources, and Democrats are currently losing the national fundraising race to Republicans. The GOP nomination isn’t settled yet, either: Cornyn came in first in the March primary, outperforming Republicans’ expectations, and could still prevail in the May 26 runoff despite Trump’s snub. Even so, Democrats greeted Trump’s intervention in the runoff with jubilation. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a former Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair, told NOTUS that Paxton, a darling of the MAGA movement, will “turn off a lot of independent voters, and Talarico has made it clear he wants to represent everyone in Texas, not just MAGA.” Talarico, who won the March Democratic primary outright, said in a statement, “It doesn’t matter who wins this runoff. We already know who we’re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system.” Officials at the DSCC, Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, expressed confidence that they could make a real push to flip the seat. “Republicans are watching $100 million circle down the drain before their eyes as Donald Trump rejects their year of begging him to bail out John Cornyn,” spokesperson Maeve Coyle said in a statement after the endorsement. “While the Texas GOP has been embroiled in a ‘bitter,’ ‘costly intraparty war’ that has fractured their base and left them drained of resources, Democratic enthusiasm has surged to its highest level in decades.”

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With Massie and other critics defeated, Trump notches more GOP primary wins

President Donald Trump flexed the strength of his party-transforming political movement again Tuesday, continuing the successful process of eliminating political enemies within the GOP this month. At the same time, Trump’s low approval ratings and the war with Iran have raised red flags in key Republican primaries among base voters who supported his “America First” agenda that included the idea of a focus on domestic issues. Those red flags may persist with independent voters and base turnout alike when the general election gets underway in a few months. But in the meantime, Trump continues to prove he can not only influence the Republican primary electorate but also attack Republicans who have opposed him in any way without feeling there are significant negative consequences.

“I think what everyone can take away from this is that Donald Trump is going nowhere,” said a Trump adviser working for his political operation. “He has won and will continue to win.” Trump this month defeated five Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his push for mid-decade redistricting. Over the weekend, his political machine also blocked Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict him in his 2021 impeachment trial, from advancing in his primary in Louisiana, a state he has represented for two terms. The biggest and most exciting win for the White House, though, came Tuesday: defeating Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who opposed Trump on key issues, including on the “big, beautiful bill” tax and spending plan and on pushing for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Massie lost to Trump-backed Ed Gallrein, who got 54% of the GOP primary vote. For months, Trump and his allies have attacked Massie, and they got their win Tuesday in the most expensive House primary in history in terms of ad spending. Trump, however, did not outright win everything he touched Tuesday night. In Georgia’s nationally watched race for governor, Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who also has major GOP establishment backing in the state, moved on to a runoff against billionaire Rick Jackson, who has framed himself as a Trump ally.

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Rising energy costs and data centers at heart of NextEra’s Dominion bid

NextEra Energy’s proposed acquisition of Dominion Energy will make it the nation’s largest utility and power company, placing it at the center of national debates about why electricity bills are soaring and how the country should meet the seemingly insatiable energy demands of data centers. The deal, which was announced Monday, would bring together utility operations serving around 10 million customers in Florida, Virginia and other Southeastern states. NextEra will also own nuclear power plants, renewable energy projects, transmission lines and pipelines from Maine to Hawaii. The companies and some analysts say that combining all those operations under one corporate roof will result in big benefits, including lower costs and the speedier addition of new sources of electricity.

But who reaps those rewards from this deal, which values Dominion at more than $120 billion including its debt, is a big question. Even before the war in Iran sent fuel prices soaring, anger was building about the rising costs of energy, especially for electricity. Residential electric rates are up around 34 percent since 2020. At least some of that increase can be linked to the rapid growth of data centers used to develop artificial intelligence. Most utility industry experts do not expect electricity rates to drop but say that policymakers can do a lot to arrest their rapid rise. One early sign of their willingness to do so will come when federal and state governments weigh NextEra’s purchase of Dominion. Regulators could try to block the deal or impose conditions aimed at keeping electricity rates in check. What does this deal mean for electricity rate and bills? It is hard to say with any certainty. NextEra, based in Juno Beach, Fla., said on Monday that if its deal is approved, it will offer Dominion’s roughly four million customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina $2.25 billion in bill credits over two years. That amounts to about $550 per customer. Customers would also “benefit from the shared expertise and best practices of America’s leading regulated utilities, laser-focused on low customer bills, customer service, storm resiliency and reliability,” John Ketchum, the chief executive of NextEra, said in a statement.

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State Stories

USAA’s $223M in patent victories over PNC dies at Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive USAA’s patent-infringement case against PNC Bank, leaving intact a federal appeals court ruling that erased about $223 million in jury awards the San Antonio company had won over its mobile check-deposit technology. By declining to hear the case, the Supreme Court left the Federal Circuit’s ruling as the final word, meaning USAA cannot recover the jury awards. The justices denied USAA’s petition for review without comment. Justice Samuel Alito took no part in the decision. USAA representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. “PNC is pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Federal Circuit’s decisions in the USAA matter,” a PNC Bank spokesperson said in email.

In 2022, two East Texas juries awarded USAA about $223 million combined after finding PNC Bank infringed patents tied to the San Antonio company’s mobile check-deposit technology. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington wiped out the verdicts last June, ruling that the patents were invalid because they covered the abstract idea of depositing checks using a mobile device and did not describe a specific technological improvement. In asking the Supreme Court to intervene, USAA argued the appeals court adopted an overly narrow view of patent eligibility for computer-implemented inventions that conflicts with prior high court rulings. The USAA case is the latest in a series of disputes in which the Supreme Court has declined to revisit patent-eligibility rules involving software and computer-implemented inventions. USAA has said it developed its remote deposit capture technology nearly two decades ago to help military members deposit checks while deployed overseas and that it holds more than 180 patents tied to the technology.

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The little-known hedge fund that stands to make over $10 billion on SpaceX

SpaceX’s planned initial public offering is expected to be a windfall for futurist investors and venture capitalists. A publicity-shy hedge-fund manager whose other investments include Dick’s Sporting Goods and Wingstop is also expected to make a killing. Darsana Capital Partners first invested in SpaceX in 2019 when Elon Musk’s rocket maker was valued at around $30 billion, and made several subsequent investments since then. Should SpaceX go public at a valuation of around $1.5 trillion or more next month, as many expect, Darsana’s paper gains on their investment could top $10 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Several billion of that would be gains since SpaceX’s December funding round that valued it at around $800 billion. The soaring valuation of Elon Musk’s rocket maker means the investment now accounts for nearly 60% of Darsana’s assets under management, the people said.

Anand Desai launched New York-based Darsana, which takes its name for a Sanskrit word that means seeing the true nature of reality, in 2014 with about $1.4 billion. He previously spent nearly a decade at Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital Management. It doesn’t focus on any particular industry or sector and prefers to hold investments for multiple years. Darsana got interested in SpaceX after one of its partners, Dan Irom, was looking into publicly traded satellite companies and met with privately held SpaceX as part of his research, the people familiar with the matter said. Through that process, the firm got to know SpaceX, and the company invited it to invest. Darsana has made other investments in companies that wound up doing deals with SpaceX, resulting in it receiving additional shares, and has never sold any of its SpaceX shares, the people said. The firm invested in venture-capital and debt financings for social-media platform X after Musk took it private and before it merged with xAI last year. That company then merged with SpaceX in an all-stock deal early this year. The largest holding in Darsana’s disclosed portfolio of publicly traded stocks at March 31 was EchoStar. The satellite and telecommunications company struck a deal to license some of its wireless spectrum to SpaceX for $17 billion in cash and stock.

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House candidate Maureen Galindo pledges to send ‘American zionists’ to internment camp

Controversy-tarred congressional candidate Maureen Galindo this week pledged to transform a site south of San Antonio now used by the Trump administration to detain migrants into an internment camp for “American Zionists.” “She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,” Galindo wrote in an Instagram post over the weekend, referring to herself in the third person. “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.” Galindo’s latest set of inflammatory remarks comes as the Democratic hopeful for Texas’ newly redrawn 35th Congressional District continues to draw national attention for remarks critics have called antisemitic and untethered from reality. The controversy is snowballing as she heads into the May 26 Democratic primary runoff.

Over the past week, Galindo has accused her runoff opponent — former Bexar County Public Information Officer Johnny Garcia — of participating in a human trafficking conspiracy orchestrated by billionaire zionist Jews. She also pledged during a Texas Public Radio interview to put Garcia on trial for treason. Beyond her attacks on Garcia, Galindo has continued to promote the narrative that a cabal of Jewish zionists controls Hollywood, the media and even local politicians. Even so, in comments to the Current and other media outlets, Galindo maintained she only has an issue with zionists, or those advocating for the existence of a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland, rather than Jews in general. “I think it’s actually the zionists who are putting Jewish people at the most risk,” Galindo told the Current last week. The San Antonio Jewish Federation (JFSA) doesn’t see it that way.

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Phillips 66 expands Corpus Christi natural gas liquids facility

Houston oil giant Phillips 66 is building a new gas plant and pipeline in the Permian Basin and expanding its Corpus Christi processing and pipeline facilities as the company expands its natural gas liquids business. Energy companies have been growing their chemicals business as part of the energy transition and a push to cushion their portfolios from volatile consumer and market trends. Although policy changes of the Trump administration have incentivized a focus on traditional resources such as oil and coal, forecasts still suggest demand for crude is expected to decline within the next two decades. Demand for chemicals such as ethane, propane and butane is expected to rise with their increased use in cleaner-burning fuels and as building blocks of plastics.

These chemicals are used to produce compounds used in everything from plastic for packaging materials to polymers for construction and consumer electronics. Phillips 66 in particular has taken steps to boost its sales of natural gas liquids such as ethane, propane and butane. The company spent more than $6 billion in recent years to acquire pipelines and processing facilities from Epic NGL in 2025 and DCP Midstream in 2023. The new Zeus gas plant will include the construction of the Midland Express Pipeline, an approximately 45-mile, 20-inch line connecting the company’s Permian Basin production assets. The Zeus plant will be able to process 300 million cubic feet per day of natural gas. The pipeline is expected to be able to move up to 230 million cubic feet of gas with bidirectional flows between multiple processing facilities. “At a high level, Zeus is the next step in our plan to add a gas plant every 12-18 months,” said Don Baldridge, executive vice president of midstream for Phillips 66, in an email. Gas plants the company already has in its Permian lineup include Dos Picos II and Iron Mesa, which together will be responsible for processing more than 520 million standard cubic feet per day. Dos Picos II is already online while Iron Mesa is expected to come online next year. Phillips 66 also said Monday that it will build a third fractionator at its Coastal Bend facility in Robstown, near Corpus Christi. Fractionators are facilities used to separate mixed natural gas liquids into separate components that can then be properly distilled into different products.

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Kirkland & Ellis could end up supplying both a U.S. attorney and judge

President Donald Trump has nominated a Dallas attorney from a large corporate law firm to fill a vacancy on the federal bench in the Northern District of Texas. Kasdin Mitchell is a litigation partner with Kirkland & Ellis in its Dallas office, where she has represented large companies such as Facebook, Dow Inc. and Boeing, along with health insurers and a large pipeline company. Prior to joining the firm, she clerked for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. In a related development, the U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed the nomination of Ryan Raybould to serve as U.S. attorney in Dallas. Raybould was named to the post on Nov. 17 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi after Trump nominated him on Oct. 21 to serve a four-year term.

The U.S. Attorney is the top federal prosecutor in North Texas. The office prosecutes federal crimes and brings civil actions and also defends the government in civil lawsuits. Both Raybould and Mitchell hail from Kirkland & Ellis, which was among several large corporate law firms that made an agreement last year with Trump to provide free work to the federal government. The law firms agreed to each provide millions of dollars in free legal services to the federal government and to further politically conservative causes championed by the president. The firms that cut deals with Trump were facing crippling executive orders – orders which many other law firms fought successfully in court, according to published reports. Trump said the corporate law firms he targeted did “some very bad things," including representing clients and causes he considered un-American. Many in the legal profession criticized the arrangement, calling it unconstitutional and undemocratic. A message left on Mitchell’s voicemail was not returned. Raybould also could not be reached for comment. Two attempts over two days to reach media representatives of Kirkland & Ellis by email were unsuccessful. And the White House could not be reached for comment. The Texas Lawbook reported last year that Kirkland & Ellis employed more than 450 lawyers in Texas and enjoyed $1.1 billion in revenue in 2024. And it cited legal industry analysts in calling the firm “the most successful and most profitable business law firm in Texas history.”

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‘Constitutional Crisis’: Attorneys share concerns about the state of criminal law in rural Texas

Concho Valley First Assistant Public Defender, Ted Wenske, drove over three hours from Abilene to the Texas Capitol to advocate for an increase in criminal attorneys in rural areas across rural Texas as his office faces bigger workloads. “At this point, most of the office lives in a constant state of being on the verge of burnout,” Wenske explained to Nexstar in the halls of the Texas Capitol. The Concho Valley Public Defenders Office was created in late 2021 to aid rural counties that were overburdened with criminal cases. It is mostly funded by the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC), a state agency that oversees improving public defense across the Texas. Scott Ehlers, the executive director of the TIDC, testified that between 2014 and 2024 there has been a 29% drop in the number of attorneys handling indigent defense cases.

Between their two offices in Abilene and San Angelo, there are 25 attorneys and 4 investigators. Wenske said the TIDC limits each attorney in their office to 128 felony cases per year, however, this is not enough to counter the shortage of attorneys. “We have had to cut off appointments because our attorneys were overloaded,” Wenske explained. lawmakers heard testimony highlighting the need for the Texas Legislature to partner with Texas law schools in developing potential pipelines that would incentivize aspiring attorneys to practice law in rural Texas towns. It is part of the interim charges assigned to committee members. Among those who testified was the executive director of SMU Dedman School of Law’s Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center, Pamela Metzger. She emphasized that debt from attending law school encourages new lawyers to obtain jobs at larger law firms in urban areas, rather than public defender positions in rural areas, exacerbating the attorney shortage. Lawmakers on the dais, most of which are practicing attorneys, agreed that the cost of law school is a big factor in the shortage of rural attorneys. “I have to make a certain amount of money because I’ve made this massive financial investment and I have to pay it back,” said State Rep. Brent Money, R — Greenville. Texas A&M University School of Law Dean Robert Ahdieh testified that there are three major components in addressing this issue: awareness, education of these positions and incentives.

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Corpus Christi pushes back Level 1 water emergency timeline, postpones drought policy vote

Recent rainfall is buying the Coastal Bend more time before tougher water restrictions could take effect in Corpus Christi City Council. City leaders announced Tuesday the projected timeline for Corpus Christi to enter a Level One water emergency has been pushed back from September to December following recent rain across the region. At the same time, city council delayed a key vote tied to proposed changes in the city’s drought contingency plan after concerns were raised by apartment owners and managers over how multi-family properties would be treated under the updated policy. The vote would have been the first of two required readings needed to approve new curtailment policies during a Level One water emergency.

Under the proposed changes, the monthly water baseline for residential customers would increase from 7,000 gallons to 8,000 gallons per month. With the required 25 percent curtailment applied during a Level One emergency, the monthly allocation for residential customers would increase from 5,250 gallons to 6,000 gallons. The discussion during Tuesday’s council meeting quickly shifted toward apartment complexes after Councilman Eric Cantu voiced concerns over how apartment residents would be classified under the updated policy. “For them to be under commercial just because they are apartments, because in reality, we all cannot just afford a home or mortgage. That’s their home, apartment,” Cantu said. “I don’t feel we should leave them out. There are 50,000 doors, homes, apartment in Corpus Christi, that's a lot of people.” Under the proposed policy, apartment complexes would be classified as commercial accounts rather than residential accounts, meaning they would fall under a different surcharge structure during water restrictions.

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Frisco mayoral candidate doubles down on GOP ‘sharia scare’ rhetoric, H-1B hysteria

A mayoral candidate in Frisco who has made inflammatory remarks about Muslims and referred to immigrants as “rats” is one of the last two men standing in the race. Out of a field of four candidates, Rod Vilhauer and Mark Hill advanced to a runoff on May 2 after neither received a majority of votes. The candidates beat out two incumbent Frisco City Council members to make the final ballot and will face off in a June 13 runoff election. Hill is backed by current Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney and currently serves on the school board of Frisco ISD outside of his legal practice. Vilhauer, on the other hand, is a 65-year-old former owner of a construction company who served on the city’s zoning board in the 1990s. He received 28.7% of the vote, trailing Hill’s roughly 37%, according to Collin County election data.

On his campaign website, Vilhauer’s listed priorities include governmental transparency, addressing congestion in the rapidly growing suburb, public safety and improving basic city services. What you won’t find, however, are some of the staunchly conservative candidate’s more controversial and well-publicized comments on Muslims and Indians. In a March appearance on a right-wing podcast, Vilhauer fanned fears of sharia law — which is largely unenforceable in the U.S. — coming to Texas and dismissed took shots at the Islamic faith. “You can’t tell me that Islam is a religion,” Vilhauer said. “It’s a terrorist group… If you don’t bow to them, you die — that’s a religion? I don’t think so.” The candidate’s comments come at a time when Frisco has become a majority-minority city with a large Muslim community, and GOP lawmakers are playing into Islamophobic rhetoric with increasing enthusiasm. Warning of the “Islamification” of Texas, prominent state Republicans like Gov. Greg Abbott have aired largely unsubstantiated concerns about so-called “sharia courts,” while Attorney General Ken Paxton has relentlessly targeted both the East Plano Islamic Center and its planned Muslim-centric 402-acre real estate development.

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Texas residents shocked border wall planned for wildlife preserve with ‘best birding spots’

Members of a small church stayed after Sunday Mass to hear environmentalists and political activists explain how new federal border wall is slated to cut through their remote South Texas town and a popular birding center — something they were unaware was happening. “What can we do as residents? We don’t want the wall,” retired teacher Jani Castillo said. “It’s not good for our environment. It’s not good for our birds, for all our wildlife. It’s not good.” Gloria Galindo, a board member with the nonprofit Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, told Castillo to reach out to lawmakers to stop the border wall from being built through the popular Salineño Wildlife Preserve in far western Starr County. “The changes that are coming are not just now, they’re for forever if we don’t step up and make our voices heard,” Galindo said.

New maps released last week by U.S. Customs and Border Protection show new border barrier and river buoys are to be installed through this wildlife refuge, which draws thousands of birders and wildlife enthusiasts from all over the world to this remote 250-year-old town. Townsfolk here say the border wall will divide the town’s 1,500 or so residents from the river they love. “The reason we’re here today is to help the people of Salineño. They’re asking me what’s happening with the incoming wall – they’ve heard the rumors, they’ve seen the maps. They don’t know anything and they thought that this fight was done.” Galinda was among a handful of environmentalists and political activists who came from the McAllen-Edinburg area to meet with Salineño residents. They also toured the banks of the Rio Grande and walked along the brushlands, which was a first-time experience for some. “We have a lot of concerns,” St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Deacon Amado Peña told Border Report. “This river that runs by Salineño … it’s been a part of our lives forever.” “Es una costumbre, it’s a custom to go by the river, barbecue, enjoy wildlife, enjoy the birds, enjoy the fishing, enjoy family. … It’s a beautiful part of our community,” he said.

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Family says they sought help for mom charged with killing kids

Relatives of Marlene Vidal, whose two children were found dead Friday morning inside a burned SUV on San Antonio’s West Side, said they repeatedly warned police, Child Protective Services and other agencies that Vidal was in a mental health crisis and her children were in danger. Vidal, 34, of Edinburg, was arrested Friday and charged with two counts of capital murder of a child younger than 10 and one count of arson. Two days earlier, Edinburg police were called to a Walmart after customers reported that Vidal was acting and speaking erratically, her sister Argelia Vidal told the San Antonio Express-News. Marlene had lighter fluid and a grill in her shopping cart, the sister said. Edinburg police confirmed the encounter but said they had no basis at that time to take her into custody.

A San Antonio Police Department officer also spoke to Marlene by phone on Wednesday after family members asked police to check on her, a law enforcement source said. Officers had no legal basis to detain her after she told them she did not need help, according to the source. Family members told the Express-News that Marlene's mental health began to decline nearly a year ago, when she suffered what appeared to be a psychotic episode, and that they spent months trying to persuade law enforcement and child welfare authorities to intervene for her and her children's safety. They said she had recently shaved her head. “We reached out to every agency we could, and they all failed us,” said Argelia, 45, who lives out of state. “Now my sister’s going to get the help that she needs,” she said. “But the children are dead.” The children's bodies were discovered after a resident walking a dog around 5 a.m. Friday saw a burning car in a warehouse parking lot in the 500 block of Richland Hills Drive in a mixed residential-industrial area on San Antonio's West Side. The person called 911. After firefighters put out the blaze, officers found the bodies of two children inside the vehicle, a white Hyundai Kona subcompact SUV.

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Jason Kidd is out as coach of the Mavericks, 2 weeks after the hiring of team president Masai Ujiri

Jason Kidd is out as coach of the Dallas Mavericks after five seasons, and two weeks after the club hired former Toronto Raptors executive Masai Ujiri as team president and governor. The team said Tuesday it was parting ways with Kidd, describing the move as a mutual decision. The Hall of Fame point guard led the franchise to its only championship as a player in 2011. When asked about the future of Kidd at his introduction on May 5, Ujiri was noncommittal, saying he would talk to Kidd while evaluating all aspects of the team. “As we evaluate the future of our basketball program, we believe this is the right moment for a new direction for our team,” Ujiri said in a statement. “We have high expectations for this franchise and a responsibility to build a basketball organization capable of sustained championship contention.”

Kidd made two deep playoff runs with Luka Doncic, reaching the NBA Finals in 2024, two years after a loss to Golden State in the Western Conference finals. The Mavericks traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2024-25 season, getting Anthony Davis as the centerpiece in a deal that backfired badly on the franchise. Dallas missed the playoffs that season and again in 2025-26. The 53-year-old Kidd had said he was looking forward to developing 2025 No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, who won Rookie of the Year. Instead, that task will fall to someone else. Kidd finished with a .500 regular-season record (205-205) with the Mavericks, an appropriate illustration of the up-and-down nature of his tenure. The run to the West finals came in his first season, when Dallas stunned the favored Phoenix Suns in Game 7 on the road in the second round. The Mavericks lost in five games to the Warriors, who won the title. Then-general manager Nico Harrison traded for Kyrie Irving the next season, but injuries to him and Doncic limited their chances to be an elite scoring pair. Dallas missed the playoffs. In their only healthy season together in 2023-24, Doncic and Irving led the Mavericks to the Finals for the first time since Kidd helped Dallas win it all.

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Grand jury indicts Montgomery County man accused of secretly giving pregnant woman abortion medication

A Montgomery County man accused of secretly giving a pregnant woman an abortion pill that killed their unborn baby, has been officially indicted by a grand jury. The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Jon Rueben Demeter was indicted Thursday on an abortion charge and injury to a child. The abortion charge is a first-degree felony carrying a punishment of five years to life in prison. KPRC 2 News reporter Corley Peel obtained a search warrant revealing new details about how Demeter allegedly administered the drug without the woman’s knowledge or consent. According to the warrant, the woman told detectives she was at Demeter’s home when he gave her a bottle containing a white milky substance. He told her it was an electrolyte drink and claimed it had helped the mother of his other children during pregnancy.

Later that night, the woman began feeling ill. Once at the hospital, she gave birth at 14 weeks. Her baby girl did not survive. The woman told detectives she did not want to end her pregnancy, but Demeter did. The warrant shows Demeter had previously told the woman he could obtain abortion medication online and offered to pay her $1,000 to terminate the pregnancy. She refused. While searching Demeter’s home, investigators found a glass bowl containing white powder residue and evidence of a crushed white pill. According to the warrant, Demeter admitted he ordered abortion medication online and gave the woman the drink, but denied the bottle contained the abortion pills, telling investigators he had given the pills away. Demeter was initially arrested on an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. The grand jury’s indictment replaces that charge with the more specific abortion and injury to a child charges, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said. The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is holding a news conference Friday afternoon, where detectives will share additional details about the case.

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A new report outlines 10-year plan for fixing Dallas City Hall

After a marathon meeting in March, the Dallas City Council directed City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to start digging. The body wanted more options than the initial report from the Dallas Economic Development Corp., which priced repairing and replacing aging systems in Dallas City Hall at more than $300 million, with another potential $700 million or more tacked on for modernizing the building and moving city operations to new quarters while the work was done. Among the tasks assigned to Tolbert in March was formulating and presenting at least two potential plans for phasing those repairs over 10 years, in hopes that the city would not need to completely vacate the building. The body also asked her to find funding strategies for remaining at 1500 Marilla, and for leaving. On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will be briefed on a new report that outlines two options for repairing the 47-year-old Brutalist building designed by I.M. Pei. One would see operations moved out of the building for at least three years. The other would phase those repairs and modernizations over a decade and would require fewer employees to relocate at a time.

The report is created by consultants, including several from the firm Gresham Smith, and Will Mundinger, who worked with Goldman Sachs and has also worked with the city, most recently helping the permitting department improve operations. “This effort does NOT re-validate or re-estimate the AECOM $329.4M baseline.” They also didn’t conduct a new facility condition assessment; instead, they relied on previous studies and assessments. The report doesn’t make any recommendations. Taking the 10-year, phased approach has its upsides, including that “many” areas of City Hall can remain in use. However, it also has some drawbacks, including increased expense and complexity. The 10-year plan would prioritize the most urgent repairs first. That would include the generators, which are “beyond their useful life,” and the roof, which has also “exceeded typical service life and is experiencing failure.” Neither of those fixes, the report notes, would impact anyone’s ability to work inside the building. The more complex replacements and repairs seem to be original to the structure—electrical, HVAC, fire safety, and plumbing, some of which is “buried in the 1970s slabs.” The report does not account for any additional costs or time that could be required for historical preservation, but neither did the original report. A second report with more details about those options and cost estimates will be presented to the Council next month.

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County Stories

Many Georgetown residents oppose Williamson County's new jail project

The Williamson County Commissioners Court on Tuesday unanimously approved spending $75.8 million to buy 250 acres in southeast Georgetown for a new justice center, jail and sheriff's offices despite the objections of dozens of residents who said the site is too close to schools and neighborhoods and is too expensive. Residents voiced their opposition to the site before the vote Tuesday and also at another Commissioners Court meeting on May 12.

Ed Stade, a Georgetown resident, said he was most concerned that inmates released from jail would wander to nearby schools. "George Wagner Middle School is half a mile away and Mitchell Elementary is a quarter of a mile away and the Rock N' Ride Center for kids is a quarter of a mile away," he said. The land that the county bought Tuesday includes a 134-acre triangle at 1200 County Road 110, near several other county buildings, including the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter. The county plans to build the justice complex on that site, Commissioner Valerie Covey has said. A nearby 119-acre tract, south of Sam Houston Avenue and east of Maple Street, also was part of the 250-acre purchase Tuesday. It is designated for future county facilities. Howard Chase, another Georgetown resident, said he was worried released inmates would walk into people's backyards or into their homes in the nearby Carlson Place neighborhood.

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City Stories

Spurs name Overland International and others to design downtown arena

With the ITC demolished, the Spurs have named the architects of the $1.3 billion downtown arena: Overland International, Sasaki, and Marquee Development. On May 13, the San Antonio Spurs named the lead partners for the design and development of their downtown arena and surrounding district, part of the broader Project Marvel. Overland International, a Texas firm with offices in San Antonio and Dallas, will design the arena itself. The firm’s portfolio includes AT&T Stadium, the Cotton Bowl, and U.S. Bank Stadium. Sasaki, the Boston-based design firm that recently led the Arboretum San Antonio masterplan, will serve as master district planner. Marquee Development, the real estate arm of the Ricketts family office, which holds majority ownership of the Chicago Cubs, will lead district development. CAA ICON will manage the project. Pepe-Dawson, a San Antonio engineering firm currently working on the new Nissan Stadium in Nashville, will handle civil and traffic engineering. Goldman Sachs is advising on financial structuring, and Hunton Andrews Kurth on legal counsel. The arena is targeted for completion in time for the 2032–2033 NBA Season.

The site is the southeast corner of HemisFair, where the Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) stood until last year. Drone footage captured by KSAT 12 in January showed graded dirt, treated and ready for construction. The ITC was the Texas Pavilion built for HemisFair ’68, the 1968 World’s Fair held in San Antonio. The 180,000-square-foot inverted concrete pyramid on a 13.59-acre site was designed by William M. Peña of the Houston firm Caudill, Rowlett, and Scott. Peña, born in Laredo in 1919, is widely considered the father of architectural programming, the discipline of asking what a building is supposed to do before drawing it. His book Problem Seeking, written with John Focke and published the same year HemisFair closed, became a standard architecture-school text and was incorporated into the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards licensing framework. According to the Conservation Society of San Antonio, the ITC was the only downtown landmark designed by a Mexican-American architect.

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National Stories

Top Treasury lawyer resigns after creation of ‘anti-weaponization fund’

The top lawyer at the Treasury Department stepped down on Monday in the wake of the creation of a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could soon make payments to President Trump’s political allies, according to three people familiar with the move. Brian Morrissey, the Treasury’s general counsel, resigned from the position seven months after he was confirmed to it by the Senate and just hours after the Trump administration announced the fund on Monday. Mr. Morrissey did not respond to requests for comment. A Treasury spokesman said: “Mr. Morrissey has served the United States Treasury with both honor and integrity. We wish him all the best in his next endeavors.” In his resignation letter, Mr. Morrissey said he was grateful to have worked for Mr. Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to two people familiar with the letter.

The Justice Department created the fund to disburse payments to people who claim that the Biden administration improperly targeted them — a population that includes supporters of Mr. Trump and former members of his staff. Among them are people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Treasury Department is responsible for depositing $1.776 billion into an account that will be controlled by a group of people selected by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, according to the terms of the fund released on Monday. That money will come from the Judgment Fund, an uncapped pot of funding that is available for the federal government to pay settlement claims without needing congressional approval. The Justice Department is creating the anti-weaponization fund as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit that Mr. Trump brought against the Internal Revenue Service, which falls under the umbrella of the Treasury Department. In his suit, Mr. Trump accused the I.R.S. of not doing enough to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of his tax information during his first term. The president dropped the suit on Monday under scrutiny from a judge who questioned whether Mr. Trump could legally sue a government agency he controls.

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South Carolina House passes new map aimed at forcing out Clyburn

The South Carolina House of Representatives passed a new congressional map early Wednesday morning aimed at eliminating the state’s only Democratic seat at the urging of President Trump. Among the proposed changes is a significant, Republican-leaning shift of the Sixth Congressional District, which is currently represented by James E. Clyburn, a powerful Black Democrat. The map now heads to the State Senate, where some conservative members have been more hesitant to jump into the nation’s redistricting battles. Republicans already hold six of the state’s seven congressional seats, and some lawmakers have expressed skepticism about possibly unseating Mr. Clyburn, a power broker who has funneled vast resources into South Carolina over the years.

Indeed, there initially appeared to be little appetite for redistricting from Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, who did not immediately call for a special session on the issue. And some conservative state senators voiced opposition to the idea, saying it could backfire and create more competitive districts for Democrats by spreading out liberal voters — known as a dummymander. But then Mr. McMaster, who has faced pressure from much of the conservative base to heed Mr. Trump’s demands, announced that he would call for a special session focused on redistricting and the state budget. The governor has said that it is up to the General Assembly to examine the congressional map and determine necessary changes. The State House voted on the map around 12:30 a.m. because a Democratic lawmaker requested the text of the bill be read aloud, in an effort to slow the process. It took more than three hours. As James L. Mann “Bubba” Cromer Jr., the reading clerk, began his marathon, he uttered: “Let’s get it done.” In the State House, Republican members are up for re-election this year and are considered more vulnerable to pressure from the president. It did not go unnoticed in Columbia, the capital, that many of the Republican state senators in Indiana who voted down Mr. Trump’s plan on redistricting lost their primaries this month to challengers he had endorsed.

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'We're not kids anymore': The DACA generation hits their 30s with an unstable future

Diana A., 34, woke up one morning to find she was no longer able to legally work in the U.S. With expired documents, she couldn't go to her friend's wedding in San Diego. She couldn't drive. Diana is a decade-long recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, after she came to the U.S. illegally with her parents 24 years ago from Mexico. She asked NPR to only refer to her by her first name and last initial out of fear of legal repercussions for her immigration status. Every two years, like other DACA recipients, Diana would submit an application to renew her DACA and work permit. This year, for the first time, the approval lapsed for more than a month. "It was a very stressful time in my life and it was just, here's hoping today's not the day where I get taken," she said, adding that for the first time she had a mental plan of who to call if she got detained.

Diana hoped DACA would give her more opportunities. Now she worries those opportunities could be taken away. "This is what I envisioned: having a job, having a career that I could be proud of and being able to be independent and living a life that I could be comfortable with," she said. "And to a certain degree, I think I've achieved the dream — and I think that there's still a cage around it." The Obama administration created the DACA program in 2012 to protect from deportation those who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The program was billed as a "temporary" stopgap to provide them a legal way to live and work in the U.S. while Congress negotiated a permanent pathway. But Congress hasn't managed to agree on one. "We're not kids anymore. We are adults. We are professionals. We are parents. A lot of us are leaders in the community," said Blanca Sierra-Reyes, 33, a DACA recipient and mom to two teenagers. "We're no longer a part of that group that they had placed us in. We have achieved all the things that we've wanted to, or we've tried, or we're still on that path – but it's a hard one." Now, according to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the average age of a DACA recipient is 31; and a majority are between the ages of 31 and 44. Beneficiaries of the program have advanced degrees, U.S. citizen children and businesses. Meanwhile, the DACA program has become increasingly unreliable under this second Trump administration.

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The Trump administration pushed out nearly half of its nuclear waste cleanup team

Hundreds of federal workers in charge of nuclear waste cleanup took the Trump administration’s resignation offers. Now, the most radioactively contaminated parts of the country are being overseen with a fraction of the staff. The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, tasked with cleaning up vast nuclear contamination from World War II and Cold War-era weapons programs, is operating with roughly half its normal workforce, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ watchdog agency. The vacancy rate for the office is 45% overall; for critical positions like general engineers and nuclear engineers, who are responsible for managing and designing the safe disposal of nuclear waste, the vacancy rates are now both over 50%.

“This understaffing includes shortages in mission-critical occupations that are integral to carrying out EM’s mission, which includes addressing contaminated buildings, soil, and groundwater, and treating radioactive waste,” the GAO wrote in a report commissioned by Rep. Frank Pallone, the New Jersey Democrat who serves as the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The vast majority of those vacancies occurred directly because of the Trump administration’s programs incentivizing federal workers to resign. Hanford, the former Manhattan Project nuclear-production facility in Washington state, lost more than 100 full-time agency employees between the end of the 2023 and 2025 fiscal years. “President Trump has single-handedly weakened the critical cleanup work at Hanford and other sites with his slash-and-burn campaign to push out federal workers. It will take years to undo these reckless setbacks—but I am going to fight tooth and nail to keep this cleanup on track and hold this administration accountable,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, said in a statement to NOTUS about the GAO’s findings.

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Democrats pick candidates for key districts in the battle for the House

Major general election matchups across the House battleground are set after Tuesday’s primaries, as the race for control of Congress takes center stage in the midterm elections. President Donald Trump’s successful effort to unseat a Republican rival, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and battles between progressive or establishment Democrats in deep-blue seats have captured wide attention this week and in other recent primaries. But the results of four Democratic congressional primaries in battleground Pennsylvania — which have already drawn a combined $50 million in advertising dollars spent on or committed to these races, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact — will loom large in November, when Democrats need to net three seats to take back control of the House.

Firefighter union leader Bob Brooks won the party’s nod to take on Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in the Allentown-area 7th District. Brooks overcame a crowded field of prominent Democrats from different wings of the party, as well as a last-minute push from a shadowy outside group with ties to Republicans. Brooks had won the backing from prominent Democrats from different wings of the party — including Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He has also gotten a significant boost on the airwaves from an outside group funded primarily by unions and The Bench, a Democratic organization that has played a significant role in elevating its preferred candidates, as well as the House Democrats’ campaign arm, which launched a late ad buy coordinated with Brooks’ campaign. Ryan Crosswell, a former Republican prosecutor and former Justice Department official, had been the top fundraiser in the race, and has the endorsement of groups like VoteVets and New Politics, as well as Alex Vindman, the retired Army lieutenant colonel who is running for the Senate in Florida.

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States sue over new student loan limits on certain nursing and healthcare degrees

A coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday challenging a Trump administration rule that limits access to federal student loans for borrowers earning a graduate degree in several popular, healthcare-related fields. "Higher education is expensive, and our health care system is already under immense strain," New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. "This rule will shut talented people out of critical professions and leave communities with fewer health care providers they desperately need." At issue is a pair of complex changes that, taken together, drew the ire of the American Nurses Association and triggered Tuesday's lawsuit.

First, Republicans passed new limits on graduate student loans as part of last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law does not change limits for undergraduate borrowers, including those attending undergraduate nursing programs, but it dramatically scales back how much graduate students can borrow. Previously, grad students could borrow up to the cost of their program, but the new limits cap annual borrowing for most at $20,500 with a total limit of $100,000. These limits are legal, if controversial. Arizona, California, North Carolina, Kentucky and Nevada are among the states that joined the lawsuit, which focuses on a rule that essentially outlines an exemption to the limits. In implementing the changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Trump administration has scaled back the types of graduate degrees that qualify as "professional" and for which students can borrow up to $50,000 a year and $200,000 overall. It is limiting those exempted programs to 11 categories: chiropractic, clinical psychology, dentistry, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, podiatry, theology and veterinary medicine. Nursing, physical therapy and nurse anesthesia are some of the many healthcare-related programs excluded from that short list of professional degrees.

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San Diego mosque shooting victims remembered as 'men of courage, sacrifice and faith'

The three American Muslims killed during a shooting Monday (May 18) at a San Diego mosque are being remembered by their imam and faith community as “men of courage, sacrifice and faith” who put themselves on the line to protect others. The Islamic Center of San Diego identified the victims as Amin Abdullah, a gentle security guard; Nadir Awad, a dedicated neighbor; and Mansour Kaziha, a longtime shopkeeper and caretaker of the mosque. Abdullah died protecting more than 200 children and community members, the mosque’s Imam Taha Hassane said in an interview with RNS. The “beloved” security guard was killed first, Hassane said, but before he died, he used his radio to warn teachers in the center’s school to lock their classroom doors. He “undoubtedly he saved lives today” by delaying the shooters in a gunbattle in front of the mosque, said San Diego Police Department Chief Scott Wahl during a press conference Monday.

Federal authorities are investigating the shooting at the largest mosque in San Diego as a hate crime. They said on Tuesday they recovered a manifesto by the two suspects, who were found dead in a nearby car by police, that discussed hate speech against various races and religions. Abdullah, born Brian Climax, is remembered by community members as a hero, Hassane said, describing him as a faithful man who smiled often and warmly greeted kids, adults and visitors who entered the mosque’s doors. His daughter, Hawaa Abdullah, spoke about her father as a loving protector, a best friend and a role model. At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, she began with a recitation of the Quran, then broke into sobs before giving heartfelt tribute to her father. “My dad was the No. 1 advocate for safety and keeping our community safe,” she said. “He stood against any form of hate. He took his job seriously to protect everyone here. He would want our community to stand together as one. That’s exactly what he would want.”

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Memphis is “under full-blown occupation” by ICE. Here’s why you may not know that.

There’s a massive immigration operation in Memphis right now, but you may not have heard about it. It certainly hasn’t gotten as much attention as past surges in Chicago or Minneapolis—even though it’s been going on since September. Hunter Demster, who runs a soup kitchen in the city, has been trying to get the word out. He often drives around with his phone, looking for officers to film as they arrest immigrants. There are more than 2,700 officers stationed in the city as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force; some are from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); others are from other law enforcement agencies and the National Guard. None particularly want to be photographed. Which means that Demster is facing blowback for trying to document them. So are other community members doing the same thing. Officers have taunted them, shined bright lights at them, and followed them in their cars. One community member was assaulted and jailed for trying to film. Now, they’re suing, with help from the ACLU, which argues that agents are engaged in a pattern of intimidation and retaliation that hampers their First Amendment rights to record the police.

The lawsuit was filed last week against leaders of the task force, and it’s a harrowing read—dozens of pages of examples. Demster, for one, recalls an officer driving quickly as he stood in a parking lot and then swerving toward him, missing him by inches. Another plaintiff was “bumper-rushed” by police while driving—they came up behind him so quickly that it appeared a collision was imminent, before hitting the brakes at the last second. “It’s retaliation,” Demster told me of the various incidents. “And for what? Holding a phone.” Plaintiff Jessica Chodor was tackled by a task force officer when she tried to film a traffic stop; she was held down and an officer threatened to tase her before taking her to jail. (The charge against her, “resisting official detention,” was later dropped.) Demster says agents sometimes sit in their vehicles outside his house. “It’s terrifying to have to be on guard 100 percent of the time,” he says. The case in Memphis also challenges Tennessee’s Halo Law, which criminalizes anyone who gets within 25 feet of an officer after they’ve been warned to step away. Task force agents are invoking the law against observers who are not interfering, and sometimes forcing them back even farther than required so they can no longer see or hear. “It unconstitutionally burdens people’s ability to engage in gathering information and recording what task force agents are doing,” ACLU attorney Scarlet Kim told me.

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Copyright May 26, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved