Lead Stories

Texas’ top voucher vendor taps Abbott allies in contract bid, program rollout

Even before the Texas Legislature finally passed its private school voucher bill earlier this year, the race was on among the handful of firms in the burgeoning voucher vendor sector to win the lucrative contract to launch and administer what will be the largest program of its kind in the nation. That race is now over as the Texas Comptroller last month awarded the job to a New York firm called Odyssey. In winning the bid, and in its plans to ramp up the program, Odyssey cultivated close ties to the political world of Governor Greg Abbott. One of the top outfits in the voucher vendor game, Odyssey is backed with major venture capitalist investments. As the Texas Observer previously reported, Odyssey and others pushed hard to win the Texas contract, essentially the industry’s holy grail.

Awarding the contract to the private administrator of the program—known as a certified educational assistance organization (CEAO)—marks a key milestone in the voucher rollout as the comptroller delegates control of almost every facet of the program, from handling applications and approvals for students to accepting the private schools and other vendors eligible to participate, plus controlling the flow of state money to and fro. Odyssey will also be in charge of the marketing and PR involved with promoting and defending the program, which the state has dubbed “Texas Education Freedom Accounts.”” Voucher funds will be eligible to be used not only for participating private schools’ tuition and homeschooling but also for tutoring services and an array of other educational materials. Abbott staked much of his hard-earned political capital, and campaign cash, on getting the school voucher program over the finish line. In the 2024 Republican primaries, he used his political war chest to oust several anti-voucher incumbents who’d previously blocked passage in the Texas House. This effort was aided by a record $6 million in campaign contributions from Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania billionaire and voucher advocate. During the legislative session, Odyssey tapped lobbyist Luis Saenz, who was previously Abbott’s longtime chief of staff, to work on its behalf as the governor worked to pass the bill (It also made Daniel Warner, ex-Speaker Dade Phelan’s education policy advisor, its state director.)

Read this article at Texas Observer - Subscribers Only

In shift, Trump says House should vote to release Epstein files

In a sharp reversal, President Donald Trump said late Sunday that House Republicans should support a measure that would require the Justice Department to release the information it has related to its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — after key lawmakers said support was building ahead of a closely watched vote. Trump, who has resisted backing such a measure for weeks, said on social media that he believes Republican lawmakers “should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.” “Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it” before the 2024 election, Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social, urging Republican lawmakers to focus on the economy instead. Before Trump’s post, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who introduced the legislation with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), suggested that “100 or more” House Republicans could vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files this week despite opposition from Trump. Early resistance from Republican leaders led the two to press for a discharge petition to compel a vote on the matter.

“We could have a deluge of Republicans,” Massie said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote.” Several Epstein survivors have been increasing the pressure campaign on lawmakers. A group released a video Sunday night through the organization World Without Exploitation to urge people to call their lawmakers to back the vote to release more files. Khanna said House members who have been backing the release of more documents are planning to hold a news conference Tuesday at the Capitol with survivors. The lawmakers are also asking Trump to meet with the women. Until Sunday, the president had been ramping up pressure against the measure, even urging the four Republicans who had signed the discharge petition to remove their names. Trump still insisted that the focus on the Epstein files was a “hoax” promoted by Democrats, but he said Sunday night that the push to release more documents was distracting the party. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT,” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who controls which bills are brought to the floor, had resisted bringing the measure to a vote after it was introduced in July. But after the discharge petition obtained enough signatures last week to compel a vote, he said he is ready to put it before House lawmakers.

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Senate Republicans get more aggressive in defending John Cornyn in Texas

Tightening polls in North Carolina, Ohio and Maine have U.S. Senate Republicans starting to sweat more over the prospect of Texas falling into Democratic hands and the GOP losing its majority. ?Republicans currently have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning Democrats need four seats to flip the chamber, potentially roadblocking every future judicial or cabinet nomination from President Donald Trump in his final two years in office. Last week's election results, where Democrats stomped Republicans in purple states like Virginia, is only adding to the concern. ?Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., clearly knows the math and is taking a more hands-on approach in Texas. He put out an endorsement and fundraising letter for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn this week, stressing how vital the seat is for Republicans in making sure they hold the majority. ?“The Left has made Texas their top target,” Thune said in a fundraising email supporting Cornyn. “They know if they can defeat John, they flip the Senate, and stop President Trump’s agenda cold.”

?He followed that with a pair of campaign stops in Dallas and Houston this week in support of Cornyn. ?Cornyn is battling against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt in a tight primary. Some polling shows that if Paxton wins the primary, Democrats will have a better chance of flipping the seat with either former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred or state Rep. James Talarico, who are vying for the Democratic nomination. Many of those same polls also show Paxton leading in the GOP primary. ?Cornyn’s supporters have warned Republicans that if Paxton becomes the nominee, they will have to spend big in Texas to hold the seat against either Talarico or Allred. In a state with 20 media markets, $2 million goes really fast during a campaign. Plus, any money shoveled into Texas to defend the seat is not going to places like Maine and North Carolina, which are in greater danger of flipping to Democrats. "With the stakes as high as they are in the 2026 midterms, President Trump won't need to worry about Texas if John Cornyn is the GOP nominee," said Matt Mackowiak, a senior advisor to Cornyn's campaign.

Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only

Homeland Security missions falter amid focus on deportations

The Department of Homeland Security has diverted thousands of federal agents from their normal duties to focus on arresting undocumented immigrants, undermining a wide range of law enforcement operations in response to mounting pressure from President Trump, a New York Times investigation has found. Homeland security agents investigating sexual crimes against children, for instance, have been redeployed to the immigrant crackdown for weeks at a time, hampering their pursuit of child predators. A national security probe into the black market for Iranian oil sold to finance terrorism has been slowed down for months because of the shift to immigration work, allowing tanker ships and money to disappear. And federal efforts to combat human smuggling and sex trafficking have languished with investigators reassigned to help staff deportation efforts.

The changes have extended deep into D.H.S.’s public-safety mission, as the Coast Guard has diverted aircraft to transport immigrants between detention centers and the department’s law enforcement academy has delayed training for many agencies to prioritize new immigration officers. The Times investigation is based on previously undisclosed internal documents from D.H.S. — including statistical reports about department workloads, search warrants and arrests — obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Times also spoke with more than 65 officials who have worked in the federal government during the current Trump administration, in addition to local authorities and others who collaborate with the department. Most of them spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters and out of fear of retribution. The overhaul represents a striking departure for the behemoth agency that Congress created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Homeland Security Department was tasked with preventing terrorism, protecting the president, investigating transnational crime and responding to natural disasters, among other duties. Immigration enforcement was one of many responsibilities, but it was not envisioned as D.H.S.’s singular function. Today, the Trump administration has remade the agency into a veritable Department of Deportation.

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State Stories

Texas Senate braces for one of its biggest shake-ups in years

The Texas Senate is in the midst of a major transition. There are currently two vacancies, and by the time the 2026 elections are complete, at least five of the 31 senators who served in this year's legislative session will have gone on to other roles or retirements. Five newcomers are expected to take their places by January 2027. But wait, as they say in the infomercials, there's more. Two senators who aren’t up for election this cycle have announced plans to run for Texas attorney general. Another plans to run for Congress, and can do so without leaving the Senate. If one of the attorney general candidates and the congressional hopeful both win, that would mean seven freshmen senators next session — more if any of the incumbents on next year's ballot lose their bids for reelection. And those freshman would join a body that has welcomed seven new members since 2023. That would mean nearly half of the upper chamber would still be climbing the legislative learning curve.

For the past half-century, the Senate has been a fairly stable institution. Most sessions start with two or three freshmen, but rarely more than that. Who better to offer perspective on how the Texas Senate evolves than Patsy Spaw, who since 2001 has been the secretary of the Senate, which means she's the top of the Senate staff hierarchy. For 20 years before that, she was a management-level employee, a status she reached after a decade as a rank-and-file staffer in the chamber. Spaw, drawing on her half-century of institutional knowledge with help from researchers in the Texas Reference Library on the Capitol's second floor, was nice enough to compile a highlights reel of turnover trends in the Senate. She found that the biggest freshman class in the modern era of Texas politics came in 1973, when 16 of the 31 members were new, driven by a voter “throw the bums out” mood after what became known as the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal — a web of self-dealing and financial misconduct involving several lawmakers and other elected officials. Half of the House membership also consisted of freshmen. Looking back to 1876, when Reconstruction was ending and the current Texas Constitution was ratified, voters sent 27 wet-behind-the-ears senators to Austin.

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

Rollins: SNAP participants to reapply for benefits to show "they are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”

The Trump administration will require millions of low-income people to reapply for food stamps as part of an effort to crack down on “fraud,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said. Rollins told Newsmax on Thursday that she plans to “have everyone reapply for their benefits, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through ... food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.” She did not provide further information on when or how people would need to reapply. Her comment comes after funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ran out of federal funding during the government shutdown, leading many conservative pundits and even President Donald Trump to criticize just how much the government spends on food stamps. SNAP, which serves nearly 42 million Americans, cost roughly $100 billion in fiscal year 2024.

SNAP fraud can occur when participants intentionally lie about their qualifications for the program, retailers exchange benefits for cash or criminals skim EBT cards for benefits, per USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service. But anti-hunger groups say there’s not nearly as much fraud as the Trump administration alleges and note that SNAP only issues about $6 a day in benefits to the average participant. State SNAP administrators already require participants to recertify their information as often as every six months, and families that receive benefits are expected to keep their work history, income and other personal information up to date. USDA did not immediately respond to a request to clarify a timeline for Rollins’ new plan or how it differs from current state-level requirements for participants to reapply for the program. Rollins has teased an announcement of a new plan to overhaul the program in the coming weeks. She has already directed states to turn in sensitive data on SNAP participants, including their Social Security numbers — though that effort is currently being challenged in court.

Read this article at Politico - Subscribers Only

'Antivirus for libraries': How a Texas startup is capitalizing on book bans

As school administrators scramble to comply with a sweeping new state ban on controversial library books, a North Texas startup is selling a solution. The company, Bookmarked, has pitched itself as an “antivirus for libraries,” offering to flag potentially problematic material from thousands of titles and give parents direct insight into their children’s reading choices. “We give your team the data and transparency they need, so librarians, teachers, and board members can act from a place of clarity rather than fear,” reads a marketing email the company sent to Leander Independent School District last month.

Bookmarked’s business model has boomed in the wake of the new law, Senate Bill 13, which Republican advocates pushed as a means to shield students from harmful content, which has included many classic titles and some books with LGBTQ content. At least 130 Texas school districts have hired the company, agreeing to pay more than $600,000 in total for the service, according to records obtained by Hearst Newspapers. The company is among the fastest-growing private vendors to target SB 13 and other book censorship laws, and has been praised by the law’s author, state Sen. Angela Paxton. It has hired the powerful Texas lobbying firm Moak Casey to connect it with potential customers. Bookmarked’s co-founder Steve Wandler, who advocated for SB 13’s passage but now has reservations about the law, described his company as a neutral player in the censorship debate. “A book that might be a problem in another state or another district might not be a problem for you,” Wandler said. “If the school district decides to censor it, that's on them.” Critics of the platform, many of whom also oppose the law, say that it preemptively pushes districts to pull books over fear they could cause problems, even if no one has complained. “We just feel like it's really shady," Laney Hawes, cofounder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, said of Bookmarked. “We have school districts that are being bullied and pressured into pulling books." Wandler started the company in 2022 as conservative groups like Moms for Liberty were mobilizing across Texas, demanding that schools remove books they viewed as sexually explicit or “woke.”

Read this article at Austin American-Statesman - Subscribers Only

Deadly Texas floods prompt calls for review of how rivers are managed

Thirty minutes south of Kerrville, in the “Cowboy Capital of the World,” David Maulk pulled out a map and began tracing his finger along the winding rivers flowing through a region with a more weathered nickname: “Flash Flood Alley.” “The terrain, the geography — it’s steep and it’s rocky,” he said. “And, when it rains here, it can be a contact sport.” On the wall behind him was the painted outline of a cowboy hat over the phrase: “BANDERA RUNS ON WATER.” Maulk is the general manager of the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District. The nine-member elected board is in charge of managing the Sabinal and Medina rivers running through Bandera County, which has a population of more than 20,000. Their work includes everything from water quality testing to drought and flood management. Unlike the vast majority of Texas’ river authorities, voters here get a say in its work.

KXAN looked at more than 15 river authorities and found just two — Bandera and San Antonio — whose revenue and accountability stream from the residents who live in the area. Nicole Marshall, a spokeswoman for the San Antonio River Authority, said the board “will decline to participate” in this report. Unlike other river authorities that raise money from selling water or hydroelectric power, Bandera’s board gets its funding from property taxes. “You have the taxpayers funding us who are also potentially the voters in the region,” he said. “And, they can affect change down the road, if they don’t like how things are going.” Originally, Bandera’s river authority — which the Texas Legislature established in 1971 — operated like the rest: the governor appointed the board. Its system switched in 1989 to a ballot box model after it combined with the local groundwater conservation district. For Maulk, this model generates more than just public buy-in.

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ERCOT forecasts stable Texas power grid this January

Texas’ power grid will likely remain stable in December and January, recent reports from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas show. Grid conditions could become tight if a winter storm hits large swaths of Texas, driving up demand for electricity. ERCOT, which operates the electric grid for 90% of Texas, found in a Nov. 7 report that there should be “sufficient generating capacity available” to serve customers throughout January. The grid operator said the same thing in an Oct. 3 report analyzing expected grid conditions for December, Community Impact previously reported. In the winter, demand for electricity spikes when people get up in the morning and return home in the evening. Less solar and wind power are available during these “higher-risk” periods, which can cause tight grid conditions, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said last year.

ERCOT forecasts that the tightest period in December and January will be from 7-8 a.m. daily, when little to no solar power is being produced. During that time, ERCOT found the chances of a grid emergency are 1.81% in December and 1.4% in January. However, ERCOT’s models indicate that grid conditions could become tight if a winter storm blankets Texas, pushing temperatures down and electric demand up. ERCOT hit a new record for winter demand in February, reaching 80,525 megawatts of demand on the grid in a single day. This winter, if a severe winter storm leads to similar levels of electric demand between 7-8 a.m., the agency’s models show a roughly 35% chance of a grid emergency in December. That risk falls to less than 10% in January. If demand approaches ERCOT’s all-time record of 85,508 megawatts, which was set in August 2023, there is a 62% chance of a grid emergency in December and about a 25% chance in January, according to the reports. “The probability of the hourly load reaching 85,000 MW for [7-8 a.m.] is under one percent,” the December report notes.

Read this article at Community Impact Newspapers - Subscribers Only

Trial date set for woman who claims marine spiked her drink with abortion pills

A pre-trial hearing was held Thursday morning in a lawsuit filed by a Corpus Christi woman who claims a Marine pilot poisoned her drink with abortion pills to kill their unborn child. Federal Judge David S. Morale presided over the hearing that was held via Zoom. Corpus Christi Woman sues NASCC Marine Pilot claiming he spiked her drink with abortion pills to kill their unborn child On Aug. 11, a local woman, we have decided not to be identify per her attorney's request, filed a lawsuit against a Marine pilot, who is stationed at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, and her company, Aid Access, which manufactured the abortion pill. The woman, a mother of three, was going through a divorce at the time.

During Thursday's hearing, the pilots defense team requested that this case go to trial, and the plaintiff's attorney told the judge they have been unable to contact Aid Access, which are based out of the Netherlands. The judge set Oct. 15, 2026, as the deadline for both sides to gather all their evidence and scheduled the trial for March 29, 2027. This all comes three years after the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling in the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating a woman's constitutional right to abortion. This lawsuit also comes as the use of the abortion pill has increased since the state of Texas passed the "Heartbeat" bill, which banned the majority of abortions in 2021. Now, state lawmakers are going after the companies, like Aid Access, that send abortion pills into Texas, likely creating a precedent for other states to follow. The plaintiff's attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, authored the "Heartbeat" bill, a law that bans abortions past six weeks of pregnancy, a point at which a heartbeat is detected on an ultrasound.

Read this article at KRIS - Subscribers Only

San Antonio leaders say shutdown is just a preview of cuts to come

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history had an outsized impact on already vulnerable residents in Bexar County. Now that it’s over, local leaders say the panic over delayed food assistance and at-risk health care subsidies should paint a clear picture of what’s coming down the pipeline for a community consistently ranked among the most impoverished large cities. Republicans’ signature economic policy since taking control of the White House in November, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, makes big cuts to Medicaid, environmental programs and food benefits to help pay for tax cuts, increased defense spending and border security.

“To give you an idea of the need in our community, in Bexar County, $50 million worth of SNAP benefits comes into our community every single month,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said on a Texas Tribune Festival panel Friday morning. “It was unprecedented for those benefits not to be forward-paid to those folks that would need it during the shutdown,” Jones said, ” … [and] what it did is give us a really good idea of, unfortunately, what the implementation of that lovely, Big Beautiful Bill is going to look like.” San Antonio famously experienced lines around the block at its food bank when residents were out of work during the COVID-19 shutdown — a situation Jones said could soon repeat if leaders aren’t careful. On Friday, Jones and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai were joined by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio), who had just returned from Thursday’s government funding vote in Washington. Castro was among the vast majority of Democrats disappointed to see some members of his party break with Republicans on a temporary spending measure that ended the shutdown by punting Congress’s next funding deadline to January — but didn’t make good on the goal of securing health care tax credits set to expire at the end of the year.

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Texas National Guard troops to leave Chicago after federal judge halts deployment

Members of the Texas National Guard are expected to leave Chicago soon and return home. Approximately 200 troops arrived in the city about a month ago following an order from the Trump administration. The troops were sent to assist with immigration enforcement and to protect federal workers. However, a federal judge halted the deployment, and the troops have remained at training bases outside the city for several weeks.

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150 migrants arrested by federal agents in San Antonio raid: FBI

Nearly 150 migrants were arrested in an overnight operation at a makeshift nightclub in San Antonio, the FBI confirmed to NewsNation. Most of the migrants apprehended were from Venezuela and have suspected ties to Tren de Aragua. Tren de Aragua was designated as a foreign terrorist organization under President Trump’s administration. The raid involved multiple federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI. “I can confirm that FBI San Antonio & Homeland Security Investigations San Antonio, along with their local, state, and federal partners are conducting court-authorized activity in the vicinity of the intersection of San Pedro Ave. and Basse Rd. in San Antonio, Texas,” said an FBI San Antonio Spokesperson. The raid comes just hours after immigration officials arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina, as part of what the Department of Homeland Security is dubbing “Operation Charlotte’s Web.”

Charlotte is the latest city to unwillingly receive federal agents in Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown. The federal government hasn’t provided a full explanation for why this began or how many people have been detained, but DHS blamed the operation in Democratic-led Charlotte on state officials, saying illegal immigrants fled there because of sanctuary policies they believed would protect them. A DHS press release included a list of migrants the agency called “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” who they say were released onto North Carolina streets because of those policies.

Read this article at News Nation Now - Subscribers Only

Massive fire burns at decommissioned Texas power plant

Firefighters from multiple agencies are battling a massive blaze at a decommissioned power plant near Galveston, Texas, authorities said. A huge black plume of smoke filled the sky over several cities in Galveston County, including San Leon, where the fire engulfed the old power plant alongside Highway 146, authorities said. At one point on Sunday, residents in the area were being asked to take precautions to avoid the heavy smoke, according to police in the Galveston suburb of Kemah. "At this time, two cooling towers and power lines are on fire," the Kemah Police Department said in a social media post, in part. "All residents are advised to avoid the area and take precautions not to expose themselves to the smoke," the post added. No injuries have been reported.

Read this article at ABC News - Subscribers Only

Could this Houston City Council member be appointed interim county attorney?

Houston City Council Member Abbie Kamin is garnering support to potentially be chosen by Harris County leadership as the new interim county attorney as they contend with a potential opening. Kamin has gathered a list of nearly 60 elected officials, labor organizations, faith leaders and community leaders who are supporting her “appointment … as Interim County Attorney,” according to a document obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Among the officials on the list are U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare and Minority House Leader Gene Wu. Kamin, a civil rights attorney, is currently serving her second term representing the Heights, Montrose and other area neighborhoods on the City Council. Her term is up in 2027, and term limits prohibit her from running for re-election.

The veteran council member’s most recent campaign finance report shows she has nearly $416,000 on hand – an amount one expert says sends a message. “(It) definitely indicates they’re looking toward another office,” said Nancy Sims, a politics lecturer at the University of Houston. Kamin said Friday she was asked to submit a list of supporters in case she was considered for the appointment. "While I continue to focus on the work in front of me, it is an honor to be considered, and I am grateful for the support of so many outstanding leaders," she wrote in a text. Rumors about Kamin’s interest in the position have been swirling since current County Attorney Christian Menefee filed to run to represent Houston’s 18th Congressional District, a seat left vacant following former U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner’s death from health complications in March. Menefee will face former Council Member Amanda Edwards in a runoff that has yet to be set. State resign-to-run rules required Menefee to step back from his role as county attorney to run for Congress. But a provision in that rule allows Menefee to continue serving as county attorney until commissioners vote to replace him. Commissioners opted to keep Menefee on board at a meeting in March. A permanent county attorney will eventually be chosen by the voters in the 2026 election. Kenny Friedman, the former chair of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, is among the names listed on Kamin’s endorsements. Friedman told the Chronicle Friday that he had not seen the endorsement list, but he had given Kamin permission to put his name on it. “She's an incredibly talented person, and she's got the right background to be a great county attorney, and I think she'll do a great job,” Friedman said. Another two people on the list, LULAC President Sergio Lira and Houston Federation of Teachers President Jackie Anderson, had also not seen the document but both said they chatted with Kamin about her interest in the position. Lira’s endorsement came down to Kamin’s support of LULAC in the past and how she has constantly spoken out about the organization’s issues at City Hall. Anderson’s came down to how Kamin has stood up for public education. “I'm quite concerned about how people view education, and if they're willing to stand up and make statements and stands about public education,” Anderson said. “It shows me their commitment to making sure that our future generation is educated. I believe that Abbie would do that.”

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Buddy Holly crosswalk in Texas hometown to be removed following governor's order on road safety

Fans of the Buddy Holly crosswalk in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, with a painted depiction of the rock and roll legend’s iconic glasses, will soon have to say goodbye to it. That’ll be a day that will possibly make them cry. Lubbock City Council members said this week they have no choice but to remove it, to comply with a directive from the Trump administration and Republicans to rid the public roadways of any political messages or artwork. Laredo, in South Texas, removed a mural in October that protested the border wall along the southern border with Mexico. In August, Florida officials removed a rainbow-colored crosswalk outside the Pulse nightclub where 49 people were gunned down.

Lubbock’s crosswalk was first installed in 2020 and is near the Buddy Holly Center, a downtown museum with exhibits honoring Lubbock’s most famous native son. “It’s such a tasteful cross section and people like it. But what do you do?” said City Council Member Christy Martinez-Garcia, who was among those questioning why it had to go. Lubbock received a letter from the Texas Department of Transportation with “some harsh wording” that threatened the possible loss of state or federal funding for road projects if such artwork was not removed, David Bragg, Lubbock’s interim division director of public works, told council members on Tuesday. “This was very broad letter. I don’t think it was intended to go after, say, the Buddy Holly glasses. Unfortunately it did,” Bragg said.

Read this article at Associated Press - Subscribers Only

Texas Capital needed to transform, and it did. How is simpler than it seems

The words “bank” and “fun” don’t often go in the same sentence — unless you’re Rob Holmes, chairman, president and CEO of Texas Capital. “Bankers here are having fun,” he told The Dallas Morning News in an interview. “Because with wins, you have fun.” And recently, Texas Capital has done a lot of winning. The Dallas-based bank posted its best quarter under Holmes’ leadership yet in its third-quarter report, hitting the quantitative and qualitative goals it set in 2021 as part of its transformation into a full-service financial institution. Texas Capital’s shares, traded on the Nasdaq, are up over 11% year-to-date, outpacing an index of broader regional bank stocks. Bank earnings numbers are complicated, but the trick to hitting them was simple for Texas Capital: people.

“I came here to build something special in a special place with people who care about each other,” Holmes said. “It’s different.” Holmes came to Texas Capital in January 2021, after a 31-year career with J.P. Morgan Chase. With a true Texan sensibility — kudos to Highland Park High School, University of Texas at Austin and Southern Methodist University education — Holmes entered with a vision to dig the firm out of a period of struggle, and transform it into a full-service financial institution. Texas Capital — which now has more that $26 billion in deposits and is the fifth-largest Texas-headquartered bank, per the latest Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data — was founded in 1998, raising a then-record $80 million in startup capital. But leading up to 2020, things started to go awry. Texas Capital primarily dealt in the loan-focused commercial banking sector, but expenses were outpacing growth. After trading at an all-time high of over $100 per share in May 2018, Texas Capital stock had sunk to just $50 in December of the same year. A merger with the McKinney-based Independent Bank Group promised to alleviate some of Texas Capital’s problems, but that imploded in early 2020 and its stock price tanked to just over $20. Both banks blamed the onset of the pandemic for the deal falling through, and then-Texas Capital CEO C. Keith Cargill resigned his post immediately.

Read this article at Dallas Morning News - Subscribers Only

Judge denies Texas bid for bar on Tylenol marketing in state

A judge rejected for now a bid by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to bar Tylenol-maker Kenvue Inc. from marketing its over-the-counter pain medication as being safe for pregnant women within the state. After a hearing Friday, State District Judge LeAnn Rafferty denied Paxton’s request for a temporary restraining order, court records show. The attorney general suedKenvue and its former parent Johnson & Johnson on Oct. 28, claiming they concealed the risks of autism and other disorders for children if mothers take Tylenol during pregnancy.

Read this article at Bloomberg Law - Subscribers Only

Dallas Morning News Editorial: Tucker Carlson, Bo French and the GOP’s short memory

Is it too much to hope that the GOP won’t succumb to short memories that have become so typical of our politics today? The party that widened its tent in 2024 with a forceful economic message will lose its appeal and tear away at American society by tolerating antisemitism and bigotry from its politicians and thought leaders. Bo French recently announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection as Tarrant County GOP chair. But he didn’t do it for the reasons we’d hoped. It wasn’t because his party finally had enough of the bigoted garbage he spews on the internet. Nope. He’s running for statewide office instead. Earlier this year, French posted a poll to social media platform X asking his audience, “who is a bigger threat to America?” The response options were: Jews or Muslims. Rightfully, the since-deleted post drew calls for his resignation from prominent GOP leaders including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. John Cornyn.

But all the hubbub fizzled out. French never faced any substantial consequences. Now he’s running to become a member of the Texas Railroad Commission, the state’s top oil and gas regulator. He said on social media that “this will be the best way that I can defend Texas, stop the Islamic invasion, and defeat the left.” In August, French launched a bigoted attack against state House Rep. Salman Bhojani, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan. On social media, he called on the feds “to denaturalize and deport” Bhojani. He accused the Muslim state representative of trying to “further jihad.” Will GOP leaders remember their anger at French? The rebukes of him after his poll came years after French began posting hateful messages into the virtual void. But that wasn’t enough to diminish his presence within the Texas GOP. The current environment of permissiveness has only emboldened people like French. Take Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. Once a fringe figure in the conservative movement, Fuentes has been getting more attention in recent years. During a friendly interview with Carlson, one of the most prominent faces of the modern Republican Party, Fuentes made statements about “organized Jewry in America” and a need to be “pro-white” on some level.

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City Stories

‘Beginning of the end’: Dallas City Hall’s fate hangs in the balance of relocation study

Some Dallas City Council members fear last week’s vote to explore alternatives for the deteriorating City Hall building sets the stage for its eventual demolition. Council members Paul Ridley and Paula Blackmon, two of the three votes against the plan, told The Dallas Morning News the decision leaves key questions unanswered, particularly why the process is moving so quickly and what’s driving the urgency. “It’s kind of a sad day because it feels like the beginning of the end,” Blackmon said. “I really hope we know what we’re doing.” When asked whether the vote signals a move toward demolishing City Hall, Ridley said, “Oh, absolutely.” He noted that the building is purpose-built for government use and poorly suited for commercial tenants. “If we move out, no one’s going to move in here,” he said.

Both Ridley and Blackmon said they voted against the resolution because they wanted a full assessment of the building’s condition and repair costs before exploring alternatives. They also suspect undeclared developer interest may be driving the push to relocate, though no developer has publicly confirmed interest. “A lot of people are talking about it, but we haven’t seen any evidence that there is such interest,” Ridley said. “I suspect that’s what’s motivating this rush to judgment about the future of City Hall. I can’t think of any other reason why we would have to rush this process like we are.” The council voted 12–3 on Wednesday to direct City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to evaluate real estate opportunities, including potential relocation sites for Dallas’ municipal government, and report back to the council’s finance committee by February 2026. The resolution also requires a third-party assessment of deferred maintenance costs for City Hall and an exploration of economic development opportunities for the downtown City Hall site.

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National Stories

Trump plans to meet with Mamdani, says he'll 'work something out' with New York City's mayor-elect

President Donald Trump indicated Sunday that he plans to meet with New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and said they’ll “work something out,” in what could be a detente for the Republican president and Democratic political star who have cast each other as political foils. Trump has for months slammed Mamdani, falsely labeling him as a “communist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the democratic socialist was elected. He also threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen, and to pull federal money from the city. Mamdani rose from an obscure state lawmaker to become a social media star and symbol of the resistance against Trump during his mayoral campaign. He campaigned on an array of progressive policies and a message that was stark in its opposition to the aggressive, anti-immigrant agenda Trump has rolled out in his second White House term.

The 34-year-old appealed to a broad cross-section of New Yorkers and defeated one of its political heavyweights, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by nearly 9 percentage points. In his election night victory speech, Mamdani said he wanted New York to show the country how to defeat the president. But the day after, while speaking about his plans for “Trump-proofing” New York once he takes office in January, the incoming mayor also said he was willing to work with anyone, including the president, if it can help New Yorkers. Representatives for Mamdani did not have an immediate comment Sunday night on the president’s remarks, but a spokesperson pointed to the mayor-elect’s remarks last week when he said he planned to reach out to the White House “because this is a relationship that will be critical to the success of the city.” Trump expressed a similar sentiment on Sunday. “The mayor of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us. We’ll work something out,” Trump told reporters as he prepared to fly back to Washington after spending the weekend in Florida. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified shortly after that Trump was referring to Mamdani and said no date had been set for such a meeting. “We want to see everything work out well for New York,” Trump said. Trump’s comments came as he also said the U.S. may hold discussions soon with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, after a military buildup near the South American country: “I’ll talk to anybody,” Trump said.

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Maryland Democrats want to redistrict. Their state’s Senate President isn’t making it easy.

As Democrats push ahead with nationwide redistricting efforts, Maryland has hit a snag. Its state Senate president is refusing to hold a special session on redistricting. Bill Ferguson, the Democratic state Senate president, is resisting calls from local, state and national Democratic leaders to redistrict. Ferguson believes that the move is too risky for Maryland Democrats and that it has the potential to cost them seats. It is some of the last remaining tension within a party that has otherwise largely adopted a redistricting strategy in the face of Republican efforts to redraw maps in their favor. While state Sen. Ferguson has remained steadfast in his stance against mid-decade redistricting in his state, Gov. Wes Moore, along with other state Democrats, have pushed ahead on redistricting in other ways.

“His position is on risk, on whether he thinks the risk is worth taking,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, who long served as part of House Democratic leadership, told NOTUS. “The president of the senate is a very respected individual, he’s an honest individual, I don’t think he’s trying to game anyone. I hope he comes to the conclusion that the risk is worth taking.” Ferguson did little to address his disagreement with other Democrats in a statement to NOTUS. “With this federal administration’s troubling willingness to ignore the law, Marylanders understand our vulnerability. We must act with urgency to confront the real challenges ahead in the upcoming session,” Ferguson said. “Everything else is a distraction from the mission.” In the past few weeks, Ferguson has made the case against redistricting as a member of Moore’s Redistricting Advisory Commission, arguing that it could lead to Democrats losing seats that they already have if a new map is drawn.

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Trump lashes out at Indiana Republicans after redistricting effort stalls

President Donald Trump is not happy with Indiana Republicans after state lawmakers refused to call a special session to redraw congressional maps. “Very disappointed in Indiana State Senate Republicans, led by RINO Senators Rod Bray and Greg Goode, for not wanting to redistrict their State, allowing the United States Congress to perhaps gain two more Republican seats,” Trump said in a Sunday morning post on Truth Social. “Because of these two politically correct type ‘gentlemen,’ and a few others, they could be depriving Republicans of a Majority in the House, A VERY BIG DEAL!” the post continued. Bray, the state Senate president, released a statement Friday saying the party lacked the votes needed to open the redistricting conversation.

“Over the last several months, Senate Republicans have given very serious and thoughtful consideration to the concept of redrawing our state’s congressional maps,” Bray said in a statement to Politico, after conducting a private test vote Friday afternoon with his caucus. “Today, I’m announcing there are not enough votes to move that idea forward, and the Senate will not reconvene in December.” Republicans across the state and country aired their disagreement with Bray’s decision over the weekend. U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz said in a post on Friday that state Republicans “should not be hiding behind closed doors but putting their votes on the board.” “Hoosiers deserve transparency,” Spartz posted on X. “Voters should know whether their senators stand with President Trump or with the NY & CA socialists destroying our country.” Rep. Marlin Stutzman said in a Friday statement that “Senator Bray and anti-Trump Indiana Senate Republicans made it clear today that they would rather protect [Democratic Rep.] André Carson, stand with Pete Buttigieg, and let Gavin Newsom steamroll Hoosier voices than support the conservative America First agenda.”

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Former Fed Gov. Adriana Kugler violated trading rules while at central bank: ethics report

bank’s rules barring trading of individual stocks and executing financial transactions close to meetings where interest rates are set, actions that led up to her abrupt resignation, according to a report by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released Saturday. The report comes three months after Kugler mysteriously left from the Fed’s Board of Governors without giving a reason. Kugler joined the Fed in September 2023 after being appointed by then-President Joe Biden. Kugler’s resignation came after she requested and was denied a waiver by Chair Jerome Powell on a disclosure form that showed she had impermissible holdings, Fed officials familiar with the matter told CNBC.com. An official said that concerns related to trading activity by Kugler or her husband date to at least September 2024, when she began working with ethics officials to resolve violations of trading policies.

A financial disclosure report that Kugler filed with the OGE this year on Sept. 11 — which contains details of securities transactions by either her or her husband — notes that an Ethics Office official declined to certify the report. In a note on Friday’s disclosure, an Ethics official says, “Matters related to this disclosure were referred earlier this year” by the office to the independent Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. An inspector general is an internal ethics watchdog for federal departments and agencies. Another note on the report says, “Consistent with her September 15, 2024, disclosure, certain trading activity was carried out by Dr. Kugler’s spouse, without Dr. Kugler’s knowledge and she affirms that her spouse did not intend to violate any rules or policies.” Kugler is married to Ignacio Donoso, who is an immigration lawyer. Her disclosure shows two kinds of violations of Fed rules regarding financial transactions by senior officials at the central bank: purchases of stock shares of individual companies, as opposed to mutual funds; and purchases of securities during so-called “blackout periods” leading up to and after meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee.

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Timothy Carney: The Trump era is one of GOP decline

(Timothy P. Carney is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on civil society, family, localism, religion in America, economic competition, and electoral politics. He is concurrently a senior columnist at the Washington Examiner.) President Donald Trump has dominated the Republican Party for a decade, and in many ways, it has been good for the GOP and conservatism. Republicans won two of the three presidential elections (after losing two straight and four of six). Republicans control Congress, and for the first time in forever, the Supreme Court has a conservative majority. It even struck down Roe v. Wade. Trump’s policy accomplishments are also real. Taxes are lower, especially for the middle class. Illegal immigration was controlled for four years, and it’s getting under control again. And for the first time since the Cold War ended, we are avoiding senseless wars of choice. But just as Trump’s policy record is mixed (increased spending, federal support for in vitro fertilization, oodles of corporate welfare), so is the Trump-era political record. If you step back from the current political balance in Washington, D.C., you see a troubling trend, highlighted by the recent blowouts in New Jersey and Virginia: Republicans, in the Trump era, are mostly losing.

Yes, Trump wins. Yes, when Trump is on the ballot, the downballot Republicans get some lift from Trump. But when Trump isn’t on the ballot, the Trump era is a story of GOP loss. This is a big problem for Republicans because Trump will never be on a ballot nationwide again. It’s very possible that after Trump is gone, Republicans will experience their darkest hour and lowest point since the New Deal. Here’s one measure of the partisan shift in the Trump era: In 2016, Republicans controlled 31 governorships and 68 legislative chambers. Come January, the GOP will control only 26 governorships and 57 legislative chambers (more than a 15% reduction on both scores). In the Trump era, here’s the rule: Elections in which Trump is on the ballot, the GOP does fine. In elections in which he is not, the GOP does poorly. This isn’t just about incumbent disadvantage in midterm elections. Even during former President Joe Biden’s presidency, when Trump was the head of the GOP, its most recent nominee, and its next nominee, Democrats historically performed well. For instance, in 2022, they gained trifectas in four states, taking control of the legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota, and winning the governorships of Maryland and Massachusetts — all while their party controlled the White House. The best place to see Trump’s impact on realignment may be in the Great Lakes states. Trump won in 2016 by pulling off upsets in three blue-leaning Rust Belt states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He won those states in large part by pulling in labor union voters and other non-college voters, a demographic that had been used by Democrats but had been politically homeless since the Clinton era.

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Trump defends Tucker Carlson after interview with activist known for his antisemitic views

President Donald Trump on Sunday brushed aside concerns about conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with a far-right activist known for his antisemitic views, which has caused a schism within the Republican Party. Trump defended Carlson, saying the former Fox News host has “said good things about me over the years.” He said if Carlson wants to interview Nick Fuentes, whose followers see themselves as working to preserve America’s white, Christian identity, then “people have to decide.” Trump did not criticize Carlson or Fuentes. Fuentes appeared to appreciate Trump’s sentiment, posting “Thank you Mr. President!” along with video of his interaction with reporters.

Carlson had an amiable sit-down on his podcast last month with Fuentes that touched off a controversy among conservatives. It roiled the Heritage Foundation, where the president of the right-wing think tank defended Carlson for his interview, drawing outrage from staffers. Heritage President Kevin Roberts later denounced Fuentes’ views. Trump told reporters as he prepared to fly back to Washington from a weekend in Florida that when it comes to Carlson, “You can’t tell him who to interview.” “If he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out,” Trump said. “People have to decide.” Trump a few minutes later added, “Meeting people, talking to people for somebody like Tucker — that’s what they do. You know, people are controversial.” The president then said: “I’m not controversial, so I like it that way.”

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Firm tied to Kristi Noem secretly got money from $220 million DHS ad contracts

On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.” Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the “national emergency” at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption. The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.

No firm has closer ties to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin. The Strategy Group’s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem’s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends. Government contracting experts said the depth of the ties between DHS leadership and the Strategy Group suggested major potential violations of ethics rules. “It’s corrupt, is the word,” said Charles Tiefer, a leading authority on federal contract law and former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that the Strategy Group’s role should prompt investigations by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee. “Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer,” Tiefer added. Federal regulations forbid conflicts of interest in contracting and require that the process be conducted “with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none.”

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Lead Stories

Joaquin Castro on why a Democratic Senate logjam stopped him from running for AG

As he weighed a bid for the U.S. Senate earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro found himself at an impasse with three other big-name Democrats who also wanted to run for the upper chamber. At the time, Castro met over Zoom with the other then-prospective candidates — former U.S. Reps. Colin Allred and Beto O’Rourke and state Rep. James Talarico — to try to hash out their plans for 2026. Castro eventually offered to run for Texas attorney general if the others could divide up the remaining statewide offices, including governor and lieutenant governor, instead of running against each other for Senate. In the end, Castro said Friday, “we just couldn’t get there.” “All of us initially were interested in the U.S. Senate race,” Castro, a seventh-term congressman from San Antonio, said on a panel at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. “But, you know, it doesn’t really make sense to have four people running for the U.S. Senate, and then nobody’s running for anything else. So at one point, I told a few of those guys … hey, I’ll slot down to the AG race if you guys can figure out the rest.”

About a month after the May 31 Zoom meeting, which was first reported by The Dallas Morning News, Allred announced he was running for the Senate seat held by GOP Sen. John Cornyn. Talarico soon after joined the race, pitting the two Democrats against each other as the party remained without a high-profile candidate to take on Gov. Greg Abbott. Castro said Friday he’s “not blaming them” for seizing what “could be a great opportunity in 2026,” whether the Democratic nominee ends up facing Cornyn or one of his GOP challengers, Attorney General Ken Paxton or U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. Still, Castro added, he saw the 2018 midterm as a cautionary tale, when O’Rourke ran for Senate and was “carrying the ticket” of other statewide Democrats, none of whom gained the same traction and fundraising support. O’Rourke lost to Sen. Ted Cruz by less than 3 percentage points, the closest a Texas Democrat has come to winning statewide in decades. “Ideally, if you were gonna design the strongest possible chances of winning, you would design it so that you have strong candidates that are well-funded in each of those races,” Castro said. “That was my hope, that we would have a full slate, and we didn’t quite get there.” Castro added that he would do “what I can” to support the Democrats who have announced statewide bids, including Austin state Reps. Gina Hinojosa and Vikki Goodwin, who are running for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively. Asked if he had ruled out a statewide run, Castro said he hadn’t made a “final decision” and would announce his plans at some point before the Dec. 8 candidate filing deadline. The San Antonio Democrat has toyed with statewide runs a number of times since he began representing Texas’ 20th Congressional District in 2013. He previously passed up Senate bids in 2018 and 2020.

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New videos, data and reporting give a detailed account of the Camp Mystic disaster

Across Camp Mystic on the night of July 3, 195 campers settled into their bunks. Taps played over a loudspeaker shortly after 10 p.m. Dick Eastland, the 70-year-old patriarch of the family-run all girls camp, was at home in his creek-side house on the camp property, not far from the cabins. So too was Edward Eastland, one of his sons. Edward grew up at Camp Mystic and now directs the camp along with his wife Mary Liz, living in a house even closer to the cabins and the Guadalupe River than his father. Heavy rain was in the forecast, and camp staffers had already pulled from the water the largest boats — 20-foot-long “war canoes” — as they always did before a big rain in the flood-prone area. What follows is the most detailed description to date of the events that took the lives of more than two dozen campers and counselors, and the elder Mr. Eastland, at the 99-year-old summer retreat.

The descriptions and rendering of those events were taken from the first interviews that Camp Mystic’s owners have granted, along with never-before-seen videos and photos taken during flooding at the camp, data from devices such as Apple watches, cell phones and vehicle crash data, and court documents from a lawsuit filed by some of the parents of children who died. The Times visualized the water levels at the camp over the course of the night using videos and photos from the camp and estimates from a flood simulation by First Street, a nonprofit that assesses flood risk in the United States. The moving dots on the diagrams in this story show the simulated flow and depth of water at different times, and the extent of flooding. At 1:14 a.m. on July 4, the National Weather Service warned of potentially life-threatening flooding in the area. By that point, according to data from his phone, Dick Eastland was already up and monitoring the weather. Around 1:45 a.m., he radioed his son, Edward. “His words were that we’ve gotten about two inches of rain in the last hour and that we need to move the waterfront equipment,” Edward Eastland told The New York Times, his first time recounting his story publicly. Members of the grounds crew went to the waterfront and pulled the remaining smaller canoes to higher ground on the hill nearer to the cabins. No one expected the water to rise that high, Edward Eastland said.

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Texas's water wars

In 2019, Corpus Christi, Texas’s eighth-largest city, moved forward with plans to build a desalination plant. The facility, which was expected to be completed by 2023, at a cost of a hundred and forty million dollars, would convert seawater into freshwater to be used by the area’s many refineries and chemical plants. The former mayor called it “a pretty significant day in the life of our city.” In anticipation of the plant’s opening, the city committed to provide tens of millions of gallons of water per day to new industrial operations, including a plastics plant co-owned by ExxonMobil and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, a lithium refinery for Tesla batteries, and a “specialty chemicals” plant operated by Chemours. The facilities went into operation, but the desalination plant stalled out in the planning process, and its projected costs ballooned to more than a billion dollars. In the meantime, the city suffered through a multiyear drought, and local reservoirs reached alarmingly low levels. Residents were prohibited from watering their lawns or hosing down their cars; industrial operations, largely exempt from drought restrictions, kept drawing the water they had been promised. Officials predicted that Corpus Christi might enter an official water emergency—triggered when water demand is projected to exceed supply within six months—by the end of 2026.

This September, the city council met to vote on whether to proceed with building the desalination plant. The hearing started around noon; by midnight, it was still under way, and three women in the audience, including a former mayoral candidate and a college professor, had been arrested for disorderly conduct. Some opponents of the plan voiced concerns about its costs. Others were worried about environmental ramifications. Desalination results in large amounts of salty sludge that must be disposed of. Dumping it in the nearby bay risks harming the ecosystem and destroying the fragile local fishing industry; injecting it underground risks causing small earthquakes. Supporters argued that, without the desalination plant, the local economy would collapse. Around 1 A.M., the council elected to pull funding for the project; where, exactly, Corpus Christi’s water will come from is currently an open question. One possibility is groundwater pumped from nearby rural areas; another is relying on a private-equity firm that provides “water-as-a-service” to struggling municipalities, essentially by building its own treatment infrastructure and leasing the water to the local utility. But those plans, too, have met with local resistance. Texas’s economy has boomed for so long that it would be easy to imagine that the growth might go on forever. But, across the state, residents are being confronted with the alarming reality of limited water supplies. According to the state government’s 2022 Texas Water Plan, by 2070, the population is projected to increase by more than seventy per cent as water supplies decline by nearly eighteen per cent.

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Thousands protest crime and corruption in Mexico City as 'Gen Z' protests gain momentum

Several thousand people took to the streets of Mexico City on Saturday to protest crime, corruption and impunity in a demonstration organized by members of Generation Z, but which ended with strong backing from older supporters of opposition parties. The demonstration was mostly peaceful but ended with some young people clashing with the police. Protesters attacked police with stones, fireworks, sticks and chains, grabbing police shields and other equipment. The capital's security secretary, Pablo Vázquez, said 120 people were injured, 100 of them police officers. Twenty people were arrested. In several countries this year, members of the demographic group born between the late 1990s and early 2010s have organized protests against inequality, democratic backsliding and corruption.

The largest "Gen Z" protests took place in Nepal in September, following a ban on social media, and led to the resignation of that nation's prime minister. In Mexico, many young people say they are frustrated with systemic problems like corruption and impunity for violent crimes. "We need more security" said Andres Massa, a 29-year-old business consultant who carried the pirate skull flag that has become a global symbol of Gen Z protests. Arizbeth Garcia, a 43-year-old physician who joined the protests said she was marching for more funding for the public health system, and for better security because doctors "are also exposed to the insecurity gripping the country, where you can be murdered and nothing happens." Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum still has high approval ratings despite a recent spate of high profile murders that includes the assassination of a popular mayor in the western state of Michoacan. In the days leading up to Saturday's protest, Sheinbaum accused right-wing parties of trying to infiltrate the Gen Z movement, and of using bots on social media to try to increase attendance. This week some "Gen Z" social media influencers said they no longer backed Saturday's protests. While elderly figures like former President Vicente Fox, and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego published messages in support of the protests. Saturday's march was attended by people from several age groups, with supporters of the recently killed Michoacan Mayor Carlos Manzo, attending the protest wearing the straw hats that symbolize his political movement. "The state is dying," said Rosa Maria Avila, a 65-year-old real estate agent who traveled from the town of Patzcuaro in Michoacan state. "He was killed because he was a man who was sending officers into the mountains to fight delinquents. He had the guts to confront them," she said of Manzo.

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On Epstein and Venezuela, Trump tries to rebrand

In need of a reset on multiple policy fronts, the Trump administration isn’t afraid of turning to some good old-fashioned rebranding. Tired of hearing about how Epstein emails released by a House Democrats feature President Donald Trump? Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate any Democrats who, like Trump, were Epstein associates and are mentioned in the emails. As the House moves toward a bipartisan demand for the FBI to release its Epstein files, Trump is trying to flip the script on what he’s now calling the “Epstein Hoax.” Need a reset for the unpopular military policy in the Western hemisphere? Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave the operation a new name, “Southern Spear.”

Hoping to make people believe a militaristic deportation strategy is focused on dangerous criminals instead of the preschool teachers and parents who have featured in recent news stories? Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unveiled “Operation Dirtbag,” in which ICE announces the deportation of previously convicted sex offenders, among mothers, in Florida. That Noem announcement came the same week a judge in Illinois ordered hundreds of detainees rounded up in ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz” to be released. On affordability — Trump’s most obvious political problem at the moment — he is working hard to reframe his policies around that term to argue that they will drive costs down. In fact, tariffs are likely to drive costs up, and tax cuts passed by Republicans will predominantly benefit the wealthiest Americans. But it is the new name for Trump’s Venezuela policy that has the most obvious feel of a complete relaunch. Though it has not gotten authorization from Congress, the Pentagon has overseen the apparently extrajudicial killings of 80 alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific — and counting. The administration says it is protecting Americans from “narco-terrorists,” although it’s not clear the strikes will do much to stop the flow of drugs into the country, and it is deeply unpopular — less than a third of Americans said they supported it in a Reuters poll released this week.

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State Stories

Texas’s Eagle Pass voters turned to Trump. A year later, some have doubts

Along southern Texas, the Rio Grande forms the US-Mexico border, an arrangement established after the end of the Mexican-American war. Eagle Pass, which had been known as El Paso del Águila, became the first US settlement on the Rio Grande. Swimming across the river has remained treacherous ever since. But migrants never stopped risking their lives to set foot on US soil – and in 2023, those numbers reach record highs as Eagle Pass, the seat of Maverick county, became the epicenter of growing backlash over the Biden administration’s immigration policies. In 2024, for the first time in a century, the Hispanic-majority border county voted for a Republican: Donald Trump. Trump won 14 out of 18 counties along the southern border, gaining the most support there of any Republican in three decades. But he made his biggest gains in Maverick, with 59% of the votes, increasing his support by 14% from 2020.

While many supported Trump’s policies on border security, one year later some residents in Eagle Pass are increasingly uncomfortable with the tactics the administration has used across the country in keeping with its mass deportation agenda. Since Trump’s inauguration, federal agents have disrupted communities as they arrest parents who are with their children, show up at schools or daycare facilities, and accidentally sweep up US citizens. The intensity of the national crackdown is jarring for residents like Manuel Mello III who have been on the frontlines of border issues for decades. The chief of the Eagle Pass fire department, Mello explained that border crossings have always been part of the city’s history. Mello said his grandmother would pack food and water for those migrants that passed by. She would give them las bendiciones, or blessings in Spanish, and send them off. But what he saw at the Rio Grande in the last year of the Biden administration was unlike anything he had witnessed in his 33 years in the fire department. “We would get between 30 to 60 emergency calls a day about migrants crossing the river with a lot of injuries, some with broken femurs or this lady who had an emergency childbirth,” Mello said.

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Tiny GOP counties get big litigation in Paxton’s Texas

Roblox Corp. will face off against Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in King County, Texas — home to about 265 people and the latest unconventional venue choice for the Lone Star state’s top lawyer. The Nov. 6 petition accusing the popular video game of facilitating child sex trafficking joins divorce proceedings and custody battles as one of fewer than 10 active cases in the district court. “We’ve never had anything like this before,” said district clerk Jammye Timmons. But King County, five hours from Paxton’s Austin office, is just the latest tiny Texas location to earn a blockbuster filing from Paxton. Days before the suit, Paxton went to Panola County, with 22,000 residents, and sued Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue for an unproven claim that Tylenol causes autism in children.

Two of his biggest victories—a $1.4 billion settlement from Meta and a $1.375 billion settlement from Google to resolve two cases—were secured in Harrison, Midland, and Victoria counties—all less than 200,000 residents. Paxton has brought 11 cases to Harrison County alone—whose population is less than 2% of Harris County’s, the state’s most populous. Although Paxton has long been accused of judge shopping in single judge divisions in federal courts, little attention has been given to his venue choices in state court. The counties are by-and-large extremely conservative places where Paxton’s politics are popular. Only six of 135 voters in King County went for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential election, presenting a jury pool that’s more likely to have negative feelings toward Big Pharma and Big Tech. “That’s very dangerous if you’re a defendant,” said David Coale, an appellate attorney with Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann. Additionally, the counties Paxton’s turning to typically have only one district court judge, always a Republican who’s guaranteed to get the case—a feature urban courthouse in the state largely can’t provide. Judge LeAnn Rafferty, who touted her membership in the National Rifle Association when running for office in 2016, will oversee the Tylenol case. Of Rafferty, who also hears criminal matters, “I think she was surprised to get the lawsuit,” said her friend, Michelle Slaughter, a Republican former judge on Texas’ high criminal court. Paxton’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment about its strategy in picking counties.

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Judge opens door for Texas AG to argue why Harris County’s misdemeanor bail reform should end

U.S. District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal is giving Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton the opportunity to argue that new state laws could invalidate a first-of-its-kind bail reform in Harris County. In a recent 35-page opinion about Paxton’s August motion to vacate the ODonnell Consent Decree — which since 2019 has given most misdemeanor defendants the opportunity to be released from jail before trial without first paying cash bail — Rosenthal issued a critical review of the county’s bail practices before the consent decree took effect. The decree stems from a 2016 class action lawsuit filed by Maranda Lynn ODonnell, who argued that Houston-area defendants charged with low-level crimes were penalized for being unable to afford cash bail. The case found violations of defendants’ constitutional rights.

On Aug. 26, one day after President Donald Trump issued a federal executive order seeking to end cashless bail for people who are accused of violent offenses or pose threats to public safety, Paxton filed a motion to intervene in the ODonnell case and vacate the consent decree. Following a scheduling conference held Wednesday, the Texas Attorney General’s Office was given a Dec. 11 deadline to file a revised motion seeking to vacate the consent decree. A six-month discovery period is scheduled to take place until June of next year, followed by an Aug. 27, 2026, hearing on the state’s motion to vacate or amend the bail reform practice. In Rosenthal’s Oct. 30 opinion, the district court judge recognized reports about the consent decree that showed no significant increase in recidivism, a multi-million-dollar cost savings to Harris County and much-needed relief on the county’s overcrowded jail. Since the consent decree was issued in 2019, court-appointed monitors have consistently reported successes in reducing the population of misdemeanor defendants in the Harris County Jail, which has been plagued by crowding and staffing issues, costly contracts to outsource jail inmates and a rise of in-custody deaths this year.

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Nirenberg jumps into Bexar County Judge race

Former Mayor Ron Nirenberg is waging a primary challenge against Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai — a fellow Democrat who Nirenberg says doesn’t have the vision to steward a rapidly growing county. “I don’t think that that office is performing the way it should. It’s been reactionary to major issues. And frankly, we need strong leadership,” Nirenberg told the San Antonio Report of his decision this week. In recent years across the state, traditionally bureaucratic county judgeships have seen long-time incumbents replaced with more ambitious, and in some cases more partisan, successors.

Outspoken progressive Lina Hidalgo shocked political watchers by unseating longtime Republican Harris County Judge Ed Emmett in 2018. Then in 2022, voters chose Republican firebrand Tim O’Hare to succeed longtime Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley. Nirenberg went toe-to-toe with GOP state leaders many times as mayor, but suggested that isn’t necessarily his intention in replacing Sakai. “The county judge has the bully pulpit and has the ability to set the tone for this entire community,” Nirenberg said. “It doesn’t mean we’re looking for a fight, but it does mean that sometimes we’ve got to end them.” But he agreed that across Texas, other counties are approaching the role differently. “I think that the kind of energy, innovation and teamwork that are represented by some of these new leaders in counties, is an opportunity to look at Bexar County in a similar way,” he said. A campaign launch party on Saturday exuded energy and enthusiasm as roughly 200 supporters ate pizza while a live band played at Backyard on Broadway.

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Foreign exchange students could be banned from varsity sports in Texas starting next school year

Starting next school year, foreign exchange students could no longer be allowed to participate in varsity athletics in Texas, according to a rule change recently approved by the University Interscholastic League's legislative council. The change, which still needs the approval of state Education Commissioner Mike Morath, would not affect foreign exchange students wanting to participate in sub-varsity athletics or other activities the UIL oversees, like music and academics. The UIL's legislative council — comprised of 32 public school administrators — is its rule-making body. Several members of the council expressed concern about schools getting a possible competitive advantage when foreign exchange students receive a waiver to play at the varsity level.

"Our Texas kids are not allowed to go to a town — a neighboring town, without moving there — and play at the varsity level," said Aaron Hood, superintendent of Robert Lee ISD north of San Angelo. "But [foreign exchange students] are allowed to get on a plane and come across to our state and play immediately, taking the place, many times, of a community kid that has worked hard to get that position on an athletic team." Hood said he's also seen some foreign exchange students use social media to promote themselves to Texas coaches and schools. "They're actually putting height, weight, position," he said. "It is unfair to Texas kids and community kids." Greg Poole, superintendent of Barbers Hill ISD outside Houston, agreed and said he hopes the rule change results in similar changes for schools with open enrollment policies. "You can tell teams that have a higher percentage of foreign exchange. You can also tell teams that have a higher percentage of open enrollment athletes," Poole said. "I understand that's not politically popular, but I throw it out there for the sake of the coaches that I have that feel like it's unfair. I guess I would just say I hope we pass this, and I hope it opens the door for other motions."

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Ex-Catholic Charities Fort Worth CEO asks courts for investigation of his termination

Nearly three months after Catholic Charities Fort Worth and its former president and CEO Michael Iglio parted ways, the former nonprofit leader wants a Tarrant County court to help him get answers to why he was fired. Iglio filed the petition on Nov. 12 asking Tarrant County’s 352nd District Court for permission to take testimony of several leaders at the charity to investigate the “mysterious nature of the termination.” The purpose of the depositions is to assess whether Iglio was defamed by any staff or defamed or defrauded by the nonprofit’s board. Iglio alleges he was “treated differently than other past CEOs of Catholic Charities” and needs to determine whether he was discriminated against, according to the court filing. Iglio did not respond to the Fort Worth Report’s call and text requesting comment.

The depositions are a way to “find out the truth about what happened,” said David Fielding, an attorney representing Iglio. “We’re saying we need more information. Here, it looks like he might have been defamed. It looks like he might have been discriminated against for an unlawful reason, but we want to gather the information first before we make any allegations like that,” Fielding told the Report. “Catholic Charities Fort Worth is confident in our decision regarding the future of this agency and all who are served by it,” a spokesperson said to the Report in a statement. “These claims have no merit, and we welcome the opportunity to address any allegations through the appropriate channels of the judicial system,” the statement said. Catholic Charities Fort Worth officials announced that Iglio was no longer with the nonprofit in mid-August. They named the nonprofit’s board chair Beth Kwasny as the interim leader. Catholic Charities officials did not respond to the Fort Worth Report’s questions at the time about why Iglio was no longer with the nonprofit, whether he resigned or was let go, and other queries related to the leadership change. In October the charity named Heather Reynolds as its next president and CEO. She is expected to formally step into the role in February.

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Google investing $40B into Texas for AI, new data centers

Google will invest $40 billion into Texas to help expand Google Cloud, artificial intelligence and new data centers, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced at a press conference Friday. The money, funded through 2027, would help create three AI data centers in Texas: two in Haskell County and one in Armstrong County. It would also continue investing in the existing 400-acre Midlothian site and its Dallas Cloud region, which businesses and organizations use for their own AI solutions, Pichai said. “Texas has the optimism, the talent, the policy environment, and the innovation needed to lead this new era and create immense benefits for everyone,” Pichai said.

Pichai was joined by Gov. Greg Abbott in Midlothian at Friday’s press conference, who called the funding a “Texas-sized investment.” “Texas will be the centerpiece for AI data centers for Google in the whole world,” Abbott said. Abott said the investment has support from several state leaders, including Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz. Along with the data centers, a solar and battery energy plant with be built alongside one of the Haskell County locations. The company also announced $30 million will go towards the Energy Impact Fund and dispersed to local organizations and community partners focused on energy affordability. The funding comes as part of Google’s ongoing partnerships with state colleges and universities, like Dallas College, offering AI training courses and Google career certificates. The investment comes amid concerns about the impact of data centers on the environment and local communities. Last month, Fort Worth unanimously approved energy giant Black Mountain Power LLC’s request to expand its upcoming 431-acre data center in southeast Fort Worth. Several residents previously voiced their disapproval, saying the project would hurt nearby businesses and natural areas. Some raised concerns over noise, light and air pollution the center would generate – and increased electricity use from a data center could strain local energy infrastructure.Data centers could also have a negative impact on Texas’ electric grid as they’re built faster than traditional transmission planning can manage, according to the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas.

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Tony Quesada: TxDOT plan for statewide transit network is an admirable long shot

(Tony Quesada is the Express-News Deputy Editorial Page Editor.) As someone who has at various times relied on public mass transit for my daily commute, other intracity travel and occasional regional travel, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of and read the draft of a wide-ranging transit plan proposed by the Texas Department of Transportation. Among the most remarkable aspects of the recently released “Texas Statewide Multimodal Transit Plan 2050” is that it’s from TxDOT, the lead transportation agency in a state as partial to personal vehicles and pavement as any in the nation. I nearly fell over when I read TxDOT is advocating for and seeks to lead the development of a statewide transit network and hub plan for providing “an accessible and seamless way to travel across Texas without a car.”

The draft plan envisions such a network to be “safe, universally accessible, and integrated” while asserting that it would improve the quality of life and economy for Texans. It’s hard to refute that the projected increase in people coming to Texas will overwhelm our ability to move around the state in cars, trucks and SUVs alone. According to the plan, it’s projected that roughly 92% of Texas residents will live in an urban area by 2050, up from about 90% in 2020. And the biggest portion of that growth will be in the region known as the Texas Triangle — a contiguous 65-county mass bounded by San Antonio-Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. This megaregion’s population is expected to rise by about 50% by 2050, when it will be home to nearly 80% of the state’s people. And while the number of people living here — and businesses employing them — will increase, the space they will occupy will remain the same.

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Texas AG Paxton sues over rules on religious students

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking the unusual step of suing a state agency, arguing that three state-funded college work-study programs unconstitutionally discriminate against religious students. In a lawsuit filed Friday in a Travis County district court, Paxton’s office says the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board violates the First Amendment by barring work-study participants from engaging in “sectarian activities, including sectarian courses of study,” reports The Texas Tribune. The restrictions apply to the Texas College Work-Study Program, the Working Off-Campus: Reinforcing Knowledge and Skills Internship Program, and the Innovative Adult Career Education Grant Program, which provides financially needy students access to jobs to afford college.

Paxton argues the programs improperly exclude religious organizations whose employment opportunities are solely sectarian, and prevent seminary students from participating altogether. He said this amounts to a “wholesale exclusion” which the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected. “These anti-Christian laws targeting religious students must be completely wiped off the books,” Paxton said in a statement. “Our nation was built by patriotic Americans who had the freedom to express their religious beliefs without fear of being targeted, and we will honor that heritage by upholding the First Amendment in Texas,” he added. The coordinating board allocated more than $8 million for work-study programs in fiscal year 2026.

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Texas Radio Hall-of-Famer, Dallas TV talk show host Suzie Humphreys dies

Suzie Humphreys, Texas Radio Hall-of-Famer and former talk show host, has died, leaving behind a memorable legacy in Texas broadcast journalism. She was 87. Humphreys worked as a secretary in Dallas and performed in a comedy show before breaking into local journalism. In the 1970s, Humphreys anchored WFAA Channel 8’s morning television show News 8 etc… alongside Don Harris and Gene Thomas. The hosts produced the live show five days a week without cue cards or teleprompters, according to an article published by the University of North Texas. The show was known by local audiences for its quirky improvisation, celebrity guests and comedic stunts. The production was met with tragedy. In 1971, Thomas died in a drag-racing crash at the Dallas International Motor Speedway while reporting a story. Harris left the show, and was killed in 1978 while reporting in Guyana.

Humphreys herself narrowly escaped death by avoiding a helicopter crash by minutes at her next gig reporting from the KVIL station traffic helicopter. Humphreys, pregnant at the time, got off the chopper due to nausea just before it took off again and crashed, killing the pilot. The temporary assignment reporting on traffic from the air turned into two decades with the radio station alongside legendary radio host Ron Chapman. Her reports were filled with humor and authenticity, said long-time Dallas-Fort Worth broadcaster Jody Dean. “She’s a broadcast legend,” Dean said. “The contribution she made to the industry and the opportunities she helped create for women in particular because of her extraordinary talent, is just breathtaking.” Humphreys was also an actress, comedian and author. She also had a passion for motivational speaking. She was inducted into the National Speakers Association’s Hall of Fame in 2002. She was born in 1937 and grew up in San Antonio, according to an article published by the University of North Texas.

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How a San Antonio elementary went from failing to 'B' in 1 year

Before walking into Tradition Elementary School, visitors are greeted with a huge banner informing them: “This is a ‘B’ rated campus.” Inside, colorful hallways broadcast student work and a constant buzz of movement blankets the campus. Last year, Principal Karen Kopeck wouldn’t have celebrated her school’s F-rating, which is considered a failing grade by the state of Texas. Tradition, located in a rural town called St. Hedwig on the far East Side, scored a 57 for the 2023-24 school year. For the 2024-25 school year, the campus scored an 85, doing what often takes others years to do. “There were a lot of factors,” Kopeck said when asked why the school had previously struggled so much and what led to the growth.

Part of the East Central Independent School District, Tradition opened its doors in 2018, replacing John Glenn Elementary School, a space that now serves as an annex for East Central High School. Unlike most San Antonio-are school districts, ECISD’s student population has been quickly outgrowing the district’s facilities, increasing demand for new school buildings and teachers. The district had an enrollment of roughly 11,500 for the 2024-25 school year. In August, officials said it had 12,900 students for the current school cycle. By the 2033-34 school year, ECISD expects enrollment to skyrocket to over 25,000 students. Several of its schools are facing overcrowding or will soon be over capacity, including Tradition. Tradition’s current enrollment sits at about 700 students, and the school ended the 2024-25 school year with 600 students. Before that, the school’s enrollment had reached over 1,000. The building’s capacity sits at 901 students without using portable classrooms. The state’s public school accountability system doesn’t kick in until the second year a school campus is open, meaning the public doesn’t know how well Tradition performed during the 2018-19 school year. Because of COVID, schools weren’t rated for 2019-20, and later ratings were caught up in lawsuits after the Texas Education Agency updated the accountability system in 2022. Even though Tradition seemed to be steadily improving after COVID, earning a 72 for 2022-23, Kopeck’s team struggled to keep up with the growth. From 2022-23 to 2023-24, Tradition went from having 993 students to 1,141. That’s when it got an F-rating. “We were surviving, not thriving,” Kopeck recalled. “The teachers were tired. You could see it on their faces.”

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Just when the Texas hemp industry breathed a sigh of relief, it faces another extinction-level event

Here’s the good news: THC is still legal in Texas. Now, the bad news: Some Republicans in Congress still want to ban it — and they might get their wish. Yes, despite attempts by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to rip weed gummies out of the mouths of his constituents, it didn’t happen, and hemp advocates breathed a sigh of relief. Then, while guards were down, the U.S. Senate on Monday agreed to language in a spending bill that would ban almost all THC-containing hemp products nationwide, according to the Houston Chronicle. As for the federal level, “momentum has been gaining for Congress to take action to ban hemp products,” Katharine Neill Harris, the Alfred C. Glassell III Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told The Barbed Wire.

“The ban still has to pass the House, where it could potentially be watered down, but if it does pass, many open questions will remain,” she said. “As written, it wouldn’t take effect for a year. When it does, who handles enforcement? If it’s a mixture of federal and state agencies, who and how will online sales be restricted?” Sen. Rand Paul tried to fight it, proposing an amendment to remove language that he said would “destroy” the hemp industry. Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz (!!!) were the only Republicans to support the measure, which would have stripped a provision tightening restrictions on intoxicating hemp products legalized under the 2018 farm bill. And, yes, you read that right, Ted Cruz might be the only hope for the state’s $8 billion hemp industry. He tweeted on Monday that hemp regulation should be left up to the states. And, he even sided with Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been leaning against banning THC and in favor of regulation. “There is a vital need to protect children by, at a minimum, requiring that purchasers be 21 and prohibiting synthetics and dangerous foreign imports marketed to kids,” Cruz said. “That’s the approach Governor Abbott has taken in Texas, and I urge other states to follow Texas’s example.”

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Mayor talks FWISD takeover, taxes and maintaining Fort Worth’s ‘vibe’ during TribFest

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker sat down with The Texas Tribune co-founder Evan Smith for a discussion ranging from how one of the nation’s largest cities maintains its signature “vibe” to partisan politics. During the Friday panel at the annual Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Smith noted that Cowtown is about to be one of the largest 10 cities in the country but keeps its authenticity and vibe. Parker attributed that to the city’s focus, pointing to the opening of the highly regarded Bowie House hotel on Camp Bowie Boulevard. “We worked for years with that developer to make sure it fit the fabric of the (Camp Bowie) bricks and the height was the way it needed to be,” Parker said. “These don’t just happen overnight. It takes a tremendous amount of focus. I give credit to our city staff. It’s intentionality.”

Other topics included Texas’ takeover of FWISD; Gov. Greg Abbott’s proposed property tax overhaul and its impact on cities’ ability to finance their growth; and how to improve maternal health, one of the mayor’s interests. Here are takeaways from Parker’s discussion in Austin: Parker continued to advocate that Fort Worth schools Superintendent Karen Molinar should keep her job as the state takes control of the district. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath plans to appoint a new superintendent in the spring along with a board of managers to step in for the district’s elected trustees. “I want to see a superintendent lead this district that cares about our kids in Fort Worth,” Parker said. “Maybe there are other leaders that are capable of that same heart. I just don’t know who those people are. And so as this process continues, I want to see that same level of leadership from our board of managers.” Smith pressed Parker, noting that the decision is solely Morath’s. “He’s listening to my opinions and my feelings about our city (and) the people I put in front of him for different positions,” she said. “That’s all I can ask him to do right now.” Smith asked whether the mayor was “good” with the state taking control of the district because one already-closed campus failed state ratings for five consecutive years.

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National Stories

Right-wing media shrugs off latest Epstein document release

What do thousands of pages of newly released material reveal about the well-documented relationship between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump? Not much of anything, according to some of the right-wing influencers who have long been clamoring for the government to release more information about Epstein and his crimes. "To me, these are nothingburgers. If they're even real," pro-Trump podcaster Jon Herold said on his Badlands Media Rumble livestream on Wednesday. Herold gained an audience in the wake of the 2020 election after spreading QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories. His fellow Badlands Media personality, Brian Lupo, took a slightly different view on his own livestream this week. The emails didn't exactly say nothing, he claimed, but they show that Trump was informing on Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison term for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. (Epstein died by suicide while in jail during the first Trump administration.)

"My take on this is Epstein and Maxwell are trying to figure out who's a mole or a rat or an informant in their circle of friends," Lupo said, referring to an email in which Epstein called Trump a "dog that didn't bark." (The White House has denied that Trump was an informant.) Epstein looms large for many conspiracy theorists, including QAnon believers. He's seen as a prime example of the satanic cabal of pedophiles they believe are entrenched among the world's most powerful people. QAnon adherents think Donald Trump is destined to defeat that cabal. Trump has acknowledged he and Epstein were once friendly but fell out decades ago. He's denied any knowledge of Epstein's trafficking of underage girls. While one of the newly released emails suggests Trump did know about Epstein's behavior, some right-wing media figures say the new disclosures prove Trump did nothing wrong. "They're claiming it's a hoax, they're claiming that the Democrats are cherry-picking the things that make Trump look the worst, and that these things prove that he didn't actually do anything wrong and that he's not a criminal and that he was actually gathering information for the FBI on Epstein," said Mike Rothschild, an independent journalist and author who has written extensively about conspiracy theories and QAnon.

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Trump buys at least $82 million in bonds since late August, disclosures show

U.S. President Donald Trump bought at least $82 million in corporate and municipal bonds from late August to early October including new investments in sectors benefiting from his policies, financial disclosures made public on Saturday showed. According to the forms released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Trump carried out more than 175 financial purchases from August 28 through October 2. The disclosures, made under a 1978 transparency law called the Ethics in Government Act, do not list exact amounts for each purchase, only providing a broad range. The maximum total value of the bond purchases exceeded $337 million, according to the filings.

Most of the assets listed in Saturday's disclosures consist of bonds issued by municipalities, states, counties, school districts and other entities with ties to public agencies. Trump's new bond investments span several industries, including sectors that have already benefited, or are benefiting, from his administration's policy changes such as financial deregulation. Corporate bonds acquired by Trump include offerings from chipmakers such as Broadcom and Qualcomm; tech companies such as Meta Platforms; retailers such as Home Depot and CVS Health ; and Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Purchases of the debt of investment banks in late August included bonds of JP Morgan. On Friday, Trump asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate JP Morgan over its ties to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bank has said it regrets its past ties with Epstein and did not help him commit "heinous acts." Trump also acquired Intel bonds after the U.S. government, under Trump's direction, acquired a stake, opens new tab in the company. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The administration has said before that Trump has continued to file mandatory disclosures about his investments but that neither he nor his family has a role in running the portfolio, which is managed by a third-party financial institution. Trump, who became wealthy in the real estate sector before entering politics, has previously said that he placed his companies into a trust overseen by his children. A disclosure filed in August indicated that Trump had purchased more than $100 million in bonds since returning to the presidency on January 20. Trump also submitted his annual disclosure form in June, which indicated that income from his various ventures still ultimately goes to him, raising concerns of potential conflicts of interest.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s had ‘warnings for my safety’ after posts by Trump

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime Republican ally who previously fiercely defended Donald Trump and his Maga movement, said on Saturday she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced on Friday he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of the Georgia representative. In a post on X, Greene said that “a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”, without referring to Trump by name, adding it was “the man I supported and helped get elected”. Greene said that “aggressive rhetoric attacking me has historically led to death threats and multiple convictions of men who were radicalized by the same type rhetoric being directed at me right now. This time by the President of the United States.”

Greene did not specify any threats against her that had been received by security firms, but said that “as a woman I take threats from men seriously. I now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women, who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal, must feel.” Greene also said that as a Republican who votes “overwhelmingly” in favor of party legislation, “his aggression against me also fuels the venomous nature of his radical internet trolls (many of whom are paid), this is completely shocking to everyone” . The accusation echoes claims made by Trump and administration officials that Democrats have used “paid actors” at protests. In later posts on X, Greene posted a chart of rising average grocery bills, calling it “the ultimate warning to all of my Republican colleagues” and equating cost-of-living pressures to a vote in Congress over the release of further Epstein files next week.

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Michelle Obama shuts down presidential run: 'You're not ready for a woman'

Michelle Obama has shut down the idea she might one day run for president yet again. While speaking to Tracee Ellis Ross this month at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Obama insisted the United States is “not ready for a woman” to lead. “Well, as we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” Obama said in reference to the 2024 election, which Donald Trump won over Kamala Harris. “That’s why I’m like, ‘Don’t even look at me about running, ‘cause you all are lying,’ ” she continued, “You’re not ready for a woman. You are not. So don’t waste my time.”

Obama added: “We got a lot of growing up to do, and there are still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it.” The author and wife of former president Barack Obama has repeatedly shut down requests and rumors about her potential candidacy for years. The topic was broached by Savannah Guthrie in 2018, who asked Michelle during a segment for “Today” if she would consider a career in politics. “Absolutely not. I’ve never wanted to be a politician,” Michelle answered. “Nothing has changed in me. I want to serve. … There are so many ways to make an impact. Politics is not my thing. It’s as simple as that.”

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Border Patrol arrests 81 as 'Charlotte's Web' operation starts

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents fanned out across Charlotte on Saturday, making arrests along Charlotte's immigrant-heavy Central Avenue and South Boulevard corridors. The arrests preceded a protest Saturday afternoon in uptown, where hundreds condemned the crackdown and the deployment of federal immigration agents. On Sunday morning, CBP Commander Greg Bovino said in a social media post that agents had arrested 81 people so far, "many" of whom have criminal histories. He said the agency will release more information about people who were arrested on social media. One arrest that was representative of the day took place in east Charlotte on Saturday morning. Agents wearing green uniforms with Border Patrol identifying patches, masks and sunglasses chased and arrested a man at a shopping center at the corner of Rosehaven Drive and Central Avenue.

The area is known for its large Latino and immigrant population. The circumstances of the arrest were not immediately clear. A WFAE reporter witnessed one arrest, and social media videos posted Saturday showed agents conducting arrests in other parts of the city, appearing to be concentrated in areas including east Charlotte and South Boulevard. Hours later in First Ward Park, hundreds of people gathered by the early afternoon, waving signs and chanting "No justice, no peace, no ICE or police." Many businesses on Central Avenue closed for the day. One restaurant employee declined to give his name, but said the arrests were spreading fear. "A lot of the workers are scared, and this, like - it’s going to be worse here in the east and South Boulevard where there are a lot of Hispanics," he told WFAE. Agents were also filmed questioning nearby landscapers, and smashing the window of a man’s car on South Boulevard and pulling him from his vehicle. Arrests also reportedly took place in Pineville and in Matthews. The Department of Homeland Security said Saturday that it had launched an operation called "Charlotte's Web" because local law enforcement were not detaining people charged with serious crimes.

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How a tech billionaire philanthropist got caught between Trump and San Francisco

While tech moguls like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat center stage at President Donald Trump’s January inauguration, Marc Benioff, CEO of cloud software company Salesforce, was 4,000 miles away at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Benioff, an influential philanthropist and political voice in San Francisco, appeared set on making clear he wasn’t moving toward Trump. He said at one Davos event that the new administration would not change his or Salesforce’s core values, which include equality and sustainability. “Presidents change. Administrations change. We don’t change,” Benioff said in an onstage interview at a slick event space hosted by Axios, according to video of the event. But last month, many of Benioff’s onetime fans in San Francisco’s liberal community attacked him after he endorsed Trump’s proposal to send the National Guard into San Francisco to fight crime. “We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” he said in an interview with the New York Times.

Rafael Mandelman, president of the city’s Board of Supervisors, called Benioff’s National Guard comments a “gut punch.” San Francisco’s mayor, sheriff and district attorney all pushed back on the idea that federal troops could help the city. Nearly 200 Salesforce employees reacted with barfing-face emojis in an internal message channel after a worker posted the New York Times article that reported Benioff’s comments, according to screenshots viewed by The Washington Post. “This seems to conflict pretty heavily with our values,” one worker wrote. Tech workers broadly lean Democratic and many CEOs now cultivating friendlier relations with Trump have previously supported liberal causes. But Benioff has made issues such as homelessness relief and LGBTQ+ rights, and the liberal bastion of San Francisco, part of his personal and professional brand. The recent blowback to Benioff shows the challenges corporate leaders face as they wrestle with the political and cultural collisions of this era — when both the White House and local officials are willing to go after, or even punish, companies they don’t agree with. Some tech companies have donated millions to Trump’s new White House ballroom, but Benioff’s roots in liberal San Francisco turned his brief comments into a major controversy that could have enduring consequences. Salesforce did not donate to the ballroom or Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

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On edge in small-town America

CJ’s Coffee n’ Cream was the only coffee shop in town, and Paul Blount sat in the corner of the room, his chair facing the front entrance, his fingers hooked into the sides of a bullet-resistant vest labeled “POLICE,” so that to anyone coming or going, he would be difficult to miss. Paul, 51, believed it was the duty of a police chief in a place as small as Palmyra, population 1,719, to make himself available to the people of the village. And lately in Palmyra, there was a growing sense of unease that he was determined to talk through and, if he could, contain, before it became something dangerous. It was the day before homecoming weekend, which meant that soon there would be toilet paper streamers in the trees, a football game played under the lights and the largest parade the village hosted all year. The parade, which ran half a mile from one end of Main Street to the other, was a concern. “Given the climate and recent media headlines, we are taking the following precautionary measures for this weekend’s event,” Paul had written to members of the village board that governed Palmyra. The precautionary measures included the use of a neighboring county’s drone program, to scan the rooftops for threats. “My team and I are proactively preparing for the worst-case scenarios while continuing to hope for the best.” How had such a feeling reached a place like Palmyra?

A dot on the map between Madison and Milwaukee, the village had two bars, one grocery store, two gas stations and acres of farmland. It was about 20 miles from the interstate, making it a place where people said, “If you’re in Palmyra, you either intended to be here, or you’re lost.” Palmyra was also in debt, and without enough growth in the village to support its costs, the board had been talking about dissolving the police department, which was already understaffed, with just two other full-time officers and no overnight patrol. So when Paul saw a flier advertising extra funding through a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he applied. The program, which ICE called a 287(g) agreement, was offering big payouts to police departments that train and deputize their officers to enforce immigration law. Paul believed in cooperating with the federal government, and had told people he saw the program as a tool to address “serious criminal threats.” He’d also said he would leave it to the village board to decide whether to move forward with the agreement. But before that could happen, ICE had approved his application, and then came a statement from the ACLU, the TV news crews and emails to Paul saying he’d “sold his soul for money,” and now, so much of what he saw unfolding across the country felt like it was creeping into life in the village he was supposed to keep safe. When Paul had written his email warning the village board about the national “climate,” a gunman had just driven his pickup truck into a Mormon church in Michigan, and, four days before that, a man had opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas, and two weeks before that, Charlie Kirk had been killed on a college campus in Utah.

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Trump issues new pardons for Jan. 6 rioters

President Trump over the weekend pardoned two individuals charged in connection with the investigation into the 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol. The president issued pardons for Suzanne Ellen Kaye, who served an 18-month sentence for threatening to shoot FBI agents amid an investigation into her involvement in the riots, and Daniel Edwin Wilson, who remained imprisoned, despite Trump’s sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 rioters, due to an unlawful firearms possession conviction. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin posted photos of the pardons to the social platform X on Saturday. Martin said that he specifically advocated for Wilson to receive clemency, and that the Justice Department under former President Biden “targeted” Kaye.

In 2021, the FBI received a tip regarding Kaye and the Jan. 6 riots, according to court records. Agent Arthur Smith interviewed Kaye, a native of Boca Raton, Fla., over the phone, during which she denied being at the Capitol. Kaye, who went by “Angry Patriot Hippie” online, then posted two videos, one to Facebook and another to Instagram. Both videos were titled “F— the FBI,” and featured Kaye, while drinking alcohol from a bottle, saying she would “shoot your f—ing a– if you come” to her house. She posted the latter video to her TikTok account as well. Kaye was found guilty of threatening to shoot FBI agents in June 2022 and sentenced to 18 months in prison in April 2023. She was released last year. A White House official told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister company, Saturday that Kaye “suffers from stress-induced seizures,” which she experienced while the jury read its verdict. “This is clearly a case of disfavored First Amendment political speech being prosecuted and an excessive sentence,” the official added.

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Lead Stories

TAMU System bans courses that ‘advocate’ for race, gender ideology

Texas A&M System Regents approved a policy prohibiting its 12 universities from teaching course content that “advocates” for race or gender ideology unless they are approved by the institution’s president or a designee — becoming the first system in Texas to impose such a ban. The policy follows the high-profile firing of Texas A&M Professor Melissa McCoul after a viral video of a student accusing her of “illegally” teaching gender ideology caught the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott. Though no law in Texas bars such teaching, McCoul, herdepartment chair and dean lost their jobs, and president Mark Welsh resigned amid criticism he mishandled it. The university system later approved a $3.5 million payout to Welsh.

Regents agreed the system must “lead the way with an in-depth and reputable review of our courses so that we can, simply put, make sure we are educating, not advocating,” said Regent Sam Torn, chair of the committee on academic and student affairs in his opening remarks. “Curriculum is created and approved based on the accepted body of knowledge needed for our students to be successful in their chosen profession,” Torn said. “It is unacceptable for other material to be taught instead.” The language in the policy softened from its initial draft — changing the prohibited action from teaching to advocating. “You were heard,” Regent Bob Albritton told those who publicly testified. More than 140 people submitted written testimony, with a large majority against the measure. Critics said the policy would infringe on their ability to teach about race and gender and would violate the principle of academic freedom. Regent John Bellinger said professors should use “common sense” in how they teach, responding to public testimony from faculty members who said they would be restricted in how they teach the Holocaust. Albritton agreed the policy only pertains to advocacy. The Texas A&M System, which serves 175,000 students, is the second largest university system in the state. Regents also passed a measure to require faculty to teach the approved syllabus, limiting a professor’s ability to tailor a class to their expertise.

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Amid new endorsements in tightening GOP primary for U.S. Senate, Cornyn says "the trend line is in our favor"

Thirty Republican current and former elected leaders from Dallas-Fort Worth are backing Sen. John Cornyn for re-election over Attorney General Ken Paxton and Houston Congressman Wesley Hunt. Among them are North Texas Congressmen Jake Ellzey and Craig Goldman, former Congressman Michael Burgess, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, and former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. In an interview in Dallas on Wednesday evening, Cornyn told CBS News Texas the endorsements give voters some validation of the services he has performed. "I think these elected officials, former and present, who are endorsing me, is sort of a sign of a good housekeeping seal," Cornyn said.

The Republican primary for U.S. Senate is close, according to a statewide poll of 1,097 likely 2026 GOP primary voters conducted Oct. 6-10, after Hunt entered the race. Paxton leads with 28 percent, Cornyn has 24 percent, and Hunt has 19 percent. Other polls have shown a similarly tight race. When asked why a four-term incumbent should be this low in the polls, Cornyn said, "It's early. I don't think most Texans, maybe political junkies like you and me, think about those things a lot, but not most folks are concerned about their kids going to school or their job or the government shutdown, or other things. I think as people begin to focus on it, as we get closer to March 3rd, I think that the numbers will tighten up considerably." Analysts say Cornyn's poll numbers have risen because of a flurry of TV and radio ads his campaign and third parties have aired since the summer, highlighting his record. Cornyn said, "So, the fact that we've been able to close the gap so dramatically where the Attorney General's numbers have not gone up, but my numbers have gone up dramatically, the trend line is in our favor, so I'm very optimistic." Analysts say Hunt's entry into the race raises the likelihood of a runoff in May. Cornyn said his campaign has not been hurt by Hunt's entry. "No, I don't think he can win. What could happen is it would force a runoff in May. We're prepared for the duration. Obviously, I'd prefer to have the race decided in March," Cornyn said. There are three and a half months before the March 3 primary. Because the race is so close, one analyst told CBS News Texas he expects there won't be a clear picture of how it will shape up until three weeks before the election.

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Trump faces heat from MAGA base on ‘America First’ agenda, Epstein

MAGA leaders erupted this week over President Donald Trump’s assertion that the United States needs foreign workers because it does not have enough “talented people,” questioning the president’s commitment to the “America First” politics he popularized. A congressional push to release the government’s files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — a years-long cause on the right — moved forward against the wishes of the White House, even as Republicans overwhelmingly dismissed newly released emails Epstein wrote, including some about Trump. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), a longtime Trump ally, sparred with the president on multiple fronts after suggesting that the White House was too focused on foreign affairs and denouncing recent aid to Argentina.

The dissent showed an impassioned base willing to challenge Trump on some issues while largely supporting his leadership. Trump’s critics voiced skepticism that the rifts will hurt the president’s support in any lasting way. But the rare criticism showed the limits of Trump’s authority over the “America First” agenda he championed as a candidate and raised some GOP concerns about enthusiasm ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Some warned that the rifts could depress turnout among less engaged voters that Trump mobilized, with Republicans already nervous that they will not show up when he is not on the ballot. “If you show them that you’re not standing up for them on these populist, nationalist issues, I think there’s a real risk for the 2026 midterms,” said Republican strategist Steve Cortes, who has argued that the U.S. admits too many foreign workers and foreign students. “I don’t know anyone on the right who’s so angry that they’re splitting with Trump, but we’re disappointed,” Cortes said. “And we want to lead him to a better place.” Trump has responded defiantly to criticism and cast himself as the ultimate arbiter of what his “Make America Great Again” movement wants.

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'Luv ya': Disgraced Baylor president emailed Jeffrey Epstein for years

There's little to no indication that Jeffrey Epstein, the New York financier and pedophile, ever spent time in Texas. But that hasn't stopped Texas connections from popping up in the ongoing scandal engulfing the federal government. Just days after new emails came to light showing the living conditions of Epstein's girlfriend in a Texas prison camp, newly released files shed new light on the relationship between Epstein and late Texan Kenneth Starr, the disgraced former president of Baylor University who was ousted in 2016. In the emails, Starr frequently expressed his wish to visit Epstein in both New York City and Florida. The two often shared thoughts on current events, such as the Trump Russian interference scandal and new allegations that began to come out about Epstein, leading up to his arrest in 2019. Starr and Epstein frequently expressed fondness for each other, and Starr frequently signed his emails with "hugs" and "love." Starr, who died in 2022, often conversed with other lawyers and elites in Epstein's orbit.

According to the new tranche of emails released by the House Oversight Committee, Starr, the Vernon, Texas native, corresponded with Epstein throughout 2016 and 2018. That itself isn't a surprise. After serving as the independent counsel in the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair that led to Clinton's impeachment, the longtime conservative lawyer returned to private practice and was involved in many high-profile cases. Those include representing the school board in the 2007 "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" Supreme Court case, supporters of a California proposition that outlawed same-sex marriage, and the private mercenary company Blackwater. But most controversially, Starr was part of the legal team that defended Epstein during his first criminal case in the mid-2000s. As part of that defense, Starr was instrumental in securing a plea deal for Epstein in 2008 that included an unprecedented non-prosecution agreement. Epstein, who was accused of running a "cult-like" network to rape underage girls at his Palm Beach mansion, was ultimately granted immunity from federal sex trafficking charges. Instead, he agreed to plead guilty to two state felony prostitution charges, serve 18 months in prison, and register as a sex offender. In 2018, Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown revealed the arrangement had allowed Epstein to be housed in a private wing of the Palm Beach jail and be granted work release. Epstein was allowed to leave the jail six days a week for 12 hours a day and work at his private office, despite rules barring sex offenders from work release agreements.

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State Stories

Student speech under scrutiny as Texas lawmakers hold first hearing after Charlie Kirk's death

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Thursday held its first hearing to examine free speech on college campuses following the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Lawmakers said civil discourse is important and it embodied the kind of work Kirk did. “Charlie Kirk, as we honor him in a way of starting this conversation, famously debated opponents with open handshakes instead of closed fists,” said Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham. “We can only have civil discourse and freedom of speech when we welcome all sides of a debate.” The Select Committees on Civil Discourse & Freedom of Speech in Higher Education held a joint five-hour hearing and lawmakers heard from invited speakers only.

Kirk’s death escalated conversations around the price of free speech on university and college campuses — the consequences conservatives can face when expressing their beliefs or the retaliation students and teachers who criticized Kirk faced. Kirk’s death escalated conversations around the price of free speech on university and college campuses — the consequences conservatives can face when expressing their beliefs or the retaliation students and teachers who criticized Kirk faced. Jim Davis, the president of UT Austin, told lawmakers the university tries to make sure students are able to have wide-ranging discussions in classrooms, including on controversial topics, so students can form their own conclusions. “Here we expect that our professors build a culture of trust, so that all students feel free to voice their questions and their beliefs, especially when those perspectives might conflict with those of the professor or other students,” Davis said. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, created the committees so they could examine “bias, discourse, and freedom of speech across Texas college campuses,” a news release said at the time. Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, who chairs the Senate committee, said Thursday the purpose of the committee was to make sure speech isn’t silenced in the future. He added that he believes that in 1968, “liberal speech” was being suppressed.

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Congressman Tony Gonzales decries 'completely untruthful' rumors in wake of staffer's death

Congressman Tony Gonzales on Thursday denied reports he was having an affair with a Uvalde-based staffer when she set herself on fire in September. It was the first time the Texas Republican has publicly spoken about the September death of 35-year-old Regina Santos-Aviles, which sparked an investigation led by the Texas Rangers. Earlier this week, the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office ruled her manner of death as a suicide. Gonzales, a Republican who represents a slice of Texas stretching from San Antonio to El Paso, made the comments at a Thursday panel at the Texas Tribune Festival, where he blasted rumors about him as "completely untruthful." At the same time, he praised Santos-Aviles' commitment to the community.

"Regina’s family has asked for privacy. If it was your family or any of our families, I would argue that you would want privacy as well," Gonzales said. "I don’t know exactly what happened. I’m waiting for a final report, I think that would make a lot of sense. But I would like everyone to remember Regina for all the wonderful things that she did for our community." Gonzales said those accomplishments include leading efforts to develop a new mental health facility in Uvalde, planning a new community center in Natalia and improving communication among local school districts. She also previously worked as executive director of the Uvalde Area Chamber of Commerce. "Anyone that ever met her knew she was a kind, welcoming soul," he added. "And that’s how everyone should remember her.” Santos-Aviles died on Sept. 13 at her Uvalde home. Local authorities have said from the start there were no indications of foul play in her death, and a subsequent report from the Uvalde Leader News said Santos-Aviles had "doused herself in gasoline and was ignited into flames." Uvalde police determined by Sept. 23 that Santos-Aviles was alone in her backyard when she died. According to LinkedIn, she had worked for Gonzales, whose district includes San Antonio and Uvalde, since 2021. The third-term Texas Republican said in an initial statement provided soon after her death was first reported that she would be remembered for working to make a difference in the lives of Texans.

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Federal THC ban is an 'extinction-level event' for Texas hemp industry, economist says

The newly passed federal ban on hemp-based products containing THC could have a significant negative effect on the Texas economy, hitting a wide range of Texas industries that rely on hemp in any form, according to leading economists studying the hemp industry. Language included in the spending legislation that just ended the federal government shutdown would dramatically lower the legal amount of THC — the psychoactive component of cannabis — permitted in hemp-derived products. Advocates, including a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general, argue this is necessary to close a loophole in the 2018 Federal Farm Bill that has led to the widespread marketing of intoxicating products, including to children. Notably, the coalition did not include Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, despite the significant push by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas lawmakers over the past year to ban such hemp-based products containing THC.

Texas produces more hemp than almost any other state in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Economist Beau Whitney estimated the Texas hemp industry employs roughly 53,000 people and pays wages of just $2.1 billion. "There’s roughly 6,350 businesses that are projected to fail as a result of this and displace over 40,000 workers. And so, this is a significant blow to the Texas economy," Whitney said, "because of the fact that those people now, instead of contributing into the state coffers from a revenue perspective ... payroll taxes, business taxes and the spending that occurs, sales taxes, this will now be an expenditure that is needing to be absorbed by the state." Those numbers include workers involved in cultivating, manufacturing, distributing and selling hemp-derived cannabinoids. But Whitney says the legislation would discourage the cultivation of any hemp.

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Young Texans were most immediately impacted by six-week abortion ban: study

It’s been four years since Texas enacted its then-unprecedented six-week abortion ban. Though the procedure is now nearly fully prohibited in the state, researchers are still trying to piece together how the six-week ban impacted access in its immediate aftermath – and are finding it had disproportionate effects on children and young adults. A study published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health found that facility-based abortions both in and out of the state decreased by about 26% for Texans under 18 and and almost 20% for those between the ages of 18 and 24. For Texans 25 through 29, recorded abortions fell by 17%. For Texans 30 and older, they fell by about 18%. The study did not look at abortions that were self-managed through mail-in abortion medications.

Previous research has shown that facility-based abortions significantly decreased overall after the ban, but few studies have focused on children and young adults. Young Texans may be more likely to not recognize pregnancy early, know where to obtain an abortion, have fear about disclosing their pregnancy to family members or to be unable to travel and pay for care, especially without adult help, researchers wrote. To conduct the review, they looked at data from Texas and six surrounding states and estimated the percentage change in abortions from the nine months before and after the law went into effect in September 2021. Texas has since banned nearly all abortion except in cases to save the life of the pregnant patient, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion. Even before the abortion bans, young people faced barriers to access, including a requirement that minors get parental consent or seek permission from a judge to obtain an abortion in-state.

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Edinburg educator announces run for Texas House District 40

An educational professional from Edinburg on Tuesday announced that she is running for Texas House District 40. In a campaign announcement, Vangela Churchill said she is running as a Republican and said she has 25 years of experience in the educational field. “Churchill has personal experience with the daily battle she sees every day with children, parents, and families struggling to make their lives better,” the campaign announcement read. Churchill said she is running for the Texas State House because she can no longer watch families struggle while politicians argue.

“For my entire adult life, I’ve worked on the front lines as an educator, and all of us see these challenges our Rio Grande Valley families face every day,” she said in the announcement. “Educators deal directly with America’s biggest issues — students learning English as a second language, children without healthcare, families facing hunger or addiction, and classrooms stretched thin by budget cuts. “Every one of these problems walks through our school’s doors.” Churchill said the core of America’s problems can be found in schools, which is where solutions must begin. “But until the politicians in Austin hear the voice of the people in the Rio Grande Valley, nothing will change. That’s why I will be the voice of working families in Austin,” Churchill said.

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Jason Corley announces Exploratory Committee for Texas’ 19th Congressional District

After Congressman Jodey Arrington announced that he will not seek a sixth term. Lubbock County Commissioner Jason Corley says he has received an outpouring of encouragement from supporters across West Texas and the Big Country urging him to run for Congress. “I was surprised and humbled by the number of calls and messages from friends, supporters, and members of the media encouraging me to run,” Corley said. “After much consideration, I’ve decided to form an exploratory committee to assess the level of public support for a campaign to represent the people of West Texas and the Big Country in Congress.” According to the news release, further details about the exploratory committee and next steps will be announced soon.

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Tom Sell announces candidacy for Congressional District 19 representative

Lubbock businessman and conservative Tom Sell has announced his candidacy to serve West Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives for District 19. Sell’s announcement comes after current Congressman Jodey Arrington said he will not seek re-election in 2026. Arrington was elected to congress in 2016 and has served for nearly a decade. Sell is a fifth-generation West Texan committed to serving farm and ranch families, cities and rural communities throughout the southern High Plains. Sell graduated from Texas Tech to then serve former Representative Larry Combest when he chaired the House Agriculture Committee. Tom and his wife Kyla both live and work in Lubbock and have four children together. “We love our country and West Texas, and we want to repay all the great people of West Texas for the blessings they have given us and our family over our lifetime by standing by and defending them — and our country and everything they stand for,” Tom and Kyla said. “We are motivated by a strong sense of urgency and deep gratitude that we both feel.”

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Baylor AD, CFP chair Mack Rhoades takes 'leave of absence' after verbal, physical altercation, new allegations

Six days after our report on Baylor AD and CFP Chairman Mack Rhoades putting his hands on a player before the Arizona State game, followed by a physical altercation with an assistant coach, he is officially taking a "leave of absence" from his job. The news also comes just two days following his appearance on the College Football Playoff rankings show, where he did not comment on the investigation that took place. Rhoades was at the center of a school investigation into an alleged verbal and physical altercation with a football player and assistant coach. Now, OutKick can report new allegations were presented to the school on Nov. 10, which do not involve Title IX, student welfare or NCAA rules. They also do not involve the football program. The circumstances around Mack Rhoades have only intensified over the past month, with Rhoades skipping a prominent booster dinner on Wednesday night as well.

OutKick spoke to numerous sources regarding this incident, and are protecting their identities because of fear of future retribution regarding this matter. On Sept. 20, as Baylor was preparing to play Arizona State in a Big 12 conference game, tight end Michael Trigg was preparing to take the field for the opening series against the Sun Devils. As part of the uniform that day, Trigg was wearing a long-sleeved yellow shirt that was being used to cover a brace he was wearing on his shoulder. Sources tell OutKick that athletic director Mack Rhoades went up to Trigg as the ball was being kicked off to start the game, and while putting his hands on the player asked him ‘What the f--- are you wearing that yellow shirt for?'. Along the sidelines before the game, multiple assistants were around when this incident occurred, as it occurred in a brief span of time. On Thursday, Baylor athletics released a statement to OutKick regarding the decision from Rhoades. "Baylor Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mack Rhoades is on a leave of absence for personal reasons, effective November 12. The University will decline to comment further at this time."

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Harlandale ISD regains local control, ends state conservatorship

After five years of being under direct state oversight, the Texas Education Agency decided to end Harlandale Independent School District’s conservatorship on Tuesday. The announcement comes three months after the state loosened the reins on the conservatorship, “elevating” Harlandale ISD to observing status, a less intrusive form of oversight. Now, the district has full local control over its own governance.

“This is a tremendous moment for Harlandale ISD,” said Superintendent Gerardo Soto. “It represents years of collaboration and dedication from our Board of Trustees, staff and community.” TEA began investigating Harlandale ISD in 2017 after complaints of alleged nepotism, issues with the district’s procurement process, financial mismanagement and dysfunctional governance. Then-superintendent Rey Madrigal “separated” from the district after the board moved to fire him. Soto was hired shortly after Madrigal left in 2019. He was recently named the Best Superintendent in the state’s Education Region 20. In 2020, TEA decided to take over Harlandale ISD by appointing a conservator, opting not to replace the school board trustees with a board of managers or Soto with a state-appointed superintendent . Even though the board and Soto weren’t replaced, the conservator had the power to override board decisions if they didn’t think they were in the best interest of students.

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Bee Moorhead: COP30: Cop to the truth

(Bee Moorhead is executive director of Texas Impact.) Monday was Earth Information Day at COP30. Earth Information Day is a plenary briefing where all the UNFCCC science groups, including the World Meteorological Organization, the World Climate Research Programme, and others brief the COP delegates on the state of climate science. As the UNFCCC “information note” explains: Systematic observation is vital for monitoring and understanding weather and climate status and trends to inform climate action. Earth observation networks, including in-situ and satellite-based observations, provide relevant data for forecasting and modelling climate change, response mechanism, risk management including supporting relate services such as early warning systems (EWS).

Within the UNFCCC process, the annual Earth Information Day (EID) provides an opportunity for Parties to engage with the systematic observation community to share and understand latest information, trends and projections of the climate to inform negotiations and wider decision-making. Through EID, messages on closing observation gaps, enhancing systematic observations and related initiatives, and advancing cooperation have been recognized. As a highlight of COP30, which is being dubbed “the COP of Truth,” Earth Information Day 2025 delivered some hard truths. It featured scary science, even scarier policy, and interesting takeaways for state and local governments. UNFCCC Executive Director Simon Steil kicked off the discussion by pointing out that “science and data give us resilience,” not just bad news. Observations are more important than ever, but unfortunately our observation systems are under strain. WMO executive director Celeste Saulo WMO reported that the past three years have been the warmest 3 yrs on record, and have delivered destructive weather on a daily basis. Science not only warns us, but also – and increasingly importantly – equips us. She argued the need for more and better bridges between science and policy. She also pointed out that scientists are increasingly able to attribute weather events to climate change, an important condition for policy action.

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With Prop Q’s defeat, an era of austerity begins

“I don’t think the voters appreciate how deep the cuts are going to have to be,” Austin City Council Member Mike Siegel told the Chronicle last week as Prop Q, the ballot measure to increase property taxes to fund a variety of city services, went down in flames. Siegel was talking about the cuts that will have to be made to the city’s 2025-26 budget with the defeat of Prop Q, which was envisioned as an opportunity to get homeless people off the streets and fix holes in the social safety net torn open by the federal government. City Manager T.C. Broadnax released a new proposed budget last Friday which showed the depth of the cuts. The proposed budget eviscerates funding for homelessness programs, compared with what would have been available with Prop Q. It cuts tens of millions of dollars from other social services. The cuts to homeless services include over $10 million intended for more emergency shelter beds and long-term supportive housing.

Additionally, $1.6 million is cut from public health initiatives like free vaccinations; $1.3 million is cut from the Family Stabilization Grant, which helps families avoid becoming homeless; and $1 million is cut from community violence intervention programs. Millions more are cut from programs for food pantries, city libraries, and wildfire prevention, to name just a few. Some of that funding may still be restored by moving money from other areas of the budget, but a coalition of community groups led by Equity Action is demanding that city leaders revise last year’s police contract in an effort to find more money. “[The city leaders’] proposal protects the bloated police budget while forcing cuts to every other essential public service including EMS, Austin Public Health, parks, contracts to community service organizations, and more,” Equity Action’s Savannah Lee wrote in a press release Tuesday. “In short, they have once again prioritized police over fully staffed city offices, services for folks experiencing homelessness, and quick and accessible healthcare for Austinites.” The community groups argue that a clause in the police contract approved last year allows the city to reduce APD’s budget when voters reject proposals like Prop Q, if reducing the budget is “necessary to meet the funding obligations set forth in [the] agreement.” Austin’s chief financial officer, Ed Van Eenoo, sent a memo to the mayor and City Council on Nov. 7, writing that a reduction in the police contract will not be “necessary” this fiscal year because the budget that will be adopted in coming weeks will be balanced. Lee called that statement a falsehood. “The clause refers to the budget that passed,” she told us. “Not the proposed one and not a future one. It exists to prevent exactly what’s happening now, where the police budget is deemed necessary and everything else is on the chopping block.” Broadnax’s proposed budget also decreases funding for the city’s public safety system, particularly its EMS response.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hands out bonus checks to TSA workers in Houston

In a show of gratitude at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem personally handed out $10,000 bonus checks to Transportation Security Administration workers who she said went above and beyond during the recent government shutdown. Noem, speaking to a room filled with TSA staff, praised their unwavering dedication. “Every single one of these individuals served with exemplary service,” she said. “They were an example of not only taking seriously the security concerns and measures that TSA has every single day, but also, they went above and beyond.”

She highlighted how officers volunteered for extra shifts, assisted with transportation for colleagues commuting to work, and helped families who faced unexpected challenges. “They helped individuals. They served extra shifts. They helped with transportation of people getting back and forth to work,” Noem said. “Other challenges that families may have. They were all examples of what we need.” The Homeland Security secretary also stated that the department intends to continue recognizing workers nationwide, especially those who served during the shutdown. “We will be looking at every single TSA official that helped serve during this government shutdown and do what we can to recognize that and help them financially with a bonus check to get them and their family back on their feet,” she said.

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‘Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment’ doc reveals trailer featuring whistleblowers ahead of IDFA launch

A potentially explosive doc titled “Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment” is set to launch from the upcoming IDFA documentary festival in Amsterdam, where its Nov. 16 premiere will be attended by several former Tesla employees, insiders and whistleblowers who spoke out. “I had a moral obligation to tell the world what is really going on behind the curtain,” says former Tesla autopilot employee John Bernal in the doc’s trailer, which Variety is launching exclusively (watch above). “Elon Musk Unveiled” “pulls back the curtain on Musk’s empire, as close confidants, whistleblowers, victims and former high-ranking Tesla employees speak out,” says the doc’s logline. “Their testimonies expose hidden data and buried defects in the race for self-driving cars — where unchecked ambition costs lives and challenges Big Tech’s most powerful titan.”

“For the very first time, we get a really close insight of how Tesla works and how Elon Musk is managing his company,” producer Christian Beetz, CEO of Beetz Brothers, tells Variety. After he launches “Elon Musk Unveiled” on the European festival circuit, Beetz is very keen to also bring the doc to U.S. audiences. Produced by Germany’s Beetz Brothers and directed by Andreas Pichler (“The Milk System”), “Tesla Experiment” takes its cue from 100GB of leaked internal data provided by a whistleblower named Lukasz Krupski, who worked for Tesla in Norway, to German business newspaper Handelsblatt. The “Tesla Experiment” weaves three interconnected narratives. The first one is a storyline “that examines Musk’s grip on Tesla and his transformation from tech entrepreneur to political strategist,” according to promotional materials. The second is “victim stories, which focus on personal tragedies caused by Tesla’s autopilot, contrasting Musk’s grand technological ambitions with the real suffering of those left behind.” And the third delves into investigations into Musk following journalists and lawyers uncovering the inner workings of Tesla through leaked data and “revealing a pattern of cover-ups, regulatory evasion, and a growing entanglement between Musk’s empire and political power,” the materials say.

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'FoodWithBearHands' content creator Michael Duarte shot and killed by Texas sheriff's deputies

Michael Duarte, the food and barbecue content creator known widely online as "FoodWithBearHands," died Saturday after being shot by sheriff's deputies in Texas, according to officials. Medina County, located west of San Antonio, confirmed that deputies responded to a call in Castroville for man acting erratically with a knife. Officials said the man, later identified as Duarte, was threatening and charging at deputies and "making threats to kill everyone." Law enforcement said he attempted to assault other emergency personnel who had responded to the scene as the deputy arrived. They added that Duarte was given multiple verbal commands to get on the ground, but he charged toward a responding deputy while yelling, “I’m going to kill you.” The deputy then fired two rounds at Duarte, hitting him.

Duarte was taken to University Hospital in San Antonio where he was pronounced dead, according to Medina County officials. The Texas Rangers are leading the investigation into his death. Duarte's talent agency, Alooma Media Group, confirmed his death in a statement posted to Instagram on Saturday. "It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of our valued client and dear friend, Michael Duarte," the agency wrote. "His passion, professionalism, and creativity left a lasting mark not only on our team but on everyone who had the privilege of working with him." Family members initially said Duarte had died after what they described as a "horrible incident" while traveling in Texas. The 36-year-old California-based content creator had amassed more than 2 million combined followers across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, where he shared cooking videos and recipes focused on grilled meats and barbecue.

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Dallas-based Muslim artist detained by ICE is being ‘punished’ for his social media posts, his lawyers say

Attorneys for Ya’akub Ira Vijandre, a Filipino artist being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Georgia, are challenging his detention in court, arguing he is being “punished for his faith, his speech and his political beliefs.” A Muslim filmmaker and activist whose legal name is Jacob, Vijandre was detained at gunpoint by ICE officers while leaving his Dallas-area home for work on Oct. 7. His lawyers say officers unjustly targeted him based on his social media activity, which immigration enforcement officials claim “glorify terrorism,” according to a recent legal filing calling on the government to release him. “By detaining Mr. Vijandre for his activism and journalism, the United States government is mirroring the tactics it has long criticized abroad: suppressing voices that dare challenge those in power, intimidating journalists, and chilling public debate,” Maria Kari, an attorney representing Vijandre, said in a statement Thursday (Nov. 13).

Vijandre, 38, is one of several immigrants who have been detained this year after speaking out against the war in Gaza, including Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, Dallas community leader Marwan Marouf and Sami Hamdi, a British journalist who was detained and released this month. Civil rights groups have criticized these detentions as violating constitutional protections for freedom of speech. Vijandre posted publicly about his opposition to U.S. foreign policy, the policies of the Israeli government and abuse of prisoners accused of terrorism—speech that his lawyers say is protected by his First Amendment rights. “Equating such speech to ‘terrorism’ to justify detention would risk criminalizing a broad array of protected speech critical of U.S. government policy engaged in by citizens and non-citizens alike,” his lawyers wrote in a habeas corpus filed last month.

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National Stories

A new litmus test For Republicans running for Senate: Ending the filibuster

Republicans running in Senate primaries have a new litmus test for who the Trumpiest candidate is: Do you support nuking the filibuster? President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Senate Republicans to abolish the filibuster — something that would require support from a majority of senators. Trump also made this push during his first term, but his efforts now have been significantly more intense. Republican Senate leadership has been adamantly against using the so-called “nuclear option” to end the 60-vote threshold for most legislation, and much of the conference is as well. But the 42-day government shutdown made Trump more aggressive in telling Republicans to change the rules to allow for a simple majority vote.

There currently aren’t enough Republicans in the Senate who support the nuclear option, but that could change in 2026. A NOTUS survey of Republican Senate candidates across the country found that, in most cases, there is at least openness to abolishing the filibuster — if not outright support to do so. NOTUS reached out to and examined the public statements of Republican candidates in Kentucky, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire and North Carolina. Only two candidates hadn’t said anything about the filibuster and did not respond to a request for comment: Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Three candidates expressed support for eliminating the filibuster: Nate Morris of Kentucky, Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia and Michael Whatley of North Carolina. In a statement to NOTUS, Whatley said: “All options must be on the table, including the removal of the filibuster, to move forward with Making America Affordable Again — cutting taxes for working families, lowering prices, achieving energy dominance, reindustrializing America, and bringing good-paying jobs back home.”

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Companies predict 2026 will be the worst college grad job market in five years

Employers have a warning for the Class of 2026: Next spring’s graduate-hiring market is likely to be even worse than this year’s. Six months out from graduation season, more than half of 183 employers surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers rate the job market for the Class of 2026 as poor or fair. That is the most pessimistic outlook since the first year of the pandemic, according to the survey, which is widely seen as an early signal of graduate hiring each year. A cooling job market is darkening that outlook. In recent months, employers from Amazon.com to United Parcel Service have revealed plans to cut thousands of jobs. The latest is Verizon Communications, which, according to people familiar with the matter, plans to cut 15,000 jobs over the next week in its largest reduction ever.

Companies say the uncertain economic outlook has pushed them to hire more conservatively, and many are giving priority to recruits with some experience as opposed to fresh-from-college graduates. More executives are also speaking openly about the potential of artificial intelligence to bring deep job cuts and take over more tasks that new graduates are traditionally tapped to do. For college seniors, that means they are also competing against junior workers who have been recently laid off. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 4.8% in June, greater than overall unemployment that month and the highest June level for recent graduates in four years, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis. Overall, employers say they expect a 1.6% increase in hiring for the Class of 2026, down considerably from their plans for the Class of 2025 last fall, according to the semiannual survey. College recruiting for full-time jobs typically kicks off in the fall or earlier, and by the spring, employers have a clearer sense of where hiring will land. In recent years, employers have revised their spring plans downward from the fall survey. Annika Swenson, a senior at the University of Iowa, said layoffs at companies like Amazon have made her more anxious about the search. The sheer number of applicants to positions and the fast-moving pace of AI have also increased her stress level.

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Trump administration targets Charlotte for next immigration crackdown, local sheriff say

Federal agents are set to arrive in Charlotte as early as this weekend as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on immigration, according to a local county sheriff’s office. The Mecklenburg County sheriff’s office on Thursday said the sheriff, Garry L. McFadden, was contacted by two unnamed federal officials this week who said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol personnel will be arriving in the Charlotte area either Saturday or early next week. Mecklenburg County encompasses Charlotte. “We value and welcome the renewed collaboration and open communication with our federal partners,” McFadden said in a statement. “It allows us to stay informed and be proactive in keeping Mecklenburg County safe and to maintain the level of trust our community deserves.”

The announcement follows several days of confusion from some officials in North Carolina, who on Tuesday said there had been no communication between the Mecklenburg County sheriff’s office and the Customs and Border Patrol. Though the agents’ operations have not been specified, the Mecklenburg County sheriff’s office stated it will not be involved with any Immigration and Customs Enforcement or CBP crackdowns. A Homeland Security spokesperson would not comment on the North Carolina operation. “Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We do not discuss future or potential operations.” President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement a top priority and has deployed immigration officials throughout the country. It’s caused a major backlash in some communities, with some people decrying what they call heavy-handed tactics.

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Catholic hospitals barred from offering gender-affirming care

Catholic leaders have formally banned their hospitals from providing gender-affirming care to transgender patients, following a Wednesday vote at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Catholic health systems account for 1 in 6 acute care hospitals in the country — and in many rural areas, they are the only available hospital. The Catholic health ministry oversees more than 650 hospitals, according to numbers by the Catholic Health Association, plus another 1,600 health facilities, including those meant for long-term care. However, not all Catholic hospitals have explicitly disclosed their religious affiliation on their websites in the past, creating potential for confused patients seeking care that they cannot access. “Catholic providers will continue to welcome those who seek medical care from us and identify as transgender. We will continue to treat these individuals with dignity and respect, which is consistent with Catholic social teaching and our moral obligation to serve everyone, particularly those who are marginalized,” the Catholic Health Association said in a statement on Wednesday.

The formal gender-affirming care ban follows 2023 guidelines issued by U.S. bishops that urged Catholic hospitals to not provide gender-affirming treatments, “whether surgical or chemical,” as part of a patient’s medical gender transition. Now, that policy is official. Similarly, reproductive health care is heavily restricted at Catholic hospitals due to the church’s opposition to contraception and abortion: birth control pills, IUDs and vasectomies are prohibited, as is abortion. These restrictions limit how doctors at Catholic hospitals can treat urgent pregnancy complications. That does not always mean patients can’t get help. Some doctors find workarounds for their patients — and it’s been an open secret in Catholic hospitals for some time, said Debra B. Stulberg, chair of family medicine at the University of Chicago, secular institution. She has researched the church’s health care policies as they relate to reproductive health care and gender-affirming care. “People who want hormonal contraception — the clinicians are advised that you can’t provide these medicines for the purpose of contraception,” Stulberg said. “But if the patient has really painful periods or really bad acne, you can prescribe it for other reasons.”

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Top Fannie Mae officials ousted after sounding alarm on sharing confidential housing data

A confidant of Bill Pulte, the Trump administration’s top housing regulator, provided confidential mortgage pricing data from Fannie Mae to a principal competitor, alarming senior officials of the government-backed lending giant who warned it could expose the company to claims that it was colluding with a rival to fix mortgage rates. Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Fannie Mae executives were unnerved about what one called the “very problematic” disclosure of data by Lauren Smith, the company’s head of marketing, who was acting on Pulte’s behalf. “Lauren, the information that was provided to Freddie Mac in this email is a problem,” Malloy Evans, senior vice president of Fannie Mae’s single-family mortgage division, wrote in an Oct. 11 email. “That is confidential, competitive information.”

He also copied Fannie Mae’s CEO, Priscilla Almodovar, on the email, which bore the subject line: “As Per Director Pulte’s Ask.” Evans asked Fannie Mae’s top attorney “to weigh in on what, if any, steps we need to take legally to protect ourselves now.” While Smith still holds her position, the senior Fannie Mae officials who called her conduct into question were all forced out of their jobs late last month, along with internal ethics watchdogs who were investigating Pulte and his allies. The dismissals rattled the housing industry and drew condemnation from Democrats. It also gave Pulte’s critics evidence to support claims that he has leveraged the nonpublic information available to him to further his own political aims. “This is another example of Bill Pulte weaponizing his role to do Donald Trump’s bidding, instead of working to lower costs amidst a housing crisis,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. “His behavior raises significant questions, and he needs to be brought in front of Congress to answer them.” The episode marks the latest example of Pulte using what is typically a low-profile position in the federal bureaucracy to enhance his own standing and gain the attention of President Trump. He’s prompted mortgage fraud investigations of prominent Democrats who are some of the president’s best known antagonists, including Sen. Adam Schiff of California, New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Rep. Eric Swalwell.

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California revokes 17,000 commercial driver's licenses for immigrants

California plans to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses given to immigrants after discovering the expiration dates went past when the drivers were legally allowed to be in the U.S., state officials said Wednesday. The announcement follows harsh criticism from the Trump administration about California and other states granting licenses to people in the country illegally. The issue was thrust into the public’s consciousness in August, when a tractor-trailer driver not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that California’s action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state acted improperly even though it previously defended its licensing standards. California launched its review of commercial driver’s licenses it issued after Duffy raised concerns.

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” Duffy said, referring to the state’s governor. “This is just the tip of iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.” Newsom’s office said that every one of the drivers whose license is being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government. At first, his office declined to disclose the exact reason for revoking the licenses, saying only they violated state law. Later, his office revealed the state law it was referring to was one that requires the licenses expire on or before a person’s legal status to be in the United State ends, as reported to the DMV. Still, Newsom’s spokesperson Brandon Richards shot back at Duffy in a statement. “Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Richards said.

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Why every company suddenly wants to become a bank

Last year, Ripple Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse had a bone to pick with banks, saying they had shut him and his industry out. This year, his cryptocurrency company is asking the Trump administration for permission to start its own bank. Ripple isn’t the only company that suddenly wants to be a bank. Under Trump, crypto firms and fintechs including Coinbase and Wise are looking to open banks and retailers such as Amazon and Walmart are eyeing expansions of banklike services. Trump-appointed regulators are welcoming their efforts, taking cues from a crypto-friendly administration that has said it wants to remove barriers to new payments systems. “My view is that it’s better for it to be done within the banking system, if it’s legally permissible and can be done in a safe and sound manner,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said of cryptocurrency at a conference last month. Gould’s agency, part of the Treasury Department, regulates nationally-chartered U.S. banks.

Most of the new applications are for national trust charters. Trust banks differ from full banks in that they generally cannot take deposits or make loans. Instead, trusts charge fees for the safekeeping of customer assets. Since they don’t take deposits, they typically aren’t insured like full banks. So far this year, there have been 12 applications for trust charters, more than any in at least the preceding eight years, according to data compiled by Klaros Group, a financial-services advisory firm. In addition to Ripple, Coinbase and the U.K. payments company Wise, other applicants for trust charters include Sony Bank, a Japanese commercial bank whose parent company is partially owned by the electronics and entertainment conglomerate. Banking lobby groups argue that approving the flood of applications could threaten the stability of the financial system. They say companies such as Ripple want to compete for banks’ customers without shouldering the same regulatory oversight, such as stringent capital requirements. Other critics of looser regulation point out that since the 2008-09 financial crisis, regulators have been highly restrictive about who could launch a bank and what banks can do—for good reason, they say. The Bank Policy Institute in recent weeks sent letters urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to reject the Ripple, Wise and Sony applications, among others. The Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group representing smaller banks, also wrote in opposition.

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Trump official refers Rep. Eric Swalwell for a federal criminal probe over alleged mortgage fraud

A top housing official in President Donald Trump's administration has referred California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to the Justice Department for a potential federal criminal probe, based on allegations of mortgage and tax fraud related to a Washington, D.C., home, according to a person familiar with the referral. He is the fourth Democratic official to face mortgage fraud allegations in recent months. Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleged in a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday that Swalwell may have made false or misleading statements in loan documents. The matter has also been referred to the agency's acting inspector general, this person said.

"As the most vocal critic of Donald Trump over the last decade and as the only person who still has a surviving lawsuit against him, the only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me," Swalwell said in a statement to NBC News. The referral, according to the source, alleges several million dollars worth of loans and refinancing based on Swalwell declaring his primary residence as Washington. It calls for an investigation into possible mortgage fraud, state and local tax fraud, and insurance fraud, as well as any related crimes. The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment. The move comes as Trump has publicly urged the prosecution of his political opponents. Pulte previously sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department for two other prominent Democratic critics of Trump, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as well as Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook — who was nominated by then-President Joe Biden — on allegations of mortgage fraud. All three have denied wrongdoing.

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Lead Stories

Longest government shutdown in U.S. history ends after Trump signs funding bill

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended Wednesday night after President Donald Trump signed into law a spending package to reopen the government, capping 43 days of a political stalemate that caused widespread disruptions at U.S. airports and upended food assistance for families. Speaking from the White House late Wednesday, Trump blamed the shutdown and its harmful effects squarely on the Democratic Party and portrayed its end as a Republican victory. He also urged voters to remember the shutdown ahead of the 2026 midterm elections — an apparent attempt to use the moment as political leverage, despite a recent poll suggesting more Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown. “This is no way to run a country. I hope we all can agree that the government should never be shut down again,” Trump said in a live broadcast. He pledged to pass legislation to end politicians’ ability to filibuster and said the federal government “will now resume normal operations.”

Earlier in the day, the House voted to reopen federal agencies — the first time it had been in session in nearly eight weeks. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had kept the chamber out of session since Sept. 19 in a bid to pressure the Senate to agree to a GOP funding extension, which Senate Democrats had repeatedly rejected. Lawmakers voted 222-209 to reopen the government. “We feel very relieved tonight. The Democrat shutdown is finally over,” Johnson told reporters after the House vote earlier Wednesday. “All this was utterly pointless and foolish. This outcome was totally foreseeable. … They got nothing for their selfish political stunt.” Federal paychecks will begin going out Saturday, a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. The deal will fund the government through Jan. 30, pass three appropriations bills, reverse more than 4,000 federal layoffs the Trump administration attempted to implement earlier in the shutdown and prevent future layoffs through the end of January. It will appropriate funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, through September 2026.

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Jaworski, Johnson spar in fiery first Texas Attorney General debate for Democrats

Minutes after taking the stage, the two leading Democrats running for Texas Attorney General clashed in their first debate of the primary cycle. “There is only one fighter on this stage you can count on,” said Joe Jaworski, former Galveston Mayor. Jaworski went on the offense early attacking Nathan Johnson’s record in the state senate. “Nathan Johnson, when he had the opportunity to sit as a juror before Ken Paxton, he voted to acquit Ken Paxton on two charges that the House impeached him on,” Jaworski said. “Why would you give any comfort to that scoundrel?” Jaworski then put Johnson on the defensive with Senate Bill 2972 that the legislature passed this year.

“He was one of two Democrats to join all Republicans to pass this Campus Security Act which may as well be called the Suppression of Free Speech Act,” Jaworski told the audience. “A Reagan appointee found Mr. Johnson’s law to be unconstitutional.” Rebutting the former Galveston mayor, Johnson shot back. “This is exactly the attack I would expect from a Republican. This person is running to be Attorney General, and he told you if I find the prosecution has failed to meet its burden, I should convict anyway,” Johnson responded. “I voted to convict Ken Paxton 14 [of 16] times.” On SB 2972, Johnson said that “Gina Hinojosa, our nominee for governor, and [Democratic U.S. Senate candidate] James Talarico voted the way I did.” Denton Together hosted the event at The Lyceum Theater on the campus of the University of North Texas Sunday afternoon.

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Epstein alleged in emails that Trump knew of his conduct

House Democrats on Wednesday released emails in which Jeffrey Epstein wrote that President Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of Mr. Epstein’s victims, among other messages that suggested that the convicted sex offender believed Mr. Trump knew more about his abuse than he has acknowledged. Mr. Trump has emphatically denied any involvement in or knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. He has said that he and Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019, were once friendly but had a falling out. But Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the emails, which they selected from thousands of pages of documents received by their panel, raised new questions about the relationship between the two men. In one of the messages, Mr. Epstein flatly asserted that Mr. Trump “knew about the girls,” many of whom were later found by investigators to have been underage.

In another, Mr. Epstein pondered how to address questions from the news media about their relationship as Mr. Trump was becoming a national political figure. Committee Republicans on Wednesday released the rest of the newly obtained material, condemning Democrats for choosing three that referred to Mr. Trump. They also identified the unnamed victim mentioned in two of the emails as Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April and had said that she had not witnessed Mr. Trump participating in the sexual abuse of minors at Mr. Epstein’s home. In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, cited Ms. Giuffre’s past remarks about Mr. Trump, denouncing “selectively released emails” that she said were meant to “smear” the president. “The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre,” Ms. Leavitt said. “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”

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Democrats could make gains with Latino voters in Texas

President Donald Trump made historic gains with Latino voters in Texas during the 2024 general election, earning more than half of the state's Latino vote. Many Republicans used those gains as one reason to redraw the state’s congressional map mid-decade. Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, says that wasn’t the safest bet. “Their partisanship is not as durable as a lot of other groups in the electorate, which means they move. They respond to events,” said Blank. Exit polling from the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial race show a majority of Latino voters supported the Democratic victors. But some Republicans running for the new congressional districts don’t think the trend will impact the Texas midterms.

Keith Allen is in a crowded GOP primary for Congressional District 34, a Democratic seat that would have gone to Trump by 10 points under the new congressional lines. In the newly drawn district near McAllen, Latinos are the largest demographic of voters. “When the Latino community sees that you have somebody that cares about people and wants to get this figured out for the greater good, I think they'll get behind that, and I believe they'll get behind me,” said Allen. Also in the race is former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, who decided to run for her old seat after the new map was passed. She described District 34 as one of the top GOP opportunities in the country. “South Texas is very supportive of President Trump. President Trump is doing exactly what he voted for. He ran on border security. He ran on focusing on deportation, especially focusing on those that crossing legally into the country,” said Flores.

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State Stories

Tarrant GOP Chair Bo French bids for Texas Railroad Commission

A North Texas Republican Party chair known for incendiary social media posts is looking to statewide office. Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Bo French on Wednesday announced a bid for the Railroad Commission of Texas. Despite what its name may suggest, the state commission oversees Texas’ oil and gas industry. He also resigned from his GOP chairman position, French said in a post on X and in a text. The local party’s executive committee is set to select a new chair on Nov. 22. The Railroad Commission is made up of three commissioners, who serve staggered six-year terms. The commissioners select who will serve as chairman. Chairman Jim Wright and Commissioners Christi Craddick and Wayne Christian, all of whom are Republicans, compose its members. Wright’s commissioner seat is up for reelection in 2026.

“Texas oil and gas made America great and literally fueled the fight for freedom across the world,” French said in a statement he posted to X. “With Iran and radical Islamists attacking our allies in the Middle East, the Chinese Communist Party pushing its agenda worldwide, and the radical Green New Scam artists waging war on domestic energy production, our state needs a strong leader who will fight back. I’m running for Railroad Commissioner to put American citizens, American interests, and American energy first.” French has faced backlash over social media posts during his tenure as Tarrant County GOP chair — a position he assumed in October 2023. In late October, French shared posts that critics called racist. “November 1, 2025 is National Chimp Out Day. It’s going to be lit,” French said, adding in a comment: “(N)o SNAP!” Nov. 1 was the day SNAP benefits were expiring amid the government shutdown. “Let’s be clear: in 2025, there is no excuse — none — for any public figure to liken African Americans or any people of color to animals,” said Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, an Arlington Democrat. “That’s not political speech. That’s racism, plain and simple.”

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: Abbott’s property tax plan is full of holes

Gov. Greg Abbott has made eliminating homeowners’ school property taxes, and severely limiting local governments’ control over property tax, a top campaign issue. It’s a worrisome stance, given how little we know about how the governor plans to fund our schools. But we can understand some of the political impetus. Homeowners in much of the state are struggling financially as annual property tax bills keep rising. Still, it’s irresponsible to pledge to wipe out a key source of public school funding without offering a substitute. It’s like quitting your job without having any idea how you’ll cover the mortgage. Local governments in Texas rely on property tax to pay for services like police, fire, libraries and parks. Schools depend on it to help cover operating expenses like teacher salaries. Texas leans hard on property tax partly because it levies no personal income tax. Property tax is especially painful because it’s assessed all at once, rather than paid out in a few dollars here and there as sales tax is.

In a state as big as Texas, tax-related numbers are eye-popping. In 2023, the taxable value of all taxable property in school districts was almost $4 trillion, according to a report from the Texas comptroller’s office. About 45% of that value came from single-family homes. The total tax assessed on all categories of property was $81.4 billion, and the state’s 1,014 school districts assessed $39.5 billion of that. Meanwhile, local sales tax revenue in 2023 totaled $13 billion. Here is what we know about Abbott’s plan: It would limit property appraisals to once every five years and require all local property tax increases to be approved by a two-thirds majority of voters. Appraisal increases would be capped at 3% and the state would mandate spending limits on local governments. And it would allow voters to kill local school property tax for homeowners.

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Dispute between Rockwall County, developer raises the question: Who should pay for infrastructure?

Thirty miles east of Dallas is the quiet bedroom community of McLendon-Chisolm. Located in southeast Rockwall County, it’s a rural area with green space and land all around, but that’s quickly changing. In recent years McLendon-Chisholm, with a population of about 5,000 people, has attracted an influx of development, and new homes have sprung up throughout the area. But one development in particular – on 1,800 acres of unincorporated Rockwall County, just outside city limits – has become the subject of a lawsuit filed by developer DR Horton against the county earlier this year. At issue is who should pay for infrastructure to serve the new community. “When they build these developments, when they're done, they leave,” said McLendon-Chisolm Mayor Bryan McNeal.

He said he’s not against development in and around his city, but he said builders, including Arlington-based DR Horton, need to help cover costs. “They leave behind the residents who are in the surrounding areas as well as the city that they just dropped in and the governments have to figure it out," he said. "And they offer zero support.” The River Rock Trails development could eventually include more than 6,000 new homes — and it’ll need the infrastructure to serve it, like water and sewer services, new roads, police and fire, even schools. The county sent developers a list of items it wanted covered, including new sheriffs and improvements to an adjacent road. Rockwall County Judge Frank New said state law gives the county the right to ask developers to share infrastructure costs in certain cases. “It's a fairly new law," he said. "It's been there since 2019, so we weren't the first to actually implement the law, and D.R. Horton is challenging our authority.” DR Horton offered to pay for the roads and sheriffs, but after the county denied an application for the development, the company appealed the list, and sued.

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Coinbase moves incorporation to Texas from Delaware, following Musk’s lead

Coinbase is following Tesla out of Delaware and into Texas. Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday that the crypto exchange is moving its state of incorporation, a year after Elon Musk did the same with his electric vehicle maker. Musk also reincorporated his rocket maker SpaceX from Delaware to Texas. “Delaware’s legal framework once provided companies with consistency. But no more,” Grawal wrote, pointing to recent “unpredictable outcomes” in the Delaware Chancery Court. A handful of notable names, including Dropbox, TripAdvisor and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz have announced departures from Delaware. It’s a move that was championed by Musk following a Delaware Chancery Court ruling that ordered Tesla to rescind the CEO’s 2018 pay package, worth about $56 billion in options.

“If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible,” Musk wrote in a post on X in February 2024, when he filed to change SpaceX’s incorporation state. Last week, Tesla shareholders voted to approve Musk’s more recent pay package, which could be worth up to $1 trillion. Delaware has long been the dominant state for U.S. companies to incorporate due to its flexible corporate code and expert judiciary, and is seen as balancing the rights of executives and shareholders. A Texas state law allows corporations to limit shareholder lawsuits against insiders for breach of fiduciary duty. Coinbase and Andreessen Horowitz, an early backer, currently face a lawsuit in Delaware concerning the sale of shares in the crypto company tied to its public listing in 2021. Like Musk, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was a major contributor to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign for the White House.

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Glenn Beck sells DFW mansion ahead of move out of Texas

A big home -- with a big name behind it -- is off the North Texas real estate market. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck recently sold his Westlake estate, which was last listed for $11.75 million, according to Zillow. The final sale price was not disclosed. The sale closed on Oct. 31. Beck has long called Westlake -- an affluent enclave just west of Southlake in northern Tarrant County -- home, but he recently announced he and his wife are moving to Florida. Beck, 61, a former Fox News commentator, is the CEO and voice behind the conservative Blaze Media. His estate on King Fisher Drive in Westlake included an 8,900-square-foot home set on 3.5 acres.

"Tucked behind its own set of private gates is this estate of exquisitely designed interiors—where architectural brilliance and refined elegance coalesce in a symphony of scale, texture, and light," the listing touted. "From soaring ceilings & stone fireplaces to hand-hewn beams & floor-to-ceiling glass, the home exudes both grandeur & intimacy in equal measure. At the heart of the home, a designer chef’s kitchen with double islands, top-tier Viking appliances, and an expansive scullery is both a showpiece & a functional haven for culinary pursuits." The home was built in 2004, and Beck initially purchased it in 2012, according to Tarrant County property records. Pro golfer Brandt Jobe was a previous owner of the home, records say. The six-bedroom home includes stone fireplaces, "hand-hewn beams" and floor-to-ceiling glass windows, according to the listing. There's also a private gym, a guest casita, a firepit lounge and pool with a spa. Michael Hershenberg, of the The Hershenberg Group, and Brad Cook marketed the property.

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At least 44K school-aged children in North Texas may be at risk of deportation, according to report

Thousands of school-aged children and their families in North Texas may be impacted by U.S. immigration polices, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute. A report from the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates that 44,000 school-aged children between the ages of 5 and 18 in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton Counties don't have legal status, as well as around 218,000 more people who live with children under 18, according to 2023 data. The Migration Policy Institute also found that Texas was the second state most impacted by immigration policy, with an estimated nearly 2 million immigrants without legal status, according to the report. California is estimated to have had nearly 3 million, according to the data.

"The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States has grown sharply in recent years, with the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimating it reached 13.7 million as of mid-2023, following more than a decade of stagnation. Still, nearly half of this population—45 percent—had lived in the country for 20 years or more, with 80 percent having at least five years of residence," the report's summary reads. Texas was also estimated to have just under 1 million children who live with at least one parent living in the U.S. without legal status, according to the report. Texas again follows California, which was estimated to have nearly 1.3 million children living in the state with at least one parent living in the U.S. without legal status, according to the 2023 data. Dallas County alone was estimated to have 319,000 people without legal status, followed by Tarrant County with 127,000, Collin County at 43,000, and Denton County at 35,000, the reports show.

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T.D. Jakes moves from pastoring to podcasting as his next focus

Less than a year after suffering a massive heart attack, megachurch founder T.D. Jakes is launching a podcast featuring celebrities and influencers discussing transformative points of transition in their lives. “NXT Chapter with T.D. Jakes” will premiere on the iHeartMedia radio network Friday (Nov. 14) with an interview with media mogul Oprah Winfrey. “After experiencing a profound shift in my own life and career, I knew I was not alone,” Jakes says in a trailer for the podcast. “These moments of change, challenge and transformation touch all of us. That’s why I created this podcast to sit down with people from all walks of life — leaders, artists, entrepreneurs, athletes — and talk about the moments that changed everything for all of them.”

Others scheduled to appear in the first season of the show include actor-director Denzel Washington, rapper Jeezy and Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts, Jakes’ daughter and successor as co-leader of The Potter’s House, in Dallas. Jakes’ podcast comes as the popular preacher and bestselling author has experienced some transitions of his own. In April Jakes, 68, announced to the Potter’s House congregation that he was turning over its leadership to Roberts and Pastor Touré Roberts, his son-in-law. In the preceding months, attorneys for Jakes had filed a defamation lawsuit on his behalf relating to accusations of sexual assault dating to years before. The suit argued that the accusations, made by a Pennsylvania minister named Duane Youngblood, were false. But in October of this year Jakes informed the Pennsylvania federal district court where the case was filed that it had been voluntarily dismissed “by consent of all parties” involved in the litigation.

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Dallas’s next election will be November 2027

The other major item on the City Council’s agenda today was an initiative to move city elections from May to November of odd-numbered years. That means our next election will be on November 2, 2027, on the same ballot as any constitutional amendments the state legislature might cook up in the next session.

All 15 council members and Mayor Eric Johnson voted in favor of the move, but some expressed concerns about it. Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn pointed out that it would mean their terms would be extended by six months. The council’s budget discussions typically occur in August and September, which means the budget will be decided upon by councilmembers who could be voted out just a couple of months later, she said. Others had similar concerns about appointments to commissions, too, as well as what happens if there is a runoff, particularly in the mayoral election. However, in the end, they all acknowledged that voters approved this move during last year’s charter election. Longtime advocates pointed out that this will save the city money because it won’t be on the hook for as much of the cost. And cities that have moved their elections to November have seen better turnout, moving from single digits to low double digits. State Rep. Rafael Anchia, who sponsored the House version of the bill authored by state Sen. Nathan Johnson, explained it’s not a “silver bullet”: Turnout in the teens still low turnout, it’s not the abysmal turnout the city currently has in May elections.

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Faith-based groups sue Texas over limitations on investment advice

Business and faith-based investment groups are suing Texas to stop enforcement of a new law that limits expert advice available to investors. “The plaintiffs are faith-based and nonprofit organizations that, as part of their missions, partner with institutional investors to engage with companies to seek strong long-term financial performance,” said Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal group leading the lawsuit filed Nov. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. At issue is the enforcement of Senate Bill 2337, a 2025 law that restricts the ability of advisory firms to offer nonfinancial investment guidance. The measure went into effect Sept. 1.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, United Church Funds and Ceres filed the action asserting the statute violates advisors’ and investors’ freedom of speech guaranteed under the First Amendment and is “unconstitutionally vague” about due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. “As part of that work, the plaintiffs take into account environmental and social impacts of company practices, as well as strong corporate governance and other factors, because they believe — correctly — that these factors can be central to the long-term financial success of companies,” Democracy Forward explained. “SB-2337 classifies those factors as ‘nonfinancial’ and places burdensome restrictions on sharing such considerations with shareholders.” The state already has been sued by two of the most prominent shareholder proxy advising firms in the U.S. In August, a district court blocked Texas from applying the law to Glass Lewis and ISS pending the outcome of a February 2026 trial.

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Austin City Council looks at cuts to EMS, public health and parks services after Prop Q fails

The Austin City Council will spend the coming days trying to balance the city’s budget. That's after residents voted down a controversial property tax rate increase known as Proposition Q, which was expected to generate nearly $110 million. The council has canceled a special called meeting scheduled for Thursday to go over changes to the city budget. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in an email to council members that the city received a complaint Wednesday about a possible violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act in the posting language for the meeting. Broadnax said the city's legal team believes it met state requirements, but said "our goal with the budget is to restore trust in the City, so we are willing to take additional steps to achieve that goal."

The council is now set to take up the budget changes on Tuesday, Nov. 18. Council members were aiming to adopt an amended budget by Nov. 20, and it's unclear how the timeline for adoption might change. Last weekend, staff in Austin’s budget office proposed cuts that reach across many city departments, including nearly $6.3 million in cuts to emergency medical services. James Monks, president of the Austin EMS Association, said money from Prop Q could have meant hiring more staff and purchasing new equipment. “[Now] it’s going to mean less paramedics on the street, and more work for the paramedics we already have out there, who are already struggling, who are already dealing with overwork burnout, mental health issues and constant stress,” Monks said. He said the department is at a breaking point, and something has to change, especially as medics work to reduce response times and serve a growing population. “If you have a medical emergency in Travis County as a whole, you're going to be getting one of our ambulances,” Monks said. “And so, whether you work here, whether you live here, whether you visit here, you are going to be impacted by this.”

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UT Arlington's plans for the future include a boutique hotel and creating 'gateways' to campus

UT Arlington administration is planning for big updates to the campus, including a boutique hotel, new residential halls and updated or new academic buildings. The details of the university’s plan were shared at a recent town hall in Arlington. John Hall, the university’s vice president for administration and economic development, said the UTA’s plan hopes to prepare the institute for future students while integrating the campus into the larger landscape of downtown Arlington. A part of that will come with the creation of “gateways” and a “front door” for the university, Hall said at the Nov. 6 town hall.

The front door will be designed to look like the main entrance of the campus for visitors and potential students. Hall said it will be based around the University Center, on UTA Boulevard. Surface parking lots around the University Center would be transformed into green space while more development around the area would draw those unfamiliar with the campus to the front door, Hall said. Gateways would also help to define the campus' limits, Hall said. The gateways would be designed to simultaneously differentiate the campus from the rest of the downtown area while complementing the aesthetics and theme of the surrounding area. Planners have identified three gateways: the West Gateway at Davis Street and Greek Row Drive and the North Gateway and South Gateway, both at Cooper Street on either end of the campus. The surface parking around the University Center wouldn’t be the only to go — the master plan calls for most of the campus’ lots to be replaced with garages that will shrink the parking footprint and allow for more buildings and green space.

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UNT's Turning Point USA chapter hosts Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, discusses future of conservatism in America

The university’s Turning Point USA chapter hosted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Nov. 10, in which he remembered TPUSA co-founder Charlie Kirk and discussed a future for young conservatives in the country. The event hosted around 150 attendees, with additional speeches from Paige Rasmussen, TPUSA Lone Star field representative, university student Mary-Catherine Hallmark and right-wing podcaster Sara Gonzales, host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.” “I was really amazed when you can see the culmination of what Charlie Kirk was accomplishing happen in this election by getting people out to vote,” Paxton said in his speech. “And encouraging college students and high school students to be engaged like they never had [...] [conservative views] actually work, unlike the woke ideas that we hear infiltrated with every day at college and high school campuses.”

Paxton, who is running for a United States Senate seat in 2026, addressed the controversy the university faced regarding a viral video Hallmark posted online after Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University. Previously, Paxton made comments in a letter, expressing disapproval with the university for not addressing Hallmark directly after she said she received threats for saying Kirk’s death should not be celebrated, “no matter what political beliefs.” “I really am so appreciative of Mary-Catherine, her courage and the courage of other students that are willing to stand up and exercise their right to free speech, [...]” Paxton said. Paxton announced Oct. 16 that he is launching an investigation against the university for still not taking action against the students who “celebrated the political assassination” of Kirk and “who have threatened violent acts against students,” the press release said. “UNT’s silence has made one thing clear,” Hallmark said in her speech. “Their so-called ‘neutrality’ is nothing more than a quiet approval of the radical left’s agenda.”

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Texas A&M Faculty Council says professor’s dismissal violated academic freedom

ATexas A&M University faculty council determined in late September that Melissa McCoul, an instructor fired for teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class, had her academic freedom violated and that former president Mark Welsh flouted proper termination processes when he fired her, The Texas Tribune reported Monday. McCoul was dismissed in September after a video went viral, showing a student confronting her in class and claiming the professor’s gender identity lesson was illegal. McCoul is actively appealing her termination. The documented justification for her dismissal was that McCoul’s course content and material did not match the description in the course catalog, but the faculty council said this was false.

“The content of the course was the reason for the dismissal and not the stated reason: failure of academic responsibility,” the council wrote in its report. “Given the timeline of dismissal, the political pressure brought to bear, and statements by Regents that the course content was illegal, President Welsh’s assertion that the firing was for failure of academic responsibility appears pretextual.” In an Oct. 2 memo obtained by the Tribune, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Blanca Lupiani rejected the council’s conclusions and said the council acted outside its charge to review matters that were “largely unrelated to academic freedom.” The complaint about McCoul was never assigned to the council, Lupiani said in the memo. University rules require the department head to write charges for dismissal, seek approval from the dean and give the faculty member a notice of intent to dismiss with five business days to respond, but Welsh requested McCoul’s dismissal on Sept. 9 “effective immediately,” the Tribune reported.

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From Texas to Kentucky, undocumented students, advocates intensify defense of in-state tuition laws

Immigrant students and their advocates are working to reopen federal lawsuits that ended in-state tuition benefits for undocumented students in two states and another state where the same outcome seems imminent. Advocates say the judges ruled in favor of the government without a public hearing and the affected students weren’t given the opportunity to defend the policies. Since the summer, the U.S. Department of Justice challenged in-state tuition policies in Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas, claiming state laws extending in-state tuition prices to undocumented students breach federal law. In Texas and Oklahoma, attorneys general quickly sided with the DOJ and judges swiftly ruled to end in-state tuition benefits for undocumented students. As a result, tuition tripled for some undocumented students this fall, forcing them to make difficult choices about whether they could afford to stay enrolled.

Kentucky’s undocumented students could soon face the same dilemma. The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education agreed to end in-state tuition benefits for local undocumented students in a settlement filed in September, but a judge has yet to make a ruling. Meanwhile, legal battles in Minnesota and Illinois are ongoing as these states defend their policies. Since these lawsuits first emerged, civil rights groups and students have sought to intervene or become parties to them. They’re hoping to reopen the quickly closed cases to have their say in court. A Latino civil rights organization, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was the first to file a motion to intervene on behalf of undocumented students in Texas in June. A month later, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Civil Rights Project, Democracy Forward and the National Immigration Law Center followed suit. They filed their own emergency motions to intervene on behalf of the activist group La Unión del Pueblo Entero, the Austin Community College District’s Board of Trustees and Oscar Silva, a student at the University of North Texas.

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Nasdaq Joins NYSE and TXSE with launch of new Texas-Based dual listings venue

The race to make Texas a national financial hub is heating up. Months after announcing a regional headquarters in Dallas, Nasdaq plans to launch Nasdaq Texas, a new dual listing venue that would join NYSE Texas and the Texas Stock Exchange on the newly established Y’all Street. Nasdaq expects to begin operations in early 2026, pending SEC approval. “Texas is the financial services capital of America,” said Governor Abbott. “With another financial exchange coming to Texas, Nasdaq Texas cements our state as a global economic leader and will help further grow our leading financial industry. I thank Nasdaq for choosing Texas for their expansion and look forward to working together to keep Texas the financial hub of the nation.” At the helm of Texas operations is Rachel Racz, who joined Nasdaq in 2013 to help stand up its oil and gas listings operation. Under her watch, she helped the exchange grow from capturing 20 percent of all energy IPOs to 80 percent.

“I think Dallas is the epicenter [of capital markets]—but really, it’s all of Texas,” Racz said. “The governor says it well: Texas has an incredible brand. What’s happening here, and what Nasdaq supports, is this miracle of leadership that’s been empowered across the state. “Think about it—Texas is the eighth-largest economy in the world, soon to be seventh,” she continued. “It’s the global center and the gravitational force for innovation. It’s a job magnet and a job creator. I believe Texas is the bridge between energy and technology—the leader in job creation for both—and it embodies smart, pro-growth, pro-business regulation.” Nasdaq might be third to join the capital markets party in Texas, but Racz is ready to compete. “We don’t think about our competitors—we think about our clients,” she said. “We welcome competition, and we’re glad other companies view Texas as important as we do. But when I look at our business model compared with others, I truly believe no one offers the same holistic support for the capital markets that Nasdaq does.

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Dallas to explore alternatives to City Hall building designed by I.M. Pei

The Dallas City Council directed City Manager Kim Tolbert late Wednesday night to formally explore alternatives to the current City Hall building, putting its future in jeopardy. Tolbert is expected to present options to council members early next year. The decision launches a process that supporters argue is simply about gathering information and exploring possibilities, not committing to any specific outcome for the nearly 50-year-old building, which faces repair costs estimated between $152 million to more than $345 million. “There are a lot of questions about City Hall,” said council member Chad West, who said the vote was not about moving from or staying in the downtown seat of Dallas city government, “and we are not going to get those answered unless we have the evaluation that the city manager has promised us.”

Opponents fear the process could be a step toward justifying the demolition of the iconic but neglected structure. Many worry the land could eventually be repurposed for uses they say are less meaningful, like a new arena for the Dallas Mavericks. Council member Paul Ridley asked his colleagues to focus first on analyzing the current City Hall. “It is not necessary at this point in time to assess real estate options and talk to every downtown landlord about moving into their buildings. There is always going to be time to do that,” Ridley said. “Doing that now is wasted effort, when what we need to do first and foremost is to assess the true condition of City Hall and the cost to repair.” Council member Gay Donnell Willis argued the city needs to make decisions about City Hall based on realistic numbers and a full understanding of all options. She emphasized the city should evaluate the land’s value and its highest and best use, just as it does with other city-owned properties. “This shouldn’t be a sacred cow,” she said.

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National Stories

Ex-Newsom aide accused of siphoning campaign cash for Gucci bags and yacht rentals

A trio of California political insiders has been indicted in connection with a sprawling federal public corruption probe that accuses them of siphoning campaign cash to fund a lavish lifestyle that includes yacht and private jet trips, luxury goods and hotel stays. Dana Williamson, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, was charged last week in the Eastern District of California with 23 counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. She made her first court appearance Wednesday. The 53-year-old allegedly tapped into a dormant campaign fund for Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services Secretary and current candidate for California governor, to pay for a lavish lifestyle that included a $150,000 trip to Mexico for her birthday, tens of thousands on Gucci and Chanel bags and a trip to theme parks in California.

Williamson is also accused of funneling the money to Sean McCluskie, Becerra’s former chief of staff. In all, Williamson allegedly siphoned $225,000 from the account, partly to pay for “no-show” jobs facilitated by veteran California lobbyist Greg Campbell, including one reportedly arranged for McCluskie’s wife. The indictment, first reported by The Sacramento Bee, also states that Williamson misled Becerra about how the money was being used, claiming that he was purchasing campaign consulting services. “Disguising personal luxuries as business expenses—especially to claim improper tax deductions or to willfully file fraudulent tax returns is a serious criminal offense with severe consequences,” Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Linda Nguyen said in a press release published by the Department of Justice. Williamson was Newsom’s third chief of staff and previously ran a consulting firm, Grace Public Affairs. She also worked for former Govs. Jerry Brown and Gray Davis and has long been a fixture in Democratic politics in Sacramento, according to The Sacramento Bee. Newsom’s office told Politico Wednesday night that it put Williamson on leave last year after learning she was under criminal investigation, and emphasized that she had no current connection to the administration.

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This tiny Louisiana tribe is teaming up with Roger Stone to score big wins in Trump’s Washington

During the past few months, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana scored an Oval Office visit, a meeting on its reservation with top federal officials and a $10 million no-bid contract for construction work at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore. The political and financial wins came after the tiny Native American tribe said in July it would nominate President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize — all while boosting its federal lobbying operation, including hiring longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone to lobby the government on “tribal economic issues.” Stone has received $250,000 from the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe from mid-April to the end of September, according to federal lobbying disclosures.

Stone’s company, the Florida-based Drake Ventures, began lobbying at the federal level shortly after Trump began his second term this year. It’s since received a combined $1 million from four separate clients, including the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe. The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, which declined interview requests and did not respond to a detailed list of questions, is notable for its size — or lack of it. It’s one of the smallest to be federally recognized: 278 individuals live on its reservation in Louisiana, according to Census Bureau data, and the tribe estimates there are about 1,500 registered members scattered throughout the United States. But the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe’s political influence efforts are decidedly outsized. And while the tribe has maintained lobbyists in Washington for decades, its lobbying spending has skyrocketed since Trump began his second term. The tribe and its subsidiaries spent $590,000 on federal lobbying in the first nine months of 2025, up from $290,000 during the same period in 2024, according to federal lobbying data analyzed by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks money in politics.

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ICE plans to spend $180 million on bounty hunters to stalk immigrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is allocating as much as $180 million to pay bounty hunters and private investigators who verify the address and location of undocumented people ICE wishes to detain, including with physical surveillance, according to procurement records reviewed by 404 Media. The documents provide more details about ICE’s plan to enlist the private sector to find deportation targets. In October The Intercept reported on ICE’s intention to use bounty hunters or skip tracers—an industry that often works on insurance fraud or tries to find people who skipped bail. The new documents now put a clear dollar amount on the scheme to essentially use private investigators to find the locations of undocumented immigrants. “I am sure PIs, bounty hunters, process servers, and anyone with access to commercial databases can apply and will,” Igor Ostrovskiy, an experienced private investigator with Ostro Intelligence, and who expressed concerns with ICE’s plans, told 404 Media. “Money is money and people will jump at the opportunity to embed their business as a government contractor.”

The documents are part of a package published by ICE on Monday. They say ICE is seeking assistance with a “docket size” of 1.5 million, in which the agency will give vendors a batch of 50,000 last known addresses of aliens residing in the U.S. The bounty hunters are then to verify the people live at those addresses, or find their current location, and provide that information to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). ICE says bounty hunters are to start with online research such as Google or commercial data, before moving onto physical surveillance. “To achieve a higher level of confidence, the vendor may physically verify the alien’s location and presence, preferably confirming their home or work location. The vendor will then report the physical location to the Government or inform the Government that it is not able to locate the alien, and any additional visits would be fruitless. The vendor should prioritize locating the home address and only resort to employment location, failing that,” one of the documents says.

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Democrats’ latest long-shot Senate recruit: A Kentucky horse trainer

Any hope Democrats have of regaining control of the Senate in the 2026 midterm elections requires cashing lottery tickets in long-shot states. So here comes Dale Romans, a champion horse trainer who announced a campaign for the Senate seat in deep-red Kentucky that is being vacated after seven terms by Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican majority leader. Mr. Romans, 59, calls himself “an independent Democrat” who is aiming to ride a wave of frustration with both parties. He said in an interview this week that he would not commit to supporting Senator Chuck Schumer of New York to remain as the Democratic leader and that he opposed President Trump’s policies on tariffs and immigration enforcement, which he said had hurt people and industries in Kentucky. Mr. Romans, whose horse Shackleford won the 2011 Preakness Stakes, said he would model himself after former Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. A two-term red-state Democrat-turned-independent, Mr. Manchin served as a thorn in the side of the party’s liberal wing while nonetheless providing critical votes on most of the Democratic agenda.

To that end, Mr. Romans said in the interview that he would have voted to end the government shutdown, as eight Democratic-aligned senators did this week despite opposition from many in the party. He said he never would have voted to shut down the government in the first place. “I would say Schumer miscalculated and really screwed things up,” he said. Even mounting a competitive race will be a steep challenge for Mr. Romans, whose highest elected position was president of the Kentucky division of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. No Democrat has come within 10 percentage points of winning a Kentucky Senate seat since 2008, when Mr. McConnell won a fifth term by six points. Kentucky has not elected a Democratic senator since Wendell Ford won his fourth term in 1992. But with Mr. McConnell retiring, the state will have an open Senate seat for the first time in 16 years. Four other Democrats are already running, including Amy McGrath, who spent nearly $93 million on a 2020 Senate race she lost to Mr. McConnell by almost 20 points. That contest remains a punchline in Democratic political circles about the party’s habit of throwing money away on unwinnable races.

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Another democratic socialist wins a mayoral race, this time in Seattle

A progressive activist appears to be on the cusp of winning her bid for mayor of Seattle in a narrow victory that has echoes of the race to lead New York City. With a dwindling number of ballots left to count, Katie Wilson led Mayor Bruce Harrell by just over 1,300 votes, according to results released Tuesday by King County Elections. The incumbent led by more than 10,000 votes the day after the election but mail-in ballots counted after Nov. 4 favored the challenger. Harrell has not conceded but it was unlikely he can make up the difference with the ballots left to count, Democratic strategists said. “Kate Wilson won 61.23% of the 6,121 ballots counted today. Huge percentage and her total is close to not requiring a recount,” Crystal Fincher, a Seattle-based political consultant, said by text after the latest results. “I’m comfortable calling this race for Wilson now.”

Wilson, who like New York’s Zohran Mamdani is a self-described socialist, focused her campaign on affordability — highlighting her own struggles to afford life in Seattle. She supported a capital gains tax to raise revenue, a move opposed by Harrell, stronger protections for renters and improving public transit. Fincher said that message resonated in a city where housing has become out-of-reach for many of its citizens. “There’s a disconnect between what younger people are going through in day to day life today,” she said. “I think there’s a split in the Democratic Party about that, that we’re feeling our way through.” Wilson also pledged to do more to address homelessness, including fast-tracking shelter space, and was critical of Harrell’s support for clearing encampments from public spaces around Seattle. She called for cutting police funding in the past, but in this campaign called for changing tactics and adding more non-police response programs to supplement law enforcement.

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Judge hears challenge to Trump's appointment of prosecutor in James Comey and Letitia James cases

When acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan walks into federal court here in Virginia on Thursday morning, it will be Halligan — not the criminal defendants she hopes to prosecute — at the center of the court’s attention. Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both frequent targets of President Donald Trump, filed separate motions in their respective cases, arguing that Halligan is unlawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney and therefore the indictments against them should be thrown out. In a rare joint hearing, attorneys for Comey and James will argue this together before U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, who is traveling up from the District of South Carolina. Currie is hearing this joint oral argument session, not a judge from the Eastern District of Virginia, to avoid any potential intradistrict conflict of interest.

Halligan, who was part of Trump’s legal team in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case but has no prior prosecutorial experience, was sworn in to the job as interim U.S. attorney in one of the nation’s busiest federal court districts on Sept. 22. That’s three days after Erik Siebert, the U.S. attorney who had been serving in the role since Jan. 21, resigned after being pressured to indict Comey and James. The indictments against Comey and James came after Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against Comey, James and another of the president’s adversaries, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Comey and James both pleaded not guilty to their respective charges. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” the president wrote in a Sept. 20 Truth Social post. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” According to federal statute, individuals may only serve for 120 days after being appointed U.S. attorney, unless confirmed by the U.S. Senate before then. The Senate had not confirmed him, but district judges of the Eastern District of Virginia exercised their own independent appointment authority to legally retain Siebert as an interim U.S. attorney beyond the 120-day limit.

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Boebert claims ‘no pressure’ to remove her name from Epstein petition

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) denied reports that her meeting at the White House on Wednesday was to pressure her to remove her name from a congressional petition that would necessitate a vote to release files related to disgraced financier, convicted sex offender, and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The petition, initially proposed by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), requires 218 signatures to approve the release of the files. Boebert was one of only four House Republicans to initially sign the petition, which included Massie, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). The Colorado congresswomen said the meeting was just adults having a conversation. “I love the White House,” Boebert said to CPR News on Wednesday night. “Adults are allowed to have conversations.” She explained that no one pressured her to make a decision, and the meeting on Wednesday was about transparency. “I want to honor President Trump’s legacy of transparency,” Boebert said. “I was assured today that this is an administration who’s going to continue to be transparent and honest, and we’ll see what comes of it.

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Sorry, America. Coffee prices probably aren’t coming down

With renewed verve for the word “affordability” after the GOP got absolutely trounced in last week’s off-year elections, the Trump administration is scrambling to show it’s doing something, anything, to bring prices down. One solution on offer: reversing its own policy of taxing coffee imports. “You’re going to see some substantial announcements over the next couple of days in terms of things we don’t grow here in the United States — coffee being one of them, bananas, other fruits, things like that,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday. “So that that will bring the prices down very quickly.”

Bessent here is implicitly acknowledging that tariffs do increase prices on American consumers — a fact the Trump administration has long denied. Bessent didn’t offer details about what the tariff reductions would look like or which countries would be included, but he said — seeming to acknowledge the financial strain that helped secure a Democratic sweep last week — that “the American people are going to start feeling better.” (The White House, when asked for more details on the plan, referred CNN to an executive order from September laying out potential tariff adjustments based on national security and economic goals.) Even if Trump and Bessent made a giant carve-out for coffee, it is highly unlikely that prices will go down significantly. And that’s because Americans, as a people, love coffee too much. To state the obvious: Coffee has become annoyingly expensive. Retail prices are up about 20% year-over-year. There are two primary causes for that price inflation: Extremely volatile weather has eaten into the harvest of an already labor-intensive, hard-to-grow crop. That’s been happening for a few years. And Trump’s tariffs on Brazil (50%), Colombia (10%) and Vietnam (20%)— the three biggest coffee exporters — are piling added costs on top of that. And since coffee only grows in a few places on Earth, it’s not like we can just mow down a few cornfields out in the heartland and start up our own domestic supply.

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Lead Stories

Speaker Johnson faces an unruly House as lawmakers return for shutdown vote

After refusing to convene the U.S. House during the government shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson is recalling lawmakers back into session — and facing an avalanche of pent-up legislative demands from those who have largely been sidelined from governing. Hundreds of representatives are preparing to return Wednesday to Washington after a nearly eight-week absence, carrying a torrent of ideas, proposals and frustrations over work that has stalled when the Republican speaker shuttered the House doors nearly two months ago. First will be a vote to reopen the government. But that’s just the start. With efforts to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and the swearing in of Arizona’s Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, the unfinished business will pose a fresh test to Johnson’s grip on power and put a renewed focus on his leadership.

“It’s extraordinary,” said Matthew Green, a professor at the politics department at The Catholic University of America. “What Speaker Johnson and Republicans are doing, you have to go back decades to find an example where the House — either chamber — decided not to meet.” When the House gavels back into session, it will close this remarkable chapter of Johnson’s tenure when he showed himself to be a leader who is quietly, but brazenly, willing to upend institutional norms in pursuit of his broader strategy, even at the risk of diminishing the House itself. Rather than use the immense powers of the speaker’s office to forcefully steer the debate in Congress, as a coequal branch of the government on par with the executive and the courts, Johnson simply closed up shop — allowing the House to become unusually deferential, particularly to President Donald Trump. Over these past weeks, the chamber has sidestepped its basic responsibilities, from passing routine legislation to conducting oversight. The silencing of the speaker’s gavel has been both unusual and surprising in a system of government where the founders envisioned the branches would vigorously protect their institutional prerogatives.

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Federal action may end fight over intoxicating hemp products in Texas

A proposal to reopen the U.S. government that passed the Senate on Monday contains language that would outlaw the sale of consumable hemp products across the nation. The language was included in the proposal to fund the Agriculture Department and closes a so-called loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that allowed the sale of intoxicating hemp products in Texas stores. Texas passed its version of the Farm Bill in 2019 to reflect the federal law. But since then, the fight over regulating or banning consumable hemp products containing THC — the psychoactive chemical in the cannabis plant that gives its consumer a “high” — has become a highly-debated and controversial issue in Texas government.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, offered an amendment to remove the language from the Appropriations bill on the Senate floor. His proposal drew tepid support — it was tabled with only 24 votes supporting the amendment. The only other Republican to oppose the hemp language change was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “I have long believed that the regulation of hemp and marijuana products should rest with each individual state,” Cruz wrote on his X account. “Reasonable minds can disagree, and a blanket federal prohibition disempowers the voters in each of the fifty States.” He added that he believes a “one-size-fits-all” standard will create “unintended consequences.” The move by the U.S. Senate reflects what the Texas Senate did three times this year, passing a bill to ban intoxicating hemp products in the state. The policy was a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who strongly opposed the rising prevalence of intoxicating hemp products in the state.

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Democrats push for a ‘ruthlessly pragmatic’ approach to counter Trump

The fury at eight Democratic-aligned senators who voted with Republicans to end the longest-ever government shutdown highlights the dramatic shift in the Democratic Party less than a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, as voters and lawmakers argue that the party needs to adopt more ruthless tactics to counter the president and claw its way back to power. The reaction to the two votes on Sunday and Monday, which provide a pathway for the government to reopen after more than 40 days, was fierce. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) called for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) to be replaced, suggesting he was an ineffective leader even though Schumer opposed the government funding measure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) blasted the eight senators and said House Democrats would not support a government funding bill that did not include the health care measures the party has demanded. Democratic advocacy groups, politically vulnerable lawmakers, potential 2028 presidential candidates and voters all followed suit, lambasting those in their party they saw as caving.

The desire for Democrats to hold firm despite the pain inflicted by the shutdown — even though the party’s prior posture was that shutdowns are self-destructive — was the latest sign that the party has decided it must adopt an altogether different playbook given Trump’s willingness to resort to unprecedented measures to consolidate and maintain power. Rather than try to uphold norms as the president shatters them, they have decided to fight Trump with tactics they previously disdained — and have excoriated those who have stood in the way, whether on redistricting or candidates with problematic pasts. “Early on, there were not enough members of Congress who recognized the magnitude of the threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and Constitution,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), who opposed the government funding deal. “That has changed.” Van Hollen said there were a few senators in what he dubbed the “no business as usual caucus” at the beginning of Trump’s term, but it has since grown dramatically in response to energy from the party’s base. “The lesson is there is power in unity and in members of Congress working in partnership with the grassroots community,” he said. “This is why so many people are feeling let down at this moment, because that unity was important.”

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In Texas, these booming housing developments come with hidden costs: 'It's an illusion'

When Sandra Wilson sold her townhouse near downtown Dallas and moved to Josephine, a small city 40 miles outside the metroplex, she looked forward to quieter streets and cheaper taxes. Then she got her first property tax bill. “I came unglued,” she said. Wilson, who is 71 and retired, was aware when she bought her new home that it was in a municipal utility district, or MUD, and that she would have to pay a special tax. But what she didn’t know was how much that tax would be — more than $2,400 annually, double what she paid to the county — nor that she would be charged it essentially indefinitely. Lawmakers and developers have sold municipal utility districts as a way to provide affordable homeownership quickly and efficiently as the state’s population booms.

But homeowners who buy in MUDs, lured by affordable sales prices, often are saddled with high property tax bills, with double or triple the tax rates charged by neighboring cities, in addition to monthly fees for basic services like trash pickup or police protection. And the surrounding cities and counties are often on the hook to maintain infrastructure and provide services, without fully recouping the costs. “The developers and their lobbyists have become huge advocates for MUDs and they’ve really convinced the state that this is a great solution to affordable housing,” said Lisa Palomba, the city administrator in Josephine, which has struggled to keep up with the growth of MUDs outside city limits. “We know that in the long run, it is not affordable. Not for the residents, not for the city.” The state’s MUDs have historically been clustered in the Houston region — in Harris County, one in four homeowners lives in one. But over the last decade, the districts have proliferated throughout fast-growing counties in Central and North Texas. Today, there are more than 1,440 MUDs statewide, up from 960 in 2018, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In Rockwall County, just south of Josephine, county judge Frank New said developers are “dropping cities out of the sky … with no services.”

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State Stories

Wall Street Journal Editorial: The education of the Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts

Heritage Foundation leader Kevin Roberts now knows it was unwise to publish a video bear-hugging Tucker Carlson and assailing critics of the podcast host’s chummy interview with Hitler fanboy Nick Fuentes. On Wednesday he finally told his think-tank staff he wants to take responsibility, but the saga underscores the risks to the right from playing footsie with antisemites. Mr. Roberts’s first move was to dump his chief of staff who wrote the statement he read into the camera. Then he blamed the audience: “Not as many people as I thought were ready for a little bit of nuance,” he said in his first response to criticism. When that didn’t work, Mr. Roberts changed tack. “Sometimes you can make a mistake with the best of intentions,” he said Monday. “My mistake was not saying we aren’t going to participate in cancel culture—we’re not. My mistake was letting that . . . override the central motivation that I had,” which was “fighting against antisemitism in all its forms.”

Nice words but striking given that Mr. Roberts’s video had joined Mr. Carlson in the Jew-baiting. The video’s major theme was that critics of Mr. Carlson—for promoting rather than challenging a proud antisemite—were trying to suppress Christian criticism of Israel and impose loyalty to a foreign government, betraying America. Heritage’s Victoria Coates ignored this in her letter to us last week detailing her institution’s good work, which Mr. Roberts undermined. The antisemitism task force she co-chairs has now severed ties with Heritage. In a private staff meeting Wednesday, Mr. Roberts recognized he had erred with his no-enemies-to-the-right talk. “There is a limiting principle,” he said at last, adding that there was no need to defend a “softball interview” with a Hitler admirer. Why was that so hard? “I made a mistake, and I let you down and I let down this institution,” Mr. Roberts said. In explanation, he said he didn’t know much about Mr. Fuentes, who had been central to his remarks; didn’t write the video script; didn’t question it because he believed it had been vetted by others; and doesn’t “consume a lot of news” in general. It’s as if he were trying to reassure his staff that he doesn’t pay attention to what he says. “I made the mess; let me clean it up,” Mr. Roberts told staff. But when senior fellow Robert Rector asked about Mr. Carlson, Mr. Roberts replied instead only about Mr. Fuentes. Senior fellow Amy Swearer spoke up to observe that Mr. Roberts has shown a “stunning lack of both courage and judgment.”

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Anthony J. Hinojosa: The ICE raids we are witnessing violate what the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce stands for

(Anthony J. Hinojosa is vice president of government and international affairs for the United State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.) It's no secret that we're living in some of the craziest times in the history of our country. In particular, the Hispanic community seems to be facing a barrage on many fronts that are attempting to weaken our communities and ultimately, our businesses. The USHCC champions the growth and success of America's small businesses, with our mission focusing on the more than five million Hispanic-owned businesses that contribute over $800 billion to the US economy each year. We advocate for a network of more than 260 local Hispanic Chambers and business associations, and proudly partner with over 100 major US corporations to empower and support small businesses nationwide. The Hispanic business community is not only the fastest growing segment of the US economy, it is the driving force of innovation, resilience and entrepreneurship.

Today, Hispanic owned businesses contribute over $800 billion to the economy, employ millions and create opportunities across every sector. We can boast a gross domestic product of over $4 trillion. Effectively, we are the fifth largest economy in the world, surpassing countries such as India, the United Kingdom and France. Latina entrepreneurs are the major driving force behind this, creating businesses at six times the national average. But to unleash our full potential, we need a policy environment that reflects both our challenges and our strengths. This is why the USHCC is committed to championing policy priorities that build our ecosystem to accelerate Hispanic business growth and prosperity. Our first policy priority is immigration. Immigration is not just a social issue, it's an economic engine, from entrepreneurs who launch businesses to essential workers who fuel our industries, immigrants strengthen America. We call for comprehensive immigration reform that balances border security with economic opportunity. This would include a pathway for legalization for Dreamers and DACA recipients, policies that recognize immigration as a tool to strengthen our workforce, grow our GDP and maintain America's competitive edge, strengthen our visa policies and a modernize guest worker program to meet the demands of our workforce.

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Ken Paxton sues to shut down Texas Latino voter registration group ahead of 2026 election

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing to shutter a Texas voter registration nonprofit ahead of the 2026 midterm election, alleging that members of the Latino advocacy group attempted to sign up noncitizens. “Any organization attempting to register illegals, who are all criminals, must be completely crushed and shut down immediately,” Paxton, a third-term Republican running for U.S. Senate, said in a statement Monday. “I will make sure they face the full force of the law.” The lawsuit, filed in state court last month and announced Monday, came after Paxton abandoned an earlier attempt to investigate Jolt over the same allegations in federal court.

The group’s leaders say his latest legal action amounts to retaliation, and on Tuesday, they filed a federal countersuit to stop it. The Houston-based organization, founded in 2016, works to increase civic participation among young Latinos through voter registration, education and leadership training. “Let the record show that the Texas Attorney General is using the power of his office to silence Latino voters,” said Jackie Bastard?, executive director of Jolt Initiative, in a statement. “After we challenged his first unconstitutional attempt to intimidate us, he escalated his attack by moving straight to the corporate ‘death penalty’, seeking to revoke our ability to exist.” Paxton’s claims stem from an August 2024 post on X by Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, who said that a friend of a friend’s wife had seen organizations registering immigrants to vote outside state driver’s license facilities in Fort Worth and Weatherford. She did not say how she knew they were immigrants or provide any other evidence to back up the claims.

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Ken Paxton sues Harris County over its immigrant legal defense fund

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Monday against Harris County after its commissioners recently drew backlash for renewing funding for a 5-year-old immigration legal defense program. Last month, Harris County commissioners approved allocating more than $1 million for legal defense services as part of the county’s Immigrant Legal Services Fund — a years-long program that aims to improve due process in the federal immigration system. The program provides funding for legal representation to immigrants in the Houston area who are in detention or facing the threat of deportation, according to county documents. The attorney general’s lawsuit names as defendants county officials, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and each of the four elected commissioners — including Tom Ramsey, the lone Republican and a dissenting vote on the legal defense funding.

The 17-page lawsuit claims that Harris County’s allocation of public funds to nonprofit organizations, including BakerRipley and the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, violates the Texas Constitution’s gift clause. “These expenditures are gratuitous because they confer direct financial and professional benefits on private entities and individuals without providing reciprocal public benefit or consideration to Harris County,” Paxton wrote. The attorney general’s office filed the lawsuit as Paxton is running for a higher office. He is challenging U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the 2026 Republican primary. The lawsuit asserts that the decision to fund deportation defense services was motivated by policy opposition to federal immigration raids “rather than by any legitimate public purpose.” Acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, a Democrat who is running to represent Texas’ 18th Congressional District, called the defense fund “perfectly legal” in a statement Tuesday. He also said the lawsuit is a “cheap political stunt.” “Harris County has funded this program for years because it's the right thing to do,” Menefee also said. “We're helping people who live in our communities and who contribute every day to our local economy. That's what good government looks like.”

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U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt takes Senate Republican primary pitch to Ken Paxton’s home turf

U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt says he jumped into the U.S. Senate Republican primary last month after Attorney General Ken Paxton’s polling numbers were eroded by relentless attacks from incumbent John Cornyn and his allies. The numbers revealed an opening for him, Hunt said, making the case he’s the best Republican to defeat Cornyn in the primary and keep the seat in GOP hands next November while staying true to President Donald Trump’s agenda. The Houston-area congressman took his pitch to Paxton’s back yard Monday night as the keynote speaker at a Denton County Conservative Coalition event where he hailed Trump for reversing Joe Biden’s policies but said there’s more work to be done.

“We must continue this America first agenda. We must continue to move the football and progress it as far as possible,” Hunt said in his speech. “Because not only do we have to make up for the ills and the struggles that we saw for the past four years, we’ve got to make sure that we codify what we have now for our future.” Audience members gave Hunt a standing ovation and several said afterward they were impressed with his presentation – while adding they remain Paxton supporters or are still waiting to make up their minds in the race. Hunt’s entry has complicated Cornyn’s bid for a fifth six-year term. Hunt and Paxton have largely avoided criticizing one another, using every opportunity to instead bash Cornyn as a Republican in name only. Cornyn has embraced Trump in his campaign messaging, highlighting the many times he has backed the president on issues such as border security and saying he has a proven track record of delivering results for the state. He has hammered Paxton over legal woes and personal baggage while dismissing Hunt as an unserious, attention-seeking novice.

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Texas parks now have a new plan to manage invasive feral hogs

Feral hogs are causing serious problems in Texas national parks, damaging ecosystems, cultural sites and visitor experiences while proving difficult to control due to their high reproductive rates. They are present in parks across the state, including Big Thicket National Preserve, Big Bend National Park and Padre Island National Seashore. To address the issue, researchers at Texas A&M University have developed the first nationwide framework to help the National Park Service (NPS) manage feral hog populations. Led by the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the framework provides park managers with science-backed tools for monitoring, management and control. It can be tailored to each park's conditions, including environmental limits, legal requirements, visitor use and stakeholder priorities.

Anna Racey, a doctoral student and project lead, said the framework offers a cohesive set of guidelines to help structure conservation programs while balancing ecological outcomes and resource constraints. "A unified framework for feral hog management plans would make control more attainable for all park managers—even those who have not encountered wild pigs, but could face invasion in the future," Racey said. Racey developed the guide after surveying more than 400 national parks, conducting in-depth interviews with select park staff and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. The resulting structured decision-making tool helps managers select strategies suited to their park's conditions. Feral hogs were first introduced to North America by European explorers and now inhabit at least 35 states, with Texas hosting the largest population. They have been documented in all but four of Texas' 254 counties, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department estimates roughly 2.6 million hogs statewide. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, feral swine are among the country's most destructive invasive species, causing more than $1 billion in annual damages.

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La Marque pushing property tax hike due to major budget shortfall

The Galveston County city of La Marque is facing major budget issues. The city previously had just two weeks’ worth of funds and is now trying to jack up property taxes to fill the gap—despite questions about the legality of the hike. So how did the financial situation get so bad? Galveston County Commissioner Robin Armstrong thinks the answer is simple. “Oftentimes, it is a result of management at the local level—and a result of overspending at the local level,” he said.

Attorney General Ken Paxton has weighed in, warning that the property tax hike could violate recently passed and signed state law. Armstrong believes this could spark a legal battle. “La Marque is going to have to ultimately follow the law,” he said. “I suspect the AG is gonna win, and they’re not gonna be allowed to just indiscriminately raise taxes like this.” The state legislature passed a law during the 89th session that requires any city raising property taxes to be in compliance with financial audit reporting requirements. Because La Marque was late in sending its audits to the state, it is not in compliance.

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Bexar continues sending inmates, dollars outside of the county

Bexar County continues to send inmates to jails in nearby counties — a practice Sheriff Javier Salazar says will remain necessary to meet state jail standards. County Commissioner Grant Moody calls it “an additional cost on top of the costs of running the jail,” as it moves more than $4 million in taxpayer dollars out of the county each year. In July 2024, Bexar County began transferring inmates to other county jails to ease pressure on a facility that, the month prior, was just 51 inmates shy of capacity. At the time, Salazar said the practice would become “the new normal” as his office and county commissioners worked to finalize contracts with Burnet and Kerr counties. County data shows that as of Sept. 26, 252 Bexar County inmates were housed outside the jail — 182 in Burnet County and 70 in Kerr County. All were what’s known as “paper-ready” or inmates who have completed the court process and are awaiting pick up by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to serve out their sentences.

State law provides a maximum of a 45-day window for pickup and transport to TDCJ facilities from counties after an inmate becomes paper-ready. Until they’re transferred, those inmates remain the county’s financial and logistical responsibility. “They get basically 45 days of free rent from Bexar County. It’s more cost effective for them to wait as long as they can within that 45 days,” Salazar said. “Knowing that we’re going to have to incur the cost, we do what we have to do as far as jail standards, and we have to house them out of county at that point.” That pickup process currently takes an average of 29 days for Bexar County — just one day under the statewide average, according to TDCJ data. At the county’s daily housing cost of $87.17, a 29-day stay comes to roughly $2,527 per inmate. Sending an inmate to Kerr or Burnet counties at rates of $65 and $80 per day, respectively, reduces that cost to between $1,885 and $2,320. Those day rates include fixed expenses such as staffing costs, facility maintenance and upkeep as well as food and medical care for the inmates.

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Land Commissioner says Alamo plans remain the same

Weeks after the Alamo Trust’s top leader was ousted for writings deemed “incompatible” with state leaders’ vision, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told reporters she doesn’t foresee revisiting the way the landmark is represented in its ongoing redevelopment. “This museum has always had the plan to discuss the battle in the context of time, from the early Native Americans, all the way through how it affects pop culture today,” Buckingham said Tuesday. “Those plans have not changed.” Like most other statewide officials, Buckingham, a former Republican state senator from Austin, is up for reelection in 2026.

On Tuesday she attended a Veterans Day event at the Alamo, joking in her remarks that her office is “the agency that rolls up our sleeves, touches your lives in a positive way, and for the most part, you had no idea we existed.” For some San Antonians, that changed last month when Buckingham responded to an Alamo Trust social media post recognizing Indigenous People’s Day, declaring it “woke,” and vowing to hold those responsible accountable. Within days, pages from Alamo Trust Inc. President and CEO Kate Rogers’ doctoral dissertation were circulating among state leaders, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was calling for Rogers’ resignation, saying her views were out of line with a historic site he’s long insisted must be focused on the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. Local officials panned those complaints, with Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones calling for state leaders to have the “courage to tell the varied experiences of those at the Alamo,” and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai suggesting Texas GOP leaders’ politicization of history had gone so far, it could next include denying the existence of Japanese internment camps.

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Lakewood Church responds to TikTok plea for baby formula: ‘No problem with the fake baby lady’

A TikTok user with hundreds of thousands of followers recently called Lakewood Church and asked if it could help a 2-month-old in need of baby formula as a child cried in the background. The cries were from a recording, and the baby wasn't real. But the video was part of a viral series in which the TikTok user, who goes by the name Nikalie Monroe, calls places of worship across the U.S. to test whether they would be willing to help a parent in crisis. In the video, the phone operator for Lakewood said the church offers a benevolence ministry and could take a request for Monroe, and that it could take a couple of days or weeks to provide aid, if approved. Monroe ended the call soon after that, unimpressed by Lakewood's response. “I don't know anymore about these churches,” Monroe said in the video after the call ended. “I already knew, don't get me wrong, but it's like, when it's in your face and you're seeing it and hearing it, it's like, this is reality right now.”

A spokesperson for Lakewood said it supports 21 crisis pregnancy centers across Greater Houston and 16 food pantries that carry infant formula, while the church does not. The spokesperson said that the phone operator “made an error” by not sharing that information with Monroe. “We have no problem with the fake baby lady conducting her telephone experiment,” said Lakewood spokesperson Donald Iloff. “She has every right to do so.” Monroe did not respond to requests for comment by Tuesday evening. Many responses to Monroe’s video about Lakewood expressed disappointment with the church, with some users mentioning its Hurricane Harvey response. In 2017, Lakewood had posted online that its facility was inaccessible due to severe flooding, sparking a public backlash. The church announced it was formally opening to those in need two days later. Monroe has called dozens of churches, a mosque and a pregnancy center in what she is calling a “social experiment.” In a TikTok video explaining her efforts, she said she wanted to understand if churches were using donations to help their communities and people in need. She didn’t think many churches would rise to the occasion.

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Nico Harrison wanted to be a hero. Instead, he burned down the Mavs and tanked his career.

It’s important to remember, as the Mavericks spend the next decade digging out of the wreckage that Nico Harrison wrought, that none of this had to happen. Harrison did not need to snuff out the team’s bright future by exiling the best basketball player ever to wear its uniform, and he damn sure did not need to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Harrison did not need to do this for a return that other people in his profession made fun of long before the post-Doncic Mavs underperformed even the lowest expectations. For that matter, the Mavericks did not need to accost their fanbase for daring to feel betrayed by Harrison’s actions, and they did not need to skirt accountability like a cat conducting a jewel heist. Above all, the Mavericks did not need to spend the last nine months hemorrhaging wins, attendance, dollars, and, most of all, credibility—the collateral damage of one guy getting really mad at work.

Try as he might, Nico Harrison never stood for the Dallas Mavericks. As of yesterday morning, he is out of a job. He’ll likely never again work in the NBA, which is as it should be. You may be able to come back from waging internal political warfare, firing a beloved senior staff member by Zoom as he tended to his dying mother, perhaps even making the greatest, most loyal athlete in Dallas history wary of the Mavericks’ whole deal. But you cannot do all of those things and trade a civic treasure and express zero remorse for it. For that, you get shitcanned, and you stay shitcanned. Now that Harrison is gone, it’s impossible not to watch this video of him at last night’s game and wonder if he knew what was coming. He, like everyone else, spent the last nine months watching “Fire Nico” reach Green Eggs & Ham status: applicable in any situation, for any reason, under any circumstance. Because we heard it at Mavs games and at their own draft party, but also at college games near and far from the American Airlines Center. For that matter, we heard “Fire Nico” at baseball games, hockey games, and soccer games. Near the Rio Grande and in the heart of the Midwest. On parade routes, at film premieres, in Medieval Times, before pro wrestling shows. And it’s been spotted on at least one vanity license plate. “Fire Nico” transcended basketball long before this new, terribly depressing Mavs season began. It became Dallas culture.

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Environmental activists battle nurdles on Galveston shores, calling for regulation

On Nov. 7, Laura Leavitt knelt on the Galveston shore beside her best friend, picking tiny bits of plastic out of the sand. The two friends were among around 20 other volunteers working piece by piece to help rid the beach of nurdles — small plastic pellets used to create plastic products such as soda bottles or cottage cheese containers. "What we don’t take care of circles back to us, and I think just from picking up a piece of trash in your neighborhood, you’re contributing," Leavitt said. The group of volunteers was part of Environment Texas and the Turtle Island Restoration Network's Galveston cleanup. Along with continued nurdle beach cleanups, the groups also recently asked state leaders for more nurdle regulation since they said the pellets can be a threat to wildlife and people.

"We’re not asking for plastic production to be stopped. We’re asking for regulations to be in place to keep it safe for our environment," Joanie Steinhaus, who is the ocean program director for the Turtle Island Restoration Network, said. There are 36 facilities in Texas that produce nurdles, with three facilities along Galveston Bay, according to Turtle Island. Steinhaus said companies transport the microplastics to other facilities by truck or train in order to make the plastic products. Steinhaus said since nurdles are lightweight, when they spill during manufacturing or transport, they escape into the environment and eventually work their way onto Texas beaches. On Nov. 7, volunteers collected 1,216 nurdles. Since 2020, Steinhaus said Turtle Island has collected over 16,000 nurdles on Galveston beaches, which she said is a concern for wildlife and humans since nurdles attach to toxins in the water.

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Families, officials urge Texans to help end 25-year streak of daily traffic deaths

Every day for the past 25 years, at least one person has died in crashes on Texas roads. Texas officials and the families of some fatal crash victims commemorated the grim anniversary with a candlelight ceremony at the Texas Capitol on Nov. 7. Over 91,000 people have died in Texas traffic crashes since Nov. 7, 2000, Texas Department of Transportation records show. Officials emphasized Nov. 7 that the majority of fatal crashes can be prevented if drivers follow speed limits, avoid distractions, wear seatbelts and do not get behind the wheel when under the influence of alcohol or drugs. “Those are real lives,” Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, R-Round Rock, told reporters Nov. 7. “Those are kids who won't see graduation, those are parents who won't come home. ... Life is sacred, and it's worth more than a text or a phone call or getting somewhere faster.”

Jamie White said her 2-year-old daughter, Allie, was hit and killed by a distracted driver at Round Rock’s Old Settlers Park in September 2019. “It only takes [a few] seconds... to kill somebody,” White said Nov. 7. “Can you imagine doing this, taking somebody's child from them, and living the rest of your life knowing that you caused that?” Following Allie’s death, her parents launched Allie’s Way, a nonprofit aimed at ending distracted driving. “You can't multitask—we think we're capable of it, but when you're driving a vehicle, you have to look forward, you have to look to the side,” White said. “You have to look in your rearview mirror to make sure nobody else hits you. At the same time, you're trying to figure out where you're supposed to go, and you're also supposed to be responding to somebody by text message or by phone conversation. It is not possible.” Texas law prohibits using a portable device to read, write or send texts while driving. Violators face fines of $25-$99, with up to $200 in fines for repeat offenders.

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National Stories

Republicans demand tougher abortion restrictions to extend Obamacare funds

Senate Republicans say they’re open to extending a pot of Affordable Care Act funds that will expire at the end of the year — but only if Democrats acquiesce to stricter abortion restrictions on insurance plans. The demand presents a significant hurdle to reaching a bipartisan deal to extend ACA funding designed to avoid major premium hikes next year for more than 20 million Americans, as Democrats are adamant that existing abortion guardrails under Obamacare are sufficient. If the funds are not extended by the end of the year, some people insured under Obamacare could see their bills rise by thousands of dollars per month, raising concerns that millions will choose to go uninsured. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said there will be a negotiation about an extension after the government reopens. He said one condition will be stricter rules pertaining to the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funding from being used for abortion.

To satisfy Democratic demands to comply with the Hyde amendment when Obamacare passed in 2010, the law does not allow federal funds to cover abortions. Some states allow people insured under Obamacare to access abortion coverage using state or other funding. Republicans want to change that. “That’s what we’re going to negotiate,” Thune told reporters before the Senate passed the bill to end the government shutdown. “A one-year extension along the lines of what [Democrats] are suggesting, and without Hyde protections — there’s just not even, doesn’t even get close.” Thune’s demand for more stringent abortion limits on Obamacare money is backed by colleagues, including Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., an outspoken proponent of extending the ACA funds, as well as Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Mike Lee, R-Utah. Rounds warned that “you won’t get any” Republican votes to extend the money without more stringent abortion limitations.

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Democrats lose shutdown battle — as Trump, Republicans risk losing war

The votes by a handful of Democratic senators this week to end a government shutdown without key concessions from Republicans have left the party bruised and divided, struggling to explain to a furious base why they folded without securing the health care subsidies they called essential. For many this was a head-scratching defeat, just days after election triumphs showed voters were on their side. But the closing chapter to the more than 40-day standoff, and the underlying fight over extending tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, could prove perilous for Republicans in the long term. President Donald Trump’s own pollsters and allies have warned that not extending the health care subsidies would amount to a major political risk in the midterms, and the public has shown it will blame a shutdown on the party in power — making any future breakdowns risky for Republicans.

The result: The longest government shutdown in U.S. history has no clear ultimate political victor as the House prepares to vote Wednesday on the deal to reopen. Polling shows the public disapproves of both parties’ approach. Democrats are bearing the brunt of the political losses in the immediate term, while Republicans are bracing for longer-term consequences. Trump took a victory lap on Fox News, saying Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) “thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him.” Democrats, he boasted, are “not getting much.” Schumer said Republicans now “own” the health care fallout. “They knew it was coming,” said Schumer, who opposed the deal but is facing intense criticism from his base for the outcome. “We wanted to fix it. Republicans said no, and now it’s on them.” Most polls have found more Americans blaming Trump and Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, though that margin decreased over time. A Washington Post poll on the first day of the shutdown found 47 percent of the public blaming Trump and Republicans in Congress more for the shutdown, while 30 percent blamed Democrats; by late October, the margin was 45 percent to 33 percent.

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‘Cloudy weather’: Hassett says some economic data was never collected during shutdown

Some essential U.S. economic data used to calculate job growth, GDP, inflation and other critical information used by policymakers may never be released because of the extended government shutdown, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Tuesday. “I’ve been told that some of the surveys were never actually completed, so we’ll perhaps never even know what happened in that month,” Hassett said in an interview on CNBC. “So we’re gonna be kind of staring a little bit in cloudy weather for a while until we get the data agencies back up.” The lack of information will leave politicians, Wall Street and the public not fully informed on the state of the U.S. economy and labor market since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. The data is highly sought after, as analysts look for bottom-line information in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s widespread tariff policies and the deportations of undocumented immigrants across the country.

Some estimates from private firms show pessimism, but it’s hard to know for sure without the more comprehensive government data. Groups, such as Goldman Sachs, estimate a loss of about 50,000 jobs in October. It’s unclear which data Hassett was referring to specifically. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in October that the consumer price index — the main indicator of U.S. inflation levels — would not be released. The government shutdown started three days before the Bureau was set to release the September jobs report, which is expected to be released once the government reopens. “I think some of the stuff is lost forever, and some of it isn’t,” Hassett said. Hassett said on Fox Business over the weekend that the shutdown’s impact on the economy was much worse than originally expected due to its extreme length. “I think we were thinking we’re going to have at least 3% growth in the fourth quarter, now we’re expecting something like half that,” Hassett said. The Bureau underwent significant changes in recent months, with Trump firing former commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a disappointing jobs report, claiming without evidence that the numbers were “rigged.” Trump then nominated E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, before he dropped out. William J. Wiatrowski, a longtime agency employee who was promoted to deputy BLS commissioner in 2015, has been the acting commissioner since McEntarfer’s firing.

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Supreme Court extends temporary pause on $4 billion in SNAP payments for November

With a potential end to the government shutdown in sight, the Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a freeze on a federal judge’s ruling that would require the Trump administration to fully fund the SNAP food program in November. The decision means the government, for now, does not have to distribute about $4 billion in additional SNAP funding as required by Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell. The Supreme Court block remains in place until midnight on Thursday. The case would likely become moot if the shutdown ends, as the bipartisan bill to reopen the government would fully fund the SNAP program through September of next year. The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the Senate-passed measure to end the record-long shutdown.

Nearly 42 million people rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. "The only way to end this crisis — which the Executive is adamant to end — is for Congress to reopen the government," Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the Trump administration's latest court filing. The brief court order noted that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the government's request. The court had temporarily put McConnell’s ruling on hold Friday while it waited for the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to act. That court on Monday morning declined to intervene. The Trump administration has argued that, because of the shutdown, it could only spend $5 billion out of a contingency fund to partially pay for November SNAP benefits. The program usually costs about $9 billion a month. The government objected to McConnell’s order that required the other roughly $4 billion to be paid from a separate pot of money that funds child nutrition programs, called Section 32. The practical impact of the Supreme Court decision Tuesday means that until the government shutdown ends, the SNAP program will be about 65% funded. The Trump administration's failure to fund SNAP was challenged by a coalition including cities, churches and nonprofits that provide food assistance.

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The Epstein files fight is finally coming to the House floor

The Epstein files fight is finally coming to the House floor Long-delayed swearing-in of Arizona Democrat will set the stage for a vote President Trump has sought to avoid. Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) speaks with reporters after a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on the 15th day of a government shutdown, Oct. 15, 2025. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images) Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) will kick the process into motion Wednesday when she signs a House discharge petition following her swearing-in. | Francis Chung/POLITICO By Meredith Lee Hill, Hailey Fuchs and Nicholas Wu 11/12/2025 04:45 AM EST The monthslong bipartisan effort to sidestep Speaker Mike Johnson and force the release of all Justice Department files on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is kicking into high gear this week, setting up a December floor battle that President Donald Trump has sought to avoid. The cascade of action is set to begin Wednesday evening, when Johnson will swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva right before the House votes to end the government shutdown, ending a 50-day wait following the Arizona Democrat’s election. Shortly afterward, Grijalva says she will affix the 218th and final signature to the discharge petition led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to force a vote on the full release of DOJ’s Epstein files.

That in itself will be the culmination of months of drama that blew up into a full crisis for Johnson this summer, with a GOP mutiny grinding the floor to a halt and forcing leaders to send the House home early for August recess. The uproar over a possible Epstein cover-up faded but never disappeared entirely. The completion of the discharge petition, a rarely used mechanism to sidestep the majority party leadership, will trigger a countdown for the bill to hit the House floor. It will still take seven legislative days for the petition to ripen, after which Johnson will have two legislative days to schedule a vote. Senior Republican and Democratic aides estimate a floor vote will come the first week of December, after the Thanksgiving recess. The discharge petition tees up a “rule,” a procedural measure setting the terms of debate for the Epstein bill’s consideration on the House floor. This gives the effort’s leaders greater control over the bill, which will still require Senate approval if it passes the House.

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More than 850 flights canceled in US early Wednesday, tracker says

At least 878 flights were canceled in the United States early on Wednesday, with the departures from the busy hubs of Chicago, Denver and Atlanta leading the list of the most cancellations, according to a flight-data tracker. Another 404 flights had been delayed as of about 5 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware. Chicago O’Hare International topped the tracker’s list of cancellations, with 44 as of about 4 a.m. local time. Next was Denver with 43 and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson with 37. Wednesday’s flight cancellations appeared set to continue a dayslong streak of chaos at American airports, which were operating under duress amid a federal government shutdown. The Federal Aviation Administration continues to limit capacity at 40 major U.S. airports. Many federal employees, including Transportation Security Administration staffers, were working without pay as the partisan impasse dragged on in Washington.

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New Yorkers fill gun classes as concealed carry applications surge

In New York City, once proudly unwelcoming to guns, residents are arming up. Since June 2022, when a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision forced state lawmakers to relax longstanding restrictions, tens of thousands of New Yorkers have sought permits to carry concealed weapons outside the home. The number of permit applications submitted per month has risen nearly tenfold in the past three years, according to an analysis of New York Police Department data by THE CITY and The Trace. This boom could portend a city where legally carrying a firearm becomes, as in most other parts of the country, commonplace.

New York state requires every would-be gun carrier to go through a “safety training course” involving 16 hours of instruction, a written proficiency exam, and a live-fire assessment. That’s more training hours than any state but Maryland and Illinois requires, according to legal experts. But New York hasn’t standardized the classes beyond outlining a handful of topics to touch on. As a result, a growing group of gun aficionados have stepped in to develop and run them. A person who passes a pair of National Rifle Association training courses can become a “duly authorized instructor.” Few instructors are busier than Lance Dashefsky. The 57-year-old has more reviews on the U.S. Concealed Carry Association’s website than anyone else in the New York City area, earning a five-star rating. Most weekends, he is helping residents get locked and loaded. On a drizzly Sunday morning in October, he laid out bagels and lox in an empty youth center in East Harlem to which a friend had lent him access. Eleven students were signed up for the training, which would be divided over two weekends, and they showcased the breadth of interest. An accountant from Jamaica, Queens, had heard about the class through a co-worker. A teacher from Brooklyn learned about it from her husband, who had taken it first. A rangy equity trader from the West Village was referred by his landlord. “I don’t advertise anymore,” Dashefsky said. “It’s self-advertising.”

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Lead Stories

Even as Senate passes measure to end shutdown, hemp fight may prevent reopening

Though Congress appears to have a deal to end the government shutdown, a vote on that agreement is being held up by an unexpected issue: hemp. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is objecting to speedy consideration of the bill that would end the longest shutdown in U.S. history over a hemp provision tucked into funding for the Agriculture Department, three people familiar with conversations but not authorized to discuss them publicly told NBC News. The provision would close the so-called hemp loophole created by the 2018 Farm Bill that has allowed unregulated THC products to be sold around the country, irrespective of state cannabis laws. Paul has long pushed to keep the loophole and told GOP leadership and hemp industry insiders that he wouldn’t give his consent to speed up passage of the government funding legislation unless the loophole is preserved, according to two of those people.

A spokesperson for Paul, who has voted against federal funding bills for a majority of his 15-year career in the Senate, told NBC News: “Dr. Rand Paul affirms his commitment to reopening the government without delay. However, he objects to the inclusion of provisions in the government-funding package that unfairly target Kentucky’s hemp industry—language that is unrelated to the budget and the government-reopening goal." "Dr. Paul will work to ensure that the final bill excludes this unrelated language to defend the livelihoods of Kentucky farmers, hemp processors, and manufacturing jobs," the spokesperson continued. Paul's opposition to the hemp provision is not enough to prevent Congress from passing legislation to reopen the government. But he can slow it down for several days, forcing the Senate to run through procedural hurdles before approving the bill. The agreement to end the shutdown announced Sunday represents a collaboration between a group of Democratic senators and Republicans. It is expected to pass the Senate and the House before heading to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature to reopen the government.

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USDA official who roiled Capitol Hill with his erotica now one of Rollins’ closest advisers

The USDA staffer whose smutty novella sparked controversy in September — and inside President Donald Trump’s White House, where top aides considered his termination — remains at the department. In fact, he’s been promoted — despite the swift blowback his foray into penmanship sparked just months ago. After the dust settled, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins quietly made Tucker Stewart a trusted legal adviser, moving him out of his position as deputy assistant secretary of agriculture in the department’s congressional affairs unit, according to five people. Those people, who include an agriculture lobbyist, two Capitol Hill aides and others with knowledge of the matter, were all granted anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive personnel matters.

A spokesperson for the USDA verified that Stewart has left the agency’s congressional affairs unit and “is now working on USDA’s lawfare portfolio.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Stewart did not respond to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn. His reassignment has also left a void in USDA’s office of congressional relations during a chaotic time for farmers and participants in USDA’s nutrition programs, all of which have been affected by the shutdown. (Former Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.) is still awaiting Senate confirmation for the post of assistant secretary for congressional affairs.) Rollins, one of the people said, told colleagues she “felt bad” for the humiliation Stewart endured when POLITICO broke the story of his 28-page novel, written when he was a congressional aide, followed by a monologue by “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert. The new position, a second person said, places the young Kansan in Rollins’ inner circle and in a position to advise the secretary on some of the most sensitive initiatives at the department.

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Camp Mystic sued by families of 7 who died in July 4 flood

Camp Mystic and the family that runs the Christian girls summer camp have been accused of putting “profit over safety” by the families of seven campers and two counselors who died in the July 4 Central Texas flood that killed 27 people. Three separate lawsuits were filed Monday in Travis County district court. In a 32-page lawsuit filed Monday afternoon, a set of families representing seven who died in the flood brought claims brought claims of negligence, premises liability, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful death. The families are seeking more than $1 million in damages and have demanded a jury trial. “The Camp chose to house young girls in cabins sitting in flood-prone areas, despite the risk, to avoid the cost of relocating the cabins,” the lawsuit alleges.

“The Camp chose not to make plans to safely evacuate its campers and counselors from those cabins, despite state rules requiring evacuation plans, and not to spend time and money on safety training and tools. Instead, the Camp chose to assure its campers and counselors that these cabins are built on ‘high, safe locations.’ And the Camp chose to order its campers and counselors, as a matter of policy, to stay in these flood-plain cabins regardless of life-threatening floods.” The plaintiffs in that suit are Warren and Patricia Bellows, parents of Anna Margaret Bellows; Blake and Caitlin Bonner, parents of Lila Bonner; Matthew and Wendie Childress, parents of Chloe Childress; Ryan and Elizabeth Dewitt, parents of Molly Dewitt; John and Andrea Ferruzzo, parents of Katherine Ferruzzo; Ben and Natalie Landry, parents of Lainey Landry; and Lindsey McCrory, mother of Blakely McCrory. Separately, Timothy Peck and Melissa Peck, the parents of Eloise “Lulu” Peck, who was 8 years old when she died, filed a separate 31-page lawsuit against Camp Mystic alleging negligence that seeks more than $1 million in damages and a demand for a jury trial.

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Death of Regina Santos-Aviles ruled a suicide

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the death of Regina Santos-Aviles, a congressional staffer for U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales, as a suicide by self-immolation following an investigation into the September incident at her Uvalde home. Santos-Aviles, 35, served as Gonzales’ Uvalde Regional District Director. She was found critically burned in her backyard the night of Sept. 13, after emergency crews responded to reports of a disturbance around 9:30 p.m. Paramedics transported her by air to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where she died early the next morning on Sept. 14. Firefighters reported finding and extinguishing a burning gas can at the scene. According to the Uvalde Police Department, which investigated the case with assistance from the Texas Rangers, there was no indication of foul play and no evidence that anyone else was present when the fire occurred.

In an Oct. 24 letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, attorneys representing the City of Uvalde requested that investigative materials—including 911 recordings, police reports, and body-camera footage—be withheld from public release. The city argued that the records contain highly sensitive information and that their release would infringe on the privacy rights of Santos-Aviles’ family. The letter also stated that the investigation would soon be closed without any criminal charges being filed. Under Texas law, records from cases that do not result in a conviction or deferred adjudication may be exempt from disclosure. Representative Gonzales has not publicly commented on his staffer’s death. The case has drawn broad public scrutiny and renewed debate over how much information should be released in sensitive death investigations involving public officials or their employees. Both state and local agencies have cited privacy protections and ongoing investigative procedures as reasons for withholding records.

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State Stories

Chris Bell joins the race for Texas governor in 2026

Former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell on Monday announced a campaign to challenge Republican incumbent Greg Abbott for governor. “Given what we saw in the elections last Tuesday, people are ready for change,” Bell told The Dallas Morning News, saying that his record of public service and interactions with voters throughout a long career in politics give him an edge against Abbott. Abbott launched his reelection campaign Sunday in Houston. “The experience factor is going to be huge,” said Bell, who announced his campaign with an Austin news conference. Bell, 65, is running in the March 3 Democratic primary in a field that includes state Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin, Houston businessman Andrew White and Quitman rancher Bobby Cole. He said he was the best choice to be the nominee against Abbott.

“It’s one thing to talk. It’s another thing to deliver,” Bell said. “I have a record that people can look to, and they don’t have to be guessing about how I handle certain issues.” “That’s going to be especially important for a Democratic governor working with what will most likely be a Republican-majority House and Senate,” Bell added. “I’ve been in those situations before, where I have had to look to work things out with people on the other side, and I really have always enjoyed doing so.” Bell, a Houston lawyer, was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2006, when he lost to Republican Rick Perry. A former Houston council member, Bell served one term in Congress (2003-2005). He was caught up in the Republican-driven 2003 redistricting effort. His 25th Congressional District was renumbered District 9 and revised to include a heavy majority of Black and Latino voters. In 2004 Democrat Al Green, a former president of the Houston NAACP, won the seat.

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State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer considers a run for Bexar County district attorney

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer is considering a run for Bexar County district attorney. The San Antonio native announced Monday he formed an exploratory committee of local attorneys to help decide whether to seek the Democratic nomination. Martinez Fischer — an attorney in private practice — currently represents House District 116, which includes a large portion of the city's northwest side. He previously served as the chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2022-2024. The district attorney seat is up for election in November 2026. Current Bexar County DA Joe Gonzales, a Democrat, announced earlier this year he would not be seeking reelection for a third term as the county’s top lawyer.

“I am concerned about the void being left at the District Attorney’s office and the impact it will have on our community,” Martinez Fischer said in a press release. “I will seek counsel from our legal community … and consult with county leaders on how best to implement any necessary financial and structural changes to strengthen this office.” The exploratory committee will be led by three local attorneys, each of whom has been practicing law for more than 40 years. Criminal District Court Judge Ron Rangel formed a similar exploratory committee earlier this summer, but announced last month he would not run for the position.

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'We’re scared': Texas providers urge state to reconsider Medicaid cuts to medical supply services

Providers warn proposed cuts to Texas' Medicaid reimbursement rates could hurt medical supply companies and the patients that rely on them. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is proposing significant cuts to reimbursement rates for dozens of services provided through Medicaid, like ventilators and wheelchairs. Providers said during a public hearing Monday the cuts could reduce access to services or lead to closures. Stephen Hernandez, director of operations at Angel Medical Supply in Houston, said these cuts could lead to a decrease in vital support for patients throughout Texas. “Everybody in here is scared,” Hernandez said. “And if we're scared, imagine how the patients feel.”

Hernandez was one of dozens of providers who asked HHSC to reconsider the new rate proposals for services related to feeding tubes, mobility aids and respiratory care. Angel Medical Supply serves patients within a 100-mile radius of Houston. Hernandez said these cuts could lead to companies like his limiting what services they provide and who they can provide the services to. “We can't be smarter than this,” he said. “There's no cutting costs. You can't cut your way out of this.” The proposed changes would reduce reimbursement rates for some services by more than half, with some cuts reaching up to 85%. If approved, majority of the cuts would go into effect next year. Stephen Vigorito’s son uses a feeding tube known as enteral nutrition. That service would face a cut of more than 44%. “There are no other alternatives except for him to go on a continuous feed... instead of the feeding pump, which means a decreased quality of life,” Vigorito said. “It appears that there's like this calculus, like how can we reduce [medical supply company] profit enough to where they'll still stay in business but just limp along.”

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Runoff election for Houston’s 18th Congressional District on track for late January

It's been nearly a week since Houston voters chose the top two candidates in the special election to fill out the term of the late Congressman Sylvester Turner, and Gov. Greg Abbott has yet to schedule the runoff for Texas' 18th Congressional District. On Monday, a spokesman for Abbott told Houston Public Media, “An announcement on that will be made at a later date.” Abbott is constrained as to when he can call the runoff by both federal and state election laws, according to University of Houston Law Center assistant professor David Froomkin.

"The state election code requires that the runoff be held between 70 and 77 days, or in other words, between 10 and 11 weeks after the final canvass of the election," Froomkin said. That 10-11 week window is designed to guarantee participation of serving members of the military based overseas, under the federal MOVE (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment) Act. Harris County expects to canvass the results of the election on Thursday, Nov. 14. The Texas state election code requires that the runoff take place on a Saturday, which effectively limits the date the secretary of state can set to January 24, 2026. That will leave just three weeks between the runoff and the start of early voting for the 2026 primary elections. The runoff candidates are acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards, both Democrats.

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Abbott orders DPS investigation after financial audit at Texas Southern

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers and state comptroller to investigate Texas Southern University's finances after the state auditor allegedly uncovered mismanagement worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including asset oversight, contracting and financial reporting. "Waste, fraud, and abuse will not be tolerated," Abbott said on X. "TSU's Board of Regents and all university officials must fully cooperate with these investigations to ensure taxpayer dollars are not squandered." Abbott's announcement came Monday after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick released a copy of the state auditor's "interim update" on the audit, which has not been finalized. Patrick also said he would ask Abbott and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, to work with him to freeze the Legislature's appropriations to the university.

Abbott did not address a possible freeze in his statement, and his office did not return a request for comment. Burrows said that he would work with Abbott and Patrick to identify any potential misuse of state funds, and would exercise their authority as members of the Legislative Budget Board as needed. TSU officials said Monday that they had already remedied some issues. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to further questions, including what a freeze on state funding would mean for the school's 1,400 faculty and staff and more than 9,000 students. The university, a historically Black institution, is slated to receive almost $123 million from the state in the 2026 fiscal year, supporting a $248 million operating budget. "Texas Southern University has cooperated with the state auditor in evaluating our processes," officials said in a statement. "The University enacted corrective measures prior to the release of the interim report, including a new procurement system. We look forward to gaining clarity and continuing to work with the state auditor to ensure transparency for all taxpayers of Texas."

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Ken Paxton softens tone in UNT speech weeks after launching university investigation

The Ken Paxton who took to the stage at the Lyceum Theatre at the University of North Texas on Monday sounded somehow softer than the Ken Paxton who announced last month that his office was investigating the university. The Texas attorney general launched an investigation into UNT's response to campus reactions to the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September. UNT student Mary-Catherine Hallmark posted a video on TikTok that went viral, showing a confrontation she had with another student she said celebrated the death of Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA. While the viral video didn't show any students cheering, Hallmark said the celebration happened when she wasn't recording, and that some students said "the same thing needs to happen to Donald Trump."

"You know, there's been a little controversy here," Paxton said Monday evening at UNT. "And I really am so appreciative of Mary-Catherine, her courage and the courage of other students that are willing to stand up and exercise their right to free speech." Paxton told the audience that students who allegedly celebrated Kirk's assassination were exercising their First Amendment rights, something he hasn't said in his press releases about the campus controversy. He reserved his jabs for the UNT faculty "who are very liberal." "And that's why I appreciate so much what Mary-Catherine did by speaking out against speech that was actually calling for the death of a president, or celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk," Paxton said. "That's free speech. But it's also sickening. I mean, somebody has just been killed. For those kinds of thoughts to be exercised, with no discretion and no thoughtfulness for what that does to people around you, and for ... the family members of Charlie Kirk." Paxton's office hasn't named any faculty member or administrator in the investigation.

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TAMU Regents to vote on revised race, gender classroom discussion policy

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents will vote on revisions to A&M’s Civil Rights Protection and Compliance and Academic Freedom, Responsibility and Tenure policies on Thursday, Nov. 13. The proposed changes follow the controversial firing of senior lecturer Melissa McCoul in early September, an instructor who became the center of a social media firestorm when Rep. Brian Harrison (R-10) leaked a video of a student confronting McCoul over her discussion of gender studies in the classroom. The revisions were submitted to the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs as a joint policy by General Counsel for the System R. Brooks Moore and recommended for approval by Chancellor Glenn Hegar and Executive Vice Chancellor Susan Ballabina, Ph. D. There are set to be no changes to System funding or other financial implications as part of those changes.

The Civil Rights Protection and Compliance policy is proposed to be amended to include supplementary definitions of gender and race ideology. The changes outlined in the agenda items for the meeting define gender ideology as “a concept of self-assessed gender identity replacing, and disconnected from, the biological category of sex,” and race ideology as “a concept that attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity, accuse them of being oppressors in a racial hierarchy or conspiracy, ascribe to them less value as contributors to society and public discourse because of their race or ethnicity, or assign them intrinsic guilt based on the actions of their presumed ancestors or relatives in other areas of the world.” Additionally, the amendment notes this “also includes course content that promotes activism on issues related to race or ethnicity, rather than academic instruction.”

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This week could mark beginning of the end of Dallas City Hall.

This Wednesday, the City Council will consider whether it’s time to vacate City Hall for, well, other to-be-named-later pastures. The cost of repairing City Hall continues to balloon to the point that the $81.25 million baseline that we wrote about in August seems quaint. Nevertheless, at its Wednesday meeting, the Council will potentially direct city staff to “evaluate economic development options to redevelop City Hall in a manner supportive of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Master Plan, that increases tax revenue to the City of Dallas, and that creates catalytic growth in the central business district.”

The resolution doesn’t necessarily make it a forgone conclusion that the world will have one fewer I.M. Pei building, but it certainly brings it a little closer to being true. Already, we’ve seen op-eds in the Dallas Morning News from developers Shawn Todd, Lucy Billingsley, and Craig Hall urging “bold action” to “take down” the nearly 50-year-old I.M. Pei building so the property can be redeveloped for “enormous economic development opportunities.” Sources tell me that this vote could go either way. Last week’s Council committee meetings on the topic gave me the feeling that, while the discussion about the state of City Hall has been ongoing for a while, the talk of tearing it down seems to be operating on someone else’s timeline. That timeline very well could align with Mavericks CEO Rick Welts’ goal of naming a new site for the team’s next arena by the end of the year.

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Mark Cuban, Jerry Jones join 100 other Dallas investors to launch $5 million nonprofit fund

A star-studded group of investors, families, entrepreneurs, corporations, and nonprofits have pooled $5 million to launch a GreenLight Fund in Dallas. With the capital, GreenLight—a nonprofit founded in Boston in 2004—plans to address some of Dallas’ most critical unmet needs tied to racial, social, and economic inequities. The Dallas outpost marks the organization’s 15th fund in the United States. Across its 14 cities, the nonprofit has invested $42 million in 63 organizations and helped draw $400 million in additional funding. Last year alone, it reached more than 1.3 million individuals and families.

“We want to be an addition, not a substitution, for all the great things United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and all the other organizations in Dallas are doing,” said longtime private equity investor John Simon, who also serves as the co-founder and board chair of GreenLight Fund. “From the very beginning, we always wanted to come to Dallas. The city has big companies moving in, the economy is growing and diversifying, and a lot of amazing things are going on. But certain populations are falling further and further behind with less economic mobility.” GreenLight has expanded to Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and now Dallas. Houston, Phoenix, Cleveland, and Seattle are all potential cities on the roadmap, according to Simon. “I invested because I thought this was a positive for the city,” Mark Cuban told D CEO. “I didn’t get into the specifics on where they’d invest the funds—they can make the decision they think is best. All I’ll say is: I like helping Dallas.”

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Proposed Muslim-centric community renamed

Collin County Judge Chris Hill says the developer of an Islamic-focused neighborhood near Josephine has changed the name of the project from EPIC City to The Meadow.Hill said Community Capital Partners (CCP) had not yet filed any paperwork with the county but was expected to seek approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to form a municipal utility district and also could soon file a plat with the county.The 402-acre development in Collin and Hunt Counties was proposed by members of the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC). It was expected to include more than 1,000 homes, a mosque, school and retail outlets.More than 60 residents spoke against the project at a March 31 meeting of the Collin County Commissioners Court.

Hill said the county’s role would include ensuring compliance with state and county regulations, particularly regarding infrastructure and utilities. “All Texas and all federal laws will be adhered to in this project, just as they are in all projects in our county,” he said.Houston lawyer Dan Cogdell, who represents CCP, said the project had been the victim of racial profiling. “These aren’t foreign adversaries,” Cogdell said. “These are Texans. These are Americans. These are United States citizens.”

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Study links all-day phone bans to modest academic gains

Nearly three months into its implementation, Texas’ new school cellphone ban has led to fewer classroom distractions and more conversation among students, North Texas district leaders say. But if the results in Texas are similar to those seen elsewhere, school leaders here can expect to see benefits beyond an improved school climate, new research suggests. “I think you can expect to see improved learning environments, probably a little bit better test scores, a little bit a little bit better attendance rates and engagement,” said David Figlio, an economics professor at the University of Rochester who recently published a study on the impact of school cellphone restrictions elsewhere.

Texas’ new statewide school cellphone ban took effect at the beginning of the school year. The law requires districts to enact policies barring students from having their phones out anytime during the school day, including at lunch and during passing periods between classes. Some districts have adopted policies requiring students to leave their phones in a locked pouch in the school office at the beginning of the school day. Others allow students to keep their phones with them, but require them to keep them in a pocket or backpack during school hours. Matt Smith, superintendent of the Arlington Independent School District, said the policy has made a noticeable difference on campuses. Teachers say they spend less time dealing with distractions, he said. And where students previously spent their lunch period buried in their phones, they now spend it talking with each other. One principal in the district recently bought a handful of games for the school cafeteria and walked in one day to find a group of students playing on a life-size checker board, Smith said.

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Texas' transitional dialysis program led to significant decline in utilization of emergency dialysis

A new study reveals that a transitional dialysis program piloted in Travis County (Austin, TX) resulted in a significant decrease in emergency department visits and hospital admissions for emergency dialysis by providing a pathway for outpatient dialysis in uninsured patients. The findings were presented at ASN Kidney Week 2025, held November 5–9. Central Health, an organization that provides health and wellness services for uninsured patients in Travis County, piloted the transitional dialysis program in November 2022. The goal was to provide in-center/outpatient dialysis for Travis County residents who lacked insurance coverage.

When investigators reviewed data from November 2022 to December 2024 on the 101 patients who enrolled in the program, they observed that there was a significant decline in the number of days patients utilized emergency dialysis in the hospital prior to finding an outpatient facility. Additionally, within one year of starting dialysis, most patients were able to obtain permanent dialysis access with either an arteriovenous fistula or a peritoneal dialysis catheter. Once accepted into the program, Central Health provided an insurance plan to cover outpatient dialysis and transplantation. To date, 18 patients have been listed for kidney transplantation, and two have received living donor transplants.

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National Stories

Supreme Court rejects bid to overturn same-sex marriage ruling

The Supreme Court rejected a long-shot effort Monday to overturn its ruling guaranteeing same-sex marriage nationwide. Former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis directly asked the justices to overrule the 2015 landmark decision after a jury awarded damages to a couple whom Davis refused to issue a marriage license. “The Court can and should fix this mistake,” her attorneys wrote in court filings. In a brief order, the justices declined to take up Davis’s appeal, alongside dozens of other petitions up for consideration at the justices’ weekly closed-door conference. There were no noted dissents.

Court-watchers viewed Davis’s appeal as a long-shot effort, but it sparked trepidation among LGBTQ rights groups, since several conservative justices who dissented in the decade-old case remain on the court. Davis gained national attention after she raised religious objections to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Among the refused couples was David Ermold and David Moore, who sued. Davis was found to have violated a judge’s order in another case, which required her to keep issuing licenses. Davis was jailed for five days, the couple obtained their license and Kentucky later passed a law enabling clerks to keep their signatures off marriage certificates.

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Age is the issue that Democrats can’t shut down

The Democratic unity and good feelings after the party’s big election victories lasted under a week. Now, the knives are back out. As eight Democratic-aligned senators with an average age of about 70 voted with Republicans to end the 40-day government shutdown without the health care concessions Democrats had demanded, the party again convulsed with two questions that have long racked its members: How old is too old and how vigorously should they fight Republicans? Democrats are still dealing with the fallout of Joe Biden’s calamitous decision to seek re-election at age 79. What has been less discussed is the fallout of having so many members of Congress who are at (and well beyond) retirement age.

And as liberal voters just found out, it’s a lot easier to vote for something your base hates if you’re too old to worry about re-election. Of the Democratic-aligned senators who voted for the shutdown deal, two are not running again: Dick Durbin of Illinois, 80, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, 78. Angus King of Maine is 81 and Jacky Rosen of Nevada is 68. Both Tim Kaine of Virginia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire are 67. All would be past 70 years old if they decide to run again when their terms end. The other “yes” votes were from Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, 61, who represents a state where the Las Vegas tourism industry feared taking a major hit from canceled flights, and from John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who is just 56 but has already alienated much of his party by embracing Trump on a slew of issues. “This is the problem with the gerontocracy,” said Amanda Litman, the leader of Run for Something, a group that recruits young progressive candidates to run for office. “When you have older leaders who are never going to face re-election again, you make decisions that are disconnected from what their voters believe.”

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Trump threatens to sue the BBC for $1 billion after Jan. 6 documentary

President Trump on Monday threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion over a documentary that his lawyer claimed included “malicious, disparaging” edits to a speech Mr. Trump delivered on Jan. 6, 2021. The legal threat came in a letter from Alejandro Brito, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, to the BBC that was obtained by The New York Times. The letter demanded a full retraction of the documentary, an apology and what his lawyers said would be payments that “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.” The letter said that if those demands were not met, “President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages.” It said that the lawsuit would be filed if the BBC had not taken action by this Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern time.

“The BBC is on notice,” the letter said, adding, “PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.” The head of the BBC, Tim Davie, and the chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness, resigned on Sunday after growing pressure over the editing of the documentary. The BBC said on its website that it had received a letter threatening legal action and that it would “respond in due course.” The documentary, called “Trump: A Second Chance?” and broadcast before the presidential election last year, had already been removed from the BBC’s online player. Samir Shah, the BBC’s chair, said in a separate letter Monday that complaints about the editing of the clip had been discussed by the standards committee in January and May, and that the points raised in the review had been relayed to the BBC team that produced the documentary, part of a long-running current affairs series called Panorama. “With hindsight, it would have been better to take more formal action,” he wrote. He added: “We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgment.”

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Democratic senators blame White House, AI data centers for rising electricity prices

Democratic senators on Monday blamed the White House push to fast track artificial intelligence data centers and its attacks on renewable energy for rising electricity prices in certain parts of the U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and others demanded that the White House and Commerce Department detail what actions they have taken to shield consumers from the impact of massive data centers in a letter sent Monday. Voters are increasingly feeling the pinch of rising electricity prices. Democrats Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger campaigned on the issue in the New Jersey and Virgina governors’ races, which they won in landslides last week. The senators took aim at the White House’s relationship with companies like Meta, Alphabet, Oracle, and OpenAI, and the support the administration has shown for the companies’ data center plans.

The Trump administration “has already failed to prevent those new data centers from driving up electricity prices from a surge of new commercial demand,” the senators wrote. They accused the White House of making the problem worse by opposing the expansion of solar and wind power. The White House blamed the Biden administration and its renewable energy policies for driving up electricity prices in a statement. President Donald Trump “declared an energy emergency to reverse four years of Biden’s disastrous policies, accelerate large-scale grid infrastructure projects, and expedite the expansion of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power generation,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said. The tech sector’s AI plans have ballooned in size. OpenAI and Nvidia, for example, struck a deal in September to build 10 gigawatts of data centers to train and run AI applications. This is equivalent to New York City’s peak baseline summer demand in 2024. The scale of these plans have raised questions about whether enough power is available to meet the demand and who will pay for the new generation that is needed. Renewable energy, particularly solar and energy storage, is the power source that can be deployed the quickest right now to meet demand. Retail electricity prices in the U.S. increased about 6% on average through August 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration. Prices, however, can vary widely by region.

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When neighbors lost SNAP benefits, the internet stepped in to feed them

Ashleigh Young hit her breaking point in late October. Months after rising grocery prices forced her to skip meals to keep her children fed, Young received a text alerting her that her $250 benefits in monthly food assistance benefits were unlikely to arrive in November. That text, coupled with her son throwing out his uneaten breakfast that morning, broke the typically stoic mother of two. She began to cry. “How do I tell my son, ‘You can’t throw away your breakfast because I don’t know that we’re going to be able to afford food next month,'” she said. In a now-viral TikTok recorded that October day, Young tearfully explained that she had stopped eating dinner about two months before to stretch her family’s meals. The 42-day government shutdown, which appears likely to end this week, put extraordinary stress on 42 million people who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps.

It also expanded a relatively new form of online activism featuring people like Young, who lost those benefits and turned to social media not only as a source of commiseration and political protest, but also found that going viral helped them pay for food. Young’s video eventually amassed more than 2 million views. Commenters on the video asked how they could donate — and they did. Young raised $2,500 — more than enough to ensure her family could afford groceries for the next two months. She distributed much of the remaining funds to local food organizations and moms in her community. Most of the money Young received came in small donations from others also struggling, like a person who sent the $8 left over after paying their bills, which they said they normally used to buy one latte a week. Young sent it back and told them they deserved the drink. “Why should people have to choose between affordable health care [and] making sure we get fed?” Young said of the ongoing government shutdown, in which Democrats demanded that Republicans extend health care subsidies that will expire next month. “It’s sickening to me that we’re being basically used as leverage.”

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Federal and state websites descend into political finger-pointing as SNAP fight drags on

Some agencies that administer food assistance benefits have posted partisan messages on government websites as the federal shutdown drags on. The U.S. Department of Agriculture informed states late last month that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP would be paused for November if the shutdown continued. Funding for the program, which serves nearly 42 million people each month, remains up in the air as a court battle over the frozen benefits continues. Though SNAP is federally funded, each state administers the program differently – leaving it up to states to communicate about the pause. State agencies in Texas and Iowa linked to documents addressing frequently asked questions. In Michigan and Missouri, state agencies provided lists of food banks and nonprofits that could help SNAP recipients during the shutdown.

A few states took a more partisan approach in addition to providing information and resources. A header on all web pages within the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services site includes a quote from Gov. Jim Pillen saying SNAP benefits will not be available in November "due to a failure by Democrats in the U.S. Senate." The message was initially posted without attribution before quotation marks and Pillen's name were added on Oct. 30. Department spokesperson Jeff Powell said the message was added "per consultation with Gov. Pillen's office." "It has since been updated to eliminate any confusion about its source, which was Gov. Pillen," Powell said. In Illinois, a drop-down notice on the state's Applications for Benefits Eligibility site previously referred to the "Republican federal government shutdown" and put the onus on "the Trump administration to reopen the government." That language has since been softened, but it still directly names the Trump administration and the federal government.

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Trump’s $2,000 tariff dividend may be a smart political move. But it would be a huge economic gamble

One of the only things that polls worse than the Trump economy is the president’s almost unprecedented use of tariffs. The White House, in an apparent bid to turn sentiment around on both the economy and tariffs, is once again floating a bold idea: redeploying tariff revenue to fund $2,000 dividend checks to lower- and middle-income Americans. It’s easy to see how these tariff rebate payments could win over skeptical voters and help people who are struggling financially. Yet beyond the political appeal, it’s hard to make sense of the economic logic behind this idea. Economists tell CNN that tariffs are unlikely to generate enough revenue to pay for dividend payments the size President Donald Trump has promised.

If all the tariff revenue is blown on dividend payments, there would be nothing left to chip away at the $38 trillion national debt – one of Trump’s other promises. Depending on how they are structured, dividend payments could even add to America’s mountain of debt. If rebate checks are distributed, history shows that many Americans would likely spend some or all of their cash from Uncle Sam. This would increase demand without boosting supply, which could worsen the cost-of-living problem at the heart of Americans’ frustrations with the economy. “All of this is exactly the wrong recipe if you want to get inflation under control and make things feel more affordable,” Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, told CNN in a phone interview. The risk of raising prices is why direct payments, typically called stimulus checks, are normally reserved for emergencies when demand is low – such as during the 2008 financial crisis or the Covid pandemic. Even during the pandemic, stimulus checks may have been partly to blame for the ensuing inflation crisis. The St. Louis Federal Reserve estimated that US fiscal stimulus during Covid contributed 2.6 percentage points to annual inflation.

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Lead Stories

Greg Abbott kicks off reelection campaign with aggressive property tax relief plan

Gov. Greg Abbott officially launched his reelection campaign Sunday with a promise to provide Texans significant property tax relief, including the ability for voters to abolish property taxes that fund public schools. “Local governments must live within their own means — just like you have to live within your means,” Abbott said during a Houston rally. “I want all property tax increases to be voted on and approved by two-thirds of voters.” Abbott released a one-page synopsis of his plan before his speech, which stated “despite record state relief, local government tax increases have wiped out billions in savings for homeowners” and “voters deserve the right to decide whether to abolish school district taxes.”

Abbott’s plan does not detail how public schools would be funded without school district property taxes. Last week voters approved a series of constitutional amendments, many of them related to property tax relief. “We are going to turn the tables on local taxing authorities, put the power with the people, and end out-of-control property taxes in Texas,” Abbott said. Abolishing school property taxes would require a Texas constitutional amendment, which can only be placed on the ballot with 100 votes in the Texas House and 21 in the Senate. Public school advocates and local leaders have been wary of plans to mitigate the taxing authority of municipalities or abolish property taxes outright. Former Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said removing property taxes as a funding source could create more reliance on sales taxes to fund services like public education. “A sales tax is a progressive tax and creates an unfair burden on poor folks,” Hinojosa said. “If you take away the property taxes, it just creates an unfortunate division between the haves and the have-nots. It’s popular with people who own property, but it’s not popular when you’re trying to run government, to run a school district, to run the city or municipality where you need services that everybody benefits from, like sewer and water and schools and roads.”

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Senate clears major hurdle to end shutdown

The Senate voted 60-40 late Sunday to move forward with a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government through Jan. 30, combined with a three-bill minibus covering FY2026 funding for MilCon-VA, Agriculture and the Legislative Branch. This package includes language reversing the mass firing of federal workers during the shutdown and barring future layoffs through Jan. 30. This was a huge moment. Eight Senate Democrats broke with the party in voting to end the shutdown in exchange for a commitment from Senate Majority Leader John Thune to hold a vote by mid-December on expiring Obamacare subsidies — an offer Thune first made weeks ago. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who’s faced tremendous criticism from both the left and right during the impasse, was a no. That’s not saving Schumer from progressive fury, however. The Senate will come in at 11 a.m. today. While senators hope to finish voting on the CR-minibus package today to get home in time for Veterans’ Day on Tuesday, that would require consent from all 100 senators.

Then the House will need to take up the package. This could be Wednesday or Thursday. We’ll note that GOP leaders are now saying House members will get 36 hours — not 48 hours as previously promised — before any floor votes. But if you’re a House member, you should just start heading for Capitol Hill right now, just in case. The endgame of the shutdown is a major challenge for Schumer and other Democratic leaders, who now have to manage a situation where they may privately agree with the outcome but are publicly opposed. The base is very angry at Schumer — again — even though he voted with them. Most Senate Democrats were seething after a two-and-a-half-hour caucus meeting on Sunday night, lamenting that the handful of their colleagues providing the votes to reopen the government were making a huge mistake. Democrats saw last week’s election victories as a validation of their shutdown strategy that put them in an even stronger position. President Donald Trump said the shutdown has been “worse for us than for them.” “It would be a policy and political disaster for Democrats to cave,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said. “Essentially, if Democrats cave on this issue, what it would say to Donald Trump is he has a green light to go forward toward authoritarianism. And I think that would be a tragedy for this country.” Yet it was also painfully obvious after 40 days that Senate Republicans weren’t going to engage on the Obamacare subsidies until the shutdown was over.

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Trump pardons top allies who aided bid to subvert the 2020 election

President Donald Trump has pardoned a long list of prominent allies who backed his effort to subvert the 2020 election, according to Justice Department Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, who posted the relevant document Sunday night. Among those who received the “full, complete and unconditional” pardons were Rudy Giuliani, who helped lead an effort to pressure state legislatures to reject Joe Biden’s victories in key swing states; Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff in 2020 and a crucial go-between for Trump and state officials; John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, two attorneys who helped devise a strategy to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election on Jan. 6, 2021; Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump adviser; and Sidney Powell, a conservative attorney who launched a fringe legal assault on election results in key swing states. The pardons are largely symbolic — none of those identified were charged with federal crimes. The document posted by Martin is also undated, so it’s unclear when Trump signed it. The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Giuliani, Eastman and Powell were among those identified by former special counsel Jack Smith as Trump’s co-conspirators, though he never brought charges against them. The pardons would preclude any future administration from potentially pursuing a criminal case against them. The language of the pardon is broad, applying to “all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting activities, participation in or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors … as well for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 presidential election.” Though Trump has long insisted he has the power to pardon himself for federal crimes — an untested proposition — it appears he is not yet prepared to test that theory. Though the pardon document indicates it could apply to others who fit the same criteria, it explicitly excludes Trump. In addition to his inner circle, Trump pardoned dozens of GOP activists who signed paperwork falsely claiming to be legitimate presidential electors, a key component of the bid to pressure Pence.

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Fort Worth's Mercy Culture online class trains Christians to run for office. Now it may go national

Texas Rep. Nate Schatzline’s energy was palpable as he gazed out from the video on the computer screen, grinning ear to ear, the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up. The Republican legislator from Fort Worth had a message to share with people watching the prerecorded video: As a Christian, you have an essential role in politics and local government. “There is no greater calling than being civically engaged and bringing the values that Scripture teaches us into every realm of the earth,” Schatzline said. The legislator was teaching a section of Campaign University, a series of online lessons he and others associated with Fort Worth-based megachurch Mercy Culture created to raise up so-called “spirit-led candidates.” The course, created in 2021, is an extension of Mercy Culture’s increasingly overt political activities that have included candidate endorsements. The church’s political nonprofit, For Liberty & Justice, houses Campaign University.

Campaign University builds on Mercy Culture’s growing political reach as Schatzline, a pastor at the church, joins President Donald Trump’s National Faith Advisory Board and as the course now is offered at other congregations across the country. The lessons emphasize that would-be candidates don’t need to be experts in government or the Constitution to seek public office or a place in local government. They also train potential candidates to “stand for spiritual righteousness” and teach them how to build a platform and navigate the campaign trail while maintaining a strong family and church life. At the core of Campaign University is the idea that there is no separation between what happens within the church and what happens in the government. Students are taught to interpret the First Amendment’s establishment clause on the separation of church and state as a protection against government involvement in religion, rather than vice versa.

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State Stories

Austin city manager releases revised budget after voters reject Prop Q

The Austin City Council received a new version of the city’s fiscal year 2026 budget from the city manager’s office on Friday, days after voters rejected their request to raise property taxes to fund the budget they approved in August. After Austinites overwhelmingly rejected Proposition Q, the city no longer had the $109 million in additional property tax revenue included in the budget released in July. Now that the money is off the table, the city has released an amended budget proposal with significant cuts across several departments. Among the cuts are $38 million from social services contracts, nearly $6.3 million from the Austin Emergency Medical Services, $5.2 million from Parks and Recreation, $3.7 million from the Municipal Court, $1.3 million from Austin Public Health, and $1 million from the Austin Fire Department. The Homeless Strategy Office will see an increase of $3.7 million, according to the amended budget.

“It’s a serious morale hit,” said James Monks, president of the Austin EMS Association. “We supported [the proposition] because it included multiple resources and funding for our department,” he said. Monks said the added funding would have helped Austin EMS keep up with the city’s rapid growth by adding dozens of sworn EMS positions. “That funding was needed for resources that we have needed for a while,” Monks continued. “I think we’re just at a breaking point at this point. Something needs to change.” In a post on the council’s message board Thursday, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said that he spoke with City Manager T.C. Broadnax and his staff about the budget. “Voters told us that city government can’t be all things to all people. We can’t pick up all the expenses, grants, and needs that other levels of government don’t cover, even if they’re for things we think are important,” he wrote. “Voters want us to avoid adding to Austin’s unaffordability. Well, as I’ve said this week–message received.” “We have very clear marching orders, I think, from the public on how they expect us to approach this,” Watson said at a Friday press event. “I’m very pleased that the manager acted promptly.”

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Parts of Texas, including near S.A. under a freeze warning

Fellow Texans... have y'all stepped outside? If you haven't had your daily dose of touching grass, then you probably haven't felt the wonder of the temperatures outside dropping into sweater weather. And as the temperatures have already steadily fallen across the Lone Star State on Sunday, November 9, it's time to buckle that Texas sized buckle up even tighter and maybe pull out the tiger colcha. While San Antonio is looking ahead to low temperatures near the lower 40s, other parts of Texas have now fallen under a Freeze Warning, according to the National Weather Service. Including areas just minutes away from the 210.

Starting at midnight on Monday, November 10, parts of the Texas Hill Country and southern Edward's Plateau will be under a Freeze Warning, with parts of the area from Rocksrpings to Llano and even Georgetown near Austin, could experience temperatures between 26-32 degrees until 9 a.m. So is caldo on the menu before Veterans Day? It certainly may be for some. Elsewhere, beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday night until 9 a.m. Monday areas of Central and North Texas will be under a Freeze Warning. The NWS says some lower-lying areas could experience temperatures as low as 25 degrees overnight. Folks near the Dallas-Ft. Worth area are already experiencing high wind gusts between 30-40 miles per hour. Come Monday, the dip in temperatures from as high as Sherman down toward the will range between below freezing temperatures, up to just a hair under 40 degrees. However, after the front finishes its trek through the state, it's looking like temperatures could return to normal, with some places getting "well above average temps return by Wednesday [November 12]."

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Texas Workers' Compensation System reports $12 million loss in 2024, report finds

The Texas workers’ compensation system saw a modest $12 million loss in 2024 as insurers reported an increase in direct losses paid and overall, according to a report compiled by the Insurance Council Texas (ICT). The 2025 Texas Workers’ Compensation Market Report found that employer participation in the workers’ comp reached its highest since 2016, with 87% of employees covered. Ninety-eight insurers represented 335 companies reporting voluntary direct premiums written in 2024 – a 10% increase in companies compared to 2023, the report found. Direct written premium fell 4% in 2024 to $2.6 billion (voluntary market), making Texas’ workers’ comp system the fifth largest in the U.S. behind California, New York, Florida and New Jersey.

Texas Mutual accounted for approximately $1 billion of premiums written for a 39.4% market share. Zurich was next highest with $148 million, followed by Travelers with $140 million and Hartford Fire & Casualty with $134 million. Direct losses in 2024 rose 8.7%, from $1.03 billion to $1.12 billion, following a 14.3% increase from 2022 to 2023. There were 1,536 fraud reports received in 2024, up from 1,451 in 2023. Fifty-three cases were opened for investigation, with four cases referred for prosecution and three convictions.

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Dallas Morning News Editorial: The budget outlook for the state’s largest cities? Uncertain at best

Connect the dots and the resulting picture isn’t pretty. Economic and political trends will make it harder for local governments in Texas to balance their budgets in the coming years. Elected officials need to start preparing residents now for the budgetary trade-offs their communities could soon face. If entities cannot grow their tax base through new development, the surest way to balance their books will be to cut programs, positions and services. The state’s biggest cities already feel the effects of these trends. Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Houston all grappled with deficits while assembling their 2026 budgets. In recent years, at least a half-dozen North Texas school districts have decided to close campuses because of declining enrollment and budget constraints.

Cities, counties and school districts still write their own budgets, but state lawmakers have repeatedly restrained local governments’ ability to raise additional revenue through property taxes. These legislative moves have been a reaction to Texans’ mounting frustration with higher tax bills. With strong approval from voters, legislators this year raised the school property tax homestead exemption and gave an extra discount to homeowners who are disabled or age 65 and up. To help small-business owners, lawmakers also raised the business personal property tax exemption from $2,500 to $125,000. Rising exemptions effectively shrink the tax base. Two other important sources of revenue are leveling off or declining. Dallas’ sales tax did not grow as much as expected, and Austin’s year-to-date sales tax actually dropped slightly. Federal funds, which help local governments address affordable housing, public health and infrastructure, will likely shrivel. For local governments, that means conservative budgeting is critical. Jurisdictions must keep reserves fully funded and think twice about adding new debt.

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Some Tarrant County College faculty must repay portion of salaries

Dozens of Tarrant County College faculty members have been ordered to pay back portions of their salaries, with college administrators saying the teachers did not meet their contractual obligations. According to a statement from Chancellor Elva LeBlanc, contracts for 65 full-time faculty members “were adjusted to address concerns raised by faculty members about clear documentation of contract dates.” LeBlanc said the affected faculty members taught fewer classes than required by their contracts, and thus must reimburse the college. “The salary repayment is limited to those faculty members who were paid for hours not performed under their contract,” wrote LeBlanc.

A TCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request asking if faculty members must repay money paid under this year’s contract or a previous year’s. LeBlanc said only a small percentage of TCC’s full-time and adjunct faculty were affected. She added that they “will be given fair and flexible repayment options.” The college’s spokesperson has not clarified what the repayment terms will be. “As a public institution, TCC is legally obligated to recover those overpayments to comply with board policy and state law,” LeBlanc said in her statement. A TCC professor declined to comment when contacted by the Star-Telegram. According to TCC’s Board Policy Manual, full-time faculty members are required to work a minimum of 35 hours per week, which includes instruction time, preparation time and time spent meeting with students. Those on nine-month contracts must devote 480 hours to instruction — which can include things like lab work, clinical work and internships in addition to lecture time — over the course of the contract. Full-time faculty members on 12-month contracts commit to another 192 hours during TCC’s two summer sessions.

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Does the state of Texas have a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate?

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire expected this question and, to break ahead of the curve, he answered it before the microphone had been passed on to anyone else. “The Heisman is given to the best football player,” McGuire said Saturday in an opening statement after Texas Tech’s 29-7 win vs. BYU. “It’s not given to the best quarterback — they have an award for that — and you can’t say that Jacob Rodriguez, at his position, is not playing at that level, an elite level, an elite level, as good as anybody in the country." Rodriguez, a senior linebacker, finished with a team-high 14 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery in Saturday’s win vs. the seventh-ranked team in the College Football Playoff poll. He leads the country with 7 forced fumbles and leads Texas Tech with 84 tackles and 3 interceptions.

His 93.5 grade is the fourth-best among all defensive players, per Pro Football Focus, and he’s done so for a Texas Tech defense that has been statistically among the best units in college football. A grassroots Heisman Trophy campaign has begun because of that. The Red Raiders (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes have championed Rodriguez for the award on social media, while McGuire urged national media to spread the word as well. The Wichita Falls Rider alum leads the Heisman Trophy’s fan vote leaderboard. “That kid deserves to be a part of that,” McGuire said. “He really does.” Rodriguez does not have listed Heisman Trophy odds by any major sportsbook as of Sunday morning. His teammate David Bailey — a linebacker whose 10 sacks lead the nation — doesn’t either. Zero defenders do, in fact, largely because a full-time defensive player hasn’t won the award since Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson did so 28 years ago.

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A tiny Texas town is bracing for a Hollywood boom with an Elon Musk tech hub and film studio plans

There's a Texas size boom happening just outside the capital of the Lone Star State. A rural area full of farms, 40 minutes from Austin, is set to see mega-growth as the site of a new film studio, an Elon Musk technology hub, and a new luxury housing community. Bastrop, TX—population only about 13,000 people—is preparing to welcome thousands more moving in within the next few years. "These recent developments are likely to attract more residents to the larger Bastrop County area," says Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com®. "In the short term, a rapid influx of residents could strain local infrastructure and resources, but over time, continued investment should support new development and economic growth."

Two Los Angeles film production companies, Line 204 and Zio Studios, are building a new film studio in town, to be called Texas Line 204. CEO Alton Butler told MySA that at least four soundstages should be finished by the end of 2025. The production company provides stage and production equipment for media giants like Netflix, Warner Bros., Paramount, Hulu, and Disney. In 2021, Butler purchased 546 acres in Bastrop County, which had plenty of cheapish land for sale, offered better tax incentives than he could get elsewhere, and had a stunning topography that the exec said was perfect for making movie magic. With the nearby Colorado River, McKinney Roughs Nature Park, a plethora of green pastures, and a "beach on site," he says that the Bastrop studio will offer the type of scenery that makes Hollywood salivate. "I think Texas really has a chance of being that Hollywood 2.0," he told the outlet. According to a county analysis, the studio will bring in $1.9 billion to the area within the next decade. It's that wide-open land combined with the pro-business environment of the Lone Star State that attracted Tesla founder Elon Musk in 2021. The billionaire is expanding a tech campus that will be the headquarters for his social media platform, X; his infrastructure company, Boring Company; a Tesla gigafactory (to produce lithium-ion batteries); and a SpaceX/Starlink facility. Bastrop locals have mixed feelings about Musk moving in.

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‘Chaos has gone’ - quiet streets on Texas border after Trump crackdown

In Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, the immigration debate has spilled into the streets, sparking almost daily demonstrations while immigration agents ramp up arrests. But in El Paso - a city in Texas on the US-Mexico border - the streets are unusually quiet. A year after the BBC last visited the border to understand the impact of the migrant crisis on the border, sites that were once teeming with migrants lie largely silent. Just a few years ago, as many as 2,500 migrants once camped outside the city's historic Sacred Heart Catholic church. Many lined the streets sleeping on donated blankets, idling while they waited for food and water to be distributed by local charities. Now, only a handful of parishioners can be seen coming in and out of the church.

The same is true of a nearby park and of shelters throughout the city, where migrants once huddled to exchange their experiences of trudging through jungles and deserts or being detained, robbed or nearly kidnapped on their long journeys through Latin America to the border. The influx prompted El Paso's government to declare a state of emergency in late 2022 as local shelters ballooned beyond capacity. Then, when US President Donald Trump came into office in January - elected in part because of his promise to fix the border - the regular flow of migrants into El Paso slowed to a trickle. It is a trend that has repeated itself along the length of the 1,900-mile (3,145km) border, from the Pacific Coast in California toTexas' Gulf coast. Figures for detentions of border crossers are at a 50-year low. In September alone - the last month for which complete data is available - 11,647 people were detained along the entirety of the US-Mexico border, compared with 101,000 in September 2024 and 269,700 the same month in 2023.

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AI use at Texas colleges: a 'minefield' of rules, cheating and confusion

University of Houston freshman Ava Romero doesn’t use artificial intelligence much for classwork — but when she does, her professors call the shots. In English and government, she must stick to approved tools and stay within the school’s 20% threshold, measured by special AI detection software. But her history professor bans AI entirely. There, Romero can’t touch it — or she’ll risk violating UH’s academic honesty policy. Across college campuses from UH to Rice to Texas A&M, those shifting rules show how AI is already upending teaching and learning in higher education.

University of Houston freshman Ava Romero doesn’t use artificial intelligence much for classwork — but when she does, her professors call the shots. In English and government, she must stick to approved tools and stay within the school’s 20% threshold, measured by special AI detection software. But her history professor bans AI entirely. There, Romero can’t touch it — or she’ll risk violating UH’s academic honesty policy. Across college campuses from UH to Rice to Texas A&M, those shifting rules show how AI is already upending teaching and learning in higher education. Still, some students cheat — and professors say those cases have made things harder for everyone. “AI has become a temptation for some students,” said Lois Parkinson Zamora, a UH English professor. “I have this extra thing I have to look into.” Policies vary widely. On one end of the spectrum: teachers who’ve embraced the technology, weaving it into assignments so students can learn how to use the tools responsibly. Others allow AI for homework or essays, as long as students show proof of their prompts. Some say AI is only OK for grammar and spelling edits. And some, like UH history professor Robert Zaretsky, have gone old-school with hand-written essays in blue books.

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Houston's top magnet high schools could become private partnership charter schools, raising equity concerns

Each year, thousands of students apply for a seat at one of the top performing magnet high schools in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) through an open-enrollment lottery system. Regardless of their background, all district applicants have the same chance of being admitted to these elite schools if they meet the criteria for their specialized programs, including Houston’s storied Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). But that opportunity could end under a proposal to turn seven of Houston ISD’s top public high schools into private partnerships under Senate Bill 1882—a state law that offers districts incentives to hand over public school campuses to private operators, including nonprofits, charter school operators, or higher education institutions. On October 31, HISD announced that four of the district’s top performing magnet high schools—Challenge Early College High School, Energy Institute High School, Houston Academy for International Studies, and HSPVA—are moving forward with the district’s offer for “expanded flexibility and innovation opportunities” by creating a SB 1882 partnership by the 2026-27 school year.

Three other top-performing magnet high schools—Carnegie Vanguard High School, DeBakey High School for Health Professions, and Eastwood Academy—are still evaluating the possibility. District spokesperson Lana Hill told the Texas Observer that these schools may not be required to participate in the lottery system. They “are going to be able to make their own decisions,” she said. “If one school chooses to do one thing, that doesn’t mean that another school has to.” That has parents and teachers concerned that the district’s top schools will not be equally accessible to all students. Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, told the Observer that she worries these operators will “pick and choose students” to enroll like private schools and other charters. Anderson added the teachers union is against “any type of inequities that this may cause for our students.” Historically, Houston ISD’s magnet school program began as an effort to desegregate the district in 1975. Still, critics have long complained that there were already more hurdles for students of color from lower-income neighborhoods to enter the top magnet schools.

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Olivia Julianna: Gavin Newsom fought for Texans and won. Now it’s Maryland’s turn.

(Olivia Julianna is a progressive political activist.) Earlier this year, Texas Democrats used every tool in their political toolbox to stop Republicans from surrendering our state to President Trump by passing the mid-decade redistricting he demanded. Texas Democrats broke quorum, built a national movement and put their Republican colleagues to the test: Would they answer to voters or to Trump in Washington, D.C.? Republicans answered: Trump. And passed new maps on a party-line vote. Trump celebrated after the state bent to his will, posting: “Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. ” What Republicans didn’t expect was for Democrats — led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom — to fight back. And win.

Last week, California voted to redraw its own map and match Trump’s new seats in Texas punch-per-punch. But unlike Texas, which worked in the partisan shadows to pass Trump’s map, California gave everyday voters a say, putting its map on the ballot as Proposition 50. The people overwhelmingly approved. With millions of votes still being processed, more than 5 million “yes” votes are already locked in. Texas tried to redraw the battlefield. California drew it back. But the fight won’t end with these two states. Republicans are already advancing similar redistricting efforts in Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina — where Democratic Governor Josh Stein has no power to veto new maps drawn by a Republican-run state Legislature. Redistricting is no longer a once-a-decade ritual. It has become an ongoing battle for power. That is why Newsom issued a public warning and a challenge. “We need the state of Virginia, we need the state of Maryland” he said on election night. “We need to see other states with their remarkable leaders that have been doing remarkable things meet this moment head on as well to recognize what we're up against in 2026.” He echoed that call again this weekend in Houston, standing alongside Texas lawmakers to demand that Democrats across the country to bring this fight against Trump to their own states.

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Former astronaut Terry Virts switches from Senate race to Democratic primary for congressional seat

A former U.S. Senate candidate said he now wants to run as a Democrat for the Houston area's redrawn 9th Congressional District. Col. Terry Virts announced his candidacy as he withdrew from the race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn. This past summer, Republicans in the Texas Legislature redrew the 9th with the aim of ousting incumbent Democratic Congressman Al Green. Green has said he will be on the ballot next year, but that he will not run in the 9th District. Virts enters a field that already includes two Democrats, one independent, and several Republican candidates — including state Rep. Briscoe Cain, whose district overlaps the 9th, and former unsuccessful Harris County Judge candidate Alexandra del Moral Mealer.

"District 9 is going to be an interesting race to watch because of all of these variables, and although it may have been drawn as a safe Republican district, I don’t think it is as safe as maybe the original mapmakers had hoped it would be," said Renée Cross is executive director at the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs. Virts originally entered the Democratic race for the U.S. Senate in June, but he was unable to gain traction in the polls against former congressman and former U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred. The entry into the Senate race by state. Rep. James Talarico worked against him as well. "I think [Virts] certainly has a much better chance at winning a seat such as Congressional District 9," Cross said. "We’re looking at a district of less than 800,000 people, versus a statewide campaign, which is incredibly cost-prohibitive." Cain and Mealer have largely dominated the contest to date. But Cross said she doesn't think either will be able to pigeonhole Virts with 9th District voters in the way they might a more progressive Democrat. Virts is a retired NASA astronaut and a decorated Air Force fighter pilot. "I do think that it will be very difficult to paint Colonel Virts as a communist or even as a Democratic socialist," Cross said. "He’s already talking about affordability and working-class issues, which will resonate extremely well in that district the way it’s drawn now, between east Harris County and Liberty County. That more populist approach, I think, will attract some attention and perhaps even attract some of those old-time Reagan Democrats back to the Democratic Party."

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Texas returns to Associated Press top 10

Texas returned to the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll on Sunday, the Atlantic Coast Conference has five teams ranked for the first time this season and two Group of Five conferences are now represented in the Top 25 a month before the playoff bracekt is set. The top five was unchanged. The Longhorns, the preseason No. 1 team, are ranked No. 10 in advance of its visit to No. 5 Georgia this week. They had been in the top 10 for the first six polls before their loss at Florida knocked them out of the Top 25 for a week. Four straight wins elevated them to No. 13 last week, and they jumped three spots ahead of BYU and Virginia and an idle Oklahoma, which they beat 23-6 on Oct. 11. Texas did not play over the weekend.

Ohio State was No. 1 for the 11th week in a row with 55 first-place votes. Indiana remained No. 2 after its narrow escape at Penn State, but the Hoosiers’ six first-place votes were five fewer than last week. No. 3 Texas A&M got four first-place votes, three more than a week ago, and was 31 points behind Indiana. Alabama and Georgia rounded out the top five. Mississippi, Oregon, Texas Tech, Notre Dame and Texas rounded out the top 10. In all, 19 spots in the Top 25 have new teams. The ACC has five teams with one loss in conference play and two others with two losses. That’s reflected in the closely bunched group of ACC teams in the poll — No. 14 Georgia Tech, No. 16 Miami, No. 19 Louisville, No. 20 Virginia and No. 23 Pittsburgh. The last time the ACC had as many ranked teams was Nov. 3, 2024. The race for the Group of Five’s automatic bid in the College Football Playoff got more interesting with Memphis’ loss to Tulane on Friday. The CFP committee did not have a G5 team in its top 25 but said Memphis was first in line. That will almost certainly change when the committee’s next rankings come out Tuesday. No. 24 James Madison of the Sun Belt Conference made its first AP poll appearance since 2023. The Dukes are 8-1, their only loss to Louisville, and are the highest-ranked G5 team. No. 25 South Florida of the American Conference is right behind, and Tulane of the American received the most votes among the unranked.

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National Stories

Appeals court won’t let Trump administration limit SNAP benefits

A federal appeals court late Sunday denied the Trump administration’s bid to avoid fully funding federal food-assistance benefits for November, a ruling that means the government will have to make the payments within 48 hours unless the Supreme Court intervenes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in a decision just before midnight, said a trial judge hadn’t abused his authority by ordering the administration to make the full monthly payments under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, during the government shutdown. On Friday, the Supreme Court temporarily allowed the Trump administration to withhold the payments while the appeals court considered the government’s arguments. But that pause, issued by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, lasts now for only two more days. It will be up to the high court to decide what happens next.

The litigation, however, may be overtaken by political developments. The Senate on Sunday cleared a procedural hurdle and advanced a measure that could end the shutdown. The SNAP program typically costs $8 billion a month to help roughly 42 million people buy food. Benefits have remained in flux across the country since the Trump administration initially declined to draw from emergency funds during the shutdown. Lawsuits challenging the suspension of benefits were quickly filed by states, as well as a coalition of cities and nonprofit groups, leading two judges to rule the administration must use emergency funds to make payments. The broadest ruling came from U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island, who said the administration had to use contingency funds to make partial benefits payments quickly. After the government didn’t meet that deadline, he ordered the administration to fund SNAP fully by supplementing the emergency funds with money from child nutrition programs. “As the district court found, ‘this is a problem that could have been avoided,’” Judge Julie Rikelman, a Biden appointee, wrote in Sunday’s appeals court ruling. “The record here shows that the government sat on its hands for nearly a month, unprepared to make partial payments, while people who rely on SNAP received no benefits a week into November and counting.”

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A key segment of the job market isn’t hiring. These businesses say why.

Cyndi Gave went nearly 30 years without ever needing to cut staff at her North Carolina-based consultancy, which advises businesses on hiring and leadership development. But in August, she began calling some of her favorite clients, telling them they had the opportunity to hire The Metiss Group’s “superstar” office manager — a 14-year employee and one of three she ultimately laid off. But the pitch went nowhere. Gave’s clients — mostly businesses with 250 or fewer employees — were also pulling back on spending and hiring. “I was beginning to think it was just us,” she said. Many small businesses are similarly taking defensive actions as they contend with multiple pressure points, from inflation and a weeks-long government shutdown, to increasingly dour consumer sentiment and rumblings of a recession.

They are crucial economic engines in their communities and collectively employ more than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce, but they tend to experience financial shocks more acutely than their corporate peers. “Small businesses play an outsize role in the economy, and they are more vulnerable to what the larger economy is going through,” said KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk. “All the datasets are pointing the same way as far as lower momentum and small businesses doing more with less.” Several recent surveys show small businesses expressing a lack of certainty in their financial futures. The mutable policymaking of the Trump administration — from its immigration crackdown, to its on-again, off-again edicts on tariffs — has created a kind of a paralysis among some businesses, experts say, making it difficult to land on a strategy to move forward. “That does add up to a picture of companies that don’t want to contract, but they don’t want to expand either,” said Harry Holzer, a former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor who now teaches at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

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The year’s hottest crypto trade is crumbling

The hottest crypto trade has turned cold. Some investors are saying “told you so,” while others are doubling down. It was the move to make for much of the year: Sell shares or borrow money, then plow the cash into bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies. Investors bid up shares of these “crypto-treasury” companies, seeing them as a way to turbocharge wagers on the volatile crypto market. Michael Saylor pioneered the move in 2020 when he transformed a tiny software company, then called MicroStrategy, into a bitcoin whale now known as Strategy. But with bitcoin and ether prices now tumbling, so are shares in Strategy and its copycats. Strategy was worth around $128 billion at its peak in July; it is now worth about $70 billion. The selloff is hitting big-name investors including Peter Thiel, the famed venture capitalist who has backed multiple crypto-treasury companies, as well as individuals who followed evangelists into these stocks.

Saylor, for his part, has remained characteristically bullish, taking to social media to declare that bitcoin is on sale. Skeptics have been anticipating the pullback, given that crypto treasuries often trade at a premium to the underlying value of the tokens they hold. “The whole concept makes no sense to me. You are just paying $2 for a one-dollar bill,” said Brent Donnelly, president of Spectra Markets. “Eventually those premiums will compress.” When they first appeared, crypto-treasury companies also gave institutional investors who previously couldn’t easily access crypto a way to invest. Crypto exchange-traded funds that became available over the past two years now offer the same solution. BitMine Immersion TechnologiesCrypto prices rallied for much of the year, driven by the crypto-friendly Trump administration. The frenzy around crypto treasuries further boosted token prices. But the bullish run abruptly ended on Oct. 10, when President Trump’s surprise tariff announcement against China triggered a selloff. A record-long government shutdown and uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve monetary policy also have weighed on prices. Bitcoin prices have fallen 15% in the past month. Strategy is off 26% over that same period, while Matthew Tuttle’s related ETF—MSTU—which aims for a return that is twice that of Strategy, has fallen 50%. “Digital asset treasury companies are basically leveraged crypto assets, so when crypto falls, they will fall more,” Tuttle said. “Bitcoin has shown that it’s not going anywhere and that you get rewarded for buying the dips.”, a big ether-treasury company backed by Thiel and run by veteran Wall Street strategist Tom Lee, is down more than 30% over the past month.

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MAHA’s gone viral. Can science?

In some ways, Lauren Hughes is a classic “momfluencer”: She is a bubbly mother of three who sells mugs with slogans like “I need this FORKING coffee” and makes videos for her 548,000 followers about how she weaned her twins off pacifiers. In other ways, she is not. A pediatrician whose day job is running the medical practice she founded in Kansas City, Kansas, Hughes is offering something not often associated with social media’s health influencers: evidence-based information. Her Instagram account’s pinned post is a flowchart on how to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations on the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. “It’s a lot of just saying these things over and over and acknowledging that people have questions, which is a perfectly reasonable, normal response,” Hughes told NOTUS.

Hughes is part of a growing ecosystem of online influencers trying — and struggling — to counter Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement and its most misinformed and dangerous policy positions. This campaign now includes some familiar names from the Democratic party; Chelsea Clinton recently launched a podcast called “That Can’t Be True,” writing on X that it will “sort fact from fiction — especially on issues impacting our health.” As Kennedy’s MAHA movement grows its cultural footprint, American public health professionals, medical practitioners and scientists are contending with an almost existential question: Can they compete against MAHA? Or are they too late? The anti-MAHA message “needs to be said as aggressively as the people who are actually putting out the pseudoscience and the cherry picking,” said Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who quit after Kennedy pushed out CDC Director Susan Monarez. Daskalakis has since regularly appeared on TV and in print news criticizing the administration’s public health policy. The call to action has put a magnifying glass on major public health institutions and created new demands — like going viral — on scientists and medical professionals that go beyond their traditional training.

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From jailed jihadist to the Oval Office: Syria's president caps unlikely rise with Trump meeting

The Oval Office is a long way from Abu Ghraib. When he’s greeted by President Donald Trump on Monday, Ahmad al-Sharaa will have completed his journey from jihadist leader to head of state receiving a warm White House welcome. Since toppling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria‘s interim leader has spent the past year transforming his global image while tackling deep divisions at home. Now, al-Sharaa, who has thrown off his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, will make history as the first Syrian president to visit the White House.

“I think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump said last week, setting the tone for his landmark meeting with al-Sharaa, who would not have been able to set foot in the U.S. a year ago thanks to the $10 million bounty on his head. “It’s a tough neighborhood and he’s a tough guy, but I got along with him very well and a lot of progress has been made with Syria,” Trump said. During his Washington visit, Al-Sharaa is expected to commit to joining the U.S.-led coalition to defeat ISIS, two U.S. officials told NBC News. It would be a significant step in his country’s engagement with the West. The State Department removed al-Sharaa and his interior minister from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list on Friday, while the U.K. and Europe removed sanctions on al-Sharaa after the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of a U.S.-drafted resolution to do so.

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The AI boom comes to America’s loneliest place

Late at night at the Silver Legacy in Reno, Nevada, in an elevator from the casino to the hotel rooms above, a man told me that he was having a miserable time, though he used stronger language. He’d just lost $20,000 at the tables. The casino was cursed, the city was cursed, the state was cursed. He was heading to wake up his girlfriend and drive them home to California. To do that, he’d head west through the forest of the Sierra Nevada mountains, escaping the Great Basin into the Central Valley and towards the blue ocean beyond. I would head in the other direction, deep into the desert heart of the jagged brown bowl of the American west. Just east of the neon of Reno is an area that advertises itself as the largest industrial park in the world. Its tenants include major factories, distribution facilities and data centres. They are the back-office infrastructure of modern commerce and the power-hungry engine rooms of modern computing and AI.

East of that is the Basin and Range, a vast desert alternation of parallel valleys and mountain ranges, caused by “the fragmentation of a crustal slab above a plastically extending substratum”, according to the US Geological Survey — the stretch marks of the Earth. On the quadrilateral of Nevada, they look like stone raindrops dripping down a windowpane. Through the belly of the basin runs US Route 50, a two-lane highway spanning nearly the entire country, east to west from Ocean City, Maryland, to West Sacramento, California. The segment that ribbons over and around the Nevada mountains is known as “the loneliest road in America”. It’s among the most untouched parts of the continental US. Most of the time, a driver on this road could safely stop their car, climb atop it and witness in every direction no evidence of human existence. Instead, they would see an ancient lake bed, alkali flats and sagebrush, cradled east and west by ranks of fading peaks. But modernity may soon leave its imprint. A planned high-voltage transmission line called Greenlink North would follow the path of the loneliest road for 235 miles, in a utility corridor two-thirds of a mile wide, connecting with a new collector station and expanded substations.

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Two top BBC leaders quit over editing of Trump documentary

Two of the top executives of the BBC resigned abruptly on Sunday following a report suggesting the public service broadcaster had misleadingly edited a speech by President Trump that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The surprise resignation of the director general, Tim Davie, and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, came several days after The Daily Telegraph published details of a leaked internal memo arguing that a BBC Panorama documentary had juxtaposed comments by Mr. Trump in a way that made it appear that he had explicitly encouraged the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “Like all public organizations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable,” Mr. Davie said in a statement. “While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.”

Mr. Davie added: “Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.” Ms. Turness, in her announcement, said, “The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC — an institution that I love.” She said that “the buck stops with me” and conceded that “mistakes have been made” but insisted that “recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.” Mr. Trump welcomed the resignations in a post on his Truth Social account. With about 21,000 employees, the BBC calls itself the world’s leading public service broadcaster, and is funded primarily from a license fee paid by Britons who watch TV, supplemented by commercial revenue. It produces a huge range of material, from news to entertainment, and has reach outside Britain through its international broadcasting operations.

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On Dorothy Day’s birthday, the life and work of the last living Catholic Worker who knew her

Jane Sammon was terrified the first time she met Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker founder now being considered for sainthood by Rome. “?I was at the front mopping the floor, and I thought my stomach would drop out,” Sammon said. “It’s like that saying, ‘Jesus is coming look busy,’ you know? Well, Dorothy is coming, look busy!” It was 1972, and at 25, Sammon had traveled from Cleveland, Ohio, to St. Joseph’s House, a house of hospitality in Manhattan run by Dorothy Day and other members of the Catholic Worker, eager to see a place where Catholics were standing “unequivocally” against the Vietnam War. Staying with friends in Brooklyn, Sammon one day decided to visit St. Joseph’s House on E 1st Street. The rest, she said, is something of a mystery. Decades later, Sammon is the only member still living in the movement’s New York Houses of Hospitality who lived and worked alongside Day, a woman known worldwide for feeding the poor and advocating for workers’ rights.

Since 1933, when The Catholic Worker newspaper was founded, the world around the movement has changed, but Sammon says Day’s presence still looms large. “?I don’t think anybody else in this house could say they knew Dorothy in the flesh,” Sammon said. “But for me, and this is the big thing, I think we could all know Dorothy Day the way we know Jesus.” Fifty-three years have passed, and Sammon, 78, has spent most of her life within a two-block radius, living and working at St. Joseph’s House and Maryhouse. The Catholic Worker movement is a community founded by Day in New York through the first houses of hospitality, rooted in voluntary poverty and dedicated to living among and serving the poor in faith and solidarity. “She’s been a very constant presence in that house,” Martha Hennessy, the granddaughter of Day, said. “She’s been very dedicated to Maryhouse, to the movement and to Dorothy.”

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Copyright November 17, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved